Anybody else into Flight Simming?

[Glengoyne]

I got started last year, and am really having a good time. My father-in-law got FS2004, and I went from watching over his shoulder to buying a copy of my own. I've since gone completely overboard downloading and buying add-on scenery and planes. Not to mention the GB of space on my computer all of the free downloads that are available are occupying.

I really enjoy the navigation aspect of the "game." It really isn't easy to navigate through a mountain pass in limited visibility and a 20 knot cross wind.

I've discovered that a lot of the folks here share my tastes in games(I know what else should I expect from a forum dedicated to text based sports simulations), so I figured I'd ask if anyone else was trying to balance a career as a college basketball coach or professional soccer coach with a few cross country hops a week.

[Eaglesfan27]

I got started last year, and am really having a good time. My father-in-law got FS2004, and I went from watching over his shoulder to buying a copy of my own. I've since gone completely overboard downloading and buying add-on scenery and planes. Not to mention the GB of space on my computer all of the free downloads that are available are occupying.

I really enjoy the navigation aspect of the "game." It really isn't easy to navigate through a mountain pass in limited visibility and a 20 knot cross wind.

I've discovered that a lot of the folks here share my tastes in games(I know what else should I expect from a forum dedicated to text based sports simulations), so I figured I'd ask if anyone else was trying to balance a career as a college basketball coach or professional soccer coach with a few cross country hops a week.
3 or 4 years ago, I used to play the latest incarnation of Microsoft's FS, but I haven't played in years. This is something I could see myself getting back into sometime in the future. I've read great things about the latest version of FS.

[EagleFan]

I run hot and cold on it. Mostly cold now with a 2 and 5 year old running around the house. It was starting to get fun setting up longer flights over scenic areas of the country/world. Just not enough time to do it now.

[vex]

I haven't played FS since the late 90's, but reading this makes me think I'll give it a try soon.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I don't want to sound like I'm shitting on the idea (because I don't mean to), but what is the appeal of flight simulators? Is the scenery realistic? I mean, if you fly over Dallas, for instance, does it really look like Dallas? Does part of the fun come from the challenge of keeping the plane going safely? Are there "missions" like getting a flight to a particular destination within a certain time frame?

I haven't played a flight simulator in a loooooong time, and I can't remember what's fun about them. I would absolutely love to try to get into them, but I would like to know what I'd be getting into first. :)

[Eaglesfan27]

I don't want to sound like I'm shitting on the idea (because I don't mean to), but what is the appeal of flight simulators? Is the scenery realistic? I mean, if you fly over Dallas, for instance, does it really look like Dallas? Does part of the fun come from the challenge of keeping the plane going safely? Are there "missions" like getting a flight to a particular destination within a certain time frame?

I haven't played a flight simulator in a loooooong time, and I can't remember what's fun about them. I would absolutely love to try to get into them, but I would like to know what I'd be getting into first. :)

I can't speak for anyone else, but from what I remember when I last played, the scenery wasn't that good but it was decent. The appeal for me was that it was a "relaxing" game. There was no goal specifically when I played it. It was just about taking off smoothly, flying around, and landing. It was very de-stressing for me. I rarely tried to fly into stressful situations. It was odd, but I found it quite enjoyable.

[PilotMan]

:)

I enjoyed it back in the day, but after the real thing, it was hard to get into it. The fun has to be the desire to fly airplanes when you don't have a liscense or are getting it. The navigation aspect is great, as is the great variety of aircraft to fly. I think that you either are going to like it or not. I am sure that there are a number of people who find it boring. Like I said, after the real thing, the game version is lost on me.

[Glengoyne]

I haven't played FS since the late 90's, but reading this makes me think I'll give it a try soon.Things have really changed since '98. If you have even a remotely high end system you can really get some impressive scenery. There are add-ons that make the sky, clouds, water, coastlines, and just about everything else look more realistic. I've done a bunch with just freely downloadable stuff, but some of the screen shots I've seen are pretty darned impressive.

I'm not so much into jets...I have enough trouble managing the little prop jobs.

[Glengoyne]

I don't want to sound like I'm shitting on the idea (because I don't mean to), but what is the appeal of flight simulators? Is the scenery realistic? I mean, if you fly over Dallas, for instance, does it really look like Dallas? Does part of the fun come from the challenge of keeping the plane going safely? Are there "missions" like getting a flight to a particular destination within a certain time frame?

I haven't played a flight simulator in a loooooong time, and I can't remember what's fun about them. I would absolutely love to try to get into them, but I would like to know what I'd be getting into first. :)As for missions. Well you can download scenarios off the net or even buy a few of them. For the most part, I make my own. I decide I want to fly from say Fresno to Las Vegas. I design a flight plan...and really you can be as complicated or as realistic as you want. I usually use actual instrument departure and arrival plans(SIDS and STARS) flying from Nav point to Nav point. Some of the aircraft have really sophisticated navigational suites, that take quite a bit of time to even start to delve into. You can also just go flying with Visual rules...Set the weather to fair and sunny with no wind, and go to town. You can vary the type of plane as well. Flying from Fresno to Vegas in a plane with a 30,000 foot ceiling is different than flying a piper cub through the mountain passes.

