Introduction and THANK YOU!

[BostonJeremy77]

Hey guys, especially the staff of A2A.

This is my first post and I just want to say hello and tell you something that is important for me to express.

I got into flight simulation back in 2011 or so, but started off with some mobile platforms - Infinite Flight and X-Plane Mobile. Eventually, it wasn't deep enough for me and I wanted to learn more.
This August, I picked up Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and it started a DEEP involvement with flight simulation for me. I own every aircraft thus far commercially released for that platform... But since it's limited at this point, I wanted to put silly sim wars aside (MSFS vs. XP vs. P3D) and purchased both P3D v5.1 and XP 11.51 a couple of weeks ago. I haven't messed too much with XP 11.51, somehow it didn't resonate with me, but I instantly felt familiarity with P3D - I get that they share some roots with what is now MSFS2020 - especially seen in ATC component. At first, I refunded my copy of P3D - it seemed ugly, the aircraft provided was nothing that really resonated with me... but I somehow felt I didn't give it enough of a chance and I purchased it again. This time, I delved deep into buying ALL of Orbx Global Range products, and this is where A2A comes in!

My first experience was the free A2A P40 that showed up on Orbx. I have heard of A2A SO MANY times and everyone on MSFS can't wait until you guys release your products there, and I wanted to check it out and see what it's all about. I was blown away! Over the last week, I bought Comanche, Skylane, and just now the B-17 (which I have yet to install as it just literally finished downloading)... I can't tell you what a difference you guys make! These fly so much more fun than any aircraft in MSFS 2020 so far. They are beautifully modeled (both texture-wise and physics) and the depth of simulation is incredible! Now I gotta collect and learn them all! Last night I also purchased Flight 1's GTN complete and outfitted my Comanche and Skylane with them! NOW I see where people are coming from with P3D... the customization options and depth of aircraft is MUCH deeper than MSFS so far. I know that platform is very new and it WILL get there - and I will still fly both MSFS and P3D every day, but you guys made me fall in love with your company, GA aircraft, and P3D... I see this platform sticking around (hopefully LM will continue to develop and support it for years), but to TRULY appreciate and enjoy it, you HAVE to spend some serious $$$. I know there are lots of people on MSFS forums complaining about lack of depth etc... but to give the developers credit, LOTS comes straight out of the box with MSFS - the scenery is beautiful, the aircraft (and the stock G1000/3000/5000 are WAY better than default P3D avionics packages) are more complete and better looking than anything stock in P3D. I am SO glad I decided to invest more into P3D to see its potential. The stock stuff REALLY doesn't do the platform justice and people will dismiss it easily now that MSFS is out. But you guys made me love it - I will continue to support your development and will eventually complete my collection of all things A2A and am also looking forward to what you do in MSFS.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for what you do. I love your product! Cheers!

Jeremy Smirnov
Chicago, IL

[Masterius]

Welcome aboard!
I know exactly what you mean: I'm a huge fan of the Flying Fortress, and I stumbled across A2A doing research on the B-17. I am a big fan of "realism"...given the choice between "eye-candy" and realism, I'll go with realism almost every time (Granted, I'd prefer both! ) A2A simply blew me away. I was hooked the instant I'd watched their B-17 YouTube ad. And the customer support is just as fantastic!

[MarcE]

Haha I totally understand you

I have all A2A aircraft and my absolutey favourites are the AT-6, the Cub and the Bonanza but right now I fly the Cherokee in FSEconomy ^^

P3D's scenery is not very beautiful to remain polite, all above since we know MSFS2020 but I simply can hardly fly piston aircraft anymore without Accusim. There are great mods available for MSFS's Da40 and 62 and as they are FADEC controlled it's absolutely okay but the default lean junk and the terribly off engine and performance models the sim has almost lost my interest until A2A gets there.

[BostonJeremy77]

Haha I totally understand you

I have all A2A aircraft and my absolutey favourites are the AT-6, the Cub and the Bonanza but right now I fly the Cherokee in FSEconomy ^^

P3D's scenery is not very beautiful to remain polite, all above since we know MSFS2020 but I simply can hardly fly piston aircraft anymore without Accusim. There are great mods available for MSFS's Da40 and 62 and as they are FADEC controlled it's absolutely okay but the default lean junk and the terribly off engine and performance models the sim has almost lost my interest until A2A gets there.

