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Old 02-03-2008, 05:06 PM   #6
1:200Freak
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Toronto
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Default Re: Questions re Flight Sims

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bangkok Lady La View Post
Howdy
I am interested in getting into Flight Sim X but I have no idea what I am really getting myself into thus my post here....
Can anyone who may dabble in this form of armchair flying be able to give me some advice on the following :
1> Whats the best flight sim to fly Widebody style jets ?
2> How do add on's work ?
3> Are there adequate instructions included to effectively learn how to fly say a 747-400 ?
4> Any other helpful info....
Please remember I've never dabbled in pc sim games so treat me stupid ()
Thanks
Get ready to travel around the world to places you've never been to, and view some of the best landing and take off views you may never have seen before. Fly along the Golden gate bridge, view the CN Tower after departing Toronto, and fly over Manhattan on your way to La Guardia, to name a few!!
I've flown FS2002 for a long time, took too much space on my computer and eventually got tired of cruising at FL390 with nothing much to do (that is what the autopilot is there for )

To answer your questions
1. Try out AVSIM Online - Flight Simulation, Flightsim, flight sim, flight simulator, fsx, fs10 and FlightSim.Com. They have new planes almost every week, and I happened to check one of them yesterday and they have the new Etihad Formula 1 plane...Very nice! I believe the FS2004 (I hope I'm getting my FS numbers right as it's been a while since I used it) has got better clouds, more dramatic sceneries etc. MelJet.Com Version 4.0 is another great site with incredible Boeing 777 family and 744s!

2. Add on's are very simple. You download the file like the Etihad above, extract it to your aircraft folder in FS2002 and then use it to fly. There are other sites that have more complicated aircraft, right down from starting them as you would on a normal jet, to shutting the engines down after reaching the gate...Too complicated for me...When I got the hang of what was needed to get the plane off the ground, fly it to my destination and land it hopefully on the runway, it was good enough for me.
Some sites have just textures where you don't need to download the plane all the time. You just add the textures to the main files and before you know it you have liveries of say EK, SQ, TG and EY for your Airbus A340-500. You will need to download the main aircraft just once.

3. Adequate instructions to take off a 747-400. Yup if you want to read those complicated manuals like I mentioned above, or if you are prepared to belly flop a couple of times before you learn what it takes to keep the plane up after you take off, speed, flaps, rate of climb, thrust etc and then land her back down to terra firma!

4. Flying camera, an add on to any FS game is a must! With this you can change the normal settings of what you see say from the cockpit views to window views, to views that actually make you feel you are sitting on the last seat on the plane. Love those views when flying jets with winglets, like the 744, Airbus A34s and A33s. Some Boeing 737-800s too...like Westjet!!
Fly your plane as you normally would, take off, cruise, land, hopefully with a short hop unrealistically flying a 747-400 from Osaka (Itami, is it) to Osaka Kansai and then use the replay action, can't recall what it's called and view the whole thing over and over again. What's more with the Flying camera and the tower view, you can actually move the tower views to say just close to the touchdown zone (so you can see the rubber burn as it slams down on the runway!!) , or a distance away to see the touchdown and taxi to the terminal. It's so real and I'm not even as good as those guys that have complete videos of these on the net.

5.With all those realistic sceneries out there, LAX, SYD, LAS (the most amazing one yet), JFK, DXB, HKG you going to have to get a really fast computer to get a real time view.
An example I never flew from Skardu to Gilgit in Pakistan, but with FS I got a wonderful sense of what it would be. Hey you get to choose the time of day you fly, dawn, dusk; choose the weather conditions you want to fly in, cloudy, clear, thunderstorm...The possiblities are endless...And the views well just so amazing!

Happy Flying Captain!!

Last edited by 1:200Freak; 02-03-2008 at 05:10 PM.
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