Eric Tomlin

I would imagine that it was created from a bevy of dozens, if not hundreds of photos of possibly many different aircraft also.

Seeing this reminded me of how much I loved FS98. I flew probably over 700 hours in that sim. That was back in my heyday as an avid sim user. Of course, I was single and in college and only worked part time, so that had a lot to do with it. I actually was obsessed. I just now remembered how I once or twice drove home on an hour lunch break many miles just to get a 10 minute fix. All this was again, on measly 'ole FS98. Then came FS2000, 2002, and then my favorite of all time 2004. Finally FSX replaced 2004 and now P3D is gaining lots of traction, yet the core engine remains largely intact even with many excellent improvements. I personally believe we will see incredible changes in the next 15 years, but it probably will be slow coming for our niche.

If you're looking for something that can be a challenge to fly, because it's underpowered and will stall without much warning, check out the Lotus L39 like mentioned above. It's fantastic. I love it and am building a sim around it.

BRAVO!!!!

All this gets me excited. I'm still flying FSX on a really old AMD 64 3.2 Dual Core machine. Believe it or not, it flies fantastic using GA or the Lotus L39. Not many addons, but I do not need many at this time. Looking forward to building a new machine one day and trying v3.+

Has anyone tried the Lotus L39 in Version 3 yet? Thanks.

Those are stunning! Great job. How's the performance of the airport on frames?

Actually, the avionics themselves SHOULD come on with the AVIONICS switch. Engine displays like EICAS typically come on with BATTERY power. In fact, most real-world aircraft will automatically cut power to the avionics bus when the engine(s) are started thru a shunt in order to protect the electronics. For example, in the Learjet 45, the procedure is to turn on the BATTERY switches. This provides power to DU2, which is configured to show EICAS information, and allows the crew to monitor during engine startup. the Avionics switches, when turned on, power up DU1, 3, 4 which show navigation info as well as basic PFD info on 1 and 4. So, the simPlugins is acting correctly regarding avionics on= avionics on. It just might need to allow the Engine gauges/EICAS to come on with BATTERY power. :-)

What L39 clip? (edit) Is this it? Both the L39 and F4 videos are great. Thanks!

Very good! I was very similar in these stages, but the difference was that my start with with FS98! Back in late summer of 1998, I bought my first copy of Flight Simulator and could not wait to get home to install it. I had many similar stages of delight as you mentioned, but I progressed a good bit faster. All the stuff about taking off at 180 kts, etc. is so true! That and landing at 250 kts and wondering why I cannot stop. Once I started learning the right speeds, etc. I started looking in the paper manual that they used to give you. I learned about VOR navigation,and then I went out and bought a paper map of the East Coast of the USA. Then I would look up a list of VORs and their frequencies which was in the back of the FS98 handbook, and then plot them on the new paper map along with the frequency and would fly all day long with that method for months until I discovered a freeware GPS gauge that would fly you Direct. Then a few years later someone came out with an aircraft with an FMS, and it just got more and more complete. You just brought up a lot of great memories!

Glad to see you write this. I've read this many times regarding real-world systems that have Flight Level Change not working very smoothly and "hunting" as well. Therefore, when it doesnt work so well in the sim, it's actually kind of realistic :-)

Sure thing. And if you would like to check out JET45, then you can download the demo version for free and fly within a 60NM circle of KICT, the home of Learjet, and fly unlimited in that circle.

Hi Jim Check out the Friendly Panels LJ45 package. It's nice. Those of us building full scale LJ45 sims usually get it just to have a few extra features added like the HDG sync feature, etc. But, if you'd like a full featured LJ45 package, then check out JET45 at http://www.flightdecksoft.com/jet45 ...and if you'd like to see far more LJ45 stuff related to sim building, then by all means go to http://www.hangar45.net , It'll blow your mind :-)

The resolution on those look incredible.

Robert, that is so well-written. Thank you for sharing.

Hello all I'm sorry to announce that I've just learned that Mr. Tom Allensworth has passed away from a terminal illness earlier this morning around 5:30 AM. I was notified by his sister who is a family member (aunt by marriage) of mine. I'm sure that there will be more information forthcoming as folks are made aware, but please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. Her message to me was "Tom passed this morning about 5:30a. Thanks for your prayers and kind words. AVSIM meant a lot to him and I'm sure he was aware of the support he from the AVSIM community". Hopefully a moderator or someone else at the helm will take this message and post it appropriately. Edit- Here's a link to his announcement of the situation a few weeks ago for those that may have not been expecting his passing. http://forum.avsim.net/page/index.html/_/pri-news/words-i-need-to-share-with-our-community-r2864 Also, Thank you to those who have worked diligently to keep operations on-going.

