Microsoft Flight Sim 2020

[Feathered_IV]

2 hours ago, Hoots said:

Hmm… my heart sinks a bit at that top gun thing. 

 

If its a step towards a CFS2 remake I would be fine with it.  

[Hoots]

1 hour ago, Feathered_IV said:

 

If its a step towards a CFS2 remake I would be fine with it.  

That’s a fair point. But we have high fidelity carrier ops in DCS so are MS going up against that or providing a simple way for Xboxers to zoom around like Tom Cruise. 

[Trooper117]

If there is nothing to fight against, it will be just '' hey look at me doing a round the world trip in this bird... bet Tom Cruise didn't do that''

[DBFlyguy]

56 minutes ago, Hoots said:

That’s a fair point. But we have high fidelity carrier ops in DCS so are MS going up against that or providing a simple way for Xboxers to zoom around like Tom Cruise. 

Whatever the reason, that video has already been viewed over 210 THOUSAND times, not even mentioning all the flight sim content creators covering it too... it's gonna add more folks into the genre.   It's brilliant move by Microsoft, DCS doesn't need to be the only modern game (pun intended) in town when it comes to carrier ops. 

[Lusekofte]

Serious tubeliner pilots or cessna trainees would not touch a CFS with a spade.

I have no idea what's going on. 

I guess they still fly prepard 3D or xplane 11 because a couple of buttons in their favorite ride do not work

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, Hoots said:

That’s a fair point. But we have high fidelity carrier ops in DCS so are MS going up against that or providing a simple way for Xboxers to zoom around like Tom Cruise. 

I don‘t think that by now MS is „going up“ agains anything. If so, they‘d just walk right over any competition.

 

DCS has great modules with tons of sophisticated code to them, something absent to MSFS as of now. The thing is, adding that to MSFS is a realistic possibility. Conversely, it is not likely that DCS can escape from its retarded, limited, flat playpen that it still clings on to. That is the situation regradless of how nice the clouds (and the maps as such) look now. Buying the module developpers (not that I think MS would do that, at least right now) that publish in DCS and making them porting thie airplanes to MSFS is just pocket money for MS and one managing descision away.

 

I do not think that MS would opt for that for the simple reason that X-Box is the wrong platform for any serious DCS contender. What they need is an „IL2 Birds of Prey“ addon where you can play Maverick and go blow up stuff, maybe even in 3rd person view. You don‘t go on X-Box and NOT publish a shooter game. Hence, well get just that.

 

I see that much rather as bad news for WarThunder. DCS is pretty safe. It is just too small of a market to go after. Far smaller than GA sims or shooters (like WT).

 

If they in fact would want to do more, they can do it. At any time. Games that have to finance and sustain themselves are no real competition.

Edited June 14, 2021 by ZachariasX

[AndyJWest]

If I had to guess, I'd go with the 'fly around as Tom Cruise' thing being what MS are making, rather than an actual combat sim expansion worthy of the name. 'Carrier ops' on a very basic level, with just maybe some grossly-simplified 'weapons' tacked on. The MSFS core simply can't support the complexities of anything on the level of detail of current combat-simming software, and frankly I doubt it could be made to without having to make deep compromises regarding its capabilities as a civ sim. As it stands, it pushes the limits of a practical mass-market consumer product. It is a GPU hog, a CPU hog, and an internet bandwidth hog. Start adding things like weapons modelling, damage modelling, AI capable of air combat manoeuvres, and the all rest, on the level of IL-2 GB or DCS, and it would grind to a halt.

 

As I've said before though, I've never really understood why Microsoft decided to get back into the flight simulator market in the first place, given that the insignificance of the potential market compared to their core business, so maybe they've hatched up some new 'cunning plan' to proceed further with whatever the hell it is that they are up to. If so, making something that actually works may not necessarily be a priority for them.

