about time for an upgrade.

          It finally happened. the yoke and quadrant system ( flight simulation hardware) finally went on sale. I use fs9 (flight sim 2004) to fly all over the world without ever leaving my office. I flew a bunch of planes (737, little Cessna's etc...) and finally chose a Boeing B-50 . the RB-50F to be exact seen below flying over the lush green fields of Ireland. This plane had a long and varied history in the USAAF starting out as a replacement to the B-29 with larger engines , a larger tail and many advancements. It was in fact a stop -gap between world war 2 and the age of Jets. several were used in a variety of roles. Weather detection, photography and even refueling tankers for the jets that replaced them. Ive added several items that were not available to the pilots of that era. Flight computer navigation, a Heads up display, ground proximity warning system, GPS, modern autopilot and landing system. Every time I fly I learn something new about this plane. 

          Im not a "gamer" with an expensive setup and the newest "cutting edge " hardware. I downloaded the game for the folks at Internet Archive for free. Bought a 34 dollar joystick. (best 34 dollar joystick you can imagine ( the Logitech pro something) on Amazon. scoured Flightsim.com and Simviation for planes and gauges, scenery, tips and tricks , went on Youtube to see great videos on how to optimize the experience through tweaking the program parameters and suggesting add-ons to improve the experience. The landscape of Ireland below was such an add-on. Its amazing. 

         The reason I went the "economy route " was simple. a lot of people spend a lot of money building a great flight setup to discover after a while it gets kind of boring. I'm trying to get the best experience without spending a fortune and so far I have. I went as far as purchasing the electronic versions of the flight manuals for the B-50 and many of its various versions from a website that specializes in out of date manuals in New Zealand. downloaded all six 500+ page manuals and voila. Reading material for the next six months on my wife's original 12 year old iPad. courtesy of iCloud. (first time I ever used it). right ..why by new when used will do! I don't believe in built in obsolescence. I have an old iPhone 7 my kids used years ago on my motorcycle for a compass and weather. works great. 

Olaf.