FSX AddOn Guide: Miscellaneous

In this Guide I will show you good Miscellaneous, such that aren't Aircraft and Scenery, AddOns.

Weather Engine

At the moment there are many engines. I personally use this one.

Active Sky Next

It's a really good weather engine with many features. There is already a new Version I will speak about below, but this version is perfectly ok. The new version just got a few updates. With ASN you get everything, even windshears and wake turbulence if you fly behind other aircraft.

Active Sky 16 + ASCA

This is the new version, it has got a few updates and also a nice new cloud effect. It now really looks like you are flying through a cloud. 

ASCA is Active Sky Cloud Art and creates awesome cloud formations. 

Sound and Camera AddOns

EzDok Camera

A great AddOn. One of the must haves. Unfortunately it's very complex and hard to set the right settings. But for that what it makes it's awesome. There are two big features:

• Camera Shaking
• Camera Positioning

You can set a camera shaking effect. This adds a new experience to the flight sim. There is a random shaking effect at Ground Roll, the faster you are on ground the more it shakes. The same in the air.

Then theres also the turbulence shake function. It adds a dynamic shaking when you fly through turbulent air.

The second feature is Camera positioning. You can position the camera to fit your needs and create new camera positions and you can switch between them smoothly.

AccuFeel

AccuFeel is developed by A2A and who knows this company knows that they stand for pure quality. AccuFeel was primary developed for General Aviation Aircraft but you can use it for airliners as well.

What it does: It adds new sounds to the game. Many new sounds that aren't standard in FSX. It adds things like "Drag Rumble". If you extend the flaps you will hear a low grumble like in the real planes. 

An amazing feature is the touchdown sound. Depending on how smooth you land, you will hear other sounds. For every single tire that touches down. When you make smooth landing, you will only hear the tire screaching, but if you fall down on the runway like a rock, you will hear cracking the landing gear.

There are also brake sounds and different sounds when taxiing on tarmac and grass.

I've got this Addon on my own, and I can recommend it. It has got a very good price-performance-ratio. I got it for 12€. You get a feel for your flying, get immediate feedback on how smooth you landed, the stalls are a new experience. Give it a go when you fly lots of GA.

RAAS

RAAS stands for Runway Awareness and Advisory System. It is developed by Honeywell.

This system informs the pilot with aural advisorys about aircraft position. It announces the runway that is approached, in the air and on ground. It warns if the landing is long or if the plane approaches a taxiway.

In FSX we also got a few AddOns that simulate this. There's a payware from FS2Crew and there's also Freeware named FsRAAS. The difference between them is that the one thing is Payware and the other thing is Freeware.

Rex Soft Clouds

Another MUST-HAVE Addon. It is quite cheap and gives you new clouds. It only replaces the clouds textures with special textures but the result is outstanding. The clouds look so smooth and in overcast conditions it looks like you are descending into a sea of candy floss. Like in real life. It just looks amazing when those soft clouds surrounding the mountain peaks.

You get this addon with, as far as i can remember, 15 Cloud sets. I personally like 2, 9 and 11. For people like me who have FPS Drops in cloudy sky: They increased my FPS. Looks better, increases FPS, and not expensive, NICE! 

I got the package of the clouds for 10€, but there are often sales at REX, so if you wait you can probably get them for under 5€.

Official REX Soft Clouds Website

If you want to gear up, you can buy a bundle calles REX Texture Direct. There you can replace many more textures like sun, sky, water, and so on.

Traffic Addon

If you think the AI of Standard FSX are strange or maybe you want more, you probably want to checkout a Traffic Addon. There is Freeware and Payware available.

World of AI

This Addon is Freeware. I tried to use it, but somehow I got even less AI than with standard FSX. But I think I have installed it a bit wrong. However, man people say it's a good Addon.

Ultimate Traffic

Payware, no experience with that Addon, so I can't say anything.

MyTraffic

Payware, no experience as well.

FsPassengers

I made this Headline extra bold because this is BY FAR THE BEST ADDON EVER MADE FOR FLIGHT SIMULATOR! I love this Addon! It is developed by only one Person! Daniel Polli. This is his life project. I always say: This Addon can easily be worth 80€. But it's only 36€! 

Let me explain it: So, you have to create your own Airline and your own Pilot. You can switch between different Settings. My settings are: When you have more than one plane, other pilots fly the plane and you get the income. And Career mode for my pilot. You have to start with a plane like a Cessna or Cherokee. Something light with one piston prop. You have to make flights in order to gain Money and Points.

You get money for competing flights with passengers and points if your flight has no problems. That means: Turning Beacon on prior to engine start, landing lights on the runway, setting right QNH, and so on. You can customize it as you want. If you forget something of that, you get minus points. 

In order to level up and fly bigger planes you need a specific time of flying AND a specific amount of points.

You have a control panel. There you see how the passengers feel, if they are scared due to the weather and so on. Of course, you have to watch the passengers. If you miss the runway you can't just fly a looping and land. Passengers will get scared what decreases your airline reputation. The more it falls, the less passengers will fly with you.

Then there are the random failures. You can set a rate of failures which can occur randomly. I have set mine on 10%. I don't want to spoiler, I just say that these failures are not just one failure, they are nicely modelled. For example, when the electric system fails, the lights will blink and turn on and off again. Like a loose connection.

When you can handle the emergency and bring the plane down safe, even when landing on a field when an engine fails, then you get many points. Of course you have to repair the plane in order to fly again.

But if your engine fails when you are low flying in sibiria and there's nothing than forest around, FsPassengers provides a very real crash detection system. It will calculate the damage on the plane and the passengers and if they and you survive. If your pilot dies, then you have to start from the beginning. But if you can even handle to get the plane down safe into the forest without major injuries, you're good.

That, was just a SMALL insight into FsPassengers. I LOVE THIS ADDON. I only fly with this Addon anymore, because I really have to fly safe. When flying you get stressed. Once I have been flying in France in extremely low visibility. I decided to make the flight but I haven't checked the weather at my destination. When I was there, I flew down the ILS. As I said, I haven't planned the flight very well and didn't calculate the Minimums Altitude. I also hadn't got a Radar onboard. So, I thought the visibility will be sufficient to land. But the approach didn't want to end. I always had the Needles crossed, but I couldn't see the runway. I quickly calculated a minimums. I took 800 ft as field elevation and added it with the 200 ft ILS CAT 1 decision height. That was around 1000ft, of course not exact. I looked at the Altitude Gauge, it has been at 800. In that moment I saw treetops at the left window. I immediately performed a go around and came away in the last moment. That was very close to a crash. I should have gone around much earlier. A go around in IMC is really stressful. You have to apply full power, confirm and hold a positive rate, retract flaps, retract gear and search a near airport on the GPS. I was very happy that I planned in enough fuel before the flight.

After I was in stable flight to my alternate, I opened the Active Sky Next Window and looked after the Visibility on the airport I tried to land at. It has only been around 40 Meters.

Luckily I the visibility at my alternate was good enough to make a safe landing. 

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment and tell me more nice Addons that should go into this list.