Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - I have not flown in almost 5 years after my PC died

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | I have not flown in almost 5 years after my PC died

DVA9720
Captain, A320

Joined on April 11 2011
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Toulouse 250 Club
Quatercentenary Club
Online Century Club

Atlanta, GA

481 legs, 1,702.5 hours
107 legs, 280.5 hours online
481 legs, 1,702.5 hours ACARS
3 legs, 5.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 15 2019 01:26 ET by Jerel Wedge

But I am excited to get back!! My computer should be getting delivered sometime within the next 2 weeks. I had FS2004 on my old computer and so many addons setup perfectly to my liking. Its been a long time but It was mostly a money issue but also I think part of me just didn't feel like going through the process of setting up a new Flight Sim because we all know its ALOT of work. Here is my current specs:

Processor(Intel® Core™ i7-9800X Processor (8x 3.80GHz/16.5MB L3 Cache)
Memory(32 GB [8 GB x4] DDR4-3000 Memory Module
Video Card(NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 - 8GB (GDDR6) (VR-Ready))
Motherboard(ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 -- RGB, Gb LAN, USB 3.1 (4 Rear, 4 Front)
Power Supply(850 Watt - be quiet! Straight Power 11 - 80 PLUS Gold, Full Modular)
Primary Hard Drive(240 GB WD Green SSD -- Read: 540MB/s, Write: 465MB/s - Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive(2 TB Hard Drive -- 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive)

I spent almost 4 thousand dollars on this rig so Im expecting and hoping I can run FSX/P3D with no issues. Ive been bookmarking some products I plan on purchasing such as the Aerosoft A320 bundle. I remember when my last rig died the Aerosoft airbus X extended was the new thing out. It sounds like its just called the Airbus Bundle now?? Can anyone confirm this? How about making the environment look better? Is ultimate terrain X really all there is to make the world look more realistic? What is some software you recommend that has been a great buy or even Freeware you think was a great find!

Jerel Wedge

Captain, A320

DVA13608
Captain, A320

Joined on January 26 2019
Moose Club
Century Club
Eurocap Club
Toulouse Century Club
Online Century Club

Edmonton, AB Canada

143 legs, 242.3 hours
140 legs, 235.1 hours online
140 legs, 238.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on February 15 2019 01:47 ET by Gerard Beekmans

Welcome back, Elijah!

Hardware wise, those specs will not disappoint. The video card is more than a flight sim will ever take advantage of (flight sim is CPU heavy, not GPU) but it'll play any other game for many years to come just fine.

My personal selection of software addons to consider. Take these with grains of salt. They are 100% subjective and involve all kinds of personal taste. It'll at least start you looking at some options.

* P3D v4.4 instead of FSX. It's 64 bit and you don't want to limit yourself to old legacy 32 bit stuff where you have limited use of all that RAM you have.

* FSLabs Airbus A320 is my recommendation over the Aerosoft one. I won't go into too many details because I'll just offend Aerosoft lovers. smile

* PMDG for the Boeing type planes

* Orbx sceneries. I have their global range ones (limited to north america for now)
* Various airport sceneries from vendors like FSDT and Flightbeam
* Active Sky 4 & Active Sky Cloud Art for live weather

* ChasePlane for camera views (another popular one is EZdok)
* I'm subscribed to Navigraph to get updated FMS and chart data. There are other sources besides Navigraph. Some are free, some are not. Just depends on your needs and if you like their "value adds".

Gerard Beekmans

Captain, A320

DVA13438
Captain, A350-900
OLP

Joined on March 04 2018
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
Gulf Breeze Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Millennium Club
Toulouse 500 Club
Online Seven Century Club
Globetrotter

Portland, TX

1,360 legs, 2,978.6 hours
767 legs, 1,496.8 hours online
1,359 legs, 2,976.9 hours ACARS
7 legs, 16.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 15 2019 06:12 ET by Darrell Arview

I agree with most of what is posted above, but yes I am an Aerosoft user. I think its great. Sim brief is also not an addon, but very useful for flight planning. Flight time calculator, and Fuel planner are other places to bookmark for setting up your flight. Navigraph, most definitely.

