Help please! new member

[marlinleg 3]

hello to one and all, i am new to FSX although i have played around on it,now i am retired and have more time, can someone advice  on a list of ad-dons, my PC was purchased form a guy at work who was emigrating and he had  built it himself, its old but i got it for £300 with a Ben q  screen and Logitech G15 keyboard its a Windows 7 64 bit Intel i5 760@2.80ghz  and a Radeon HD 5800 ram 8gb graphic card.  mother board ms 7583 it came with a 64gb ssd but i have put a Samsung ssd 250 drive in i have the boxed FSX installed also Just-flights VFR real photo scenery England and Wales i got a free download from Aerosoft of Piper PA-31T Cheyenne also have SaitekX52 PRO I HAVE 83GB FREE SPACE left on hard drive so if anyone can suggest any addons please then i will give my hobby some time then if i am still happy i will get a new system after Christmas

many thanks to one and all  

[SEATAC 400]

Welcome! Always good to have new people here. There are many members who I am sure will be able to give you helpful advice. I am not one of them. . I do hope that you become an avid flight simmer as there are many fantastic, quality add-ons of which I have many.

[allardjd 1,853]

Welcome to MH!

I recommend AirHauler, and you can become an AirHaulic like the rest of us. Also Plan-G (freeware). A payware traffic program is always a good investment and a real-world WX program too.

John

[hifly 925]

Hi Phil and  to Mutley's. I'm not well versed on PC specs but there are many here who will be happy to help with hardware questions. For addon aircraft, take a look at the Just Flight website as they have a very comprehensive catalogue of GA, military and airlines as well as environments, weather, airports, NE Night Environment, AI traffic etc. For good airports try the UK2000 site.

 

I'm sure others will add to the list so you'd better watch your wallet, this hobby is highly addictive.

 

Happy flying.

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

Welcome to Mutley’s Phil,

the first thing you should be aware of; we don’t "play a game", we are virtual pilots

many here can walk into a real aircraft and be as professional as the actual pilots are,

I’m sure your eager to start; take your time to collect information first;

there's allot you will need to factor for your particular environment,

allot of this will come clear with time and gathering information,

the guys here are always happy to help; but it takes a little commitment from you too

[Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142]

Hi Phil!

And a warm welcome to the Hangar!

Welcome to FSX, too, which has the capability to absorb as much of your retirement time as you (and/or any Significant Other) can afford to devote to it.

Before we inundate you with information and opinions, could you perhaps give us some idea where your aviation interests lie? For example, do you prefer to fly low 'n slow; or military; or airliners? Do you have any controller hardware (yoke, joystick, throttles, rudder pedals, whatever)? Do you prefer VFR or IFR? Props, jets, or helicopters?

Or are you struggling to know where to start?

Whichever, there are lots of good folk here who can help you. Welcome again!

Cheers,

bruce

a.k.a. brian747

[J G 927]

Welcome Phil, 

 

Add-ons for FSX...it's horses for courses really there is a lot out there to choose from. There are guys here who can offer help on pretty much everything flight sim based. 

 

Check out the MH reviews section and see if you see anything there that fits your budget and your style.. You might want to get used to using the included aircraft to get the feel, and to understand the frame rates that your system gives you before you jump in to a new add-on. There are some amazingly detailed aircraft out there but sometimes that means a hit on the speed that your sim runs at. Shift-Z will display various data items in the top left of your screen, keep on pressing Shift-Z until you see frame rates.

 

Read the reviews and find something you like and look for any frame rate hit.  If it gets mentioned then it could be a problem for you, and it can be a real disappointment if that much look-forward to add on cripples your computer. Ask on the forums for advice from someone who has the add-on you like the look of, someone here will have it.

 

If it is an RAF aircraft, ask me, I only fly RAF, and now have most of the better examples of add-ons for my narrow field.

 

Enjoy this site and your hobby, I hope this helps. 

 

J.G.

 

PS - I only fly RAF as military aircraft are my thing, (shooting at things is not though), and limiting it to RAF ensures I don't go bankrupt through buying too much stuff!  

 

 

 

[wain 879]

Welcome aboard....lots of advice given already.....hope you have plenty of time now you are retired because once bitten by flightsim you can never get enough...

Wayne

[Corsaire31 419]

Hi and welcome ! Also retired since a bit over a year now, been accumulating flying hours since then  (and talking about it on the forum)

 

Addon planes offer about anything you want, depends what your interest is ( and the money you're ready to spend, start by the good freeware to try ! ) I don't have many payware planes but good ones as I prefer to fly many hours in the same planes to "feel at home". For the airports I only use freeware, there are tons of good ones ( for 10 mns spent there to taxi and take off, I prefer using the money of payware airports for general scenery like regional FTX )

 

I came first to FSX after years of combat sims by watching an Air Hauler video, so I would also advise it. I never could fly only for flying, so I'm either working for my companies or setting up flying adventures to discover the world.

 

Like everyone else I'm using Plan G for VFR navigation. Can't advise on photoreal scenery as I'm not using any.

 

I like to always fly real time and real weather, so I have a weather engine called FS Real Global Weather, but there are many others like REX, Opus or Active Sky Next. They are also adding textures for clouds and water and general ambience.  I went for FSRGW because I already had a Flight 1 addon called Flight Environment X for this function.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Welcome to FSimming, and Mutleys. Hope you enjoy both!

 

Lots of advice above, I'll add my 2 cents.

 

In retrospect, I think the best/most benefit addons I have are in order:

 

Ignoring upgrades to the Computer System itself...

If your system performance is adequate...

 

Track IR head motion sensing gizmo. Lets you swivel your head and change the view in 6 axis...a huge immersion help.

Yoke or Stick depending on what you will be flying most (with throttle/prop/mixture levers) and rudder pedals.

Good scenery (for local area at the least, ymmv, but that is where I fly 90% of the time).

Weather Software (I am using Active Sky Next, there are others).

Steve's DX10 fixer...(something to consider if your system gets frame rate bogged down...but it is a subject of other threads here and elsewhere)

 

There are so many good freeware planes available that you can satisfy the New Plane impulse for a long time for no cost..spend money on the immersion and the environment at first would be my main recommendation (from a guy with far too many payware planes that he doesn't fly that often).

 

Welcome again!

[Thomas Farr 2]

I posted in the classifieds about two weeks ago some addons i'm looking to sell whatever takes your fancy drop me a line and as most have said your in the right place for help any help that you need i willing to give your hints and tips...

 

Regards Tom