How do you keep FSX interesting?

What is FSX. I flew a very cool jet the other day, and have a saved flight of a great sailing ship that is parked in a cove in my back yard in its virtual world that I was able to make for it.

 

There is nothing about FSX that I could say is boring. It can be a very fine technical simulator, and also a real fun environment too -

 

How accurate it is as a technical simulator I actually can't say. But at 1000 KIAS, at 65,000 feet altitude, and heading East or West you will be able to end up riding a wave that is about 14 seconds long.

 

 

I was actually elated to discover this in supporting a theory I wrote a book about -

 

 

I also like what you can do in its virtual world, like having a yacht parked in my back yard. I've also taken the ship out on extended trips and also sailed in regattas in the Gibraltar straight.

Pick your ship

 

If you are like me, that is, in terms of FSX, we could have a lot of stories and adventures to talk about -

Milk Run to Hong Kong in a some what, but, favorite older aircraft

 

After doing many milk runs in modern aircraft over a few years, later in Europe as an example, I started to like traveling the Mediterranean both by air and ship, and have also sailed the Suez and the Nile. From Nice, France I like taking a DC 6 to Lugano Switzerland and approach in a landing that I would only trust to fly by wire.

Finding the best path through the mountains is great, but then some you do have to go over too !

 

You can also try landing at an airport that is in a valley filled with clouds, where how narrow the area, and altitudes of various bodies of land in the valley are unknowns.

 

 

Now you have to hope that the ILS is legit, and you have a good handle on a safe angle of decent where you can recover in order not to hit some ridge in the fog before the runway.

 

 

I have flown the Burma Road in a DC 3's, where like in the case of the DC 6 enjoyed the challenge of props and limited visibility in mountainous terrain.

 

 

There was a movie about the Road to Burma that inspired this. I discovered cool sites all along the way. A few thousand feet in the valley below, I found a place to land near a small village.

 

Flying Tibet in an old Beech was also a real trip when I turned on the snow and realism off.

 

About the US, well, just about every where I go, always something has to be built. The last was my vacation ski resort and a southern city of casinos in Lake Tahoe -

 

 

In reality, not sure how to get a boat like this to Lake Tahoe, but of course in FSX I can sail with it all I want -

 

In terms of Automobiles, well, I have always loved the engineering of cars. So the simple question - to engineer a car, why would I want to do it elsewhere than FSX if I can't do it for real.

 

 

FSX I have always seen as ahead of its time. As I see it, its a matter of our imagination in what we can actually get out of it -

Edited August 20, 2017 by okdaley

Flying the ILS manually in 1/4 visibility. Not too easy.

Flying the ILS manually in 1/4 visibility. Not too easy.

 

Good idea and should make you a good sim pilot...I find landing the PMDG jets in said conditions very challenging and lots of fun to improve my ability

Flying the ILS manually in 1/4 visibility. Not too easy.

 

Now do that on a carrier!

There's a real challenge.

I can fully understand when pilots think to themselves during launch "I can't believe they pay me to do this!", but during recovery in conditions like that, especially at night, they think "Man, they don't pay me enough to do this!" :p :eek:

And that's straight from several Marine Corps pilots I've known! :rolleyes:

 

Have fun!

Pat☺

I don't know much about carriers other than something called a meatball? LOL

I have lately enjoyed flying to the same cities on different days to see the different weather, clouds, including storms with the Active Sky and observe these changes...so it is like real life and to me it really is...

I don't know much about carriers other than something called a meatball? LOL

 

The "meatball" is a slang term for the (I)FLOLS lights, located just forward of the LSO platform. They give the pilot a visual indication of their vertical position on the glideslope, once they are within about a mile of the ship. That's why you hear the LSO's tell the pilot to "Call the Ball" when they roll out in the "groove", or the final, approximately 8 tenths of a mile from touchdown. "3/4 of a mile, call the ball".

