Alex L

Looks pretty awesome!

Very well said, Alan. I like your perspective on "buying quality," regardless of the type. It seems like a good way to explore new facets of aviation.

Here's an idea (probably not original, but here it is anyway): A2A teams up with Carenado and Accu-Sims their aircraft. Carenado does the graphics work and A2A designs the physics and systems. People that want a simpler but beautiful aircraft can get the stock Carenado version; those that want to get a study aircraft can buy the A2A Accu-Sim expansion for it. And that would include the X-Plane versions, too. But I've gone too far afield...

I've created a new thread in the main FSX forum to continue the discussion about the new C182T addon in general for those that would like to do so.

Since my previous thread about A2A's release video for the 182T got moved to the videos forum, here's a new thread for those that wanted to continue the discussion on the main FSX forum. This thread will be about thoughts on the upcoming release of A2A's 182T Skylane in general. Personally, I agree that the new 182T may be too similar in look and feel to A2A's C172, which I already own. But it may be just right for others. Share your thoughts!

Hi all! I noticed A2A posted a preview video today of their next product, the Cessna 182T Skylane: What do you all think? Personally, I think it looks very nice. It should be a fun aircraft to fly. I was surprised, though, that they didn't replicate the interior avionics of the real-life aircraft that they tested, but I'm sure they had good reason to do so. The video says the 182T should be released in the upcoming "days/weeks." Well done, A2A!

I think the A2A C172 manual has a very good checklist (actually, "Normal Procedures," I believe). That's the one I use. Alternatively, I really like the free checklists on this site: http://freechecklists.net/simchecklists.asp . There's one for the default Cessna 172SP for FSX, and the formatting is really nice. But it's probably not as comprehensive as the Normal Procedures in the A2A C172 manual. NOTE (just in case : I would use neither of the above for real-world flying!!! Also, if you want to dish out a few dollars, CheckMate Aviation has checklists for popular GA aircraft that seem to be highly regarded by flight simmers: http://www.checkmateaviation.com/ . For a preview of how these look, see this page for the Cessna 150 CheckMate checklist on Amazon

I'm not knowledgeable about Delta VAs. But I can offer some general recommendations on choosing a VA. First, consider VATSIM's Heritage Airlines -- these have been around the longest time and one of them happens to be a Delta VA: http://vasops.vatsim.net/ and http://www.deltava.org/ But just because a VA is the oldest may not mean it's the best. Consider the types of resources they offer for their members on the website, the frequency of events, and things like that. If community is important to you, I think the VA's discussion forum is a good way to tell how active and friendly the members are with one another. Also, maybe asking if you can hop onto a VA's TeamSpeak for a week or two may give you a sense before joining of who the people are with whom you can fly. Those are my two cents. I'm sure sim pilots here that are more experienced than me can offer you more advice.

That DC-9 is another good idea. It comes with a beginners guide inside of the actual sim while you're in the plane. I would caution though that the add-on has some glitches and quirks, so read up on it first (they may have been fixed in a later patch, but I'm not sure).

I second NyxxUK's suggestion of the Milviz 737-200, especially if you like the old steam-gauge look since it models one of the original versions of the Boeing 737 from decades ago. I'm not sure if it comes with a cargo version though. Captain Sim's 737 Captain is also the 737-200 and has an optional freighter expansion for purchase. I'm not sure if it's as good as Milviz's version, so check out some reviews first. If you're not absolutely set on the 737, I also agree that Quality Wings Ultimate 757 Collection is a great package, probably the best of the three. It comes with the freighter version as part of the package and even costs less than the somewhat-pricey Milviz 737 and Captain Sim 737. The documentation that comes with Quality Wings products is also very stellar. The QW 757 is currently on sale for $25 at fspilotshop. Note: I have not actually tried any of these addons myself, but have researched them, as well as those developers in general, fairly extensively in the recent past.

stans: Thanks for the tip! With a little bit of digging, I found a couple of articles [1] [2] that informed my inexperienced self how to replace that beacon light. I already had an instance of the PAD beacon light in my effects folder from a prior freeware aircraft download, and I simply replaced all instances of 'fx_beacon.fx' in the Beech 18 aircraft.cfg file with ''fx_PADbeaconh.fx' instead. It worked like a charm! The light isn't flashing in the cockpit anymore but is flashing on the outside of the aircraft. I haven't caught any glitches with this yet. The only thing I noticed is that the wings also get a soft light outside of the aircraft when the beacon is turned on. I'm not sure if that's normal, but it doesn't bother me at all. I'll post here if I run into any other problems (but I don't expect I will). Thanks again!

Portia911, thanks for the welcome! Judging by forum posts I've read, there seems to be a lot of fans of the Beech 18 in the flight sim community. That's why it's strange to me that no payware company has developed one within the latest generation of addons. I think it would be right up the alley of the likes of Alabeo (who have already developed the Beech Model 17) and maybe even A2A. MartinRex007, I hadn't heard of the Howard 500 for FSX. Thanks for sharing the video -- it looks pretty cool. Back to my original questions, does anyone have any insights into the Aerosoft Beech 18 flight model updates or port-overs to FSX? How difficult would it be to try to port it over myself if I have not had any experience with this kind of thing?

One suggestion is to try pressing the "Eyepoint (reset)" key (I forget which one it is because I have it mapped to my X52 joystick) which should reset the VC view.

Do you mean that the view freezes in the virtual cockpit and won't let you pan around? Or do you mean that when you're in the 2D panel mode, it won't let you go to the side views?

I'm new to the 737NGX myself, but did you make sure to select CMD A and CMD B on the autopilot panel to do the auto-land? Also, the MFD or PFD (can't remember which one) should give a confirmation message when auto-land has been activated. Check the NGX Tutorial 1 for what this message should be (since I don't remember what it is off-hand). Hope that helps!