SouthPawPaul

Whoa. You sure don't do things by halves! Any freeware airports by MisterX6 and TDG are superb. There other others of course that are also fantastic, just these two really stand out to me. There are a ton of websites out there that are well updated with what current scenery is available, but I always use http://apxp.info/ for finding freeware airport scenery. Flying in Germany at the moment is an absolute dream. You can get most of it covered with one UHD v3 mesh tile and as of 10.40, most of the major and a lot of minor airports have scenery baked right into the stock install. I may get some flak for this statement, but please don't be one of those people that chucks the world at XPX, cranks all sliders to max, ticks every box and then wonders why performance sucks. Please do however enjoy the sim. Take time to accept the quirks. It's not a panacea to the flight sim world, but it is good and if you're like me it'll give you lots of "WOW!, look at that!" moments.

I refer you to a recent post of mine. http://www.avsim.com/topic/475167-this-sim-is-epic/?p=3299242

I always try to make sure that my frames stay above the magic 20 for this reason: http://www.x-plane.com/?article=the-simulators-measurement-of-time-is-slow

Well, if you feel you need all of the top ten add-ons to make the sim work for you, then who am I to argue. However, The results you see above look to include photo scenery and World2XP. That's it. This is freeware airport scenery from the .Org and UHD mesh This is just UHD mesh and nothing else. I think my point is, it seems the impression is you need a ton of addons and tweaking to get this sim to look great and this really isn't the case at all. Yes this sim can look truly ghastly in some areas but then so do the other offerings without 3PD addons

Why months? Most of what you see here can be achieved inside of an hour.

Great post and shots. Between you and JComm we've got two very enthusiastic ambassadors for X-Plane 10.

If it is just a 2.6 then I sure hope LM won't be doing their usual and making you buy it again.

50% here too. I've found it's the best balance between performance and visuals. I've only just discovered this great thread and it's wonderful to see what can be done. I'm not a massive fan of SkyMaxx except for screenshots. The current default clouds in 10.40rc1 however have me constantly going "wow" and you get a real feel of flying through the clouds that no other simulator I've flown achieves. I'm also not a massive fan of FlyWithLUA RTH tweaks either. I don't like what it does with lights and the gamma settings. I know various things can be tweaked with it, but I don't like that it starts with a turn everything on and then selectively turn things off. If it were the other way round I'd probably consider it again. I'll definitely be trying these tweaks mentioned in the previous posts though. With those tweaks, default clouds and my wonderful Saab 340 I am in complete sim heaven.

The Flight Factor 757 is also superior to the FF 777 imho. If you insist on getting the JARDesign A320 then ensure it's bang up to date with the latest beta or it'll have you throwing the sim and your new planes out the window, I wouldn't bother with it at all though. I'll take this opportunity now as well to say the Carenado offerings for X-Plane are *FAR* superior to the FSX/P3D offerings so don't poopoo them as a viable GA aircraft vendor.

http://www.avsim.com/topic/400918-how-to-set-default-view-for-3d-cockpit/

Reading threads on other Boeing FMS's it seems maybe power cycling the IRS switches does the trick of resetting the FMS. Whether that is modelled in the FF 757 I couldn't say and I'm not near my PC to test it. Give it a go.

I think you're right Dave. I'm getting confused with probably a recent Airbus release; maybe a FF one? However, my original statement holds true. Improvements to the FBW have been made, My very brief tests show that it doesn't resemble a drinking duck on a hand flown approach anymore. More testing required. It's a hangar queen though beside the LES Saab 340 and the FlyJSim offerings.

I may be wrong here, but on the JARDesign forums there is a beta release of the A320 that includes the QPAC FBW implementation. I've tried it and it is definitely better. It still has issues, but the Beta 4 version is a good few steps in the right direction.

Jack is coding multiple options for the 727. - CIVA: An old school add-on from .org for 10 bucks. This is what they used before they got GPS - GNS 530 - Baked into X-Plane so you've already got it and it's Navigraph up-datable. - X-FMC - Freeware addon that is Navigraph up-datable. This next update is going to make the 727 the "Go-To" heavy metal for me in X-Plane.

OK. For anyone reading this in the future and seeing my comment that the FJS 732 is in a different league to the LES Saab 340A. It is. However it's in a lower league. The 732 is great to fly and I love it, but WHOAH, the LES Saab 340A is an incredible aircraft. These last 4 days I've lived and breathed this aircraft and spent every spare minute either flying it or watching real videos on YouTube. Simply incredible.

Just goes to show. What do us armchair pilots really know eh? I've not had it long and I'm currently loving flying it. It's a great aircraft.

Dave, I've not read anywhere what the next update will contain. I'm only going on what I've seen Jack stream on Twitch. The last few days he's been integrating the CIVA, GNS 530 and X-FMC.

What update? The update to the 727 or have I written something that suggests there's an update to the X-Plane GNS 530?

I'd have to agree that the FF 777 and the JarDesign A320 Neo are hangar queens in my fleet too. The FlyJSim 732 however gets most of my time. It hand flies beautifully, the wing flex is good enough to have me looking over the wings WAY too often and the sounds (internal and external) are brilliant. I've just started flying the LES Saab 340 and although it is good, IMHO it's not in the same league as the FlyJSim aircraft. Additionally if you're interested in what it takes to develop an aircraft for a simulator. The developer does regular streams on Twitch. He's currently updating the 727 and giving it the GNS 530 from X-Plane so folks who want can still fly the magenta line. http://www.twitch.tv/flyingjackal. Another thing that folks don't seem to realise is that the Carenado planes for X-Plane are half decent and not the half baked monstrosities that are offered for FSX/P3D. This is probably due to being a completely different developer. He also keeps his planes up to date.

X-Plane. Works on Windows, Linux and Mac

For those comparing the Airbus to the PMDG 737, the comment above is in contrast to a streamer call Sihfty (http://www.twitch.tv/sihfty). He's a real life 737 pilot for Jet2?. It's often asked in his rare streams how accurate the PMDG 737 is compared to the real thing. His answer is that systems and FMC modelling is very close however, it flies nothing like the real thing. This is however one persons opinion. I think for us (sometimes) over critical armchair pilots. It's fine.

I've raised this point too over at the org and got shot down. SMP is pretty but it is severely limited. Even at MAX distance, you switch to an outside view of your aircraft and you can see a square box of clouds all around you. I only use it because my PC ain't man enough to run XP clouds, but I prefer them visually and think they're far more accurate. Big fluffy white clouds don't happen that frequently. I'd love to be able to configure SMP so that I can have SMP and XP clouds showing together. I'd may be get the best of both worlds.

It don't matter how big your mouth is or how quick you can swallow If you've only got a straw to feed from. Something else is probably bottlenecking your cpu/gpu. Maybe memory or bus bandwidth.

When you say close to the London area do you mean north east west or south of London? For the North East of London you've got a flying school at Stapleford Airfield. Just to the the West of London you've got White Waltham Airfield and Blackbushe airport. Those are the ones I'm aware of. I have no direct experience of any of these. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/flying+school/@51.5286823,-0.223111,10z

I'm sure I read somewhere to make sure that you keep the FPS above 20 otherwise the simulator slows things down to maintain the integrity of flight calculation engine. Is this not the case any more or did I dream the whole thing? Edit: Ahh I didn't dream it! http://www.x-plane.com/?article=the-simulators-measurement-of-time-is-slow