Let me say this in advance: MSFS 2024 still leaves a lot to be desired on Xbox (Series X). It’s unfinished, the visual quality is underwhelming and the mouse acceleration bug caught me off guard quite a few times.
That said, now that the sim itself runs 70% stable:
The iniBuilds Airbus’ are the undisputed stars of the show for me, with the Optica and the Albatross catching up quickly. Here’s a selection of things I’ve done in the span of the last few days:
Vacation feeling with the Albatross at Bora Bora. (I love all the operational hatches on this plane, waiting for the update that lets me stick my head outside them!)
Guess it’s time to plan a crazy rotation to keep me busy in the long run. Navigating around the coastlines of Africa or South America with the Albatross just might do the trick…
From Manchester I promptly fly a heading of 270 and look out for the cooling towers, which are seen just beyond High Legh, below. irl they have a very nice garden centre here I visit a lot.
Territory #2. After touring England, I’ve finished my tour of Scotland. 10 hours combined flight time with lots of rugged scenery. Mostly with the Cessna C400 Corvalis TT.
I started my Career Mode based in the Japanese Islands. After logging over 120 hours (yes one hundred and twenty hours) doing everything from sight-seeing jobs, ferry flights, charters, and plenty of cargo runs.. I was finally hired as an airline Captain. I am now based in South Korea:
Hoping official Patch 3 will solve many technical issues surrounding Career Mode and the aircraft utilized within it. I am looking forward to doing some longer transcontinental flights here soon once the stability issues are resolved.
I flew from Longreach to Canberra today. And I discovered I have a copilot. I think it’s a man. The absence of eyebrows confused me at first. The plane is washed out because I accidentally turned on hdr.
Flew the Draco x and toured Charlotte NC, and toured lake Norman in the albatross and concluded downtown Charlotte badly needs an city update for fs2024 unfortunately
Doing some sightseeing around Liverpool in the ‘Cub’ today in msfs 2020. It has very very good visibility (especially with the door down on the right hand side), floats along at 55 mph - next best thing to a helicopter in the sim. Only irritation is the ‘ground looping’ - which I’m working on. I’ve flown a lot of taildraggers in the sim and bar the Gee Bee, this is the worst for ground looping. I’m getting better though.
This is high on my list of aircraft I want in 2024 …. assuming I buy it.
Once again, some fantastic detailed scenery here. Much of the scenery is courtesy of free add-ons from Skell300 over on flightsim.to. All largely around the NW of the UK.
I finally got a chance to try the sim again and, oh lordy, lordy, lordy, what a difference a working controller makes! It was like night and day.
Aircraft:
Diamond DV-20
Airport:
Ostafyavo (UUMO)
Meteorological conditions:
VFR, no wind or clouds, unlimited visibility, mid-day, 20° C.
(My “Fantasy Weather” preset.)
Images or video:
None. I’m still getting back into the hang of things and haven’t tried any pictures yet.
Taxiing:
I was able to navigate around Ostafyavo’s taxiways without straying too far away from the center lines - AND I was able to execute a U-turn WITHOUT knocking down a bunch of taxiway edge-lights. (Ooh! I was actually able to complete the U-turn within the boundaries of the taxiway. )
Taking off:
I decided to give some flying a try, (after chasing some ground vehicles - they’ve become less frightened of me), and was able to taxi onto the runway, line up with the center line, (check all the instruments, switches, flaps, etc.), and take off flying down the center of the runway instead of the plane tying to spin-out off to the left and kill me.
Pro Tip:
Flight controls that actually work and do what they’re supposed to do makes flying much easier.
Flying:
This was like night-and-day. The plane went where I pointed it, (sort-of), did what I expected it to do, (sort-of), and it wasn’t an arm-wrestling contest to keep it flying straight ahead.
Navigation is still an issue - especially with the sun in your eyes - but it’s easier when the plane stays where you put it when you glance off to the side to find a landmark. (I really like it when the plane I’m flying ISN’T trying to kill me if I drop my guard for even a second.)
Landing:
(See "Flying => Navigation)
The most difficult part of landing, (at least so far), isn’t the landing per se, but successfully navigating to final and being lined-up with the runway. Every time I thought I had it nailed, I ended up flying past the end of the runway - and I ended up circling the airport like a carrion bird.
When I finally got lined-up on final, (far enough away that I didn’t need to be a helicopter), getting lined-up and staying lined-up is still an challenge but it was much easier. (Note that Ostafyavo still needs to put new candles in their PAPI lights - they’re way too dim.)
Landing is always an adventure, especially when you’re flying a light aircraft and you’re stick-flying it all the way in. However there were three major accomplishments today:
I landed ON the runway.
I landed near the BEGINNING of the runway.
I didn’t break the plane or bend the landing gear when landing.
(Later today I received a call from the NTSB asking if I had actually flown as they didn’t get a call. Yes, I did fly and no I didn’t break the airplane or crash into anything. They congratulated me, but I could hear the disappointment in their voices.)
I was able to successfully taxi back to my original parking spot - but it was occupied. I was tempted to block the plane in, but decided not to because I was in such a good mood.
One would assume that since MS was focusing on the carreer mode a lot it would be the least bug free, but alas it is not. I had to start over a mission 3 times to finally have it working for example.
Territory #3 & #4. Heading south from Scotland I stopped at the Isle of Man, then toured Wales. 3.5 hours to visit the Isle of Man and circle around Wales, partly down to having started using the Cirrus Vision Jet G2, a little nippier for travel.
I1ve made the mistake of completing IFR and high performance ratings, so I ended up pennyless, so now I ferry fly planes for crumbs while trying to save up for the ol’ 172 to actually start earning money
