Simviation Forums

Goodly evening all...

Had some time so continued with my simulated cross country flight from Friday Harbor in Washington State, United States to Hartley Bay SPB in British Columbia, Canada.

Changed Aircraft during this simulated flight.

Would say I am now half way through the simulated cross country and will perhaps continue later with a different amphibian...

Microsoft Windows 10 Professional and Microsoft FSX Deluxe with Acceleration
FSWC...Flight Sim Water Configurator set to Steve's Favorite Setting
Orbx Scenery: Pacific Northwest and Pacific Fjords
REX Plus Overdrive
Using PLAN-G-V3.14...works great on second monitor
Aerosoft DHC-2 Beaver X
Virtualcol DHC-3 Otter

DHC-2 Beaver Swamping along


Partial Cockpit shot of DHC-3 "Flotter"


The Old Stoneboat out swamping


Pilots port window


Old Stoneboat is in a bank to port


Front office showing visibility from left seat


Comments and Advice most welcome...

Hi, nice photos and nice airplane too.
I love that area. My friend and I and our Wives flew over that area and the Roche Harbor areas a few weeks ago in a Bell 407 Helo. We were married on a Yacht between two Islands out there a few years ago. We fly out there every summer and land at Roche Harbor for lunch/dinner. Love it!
Also got some stick time in a brand new CarbonCub 180hp out there the next day and flew low over the water, gorgeous. I never tire of it. The CarbonCub had a glass panel, AutoPilot, and Synthetic Vision. Times have changed for Cubs!!!
Glad you enjoy Sim-tourism and get some nice flights in with some great airplanes.

Thanks Flacke...

Much appreciated for your reply.

It is a beautiful area however Canada is Beautiful regardless of the Season.
We don't tell folks how nice it is here because they would want to move here.
We keep them thinking this is a land of snow, polar bears and moose and we all wear red flannel long johns all year round...

Finding it difficult to get enthused with a Table Top Flight Simulator so its one of the reasons it takes me so long to complete a simulated cross country.

Hoping one of the sons gets his motion simulator completed this Fall so he can build me one...busy on the C17 Spam Can and also aviates for a major flag carrier.
He needs to get his priorities straight....dear old dad should come first....

The Old Girl and I spend time at several bug smasher fields a week, her with some nattering nannies who fly/flew and me with some old retired rocking chair flying geezers who try to out tell each other with Tall Tales...the more Scotch the taller the tale

Summoning up, being around real aeroplanes at the Old Homestead, the Bug Smasher Fields and being able to get a hour in several different multi-million dollar flight simulators makes it very difficult to sit here and look at two computer screens and visualize aviating.

I am trying to get enthused...I really am...

Hi Doug,

I see you're interested in motion simulators. It might be nice to use but I'm wondering if it's really worth the price.
From my side, I'm more looking at the virtual reality headsets. They are expensive and the current devices have crappy screen resolution, but I keep an eye open for the next generation of these device, which should be more appealing. Now, FSX is not able, most of the time, to produce enough FPS to make these VR headsets work well, but this might change with P3Dv4, we never know.

Concerning your screenshots, well, I can see your personal touch in there. These shots are pretty nice, to say the least. The only things that can be criticized are:
- on that shot in the virtual cockpit (pilot port window), looking at the left window: we can see the lack of quality of the 3D modelling of the door shape too much. The other cockpit shots are fine though.
- on that "bank to port" shot, well, I have to admit it's a bit hard to criticize in fact... but ok, all I can say is that if you are going to put the plane "out of the center" of the picture, it's to show something important or beautiful underneath. In your shot, there's only plain forest under your plane, so it's not so important to show. The exact same shot over a more beautiful area, with some detailled scenery or nice textures/landclass below, would have been perfect

Cheers,
Stephane.

[quote="Flying Trucker"]Thanks Flacke...

Much appreciated for your reply.

It is a beautiful area however Canada is Beautiful regardless of the Season.
We don't tell folks how nice it is here because they would want to move here.
We keep them thinking this is a land of snow, polar bears and moose and we all wear red flannel long johns all year round...

Finding it difficult to get enthused with a Table Top Flight Simulator so its one of the reasons it takes me so long to complete a simulated cross country.

Hoping one of the sons gets his motion simulator completed this Fall so he can build me one...busy on the C17 Spam Can and also aviates for a major flag carrier.
He needs to get his priorities straight....dear old dad should come first....

The Old Girl and I spend time at several bug smasher fields a week, her with some nattering nannies who fly/flew and me with some old retired rocking chair flying geezers who try to out tell each other with Tall Tales...the more Scotch the taller the tale

Summoning up, being around real aeroplanes at the Old Homestead, the Bug Smasher Fields and being able to get a hour in several different multi-million dollar flight simulators makes it very difficult to sit here and look at two computer screens and visualize aviating.

I am trying to get enthused...I really am... [/quote

Hello FT , I had the great good fortune to be born and raised in beautiful Western Canada, so I know of which you speak. My best friend owns an Aviation business in Washington State so that is why I get to fly there often in very interesting aircraft from Helos to Jets. We love that area and go there often as possible.
Your Sons sound great and please keep us updated if the motion Sim project continues.
My Wife and I also visit local airports often to sit and talk Aviation with other Aviators of all types, just as you do.
I would suggest that you get ORBX GLOBAL BASE scenery for FSX, it transforms the whole world, its a "must-have". I currently fly FSX-SE with Orbx Global Base and also ORBX VECTOR plus some ORBX regional scenerys. This scenery on my LG IPS monitor makes flying the world a great daily pleasure. I am a born Aviator and I need to fly every day, sometimes with a good Single Malt in a glass next to the keyboard.
Keep flight simming and updating and you can fly the world anytime to tour and check out new aircraft. Enjoy!