 

I'm going to stock up with popcorn, and sit back watching the forums going wild with speculation over what all this is about. Well that, or carry on bimbling around in the MSFS XCub under autopilot, watching the forums as I go. Whatever MS are up to, they seem to have funded a decent enough planet-inspector, and competent third-party developers seem to think they can do proper civvy-sim aircraft on it at the level of detail they've achieved in other civvy sims. That scratches my particular itch, and since I don't see any possibility of MS doing anything air-combat wise that is going to affect the 'proper' combat sim market, the inevitable hoo-ha over what they are up to is going to just be entertainment to me until we finally learn what it is all about. And then there'll be the added entertainment of watching people who've hyped this beyond any reasonable expectation having to find excuses for this not becoming the ultimate all-features everything-simulator of their dreams.

[ZachariasX]

I share your attitude Andy, so me it is just popcorn time as well. I admit though, that when they announced this sim, it was popcorn time for me as well and I came to realize that ASOBO far, far surpassed even the wildest guesses I would have cast back then. I‘ve become wary discounting announcements from that team.

 

2 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

The MSFS core simply can't support the complexities of anything on the level of detail of current combat-simming software, and frankly I doubt it could be made to without having to make deep compromises regarding its capabilities as a civ sim.

I see enormous headroom in computing ressources in current many-core systems even now. You don’t surpass 50% total CPU load in most conditions. The fact that X-Box features an 8 core CPU gives me hints about ASOBOs confidence in the platform. Also in their lifestreams, they hinted that we‘d be surprized what performance improvements would come along, epecially with the X-Box release. And I don’t doubt that they couldn‘t add DM and further system mechanics better and faster than anyone else. If the find the people that can do it and they really want it, then they will have it. It‘s a different business world altoghther from the small teams that otherwise produce for niche projects.

 

I also don‘t doubt that MS made a record breaking number of sales with this release of the sim. They make a lot of money and they have even more ressources at hand.

 

ASOBO changed over night what a GA sim can be. I am certain that they can do so with combat sims should they chose to do so with MS‘ ressources at their disposal.

 

Thus, I very much agree on your view on things, but not because of what they can or cannot do, but because I wouldn‘t expect them to be willing to do so. But time will tell.

[AndyJWest]

3 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

I share your attitude Andy, so me it is just popcorn time as well. I admit though, that when they announced this sim, it was popcorn time for me as well and I came to realize that ASOBO far, far surpassed even the wildest guesses I would have cast back then. I‘ve become wary discounting announcements from that team.

 

I see enormous headroom in computing ressources in current many-core systems even now. You don’t surpass 50% total CPU load in most conditions. The fact that X-Box features an 8 core CPU gives me hints about ASOBOs confidence in the platform. Also in their lifestreams, they hinted that we‘d be surprized what performance improvements would come along, epecially with the X-Box release. And I don’t doubt that they couldn‘t add DM and further system mechanics better and faster than anyone else. If the find the people that can do it and they really want it, then they will have it. It‘s a different business world altoghther from the small teams that otherwise produce for niche projects.

 

I also don‘t doubt that MS made a record breaking number of sales with this release of the sim. They make a lot of money and they have even more ressources at hand.

 

ASOBO changed over night what a GA sim can be. I am certain that they can do so with combat sims should they chose to do so with MS‘ ressources at their disposal.

 

Thus, I very much agree on your view on things, but not because of what they can or cannot do, but because I wouldn‘t expect them to be willing to do so. But time will tell.

 

As I understand it, the sim is supposed to be playable on the previous-generation XBox as well as the latest model, which rather limits the possibilities. Unless of course, the 'cunning plan' is to use the poor performance of old XBoxes (XBoxen?) with the sim as a means to boost sales of the new one. 

 

Thinking about it further, there may be a rationale of sorts behind all this cross-platform flight-sim development. MS are trying to bind people into their corporate ecosystem, where every device they use has MS software on it. MSFS isn't being developed to compete with X-Plane, it is being developed to compete with Apple and Android. If that is what is going on, an air-combat sim might sort of make sense, though it seems rather niche. And not particularly necessary, since the combat simmers are almost all using Windows now anyway. Though most of the civ-simmers were too, so we are back to trying to figure out what is going on in Microsoft's corporate heads... 

