Where to begin?

MSFS 2004 is the latest and greatest. The one piece of equipment I'd recommend is a good joystick. Flying by keyboard isn't much fun. Start out with the smaller general aviation (GA) planes like the Cessna 172 that are contained in FS. FS contains its own lessons. Use them to learn the basics.

Do the basic stuff untill you have it down good. It may seem boring, but when you do more advanced things, you will be glad.

Once you've become hooked on FS, the sky's the limit. Enjoy.

Hawkmiester wrote:

Currently into America's Army and NASCAR 2003 multiplayer and thought it would be cool if guys got together for bombing runs and dogfights, if anyone does that sort of thing.

Crash said it right when he said MSFS is the best of all, but if it's dogfights your looking for, check out Combat Flight Sim. I think that'll satisfy your taste. We generally fly commerically, or just short GA private trips, however rarely do we hop into military aircraft and chase each other as your suggesting. Hope that helps. 😉

😀 Welcome aboard,nearly.
We dont need a "newb section"just post in the various forum sections and you will get a clear easy to understand answer,thats why we are the best

Crashgordon got everything right about fs9 (2004) and crosscheck9 has just nipped in with the bit I was going to say

if you want bombing runs and dogfights can I very very strongly recommend a combined installation of the following items

IL2: Forgotten Battles
Aces Expansion Pack
Pacific Fighters

They are made by the same people and install in a combined or merged way to offer a very diverse combat sim

There is a huge online community of people who play in public dogfight servers which have specific objectives

e.g. Bomb the port on the east side of the island in co-ords X Y. P-38s use rockets and fighters cover the attack

People also fly in co-ops with full realism on.. check the website mentioned in my signature below. we fly so you have to navigate fully from ground landmarks and bearings

for dogfighting, required pieces of kit

Track IR http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/ (I cannot fly without this now - it tracks head movement and mimicks it on screen, vital for dogfighting)

A good joystick, I can highly recommend the Saitek X52 but this is an expensive option but there are many other alternatives that will do the job more cheaply. Just ensure it has some form of rudder control built in.

Or, you can get pedals too if you are really keen.

My setup is

Track IR 3 Pro
Saitek X52
CH Pro USB Pedals

Check out the main website for the IL2 stuff www.pacific-fighters.com

This is a little video I made just trying out my new PC Right click and save as

Basically - i got separated from the rest of my flight on my own with 2 109s. I had run out of ammo so I could not shoot at them at all and I was basically flying defensively while on team speak trying to direct some of the lads from my flight to my location to help, one of which you see arrive at the end of the very short video

Parental Advisory lyrics on the sound track too by the way 🙂

Hope my post helps, if you need any more info let me know

I would recommend this sim over Combat Flight sim any day, the gfx are better and the damage model is better too

tomthetank wrote:

😀 Welcome aboard,nearly.
We dont need a "newb section"just post in the various forum sections and you will get a clear easy to understand answer,thats why we are the best

Crashgordon got everything right about fs9 (2004) and crosscheck9 has just nipped in with the bit I was going to say

👍 👍 👍

by the way, that video is taken from a recorded "track"

You can record your mission and play it back later afterwards and record from it if need be.

In game can be locked into the cockpit view as we play with no padlock etc

😀 InsightIve only just spotted your blog,its brill.

And I need some of those sheets 😉

lol

The stickey sheets are great 🙂

Glad to see someone else has discovered my boring little corner of the interweb!

Cheers Gents, that's what I was looking for! 😀

hawk if you're interested i think the EAF are always recruiting and they will even help train you up for a month before you get your "wings"

good bunch of lads, I have met a few of them at an airshow before..

worth checking out

www.europeanaf.org