Mach.92 V2 + Striking That Balance

We break down a busy stretch in flight sim, from the FlightFX Citation X Version 2 release to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 6 and the constant push and pull between performance, visuals, and stability. We also dig into X-Plane’s steady progress, why VR has become our default way to fly, and a personal return to real-world flying with a hard reminder that legal is not the same as proficient. 
• FlightFX Citation X V2 upgrades and why it raises the bar for business jet fidelity 
• What’s still missing in long-range business jets and why the Global 6000 matters 
• Sim Update 6 improvements and whether 2024 is now the obvious choice over 2020 
• Why frequent updates feel great until they break third-party add-ons 
• Performance versus visual fidelity and how optional city updates change the tradeoff 
• Where Microsoft Flight Simulator is heading with broader integrations and brand partnerships 
• X-Plane 12.4.4 strengths in flight modeling and what could bring simmers back 
• VR flight sim immersion with Meta Quest 3 plus the wired setup that finally works 
• Hardware panels, cost drops, and the question of when a home cockpit becomes too much 
• Real-world flying update after a long recovery and how proficiency comes back over time 
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Transcript

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Welcome Back And Summer Heat

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the closed traffic podcast. It's your boy Mike calling it down for the fellas this afternoon. It's been about two weeks since our last show, so thought we'd come on or thought I'd come on and talk through the latest happenings across Flight Sim and the aviation world as usual. Hope you guys are all well, man. It's been, especially if you're in the southwest part of the U.S., it's been a scorcher out here. California in particular, very hot. We're going on two weeks now of almost triple digits every day. I think we're finally cooling off next week, which is fantastic. Looking forward to that. I know the boys out in Texas and Georgia aren't faring so well either. It's been a very hot summer for, I would say, most of the continental USA. So certainly looking forward to fall for a number of different reasons, the weather being number one. And damn, it's almost football season, it's almost basketball season. So definitely looking forward to to all of that stuff returning. Man, it's been it's been it's been uh been pretty hectic out there as it relates to flight sim and aviation. We'll touch on a couple of different topics today. I will talk about the Flight FX Citation 10, Citation X version 2 that just released. Uh we're recording this on Friday, the 28th. So about two days ago, 2024's Sim Update 6 has arrived. I don't know that we've had a show since that, so I'll touch on that a little bit as well. Microsoft Flight Sim in general, where is it going? I think we definitely need to talk uh a little bit about the division beyond the product itself and some of the introduction to other areas, features and functionality and integrations that uh sobo and Microsoft are starting to get into. X Plane 12 4.4, quiet competitor, keeps on moving, man. It's I you know, those of you that are longtime listeners, watchers, etc., know that I am I'm a solo Microsoft flight sim guy. I've obviously had many of the sims, including X Plane, for a number of years, but I'd say the last three years or so I've been solely on Microsoft. Though I keep being told I gotta go try X Plane for a number of different reasons, especially with the advancements in their overall technology and platform here in recent years. So we will see. It's still on my list to get into. And then certainly last but not least, the next Flights and Frontier, man. We we always talk about VR, we talk about hardware, we talk about immersion in general. So I'd like to finish with just a broader, specific topic. Specific topic, broader and specific does not make sense. A broader uh topic around you know, releases and integrations and vendors in those areas. And knowing me, we'll probably pile in some other things as well that I don't have on the agenda, depending on how this is flowing. But appreciate those of you that are listening in. And as always, we appreciate our Patreon backers and uh longtime supporters. And

