Microsoft Flight Sim 2020

[AndyJWest]

Just now, Bremspropeller said:

IIRC, the climate of Suva is a lot more humid than the climate around Nadi.

It's been some time, though...

 

Yeah. Never been there (though at one point it looked as if there was a possibility I would), but I remembered reading something to that effect after I made the initial post, and checked. In the days that the British were running the place, they decided that the old capital wasn't in the optimum spot, and moved it to Suva. Presumably because like all true Brits, they weren't going to let a little rain bother them. Idiots...

[ZachariasX]

43 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

From a look at Windy.com, you're also on the edge of a tropical cyclone.

As of now, it is a Category 5 Hurricane.

[AndyJWest]

7 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

As of now, it is a Category 5 Hurricane.

 

Yikes, I'd not seen that in the news. Seems to have been abnormally destructive, even by tropical hurricane standards. ☹️

Edited December 20, 2020 by AndyJWest

[DD_Arthur]

On 12/19/2020 at 5:09 PM, Hoots said:

*Obvs she had no idea what she was buying and just shook her head forlornly.

Interesting. My wife is buying me a tumble dryer with three year warranty and a Corenado Seminole. We’re pioneering ‘Pork barrel flight simming’?

Edited December 21, 2020 by DD_Arthur

[DD_Arthur]

Hey! She's in luck; it's just gone on sale

[Hoots]

1 minute ago, DD_Arthur said:

Hey! She's in luck; it's just gone on sale

 

But I don't want a tumble drier

[AndyJWest]

The frustrations of flying in the tropics, continued...

 

I leave Budiarto airport, hoping to see a few more of Java's many volcanoes. And as usual, the weather isn't helping. Huge clouds building up over the high ground. Nothing for it but to put on my virtual oxygen mask and climb to my rated ceiling of 14,000 ft.

 

There is something of a gap between layers up there, but I still have to dodge around. And when I get to the first volcano I want to look at it is mostly hidden. This is Mount Pangrango ("That which huffs and puffs"). It appears that the smaller volcano crater on its flank, Gede (which I couldn't see) has been doing most of the more recent huffing and puffing though. Gede last erupted in 1957, and was showing significant seismic activity in the 1990s, making it one to keep a wary eye on.

 

Next on my intended route was Mount Galunggung - the volcano that almost brought down two Boeing 747s which both managed to fly into its ash plume in separate incidents back in 1982. It wasn't to be though, as the cloud was getting even thicker. I couldn't climb over it, and wouldn't have seen much through it even if I could.

 

Dropping down showed that it was solid right down to ground level for the higher terrain ahead,  too. I could have headed north, and maybe skirted around the cloud, but that wasn't going to get me any nearer Galunggung, so I decided to land where I was, in Bandung. MSFS seems not to have modelled the major Bandung airport (WICC), and I landed instead on Margahayu Airport (WIAK), a large grass-strip airfield. (Edit: the major airport was modelled - I'd somehow messed up the settings on Little Navmap, so it didn't show on there)

 

I'll keep an eye on the weather, and try to pick a flight time when I can at least see Galunggung (only 33 nm away), or maybe go back to take another look at Pangrango first (39 nm in the other direction). Worst-case scenario is probably to be forced to leave to the north, over the lower ground where the cloud isn't likely to be as solid, and head east from there. That will mean giving up on the volcanoes at this end of Java entirely. And I'll no doubt run into the same problem further on. Like I said in an earlier post, the weather is a part of the experience, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Edited December 22, 2020 by AndyJWest

[DD_Arthur]

4 hours ago, Hoots said:

 

But I don't want a tumble drier

 

Meet the new Zanussi

 

[AndyJWest]

10 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Meet the new Zanussi.

 

Nice. ? What's the range like? 

[DD_Arthur]

It's all singing, all dancing, all condensing.  Eleven hundred miles or 8kg in twenty-five minutes on the "shrink all your smalls" setting.

[CanadaOne]

Nice.

 

Still waiting for a Beaver and a Twin Otter. Then the serious flights will commence. 

[AndyJWest]

World tour, continued: I took another look at the weather shortly after dawn, Java time, and it seemed a lot better, so I carried on volcano spotting.

I backtracked towards Pangrango, sticking up through the cloud...

...circled round Pangrango and Gede...

 

...and headed off towards Galunggung to the east. Looking back, you can see that there are large settlements close to the slopes of Pangrango/Gede, hence the need to keep an eye on it: though that probably applies to every volcano in Java. Jakarta is about 35 miles off to the north, on the coast.

 

By the time I got to Galunggung the lower cloud layers were covering much of it, and it was rather difficult to figure out exactly what was what. I think this is the top of it in the foreground. Mount Cereme is off in the distance to the right.

 

The low cloud cover was thickening, so I landed soon after at Tunggul Wulung (WAHL) on the southern coast.

