What is your fave freeware FS site?

[Lionheart]

Hey all,


What is your fave FS freeware website?

Mine was Flightsim.com but I am leaning towards Simviation. I also revisted SurClaro last night and was pretty impressed with how they have evolved. I didnt know they now sell payware as well.




Bill

[Overshoe]

Avsim is my favorite with flightsim as a backup. I do not use the others.:salute:

[blazefox2]

flightsim.com is the one i visit most often, i used to go to simviation a lot and still do occasionally but the 30kbs download limit is too slow for me...

[falcon409]

I go to flightsim more often than not although their search engine is not very intuitive. I used Surclaro almost exclusively when I first got into simming but moved away slow but sure as I found more freeware sites.

[PutPut]

Well, I upload my stuff to flightsim and simviation because those are the one's I look at first.

Cheers, Paul

:wavey:

[Bushpounder]

Avsim is my favorite with flightsim as a backup. I do not use the others.:salute:

Ditto here.

Don

[CG_1976]

Avsim is my favorite with flightsim as a backup. I do not use the others.:salute:

Yep ditto here and my 3rd is SOH.

[ryanbatc]

Basically this one, flightsim.com and avsim.com

Avsim tends to offer the fastest downloads.

Some of the best native freeware is found here though!

[OleBoy]

flightsim.com is my first choice
Avsim second

SOH is my homepage :ernae:

[Railrunner130]

I used to be avsim.com, then flightsim.com and Simviation.com dead last. SimV posts a lot of unauthorized port-overs.

However, these days, I go SimV first, because it's easiest and I must be getting lazy as I get older. Then, Avsim, although the missing links tend to be a turn off. Lastly, I'll go to flightsim.com because of the complicated search engine and the sign-in-every-time page.

[OleBoy]

I'm getting off subject here but

I've never had any trouble with any sites that make me log in each time. I log in once, when I'm finished doing what I had to do, I just close the tab. Each time after that, I'm in every time.
...By chance do you have your browser set to delete certain cookies each time you close it? That may be the trouble.

[dswo]

AVSIM and Flightsim are the first places I check.

[luckydog]

flightsim.com is the one i visit most often, i used to go to simviation a lot and still do occasionally but the 30kbs download limit is too slow for me...

Ditto......

[Cactuskid]

I'm a member at both Flightsim and Simviation, so D/L's are quick. I check both and Avsim daily. My fav is probably Flightsim.

[Lateral-G]

For the past year or more Flightsim has been my first go to for freeware...ever since AVSIM was hacked and crashed.

AVSIM is probably second followed by Simviation. Although like others have said Simviation allows quite a few hacks that upload unauthorized port overs.

I would frequent Surclaro daily in my FS9 days but it's very rare I go over there now.

For IL-2 my main spot these days is All Aircraft Arcade.

-G-

[WarHorse47]

Well, this may surprise you but...

My daily routine starts with SOH. There are some posts with links to download freeware paints you will not find anywhere else. :wiggle:

After I check the important threads and downloads at SOH, the next stops in order include Avsim, Flightsim and ClassicBritishFiles.com.

If I'm looking for something specific I check the above places first, then I go take a look at Simviation. After that its a Google search, and who knows where I end up.. :monkies:

--WH

[marklaur]

I use Simviation for CFS2 files.

I would love to say this site was my favourite but I often have trouble finding what I want.

The sites I use are what ever the recommendations come from, and most links seem to be to flightsim. I think this site would be used more if people would link to the downloads as they gave the heads up that they were available. Most of my freeware comes from recommendations and links from this site these days.

A few years ago Netwings was my favourite for the combat side of things. But there is a place for them all and I am sure I am missing out on a lot of good stuff because I do not know it is there.

I recently started buying an English Flight Sim magazine in Australia and it has a listing of all the freeware sites as one of it's DVD files. One day I will have to check some of the sites out.

Cheers MarkL

[modelr]

I'm a member of Flightsim, and give to SoH and Avsim bandwidth drives. I rarely use SimV because they won't let you search by file name, and even their keyword searches make you dig thru many non related stuff. The other places I go are from links posted here. This is pretty much the only FS forum I frequent. I may check in on others when an interesting topic is posted about here.

I've found the secret to SoH's search for new stuff... Click on "Warbird's Library" button on upper menu list, then on "What's New" in the drop down. Everything listed by date. My first place to go when checking in, which I do a couple times a day.

