neilends

Good grief, people are STILL doing this? If you are unhappy with MSFS, I sincerely suggest that you go to the official Microsoft forums and try to fix the problems that make you unhappy. Alternatively, you can simply abandon MSFS and not use it anymore. Those are perfectly reasonable options, aren't they? But you've gone with a third option that is pretty annoying to many of us. This forum is not associated with Microsoft in any way. You're not even asking for help or guidance from other users. You're literally just complaining, and then being indignant about the fact that other users don't want to hear you complaining. I suggest you focus on the big picture. This is not a forum for people to vent emotions about their personal beliefs that some piece of software sucks. Maybe it does in some respects or maybe not, but this place is really best used as a source for fixing problems, not venting emotions. MSFS is not "terrible." It's actually pretty cool. I wish you luck.

I haven't posted in a long time but felt inspired to just because of this payware product. Recommended experience: use the Lineas Aereas Mexicanas ("LAMSA") livery. Then use your VFR skills alone to fly a route south through the Mexican state of Baja California. So damn fun! I have not learned how to use the funky old school radio navigation system. You don't really need it in Baja though. Those tiny islands in the Gulf of California are pretty good navigation references when relying on a sectional. There are no other navigation tools available. No VOR, no ADF, nada. And obviously no autopilot. This thing doesn't even use flaps. The landing gear is super cool though. It is retractable, and if there's a malfunction, there's a way to manually lower it. When you fly this plane, it remembers how you shut it down for the next time you open it back up for another flight. So using a disciplined checklist properly actually matters, as do fuel management, oil (which you should also change depending on outside temperature), and the health of your engines. I think I was using the wrong oil once which caused an engine fire when I was still getting the hang of this plane. There is a built-in old school extinguisher system if that happens, hilariously. Sitting in a passenger seat mid-flight is so damn cool. The interior cabin is amazing. The reading lights switch on and off, and you can flip the ashtrays too. There's a Mexican newspaper folded up in the newspaper holder up front, so I assume that corresponds with the livery of choice. I haven't tried the other liveries yet as I am trying to get to Mexico City. Check it out if in your budget, and enjoy! Link to our forum host's post about it, which contains a link to the product: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?24005-Wing42-Releases-Boeing-247D-For-MSFS-2020

I appreciate that and agree with it. 3 a week on a regular basis will be hard to pull off given my general life circumstances (job, family). But I've come up with a schedule where I should be able to go at least 2 times a week, with an occasional third that might get squeezed in. I did search long and hard for a good instructor and am pretty pleased with who I work with. He's an airline pilot for one of the majors. In good hands!

Another long-overdue update! After taking a break for the summer heat in Arizona, during which I got my medical exam completed and did a lot of ground school studying, I have now resumed flight lessons again. Last week, I landed a plane on my own for the first time (CFI was with me). Pretty damn exhilarating. Because I had received about 7 hours of RL (but sporadic) instruction before that session, it's really hard to say whether or not being a flight simmer helped for this first-time attempt on my part. Being a simmer has both negative and positive effects on people who choose to pursue RL flight lessons, so it's usually a mixed bag. But it's entirely possible that it was a help in this one particular scenario: visualizing what the plane and runway were really supposed to look like while I landed seemed to come easy. I didn't freak out and pull the yoke too much. It was actually quite smooth--keeping in mind that the instructor did have his hands on his yoke for any gentle nudges in the correct direction, much less any emergency needs. Anyway, I am still a newbie beginner student pilot and basically a complete moron in the air, with lots and lots and lots more to learn yet. But it is fun and exhilarating. My many thanks to the small group of you over here, because the actual inspiration to even start this journey came from many of you. Cheers!

When I had a problem with the Carenado Piper Arrow, they were actually very responsive and fixed my issue. That was just a few weeks ago. Have you emailed them? As for your fuel selector problem, this is an MSFS glitch that MSFS has not yet fixed. I've experienced it in multiple airplanes. I believe it's a known issue that may be addressed in the very near future.

I was inside Sedona Airport earlier today, in real life. I happen to live about 2 miles away! I have no idea why the training is giving you this error message, but I can tell you one RL feature of KSEZ that may or may not be the reason: it is local custom to always land on runway 3 or take-off from 21, barring unusually difficult winds in the opposite direction. KSEZ's runway has an upward slope on runway 3. If you land on runway 21 this gives you a braking disadvantage, which is an added risk factor on an already dangerous tabletop mountain runway like Sedona. Many pilots have died on that runway in real life. Sedona is dangerous enough that beginner student pilots are usually not allowed by their instructors to fly there.

