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Something that makes one go,"Hmmm"


bmatt569

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I logged on to FlightSim and was doing my usual perusing of the home page. There was the usual plethora of ads hawking the various accouterments to our beloved flight sims. All of this got me to wondering, how much do we spend on our flight simming?

 

Me personally, since we are on a fixed income now, I have to be careful as to what I buy. I probably spend around $50-60/year for add-ons. That being said, I never was an "over the top" buyer. Something had to really catch my eye and do it for months before I would cath it on sale. I would estimate that I have spent around $200-300 over the years for my ADD-ONs (Not the FSX or its predecessors).

 

Am I in the ballpark with the rest of you or do you spend less or more than I do? Inquiring minds, well mine anyway, wants to know.

 

Bill

Bill Mattson

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Airspeed, altitude and ideas, bad to run out of all three at the same time

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Total spent since my introduction to FSX after I retired in 2012......$12 for FSX Standard edition and $16 for my Attack3 joystick. Not counting my contributions to Flightsim.com for 1st Class Membership.

Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer!  ✈️

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I would say you are about average. Discounting the cost of a computer, I've known people who spent no more than the cost of the sim and a joystick, while others have invested literally thousands of dollars in payware aircraft/scenery, top line flight controllers, even building a replica cockpit of their favorite aircraft (I venture the latter group are a very small percentage of flightsim enthusiasts).

 

Personally, I have a $28 joystick and have, over the years, purchased around $400 in payware.

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I've got several hundred dollars in add-on scenery (ORBX Regions, for example) and aircraft (several Carenado, plus others), in addition to the default stuff and free downloads. I've also spent several hundred on flight controls over the last 16+ years. A friend has spent a similar amount, since we typically fly together over the same areas with the same aircraft, usually twice a week, sometimes more often.

 

But from reading the forums, a number of folks have little of that, while some go way beyond.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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To be honest, through the years I've spent about $150.00 on Add On airplanes... divided between Carenado props (182, 185, 206) and GAS (Boeing Model 40, Stearman Speedmail). $15 on a very good Ike Slack e-book on flying Jets, but the majority on Controllers (CH Eclipse, Madcatz F.L.Y. 5).

 

I buy generally around X-Mas, when the Airplanes go on sale at the PilotShop...

 

Alan :pilot:

"I created the Little Black Book to keep myself from getting killed..." -- Captain Elrey Borge Jeppesen

AMD 1.9GB/8GB RAM/AMD VISION 1GB GPU/500 GB HDD/WIN 7 PRO 64/FS9 CFS CFS2

COSIM banner_AVSIM3.JPG

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I also live (exist??) on a very fixed income. I spent a whopping $5.00 for FSX-SE when it first came out, and $35.00 for a joystick for myself, and another $7.50 for a copy of SE for my lovely wife, Miss Ghost on the forums here. Oh, we spent another $35.00 for a joystick for her. We participate in the Round the World Race each year.

Other than all that, we haven't spent a penny on the Sim. Back in the day, we spent $99.00 for a subscription to EverQuest. And a few dollars for headsets so we could get on Teamspeak for raids with our guild. THAT was our really big, spendy, expense. But the Sim world? Well...

There's our huge spending for Computer games. OH, my lovely wife spends $5.00 a month for a subscription to some sort of games from Facebook. We don't have the cash for much more than that.

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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I put some money aside from the sale of my mother's house in 2013. I knew I would be going for a full sim system. Dedicated PC, complete set of Saitek gear and ipads, plus software. I estimate £1000 for each of those three things. :0

- Paul Elliott

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Come and follow my recreation of this historic light here: HERE

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I'm one of those that has spent about $2500 over the last 5 years i would guess...I have a majority of the ORBX addons, all of the PMDG, Carenado, A2A aircraft, a bunch of Just Flight addons, as well as commercial flight planners, performance addons, etc... i guess having no kids to support feeds other habits!
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i guess having no kids to support feeds other habits!

My kids are grown and gone, many years now. In fact, I have 10 grand-kids. I just don't have a lot of free cash (?!?) available. My income is fixed, and much less than when I was working. It's not an ideal situation, but it's what I have, so I live with it, and pretty much stick to freeware :D

That's just life. You deal with it...