The pilot, if he can see the meatball, then can tell the LSO's that he does see it, what kind of plane he is, his call-sign, and how much fuel he has left on board, so the crews can verify the gear that stops the plane, when/if they catch a wire, is set correctly. Too much deceleration, and you can rip the plane apart, too little, and the plane can roll off the end of the deck. Either isn't very good for re-using the plane! All this information can be passed in a few words. "Roger ball, Hornet FS10, 30" Tells the LSOs the pilot can (or can't) see the ball, so he can position himself correctly on the glideslope, that it's an F/A-18, callsign FS10, and he has 3000 lbs of fuel aboard.

Anywho, the pilot can then use the meatball to make sure he stays on the correct vertical position on the glideslope by watching a light in the center of the FLOLS, and keeping it aligned with the horizontal bar of lights on the system. Too high, the center light will be above the bar of lights, too low and it will be below them.

Newer versions are stabilized for ships motion, so if the boat's fantail rises from wave action, the ball will remain steady on the "average", keeping the pilot from trying to match the ship's motion.

In a Case I approach, weather CAVU, it's relatively easy to fly the ball. Now add in low ceilings, rain, fog or other visual obscurations, and it gets a lot harder very quickly. On a really bad night, the LSO's earn their money, talking the pilot onto the correct wire. Pilots may complain about LSOs, and the grades they give a pilot's landing, but in conditions where they have NO visual cues as to where the boat is, they are greatly appreciated!

 

That's the story of the meatball. The ones in FSX aren't perfect, but they are pretty good.

Hope that helps a little :)

Pat☺

Edited August 19, 2017 by PhantomTweak

I go into FS9 and make flight plans with FSNAV and then print them out and fly them in FSX using only VOR's,NDB's and ILS's. The flight planner in FSX is lacking, to say the least, and the GPS is just too "lazy". I also fly X-plane 11, which I love, and then come back to FSX and realize just how good this 12 year old sim really is. It has it's little quirks but in my opinion it is still the most fun. It may not have the best graphics anymore,or the best flight model, but to me it is the most entertaining. That's what counts.

I just got a new laptop that is capable of running FSX and got back into flying it after several years. I'm relearning everything I could once do in my sleep. And I'm building flight plans for Southern Airways. My Dad flew for them and I grew up in that environment, so I thought I might recreate my childhood. If it turns out well, I'll share em with ya'll.

Join a VA

 

Fly using FS Economy

 

Air hauler 2.... Keeps you involved....

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T377A using Tapatalk

I just got a new laptop that is capable of running FSX and got back into flying it after several years. I'm relearning everything I could once do in my sleep. And I'm building flight plans for Southern Airways. My Dad flew for them and I grew up in that environment, so I thought I might recreate my childhood. If it turns out well, I'll share em with ya'll.

 

Dealt with Southern Air some during my time in the Air Force (Air Cargo, 84-90). Possibly crossed paths with your father. Enjoyed my time and wish I could go back and do it again.

 

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

May not belong here, but keeping FS9 interesting with a brand new TV LG 4k UHD OLED 65"

Looking Good! from old Laptop.

One of these will hook it up to my high end gaming desktop has FSX in it high speed desktop.

Currently flying a 172 from Kinshasa DRC to Mt Cook NZ using rex and tileproxy

 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

I'm currently enjoying something I hadn't tried before. AeroSoft is doing a 80 Days Around The World fly-in that started on Oct 2nd. (Which is the date Phogg started his trip. People fly as, close as possible, to the PHOGG balloon trip route. We have specific legs we must complete during a specific number of day's time-frame. And we're keeping a log and spreadsheet of our trip.

 

It's great fun and making me fly to places I'd not have thought to fly before. (I'm currently at Port Said (HEPS) waiting to start the next leg leg to Calcutta. I'm flying my HondaJet). But various people are flying all sorts of planes and a few even going by sea on ships and using & other transport such as trains as well!!??

