Flight Simulation - A Great Hobby!
Flight simulation has been my hobby now for a couple of years and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who loves planes!
I use software called Microsoft Flight Simulator X, which is extremely detailed and makes it feel like you are actually flying a real aircraft. You can buy this software from places like Amazon or eBay.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX for short) comes with a choice of many planes to fly, such as the Boeing 737/747 and the Airbus A321. Also, there are smaller aircraft, such as the Piper Cub or the Beachcraft Baron, but, as well as this, there is also the option to expand your simulation experience to higher-detailed planes. These do cost quite a bit of money, but they are really good to fly and you can just sit at your computer flying wherever you want to in the world, as FSX has all airports - including Cardiff!
FSX can be operated by a mouse and keyboard, but I would strongly recommend purchasing a joystick to make it easier to fly. A joystick that I'd recommend is the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Joystick. FSX is also designed for social people, as you are able to connect to multiplayer servers and you can talk to real ATC (Air Traffic Control) people, who can give you instructions on stuff like what headings to fly and clearance for landings/take-offs. FSX does require a very good graphics card in your PC if you want top-notch graphics, but budget graphics cards will also do the job.
As well as free-flying, FSX also has many missions to complete, including Red Bull air racing around a track. Check out my screenshots from my sim to get a feel for what it's like!
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2 Comments – Postiwch sylw
simdude101 (correspondent)
Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 21st June 2015 - 07:55am
What setup is your PC? I am considering forking out £30 for Prepar3D which is a training programme that airlines use but is also a flight simulator that is made by Lockheed Martin, who make US military aircraft. Most FSX addons work with it, so I was wondering what Processor/Graphics/RAM you have to work out whether my computer can run it.
Thanks in Advance
sean123
Rhoddwyd sylw 11 mis yn ôl - 21st June 2015 - 12:14pm
Simdude101 - I have 12GB RAM, AMD A10-7700k processor (Running at 3.40GHz with 10 computer cores), AMD Radeon R7 200 graphics card (around £60 but it is still an extremely good graphics card. If you are buying a graphics card don't bother going for the really expensive ones because the AMD Radeon range work just as well; plus if you unlock your graphics card then it will run amazing. My operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. If you just load the flight sim onto your computer with these kind of specs, then the FPS will be about 50, but after tweaking it a bit (have a look on youtube), and downloading an ENBSeries addon, then I can actually reach around 120 FPS with my computer!