Just a 2 cents post. Myself and a friend got started with RF 3.5, so the Evergreen airfield was no available that I recall. As people who had never flown before, we both gravitated to the Sod Farm as one of the best training fields. In large it was quite easy to keep track of the plane, and I think the preferred part was the reference points (photo trees etc.) at the ends of the runway that helped line the plane up for landings. I still prefer it to Evergreen, and others who are new to flying or sim's seem to like the field and find the reference points useful.
I know if you add a field in an update people will probably expect more to come, but I think it is one of the best practice fields. Maybe others have a different opinion.
I know this one is not available, but I think a photo field with runways similar to the "Flight School" would also be helpful for landings.
Regarding the VFI's, I skimmed the other posts, but did not see any mention of help instructions to guide people in for landings. I think some guidance with a "basic" version is necessary since this version would be most attractive to people not wanting to spend money on a plane, and join a club just to see if they would like to try RC flying for real. I think a take off and landing VFI would be helpful, but that might include an additional software module, so I can understand why it might be cut completely. (PS if VFI was included with the Nexstar version, then it seems logical to include it with the Basic version).
I am not sure if you can set the difficulty level for the planes, but I think it would be helpful have it adjustable to some degree to help with the feel of the planes once you get pretty good at the beginner level.
I understand not adding adjustable weather, but if possible I think there would be a benefit to adding a weather difficulty of a slight turbulent head wind, or angled head wind. Using the generic recommended turbulence settings for light gusts, found in the forums, was very helpful to add a real feeling. Although, I do agree it is a very good incentive to upgrade to the full version.
Lastly, my friend and I found the "Electristar" plane very helpful as a training because only one of the undersides of the wings was marked with red and black stripes. When trying to learn and pick out the orientation of the plane, it was helpful, even if the stripes became only a few pixels that flashed on the screen. I would recommend at least one of the training planes have a color scheme like this. Other people learning to fly have also found the markings helpful, especially on a sim, since you can practice losing control and trying to recover, and just try again if you crash. Getting familiar with the markings and practice recovering saved my plane more than once when I was trying new things in the real world and got discombobulated. My real plane is an Avistar, with one underside of the wing a different color. It doesn't match any of the color schemes I practiced with, but being able to identify that difference in the one wing has been very helpful.
PS I waited a while before I bought a sim because of the $200 price tag. It was a pretty big commitment, vs. a $100 or less used trainer, and a buddies equipment and buddy box. As long as he didn't let me crash, I could sell the plane for close to what I paid for it. $99 is a much more enticing offer.
I did buy the sim before a real RC plane, so my buddy box friend was pretty bored during my first flights aside from him taking off and landing. I did rolls, half rolls, loops, and half loops on my first flight. On my second flight I did a few inverted eight's, snap rolls, even a sloppy knife edge, and then was talked down for a landing that had the right decent, but wasn't quite line up with the runway.
Pete
I know if you add a field in an update people will probably expect more to come, but I think it is one of the best practice fields. Maybe others have a different opinion.
I know this one is not available, but I think a photo field with runways similar to the "Flight School" would also be helpful for landings.
Regarding the VFI's, I skimmed the other posts, but did not see any mention of help instructions to guide people in for landings. I think some guidance with a "basic" version is necessary since this version would be most attractive to people not wanting to spend money on a plane, and join a club just to see if they would like to try RC flying for real. I think a take off and landing VFI would be helpful, but that might include an additional software module, so I can understand why it might be cut completely. (PS if VFI was included with the Nexstar version, then it seems logical to include it with the Basic version).
I am not sure if you can set the difficulty level for the planes, but I think it would be helpful have it adjustable to some degree to help with the feel of the planes once you get pretty good at the beginner level.
I understand not adding adjustable weather, but if possible I think there would be a benefit to adding a weather difficulty of a slight turbulent head wind, or angled head wind. Using the generic recommended turbulence settings for light gusts, found in the forums, was very helpful to add a real feeling. Although, I do agree it is a very good incentive to upgrade to the full version.
Lastly, my friend and I found the "Electristar" plane very helpful as a training because only one of the undersides of the wings was marked with red and black stripes. When trying to learn and pick out the orientation of the plane, it was helpful, even if the stripes became only a few pixels that flashed on the screen. I would recommend at least one of the training planes have a color scheme like this. Other people learning to fly have also found the markings helpful, especially on a sim, since you can practice losing control and trying to recover, and just try again if you crash. Getting familiar with the markings and practice recovering saved my plane more than once when I was trying new things in the real world and got discombobulated. My real plane is an Avistar, with one underside of the wing a different color. It doesn't match any of the color schemes I practiced with, but being able to identify that difference in the one wing has been very helpful.
PS I waited a while before I bought a sim because of the $200 price tag. It was a pretty big commitment, vs. a $100 or less used trainer, and a buddies equipment and buddy box. As long as he didn't let me crash, I could sell the plane for close to what I paid for it. $99 is a much more enticing offer.
I did buy the sim before a real RC plane, so my buddy box friend was pretty bored during my first flights aside from him taking off and landing. I did rolls, half rolls, loops, and half loops on my first flight. On my second flight I did a few inverted eight's, snap rolls, even a sloppy knife edge, and then was talked down for a landing that had the right decent, but wasn't quite line up with the runway.
Pete