 

There is a good Wikipedia article on the first 747 to get into trouble in an ash plume over Galunggung, but the second incident about a month later, when a Singapore Airlines 747 did almost the same thing is less documented. Unlike the British Airways incident though, they only had 3 engines cut out.

Edited December 22, 2020 by AndyJWest

[dburne]

MSFS 2020 in VR.

 

 

[Hoots]

11 minutes ago, dburne said:

MSFS 2020 in VR.

 

 

 

 

Ooooohhhhh that sounds gooooooood. Hype level intensifies.

[dburne]

Well I guess the time has come for me to purchase MSFS 2020 now that it has VR support.

Any recommendations on best place to buy and what version to get?

 

Edit: I see it is available on Steam, perhaps I will just get it there. Need to decide on version though.

Ok never mind I found all the info on the versions on Steam, guess I will go with the Premium Deluxe.

Edited December 22, 2020 by dburne

[CanadaOne]

When can we get that Spitfire?

[Lusekofte]

12 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

Nice.

 

Still waiting for a Beaver and a Twin Otter. Then the serious flights will commence. 

Yeah I would like only vintage planes. I kind of dried up 

[Hoots]

4 minutes ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

Yeah I would like only vintage planes. I kind of dried up 

 

Well, that happens with age...

[AndyJWest]

Who wants a twin radial-engined amphibian for Christmas! There is a freeware Grumman Goose available: ?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/initial-release-grumman-goose-g21a-redux-ii/338063?fbclid=IwAR27eZ9IyrcOS6JsA61KXBMSoISXtka_08vAYDvFSlQqz6UNKzH5lp9_-TE

 

It's based around a conversion of an earlier FSX model, but seems to have been extensively reworked. Still very much a work in progress apparently, but seems worth a look. I've not tried it yet myself, but will report back when I do, assuming someone else doesn't first.

[CanadaOne]

24 minutes ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

Yeah I would like only vintage planes. I kind of dried up 

 

A want a bit of everything. Definitely a Twin Otter for some exploration, and a fast mover like the F-15 that might come out in January. Be fun to do a JFK to Heathrow fast and high in your own little race car.

[Lusekofte]

35 minutes ago, Hoots said:

 

Well, that happens with age...

Your right. My new stick is awaiting new control card. Before I would be fuming , now we'll fly next year. I find cub and older cessna good. But since everybody screaming about bugs in modern systems, I figure vintage planes is right in the alley of this sim. I can fly an hour over nice terrain with low speed. Storebror found a ultralight. I am eager to try that

[SAS_Storebror]

The Update #2 has just been released officially, just saying.

13,67GiB in my case, not too bad, was expecting 100 Gigs+

 

Mike

[DD_Arthur]

Nice! Downloading now

2 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

When can we get that Spitfire?

 

Right now in theory.  It's a conversion of this to MSFS2020.

https://flyingironsimulations.com/products/spitfire-l-f-mk-ix-for-x-plane-11

 

[DD_Arthur]

Okay, having some technical issues with my Rift but VR works a treat.

[Stoopy]

6 hours ago, dburne said:

Ok never mind I found all the info on the versions on Steam, guess I will go with the Premium Deluxe.

 

Excellent choice.

 

[Hoots]

2 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Okay, having some technical issues with my Rift but VR works a treat.

same, had to restart initially but after that it’s been very well implemented. 

[Lusekofte]

I gonna try my Rift asap.

[AndyJWest]

I tried the freeware Grumman Goose I linked above. As I said, it is very much a work in progress, though it shows potential. Graphically, its FSX heritage shows somewhat, though clearly parts of it have been remodelled. The flight model seemed distinctly odd, particularly in roll, though I may have been doing something wrong - it felt almost like I was fighting an autopilot. Maybe I've got it set up wrong somewhere. I also had a few CTDs, but they seem to have found a fix for that already: see the thread.

 

So, a work in progress, but it's free, its an amphibian, and I can now land something on water that has a proper airplane cockpit, rather than the dreadful pretending-to-be-a-batmobile Icon A5.

 

 

 

 

 

[AndyJWest]

More Java volcano screenshots, from my latest leg. The weather gods were in a helpful mood for a change. 

First, I headed north the Mount Slamet, which was peeking enticingly up between the cloud layers.

 

Slamet is active, with tremors and emissions recorded as recently as October this year, though it hasn't produced ash plumes since 2014.

 

Heading east, a long line of volcanos was visible ahead. The low cloud blowing in from the south was blocked by the higher ground, giving me options to land if it worsened.

Sindoro and Sumbing, both historically active.

The dormant Merbabu left, and Merapi Java's most active volcano on the right. Merapi's most recent episode of significant eruptions began in May 2018, and continued until March this year, producing explosions, avalanches, pyroclastic flows, and ashfall. Seems to have quietened down since, though only a couple of weeks ago there were reports of avalanches and emissions.