Well, next week I am buying the Bonanza! Microsoft fixed theirs in the latest update, to a degree, but I really can’t wait to try the AccuSim version! I love the idea of that aircraft and for months, Microsoft’s version was unfortunately... crippled due to nuked performance - it would barely climb. There was a G36 Performance Improvement mod I was using to fix it, but now it seems to perform better with just stock. But I have a feeling the AccuSim version blows it away. I AM gonna miss the G1000 avionics package, but... I am sure I will manage with whatever A2A put there. I don’t know if it supports a premium avionics package - I did buy Flight1 last night and am enjoying it in Comanche and Skylane, but I really have yet to figure out the autopilot. I got it down on the Skylane but... the weird AP in the Comanche is making me very sad - I still can’t enable it at all - I have the AP switch active but the RDY light is all that comes on. I can’t enable ALT hold no matter how many times I press or hold that button. I still have fun even with just hand flying it while trimmed.

[Masterius]

By any chance, are you familiar with FSUIPC and LINDA?

[BostonJeremy77]

By any chance, are you familiar with FSUIPC and LINDA?

I know OF FSUIPC... Haven't really used it at all. Never even heard of LINDA. Why?

[Masterius]

By any chance, are you familiar with FSUIPC and LINDA?

I know OF FSUIPC... Haven't really used it at all. Never even heard of LINDA. Why?

Both give the user the ability to greatly expand the use of devices and commands, customizing them wa-aaay beyond their basic utility.

FSUIPC (registered):

Joystick control facilities:

Facilities for joystick calibration – specifically, more accurate setting of dead zones and centres.
Joystick mapping for multi-engined aircraft throttles
Facilities for reverse thrust adjustment on each throttle, or via a separate reverser,
Joystick button programming, for any Flight Sim control, including those not available in FS’s own assignment menu.
Joystick buttons can also be made to produce key-presses, for instance when this is the only way to control an add-on aircraft panel or other accessory.
Joystick button assignments for Project Magenta controls, and for Roger Wilco’s PTT action.
Joystick button assignments for use by WideFS clients on Networked PCs.
All button assignments programmable separately for press and release
Facilities for analogue flap and spoiler setting, with detentes.
Facilities for analogue elevator, rudder and aileron trim setting.
PFC COM-port connected devices, operating through my PFCcom64.dll driver, can also have their switches and buttons programmed using the same facilities.
Capabilities for all of these things to be specific to an aircraft, automatically changing when you change aircraft.
Direct axis assignments

Facilities for asignment of any Windows API (not DirectInput) joystick axis to any FS axis control, or sequences of other controls dependent upon axis range and direction of change.
Axes can be read as Windows Game controler calibrated values, or direct as ‘Raw’ values for setting specific values.
Capabilities for these things to be specific to an aircraft, automatically changing when you change aircraft.
Key press programming facilities:

Key-press programming, for any Flight Sim control, including those not available in FS’s own assignments dialogues.
FS controls can be sent with fixed parameter, for use in setting specific analogue values.
Key-press combinations including TAB, MENU and WIN as extra shifts, for many more assignment possibilities.
Key-press assignments for Project Magenta controls, and for Roger Wilco’s PTT action.
Key-press assignments for use by WideFS7 clients on Networked PCs
All key-press operations programmable separately for press and release, and for specific aircraft or general.
Other features:

A page of special Hot Key programmable functions for some special FSUIPC6 actions such as setting STD altimeter,
switching throttle sync on and off, and hiding/viewing the FS message window.
an intelligent AI Traffic Limiting option, so that the slider can be higher for more variety but without excessive traffic affecting performance

LINDA:

Enables the ability to map buttons and switches to a huge variety of commands, including customized lua scripts to run virtually any command your sim is capable of executing.

[alan CXA651]

Hi Bostonjeremy77.
Welcome to the A2A aircraft , i started with the C172 to get my VATSIM P2 , and was blown away by the difference over the default C172 , i ended up with most of the A2A aircraft and love them all .
FSUIPC payed version allows more control options on any aircraft , LINDA is a better driver system for saitek controllers , more so on win10 , i personally dont have LINDA but know of it , i use FSXA so saitek drivers work with my win7 and FSXA and i have the FSUIPC4 payed version for my CH controllers , for P3D you will need FSUIPC5 i believe.
regards alan.

[BostonJeremy77]

Hi Bostonjeremy77.
Welcome to the A2A aircraft , i started with the C172 to get my VATSIM P2 , and was blown away by the difference over the default C172 , i ended up with most of the A2A aircraft and love them all .
FSUIPC payed version allows more control options on any aircraft , LINDA is a better driver system for saitek controllers , more so on win10 , i personally dont have LINDA but know of it , i use FSXA so saitek drivers work with my win7 and FSXA and i have the FSUIPC4 payed version for my CH controllers , for P3D you will need FSUIPC5 i believe.
regards alan.

