Quote from 96 GTS :

I'm not seeing how this thread is so bad, if he'd asked for professional racing drivers, no one would have minded. I'd love to get the chance to talk to some real pilots too, but it's not looking like there's many on here.

And believe me, they dont like flight/sims at all.
My dad was a military and later airlane pilot but he is more interested in lfs
than in any flightsims.
"Ohh look at the car whoooo" Me playng LFS
"Still playng that silly games? /shakes his head and go away/" Me playng any flight sim.

hiroshima guy:- Dunno about your country but usually you can try to become first a military pilot and later an airliner, so you have an huge help from tax payers to pay your training!


Edit:- I personally like il-2, perhaps not so realistic, but great fun and NO hugeloads of key to remember... guns throttle flap gear are the ones you need to remember!
Edit2:- Oh yes and control+E it's also a good one to remember...

Quote from hiroshima guy :

Hmm seems that most of you are flying as a job of a pilot in Flight Sims...

Well I'll accept it as well too. People who flew in Flight Sim please tell us how many hours you clocked, what Flight Sim and what plane are you most experienced in...

I've done 70 hours on VATSIM (most of it with proffesional ATC) and I think about 100 hours offline.

Quote from Rubenz81 :

Edit:- I personally like il-2, perhaps not so realistic, but great fun and NO hugeloads of key to remember... guns throttle flap gear are the ones you need to remember!

Meh, piston prop planes don't have a lot of switches. Throttle, mixture control, (on some propellers) propeller speed, (on proper workhorse planes) carburator heat, magnetos, flaps, starters, battery and a bunch of other things.

On bigger things like Boeings it's only a lot of switches in the beginning

I am not a pilot but I am just posting to say that I find it disturbing that this useful (more useful and sensible than most threads in Off-Topic) was made into a joke by many members.

Wow, if that sort of stuff disturbs you we'd better all start creeping round with slippers on whispering to eachother. The internet is a harsh place for sensitive peopple. Useful thread? Well useful means different things to different people.

Yeah I agree with you Al...

Well I myself I have done 15hours of YSFlight 2000 offline...Just started.

I flown mostly with the Boeing 757, DC-10 and a Tu-154.

Quote from al heeley :

Wow, if that sort of stuff disturbs you we'd better all start creeping round with slippers on whispering to eachother. The internet is a harsh place for sensitive peopple. Useful thread? Well useful means different things to different people.

I am not disturbed really, just saying that this topic actually has a purpose rather than most of the spam I see in Off-topic. Would you not agree that there's a lot of spam going around these days in Off-topic?

I got FS9 today. I want to fly online with vatsim, but I don't know how to fly. I read through parts the VATSIM "required reading", and it says you should be comfortable with flying your plane.

VATSIM is much more than just jumping into a plane in FS9 and taking it up in the air. VATSIM is simulating real world ATC and you won't have time to learn how to fly the particular aircraft you are in with trying to learn how to communicate with ATC as well. I've been flying for over 2 years and I'm still too intimidated to get on VATSIM. I've gotten as far as downloading the various software for it while waiting for the CTRA-X release. You need to be able to fly your aircraft without thinking, as well as being able to fly on instruments pretty well too. Navigation is the key though to VATSIM, I believe. If you can't navigate by instruments (which I can't do too well myself), then I think you will have trouble on VATSIM.

4WheelHummer, go to www.wspilots.com. It's a great place for flying. It is generally very laid back and they have a purpose to flying, you fly a particular hoplist to tour certain areas. Like I said, they have 3 servers, a free flight, a world tour, and a monthly rotating hoplist, though I don't suggest the current monthly rotation to someone new to FS9 right now.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to try some evening since we are both in the US, and I think I remember you are eastern time zone as well (I'm in Pennsylvania). I'd be more than happy to go to the WSP servers if you needed any help. I'm currently on some pretty short flights on the world tour, or we could join any of the servers, the hoplist flying is not a requirement to fly on any of the servers.

For the record, thanks to EVO of Redline Racing fame, I do have a blast flying my Baron 58TC, as well as the heavies occasionally when the WSP folks are doing general group flying and the occasional military jet runs. She got me interested enough to buy FS9 way back in the S2 demo when she was under a different name. Thanks again EVO for getting me hooked into the flight simming.

