[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CCIP

You two are seriously making me curious about FS again. I still haven't gone to FSX, and I never did get into payware for the previous FS titles, but I'm really starting to wonder about these add-ons. The potential price is the only thing scaring me off.

Since I think the main discussion here is over - what would you experts recommend as a good FSX starting package, at minimum? (I mean FSX itself is a starting package, but if I really wanted to go beyond vanilla and have a high-quality setup like that...)

It depends on what you would like to focus on.

I for example do not care if an airliner is meant for medium or long range: I want the complexity of planning the flight, and bringing the cockpit to life, programming the FMC, then takeoff and approach and landing. I plan it that betweem top of climb and beginning descent there is not more than just 15--20 minutes. I see no point in having a lot of work and hectic in the first 30 minutes - and then sitting and staring at the monitor for another 6 hours becasue it is a 767 on transatlantic flight. I fly the same 767 from berlin to Munich, or Hamburg to Frankfurt only, that way I have may hands busy almost all the time.

Good airport sceneries is important for me, it adds to the immersion and is nice during chnagign weather conditions. that'S why I am collectore of the German Airports series by Aerosoft.

If you want good environemnt in general, get a combination of mesh-updates and texture replacements, in FS9, Global 2005 and Ultimate Terrain series did the trick for me - super combo! For FSX, there is already global 2008.

If you want a small but challenging, complex, state-of-the-art and ultra-realistic private airplane, wait for the FSX conversion of the Piper Cheyenne by Aerosoft. the FS9 version is second to none. Superb VC.

Aerobatics? realAir is an excellent choice then. I have both their SF260 and Spirtfire. Superior virtual cockpits and flight physics.

Airliners? You just red it: for long range, either the Level-D 767 or PMDG 747, for medium range the PMDG 737 (two packages with two different versions each are available). The ATR 72 we talked about of course is a slow moving regional transport.

I think you can't go wrong with any of these. the Airliner packages are so complex in functionality that I have given up to fly Falcon - I constantly learn and relearn for these big birds instead.

As I just said in another thread, there is the FSX conversion of Flight Environment soon to be released, which i also consider to be a must-have.

there are Traffic programs, cabin communication programs, and so much more, but all of these are picking away at your CPU ressources, so I tend to stay away from such things.

check the websites of www.aerosoft.de (English version available), many of the products listed have many screenshots and even sharp videos available; and http://www.flight1.com/. These two companies are the number one and two in the business.

I use Train Sim to relax between flights, and SBP to wake up if I fell asleep...