of course, first you need to have an idea of the shot that you are trying to set up, like this shot:
or any other idea that involves more than one aircraft.
First, fly one of the aircraft that you want to use to the location where you want to take the shot.
This is important if you want to use a certain scenery, if you don't care about scenery, like the pic you want to make, just pick anywhere high.
It is usually best to start with the aircraft that you want in the back of the shot.
A/C in place? Press Y for slew mode. Make sure you don't move (by touching the joystick or anything like that). Start the recorder module and use "record flight" (stay in slew!!!). Your stationary aircraft is now being recorded. You can speed things up by setting "simulation rate" to max. I usually record 1000 seconds like that, gives me enough time to play around with later (though this does not work with the A2A P-47, it will overheat and start burning). Go back to normal speed, stop the recording and save it to your HD, giving it a name so you know which a/c this is.
Still in slew mode, change the aircraft to the next aircraft you want to record. It will be in the same position as the previous one. Now, in the recorder menu, click "play back as traffic", and play your previous recording (still in slew!!). Both aircraft will be in the same place. With the slew functions, move the second a/c to the spot where you want it, relative to the first one. Stop the play back, and record the second a/c same as the first and save.
Repeat everything for the 3rd & 4th aircraft, until you are satisfied with your setup.
Adjust the time and weather to your liking, push the "pause" button, and finally you can come out slew mode and make your shot. Quite often, I will use a last a/c to make a cockpit shot, like in the one below.
Anyway, this way it will look just as if your the best formation flyer in the world, even though you're not. I've also tried it with real formation flying in FS, and failed miserably.
Good luck experimenting, once you get the hang of it, it's real easy.
Jan Kees
p.s. just to make sure, none of the shots should qualify, I'm not on any team, it's either fighters or bombers, or it doesn't show a coastline, and they are a mix of FSX and FS9 shots...
)
