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How do you keep FSX interesting?


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I loved Instant Scenery back when I ran FS2004. I used it to make Area-51. I made it so real I felt like I was really flying into there. Well, at least to me it did. Then I learned about bgls and effect files. So I added shooting stars over Area-51 and as you came in for a landing you saw several shooting stars and it was like you really were landing into Dreamland. I have sense removed them though since I thought it took away from the realism. I even experimented with auroras.

 

I still have my FS2004 install backed up to a couple of HDDs. One day I may reinstall it.

 

Here's a video of Area-51 in FS2004. I used FRAPS back then and the video quality is crappy. Plus, I made this video coming from a several month long hiatus of not flying. You'll see that my lack of skill was rusty on the turn off to the taxiway. You'll also notice I don't land on the end of that loooong runway. I have the ILS configured from the mid part of it.

Edited by CRJ_simpilot
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You'll see that my lack of skill was rusty on the turn off to the taxiway. You'll also notice I don't land on the end of that loooong runway.

All you did was swing out wide on the right turn onto taxiway. I do the same thing cause I'm too lazy or don't pay attention. Nobody's around to "grade" you there it doesn't appear. I don't see what "skill" has to do with it, unless you were maybe in a 747 in the same spot, I guess. You're right about that runway. That thing competes with KABQ and Vandenberg.

 

 

Two-fighter-jets-fall-into-formation-then-break-apart.gif

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Well, I'm what you call a perfectionist. And that can and will be my own greatest enemy. When I took up welding I laid those beads down with a stick welder so great that you'd swear it was in fact a MIG weld. That's how precise I did things. And cutting metal? Forgetaboutit. My dexterity was absolute surgical with the metal cuts which was my favorite thing to do. After I cut other students' metal they didn't have to grind it that much at all. Not even the welding instructors were able to cut metal that damn good. The whole reason as to why your hands pivot left and right, etc is that your brain is constantly making corrections. Well with me I place myself in like a meditative state or something and there's very little corrections I need to make. I guess it's analogous to that of a sniper with his rifle.

 

When I'm in the Sim I try to do things in a perfect fashion as well otherwise I consider the whole flight a failure. Unless of course I'm monkeying around. I don't even use a checklist like you really should. I commit my steps to memory, but there's been times I have forgotten certain things and when I do that I consider the whole damn flight a flop. Especially if I land off center line. I run LittleNavMap on the second screen and as your aircraft moves it creates a line behind your plane. Well, after my landing I look at that line on down the localizer and check to see If I made any deviations from center line. Doesn't matter if it's an IMC landing or if I crab the beast.

 

Anyway, I've been flying the F-22 most of the time and back in FS2004 I had the great, great PMDG 737 which I absolutely loved. I took that plane all the way to Hawaii, Christmas Island, Samoa, Fiji and Auckland, New Zealand. I wanted to hit the land down under but I lost interest in completing my journey. Now I have taken the Lear 45 around the world once and the F-22 around the world four times, and to many, many other places. Including an Arctic island (who's name escapes me) that's above Norway that actually has a NSA listening post and a bunker that stores every plant seed on earth in case some crazy thing were to happen. I often read about the places I travel to in the Sim and sometimes I'll check those places out in Google Street View. I was amazed that Google actually had footage of remote areas of Mongolia. And looking at North Korea it's pretty nice there and to my amazement I saw a lot of Westerners in the imagery. Though in North Korea and some other places they don't have the Street View capability, but a bunch of blue dots all over you click that show panoramic pictures you can view of that area.

 

To keep FSX interesting I plan on purchasing the PMDG 737NGX and try to abide by real life procedures. There's a real world 737 pilot on YouTube that goes over such procedures. I think the channel is called FlightDeck2Sim. I followed him on Facebook, but I have since gotten rid of that asinine platform. LOL Mostly use Twitter now a days. I also have a specifically made PMDG 737 check list App on my phone called PmdgSim. I installed the thing a long time ago and studied the checklists in preparation for buying the PMDG 737NGX, but I've always put it on the back burner, and I'm having too much fun flying around in the F-22 at an unrealistic cruise of mach 2.35 at FL500. Plane is nice to practically fly in and out of everywhere. Can't really do that in a 737. I've gotten all of my current rewards with my F-22. Highest elevation airport, top five highest elevation airports, lowest airport, most remote, etc, etc.

