CLE_GrummanTiger

I'm looking for a happy medium between no flight planning and a thorough check-everything-do-all-the-math flight planning. I want to be able to do something that's a simple enough flight plan to feel realistic. I think I have a good sense of what to do navigation-wise, that part's easy enough to understand. What I want to be able to do is to determine cruising altitude, cruising airspeed and rate of ascent/descent and when to do those things. I'm training myself in the G1000 with the Skyhawk with the ultimate goal of eventually moving up to a turboprop plane. (And, way way later, a jet). Is there a simple enough tutorial on those things or even a database somewhere for each aircraft? I did find a chart on the Skyhawk POH that make sense to me but not sure how to translate from the page to practice.

I and many others have had this issue. The fix, as it turns out, is a simple one. Go back to your joystick assignments and make sure you assign what you see below. Bind the joystick controls to the AXIS settings, not roll left, etc.

And while there isn't any official force feedback software built into the sim, an enterprising 3rd party has provided it for a nominal fee (really quite inexpensive for such an immersive experience). It's a bit buggy for MSFS2020, but I can confirm it works. (Buggy in that the software would crash, current workaround is to reboot the PC as the software only seems to work on the first run). https://www.fsmissioneditor.com/product/xpforce/

Ah yes, rooster island. We spent a week in Kauai and basically did everything at breakneck speed, trying to take in everything. We did not fly into Waimea as that's more restricted to helicopters and we opted for the fixed wing tour (feels safer and remind me of flying with my father in his old plane). I remember the lychee fruit, Red Dirt Waterfall (that was so cool), the spectacular views of Waimea, Bali Hai, Puka Dog, Bubba's, waterfalls *everywhere* (island was draped with waterfalls!), hiking up a valley, seeing Hanalei Bay, hearing Israel Kamakawiwo'ole unforgettable song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow just about everywhere, that incredible little orchid shop (seriously, this place was incredible). Shit...I wanna go back. Edit: Missed the sim-flying bit about Waimea Canyon...I'll give it a shot in an ultralight or a Cub.

My then new wife and I took a sightseeing trip around the island, it was a sight to behold. If any of you have the opportunity to visit Kauai, I highly recommend taking a sightseeing flight, it's worth it! Screenshot below is that of the famed Na Pali Coast (if it looks familiar to you, it's because they used this coastline in Jurassic Park! In fact, a good chunk of the movie was filmed on this island).

Well, I went there and also wanted to look up the glossary but unfortunately it seems to be full of broken links. Nothing's popped up for me so far.

Hmm, this might be what I'm looking for. Before I bite the bullet and buy it, it does explain the differences between the types of planes and how they fly and how to fly them? Does it also explain all the various settings and such in a plane and what each knob/button does and how/why? I'm not looking for a technical manual or anything, I just want simple answers so I understand why each function is important and what it does and how/when I use them.

Thanks, and while I'll certainly check them out, I'm more interested in reading about them. Videos aren't always useful to me as I happen to be deaf/hard-of-hearing and the subtitles on YouTube videos can be woefully terrible at times.

I'm moving along nicely in the sim now, flying the Skyhawk pretty comfortably but will put in more hours to get a better hang and sense of airspeed, altitude and especially navigation and how to properly fly from point A to point B. That said, I'd like to begin learning about the differences between flying a Skyhawk to that of a twin engine, or a cabin pressurized plane designed to operate at higher altitudes (I guess that would be turboprops?) and eventually jet. I know the principles of flight remain the same, but I'd venture to guess that flying more advanced aircraft = more difficult and requiring more skill. How do I go about learning how to fly different types of planes?

Resolution of the monitor is the main factor in how well a game looks, the salesperson is correct in this. The refresh rate is not quite as critical but it does make a noticeable difference in how smooth the gameplay is. For a game like FS2020, yes, the refresh rate can make a difference. The refresh rate in a monitor is a bit tricky because it may or may not work depending on the video card you have (particularly the brand, being either AMD or NVIDIA). The current one you have, the RTX 2060, will have the ability to match the refresh rate of any G-Sync monitor and *some* FreeSync monitors (you can look up reviews of monitors online to see how well the refresh works). You are also correct in that the higher the resolution and refresh rate is, the more taxing it is on the video card. You mentioned you're considering a 4K monitor. 4K resolution can look absolutely gorgeous, but it can also absolutely crush your video card unless you have the absolute best (in which case, either an RTX 3080 or 3090 video card would do the trick, and those run at least $1000 in US and are extremely difficult to find right now due to unimaginably high demand). For myself, I have a Monoprice Zero-G 35" Ultrawide monitor, which has a resolution of 3440x1440 (monitors with a height of 1440 are typically known as 2K monitors, so it sits between 1080 and 4K, offering a nice compromise of performance and value). It has a 100mhz refresh rate which, while it is FreeSync, works well with my RTX 3060 Ti. I must say here that ultrawide monitors make an enormous difference in flying and heartily recommend one. I don't know if Monoprice has a presence in Australia, but it can't hurt to look (http://www.monoprice.com). They have a few monitors that offer tremendous value. Yes, MSI has monitors as well and they cater to the gamer demographic. FS2020 would probably do well on any of those monitors and they offer a nice value. They have some ultrawide monitors as well. I've read reviews of MSI monitors and they're all well-received (not effusive praising, mind you, but solid). FS2020 is notoriously brutal on PCs. I can play mine with high settings enabled but not ultra. I have yet to explore some of the more denser areas to see what kind of FPS (Frames Per Second) hit I would get, like flying around Manhattan or any of the spotlight locations from the world updates. Good luck!

