New and Green pilot....hello everyone

[Mistro]

Hello community, I finally got FSX Deluxe yesterday after many years of wanting to get into this series but did not have the rig to run it. As of this post I have not installed acceleration yet. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. Is there anything I need to do or download that does not come in the box? I'm just trying to figure out where to start to get the most out my experience with this sim. So far the game is running well on medium high settings.
But I wonder what will happen once I really start getting deep.
My specs are:

Intel Core Quad CPU
Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz 2.39Ghz.
3.25Gb of RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512mb.
Windows XP pro with SP2

[Rich H]

Looks like you have a good pc. Have you got the Acceleration pack? If not, I would get service pack 1 and 2 from http://www.fsinsider.com/downloads/Pages/default.aspx

[Mistro]

Hi RichardH! Yes I got the deluxe version. Thought I would check out the original game first before installing the acceleration pack. I am about to install it today. I have a couple of questions.
Is there a map view in this game that shows your current position?
And if I were to fly over say Africa in free flight, will I see animals or are animals seen just in the missions?

[Anxyous]

Acceleration isn't included with Deluxe, have you bought Acceleration or FSX Gold?

There's a map indeed, press M during flight to bring it up.

You can also bring up the GPS by pressing SHIFT+3.

Dunno if you'll see animals in free flight, but you will need to have enabled 'Advanced Animations' in graphics to see any animals

Be sure to fly all the tutorials, along with the lessons in the Learning Center

Welcome to the forums!

[Mistro]

Thanks Anxyous! Yes I have the Gold Edition. Sorry for the confusion.

[Rokt]

The first thing I'd do is buy a good CPU cooler and fan and overclock your CPU. The Q6600's are very good overclockers and you will see a noticeable FPS increase in FSX. I have mine running at 3.40Ghz and that's just considered mild.

[anikun07]

Hi Mistro!  I'm like you in the sense that I just starte MS Flight Sim too.  I've been playing for four weeks now and I spend so much time playing.  If you have any questions maybe they're things I've gone through in the last few weeks.

Rokt, can you post a link of a guide to OC my RAM and CPU?  I've been wanting to try and OC but I can only find things that say what values are and not how to actually change them.

Asus P5Q Pro (P45 chipset)
Intel e8400
PC6400, 800MHz DDR2 (2Gb)

[Mistro]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I took off from my local airport (JFK in New York) and just started flying south. I am amazed at the detail as I saw landmarks like the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel as I approached Virginia beach. I figured out how to program in a destination on the GPS and flew to Miami Intl. Airport where I made my first landing (had to circle twice to get a good line up). I had it on auto pilot for a good while as I was over the ocean and took it off as I was 5 minutes away from the airport (not sure if I was supposed to do that). I need more practice at approaching airports as this seams to be my biggest weakness right now. Any good tips? My plan is to stick with this plane (the Airbus) and fly around the Caribbean and back up through the US ultimately ending up back in NY.

[anikun07]

For radio press the `/~ button, it will pull up the ATC tab on screen so you can select which airport you want to land or take off from.  All the choices are listed and you use numbers 1-9 to select and the ATC will respond.

[Mistro]

Thanks anikun07!

Is there a certain flight stick I should get? My old one is not working anymore so I been flying with the mouse. I see a few out there but don't know what to choose. Is more buttons better or does that matter? Thanks again.

[anikun07]

I really like my Saitek x52, I got it from Best Buy for $99 at the same time I bought FSX.  I'm not sure how other brands are but Saitek (at least for the x52) has a program that runs in the background and you can set all your buttons for the game.  You can save the profiles as well so you can have a profile for each game or configuration you want.  For my joystick I really like having to many buttons because it's less I need to use the keyboard.  Eventually I think I'd like to get rudder pedals and possibly the flight yoke and other neat controls for flight sims.  I would say if you're really planning on getting into the game get something you'll like flying.  I recommend getting a flight stick that can twist for rudder control, though.

[Mistro]

Thanks again anikun07!
I made a request to taxi to a gate and they told me to proceed to gate 17. How do I know where to go?....it's a big airport and I don't know what to look for to direct me to the gate.

[anikun07]

Okay..Gate 17?  or Runway 17?  Sometimes there's an option for Taxi Guiding, I forget exactly what it's called but it will show a line of yellow arrows in to direction to go.  Along the airport there are signs along the runways and taxiways that are either marked with a number, like 10-28, which means if you turn left on that runway you'll be on runway 10 and if you turn right you'll be on runway 28.  Taxiways, if I noticed correctly, are marked by letters.  Taxiway "A" will be at the starting end of the runway and taxiways from the runway will just follow, B, C, etc.

The best piece of information I can give anyone who's interested flight is runway numbers.  In the tutorials it's never mentioned, but it may in in the extra lessons (I've not done any of them yet).  The information is that runway numbers are a azimuth, which means that runway number 18 is running 180 degrees and that's due south.  So if you are going to land on runway 18, then you must be coming from the south.  Likewise, since many runways go two directions, the opposite direction will be 360 degrees (0 is not used) and that's runway 36.  This has been the best piece of information for me, especially when dealing with airports.

[Ironhat2]

Thanks anikun07!

Is there a certain flight stick I should get? My old one is not working anymore so I been flying with the mouse. I see a few out there but don't know what to choose. Is more buttons better or does that matter? Thanks again.

The Saitek EVO is simpler than than their more expensive sticks but has 12 buttons and is very good for a begineer or casual flyer that doesn't want to spend a lot of money. Also very important is you can set it up for use with either hand, a  blessing for left handers.

[anikun07]

That could be a good start for you.  I recommend going to a store that sells it and seeing how it feels.  As long as you like it, that's what matters most.