Happy to help! It really is much easier to create content than in previous sims, once you get over the initial hump of getting a project configured. Hopefully that process will improve with time once some higher-priority items are taken care of.
And congrats, @IkeVandergraaf! Excited for you.
Oh, I should mention, about thisā¦
In case you werenāt already aware, itās possible to hook FF up to the sim and drive it with telemetry from your sim plane so you can use it as a moving map like you actually would in flight. If youāre interested in practicing for real-world operations, I thought maybe that might be of interest to you.
The connector Iāve used before is XMapsy, which has a whole bunch of options and supports multiple systems, but you have to pay for it if you want to fly outside of three demo areas.
It actually looks like ForeFlight recently added a page to their support site which goes over this, and lists some ofher feeders you can use. Some of them are free, even.
Anyway. Now you know, if you didnāt already. :D
Iāve been using Skypark for a few days now and enjoying it quite a lot. If I have all afternoon to fly Iāll do some airliner flight, but when I just want to kill an hour Iāll look for a contract on Skypark and invariably end up flying somewhere Iād never previously considered.
I also love that it has a very nice UI, and itās still in heavy development too so more features are to come. The contract search feature is particularly good; itās configurable as hell and lets you find exactly the kind of flight you feel like doing.
I was aware of that. Ever since I got my G2, Iāve been using the Sim in VR mode almost exclusively, which limits the utility of outside applications.
Ah! What did they do to the Neofly UI? Itās soā¦ orange.
Pedro
3893
Just when I thought I was outā¦
These things are massive. I guess Iāll have to start taking my hobby more seriously now ;)
Not looking forward to doing the mappings. Hopefully will be preconfigured to some extent.
Yeah, I think it was meant to be an āimprovementā on the prior garbage-can grab-bag UI. But without fundamental changes, itās now just a garbage-can grab-bag UI in eye-searing orange paint. At least it has a dark mode now; I find it generally less painful to look at. NeoLord could really do with some help from a UI guy, but he seems like the sort who really wants to be a one-man show from my interactions with him. Which is fine, I guess. NeoFly has a lot going for it. Usability is not one of them.
I use the same stick when I donāt feel like connecting my Alpha, or when Iām flying a Cub and just want the stick feel for verisimilitude. It has pretty decent default mappings from what I recall, but I promptly customized it heavily and itās been a while, so I canāt remember any details. Most of the more common devices are pretty well pre-configured, though.
You can really do a lot with the buttons on the base if you set up some basic chording. I set mine up so that the little lever just under the hat switch acted as a sort of shift button. Then I tied the big button on the left side to be the ātoggle ATC windowā command when that was held, and the remaining switches on that side to chose the first through fifth ATC options, also when the shift switch was held.
It made it a lot easier to stay hands on while interacting with ATC, and I found I use the controls just often enough that that is convenient, but just inoften enough that having to chord them isnāt really annoying.
Pedro
3895
Great idea, thanks! Iāve been ill this week so I donāt have the energy to set it up today but I may have questions for you guys later in the week. Or hopefully not, and it all goes smoothly.
You donāt actually use the in-game ATC do you?!
Depends on my mood. :D Although, more recently Iāve been making heavy use of P2ATC when I feel like pretending to actually care about following sky-rules. The stock ATC isā¦ better than prior versions, but still needs a lot of work.
And down and down little Alice fell, deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
Next stop: VR and rudder pedals.
https://pilot2atc.com/
Itās one of the better third-party ATC programs. Main downside is itās heavily built around voice, so you have to get over feeling like an even BIGGER dork talking to your computer while you sim. But I have little shame in such areas.
Nice! Howād it go?
VRās optional. I honestly thought Iād use my Rift a lot in P3D but the quality was never what I wanted it to be. Maybe with the newer generation of headsets it would be different, though. Definitely takes it to whole other realm in terms of immersion, though.
Rudder pedals, OTOH, are mandatory. :D Especially if you fly tail-draggers, but more for having two full brake axes than anything else. My CH pedals are plain looking as heck but have held up to years of being kicked around on a dusty floor without a single complaint.
Editer
3902
On P3D with a Rift, VR was a cool tease.
On MSFS with a G2, itās pretty freaking amazing.
@IkeVandergraaf, canāt wait to hear about the solo!
I agree, the g2 has enough of a resolution to be truly playable. You get about the same pixel density as a monitor, but also mad immersion and depth perception. I donāt think I could even land IFR without VR anymore, let alone do things like aerial refuelling or gunnery.
VR is a game changer for flight Sims. I donāt think I could go back. As far as talking to my computer, I already use voiceattack, which is incredibly helpful when you canāt see the keyboard, so I will definitely look into P2ATC.
Solo went well. But itās really the ultimate pass/fail. Did a few laps with the instructor and then one by myself. Full stop, was going to do another, but I had a wonky mic button and I was shaking with adrenaline so I decided I should get to the office instead. :)
Flying a real airplane is much more difficult than flying a Sim, and much more terrifying. Takeoff and landing I was fine, but tower extended my downwind for 3 miles and that was what got in my head. Airplanes are powered by flimsy Magick, which depend on your belief that they work. 3 miles is enough time to doubt the airplane magic, which is very scary. But then tower called my base, and I overshot final, and with tasks to do, I was able to get out of my head and had a really smooth landing.
Thanks for asking. A buddy of mine from work who is also a pilot came to the airport to watch, what ch was really nice. Apparently itās a big deal.
Congrats on your first solo! Iām interested in getting my PPL as well, and hoping to start on it this year.
Iāve heard some people say that real flying is actually easier than sim-flying in some ways, primarily because you can actually feel the g-forces, inner ear sensations, and yoke pressure which you canāt get in a simulator. I know that I find adjusting elevator trim to be extremely tedious in the simulator because I canāt feel how the yoke is responding, and therefore it ends up being a lengthy process of trial and error, making tiny adjustments and then waiting to see how the plane drifts, then adjusting again.
Not to mention that, since I donāt do VR, just turning the camera to look around at the instruments and out the windows is kind of annoying in the simulator.
Do you find any of these things to be easier in a real plane?
Yes. Adjusting trim for example is easier as you mentioned. A lot of the tasks that are awkward in a Sim (adjusting radios and displays for example) are easier in a real plane. Communicating with ATC is a lot tougher. I find the task saturation to be more difficult in a real plane. I also found landing to be challenging - it took me weeks and Iām still not great at it. Thereās also the pressure of potential death that I find somewhat exhausting. Thereās also the exhilaration of flying over the Arizona desert which is just breathtaking.
Thereās also the studying. Learning to fly is one part of getting a private pilot license. Thereās a lot of book learning. The FAA doesnāt want to make this easy.
Approaching Irkutsk, over 100 miles out.
And as I get closer, about 30 miles out. Whatās this? Is that a really tall building in that town up ahead? An obelisk?
Hmmm, getting closer, maybe a skyscraper?
Yes, I guess so! Seems really isolated and strange place to have a skyscraper. An AI error perhaps.
Looking it up in Google Maps, it looks like a really tall silo. So not bad Flight Simulator.