 

The basic rule is:If there is a sim, pretty much any sim, you can travel by and make all the required legs in the 80 day time frame, it's pretty much all good! And there's no problem changing vehicles or even sims as long as you are simming the trip and staying on time. So we have people on P3D, FS9, FSX, X-Plane, Trains, etc.,etc. Some of the sims people are using I'd never heard of before!!

 

I wish I'd known about this earlier!! I'd have really talked it up here!! I think everyone flying FSX would love the concept! Go to the AeroSoft site and under "Clubs" find the Around The World In 80 Days Club listings. I think you'll get a kick out of it. If you want to know how things are going read the DIARIES!! I especially enjoy the "Mr. Lambert in Biplanes diary!" That poster is known as "Windswept."

 

Rupert

Hey Rupert I am in it too, and at Port Said at the moment too. Which hotel you're staying at so we can have a drink before the next leg on Tuesday?!

Hi folks,

 

What do you do on FSX to keep things interesting? Fun addons? try different planes? practice non-normal procedures? do ATW trips? VatSim? FSPassenger? Missions? etc

 

I'm just trying to get ideas to keep FSX fresh.

 

I stop playing it for a year. Then get the bug and play it for a few weekedns and stop for a year again.

 

Seriously, I always get the itch to play and what always breaks it for me are the dearth of live flying to do. I've tried joining VAs, but then after a few routes, flying VA solo gets just as old as sandbox solo - moreso, as in VA you are scripted by the airline procedure, or route.

 

What really ticks me off about live online flying are a few things:

1. No one on at my leisure hours (I'm in Hawaii). Except maybe some eastern Euros who I can't understand their accents when flying inside VATSIM.

2. The incessant incompatibility between ones favorite plane (freeware, usually, but sometimes 3rd-party payware as well) of the week, and some FSSInn bug, or some VATSIM donload problem.

3. By the time I stumble into a VATSIM session at , oh, say... EGLL where the controllers are active, and I find a decent destination at , oh, say, scotland or germany...and I have to hustle to find charts and STARs and SIDs and airport diagrams (usually AirNav.com is a decent place to look) for both airports, only to find that any one or several of the freaking controlers have signed off. Okay, jump to Auckland...where to...THERE! Sydney! Okay, back to AirNav.com, get the SID, back into game. Oh wait, what?! Different runway/SID?! Kr@p! Back to airnav... got em, okay, file flight plan... 5h1t! controller just announced he's shutting down in 5 mins... Okay, taxing, take of, crusie. Nice..That was fun, FINALLY. Time ti switch to sydney approach. Where's the contro- dang it! They logged off too!

%$$@%!!!#$@%!

 

Turn off FSX.

Log into World of Tanks.

Ahhhhh! 12-minute matches, over and over and over again until I decide I'm done.

Continue in WoT and Wolrd of Warships for seven months, go to dentist office, read a Flying magazing about an old C-47 flight along north coast of New Guinea in WWII. Think to self: "wow, that would be could fun! Gotta get home, dust off FSX (if it's even still installed after my last hard drive reimaging) and fly this route!"

Get home, get back into FSX.... Boring. Lets download some scnery. Software conflicts. KR@p. Let's get back into VATSIM...

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Hi

Kukailimoku,

 

The servers you mention require real world charts, controllers, asking permission to fly a certain plan, and using all the correct ATC langauge.

 

But there are other servers too. Servers that don't require all that. Plus there's allways people on.

 

For example: FSCloud. Great site.

There's always people on. Perhaps not at your preferred the airport, but there's people all over the world flying at tat time of day. And you can see their position on the map. You can talk with them all via teamspeak or a site specific utility.

You can view the positions of the users on the site's moving map. In browser. SO you can then load a flight at an airport people actually are.

 

The only strict rule there: Do not start the flight on a runway. People may on approach!

(If you accidentally load the flight on the runway, you get disconnected to make room for people landing. To prevent them from crashing. You then just have to set up the flight again (loading at a gate) and click "fly now".