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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Hmmm, well my spending is going down sharply.

 

Spring 2014, my wife’s laptop was dying, and I saw an opportunity to pass down my laptop and finally buy a “Gaming-PC”. So I bought some stuff, a decent desktop, extra memory, nice video board, re-purposed 32 inch HDTV, FSX-boxed, second hand used Saitek Yoke and throttle and rudder-pedals. I spent around $1,400 in 2014 mostly on that Gaming-PC and tv.

 

2015, I tried out a different set of controls, and bought some scenery, and a couple add-on planes and lessons. I spent around $300 in 2015.

 

2016, and my favorite controls are a set of “Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X” for $50, and my favorite planes are either default or freeware, and default scenery allows me to get approximately 48 fps using my modest system (see footer). I spent around $100 in 2016.

 

So, after my initial investment a few years ago, and using my 2016 favorites, I can fly cheaply for a very long time.

 

of course YMMV (your mileage may vary)

JD

 

P.S. My “Gaming-PC” is also my normal / everyday / only PC.

Processor: Intel Core i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40GHz (only dual-core)

… (PassMark - CPU Mark Single Thread Performance = 1,978 )

PNY/NVidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti with 2GB GDDR5 / HDTV @ 1920x1080p (32 inch)

… (PassMark - Average G3D Mark = 3687)

… (I believed the experts when they said MS-FS and X-Plane were single threaded)

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I have a CH-Product pedal & yoke set that I bought many years ago. I have very few payware add-ons. I'm using P3D, but more so my FS2004, of which I have 3x different versions. 'normal' one, a Golden Wings version, & a version for Garry's 'Ford Tr-Motor Project', with Milton's & Mike Stone's add-ons that Garry is the custodian of.

 

I've been simming since the good old days, when the sim arrived in a box with a couple of stiffy disks. I ended up getting a bit bored with point to point flying, (been there, done that), & ended up exploring different stuff, especially from the freeware guys.

 

So, my point is that I'm ending up really supporting the freeware developers, the backbone of our hobby, & I've been corresponding with quite a few of them, & have made great friends.

Flight simming is a lot more that just flying. I'm certainly NOT a lessor simmer, when I sail my yachts, boats & submarines, driving my train & driving around & exploring scenery, including my F1 racing cars. I make up my own missions, by driving to the coast, changing to a ship, sailing to another coastal port, etc...

I'm willing to try most interesting add-ons, & often thank the developers.

 

Yes, you can have fun, without spending money.

 

Cheers,

Robin

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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Well, I've been doing this about 1996, passing through FS98, FS2002, FS2004, and now FSX. At each stop along the journey I tricked out each sim with sceneries and aircraft. I'm on my third set of control hardware. How much have I spent? Really, who knows but I'll bet it is in the thousands for software. I'm also on my 4th computer rig. The good news though is that my expenses now are very low as I'm happy with FSX and the few aircraft I fly. I'm not interested really in any add ons except scenery and aircraft. But there are such wonderful freeware sceneries around that buying sceneries is in my view unnecessary.
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As the last two contributors have said, there is a lot freeware scenery and aircraft around. Some of it better than some of the payware stuff. So it is not necessary to spend money over and above the basic FS9 or FSX plus some reasonable hardware.

So many many thanks to all freeware contributors who have made flight simming into much more than Microsoft ever envisaged.

Having said that I do sometime buy payware, usually enticed by a sale price!

I have also contributed to the freeware with scenery and paint schemes for aircraft.

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My kids are grown and gone, many years now. In fact, I have 10 grand-kids. I just don't have a lot of free cash (?!?) available..

 

I'm 68 and never married or had kids, and am rolling in cash..:)

My income is the standard Brit state pension and pension credit totalling 155 GB pounds per week (190 US dollars), and the state also pays my 100 GBP weekly rent (122 USD).

Perhaps the system is different in the US and other countries, I don't know?

