How do you keep FSX interesting?

Is your copilot a girl?

Affirmative. "Michelle" can land the plane without my help. ( of course I still land it myself. Realism!)

I love this thread. My personal enjoyment of FSing derives from several areas:

1. I enjoy fiddling with the rig and FS tweaks to improve the experience, although this does get a bit tedious.

2. I "own" a virtual "charter company" and fly bizjets and a Boeing bizjet all over the western hemisphere. I make numerous flights to small airports in the West Indies during the Fall and Winter, and numerous flights into small airports in the NE US and Canada. Right now I am in the middle of a EU swing with stops in London, Dublin, Helsinki, Brussels and now down into Egypt where I overflew the pyramids (couldn't find the sphinx), and the Aswan dam, which was a disappointment. On the way back to the US I'll stop in France and Dublin as the jumping off spot. Very interesting and fun. I google earth all the fields I'll be stopping at to see how realistic FS is. For instance the great pyramids were spot on lat/long.

This is truly a great hobby.

Just recently I purchased its your plane. Now I'm no longer alone in the cockpit, and in fact my co-pilot can do everything for me, if I so choose.

 

So now I'm avidly flying FSX again...

LOL, sorry but why does this sound so incredibly oxymornic?

you are now flying more because you bought a program where a computerized co pilot flies it for you?

no offense but.. mmmmmmmmmm

LOL, sorry but why does this sound so incredibly oxymornic?

you are now flying more because you bought a program where a computerized co pilot flies it for you?

 

no offense but.. mmmmmmmmmm

No, I still fly the plane. But, it's not as boring anymore as it was getting. Now I can do all checklists and such; whereas before I'd just hit ctrl+e and be on my way. Plus, like I mentioned, I'm no longer alone in the cockpit.

Make sense?

budreiser:

Ever since I was a kid (1930), I built models. Remember Guillows. Up until 1998 I built and flew 1/4 scale R/C Warbirds. They had 5 HP

gas engines, and weighed out at about 35 lbs. Never did have the money and time to get a Pilots License, although I have right yoked a Cessna 182 RG for about a half hour.I never new that cancer could take away an eye. And 20/20 vison to boot. Anyhow as you know millions of people have two eyes. So you and me are two in how many million? My Buddy (Pilot) that let me fly his 182 RG has a daughter that went up through the ranks of UPS, and probably now is retired. My friend Lloyd was an excellent Pilot, and built himself a Glassair out of the crate to flyable, which unfortunately was to become his coffin...Sorry if this is too morbid, but those are things you have to deal with in life. Got pissed

at my old computer, and FSX with the crappy frames rates that I don't have in FS9, (ballsout), went and got myself a gamer.. Haven't had a chance to set it up yet, but this one will chew up FSX and spit it out. Been doing a lot of flying in the Caribean and Mexico. TDS stuff and L-10ll's. also like the Captain Sim Freighters...I wonder if X-Plane will finally take the place of Microsoft....

Every month, I allot $20 or so in my budget to purchase FSX addons. My latest one, the Carenado C340, has been one of the best purchases I've made on an addon. Fun airplane to fly; the rudimentary AP makes it, as I know it, difficult to simply push the buttons and go nap.

I usually like to challenge myself in difficult flying conditions. In addition, as I'm currently in ground school, working towards getting my (real) flight training, I like to practice NDBs and VORs on the sim, as well as to hone in my airspaces knowledge.

If you are looking for some fun, you can go fly in one of those glitch airports in FSX. I lived in Sentani, Papua for 12 years, and the airport there (WAJJ) happens to be one of those glitch airports in FS (ever since FS2002). In real life, the Rwy30 end of the airport meets a lake, but in FS, this lake is 500 ft higher in elevation than the airport - WAJJ in FSX is effectively in a huge bowl of land, surrounded partially by a lake. Now try flying the Rwy30 approach in a 747; (1) the airport is only able to accomodate a 737 in real life, and (2) you'll have a 20* approach angle!

Ever since I was a kid (1930), I built models. Remember Guillows...

