A Very Pleasant Surprise

[Nick Tselepides]

Yesterday, I flew the default Curtiss Jenny to a landing in FS9, and marvelled at the aircraft, at how easily it lands. I just pointed my nose to the runway, went to chase view, lined up, full throttle,and when ATC cleared me to land, changed to Virtual Cockpit, pressed + twice, when over the threshold I cut throttle and landed smooth as silk in the center of the runway, watching the piston rod top pieces going clic-clic-clic, and the plane touched down perfectly. Replayed my landing and saw how nice it had settled. The experience was so nice, I repeated it twice with other aiports--one in bush country, one on a Greek island. I advise everyone one to do this with the Jenny--you will be elated, very pleased, and come away with the feeling of having achieved something.

 

This led me to think that I, and I am sure many of you, probably spend too much time chasing after add-ons and testing them out, which means we ignore the simple pleasures we can have from the FS. How many of us have flown the default a/c more than twice? Not many. I will repeat the experience with the small default a/c, esp. the Piper, and the DH Comet and the DC-3.

 

And perhaps I will come to my senses and start to see adding new planes as a tyranny to be avoided if I can, though I suspect I am past that to the point of no return to a simple enjoyment of the game.

 

I have made some simple calculations and have come to the conclusion that it would take a year for anyone to go through all the experiences the default set-up of FS9 gives us, with the default aircraft. And if one adds learning navigation, instrument approaches, etc very well, it might take more. That, in itself, speaks of the richness of the sim compared to other sims-- in Strike Fighters, for example, one can do all the default setup offers in about a week, if not less. But that is a game, whereas FS9 is a simulation--a great difference that opens up another area of discussion which I will avoid like the plague at this stage, for the sake of peace of mind.

 

:ph34r: Now, since I am on the net posting this, how can I stop myself from checking the sites for new add-ons after I am done here ????