Getting Started

[4535jacks]

I am interested in flying in pilotedge. I live in the UK and hold a PPL and operate my aircraft. I am looking to get involved with civilian flight simulation to help develop my piloting skills, particulalrly my RT and navigation.

Since I am new to fsx all I have is the vanilla steam edition and nothing else so what should I purchase to give me a visually impressive and accurate experience?

I am looking to buy Orbx South California this week and have been reading reviews about REX 4 and Active Sky Next. Also I have been looking at EZ Dok and Accu-feel. Are all these essential Addons? Also will I need an add on for traffic? Are thee any add on airports that will be particularly useful or any Orbx airports as they look very nice.

At some point I also need to consider a payware GA aircraft!

Thanks in advance

Jacks

[Flying Penguin]

This is as much "how to make a good FSX/P3D setup" as it is "what do I need to make good use PilotEdge". Bearing in mind the answer to the second question is "a copy of FSX and a PilotEdge account", the first question simply becomes "How much money are you looking to spend?".

In order of priority, I would suggest you buy:

1. At least one good GA: Perhaps something by A2A (C182 or Comanche, but all their GA is awesome) or Realair Legacy if you want something a little hotter. This is more important than the scenery as you will very quickly hit limitations in the systems simulation in the default aircraft.
2. A good weather engine: ASN is the usual go-to, this will increase the fidelity of the weather generation and introduces better turbulence effects
3. Head tracking: TrackIR is probably the best out of the box solution, there are others that work on face tracking but quite frankly I wouldn't bother with them
4. Texture replacement: REX 4, will improve clouds, runways, water and all sorts of other items
5. Some scenery: Orbx SoCal is great but very performance heavy, less performance heavy alternatives include FTX Global + Vector or MegaSceneryEarth photo scenery, Orbx have a good freeware NA airport pack which covers numerous SoCal airports. You can buy a heap of addon airports, but I'd wait till you've flown a bit and know which ones you will use. I only have the LatinVFR KSAN and KSNA (which are awesome, and KSNA seems to be the most used field as it features in most of the ratings), everything else I use the NA freeware and the Orbx SoCal improved airports

I wouldn't bother with Accu-Feel or EZ Dok. Accu-Feel might improve the default ones, but it is redundant if you actually buy decent aircraft (A2A/Realair etc). EZ Dok is pretty much pointless in GA if you have head tracking(which I strongly recommend you get), it can be useful if you are flying tubes, but getting it to work can be a nightmare and I've just uninstalled it for the final time, it's not getting reinstalled.

Honestly, you can spend so much money on this, it's just a question of what your wallet and PC performance can stand.

HTH

Jamie

[4535jacks]

Jamie,

Thanks for the response. I have trackir and my PC is ok (i5 3570k @4.5Ghz, GTX 770 2GB OC, 16GB RAM).

Since I will be mainly flying GA which would be better:

Orbx FTX Region SoCal
Or
Orbx Global + Orbx Vector (a lot more expensive!)

Also what will be required so the other traffic shows up correctly because from reading, my system will render the default aircraft.

Are there any freeware products that could be used in place of OSN or Rex 4 until I can afford them?

Jacks

[Flying Penguin]

Visually, Orbx SoCal, performance wise, Global + Vector. But remember that Global + Vector covers the whole world (that may or may not be an advantage if you are only interested in flying on PilotEdge).

For traffic, Ultimate Traffic 2 or My Traffic 6 both have matching files which will work for PilotEdge (look in the FSX forum for them). UT2 is prettier but has a bigger performance hit and little outside of airliners, MT6 has better non-airliner coverage and lower performance hit, but some of the models are a bit ropey. I would suggest MT6 is better if purchasing soley for PilotEdge, simply for non-airliner coverage.

If you want a freeware weather engine, FSXWX seems to fit the bill, http://www.plane-pics.de/fsxwx/home.htm
Never seen many people use it, but it might work as a stop gap. There aren't any direct REX equivalents that come to mind, but they do have regular sales.

Cheers,

Jamie

[wmburns]

I am looking to get involved with civilian flight simulation to help develop my piloting skills, particulalrly my RT and navigation.

Since I am new to fsx all I have is the vanilla steam edition and nothing else so what should I purchase to give me a visually impressive and accurate experience?

My take on this might be un-popular. However if one looks critically at the stated GOALS of the poster, then virtually none of the "add on" mentioned are required.

The things that are required are far more basic and most have to do with what is between your ears. Both the default FSX and X-plane have everything that is needed to practice navigation. The PilotEdge is the only real "required" extra to practice radio traffic. There are TONS of us out here that have flown online for many hours with basic vanilla sim set-ups and had a blast while learning.

