Bilbosmeggins

I’ll have a peep. Thanks 🙂

Thanks for the link. I remember seeing this some years ago. I had a similar title called Hangsim back in the day. Unfortunately, it is now very dated. After being spoilt by the eye candy of MSFS 2020, it is very hard to go back to something so basic. Also, anything not supporting VR, is a no-no. I cannot play flat anymore. I guess Condor Soaring would be the nearest thing to a decent free-flight sim now. Even though it looks as ropey as hell. It does have a great physics engine, and solid flight models. Also supports VR.

That looks an interesting collection. I’ll have a browse and see if any fit the bill. Thanks very much 🙂🙂

It’s no good unfortunately, because, again, it relies on files for either FSX or XPlane being used alongside the lessons. Which would put me right back to square one. Thanks though 🙂

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve had a look at the reviews, and the chapter topics that it covers. It is obviously a great book, and has a lot of followers. However, it appears to be covering the principles of flight primarily, and that is not what I’m searching for. It’s systems, instruments, and protocol that I’m needing to acquaint myself with. And a lot has changed since 1944. Except the basic principles of flight, and theory of lift etc, which, as I said, I’m totally okay with. It may be a book that I could see myself purchasing further down the line, purely for light reading, and entertainment purposes. It’d be nice to see his hand-sketched drawings etc, outlying the various topics, as it does seem like it was a labour of love when he wrote the book. However, it’s definitely not the book I’m needing here and now. Much appreciate the heads-up though 🙂

Thanks. Although I should point out that I have been flight simming since the early 80’s. But my enjoyment has always been from the actual flying, rather than the learning of instruments. Consequently, I can get most things up in the air safely, handle most conditions, and return to Earth again with a reasonable degree of skill. From the instruments, I tended to learn only what I deemed as being absolutely essential to get me up, round, and down again. At the risk of upsetting, and alienating, most of the people on these forums, I’ll readily admit that I have little to no interest in most aeroplanes. In real life, I flew hang gliders and paragliders. So I’m reasonably well acquainted with the theory of flight. If there was a decent simulator for either of those activities then I wouldn’t be on here. If birds and flying insects were offered up in a simulator, I’d be on it in a flash. I’m in love with flying in it’s purest form. Not engine types, SIDS,STARS and all of the rest of it. Having said that, I have taken the trouble to learn various procedures in the past, but, because I’ve not religiously practised and applied them, they have fallen by the wayside, and quickly been forgotten. So, I thought it was about time I took a systematic approach, hence looking for an up to date equivalent (or better) of the FSX book mentioned in the OP. See if I can wring a bit more depth out of the sim than I generally settle for. Hope this makes some sense 😉

Thanks @DaveCT2003 I have had a bit of a mooch around, and come to the conclusion that there is no real substitute. So, given I still have my old, and very capable, PC, I am going to install FSX on it, and go through the old book, along with all of the training files. I can use my new PC for fun, and implementing what I’ve learned, and the old one as my training station. Best of both worlds then. Thanks each 🙂

Thanks each for the various suggestions. From what I can glean, it looks like there is no true successor to the original book I listed. That’s a shame, because it was right on the money. I’ll find something, somewhere eventually 😉

Thanks for the suggestion, but they are way too dry and formal for me to follow. My poor, old brain needs gentler, friendlier learning. Plus, I’m UK based, so would gravitate towards the CAA if I was forced too.

Thanks for the link. I shall look into it. I’m just about to start work, so it shall be tonight’s mission 😀

Thanks for that. I am actually registered on the Vatstar program. But it’s no substitute for the book. In fact the initial training consists of watching a myriad of YouTube videos. And Vatsim is a long way down the road for me.

Yes, I know tech has leapt forward. But the old, basic instrumentation remains the same. I fancied learning everything from scratch, the old way. Rather than just popping up the VFR map and following the magenta line.

It was the fact that it was to be used alongside the custom training files. Sure, it can still be used as a reference book of sorts. But a lot of it’s friendly usability is then lost.

