jgf

Xbox? I've not had a console since the days of Atari. Desktops only for me.

Obviously, "new" equals "better". And if that requires diplexed Crays in the basement and an internet connection which would impress the NSA, so be it. Hopefully they are as happy in their world as I am in mine.

You might also like the old Canadian TV series "Mayday", currently being shown on Quest TV but I believe also available on DVD. Each episode covers an airplane crash and the subsequent investigation; the oldest I've seen is the 1955 collision over the Grand Canyon, more recent are incidents early this century.

It is just like building models. If you build a model of a WWII German aircraft, you put a swastika on it. That is not an endorsement of anything, it is merely historical accuracy.

In my case - any landing you survive is a good one.

Lol, a twenty year old Toyota will get you to the grocery store as well, and more economically, as a new Porsche. Yes MSFS is beautiful, but compare the system requirements, not to mention the requirement of a constant high speed internet connection, and the aggravation of constant "upgrades" (which seem to cause as many problems as they cure, and are not optional). And from what I've seen, there is no need to learn navigation or systems, MSFS takes you by the hand and points out everything for you. But there is room for everyone, I enjoy FS2004 as much as you enjoy MSFS, we both win.

At least we can still run older software if we prefer. (I have FS2004 in Win7.)

Cool. The original had several versions (military, offshore, ambulance, etc.) and a ton of liveries. Files in mine are dated around 2005-2006.

The easiest helicopter I've found is the old Hovercontrol 412 Personal Edition By Jordan Moore, don't know if it's available anywhere today, I got it from the dearly departed Hovercontrol site (a wonderful place, they even offered online helicopter training). It's stable enough I can actually take my hand off the stick briefly without worrying it will meander off on its own.

a deathgrip on the stick, sweat running down my brow, pulse racing .....and I've flown two miles I had hoped to get comfortable enough flying these wretched things to do my US capitols tour in one. Not going to happen. About thirty minutes and I'm ready to go do something simple and relaxing ...like tax returns. It's probably easier in RL, you have full peripheral vision so better situational awareness, and there's tactile feedback of what the helicopter is doing. In a sim all you have to work with is limited visual input.

If I take it any easier people will deem me catatonic ...and that's when I was working. Retirement has enhanced this.

I can hover easily from takeoff, but once flying I cannot come to a stop and hover, the slightest backwards movement causes the blasted thing to go crazy. Lol, I once wasted a week trying to convert a fifties era helicopter to the proper radial engine (the cfg said it had a piston engine but gauges were for a turbine); engine ran, gauges registered, rotor spun up, but it just bounced on the ground, even after giving it three times the power and doubling the prop thrust. I gave up, reverted to the original files, and repainted the gauges to represent those for a piston engine.

Lol, or the second ...or the third .... Oddly I've found larger helicopters easier to fly than smaller ones, I assume due to larger MOIs. A Bell 47 is like a leaf in a whirlwind.

Was good to get a discussion about this. Some agreement, some dissent, just a normal day. One of the older threads has numerous proposals for flights, some recreating real events, some just interesting flights, could be a place to start the ball rolling (that's where the Australia event was born, lol).

Throttle is the collective and stick the cyclic, rudder (pedals or twist grip) is the tail rotor. I find it helps to lower the sensitivity of all axes when flying helicopters (but I'm at best a miserable helicopter pilot).

Yes, we are not a VA, with an office and administration and schedules. We are more like a group of friends sitting around the bar discussing "what do we do next?"

In that case I withdraw all the flights/routes I've posted. My organizational skills are non-existent. Outside of that , rather than a constitution and bylaws and all sorts of officious ...er, official ... activities, just play it by ear, as we've been doing. Has been fun so far. "Never take anything, especially yourself, too seriously."

Do you suffer from insanity? No. I've enjoyed every minute of it.

This is true for full scenery design; want to move a road or river, that's one program; want to replace LC files, that's a different program; want to edit the mesh, yet another program, etc. But if you just want to create an airport, whether a little farmstrip or a new LAX, that will be 99% one program. MSPaint is fine for basic jobs, but it does not handle DDS or extended bitmaps. Standard bitmaps are 24 bit and virtually any program will work with them, but FS wants extended bitmaps, which are 32 bit and rarely used (the extra 8 bits are for an alpha channel). DDS (Direct Draw Surface) is a compressed bmp format that can be handled directly by DX graphics processing. I use Paint Shop Pro for most of my graphics work, numerous editing options and works easily with layers and vectors; it will handle DDS with an extra plugin but does not support 32bit images (this is where DXTBmp comes in); not free but a used copy is quite cheap. GIMP or Paint.net are free options, not as versatile as PSP but will work with layers and DDS. You don't need to be conversant with the various DDS/DXT formats (https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=DXT_compression_explained), let DXTBmp handle it. My procedure (using PSP as example and assuming a layered template to work with) -copy an existing texture folder and rename it -obviously do all editing in the template until satisfied -with DXTBmp open the appropriate file from the new texture folder, select "send to editor", this will open PSP with "norm.bmp" (the image) displayed, leave DXTBmp running -open your edited template, merge (flatten) the image, (DO NOT SAVE!), copy this and close the template (DO NOT SAVE!) -with "norm.bmp" displayed hit CNTRL+A to select the entire image, paste the copied template image into this and save (this will be an ordinary 24bit bmp) -switch back to DXTBmp and "import from editor", you should see your new graphic now, save, OK any popups about options without changing anything, DXTBmp will save the file in its original format in the new texture folder If you need to edit the image (always, seems like) do not edit the file in the texture folder, every time it is opened and saved the quality degrades. Do all editing in the layered file and repeat the above process to get it in the final texture file. In most cases you will not have to edit the alpha layer; there is a separate section, upper right, of DXTBmp for working with it. Procedure is the same as with the main image except the alpha is a 256 color greyscale image, the darker the grey the more reflective the surface. In some aircraft the alpha channel is used for transparency, where pure black (0,0,0) is transparent; whether it is transparency or reflectivity is programmed into the model file. And in some cases the alpha is not used at all, but FS still wants the 32bit format

That's how I do it.

Lol, this is about a mile from where I went to high school- https://www.airnav.com/airport/67A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Deposit–Lowndes_County_Airport wouldn't be surprised to find cows on the runway

As for real names, doesn't matter to me. FTR, "jgf" are my real initials, and how I usually sign my name; I go by my middle name - Graham.

There was no stipulation that anyone fly to Australia for that event. I did so on a whim after someone mentioned it; it was an interesting flight, plotted leg by leg using Destination Finder. So far our flights have been designed so there is plenty of time for everyone; and there is discussion before the "rules" are finalized. I deem this a leisurely pastime for us all; RL (which I eschew at every opportunity) provides enough stress.

Quite a selection here; from Don Scott Airport, KOSU (formerly Ohio State University Airport), on the west side of town, or Bolton Field, KTZR (to the southwest), to John Glenn International, KCMH (formerly Port Columbus), about seven miles east of downtown, everything from gliders to large commercial aircraft are covered. But if you're flying something really big there is Rickenbacker International Airport south of town, only one runway but it is 12000 ft (AN-225s operated from there for several years).

If everyone whose suggestions were not adopted were to quit no one would be here; not being adopted is not synonymous with being ignored. As for the rest, while I do not presume to judge how something makes someone else feel, I have seen none of that; as probably the only non-pilot here I could be sensitive to a clique atmosphere, but I don't feel it. Certainly if you are not comfortable here you should not stay. But your rationale eludes me.