The VERY Best Utils for P3DV5

[Simon Justice]

Hello everyone!

Enjoying getting to know the A320X immensely. There is SO much to learn for someone coming from other sims and other 'buses. The FSL A320X is on another level completely when it comes to immersion and systems depth, and I salute all the devs and designers for their talent, skill and dedication.

Now, how do I take it to another level?

I'm sure there are amazing utilities out there to raise the game to soaring heights. I just found 'Spotlights' today, for example.

What utilities would you recommend to me and to the community to make our FSL sim experience even better? Any pointers on usage, configs and general tips for these also very welcome <3

[NilsUnger]

Camera tools, if you don't already have one. Ezdok or Chaseplane. GSX, FSUIPC, Active Sky. These are my must have add-ons.

[Rainer Beck]

agreed, the FSL airbus paired with GSX2, the built-in ATSU, and a free simbrief account for planning,  it's just amazing.

[Sabine Meier]

glad you found spotlights as that is a must for the fslabs otherwise you would have been asking why there was no vc lighting.

me personally. simbrief, gsx L1 at minimum to enjoy the atsu features and L2 if you want to see pax, fuel hydrant truck and use sode jetways provided by gsx. Hoppie login code to enjoy cpdlc if on vatsim or ivao. active sky as otherwise you are not being able to use the weather radar. aero.sors for updated magdec and ils data in europe and worldwide navaid updates.

[Antti Salo]

I strongly recommend RealTurb to anyone seeking realism. It really gives a sense of ”flying through air”, that’s been missing from default P3D/FS since the beginning. Currently not V5 supported, but will be.

[Rafal Haczek]

Nils has hit the nail on the head with the essential add-ons.

I would personally add the following items to the list:
- PFPX for flight planning (just love it!) - don't forget to add FSL profiles
- ASCA to change your sky/clouds dynamically when using ActiveSky (HiFiSim has frequents sales)
- Lorby Addon Organizer for painless adding/removing/moving FS scenery
- ORBX Global Base Pack and openLC (for your continent) plus their Global VECTOR or (I prefer) Flight1 UltimateTerrain X for pretty and realistic landscapes during your flights
- some nice sky/clouds/water textures and shaders, e.g. TOGA Projects Envtex and Envshade, to further enhance the visuals
- some good AI traffic (I always compile my own, using available models, repaits and current flightplans) - if used, you can add add-ons like AI Ground and AI Flow
- Google Earth Pro (now free) to add you FS airports and have great visualisation and inspiration to find flight ideas, measure distances, see flightplan routes, etc.
- TrackIR5 (if you can afford it) to make you feel inside the cockpit
- a good large monitor for flight immersion, I use a widescreen and definitely recommend this option
- the best sound source you can afford, a headset and/or speakers (depending on you preferences and personal circumstances)
- last but not least, the more hardware controllers you can afford, the better (sidestick, pedals, throttle, FCU, MCDU*, etc.) - it, however, takes a lot of money
* the cheapest option for a 'hardware' MCDU is to use your tablet or iPad to connect the MCDU to it

[NilsUnger]

11 minutes ago, Rafal Haczek said:

Google Earth Pro (now free)

Thanks, will have a look at this. Half of my available time is already up until I decided which route to fly this evening. 

[Rafal Haczek]

39 minutes ago, NilsUnger said:

Half of my available time is already up until I decided which route to fly

I can't imagine my flightsim decision making without GEP.
Below are some screenshots to illustrate selected profits of using it.

A general view of GEP with my flightsim airports added
 

When I click on an airport, I get a screenshot reminder of the airport (added from my FS screenshots collection)
 

Here's an approximate (straight-line) distance measuring, giving you an idea of how distant two points (e.g. airports) are
 

Distance circles (here 300 nm, 500 nm and 700 nm) giving an even better idea, especially if you want to know the flight time you need to spend
 

What a great opportunity to check the surrounding area's attractiveness!

 

PFPX can export ready flightplans to GEP and you can see your whole route in an amazing detail

 

[Luis Landa]

Windy App to check the weather on your IOS or Android device.

[Marc Ehnle]

And there are also hundreds of virtual airlines out there to give your flying a sense. Most are free to sign up for everyone and many have really easy rules to make for a nice off-schedule evening flight.

[Graham Collins]

TrackHat is a much more cost effective way of getting 'into' the cockpit - I have mine fixed to an old single ear headset rather than a hat.

I also recommend subscribing to Flightradar24 - a Silver login gives you all the info you will ever need to get ideas about where to fly - you see real routes being used in real time.

[Rafal Haczek]

28 minutes ago, Graham Collins said:

TrackHat is a much more cost effective way of getting 'into' the cockpit

Never heard of it. I wonder how it compares to TrackIR.

28 minutes ago, Graham Collins said:

Flightradar24 - a Silver login gives you all the info you will ever need to get ideas about where to fly

I keep using the free version. What is the precious info you mention in the SIlver plan?

[Sabine Meier]

flightaware gives routing for free in US. in the EU this is much less so.

[Dave Smith]

On 7/5/2020 at 11:13 AM, Koen Meier said:

 aero.sors for updated magdec and ils data in europe and worldwide navaid updates.

Did LM use outdated navaid data for v5?

 

[Sabine Meier]

1 minute ago, Dave Smith said:

Did LM use outdated navaid data for v5?

 

well whilst they have updated most things, when i ran the only compatible utility from aero.sors it adjusted 72 files. the magdec needs updating every so often based on the movement of the magnetic pole. i dont think LM will update the base world for a good while.

[Paul Biderman]

On Android devices, Avia Weather.  You can add all the airports you fly to, and if you pay the very small fee for the "pro" features it'll even show you wind components for each runway.

[Ken Knowles]

Don't forget Navigraph Charts! Love having access to proper Jepp charts on my iPad!

[Sabine Meier]

13 minutes ago, Ken Knowles said:

Don't forget Navigraph Charts! Love having access to proper Jepp charts on my iPad!

Some prefer lido through aerosoft.

[Graham Collins]

@Rafal

Info on Trackhat is here - does the same thing as TrackIR but for less $$$.

https://www.trackhat.org/

A silver Flightradar24 subscription gives you Ad free info on your desktop AND full access to their super mobile app - including aircraft routing history and the ability to playback flights for 90 days - useful to see actual routing of a flight that you might want to replicate. Only $10/year !