Hi Alan! Yeah, I only use the XBox controller and yesterday I bought MV’s King Air 350i and ran into an issue of the throttle up button doing nothing to control the throttle. I am guessing it’s because of 2 engines. But how come I can still use the F1, F2, and F3? Why wouldn’t they just make the throttles be able to be controlled with 1 button? I guess... I am coming from MSFS and their default airliners and turboprops have it so that the controller button does operate 2 or 4 throttles at the same time. As much as I hate they idea of adding yet another thing, I may have to look into it, cause right now I am using the mouse to click and drag the throttle on KingAir. That’s not ideal, to say the least.

[alan CXA651]

Hi Bostonjeremy77.
To be honest , Xbox controllers for flight simming is not ideal , more so with complex aircraft like A2A and milviz , i use a CH yoke , rudder peddles , and two quad throttles , and saitek trim wheel , radio and switch panels , i would if i was you , start looking for decent controllers if you intend doing serious simming , trying to get decent controllers while this covid is about will not be easy , but you could do some research , to see what you need within your buget , the items i have cost me about £650 , over the years but the yoke/rudder peddles are about 20 years old at least , and cost about £200 each so i have had my moneys worth and some out of them .
regards alan.

[MarcE]

Jeremy,

If you have issues with any aircraft we are here to help. You‘ll see the A2A community is amazing in getting people to enjoy their aircraft.

Regarding the Comanche‘s AP you‘re on the right path when you have the ready light on. Now you can select a lateral mode, I believe it‘s mandatory for the altitude hold function. Therefore you have to depress the little turn knob in the left top corner of the HSI, it switches through the modes. As soon as one of the lateral modes are active you can hold your altitude with the ALT button.

The Bonanza will have various buttons to choose a mode. You‘ll need to turn on the flight director, then you can select a mode and turn on the AP.

[BostonJeremy77]

Jeremy,

If you have issues with any aircraft we are here to help. You‘ll see the A2A community is amazing in getting people to enjoy their aircraft.

Regarding the Comanche‘s AP you‘re on the right path when you have the ready light on. Now you can select a lateral mode, I believe it‘s mandatory for the altitude hold function. Therefore you have to depress the little turn knob in the left top corner of the HSI, it switches through the modes. As soon as one of the lateral modes are active you can hold your altitude with the ALT button.

The Bonanza will have various buttons to choose a mode. You‘ll need to turn on the flight director, then you can select a mode and turn on the AP.

Marc,
Thank you! Nick from A2A was kind enough to help me with the S-Tec AP yesterday and I am now able to fly it seamlessly. It’s a lot of fun, cause you still have to babysit it a little bit in terms of trim, but I actually really like it! Thank you for the welcome and the assistance.

Alan, yes, I have been contemplating a controller for a week or two. I only got into serious simming in August when I got MSFS and I started with keyboard and mouse but in about 3 days I realized it’s completely unsustainable and got an X-Box controller, which has been serving me just fine in MSFS. But now that I “upgraded” (well... parallel-graded if you will as I intend to fly both MSFS and P3D) to P3D and getting my hands on some more in-depth machinery such as MilViz, I am starting to see the limitations of the XBox controller more and more. I did some digging around and found out you can actually map that stuff to one button on the controller, but you have to buy FSUIPC and I just don’t feel like shelling out $35 to map a button. I’d rather invest that into a proper joystick or something along those lines. Any particular ones you recommend? Money isn’t particularly too much of a concern, I am more interested in overall value vs how much actual money I spend.

Again, thank you for all the help! Cheers!

[Mickel]

If cash isn’t an issue, consider a yoke over a stick. IMO, there is more control. I’d used a stick for years then finally made the leap. The difference is marked. I still pull out the stick for those planes that have them.

[BostonJeremy77]

If cash isn’t an issue, consider a yoke over a stick. IMO, there is more control. I’d used a stick for years then finally made the leap. The difference is marked. I still pull out the stick for those planes that have them.

Well, I fly a lot in the evening on my laptop while in bed on my stomach. It would be uncomfortable to use a yoke there. Ha!

[Mickel]

Ah.... that implies rudder pedals are out then. Get a stick with a grip twist for the rudder then. My Saitek X-52 has done stirling service for over a decade.