Skipper
1824
Hey, speaking of this. I could have sworn previously I could load in from general parking. Now I always start running and on the runway. Is there a way to start cold and dark and I’m just missing the setting for it in MSFS?
Editer
1825
Just choose a parking spot instead of the runway when setting up your flight. You’ll start cold-and-dark.
Does anyone know if you can start a new flight plan without going back to the main menu?
Matt_W
1827
You can restart your current flight, but that’s it. One of the more annoying things about the UI. Oh shit, I forgot to set the time of day! Well, I guess I have to reenter my whole flight plan now.
Skipper
1828
You can, but obviously it is much easier in glass cockpits where you can manually enter that in the MFD. And because most of the aircraft is round button input based, it’s a bit of a PITA. Tip: Click then use the mouse wheel. But I’ve manually cleared and added a new flight plan (GPS points only for me, you can do IFR, that’s just more points to put in.) More commonly and much easier, I’ve added “direct to” (D with the arrow through it) and then the starting airport frequently to do fly backs for FSE hubs I fly out of.
Some of the MFD functions are inop, which makes this a real pain (like reverse flightplan.) Others are there and do help, like selecting close-by airports for change of plan.
This guy does a three part series on it. This is the glass cockpit version. (This is the wrong video, see below. Still helpful though):
EDIT: Sorry, linked the wrong one but I’m going to leave that up. Everything this guy has posted is great info. This is the one from on the ground, checklist, flight plan, etc. It’s IFR but note that VFR flight plan is SO MUCH EASIER, as you can just enter the airport codes for GPS and away you go.
I’m marking this one from the actual time he starts talking about it:
My new NVMe SSD card for my laptop has finally arrived, now I just have to install it as the replacement boot disk with a fresh Windows installation, and I’m good to go with getting Game Pass working again and MFS!
Keen to check out my home town of Darwin which was, to my amazement, one of the photogrammetry cities here. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the air around here in helicopters, so it’ll be interesting to see how it compares.
I’m not sure how my GTX 1060 is going to cope with the game, nor my highly dodgy internet connection, but I guess that’s what Game Pass is for. It’ll probably take a few days to download though. :)
Skipper
1830
Don’t try to push it on graphics settings. As shown in a few videos, the game still looks really good with things cranked down. Up in thread, DennyA linked this, which is the best settings to look at that affect your video card use:
https://www.game-debate.com/news/29393/microsoft-flight-simulator-most-important-graphics-options-every-video-setting-benchmarked
Yeah, that video linked fairly recently above comparing settings showed that Medium seems to be pretty fine for most things, although Ultra clouds sure are nice. :)
But with a flight sim game I’m happy with 30 fps. In fact, I’m probably just fine with 20 fps.
Spock
1832
As others have said, just don’t choose the runway; select a GA ramp or a gate for jets. But on top of that, you can choose precisely where you spawn if you zoom in on the airfield while you’re selecting it! I routinely pick a parking spot close to the end of the runway I think I’ll be using.
I hope someone will release an accessory that lets us use knobs or buttons or something easier. I have a Logitech Nav/Com panel, and I love the thing – instead of clicking annoying buttons for NAV and COM settings, I twirl them on my little panel, and I even get a nice satisfying “swap” button. But it doesn’t include MFD/PFD flight planning buttons – just NAV1, NAV2, COM1, COM2, transponder (which is very handy) and ADF (which I haven’t used for years, but is fun to have around).
I finally found my house today! I had to use the drone cam to zero in on it; too tough even from a slow-moving C172. The sim has the overall shape correct, even if it’s not quite the right color. Really quite amazing. The entire neighborhood is exactly right from a topographic standpoint. Also, I have graphics set to Medium or so, so I am sure I’m missing some detail.
Speaking of graphics, @Skipper, thanks for that graphics link. It was illuminating. I’ll check what my cloud settings are tomorrow, because I sure agree that these are the best clouds I’ve ever seen in a flight sim. Even on my Medium settings, I get very realistic clouds, like these today over Kaua’i – which indeed looks cloudy a lot in real life.
