Let's talk about flying airplanes?

[Rick310]

Why don't people in X-pilot want to talk about flying? This about a flight simulator and flying aircraft. This forum is more about supporting x-aviation products and I am all for it. But we can also talk about fly aircraft in a great flight simulator, X-plane 11 and 12.

I love to fly, I want to fly everyday, all day. This what I do every day , all day.

[VirtualGAaviator]

I'm with you, man. Let's talk about flying. I, too fly almost daily. However, I only have a couple hours to get in a short flight most days. I'm one of those guys who'll attempt to fly almost any GA airplane - thus; I support a lot of developers. My favorite aircrafts before XP12 dropped were the Challenger and the MU2. Since I'm not flying XP11 any more it's now the Challenger and the default Citation X.

The X is a blast. LR did a good job modeling that aircraft. Now it needs to really come to life through modding.  I have been wondering if one needs permission from LR to publish extensive mods to it. Unfortunately, I my skills are too limited to mod it. I'm willing to be an advocate to the X-Plane community for modding it though .  Nevertheless, I expect that the MU2 will become my 2nd favorite aircraft, once it drops for 12.

Edited March 3, 2023 by VirtualGAaviator
grammar

[scooke7]

Hi Rick, VirtualGAaviator

I second this! I'd like to fly everyday too. But alas, time seems to be my enemy!

I fly heavies all the time, at this point it's all Boeing aircraft. And for now it's the Zibo B737 on XP11.

When XP12 settles down (will take 6 months, IMHO), I'll try out the A330 for medium haul.

I've seen the Citation X on XP12. I'll probably try that as well. It sounds  like a fun aircraft to fly.

On the modding, I don't think you need permission from LR. I've seen folks just pushing out mods for other aircraft in the other place.

The Zibo B737 & Soarky B744 are just 2 that come to mind.

I think it becomes complicated if you want to charge for modding.

Either way, I don't think it hurts to get an official line from LR that clears the way for modding aircraft.

I think they might even provide extra information that might prove to be useful when modding.

 

Steve

[Rick310]

Right on, Dudes. I like the dornier 228 by carenado for my winter plane and just flight piper arrow 3 and 3&4 arrow turbo for my summer planes. I have been looking at x-aviations moony M20R Ovation 2 and 3. But I am holding out for a new computer. Hoping to buy one this summer. 

Since switching over to x-plane 11 from FS9, I have lost interest in flying the big birds or jet aircraft for that matter. 

I have other aircraft from carenado, but I do not like them because they have no ground roll sound and I can not tell when my wheels leave or touch the ground. Causes for some hard landing. I do not know how to fix the FMOD in the aircraft.

My wish for x-plane is someone comes up with an addon that simulates anti iceing fluild, so I can fly in Alaska in the winter time. My best flight was in Alaska when I fly through the Merrill pass in the piper arrow 4 turbo.

Rick

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Rick310

[VirtualGAaviator]

6 hours ago, Rick310 said:

My wish for x-plane is someone comes up with an addon that simulates anti iceing fluild

I wouldn't be surprised to see anti-icing fluids modeled in XP12. However, I'm looking forward to seeing icing modeled first. XP12 already has rain effects. I hoping that will be followed by snow, ice, and the good de-icng effects. XP12 is in it's infancy.

I flew the Donier 228 (the freeware version) a few times. I enjoyed it.  My journey into the airliners will probably emulate real-world flying. I am considering buying the Dash Q4 800. I do own a couple of airplanes the are regional carriers. I hardly fly 'em. I'm planning to acquire the classic 737 when the new version drops. I have heard a lot of new sim pilots actually start with airliners.

Thanks for the feedback on modding, @scooke7. I am gonna keep advocating for the mods.

 

 

[Rick310]

Quote

I have heard a lot of new sim pilots actually start with airliners.

I did, when I bought my first flight simulator, FS98. I started flying the big birds on Satco network. As said before, since I switched to x-plane, all prop and turbo prop aircraft only.