Citation X V2 Big Upgrades

SPEAKER_00 3:51

so without further ado, so citation X, I'll just read the cliff notes for you for for now. Uh version two was released two days ago. That's a major overhaul for Microsoft Flight in 2024. Updates, their navigation, the FMS, auto throttle, performance prediction. The EFB has got uh a couple of different tweaks, overall visual fidelity, sound, flight dynamics, career mode, and and so much more. I really think, you know, I don't think I know Nico and the team over at Flight Effects continues to position Microsoft Flight Sim as you know really a breaking ground for business jets that we didn't really have a ton of or this level of fidelity across earlier sims and earlier platforms. And so it's exciting to continue to see that update and that advancement. Again, been a hectic week for me, work-wise. When is it not? So I have not flown it yet. I'll find some time this weekend to get in it and provide my overall purview related to the to the platform, to the product update. Um, but I've seen some videos, I've seen some trailers, it looks fantastic. Now, some people are still talking about, you know, where's the the 2020 update, which brings me to another topic we'll probably touch on later. Like, you know, what is the holdup at this point for those of you that are on 2020 that refuse to go to 2024? Like, I don't see, quite frankly, the nuances that continue to surface as a barrier when 2024 is so much more immersive, performance-related-wise, it's so much more efficient and effective, especially for those of you running inferior. Inferior is a bad way to put it, but product that is uh hardware that is you know a little bit on the uh the less of a performance side to to handle some of the many different nuances and high fidelity of these inter integrations and and platforms that we continue to run from a third-party standpoint. And so we'll talk about that again a little bit later. Back to the V2. You know, listen, I've always loved this aircraft from the moment it was announced. Now, I don't have a historic affinity for it like many people do. Quite frankly, was not really familiar with it until the announcements of it coming out and that it was being worked on. But then I did a ton of research, watched a ton of videos, and it is a fantastic aircraft. I mean, shit, Mod 9-2, you know, when we talk about from a speed standpoint, high flight levels, it uh gets you over weather, get you out of some of that uh that major airliner traffic when you're you're trying to get going and going in a hurry, you know, seats up to I think 10 to 12. Somebody will correct me here on some of these specs, but you know, all that being said, the the the takeaway here is it's a it's a uh uh uh extremely efficient aircraft, very quick, and really meets a lot of the needs for jet travelers and and corporations alike. And so have an iteration of it in the sim has been really fantastic. I I've I've really enjoyed flying it. I put it down, I would say a couple of months ago as the advancements of some of the other jets that we've had come in, like the Fiend, the Sovereign, and some other ones I'm probably missing here. But it's great to have this update now to go back to it and really fly it because uh I did miss its performance. You know, the jet itself, I I think we have uh it's funny. You know, we talk about bizjet advancements and and and whatnot in the platform that we have today that is Microsoft. We have short haulers, we have mid-haulers, but we don't really have any true long haulers. I mean, I don't even know. Again, I'm not all too familiar with the categorization of business jets, but I don't know if you would call it your mid-jet, your supersized jet, how however they classify that. We're missing, you know, in a in another sense, the gulf streams of the world, right? I mean and the the challengers of the world, those aircrafts that can truly get you comfortably on a transcom. Now, the citation X, I could take off from you know somewhere in Southern California and get to the Carolinas no problem. Going, I believe, again, you know, west to east, maybe LA to Newark could get you there, you know, depending on winds, but like you certainly couldn't take the aircraft nonstop from New York to LA in the middle of winter with that with those typical jet streams. And so though those are the components that I think we're still missing from a biz jet uh categorization standpoint within within flights and now again we did see when we talked about this at Expo the trailer for the any builds. What the heck were they showing off? Was it the 220 or the 380? One of those aircrafts, right? In the background, you clearly saw that any builds was working on a a bizjet. And I think the general takeaway and synopsis, although I don't know that they officially confirmed it, maybe they have, is it's a it's a global 6000. Those of you that are very familiar with with uh biz jets, based on the sneak peek, was able to tell right away what the airplane was. And so actually, yeah, they did announce. I'm looking at it here, and so yeah, that's a it's it's super exciting to say that it's a work in progress. I mean that we'll finally have something that can fulfill sort of that category of biz jets that we've been missing for a long time, and so that's part of the reason why I hop around as it relates to flying some of these um these jets that we've got in the in the city. You know, we've got the Honda jet, should we even have the vision jet? You know, very small short hop to mid-haul biz jets. And it's gonna be exciting to finally get something that you can have for uh a much longer haul, even if you wanted to do shoot, man. If I'm not mistaken, that Global 6000 will get you from you know the west coast of the United States to to Europe, no problem. And so that's that's really exciting. Yeah, man. I think that's it. In terms of uh the citation X, uh, be interested in hearing you all's opinions and sort of how it's been going for you, for those of you that have had a chance to fly it already. Again, I'm seeing nothing but great things. You know, Flight Effects has always blown the doors off their releases. Very few have you know defects, or at least nothing's ever going to be defect or bug-free, but uh ones that completely stop you know the user from being able to have a good flight experience with it. And so they continue to push the to push the the the throttle forward, uh, if you will, in terms of the these jet developments and just aircraft developments from a high fidelity standpoint at a reasonable price point for the community. And I think that is that continues to be super exciting, and we appreciate it. So,

