Reggie_Fields

Before purchasing an FS product, I normally like to browse the various forums about the product - see what folks are having issues with, what they like, what they don't like.I'm surprised to find that the Unofficial ORBX forum is the only commercial product support forum I cannot browse on Avsim.Why?

My first RTW was the third race.I joined the FlightSim team, and had some interesting practice sessions before the race across Russia in the snow and ice before the race. I quickly learned my flying habits were not sharp enough.I worked at it, and when the race started - it was a jump into the deep end. We didn't have a kickoff event that year, and only learned the race start point and key route elements two hours before the race start.We took off from Cairo just as dusk was falling. The first leg was assigned to my fellow newbie practice buddy as all the 'old hands' were working on the route. His direction from the team 'leaders' was to head west as fast and as far as possible. We didn't have the wingman that year. Legs were flown alone and everything rested on your shoulders.After his flight, an experienced pilot took the baton and I was up for the third leg. He had misfigured his fuel and twice changed his destination airport, finally landing at Basrah in Iraq (ORMM) - I took off for Kerma in Iran (OIKK) in the FSD Piaggio Avanti. That is one fast, hot plane, but you also have to fly it carefully watching to not overspeed.Then I discovered about 40 miles out that Kerma does not have an ILS. A night landing on a never practiced airport with no ILS in a touchy plane. I still don't know how I made it, but I did. I've made plenty of mistakes over the years. Crashed the plane on a couple flights - saved a couple other flights as wingman. Every minute of the experience was worth it!!!As Bryan said - joining this race was the best Flight Sim decision I've ever made.Get in touch with the team, join in. You will not regret your decision.

I should also add that one of the big problems for the Executive Committee is the increasing amount of RTW practice being done on private servers, and the lack of pre-race Duenna records to examine.Over the years, we've seen several instances which have raised our eyebrows. A 863 nm flight by a twin engine piston warbird in less than two hours, many aircraft whose flight dynamics allow then to effectively exceed Mach 1, etc.Many of these we've found, others have been pointed out to us.We've been able to deal with these in various ways and have been able to keep them from negatively impacting the race.But as teams moved to private practice sessions, it becomes impossible for us to keep up with what the teams are planning, what they are practicing with, what 'tricks' a team might have discovered.Since Executive Committee members do not actively participate in team pre-race practices and planning, we miss a lot. Last year I was approached about using aircraft with altered flight dynamics by a fellow who wanted to fly faster. I appreciate that input. I don't know if I would have caught it on my own had he attempted to use those aircraft in practice.Had the practice been on an open forum, someone would have noticed.There has always, at least as long as I've been involved with the race, a determined search for the fastest aircraft. But the fastest aircraft has never been the key to winning.The key is good flying. Making the flights, making the landings, no crashes, no mental mistakes.Forgetting to start Duenna is still a major problem. It costs teams time every year. Choosing to force a leg to the maximum possible length by flying into a very questionable airport. Those are the things which lose the race. Not aircraft choice.Yes, teams have to have people who can fly fast aircraft like the Mustang P-51H and the dh Hornet. But flying skills are still critical. Fast aircraft cannot overcome mistakes.

We saw the B-2 being used and our team wanted that plane, but couldn't obtain it.

The Alphasim B-2 had been flown by members of all teams including Avsim in the past in practice, and on most teams during the race.Long time race participants will remember the Alphasim B-2 was first brought up as an issue in late 2005 as members of one team were observed to be flying it in practice. Further investigation showed the aircraft to be well within the publicly known performance of the real world aircraft.I personally flew the Alphasim B-2 aircraft for a leg as wingman during the 2008 race.It was not a surprise usage of a new to the race aircraft in 2011.I have also flown another 'discontinued' aircraft to with a substantial performance advantage in past races - the FSD C-17. The performance advantage of the C-17 is in low level flight. By design it can reach very high speeds at low level flight. This make the C-17 able to out perform almost any other normally used jet when flying against high speed winds. Keeping the C-17 down near the ground - 1 to 2,000 agl often gains it 15-25 knots over more powerful aircraft higher up.I've been testing other models of both aircraft now available as freeware on the major download sites.One reason I like the C-17 is that it has a huge reverse thrust capability. I've watched real world pilots do training assualt landings at Altus - stopping in less than 1/2 of the 3,500 foot distance of the assualt strip. I can't stop it quite that short, but I can fly it into 2,500 foot strips with no problem.I don't personally like the B-2 because it has no reverse thrust and it can be very easy to overrun a runway less than two miles long.The B-2 is also much more sensitive about landing FPM than the C-17 - again that is the design of the real world aircraft. So folks tend to float for longer distances before touchdown.

