OldAirmail

The switches on the TPM are a little, umm, different, than you might expect. Don't get me wrong, I like the Saitek equipment. Mainly because it works and it's so much cheaper than the competition. My real problem isn't in the design, but in the software/drivers that they put out. The toggles on the TPM are Single-Pole, Single-Throw. Just like a regular light switch. You flip it down, and it makes contact. Flip it up, and it breaks contact. To program it you need to program an action for when it makes contact. AND an action to take place when the contact is broken. Otherwise it isn’t going to act as you’d expect it to. Sorry, I can do that in FSX, but I don't know X-Plane enough to tell you how to do that yet.

I'm still so new that I'm embarrassed to ask this, but is anyone working on drivers for the DesktopAviator.com GPS Panel - Model 2450B ($228)? I know that there are others that cost a lot more, and they probably do have X-Plane drivers. I just can't spend $480+ to get one. And while I'm very good at some things, programming isn't close to being one of them. I have most of the Saitek panels and with a bit of searching I found something that was supposed to let them work with X-Plane. I had no luck with it though, and gave up.

If it helps others to understand my perspective: When I was very young I flew half way across across the US by an un-remembered prop liner to New York City, and then from New York to London in a Lockheed Constellation (starboard side just behind the trailing edge of the wing. And, yes, I sat in a window seat! ). http://youtu.be/QjNRK1eRKx8 I fly small planes to small airports that I’ve been to, or would like to go to. And the more texture and airport scenery the better. For me, the texture and scenery that XP10 is capable of is of high importance. In my teens I worked in a small private airport with Cessnas, a V35 Bonanza , and Moonie aircraft. These are the planes that I've actually taxied to tie down spots and cleaned as part of my job. These are the planes I like to fly. There's nothing wrong with jets and heavy metal, they just have little interest for me. I like to fly slow & low. In fact, when I fly in a real jet I loose interest after 1,000 to 2,000 feet. I was born in the south west and lived on the east coast most of my life. The scenic beauty of the west coast has little interest for me, except for a change of pace every now and then. But those are the areas that get the most attention from scenery developers. As was mentioned before, I'll just have to either wait for, or make my own, local airports.

Have you flown from LSTS? In a small prop aircraft? Too much power and it wouldn't be interesting. "When this happens, the airport base included by default should grow very fast." I'm sure that you're right. But as a newcomer to XP10 it's a letdown when you see on the internet how good it can be. And then find out that your favorite mid-sized airport looks like it came out of a Stephen King book!

Thanks for all the answers. I guess that I have to look at it as Bobback says - "In my oppinion X-Plane 10 is just new, like FSX at the start. Maybe in a year or 2 there will be a lot of scenery and airplanes to download." Bobback, I have the TrackIR v5 and I can't imagine doing without it. If a plane doesn't have a 3D cockpit, I don't want it. If you don't have a TrackIR get one, I think that you'll like it as much as I do. But just get the one with a hat clip, not the one with the 3 IR LEDs. I got VERY tired of the cord getting in the way, and haven't used the LED clip-on more than 2 or 3 times. Thanks chris k for the search tip, that should help. As I said, the scenery is the most important thing for me. Flying into an airport with nothing but the runways there makes me feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Orcair - "...all X-Plane 9 scenery works in v10. It may not have the most up-to-date features, especially with lighting however it still works well." That should help to get things started. Thanks. I was afraid to get any scenery that wasn't explicitly for XP10.

