My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?

[Geoff]

I'm now in Boston, hoping to fly on to Newark tonight. Also, I have a new Saitek yoke and Wheel Stand Pro, which holds the yoke for me, leaving my desk clear. Yay! Can't wait to try it.

I'm so glad I decided to fly the aircraft rather than crate & ship it. This has been fun.

[Geoff]

Landed in Newark at about 10 frames per second. With framerates like that, trips take twice as long! I may have to turn down some graphics settings for the east coast run.

Today I'm on to Wilmington and, perhaps, the South. Tomorrow I'll be focusing more on PE, as I hope to participate in the "poker" fly-in.

[Nelson L.]

Also, I have a new Saitek yoke and Wheel Stand Pro, which holds the yoke for me, leaving my desk clear. Yay! Can't wait to try it.

On the topic of the Wheel Stand:

CH Eclipse+Saitek Combat Pedals+2 Saitek Quadrants = .....expensive

Had to get a little creative with some washers to get the yoke to fit - was a little bummed out that the heel rest for the pedals couldn't be used in conjunction with the stand, seeing as the rudder mounting holes get in the way of the heel-rest attachers (might attach pictures later, but 3 is the limit for a single post and I doubt anyone actually cares ). A tad bit overpriced, but a worthy investment for all the hassle it saved me - was quite a stretch to justify spending $200 on something to hold $600 worth of "junk", but I can always sell these things as antiques down the line......


On the topic of frames - something's seriously wrong if you're under 20, but I think you know that already

[Geoff]

Hey Nelson, those are great photos! I have an Eclipse too, but I am not as handy as you and didn't want to try attaching it to the Wheel Stand Pro. So I caved and bought a Saitek yoke. I actually like it quite a bit! I had read that its null zone might be kind of large, and indeed it is a larger null zone than my joystick's, but so far I don't mind. As for the Wheel Stand Pro, what a lifesaver! Now I can use a yoke to fly, then push it aside and use my desk for work and other things. I hope it's working well for you, too.

On pedals: I refuse to give up my CH pedals, which I really like, so I just plopped them on top of the Wheel Stand Pro without attaching them. Then I put a big dictionary behind them, to hold down the stand and to keep the pedals steady. It's working just fine so far!

On framerate: I decreased the draw-density for objects and trees in X-Plane, and things are now better. I have a great video card (GTX 980) but a 4-year-old quad-core i7 930 @2.8GHz). It's time for a new motherboard/CPU, I guess? I'm just not sure whether a new CPU will make that big a difference for X-Plane (will it?), and the computer runs everything else I need just fine.

Anyway, today I hand-flew my Archer from Newark to New Castle, Delaware; then to Baltimore; then to Gaithersburg (which has some lovely lego-brick scenery in X-Plane); then to Dulles. No autopilot at all. What a joy! I find it much less fatiguing to use the yoke than the joystick, which gives me finger/hand pain. Using the pedals instead of joystick rocker or twister helps my hands, too. I practiced trimming the aircraft for straight and level flight, following VOR radials, patterns, landings, takeoffs. I also practiced reading my chart (partly covering the screen) while keeping the airplane more or less on course. My pitch trim is usually pretty stable, but I tend to meander a little laterally. I'm still getting used to the yoke for pattern work and landings. I had one nice landing (at Baltimore); the others were more in the 300-500 fps range ("hard landings" according to the Landings plugin).

Taking a break now. If I have time later tonight, I'm taking a job from Dulles down to Cherry Point, North Carolina.

[Nelson L.]

I'm just not sure whether a new CPU will make that big a difference for X-Plane (will it?), and the computer runs everything else I need just fine.