[DD_Arthur]

8 hours ago, Hoots said:

Hmm… my heart sinks a bit at that top gun thing. 

 

Don’t. We’re merely getting what looks like a highly detailed carrier and an F/A18.

 

For free.

 

Thats great as far as I’m concerned. 

Why are Microsoft doing this? To promote Xbox sales would seem to be the obvious conclusion. They sell hardware and make software to promote it too.

They also get a cut of software sales on their platform.

This is very big business. This is timed to coincide with the release of the film in November and slots in nicely with Christmas.

Xbox sales of this thing are going to be absolutely bonkers.

 

Does this mean war? No. Addons sold through the ingame market place are not allowed to display weapons.

They need to retain their PEGI rating.

 

Oh yeah, since the Xbox and PC versions of the game are going to be developed in parallel we get a DX12 update too.?

[Tektolnes]

They can do whatever they want. Just send me my DC-6 and I'll be happy out for the next while - it looks magnificent.

[Algy-Lacey]

I would love to see a CFS4 in the new MSFS2020 world, but unless it is representing our world as it is now, I don't see how they could do it. MSFS2020 uses satelite imagery and buildings and vegetation from the present day, if they wanted to create a believable World War 2 combat flight sim then the current way of streaming scenery wouldn't work unless they placed every period building by hand and used maps from the period to create the landscape. It simply wouldn't work unless a CFS offshoot used a 'sandbox' approach and made limited area maps that are essentially hand-made.

 

The only other possibility is to create a modern day sim that would either compete with DCS or be a 'crimson skies' style what-if... both based on the satelite imagery and world generation that we have currently with MSFS2020.

 

Just a thought.

 

I just bought MSFS2020 on disc so, soon I will be able to experience for myself what all the fuss is about!

 

Cheers,

Algy-Lacey

[DD_Arthur]

For Xbox and Windows10

 

$349usd

Edited June 15, 2021 by DD_Arthur

[LizLemon]

On 6/14/2021 at 11:07 AM, AndyJWest said:

 

As I understand it, the sim is supposed to be playable on the previous-generation XBox as well as the latest model, which rather limits the possibilities. Unless of course, the 'cunning plan' is to use the poor performance of old XBoxes (XBoxen?) with the sim as a means to boost sales of the new one. 

 

Thinking about it further, there may be a rationale of sorts behind all this cross-platform flight-sim development. MS are trying to bind people into their corporate ecosystem, where every device they use has MS software on it. MSFS isn't being developed to compete with X-Plane, it is being developed to compete with Apple and Android. If that is what is going on, an air-combat sim might sort of make sense, though it seems rather niche. And not particularly necessary, since the combat simmers are almost all using Windows now anyway. Though most of the civ-simmers were too, so we are back to trying to figure out what is going on in Microsoft's corporate heads... 

 

Its pretty clear that MS realized they can make a killing off of an in-game market. Lots of other games have done this with some even supporting 3rd party content. Except with MSFS that add-on content starts around $10, averages more like $30 and sometimes breaks $100. That is a lot more revenue than the $2.49 skins and loot boxes. All you need is a small number of whales who buy up a decent chunk of the add-on content and you've got a good, consistent revenue stream. All the other players are just gravy. 

 

And that, right there, is the big change that has happened in the market over the past 10 years. And Microsoft is very much aware of that change.

[Tektolnes]

DC-6 was live streamed tonight: 

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1057335280

 

Apparently it's coming really soon. 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Tektolnes

[SCG_ErwinP]

 

[DBFlyguy]

Anyone have issues running FS2020 since World Update 4? I haven't been able to start the game since.  I've tried reinstalling multiple times and it still won't even start.  I'm using steam.  Didn't have any issues until the latest update. 