I have not played any flight sims in a while, nor have i done any ATC'ing on Vatsim in a while.. and mrodgers is correct. it is very intimidating. the main thing you need to practice is being able to fly and navigate between different airways. its easy once you know how...

I really must get back into either flying or ATC'ing. have done neither in a while... (all virtual btw. i could never put up with the real life stress of ATC'ing)

Tower and Approach/Departure is not that difficult and it is quite fun. Center is just a totally different story, looking at a radar screen all day and keeping track of so many planes is just not my thing.

Quote from mrodgers :

VATSIM is much more than just jumping into a plane in FS9 and taking it up in the air. VATSIM is simulating real world ATC and you won't have time to learn how to fly the particular aircraft you are in with trying to learn how to communicate with ATC as well. I've been flying for over 2 years and I'm still too intimidated to get on VATSIM. I've gotten as far as downloading the various software for it while waiting for the CTRA-X release. You need to be able to fly your aircraft without thinking, as well as being able to fly on instruments pretty well too. Navigation is the key though to VATSIM, I believe. If you can't navigate by instruments (which I can't do too well myself), then I think you will have trouble on VATSIM.

One word answers this: VFR Flight. You won't need any instrument navigation skills with that, I find it pretty fun to fly looking at the ground to find that way and then asking ATC "I am unfamiliar with this area, could you give me directions to Seaforth VRP.." Ofcourse that's when you're not a jet fanboy


@Micaoct - it doesn't seem to be hard at the beginning, but if you try it yourself it's ouch.

@Franky500 - yes you should.. you have so damn hard ATC exams there in UK, but STILL you have these damn youngster Students who're really new.

Looks like many of you here are more into ATCs not pilots...
Well, that's good too becuase if many of us are pilots you bunch of people will be ATCs!

How many here have FSX? Maybe let's get together sometimes?

Quote from Lible :

@Micaoct - it doesn't seem to be hard at the beginning, but if you try it yourself it's ouch.

I've taken the course at the University here. We have a 360 degree simulator with all the required positions, Ground, Local, etc. We have to do all the strip marking and all the other required procedures. It's pretty much a real life simulation since you are actually talking to Pseudo-Pilots on the other end. I am not very proficient at it but I got a good idea of how it is in the seat of a tower position. Still doesn't beat flying.

It really is not that hard once you do it a couple times, then the flow just starts working. It gets pretty busy when you have a large amount of planes under your control though.

Quote from Lible :

How many here have FSX? Maybe let's get together sometimes?

Where I fly, you can connect with FS8, 9, and X. But, I wouldn't see you guys anyways since most of you would be asleep

For casual flying (non-ATC), do check out www.wspilots.com. A great site. I fly with some from the UK on occasion (you wackos stay up pretty darn late )

Quote from Lible :

.....when you're not a jet fanboy

It drives me crazy. We fly a tour on the server, but occasionally everyone will just get together for a group flight of 10 of us or so. But they always want to fly those freakin heavies! I want to look around and enjoy the scenery from 5000 feet, not look at repeating textures at FL350, hehe.

I always loved to have a Flight Sim like FSX I saw it on the shelf but when I looked on the specs I didn't buy it... No prize for guessing why. Not about the price. It's quite cheap in Singapore. About SGD$49.90 with taxes on it.

And WSPilots is for Microsoft FS... Not like YS Pilot which is an independent program made by a pilot. Well anything you like about it is in here!

Quote from al heeley :

lame o/t post of the week award.
How about a special thread for left handed LFS-driving pig farmers who prefer tea to coffee? Lets hear from you. Even if you're not really a farmer yet but might like to be one later.

Im left handed, i prefer tea to coffee, and by looking at the majority of girls walking about airdrie, a pig farmer isnt out of the question.

flight sim 2004 is fairly brilliant, every time i get back from holiday i always download the plane and do the flight, but thats about the only time i use it. FSX is just a pointless waste of space.

Quote from hiroshima guy :

I always loved to have a Flight Sim like FSX I saw it on the shelf but when I looked on the specs I didn't buy it... No prize for guessing why. Not about the price. It's quite cheap in Singapore. About SGD$49.90 with taxes on it.

And WSPilots is for Microsoft FS... Not like YS Pilot which is an independent program made by a pilot. Well anything you like about it is in here!