 

Apart from that few rules. And friendly people.

They have a forum too, where users can chat with each other through text.

 

I think they used to keep score on flights too. Points gained for a flight, plus some for each hour flown, and some for a good smooth landing. Points only awarded if landed without crash.

And then a fixed number of posts subtracted every day, so that people that joined years ago but never fly, do not stay at absurdly high scores.

Not sure if that scoring system is still there.

Was fun to see your score increase! And made you try harder to land safely. Because crashing after a 5 hour flight, would mean: no points gained for the flight.

 

Crash detect had to be on at the server. And no refueling was possible while you were online.

If the point system is gone, then maybe that requirement is too. not sure.

 

-

"Wrong planes" was no issue there. You can use any plane.

But for another person to see the plane as you see it. The other user has to have that plane installed on his pc.

ALl the server sends that user is the info about your position, speed name, and info about what plane you fly.

It does not send him the files of your plane.

So his computer loads that plane, from his pc, if he already has it installed.

If he does not have it, it fills in something that is close.

 

For example if you fly the Carenado Cessna 172 and I am parked next to you at the same airport online, but I do not have the Carenado. My pc shows me the default Cessna 172 instead. (with your username printed above it in small red lettering.)

 

 

Airports is different. you are asked to use the default airports only.

If one user uses an addon airport, and another uses the default. One user might taxi on his taxiway. But the other user sees him driving through a bunch of addon buildings.

 

Also, you need to takeoff from the correct position.

Traffic is guided by a very simple computerised system. (You request takeoff and taxi permission with a very simple text command.)

It only detects your takeoff as a proper take-off is you take off from the runway location of the original Runway.

If you take off from a RUnway that is in the addon in a different location it will detect it as an illegal take-off. You then get disconnected from the server. And would need to reload a new flight.

(Same for landing on a runway in a different location.)

 

The ATC computer system is part of the server, so you can fly any time you want.

(And occasionally human controllers take that over. Still the same simple takeoff permission. No fligtplans required. But now a human on the other end.)

 

 

Have a look on FSCloud. Keyword there is Fun.

There more servers that are less demanding as well.

 

Happy Flights,

il.

Right now I'm flying Around The World In Eighty Days on the Aerosoft forum. Sorry it's too late to start now as we're somewhat holding to Mr. Fogg's schedule. London to London.

 

But I think even those not making the trip would enjoy reading about the adventures of others. Go to Aerosoft Community and click on Clubs. The Around The World will show right up. YOU REALLY MUST READ Lambert in Bi-Planes written by Windswept! He manages to sneak every old pun and stereotype in fiction into one trip around the world!;)

 

Rupert

First, I try to keep FSX working in the ever-changing / evolving Windows 10 environment! Remember when the Microsoft slogan, "where do you want to go today?", was changed to, "where in the hell are you taking me today?".

 

To your point, I am limited to FSX SP1 due to Windows 10, so I concentrate on creating a geographical area (Seattle) and duplicate all the real-world commercial traffic in and out of KSEA, KBFI, KTCM, and KPDX. I started by adding the Alaska / Horizon schedule(s) and am now adding other U.S. airlines.

Something I did after watching airforceproud95 is trying to land planes onto city buildings by flying up and stalling them. Hours of entertainment as you can do it in every city with all the planes. DO IT TILL YOUR HEARTS CONTENT.

I didn't think the roof tops were hard surfaced.

I like to follow my favourite sport teams around (NHL, OHL, MLB, NFL, and the occasional NASCAR race). I do this mainly with my PC-12 (from Flight1) and my PC-24 (from Iris). I've added dozens of freeware and payware airports and sceneries for all of the cities I hit. When there's a day or two between games I just fly back to my home airport.

 

To change things up a bit from time to time I do special tours. I've done a Capitol Cities World Tour with the PC-12. I completed a Canada 150 tour by hitting each provincial capitol and a tour of Route 66 with my DHC-2 Beaver (from Aeorosoft).