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Well, if nothing else, apparently the GBP buys more than the USD, and/or the cost of living is a LOT lower over there. 122 USD? I don't know of many places you can touch a living accomodation of any sort for that little. When I was in Memphis the second time for school, my apartment was about that, but that was in 1980. A while back :)

Not complaining, just noticing a difference is all. If nothing else, I take a lot of medications, some of which are barely touched by Medicare, especially during what's commonly known as "the Gap". A time during which, after it's payed a small amount for certain medications, it ceases to. This continues until either the patient has payed a much larger amount than during regular coverage, or a new year rolls around.

So, anyway, couple that with food, property taxes, and so on, for myself and my lovely wife, welll...

Suffice it to say, I'm so broke, I can't even pay attention a lot of time.

SQUIRREL!!

:D :D

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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..I take a lot of medications, some of which are barely touched by Medicare..

 

That's another difference between Britain and the US, because medical care is FREE over here under our famous NHS (National Health Service).

Problem is, many NHS doctors, dentists, opticians and nurses etc are sloppy because their unspoken mindset is "It's free so you can't complain", and as a result there isn't a family in the land which hasn't suffered medical negligence at some time or other, including mine. Law firms are raking it in by suing the quacks socks off on behalf of the victims.

Oh, and the NHS employs huge numbers of barely-qualified medical staff imported from third world countries who can hardly speak english!

If you fall ill in Britain it's like russian roulette whether you get treated properly..:)

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Sounds like some of the US Military health care workers. We used to joke that they couldn't make it in the civilian world, so they went in the military to practice. Can't sue the government without permission, from the government of course, so they're pretty safe.

Some are actually very very good, however. I am not saying all the, for example, Navy doctors, or whatever, are like that, but I've seen some.../shudder

My last dental tech, that gave me a cleaning shortly before I got out, was actually extremely good at what she did. Gorgeous girl, too. Very...ummm...well endowed. Sat up at the head of the chair, leaned over and did the cleaning. I couldn't hear a thing, and didn't give a darn! I just shook my head whenever she said something.

We went out on my friend's boat that weekend. Had a great time. She had trouble staying in her bikini, which was perhaps a triffle small for her, but again...I DIDN'T CARE! LOL

She was definatley one of the better ones, though. She knew her job, and did it very professionally.

Sorry, I ramble.

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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..My last dental tech..was actually extremely good at what she did. Gorgeous girl, too.

 

Lucky you mate, I hope one day to be treated by somebody caring like Nurse Christine Chappell, here she is tending the ailing Spock but he don't want her, huh there's vulcans for you..

 

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/spock-chappel.gif

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Of course he didn't. She was Gene Roddenberry's wife. Doesn't pay to hit on the bosses wife!

Can't blame him at all. I wouldn't have either.

Pat☺

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again!

Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
If you fall ill in Britain it's like russian roulette whether you get treated properly..

Interesting. Never mind that british health care is envied around the world and one of the reasons for migrancy to british shores is to receive it. The truth is that health care is not a fixed science - you would think it is, but it relies on expert diagnosis and sadly however well trained doctors are only human. My own experience is that our NHS delivers a fantastic service. Okay, it doesn't always go well, but quite frankly people's expectations of service delivery are wildly inflated.

 

A hundred years ago and a doctor's word was accepted. If there was no treatment, tough. I once worked as a young person mentor in the workplace and told my group that at their age, my grandfather was already at work in the shipyards of the Tyne. I pointed out that their lives were hard and their colleagues equally so. One youngster, rather naively, offered the opinion that he could still do as he pleased and tough it out. What he didn't realise that 'getting roughed up' back then for getting out of line (and they did too - I've the memoirs of the people my grandfather worked with) wasn't about being pushed around and hearing harsh words - it was about being left on the pavement with broken ribs. Can't go into work? No pay. Can't pay the doctor? No treatment. Still think the NHS (or for that matter society in general) fails us?

 

These days everyone seems to expect the latest wizard cures are available on tap for nothing. never mind some of these miracle cures are potentially hazardous in other ways, restricted to a single outlet or two with possible waiting lists, and are wildly more expensive. But the treatment exists - they saw it on the news - so they now expect it to be available on request, or more often, demand, getting quite upset when they discover that exceptional treatment isn't always so easy to come by.

 

Free? Actually no it isn't - we pay something called National Insurance, deducted from our earnings, though the various health agencies can also receive government and charitable assistance, plus there's always private health care if you want to pay for it.

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