ScottishMike

I assume you want something quicker/more elegant than going to weather, customize, and move the visibility slider to whatever you want?

There is an airfield in England, but I canno't tell you about it as I would be in breach of the Official Secrets Act....

Moron (LEMO) in FS9:

I did some more testing today, locating at various points around the world and comparing the weather FS9 came up with and weather reported by FS Global Real Weather and I think any similarity is just coincidence, the differences were much more obvious. While testing, one of the locations was Stanley in the Falkland Islands. FS9 showed clear (no winds, no clouds visibility clear) GRW reported 10 kts wind, scattered and broken cloud, 70 Km visibility. That throws up another question; how does FS9 dream up the weather it shows? Is it related to location or is it simply a random selection of wind, clouds and visibility?

Thanks for your replies. I decided to do as Jskorna suggested and compare weather just FS9 and FS Global Real Weather. I decided on Bristol in the UK because I know they are having strong winds today. I fired up FS9 and used the Go To Airport Menu to locate in Bristol (EGGD) this was the weather as FS9 alone reported it: Screen Shot 1: Screen Shot 2: I then started Global Real Weather with the following results: Screen Shot 3: Screen Shot 4: It appears FS9 was not doing a bad job of reporting the weather. Coincidence or not? Difficult to tell till others also do some testing as well.

How/where do I find what server is being called?

I recently noticed that the weather was appearing again at locations I was starting up at. I tested by locating myself at airports I have never flown to before (in case I had saved the location previously and the weather with it.) and sure enough weather was present (clouds, wind and visibility). See screenshots below: Once located by using the “Go To Airport” menu I opened the “World Weather” menu: screen grab1: clicking on the OK key brought up the expected warning about no internet connection: screen grab 2: Then the surprise; clicking on the OK button brought up the following: screen grab 3: And the weather was reflected when going back to the main sim. I tried a different location and sure enough I got different weather: screen grab 4 I was wondering if this is happening since I also installed FS2020 (it has real weather available). So Microsoft must have reached an agreement with a weather provider for weather in FS2020, maybe the servers can't tell the difference between FS9 and FS2020? Have others found the weather re-appearing? And if so have you installed FS2020?

I don't worry too much about the climb rate, it's the decent rate that can get fast and dangerous ;-). During my pilot training the instructor took me through stalls and spins inducing them then showing recovery then asking me to do the same. As a passanger I soon became very queasy, yet when pilot in command the manouvers induced no sickness. Also at much above 8500' in an unpressurized aircraft I tend to get a blinding headache (I don't tolerate altitude very well). The rate of climb never seemed to bother me.

You are spoilt for choice, just did a search here using "Boeing 777" and got over 3900 results. It depends what you are looking for: 777-200 or 777-300? or any particular livery? General Electric engines or Rolls Royce? Etc. Try playing around with the search facility (right hand corner at the top of the home page). When you enter your search term a drop down menu appears, from it select files. You may find it simpler to download a complete aircraft rather than a re-paint (texture only). Any problems search here for answers already posted or ask. Good luck searching.

Any particular reason you want Payware? Both the Project Opensky and SkySpirit are pretty good models, they both look good and fly well.

As an old time programmer once said: "when you kill one bug ten come to it's funeral".

But some are better than others... The beauty of simming is you do it the way you enjoy; dont let me or anyone else tell you how you should enjoy it. If you want to barnstorm in an Antonov 225 go ahead and do it. (you'll need a mighty big barn ). I was just trying to answer your original question about why your aircraft veered off the ILS glidepath (with some humour thrown in).

No apology required, my spelling is not great in English or American. Thank goodness for spell checkers. Let me know how you get on with the ILSs that were malfunctioning. Happy flights Mike

I was spelling in English not American.

FAA evidence of pilot error ;-)) Your 737 on final. You must select NAV for the ILS to function properly (pic from video evidence you supplied!) Your 747 on final with GPS selected (should be NAV) once again video evidence supplied by you! However pilots' licence not suspended due to nice music tra la la!

I notice you still had the NAV/GPS switch set to GPS. Before you try to capture an ILS you must switch from GPS to NAV. I always make sure I have the (at least approximate) heading selected (the heading bug) then switch from GPS to NAV with HDG (heading) selected on the autopilot, then if in range of the ILS switch to Approach on the autopilot.

