Microsoft Flight Sim?

[Scrub206]

anyone have this? thoughts?

i  recently finished my eyefinity set up (pic: https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d178/Scrub206/asdfasdf.jpg (sexy wexy imo)) and ive been playing WoW on it and it looks absolutly phenominal. and thats really the only game i play atm that fully supports eyefinity. League of legends does kinda. but its not FULLY supported.

anywho i figured playing flight sim would be a lot of fun on the pc, especially with my eyefinity set up. anyone here have any thoughts about the game? or alternatives? and what about pricing? do you have the flight stick and the pedals and all?

[ReaperKK]

It's fun, but it's hard when trying to do things properly.

I'd just get the game and start with the lessons and take it from there. When you get serious you can file flight plans with https://www.vatsim.net/

I've been siming for some time let me know if you have questions.

[Scrub206]

Do you own the controllers and foot pedal things? if so how much were they? and that virtual flight control thing looks cool as hell ill look into that more :O

[ReaperKK]

Yes, I have rudders, flight yoke, and flight switch panel. I got it for about $300 bucks but if I were you I'd practice with the mouse and see if you like it.

[El Barto]

Into it off and on since the original.  FSX is very good.  Don't know where you are, but you can obtain photo-realistic scenery packs (essentially Google Earth embedded into it) for a lot of regions which really improve it a great deal.  Without those, the auto-generated scenery is lacking.  They got all the major roads and buildings right,  and the airports are fantastic,  but everything in between is pretty generic. 

https://www.megascenery.com/

I owned a decent stick and rudder pedals a long while back, but it was mainly for Warbirds.  Honestly, I wouldn't bother with them for FSX.  You really only use the pedals to make your turns a little cleaner, so they're hardly necessary.  The stick is nice, but you'll spend 90% of your flight on autopilot, so it's really only useful during takeoff and landings.  An actual throttle would probably be more useful.  I use a 360 controller and it's been fine. 

If I had three monitors (actually on my desk, that is), I might use them all for the view, but I've found that there's a ton of stuff that you want to have open and I use the second monitor for that.  Radio stack,  kneeboard, chart, nav stuff, etc.  That saves you from having to constantly pause and move windows around to answer radio calls or find out where the hell you are.

All in all, it's a good hobby.  Radio navigation is a fascinating thing.  When you plan out a long flight and wind up right where you wanted to be 1000 miles later, it's pretty rewarding.  I'll set it up so that the destination airport is completely socked in, which makes it all the more interesting when you don't know if you're going to land or crash until the runway just up and appears out of the fog a mile ahead of you. 

[kartmaze2]

Nice setup you've got there.

I've also played MS Flight Sim X a bit, though only on my laptop. I use a Saitek Cyborg Evo Force joystick with yaw in a third axis on the stick and a throttle lever on the foot. Works great (superior to mouse and keyboard), but would probably not recommend it in preference to the gear that ReaperKK has (except for the price).

Really cool when you learn to use all the instruments and navigation systems and then go on adventures in the Caribbean or Himalaya.
And, as ReaperKK said, the lessons are really smart to go through first. Some of the missions are pretty cool too, and may give you a challenge in various difficulty.

[MetalMike06]

I've always thought about making a thread on this, but didn't think there was anybody else into flight simming. It is quite an avid hobby of mine - I sim almost every day if I have the free time.

I have lot of payware addons as well - a couple planes but a LOT of scenery enhancements. FSGlobal, Ultimate Terrain (Europe and NA), Ground Environment X Europe and North America, Fscene for the rest of the world (they recently had a pretty big sale - like $20 for all the regions together), and ORBX Pacific Northwest, and Orbx Australia (the whole continent). I also have a couple Carenado aircraft as well as the CLS MD-80. Plus MyTraffic X, and Real Environment Xtreme. This summer since I'll be working full time I'm hoping save up for track IR, Matrox + two more monitors, and maybe a rudder and yoke. Right now I just use a Logitech joystick.

It's kinda crazy when I go back and think about just how much money I've poured into simming over time, but hey, it's a very fun hobby.

Though I've never been much into photorealistic scenery. It's alright when you're above 10,000 feet looking down but it kind of kills the immersive effect when you're coming in for landing and you're basically just flying over a flat picture.


Also, any of you guys fly on VATSIM? I've been meaning to but I have yet to fully grasp the necessary stuff I'm not used to doing a whole lot like SIDs and STARs.