I remember Guillows - and Comet, Sterling, Jetco, SIG, Carl Goldberg, Balsa USA, etc. Model Airplane News, RCModeler, silkspan, the AMA publication, K&B, Fox, Cox, Kraft... Somewhere around here I have one of the first Tower Hobbies catalogs ever printed, '79 or '80 I think. Anyone know what a "tee dee .051" is? I've got one, and a "pee wee .020", Fox .35 "Stunt", McCoy .19, Top-Flight 9-6 nylon props... Remember the "Perfect" hardware displays? Profile fuselages with stunt tanks strapped on with rubber bands? Pactra "dope" in Stearman Red and Cub Yellow (all my adolescent friends thought I was a doper and couldn't believe you could buy that stuff in a hobby shop!). Testors dope smelled like banannas. X-acto knives - I grew to hate die-cut parts but SIG pulled it off. Claude McCullough is probably dead now. Maxey Hester started messin' around with Hazel Sigafoose after Glen died and they're probably both dead now too...

Not sure how that all keeps FSX interesting but thanks for the trip down memory lane! Gawd, those were the days, no? :)

I remember Guillows - and Comet, Sterling, Jetco, SIG, Carl Goldberg, Balsa USA, etc. Model Airplane News, RCModeler, silkspan, the AMA publication, K&B, Fox, Cox, Kraft... Somewhere around here I have one of the first Tower Hobbies catalogs ever printed, '79 or '80 I think. Anyone know what a "tee dee .051" is? I've got one, and a "pee wee .020", Fox .35 "Stunt", McCoy .19, Top-Flight 9-6 nylon props... Remember the "Perfect" hardware displays? Profile fuselages with stunt tanks strapped on with rubber bands? Pactra "dope" in Stearman Red and Cub Yellow (all my adolescent friends thought I was a doper and couldn't believe you could buy that stuff in a hobby shop!). Testors dope smelled like banannas. X-acto knives - I grew to hate die-cut parts but SIG pulled it off. Claude McCullough is probably dead now. Maxey Hester started messin' around with Hazel Sigafoose after Glen died and they're probably both dead now too...

 

Not sure how that all keeps FSX interesting but thanks for the trip down memory lane! Gawd, those were the days, no? :)

Wow, that's a trip down memory lane... Goldberg Stunt Man 23 with a Golden Bee .049 was one of my first control liners when I was a kid, later put a lot of miles on a Goldberg Wittman Buster with a Fox .35 (speaking of wedge tanks strapped on the side of a profile fuselage).

As for the Tee Dee .051, I not only had one, I know why Cox made them. You could put a Tee Dee .049 on your free flight duration plane and enter it in the 1/2A class at a contest, then swap the engine with an .051 and fly it in the A class at the same meet.

Good times.

^^^^^^^^^

BobK "gets it" :)

Sterling Ringmaster, Fox .35 for me, but unfortunately my knee-jerk reaction was to pull up elevator when inverted which didn't work out so well. I think there were about 10 models that could vouch for my "up elevator tendency", thankfully I finally moved on to RC where you could get a couple mistakes high before doing something stupid. That didn't save 'em all though... :)

I know this is an old and huge thread. But I do get tickled at how many people have commented they like to fly VFR "seat of the pants." In the 60's we didn't have GPS & lot of other things everyone takes for granted today. We always flew VFR seat of the pants, there really wasn't an option, especially in a helicopter.

One of my favorite flying memories was the various trips I was able to make ferrying CH-46s from Morton Pa. (Philly International) where they were built to Santa Ana California (MCAF Santa Ana). Remember these planes weren't actually accepted by the Corps yet so we had very strict ferry rules. No passengers, daylight VFR only, a 500' to 1,000' above terrain hard floor & ceiling, etc. There are many places in the US that didn't have VOR or TACAN coverage at only 1,000' above terrain in the 60's so we really flew with Seat Of The Pants Navigation. Often with a Road Atlas more than with our VFR Supplements.

If you were out in Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, etc. during the mid sixties and saw one or two CH-46s flying in circles around a water tower, you probably saw me or someone just like me trying to read the Water District or town name to orient our VFR Supplement and Road Atlas to figure where we actually were. We always claimed we could do better if allowed to fly at night because so many "Clear Channel" AM radio stations could be picked up on our ADF receivers and we could do more accurate triangulating of our position. And yes, a couple of times we literally set down in a field by a gas station and walked up and asked the attendant, where we were. And did he have a decent highway map so we could spot exactly where we were and which highways to follow to get within Tacan range of our next fuel stop. We weren't total leeches however, we always at least bought soft drinks at the gas station.