 

Merapi is deeply fissured, a contrast to the more rounded Merabu, which has had time to erode.

 

 

Ngebel Lake, at the foot of Mt Wilis. The home of some sort of mythical creature, though I'm going from a Google translation and it isn't clear whether it is a snake, a dragon, or possibly a dragon-snake. Nice spot to set up home, anyway.

 

After a couple of hours flying, time call it a day. Abdulrachman Saleh airport (WARA) is on high ground between volcanoes, and I wasn't sure until I got close that it wouldn't be clouded in. As I dropped down low round the flank of the nearer one it seemed clear, so I carried on to land. There were a couple of alternate airfields to the north as options if it hadn't been possible. The volcano ahead is Arjuno, again active.

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by AndyJWest

[Lusekofte]

Really nice pictures, Andy. 

Anyway, tested VR. Got these odd black frames 

And very low fps. My 1090 ti is too weak for that. Besides. You loose to much beauty with it. So that settle it for me. It's gonna be a VR free territory. I am not disappointed, I like flying with two screens and six external instrument panels. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by 216th_LuseKofte

[Lusekofte]

Can anyone point out the directory where the community folder is? I know default is C:/users/username/

I looked for that in this thread, I know it should be here. I did mark show hidden folders but still cannot find it. I bought a ultralight and Bleriot I wanna install

[gabuzomeu]

 

Hello

you can find all instructions to locate your community folder here: https://flightsim.to/help/getting-started/locating-the-community-folder-of-my-game

There , you also have tons of mods..

Edited December 23, 2020 by gabuzomeu

[Trooper117]

4 hours ago, 216th_LuseKofte said:

Can anyone point out the directory where the community folder is?

 

I didn't have a community folder... I was told I had to create one myself... maybe it's a steam thing, I don't know.

[Lusekofte]

The Bleriot is a funny plane. In special the less powerful one   What a deathtrap 

And the ultralight. Great plane

[SAS_Storebror]

The Blériot XI is a handful.

I couldn't resist to do the trip from Calais to Dover in the R.I.P. edition.

My first landing in that plane ever, and I survived the stunt!

 

Mike

[DD_Arthur]

On 12/23/2020 at 11:28 AM, 216th_LuseKofte said:

Anyway, tested VR. Got these odd black frames 

And very low fps. My 1090 ti is too weak for that. Besides. You loose to much beauty with it. 

 

Do you get this in VR Luse?

 

I found the easiest way to get rid of it is to switch to the Oculus Open beta on the Oculus home page and let it update to V.24. Then restart everything and the frame is gone and performance is slightly better anyway.  In my opinion Steam VR really does take a big, very noticeable chunk of performance away from the whole experience compared to Open Composite.

However, I use this game for the eye candy opportunities and yes, VR does take all that away.  Fast and low-level in the MB339 I'm really struck by how similar the experience is to DCS in VR.  It kinda shows how well VR is implemented in IL2 in many ways but this is early days for Microsoft's VR.  The basic perfrmance is pretty solid and I'm sure they'll iron out lots of the lumops and bumps in following updates.

[Lusekofte]

45 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

On 12/23/2020 at 12:28 PM, 216th_LuseKofte said:

Anyway, tested VR. Got these odd black frames 

And very low fps. My 1090 ti is too weak for that. Besides. You loose to much beauty with it. 

 

Do you get this in VR Luse?

Thanks , yes this is what I get  and I will try it out. 

I am unwilling to upgrade a rig that serve me well in DCS and GB. I really dislike using VR longer than 1/2 hour. It simply not comfortable. 

So I do not mind flying ms without it.

I might upgrade my gpu, but that would be for a better screen resolution 

[dburne]

I just purchased the Premium Edition this morning.

Strange in that I purchased it through Steam but it is installing through my MS account via X-Box.

I thought it would have done so through Steam.

[unlikely_spider]

2 minutes ago, dburne said:

I just purchased the Premium Edition this morning.

Strange in that I purchased it through Steam but it is installing through my MS account via X-Box.

I thought it would have done so through Steam.

No, it was really kind of misleading. I did the same knowing that I am usually able to max out dl speed via steam, but it really doesn't use Steams infrastructure or folder structure on your drive. And on that note, I've heard to never use the Steam verify files feature, which corrupts your installation. Not very good implementation all around on that front.

[dburne]

3 minutes ago, unlikely_spider said:

No, it was really kind of misleading. I did the same knowing that I am usually able to max out dl speed via steam, but it really doesn't use Steams infrastructure or folder structure on your drive. And on that note, I've heard to never use the Steam verify files feature, which corrupts your installation. Not very good implementation all around on that front.

 

Ok good to know thanks for the info. Looks like installation going to take a little while.