Hello everyone,

I'm interested in getting some addons for FSX, I've done some basic google searches but I'm skeptical about some of the hits I've got. I've heard that with such a niche market, there's quite a few scams out there. So, I figured I'd come here and ask for your opinions about some trusted sites to get addons. At the moment there is a catch though, I just dropped $300 on hardware, so I'm mostly interested in decent free-ware products, but I will take pay-ware suggestions into consideration for the future.

I'm a computer science student, so programming is something I'm good at (editing sector files is easy, for example). However, I'm mostly involved in software development, I'm not a graphic designer/artist, so when people talk about meshes etc., it's a bit over my head. Any insight into what the addons are actually changing would be appreciated.

A few things I'm interested in/my play style:

• Weather - Better looking and currency (I.E real world)
• I fly mostly in Florida - With school taking most of my time, I enjoy short flights from KJAX to KMIA (and back), sometimes with stops in KMCO. Scenery for these airports would be nice, or is there a Florida package out there?
• Embraer ERJ-145 - Cockpit functionality/ability to start cold and dark. I've seen a video on the Feelthere product, it seems great. If I understand correctly, it comes with the 135/145/145XR. However, at €32.35 (from fsx-download, not sure if it's a good site), I'm only getting 3 new aircraft and it costs more than I paid for FSX (worth it?). I'm really only interested in the 145, is there a decent free-ware alternative?.
• Anything else you guys suggest - Free-ware or pay-ware.

I'm not asking for anyone to do the grunt work of searching sites with thousands of addons to find what I'm looking for. Like I said, I just need a point in the right direction to sites that you guys trust for this kind of stuff.

Thanks, as always!

-Rich

Thanks for the welcome and the information. I seen "Pilot Tools" at the top of the page and expected "ATC Tools" or something similar. I must have skimmed over the link in the middle of the page, thanks for pointing it out. I'm looking at the Basic ATC information right now. As for ARTCCs, right now I'm interested in ZJAX, because I live in Jacksonville. I spoke with an I1 from ZJAX on CTR last night via PM on VRC; he helped me with a few questions I had while things were slow, really nice/professional guy.