Voics

The graphics beat FLIGHT hands down IMO, although the bump mapping and over effects are a bit overdone and may not be to everyone's taste. Trees don't sway in the wind but you can see yourself sitting in the cockpit and working the controls! Was excited to take a test flight over Oahu, followed by disappointment at seeing Honolulu represented by a handful of huts. And more disappointment at being forcefully turned around at the edge of the designated combat zone... I don't think flying between islands is possible. Simulation-wise you can switch to manual engine management and juggle prop-pitch, fuel mixture and radiator settings. Cockpit levers will move correspondingly, although unlike FLIGHT you cannot use the mouse to interact with instruments and controls, you need to memorize all your key assignments. Nice title if you're into warbirds but no substitute for proper civilian sim.

I see.... mine was the port engine, I suspect it was just a visual glitch as has been suggested.

Why is one engine more critical than the other? The day I downloaded the C-46 I had the same experience, but with the opposite engine to DreadMetis. No obvious yaw, loss of speed or altitude, but I had not yet surrendered to using the HUD so it would have been hard to gauge. I did notice a change in sound, that's what drew my attention to it. It seemed to happen in response to me hitting some keys, although it may have been a coincidence. Stupidly, I did not investigate further and exited Free Flight after a minute or so, without so much as a screen shot :blush:

I haven't been able to coax anywhere near 1500nm out of the C-46. My last long distance attempt was Barking Sands to Henderson Airfield at Midway Atol, a 1025nm trip. I fly with 50-60% throttle at 10,000ft which keeps me between 150 and 165 knots. These settings only yield about five hours flight time, and to reach Midway I needed six and a half. With his settings Stumpwiz has doubled his flight time, so the same journey should be doable. The Earth's rotation should also work in your favour when flying west, not sure if that's modelled. Unfortunately I cannot bring myself to spend another nine hours in a dead cockpit, staring out over water and hoping to crash-land onto a green smudge.

No, you won't teleport back to the edge of the map... I now realise what's happened. There are three grid squares between Kauai and the northern edge of the map, yet the map shows me as being barely one grid square north of Kauai. Why? This is the map's limit, not the 'edge'. It lets you fly just far enough to lose sight of the land mass. Even dragging the plane north manually does not work, the icon just bounces back - you can try this yourself in map mode. Since this one-grid-square-from-land limit only represents about an hour's flight for the old girl, it seems highly unlikely that Alaska would be reacheable, even if starting off in mid air with a full tank.

Keith I did fly for about three hours, enough for Kauai to slip into the darkness behind me... when I got down to 63% fuel I saved the game, then switched to map view to check my progress... the distance I had travelled north was sifnificantly less than the width of the Hawaiian island chain... which doesn't seem right, I wonder if I was further out and was repositioned by activating the map. Wind strength and direction cannot be set as far as I know, I simply chose the calmest of the preset weather conditions. Even so, the aircraft would drift slowly and require tiny mouse inputs on a regular basis. I did fiddle with RPM and fuel mixture to the best of my ability but it's hard to achieve optimal economy without any instruments. At about 5000ft the best cruising speed I could coax was about 170 knots. If anyone knows how to generate a reliable tail wind I might give it another try. Thx for the link to the cockpit BTW... man, that thing looks ancient.

This was exactly the kind of aircraft I'd been praying for since day one, with a cockpit of course. Downloaded it only because I have surplus points, for which Microsoft has already taken my money. Nice aircraft model, but hard to get enthusiastic when I'm forced to fly in external view, using a silly HUD. I agree the roll rate seems disproportionately slow relative to other controls. Was hoping to fly this crate from Hawaii to Alaska, but sadly its maximum range falls about 450nm short of the 1900nm required.

:LMAO:

I really only fly two types of missions, daily aerocache hunts in the Stearman (incorporating a scenic flight if possible) and transport missions in the Maule. The scenic flights ceased once I switched off my destination markers, but the R key made them possible again - yeay. I fly these sorties from the nearest location to the aerocache - I don't keep a home base as crossing back and forth across the map would take forever in the Stearman. For the Maule missions I always save and continue where I left off, so I go wherever the missions take me. Usually pick the ones with heaviest payload / most passengers. For Alaska I've started using the real date and local time, meaning I mostly fly at night. I vary the weather although I avoid dangerous extremes. I use a notepad to log and plan my flights, studying my WACs and using whatever VOR beacons I can. A couple of ties I got lost and had to use the R key, I may have neglected to factor in magnetic variation which is quite significant in Alaska. One thing I haven't been doing is to look up correct patterns and approaches for each destination, I just do the most direct take-offs and landings. Unlike with Hawaii I'm seldom sure which way the winds are blowing, as I don't use the HUD... guess I should probably use SkyVector or something to plan this aspect. I've also been using my TrackIR but it's a mixed blessing, it helps immersion but I haven't been judging my landings as well.

Thanks for the tip, wish I knew this earlier!

EDIT: this is what got mine working, the software update to v4.1.038. Thanks!!!

Or how about enabling that auto-pilot that's been staring us in the face... no better place for it than Alaska.