I do not even know why I'm posting to this, but I can say from personal experience that sometimes, things just do not work out, or they become a very long-shot priority in the lives of those involved. I know this because that's happened to me in making and selling things. The nice thing would be to have some sort of communication at the very least. But, I think it's fair to allow yourself to move on from waiting for this until something more solid comes along.

Hi Brian I think you'd be surprised at how many of the smaller (private) aircraft do fly into the bigger airports at times when it's convenient for the trip. Almost all of them have a dedicated (and busy) GA ramp. One of the first things I always do is look at the GA Ramp for payware airports to see how well they are modeled because I never fly big iron any more. Check out Google Earth- that will give you a good look at what the presence of smaller birds are at the big airports you are considering. The main drawback for big airports are 1)landing fees and 2) traffic. Since you'r flying in the sim, you really have neither :-). I do realize you want to make it realistic, but dont forget to have some fun too :-)

For me it'd be Lotus Simulations L-39C and Real Air Turbine Duke.

So it will work for VATSIM? YES! Thanks!

Ryan, I often wondered about the level of detail in those Orbx shots. Nice to know I wasn't alone.

Thanks to both of you. Great info!

Has anyone tried running one PC with FSX and one with P3D V2 and they connect mulitplayer? I've never used MP for either, so I have no experience at all. Last MP flight was WAAAY BACK in 2000 or earlier with FS98! Thanks

I see where he's going with this, and I will play along...kinda. No doubt, we'd likely see something far more amazing than now...but would we? I'm not so sure that what we would see would be light years ahead of what we are currently seeing. I think back to 1998, and I think of buying FS98- my first flight sim I owned- and then I remember how so incredibly excited and *obsessed* I became with simming and aviation and I actually changed my college major to aviation. ALL THAT while flying in FS98. Add-ons were about 95% freeware and payware was not only rare, but rarely all that good. That thankfully changed not long after, but where I'm going with this is that we would be hard-pressed to enjoy FS98 now compared to what we have. There are times when looking at some screenshots, it's very hard to not think it's a real world photo. We are very close to "arriving" to that kind of virtual world. What I think of is how when using FS98, along with Squawk Box, you still had a lot of imagination needed to fill in the gaps, but man I spent probably 750 or more hours on that sim- more than any other sim since (FS2000, 2002, FS9, FSX). Why is that? Many reasons, but my point is that sometimes you can be given the world for realism and yet it still leaves more to be desired. I think it is kind of like when a really good novel is made into a movie. Rarely does the movie capture the same spirit and imagination that you had when your mind filled in all the gaps. I'm not saying we should go back to poor graphics, etc. Just saying that outside of building a full scale cockpit or having some kind of brain-wired device that taps into your neural system, I do not think we have all that much farther to go for our sims to be any more realistic in many ways. But, I'm excited to see what happens in the next 10 years!

Tushka, Some points to consider here that might be helpful. I used to think quite the same about the work load and being boring, etc. Then when I finally got the chance to build a full scale Learjet 45 (one of the simplest default aircraft in FS) I learned quite a thing or two about the issue of boring vs. realism. In my years of desktop and full scale sim flying, I've come to the conclusion that unless you're flying a PMDG-like add-on, nothing on the desktop is going to feel very full and task-oriented. There is a big difference between managing things on a small 19 or 22 inch LED display on your desk (even with every single button and knob there in place) and actually sitting in a full cockpit with all the hardware there to interact with in its correct location, with all the actual check lists and procedures on hand. Case in point, the LJ45 from FSX is not all that hard to fly with practice on the deskop, but build a full scale sim and fly it correctly (procedural and with ATC) and you will find that the airplane really does need a copilot. Yes, it does. Get any more complicated than that (regional or larger airliner) and the need for a second pilot increases exponentially. I would encourage you to find out if there are any full scale sims near you within a few hours driving distance and then work up a chance to go spend some time in one. I think your thoughts on this will be a bit different afterward. All the best,