How do you keep FSX interesting?

[Rupert]

On 2/12/2024 at 9:48 AM, PhrogPhlyer said:

Never really looked at this aspect in the past, will have to read up and see what I'm missing.

Yes, doing scenery is a fun concept.  Also though I had to drop out of the competition aspect, I am currently enjoying duplicating the Australia Rally Route as a personal mission.  I've made it to YMAY in a Beech Baron so far.

 

I still love to re-create flights I made when I was still actually flying.  Whether I'm in a chopper, my buddy's Beech Bonanza, or various other aircraft like the freeware sim Honda Jet, I love to sim fly to places to I've flown to RW.  In fact, that aspect is what got me started simming in the first place.

 

I also subscribe to FLYING and when each issue arrives, I fly into places they highlight.  I especially enjoy shooting VFR and IFR approaches to the airports they feature in each issue.  

 

I also fly flights based upon the reading about current RW events such as the Biz Jet crash in Florida the other day.  I try to re-create the weather in those flights as well.

 

RW: I loved the several Atlantic and Pacific Ocean crossings I've made in Boeing 747's.  If you're not in the cockpit, traveling in the original Sky Lounge on a 747 was about as good as commercial flying could get!  But reading the news, it appears Boeing's aircraft quality control has fallen badly lately,  I still have a "Zero Defects" pin set I was given when flying H-46's from the Philly factory to California.  But sadly, I'd not be at all comfortable flying or aboard any newer Boeing aircraft today.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Rupert said:

Boeing's aircraft quality control has fallen badly lately,  I still have a "Zero Defects" pin set I was given when flying H-46's from the Baltimore factory to California.  But sadly, I'd not be at all comfortable flying or aboard any newer Boeing aircraft today.

It pains all those who's lives depended on the quality that was Boeing to see where they are today. "If it's not Boeing, I'm not going" was valid back in the day. And yes, sadly not valid at this moment. I hope that Boeing can regain the standards that made them the envy of the industry.

[Lazerson]

4 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

In addition to repainting aircraft. writing articles, and doing me best as a CFI answering questions in the forums, I have to thank Lazerson for getting me interested in and now developing scenery. Another way to keep FSX fresh and new.

teaching other folks about scenery development is a ton of fun! Seeing someone jump into it headfirst themselves is incredibly rewarding.

[Lazerson]

56 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

It pains all those who's lives depended on the quality that was Boeing to see where they are today. "If it's not Boeing, I'm not going" was valid back in the day. And yes, sadly not valid at this moment. I hope that Boeing can regain the standards that made them the envy of the industry.

it's miserable. I remember going to the Everett factory as a kid, in 2011 or 2012, seeing the 747-8s, 787s, and 777-300ERs and such in production and being absolutely awestruck. It's a shame to know now that even then they were cutting corners in nearly every aspect of production, saving a buck at the price of safety and sound engineering.

[Rupert]

18 hours ago, Lazerson said:

it's miserable. I remember going to the Everett factory as a kid, in 2011 or 2012, seeing the 747-8s, 787s, and 777-300ERs and such in production and being absolutely awestruck. It's a shame to know now that even then they were cutting corners in nearly every aspect of production, saving a buck at the price of safety and sound engineering.

 

I agree completely!  It reminds me of times I well remember back in the 60's.  We Marines went into the Boeing Vertol Factory to pick up new H-46s for the Marine Corps.  That same factory also built the H-47 Chinooks for the Army.

 

Boeing wined, dined, and bought pro ball tickets for the Army guys who picked up H-47s in the hope of them taking off in planes without making them repair minor quality issues.  Their plan was to have the delivery crew come in hungover and fly out while ignoring any issue that wasn't a safety issue.  The Boeing bosses laughed when that happened.

 

Being the stepchild of the Navy, the Marine Corps didn't have the kind of money to repair defective aircraft after we bought them off.  So we demanded they fix all the quality issues or we wouldn't accept the new H-46s.  So Boeing didn't spend nearly as much entertaining us as they did the army guys.  But in private many employees thanked us for being so picky.  The employees wanted to make a real Zero Defect plane and Boeing gave them time to do that when building a 46.  Not so much a 47, because they didn't feel they had to.