 

Event viewer is showing this error:

FlightSimulator.exe

1.16.2.0

00000000

ucrtbase.dll

10.0.19041.789

2bd748bf

c0000409

000000000007286e

3c24

01d7626834717f22

D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\FlightSimulator.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll

114abb9b-2011-4930-975e-0c9b94cfba87

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by DBFlyguy

[LizLemon]

Try reinstalling visual studio, 2015-2019

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0

[Feathered_IV]

On 6/15/2021 at 3:42 AM, Algy-Lacey said:

I would love to see a CFS4 in the new MSFS2020 world, but unless it is representing our world as it is now, I don't see how they could do it. MSFS2020 uses satelite imagery and buildings and vegetation from the present day, if they wanted to create a believable World War 2 combat flight sim then the current way of streaming scenery wouldn't work unless they placed every period building by hand and used maps from the period 

I think it would be achievable in a low population setting like the PTO for example.   Something that loads from the community folder could support modified or alternative ground textures and objects, and the work required to backdate the comparatively small islands would be much easier than something like Europe. 

[Tektolnes]

DC-6 to be released on Friday: [16JUN21] PMDG DC-6 for Microsoft Flight Simulator Release Date Announcement - PMDG Simulations

 

Captains,

We are happy to announce that our first product for Microsoft Flight Simulator has completed development and is now pending for release.

The PMDG Douglas DC-6 for Microsoft Flight Simulator represents the first of a number of products that PMDG has planned for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and marries our penchant for creating "study level" simulations with Microsoft's magnificent new, high technology flight simulation engine. Never before have we had the ability to model an airplane with such detail, and we are very excited to bring this product to market this week.

Throwing superlatives around is an easy thing to do when you are working with a new generation of simulation platform that is as visually stunning as thew new Microsoft Flight Simulator. We tend to shy away from such behavior when showing a soon-to-be released product, but in this case it is hard to avoid. MSFS is a modern engine that does a magnificent job of capturing the beauty of the DC-6, allowing us to turn out a highly detailed, robust simulation of one of the world's great, classic airliners.

The PMDG Douglas DC-6 for Microsoft Flight Simulator is a ground up build that was designed from the beginning to capitalize on the advanced features of MSFS. From lighting to flight handling to systems behaviors, we have created a detail-rich simulation that is sure to deliver weeks and months and years of enjoyable simulation experience to PMDG customers new and old. No effort has been spared to make this the most detailed simulation in our product line, while simultaneously giving new simmers all of the tools that they need to succeed in operating this highly detailed simulation.

Understanding that not all PMDG customers have radial engine experience in their background, we have added the Automated Flight Engineer to the product specifically to unburden you, the pilot, by handling most all of the complex tasks and checklists while you focus on flying the airplane. Just like a real-world captain, you can easily delegate complex processes to your Automatic Flight Engineer with the simple click of a button.

The PMDG Douglas DC-6 will be available on Friday, 18JUN21 directly from www.pmdg.com.

We will have more video and information available for you later in the day on Wednesday, and we hope that you will take a few moments to tune in to our friends Chewwy and TheFlyingFabio on Twitch throughout the day today as they showcase our new product and attempt to learn to fly the airplane in real-time with all of you watching.

Pricing and time-of-day availability is still pending, and will be announced shortly before product release.

We are very excited to finally be bringing you a product compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator. We are very excited about what we have created, and we hope it will bring you many years of simulator enjoyment.

On behalf of all of us at PMDG, thank you for your continued support during the past 24 years!

[DD_fruitbat]

On 6/14/2021 at 5:11 PM, DD_Arthur said:

 

Don’t. We’re merely getting what looks like a highly detailed carrier and an F/A18.

 

For free.

 

Anything like that, that is free I'm all for. T

 

The Grinch in me though, wonders how highly detailed will it appear to me, as a DCS player with those modules, although I well understand I'm not the target audience, lol.

[DD_Arthur]

58 minutes ago, DD_fruitbat said:

 

Anything like that, that is free I'm all for. T

 

The Grinch in me though, wonders how highly detailed will it appear to me, as a DCS player with those modules, although I well understand I'm not the target audience, lol.

 

I would imagine the external model will be superb. Although external stores will be limited to hydrocarbons.

 

The cockpit? Pretty decent too if it’s an Asobo effort.

