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[crowebird]

Hey cb, I finally got FSX loaded onto my new comp and think I am going to stick with over fs9 finally.  Iv been doing quite a bit of flights in my new Twin Otter DHC-6 in and out of lukla, but if you want to do some flights let me know.

[City Builder]

ok, I'll have to load FSX back up as I never put it on this new computer when I got it.  But I've been staring at my flight yoke sitting under my side desk for several months now giving me that itch to load it back up and get back out there flying.

So, you're finally liking FSX then huh?

[crowebird]

ya when I got my new computer, I loaded it initally, but I also loaded fs9, and was loving how my computer could pump out fs9 full with awesome framerates and never really gave fsx a chance.  I then upgraded win 7 x32 to x64 and decided ill throw on fsx this time around.  So far things have been great with really good fps (granted Iv been doing some tweaking) to get it where I like it.

The environment of fsx just feels more realistic, and the camera effects of fsx feel more natural (granted I have track ir, so I got a little extra advantage).

Overall I just decided to move on.  Ended up upgrading my level-d 767 to fsx for $15, bought lukla a long time ago for $12 [upgrade] (Got when I got fsx becuase I love the challenge and scenery at lukla that I had for fs9 and had to upgrade), then bought the twin otter for $30 (discount if you own lukla), and upgraded fspassengers for $50 -> with that said the money has been put in. (Even though I have put quite a bit into fs9, but i'v started my new investment).

[City Builder]

Cool, think of it as going from VHS to DVD for movies, and having to purchase those movies that you want to keep in DVD.

I'm trying to remember what fspassengers is again?  I'm sure I don't have it as I've only paid for like 2 planes, no wait, that was 2 planes in that other flight sim (can't remember it's name at the moment), so I guess I've never actually bought anything for FS9 or FSX.

[crowebird]

www.fspassengers.com

it simulates passengers in flight, and gives you flight statistics, gives you a company manger, etc.

It brings more realism to the game (especially if you are flying jets), and also allows you to manage funds, pilots and aircraft.  I like it becuase you don't feel like your flying such a lifeless plane (has a bunch of sound files to spurce up those flights), but I also like the collective flight map to see where I have been, how much I have flied, etc.  (It is also cool to see exactly how much fuel you used, and what you touchdown speed was, etc.)

[City Builder]

Thanks for the info, I'm downloading the demo right now to try it out and see if I want/can to shell out the money for it.  It sounds like it would certain spruce up what to me too seems like a lifeless plane at times.

I think finances has been one thing that has been severely missing in the FS games/sims, and something that might add some real interest and or challenge to me.

I'm going to try to dig out FSX and see where the heck I might have put it, Im hoping its in my main game box and try to get it all installed tonight, maybe try to take a flight as to me it can be relaxing at times and after playing EVE and being embroiled in multiple wars I'm ready for some relaxation right about now.

[City Builder]

I found the disks, resintalled FSX and Accelleration, and Fspassengers and gave it a try.

I created a new company and pilot and bought the (I want to say it's called a beaver but I just can't remember) plane that I was using and loaded up my 2 passengers in KSFO (San Francisco, since that's the only starting airport the demo will allow) to fly down to KPSP.  After what I think was several hours on auto pilot, and responding once in a while to calls from ATC, I must have fallen asleep and crashed somewhere because I woke up to a fspassenger screen informing me that I had indeed crashed.

The funny thing about it though, is that during those couple hours of flying, I kept thinking to myself, that taking off is a breeze, the hard part is the landing (since I usually miss the runway) and that I'd likely fly those 400Nm or so and crash and burn on the runway of KPSP.  Unfortunately didn't have the chance to do so myself, and I'm guessing I either crashed into a mountainside since I was only at 8,000 feet and Mt San Jacinto is higher than that near Palm Springs, or I kept flying on auto pilot until I ran out of fuel.

Anyway, I had some fun playing around, and realize I seriously need to work on my take off, landings, and keeping the plane at altitude without using the AP.  For the life of me I can't seem to keep at one steady altitude, if I choose 8,000 feet, I'm bouncing around between 7,000 and 9,000 feet when manually controlling the plane, it's constantly correction of the flight yoke and makes me wonder if my yoke is just worn out that I have to constantly correct to keep at one altitude.  Auto Pilot works a treat though and stays rock solid at the altitude I choose.

[crowebird]

lol, I have fallen asleep at the pilots seat before, luckily I didn't crash, but the funny part is I was online doing live atc, I think I was at about 30,000 ft and my controller had called me about 15 times :P I finally snapped out of it an woke up and realized what happened.  Everyone still online had a good laugh (about 1 in the morning at that time), and the atc gave me a new route to make up for about the 100nm I missed.

As far as not being able to stay level w/out autopilot, trim is your friend.  Once at cruise, pull back the throttle to cruise, about 80-90% (other factors invloved based on the plane, but you don't need/want full power), then level off with the yoke and see where the plane tries to take itself, use trim to correct it.  You still might drifit a little, but you won't be drifing by 1000 ft, as when you notice the drife you can apply a little elevator, or re-trim.

Also note (have read) that FSX is more sensitive at control inputs, so it may be helpful to mess with sensitivity and/or null zones (have not actually done this myself).  As far as working on landings and stuff goes, I think FSX implemented the ability to have two people fly together, I could help you out, or show you a traffic pattern in a cessna.

