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Thread: Flight Sims

  1. #11
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    Yeah, I found it a bit odd, that they didn't rework the agreement when Flight was abandoned and release V2 as a normal sim. I guess it's just easier this way, though for the end user, it could be a mess legally (not that anyone would ever be pursued).

  2. #12
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    X-55 arrived today. First impression: It's (They're?) massive. Further impressions to come.

  3. #13
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    My X-45 is super old and kinda gross, curious to see how the X-55 is.

    Just installed Prepar3d v2.2 but no chance to play it yet. Went for a flight with my wife, my sister, and my sister's friend (he was the pilot) in a Piper Arrow II up the east side of the Sierra Nevada range on Saturday, landing at Bishop, then heading back down here.

    I got to sit in the copilot seat on the trip back from Bishop and was pretty happy that I knew what nearly everything was, except that I don't think I'd ever seen an exhaust temp gauge before, which the pilot explained helped to figure out what the optimal fuel mixture was while in flight - when it's off, the exhaust temps drop. I also understood just about everything I heard over the radio, though I definitely had a much harder time immediately recognizing the plane's call sign when said over the radio than the pilot did, I would have missed messages for us far too often.

    Definitely fun to go on that long of a flight doing the real thing and to hear all the radio traffic going on. I feel reasonably confident too that, if something had happened, I probably could have managed to get the plane back to the right airport and land it without ruining too many people's days.

  4. #14
    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    DId you get any actual stick (yoke?) time?
    Whoomah!

  5. #15
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    Naah, not this time out. The guy who was flying the plane definitely takes all the rules and procedures about flying extremely seriously, so I didn't even bother asking. I have done a bit in another plane once though, I found it much easier to do than on a sim, since you can actually feel everything.

  6. #16
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    First impressions of the X-55:

    Makes Sims (especially DCS) much more fun and user friendly having all of those buttons and axes. Hardly going to the keyboard anymore.

    Very sturdy feeling almost all around.
    I like having the "toggles" just be two separate buttons rather than real toggle switches. Give a lot more options for buttons.

    Software is a bit annoying. I can never get the profiler to recognize both the throttle and stick for axis adjustments. But I can still program both. Humph. Also I can't figure out how to unload a profile. I loaded an msfs profile that replaced the buttons with macros and basically had to go through and put them all back to normal. I don't know why you'd use that instead of just assigning in the sim anyway, other than in one of the other two 'modes' for extra buttons.

    I can't get any game to recognize the little slider on the throttle near your thumb position. The profiler sees it, but games don't and the game controllers dialogue doesn't see, to either. Same thing for the mouse nipple so far. That would be perfect for slew in DCS.

    It comes with the strongest spring installed and I immediately swapped it for the lightest. Feels really good. Just a bit lighter than my old sidewinder was. I might try the next one up. Kinda wished the throttles could get even lighter than they are on the lightest setting but that might get better with some break in.

    Keep in mind this is my first HOTAS or even high quality throttle, but I love it.

    I also need to rethink my desk space. I can't go full nose-down without angling or moving it off the desk.

  7. #17
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    Did he give you a big thing about flying lean of peak vs rich of peak Tom?

    I dont know if there is a flight school near you but the one here does intro flights for 100 bucks which are an hour or so flight which gets you some stick time plus some ground preflight stuff.

  8. #18
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    He did not, actually, and of course I only remember some of it anyway.

    There are a ton of flight schools around here, and I've done the intro flight thing, which was great. But it's clearly an expensive hobby and, right now, I've got enough of those!

  9. #19
    Consultant KillerB's Avatar
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    Honestly the hardest thing for me has always been the radio. My hearing isn't the greatest and the sound quality of the radio usually isn't good.

  10. #20
    Director Freude am Fahren's Avatar
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    Yeah, I always felt that way too. Especially since it seems everyone on the comms seems to want to say the least possible in the quickest way possible. The shorthand combined with the speed at which many pilots and controllers speak is tough to get used to.

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