Got all set up today, the simulator installed, new Honeycomb yoke installed, went into the sim and mostly just made sure everything ran without bursting into flames or something. As far as I can tell, it’s all fine. Everything runs, the sim recognizes the yoke, that’s all good. No technical problems.
Where I get stuck is the tutorial. Not exactly helping. It tends to either say “push ??? to do this” where ??? could be anything, or more commonly, it tells me to hit buttons on a nonexistent controller, or something like that. Seriously, I not only unplugged my gaming controller, but also completely disabled Steam’s usual recognition of it. The sim still seems to think one is there… a bug, maybe? I dont really know. But when I looked online, I see quite a few mentions of this sort of thing happening with the tutorial. The yoke itself is still functioning just fine though, no issues with the device itself. So that’s good.
But hey, I wasnt expecting the tutorial to be very good. With things like this, included tutorials usually arent, provided they exist at all.
So, what I’m wondering, is whether any of you nice people could direct me towards resources that could help me get started with this? I dont really know where to look in order to get started learning here. Tried to see if I could find anything on Youtube but that’s a no-go so far. But maybe I’m not looking in the right place or not searching for the right words, I’ve no idea. Cant stress enough that I’m an absolute beginner, so it’s absolutely possible Im missing something that would be super obvious to most of you.
This is where the previous version of Flight Simulator (FS 10 or FSX) shines.
Here’s the summary of what the previous version taught : four different tiers starting at Student Pilot. Suggest starting there.
You can’t actually perform the interactive parts because you would need to install FSX. If you are interested in trying the lessons, FSX Steam Edition (FSX:SE) is the best 25 bucks you can spend on interactive flight lessons short of signing up for real at your local flying school. You would only need base FSX no add-ons.
You can at least read through the lessons because they provided material in exacting detail, unlike FS 2020 which assumes you know something about general aviation. Most of it translates well to supporting the “tutorials” that FS 2020 purports.
So when fictional “Captain Jess Molina CFI” tells you you’re at 5500 feet pushing 1900 RPMs for Cruise Setting, or invokes the famous “Pitch, Power, Trim” mantra, you’ll know exactly what she’s talking about.
Hey, MS-Asobo, how many times do I have to copy-paste this? You guys really need to get moving in updating Learning Center to this version. Just sayin’.
The Flight Sim tutorial starts in Sedona, in the 152. That’s a challenge in and of itself.
Here is a link to a real world flight in a 152 from pre-flight to shutdown. Lots of things you don’t need to do in Flight Sim, but it is pretty complete.
There are lots of people on the forum who have PPLs (Private Pilot’s License) more than willing to help a newcomer, so don’t be shy! I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about these aircraft… they are really fun to learn in, and very forgiving to fly.
I second the link @CasualClick shared. Read the text in the lessons, find a YouTube video of someone flying them (search for FSX Tutorial or something), and then practice the lesson on your own in MSFS 2020. It won’t be exactly the same, but it’ll be close enough to help you get a grasp on it.
I’m very new as well. I would go back to fsx to learn from the tutorials there but fs2020 is just so much more beautiful that I can’t do it. I started by subscribing to several YouTube channels of people who really love to teach beginners. My favorites have been reaction review by an Irish fella called grippersim, one that goes by squirrel, and one called the Sim pilot. They all have great tutorials and grippers is very humorous at times to boot. Good luck to you! I’ve been having a great time learning and I can’t seem to put it down. I hardly play anything else these days. Happy simming!
Well, so I went back in for another quick go at the tutorial, without changing any settings for now. Figured, why not. This time was to fix a couple of controls, see if that helped. Got through the first two sessions without screwing something up.
Main problem I have at the moment is pretty much just not enough controls. This yoke is darned nice, I’m already loving it, but I dont have rudders or throttle. I did think to buy those, but… well, it’s more than a little hard to get these things as I’m sure you know. Heck, I got super lucky to get the yoke at all. Seems most people are trying to sell it for like 5 bazillion dollars, somehow I managed to find it at a price that wasnt totally insane.
But yeah, that’s an issue right now is those controls. Any suggestions on what I might do for that? I’ll get the actual devices ASAP but for now it’s just the Honeycomb yoke and my mouse & keyboard. Rudder in particular I am not sure how to assign in such a way that isnt super awkward. I did get throttle assigned to something that isnt super awkward but it’s a bit wonky.
Oh and thanks for the links, I’ll be checking all of those out.