 

The functionality of that cockpit?  Insert emoji of your choice here.....

 

Personally it’s the functionality of the carrier I’m more interested in.  Will it actually move in the sim and will I be able to land other carrier capable aircraft on it.

 

 I’m amused by the discussions on the official MS forums that Paramount are paying MS to make this.?

 

 

[DBFlyguy]

14 hours ago, LizLemon said:

Try reinstalling visual studio, 2015-2019

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0

Unfortunately still no joy, no clue what the heck is going on.... extremely frustrating after dumping $120 in the premium version and buying a few sceneries all of a sudden it won't even start now.

 

Multiple reinstalls....gpu driver update....windows update....C++ 2013, 2015-2019 installed....

Edited June 16, 2021 by DBFlyguy

[ZachariasX]

I want to point out that this is not the first F-18 that MS put in one of their flight sims.

 

 

[CUJO_1970]

[ZachariasX]

9 hours ago, DBFlyguy said:

Multiple reinstalls....gpu driver update....windows update....C++ 2013, 2015-2019 installed....

When doing the re-installation, did you also manually purge any folders left before doing the new install? AFAIK this error seems to appear when the given dll has to process corrupt data.

 

Can you start the sim from a different user account on your rig?

[Lusekofte]

A while ago I lost almost all planes bought extra. I simply boiled over of frustration. And have left this sim alone for month.

Well that is the general status of my simming,  but I do not want to fly this atm. It caused simply too many error fixing

DC6 might get me back on the saddle, if I find motivation

[DBFlyguy]

6 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

When doing the re-installation, did you also manually purge any folders left before doing the new install? AFAIK this error seems to appear when the given dll has to process corrupt data.

 

Can you start the sim from a different user account on your rig?

I ended up doing a complete reinstall of Windows yesterday and then reinstalled the sim, that thankfully worked. Luckily most of my other games are also through steam (except IL-2) so I didn't have too much hassle reinstalling everything else and didn't lose any data.

[AndyJWest]

The DC-6 is out. Currently $54.99, which seems to be lower than most people were expecting. I'm sorely tempted, and about the best reason I can think of for not buying it is that I've got too many other complex aircraft to learn as it is. I suspect my willpower may not last long...

 

https://pmdg.com/msfs/

[unlikely_spider]

11 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

The DC-6 is out. Currently $54.99, which seems to be lower than most people were expecting. I'm sorely tempted, and about the best reason I can think of for not buying it is that I've got too many other complex aircraft to learn as it is. I suspect my willpower may not last long...

 

https://pmdg.com/msfs/

Funny how it just came out but says "Was $59.99".

Anyway, airliners aren't really my thing, although this era is. Steam gauges including a CDI, meaning navigation using needles pointing to numbers instead of following a line on a moving map, is my kind of thing.

Not sure I've ever flown anything with four engines though. Seems like it would take forever to start up each time.

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, AndyJWest said:

The DC-6 is out. Currently $54.99, which seems to be lower than most people were expecting. I'm sorely tempted, and about the best reason I can think of for not buying it is that I've got too many other complex aircraft to learn as it is. I suspect my willpower may not last long...

 

https://pmdg.com/msfs/

Yeah, after what felt like spending half a day hitting F5 on their webpage, I know what I‘ll be doing tomorrow.

 

I love the old crates, they have few functions, most of which you‘d be looking for anyway. All you need to do is find them on the switchboards. Also, they added a crew functionality. You have a copilot and flight engineer that do their part should you choose that. It seems like a very accessible package. Just the right plane to cross the north pole… New route for another around the world trip. It also seems to remember engine wear. This would imply a challenge of „how far you get“.

[ZachariasX]

 

Yes, baby! What a ship! If you have flown other propliners like the A2A Connie or their B377 Stratocruiser, it is more or less straightforward prodecure in the cockpit. Startup requires a quick look at the youtube tutoial. Also power and flap configurations should be looked up. Other than that... It's just grand! Having a crew makes a lot easier as well.