As for scenery. Most cities are generated randomly based on landclass files. Someone has gone and determined the landclass of every square kilometer on earth, and then the computer simulates reasonable terrain based on that model. You can buy ,for $25-$30, photorealistic scenery of regions..Northern CA(Bay Area), Southern CA(Los Angeles/San Diego), New York, Seatle, and others. The photorealistic scenery will give you real life landmarks, and are acurate geographically to 9m(instead of the default 1km squares).

I've seen screen shots where you are hard pressed to determine if it was a real photo or from within the Sim.

Regarding Missions...there a lots of people who are very much into this. You can fly for a virtual airline(real people who actually generate routes and trips to keep you and many others busy. Some of them simulate passenger routes, other cargo. You can work your way up from flying charters or Cargo to a typical air liner. You can head to Alaska... there are some great scenery add-ons for Alaska.. and try your hand at being a bush pilot.


You can make with it what you want to.

[WSUCougar]

I used to fly a lot of combat flight sims. I still own a few, IL-2 being the best, but have a hard time staying "into it" because of the time commitment.

[gstelmack]

If you don't know the appeal of flight sims, then you've never been in a 20-bomber formation (all human crews) being escorted by 50 friendly fighters (all human pilots) on a deep strike into enemy territory just waiting for the 50 interceptors (all human pilots) to find your formation...

I miss the days when I had time to fly in Air Warrior and Aces High scenarios...

Now I'm "stuck" flying Falcon 4: Allied Force, although I may have to try out the Aces High Combat Tour when it finally releases.

Or in other words, I've been flight simming for something like 25 years (F-15 Strike Eagle from Microprose on the old Commodore-64 was my first I think).

[Wolfpack]

As for scenery. Most cities are generated randomly based on landclass files. Someone has gone and determined the landclass of every square kilometer on earth, and then the computer simulates reasonable terrain based on that model. You can buy ,for $25-$30, photorealistic scenery of regions..Northern CA(Bay Area), Southern CA(Los Angeles/San Diego), New York, Seatle, and others. The photorealistic scenery will give you real life landmarks, and are acurate geographically to 9m(instead of the default 1km squares).


The scenery is generic for a lot of cities, but they do have a lot of city scenery built in that is accurate. I can fly over Detroit and see the Ren Center and several other downtown buildings with the default installation. Granted, this sort of detail is only available for the most well-known cities around the world, i.e. you'll see the Sydney Opera House down in Australia or the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor with the Manhattan skyline nearby, but go to Raleigh and you'll be greeted with generic buildings all over the place. I think they do try to locate certain buildings and give accurate heights, but it's still a generic building rather than one you'd recognize.

I've seen the high end scenery and it's quality stuff for sure, but I don't have the resources to plow into it (monetarily or machine-wise) to make it worthwhile. I don't have a whole lot of time in my evenings anymore, so it makes it very difficult to get into this sort of time-intensive hobby. I do enjoy it when I actually have gotten to fly around some, but I haven't done it in quite some time now.

[cartman]

I haven't loaded up FS since before I started my current job. I have the full on USB yoke and pedals set, but I didn't bring them overseas with me. I might have to go find the box they are in and break em out again. I now also have a dual monitor setup, something I could only dream about having back when I was actively playing.

Back when I was a kid, we had Bruce Artwick's SubLogic Flight Simulator for our TRS-80. We thought that was the most awesome things at the time. :D

[Tekneek]

I've played with MSFS 2002/2004 a lot, even have a USB yoke and rudder pedals. I've been wishing I could find the time to fly around the world in a Cessna Caravan. I spend most of my time in the game flying a 172 around the Atlanta area. Having the yoke and pedals also gives my 5 year old a chance to play with it, but he just enjoys finding new ways to crash the planes.

I used to play all the old ones back in the Commodore days, but only had FS5 until I got back into it with FS2002.

One add-on that I consider crucial has been the packages from ProjectAI. It puts in real world airlines with realistic timetables/schedules (ie, lots of Delta in Atlanta, lots of Air Canada in Toronto, etc).

[cartman]

This thread got me curious as to when the next version is going to come out. Evidently it is coming at the end of the year, and will be called "Fight Simulator X", as in the 10th version. It will incorporate DirectX10 and might also only be compatible with the upcoming release of Windows Vista. The screenshots released so far look awesome!

hxxp://www.fs2004.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7

[Groundhog]

How long until a flight sim incorporates Google Earth?

[vtbub]

I love flying VFR, bought my first payware plane, the Dreamfleet Beech Baron 58.

[EagleFan]

Damn you!!! I've been up the past few hours (too late since I need to go to work in the morning) flyinf a Lear jet aruond. (Did a Niagra scenic tour with a Cesna earlier)

Did learn that I need to pay closr attention to the airports that I plan to land at (a Lear Jet needs a little more room than a Cesna) ;)

Oh, and how dare they tell me I can't land when I've finally lined up the runway right... ;)