Sim Update 6 And Maturity

SPEAKER_00 11:20

real quick to sim update six. Uh, it is now live across all platforms following that beta period that it was in. Microsoft uh is describing it and and quite frankly, others in the community as well, as really a major update that brings you know things like the DLS, the LSS 4.5 support and really just overall improvements to the 2024 experience. And so I guess the question you know that I would have for the audience is you know, has 2024 finally matured? Are the constant updates becoming a strength or is it exhausting for the community? Like, right, where do you strike that balance in terms of uh how quickly things are releasing and and sort of the overall change management aspect of it? Performance versus versus visual visual fidelity. I think that has quite frankly, uh in my opinion, Microsoft has not struggled with this as since the launch of Microsoft Flights in 2020. I think to this day, no one would argue that it is the most visually appealing sim that we have and have ever had in the in the history of uh Flight SIM. And so that's never really been their issue for the most part, holistically. However, performance has left a lot to be desired uh for many across the community, both in 2020 and 2024. And I guess, you know, is 2024 now the obvious choice for someone that is buying their first simulator, and how much of the remaining criticism, like I mentioned a little bit ago, is legit when you consider 2020, the Microsoft Light Sim 2020. And so 2024, as it fully matured, I don't know that you could ever call any sim fully matured. I don't think that you would ever want any sim fully matured because there is always striking that balance between a level of innovation and stability. And so we're in a world, I believe, where we love the updates because the updates bring innovation, they bring a continued quest of pushing the envelope around visual fidelity as well as improving performance for the hardware that we have out here in this world to take advantage of the sim that has been created. And so I don't know that it is fully matured, I don't know that it ever will be, nor do I think we should ever strive to for it to be so. Because I think once you you sort of box a developer or a company into that it it sort of stifles innovation to a degree, and so we want this sim to always be continuously improving because there are always opportunities related to again overall performance and and really unlocking some of the nuances that still exist for the platform. One of them, you know, the boys and I talk about all the time is just the the friggin' camera system. And so shout out to Chase Plane, you know, for for taking that on and and really allowing it to be a little bit more manageable compared to the default camera system that we have in the sim today. It's it really is a mess. It's it's it's not consistent, it's it creates a poor user experience, and then even add-ons and third parties like a chase plane continue to struggle with being able to really do what they want with their version of the camera system to improve the life of the the simmer. And so would love for them to continue to improve areas of that and really just unlock it so that you know we we can use those those third-party tools, and third parties have a little bit of an easier time being able to develop their products for it. Now, I get it, you've got to strike a balance between, you know, those of us that are hardcore simmers with hard drives and clouds full of add-ons, and those that are, you know, quite frankly, running the platform on the consoles of the world where not every integration or third-party platform is available on console for Microsoft. You you see more and more, certainly since the release of console capability or compatibility. They're still not all the way there yet. And then those that just don't want to buy a bunch of add-ons and they want to be able to use the sim for what it's worth. And again, that's always sort of been the struggle. Like immediately what you do as hardcore simmers when you get in the sim, or if it's a new sim, you know, you turn off the default ATC, some of the default traffic, and and all the other I call it bloats for us hardcore simmers that is in the sim today to make room for the third parties that just do it better. And they do it better because that's like what they do, right? So that's they're they're focused on that, the GSX of the world, the aircraft developers of the world, and so on and so forth. And so again, you want to be able to strike that balance. And I think the updates, as mentioned, I think are at a right cadence right now, and we should continue to strive for them again. Both striking the balance between performance and visual fidelity. Going back to, you know, is it the obvious choice for someone buying their first simulator? I think so. I don't know why, and you guys can keep me honest and and and argue against. I would love to understand why anyone would buy 2020 versus just going to 2024. And so, you know, likewise, for those of you that are still on 2020 and 2024 is out there and continues to mature and develop. I get it. When it first came out, it was a hot mess. And you asked yourselves, like, man, did they not friggin' learn from the the 2020 rollout? Right? It came out with a lot of the same issues, if not worse, in many cases. And I downloaded it and immediately removed it for gosh, probably the better part of 10 months, if not a little bit longer. I stayed on 2020, and then it improved. Like, like every flight sim and and and third-party platform, not every third-party platform. Well, we won't go into that. So there's still folks out there struggling to just get some VNAV going in their plane that they released two plus years ago. But I digress. But you know, eventually, Microsoft and the Sobo are gonna figure it out, and so you know, some of it is finding some patience, some balance. There's obviously frustration with, you know, why do you continue to make the same mistakes over and over again? But I think the sim is at a really good place where it's hard for me to fathom why anyone would stay on 2020 and hold on to that nostalgia. Most of the add-ons have come over by now, if not are somewhat compatible. I do have a bone to pick with Orbix and Van Nuys. Like, what the hell? Guys don't understand why, you know, many of the Orbex products, quite frankly, are still not compatible for 2024. Uh, so if you guys know why, please let me know. I've tried to research, but airports like Van Nuys that we waited so long for general aviation airports like that, finally released for 2020, and 2024 has been out the better part of what two plus years now, almost two years, and we still have no compatibility. And yes, a lot of times you can just take it out of the 2020 folder and put it in 2024. Uh, and I've had really good luck with a lot of the add-ons working, mostly scenery like that, but uh Van Oz is cooked. For those of you that are listening and have it yourselves. When you go to load into it, there's a bunch of terrain mesh and even code spikes within the scenery, which is extremely rare and nothing I've ever seen before. And so please, Orbix, and whoever the partner was for Van Eyes, update it. And so, yeah, I mean that sim update, that sim update six for the most part. I think, you know, like I said, it's in a really good place. So but Microsoft continue to push the envelope, striking the balance between performance, visual fidelity. I don't know that we ever want a quote unquote mature sim. We want to push innovation and growth, and so continue to push the updates for us. I do want to caveat one thing though. Please continue to partner with the third-party developers that you guys have partnerships with. And nothing is more infuriating and frustrating than when a sim update pushes and your favorite add-ons do not work for weeks, sometimes months at a time. And so the more you third parties and Microsoft, Sobo, etc., can communicate and collaborate to get ahead of these updates, especially when you've got these long beta cycles, I think the better it would be for the community overall. And