AI aircraft flight dynamics are built for and focused on landing behavior, to make a decent approach and clear the runway quickly. That is one reason most AI aircraft including B747 and other heavies fly at a weight under 110,000 lbs. Cruise speed is really not a concern to most people in AI because the planes only fly a maximum of about 100 nm if they are crossing your active AI zone. Normally when folks check AI, they are in descent.The reason you can't get the cruise speed higher is because the engine power, the drag factors, the aircraft lift - all are not sufficient to maintain that speed. The AI engine will generate the aircraft in the air at the altitude and speed from the traffic file. After that point aircraft behavior is controlled by the flight dynamics.You can spend a lot of time and effort learning how to tweak flight dynamics - but you also need to check the impact of your changes on takeoff and landing behavior of the aircraft. Such learning is always useful to better understand how FS works. Or you might want to try Jan Martin's alternate flight dynamics - http://janswebsites.110mb.com/flightsim/ -believe his FD come closer to the cruise speed you are wanting.

Immediately vanishing upon touching the runway was an issue related to the AIA MD-8X model/ flight dynamics and is not general enough to apply to all computers. There are some things to try in this thread on the old AIA forum - http://forums.ai-aardvark.com/showthread.php?t=5605&page=2&highlight=disappear+touchdownNote - using aircraft following tools such as Traffic View Board or the follow capability of the Traffic Tool Box SDK Explorer - will increase the likely hood of a marginal aircraft disappearing.AI aircraft which disappear on the runway at about 30 knots is due to no available parking on the airport for an aircraft that size or larger.AI aircraft which disappear just after taxi off the runway when they contact ground is also due to a lack of parking.The parking assignment is made on the runway when the plane transitions from flight mode to ground mode of operations - a phase called rollout by Microsoft. It is possible to have two, or more, aircraft assigned to the same parking spot, the last available parking spot if you have landings on multiple runways. When the aircraft reaches a hold-short node after exiting the runway - the parking assignment is confirmed. If two aircraft were assigned to the same spot, the first aircraft to a hold short node gets the spot - the second aircraft to a hold short node gets assigned to a different parking spot - if one is available.

If it is working correctly, don't mess it up!!

My main problem with WOAI is it seems you have one person doing models, one fltplans, ect. I just downloaded around 40 airlines and installed. In every airline package I had to click OK, sometime once sometimes 30 times per airline because I guess planes called for in the FltPlans arn't in the package which means you won't get those flights.

Do you have Windows Vista or Win7?Is it installed in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) ?Are the popups warnings about modifying files?It sounds like you have installed FS into a protected system folder, and have not modified the security permissions to allow the installer to modify the files correctly.

I never used to get that stub.exe when running it on XP unless it's a W7 odd thing.

There is an autorun setting you have to change in XP to not get it pop-up. Win7 may or may not have the same setting change - I frankly haven't looked for it.

Just Googled "stub.exe". Seems it could be an adware risk/problem.

Not from the Microsoft FS2004 CD - it is part of the install program. Without it - you cannot install FS2004.

Run stub.exe though FS9 loads up fine? Anybody else had this? And will it affect FS once all my stuff is installed?

I assume you are taking your CD4 out when you are not using FS2004, and placing it in the CD/DVD drive when you want to run FS2004.The window which pops up and offers you the option to run "stub.exe" is just how computers work when a CD is inserted.I almost never take my CD4 out of my CD drive because all my desktops have two DVD/CD drives. On my laptop when I insert the CD4, I cancel and close the screen which pops up about Run stub.exe or open the CD folder. I just run FS2004 from the icon on my desktop.Running the 'stub.exe' starts the FS2004 installer program running in the continuation mode. But if the installer program checks and finds the install of FS2004 was completed, it will launch the FS9.exe file to start FS2004 in the program mode.

