Anyone know if FS2004 is free?

[Muttley]

You can always try to get a cheap copy off ebay.  The program itself looks cheap when you start adding on all the payware that's out there for this flight sim. I don't even want to think about what I've spend on addon's . If you really want to make your MSFS realistic check out the VATSIM network. Real people working as air traffic controllers. Most of the pilots on this network are flying the big iron (boeing airbus), buy you do have some GA too. It's run buy all volunteers and best of all it free.

[Spikes]

Muttley, the bad thing about VATSIM is the quality of your plane on their end is poor.

[Muttley]

Muttley, the bad thing about VATSIM is the quality of your plane on their end is poor.

True, due to the need to keep frame rates from crashing when there's lots of traffic.
MSFS if a frame rate hog compared to AH. You can't be beat it for realism though.

[Chalenge]

What I find aggrivating is the amount of bad addons out there. I bought a WW1 dogfighting mission addon that was just ridiculous and when I mentioned some of the bugs the tech support for the package stopped responding to emails. I really liked their aircraft but they advertised it as a mission package and none of the missions were worth spit! So I subscribed to 'computer pilot' and learned how to find reviews on most of the stuff out there. No review no purchase just that simple.

Lately I have taken to working on recreating WWII missions and Im still working hard on ack and other effects. Most of my recent flights have been through the hurricanes with real-time weather downloads.

[beau32]

here are a couple of websites that i visit and have planes from.
www.alphasim.co.uk
www.precisionmanuals.com
www.leveldsim.com
www.shockwaveproductions.com

all payware aircraft but the realism is bar none the best out there.

[SIM]

Chalenge,
 Your right about bad add-ons. There are many out there that just plain suck.
 But there are a lot of really good add-ons available also.

 Ive built a pretty good library of WW2 era aircraft that I have down loaded thru the years. 90% of those were free downloads.

 www.simviation.com
 www.sim-outhouse.com  <--- MANY WW2 era aircraft
 www.donationware.net  <--- some of the BEST WW2 birds around
 www.avsim.net  <--HUGE library

 There are several "teams" out there that build aircraft and really work hard to get the "right". One of my favorites is the Fightertown Design Group. They have a number of classic aircraft on donationware.net . The airframes are not free as they ask for donations for various causes. You have to join the sim-outhouse site to get into the donationware site.

 I have many of the shockwave aircraft. One of my personal favorites is the He-219. Its a really nice bird to fly. The FDG A-26 is unbelievable! Too bad AH doesnt have the Invader!

[Chalenge]

Thank you SIM great resources! I bought the panel design studio today and managed to convert a few planes to FSX format in just a few hours. I am still in the learning phase of course but the software is very easy to learn (I mean if I can do it...). I am very curious about skins now but so many of the textures I have not been able to even open and I dont really know where to begin with it. If anyone has a good idea about that PM me or something please.

[Chalenge]

I was doing some research on FSX effects and came across a post mentioning someone had figured out how to do ack ack bursts. Then I searched for the individual by name and found some pretty amazing scenery for FS9. Mind you its only scenery...

http://www.maam.org/flightsim/enhance/scenery_enhance.htm#BATTLE OF MIDWAY AND BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA SCENERY

and the actual creators website:

http://www.flightinfo.jp/FS_KBT/yanco.htm

MAAM has a very nice TBM I will be picking up and Yanco has a freeware B52 in addition to the Midway/Coral Sea scenery. 

Sim Outhouse has an update for the scenery that brings it into FSX.

[SIM]

Chalenge,
 You can find both of those birds on www.simviation.com

 You can also find links that will take you to tutorials on making "skins/textures".

 Team FS_KBT has some really beautiful airframes out there. Their F-18 is my favorite modern bird.


 Lemme know if I can help out!

[Yossarian]

Sorry to sort of hijack this, but I've always had a very hard time landing in MSFS, whereas in Aces High I can make almost perfect landings.  Is this something to do with the trim (I don't think I've ever used trim in MSFS), or something else?

<S>

Yossarian

[Chalenge]

I have about the same problem on landings in both simulations but the 'bounce' on fast landings of AHII seem to be less of a problem. Usually in FSX or FS9 I make longer approaches but after flying AHII when I fly the F4Us or P51s in FSX/FS9 I make shorter and steeper approaches probably because of difficulty seeing over the nose. To me the flare portion happens a lot quicker and is more critical in FSX/FS9.

Thanks again SIM but I have not had a chance to join there yet because Sim-Outhouse has so much material to go through I am a bit swamped right now.

[SIM]

Yossarian,
 Find a field to land at that has the Visual Approach Slope Indicator lights.(Most major airports have them on one or more runways) Start your approach a few miles out from the field and watch the lights as you descend. In a Cessna 172 start say 5 miles out at 1500 feet altitude. Line up and hold altitude as you approach the strip. Watch the "VASI" lights on the left edge of the strip. These are for lights that will show red, white, or a combination of the two. If you see two red and two white, you are on the glide path for that field. If you see all red you are too low, all white means too high.
 Trim does play a MAJOR function here, but get the basics for landing and THEN work on using trim.....
 Using the lights in this way will give you a feel for a glide slope. You can turn that into a practice for just about any aircraft. Its not exactly right, but close enough for flying a cartoon aircraft that doesnt incur insurance premiums......

[Denholm]

An M$ product for free?

Yes, there are actually free games from Microsoft:

http://www.freeallegiance.org

No, it's not a graphically lacking game.

[Chalenge]

The FSX Acceleration addon seems to have killed a lot of transparency and effects files as I have a lot of planes that are having issues now. Default aircraft and missions dont seem to be hurt though (of course). I hope the fixes come soon.

[Cougar68]

Trim does play a MAJOR function here, but get the basics for landing and THEN work on using trim.....

That's actually backwards.  In a real aircraft the use of trim is taught long before a landing approach.  Any pilot worth his salt will be on the trim each time attitude or power is adjusted.  Trim and trim often and then everything about flying is easier.