I waited two years after x-plane 11 came out, I will wait at least a year or two before I buy x-plane 12. First a new computer.

I like flying the small aircraft and landing them in crosswinds. I really work hard landing in crosswinds and look for airport with crosswinds to land at. I have landed in 25 to 30 knot crosswinds at 50 to 60 degrees. And have landed hard at times and have made some very nice landing based on Vertical speeds. And I have crashed once in the B350. OUCH.

[Rick310]

I need to make a correction on what I said before and I edited above post. flying through Merrill pass in Alaska was historic. The pioneer bush pilots used Merrill pass when visability was low. I consider myself a bush pilot in flight simulation. Love flying in Alaska. Not a place for the light hearted.

[VirtualGAaviator]

• Speaking for bush flights, I've brought down 2 Beavers attempting to fly from Norway House Airport (CYNE) to Pas Airport (CYQD). My failure to do proper fuel calculations led to a ditching (the first time I was forced to make a water landing). I underestimated the headwinds I would encounter en route. The 2nd time, I was brought down by a bird strike. My virtual insurance company is not happy.

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by VirtualGAaviator
Clarity

[daemotron]

On 3/3/2023 at 9:28 PM, VirtualGAaviator said:

I have been wondering if one needs permission from LR to publish extensive mods to it.

IANAL, so take this with a grain of salt: I'd say if you publish something that's completely your own work, but enhances the experience with one of LR's aircraft (like a livery, or a plugin (REP comes to mind)), then you probably don't need express permission from Laminar (since your work doesn't touch any of Laminar's intellectual property).

If you however derive your work from theirs (e.g. modify an object file or tweak one of their xLua scripts) and want to redistribute that, you'd be on the safer side by asking for their permission - an EULA would probably give you the answer; ironically I couldn't find one for X-Plane...

[Rick310]

Well for the first time this winter I put the Dornier 228 in the hanger for some up keep and pulled out the Beechcraft C90B by Carenado. I also like the default C90B in XP11, but I choose to fly the third party aircraft instead. In 2019 when I bought xp11, this was the first aircraft I started flying. And the first aircraft I bought.

My first flight was yesterday. I made a short hop from Lincoln County airport (1L1) to Parker, Arizona (P20). Lincoln County Airport (Panaca, NV) is my hub or home base where I store all my aircraft. It is a hub for my VA. I made my own airport scenery for Lincoln County Airport with a aircraft museum and down the road I put my virtual home that you can see from the airport.

Summer time is coming and I will hop in my Piper Arrow 4 Turbo by Just Flight and head for Alaska. Last summer I flew in Alaska all summer and plan to do the same this summer. My hub in Alaska is Unalakleet (PAUN). Love to fly to Barrow (Utqiagvik, Alaska) Alaska, where over 300 days a year it below freezing. Freaking Cold, Bro!! Glad this is the virtual world, because I am a desert rat and I do not like the cold. I like the 100 degree heat. Vegas Heat ROCKS!!

Fly all day, Everyday!

[VirtualGAaviator]

5 hours ago, Rick310 said:

Summer time is coming and I will hop in my Piper Arrow 4 Turbo by Just Flight

I love that plane. I use to fly it a lot. Maybe I'll pull mine out of the hanger and get the carbon out of the cylinder heads. I enjoyed flying is so much that I got a second one.

[Rick310]

Yeah VirtualGAaviator, many years ago I had an issue with Just Flight and stopped buying their products. Last year I broke down and bought the Piper Arrow 3/4 Turbo and the PIper Arrow 3 by Just Flight. Very nice aircraft I must say.

The next aircraft I want to buy is the M20 Collection by AFM. They have an anti ice fluid available with that aircraft. This would allow me to fly in Alaska in the winter time. But not until I buy my new computer. Saving for my new computer(I do not borrow money) and not buying any new aircraft. I do not buy scenery, I make my own scenery. I will not upload any of my scenery because I do no keep track of the scenery libraries I use and no AI aircraft and no ATC connected with my sceneries. But useable scenery otherwise.

