Dan8

Windows 10 has serious problems in many areas. Do the following, it will NOT harm your computer, it will force Windows 10 to be more friendly to you and programs. These are videos and are very easy to understand and follow. After you fix Windows 10 you should be able to install FSX SP2, if you continue to have problems please post here. If the following fixes your problem, please post here for the benefit of other FSX users who have the same issue with Windows 10, this information needs to get to as many people as possible. 1.) General Fix for Windows 10: 2.) Windows 10 fixes directly related to gaming

There are MANY flat runways in the U.S. Midwest, including the Western 2/3 of Ohio. Kellys Island [airport ID = 89D] has short runways [pure North-South and East-West, RW 18 and 36, RW 9 and 27]. It is a small island on Lake Erie. I used to fly real aircraft there many years ago. On such a small airport you might start with FSX supplied ultralight, then move up to the Maule, a very capable tail wheel aircraft [i flew that also in real life]. It is more powerful than the Piper Cub. If you have an add-on aircraft like a Cessna 152 that will do a good job as well. Carenado has a Cessna 152 II for $26.95, however, you can get a good discount if you purchase it on major holidays. I believe Cessna suggested one notch of flaps for take-off, full flaps for landing [for real aircraft]. I did not fly this aircraft much in real life, I enjoyed larger Piper aircraft after the Warrior and later types of larger Piper aircraft came out. http://www.fspilotshop.com/carenado-cessna-152-p-1793.html Video of FSX flight in Carenado Cessna 152 II Just a note on twins, I do prefer Cessna over Piper, it is easier to see over the engines. Including the Cub, however, primarily beginning with the Warrior, Piper made and makes great aircraft though.

If you want much better quality than Lionheart, Carenado just released their 500S SHRIKE AERO COMMANDER. It is not a jet, however it IS old school - paint chips and all. http://www.fspilotshop.com/carenado-aero-commander-shrike-500s-for-fsx-p3d-p-6196.html or http://www.carenado.com/CarSite/Portal/index.php

In 2006 FSX was designed with future Intel processor performance expected. The best way to boost your FSX frames per second is to purchase a fast Intel CPU, overclock it to at least 4.0GHz [unless the CPU is already running at that speed default - few are], and adjust some of your FSX scenery settings down a little. FSX was also designed for Nvidia, and a mid range card is all you need.

.... Hold down F2 for reverse props and jet thrust reverse ... and / for manual spoilers. My memory is poor, and once again, sorry about the confusion.

I have an oops to report. To reverse props press and hold down F2. For jet thrust reverse tap the / key. I thought I should clarify those keyboard commands because you have been gone so long. My apologies for not being clear earlier.

