Flight simmer

We've been getting some hardcore jetstreams over SE Aus lately, so perusing FR24 has been quite fun. Jet airliners at altitude well under 300 knots ground speed Except this SAAB 340, these things are ordinarily not very fast!

Interesting stuff! The Concorde sounds like it was quite a ride, it's a tragedy this legend of aviation is no longer with us. I don't get why a regular airliner would have to descend at such a steep rate, there was no traffic or any other extenuating circumstances, well on FR24 anyway. It was also still a long way from its destination (300km+) where even flights at FL430 don't typically start descending, quite late in the evening when traffic is relatively light. This particular flight clearly went from FL340 to FL250 in a major hurry. There was a jetstream present (as you can tell by the speed), but still that is generally not a reason to go into such a steep descent. Just seems so random. Maybe they encountered heavy turbulence? Wish I was a pax on that flight though

Was browsing FR24 the other day and came across this: Evidently backed on on another flight tracker app.

Yes we all know it's not supersonic when we consider airspeed, that's common knowledge. I'm trying to point out the movement of the aircraft relative to the ground. If there was 0 wind, those ground speeds would be supersonic.

752 knots, that is one insane jetstream! Nearly 1400km/h, as far as groundspeed is concerned, well and truly supersonic, as fast as a bullet. Amazing. Be interesting to see how slow aircraft in the opposite direction were travelling. Both extremes would've been a unique sight from the ground. Something unusual, just now a flight from Sydney to Perth has diverted to Karlgoorlie. Fuel issues due to headwinds?

That is awesome! Lufthansa 777F 692 knots = 1281km/h, faster groundspeed than the speed of sound at sea level. Awesome. Must've been one hell of a jetstream. Wonder what GS aircraft going in the opposite direction registered? Great link, cheers!

We have a thumping jetstream here atm, and looking at flights in Flightradar24 is quite interesting. There is one NZ Boeing 787 flight PER-AKL that just flew right overhead doing over 610kts / 700mph Groundspeed at 41,000ft. She was hauling &@($* to say the least, visually looked to be going faster than aircraft inbound to Tullamarine descending through the low FL100's at 300kts or so. Faster than Mach 1 groundspeed at altitude if there was no wind affecting airspeed. I find stats like this quite fascinating. At the other end of the scale, I've seen westbound aircraft near Perth on FR24 doing less than 300kts at cruising altitude. Be interesting to see this from the ground. Share your observations and stories of overflying aircraft or being onboard one in jetstream conditions and how it affected travel times. This particular aircraft is due in Auckland some 70 mins ahead of schedule!

If only for FSX, 8GB is all you need. Infact, 8GB dual channel (2x4GB sticks) is the optimum format for FSX and CPU overclocking. If you are doing things like video editing, 3D CAD modelling and the like, then more memory is useful.

It seems that spring is yet to begin, let alone summer! With the weather in Melbourne this November, I could easily get away with the stock Intel cooler :lol: There is no reason for me to get a 1000w PSU as I am going to use only 1 card. FSX doesn't take advantage of SLI so no reason to spend another several hundred there (unless if you're using it for other gaming applications). That's a good point that I didn't consider re getting comfortable with overclocking. I'm a total n00b to overclocking but I want all the hardware there when I get versed with it. I may choose the H110 after all, but yeah I am reading reviews and comparisons, not only for that but for graphics cards, RAM, etc. BTW, if anyone knows where I can get 2400mhz CL9 memory in Australia, give me a shout! It seems to be impossible to find here. Best I can do is 2400 CL10 or 2133 CL9.

I may infact go with a Thermalright Archon SB-E x2 air cooler rather than the H110. I understand this cooler is very good and won't intrude into the RAM slots so don't have to worry about heatspreader height. It is also half the cost of the H110. Not being experienced in overclocking myself, I won't be pushing the limits so I think going for an air-cooled solution may be a good choice.

Those cost savings are significant, and I do enjoy working out things for myself and it can be a great learning experience. I intend to use NickN's guides to help me through the process. Reading through his guides has helped me select my components so far. My latest proposed setup: CPU: i7-4770k MOBO: Asus Z87 Pro GPU: Asus GTX780 Direct CUII RAM: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws 2400mhz 10-12-12-31, 1.65v OR Ripjaws 2133mhz 9-11-10-28, 1.5v HDD: 2TB Western Digital black for storage, media, games and files HDD 2: 1TB Western Digital Velociraptor for FSX and addons only SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB for Windows 7 and its apps Power Supply: Corsair HX850 watt V2 gold Cooler: Corsair H110 Case: Coolermaster HAF X OS: Windows 7 home Unfortunately I can't find 2400 CAS9 RAM here. I will likely go for Ripjaws as the Trident Heatspreader is very high and may not fit with my cooling system. Purchasing this setup assembled from a well known PC supplier would cost $3200, but if I purchase the parts myself from the cheapest suppliers, I'd be saving over $270. That is no chicken feed..... that will buy me a big array of addons.....

I may just bite the bullet and build it myself. I listed the parts and prices from the most well known IT shops here and did a comparison.Turns out I would save anywhere from $150-250 if I sourced the parts from the stores where they are the cheapest and put it together myself.

All food for thought guys, thanks for the responses. The more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards having the OS and FSX on a seperate drive and keeping FSX on a large seperate drive at that. I want to keep the machine for a good few years, not only for performance but because of the fact that FSX seems to be the last MSFS and that the huge number of excellent scenery packages coming out for it are turning it into a near real-life experience (and this costs major gigabytes!) I know that FSX doesn't gain framerates from an SSD, and SSD's being very expensive in anything 500gb and over, I may just go for a 1TB Velociraptor as a dedicated FSX drive. I'm not too fussed about waiting an extra few seconds for loading. If there are no frames to be gained, then the 3x price premium for the same size drive is not justified. With that, I might get a 256gb SSD for the OS and a 2TB HDD for other games, files, media etc. One thing is that I've never built a PC myself and I am nervous at the thought of cutting my teeth on a very expensive gaming powerhouse so I will likely get a local PC shop to put it together.

I've read some posts suggesting that keeping Windows and FSX on seperate drive is good due to "read files" and things like that ( i have no idea what these read files and stuff are), but I've also read that with the latest SSDs there is no performance gains from seperating Windows and FSX, and that there is no framerates to be gained from having FSX on an SSD vs a normal HDD. Right now my plan is to place both the OS and FSX on a Samsung Pro 840 512gb SSD, but will there be any advantage in using seperate drives? It's got me thinking, alternatively I'm considering using a 256gb SSD for Win7 and its apps, a 500gb or 1TB Velociraptor for FSX and addons, and a 1-2TB WD Red or Green drive for files, media and storage. The cost of purchasing a 256gb SSD, 1TB Velociraptor and 2TB WD red drive is just about identical.

Interesting. So with Haswell, 1.65V is a non-issue? Just wondering because researching online and reading countless forum posts I was left with the impression that 1.5V is recommended. I'm having trouble finding 2400mhz CL9 RAM here, so I guess I'll have to settle for CL10 or 1866mhz CL9. My shortlist: G. Skill Ripjaws X 2133mhz 9-11-10-28-2N, 1.5V G. Skill Ripjaws X 1866mhz 9-10-9-28, 1.5V G. Skill Ares 1866mhz 9-10-9-2N, 1.5V G. Skill Trident X 2400mhz 10-12-12-31, 1.65V Corsair Vengeance Pro 1866mhz 9-10-9-27, 1.5V Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866mhz 9-9-9-24, 1.5V Right now I am leaning towards the 2133 Ripjaws or 2400 Tridents.