Terrain definitely obtructs the signal, the Koko Head beacon is especially difficult to pick up when flying Kauai to Oahu. Increasing altitude and swinging further South helps, but even then you can be flying blind for a while. I normally tune in to it and activate the NAV ID switch - the morse code will alert me as soon as the signal has kicked in.

Dave I couldn't have done it without your help, I did try side slipping among other tactics but with a max of 25% throttle, would never have occured to me to go in with as much as 40%. Took me four attempts after your tips but I finally scored gold, after what must have been 100 landings... cheers!

I'm betting that you bumped the B key and accidentally killed your engine. This action also resets your fuel mixture etc, so if it happens you will have a fun and frantic time starting back up before you splash down. On my Logitech headset the +volume button on the earpiece also replicates the B action. I discovered this feature midway between Kauai and Oahu.

I finally edited my .CFG file and flying without the marker was awesome! I flew a medical flight from Kalaupapa to Honolulu Intl with a small detour to pick up the VOR aerocache. Nothing sharpens the mind like having to rely only on your radio stack, a home-made chart and six gallons of fuel. :Whew: Couldn't see the ambulance once on the ground so I had to rely on the N key but I can live with that. The one downer is that I also enjoy scenic flights, which are impossible to do without the destination markers. For what it's worth I did my bit and emailed MSF support about a toggle function. And Don... the screen shots are great!

Have you checked your Games for Windows Live privacy settings? By default they lock you out of any text or voice comms... maybe yours have been re-set somehow?

I too downloaded Flight and despite its shortcomings liked it enough to want it to succeed. Supported it by purchasing the Maule and Hawaii DLC - not interested in warbirds or cockpitless aircraft of any kind thanks, but if they generate income for future development that's fine by me. To answer the OP - no, I don't think they should have given away Hawaii... if all islands were included the huge download would become an obstacle in itself - and we'd have no refuge from the bumper-car kids. The Maule could and maybe should have been included in the free download - or at very least as part of the Hawaii DLC. The Maule and Hawaii pack need one another and separating them is real nickel & dime tactics. I don't begrudge Microsoft's right to make money, but considering what the Maule cost it really should have had: functional auto-pilot and all other switches/instruments, down to the stop watch some tutorials or at least an introductory mission more than two paint jobs even better than just re-paints would be different versions such as separate cargo/passenger variants, doorless variant with different dynamics, VFR only variant with nav instruments removed, etc. The RV-6A was a bonus, fair enough although it should still be built to the same standard. Why no functional fuel switch and trim controls modelled in the cockpit, despite the fuel switch being visible? Why not a larger variety of jobs? It does at least come with a few more skins and an introductory mission, unlike the Maule. Unless future deluxe aircraft provide a lot more for the money I will think long and hard before buying - and t would be nice if the Flight team patched some of the above things free of charge on the existing planes, although I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for the tip Ramon, re-starting does bring up the next aerocache. Unfortunately I slept in this morning and missed "Listening carefully" by by about 30 seconds :Doh: They're not exactly gamey, but their placement sure doesn't promote sensible flying.

Thanks Gareth, a group of us set out and found it tonight - 157 is correct, I was using Google Earth's course which did not account for magnetic variation I think it's related to the two aerocaches per day, when the first expires the second is not ready so in between you see that message for an hour or so.

It's just something to do. The first ones were educational and I learnt a few things about Hawaii. Recently they've gotten a little more mundane but I still try to do them each day. If I feel confident of their location I'll fly a scenic flight mission and detour to collect them. If searching is required I set off on my own in free flight, using the 'cold & dark save' file (cheers Jeroen). There have been two or three where we've been given coordinates or VOR radials, wish there was more of those. Although for 'Water water everywhere' I calculated a flight plan using Google Earth and have made at least three sorties, without any luck. Even tried a couple of search patterns when I got there, still nothing

Michael, see if you can beg borrow or steal a gray Xbox controller, I think they're perfect for the job.

Wow... does that include Take On Helicopters? Welcome to the forum by the way and thanks for the post - thanks to all who replied. My expectations might have been a bit off, but they were based on a lenghty article I once read, not just armchair logic.

I did a fair bit of heli flying in Arma II multiplayer, and whilst using Track IR to deliver live troops to a hot LZ was great fun, I always felt the flight model was a bit ho-hum. So my interest in Take On Helicopters never quite translated into purchase, and then Flight came along... My biggest beef (and there were a few) was that without constant input, Arma choppers would 'topple' into a dive. So if you had it in a 45 degree bank and let go of the controls, it would continue rolling on its side, quickly crashing. I've never flown a chopper in r/l but you have a rotor with a great big weight hanging below it, logic would suggest it'd have to behave in the opposite manner, i.e. quickly level off when left to its own devices. Do any of you here have r/l experience with helos? Are my expectations wrong? Are the topply characteristics still there in Take On? Oh and can those floating HUD displays be turned off? Cheers!

Lemme guess... that second unit came back with a whole 27 seconds of footage, which was then recycled ad nauseum. :lol: But thanks for the replies, I've now got it on order. :Peace: