John Heaton
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Posts posted by John Heaton
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Blimey - Time flies - seems like yesterday we were wishing you a Happy Birthday - sooh !
"Many Happy returns - Iain - may all your exposures be colourful! 👍
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13 hours ago, wain71 said:
nice post John, I've had a similar experience lately, reinstall of p3dv5 & 6, and yeah I forgot about all the fuss....true earth is the best bit....I was missing certain planes but in all honesty I have not bothered.....I too have a lot of, we'll just politely call it 'stuff' that I downloaded for MSFS but used once then decided it's not for me, I am considering a complete reinstall of the sim and just loading what I use regularly, see I'm getting a new rig, monitor, chair etc next year (2025) so if I can have the will power I'll wait until next year to get 2024 but we'll see...
I'd like to get out of bed later (still gotta work, mortgage etc) but I am still finding time for GT7 & WRC Generations as well as the flying, nice decisions to have I guess....
Great minds think alike !
- but I got all the goodies last year
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4 hours ago, gumbypickett said:
I
I'm for this as well Ken. I only have p3dv5 and it's just getting
a little boring. Not because I dislike it but it seems it's on
the back burners now sadly.😟
cheers
Gumby
First up - I don't want to start a flaming war between sims - but Ken and Gumby have nudged me into a short story in reverse.
About 5 weeks ago - I analyzed my MSFS use - My MS hangar has more aircraft than a museum - a stuffed up Community - a TB disc
just as stuffed -time for a change ?? - should I wait for 2024 before I did any changes - including a new 2TB drive ?? - and I did the following.
Despite all the birds in MS - I really missed some of the aircraft I flew in real life - because they weren't in MS - and I flew in P3D and X plane
viz - the Saratoga - the Navajo PA 31 - The Lancaster and Halifax and B24 bombers my dad flew in WW11 - The single Comanche and other
A2A aircraft in P3D - PA 28 and Cessna 150 and 172 etc.
The original pipers - PA 140 I learned how to fly in - and the PA 32 that I owned -(avatar) - in X plane - so - on another TB disc - I loaded
the full P3D 5 - and a few aircraft - along with 310 GB of Orbx - reloaded XP 11 and a few aircraft.
Note - I rarely fly anything more than VFR/IFR below 10K
I had forgotten the problems I had with P3D 5 - dumped it - and reinstalled all again with P3D4 - but honestly - I had to give it up - so difficult to
get my Honeycomb set up to work consistently - and the scenery - despite Orbx true Earth - OH HUM!!
XP was better - and the controls were default - but the scenery - once again - " how did we put up with these - before MSFS"
What should I do - Reload DSC and IL 2 - all missions - and fly - ignoring the scenery - but have some fun with warbird action and fast flying ??
Or - bite the bullet - Start again - with my new 2TB SSD - windows 11 - and a reinstall of the current 2020 - un stuffed - with a
community file that I only need for concentration of geographical areas and certain aircraft that I need to learn better
Do more Tube altitude long distance flights - and night flights -
and get up - out of bed - earlier - to spend more time flying - car racing
Decision - decisions!!
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My favourite UTube reviewer has done very good job of reviewing our favourite Queensland airport
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2 hours ago, gumbypickett said:
That's a fair call John.
Have we started a topic?
C'mon our Yankee friends what do you think?
Oops the Yankees are a Baseball team.
Now I'm confused between Baseball and Cricket.
Perhaps I should call it quits.
cheers
Gumby
NO - NO - definitely not
Remember as kids ?- when both little lads and little girls played one of our early sports in the UK - called "Rounders"
before the lads grew up to play "cricket"
The Americans - and Canadians adopted the game and called it 'Baseball"
that might just help you understand it
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42 minutes ago, gumbypickett said:
AFL for me John. I could never understand why a big burly rugby player
would have the ball and then run into a pack of bigger burly rugby players.
To many head knocks perhaps.
You could say the same for the American NFL - big burly guys - who wear large shoulder pads and helmets -
whilst our lads - disdain to use such weighty apparatus - and play a faster open game gaining larger distances per play
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14 hours ago, Rob Abernathy said:
Being from the USA it might sound crazy, but I enjoy watching Australian rules football.
We Australians who are Rugby fans - declare AFL to a kind of Aerial Ballet dancing using a small Rugby ball
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Unfortunately, Rodger - apart from my fanatical love of Ossie Ruby League and test cricket with the odd 50 over game
I might watch the Rugby League from the UK
Too you guys in the USA /Canada - you could tune in to a live RL game which is to be played in Las Vagas in March
which features my Beloved Brisbane Broncos and a team from Sydney
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Thanks John - but I can't afford the "Pro" version on my pension
and my version does not have the facility you describe.
First up - your first one showing the 1985 one is causing me confusion - since it is dated 15-1 - 2016 as Imagery date
which sort of confirms my estimated date I referred to as the one possibly used by John Dow in his letter earlier? -
(although it is dated on mine as a 2024 image) - albeit - a later date than the one currently used on MSFS - which should
be the latest Bing - which is shown as 2020 on my PC.
No matter which one we look at - the Google of 2016 - or the latest Bing - the tarmac is much lighter and less like my
"Cotton Mill Planking" definition.
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3 hours ago, John Dow said:
I bought the Logitech pedals and more than happy with them
I have them as well in conjunction with the Alph/Bravo Honeycomb set for GA - and use them with my Logitech full set of 1600 controllers
when using DCS - but they are now playing up - after much use over the last 3 years - like me I suppose
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22 hours ago, John Dow said:
Just had a look here in Australia plenty of retailers saying they have stocks of the Alpha and Bravo items.
The problems seem to be mostly around the "Charlie " pedals
I really do enjoy my Honeycomb set up - just wish it was as easy to set up in P3D as it is in XP and MSFS
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6 hours ago, John Dow said:
If you look on Google Earth the tarmac is much closer to reality in this version. The oil and tyre staining appears to be more pronounced than in reality, but I think it's a closer representation than the other image. The imagery would have been supplied by a specialist aerial imagery firm, and this would have been how their cameras captured the tarmac.
John
I wouldn't be too reliant on the Google depiction since it is almost as old as the Bing used in MSFS - in fact - probably at least 8 years old - compared with
the 10 years of Bing.
A number of current areas are lacking - in fact - the Google current Sat - does not have the new terminal extensions built some time ago
with quite a bit of the whole tarmac resurfaced. The current Bing sat. is up to date and yes the tarmac looks more like Matteo's pic.
However - it is purely a matter of taste - and in reality - no effect at all on whether or not - I use it - which I will - because I have bought it - and it
helps Matteo want to do more - (Gold Coast City Scape Please!)
15 hours ago, Badl4ndz said:Unrelated question to John. Brisbane up the coast has done as a city pack. Does the Gold Coast / Surfers Paradise etc also deserve a city pack or is the default scenery good enough?
The Brisbane pack you mention is very good and so up to date - it even has Buildings not yet finished
A condition that is most definitely different to the Gold Coast used in MSFS - which is based upon a Bing Sat - 10 years old - and
most blokes on this forum are well aware of my criticisms of that debacle. 
Most definitely!! - the Gold Coast - a major Tourist area of Australia - and is the prime tourist destination for locals and overseas visitors alike
and should be represented as accurate as possible. - For example - most of the current Australian scene is so out of date - and if it wasn't for
Orbx's efforts with their City Schemes and airports - and 3rd party developers - it would be an insult to us - to depict our country as it is currently
in MSFS - despite a so-called upgrade - 12 months ago- which seemed to purely based on all the work done by Orbx.
When P3D was all the go - Orbx produced a GC city /airport pack that was very good - and would have been true to life 12 years ago - and its
features are very close to the current MS effort..
We need another ---from someone!
