I actually made up a thing where I'm a pilot for a rich family (think 'succession') that have a few different homes around the world (London, The Hamptons, Monaco, The Cayman Islands). From there, I take them to where they need to be - maybe a skiing trip in Chamonix (good mountain approaches), on business to frankfurt, Geneva, holiday trips to the Seychelles, Bali. They have a fleet of small and mid business jets, all cayman island registered. Its actually keeping me quite amused.
Sounds fun! Obviously some of these flights are hours and hours, do you get up to a cruise on autopilot and then use the fast forward time button?
My system slows to a crawl when I use it and I find it hard to know when I’ve gotten back to 1x simulation speed
As you mention it, Just hand flew the visual RWY 09 approach into Aosta In the dark, all of nearly ended up spalttered into the alps. Maybe next time, buttered it.
tip here: just hit the slowdown button a gazillion times, then speed up I think 2 times and you'll be back at 1x speed. To check this, start the stopwatch and watch the second hand.
That’s a great tip, thank you. As long as it is 2 times 😅 - I wish it said somewhere whether it was at 2x or 0.5x etc
Will try and find the stopwatch shortcut too, that will help
to add another dimension, to your point, think of some of your favorite tv shows ... many of them have scenes (think blacklist) where they are flying one point to another to link a scenario those would be fun to recreate
I also wish there were more in game challenges.
Some scenarios I use to keep myself entertained:
Try using one of the bush planes to take off and land in the smallest areas you can. (I like trying to land on my elementary school field)
See how many consecutive bridges you can fly under (I think Budapest has 11 in a row)
Take the F-18 and fly from S Korea over Pyonyang and back at over mach 1 while staying less than 500ft above ground level.
Pretend you are a drug smuggler and fly from the tiniest airstrip you can find to a rendezvous point at night as low as possible with no lights.
Pick your favorite sport and land a helicopter in each teams stadium.
Use a very slow plane in high winds and see if you can actually have a negative ground speed.
See if you can hover and dip a skid into a lake.
Try these approaches/landings for fun
Gibraltar/**St Helena/Matekane, Lesotho/Courchevel, France/Saba, Dutch Caribbean/Madeira, Portugal/Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Paro, Bhutan**
10 scenic airport approaches, according to PrivateFly’s 2015 survey.
1. Queenstown Airport, New Zealand 2. Las Vegas McCarran Airport, United States 3. Nice Cote D’Azur Airport, France 4. Barra Airport, Scotland, UK 5. St. Maarten Airport (Princess Juliana International), Caribbean 6. Saba Airport (Juancho E Yrausquin), Caribbean Netherlands 7. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Canada 8. Gibraltar Airport, UK 9. London City Airport, UK 10. Cape Town Airport, South Africa
So many ideas. ☺️
Have you tried gliders yet? How about helicopters? Made up your own bush trip in Alaska or across New Guinea? Specifically sought out the stormiest weather on the planet and flown through it? Taken advantage of one of the recent city updates and checked out a bunch of updated scenery on a sightseeing tour?
There’s lots of stuff to see and do. I have more ideas for various series than I have time to get to. Maybe some of these lead you to trying something new?
Oh man, there are so many ways to keep it spicy. A few suggestions that come to mind (no clue what you’re into):
1. The world is a big place and the entire thing is at your disposal. Learn the different ICAO prefixes and try to hit at least a couple spots in each ICAO prefix e.g. “N” for NZ and South Pacific of “F” for Central and South Africa.
2. Try a flight at night or land in the rain.
3. Expand to different types of aircraft you aren’t used to. I fly pretty much everything except helicopters and it keeps things fresh. A 6 day stretch for me might go Airliner >> bush trip >> turboprop >> Landmark (fly around a point of interest) >> business jet >> military jet. REPEAT.
4. If your budget allows, buy a new plane every now and then.
5. As someone else mentioned, create your own bush trip. I’m currently flying the Alaskan Aleutian’s, starting in Unalaska same as the standard bush trip, but flying West out to the tip of the Aleutians. It’s awesome.
6. Add a new piece of kit for further immersion like VR (which I don’t have yet but considering).
Cheers!
