Fleet and Flight Simulator X

[EHM-2531 Nathan Smith]

Hi Guys,

I run Flight Simulator X and I'm just woooooooooooondering if anything I being done to make the Fleet full FSX compatible, also I'm a Virtual Cockpit pilot so I am wondering what aircraft in the fleet support Virtual Cockpit

[EHM-1465 Dominic]

Hi Nathan,

We are working on this issue, indeed you may have seen my threads recently about updates to our VFA aircraft, such as the Piper Arrow and Cirrus SR20, to make them FSX compatible. The main problem is that many of our freeware planes have not been updated by their designers for FSX so we have to come up with a tweak or two to use another planes panel etc so that it will work in the newer version of the sim. All of this takes time but we are working on it.

The VC question is entirely down to the aircraft designer - they either design a plane with a VC or they don't. As we continue the updating process we may replace older models with newer ones and these would normally have a VC but then we need to repaint the new planes too!

There was a thread from one of our pilots Bruce Woodbridge that you may find useful too :-

LINK HERE

[EHM-2531 Nathan Smith]

Ah well very true, Will have to ask around and find out which and get used to fling on the 2D pnel for a while

[EHM-2198 Didimo]

I am nowadays flying *exclusively* using FSX and planes with a good virtual cockpit. For me the 2D panels are a thing of the past, can't help it, got hooked on the FSX VC now that I could finally afford a good system [been waiting for that since FSX RTM] so I have to make it worth my investment :-)

I have installed a few freeware a/c on FSX but most of them had 2D panels or deficient VC so I had to erradicate them from my system . I have had some luck with "repaints" of standard/default a/c which already have a great VC (at the expense of a not so accurate flight model I guess) and lately I have been buying some payware native FSX aircraft.

My payware so far: PMDG J41 and Wilco Embraer Legacy, both great a/c. Plan to buy Real Air Beechcraft Duke B60.

One freeware a/c that has satisfied me sufficiently (with a descent although not perfect VC) is the Premaircraft (PAD) Twin Otter DHC6 -400 variant (glass cockpit). I really recommend this one if considered for the fleet. Unfortunately their paint kit seems VERY ODD to me, unlike most paintits I have seen so far.

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Welcome back Didimo.

As was always the case, and so it remains, we're in the hands of the freeware aircraft designers when it comes to FSX support within the fleet, and TBH it's currently not in a very good way. Microsoft releasing FSX with it's multitude of changes and then killing off the Flight Sim family has scared a lot of them off. We can but hope...

[EHM-2198 Didimo]

Yes that was very sad indeed! Even during beta testing you could see that many issues never got resolved or were disregarded because the team had their hands full ironing out the tons of other bugs. If only they had made a SP3 most of the usability problems (such as crash-to-desktop during approach) would have been solved (I think).

Nevertheless I think at some point people will move on to FSX, I did and in spite of the problems with FSX I can't find myself doing an FS9 flight again. Been doing quite some scenery design for FSX as well (experimentation), used to do some for FS9 myself but now just FSX. At this point my current challenge is to be able to fly the PMDG Jetstream 4100 on a regular flight, it is quite frustrating to burn the engines after 40 minutes of preparations and checklists :-(

Lately I have FINALLY been able to do some serious flying, I guess I alternate between scenery and flying when not doing other stuff. My cockpit though, is still a dream...

[EHM-1242 Stef]

JS-4100..? Did anyone actually mentioned PMDG JS-4100?? 

Hi Didimo,

Did you mean this one by any chance:









Doesn't she look exactly like the EMB-120 (for which i thought this one to be an - albeit still private - perfect payware replacement)

By the way, avoiding to 'cook' an engine on the JS4100 is not that difficult. PM me with your emailaddress and will send you the checklist i made/use. Haven't had a fried engine ever since! 

Cheerio,
Stef

[EHM-2589 David]

What a nice bird