Oh yes, one other quirk. Between the mountains and all the restricted zones we had only one route we could travel to the West Coast and that was across West Texas. We would fill up at Midland Texas and then fly to El Paso if the headwinds weren't too strong. There were times we spent days in Midland waiting for the wind to die down so we didn't run out of JP-4 before we got to El Paso. Even then we almost always started out from Midland at sunrise & landed at Biggs AFB with low fuel lights burning on both tanks.

Now that I can only sim, I like to go to Weather Underground and find some of the worst flying weather I can find in the world. I then "fly" VFR through that weather as downloaded from the web. It's a lot easier to fly VFR in IFR weather in the mountains when a crash won't kill you!!

http://www.avherald.com

Try and simulate real world failures.

Great List from ScatterbrainKid!

I would add one he almost mentioned. From Lukla in Khatmandu to Paro. I'd bet a six pack of Becks on how many people get a Passenger jet of any size down safely on their 1st attempt.

Go to Wikipedia and enter Paro & they will tell you all about it. I think there are less than 10 passenger pilots in the world authorized to make that landing.

And years ago I rode in the belly of a DC-3 that landed on Santa Catalina Island. One of the scariest landings I've ever watched from the cabin!!!

Hi folks,

 

What do you do on FSX to keep things interesting? Fun addons? try different planes? practice non-normal procedures? do ATW trips? VatSim? FSPassenger? Missions? etc

 

I'm just trying to get ideas to keep FSX fresh.

Have you noticed how many strips have an awkward approach; that tree or run of trees at the end of a short runway; great practice for full flap and sideslipping approaches at minimum speed.

Crosswind landings. I don't set them up though. Sometimes when there are strong winds about (downloaded weather), I'll do some circuits on a runway that gives a good crosswind. Hardest one I had was in a PA28, with about 35 knots crosswind. I could barely see the strip to the left of my forward view.

Reminds me of the crosswind check I did before I went for my first license (real). There I was, doing circuits into an approaching thunderstorm. The little Piper was bucking around all over the place. Leave the ground and straight into a 30 deg crab. Do the circuit, kick the rudder just before touchdown, then go do it all again. I was wooping and grinning so much, my 18yo instructor turned to me and said, "You're enjoying this, aren't you." "Hell yeah!" was my reply. :p

I know this is an old and huge thread. But I do get tickled at how many people have commented they like to fly VFR "seat of the pants." In the 60's we didn't have GPS & lot of other things everyone takes for granted today. We always flew VFR seat of the pants, there really wasn't an option, especially in a helicopter.

 

One of my favorite flying memories was the various trips I was able to make ferrying CH-46s from Morton Pa. (Philly International) where they were built to Santa Ana California (MCAF Santa Ana). Remember these planes weren't actually accepted by the Corps yet so we had very strict ferry rules. No passengers, daylight VFR only, a 500' to 1,000' above terrain hard floor & ceiling, etc. There are many places in the US that didn't have VOR or TACAN coverage at only 1,000' above terrain in the 60's so we really flew with Seat Of The Pants Navigation. Often with a Road Atlas more than with our VFR Supplements.

 

If you were out in Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, etc. during the mid sixties and saw one or two CH-46s flying in circles around a water tower, you probably saw me or someone just like me trying to read the Water District or town name to orient our VFR Supplement and Road Atlas to figure where we actually were. We always claimed we could do better if allowed to fly at night because so many "Clear Channel" AM radio stations could be picked up on our ADF receivers and we could do more accurate triangulating of our position. And yes, a couple of times we literally set down in a field by a gas station and walked up and asked the attendant, where we were. And did he have a decent highway map so we could spot exactly where we were and which highways to follow to get within Tacan range of our next fuel stop. We weren't total leeches however, we always at least bought soft drinks at the gas station.

 

Oh yes, one other quirk. Between the mountains and all the restricted zones we had only one route we could travel to the West Coast and that was across West Texas. We would fill up at Midland Texas and then fly to El Paso if the headwinds weren't too strong. There were times we spent days in Midland waiting for the wind to die down so we didn't run out of JP-4 before we got to El Paso. Even then we almost always started out from Midland at sunrise & landed at Biggs AFB with low fuel lights burning on both tanks.

 

Now that I can only sim, I like to go to Weather Underground and find some of the worst flying weather I can find in the world. I then "fly" VFR through that weather as downloaded from the web. It's a lot easier to fly VFR in IFR weather in the mountains when a crash won't kill you!!

That is a fantastic insight into the challenges of VFR.

It sounds such more exciting than engaging the autopilot at 1000ft and watching dials for the next few hours!

A very inspiring reply - thank you!