RealScenery - "Another new X-Plane user had the same question here just a few days ago." That is me, in part. Although I didn't expect RealScenery(.com type scenery) or (as in FSX) Magascenery coverage, I did expect a minimal attempt at basic airport scenery. But, as you and chris k point out, it probably was a bit more than should have been expected from such a small company. RealScenery - "however, there are also many quality non-payware options as well, depending on the airport you're interested in..." And that is one of my problems. Finding scenery for Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, etc. will probably be relatively easy. Finding even basic airport scenery for many smaller city airports might be a problem. In so far as Payware/non-payware goes, if I could buy a region or state scenery pack it would be worth it. Paying $10 to $30+ for each indevidual airport would be a bit too much. Then too, most of what I see for sale is for the scenic west coast/mountains/islands. chris k - "Great KPHL scenery here: http://forums.x-plan...&showfile=11513". From that download page - "Brilliant scenery for KPHL by the MSFS scenery developers at SunSkyJet, converted with FS2X-plane." What I see with that download is more than a little bizarre. But that may be the result of my downloading the X-Plane 10.20 11 (64bit) beta yesterday using "X-Plane 10 UPDATER and Installer". I kept expecting it to give me the chance to install it in another location as a separate instance. It never did, it just installed to my X-Plane 10 location. No biggie, live and learn. (And I have a whole bunch to learn. Including making a back-up first!) For that matter is X-Plane 9 scenery compatible with X-Plane 10? chris k - "There's a *Ton* of scenery - Laminar provides the X-Plane fight dynamics, rendering engine, and the base terrain." Unfortunately, there is indeed a ton... Finding the airports that I want/need though is like trying to find that proverbial needle in a haystack. So many irrelevant needles crop up, in spite of trying to filter out the clutter. A case in point - a search for "x-plane" Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport download -fsx will pull up nothing relevant to X-Plane and the airport for downloading. Of course that airport would only be of interest to those who live, or work in the area. But it is an airport that I have been to in real life, and fly to for fun. chris k - "You need to grab and install the scenery you want - luckily it's very easy process to add new Custom Scenery. (Far easier than Ive ever seen elsewhere) by simply putting a pre-made file into your /Custom Scenery/ directory. Poof! Done." I could populate the airports that I most frequently use, but I would rather not. Between family and work I usually get to fly once every week or two. Populating small local airports could be an interesting hobby, but I'd rather fly. And don't forget what I said in my first post - I regularly fly in or out of about 20-30 airports (about 10 large and 20 medium/small). And note that that is "REGULARLY FLY". Not exclusively fly. Thanks PascalL, the "XPScenery.net" is worth its weight in gold! I don't know how complete the list is, but it'll save a lot of time searching for airports THANKS . But as I asked before, would buying X-Plane 9 give me better/more airport scenery? Or would I just have to buy/find/build/modify my airports for that too. Or is it just a case where X-Plane 10 is so “new” that I have to wait a while? (And that one goes back around to "Should I buy X-Plane 9 until then"?) BTW - Thanks for the time and help.

I bought X-Plane 10 directly from their website after watching " " on YouTube. It's hard not to get excited after seeing that video (well, part 1 & 2 anyway. Doesn't seem to be a part 3 or 4). Over the past 2 months I've spent what time I could learning how to set it up to my satisfaction, learning the ins and outs of the program, and just learning to fly light aircraft with the excessive turbulence (which I just learned today how to minimize). Today, I started to find out why even some major airports like Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) (460,779 aircraft movements in 2010, according to Wiki) don't have buildings. Even with the scenery maxed out and "airport detail" set to extreme, I had nothing. No buildings, no fences. Just runway and grass around the runway. Outside the airport I have buildings, etc maxed out. Cars and trucks everywhere. Streets and houses galore. Terminals? Gota go to KSEA for that. Is there some setting that I‘ve missed???? When I installed X-Plane 10 I installed EVERYTHING. I have more than enough HD space, and power to run X-Plane maxed out so why do with less? I live near Philadelphia and "fly" out of KPNE. I like to fly mostly prop planes, slow and low. So the scenery is of utmost importance to me. I also like fly to airports that I’ve done work at or read about. In all I have an interest in about 20-30 airports in the region, and I like to fly out a a few other places like Hong Kong, Geneva, and even little St. Stephan (LSTS) Switzerland. I was hoping that X-Plane 10.20 11 beta might have more scenery in it. No luck there. What I read today is that (basically) if you want scenery you need to buy it. I tried 2 free scenery downloads a few weeks ago, but they weren’t very good. To pay $10 to $30+ for most scenery that ONLY covers a small area/airport doesn’t look like that good of a good solution to me. And most of the "large" area scenery that I do see don’t cover the area that I like to fly. So my question - Should I put away XP 10, for now, and buy X-Plane 9? Will that give me a larger (and cheaper) airport/scenery selection? And before anyone suggests it, I have absolutely NO interest in converting MS flight sim scenery to work with XP 10. Or putting buildings on the barren airports that I fly to and from for that matter.