I'm going to pretend that you did NOT just say that...... FSX is almost entirely CPU dependent!!! In all seriousness though, XP is not like other AAA titles - it is equally dependent on both CPU and GPU horsepower. For most sims, its generally ideal to have equal CPU and GPUs - if you have a Carenado aircraft, the included documentation includes a picture of the XP settings with details on which setting draws from the CPU vs GPU (there are also sources online, but I just can't find them atm). In general, the top half of the rendering options (i.e. things like trees, etc...) are CPU dependent, while the bottom half (i.e. AA, clouds, etc...) are GPU dependent. If you go to the "Data and Output" tab in the XP menu-bar and click the last box (fourth to the right) next to frame rate it will show the time it is taking for both the CPU and GPU to draw the frame. The higher number (CPU or GPU) is the limiting factor for your frame rate. If I were you though, I would hold out for Skylake CPUs, keeping in mind fewer faster cores is preferable to many slower cores (with no concessions to workstation application). However, Devil Canyon CPUs are also a great choice for gaming. That being said, I think it was AndyGoldstein who made a post on the XP forums who compared the non-hyperthreaded performance of a 4690k to the 8 virtual cores of a 4790k, and found that unless you're going fast and low, the extra cores will be of little/no benefit.

Now that the boring rant is over (apologies if you already knew half that stuff...), lets move on shall we? On the topic of me being "handy", it was really just measuring the holes and getting a few nails of the right size (the included screws for the quadrants were also too long, forcing the use of washers there too) and attaching the wood to the stand, and clamping the yoke to the wood. On the last picture showing the whole thing, the boxes in the back are for that exact reason, albeit for a different hobby (racing). The pedals kept sliding when I had to slam on my brakes, and since I have nowhere near enough money to buy 2 wheel stands (trust me, the PC and that gear required quite a bit of saving....), I had to compromise. Turns out, a wheel+pedal combo takes less work to mount on a desk than a yoke+pedal+quadrant+quadrant combo.

PS - It turns out I'm too lazy to move the Wheel Stand away from my desk, so its not really freeing up the desk. Its an improvement, but to stow it, I would have to twist a latch to collapse the thing, and then carry it away. That's 90 seconds of my life wasted right there..... (too much work )

[Geoff]

Thanks for your reply, Nelson! Hehe, one reason I bailed on FSX was indeed its emphasis on CPU power. With X-Plane, I get better performance and better stability, and I like the flight model better. I'm also getting a kick out of making "Lego brick" airports for X-Plane.

Ooh, I didn't know I could see whether my CPU or GPU is the bottleneck. I'm seeing numbers like CPU .040, GPU .030 under heavier graphics loads (23 FPS or so), and CPU .032, GPU .025 under lighter loads (30+ FPS). So I guess that means my CPU is indeed more of a bottleneck than the GPU. But people over at the .org tell me that a new CPU now would improve framerates by only 10-15%, which doesn't sound all that impressive to me. Maybe those comments are consistent with your advice to wait for the next generation of CPUs.

What do the "grd ratio" and "flt ratio" numbers mean? I Googled but couldn't find an answer.

Yes, I've followed Carenado's instructions on rendering settings; until I hit NY/Philadelphia, I was doing fine with everything as they suggest -- tree-hugger, extreme objects, medium display distance, etc. I turned down objects to "too many" and trees to "filled" when I hit the big East Coast cities.

Finishing my last FSE flight of the day, to Cherry Hill, North Carolina. Will be flying on PE tomorrow.

[Geoff]

I had a great time doing the Poker Run yesterday, and now I've resumed my steady march toward the PE coverage area. My Archer is now at Roy Wilcox Field in Chatom, Alabama. I hope to make it as far as Fort Worth tonight, but we'll see. At this rate, I should be "home" by the end of the week!

Also, I've made about $40,000 on this ferry mission so far. Hardly big bucks, but not bad for a slow aircraft with only three seats. A few long legs were empty ones, alas. Fortunately, the USA jaunt is proving more profitable.

[wmburns]

On framerate: I decreased the draw-density for objects and trees in X-Plane, and things are now better. I have a great video card (GTX 980) but a 4-year-old quad-core i7 930 @2.8GHz). It's time for a new motherboard/CPU, I guess? I'm just not sure whether a new CPU will make that big a difference for X-Plane (will it?), and the computer runs everything else I need just fine.

My system. 1st gen Haswell I5 Z87 Motherboard (no over clocking) with GTX740 video card. On X-Plane getting 45-65 FPS with some fairly high settings and HDR turned on. Before I turned up some rendering settings I was getting 100-120 FPS!!!

