kickin_chicken

Linux Mint user here, love it. You can dowload it, burn to USB flash and try it out, see if you like it. I use MATE desktop but XFCE and KDE versions are available from Linux Mint.

Another advantage of additional RAM is that you can make a RAM-disk. Essentially you can specify a portion of your RAM to be allocated to a "drive letter" and after boot up, you have a new drive (drive X for example). Then you can install X-Plane on the "X" drive and it essentially runs from RAM. Naturally when you reboot you lose the RAM drive, and it's rebuilt using the data from your hard drive on the next boot. Sacraficing boot time for faster program access might be worth it. I'd investigate making a portion of your RAM a RAM-drive. I know ASRock motherboards support this feature. Something to consider at least. You can allocate 8 GB to RAM and 8 GB to RAM-disk maybe, or even more if you had 32 GB of RAM.

I bought mine on Amazon.com you can probably find it there.

Remember having to build a new kernal to add a sound card or ethernet card? Bad old days for sure

Xtremme makes a good point. I can see that happening to some users. My point was that using a USB flash disk is much faster and a better overall experience. There are clearly pro's and con's to VM or dual boot. Luckily you have choices!

Cool, I'm glad I wasn't missing something then. In my (very short) experience with the C172 in X-Plane, the autopilot operates in the manner I described, at least for me. I'm sure other aircraft have better autopilots but I haven't even flown them yet. I'm using Air Hauler as my introduction to X-Plane. So the only plane I'm flying is the C172 for now.

Oracle427, is there a verticle speed setting for the Cessna 172 default airplane in X-Plane? Maybe I missed that.. I don't recall seeing a button or dial for it. You are correct however, but I believe the Cessna doesn't have a V/S setting for the autopilot - other aircraft do and do function as you described.

Here's my want: Radar Contact for X-Plane.

The "On" for the flight director is sort of like "arming" the autopilot - it shows the needed corrections on your attitude indicatior (the yellow chevron) so if you follow the chevron, you're following the "autopilot's" directions - but you're actually controlling the aircraft. When set to "Auto" the autopilot is actually flying. Regarding the "ALT" button: After smashing my aircraft (and my head on the keyboard) a few times, I figured it out. It's not "armable" and doesn't actually level off at the pre-set altimeter setting - it flies the current altitude. Sorta. Let me explain: The ALT button "reads" the current altitude and "sets" the autopilot altitude hold to that altitude - despite what you might have set the pre-set altimeter setting to. I found this out by setting the pre-set altitude to say 3500 ft, and climbing though 2500 feet, I hit the "ALT" button, which should have armed it - but instead put my aircraft into a dive to its original altitude setting of 300 or whatever. Sooo.. This is how I use the ALT hold on the Cessna 172: I fly by hand and put myself on the right course, and hit HDG (after dialing my desired heading). I fly to my desired heading and altitude, then HIT ALT button - this sets my current desired altitude to the autopilot. Note that the flight director is still on "ON" not "auto" --- this is important. After hitting the ALT button at my desired altitude, I then hit "AUTO" on the flight director and then the plane holds my altitude and heading. It does not "fly" to an altitude despite what the manual says. Maybe in more advanced aircraft it does in fact do this - not in the Cessna 172. Not in my experience with it at least. Hope this helps.

Long time Linux user here. Thought I'd chime in with my $0.02. I use Linux on my desktop and laptop daily. I use Windows 7 for flight simming and Civ 4 and other video games. I use Linux Mint with the MATE desktop - looks and works awesome. You can "burn" a linux .iso to a USB flash drive and boot off it - much better than using a live CD which can be slow (since, naturally, the "hard drive" is actually your CD-ROM). I suggest making a live USB flash install and use it - play with it for a few weeks, not just 10 minutes. If you like it, you can easily install it next to Windows and dual boot - which is what I do. I use linux all the time and Windows when I want to play a game. As for X-Plane on linux, I've tried it, it works nice. However, as others have mentioned, some of my add-ons don't work in X-Plane for Linux, so I stay with X-Plane on WIndows 7. With my laptop, running Linux Mint, I've installed dozens of free software to do the things I need to do. When I plugged into the work HP laserjet printer, Linux found the drivers and "it just worked". Scanner? Just worked. Network card? Just worked. That doesn't mean linux has no driver problems, just that in my example it "just works". I don't even download drivers, they just install and work. My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad (known to have excellent linux hardware support). Take my suggestion, try linux on a USB drive. It's much faster than a live CD, and it's absolutely not permanent. You can just remove the USB drive and you're back to booting Windows. No sweat. Try linux for a week - not 10 minutes. If after a week you cannot get it to do what you need it to do (graphic editing, email, web, printing, etc) then you're only out the hour it took to download the .iso.