VirtualGAaviator, I see you use youtube. Have you tried rumble? Rumble has no censorship.

[VirtualGAaviator]

1 hour ago, Rick310 said:

VirtualGAaviator, I see you use youtube. Have you tried rumble? Rumble has no censorship.

I'd not heard of Rumble. I did, however, create an account. I can see not harm in adding my videos to the platform along with YouTube. I have not had an issue with censorship on YT, though - except for the occasional copyright violation.

At the risk of going off-topic, a lot is happening with the internet at the moment. I've been poking around in some of the AI generation tools, like ChatGPT and Dall-e. I'm impressed. I write newsletter content for my EAA chapter and the AI tools will certainly save me some time.

Anyhoo, one of those Mooney collections won't be upgraded to XP12.  I believe it is the M20 collection, which I own. However, I seem to recall that a newer XP12 collection is in the works. So unless you plan to fly XP11 for years to come, I'd suggest waiting a bit. I gotta run, but if I can located the blurb I'll post it for you.

[Rick310]

Quote

Anyhoo, one of those Mooney collections won't be upgraded to XP12. 

I know and X-Aviation is going to stop selling it when torquesim comes out with the new one for xp12. Oh well. I have other aircraft I am looking to buy for xp11. I have no plans right now to buy xp12. I am not seeing a lot of aircraft for xp12 that I am interested in flying. And I am have no interest in flying the big passenger jets or jet aircraft period. I have said I am going to wait a year or two before buying xp12, but I start seeing aircraft on the market for xp12 that I am interested in, I may change my mind.

What I am seeing right now, Companies are making a lot of money making aircraft for MSFS2020. Areosoft, Just Flight are heavy into MSFS2020 and have not come out with any aircraft for xp12. Now, Thranda have come out with a couple aircraft that will work in both xp11 and xp12.

One reason I joined the forum is to help me keep track of  the aircraft market for xp. And I watch other companies mentioned above also.

I love flight simulation, this my passion and what I want to do all day, everyday. Without being overweight or obese. LOL

[Rick310]

Ok, to get back on topic. I have been flying my C90B by Carenado. The aircraft flying very nice, but not frame rate friendly for my 6 year old computer. I have had to turn down the graphics in xp11.

Summer time is coming!! Back to Alaska where the flying is great!

[daemotron]

Aircraft for XP12 slowly start to appear here and there. Some developers who stay close to vanilla X-Plane features (i.e. aircraft purely built with PlaneMaker and not or hardly using plugins, e.g. VSKYLABS) are mostly done converting their fleet. Light turboprops are a bit thin at the moment - only Thranda's Caravan so far, no PC-12, no King Air - but HotStart is working on their TBM, and TOGA will port the Mu-2 v2 in the months to come. Not sure about any King Air, AFL might upgrade theirs, but no official communication as of yet. Aerobask is (mostly) done converting their fleet (all Diamonds, but also their experimental jets and the Phenom).

Indeed it's a bit odd we see airliners of all sizes being ported, even the HS Challenger (maybe one of the most complex aircraft models ever built for XP, potentially any sim) has been ported, while there's hardly any GA (piston or light turboprop) available yet (Aerobask being the exception). Quite a few are in the pipeline - TS is working on their Cirrus aircraft and the Islander, and vFlyteAir has the Twin Comanche in beta test. JustFlight and Thranda both said that converting the JustFlight fleet would be the next big project of Thranda after having finished the Caravan (which has happened by now), so we might see some motion there as well. Also LES had announced the Sundowner would come "soon", but that was nearly 5 months ago.

That being said, so far we have more announcements than aircraft converted and ready to fly in XP12, and also XP12 itself is anything but mature. There are still a couple of issues Laminar has to solve (and yes, they're aware and working on it). I's say it's no mistake to wait until the end of the year, if stability is your primary goal. XP12 is really cool, but it's still mostly for early adopters who like to (or at least don't mind to) tinker with their sim.