 

It is nice to see that this aircraft is obviously flown much like a glider during approach. The radials supposedly hate any movements on the throttle and will reward you with shortened life if you stress them that way. You have a setting to take off, one to climb, one to cruise, and one to descend. You adjust your descent rate with flaps settings. It is really a ship... you basically fly her on the trim. I have no idea how it should really be done besides the official tutorial, but I hope @Dakpilot will point out things that I do that absolutely would kill myself in the real aircraft.

 

I will need some practise to before taking her on another world tour. It is a remarkably powerful aircraft despite the viually shallow climbing angle. Will be intersting to see how she does at El Alto Airport in La Paz, Bolivia.

 

But I guess I need a four engine throttle system... So far I habe mapped engines 1 & 4 on a lever and 2 & 3 on the other of my Saitek. It would be better to put 1 & 2 on one lever, but then all the twins are screwed. Or maybe I use the warthhog throttle... It's fair to say there is no suitable throttle control for such a plane.

[Dakpilot]

El Alto is an amazing place, with a unique history of big prop Cargo aircraft operating there. I spent a bit of time there, (very lucky) but is was after the golden years and the last two B-17 Cargo aircraft had ceased operation and were nowhere to be seen. Still lots of C-46,C-47,Dc-4,Dc-6, many R2800 Convairs and all sorts of interesting stuff, I was lucky to have access to look around for a few days  and talk to the operators and pilots, normally security there is pretty paranoid even with the correct permissions/passes. 

 

La Paz is also a very special city, but wow that altitude took some getting used to even the change from La Paz to El Alto was very noticeable. 

 

Cheers, Dakpilot 

[Tektolnes]

Picked up the DC-6 as well and really liking it so far. Still getting to grips with it but for the most part it's fairly straightforward to get started up and then up and away. Managing the descent phase is going to take a bit more practice for me - it does not like to do anything fast. Keeping the Garmin GPS in it for now too until I understand what this VOR voodoo is all about. Took a short flight yesterday from Dublin to Shannon:

 

 

 

[DD_Arthur]

 

?

[danielprates]

On 6/18/2021 at 4:49 PM, AndyJWest said:

The DC-6 is out. Currently $54.99, which seems to be lower than most people were expecting. I'm sorely tempted, and about the best reason I can think of for not buying it is that I've got too many other complex aircraft to learn as it is. I suspect my willpower may not last long...

 

https://pmdg.com/msfs/

 

So here is another temptation: captain sim just released the 777 for FS2020. 

 

777-200 – Captain Sim

 

There is also, as is typical for captain sim, a freighter version. 

[AndyJWest]

2 hours ago, danielprates said:

 

So here is another temptation: captain sim just released the 777 for FS2020. 

 

777-200 – Captain Sim

 

There is also, as is typical for captain sim, a freighter version. 

 

I wouldn't touch anything from Captain Sim with a ten-foot bargepole.  Do a search  on the MSFS forum to find out why. (multiple reasons, not just a crap product).

 

 

[ZachariasX]

2 hours ago, danielprates said:

So here is another temptation: captain sim just released the 777 for FS2020. 

Good that there will be a suitable alternative to PMDG's 777 once that will be available. At probably 5x the price. But new tubeliners are not really my thing, hands on only in times of catastrophe.

 

The DC-6 is more work... But one has to be careful adding cummunity mods/scenery. It is really a ressource hog and my 32 GB are not enough in dense areas, CTD is the result. Hence I had to to clean my community folder from dozens of gigabytes of addons and now it runs better.

 

23 hours ago, Dakpilot said:

La Paz is also a very special city, but wow that altitude took some getting used to even the change from La Paz to El Alto was very noticeable. 

Actually I had that airport in mind as I was browsing through my photo collection, the old stuff. I skipped most of South America in my World tour and I guess I have to cover that now as well. Looking through old Kodachromes, it is funny to see that in South America, wherever you landed in a DC-6, you saw a llama. (Or somethng llama, maybe somethong llamaish.) If you saw a llama, you made it alive.

 

So, (almost) today 63 years ago, someone saw a llama in La Paz:

 

 

Same as you ventured on to Lima. The "international airport".

