What flightsim addons do you like best?

[EHM-1465 Dominic]

This week, I'd like you to explain what 'addons' you enjoy the most in Flight Simulator - not necessarily expensive, flashy extras but the downloads you find have made your flying more enjoyable (and that you use more than once or twice!)

Please explain your answers, with an idea of where the addon can be obtained, for the benefit of other pilots, especially if your addon is freeware

[EHM-1465 Dominic]

I'll start the ball rolling on this one

I have loads of payware addons, fabulous detailed aircraft and sceneries etc.

But the things that have made the most impact on my FS9 experience are:-

Ground Environment - this makes the general scenery textures appear much more lifelike (payware)

Freeware vintage British aircraft from various sites - BAC 1-11 and HS748 particularly as the detail of these planes is fantastic - see here and here for more details.

World freeware mesh terrain from here

These are the addons that feature most frequently in my flights and add the most realism to the feel of my sim experience

So, what about you guys?

[EHM-1821 Javier]

My vote is for aircraft (it's flight sim right? not scenery sim, terrain sim etc. lol) For me, with every aircraft i download, i'll get a good soundpack for it, and where i fly it, i'll get good scenery for it :]

However, FSPassengers would be in the Others category, but since i mainly download airplanes, my vote is to that

[EHM-2097 Andrei]

I voted "aircraft" because this is the only kind of add-ons I dared to pay for (up to now). And of course that in time I also downloaded lots (or should I say "fleets") of freeware aircraft too.

However, I think "number 2" in this top deserves at least some words of encouragement, and for me this is terrain meshes. (In fact, as size not count, I probably have "more mesh than aircraft" on my PC). In many areas of the world, it completely transforms the feeling of VFR.

Andrei

[EHM-SWRT Jason]

I voted Aircraft for 2 Reasons
1, PMDG 737
2, Overland Pack
anyone that has flown eathier will back me up on that

[EHM-1671 Ben]

My favorite has to be aircraft for the fantastic Captain Sim 757, but like Andrei airport scenery comes a very close second although I haven't bought any.

[EHM-1592 Niels]

I voted Aircraft as well, like Javier said it's flightsim. allthough i think (airport)scenery, mesh and landclass are important, i actually only fly payware (PMDG738,744(F), LEVELD763, PSS772, WILCO-FT A318,320, FLIGHT1 ATR72-500, DIGITAL AVIATION FOKKER 70/100, DREAMFLEET B58).

But what is FS without add-ons like Radar Contact or Active Sky or FS2crew or Navigraph (with every month a new AIRAC).
To make this world a prettier place i've installed  FSGlobal X 2008.

And last but certenly not least: AI traffic. wich is freeware. Project AI for FS9 and World of AI for FSX.

So in my opinion there's more than one kind of add-on to make FS attractive.

[EHM-1883 Matt]

I like Airplane, followed very closely by Airport scenery.

I therefore voted for Airport scenery, because three people saying "very closely behind" deserves a vote;D

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

I'm also an aircrafts guy myself. Airports and sceneries I only d/l in order not to appear miles away when I'm flying online.
In terms of what, my tastes change over time.
At first I was sucker for a PMDG but the total predictability and repeatability of the PMDG's made me bored.
So, after toying with Carenado's light aircraft (cessnas, floatplanes etc.) my current fixation are the biggies of Airbus.
Not the Wilco A380 (the FS9 version of which is totally amateur and poor) but with PSS's A330/A340.
Totally realistic (esp. if you try a FLEX t/o with full T/O weight, it will climb slower than an elevator!). The cockpit is a little difficult to navigate through the panels but the overall behaviour is magnificent.
Even the rwy and flex calculations seem to produce an accurate result (gauges of avg. runway length left at V1).

Sorry for the long post guys

[EHM-2198 Didimo]

Aircraft are the ones I use the most so I voted for that. I also love airports (2nd place).

Mesh/Terrains would be my 3rd choice. I would love to give it more importance but so far I have had disappointing experiences with such, once installed your airports start showing in depressions or high plateaus. Then the only way is to edit ALL the airports in the area, not a task for the faint hearted...

Unfortunately my very own country (Panama) is so poorly represented in terms of vegetation, scenery and terrain and so far all attempts of using these add-ons have resulted in total disappointment.

I spent more than a month "redesigning" part of one of our archipelagos for FSX. I hope I could continue but I don't have experience with photo realistic scenery, the default vegetation from FSX is not really what you would see in the area and tends to appear bigger than life.

[EHM-1883 Matt]

I think it's obvious who's the winner...

[EHM-2310 Mark]

Personally, the ones I go for first are the meshes, then possibly landclasses and/or airports. The default FS scenery is smooth and boring; there's nothing better than flying through rolling hills and valleys or a jagged, imposing mountain range and getting a proper sense of the scale and height of them.

Saying that, FSPassengers is pretty special

Mark