On several occasions when flying at altitude (it has happened in airbus 3xx models and boeing 777), the indicated air speed has gone to zero, the autopilot then increases speed as it thinks the aircraft is travelling at 0Kts, I only noticed glancing at the GPS showing a ground speed of almost 500 knts. I did not have pitot heat on as I thought it made no difference. The problem usually cleared at lower altitude. I am not sure if it's a bug or the sim trying to mimic an iced pitot. I never managed to replicate the problem in a controlled manner so not sure of the cause or causes.

Take the Beech 36G that comes with the sim. It has a constant speed prop. To check it's functioning before take off note RPM with the blue lever fully forward, then pull the leaver back and see RPM drop: High RPM position 1070 RPM Low RPM position 690 RPM I don't know if the Beech G36 can fully feather it's prop, nonetheless it is adjustable.

Thanks guys, the list of extras is growing, a joystick I kind of expected to buy, not a wide screen monitor and all the rest. Chicago that already sounds to me like a pretty full on set of accesories, might be cheaper to fit an old cockpit from a C150 in the garage ;-)) . KiloWatt still in Scotland or an expat? Anyway thanks for the replies, I'll probably be back to ask advice on the accesories as I succumb to temptation and start purchasing. Microsoft and/or Asobo hope you are listnening; please allow the external view to be put in a window and run at the same time as the cockpit view, the aircraft look so good why not watch them while flying!

JGF I have a copy of the Lysander. PM me an address and I'll send it to you:

Back again, with a few more questions and observations. I am new to MSFS2020 although a long time flight simmer, most recently FS9 for 19 years. How do you folk manage / adapt to the virtual cockpit? I find it almost always too dark and legends too small if combined with a decent forward view. I have set up various cameras invoked by the ALT 1, ALT 2 and so on. Particularly on final, are the flaps set correctly? Which view shows the flap indicator? I try and remember, then is the undercarriage down? Which view showed the three greens? By the time I get the view showing what I need I am 200' above the Rwy and often travelling at an inappropriate speed. Never mind if the mixture is still leaned for 8000' just handle the flare. :-0 i.e.: Or with time do the cockpit camera views become second nature? (or the pilots among you might say I have not planned my approach with enough care). Often though small changes of speed are required to stay on the correct glide path, difficult to do when you can't see the throttle to tell how much input you are giving using the F3 and F2 keys. Or do most of you use the dicky seat 20' behind the rudder and the limited instruments available in that view? I also got a surprise when searching for a camera view (ALT 4 was the correct one) but concentrating more on the screen (yep, on short final again) and pressed ALT and F4 by mistake and was zapped out of the simulator back to the desktop, not so much as a “By Your Leave” or even an “Are you sure you want to quit?” message. Does MSFS2020 have a speed up function? In FS9 (especially when flying heavy metal on long haul) once in a steady climb go to 4x speed and when in the cruise go to 16x. Is the last flight you do saved on exit automatically and retrieved by an equivalent of the “Previous flight” option in FS9? Another couple of observations, those BLUE CHEVRONS! In lieu of a “Follow Me” truck. I burst out laughing the first time I encountered them ( the engineer that coded them must have been coming down from an acid trip), it makes the pink ground arrows in FS9 look understated. Last comment (moan); are Microsoft using up the old 286 Pcs (old timers will know what I am talking about) from the basement as the servers for us simmers? The initial download took 7 hours and yesterday when I decided to download all the extra scenery it took nearly three hours. Average download speed 23 mb/s. It went from 0 mb/s (the spinning white wheel in the corner) to 47 mb/s at best. My download speed is usually around 62 mb/s. Still MSFS2020 is only taking up 256 GB on my SSD (FS9 takes 317 GB)