World Building Versus Core Flying

SPEAKER_00 20:46

so, you know, expanding on the topic just a little bit as it relates to Microsoft, an interesting take here, right? Is Microsoft Flight Sim becoming more than an airplane simulator? I don't know. I think they're what's driving the conversation is we continue to see updates and integrations to third parties that are a little bit outside of the scope of a traditional flight sim. And so they're really pushing the envelope, like I mentioned, you know, striking the balance between performance and visual fidelity, especially as it relates to these city updates. So Italy, sim update or city update 16 is what they called it, was just updated to enhance the fidelity of the surrounding areas. Like you could damn near get in a car and drive the roads. And so you ask yourself, you know, is that something you need out of a flight sim? But they enhanced nine urban areas, and and and they've been doing this for quite some time now across the globe with some of these cities. General aviation low flyers across the platform certainly appreciated. I think nothing is more immersion breaking than you know getting in your general aviation aircraft, doing some low level flying. Playing in a jet or whatever it may be, and the terrain does not look as good as it does from several thousand feet higher. And so it's cool to have that update. But again, like where do you strike the balance between visual fidelity and performance? Because some folks are complaining that you know these updates do and are taxing on their hardware. Now, that being said, Microsoft and the Sobo usually publishes these updates as optional. And so I think you have to go to the marketplace and actually download and or install the city updates. And I, for the most part, do not install any of them. Unless they're like in the continental US, more or less. And so it's interesting. The other thing they did was uh, or they're announcing some sort of Lufthansa partnership, or they're pushing Luftanza content, celebrating the airlines' 100th anniversary. It feels like all these airlines have 100 anniversaries this year, have their 100th anniversary. I think like, isn't it dealt Lufthansa? Like I've seen more 100th anniversary liveries within the last like 6 to 12, maybe 18 months than than ever before. But that that's interesting. Um, but yeah, they're they're doing some sort of content celebrating their 100th anniversary, again, which you know opens up for the bigger conversation related to like where is the sim heading? Because they're clearly like increasing their emphasis on recognizable real-world aviation brands. And for a very long time, that was sort of a no-no in the industry. A lot of these airlines would not allow you to use their image or likeness in in any of these things. And so, like I said, it's and I should name this episode striking a balance, right? It it really is striking a balance between what is needed from a core flight sim versus like what isn't nice to have, and ensuring that you're not going too far to the other side of the line where general hardware setups can't run you know what you're putting out there. And so, yeah, I mean, again, you know, some of it is is some of the conversation I'm seeing here as well, is like, does all this world building actually matter to serious IFR airline simmers, which makes up a large majority, if not the majority of of the flight sim hobby? Maybe I'm wrong in in in that regard, but there's a lot of us. That's essentially what I'm saying. There's a ton of us, especially those that are flying on networks like your VAT sim, IVAOs, Pilot Edge. Although one would argue Pilot Edge probably sees more VFR traffic, but you know, say intentions, all that jazz. I mean, so it's a it's a it's an interesting thought, it's an interesting take. So I guess you know, the question for for you all to sort of take back as you're listening to this is you know, what makes you stop and appreciate the world in Microsoft Flights in an amazing airplane and an incredible airport, or or really simply flying over those places you've actually been, flying over your home. I remember when 2020 first released, that was a lot of what folks were doing, right? Because as I mentioned a couple minutes ago, we've never really had a simulator of this high fidelity. And so one of the very first things tons of people were doing were getting in, you know, those small G your 172s, your 150s of the world, your crop dusters of the world, and flying over their neighborhood. I thought that was really cool to see that level of excitement for folks, especially those of us that have been simming for a very long time, where that had seemed so far-fetched, and you know, was out of the entire realm of possibility to really strike that balance between performance and having something like that. And so, you know, regardless of where this goes, we'll we'll forever be grateful of Osobo and Microsoft for really pushing the boundaries of flight simulation and giving us what we have today. So shout out to you all.