Wow. Good job Lars, great read, well laid out and educational. Thank you!

Ok, I cannot find a decent article or any useful information on this topic. I have an Athlon X2 and GTX 550TI and I run Flight Sim 2004. I get great performance with this setup. However, I am considering a "silent" and power efficient PC and would like to make my computer as quiet as possible. Therefore I am considering an integrated graphics CPU and a silent PC case with as little fans as possible. I would like to know if anyone, anywhere, runs an AMD A8 series APU and uses the integrated graphics with Flight Sim 2004 or FSX. I cannot find any article or information! I am hoping (and assuming) that an AMD A8-3800 series APU (with integrated graphics) would give me a similar performance compared to my 2007 AMD Athlon X2 5200 and Nvidia GTX 550 TI. I am willing to sacrifice some performance in order to have a silent PC. The Nvidia card is loud with its high spinning fans, as is the CPU cooler and the three case fans I have installed. I want a simple, one CPU, no gfx card setup for low power consumption and quietness. Can anyone suggest or recommend my theoritical setup of an AMD A-series APU? Does anyone run a "basic" gaming system and play flight sim using an APU? I want low power and silence. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I guess its a personal opinion for you to decide. If you get a much noticeable improvement in frame rates or performance then you will have to balance that against flickering popups. I my opinion, you won't see popups that often, so maybe you could tolerate the occasional flickering popup in exchange for better performance. As an aside, you shouldn't really have flickering popups. Maybe you need to change resolutions, or tweak another graphics parameter to get popups that don't flicker. Maybe you need a newer or older driver version. IMO, if you get a driver/resolution/graphics setting that works, KEEP IT. Do not upgrade your drivers or change anything! I have learned though experience that if it works don't break it.

I don't think copying the files will work at all. You will likely need to reinstall FS2004 and all your addons that have install programs. You could prolly copy the Aircraft folder from the old drive to the new drive but you might run into some add ons that won't work without reinstall. I had to do this myself. Copying the Aircraft folder allowed me to keep my planes that I downloaded but some aircraft (Abacus, ESDG, FSD-International to name a few) didn't work right - panels didn't have gauges, textures were missing, etc. So I reinstalled those payware aircraft. Also, I had to reinstall my mesh, FSPassengers, Radar Contact and FSUIPC and Squwakbox. Good luck with your new drive!

Hello, I've been a RC4 user for years and today on a flight from Boston to BWI ATC told me to navigate "direct after 16,000ft". I thought that was pretty cool. I've been using RC for a while and this was the first time I've heard this. Nice touch!!

Just wanted to post my positive opinion of the B1900c I just purchased. I use FSpassengers and I finally was able to "buy" the B1900c. I think this aircraft looks awesome and flies great. I have over a thousand hours in flight sim and this is one of my favorite aircraft to fly. I understand its not a "sim" in the 737/MD11 regard but it flies great and looks awesome. I am very happy with this aircraft, for only $20 you can't go wrong. Just wanted PMDG to know they have a happy customer.

I am having the same issue with gray bridges. I too have UT installed w/ the "add bridges and roads" checked then later unchecked. Any info on this would be helpful. Maybe a replacement for some missing texture file? What file would be missing? Thanks!

I downloaded Radar Contact. I didn't have to do anything special to FSPassengers other than eliminating the squwak code penalty. In FSPax you must set it to 7700 for an emergency. Radar Contact does not require that and if you change it to 7700, Radar Contact will complain until you change it back to whatever you were assigned to. Thus, if I suffer an emergency from FSPax, I leave the squwak code to whatever I was assigned to by Radar Contact. I disabled the squwak penalty so I don't get dinged by FSPax.I had a bird strike (by FSPax) and declared an emergency in FSPax AND Radar Contact (don't forget to do that in both programs ), landed and had no problems with either program. Got 1200 points in FSPax for my bird strike + successful landing to boot!

