I received AFPD for Christmas. I was very impressed with how easily the install was. A real no brainer. Plug in USB cable, put CD in drive, download and install patch and that was about it.

At first I thought that the planes flew a bit too easy, and some still might. Sometimes I think a plane should bit when it does not on the Sim. Someone on the list said that he felt the planes felt like they had helium in them.

Well I brought the Sim and Cable to my Dad's house to let him see how he felt he it flew. Mind you I can torque roll in real life and he is almost getting it. I loaded everything up on his machine, and set him up with the Extra 330s. I half expected him to be able to TR instantly, but I was wrong. As I sat back and watched him fly I felt like I was watching him at the field. He was having the same difficulties in the Sim that he has in real life. His first few attempts were no different than at the field! So the Sim is real close to real life. After playing with AFPD he wants one for himself.

What surprised me was the the Extra snapped better (and even bit) on his computer where for me the snaps looked like tight barrel rolls. The only difference in the two setups I can guess is the Transmitter. (I was using an old Dave Brown mostly and he is using a RealFlight) Anyone (Dion) have any ideas as to why this could be?

I would like to see some more wing rock in harriers. I still feel that the planes are a bit too locked in.

Lastly has anyone made an Edge (not a funfly type Edge a Carden or Aeroworks Edge) for AFPD?

Thanks
Rob

First question.

Have you ever flown a 40% Extra 330S on the field?

My Primary IMAC plane is a Carden 40% Extra 330S. Mike McConville was nice enough to give me a copy of his 10x program which I used to program mine. I also have my CG at the same place he does. Barron Jonson recommended while I was building mine (again primarily for IMAC) that I sharpen the L.E. of the wing to help with the snap / spin entries. One of the problems with the Edge that I flew previously was that I had to fake spin entries, and a good judge would nail you on that. My Extra is 37lbs with MTW cans. A pretty fair weight for that plane. When I flew Brian Hueffmeier's Carden Extra with the stock L.E. and unlightened. It too had a bit of wing rock.

Although I don't own them I have flow the all the Composite Arf Extra's as well as the Big Yak, the 40% 3W Extra, the Aeroworks (37%) Extra and the Edges 540 and 540T in 35% and 40% the Carden Cap . . .

Try the simulator at 120% simulation speed with the Extra and let me know how you like it then.

The AFP Extra 330S is based off the 3W 40% model. I don't know if you have ever flown one, but I have and there is not a whole lot of rocking.

Dion. I found my answer. I have been saying that the planes fly a little too perfect. . . they fly like that perfect morning or evening were there is NO WIND!

When you pointed me to the simulation rate I played with that, but then I saw the wind and turbulence and decided to try it. wind and turbulence makes things feel much more real. It is the rare day were the wind is zero. Next time someone says AFPD is too easy, remind them of the wind. The more I play with AFPD the more I love it. (BTW putting the Sim at 200% is great fun.)

Thanks again.

Rob

P.S. Now what about my other question Does anyone have an Edge to download?

Ah ... I'm with ya now. I like to fly the big Extra at full windspeed, now that's fun. Holding in knife Edge right next to you.

Yes there is an Edge, but I would say that it needs some work. www.aeroflypro.com/download.

Dion or anyone...could you please list a few good PCI vidio cards that work well with thi AFP delux. Thanks

Do you mean PCI express? Any video card that uses the PCI bus is going to be so old that it really won't do well. Right now, from what I have read, the best bang for the buck is the Nvidia 6600GT cards. They are around $180 for PCIexpress and $219 for AGP. Leadtek has been very highly rated and so has the XFX. I am going to order the Leadtek AGP 6600GT to replace my ATI Radion 9000 AIW.

SCARY.... I am talking about the board by Visiontek Xtasy ATI certified Model 9200SE 128 PCI. Read about it and tell me what you think. Circit City has them. You can find specs on amazon.com Thanks Capt,n

Well well, I didn't realize the Radeons were still being made in PCI. I am running a 9000 Radeon. The 9200 should be a mild improvement over mine. I ave. around 60-80 fps in the easy scenery and no smoke. It looks fine. Flying in the desert or Ikarus with smoke on drops me down to under 20 and its no good. Most of the sim is still VERY usable though. So, for $80, you probably can't go wrong. And it meets the reccomendations on the aerofly.com sight as well. (PS, I am running an overclocked Athlon at 2.4ghz, DFI LanParty II Ultra B, 512mb ram)

It will work but marginal. I believe CC has return on anything.

its just the physics in afpd, all planes fly like this ...