Back to topic: I'm not biased about aircraft class and size, I love them all. While I have a thing for light turboprops (gimme a PC-12 in XP!), I mostly fly in XP12 these days, restricting me to aircraft available there. In the past week, I had a blast flying the Challenger from Shemya down to Fairmont in British Columbia, via Anchorage and Pasco, WA. I mostly fly in FSEconomy, so I just fly where the (virtual) jobs take me. And while the Challenger is a great aircraft, I can unfortunately only fly it on weekends - it's an intense aircraft, and performing a flight (including planning and preflight) takes its time - more than I can spare on normal work days throughout the week. On these I did a couple of milk runs with the Caravan, which is relatively quick to set up and get airborne.

For the summer I'm eagerly waiting for the LES DC-3 - this will be my go-to aircraft for my California routes in FSEconomy, with KNUQ serving as my hub.

[Rick310]

Hi Daemotron,

Your post was very cool, dude. Thank you for the update on XP12. When I was working, I did not fly during the week either. Only on the weekends. But now I am retired and living the dream, I fly everyday, all day. After my chores are done, around the house.

Have a great flight and see ya in the air.

[VirtualGAaviator]

On 3/29/2023 at 3:30 PM, daemotron said:

There are still a couple of issues Laminar has to solve (and yes, they're aware and working on it).

I figured there must be an issue with the SDK that is holding things up regarding aircraft for XP12. Too few devs have released updates yet.

The PC-12 is the only FSEconomy plane I own. That reminds me. I need to check on it to make sure it's rentable. I'd love to see a PC-12NG or NGX for XP12. I suspect the hold up (even in XP11) has been the Honeywell Apex Primus Suite of avionics. Modeling it is surely going to be a beast. Just about everyone who flies GA loves the PC-12 so I'd venture to say it ought to be a profitable endeavor for who ever tackles it and get it right. I love the CL650 too and am salivating for the MU-2 by TOGA.

I've been holding off on buying any scenery or utilities for XP12. I want to see what LR releases next. It's been a while since the last release so I hope whatever they release is more than incremental. I did spring for the Citation 560XL by AirSim3D. The jury is still out on that aircraft. Actually, it's not a bad aircraft. It's just wayyy overpriced, IMO. I have yet to make a full flight in the aircraft because the developer's POH is terrible, again my opinion. Given that he says this is his first aircraft, I'm sure he'll eventually become a top-notch XP developer. 

I guess I have time to make a short flight, tonight. C'ya.

[Rick310]

About a month away and I will be headed for Alaska in my Just Flight Piper Arrow 3. Starting at my home airport 1L1 Lincoln county airport in Panaca Nevada. I will head north, last year I head up the coast line.This year I will head through Alberta, Canada and Northwest territories. Red Deer to Hay River to Norman Wells to Inuvik and enter Alaska through the Animal Refuse in the north east corner and land at Deadhorse. I takeoff from the last airport I landed. The routes are all layed out in my VA Schedule. I may have to shorten some of the routes due to the range of the Piper Arrow 3.

Think about this. 3 to 4 hour flights in a Piper Arrow 3? In real life you have to have a Urinary Catheter and bag for you and all your passengers. God help you if you have to take a crap. I would have to land at the nearest airport for a bathroom break. Lucky for me, this is the virtual world and everyone can hold it for 3 to 4 hours and no bathroom breaks, Zero!

It is weird how a conversation can quickly turn to crap. LOL!

See ya all in the air. Time to turn a prop. Cheers!

[VirtualGAaviator]

22 hours ago, Rick310 said:

Think about this. 3 to 4 hour flights in a Piper Arrow 3? In real life you have to have a Urinary Catheter and bag for you and all your passengers. God help you if you have to take a crap. I would have to land at the nearest airport for a bathroom break. Lucky for me, this is the virtual world and everyone can hold it for 3 to 4 hours and no bathroom breaks, Zero!