I have Radar Contact. I delayed buying it for months but I am very happy I have it now. I flew online on Vatsim for years and recently decided I wanted another experience. The biggest issue w/ Vatsim is that occasionally there are no ATC controllers where I want to fly. Radar Contact fills this void very well. Radar Contact is essentially a replacement for MS ATC. It features very in-depth ATC control and works very well with MS AI aircraft. There is a learning curve associated with Radar Contact however. You really need to understand true-to-life ATC procedures in order to get the most out of the software. Naturally it's not 100% realistic, due to the constraints of using a computer to simulate flying. However in the scope of flight simulating, Radar Contact is the best ATC program bar none.The immersion factor is high with this product. I feel that my flight simming is that much more enhanced flying with more realistic ATC and AI aircraft. It's a very good replacement for Vatsim in the situations where there are no online ATC controllers. AI control with Radar Contact is pretty good. Radar Contact will vector aircraft around and actually interact with MS AI. You can see this happening if you are looking out of other aircraft - pretty cool feature. I added additional voice packs to Radar Contact that have made the program more realistic sounding.Understand that Radar Contact is not 100% infallible, but for flight simulation, it is the best you can get. And that is not the fault of the program naturally.You can't go wrong with the program. Once you learn how to interact with Radar Contact, how to set it up for your environment and your computer system, you will have hours and hours of fun. If you like MS ATC you will LOVE Radar Contact. However if you are the type of flyer that likes to just hop in a plane and tool around, Radar Contact is not for you. I would suggest just using MS ATC or no ATC at all. Radar Contact does have some shortcomings, namely lack of taxi guidance (if you're used to MS ATC with the 'purple guide line') and weak VFR support. Also, Radar Contact tries hard to get you the correct landing pattern and runway but sometimes MS AI just does whatever it wants - thus you might be taking off or landing with another 737 bearing down on you! Radar Contact does have a flight evaluation at the end of your flight. If you don't follow ATC commands or take off without clearance, for example, you'll get scolded by FSDO (Flight Safety District Office). I've had my ticket virtually pulled on more than one occasion :) If you like ATC, Radar Contact is a great replacement for MS ATC that is more realistic, better sounding, much more in depth, and as a bonus, handles non-American ATC more realistically (if you like to fly in Europe for example).I don't know if there is a "try before you buy" feature - if so, then it's a win-win for you. I just don't remember if there is a demo. Radar Contact has essentially replaced Vatsim for me. I always have ATC, correct and realistic ATC, for the airports I fly out of. When there is a big event on Vatsim I will fly online, but otherwise it's Radar Contact for me.FWIW I also use FSPassengers - this plus Radar Contact makes my flight simming worth while. I supposed Air Hauler would be a nice product as well. I tried Air Hauler, and it's great. But I've been an FSPassenger flyer for years and I prefer that program. Good luck!

I was thinking via XPUICP. But no, I can't get Air Hauler to work nicely in Wine - it starts but I can't get a dialog box to appear. It seems it is a rather sloppy .NET program, and .NET compatibility in Linux via Wine is spotty at best. It seems that Air Hauler doesn't play nice with Wine. It works fine in VMware however. So I could run Air Hauler for WINDOWS and use WideFS and XPUICP to connect it to X-Plane for Linux. Maybe.. I need a linux compiled XPUICP plugin though. So here's where I'm at. Air Hauler (for Windows) doesn't run correctly in Wine. So Wine is a no-go. It does run in VMware. I do not believe Air Hauler for X-Plane is network "aware" and therefore would not connect to X-Plane running in Linux via network. So, my only choice is to run Air Hauler in VMware and use WideFS to connect it to X-Plane - if I can get XPwideclient and XPUICP to work under windows and linux respectively. Even if I can get this mess working in VMware, it is a poor solution. Nobody I know would run X-Plane AND VMware running WindowsXP in a window! A monster machine would be running slowly if I had both apps working at the same time. So, let's hope JustFlight ports to Linux or MacOS because even if I get it working it's not going to be pretty!

Over the next few weeks I'm going to attempt to run Air Hauler for X-Plane via Wine for my Linux install. If this works out then I will post the relevant information. This will open the door to allow a great product like Air Hauler to become accessible to Mac and Linux X-Planers. JustFlight has already confirmed that if I cannot get Air Hauler to work in Wine for Linux that they would refund my purchase. So I can't ask for a more generous offer from them. It makes it a win-win for me - I get Air Hauler working under Linux or I get my money back (which likely will just go into another JustFlight X-Plane purchase anyways).I will reply here hopefully by the first week in May.Derald

Any more news on this great X-Plane project?

Have you tried deleting your fs9.cfg file? I'd make a copy of the file then delete it. See if that helps clear up the issue. Also, you could just start the flight cold-n-dark and set the throttles to 0. Then save the flight and use that as your starting flight. D

Well guys it was the gauge. I replaced the gauge with a similar one and there's been no problem since. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the replies. I will test my new altimeter gauge tonight. I've not had this issue before with any other plane, only this one. The aircraft (and panel) is the FS_KBT P-3C Orion that I downloaded. The aircraft is otherwise great. Just an annoying tendency to reset the altimeter to 29.92 while taxiing or on t/o.. Derald