Just curious, about the location. Most of my 32bit stuff (CFS3, FSX) has ended up in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\. Though I do have some things that have loaded onto the C:\ like your sim.

\Program Files\Program Files (x86)\WindowsAre all protected system folders in Vista and Win7 (the x86 folder is only for 64 bit, where the other two folders are in 32 and 64 bit).The computer Administrator does not have full access to those folders. This prevents malware and viruses from modifying files in those folders by hijacking the logged on user permissions.Unfortunately, FS2004, FSX and many other programs do not understand the Vista and Win7 security system. Such as - the aircraft.cfg files should not be in Program Files. Any files the user may need to edit should be in the hidden folder C:\ProgramData. That is not really surprising since those programs were released long before the updated security systems were designed.The way to get around the inherent conflicts of an old program which does not understand or comply with updated security systems is that during the install - point the program to install in a folder outside \Program Files or \Program Files (x86).FS2004 can be made to work just fine in the \Program Files folder, but that takes a good working knowledge of Windows file and folder security, security groups and sometimes group policies. More than most folks want to study and learn.

You've asked a huge question in a few sentences.1) You only need to remove those airlines for which you wish to install a WoA package. For example, if you want to use the WoA Air France package - you should remove your customized AFR traffic file. Eventually you will want to remove the unused repaints also because they slow the FS initial startup time.I assume you are not using one huge traffic file in FS2004, but using multiple small traffic files - one per airline. If you are using an FS2002 type single traffic file, it will be a bit harder to edit, but you can do that.You will want to check the dates of the various WoA packages - for example - the Air France package uses flight plans from the Summer of 2009 - so you might want to keep your existing AFR traffic.2) When using WoA - you have to understand how the airlines are packaged. The first thing you need is the WoAI Installer package. Create a working folder on your hard drive and unzip the WoAI Installer files into that folder. Then download a WoA airline package. Never unzip the WoA airline packages - the Installer knows how to open and process them. If you are using Vista or Win7, always run the WoAI Installer.exe with "Run as Administrator"Inside the folder with the WOAI Installer.exe a file will be created named WOAIDATA - this file has no extension and is critical to long term successful operation of WoA. It keeps track of all the repaints installed by each airline package. When an update of an airline is made available, the WoA Installer uses the information in the WOAIDATA file to remove the previous version repaints before installing the new repaints. If you erase or otherwise lose the WOAIDATA file - you can end up with duplicate repaints, duplicate traffic files, etc.Sometimes you will need to use the Expert mode of the WoA Installer to remove an existing airline before installing an update. This is necessary when an airline name changes, or a merger happens. Recently WoA put out a new SAS package - which required that the SAS Norge v1 package and the Scandinavian Airlines v1 package both be removed manually to avoid duplicates.3) Never delete the WoA airlines package .ZIP files after installing the airline. Save them to a safe backup location. If you ever need to do a reinstall - you will have them handy and not have to search for them again.

iFlyOnline landed at TNCM just after 0400 UTC as the final of the four teams to complete the circumnavigation.The Executive Committee wishes to thank everyone who participated. Results will be announced Wednesday as we complete verification of the posts and requirements.An excellent job in flying the fastest Around-the-World Race in the event's history.Thank you for another fantastic race.Matt SmithIan DaleMike MacKuenReggie FieldsRob Ibey

Departing RJSSAvsim - Began: 22-Feb-11 at 04:38:41 UTCSOH - Began: 22-Feb-11 at 04:38:52 UTCFlightSim - Began: 22-Feb-11 at 04:42:09 UTCAfter 23 to 24,000 miles - now that is a close race. (Note iFly's South Pacific route may actually have them closer to the finish)

The System forced me to get a new IdThis is a testGood luck to everyone, fly a safe race.