Steve,
I only fly FS9, and have not bought FSX for a number of reasons really: I'd need to buy a new PC rig since what I've got (desktop and laptop) run FS9 well but likely wouldn't cope with FSX. Mainly though, it's because I almost exclusively fly what our mate Fozzer calls aluminium cigar tubes, and the reality is that whatever sim you fly, the ground textures and all the great low-level stuff just can't be seen at FL350. With all of the autogen turned on and with replacement trees etc etc, even low level can look pretty darn good, so I can do without flocks of birds, herds of wildebeest roaming the veldt etc etc.
Which reminds me: although there's a lot of payware out there that will do a lot for the sim, there's a huge amount of freeware that will do it for you too. The fun is looking! Nothing you can routinely see in my FS9 is original: I have replacement clouds, water, terrain textures; never fly the default planes. Make my own effects, gauges and flight dynamics. That's the fun of it really. John takes the realism to the next level (projector: wow, John! Way to go!) while with me it goes in a different direction, so that actually flying from one place to another only occupies a proportion of the time; the rest is developing, testing and generally fiddling about with what the sim can do, with a standard monitor and joystick.
I have very little payware: PMDG 738/9 and UKScenery London Gatwick is about it, really. So what freeware must you have? The 737 Experience 737-700 is a must (download it from here) if you want a great dynamic virtual cockpit. The plane's a couple of years old now but is still one of the best all-round out-of-the-box freeware planes out there. So good in fact that Project Opensky adapted the DVC (with permission) for use in a couple of their own 737NG models. Other planes: Project Opensky's 777-200 with another superb DVC, and then there's the Overland MD-11 - yes, also with DVC (
http://www.overland.co.jp/japaneseairports/index.html). The latter one is freeware and downloadable from their site. For small planes, I fly the Cessna 150 Aerobat by a French development team (
http://www.fs-tutorials.com/en/down_plane_C150_01.php), which is superb, and only flyable from the VC.
Added to the plethora of environmental texture addons out there, there's one thing that's essential for me: Soft Horizons by John Cillis, which magically transforms that annoying hard line at the FS9 horison into a misty, much more natural transition. Also, the freeware version of FSNavigator (in the utilities section) works as a great moving map and flight planner.
Great hobby, and so many things to keep yourself occupied with. Tonight's flight is in a CRJ700 from Heathrow to Stuttgart (a flight I did in real life this morning!)
Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 720