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I need to think about this - I find the Orbx one (Sorry Mateo) tarmac reminds me of the worn planked flooring in an old cotton mill back home in Lancashire - and the 3-10 parking areas are missing
However - the backside buildings are a bit more photogrammetry in general than the opposition's
but I much prefer the opposition's rendering of the tarmac - especially close up.
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Bought it - installed it - still thinking about it
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15 hours ago, wain71 said:
yeah we've had to very windy storms over the past few days, planes have been struggling everywhere with a lot of airports being full and therefore closed to traffic, trains have been halted and bridges closed to trucks etc.....it has been warmer though.....
do you feel that MSFS was better depicting the wind compared to p3d or weather addon, or was it a bit over the top?
never tried the actual weather in P3D so I can't comment - didn't even know one could
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sometimes I think that MS turbulence is unreal even with it turned down to the least simulation
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As long as it has runways - good taxiways - its' OK by Me
However - the artist in me - appreciates the effort and talent of the computer artists that produce these airports of
recent times - particularly the ones I use(d) in real life eg Orbx Melbourne.
There is one aspect that does annoy me - is the inability to process the tarmac colours and sometimes the grassy areas
which dull representations of the sat pics
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Yesterday - I took a flight ex Liverpool - Northwards towards Glasgow in the FSR 500 - with local weather and time set
As I was passing over Morecambe - I was struggling to keep my flight path - and the chase view and heading showed my A/C at almost 20 degrees
to starboard
I looked at the wind strength and it was 65Knots from 200 degs and I was only at 6000 feet😱 - (and I didn't try to land at Glasgow)
I never got that in P3D
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Is this like the one I have got ---- on X box
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6 hours ago, timex9001 said:
Yes, John, I saw that one in the pic. 9. what about helicopter companies at the airport?
I cant really answer that - but I did take a ride in one last year from the company hanger directly in line with the helly spot
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On 1/19/2024 at 10:54 AM, timex9001 said:
It's about time. My favorite airport in MSFS. Every time I buy an aircraft for msfs I come to this airport to test them. Always have great weather. Please include helicopter starting points.
There's always been one at GC - and is just partially visible on pic 9 - left around 10 .00 clock - ie North of the oil tanks
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6 hours ago, wolfko said:
Me thinks this pic is even older than the Bing imagery used in MSFS. At least in 2013, the last time I have been to Surfers Paradise, it looked much more densely built up.
you could be correct - at least as to the date - it is just a pic I found to illustrate to Wain a very small part of the Gold Coast.
I think it is actually younger than 2013 and later than the Bing used in MSFS.
I look at the bridge in the right corner - and note that the both the bridge and the Light Rail line is shown - whereas the rail line is not finished in
Bing MSFS - the rail was finished 2015 and hardly shows in MS
You are correct in the SP is considerably built up since then - which is just my point
I don'. know how many copies of P3D Orbx Gold Coast sold - but the interest in the new airport should indicate a market for a new Oxbx City Scene
even if it based on the current 2022 Bing Sat🤞
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1 hour ago, Nick Cooper said:
Hello John,
thanks for the link to the video.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the first nine minutes are a look at the airport. which the reviewer likes
and that the remaining hour and eighteen minutes are about the flight, which by definition, is no longer at or
about the airport and which is the thing that "didn't quite go to plan".sorry Nick - I was going to mention the time scale before he took off -- but had a senior moment
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Well ! - this bloke liked his free and Beta copy👍
Looks good - not sure about the tarmac colours though - and the pics it is based on must have been high summer
The Grass is actually greener at the moment after about 100mls this week
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We only go out rarely - but when we do - it's usually our R.S.L. club where they offer a seniors lunch
for $10 and the missus plays the pokies for while whilst I sink a cold Schooner
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- but I got all the goodies last year
Missing because
in The Neil Hill Memorial Lounge
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Happy Birthday - you youngster you - and yes - we misstya - I thought that maybe you had been overcome in all The IPSWICH HEAT
I hope you used your non forum time to something artistic