X-Plane 12.4.4 As The Rival

SPEAKER_00 26:12

So, as I mentioned, you know, I'm not not a not an X-Plane user these days, not an X-Plane simmer. I I miss lots of things about X-Plane, particularly flight dynamics, particularly, you know, the availability of free add-on enhanced airports. What else do I miss about X-Plane? I think that's really the core of it. I mean, it's it's really a solid sim that is much closer to the realities of flying an airplane. I don't think any simulator, even level D's, I mean, you've heard you know, commercial airline pilots tell you guys on this show that even the level Ds that they go in for recurrent in training does not simulate the true nature of what it is like to fly these these jets in the real world. And so excuse me. You cannot expect a desktop flight sim to mirror that any closer than a level D would be able to. But explain again from from various recounts and positions of of those that fly out there, commercial jets and whatnot in the real world, just planes in general. Like, you know, for us, for less, for us private pilot, instrument-rated, commercial, you know, VFR, IFR, GA flyers, we can tell you that X-plane certainly hits a better mark in that category than than Microsoft does today, although Microsoft has gotten better. And so again, that that's that's what I miss at its core about not flying X Plane as much. I'll tell you, you know, mostly the reason for me is just it's has struggled with that, again, going back to striking a balance, the other side of the coin in in the the visual appealing high fidelity look and and and feel of the environment that you're flying in. And so when I left X-Plane, and I know this has improved leaps and bounds since, but you know, we had to. I was running X and Vi. Is that is that even still a thing out there? X in Viro. You guys tell me, and some of these other things to really enhance the visual fidelity of the sim. Well, what the heck was the other one for the ground terrain? Ortho. Oh my gosh, I used to spend hours and days build building ortho tiles and downloading all these things. Like it was just it became a lot to manage just to bring a level of visual fidelity to the sim and to the platform. And then, you know, folks like XP and others introduced, you know, Johnny introduced us to VR, and I just never looked back. And you know, X Plane, I I my understanding, even to this day, struggles with VR performance. And so I think those are the three key areas that sort of keeps me away from the sim. Again, don't come at me. I know many of these things have improved, leaps and bounds since I've last flown it, but I know VR is still an area that requires some work. And so I will at some point in the near future venture it into it again because like I said, I I do miss, I do miss some of these planes for sure, and and some of the things that were were in X-Plane. They've got to get though, man, a ground handling system add-on, or whatever you want to do. You want to call it like GSX. You know, GSX for those of us in the the Microsoft world, FSX days, PMVG days really brought a level of immersion and fidelity that made at least the commercial operations of airline flying really, really awesome. And so that was another area for me that kind of took away the overall immersion and experience of operating a commercial flight because we didn't really have any sort of true ground handling. We had I had again, I'm dated in a lot of this information, so bear with me. But jar design is what I used to use to help sort of mimic some level of ground handling, and and that was pretty cool and substantial for a while, or not substantial, but fill the gap, fill the void for a while. But it never really replaced the the aspects of of GSX, and so struggled with that, struggled with that for a bit. But again, it's been it's been been some time since I've last gotten into it. I have committed to checking it out again, and I will certainly do that. But I blabbed, I didn't even get to my core point. So 12.4.4 for X Plane was was recently released. You know, the it continues to really evolve independently rather than trying to replicate Microsoft's approach. I think Austin and team have made that really clear since the onset, although I do believe that they have curtailed some of those sentiments in years in recent years, because you see them improving atmospherics, weather engines, ground textures, and a lot of these things that Microsoft was known for that pulled users, core users away from X Plane, or if not completely away to consider Microsoft as a parallel competitor. And so I'm glad they they they sort of realize that and has pushed and have pushed the boundaries in that regard. And so, you know, some of the questions are is is is X-Plane still the sim of choice for people who prioritize flight modeling? I think so. Like I mentioned before, it is superior in that regard. You know, I think the strength of the X-Plane developer ecosystem is certainly one that is is pretty good, pretty decent. And I guess, you know, I wonder could X-Plane regain its momentum at some point if Microsoft becomes a little bit too focused on mainstream gaming features. You know, the boys and I talk about this quite often. It's we know that the console market is is in the marketplace, and some of those other things are really it's bread and butter. And at the end of the day, organizations, businesses are in business to make money, turn a profit. And so I get it. But a penny in a jar for every time I say strike a balance on this episode. But how do you ensure the penny is for for the the inflation that we're all doing dealing with in this economy, by the way? It's it's usually a dollar, but we we're gonna uh dumb it down to a penny this time around. But how do you strike a balance between you know that level of development and concentration and focus while catering to us high fidelity five high fidelity hardcore simmers that really value the platform for its ability to integrate to third-party developers to bring a much more profound experience when flying in the platform? So yet to remain seen. I think a great debate for next time is you know, if you could only keep one simulator installed for the next five years. And again, this is considering no other updates from here on out. They became stagnant. Both Sims, they kind of just said, hey, we're only doing break fixes and stuff like that for now. No more innovation, take it as you leave it, which we know would not happen. Maybe for Microsoft. I don't know, they've done it before. Uh, but certainly Austin and team continue to want to improve the platform. But hypothetically speaking, they didn't do anything else for the next five years. 2024 or X Plane, which one are you keeping? Let me know. Contact us uh via our socials. Uh I'll probably pull a poll up for this episode as well. Certainly looking to hearing your feedback. And so that is Xplane in a nutshell. I call them the uh the quiet competitor that keeps that keeps on moving. Um, but we know for those of you that are really tapped into the industry, they are not quiet at all. And so keep us posted, man. I know I know Johnny and and Charlie have their ears to the ground, they continue to fly to sim. Shoot, man. I do miss that. You talk about not having a bizjet that can really fulfill that intercontinental or continental uh transcon experience. Whoo! Do I miss that 650? That I can't wait to get something like that in 2024 because that was a fantastic plane. Uh

