Download-itis

Today's topic is one most flightsimmers can relate to: dowload-itis. OK, the term is not to be interpreted literally, i.e. inflamation of the download (you need antivirus software for that). I'm talking about the habit of downloading every cool-looking addon that you come across, until you have so many things that you never have time to use them well. Fortunately for my bank account, I manage to resist nearly all payware addons, and concentrate on the vast ocean of freeware stuff.

What you see in these images are two recent downloads, a Cessna L-19 "Bird Dog" (credits in the readme: "Visual Model V2.0 by Massimo Taccoli. Textures By Massimo Taccoli with support from Chris Coarse. Flight Dynamics by D.G. Seeley. New gauges by Dennis Seeley"). It it parked at CYTH, Thompson, in Manitoba (by By Adam Bentley and David Madge.) The airplane is fun to fly (a tail-dragger Cessna!), and the scenery is quite detailed, realistic, and framerate-friendly.


Chances are I'll never visit the scenery ever again, because there's just too much else on my to-do list. I may fly the 'Dog a bit, since it is good for low-and-slow flying, my favorite kind.

What a situation-- too much of a good thing! There is a downside, however. Besides taking up hard drive space, and potentially slowing up performance, I find too many downloads can have a draining effect on the psyche. The most satisifaction I get out of flighsimming comes from mastery of something, and that only comes from spending time on one thing for a while. Which reminds me, I'm supposed to be mastering the DC-3 right now, aren't I? Ooops.