 

Anyway... there really is a lot to do with a simulator. You can even practice failures. Or practice a failure in IMC conditions with the 737NGX. HAHAHA You'd really have to know what you are doing. I want to practice a complete FMC failure. I have yet to know how to time and Nav my way across an aeronautical chart using the plane's timer. Something I've been meaning to do. I have navigated a couple of times from Denver to Vegas with only VORs in the Lear 45 and the F-22.

 

Looks like I wrote a column for the Sunday paper. I shall shut up now.

 

BTW- Did you hear what I named tower at Area-51? If you listen carefully they say Kelly Johnson tower. I thought that was a nice touch. I wonder what it's called in real life? Probably something like tower 2 or some other mundane thing. I bet I could find the answer on the Internet since tower to plane coms are not encrypted or anything and there are active thrill seeks around there all the time listening on their scanner.

Edited by CRJ_simpilot
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  • 3 months later...
Recently I joined VATSIM, that's pretty fun and cool, and I also love to fly different, challenging approaches to different airports in commercial aircraft. I love to download a bunch of add-on scenery and planes, and I love doing challenges. (ex: a Boeing 747 landing at that Saba airport with the shortest runway)

I've been an experienced FSX player for two years now, and an enthusiast forever. Be sure to check out my blog on here, I blog daily about everything aviation!

Specs: Windows 10, Intel Celeron CPU J1900 1.99 GHz, 1993 Mhz, RAM 4 GB, Intel HD Graphics

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I like to fly all the real life flight schedules. I started at KCMH, with the earliest departing flight and go from there. I download the AC if I do not have it, as well as the airport that I am flying to. Right now, I am. I also get the flight plans of each flight and do my best to fly the same exact routes. It is a challenge as well as a lot of fun, for me anyhow.
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  • 2 weeks later...
As soon as my replacement copy of FSX gets here I am going to follow the weekly Nascar Schedule flying to/from the nearest airport by the track they are racing at. Then using a helicopter to go from airport to track/known Lat/Long or if there is a track in FSX obviously there and back. Then I have Nascar Racing 2003 season software and am going to run that race online. Just looking for a new club to join.
FSX. As of now I have 3 laptops all utilizing & linked to FSX, 1 - 32" TV for Gages, 40" TV for Main View. Saitek Pro Flight Control System. Am building a new rig and flight deck. Most likely going to X-Plane 11 for Sim. Also might buy MFS2020 for the pretty Pictures.
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Bad weather pre-GPS conditions are the ultimate challenge for me. Like 500 ft ceiling, DC3, no ILS or GPS, use VOR only. Or fly the heavies into big airports in low vis using only verbal approach vectors from ATC to get into the ILS (too easy if using VOR or GPS). Fly smaller planes into crazy small mountain airstrips in a snowstorm.
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I fly the local Junior Hockey team to and from all away games, and any other places they may have to go.

 

Through the off season I have to do some repainting the plane due to graduating players.

 

rightside03.jpg

Alienware Aurora R13, I7-12700KF, 16g DDR5 4400 memory, 256g NVMe boot drive, 1 - 2t NVMe m.2 drive for Apps, 2 - 1t SSD for Data, GeForce RTX 3080 TI 12g, Windows 11 Pro.
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  • 1 month later...
I bought the payware B-17 package. I failed both my right side engines along with my right flap and aileron. I flew to my local airport where they fixed the engines, but they couldn't repair the control surfaces, so I've been hopping across the country to Seattle to get them repaired..

Spent way too much time using these sims...

FS 5.1, FS-98, FS-2000, FS-2002, FS-2004, FSX, Flight, FSW, P3Dv3, P3Dv4, MSFS

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  • 3 weeks later...
The answer to this question has changed with the introduction of better add-ons since I answered it last. I did an around the world in 80 aircraft quite a while ago, making use of the many fine shareware and my hanger of purchased aircraft. Recently however, the addition of ORBx scenery has unlocked a look at the world with greater and more accurate detail. I have begun a year on each continent flying low, slow, VFR and exploring all the well done geographically more correct landscape. ORBX has nicely kept ahead of me releasing more and more detail to each area. The addition of FS Dream teams XPOI addon also highlights a lot of the landmarks in each area, naming and showing the location of all the local landmarks for me. It lets me research the area in greater detail. Almost feels like being there. With better hardware, seems like the simulated world of flying will keep me occupied for some time. Health has taken me out of real cockpits and I am glad I can keep flying in simulators. :)

AMD 8350 Eight Core 4.0ghz oc'd to 4.4, 16 gig 2133 DDR3 64 bit ram, Microsoft Sidewinder Precision II. GeForce GTX 980Ti w/4gig

OS=Windows 10 64 bit, FSX w/Acceleration & P3d v3, 4, 5 REXII, OrbX

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John

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I fly around the world all the time as well. I'll often go on Google Street View and see the place I flew to in real life. Sometimes I may go to Wikipedia and read about the airport I flew to as well.

