4/6/2020 Your guide is on its way.

| X-Plane

Your guide is on its way.

Thanks for signing up for our course on getting the most out of your X-Plane 11 demo. Your
guide to installing and setting up X-Plane is on its way to your email account now. Here’s
what’s in that email:

Your guide to setting up X‑Plane

Hello from the X‑Plane customer support team! We’re sending you this message because you
signed up for a free email course on getting the most out of your experience with X‑Plane. We
promised to start by sending you instructions on setting up the demo—that’s what this email
is about. We hope you’re as excited for your rst ight in X‑Plane as we were!

At the end of this email are links and instructions for downloading 5 of our favorite freeware
aircraft.

Our goal here is to get you up-and- ying in as little time as possible, while still learning the
most important things about the simulator. This should only take about 10 or 15 minutes after
you nish installing the demo.

Before you begin, you might want to check out the system requirements for X‑Plane 11. The
super-short version is that if you have a fairly new computer, or a computer that’s maybe 2 or
3 years old which was very powerful when you bought it, you should have no trouble running
X‑Plane.

If you have a problem that isn’t addressed in this guide, check the X‑Plane 11 manual or the
X‑Plane Knowledge Base for answers.

Installing the demo Help

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If you’re getting this email, it means you’ve already downloaded the demo installer, so it’s
saved on your computer. (Can’t nd it? You can download it again if necessary.) So, to install
the demo, do the following:

1. Locate the le you downloaded (it’s named something like “X‑Plane 11 Installer”) and
double-click on it.
2. In the window that appears, click the Install a free demo of X‑Plane button.
3. Accept the user agreement by clicking on the check box, then click Continue.

4. After a moment or two, the installer will ask you where to install the demo. Simply clicking
Continue will install it on your Desktop (the recommended location).
5. The installer will begin downloading the les it needs. When it nishes, you’re ready to y!

Launching X‑Plane
Having nished the installation, it’s time to start the simulator!

1. Before beginning, make sure your joystick or yoke is plugged in to your computer (if
applicable). You certainly don’t need a joystick–you can y with just your keyboard and

mouse–but you’ll have a better experience if you’re using a joystick. If you don’t have ight
controls, we use (and love) Saitek’s X52 joystick and throttle system. If you’re more

interested in a yoke, check out CH Products’ Flight Sim yoke.

2. Double-click on the X‑Plane 11 folder on your Desktop.

3. In the window that appears, double-click on the icon labeled “X‑Plane.” At this point, X‑Plane

will begin starting up.

4. During this rst launch, if you’re using any USB hardware, you’ll need to con gure it. X‑Plane
should prompt you to automatically con gure your joystick or yoke. In the warning box that

appears, click the Open Joystick Calibration button and move your joystick through all the
available axes. Continue through the next two screens to nish calibration.

5. Complete the opening tutorial to learn the basics of X‑Plane’s controls.

If you are using a joystick or yoke to y, you can check out detailed instructions on setting up
your hardware here in the manual. Otherwise, let’s get ying!

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Flight School
X‑Plane uses ight model calculations on every part of the plane to create super realistic
ights. So, if you’re brand new to X‑Plane or ying in general, it might seem daunting to get
started. It’s a good idea to check out the tutorials available in Flight School to help get your
bearings.

Click on Flight School from the Main Menu to pick from tutorials on topics such as taking off,
ILS landings, and controlling helicopters.

If you’d rather take charge of every aspect of your ight, let’s check out Flight Con guration
instead.

Setting Up Your First Solo Flight

From the Main Menu pick New Flight to enter the Flight Con guration screen:

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Pick an aircraft from the grid at the left. You can narrow down your options by using the drop
down menus at the top of the screen or the search bar. The Cessna Skyhawk is a great
beginning choice. (In the image above, we’ve selected the Beechcraft Baron.)

Pick an airport to start at in the upper right box (labeled “Location”). Since the demo version
of X‑Plane doesn’t include any scenery outside of Seattle, you probably want to select Seattle
International Airport, whose identi er is KSEA.

Underneath the airport are boxes for “Weather” and “Time of Day.” You can drag each of the
sliders up and down to change these settings if desired.

When you’re ready to go, click the Start Flight button in the bottom-right of the screen.

You can get back to this screen at any time during your ight by clicking on the aircraft icon in
the right side of the menu bar, or by returning to the Main Menu screen and picking Flight
Con guration.

That’s all you need to know to use X‑Plane!

If you found this guide useful, you’ll love the emails we’re prepping for the future.

If you’d like more information on any of the topics covered here, check out the X‑Plane 11
User Manual.

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If you’re having trouble getting X‑Plane to run smoothly on your computer, check out the
guide to “Setting the Rendering Options for Best Performance” in the X‑Plane 11 manual.

Now, about those aircraft…

You want to get the most out of X‑Plane, and a big part of doing so is having lots of aircraft
that you love to y. So, use the following links to download 5 awesome models created by the
X-Plane community!

– Republic SeaBee RC3

– BD-5J Micro-Jet

– Bell 429
– Robin DR401

– Let L–410 Turbolet

(Links may require free registration before downloading.)

Installing new aircraft models

When you download a custom aircraft from the web sites above, it will typically be in a
compressed folder (usually a ZIP le) that contains the airplane and all its various paint jobs,
airfoils, etc. Once that compressed folder is downloaded, you should be able to double-click
on it to open or expand it.

You should move the contents of that compressed folder into the folder called “Aircraft”
within the X‑Plane 11 directory. (If you followed the instructions above, you should be able to
nd the X‑Plane directory on the Desktop.)

So, to install your custom aircraft, just:

1. Double-click on the X‑Plane folder on the Desktop.

2. In that folder, double-click on the “Aircraft” folder.

3. Open the compressed folder that you previously downloaded and drag-and-drop its

contents into the “Aircraft” directory window.

With the new aircraft in the proper directory, open up X‑Plane. In the aircraft selection portion
of Flight Con guration, you can now click on the aircraft you just added. Cool!

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At this point, all that’s left is to go ying!

Until next time,

– X-Plane Customer Support

X-Plane 11 in Action

X-Plane 11 – Now Even More Powerful

With a brand new user interface, and a new level of quality in the included aircraft, X-
Plane 11 is the upgrade you’ve been hoping for.

Testimonials

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I was determined to get [my private pilot lice

. . the years of using X-Plane saved me a lot
money.
X-Plane is my ight simulator because it offers
—Brian Lewis
great ight models, excellent graphics, a smooth
frame rate, and realistic weather and lighting.

—Captain Jan Vogel

An insider look at X-Plane.

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