Darrell Arview

Captain, A350-900

DVA10698
Chief Pilot, B717-200
OLP, 737-ATP
DISPATCHER

Joined on April 25 2012
50 State Club
Globetrotter
US Mountaineer Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett Millennium Club
Events Century Club
Flying Colonel
Online Fifteen Century

"Life is simple, eat, sleep, fly, sim....."
Miami, FL

1,682 legs, 2,309.2 hours
1,621 legs, 2,204.2 hours online
1,682 legs, 2,309.2 hours ACARS
104 legs, 165.6 hours event
75 legs dispatched, 191.3 hours

Posted onPost created on February 15 2019 07:05 ET by Jay Marin

Elijah, nice rig you are getting, P3Dv4 (64 bit) will not disappoint, looking forward any updates once you start using the new system. Good luck.

Jay Marin (DVA10698)

Posted onPost created on February 15 2019 15:17 ET by Jerel Wedge

Good Stuff!! Thank you Gerard. Im glad I asked this. Was not aware of the Flight Sim labs A320 or Orbx sceneries. Ill most likely go the P3D route as well. Ive been watching alot of Youtube today and it looks amazing.

Jerel Wedge

Captain, A320

DVA13576
Captain, B777-200

Joined on December 11 2018
US Capital Club
50 State Club
Century Club
Stock Car Racing Club
Everett Century Club
Online Century Club

Midwestern United States

188 legs, 430.1 hours
114 legs, 203.3 hours online
186 legs, 426.8 hours ACARS
19 legs, 33.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on February 18 2019 15:30 ET by Tom Pletzke

Wow, nice system Elijah. That will run p3Dv4 very well with lots of details. I agree with all the addon choices above. I have them on my setup with the exception that I use Aerosoft series. However, PMDG 737 and 777 are what I am flying now most of the time. You might also want to checkout the ORBX trees too. You have to set vegetation from 3d to 2d but they look very nice, especially in the winter.

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on February 22 2019 02:58 ET by Jerel Wedge

Well Checking back in.

I decided to get both Prepar3D and FSX just to have the option. I went and installed Prepar3D first and I am happy with it so far. I am low 20s FPS at JFK at night but I guess that would be normal. Im getting really good FPS everywhere else though ( over 40 at SFO/LAX and more than enough during flight, over 50 FPS) My settings are mostly Dense/Extremely Dense with 100% traffic. I ended up just paying for Ultimate Traffic Live because I didnt feel like installing traffic myself. I had way more time when I was younger to do all that scavenging through the alpha india forums for flightplans but UT Live will do for now. I am currently cruising at FL380 in the Aerosoft 319 Professional. I took a look at the Flight Sim Labs A320 and I saw great reviews everywhere for it although this would be my first payware plane I have purchased since the QW 757 over 4 years ago for FS9. I remembered how long it took me to figure out how to fly that plane properly so it kinda scared me off the Flight Sim Labs aircraft. I would hate to spend almost 200 dollars on it and not be able to have fun with it in a reasonable amount of time. For comparison it took me almost 2 days to figure out how to plan and depart for a flight in the Aerosoft A319. All this is way more advanced than what I used to do just flying via the standard FS9 GPS lol. For scenery I went and purchased Flightbeams SFO and MSP to start and GSX from FSDT. ( I had a personal goal to get GSX just because it looked so cool when I had FS9 but obviously it wasnt available for FS9) Ill probably be looking at a Seattle Scenery next as I like to fly on the west coast alot. I also purchased REX soft clouds because I was very happy with their textures injected when I used to fly FS9. I also got Active Sky for Prepar3D as well like Gerard recommended. Also +100000 for the Chase Plane recommendation Gerard!! I dont know how anyone would fly these planes without 2D cockpits otherwise. Thats it for now. It feels great to be back in the virtual skies after such a long time. I need to run to youtube now to watch some tutorials on arrival procedures now in this A319 lol I Hope the virtual Passengers are strapped in tight for this one!

Jerel Wedge

Captain, A320

Posted onPost created on February 22 2019 08:26 ET by Tom Pletzke

Try out the crew options on the Aerosoft 319. One option is to have instructions thru the checklist. The other option is to have your crew help you thru the entire process from cold and dark to landing. and the crew option has an option for GSX pushback.

Tom Pletzke

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on February 22 2019 08:42 ET by Gerard Beekmans

Since you already know how to fly Aerosoft 319, you will actually be able to fly FLS A320. In the real world they have a common type rating, meaning you can fly 319, 320 and 321 without any additional training. Because these simulators are so incredibly closely modeled to real life, this ends up being true in sim as well.

The question of aerosoft vs FSLabs is partly political too. I find FSLabs to be a bit more realistic compared to real world Airbus but I know people that also disagree. It's a personal choice in the end.

You're up flying, that's all that matters right now. 😊

Gerard Beekmans

Captain, A320

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