All in all, it's a good hobby.  Radio navigation is a fascinating thing.  When you plan out a long flight and wind up right where you wanted to be 1000 miles later, it's pretty rewarding.  

How exactly do you plan out a flight this way? (Yeah, probably a bit of a loaded question). It sounds really cool. Normally I just use the default FSX planner to automatically generate a plan for me.

BTW, I recently actaually started trying to make some FSX videos. Here's one of a 737 Athens approach/landing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6uCR483iY&feature=channel_video_title

[Scrub206]

Weird, i guess its more of a hobby then a game :O im deffinatly going to check more into this. sounds like a lot of fun.

edit: also im getting one more monitor for viewing temps and what not. i guess i can use that for all the navigation stuff?

[MetalMike06]

Yeah, I mean it's not totally necessary if you already have three monitors, but hey why not.

Overall, it's pretty fun, but it can be expensive. There's a lot of great addons out there that make the experience way more immersive, but also check out avsim.com - they have a file library full of freeware addons and a lot of them can be quite good. Some similar sites to check out - flightsim.com and simviation.com.

[El Barto]

Definitely more hobby than game.  My experience is that you spend a helluva lot of time planning.  A very lazy five minutes taking off and heading in the right direction.  Another helluva long time watching your instruments and using the AP to make minor corrections.  Then 5 minutes of insane action trying to land with a ton of things coming at you at once.  You'll spend hours doing very little and then a few minutes doing more than you can handle.  I'll still fly 500 miles only to slam right the fuck into a field 500' short of the runway sometimes.  

All in all, it's a good hobby.  Radio navigation is a fascinating thing.  When you plan out a long flight and wind up right where you wanted to be 1000 miles later, it's pretty rewarding.  

How exactly do you plan out a flight this way? (Yeah, probably a bit of a loaded question). It sounds really cool. Normally I just use the default FSX planner to automatically generate a plan for me.

BTW, I recently actaually started trying to make some FSX videos. Here's one of a 737 Athens approach/landing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6uCR483iY&feature=channel_video_title

I fly VFR with nav-aids.  If I'm lazy I'll let the planner sort out the VORs, and if I'm feeling adventurous I'll find them myself with online charts.  You can switch to IFR mid-flight via the radio, so if I've set the weather to dense fog at the arrival city, I'll call for an IFR flight plan once I get pretty close and have them vector me around to the instrument approach.  Instrument approaches are the most fun you can have with the thing.  You really scramble to try and set yourself up as good as possible, and then the runway just pops out of the fog and you find out if you'll land smoothly or crash all over terminal D.  

Also, any of you guys fly on VATSIM? I've been meaning to but I have yet to fully grasp the necessary stuff I'm not used to doing a whole lot like SIDs and STARs.

Not familiar with VATSIM.  You can find charts for SIDs and STARs online pretty easily, so I've practiced them a bit.  SIDs are pretty straight forward and add a lot to the normal VFR departure.  STARs tend to be pretty overwhelming.  If you had an actual co-pilot managing the details it'd be a lot easier.  Trying to follow a maze of VORs while tuning new ones on the radio stack, watching the clock for your durations, answering that asshole in the tower,  maintaining the right altitude, and not crashing is a real bitch.

And that's definitely true about the photo-packs.  They look pretty crappy below 3k feet.  I prefer flying at night, so it's never really a problem for me.  The Megascenery folks incorporated very realistic city lighting based on the maps, so while daytime flying is kind of a neat bell and whistle, nighttime flying is damned realistic.  

One of the most amusing things I've found about FSX is that ATC really blows.  I usually fly the Cessna or the MB, and I'll often barge my way into major airports.  The tower guys will give you your clearance, and 10 seconds later you'll hear "Orbit 320 heavy, follow the Cessna on final and cleared to land."  Before you can even say OH SHIT, you hear an Airbus flying right over the top of you.  I haven't gotten hit yet, but only because I'm not very good at maintaining the glidepath.  

[PowerSlave]

You guys ever mess with the microsoft combat flight sims?

[Sigz]

You guys ever mess with the microsoft combat flight sims?

Never played them, or the MFS for that matter, but I used to be really into some other ones, mainly Falcon 4.0 and Jane's USAF and WW2 Fighters.