Wonderful reply Flacke...much appreciated

I already have all the ORBX Products you mentioned Installed.

Thinking about Tongass Fjords and the Other ORBX that Links my two ORBX Sceneries and Tongass Fjords.

Don't think I will add much more until our son takes a look at what I have already.

Our problem is we only have one son close enough to see daily if we want, unfortunately he is always away flying his Spam Cans...
(HMMM...wonder if he planned it that way )

Hi Stephane...

Thanks a million for getting back to me so quickly and for your points for me to ponder.

Your PM was also most welcomed AND forgive me for dropping the "e" Off your name...not sure why I did that...

Ok...now back to my Screenshots.

I would like to refer to the banking shot...#5

Most of my simulated flights are low and over the type of terrain that you can see in the shots.

Unless I can navigate over a seaplane base, airport or find a ship on the water (which by the way my sliders are only set to 30 for ships and road traffic...I could bump them up) there is not much too see....
A tree is a tree is a tree if you know what I mean...

That is why I chose the weather I did...to try and make the simulated flight a little more interesting.

Where do you think I should put the Road and Sea Traffic sliders at...60%...65% maybe.

I find the simulated flights go real well with the Frame Rates set to 24.

FSX Deluxe + Acceleration
Windows 10 Professional (x64)
3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-6700
64-bit ready........Multi-core (4 total).......Hyper-threaded (8 total)
5575.78 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
5045.57 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 [Display Adapter]

FSX
Weather set to Custom...60/96...None

Scenery Sliders: LARGE...100...5M...7CM...HIGH 2 X...LAND DETAIL ON

Bilinear and Anti-Aliasing is on and Light Bloom is on

Just a bit of info you might want to see Stephane

You are right Stephane...if I want to make a simulated flight more interesting I got to make the scenery more interesting and the only way I can see doing that is to Increase some Traffic Sliders and when programming a simulated flight find a Route that does not necessarily go Direct from Point A to Point B but Deviates to include some Seaplane or Landplane Airports.

Perhaps planning the simulated flight from Plan-G v3.1.4...think but not sure if FSX will allow me to do that.

Again thanks Stephane...

I have a friend (female) that lives at Sequim, WA. She takes weekend tours all around (when it's not raining - hehe). I always look at anything 'WA' or 'BC'. Nice pics. Daube is an expert and perfectionist: not that there is anything wrong with that (hehe).

Quote: '5575.78 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity, 5045.57 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space'. Boy I sure would like to see a pic of the super tall stack of those jobbies.
Chuck B
Napamule
PS: Let your son help you 'Do The Math?' (ha)

Hello FT, soooo glad you have such a great setup with the Orbx included. You have all you need to have a great flying experience. So just relax, plan some nice flights/trips and enjoy! ya lucky bugger!

Doug, don't worry about the spelling

Concerning the lack of "special" things to show under the plane, I understand your context. In that case, there are three things you can do:
1- Use this angle only when you're reaching your destination. This angle of view is perfect to show the airfield when you're flying over it. This works with your departure place too, in case you fly over it before starting your route.

2- If you're in the middle of nowhere, then I would advise you to "invert" the position of the plane. The same exact shot would have been better if the plane were seating in the lower left corner, instead of the upper-right. In that way, that yellow plane would make a nice contrast with the green forest, and the upper part of the shot could show the horizon and the lakes/rivers.

3- Unless you want to show some specific place (like in my first point above), I would advise you to place the aircraft a little bit less close to the borders of the picture.... Or maybe, get the camera a little bit closer (camera distance, not zoom) so that the plane takes a little bit more space (I said a *little bit* ) on the picture. This also helps when flying over empty areas.

But don't get me wrong, overall your shots are quite great, and I think it's not easy to make them any better than this.

EDIT: one last remark, still about that "tail" shot: it seems to me that you have switched to the "tail" view (with the A key), then you changed the orientation of the camera to "look left", so that the airplane got out of the center of the picture. Am I correct ?
If this is right, then it's a very good technique, but incomplete => Do you notice how the camera is still "in line" with the aircraft ? The tail is still in the center of the plane right ?
I would advise you to "move" the camera on the sides, additionally to orienting it. This is done with these CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER/BACKSPACE or this kind of key combos (I never remember which does what...).
In that specific shot, I would first move the camera to the right, then orientate it to the left. Like this, it would look like we were in another plane. I'll try to find a similar screenshot to show you what I'm talking about

Found one. Notice how the camera is not in line with the plane. It looks like we are seating in another plane, right ?



So, the distance and the plane size in that shot are not as nice as I wanted them to be, but it's just to show the "displaced" camera effect

Good morning Stephane...

Yes you are absolutely correct...I use the "A" Key All the Time...

I see what you mean and shall give it a try.

Much appreciated for your time and everyone else's of course.

Going to see if I can do a Flight Plan using only Plan-G v3.1.4 and then Load it into FSX.

This will make it easier to do a more Scenic Flight if it is possible to Create a Flight Plan in Plan-G and Load it into FSX.

That and your Advice should make a much more Scenic Flight.

Thanks again All...