It is all practice, a few days ago after finally getting the 767 reinstalled, I decided to take it for a test run, and realized I forgot how to control the beast as far as dealing the the fmc and autopilot, messed up my descent and approach and as a result was way to fast and high and decided to do a go around (but it was getting late and I was too impatient to take about the 5-15 minutes it was going to take to setup properly for another go, and ended up doing a sharp illegal turn and ended up stalling [but recovered], and blew a tire on landing), needless to say fspassengers and my passengers were not happy with me).

[City Builder]

, it seems that my fs passengers were rarely happy with me last night, and I bet they were downright pissed off for crashing.  Out of the two passengers, one kept his seatbelt on the entire time, the other one would put it on and off for no apparent reason and both were mad that I hadn't turned on the "turn on seatbelt light" before taking off.  I didn't even realize that my small plane has a seatbelt warning light to be turned on.

I've heard that fspassenger is the cause of the blown tires upon landing and that it's a bit too sensitive, read in the avsim forum that some people just turn off that option, I'm sure had I tried to land I'd have blown both tires and crashed into another plane or building.

I will likely take you up on the offer to fly with me like we did once before to try to get reoriented with FSX and landing again very very soon.  Hell I'm still trying to figure out the whole taxi thing when taking off, usually I just annouce to ATC that I'm going straight out so that I don't have to try to figure out where the run way is that they want me to use.

Theres a lot to this FSX that I haven't a clue about, I can certainly take off in almost all the planes that I've got (other than a few that are just whacked and will go into a total straight up verticle position when pulling even a milimeter on the yoke) and can usually manage to get to altitude (will work on maintaining it with the trim, thanks).  Sometimes ATC asks me to go to an altitude that just seems impossible and then complains that I'm not getting there fast enough.  I don't know if it's something I've set wrong when making my flight plan or if the sim is just whacked.  They wanted me to initially go to 15k feet last night but there was no way my plane would ge to that altitude in the amount of time they wanted me to do so, I finally convinced them to lower the altitude by 7k feet after several requests to do so.  But I've been in a cesna too and they demand that I go to 15k feet (or there abouts) and then complain wildly that I'm not getting there fast enough, yet even at full power and only 10° climb it would take an hour to get to 15k feet in the little plane I was in that time.  Don't know what's up with this.

Let me ask you, when you are on a long flight, let's say a flight that takes like 2 hours or more, do you just go to auto pilot once you are up at altitude and on the right heading, or do you usually fly manually the entire time?

I really should stick to one plane and totally get to knowing that plane as more times than not I'm spending a huge amount of time trying to find the right buttons to press, or looking in the kneeboard to see what shortcut keys I have to press on the keyboard to do certain things in the plane, I really need to get to know one plane solid so that I can fly it inside and out.

Do you have any suggestions on what plane to get to use in fspassenger that is a commercial jet?  I don't know that I'll purchase fspassenger as it might be a bit steep priced for how much I use my flight sim, BUT, I've also read last night about something named Air Hauler which seems to be a competitor to Fspassenger, other than fspassenger deals with passengers and hauler deals with cargo.  Do you have any experience in that hauler program?  I've read that the financial part of it is superior to fspassenger so if I do end up spending any money on this I'd like to get the one that is most full featured and semi-realistic for me to tinker with.

Thanks,

[crowebird]

Ya I have heard of air hauler, but I was more into the whole passenger thing, but I guess air hauler has a really good finical aspect which could be interseting.  You will have to find some reviews though becuase I have not tried it or looked into it with the thought "I might buy this" (with that said, there is also xpax by hifi sim, but most people say it does not stand up to fsp, and it has to be run as a seperate application).

if you are doing an ifr flight, which you choose via the create route, you are actually setting the cruise altitude, if you click the map route, there is an option to choose the altitude, and it usually defaults between 9000ft and 22000 ft depending if you choose low altitude, high, vor, direct, etc.  I usually change it becuase it is never good for the situation and atc does not really know what type of airplane you are flying, hence the whole go to 15000' and your not fast enough (and above about 12500' you are going to die in a cessna becuase odds are it is not pressurized - guess atc does not care about that one :P).

On a long flight I use autopilot, I rarely do a flight without autopilot, unless I am just going for some fun short hops.  As far as when to use autopilot, in the 767 you pretty much use autopilot from the time you are on the ground (setting it up) and engage it at about 400' agl.  Thing about autopilot with this bird, is the whole route is preplanned and the computer does most of the flying. (Hell that airplane can land itself as long as you have everything set up right).

As far as big jets go, the 767 is the only jumbo jet I have bought, so can't really give recommendations to others (but if you want to tackel that world and give you hours and hours of experience, I highly recommend it, you would learn a lot! www.leveldsim.com).

--

also as far as the whole taxi and takeoff thing, the whole fly straight out, north south, east, west is your direction relative to the airport when taking off.
If you are taking off rwy 27, fly straight out is pretty much the same as west departure.  ATC has the option of progressive taxi which will lay the route to the runway for you.  But the markers on
the side of the taxiway will lead you in the right direction.  But learning what "Take taxiway alpha, bravo, victor" means will take some time, and you have to know in what general direction
you are heading to get going the right way (becuase they dont say turn left on alpha and make a right on bravo)).