VR Immersion And Meta Quest 3

SPEAKER_00 35:19

let's talk about the next flights in frontiers, what we're calling this one VR Hardware and Immersion. It's a little bit more broad of a topic. You know, VR continues to be one of the most interesting areas for the hobby, especially for me. I do probably 100% of my flights in VR now. You know, I started with probably I don't know, 50% of the time, slowly went to 60, 80, and now I cannot fly without VR. Like I'm telling you right now, it's it's so bad that in a rare occasion, because I think I got it pretty dialed in now, in a rare occasion VR craps itself. I won't even finish the flight. It's it just brings a level of immersion that you cannot mimic or replicate in 2D. And for those of you that are on defense or haven't tried it, or haven't tried it long enough, get get get into it. It is or give it a give it a better chance, give it a better shot. There are tons of videos and and documentation, and and those that have really been able to dial in if performance is what you're struggling with. So take a look at those. I think there's also been an aspect of you know, I have all this hardware, why would I fly in VR? I'll tell you, I've been able to use both at the same time. You wonder how the heck are you doing that? So I've I've got the MetaQuest 3. And so for those of you that are meta are familiar or have it, know that there's an opening underneath the eyes. And so naturally, my my hardware, you know, so you know, all the Windwig stuff, the FMC, any overhead panels that I have, you could still sort of take a look, you know, and peek over or under where you need to peek and still keep that level of VR experience and immersion. It was quirky at first, but like you you really get used to it, and then you also start to sort of memorize where certain things are the buttons, the levers, and so I think a combination of hardware and VR really ties the overall immersive experience of the sim together. It's it's really, really, really cool. So if you got a chance and you have not yet, check out VR for Flight Sim. If you have done it and have ran into roadblocks and barriers, because I I'll be honest, man, I almost gave up on it. It was let me think about this for a sec. Better part of probably three to four months before I finally got it dialed and locked in. You know, I started with OpenXR and sort of the wireless approach. And if you don't and I consider myself to have good network and whatnot, but interference and some of I'm not a network engineer by by by any means, but there was a lot of nuances. I even got upgraded my mesh system. I tried a bunch of things to be able to run it wirelessly, but for whatever reason, there was a lot of nuances contribute contributing to my overall performance impact. And so I went away from that and got the link cable for MetaQuest 3. And it's been game changing. I really have not had any issues since I've been directly plugged into the board and doing VR and using that experience, and it's been game changing. I'll I'll get off the VR soapbox here, but again, uh definitely take a look and consider it. And then speaking of hardware peripherals, you know, at the same time, we're seeing more dedicated physical hardware, you know, including new autopilot panels, uh, increasingly sophisticated cockpit for peripherals. And so, you know, that you know that that strikes a question like, when is it too much? Is it ever too much? And then how do you balance, you know, one of the things I kind of struggle with with the hardware is like I fly many different aircraft, so not many, like compared to Johnny and Charlie. Certainly, I'm either in an Airbus or a Boeing for the most part, but you know, different varieties of it, and so you have all this hardware on your desk, your table, whatever, you're probably limited in space depending on your sim setup, and so you know, depending on what you fly, you constantly have to change things in and out. And I've got like a half a closet dedicated to hardware at this point, and so the question is like, when is it too much? And I don't think it is, man. It's uh again, it's brought a level of immersion and fidelity that I don't think any of us could have imagined because we were really priced out of it. I think, first of all, you know, hardware that was available was really for commercial use, and those that were creating flight sims, you know, that were catered to real-world training and whatnot. And so we're talking thousands and thousands of dollars for the very same things that we have now at hundreds of dollars and sometimes less today in just a short uh shoot, two, three years, it's been amazing. And and yes, they're they're more so replicas of of what you would you know feel and touching the plane, but they all it does the same things, man. I'm I'm looking at all this hardware right now as I'm talking to you guys and touching and feeling it, and it's you know, I'll I'll I'll be honest, it's not that far off. And so if we can continue to get these types of hardware at this price point, I think it really continues to allow for us to be advocates of the hobby and really point to the ability to use it to drive immersion and an area of familiarity for those that are really taking this as a step towards a career in aviation. Because, you know, and Johnny says all the time, man, he had any of this stuff, you know, when he was doing his training and and coming up and and and and you know, flying in the airlines, it's game changing. It's it is really game changing. I mean, just for me as a general aviation pilot, just having some of this stuff and you know, the new I'll give you guys an example here in a in a couple of minutes to round out the show, but you know, just having these things really just allows you to drive a level of familiarity and comfortability. Again, striking a balance, like you know, it's not real world, and you have to be careful what you do, but it certainly provides and fills a gap than you know, your typical chair flying and wall poster studying panels and some of these things do today by having this physical hardware at your your fingertips. So I think you know the thing I mean does adding more hardware actually make you a better simmer or just a poorer one that you know causes you to be over-reliant on some of these things, and I think it's the former rather than the latter, but open to debate, open to hearing you all's feedback as it relates to that. What else do I have for you guys here?

