Microsoft Flight Sim 2020

[Hoots]

1 hour ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Looks very nice, but they'll have to fine-tune the winch-behaviour.

No glider will go that fast on the ground that quickly. 180kph (that's roughly 100kts) is way overspeeding the airplane.

 

Let's see where this is going. if they get the glider-dynamics right, they could really eat Condor's lunch.

 

For sure, once got pinged to 80 knots in a k8 from a standing start, binned that launch pretty damn quickly. 
 

As you say, some way to go but as a first go it shows promise. Condor soaring mechanics in FS2020... nice. 

[SAS_Storebror]

22 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

we do have some warm front systems moving about, while it is actualyl rather nice weather just looking up in the sky right now.

(...)

In this sense, METAR data can be extremely misleading and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Well I think that's really an edge case, neither MSFS 2020 stock weather system nor Rex got it right.

In defense of Rex, all METARs see clear skies despite recent changes:

https://www.windy.com/LSZH?gfs,clouds,47.460,7.449,8,i:pressure

 

On the other hand, I didn't see MSFS 2020 getting snow in northern germany right a single time so far, whereas Rex didn't fail a single time in that regard.

Nothing's 100% reliable, but to me Rex is about 10 times as reliable as Stock MSFS is.

Though I have to admit that EDDH - EGTE in a C172 was the longest flight in one chunk I did so far, but on that flight, Rex performed large scale weather changes, from low to ground touching clouds and thunderstorms with severe icing conditions at start, over almost clear skies across the channel, then more or less completely cloud-covered south-east of england to a really beautiful 1-2/10 clouds around cornwall/devon, it's all been spot on with local weather reports cross-checked.

 

Mike

[Bremspropeller]

17 minutes ago, Hoots said:

For sure, once got pinged to 80 knots in a k8 from a standing start, binned that launch pretty damn quickly. 

 

Are you sure they used the correct tow-break on you?

Had a similar thing happen once, when I was standing wing. The "blue" tow-break ripped cleanly off the K8 - the airplane didn't even move an inch...

Turns out, the winch guy wanted to prevent an engine-stall, but forgot the cable was almost unslacked...

 

In another club, they just launched every airplane with the wrong tow-breaks. K8s with red breaks (also had a dude getting pulled to 160kph). I once saw 130 and didn't even dare to pull the yellow knob...

Meanwhile they'd launch Twin Astirs and ASK21s with brown breaks, basicly daring that thing to rip off on every launch...

 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Bremspropeller

[Ribbon]

4 hours ago, Diggun said:

Hey hivemind, any of you all get msfs 2020 from Steam? I'm having some issues. 

 

I paid my money, and was able to download the 500mb-odd initial download. This has created a desktop shot cut and I can now click 'play' in steam. However, when I do so I get the little 'thinking circle' next to my mouse pointer and then... Nada. Nothing. Not a sausage. 

 

I had a Google round, and it seems like plenty of people have had instillation issues, but can't see anyone talking about this specific one. 

 

Any thoughts, oh wise ones? 

Those 500MB are launcher download....try to check if it appears listed in control panel/programs than try to uninstall/reinstall it...or do that trough Steam.

Before maybe you should try to verify game files by clicking on msfs2020 in steam library/ RH mouse button/properties....under one subsection there is "Verify game files" option. 

If all goes ok launcher should download remaining ~100GB and if some content is missing you need to download it ingame troigh content manager (not sure is it called like that).

Good luck!

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, SAS_Storebror said:

Well I think that's really an edge case, neither MSFS 2020 stock weather system nor Rex got it right.

If I fly locally, I often try both and select what gives the better picture. But in the last days (as posted) I was more goofing around on my world tour, hence I would prefer to have weather such as I see in in Windy and thus I stopped using Weather Force. And the FS2020 weather system matches Windy rather closely. It might even be that they draw from the same (or similar) weather model. The company that produces the weather system for FS2020 (AFAIK) makes its money by providing forecast.

 

Anyway, over time, I think a synthesis of the present technologies are probably a way to go. What is definitely missing now is that FS' weather system is calbrated to local conditions. But The current either/or solution is rather coarse. But it's good having the choice.

[Hoots]

1 hour ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Are you sure they used the correct tow-break on you?

Had a similar thing happen once, when I was standing wing. The "blue" tow-break ripped cleanly off the K8 - the airplane didn't even move an inch...