[jasc15]

As a pilot, I felt I must post here.  I've never messed with a sim, but I've considered it since I started flight training.  As far as its utility for real world practice, I've heard mixed opinions from instructors and pilots.  I can certainly see its usefulness in learning procedures and maybe some navigation (El Barto mentioned VORs, and since I've never met a non pilot who knew what they were, i guess it can be quite useful in learning).  I am VFR only, and a major part of flying is by feel, so I can't see a sim helping in that regard.  Either way it looks like fun, but any of my money spent on a sim can be spent in the air.

[El Barto]

You guys ever mess with the microsoft combat flight sims?

Nope.  As I mentioned earlier I was into Warbirds for a while.  Great idea, though I never got into the MMORPG side of it.  When it's stripped down so that you're only dealing with flight and not tons of avionics it's a real hoot.  As for the modern military ones, I've owned quite a few.  Most of them are too video-gamey.  The only one that really stood out was a B-52 sim. 

[MetalMike06]

All in all, it's a good hobby.  Radio navigation is a fascinating thing.  When you plan out a long flight and wind up right where you wanted to be 1000 miles later, it's pretty rewarding.  

How exactly do you plan out a flight this way? (Yeah, probably a bit of a loaded question). It sounds really cool. Normally I just use the default FSX planner to automatically generate a plan for me.

BTW, I recently actaually started trying to make some FSX videos. Here's one of a 737 Athens approach/landing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6uCR483iY&feature=channel_video_title

I fly VFR with nav-aids.  If I'm lazy I'll let the planner sort out the VORs, and if I'm feeling adventurous I'll find them myself with online charts.  You can switch to IFR mid-flight via the radio, so if I've set the weather to dense fog at the arrival city, I'll call for an IFR flight plan once I get pretty close and have them vector me around to the instrument approach.  Instrument approaches are the most fun you can have with the thing.  You really scramble to try and set yourself up as good as possible, and then the runway just pops out of the fog and you find out if you'll land smoothly or crash all over terminal D.  

Ah okay, so you basically just plan out the VORs you wanna take to your destination, and retune your nav radio and change heading every time you pass a VOR until eventually you end up approaching your destination? I assume you don't simply load them into the GPS and let the autopilot follow the path (that would pretty much be IFR, wouldn't it?)

I'll have to give that a try. Sounds more interesting.

Also in case you were wondering, vatsim is an online FS network - all humans of course, so you wouldn't have to worry about AI ATC.

I know there is also an addon program out there called "Radar Contact" that makes the FSX ATC waaay better - adds new voices, more elaborate procedures, etc.

[El Barto]

I've never even used the GPS in FSX.  In fact, learning how to use that new-fangled multi-display is one of the things I was meaning to do.  It seems like flying with GPS would be about like flying IFR, which just isn't very interesting.  I already know I can follow directions from ATC.  I like to actually have to find my own way.  I'll chart everything out on my own and only call for a flight plan at the very end, and only then so I can get a nice approach to the ILS.

Ah okay, so you basically just plan out the VORs you wanna take to your destination, and retune your nav radio and change heading every time you pass a VOR until eventually you end up approaching your destination?

Technically, you don't have to actually fly to a VOR.  If there isn't one directly on your flight path you can use an intercept.  Fly towards X until you cross the radial of Y and turn into that one.  You could do the same thing with DME.  Turn away X miles from the VOR itself.  Unfortunately, I haven't found online charts that'll facilitate that.  You really need a paper map that you can draw lines on to do that sort of thing, and I'm not that gung-ho about it.  I'd love to find a free site that allows that, but I haven't yet.

I might check out Radar Contact.  It'd be cool to have to do some more complex stuff, but honestly, I doubt I'd manage it.  I understand how holds and STARs work, but actually trying to do all of that without a copilot is a nightmare.  Hell, just having somebody to work the stopwatch would make all the difference.

Edit:  It's also worth noting that once I started simming again about a year ago, my last couple of real-world flights have been much more interesting.  I fly mainly fly out of huge airports, and only fly AA.  I had just kind of assumed that all airliners fly strictly IFR and only make instrument approaches.  Flying AA into ABQ back in August, we flew a standard approach in, which I could follow pretty well from my side of the plane.  It was neat to actually be able to follow along with the airport in sight.  Flying home to DFW, you make so many turns that you never have any idea where you are.