What have I let you guys ‘talk me into’ 
Waiting for my 4TB drive to get here so I can actually DL it (plus scenery) so I thought I would use my Google-Fu and do some more research and try to get ahead of the game. FFS, it currently looks like I will be spending more time on the Interwebs looking ‘stuff’ up than actually flying… or am I over reading things?
no worries we have here many XP users willing to help you out.
let us know what you are searching for and we can share some links.
are you looking for som pre-made ortho scenery or the like? or freeware planes?
@NEVO Just wrapping my head around it at the moment.
From a virtual pilot perspective I am OK with the ‘aviate’, but the ‘communicate’ and particularly ‘navigate’ is a bit of a learning curve… I’m guessing that DCS has lulled me into a false sense of security???
Other than the planes that come with the game, I’m actually looking for something low and slow to get to grips with it… I have seen a couple of freeware Cubs that look like they tick the boxes, but tail dragger?
I have no idea about ATC in X-Plane, I’ve always ignored it and most people seem to agree it sucks.
For planes, if you sort the XP11 GA planes by number of reviews it looks like all the famous top-quality freeware are on the first page:
I see.
PLANES - definitely agree with Freak, be sure to start with quality freeware, or default or payware airplane. many freeware stuff can be really basic and with bugs.
from the defaults there is nice Stinson L5, similar to Cub in every way just little advanced though.
dont be worried about tail draggers. you can land them similar to tri-cycle, on the main undercarriage then just slowly ease down the tail.
other obvious default plane choice is C172. good flying characteristics, have all the navigation stuff one needs and is tri-cycle.
looking at payware ‘Cub like’ bird, then I would recommend VSkyLabs Eurofox. there is even tri-cycle version available in this package, so you will get both for decent price. and dont be worried about the age of this module, its constantly updated by VSL
VFR ATC - in XP11 doesnt work any good. IFR to some extent. XP12 is much better in this regard.
NAV - XP11 default scenery is really decent for VFR navigation. all the shapes of mountains, rivers, coast lines, islands match the real world stuff.
to make cities and roads be more matching I recommend freeware stuff from simHeaven. its up to date openstreetmaps data so the shapes of cities and roads match better than default. really recommend
https://simheaven.com/xp11-sceneries/
PLAN - for flight planning I recommend very handy web app tool skyvector. very easy to use to create simple flight plans
you can set your speed, alt and you can see the distance, hdg, times plus you can click the airports for some additional useful stuff.
MC - for weather there is the obvious windy web app, again very handy including airports and metar info. iirc there can be some basic flight planning done also
yep, planning possible
PORTS - for list of XP11 airports on a world map go no further
I think that should set you up for some first hops. feel free to ask further.
@NEVO and @Freak Awesome, thanks heaps for that.
I won’t be heading into town until the end of the week, but the new SSD should be waiting for me by then. I will let you know how I go.
Since no one asked the question, I’m curious why you chose XP11 over XP12?
@chipwich Good question.Primarily because XP12 is still early access and XP11 was half the price.
Doesn’t mean that I won’t get 12 down the track… It is on my wishlist.
SWMBO did the mail run today while I did chores around the property 
New 4TB SSD installed… and working. Slight moment of panic ‘why can I see it in BIOS/UEFI but not Windoze? Duh! you haven’t initialised the disk you idiot’.
X-Plane scheduled for DL tonight so I can use my off-peak data allowance.
Stand by for (virtual) crash reports out of YCOM and YSCB 