Turns out, the winch guy wanted to prevent an engine-stall, but forgot the cable was almost unslacked...

 

In another club, they just launched every airplane with the wrong tow-breaks. K8s with red breaks (also had a dude getting pulled to 160kph). I once saw 130 and didn't even dare to pull the yellow knob...

Meanwhile they'd launch Twin Astirs and ASK21s with brown breaks, basicly daring that thing to rip off on every launch...

 

 

Weak link was correct, always check myself before it’s attached. The power delivery on our winch is smooth but the driver got mixed up and thought he was launching a K13. Our club’s hot on procedures so it’s rare for failures due to wrong links. Funny how some clubs treat their gliders. We have a good mix of glass and wood so drivers and launch crew are careful. 
 

anyway, back on topic, gliders in FS2020, awesome when finished

[DD_Arthur]

 

 

[AndyJWest]

Maybe it's MSFS using a default aircraft model because you don't own whatever it is. F-15 maybe?

[SAS_Storebror]

4 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

Maybe it's MSFS using a default aircraft model because you don't own whatever it is. F-15 maybe?

This.

It does look cool though 

 

Mike

[Guest deleted@50488]

The Fiat has recently been released

 

[AndyJWest]

2 minutes ago, jcomm-in-il2 said:

The Fiat has recently been released

 

 

It's the Bonanza trying to air-to-air refuel that we are puzzled about though. At least, I am...

[DD_Arthur]

6 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

Maybe it's MSFS using a default aircraft model because you don't own whatever it is. F-15 maybe?

 

Yeah, that makes sense.  I followed the Airbus from take off in Gibraltar and had to drop tanks to keep up with it.  

We were still climbing when the Bonanza appeared off my high three o’ clock and closed on the Airbus?.  

I’m assuming the roll and break into a dive at +250 knots would have instantly destroyed the Bonanza - even with a ‘home brewed’ engine mod.

After the Bonanza left us I trailed the Airbus for a while. This was a flight in real time with live weather and the cloud formation as we headed north over central Spain were absolutely authentic!

 

Looking over at the Airbus I could just imagine the drinks trolley doing a roaring trade. I’ve always been amazed at my fellow Brits propensity to get wasted on an airliner given the slightest opportunity.?

 

[ZachariasX]

So.. back to my world tour.

 

Having arrived in Beijing, I figured the most suitable next leg would be to another capital city. Taipeh, that is.

 

Spoiler

 

There might be some clouds on the way, but nothing too bad.

 

 

Weather was really nice, offering a nice view of the surroundings. I am always amazed (also in real tubeliners) how populated China is, at least anywhere flat.

 

 

While there is plenty of agriculture south of Beijing area,

 

 

it seems that the locals are more interested in turning the landscape into a dynamo rather than any sort of garden.

 

 

Also in Xintai, where it is evident where the power comes from. But if that is the alternative to (Australian) coal, why not? From then on, the weather got more and more cloudy, but cloud ceiling was high enough to never pose an issue.

 

 

Shanghai. Regrettul how the flattened a significant part of the old town to build a Mikey Mouse version of an ancient town as tacky as it could possibly be. But Chinese are great at being toursits in their own country.

 

Further south, weather cleared up.

 

 

Fuzhou Changle International Airport being my waypoint to torn toward Taiwan. I don't really like just flying out toward the sea. Even plain bue sky can quickly turn into something nasty and then there's no place to land.

 

 

On apprach to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (RCTP), or Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport how it is called today. The fuel situation was problematic. When I was doing this flight ASOBO just released the patch that mended some of the fuel flow in the Baron, that before was either 20 gallons (or so) or cut. I shhould have throttled back a bit and decresed rpm.

 

 

Where to go from here? Manila!

 

Spoiler

 

Some very early and very japanese MTO feeling again. Weather looked nice. Maybe some local things over the Philippines.

 

 

Off we go.

 

 

Some funny landscape along the west coast. Those terrain spike glitches are really frequent here, not so in China. Took some tries not having them in the picture.

 

 

Hengchun Airport on the southern tip of the Island. Now out toward the sea.

 

 

This is what is absolutely stunning about this sim. Look at the weather now... all easy now....

 

 

Half an hour later, it became this.

 

 

Near Santiago City, there were plenty of Thunderstorms and there be plenty of mountans between here and my next waypoint, Clark Field.