What kind of simmer am I? I ask this question as I am caught between the excitement and frustration of learning a new sim after 19 years with FS9 (and all the earlier Microsoft simulators before that. I still have a subLOGIC ring binder with Instrument Pilot's Scenery East U.S. The plates are still useful and shipped on 3 ½ inch disks for IBM/Compatibles for Version 3 and above. They probably never thought 3 ½ diskettes would become obsolete ;-)). Enough of the past. The trials and misconceptions around the decision to purchase Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (in future I'll call it FS20 for brevity) are covered in an earlier post. Well, after help from the folk on this forum, FS20 is purchased and installed. So am I transitioning to FS20 or sticking with FS9, or using both? I thought I'd fly a similar circuit in a similar aircraft in both FS9 and FS20 noting my thoughts. I was not sure if the post belonged in the FS9 (FS2004) or the MSFS2020 sections. For selfish reasons I decided on the MSFS2020 forum, many would be able to help me with aspects of the FS20 I am having difficulties or annoyances with. I was island hopping in the Caribbean in FS9 when I decided to install FS20, so the circuit to fly is TFFM Marie-Galante (a smallish French island off Guadeloupe) the Rwy is 3700' in FS9, slightly longer in FS20. The aircraft I chose is the default Robin400 in FS20 and a nice freeware model in FS9. Interestingly a four seater in FS9 and two seater in FS20: Above FS20 Very nice in FS20 but not so bad in FS9 and the canopy opens in the FS9 model. Do any of the G.A. Aircraft in FS20 have opening doors or other enhancements? A cold and dark start. Above FS20, below FS9 In FS20 they seem to have taken the “Dark” term literally. This is 9:30 AM in the Caribbean on a clear sunny day yet many switches in the cockpit are so dark as to be invisible. I have never been a fan of virtual cockpits in FS9 (usually to see all the controls one seemed to be sitting in the luggage compartment). Instruments are designed to give information to the pilot, if unreadable, they might as well not be there Slightly better with illumination switched on, although the outside light switches are still invisible. The panel in FS9 is a bit more “toy” like, but much more readable and all required instruments and controls are available in the same screen. Take off and pointing towards Dominica. The FS9 model has both the spot plane and GPS windows open. What happened to the GPS in FS20? Maybe I just haven't found it yet. The spot plane window allows me to see the aircraft in flight, this helps me see how the plane is oriented but also allows me the pleasure of watching the aircraft. I flght sim because I love aircraft; seeing them in all stages of flight is part of that appreciation. So far the only way I have found in FS20 is sitting strapped into that imaginary seat 20' behind the rudder using a reduced set of instruments (they are clear though!). Heading downwind, but spoiling the circuit by pointing at the airport, a comparison of what the airport and island look like in both sims. The scenery just looks so much better in FS20. In FS9 the weather has turned (I have a program that downloads real weather) I saw that option in FS20 and turned it on. It made no difference (could be the real weather was clear and sunny) or it's a pay option. Now on final: Touch down Bear in mind this was never going to be a fair comparison, I have been using FS9 for 19 years and know it like the back of my hand. I have only been playing FS20 for a few days, but it is so damn pretty it's difficult to resist. The flight model is, I think, a bit more realistic in FS20 based on my experience of the Cessna 150 and 152 Aerobats I flew when studying for my private pilot's licence and the FS9 and FS20 150s. Interestingly when I first tried FS20 I thought I best try it set to easy, MISTAKE, it was like having a demented 10year old in the cockpit pushing throttle and other controls at random. I set everything to hard and it works much better. Thanks for reading this; any comments welcome.

Well thanks to Tiger1962 for the link to download problems. Finally managed to download (who would of thought it was important to change language to English (US) rather than English (UK)) for MSFS2020 to install? Also changed to Xbox game pass sight probably helped. I have a lot of sympathy for JGF (always use a non microsoft browser and VPN, have a look at Protonmail and VPN, fully encripted e-mail and browsing, based in Switzerland and keep NO LOGS of customer's browsing) and both free. Back to MSFS2020, had a fly from Edinburgh (my home airport) and flew over my house in the Cessna 150, very good scenery but the aircraft is more difficult to control than the 150 I flew when training for my PPL (I guess it had a full compliment of controls, it helps!) rather than controlling the aircraft from a keyboard and mouse. The beech36 and diamond40 I found more stable than the Cessna 150 but the glass cockpits were in both cases too small and dark, virtually (pun intended) useless. Also a great joy in FS9 is having the spot plane open as well as the cockpit view so you can see how the plane is oriented while flying (in real life we have the inner ear balance to help us know how we are oriented). The camera view in FS2020 is very pretty and having the main instruments dotted around is a help but I still could not land from the camera view alone. It would be nice to have the camera view in a seperate window open at the same time as the cockpit view. Anyway thanks all for the help especially Tiger.