 

I'm sorry, I believe the buyers of commercial aircraft today are more into the party aspect of buying off a new bird and less into the quality concerns of the new bird.  And IMO that's as much on the buyer's as it is on Boeing!

[Lazerson]

5 hours ago, Rupert said:

 

I agree completely!  It reminds me of times I well remember back in the 60's.  We Marines went into the Boeing Vertol Factory to pick up new H-46s for the Marine Corps.  That same factory also built the H-47 Chinooks for the Army.

 

Boeing wined, dined, and bought pro ball tickets for the Army guys who picked up H-47s in the hope of them taking off in planes without making them repair minor quality issues.  Their plan was to have the delivery crew come in hungover and fly out while ignoring any issue that wasn't a safety issue.  The Boeing bosses laughed when that happened.

 

Being the stepchild of the Navy, the Marine Corps didn't have the kind of money to repair defective aircraft after we bought them off.  So we demanded they fix all the quality issues or we wouldn't accept the new H-46s.  So Boeing didn't spend nearly as much entertaining us as they did the army guys.  But in private many employees thanked us for being so picky.  The employees wanted to make a real Zero Defect plane and Boeing gave them time to do that when building a 46.  Not so much a 47, because they didn't feel they had to.

 

I'm sorry, I believe the buyers of commercial aircraft today are more into the party aspect of buying off a new bird and less into the quality concerns of the new bird.  And IMO that's as much on the buyer's as it is on Boeing!

Absolutely on the buyers too, we all know full well airlines want to cut corners wherever they can, just like the railroads.

[yordruc]

My recent interest has been the aspect of navigation and its use with FSX ( a very old version ). This is a whole new ballgame with good introductions to the navaids  available and how to plan flights using them. It may not be strictly use of FSX itself but after the route planning you can fly them. Little Navmap is an excellent progamme for this purpose and you can see your plane negotiating the route on the screen by connecting it to your running copy of FSX.

While on the subject, does anyone know where I can download a functional G1000 system. My copy is for the Cessna and Mooney planes and many of the facilities do not appear.

[wobbie]

How about flying in the Misty Moorings & Tongass world? Some great stuff there to keep you busy for many days.

[ViperPilot2]

If you FSXer's are looking for something 'different', how about joining us for a Challenge Flight wirh Club Chachapoya?

 

We're a Group who do different Flights and Challenge Events, showcasing the "Legacy" Sims (FS2002, FS9, FSX) and all of the goodies these 'older' Sims have to offer. We just completed a trans Continent exploration of Australia, and recreated the Route of the 1976 Australia Air Rally which made for a very competitive Timed event. 

 

Look for our Event Chronicle in the FS9 Forum, and if it's piqued your Interest, come along for the Ride!

 

We don't Bite, and we welcome Everybody! 

[Sirrus]

I repaint aircraft and use them to follow bicycle races -e.g. Tour de France, La Vuelta etc.-, to get to and from Grand Prix Races and the occasional airshow.

Currently awaiting their turn in the paintshop  are:-

a recently rebuilt Spitfire PR11. The large oil tank under the nose alters the profile of the aircraft and being a photo-reconnaissance aircraft, carried no guns, Also awaiting the painters attention is this...

a Jurca J100 Spitfire replica. Built out of wood,  using the Jurca plans, this one is powered by an 1200 hp Allison V-1710-81 engine and is as quick as the original, but costs a lot less money! Time will tell what colour scheme it will eventually have.

[jgf]

Use military aircraft to stalk commercial aircraft, "shoot" them with camera (screenshot), must get close enough and in position to clearly read the registration number.

 

 

 

[Sirrus]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:57 PM, Sirrus said:

Currently awaiting their turn in the paintshop  are:-

a recently rebuilt Spitfire PR11. The large oil tank under the nose alters the profile of the aircraft and being a photo-reconnaissance aircraft, carried no guns

This ended up as

and

Capable of 387 knots at 33000 feet, and of flying from RAF Benson to Berlin and back.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Sirrus said:

This ended up as

and

Capable of 387 knots at 33000 feet, and of flying from RAF Benson to Berlin and back.