It was late last night here when I made my post above and forgot to mention this. Zinertek - HD Airport Graphics is very inexpensive and adds realism at all FSX airports, especially in the day time, at night I runways are so dark I have to use runway lighting to judge my altitude above the runway, aircraft landing lights are almost completely worthless - with my Nvidia graphics card. However, airport signs, and markings are much better, actually, some are added that vanilla FSX does not have, and buildings look better, and if there are windows there are people inside. It is still on sale for $14.24 and does not interfere with whatever ground software you are using. Read the reviews, some good comments there. http://www.fspilotshop.com/zinertek-airport-graphics-p-5310.html Also, some aircraft you purchase for FSX also contain the same aircraft for P3D in the package [download or DVD/CD], the Carenado B200 Beechcraft above is one of them. When shopping for an aircraft check to see if it will install on other sims you have or are interested in. Make sure the aircraft, or any software, will work with the simulator software version, such as Prepar3D 3.0+ and so on. FSpilotshop had over 2100 aircraft and other software on sale over memorial day weekend, and I am not sure if the sale is still on. When going to their site click on the "specials" link, usually on the right side of the page. As mentioned by Bert, there are many aircraft alone that you can spend money on, not including other software and hardware. I do not know what your budget is or what kind of aircraft you feel you would like to fly. The only reason I mentioned the Carenado B200 is it is a very easy aircraft to learn to "fly". Many people enjoy tinkering with as realistic as possible avionics and systems, which can take some time to set up a flight. Those aircraft have a much greater learning curve. However, the days of nothing but "steam gauges" and "coffee grinders" are coming to a close in real aircraft and I am glad to see many aircraft with some kind of glass system in the cockpit, even light single engine airplanes. The recommendations I mentioned above were provided in light of what you said in your initial post, especially # 2, you are less patient in your "old age" indicating you want as few hassles as possible. You can slowly slide back into flying a sim, that will probably make it easier. Just a note on many of the great planes available, make sure you read the manuals on all systems and avionics, they can often be downloaded and read before making a purchase, and if you cannot do that, you can download manuals for the real thing and read up, also proceedures such as cold and dark start-ups, among others can be found on YouTube for specific aircraft. I have a 40 inch monitor sitting 18 to 20 inches from my face and balancing good looking video with my check book is inescapable, especially now that I have been on a fixed income, I am 67 years old. I hate the looks of default FSX aircraft, they are simply putrid on a large screen. If you have lots of money, time and patience [which you said you had little of these days, specifically patience] then you can make some great looking objects on screen. In fact, once you look around for a few days at what is available you may become excited and want to jump in with both feet, along with your check book. It is probably best if you purchase a few pieces of inexpensive scenery, clouds, etc., and less complex aircraft to get things started looking better and not purchase a complex jet that will take you 20 minutes to set up [at the initial stage of the learning curve] before you even have time to taxi, let alone get into the air. So, let us know what class aircraft you want to jump into and how complex you want to start with. If you want a shallower learning curve, take it in small steps, get some flight time in and enjoy yourself from day one. EDIT: Forgot to use the word "all" ....

Welcome Back! There have been times when I was away from FSX and have returned to "flying" it again. I have 2 or 3 boxes of FSX, because the price went down and at the time I did not want to lose access to the game because of a bad disc. Because I already have FSX I have not switched, I do have an "older" 4 year old yet powerful computer however. [intel i5 3570K @ 4.0 or 4.4GHz and a very good air cooler to let my system last 5 to 7 years - or more if it holds up and Intel continues to improve integrated graphics and almost ignore CPU performance. For a comparison of FSX vs P3D, please check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdoBByXFSa4 Look at ZZstaff and Darrin Ward's comments especially. ADD-Ons for FSX: I use the newest version of GEX [Ground Environment X] by Flight1. http://www.fspilotshop.com/flight1-ground-environment-world-edition-north-america-p-4148.html Among the many aircraft I have purchased, my favorite aircraft is the Carenado B200 King Air. It is VERY stable, even at 90 knots and can be used on relatively short runways [note, use the F2 key to reverse the props for short landings and you can see over the nose of the aircraft better at 105 knots than 90 - remember, you can use the keys Shift+Enter to raise your seat to allow you see over the nose better {Shift+Backspace to lower seat height}]. It is great for both low level flight and mid-altitude, such as 20,000 feet and can fly around 2,000 miles, depending upon wind conditions. It can be found at www.Carenado.com or http://www.fspilotshop.com/carenado-b200-king-air-series-p-3944.html If you like something smaller you might like the Cessna 310R by Milviz, just remember it behaves much like a real C310, including when landing a little "hot". http://www.fspilotshop.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Milviz Read the reviews by purchasers, some of whom have been real pilots, such as myself. I also have Track IR5 and it adds realism and permits views a hat switch will not, however, with a hat switch on the joy stick you can get by without it. http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/trackir5/#1 I wish you happy sim flying ! NOTE: Edited slightly for easier viewing

I read on this forum a post that suggested using Driver Manager or something like that, however, I cannot remember the thread or the person who made the post, I think it was staff. I used to manually download and install all drivers, however, I am getting old, and with age, getting lazy. What is a good program to keep my drivers up to date? Thank you.