 

Right now, I have the Beaver sitting in Clearwater FL ready to follow the Toronto Blue Jays around Spring Training and when that tour is done, I'll be tracing the Mississippi River from Louisiana to it's headwaters in Minnesota. From there I'll jump it over to Vancouver BC and start a tour of the Trans-Canada Highway. All of my tours with the Beaver are done low altitude VFR.

 

As with my sports team following I look for (mostly freeware) airports and sceneries for my tours.

Edited February 12, 2018 by BEARlyThereCDN

I didn't think the roof tops were hard surfaced.

 

Some are, some aren't. Trial and error.

Hi all, I must admit I was getting very bored with my simming. The usual point to point flying & navigation was starting to become tedious & I was loosing interest, especially as my prefered set of wings are the 'lows 'n slows'.

 

One day, in my internet browing, dont ask how I got there, I found The Ford Tri-Motor Project http://www.ford-tri-motor.net/

The late Garry Smith, (creator of many skins for our planes), created a whole bunch of sceneries for that particular era, with many textures as well, & Ive created a separate sim install just for his sceneries. There are some great projects that he has created, including India & China scenery, as well as a Black Hark project, with hidden runways. His philosophy is that simming should be a combination of Fun, Fact & Fiction. He also has created sloping runways.

 

So, what are we looking for within our hobby? Some look for realism, others, including me, find their fun is in immersion.

 

Yes, my rekindling of my simming interest was because of FS9!!

This really does not make this interest any lessor than that in FSX or any other sim.

 

Oh, by the way, we have built 2x simulators at our club.. an Avro Shackleton, & an MB326 twin seater, known here in South Africa as an Impala, a trainer used by our South African Air Force.

We know that the immersion factor works, when real pilots 'bump' in their seats, anticipating touch down. We using real controls & seats within real fusalage with the Impala, the Shack is 95% scale to fit on a trailer.

 

So, that all keeps our simming interest alive!!

 

P.S. Dont knock it, but we use FS9 for the sims, because we have the correct flight models & freeware scenery that FSX does not offer.

 

Regards from Cape Town, South Africa,

Robin

 

Yes, I know it's NOT FSX, but it rekindled my interest in simming.

Hi all, I must admit I was getting very bored with my simming. The usual point to point flying & navigation was starting to become tedious & I was loosing interest, especially as my prefered set of wings are the 'lows 'n slows'.

 

One day, in my internet browing, dont ask how I got there, I found The Ford Tri-Motor Project http://www.ford-tri-motor.net/

The late Garry Smith, (creator of many skins for our planes), created a whole bunch of sceneries for that particular era, with many textures as well, & Ive created a separate sim install just for his sceneries. There are some great projects that he has created, including India & China scenery, as well as a Black Hark project, with hidden runways. His philosophy is that simming should be a combination of Fun, Fact & Fiction. He also has created sloping runways.

 

So, what are we looking for within our hobby? Some look for realism, others, including me, find their fun is in immersion.

 

Yes, my rekindling of my simming interest was because of FS9!!

This really does not make this interest any lessor than that in FSX or any other sim.

 

Oh, by the way, we have built 2x simulators at our club.. an Avro Shackleton, & an MB326 twin seater, known here in South Africa as an Impala, a trainer used by our South African Air Force.

We know that the immersion factor works, when real pilots 'bump' in their seats, anticipating touch down. We using real controls & seats within real fusalage with the Impala, the Shack is 95% scale to fit on a trailer.

 

So, that all keeps our simming interest alive!!

 

P.S. Dont knock it, but we use FS9 for the sims, because we have the correct flight models & freeware scenery that FSX does not offer.

 

Regards from Cape Town, South Africa,

Robin

 

Yes, I know it's NOT FSX, but it rekindled my interest in simming.

 

Why is this posted here? Should be in the FS9 forum.