[Cag40Navy]

SOH, Simviation, Avsim, Flightsim. I have a few more but those are my majority ones.

[Z-DarthVader]

Basically this one, flightsim.com and avsim.com

Avsim tends to offer the fastest downloads.

Some of the best native freeware is found here though!

Couldn't agree with ya more!

[Mr.Mugel]

Yep, allways starting here, than I check my e-mails, and than I usually check out the flightsim.com new files. I too used avsim.com before, but I could never get the search engine to show me what I wanted and I think they are still more specified around FS9 with new files, flightsim.com is heading more towards FSX, I guess.

[huub vink]

My favourites are:

Flightsim (good search engine)
Avsim (idem, but too many civil stuff to go through)
Sim-Outhouse (mainly because I know what is there, but it's virtually impossible to find anything when you not familiar with the library).
Simviation (I dislike the search engine, but i go there mainly for older models and repaints).

[Marvin Carter]

Flightsim.

[Daube]

Avsim is where I go when I want to play with dead link.
I don't even try this one anymore, to be honnest :/
(for the old stuff I mean. Newly uploaded stuff is ok)

Flightsim is the most reliable.
Simviation is reliable too, but the download speed for free users is really slow (30 kb/sec max), so downloading huge file is a pain.

[Sundog]

1) Avsim - Because it's easy to browse and search and I don't need a paid account for a fast download.

2) Flightsim

3) Simviation

I download a lot from SoH, but I don't like it's set up. I find it difficult to search and browse. I probably download the most from SoH, but that's through links in the forums or when something new is released I know I can find it easily under "What's new." It is also my homepage tab for sims, but that's because of the forums. The first place I check for anything new is the SoH FS2004 and FSX forums (I still use both). SoH forums are the best sim forums for "hanging out." :)

[FAC257]

1. Avsim - The 1st place I've always looked for new stuff. After the big meltdown it does seem that the search engine has become flukey. The returns are sometimes incomplete or it just plain misses a file that I know is in there somewhere. Most of the freeware that I have is from Avsim over the years.

2. Flightsim - The 2nd place I've always looked, but oddly it now become the most common place for me to grab freeware repaints and scenery from. The one big reason I put Flightsim over Avsim right now is the search engine filter. I like being able to choose "FSX" new files only and not have to wade through new FS9 files over at Avsim. I wish Avsim would add that filtering capability.

3. SOH - This was the very first "new" file library that I trusted enough to add to the above two on my daily checks. I don't browse the library like I do at Avsim and Flightsim, but rely on the announcements when I check the forum everyday.

4. Oz - Mainly for aircraft repaint files that don't seem to be available anywhere else.

FAC

[Bjoern]

Avsim -> Flightsim

I check their newest files on a daily base.

[Dexdoggy]

SOH and OZx are the best :ernae:; I only tend to check Avism and Flightsim when someone here mentions a particular new 'plane or scenery.

[CHBTheDoctor]

FlightSim.com
AVSim.com

Sometimes Simviation.com

For forums ?
SOH

[kilo delta]

Avsim then Flightsim then Simviation (for some rare models that I can't find on the other sites)

SOH file downloading can be a little bit hit and miss for me.

[hurricane3]

I always go to FlightSim first,though their search engine is a bit frustrating ,then Simviation ,poor search engine also, then SMOH ,I hate to say this but for me it's the worst search engine of all,lastly Avsim.Then google seach.

[Hendo]

SOH First

Flightsim

Avsim

Simviation

Msfsgateway

[JoeW]

Ditto what Tom C and Don Mo said.

[falcon409]

Very little difference in where folks go to find their downloads really. Most everyone uses flightsim, Avsim, Simviation and SOH. What I found interesting is the opinions on why they use those sites and more specifically the "search" engines. Many, like me, find the flightsim search engine frustrating (I find it almost useless), the same with Avsim and don't even get me started on the SOH downloads area, lol. Still others find those same search engines the best around. . .interesting.

What frustrates me with most search engines is their lack of an "intuitive search" ability. If I know the name of an airplane but misspell it by one character, it finds nothing. . .if I have the name spelled right, but insert a coma or a hyphen where it doesn't belong. . .nothing. . .Google search will get you closer than any of the freeware sites will when locating a download, lol.:salute: