How do you keep FSX interesting?

To keep it interesting I downloaded the IRIS T-6 Texan II (it was freeware but I don't recall where I got it.) Sweet model (a little underpowered thou) with great visibility and working Navids and ILS.

Next I downloaded FTX England, Scotland and Wales.

Following that I downloaded XOPI to show geographical information for the area I was flying in, nearby points of interest and time/distance to anyplace I typed into the search engine. (This is a cool add-on)

For an added sense of realism I added GSX to have ground crew and marshallers available to start and terminate each flight.

Lastly I developed a map of the UK, placed navaids and airports of intertest on the map at appropriate intervals enroute and started a tour of the UK from Sumburgh Scottland. Made multiple stops on the way south, using XOPI to show me landmarks along the way. Although I had planned destinations to stop at at varying intervals, if an airport along the way looked interesting I'd stop. Got all the planned and unplanned airport information (runway headings, runway length, airfield lightning, closest navaids radia/DME, etc.) off OurAirports.com (which is a great site for airfield and navaid info for FSXers). This also shows nearby airports and navaids if you decide to deviate.

Flew the entire length of the western UK, across southern England and up the east coast as far a Mildenhall to date. 23 total sorties so far. Yes, I had to buy some payware, but the experience has been well worth it. I know I'll never get to do it in real life so this is second best.

Been a blast so far......throw in weather sometimes, the random ILS approach and intercepts of AI traffic....it just doesn't get any better.

I'm finding the new Turbine Duke has made FSX interesting again at least for the time being. It's not just about climbing to 25,000' and going like a bat outta hell either, it's really nice to hand fly around the pattern, probably the nicest flying FS aircraft I've ever flown.

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/duke01.jpg

Jets CAN land on the static FSX Default Golden Gate carrier!

It took me a good number of attempts but I eventually managed it, although a good deal of luck is needed.

The winning formula seems to be-

Set a strong headwind blowing down the angled deck from 70 degrees.

Come in as slow as possible with hook and airbrake out, and flaps fully down.

Apply brakes before touchdown and hold them on til the plane stops.

Newcomer note- this Golden Gate carrier is simply a basic platform for having fun with, it doesn't move and it's arrester wires are non-functional, and it has no catapult.

I dropped the hook purely for eye candy.

For a proper carrier use one of the default FSX moving carriers with working wires and catapult (see earlier posts about them in this sensational thread) or download a working carrier.

Here my default FSX F/A-18 stops with plenty of deck to spare on the Golden Gate boat-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-carr-Ggate-land_zps9cbd03d5.jpg~original

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-carrier-Ggate_zpsfac3edd1.jpg~original

The carrier doesn't show on the map but your plane does, here's mine (below) sitting on the deck. You can find the carrier by dragging your plane to its approx position then finding it by eyeball, or you can type in the lat/long coordinates as shown (but remember to also type in a couple of thousand feet height for insurance).

The 'airspeed' readout is wind speed because the plane's not moving-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-carr-Ggate-coords_zps88c9c964.jpg~original

PLAYING ABOUT WITH THE VISIBILITY SLIDER

Go to World> Weather> Customize> Advanced> Visibility, and set a band of zero visibility with the lower edge at about 1000ft higher than the general terrain (the top edge is offscreen at 100,000ft)

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibA_zps3d93f53a.jpg~original

Take off (this is a freeware Savoia-Marchetti SM.74)-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibD_zpsf5618139.jpg~original

And enter the cloudbase (strictly speaking its the 'visibility base').

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibF_zps597ae3a0.jpg~original

Stooge around for a bit, then begin (gulp) descending out of the murk..

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibB_zps7c8f5cac.jpg~original

And hope that when you pop out of it you'll be over or near the airport you were aiming for.

The fun comes from doing your navigation purely by compass and dead reckoning, and hoping that when you pop out you won't be staring at a mountain or whatever, doing that has killed hundreds of pilots over the years-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibC_zps9ee0d809.jpg~original

I'm finding the new Turbine Duke has made FSX interesting again...

And of course if the Turbine Duke isn't enough to keep FSX interesting why not install $100 bucks worth of simulated avionics so you have plenty of fancy new buttons to push while flying?

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/kmbs_kcid01.jpg

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/kmbs_kcid03.jpg

Flight1 GTN650 and GTN750, basically an interface for the free Garmin GTN PC Trainer so you can install it on a panel and use it in the sim. The trainer itself is fun & free BTW (but it's a standalone program so it doesn't do jack for keeping FSX interesting without the Flight1 front end). The Duke v2 has a VC integration option for the F1 GTN units so they drop right in, all the click spots work, etc. No fiddling required, just click the buttons in the configuration utility and go fly, amazing.

Hey it was my birthday a couple days ago, lol.

To keep it interesting I downloaded the IRIS T-6 Texan II (it was freeware but I don't recall where I got it.) Sweet model (a little underpowered thou) with great visibility and working Navids and ILS.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]175009[/ATTACH]

 

This is a great plane to practise your spin recovery in too. It can be quite challenging with both normal spins and accelerated stalls (high bank angle turn and pull high g and let your speed drop and see how it flips you out).

The last two years I have had fun ferrying the F1 teams around the world to their "flyaway" races. Navigraph helps with charts and Route Finder helps keep it real. This year, I am flying the Detroit Tigers around on their baseball trips. These are shorter hops, perfect for the PMDG 737 NGX. Hopefully, we'll go to the series this year! I've been simming since 1984; it just keeps getting better all the time!

Scott Sinclair

Just amazing. I do the same thing. I am a Detroit sports fan. I just flew the Lions back home from Dallas, a sad team on the flight. I am flying my Pistons to Toronto later this evening. The Pistons own an MD83, I wish I could find one that works with the DX10 preview and a Pistons logo paint, that would be awesome.

I also fly routes of planes that have crashed, like a salute to them. I just flew an AB 320 from Sarobaya to Singapore. In honor of the recent crash. Ilove the show "Dangerous Flights" that I watch on yutube. The ferry flights delering purchased planes to their new ownders, just an awesome show and next thing I know, I am delivering a lear jet or 172 from Europe to Brazil, making all the needed stops. Plenty of real flights to accomplish, but flying my Detroit sports team around on their various flights is a real blast. In fct, time to get my flight to Toronto setup soon, have to turn off DX10 and get the MD83 ready.

Commenting out the AP makes it a whole new sim.

gauge36=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Audio, 496,102,143,27

gauge37=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 1, 496,129,143,52

gauge38=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Nav-Comm 2, 496,181,143,56

gauge39=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio ADF, 496,236,143,35

gauge40=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio DME, 496,271,143,37

gauge41=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio Xpndr, 496,308,143,43

//gauge42=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 496,351,143,43

The AP is now removed from the C-172

It's your airplane

PLAYING ABOUT WITH THE VISIBILITY SLIDER

 

Go to World> Weather> Customize> Advanced> Visibility, and set a band of zero visibility with the lower edge at about 1000ft higher than the general terrain (the top edge is offscreen at 100,000ft)

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibA_zps3d93f53a.jpg~original

 

 

Take off (this is a freeware Savoia-Marchetti SM.74)-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibD_zpsf5618139.jpg~original

 

 

 

And enter the cloudbase (strictly speaking its the 'visibility base').

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibF_zps597ae3a0.jpg~original

 

 

 

Stooge around for a bit, then begin (gulp) descending out of the murk..

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibB_zps7c8f5cac.jpg~original

 

 

 

And hope that when you pop out of it you'll be over or near the airport you were aiming for.

The fun comes from doing your navigation purely by compass and dead reckoning, and hoping that when you pop out you won't be staring at a mountain or whatever, doing that has killed hundreds of pilots over the years-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-visibC_zps9ee0d809.jpg~original

Hey, back when we were ferrying choppers from Pa. to Ca. that happened to us a lot in real world, real time. And we didn't have GPS or most of that stuff we all take for granted today. In fact the VFR supplements and the AAA maps competed for most used navigation device. We considered IFR to mean "I fly Roads."

Couple of GPS gauges over at OZX have been modded to show AI plane traffic.

I use to find and buzz airliners with an F18 when bored, or if it's a prop try to follow with a similar aircraft without peeking where they are going. Sometimes just being able to get a visual on them from the cockpit can be fun, trying to pace without overtaking or running out of fuel.

I'm finding the new Turbine Duke has made FSX interesting again at least for the time being. It's not just about climbing to 25,000' and going like a bat outta hell either, it's really nice to hand fly around the pattern, probably the nicest flying FS aircraft I've ever flown.

 

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/duke01.jpg

Who made your Turbo Duke? I Found a Duke from Real Air. Is that the one you mean?

Who made your Turbo Duke? I Found a Duke from Real Air. Is that the one you mean?

Yep that's the one, the v2. Still flying it regularly, got about 51 hrs on the Hobbs now. :)

One thing I started doing last year, was flying the Lear to each city Nascar is in, as if I'm a team owner. Start off in Daytona, (from Charlotte, NC, where most teams are based) then follow the Nascar schedule from there.

I'll probably do it again this year.

I just wish Danica could do better lol...al v

Danica does just fine at the top of my Firefox browser page!;);););)

Maybe we can talk her into becoming an Air Racer!

Danica does just fine at the top of my Firefox browser page!;);););)

 

Maybe we can talk her into becoming an Air Racer!

Yes,I remember a response one day where you forgot to turn your wake-up pictures off before you hit send. Woke me up too! LOL

TALLY-HO CHAPS!

You can intercept AI planes for fun, you'll spot their red data in the sky cycling their type, height and distance, so if you fly towards the data the plane will show up visually when you're near enough like this. I'm flying a stock FSX Mustang but any plane will do if it's got the speed to intercept-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-must-intcpt1_zpsesrdxave.jpg~original

This airliner is easy meat because it's slowed for landing, so I drop my gear and flaps to avoid overshooting-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-must-intcpt2_zpsnqf9pjki.jpg~original

and formate on it to give the passengers a thrill..

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/sub2/FSX-must-intcpt3_zpsbb78vtpb.jpg~original

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDEX update of this thread showing members main posts.

(Note the page numbers are with the Default forum setting which gives 10 posts per page)

p1- Swampy puddles (also pp33/34)

p2- Photoreal cross-country.

Interesting Airfields and Flights.

Bell X-1.

p3- Glider assault.

p4- Thermals (also p5).

Map printout and bad weather flying.

p5- Earhart's last flight.

Livery art.

Hang glider.

Thermals (also p4).

p6- Glider tow.

Carrier (also on p7,18 and 35).

Multiplayer.

p7- Carrier (also p6, 18 and 35).

p8- Dole air race.

p14- Terrain mods.

p15- Aspen approach in snow.

p16- Default NY.

p17- Boeing 737.

p18- Helipads.

Iris Texan with FTX and XOPI.

Carrier (also p6,7 and 35).

p19- Turbo Duke avionics.

p20- Intercepting AI aircraft (also p22).

p22- Following roads.

p25- Photothread link.

Flight 19 final flight route.

p26- Leadville high-altitude takeoffs.

p27- Parachute jumper.

Jurassic flight.

p28- Archaeology.

Yosemite.

p29- Landing into Eagle, Colorado.

p30- Trike ultralight.

p31/32- Chopper roofpad landing.

Hiller H-23 heli writeup.

p33- Overheated engine blows.(also p42)

Sextant navigation.

Swampy puddles (also pp1/34).

p34- Swampy puddles (also p1/p33).

Kingsford Smith trans-Pacific flight.

STOL operations.

p35- Eyepoints and seat raise.

Carrier (also p6,7 and 18).

Dials HUD-style.

DME flying.

p37- Zoom and Viewpoint examples

p38- juggling Fuel and Payload weights to affect handling

p42- Hot stuff: engine fire (also p33)

p46- Pacific atoll navigation

I'm recently into recreating real world flights I've found on flightaware. If you sign up (free) you can track 5 aircraft in "my flightaware" and if you maintain your 5 throwing out the ones that don't move very often or don't fly in the areas you like, replacing them with ones that do, you'll eventually end up with an active set you can draw flights from just by logging in and checking who's moved recently.

Aside from the Turbine Duke I'm also into the Carenado Malibu JetProp at the moment so I'm tracking this P46T based out of Ogden, UT for example:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4415E

It's actually a Meridian rather than a JetProp but they both lump together under P46T and performance is similar enough it doesn't matter. He last flew to Idaho Falls and back a few days ago but I wasn't really interested in that one because I've flown around KIDA a lot lately. I duplicated his KOGD (Ogden) to KLXV (Leadville) flight a bit earlier in the week but he's gonna get kicked out of "my flightaware" if he doesn't fly somewhere pretty soon, lol.

I'm also tracking this guy though, apparently based out of KSNA:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N951CS

He flew from Santa Ana/John Wayne to The Dalles, OR yesterday and returned today so I think I'll do KSNA-KDLS for my next flight although I usually like shorter flights - maybe I'll stop in Reno.

So far I've always loaded the flight to leave on the same day and time the real world flight did and I'm using ASN historical Wx synced to sim time so I theoretically get the same weather (pretty dang close usually comparing groundspeeds and flight times). I try to fly the same routing but it's hard to tell from flightaware sometimes which arrival/approach he might have flown so I usually just pick one in the GTN 750 that looks plausible and go with it. I've got a lot to learn but it's really been fun following these guys around for the past month or so. Can't wait till summer because I'm really ready to ditch the snow textures!

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/jetprop_enroute.jpg

I have replaced all my prefered missions's default aircraft with my payware.

i start them all from cold n dark and programing fmc with missions flight plan.

Nothing better that a completed flight from A to Z :)

CROP CIRCLES AND ALIEN SHIPS IN FSX

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?290359-cropcircle-pics

Join a multiplayer flight group such as "Alaskan Winds"

Chief95