I haven't had a problem with my community folder, until yesterday's major MSFS update. For months I've been stockpiling tons of new planes, new sceneries, new airports etc into the folder. But when the update finally finished, MSFS was taking forever to load up--and in fact it was not loading. It would get stuck at about 95% of the way there. So I removed 100% of the community folder into another temporary location. MSFS took 5 seconds to load. Now I'll go back and see how much of the old crap I actually still use and want to regularly use. Probably not a lot.

I wouldn't say you should feel very intimidated. The step by step CAT system that you can sign up for really goes in baby steps. At first, you're literally talking to no one who can hear you, because they just show you how to talk on a CTAF frequency, which is an untowered airport with no ATC. Only after you feel comfortable basically talking to yourself--but using the right sequence of words--would you choose to voluntarily move to the next stage. Vatsim also looks really cool to me because, although its ATC controllers may not be as perfect and highly trained, its scope is all over the world. Either way, the reason I thought of you is because the exhilaration level of flying flights is ten times higher when you've got "real" ATC folks talking to you, other pilots on the frequency, and "real" ATIS messages coming in from nearby airports. Give it a shot some time. And shoot me an email if you want me to walk you through any of the beginner steps.

This forum is for free discussion of for-profit software products and games that people enjoy. I didn't "advertise" anything because I am the same thing as you are: a customer of things I bought. If you don't like a particular product, game, scenery, airplane, yoke, or whatever, go ahead and criticize it for reasons that presumably will make sense to other users. But your accusing me of engaging in "advertising" for PilotEdge is bizarre and weird.

Uh... I'm a customer of a product who enjoys the product so I'm just explaining why I like it. Isn't that what you do every day on this forum, and in fact, isn't that the entire function of this entire forum from top to bottom?

Hey @Aptosflier, I did a search and came up with this old post of yours and thought I'd update the thread a bit. I am now a paid subscriber of PilotEdge. If you still haven't tried PE, I definitely think you should. Unlike Vatsim it's a paid service but the amount you pay is easily worth it for a sim-only aviation lover like yourself. Unlike Vatsim (which is also cool and I intend to try it for different reasons in the near future), ATC on PE is professionally trained and extremely realistic. If you go through their voluntary training program, known as the "CAT ratings," you will in no time become proficient at the basics of ATC communication, figuring out how airspace works, etc. The controllers, just so you know, are very real so they are not there to hold your hands and coach you. But they also know they are dealing mostly with student pilots (sim/real), so they tend to throw you tips and suggestions a bit more than you might hear on real-world ATC. They also seem more patient than in the real world. The PE website has plenty of training videos to gradually move you through each of the CAT ratings, one step at a time. You could even pay a coach to help you further, but I'm moving along nicely with just the videos. You can get five hours or 14 days of a free trial. After that, it's about $20 month. As a sim-student, you might well be happy with getting a full month's worth of training and then switch to Vatsim once you're proficient. Another note: the geographical coverage of PE is not unlimited. They hire real controllers so geographic scope is limited. The point is to train you on ATC communication, not to enjoy MSFS graphics while flying everywhere in the world. There are two US regions only that have coverage: "ZLA" (Southern Cal), and "Western US" (most of the western US outside ZLA). After the free trial ends, you have to pick ZLA or WUS for that $20 fee, unless you want to pay for both at $35. ZLA is more densely populated with covered airports and covered airspaces, so it's better for training, but you might pick WUS if you're only going to stick with long-distance airliners.

I use PilotEdge these days to supplement my training on ATC, which uses trained ATC controllers. I've witnessed sim pilots who tried to use creative call signs when contacting ATC run into problems, like ATC saying, "Airplane calling in, that's not a valid call sign. I need a valid US call sign unless you're international in which case you have to be registered with the FAA as a foreign aircraft." I don't think that requirement is enforced on Vatsim but I don't know much about Vatsim. PilotEdge is for real world training so if you're not interested in real world training, and just having fun, I say do what you want to do!