Airliner Hype Cycle And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Before I go into the real some real world stuff, it's been a while since we had a 220 update on this show. I think you know, Johnny and Charlie shared their initial thoughts within a week of it dropping. I came on about yeah, a week later, gave you guys my update. At that point, I think they were two updates in, and so that was the first time I was able to ever fly it, and I've had zero issues with the aircraft except one time and never captured the the instrument approach. And my understanding from folks out there in the real world is it's not too uncommon. And so I have not admittedly heard a uh a ton about the 220 in the last 10 days or so, and so you know, are you guys just worn out by it, disappointed by it, you know, looking forward to other and better things that are coming out? Uh, definitely looking forward to hearing your opinions on that. I mean, you couldn't open YouTube, again, algorithms dependent, but you couldn't open YouTube or read a flight sim article that wasn't talking about. The 220 or watch a video or or anything where I wasn't talking about the 220. And then like within what it's been about a month, a little less than a month, it's on a bitter bigger and better things, maybe. You know, maybe it's just an indication of the typical news cycle and and and you know what you you see out there in uh in other industries in the world in general. People just move on to the next thing. The question is, what is the next thing? And so I'm still waiting for the Indie Bill's A380. I don't know where you guys are with that. Typically, any when they drop trailers, they're not too far behind on releases, and so would love to get some sort of indication and timeline around that. 757, I think, continues to to make progress. We are shooting in a month, we will be in Q4, right? And so I thought it was slated for a Q3 release. So we'll see. Yeah, I'm still got a month or so to go. If I was a betting man, which I am not, I think we will see some of these major aircrafts like the 757, the A380, and even that 787 that I forgot these guys' name already. Let me see if I can uh uh type and talk at the same time, but I think we see all of these aircrafts come out towards the holidays. If I again, if if you know, man, Vector Sim is the name of the folks making the 787, but the horizon is also updating theirs. The Freeware Horizon products. Is it freeware? I don't remember anymore. And so I think it's been a long time coming since we've had since we've we've talked about having a 787, a good high fidelity one at least in the sim. And so very you know, looking forward to that. I I think November, December truly rounds us out as it relates to some of these highly anticipated airliners. Let me know what you think. Open to feedback, open opinions, but I think that's sort of the sentiment that I'm gathering from those in the community. And