 

 

Clark Field. How long will it be until I can take off with a P-40 from here to attack the ships landing at Aparri and Vigan? Will there be thunderstorms over inland territory and clea weather near the beaches?

 

 

Finally, on apprach to Ninoy Aquino International Airport, RWY 6. The weather is indeed rather dynamic. This is really something sorely missing in other simulators, especially "the other sim", where we fly (mostly) fast jets and that thinks of itself as curtting edge. Yet the same weather throughout the whole map. You know on takeoff how things will look like where you do your deliveries. What a boring terrarium.

 

Next stop will be Kuching in Idonesia, from there to Singapore. Then via Bangkok to Kunming and over the Hump.

 

[DD_Arthur]

I’m enjoying all these round the world tours.

I think Zach must have racked up the most diplomatic incidents so far....China to Taiwan? Yikes!?

[ZachariasX]

2 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

I think Zach must have racked up the most diplomatic incidents so far....China to Taiwan? Yikes!?

I declared a "local flight via Fujian" when submitting the flight plan in Beijing. Wording helps. I will come back to China some flights later on, hence I don't want to offend anyone.

 

Speaking of, next leg was an excursion to Malaysia, From Manila to Kuching Intl (WBGG).

 

Spoiler

 

I might encounter lesser weather. Windy agrees.

 

Spoiler

 

This bloody island of Borneo is breeding thunderstorms, but at least I have tailwinds. First things first. The weather in Manila hasn't changed at all since I arrived.

 

 

Nice clouds. That is where I am going.

 

 

Never been to Manila myself, but as far as it looks here, it must be quiet an interesting city.

 

 

Luckily the weather cleared up and as I was bimbling about enroute Puerto Princesa on the stretched out island Palawan, I realized that 5'500 ft altutude is really what you require in these parts.

 

 

Puerto Princesa seems to be a rather nice spot. and It has a nice airport.

 

 

Arriving off the coast of Malaysia, it becomes evident that in Borneo altitude may only help you if you are a tubeliner en route. Mount Kinabalu in the center is about 13'500 ft and one of Borneos more prominent landmarks. I stay near the coast, hoping for the best regarding the projected thunderstorms.

 

 

Arriving over Brunei. Everything about it is anticlimactic. It may have been imperial Japans gas station once, now it looks as any other makeshift town in these parts of the world. Even the weather remained average. Alas, more sobering stuff was yet to come.

 

 

Formerly rain forrest, now vast stretches of palm oil fields. Most flat parts of the country here is transformed into that. For I can eat margarine instead of butter and my Shampoo not being liquid but creamy. Hooray.

 

 

At least the weather remained passable and I landed at my destination Kuching Intl Airport. A rather funny place it turned out. Oh well. I sleep in the ramp then. Tomorrow is a new day and then off to Singapore. I'm sure the humor there will at least be different.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by ZachariasX

[Ribbon]

On 07. 02. 2021. at 11:32 AM, DD_Arthur said:

 

Yeah, that makes sense.  I followed the Airbus from take off in Gibraltar and had to drop tanks to keep up with it.  

We were still climbing when the Bonanza appeared off my high three o’ clock and closed on the Airbus?.  

I’m assuming the roll and break into a dive at +250 knots would have instantly destroyed the Bonanza - even with a ‘home brewed’ engine mod.

After the Bonanza left us I trailed the Airbus for a while. This was a flight in real time with live weather and the cloud formation as we headed north over central Spain were absolutely authentic!

 

Looking over at the Airbus I could just imagine the drinks trolley doing a roaring trade. I’ve always been amazed at my fellow Brits propensity to get wasted on an airliner given the slightest opportunity.?

 

Reminds me on those airliner kidnap movies!

They should make a mod when civillian plane enters some country airspace unannounced fighter jets are being alerted to intercept and escort

[ZachariasX]

Sooo... next leg, off to Singapore!

 

Spoiler

 

Sleeping in that ramp was was not that great, especially since during the night it was getting noisy. Thunderstorms. Oh well.

 

Spoiler

 

Windy agrees and it seems I'm right in the middle of it. But at least it looks better at my destination. Off I go then.

 

 

Could be worse. At least this storm seems to have an eye.

 

 

Nevertheless, Borneo was shrouded in thunderstorm clouds. Nice little cloud towers here and there through the dense ceiling. 9500 ft altitude does about the trick. But I should have brought more paper bags.

