Getting back in the Air

Hello all, Good Evening and Happy New Years,

Anyways after several years of being out of Flight Sim, I have decided to jump back in the cockpits of the aircraft. Currently I have FS2004 as well as FSX. I ran FS2004 for many years and had many 3rd party utilities running with it. FSX I really didn't get into much as shortly after I purchased it I got out of flight sim for personal reasons.

Anyways I come to you asking you for assistance on which 3rd party utilities I need for both FS2004 as well as FSX to fly online with Vatsim and IVAO. I believe I ran SquawkBox and FSNAV(Registered Copy) and others for FS2004 but not totally 100% Sure.

I know my system is capable of running both as it is a new build(less then a year old) so that I am not worried about at all. I just need some help getting things started here.

Thank you all in advance and looking forward to being in the Friendly skies with some.

Happy New Years!!!!!

Ron S.

When I started to fly in VATSIM I read over EVERYTHING they had on their site so I knew what to expect and not break any rules. You'll want to go to VATSIM's site and there they have information on what software is recommended. I can't remember now what it was people use, but I saw it mentioned there on their site. When I was in VATSIM I used FSInn, but it appears no one uses that anymore in favor of something else. And there was an article here on this site stating VATSIM corrected a CODEC they used for audio which is apparently better.

Here you go. And it looks like they still use FSInn. https://www.vatsim.net/pilots/getting-started

Looks like you may want vPilot for FSX.

CRJ_simpilot,

Thanks for your reply and the info. I pretty much have alot of my old files from years ago but again after being out of the air for so many years I just forgot a lot of info I once had, LOL.

Again thanks and Happy New Years.

Ron S

Ok I have pretty much everything set up for FS9 and FSX, however I went into both Sims and noticed My Saitek X36 (yeah I know its a dinosaur lol) has some issues with stability taking off on the runway, it wants to drift from one side or the other even after calibration. So I am about to purchase another HOTAS and would like others opinions on the following and any problems that may arise with each please. I Will also be picking up a copy of X-Plane as well, so please keep that in mind.

Saitek X52

Saitek X52 Pro

Saitek X56

Or any other HOTAS. I read somewhere that the X56 does not handle X-Plane very well.

Thank you all for your input in advance

I don't know anything about those as I don't use Saitek. I have a CH Products yoke and pedals.

I can tell you I've seen my fair share of issue threads here on this forum with Saitek. Not so many with CH Products. Though, that may be due to Saitek being popular, I don't know.