Hey Rick, you are showing your age, man. At my 60 years plus, I understand exactly where you're coming from. But a 20 or 30 something would have no problems, barring a medical condition, holding for 4 plus hours .  Also a lot of folks my age have trained themselves to hold.  As for me, some days are better than others. Some days, I can hold 6 or 7 hours - those days are fewer and fewer. Other days, seems like I'm going every 20 minutes or so. As for the 2nd number, when nature calls, it calls.

Let's hope this thread doesn't turn to a sh*tty conversation .

Moving to another thought, I've been poking around airliners. I'd vowed never to fly either airliners or military aircraft.  Finally been going through the ZIBO 737 checklist and the MSFS FBW A320 checklist. Some of my Discord friends swear by the A320 so I thought I'd give it a try. While the A320 is much easier to learn than the ZIBO I'm not impressed with either. There's a whole lot of flows and procedural stuff to learn but basically you're programming, monitoring and tweaking a computer to fly. You can hand fly, if you're good enough. Some flight phases can get extremely hectic so the procedures need to be memorized. Maybe, I'll get bitten by the airliner bug if I keep at it.  Anyhoo, I'm learning the ZIBO 'cause I want to fly IXEG's 737 after it drops for XP12.

A good pilot is always learning, right?

[Rick310]

Quote

A good pilot is always learning, right?

Right, every flight, landings and takeoffs.

Nothing wrong flying the airliners. If it works for you, Cheers.

Nothing Sh**tty about this thread. I will continue to add to this thread with new aircraft, flights to talk about.

It's a good to fly!

 

[Rick310]

The time is getting closer and closer to head for Alaska in my Just Flight Piper Arrow 3. Alaska is my favorite place to fly. I would fly there all year around if I had some de icing fluid. The summers are great in Alaska. The summer in Alaska is my winter in Las Vegas. Summer in Las Vegas is 110 degrees F campared to 60 degrees F in Alaska.

In real life I could never live in Alaska, way too cold for this desert rat. I love the heat. It gets below 80 degrees F I am cold.

Ok ready for another day of flying. Fly everyday , all day. 4 to 8 hours a day. Love it, baby!!!

[VirtualGAaviator]

Perhaps you could fly there in the winter if you flew VFR days only? Just say'n.

[Rick310]

Too cold. -30 degrees F with a wind chill that brings the temperature down to a -70 degree F. Not possible. Check the weather in Alaska now. I still cannot risk it. Last year I had to wait till June.

Watch the series Flying Wild Alaska.

I am sure there are days I could fly. I takeoff from the airport I landed at. I do not jump from airport to airport.  So if the weather is bad, I am grounded and can not fly. Just my part about being realistic  when I fly. Iceing is the main cause of my crashes. I have crashed because of some strong crosswind landings, 50+ knots crosswinds, but iceing gets me more often then the winds. I have to do the flights over. For this reason is why I fell in love with GA aircraft and VFR flying. I have no interest in the airliners.

VirtualGAavator, I am like most of your friends, I fly the same aircraft for many hours. Dornier 228 -  2500 hours, Piper Arrow 4 Turbo - 460 hours , Aero Commander 690B - 395 hours. I track my hours in each aircraft I fly. And back in the day with FS9 I had over 1000 hours in the Airbus 320.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Rick310
Add Infomation

[VirtualGAaviator]

I've seen the TV series. There was a time when I was obsessed with AK. I still love that state.

I've never had an interest in airliners -- I'm trying to develop an interest now. When I started back simming in 2017 my reasoning and goal was to resume training for my PPL. For the first 16 months or so I would only fly aircraft I thought I might fly IRL. That was basically the C152, C172, and the PA28 series or Pipers. Due to medical issues - a back that requires strong pain meds - I am grounded as PIC. So now I fly whatever suits my fancy. I want to fly IXEG's 737 so I've been learning to fly the ZIBO. I realize IXEG's offering is more analog than the ZIBO.

FWIW, I like your realism plan. Hopefully, PropStrike Studio (or someone) will convert his Canada and AK scenery to XP12. I'd love to revisit Machmell and Quamtum River.