MS Flight Sim Preferences?

[Fozzer]

Hello Flight Sim Pilots!... 8-)..!

I don't know why it is, (I probably do... ...!), but every now and again, (like just now), I fire up my copy of FSX, (which, like all my other MS Flight Sims since FS '98, I purchased as soon as they were released), ......and quickly get disappointed.... ..!

It just doesn't instil the same sort of "magic" that my FS 2004 does with all its multitude of gorgeous payware (many no longer available), and freeware add-ons, and its fully comprehensive Menu System, etc.

....after FS '98, and FS 2000, and FS 2002, something different happened between the fabulous FS 2004 and the new (at the time) FSX... ...!
The excitement, for me, diminished with the birth of FSX... ...!

Some of it may have been due to the inadequacy of my hardware at the time, the various fights and arguments over it, etc, but something else also disappeared. The new Sim suddenly became....unfamiliar!...and no longer became an "upgrade" to an old friend!... ..!

So, there you go, Chums, and Chumesses....

Does anyone else, owning all the MS Flight Sims, have a particular preference for one of them...and the reason(s)...?

Paul...In a preferential mood...on a nice sunny day, in late March!......... ...!

..I suspect that there are still lots of FS '98 and FS 2000/2002 enthusiastic Pilots around!... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!

[expat]

I prefer FSX due to the virtual cockpits. I never really liked the flat panels of the previous incarnations. I always felt that I was sitting way to low and had no proper forward view. I just have the feeling that with FSX you are sat higher and are looking down on the panels as you would in a real cockpit.

Matt

[Daube]

Fozzer, I guess that the frustration generated by the performance problems during the first months of FSX existence is the main origin of your dissappointment.

I have flown FS9 for several years. At the beginning, my flight "domains" were much wider than nowadays. I was flying equaly liners, military jets, warbirds, modern GA aircrafts or vintage GA aircrafts, a bit everywhere on the virtual Earth. I was really happy with FS9, but in the later years my expectations evolved. I was enjoying more and more flying VFR instead of IFR. Exploration flights, bush flights etc... the sceneries from Holger Sandmann and such were a total rediscovery of FS9 at that time, they changed the way I was flying in the sim. I started to be more attracted by slower prop aircrafts, instead of the fast jets.

The "low and slow" magic was simply starting to work on me. I needed beautiful sceneries with precise/believable landclasses and meshes. I needed beautifull aircrafts with very detailled interiors. I needed more and more realism from these aircrafts too, I was starting to fly more realistically, I stopped using options like automatic rudder and auto-mixture. I started controlling these things with my joystick and the commands in the virtual cockpit. I started looking at what all these gauges were actually showing, wonderning about what was this "manifold pressure" thingy and such, widening my knowledge about aviation in general. I wanted to learn how aircrafts were supposed to work.

Because of all of these points of interest, FS9 has been replaced by FSX, simple as that. Through default, freeware and payware content, the new sim keeps bringing amazing enhancements for almost all of the things that I was interested in. Being not such a big fan of IFR flights in modern liners, I had no reasons to stay on FS9 anymore. Going back to that sim would be a terrible sacrifice, unacceptable for me.

[Flying Trucker]

Hi Paul...

Well right now I do not have any of Microsofts Flight Simulator Games installed.

I just had this electronic gizmo rebuilt so I have been looking around to see what I can come up with to make a better home table top Training Aid for Instrument Flying which is what FS98, FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 and FSX are/were to me.

The idea of building a good table top Training Aid is slowly passing as the old girl and I have not renewed our Aviation Medicals this year.

[Fozzer]

Although I have had FSX from day one, at the moment I have invested so much time (countless daily hours), effort, and money, on my FS 2004 to make it as realistic as possible regarding the scenery, (the most important part for me, the freeware Aircraft are merely conveyances from A to B), I am rather committed to it now, rather than starting all over again, new hardware, new software, (payware and free), plus the fact that my favourite/important/vital payware; LAGO FSE, and FS Navigator was not produced for FSX!
I have just recently installed Ultimate Terrain; USA and Canada, and as most of my time is spent exploring there, together with VOZ 1.8 and Koorbygen buildings, REX, GE Pro, FS Global SE, etc, the mesh and scenery makes the FS 2004 experience as realistic (for me) as I can get it, without swapping over to FSX full-time....at the moment!... ...!

Horses for courses!... ...!

Paul...The Intrepid Explorer... 8-)...!

Hi Paul...
Motion or a sense of motion is what is required for a true Flight Simulator.

A good, old-fashioned Rocking Chair, Doug?... ...!

[Flying Trucker]

Hi Paul...

Know exactly what you mean.

This hobby we call Flight Simulating has not only become popular but expensive to keep up.

I am lucky because of our own aircraft and family members but the average person could drop into a Flying Club and go on a sightseeing trip from forty-five minutes to a hour cheaper than what it costs for some of these add-ons...

Better still, they could go hang out at a bugsmasher field for several weekends and sure enough will meet someone who is looking for a passenger to go up for a hour.

Have seen that happen many many times and sometimes they just join the club.

Going off topic here Paul...sorry...

An interesting airline video we saw recently was with a cabin crewmember who was asked if they could fly the aircraft if anything happened to the two pilots.

They were put in the Motion Training Flight Simulator for type and the first four or five attempts with the help of a licenced pilot they crashed on landing.

Their last attempt again under ideal conditions with the help of the instructor and auto pilot they did manage to land somewhere on the runway.

When something goes wrong it usually compounds into a number of other things and this is where training, repetition and experience all play out.

I smile when reading about unlicenced people who think they can land any aircraft in an emergency because they have played one of Microsofts Flight Games.

Oh they might have a better understanding of the guages than a person who has never played on one of the games but when those bells start ringing, the horns start blowing, lights flash and whistles blow they might better run to the back of the aircraft telling everyone else they are going for help then jump out.