 

Been around the world now five times and touched all seven continents. There is an add-on here in the library for postcards so when you fly and touch down at a certain area, and providing there's a postcard, it will show up in your awards screen. https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?311908-Your-awards

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  • 4 weeks later...
I try new things, I normally get bored of sticking with the same flights I normally do and same freewares, so I do the most random stuff possible. One time I was so damn bored, I hopped into the FA-18 and chased some AI planes to wherever they were heading to. Another time I downloaded a car model for fsx and drove around huge airports with as many AI as possible to either enjoy the nice view of AI landing/taking off, or just troll around and cause AI to stop moving since im in their way. Just figure out the most random things possible.
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  • 3 weeks later...

I recently bought Ultimate Terrain X and Ground Environment X on the advice of some guys here.

I enjoy flying low and slow and looking at where I am going. Tonight I loaded up in the the Carenado 172n and

took off from Gulfport to go up to Tupelo. I used VOR's and I used VFR.Com on my ipad as my sectional chart to double check it with the roads, rivers, and lakes below me. This is a whole new sim experience! This is what it used to be like when I flew my real life airplane.

I "filed" a VFR flight plan, asked for flight following and talked to atc the whole way. Not really needed, but it was pretty nice.

I've upgraded the Carenado with IFR equipment and a rudimentary autopilot so that it matches my old plane.

If I could just perfect my paint skills, I'd be able to fly it again. Maybe one day I will. While on vacation a couple weeks ago,

I decided it was time to learn how to build airports that I visit to actually resemble their real life counterparts.

Learned how to use ADE for that. They aren't great, but they're getting better. After that, maybe I'll figure out how to build other scenery.

It be kind of interesting to build an accurate version of the little town where I grew up.

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What is the chief difference between Ultimate Terrain X and Ground Environment X other than one being mostly North America? I'd like to cover the world since I fly all over the world. And it looks like Ground Environment X is my ticket.
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Ultimate Terrain X (USA version at least) is GPS accurate roads and rivers and such. I'm a courier for FedEx Express so I took the 172 on a little trip up to my delivery area to test it out. I65 to exit 69 and Hwy113, six miles to a left on Foshee road, winding down to Hwy 31 where the Georgia pacific paper mill sits, left into Brewton Alabama, right and across the tracks onto Mildred street, straight south to the Brewton Airport, Hair Care and Tire Center (12J).. then over to Jay road and down to Jay Florida.

It was spot on! The only thing missing was the city dump!

 

GEx adds textures to the standard ones in FSX and cleans up the seams where they meet. It's eye candy, but it's NICE eye candy. Much more immersive. I'm still exploring it, but I did the X-country last night from Gulfport to Tupelo and UTX has bends in the roads where they bend and power lines where they're supposed to be. Even most of the lakes were shaped the way they were represented on the sectional charts. When I can look down and see Hwy 45 running right through the heart of Mississippi and the railroad tracks crossing it right where they are supposed to cross it and see where Daylight Donuts would be (if they had included it), it's impressive. I've driven that way from Mobile to go home to Memphis so much I could do it in my sleep. When I figure out how to add my own scenery, I'm going to add the Pink Pony Strip Club just south of Aberdeen for the Air Force boys from Columbus AFB. And the green roofed church just across the street.. Mississippi is a land of contradictions!

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I believe it's compatible. I haven't tried any Orbx except the free trial stuff because it put too much of a load on my old computer and I just never got around to trying it on this one. I browsed through their stuff though and none of their areas really jumped out at me as something I NEED. Not saying it wasn't nice to look at, but just not where I fly.
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I was getting bored flying airlines. Point A to Point B and back. Same origin/destination, trying to keep it real. Now I’m flying the Carenado Hawker and I’m choosing my destinations. Mostly places airlines don’t fly to.
CLX - SET Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i9 10850K - 32GB DDR4 3000GHz Memory - GeForce RTX 3060 Ti - 960GB SSD + 4TB HDD - Windows 11 Home
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