Thanks guys....I don,t want marginal....so back it goes. I did not open the seal. I always try to find out the most I can on a product before I install it into my puter. CCity has lots of others to choose from!!! I am also going to take this puter apart enough to see if it has a AGP slot besides the PCI slots. I read on the HP support that it could have both. The APG would be brown...and the PCI white. So with no further adooooo its take apart time.!!!

how about this Vidio board from Tiger Direct
VisionTek Xtasy 9200 / 256MB DDR / PCI / VGA / DVI / TV Out / Video Card Take a look and let us know. PCI user,s may like it?

The extra ram will make a little difference, but nowhere near as much as upgrading to a newer GPU (graphics processing unit). Those are both 9200 cards, they will run very much the same. The 256mb card will be a little better. But something like the 9800, the new x700 or the Nvidia 6600gt or 6800 will be 200 to 300% faster. BUT, like I said earlier, I don't consider my even lesser Radeon 9000 with 64mb of ram (all in wonder) to be marginal. There is some fancy eye candy that it has problems with. But I get the benefits of the sim, the feel of the flying, just fine. Of course, as soon as I get a spare $200, I am ordering that Leadtek Nvidia 6600gt.

There is a definitle ceiling to the video performance that you can squeeze out of a PCI card. There is not enough bandwidth on the PCI bus to handle high-end graphics regardless of what chipset you have on the card. Sorry, but that's the truth! You could have a Radeon 9800 Pro chipset ona a PCI card and you wouldn't be able to perceive a performance difference between that and a 9200 on the PCI bus. PCI-X is a different story all together! I would save up and get a motherboard with an AGP or PCI-X slot on it for video. If you have an ATX case, the transplant should be pretty straight forward.

I have a HP a345 Pavillian. What is a ATX case. Thanks John

STILL NEED HELP .....ANYONE?

ATX merley describes an industry wide physical standard for such things as the size of the motherboard, location and format of various connectors and so on. Many "generic" or "white box" PCs use ATX standard parts, this makes them like high-tech Leggo, easy and inexpensive to upgrade. Some brand-name PCs use ATX parts, some don't. I assume that you have already determined that you don't have an AGP slot, that's why you are looking at PCI video cards - the next step would be to take your PC to a local repair shop and ask them to take a look and see if your PC can be upgraded with an ATX motherboard that does have an AGP slot. If your PC is current, you may be able to get a new board that will work with your CPU and RAM too. Buy a brand name board such as an Asus, Gigabyte or Microstar. Find a "mom and pop" shop close by that you feel comfortable dealing with, they probably do this type of stuff all the time.

David: That makes more sense than anything I read so far. Thanks for the reply. John

Actually I found more info on your PC, it already has an Asus M/B in it, here's the specs:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...ame=c00006476#

This motherboard has an AGP slot, so you are barking up the wrong tree looking for a PCI card. Get a good mid-range AGP card, ATI Radeon 9600 or 9800 series or Nvidia GeForce FX 5600/5700 Series should work well.

OK, last work on the issue, have a look at the benchmarks on the following link. These folks take a PC and benchmark it in various games using all the currently available video cards. If you click each game, you will see a graph showing the relative speed of each card. This way you can see what your invesment in a video card is going to buy you.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...004/index.html

The only trick here would be to figure out which of the games benchmarked uses the graphics processor in a manner similar to AFPD. Maybey Don could comment.

David: Boy I wish my computer had that motherboard. UPDATE!!! I got AFP runing good on this computer. I added a PCI vidio card with the help from a HP tech on the phone. This thing sure is fun!! Got to rest up for tomorrows fun. Thanks to ALL Capt,n

Well the good news is that your case will accept a standard "micro-ATX" motherboard. An Asus P4S533-MX board will fit, will support your CPU and RAM, and will give you an AGP slot. I sell them for about $90.00 Canadian, so you should be able to get one pretty cheap in your neck of the woods too. Refer back to my original advice, find a local shop to supply the board and video card, install them and make sure they are running right.

Oh, and I almost forgot....don't buy computers at Wal-Mart! Toilet paper yes, computers no!

I thought i might add my $0.02 worth

When upgrading a brand name p/c you will find that the operating system wont work with other mother boards. it fails to recognize the system and shuts down the setup. The OEM licensing is designed to identify the mother board to prevent piracy. on another note a few of the higher end video cards need a lot of power from the power supply a 9800 pro ati wont even boot up with a generic power supply from HP unless you ordered something over 300 watts. i was amazed at how much current they used a few people with the ati cards found out the hard way just how much power is needed this is the ATI 9800