jasmreid

Congrats. It's a great feeling isn't it? I really like flying the Sportstar which is what I'm currently doing my Navs in.

Join the club nsialan9... not long had my RC. Was hoping to do a Navex today but the cloud base up here was too low and Grafton was klagged in. Might have been able to head out west but it wasn’t looking too flash either ☹️. Have fun and fly safe!

I'm almost there. Done some training in Pipers, went solo in a J160 and now a Sportstar. It is terrifying to start off with but gradually you relax. There is still the adrenaline buzz but the death grip on the stick has gone. Just keep it up regularly and above all have fun. The first solo is exhilarating and unforgettable. I really enjoy flying the Sportstar! Hope it goes well for you.

I’m 69. Only have 1.1hrs solo left to do to get my RA certificate. Having a great time! Looking forward to navs real soon. What am I going to do with it? Have fun while I can. Like to think I will be able to fly around Australia a couple of times before I stop. The personal trainer has helped enormously - fitness helps keep the brain and body working well!

Open street maps is a free open source mapping system which could be used for this. https://www.openstreetmap.org/ I am very interested in what you’re doing here. It looks like a great idea.

Yes I don't have any first hand knowledge of conditions in Michigan in late winter. But I can search the internet; Would not a larger version of this work if the shadow was in the right direction?

Welcome to the forum. If the ice doesn't have snow on it maybe you could write it with snow? One hell of a lot of work though unless you have some sort of machine to help you? My son took his prospective wife up in a hot air balloon. But I think he simply had the ring with him and the sunset - nothing on the ground. Good luck!

OK, I'll take your word for it as I am not very far into the learning to fly business. I can recall as a young man working in garages having to drive customers cars to and fro. One became very used to adapting very quickly to different driving positions. From an MG midget to a V8 left-hand drive Chevrolet and everything in between it became relatively easy to drive any of them. My problem at the moment is I can't quickly look out the left window to judge distance from the runaway and then to make the turn to base and then final! The two monitors are not enough - need at least one more! And then there is the lack of pedals... have to get some of them. It's all great fun and keeps the neurons ticking over.

It's interesting that you are having those problems. I have done a lot of Windows support over the years and in my experience most "blue screen of death" problems relate to device drivers. As hardware gets older and operating systems get updated the hardware manufacturers don't always update their drivers to fix these problems (there's nothing in it for them because users won't go on paying for support). Windows 10 has been designed to be much more secure and to try to battle the inadvertent downloading of suspect software. One thing that it is worth trying is that when you install FSX again run the install program as administrator (let me know if you need more details on how to do this). This sometimes will help fix these problems. Same with driver installs. Also get the latest drivers for all your hardware... this can be problematical when the supplier is a small specialised manufacturer that can't afford to update drivers for all the old legacy hardware they have produced. That's why I was pleasantly surprised when I found that Logitech have updated their drivers for all the games devices and my fairly old joystick which used to be quite flaky (even on Windows 7) now hasn't missed a beat on my new Windows 10 computer . Right now FSX is running brilliantly on my Surface Book running Windows 10... and I've been giving it a right old pounding the last 4 or 5 days. Might be a different story if I start using rudders and a yoke (although I don't need the yoke 'cause as you know the J160 uses a joystick). I'm not so interested in how accurately the sim imitates the plane flying action, more about the scenes being more accurate for visual recognition of landmarks and navigation so that I can practice radio calls and cabin checks. I know that what ever I learn about "flying the plane" on the Sim is not going to be the same as the real thing so in some ways maybe it's better to be not too similar?? Don't want to learn bad habits that might get in the way of the real thing.

Thanks Frank. I plan to have a good look at X-Plane11 but don't have the time right now. I am practicing procedures to try and complete my solo hours for the RAAus flying certificate next week. FSX Steam edition is doing the job well. After that I will get more serious. The accuracy of the flying fields I am keen to practise on (where I plan to actually fly) are not particularly good... eventually I would like to get the skills to modify those airfields myself, for example Warwick, Qld has a grass strip in FSX and the approaches look nothing like the real thing - not so many minutes left in this life so might be a vain wish .

Ahhh... just finished loading and the Acceleration pack is bundled in the Steam edition. .

Thanks Jay. Have started doing that - will see how it goes. I do have the FSX Acceleration Pack in the same packing box as FSX. In fact I was supplied it by a friend who was the editor of one of the Gamer Magazines at the time (can't remember which one) and he asked me to write a review which was published in the Mag (a copy of which is probably in the same box as the software:gaah:). This was at the time the Acceleration pack was released. So I'll probably have to turn the garage upside down at some stage to find it. Appreciate your help and suggestions.

Thanks and thanks for the link to AvSim - will explore more. I had an uneasy feeling about Pro FS - that's why I started asking around. Now I can't find my old FSX disks - in a box somewhere no doubt after our move into town .

Yes I found that discussion and was impressed. I have done quite a bit of programming over the years so know the complexities of getting into that sort of enterprise. One thing I'm pleased with is that Logitech have updated their drivers and my joystick works a treat now (fairly old too). It used to drop in and out sometimes on my old rig .

Thanks Jay much appreciated. I thought it might have been something like that. Yes I have tried the Iris J160 in FSX and was well pleased with it... but as I said I wanted to see what else is about and what other folks are using. Just had a quick play with the Cessna 172 on Flightgear and it seems OK but some of the instruments are "jittery", the compass doesn't behave properly, the turn and bank disappears and comes back on. I will play with settings to see if it behaves better. This computer has two graphics cards built in and I'm not sure how to force it to use one or the other except switching between the built in display and the external monitor... need to do some more research obviously.