Holiday Simming

Can you believe it's Christmas already? For those who remain politically correct, please permit me to rephrase that: Can you believe it's Christmas already?

But yes, Christmas indeed. And of course, there naturally follows the annual (well, more weekly than annually, actually) quest to find what one shall be requesting from those near and dear. My solution to this dilemma is really quite elegant: I buy whatever it is I feel I cannot live without, especially software, and announce to anyone who may happen to be home at the time that this purchase is intended as a Christmas gift for yours truly. Therefore, I generally adopt this behavior at times during which I am almost guaranteed an empty house. Hey, it works for me. Besides, it is really difficult to wrap downloaded software. I've often found the tape sticks to the LCD monitor and makes it all sticky and nasty.

But the hardware... now here's where it gets really interesting, and pretty damn expensive. My sojourns through the world of FS add-ons have been surprisingly fruitful and downright frustrating of late. You have no doubt seen that really cool whizzbang gizmo from that Canadian company, the one in which you attach your monitor, sit and upon manipulating your joystick (nah, too easy), you actually physically bank right along with your aircraft. And all this without the need for plugging the thing in to a power supply. How cool is that? Wish I could recall the name of the product, but it is out there. I actually emailed the developer and offered, in exchange for one of these monsters, to act as their shill. I'm still waiting for their enthusiastic endorsement of this plan. I'll not hold my breath, I'm thinking.

And now I'm seeing these spiffy glasses type thingys that you wear, giving you a virtual experience of viewing a 62 inch screen from 9 feet away, or something like that. Brothers and sisters, if that doesn't get your joystick ready to romp, nothing will! Look for the Vuzix - VR920 in the Pilot Shop, and then just try to stop yourself from punching in those numbers! The only thing that has kept me from doing just that is the absolute certainty that should I do so, my Saitek joystick will be the only one seeing action for the foreseeable future. I may be crazy, but I ain't stupid.

My buddy Bryan York has released an all-encompassing release, the FS2Crew Flight Crew X Gold Edition. If any of you are not familiar with Bryan's work, do yourself a favor and take a look. This latest release has all editions in one neat package. Personally, I am enamored with the FeelThere Airbus A320 combined with the FS2Crew version for that bird. You can always sneak the download version, but it is positively ginormous, and so there may be a stocking or two out there simply pining for the disk version.

Now, I know I've expressed my predilection for FS2004, so don't go all bonkers on me with this. Just Flight will be releasing a new mission pack for FSX entitled Rescue Pilot. I was so intrigued with Nigel Martin's review (which was also very nicely done, by the way) that I shot an email to the folks at Just Flight and basically whined my way onto their beta list. This add-on will most certainly make an FSX believer out of you! I'll tell you, I've been flying choppers for about a month now, and it has taken that long for me to even begin to get the hang of flying the things. Did you know that helicopters are inherently unstable and like nothing better than drilling themselves into terra firma, much to the chagrin of the pilot and passengers? It will take you a while to adjust to these wingless animals, but let me remind you of how it was when you first started fiddling around with flight simulators. Took a while to get anything off the ground, no? Remember how good it felt when you actually managed to land? Same thing. Learn to fly copters and give Rescue Pilot a try. Guaranteed you'll experience what all the fuss is about with your dusty copy of FSX.

I happen to know of a nifty little program released by FeelThere called 737 Call. A charming little button of a program that will, through the use of checklists, guide you through a flight with their series of Boeing 737 birds. And, it won't be long until one is released for their Legacy, too. I believe the 'Call' programs are/will be download only, so I'm afraid you'll have to get really creative when it comes to encouraging the fam to pick up one of these little beauties for your Christmas simming pleasure.

Have you seen the review that Nels Anderson did for the xJETT Series flightsim-specific PC? I swear I must be doing something wrong. I mean, I'm not complaining or anything, but a PC? I'm really available for some of these review thingys, guys! I have a shipping address and everything! If they'll call ahead, I'll make certain to be home when they deliver whatever piece of hardware anyone would care to send me. The utilization of a hand truck for delivery into the house is no problem, and is in fact encouraged! But the PC. It seems as though we from the Department of Modest Means have finally been granted a wish, and affordable PC performance is within our grasp. Can you feel the sliders beginning their creep to the right?

Speaking of PC's and hardware and all that, do yourself a favor and look into ways of improving the performance of your current rig. If starting from scratch is not in the cards this year, how about just upgrading your video card? Now there's something that fits rather nicely right into that old stocking. And you just may be pleasantly surprised at what a hot new video card can do for your performance. Now, don't forget you can't just pop into your local 'puter store, pick up a card and cram it into any slot that comes even a little bit close to being the right size. A little prior planning in this department will go a long way. Knowing what kind of system you've got, all nicely written down and/or memorized, will help to ensure you don't wind up with a very expensive PCPaperweight, with a nice new slightly charred video card.

There is an awful lot of stuff currently out there designed to bring us all just that much closer to almost believing that we're sort of flying what is purported to be a reasonable simulation of a digital aircraft. If you find yourself deep in the throes of an FSDoldrum, sometimes a new piece of hardware or even software is just the ticket back to FSEnthusiasm. I know, as I've spent a great deal of time lately with programs other than FS2004 (or X, for that matter). Messing with the choppers, in FSX, with a gnarly new mission pack, has been just the thing I needed to do a restart on the old FSDesire engine.

So how about you? What are your plans for this Christmas season? Now would be a good time to put pen to paper, or to whisper into the appropriate ear all those things that you just know Santa would be aching to deliver to your stocking.

And so, even though I've said it before, I shall reiterate at the risk of being nominated for the lofty position of Head of the Department of Redundancy Department:

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good flight!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber2@verizon.net

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