UrgentSiesta

Unfortunately, you're absolutely right. EtA: Pretty much the same conclusion. 😞

Care to share impressions of the Herc? I'd dearly love to have one, though the AzurPoly Transall is performing admirably as a stand in for now 🙂

Always wanted one of those birds ever since I saw it in a Nat Geo special on elephant migration. 🙂

The other nice thing about corp jets is bypassing all those pesky security lines 🙂 Great shots - glad to see you "slumming" now and again 😉

JustFlight make some excellent add-ons, and their quality is steadily rising. But the things listed above aren't even close to what makes A2A Sims add-ons stand above the rest.

Am I the only one who's wondering why you're not flying the Ornithopter on "Dune"? 😂 Sorry, I'll see myself out... 😉

Lockheed Martin have categorically stated that P3D will continue on "as is" / as a platform indefinitely due to the large installed commercial/gov/mil training contracts. The new engine that has us all hopeful/excited will be a separate product, may not be for consumer purchase, and even if it was, would likely have zero compatibility with current/past addons.

I remember a 757 pilot stating he preferred VR for that reason exactly. This is years ago and in re FF 757 in XP, but same applies, of course.

Oh, you must've missed this. And remember, there are NO auto pilots in T-6 IIs or T-38s. And I'm so old I remember learning to fly with exactly ZERO simulator time (because they didn't exist!! 🤣) And let me tell you, I would've KILLED for something like A2A's Piper Cherokee (my IRL trainer), or heck, just about ANY of the Hi Fi addons available today in MSFS, X-Plane, P3D, etc. The ability to train for winds, weather, and all that other pilot stuff, even on a desktop PC, would've made me a MUCH better pilot, MUCH sooner.

You can get them on Orbx, too.

I hang my bicycles from the garage ceiling, but that's a new one on me 🙂 The other thumbnails all came across small - can't see anything really. You folks do GREAT work - thanks for the preview!

The Star Destroyer terminal!!! KMIA is one of those airports where in the evenings you can watch the lights of literally dozens of aircraft on long final coming in from waaaaay out in the distance. Looks like a bright new constellation in the sky. Or an alien invasion... 🙂

There are "hacks" in EVERY flight model in EVERY simulator. Just one example would be all the work LR put into improving the FDE of XP 12 vs 11. Improvements across the board. So any XP dev up thru v11 would've had to "hack" the XP FDE to get their aircraft flying right, especially if they were looking to get their addon to less than 5% deviation. There are certainly areas where MSFS needs to improve. And like LWT said, it's been talked about to death. The reality is simply that Asobo is working on it, and they're making progress. And the 3rd Party Devs are making their own progress (some more than others...). But even as a fan of and continuing user of Prepar3D, I can't imagine a scenario where I'd choose an median addon in P3D over a median addon in v2020. I.e., MSFS has brought the baseline quality of "Flight Model" up to a startling degree. Faster, in fact, than most devs can keep up. It's a great time to by flying just about any flight sim - they're all much better than they used to be. EtA: And all this is coming from a long time X-Plane user. And DCS World. And Prepar3D. And even MSFS, tho it's still kinda wet behind the ears ;)

Whenever this comes up, i.e., "no desktop sim can compare to Level-D, or the real thing, so we can't count it for training time...", I like to drop this in for perspective: The USAF & USN have extensively tested training IRL .mil pilots using a setup that's very little more than a desktop flight sim, VR goggles and a commercial HOTAS. No fully enclosed model cockpit, no wrap around screens, no ButtKicker, no 6DoF movement, and not even full flight gear( 😉 ). They've performed multiple control tests on live classes and find that there is very little proficiency difference between the mostly desktop sim students and the ones who go thru the traditional-only-real airplane course. Aaaaannnnnndddddd...Guess what simulator they use? Nope, not some proprietary FSim OS, Nope, not MSFS. Nope, not X-Plane... It's Prepar3D!!! With MilViz addons! (maybe A2A for the Texan II...) Oh, The Horror!!! In sum, the realism and effectiveness of desktop simulators has a LOT more to do with the training SCHOOL you're attending than it does with the sim setup you're using.

It looks GREAT ! How is it as an addon? I've only purchased Flying Iron so far, have no hands on with this dev...

I don't follow the connection...?

It's been so long I can't rightly remember. But I'd say 3-ish medium jets. Took a look on Google Maps. It's about 600 feet across. Judging by the aircraft scattered nearby, i think 3-4 medium/large: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qKZfM9yRJwcSYMGr5 4450 NW 22nd St, Miami, FL 33122

Agree except for this.

Crazy good! Thanks for sharing 🙂

Many trips through there! BIG changes on the south side terminal - looks like a Star Destroyer 🙂 The hangar in shot #2 has always one of my favorites. Been a long time, but it looks good. Thanks 🙂

Yes, but...nobody talks about the Mirage 2000 or Concorde as a lifting body, though. Nor the very similar variable geometry F-111 (F-14's "daddy"). I'm not positing that F-14 is a true lifting body as OP was asking, but rather that it's stated to have generated significantly more lift from its uncommon body shape at high speed than it got from it's wings.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding...? The Air Data Computer on the jet automatically swept/un-swept the wings according to airspeed. When at low speeds the wings were fully extended/un-swept and providing max lift themselves. When at high speeds, the wings were swept back and thus were only capable of delivering a small percentage of the lift. The rest was provided by the body moving rapidly through the air.

The F-14 Tomcat at high speeds and full sweep is a lifting body, though not purely as the research aircraft were, obvs.

I happened to have just recently taken 2 commuter flights in a PC-12 (with full glass cockpit 🙂 ). Can confirm they practically LEAP off the runway in just a few seconds (even fully loaded), and then are able to grease it in on landing with plenty of room to spare 🙂 . (obviously Courchevel is a whole other level of STOL, but still 😉 )

There are usually one or two sales a year where they will go 40% off (e.g., christmas). IMHO they are still worth it even at 30%, esp if you're flights aren't FL 300 airliner cruises 🙂 Re file sizes for TrueEarth, I did once see a video tutorial on how to downsize them automatically using a free 3rd party utility. I tried it out with TE Great Britain and it did work just fine, and ended up far more pleasant that the default scenery.