UrgentSiesta

YES to VSKYLABS - love their ethos & have a good handful of their more esoteric addons. even tho not “study level”, they’re great experiences. BOO to CowanSim.👎 He’s long abandoned X-Plane and isn’t doing great work in MSFS, either. Avoid unless you get one during one of those $9 sales. JRX is miles ahead for basically the same Price.

IMHO just get the sim and start flying the Default addons. They’re all worthwhile to spend time with My personal affliction is photoreal, so I’ve spent considerable time / money on regional scenery like Orbx TrueEarth (the Great Britain trio being my fave). There are freeware packs here and there, and of course you can make your own. But “I’d rather be flying”, so I generally buy them one way or another. Planes…? That’s entirely up to you. Can’t go wrong with the free Zibo/Level Up 737’s. My ToLiss A346 runs like a scalded cat - by FAR the best optimized airliner in the sim, and also outperforms many other addons. Only downside is the cost of entry… For GA, my faves are SimCoders anything, and Airfoil Labs. TorqueSim are also excellent, but do yourself a favor and wait for a sale. MilJet nod goes to the F-104 Preferred basic helos are the Ubben/Khamsin SA315 or the JRX B407. For complex helos, the JRX MD902 or the XT AW109 (beware the 109 - it’s as complex as an Airbus jetliner!). But truly, don’t spend any $$ until you’ve been in the sim for several months. That’ll give you a chance to get familiar and do research about what $$ you might want to spend. 🤙

True, and I’ve noticed the same. However, the relative overall FPS ranking of the addons doesn’t seem to change all that much. Ie, the best performers are always the best, and the inverse. 🤙

Literally! 😂

TBH it never came up as a topic. 🤙

While this is cool, it immediately occurred to me that I’ve had this in at least a couple XP addons for so long now that I had forgotten about it. But glad to see it here, because the Lancair in XP doesn’t have it and FSW’s rendition has turned out rather well. 🤙

Yep - I’ve learned a TON of stuff digging through NATOPS and many other Mil documents I’ve scrounged up than any of the dev supplied manuals. my dad flew a few: P2V Neptune for the USN, Convair 340, Captain on 727 & 737, FE on DC10, and finished up his career as an IP for GulfStream, mainly IV’s & V’s (mostly Level D sims, but he also did delivery flights and IRL training flights). I remember being shocked when he told me the new GulfStream pilots could get Type Rated without flying the actual airplane (!). There’s a few others I don’t know about, like what basic trainer (probably the USN Mentor or similar), and perhaps some other older ‘liners.

Now THATS a good idea!

NERD!! 🤓 🤙 Now THAT is genuinely interesting! Those kinda details are the reasons I end up liking the Tomcat & Phantom more than the Hornet & Viper. Just more interesting and more fun to fly than the so-called Electric Jets😎 FWIW, My dad said he never liked acting as FE and was one of the reasons he mostly stuck with 737’s over his career.

Thanks will check those out, too. I look at this kinda like Edwards Air Force Base. Ie, they didn’t choose it because they liked to fly there, they chose it because it was a great place to test aircraft.

Yep - generally my experience, as well. And GA is (IMHO) far more engaging in general. By the same token, though, I personally like to know how they stack up to each other as it may affect my choice of addon for flights into heavy scenery.

I do it to rank addons against each other. There have been some un-/pleasant surprises. E.g., on my rig the Default UH-1 Huey (by Taogs) is the best optimized aircraft of the 30 or so I’ve tried - including the Defaults and by a relatively large margin. But it still flies/handles and operates extremely well, and I’m quite familiar with it across all sims. So, if I’m flying around Manhattan or London, I have a good idea of which aircraft will give me the best chance at a smooth experience.

Yep - I get it. But this isn’t about airports I want to use often. More about comparing addons without distraction.

Because it removes variables from the baseline measurement. Scientific Method and all that jazz 😉 Eg, Same as learning to fly an addon with weather set to ISA standard: is it the weather or is the aircraft actually difficult to handle, etc

When you want to baseline aircraft addons with the least performance impact from scenery, where do you go? So far, I get the highest FPS with addons at Wake Island. Better than Diego Garcia, better than Sirri or Abu Musa islands in the Persian Gulf. Could be anywhere, just need a runway around 7000’ or longer.

I saw a comment that said landing at Sedona in the 172 is indeed a tutorial. I’m not sure how many people are flying 172’s out of major intl airports, either, so it seems like tubeliners and heavy GA are the most popular?

Glad to see the improvements for v24 👍

Too focused on the tree and not enough on the forest. If everything works fine until that particular addon is loaded, then…

As described, the issue only occurs with this particular addon. All others run acceptably. I’d say blaming the dev is entirely fair game.

Are we talking about Thranda…? The thing with some devs is that they’re just not interested in edge cases - esp if it happens to highlight their sloppy code. I re 16gb, yeah, I feel you. Truth is I won’t even let my clients buy Windows laptops with less than 32gb these days(!). Tho in fairness, a lot of that is due to Googles monstrous Chrome. In any case, my sympathies for running into that brick wall. Always frustrating, especially with something that’s supposed to bring you joy. 🙏

I was getting Aloha Airlines vibes there for a second…

I just thought we were making full use of the runway there…?🤣

It’s a totally different kind of flying! (But that’s not important right now…)

It’s a fantastic addon by any measure. So, for anyone who’s interested in fantastic addons, the answer is “YES, it’s worth the money.” The only question is if the aircraft’s performance matches one’s interests.

According to Steve’s video, the answer seems to be that if you can see it in the sim, you can target, launch AND hit! Not just sim AI, but also players(!). The good news is that a targeted player has no idea and no effect on their flight. 👍