The most glaring difference between our systems is your CPU is several generations older than mine. Your graphics card would likely eat mine for lunch.

IMO a good recommendation to follow is do not to upgrade the CPU unless improving by at least 2 generations. Which in your case that recommendation would be met.

OBTW, the i7 930 was released in Feb 2010 so in CPU generation terms your system is more than 5 years old.

Some food for thought.

The CPU utilization numbers quoted can be very misleading. Consider a 4 core CPU with one core maxed out. This will be reported as 25% used (1 out of 4). But in fact for the particular job the CPU is running as fast as it can (single core work load). Instead use the task manager and look at what the individual cores are doing before making a decision to upgrade.

Also get an utility to look at the Graphics card utilization. In my own case I was considering an upgrade from a i5 to i7 which would have been expensive with the $$ on the i5 being wasted. However the GPU utility said that my old graphics card was totally max out. Spent less $$'s with better results where it could do the most good on a newer graphics card (in my case).

In your case the graphics card isn't going to be the bottleneck. IMO it's more likely that in your case performance can be gained by lowering some rendering settings to better match the CPU/MB combination.

IMO sometimes people buy more PC than they really need because of future fear. So if looking to save real $$'s on a flight sim system don't chase bleeding edge technology unless there is no other way to meet the systems goals. But the key here is to have honest "goals/expectations" for the system. THEN upgrade what is needed.

If looking for an option to consider. A new budget motherboard ($60) with a Haswell Pentium CPU (yes a dual core CPU) can be purchased for less than $60 (that's $120 total!). Reuse the memory and other hardware that you have now. So this offers a very low cost option to find out just how much a new CPU could help. One of the nice things about this option is it has some affordable upgrade possibilities (i3, i5, i7).

Or you could look at a budget MB/CPU as a "bridge" to future technology. IMO the key to making this work is to not invest toooooo much $$ on the bridge.

On to FSE topics. At 40K haven't you already earned about 20% of the purchase price of the airplane? IMO this is very good especially if compared to the cost of shipping. IMO you should give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

[Geoff]

Thanks for the system advice. I should clarify that ordinarily I get 35-60+ FPS in X-Plane, with most rendering settings on quite high -- HDR, AA, objects at extreme, tree-hugger, lots of cars, with compromises on clouds and view distance. Some scenery hardly fazes it. Unfortunately, though, some scenery does faze it, particularly if that scenery is heavy on CPU-intensive objects and trees and roads and such. On this trip, Heathrow, Boston, New York, and Newark were annoyingly slow, in the sub-20 FPS zone. I can address that by turning down trees, objects, roads, etc., but it's annoying to have to do that.

I didn't realize my CPU was quite *that* old. I'd be willing to spend the bucks to swap in a new mobo and CPU immediately, and to add some system RAM (I have 12G now). I've already swapped in a new video card, but that's easy. What holds me back about a new CPU/mobo is fear of messing up the job. I've built several of my own systems in the past, but the motherboard is the part that always makes me sweat. Especially all those tiny little USB and front-panel connections! I have big ol' fingers, and those wires are teeny. So I worry I'll strip out my existing CPU/mobo and then mess up my USB arrangements.

Moving on to FSE: thanks for the kind words! Indeed I am rather pleased that my little Archer has earned me more than $40,000 on this trip, rather than costing me a pretty penny to ship. By the time I get to the PE coverage area, the number will be more like $50,000 in trip earnings. Not bad!

Last night I made it to Fort Worth (and oddly enough, the Dallas-Fort Worth scenery didn't hurt my framerate at all!). Tonight I have a job taking me to west Texas, and then we'll see from there. I'm getting close!

[Geoff]

Last night I had time only for one flight, so I traveled from Fort Worth to Lubbock, in west Texas. Tonight, if time permits, I have jobs leading me to Las Vegas (the one in New Mexico, not Nevada) and Albuquerque. From Albuquerque, I could conceivably fly empty into the Grand Canyon, where thundering hordes of media and groupies await to celebrate my arrival at ZLA.