I've noticed that, in GA, ATC will also use a company name and company-assigned number instead of the full call sign, for aviation companies based at that airport. When I flew in Kaua'i, Wings Over Kauai taxied out and talked to ATC as "Wings 10." In Scottsdale, my flight school Sierra Charlie Aviation talks to ATC as "Aviator 2" or whatever. See message below from Sierra Charlie explaining this a bit: https://www.sierracharlieaviation.com/aviator

Feeling genuine thrills on your behalf for having this experience! Totally awesome. As I've started getting to know more RL pilots, there's definitely admiration by them of MSFS. The young CFI who flew me around the island of Kaua'i actually built his own computer just to fly MSFS, which he uses for various practice reasons. There's an older CFI--retired airline pilot--who flew in to meet me in Northern Arizona last weekend for a flight instruction session. He flew in on his personally-owned Cessna 140, which was gorgeous. (I took a pic, see below). When I mentioned to him that a Cessna 140 just came online in MSFS and I had flown it, he was pretty happy (though I'm pretty sure he's not an MSFS user). He just couldn't believe that enough sim people loved the 140 enough to create a sim model of one.

No, like most 172s I’ve seen. My fancy flight school that owns multiple $400,000 172s has glass cockpits. Those are even cooler than the MSFS version. But a small tour company on an isolated Hawaiian island really doesn’t need all that fancy stuff. Their pilots know every nook and cranny of that airspace by heart.

Based on your review, I bought this and took it for a spin. It is really cool. Totally feels like I'm driving a '57 Chevy or something.

I actually thought of you while over there! If you go to Kaua'i in the near future, you might consider using the company I flew with. That outfit, Wings Over Kauai, is owned by a very smart, diligent, safety-oriented man who has lived in Kaua'i for many years. He owns a Cessna 208 and a Cessna 172 for tourists, and does not cut corners on maintenance or upkeep on them from my observations. As a tourist you can opt for a flight with either plane, but you can also opt for a student/instruction session in the 172 where you would not be doing anything stressful like talking to ATC or taking off. Once in the air, the pilot will simply get you to a safe situation and then let you fly for a bit here and there. Frankly, if I were you I'd just go as a tourist, because seeing the island in that 172 is thrilling beyond words. The MSFS version of the Na Pali cliffs do not even come close to doing them justice. Maybe opt for 30 seconds of taking over the yoke if you're feeling adventurous. :)

Haven't posted in a while so thought I'd give you all an update on what I've been up to, in the real-flying world. I've put a general pause on in-person lessons because of the Arizona heat, the lack of any need to hurry on my part, and what were then covid conditions. I'll resume in October with a flight school I signed up for in Scottsdale. Meanwhile, I just got back from a family vacation in Kaua'i, Hawai'i, and while there I signed up for a couple of flight instruction sessions with a local flightseeing company. Needless to say, I used MSFS to sim-fly in Kaua'i EXTENSIVELY. I knew the entire island like the back of my hand from the sim. Seeing it in person from a Cessna 172 was seriously one of the coolest experiences of my life. And I don't think my life has been boring? I've gone up in the air for instruction a total of 4 times now, 2 times in Arizona and now the 2 Hawaii flights. Although I'm logging the hours from these sporadic experiences, I'm just trying to indulge in having some fun until my real flight lessons begin. I can see a clear difference between my very first student pilot experience described above, and my last one in Kaua'i. My first flight experience had me completely fixated on looking at my instruments, maybe because of MSFS habits or maybe just from nerves. I worked on this for my second flight lesson and improved a bit, but I probably still fixated too much. By the end of flight #2, I also felt pretty nauseous. But flight #3 in Kaua'i was quite different. I did not feel a need to fixate on the instruments, and felt much more comfortable maneuvering the airplane while only glancing to check my airspeed and altitude. Flight #4 in Kaua'i was 5 days later and I enjoyed this new way of flying even more. Plus, the nausea was gone completely for both of these flights. Doing this, especially with the mind blowing scenery of Kaua'i, was totally thrilling and exhilarating. I remember looking down soon after take-off from Lihue Airport, at about 2,000 feet, and seeing an airliner below us at about 1,000 feet on its way to land. I don't know how to describe this--it was just super cool to see that visual. Truly amazing. Images that will stay in my brain for a long time. The instructor let me fly about 60% of the route for flight #3. My 15-year old daughter was in the back seat of this Cessna 172, and I was thrilled to see that she actually loved it (contrary to her mom, who is still skittish about small planes). Taking off from Lihue, we did a clockwise circle around the island of Kaua'i, flying at about 2,000 feet as we went past the famous Na Pali cliffs (which are approximately 4,000 feet high). We then flew over Hanalei Bay, Princeville, Mark Zuckerberg's obnoxiously massive estate, and back to Lihue. The instructor simply had me focus on flying straight and level, and executing a few simple turns. For flight #4 I flew about 75% of the route. The CFI ditched the idea of showing me any amazing scenery since I'd seen it all anyway. I instead got a good lesson in real-life weather-based decision-making. The weather patterns on this island are complex beyond my current level of comprehension. Every day there are thick clouds that fully cover the center of Kaua'i (making that center the literally wettest spot on Earth). Sporadically these clouds move across to other parts of the island, typically at elevations as low as 2,000 or 3,000 feet. I wasn't sure how an instructor teaching a student pilot in fully VFR conditions would remain VFR. We took off with clouds in the immediate vicinity of Lihue, and stayed below them. As we approached the Na Pali cliffs, we realized that the clouds were just too low for us to pass through in VFR conditions, so we turned around. Doing so would require us to enter the military airspace of Barking Sands Naval Base, so I enjoyed hearing the CFI interact with the BSNB controller to request permission to do so. We then got to fly almost directly above the BSNB airport. (This base is responsible for firing off anti-missile missiles btw. Again, super cool). Landings and takeoffs were handled by the CFI this time. The whole thing was awesome. Can't wait to resume real lessons. Hopefully any bad habits I learned from being a simmer will melt away as I get further into this. Since I was in student mode it was not the time to take pictures, but I did manage to squeeze in this one while the CFI was approaching final at Lihue:

I read a bunch of GPU threads on reddit and many people reported that 100% usage is normal. So I stopped worrying about it. If you use VR, make sure you have updated your settings to the most recent recommendations. For Oculus they have changed since a few months ago. VR works great for me these days with barely any glitches.

It’s also exceptional for offering players a simulation of the entire planet Earth. I’ve been flying a lot in India lately, which is not even a popular destination for sim users. Asia has not gotten any world updates yet except for Japan. Yet the accuracy of visual landscapes in obscure locations like the Thar Desert in Rajasthan continue to blow my mind. And I swear it feels like it’s getting visually better and better over time. (This is consistent with MS and Asobo reporting that their Bing imagery is not set in stone but a constantly improving project). Yet right here at home where I grew up in Arizona, I’m able to fly over the actual baseball fields in small rural towns where I played high school ball. Pretty amazing game. “Exceptional” is pretty fair.

Huh? EA contracts out all the time, and actually suffered through tremendous financial problems some years ago. Microsoft is far more profitable and massive than EA. I’ve listened to interviews of the actual engineers who work at Asobo and they sound like typical employees of a multimillion dollar gaming venture.

I have an engineer brother who worked for ten years at a major gaming design company (EA). I actually got to visit their headquarters in Vancouver a bunch of times. What you describe does not sound remotely realistic at all. This business operation for producing these games is far more sophisticated than I think you perceive it to be. And the designers and engineers doing this work are, frankly, working way harder than they should be. Millions of dollars are at stake. Long hours, into the night, a lot of weekends, etc. Burnout is common. I don't know how my brother did it for so long but when you're in your 20s and 30s it's easy to say, "This is just the way it's supposed to be." As for a Miltonian philosophical approach to why some people hate MSFS and swear off of it, I don't think it's that abstract or complicated at all. Here's the simple truth: the vast majority of us love the game and don't have problems with it. Simple.

Well I'm Canadian and second Kevin's comment! Look, I sympathize with the frustration. MSFS has knowingly pushed gaming boundaries, so many people without the exactly right hardware and without the exactly perfect configurations end up suffering. I get it. But it will get better over time, assuming the average person continues upgrading their hardware over time. The hardware needs are definitely not going to get lower. I haven't researched figures but Microsoft has probably made millions from happy customers. I am definitely one of them. Not sure my wife is given that this has spiraled into a new chapter of my life as a real-life student pilot, but she's doing okay.

There are 6 runways. Which one? Is this KDAB?

I completed the main update download yesterday, and played the game to test it, which revealed no problems. When I started the game this morning, there was a brand new announcement about another update, with a description of the issues that included my quote above. It was about 5 GB. I tested that too and did not encounter problems when testing the game post-download. Sorry to all those who are having problems. Been there.