Nicely done! Love the old UK blue/blue roundel.

https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/uk/raf/spitfire2/spitfire-mk-xi-681-india-1945/

 

[Rupert]

On 3/12/2024 at 6:14 PM, jgf said:

Use military aircraft to stalk commercial aircraft, "shoot" them with camera (screenshot), must get close enough and in position to clearly read the registration number.

 

 

 

GREAT IDEA!!  I'll give that a try!  Planning and forethought, but without malice!!  Just don't tell the FAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Airbasil_1]

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

Hi folks,

 

What do you do on FSX to keep things interesting?

Simple Answer, 

By deleting it, getting rid of it and kicking it off into oblivion and by installing FS2004 instead! - That's just more fun for me...  (personal preference and personal opinion)
works just more flawlessly than FSX ever has and will... 

 

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

Fun addons?

 

hmm... there's tons and tons of nice ones...Personally I'm a big fan of the Qualitywings Products, as well as the SkySpirit 767-300 / F,
the Project Opensky 747-400 / F and the Overland / Simmer's Sky Airbusses (others may prefere the CLS Models, I don't). 

And for sure, the FSDreamTeam, UK2000 and MFSG, FlyTampa and TropicalSIm Sceneries... personally I am looking for High Quality made Products... even in Freeware... 
I am a guy who likes to have highly detailed Sceneries, which are close to reality including Photorealistic Textureing and Photoreal Ground Poly.
And or even have Photoreal Surrounding (If not, I'm simply gonna add that myself with FSET - not too big of a Deal actually). 

 

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

try different planes?

 

Yep of course, I usually don't allways fly the same... cause that can get boring after some time... also, I do like to fly real world legs with the particular Airline, where they are flown on in real time. 
To get inspired on what I want to fly, I am shifting to JetPhotos.com Database and have a glimps at the Photos that were uploaded overthere... If I then find something interesting,
I try to install the exact same Aircraft and Livery, that is shown on the Picture and try to recap the real world flight then... 

 

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

practice non-normal procedures?

That's a proceedure which can happen at some airports that don't have an ILS. Usually on Small Airfields or High Terrain Altitude Airports or Airbases...
Allways flying on Autopilot and only doing ILS Approaches or Autoland can get pretty boring after some time..., so yes, practising Non-Precision approaches, RNAV approaches, Steep Angle Approaches (like for example London City)
is absolute fun. As well as practising Short Field Take Offs and Landings can be fun. I love doing STOL or even VTOL with Choppers or VTOL capable Aircraft such as the CV-22 Osprey or the AW-609 Tilt Rotor.

 

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

do ATW trips? VatSim? FSPassenger? Missions? etc

Na, I don't fly online. I rather like to keep it offline, so i can pretty much do whatever the heck I want, without beeing bent to regulations. So i can plan my own Missions or Flights I wanna do. There was a time though, when I flew for virtual Airlines, and back then i did my flights via VATSIM / IVAO and or just via Multiplayer function and Teamspeak for the ATC Comm. Nowadays though, that's all history. Only thing left from that Era, is actually the Addon RADAR CONTACT V4 which has kind of a Realtime ATC Chatter... which keeps the Aviation mood available during my Flights. 

 

On 5/5/2012 at 3:51 PM, mtheory8 said:

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

 

Totally understandable... For me nowadays its about having the most realistic addon Sceneries and Sky-Textures and or Reflective Textures and Cloud and Seawater Textures installed... With having the most perfect Repaints on my Aicraft (Mostly done by Edward Cox, Salman Shaikh and or Carlos Eduardo Salas) my Sim looks pretty nice and realistic nowadays... I'm totally happy with it.. and it runns smoooth like butter... with over a 150 Frames at even the most demanding Sceneries or Aircraft (however, I don't use PMDG Aircraft such as the MD-11 or the 747 as these are the only ones that don't run smoothly on my Sim unfortunately). 

Oh and btw. I am using my Sim on WIN11. With just a few bugs to fix... but all in all pretty happy...  

(For reference, please visit the FS2004 Random Shot Thread). 

Hope that helps...

In the meantime, have fun! Because, that's actually what really counts and what it's all about...