 

 

About the last and only thing I see of Borneo besides thunderstorm clouds is noteably my waypoint, Supadio International Airport (WIOO).

 

 

Crossing the sea to Sumatra and my next waypoint Pangkal Pinang Airport, the weather was clearing such that I got a marvellous view. Finally.

 

 

This side of Sumatra is really flat and all agriculture, settlements (even larger tows) are very spread out. Now is about the time to think about my apprach on Singapore Airport. Widns from the NE, so I figure it's gonna be rwy 2 and I go for the ILS approach.

 

 

I'm slightly short on fuel as I got a tad more headwind than expected. So I don't do for some sightseeing across town. With only 15% left, there is little room for an organized go around and new approach.

 

 

I'll take a closer look on departure. The infinity pool is really asking for it.

 

 

Having an autopilot doing all the work keeps one distracted where one shouldn't. With all the clicking on the Garmin by selecting different appraches and modes, I didn't realize it didn't fly on NAV but on HDG until I again confirmed the new procedure and set to NAV again. Good old steam gauge aircraft. You are actually flying them.

 

 

Over here, there's more to these airport facilities than just the ramps. But some scenery upgrade would be nice in these whereabouts.

 

In general, I think it would be really nice if there was some airport information for the player/pilot that could be brought up. I mean, all the information must be there, otherwhise they couldn't have made the airport for this sim. A simple sketch would help. "Take taxiway november... " Yeah, sure.

 

Next up to Bangkok. Knockin' on @unreasonable's door until he opens.

 

[Tektolnes]

After leaving Alexandra Bay it's time to head down towards Cape Town. After a lot of wilderness over the last few flights signs of large scale human work on the land start to reappear as I pass by Winterhoek Mountain. Civilisation (and hopefully no vuvuzelas) beckons.

 

 

 

 

Flying down into Cape Town International. After a bunch of airports with no approaches all hail glorious VNAV which allows my lazy pilot to not have to do a thing for most of the flight apart from twiddling a few knobs along the way and doomscrolling Twitter before finally taking over for the last 500 feet.

 

 

Leaving Cape Town and on the way to George Airport. Definitely does look a pretty spectacular place from up here.

 

 

 

 

[Feathered_IV]

Wow that really is lovely. I never thought I’d say it about a flight sim, but I could use a break from all the huge majestic cloud formations for a while.  A bit of gin clear real time weather would be very nice indeed.  

[CanadaOne]

Those filthy swine at MS locked my account. Now they want a phone number to send a verification code to, and this is one-minute after they sent a verification code to my email, which worked and I got in just long enough for them to say they need a phone number to send another verification code to. What's next, I have to meet Bill Gates in an underground garage somewhere?

 

All this to fly an airplane on a computer screen. 

[ZachariasX]

3 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

I have to meet Bill Gates in an underground garage somewhere?

You wish. It it’s SteveB.

[Gambit21]

On 2/11/2021 at 6:34 PM, CanadaOne said:

Those filthy swine at MS locked my account. Now they want a phone number to send a verification code to, and this is one-minute after they sent a verification code to my email, which worked and I got in just long enough for them to say they need a phone number to send another verification code to. What's next, I have to meet Bill Gates in an underground garage somewhere?

 

All this to fly an airplane on a computer screen. 

 

Yeah - hard pass.

[SAS_Storebror]

You can have that everywhere these days.

Just had a day of fun with the Apple support to get my account unlocked, and the funniest part of it was: My Password was correct all the time, and no one could explain why the iPad won't accept it and lock the account instead.

I'm not inclined to assign animal names to the Apple Staff though... it's not their fault after all. 

 

Mike

[Gambit21]

On 2/6/2021 at 7:16 PM, AndyJWest said:

Maybe it's MSFS using a default aircraft model because you don't own whatever it is. F-15 maybe?

 

How is your around the world  flight going? 

 

The scenery is outstanding.

 

[AndyJWest]

19 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

 

How is your around the world  flight going? 

 

The scenery is outstanding.

 

 

The weather is frustrating. Been stuck in Fiji for days, wanting to fly back to Vanuatu, with cloud from sea-level to above my ceiling blocking my way (the XCub isn't supposed to be instrument rated, and flying through solid cloud on autopilot is cheating a little too much for me). I'm probably going to have this trouble for the next few weeks, as I make my way across the tropics towards the Philippines. Which in itself is frustrating, since I've got to fly 1/3 of the way back towards my departure point to follow the Ring of Fire round to the Aleutians and the U.S. At this rate, if I'm to make it home inside a year, I'm probably going to have to head straight across Canada (or at least, the northern U.S.) rather than heading down into central and south America, as I'd though I might have time for.