Are there any decent, MSFS2020 specific, training books either available or on the horizon? Back in the day, I had a superb book called Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots - Real World Training, by Jeff Van West and Kevin Lane-Cummings. It had a very friendly, informal approach and led you from basic flight theory, all the way through to using Vatsim. But the real beauty of the book was that, upon purchasing it, you were given a link to download umpteen training files that sat alongside each lesson. So, for any given lesson, you had various parameters laid out for you; Departures, destinations, waypoints, wind strengths and directions etc. So, if the lesson concerned was dealing with crosswind drift, and the necessary calculations needed to navigate the old-fashioned way, then the book could be followed along nicely. It was a fantastic way to advance one’s knowledge. I’ve done a bit of Googling, and cannot see if any update for that particular book is forthcoming. Somehow, I doubt it. And I’m not sure if files can be loaded into MSFS2020 in the same way as for FSX. Or maybe they can. Can someone clarify? So, back to the question, is there anything of a similar vein either available or imminent? I know that there is an absolute plethora of YouTube content out there, but the book format really resonated with me.

Well I'm seriously looking forward to flying it. My Warthog HOTAS should be delivered tomorrow, and my Saitek Combat Pedals Friday then it's all systems go. Cannot wait. And if it really hooks me I'll be looking at building a new system to suit

All good. Managed to get it loaded and authenticated. Certainly not easy doing it from disk though. There were no pointers or helpers at all. I had to find the hoops to jump through myself. On the bright side................................. It looks amazing

Why do they make things so sodding complicated? Just made the mistake of buying the boxed version of the P-51D, because I was lured in by the "free video". I already have DCS World installed, I did that a few days ago. Anyhow, I popped the disk in and the only options available are Play (which just fires up DCS World), Uninstall (which wants to uninstall DCS World), and Play Video. Nowhere is there the option of installing the plane. I've fired up DCS world to see if that will let me do it somehow. All I get linked to is Purchase Download Version. What the hell? I'm clearly not gonna buy it twice. I haven't got it once yet. I thought everything was supposed to be easy in the DCS universe. I was preparing to buy the Warthog in a few days, and probably FC3, but now I am having serious doubts. I would send an email to ED but, last I heard, they don't exactly break their necks to answer problems. Any ideas anyone? Right, I've managed to muddle my way through and it's downloading now. Just hope I can activate it with my box-code when the time comes.

Paragliding is just the best when it comes to flying with birds. I have flown at the Long Mynd many a time and "parked" my paraglider directly above hovering kestrels. With maybe only 6-8ft of separation I've been able to watch every minute feather adjustment they make as they seek out their quarry. And. with so many paraglider pilots frequenting the place, they are completely chilled about the whole affair. And then there are the buzzards who will happily thermal with you, and are infinitely better at it. Best moment of all was when a Red Kite came flashing over to check me out. He flew just a few feet away from my face and we were eye to eye for what seemed an eternity, but was probably only a matter of a few seconds. Then he rolled over, tucked his wings, and disappeared in the blink of an eye leaving me to contemplate just how clumsy we humans are in the air. Magical moments. I keep hoping that one day someone will develop a "natural" flight sim, with various bird/insects as the models. I would love to soar the slopes as a gull, or tuck my wings and swoop after prey as a peregrine. Go cross country as an eagle. Helicopters would be replaced by dragonflys. Just think it would be an awesome way of experiencing true flying. One day...........

You sods. When I saw "Free flight" in the heading I thought there was a hang gliding or paragliding element to the game. I nearly creamed myself. Bugger :Phbbbt:

I'm a bit miffed too. Took nearly four hours to download and then it tells me that my gfx card is not up to the job. Would have been nice if the installer could have given me that nugget of information BEFORE I wasted the time and the download wastage of 1.5gb :Phbbbt:

I read plenty of topics before posting this, both pre and post-announcement. Not too sure what you are implying?

Like many here, I am deeply, deeply disappointed with the the recent announcement from Microsoft. I had pinned many a hope on Flight being the way forward but it seems fairly evident that this is not yet the case. M$ are now targeting Joey Mainstream. Just a shame they don't appear to have done their homework too well in this regard. I frequent many forums, and do enjoy regular "gaming" aside from simming. Interestingly, one of the forums I visit often has a very active PC gaming section. Two Flight threads have appeared there in the last few day - one positive along the lines of "Ooh look, it's free", and one negative expressing recent news (Guilty as charged). BOTH threads sank without trace. Not a glimmer of interest from the regular gamers. Gamers who will enthuse over anything from Chuckie Egg to BF3. The gamers who M$ think will be flocking to fly through golden hoops etc.I honestly believe that we will get our sim in the end as M$ will soon realise the huge error of judgement they have made. The return of revenue that they are expecting will be nowhere near. They will be forced to do a complete U-turn, and will suddenly be looking to embrace the hard-core simmers once more. Although M$ will dress all of this up as some kind of strategy/master-plan. The only question then though is will I want to embrace a company that has such scant regard for it's loyal consumer base?