My personal belief is that choosing an aircraft to fly is far more important that what you see out the window. My recommendation. Don't get caught up in the hype to have the best sim and most "visually impressive" experience from day one. Focus first on the basics of flight simulation and then build up to a better set up as your experience grows.

Take my experience for example. Started flying FSX. Was happy because that is what I knew. Over time my set up grew but I also found myself spending tons of time trying to overcome the short comings of FSX. Hearing all of the positives of X-plane decided to give it a try. At first I truly HATED the experience. But after spending some time with it, I will never go back.

In June I will be renewing my annual PE membership for the 3rd year!

The point of this is not to debate the merits of X-plane vs FSX. My point is about how it is possible that your preferences/wants/goals may change over time. Likely more knowledge will lead to a better decision on what is right for you. Think about "growing into" the hobby. It's not a race.

I stated that my point was not about X-plane vs FSX. As a real world pilot, you know what a real plane feels like. You may find the primitive flight models used by FSX a real let down. It's a dirty secret of FSX that much of the "add on" software is purchased in an attempt to overcome the short comings of FSX.

Bottom line:

• The basic flight simulator actually does comes with enough to enjoy the flight sim & PE experience for many of us.
• Expect to spend some time just getting the very basic stuff working. This could vary greatly depending upon your PC experience. Keeping the add on's to a minimum improves the chances of success.
• When looking at future sim upgrades, don't overlook upgrading your physical cockpit. For example yoke, rudder pedals, throttle, radio. Again, grow into the hobby.
• Expect to try some things that in the end, won't work out for you. I think we all have aircraft and add-ons that are now "shelve ware".
• Expect PC & GPU upgrades to be part of the process. Again just how much hardware is really needed depends a lot on expectations. There are many of us out here that do just fine on what appears to be a marginal system (on paper). There are others that have the best PC $$ can buy and still don't get the desired results. Not all upgrades will actually result in better sim performance (i5 vs i7, more main memory above what is needed, GPU vRAM)
• Don't forget to upgrade navigation data from time to time. Check out Navigraph FMS data or Aerosoft Navdatapro. Not much $$ but well worth it.
• Regarding the question about add ons for traffic. This is what PE is for. Expect issues if running a traffic package while on PE.

OBTW; my experience with REX was not very good. My FSX system was relatively stable as FSX systems go. After installing REX, my system crashed at random times for no apparent reason. Other times REX would refuse to load any weather. Don't get me wrong. After installing REX some of the weather problems that made me get REX in the first place did improve. However that was offset by a real lowering of system stability. I'm glad I got REX on sale.

[Pieces]

Excellent points, and well written wmburns.

I agree - you have FSX. Get it connected to PilotEdge and fly. Maybe try the X-plane demo. From there, look for a plane that better simulates the type of flying you want to accomplish. Trying to get all these graphical and weather upgrades up and running all at once is going to take a ton of time and effort, during which you won't be flying regularly.

Once flying regularly - take note of things that are causing you issues. If you notice that that you're having trouble keeping track of instruments/controlling the plane/dealing with scenery or whatever THEN you look at addressing that particular issue.

[4535jacks]

Hi guys, thanks for the advice. I am still keen to buy a scenery pack just because it is 38% off Orbx product for another 5 days.

My first challenge is trying to get FSX to run smoothly (hopefully using DX10) and to get rid of the stutters! Also I need to resolve an issue where panning the view with tracker ir is choppy and jerky if the FPS is below 60 (I get the same issue in DCS). I will not invest any money till I have FSX running well.

Jacks

[4535jacks]

I have got FSX working reasonably well and so I thought I would start the free trial but I do not has FSUIPC 4 - is this required for pilot edge?

Jacks

[BFG]

I have got FSX working reasonably well and so I thought I would start the free trial but I do not has FSUIPC 4 - is this required for pilot edge?

Jacks

Nope. Just your sim and the PE client software. The Download section of the Pilot Center has download links and instructions.

[4535jacks]

Thanks, I will download the client then .

At the moment REX products are 50% off and Orbx are 38% so I think I will pick up some addons now just to save money.

So I think since I will probably use Pilotedge exclusively it is probably worth getting orbx Southern California rather than gtx global and vector.

What are people's opinions in buying REX essentials now or buying REX textures direct and soft clouds now and then Active Sky Next later?

Finally are there any useful tutorials in US ATC terminology as we seem to use a slightly different lexicon here in the UK.

Thanks again,

Jacks