[Lusekofte]

I received my alpha honeycomb throttle 1 week ago, Same with Glv throttle and trim module

I opened up the boxes this evening, man I gonna rebuild everything to get room for it all.

I was planning to sell the Honeycomb throttle , but for this sim it just might be a winner. It got garmin switches and a juicy layout for modern planes.

Glv is just wonderful for my ww2 setup

[Tektolnes]

Leaving George early in the morning on the way now to Port Elizabeth:

 

Passing over the Wilderness Dunes

 

After that it's pretty much rolling farmland and game reserves all the way up to Port Elizabeth and then on to Bisho where I'm finally going up Africa after circumnavigating it anti-clockwise all the way around from Tobruk which might have been a bit ambitious in retrospect.

 

Long leg next so hop back into the CJ4 for the flight up to Durban where I get to land at the ever so slightly controversially named King Shaka airport. He was apparently a bit of a lad back in the day where if your unit failed him in a battle he'd kill all your family and then wait for you to come back to get your brains bashed in. 

 

On next from Durban to Matekane Airstrip in Lesotho. Less than 2,000ft of runway and I'm not Monostripezebra so time to ditch the CJ4 again.

 

 

Better not come in a bit low here...

 

Finally then off to Bloemfontein through the Mafeteng Mountains and over the aptly named Corn Flatlands

 

[AndyJWest]

34 minutes ago, raaaid said:

i would pay what fs2020 costs if it was cars instead of planes and it included all roads of the world as andy i would do a trip around the world

 

I don't think there's much prospect of a sim capable of producing the necessary detail for that in the immediate future. MSFS uses satellite data to produce a map that looks OK unzoomed at light-aircraft altitudes, but the resolution you'd need for ground vehicles simply couldn't be done that way. And nobody is going to pay to model the entire world road system by hand.

[Monostripezebra]

I just keep coming back to the standard Savage Cub Clone.. It kinda has it all

 

[DD_Arthur]

UK scenery update available now!

[DD_Arthur]

Blimey!  Another 23 gig.....

 

[unlikely_spider]

30 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Blimey!  Another 23 gig.....

 

And like 5gb if you want the UK scenery

[DD_Arthur]

Now downloading at around the 1 Mbits/s mark.  Europe has come home from work, had it's din-dins and fired up the pc.

 

Could be an all night download....

[Monostripezebra]

Wow, the current northern UK weather and scenery is freaking fantastic!

 

the windsocks.. not so much:

 

 

 

The rain is also pretty cool

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Monostripezebra

[Chief_Mouser]

I do wish that they could thin out the trees. There aren't any around that castle, apparently I live in a jungle and yesterday I discovered that the plains of Nebraska look more like Wiltshire.

[Jaws2002]

On 2/16/2021 at 12:09 PM, DD_Arthur said:

Blimey!  Another 23 gig.....

 

Working on it as we speak. At this rate, I'm not sure if the 2TB m.2 SSD I use exclusively for FS2020, Il-2 and DCS will be good enough for another year.   ?

Edited February 18, 2021 by Jaws2002

[Feathered_IV]

Downloaded last night but I’m having some trouble.  The update got stuck at about 98% just as it was unpacking the last piece.  I left it for something like 8 hours to see if it could chew through it but no joy.  Hope I don’t have to download 100’s of gigs worth to get it going again. 

[ZachariasX]

I could download the patch with no issue at all. Does it resume the download when you restart the computer and launch the sim again?

 

Also I noticed that they must have changed the binaries of the .exe. When I started the sim and it ran the update, first from the store, at some point later on when the main content update was performing, it prompted me to make the firewall allow FS2020 to have net access. Was there a prompt hidden under your FS2020 window?

[Feathered_IV]

No nothing like that.  it seems stuck on decompressing fspatch.006 just before completion.  I left it running all night then tried again when I got home this evening, but its still doing the same thing.

 

Here's a screenshot.  It's using quite a bit of memory for very little in return.  I've just read that locating the fspatch.006 file and deleting it can help, so I'm trying that.  The game is now redownloading 10.66gb.  Hope that works.  Fingers crossed!

 

[Bremspropeller]

Taildraggin