Returning To Real Flying After Accident

SPEAKER_00 46:24

then last but not least, you know, just just personally for me, man, it's you know, some of you know that I was involved in an accident in July of 2025, so just over a year ago, without getting into details. It was a it was a mid-air collision, and I've been down and out since. Obviously, recovering physically, mentally, etc. But happy to share, man. I've I have returned to the skies. So it's I'm excited about being back up there. I went for a checkout and whatnot uh last weekend. Pretty incredible and exhilarating. You know, I've always loved flying, but you you truly don't recognize or or realize how much you miss it until you actually get back up there. And so that was that was fantastic. You know, some some eye-opening things for me. I think number one, this was a and I've always known this, and we've preached this, and you know, any good pilot recognizes this being legal is not the same thing as being proficient, and so you know, obviously having flown that long, I was not legal in certain areas, but I am now, but I do not feel like I am a hundred percent proficient, and so I'm doing one more flight with my instructor again next week before I actually you know get out there and and and and venture the skies again by myself. And so it's you know, for a couple different reasons. I think number one, you know, this was the longest I haven't flown in a long time. Uh, it might even be the longest since I've I've gotten a private pilot license certificate that I haven't flown. And so, you know, I didn't know what to expect, man. I got in the plane and you know, I didn't know, you know, some of those motor skills and those feelings of handling the aircraft, what it would what would it be like. And truthfully, like I'll be honest, it came back like riding a bike. It really did. I was it's I surprised myself for sure, and you know, I thought that was fantastic for the most part. There were certain areas though where I felt like, you know, quite frankly, and and you know, instructor said it, I never fell behind the aircraft, but sort of, you know, how I'm used to flying and some of the things that I know that I do to stay even more ahead of the aircraft was just not there. And so again, technically, I never fell behind the aircraft, but some of the things that I'm used to doing and and and and and really ensuring a level of being 10 steps ahead just either was not there or came a little slower than I would have liked. So while the motor skills, if that's what you want to call it, and the mechanics of flying an aircraft, uh, aircraft was largely there, there were certain aspects that you know I feel like we'll with time we'll come back. And I think number one, the first thing is to make sure I am safe. And you know, we're we're we're we're there. And so, like I said, the the next flight here is just for me to get another level of of proficiency under my belt. And I think it's important for us to recognize that. Again, going back to legal does not mean proficient. And so, yeah, after one flight, technically I've met the met what I've needed to meet, and and the instructor has deemed me safe. However, you know, I flew a ton before this accident, and so I do not feel necessarily proficient at this juncture, and so we're gonna go up again. And I think it's always important to keep that in mind, whether it's proficiency and just general, you know, VFR flying or even instrument, which is a whole nother thing that you know I will I'll tackle next. And so, you know, wanted to share that. I know many of you have you know reached out when it when it happened, when it occurred, and have have checked in on me, phone calls, text messages for the better part of a year. And so I wanted to share that and you know, uh really appreciate you all uh for doing that. We will uh continue to give you updates on that, definitely as we we we progress. I certainly want to do some aspects of combining you know some of those areas to what we do here on this podcast, tapping back into the community, the general aviation community, getting some guests on the show, attending some of these things like Oshkosh, some of these really, really cool real-world events and and opportunities to network and whatnot, I think really helps us stay, you know, close to you know the ground, if you will, as it relates to aviation in general, because as you guys know, it's not really just about flight sim. You know, we strive to cover a level of aviation in general and really bridging that gap, which I believe is is is is coming closer and closer. We talk about it all the time, but bridging that gap between the sim world and the real aviation world, and so yeah, man, I think that is really all I had for the community today.

FS Expo Vegas And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_00 51:45

Let me look. Any housekeeping items? Flight Sim Expo. We talked about this a while ago since uh we came back from the the mini MSP, the the Minneapolis uh Expo 2027 will be in Las Vegas. So looking forward to that. Uh right in our backyard for those of you here in SoCal. I think it'll be a really good time. It'll be hot, but what is it? When is it not for Flight Some Expos? Although Minneapolis was pretty good weather this time around. And so looking forward to that. No official news or updates on that quite yet. Uh, typically, if we're following the traditional timeline, you will start to get some updates in late fall. I think generally late November, early December, information around rune blocks come out, and I think even the ability to uh get your rune block. And so look out for that. You can access it by going to fsexpo.com or the closetrafficpodcast.com website uh where we we link to FS Expo. But if you do none of that, don't worry, we will keep you informed and already we are planning to be there with a lot of cool things. We're we've been kicking around some things here, and so looking forward to that. Stay tuned for some information. Uh, what else? I think that is largely it. I think that's largely it. So, as mentioned, love to hear from you guys. Thanks for for listening to me drone on here. It's not often I come on with a uh any of us come on with a solo show, and so but we wanted to hold the fort and and get some materials out there for you all, understand what's happening in the community and you know, keep pulse, keep tabs. And so without further ado, man, we appreciate all of you again. Thank you to our Patreon backers. Don't forget to subscribe to the Close Traffic Podcast YouTube channel, follow us at on Instagram, Close Traffic Pod, Facebook, you name it. We're all over the place. Without further ado, you all take care as always. Keep the blue side up. We shall see ya.