Antipodeslonghaul

One temporary solution that might work would be disabling your internet connection while starting the sim. And you'll probably get some sort of message, continue in offline mode. Once the sim has loaded you should be able to go back online and it should run normally. But only a temporary solution as eventually one has to update.

For me this statement in particular is the primary thing that invites dragging MSFS 2020, and probably soon 2024 as well, through the mud and urinating on them. It's a statement I've seen frequently, and I'm not entirely against it, since it's also the sim I use the most at present. But maybe that's just in my nature. If someone tells me some Mexican restaurant is the best ever, I'll likely try it and then say it's more or less the same as Taco Bell. But MSFS2020 is really just an average sim in my opinion, quite good graphics, but also severely lacking in many areas. So overall it never really stood out as being something unique or special.

I've recently flown around LA, like Burbank to Ontario for example, when doing short test flights for graphics settings etc. Of course no need to follow SID's or any other procedures, just mess around with flying low. The reason I like it there (at least in the sim) is the mixture of mountains and canyons, combined with the vast sprawl of freeways, different styles of buildings, malls, parking lots, stadiums, etc. MSFS really does a great job depicting what you see out the window. Good if you can show it to some people who haven't seen it yet.

Interesting indeed. What was it about 28 minutes (circa 400 kts av gs)? I'm just simming now and opened FlightRadar24, used filter for 737-900, looking at UAL1984 EWR-SDQ. Now that's only about a 3:15 flight, so maybe quite a bit lighter, but let's see. Right now passing 20,000, 10 minutes, and about 50 nm. Edit: Of course not all will climb in the same manner SID's, ATC limitations etc. This one should be reaching FL330 any moment now. Looks like it took them about 22 minutes and about 130 nm.

Weird thing. I normally fly the PMDG BBJ1, but yesterday tried the regular 737-700 passenger version. Seemed to get quite a bit better performance, lower temps, could raise fps limit on RivaTuner. Maybe just coincidence though. Unrelated, but I lost all my sim settings today. While trying to start the sim, popup message said you're already signed into X Box on another device. No idea, I have no other devices. Then after entering my sign in credentials, all sim settings (graphics etc.) were back to default. Since I hadn't taken notes, I couldn't tell what my settings were yesterday when I got the great performance. But this issue might be caused by clicking the sim off at the end of the day by simply shutting down the window, rather than going back to the main menu first and exiting the sim properly. Not sure.

I wasn't getting that popup message just now, but no live weather, no marketplace either.

Quite a few Youtubers seem to like Innsbruck, so I tried it recently and thought it was great trying it myself. So maybe from some nice Mediterranean airport like Palermo to there would be good.

I've been following this guy's videos a bit, plus Q8 Pilot recently showing the HotStart CL650, seeing comments it's the best simulated plane period, so to me presumably it's also within the best sim. I only used FSX SE until recently, but then got MSFS 2020 as well. I don't have X Plane yet, but getting edgy, feel like I'm missing something. Needless to say I'm not entirely happy with MSFS. Although not entirely disappointed either, it looks and works quite allright, it just doesn't feel quite that right. I still like my PMDG 747 in FSX much better than anything I've tried in MSFS. Scenery seems to be only part of the bigger picture. How a sim feels is important too. X Plane 12 seems to have very good scenery anyway. Weird, a couple of months ago all I was seeing was X Plane and P3D are already dead etc. MSFS is the only way to go. But it seems nothing could be further from the truth. So, to get started, is a mouse and a joystick ok for X Plane? If MSFS runs ok on medium to medium/high settings regarding graphics, FPS and such, would XP12 with say this A340 or the CL650 be likely to run similarly well? I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone on here. Thanks.

Maybe a bit, if it relates to flying objects with weird flight dynamics. Now summertime, spending a bit of time lounging about outdoors gazing at the sky, cloud formations and such. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything unusual out there.

I could have sworn PMDG had lav trucks in their ground services, but certainly still lots of room for improvement. Maybe protestors gluing themselves to runways like in Germany recently. Or angry farmers setting off baloons, like I think has happened at Narita.

Ouch! It hurts to watch. Such a beautiful plane. I'll land like that in the sim quite a bit when my approach is horrible and I think no matter what I gotta land. Go arounds in the sim are so boring, but better safe than sorry in real life.

I'm very happy with World of AI. Ha! In FSX though, even though I'm permanently stuck in circa 2010. But I tried boosting the FSLTL IFR traffic level to 175 in MSFS today and did two short hops MUC-FRA-LHR. Yeahhh pretty darned ok, got quite a bit of traffic lining up for takeoffs, and fun to watch a few landings too while waiting. I've always enjoyed planespotting during longer waits for departure and the building anticipation as it gets closer to being your turn.

Very very very cool! Great video.

Do you mean the alt+l light? I thought it was a flashlight, but it's saved me a couple of times, using it to find the light switches I forgot to turn on before it got dark. But I never got any aural warning in connection with turning that light on or off. It worked fine for me. Sure are a lot of strange things going on in this sim. Sorry, no clue other than switching the computer sound off temporarily, as I still haven't seen a simple sim sound on/off switch like the q key. Nor for that matter a simple pause function like p, not some fancy pause, just a simple pause that pauses everything.

Personally I've sometimes just done the lazy thing, watching some Youtube videos (startup guide for such and such an aircraft) and jotted down a checklist for myself according to that. There's nothing necessarily wrong with it as individual operators can work out their own checklists that could possibly deviate somewhat from manufacturer publications, i.e. they get their local CAA approval. Most of those YT videos I've seen seem pretty goood actually. Otherwise some payware aircraft like PMDG come with detailed manuals including checklists. Or just browsing the internet until one finds a specific aircraft one is looking for, but I can't remember now having seen any single source that includes checklists for many different aircraft.