That's why force feedback is SO nice to have and definitely adds realism to the game. I read that you plan to buy one but...good luck! Those are HARD to find and if you do find any, they're not cheap at all. Be ready to fork over $200 at least. One more thing, the game does NOT come with any force feedback, you have to buy a third party software to get that. That would be XPForce here: https://www.fsmissioneditor.com/product/xpforce/ Playing with it has been a joy, feeling the rumble of the takeoff, the plane naturally pitching before applying trim, and tiny bits of turbulence. It's a little buggy (runs fine the first time, but after that it's prone to crashes), but it's worth the purchase, I think. You can try it out first before you decide buying it, IF you can get yourself a FFB2 joystick, that is!

I made a screenshot showing the binding settings seen here. This is where I made my mistake (and, I suspect, many others). I hope this helps.

Thanks, but I already resolved the issue. I apparently wasn't supposed to bind the joystick movements to left/right or up/down but the axis. Poor interface on Asobo's part.

I definitely assigned the trims to my joystick, that's one that's very nice to have quickly. I also happen to have a keyboard with macro keys (6 of them), so I can assign some common but maybe convoluted keyboard binding to a macro key. I suggest to anyone to consider a keyboard with macro keys in conjunction with a joystick, those are GREAT! In the meantime, I'm in the market for a Thrustmaster TWCS standalone throttle, but that seems to be out of stock everywhere!

Thanks everybody. I had tried some YouTube videos, but so many were difficult to follow for a guy who's deaf/Hard-of-Hearing like me. That's an unfortunate circumstance for me, but buying MSFS 2020 because the flight training was FINALLY subtitled was a big factor in buying it (something FS:X lacked). I had no idea it was so superficial, though. The Squirrel videos look promising because it looks like he (or his team) actually took the time to not only subtitle the videos, but edit them a bit as well so they're accurate. So I'll give his a go. Hopefully they include advanced topics like fuel mixtures, talking to ATC, etc., for those getting into serious simming like myself (True-to-Life ONLY please! LOL!).

I completed the in-game training sessions and, while certainly useful and educational, they only cover just the bare basics of flying. That's all well and good, except I want to learn a bit more if I want to get the most out of the simulator and that includes learning the start-up, fuel mixtures (along with the whys and hows of it, that stuff is almost Greek to me), and even the radio/transponder. Why they don't include training for the more advanced stuff is beyond me, unless that's included in eventual updates (I hope so!). It's my intention to pretty much learn everything I can about an easy single-prop plane and practice flying that and hopefully eventually move on to the twin-prop, then turboprop and finally jet. I can't really do that unless I learn everything about flying a plane and not just the basics. Guess what I'm looking for is the simulator version of ground school. Any suggestions or recommendations? Thanks in advance!

Thanks, but I'm sticking with my FFB2 joystick. Since buying XPForce, the realism has been elevated with feeling the rumble of the takeoff and subtle things like lowering the flaps. In any case, I think I've determined the best bindings for me, but it's likely I'll tweak those as I play more and more, especially with more complex aircraft.

Now that I've figured out the whole herky-jerky axis bindings (a really simple and easy mistake to make), I'm now ready to assign the bindings. Some are pretty obvious, like the parking brake, but others I'm trying to decide which buttons to assign. I'm using a Force Feedback 2 joystick (and, yes, I already bought XPForce!). I guess what I want to know is what are the most common controls you all use in flying that would be real handy to have on a joystick? I'm thinking flaps, trims, increase brake and maybe fuel mixture? I'm almost a complete newbie to flying (only have what little I learned from my pop flying his Grumman Tiger back in the day and reading here and there). What are the controls you MUST have on a joystick that you don't want to find hunting for on a keyboard? Thanks and happy flying.

I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT! I feel like an idiot, but I used the wrong bindings! I was supposed to assign the AXIS bindings instead of the SURFACE bindings! (Surface being "Rudder Left" or "Elevator Up", etc). I simply cleared out the wrong bindings, scanned the axis bindings to to the appropriate joystick axis and presto! It worked! This little post on reddit solved it for me: I KNEW it had to be something so simple, but obviously a lot of people are having the same problem I did. If you're one of them, here's the... TL;DR Bind your joystick axis to the AXIS controls and not the surface controls and your joystick will work as it's supposed to.

Did all of that and it's still no good. Did you have to adjust sensitivity/reactivity settings? I don't know what I'm not doing right. Hopefully Microsoft will issue a fix because it seems to be a widespread issue. Did they release any kind of statement?

This is new info, I don't know anything about this. Where do I go to find and change the flight model?

Oh, I don't doubt it, but I also play space sim games and some old combat sim games, some of which use force feedback and they're loads of fun. I'd rather keep trying to make my joystick work and, from what I can gather, my issue is certainly not an isolated case as MANY users report the same problems. This tells me it's something in the software.

Hi all, newcomer here from KCLE. Bought and downloaded MSFS 2020 the other day and started to put it through its paces. Found out there was no built-in profile for my MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick but could manually assign the buttons its axis controls. The problem, however, is that the in-game response to my joystick maneuvering is overwhelmingly exaggerated and by no means realistic in the least. I've tried toying around with the sensitivity and reactivity settings, all to no avail. This is sadly making the game unplayable for me, unless I pony up for a new joystick (been eyeing Thrustmaster T16000M), but I don't even know if that will work either? Anybody else running into similar issues? Particularly with the FFB2 joystick?