Christopher, I agree, there have been no major improvements since the 2600K, especially with FSX. This is one of my favorite sites when looking at real CPU performance in games. FSX is not listed, as it is too old, and almost everyone knows FSX loves lots of CPU performance. Well, the link I typed looked good, however, I must have had a misspell somewhere. Go to www.youtube.com and search for Intel Skylake Core i7 6700k vs 4970k/3770k/2600k. By DigitalFoundry. they have both overclocked [that is what the K version is for] and no overclock benchmarks.

I read only half of the replies, so, if someone has already stated the following I apologize. I used to be in the computer field and was an expert in computer hardware. Your problem is often caused by faulty computer hardware, and hopefully none of your files have been damaged. Heat can cause malfunction or premature failure of computer components. If you have not done so, go to a local Wal-Mart, computer store, or office supply store and purchase a can of air. Open your case and thoroughly clean everything including RAM, all fans, all heatsinks, the power supply, video card, and other areas where filth or dust bunnies have accumulated. Another problem areas are weak components on the motherboard. Increase your CPU VCore slightly, usually an additional .025 volts works. If the RAM is weak use the same increase in voltage. If your power supply has weakened components it is time to replace it. These are just a few hardware related options and I suggest you try cleaning [$4 or $5 U.S. a can] and slight voltage increase, as they are free. I am leaning toward a hardware problem because you said all was well one day and, without changing anything - especially with no add-ons, the next day the problem presented itself.

The FSX 2006 version was titled Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition, I still have it and the price was $70 U.S. The Gold edition came out later, and I have that version as well.

Flyfox, Thank you very much! Dan

I do not know how to hide the compass, however, you can look over it by pressing the keys Shift+Enter to increase the seat height.

I have stated in another forum that I can sometimes see "stutter" or individual frames of a movie, and most people did not believe me. I have been used to gaming at 60fps for a very long time and my eyes and mind have gotten used to it. I was also a commercial rated pilot years ago. I mentioned at that web site that some military pilots could see individual frames while in a flight simulator that ran at 60 fps [or did at that time, I am not sure if military flight simulators now use 120fps]. I will be 67 years old tomorrow, and if I can sometimes see individual frames while watching a movie on television, I am very sure many younger people can as well. There is a satisfaction threshold for many games, including flight simulator. For flight simulator it seems to be 20 fps and above for many people, 24 fps* does not bother me much, even though I can see individual frames that make the game "stutter" or look choppy for a lack of better terminology. If I want to increase frame rates I increase my i5 3570K from 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz and that makes a great deal of difference, as 30 fps is the lowest I like to go. Usually at 4.0GHz my frame rates are acceptable to 60 fps+, large airports in large cities with lots of aircraft and ground vehicles, including automobiles drop fps especially on several of my *Carenado and some Alebeo aircraft. Planes from companies like Milviz produce high frame rates no matter where I fly. The only add-ons I have are aircraft, Zinertek HD Airport Graphics, GEX and UTX. I use no programs to increase fps nor do I get into the code to increase fps. I use raw "horsepower" only. Although my computer is four years old, my video card is not, and is used for more than MS FSX. For those that are interested my computer specs include: MB: Gigabyte Z77X-D3H, Intel i5 3570K at 4.0 or 4.4GHz on air [it can do 4.6GHz however I like temps no more than in the 60s [C] under stress, and that means running it at 4.4GHz. If I want to keep max temps in the 50s [C] while under heavy load I decrease the overclock to 4.0GHz], CPU cooler: Noctura NH-C14 with two 140mm SSO fans, TIM: GELID Solutions GC-Extreme, RAM: 24GB of G.Skill Ripjaws X 1866 CAS 9. SSD Samsung Pro, Intel 335 series, WD Black 4TH, Video card: MSI GTX 980 Ti Lightning LE, Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Z, PSU: Seasonic Platinum 660 watt, Case: Cooler Master 922 HAF [High Air Flow], Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, UPS: APC XS 1500 Back-Up