Best DOwnloads and Va's

[308th_stinky]

What are the best downloads? Besides Payware, im supposed to have this game tonight and im getting it installed and having all my planes up.

Does anyone have a VA i could join, Or know any? Im looking.

[ozzy72]

With regard to VAs have a look in our Virtual Airlines, Events and Messages forum
As for downloads, well what kind of planes do you like? And where do you like to fly?

[garymbuska]

Stinky
I sent you a pm on this subject.

[MattNW]

What are the best downloads? Besides Payware, im supposed to have this game tonight and im getting it installed and having all my planes up.

Does anyone have a VA i could join, Or know any? Im looking.

Like Ozzy said it's hard to recommend a download without knowing the types of aircraft you like to fly. There's lots of great freeware aircraft here at SimV. You'd do best just by browsing the download pages.

For aircraft that fit my preferences anything from  Lynn and Bill Lyons is always first rate. They also make a number of unconventional add ons like a 1932 Garwood boat and a Willy's Jeep. You also have to try out their ski guy. Who says you have to fly to have fun in a flight sim.  ;D

I would suggest that you start small and work your way up. You mentioned that you fly with an online fighter group. I had the same background but with a different sim (DID F22 and Jane's F-15) but there's a world of difference between the combat sims and FS 2004. You'd do best learning from the ground up about civil aviation first before trying anything too complex in FS 2004.

Best way to start is to go the route that real life pilots do. Start flying the default Cessnas and go from there to the twin engine props like the Beechcraft Baron then transition into the turbo props before trying to tackle the business jets and then the airliners. It really makes things much easier to do this. You'll also see much more of the sim from the lower perspective. Don't want to miss some of the eye candy M$ has put into FS 2004.  ;D

[rmac]

Try Noble Air it has all the right people and schedules and is very informal .

[vanisher]

Matt said it perfectly.  I played a lot of the Janes games, from F-15 to F/A-18e to some Apache games.

When FS2004 first came out I purchased it and jumped right into jets and downloadable aircraft and got turned off.  I only recently picked it back up and started from scratch, and it is so much more enjoyable.

I did the lessons up to VOR training, then started making my own short flights.  After that I picked up the Baron and am starting to fly between states.

I only started learning more about VOR's when I learned how to use the GPS.

Either way,  In answer to your question about things to download... try out default stuff first, then once you get used to how it looks download some scenery files for airports you fly around most.

[bernadic]

I hardly recommend to follow the previous advises.
To have a look to the freeware stuff, I give you my preferred links for FS2004 aircrafts freeware downloads:

http://www.simviation.com/downloads.html
http://www.avsim.com/
http://www.flightsim.com/
http://www.hangartaborno.com/
http://www.fsnordic.net/
http://www.fsfreeware.com/dcd/
http://www.simnetwork.com/
http://www.francesim.com/
http://www.fs2000.org/

And here is my list of FS2004 aircraft designers and his products:

iFDG: http://www.ifdg.net/