 

 

See who's waiting for the DC-6 of our connecting flight? The llama. Bolted to the apron as a courtesy service.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Taking off in that BRANIFF from "Lima International", here seen in all it's glory. The ground wasn't prepared that much and takeoff for this kind of aircraft wasn't all that straightforward I have been told.

 

What is actually remarkable, is the sheer number of people required to get the aircraft flying. In the sim, they made a great jop adding all the accessories.

 

 

In the real world, it was a crowded affair.

 

 

I like wingtip Tony who is taking care of the outer fuel tank. Today, they would have to add a balustrade on the wing and the whole aircraft would look like an Ilja Muromez.

 

 

Getting it ready to go. Wingtip Tony is on site again. The llama is off, welcoming another DC-6 I suppose.

 

Talking about llamas, I have not seen any on an airfield if it wasn't welcoming a DC-6.

 

 

Again, 63 years ago, you could for instance fly to what is now Aeropuerto Internacional de Foz do Iguaçu, but you better bring your own fuel pump. No llama ain't greeting no DC-3. It's mean.

 

 

Same in Cali. At a time where basically any kind of drug was legal, same as in the USA. But if you didn't bring your own acetone in that DC-3 (no llama, again) you'd be still munching leaves like any other god-fearing citizen.

 

Flying and travelling was rather different in comfort and effort required. Still I'd say flying those crates was comparably safe. I mean, you could take the train. Here are the tracks:

 

 

Now, where's the train? Everybody say: "There's the train!"

 

Spoiler

 

Oh well. This would leave us locomotion as god intended, by car.

 

 

But if you went up la Paz, it might be likely that you'll cross the cumbre pass. You see how the bus looked like. It couldn't stop en route as it would be not able to get going again, lack of air. Hence the guy standing there is not being picked up and will not be picked up anytime soon unless he has his own ride.

 

If you venture on, you'll be on the Yungas road, "El Camino de La Muerte". If you drive there, drive the English way, as opposed to the rest of the country. At that time, it was the only way to get to the Yungas region. Instead of being an attraction for cyclists, it was just lethal.

 

 

There's oncoming traffic on that road. It is of note that at the time that picture was taken, Klaus Barbie was living in the town just a bit down the road (the good way down, not the bad way) from where the picture was taken. This road inclused attractions like the "waterfalls of Sacramento". They are part of the road.

 

It is thus obvious that the only meaningful way to travel South America is by aircraft. You can even go and have a look at the local volcanoes.

 

 

The DC-6 is very good for that. In this case Misti.

 

I have still to practise a bit with the DC-6. The engines are indeed very delicate and do not tolerate certain abuse. If your dear P-47 had the engine modelled in the same way, its somewhat modest flying performance wouldn't be an issue, as most wouldn't get much further then the runway, especially on MP servers. When people are or were saying that the R-2800 was a sturdy engine, they didn't imply gamers use of the controls.

 

But it is nice to see that PMDG really raised the bar for payware to where it should be, making our stock aircraft just that "stock aircraft". And the sim is not bad, just because stock aircraft are a limited effort. That despite their eye candy.

Edited June 21, 2021 by ZachariasX

[danielprates]

Great write up @ZachariasX! One thing though, in Foz do Iguaçu you cross a language frontier where an "aeropuerto" becomes an "aeroporto". 

[ZachariasX]

8 hours ago, danielprates said:

Great write up @ZachariasX! One thing though, in Foz do Iguaçu you cross a language frontier where an "aeropuerto" becomes an "aeroporto". 

You are quiet right, along will all the other typos I messed that one up as well.

 

Here's the frontier:

Foz do Iguaçu downtown (or, what will be downtown) and the Río Paraná, the border. Of course there are the famous waterfalls, they are right next to where the airport is located.

 

Speaking of the airport, back then it was obviously just tree height that marked its boundaries.

 

Good ol' DC-3. We need a good quality one on MSFS. Actually, I'd say no sim is ever complete without one. Jason did the right thing.