Skipper
1833
Sipping a beer and eating popcorn while flying from KATL (Atlanta) to KPIM(Harris County Regional,) in the dark with low cloud cover a 22 knot headwind.
Yeah. Simming is so much better than real life flying, sometimes.
GAH!!! Ran into the, “In Warp,” thing with OnAir. This sucks. I use 2x on the way out and now have 8 minutes to wait out.
Spock
1834
Heh, I still haven’t tried warping in OnAir. I like using normal time and relaxing. :)
So you’re a pilot in real life, then? I read a thread about pilots’ impressions of MSFS on the MSFS forums, and the majority of pilots had favorable things to say. It’s never going to replicate perfectly the “feel” of flying, they all agree, but most think it does a great job. I recall one saying that even multimillion dollar simulators don’t replicate the real thing.
Skipper
1835
No sir. Mentioned upthread I’ve only done about 20 hours or so of flying and gave it up. And that was … 35 years ago? :) One thing I can tell you though is the feedback from real flying is helpful, as is the fact controls are less twitchy overall.
Just saying, with simming you can pause/unpause, drink, eat, do whatever. It’s a fun gaming experience.
Matt_W
1836
The moon phase here is correct, but Saturn and Jupiter should be clearly visible just to the left of it, and they’re not. Probably the stars are right, but I suspect planets aren’t modeled in the sim.
Spock
1837
Oops, so you did, and I forgot! I’m sorry. I’m a doofus.
I noticed the correct moon too, @MattW. Good point about the planets. I haven’t seen them, even though I have noticed at least one of those two in my sky in recent nights. (Not sure which. I have a big ol’ telescope but haven’t used it in a few years.)
Thrag
1838
The flight tutorials were nice, but they ended way too soon. There needs to be a some tutorial at least for the ATC stuff. I did a sightseeing flight and went to come back for a landing. I thought I requested a landing and followed the controllers instructions. I periodically asked for the next waypoint. ATC had me climb from the 1000ft I was at just a few miles from the airport in clear sight of the runway, to 12000ft and then sent me everywhere but the airport until I ran out of fuel.
Spock
1839
Ack! I’m guessing you were somehow flying IFR (instrument flight rules, for use in bad weather) rather than VFR (visual flight rules, in which you generally have more leeway to set your course and altitude). I don’t have the game open now, and I’m tired, so take the following advice with a grain of salt. And I agree, an ATC tutorial would be useful.
For VFR, don’t use “flight following,” and when you want to land somewhere, don’t use “Seattle Approach” or “Honolulu Approach.”
Instead look at the “list of airports” or “list of airports further from me,” then pick an airport and choose the most appropriate request there. For non-towered (small) airfields, you’ll just get an option to tune “TeenyAirfield traffic,” which just means other pilots. You can land as you please here. For towered airports, you should get an option like “request full stop landing,” “request touch and go landing” (meaning you can go up again right away), or “request runway to land”, or something similar.
I hope this helps for now. I’ll pay more attention tomorrow and try to provide more info. I do encourage you to stick with ATC. It’s easily the best non-human ATC I’ve ever seen in a flight sim.
Skipper
1840
Thrag it’s been a while since I talked to any ATC and did checklists so I turned on AI control for both. It helps a lot, as at least with the ATC side you can hear the AI “copilot” do the talking and you hear the communication on both sides to know what they are doing.
When you move the mouse and pull up ATC or if you leave it up, you’ll see the written communication as well.
Thrag
1841
Yep, that’s what I did. I didn’t find the option to request a VFR landing at first and only saw the IFR option at the top of the menu.
Matt_W
1842
Early morning IFR approach into Vancouver
Thrag
1843
The biplane is wonderfully overpowered fun to fly. Before my ATC failure and running out of fuel I zoomed along the sierras. A view of two lakes, Tahoe on the right, Washoe on the left.
Some noob questions here. For VFR navigation what speed is the ETE based on? I assumed it’s the plane’s listed cruising speed, but I constantly overshoot things. Also without using external views is there a good technique to telling when you are right over a point and it’s time to restart the watch? Also what’s a good altitude for VFR flight, or since I imagine there’s no single answer how should one decide how high to fly?