It's the trend of Flight Simulator - high specs, FS2004 was an exception (compared to FS2002), I recommend to you to check out FS2004, because I can turn all settings to maximum and fly with PMDG (hardcore) Boeings, but with FSX, for the most simplest plane, I must turn the settings to "Low"

I have a vast experience with flight simulators, and many, many flight hours.

I began with FS2002, then FS2004 before quitting flight simming, due to lack of time to devote to it.

My favourite airplane of all time is the Level-D 767, which I believe can not be surpassed in terms of sheer realism unless you actually step into an actual 767 cockpit or buy a professional flight simulator. The PMDG 737 airplanes were pretty good too, especially with the FS2Crew mod. I also used to have most of the greatest and most popular freeware aircraft, some of which being truly payware quality, such as the Project Fokker ones. In addition, I had some payware scenery and some freeware, but definitely not as much as aircraft.

I knew how to fly ILS and successfully take off and land most airplanes under a good deal of conditions, save for Airbuses, which I could never learn to fly. Oddly enough, I couldn't fly VFR.

I flew for a couple of online airlines, like JAL and Cathay Pacific, but that was always shortlived because I couldn't be bothered to fly on demand.

Regardless of all that, I still found VATSIM intimidating, and could never do a single flight on it. I was always afraid of being a hassle to the controllers, and the so called "help guides" were invariably several pages long and had gazillions of rules that everyone had to memorise in order to avoid conflict. If anyone thinks racing on a server is intimidating, they surely DON'T know about flying online.

I used to have a flightsim and it took me days to find how to start the engine and fly off. Once I got the hang of that I got bored and started crashing, and now at this point I haven't got the slightest clue on where that sim went. I think my brother-in-law still has it somewhere, or did I sell it?

How come nobody brought up terrorists yet?

Just for S and G's, I checked my logbook in FS9 and I have 274.9 flight hours. That is with a 2nd install of FS. I don't know how many hours I have on my old PC and old FS install. I flew off and on for about a year on that old computer.

To me FS2004 is long gone from my computer. I can't update my comp nor can I buy a new one so I'm stuck to those free ones...

Quote from hiroshima guy :

To me FS2004 is long gone from my computer. I can't update my comp nor can I buy a new one so I'm stuck to those free ones...

What PC specs? My 6 year old daughter messes about with both FS9 and LFS on a Celeron 667 MHz with a very old tech old pci slot ATI 9250. Granted, I have to wack down the eye candy for it to run, but it still runs...

The very first time she played it, we were networked together and I was buzzing around when she said, "Dad, I want to land at this airport." I looked over and she had the Cessna lined up perfectly with the runway, though she was still at full throttle. I told her to cut the throttle and let it glide down. She made a perfect landing.

Quote from mrodgers :

The very first time she played it, we were networked together and I was buzzing around when she said, "Dad, I want to land at this airport." I looked over and she had the Cessna lined up perfectly with the runway, though she was still at full throttle. I told her to cut the throttle and let it glide down. She made a perfect landing.

Bloody Hell mate she sounds like a natural, you wanna get her signed up for a few flying lessons. Just think of all the free flights you and the missus will get when you're both old and grey

Incidently, what control systems you guys use ? I've just dumped my Saitek Evo (the stick is great but the wireless connection was driving me nuts), and this morning took delivery of an old Logitech Wingman Force (£1 from Ebay ) It's an odd looking thing but the forcefeedback is fantastic. Does anyone else have one of these ? If so can you recommend any settings for it.

Quote from mrodgers :

What PC specs? My 6 year old daughter messes about with both FS9 and LFS on a Celeron 667 MHz with a very old tech old pci slot ATI 9250. Granted, I have to wack down the eye candy for it to run, but it still runs...

The very first time she played it, we were networked together and I was buzzing around when she said, "Dad, I want to land at this airport." I looked over and she had the Cessna lined up perfectly with the runway, though she was still at full throttle. I told her to cut the throttle and let it glide down. She made a perfect landing.

Kool, I can't even line up properly to a runway LOL My comp specs are 128MB RDRAM and 2.4GHz P4 and a GeForce4 MX420 64MB... Make your judgement that my stupid computer doesn't run quick enough because my RAM is badass!