So I’m starting this with a screen dump from previous flights, in the future I intend to do more in-depth writeups of flights to come.
Various FSX/P3D:
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CQ off the east coast:
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Hawker into DFW
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SWA out of DEN
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When did DCS get a Southwest 737? 
Nice screenies! I wish you guys with all the eye-candy magic tricks would write up a post or two on some tips/tricks you use to make them so mouth-wateringly gorgeous.
Hah, I don’t have too many tricks up my sleeve. Mine are just P3D/FSX with ActiveSky Next and some airport sceneries, such as IAH, DFW, and DEN. The real credit goes to the devs that create addons this visually impressive; I just move around my head with TrackIR to get the right angle and try to take screens at the right times of day.
The addons shown above include:
- ActiveSky Next for the weather
- VRS F/A-18E (Why, oh why, can’t they port that to DCS. Or…release a P3D pro version. I know why they won’t on the latter, but it’s a pretty poor reason in my opinion.)
- Carenado 850X
- FSDT DFW
- PMDG 737 NGX
- Flightbeam DEN
So I haven’t had much time for games lately because of real world flying but I thought I’d drop a few extra screens. Not much backstory to these, just some shots I liked. Mostly FSX/P3D again, along with some DCS and Elite Dangerous thrown in at the end.
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Got some new screens. First up is some from the Space Engineers planets update followed by a few from FSX in the Superbug. The night screens are from a flight I did tonight on VATSIM and the day shots were just some random offline flight.
Space Engineers
FSX
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Ok, finally have a moment to do a more proper writeup than “Here look at these screenshots!”
Yesterday afternoon I did a short flight using Majestic’s Q400 for P3Dv3. I can’t say how impressed I am with this aircraft. I typically like flashier, faster, bigger aircraft but this one is superb and I have a blast flying it. It’s one that I am definitely still learning and the FMS has a different style of data entry if you’re used to the typical FMS found in the 737 series aircraft.
My flight was to be a short hop from DFW to IAH on VATSIM under IFR.
The weather isn’t exactly ideal for the flight with a storm system moving through east Texas. Still, it’s certainly doable at the moment and, at the time of planning, there was only one small SIGMET outside of Houston. My goal was to beat the weather into Houston and avoid any cells along the way. Sucker hole? Nahhhhh.
I go into the flight knowing that if weather gets bad early in the flight, I can always return to DFW or I can divert to Lake Charles if Houston becomes unusable.
Stepping into the office
Getting everything setup and the APU online
After some delays with the controller troubleshooting comm issues, we have our clearance and it’s time to start up the engines. I’m happy with the relatively short taxi from DFW’s terminal A and runway 17R.
As forecast and reported, we enter the clouds after only a couple thousand feet and start to break out around 8,000 feet. There are some cells along the way but, for now at least, they appear to off our flight path.
P3D can sure look nice
In the descent
Unfortunately there’s not any pictures during the approach or landing this time, I was too busy actually flying. There was a pretty healthy crosswind on the approach and plenty of bumps to keep me on my toes. It led to an uneventful landing, however, and we shutdown at the gate for the night.
I did test some video recording as well and I’m pretty happy with the results. Still a little bit of fine tuning to do but I’d like to integrate that for the next time I can do this.
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I was bored so I decided to boot up the Superbug and drop a couple JDAMs on a simulated target.
So much depth to the systems in the Bug but so little to actually do with it. 
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Couple random shots flying the Sidewinder route.
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That superbug looks gorgeous, it makes you wish it was already in DCS!
What was supposed to be a short flight from San Diego up to Catalina Island to check out the airfield up there ended up being far shorter than expected.
Rotated, went to clean up the aircraft, and the landing gear failed to retract. Handle was up, gear light on, showing down and locked indication with a “Landing Gear INOP” caution.
Quickly googled it and found that it was likely an installation problem. I did get a weird error when I launched the sim that, I suspect, was related to the P3D 3.1 update. I’m actually not sure I had run 3.1 since it came out as I’ve been so busy.
Anyways, rather than exit out of the sim right there, I decided to just turn for tower downwind get at least one landing out of it.
Thankfully, while comforting to have, the crash crews were not necessary.
Maybe when I’ve got some freetime next I won’t spend it all reinstalling things and troubleshooting.
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Tonight I’ve got a couple screens to add.
First up is a flight in P3D with the Dash-8 finally making out to Catalina Island.
Got airborne out of Phoenix and headed West. This shot was a little west of Palm Springs, I believe.
Water in sight flying out over LA.
Feet wet, love the water in P3D.
That runway looks a little shorter from here.
Safe on deck. Next time I think I’ll use the HUD given the cliff at the approach end.
Next up is a flight in FSX with the Superbug. Got a little more into the weeds with A/G weapons. Tried out the Laser Mavs and JDAMS with multiple pre-planned targets on one drop.
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So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thread as I’ve been extremely busy lately.
But, I thought I’d add a couple random pictures from BMS missions the past couple days.
First up, I get y’all have a job to do but surely you could hold the Patriot shots until after I takeoff.
Descending for a low-level ingress for a SEAD mission
Smashing bugs on the canopy.
Inbound on an OCA strike.
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Did a planetary salvage mission in one of the nearby systems.
Pro-tip: With some of the new missions, like the salvage missions, you’ll need to drop out of cruise at the Nav Beacon, scan it like you would scan another ship for a warrant, and then you’ll receive further information as far as where to find the salvage.
This one gave me the planet and a basic waypoint on the surface. As I got closer it seemed to cycle between a few different points until it located the cargo.
Searching for and approaching the site:
Love the SRV:
Cargo retrieved, headed home:
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