Recommendations

[jhilden]

Greetings All – new to the forums and have been away from flight simming for some time – in fact my first flight sim was for the Commodore 64! Was in the Marines for some time in the air wing side then went to college and steadied into a job. I was very active in the Train-sim side and made some 3D models for MSTS, but the game kind of got old for me. I now have the free time (Once the wife and three kids go to bed) to finally play this game and bought a gaming system to play it on. I just purchased MSFSX Deluxe and plan to load it up and play. But I do have some questions concerning payware.

My interests are in military aircraft and big jets like the 747 and 777. What are the best add-ons in these categories? Are there Jets that have a working and detailed FMC? How about the feature to start cold and dark and have the opportunity to go through all the start-up procedures step by step?

Aside from aircraft what are the best add-ons? Scenery packs? Airports? And also, are there some good aircraft in the library that I should take for a spin? I’ll go in and look myself, but I know there are some experts who know the gems buried in the pile.

Thanks for any tips and recommendations.

[dobar]

Hello and welcome to Flight Sim in modern times! :)

As you said you enjoyed large commercial aircraft, I know of an excellent freeware series which has a lot of them. Project Open Sky (POSKY) is excellent and has lots of airliners in various liveries for download, http://www.projectopensky.com/ is the address.

As for everything else, take time to look around the library and find the aircraft that interest you. If you find it to be not up to your expectations, you haven't lost anything by trying. There is a lot here and elsewhere on the internet, some aircraft you instantly recognise, some you have no idea about.

Scenery. There is also quite a lot available. Best quality ones come at a price but there are some really good freeware. If you have a lot of time on your hands, along with a powerful system, you could try Tile Proxy. This freeware driver places real photo images over the landscape from Google Maps and other services.

This is just a portion of my knowledge, if you want any more help, feel free to contact via the forums. Hope this helps anyway. ;)

[alexm]

My interests are in military aircraft and big jets like the 747 and 777. What are the best add-ons in these categories? Are there Jets that have a working and detailed FMC? How about the feature to start cold and dark and have the opportunity to go through all the start-up procedures step by step?

In addition to some pretty good freeware models, there are some very outstanding payware airliners. On the Boeing side, two with stellar reviews and reputations are a 767-300ER, found at www.leveldsim.com , and a 747-400 by PMDG, found here: www.precisionmanuals.com.

Both have FMC's that you program, as well as the ability to start from cold and dark. The manuals for either are hundreds of pages long, and both have support forums that treat you right. They each offer an extremely detailed and immersive sim experience. :D

Be prepared to go through a learning curve with either one. Then again, they are striving for as much realism as possible.

There is a highly anticipated airbus in development (can't remember the developer right now), but no word yet on a release timeframe. :rolleyes:


Regards,

[jhilden]

dobar- Thanks for the link for POSKY. I'll have to spend some time over there and tool around. Looks very interesting what they are doing. I will take a look at the Tile Proxy down the road. For now I just want to get in the air

Alexm - exactly what I was looking for for in a 747 and/or a 767. These look to be excellent modles that will give me months if not years of flying fun. The 767 looks to be my next purchase. Now if they can just get out a 777:).

For the military side, I have to lean towards the C-130 pack as I have flown in (And jumped out of) these beasts for years. I read some so-so reviews on the C-130, have they cleaned up there act?

[dobar]

Tile Proxy is very tricky to set up. I advise getting used to flight and also modifying the sim using the cfg files and get lots of experience of tweaking, you'll need it.

[xxmikexx]

jhilden,

I second the motion regarding the Level-D 767. It's wonderful. Now ...You wished for a nice 777 and today's your lucky day ...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you go to my post #3 to the following thread

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=186289

you will find discussions of 777-300 panels from Friendly Panels and JSG Panels. Mate these with the default 777, or with the Posky 777 (I assume there is one) and you will have something very nice indeed.

[alexm]

Alexm - exactly what I was looking for for in a 747 and/or a 767. These look to be excellent modles that will give me months if not years of flying fun. The 767 looks to be my next purchase. Now if they can just get out a 777:).

Ahhh... triple 7... the one many are clamoring for... ;)


For the military side, I have to lean towards the C-130 pack as I have flown in (And jumped out of) these beasts for years. I read some so-so reviews on the C-130, have they cleaned up there act?

Bit of a hot topic. Many absolutely swear it's the best add-on out there. Many have frustrations, too. After a recent service pack, some saw their frame rates actually go down. IIRC, one cannot access their forums without owning the product, which is unfortunate, to say the least. There is an "unofficial" Captain Sim support forum generated by folks who experience difficulties and are dissatisfied with "official" support and are trying to help each other: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=298


I don't own this one, so I won't try to sway you either way. I would suggest you continue reading reviews and posts by others before making a decision, as YMMV. Should you decide to purchase, consider using Paypal as many have been unable to receive refunds when they couldn't get this to work, even if never activated.


Regards,