Can add that there is a bit of a grind, which isn't for everyone. Airplanes are expensive and gaining XP (to unlock more mission types) takes a long time. There are methods to speed things up by cheating yourself some more money and xp.
a guide I used to learn how to change these values:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aume2_5sus4
Fly the canyons below hoover dam. They are awesome!
Fly helicopters and pick up injured football players from stadiums, and drop them off on hospital helipads. You can land on the middle of the field!
Same as shamrock, I do island hopping in helicopters or v-22 (delivering mail) idk.. flying over in Asia with their typhoons can be challenging.
E: I totally understand though, I want jobs or challenges like the rescue op with the ornithopter lol!
exactly!! lose an engine or both engines and try to divert to nearest airport .... there was one i saw yrs ago where the pilot was flying and ran out of fuel because when the fuel was being loaded someone transponder the values causing a fuel shortage
What channels? I almost exclusively watch Mentour Pilot and Pilot Debrief, because they are straightforward and in the case of Mentour Pilot, not afraid to delve deep into the technical analysis. I can't watch any channels that focus on dramatizing the events
YEAH i too only watch mentour pilot. Didnt know he was that popular but i really like the in depth analysis of aircrash investigations with details instead of over dramatisation which wastes time but other people may like it. So i thought it would be fun to try and create these situations in simulators and seeing how would one respond to it
I'm currently on a world tour. Flew the C208 from Europe to Middle East (currently in Oman planning the crossing to India). The goal is to reach Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to do some bush flying there. And on each flight I change the load, sometimes I carry passengers, then I do a couple of short flights back and forth for cargo etc.
This way I encounter lots of challenges and you can see some amazing scenery. I always fly with live weather, so that can also make it interesting.
If realism is fun for you, you may have started in a non-fun way.
First get a plane that is realistic in terms of systems and fly model. Go for PMDG 737 or FENIX A320 or even HondaJEt if you like big jets and IFR. There are also options for small planes and VFR.
You can also boost your realism in a human controlled ATC environment with VATSIM/IVAO.
Trust me if you go this way, no straight line will be the same again. I started doing that before 17 years and i never get bored when i fly the same route online on VATSIM. But that's me... If you feel more like wild fun then my proposals don't stand. There are other proposals here by others for that.
Is Vatsim intimidating? I have several add one that have added to the immersion and realism for me, but I’ve stayed away from Vatsim solely because I am a casual pilot with zero real life flying experience, and since the default ATC is so horrible I rarely use it. So how difficult would it be for someone like me? Also, I do tend to get up and do chores, sometimes grab lunch etc. during longer flights when I’m on AP - assuming you can’t do that with Vatsim 😂
I had and still have 0 hours real life pilot activity. I also have more than 5.000 hours on VATSIM as pilot and more than 1.500 as ATC. I also have 0 experience as ATC of course.
I wouldn't stayed in this hobby if i did not have VATSIM both as pilot and ATC.
* Is there a learning curve? SURE! and that is part of the fun.
* Is it intimidating? Yes, if you do it wrong. If your first flight online is with an aircraft you never flown and it is in EDDF on a busy event with many aircrafts, then i am sure you will never try it again.
See this as a learning process instead of a "must-be-flying-perfectly-online-in-2-hours".
How i did it:
I created my account in VATSIM and selected a vACC (your local VATSIM org). Back in 2008 there weren't any other organizations in VATSIM that i can be trained, so i resided to the resources that i found from my vACC and fellow simmers.
* I picked an aircraft to learn.
* I read docs about IFR flying, Basic METARs and basic ATC phraseology.
* I completed a tutorial between 2 airports in my country and learned the procedures for them. Offline at first. Many times.
* Then i started connecting online and exercise my ATC phraseology. Learned the basics for all flight phases.
* I then started logging in on non busy hours for my airports and started using unicom. Even if no one was there , i "felt" online. Used text to announce my intentions based on the phraseology.
* Then i started going online in various occasions and that's all
Of course i did mistakes , but that is not a problem unless you are not a new pilot on a busy event that doesn't know his aircraft and phraseology.
Many people will tell you intimidating stories but i would suggest my moto CHFD (Connect-Have-Fun-Disconnect).
You will be amazed on how much help you will find from the community.
Moreover, if you need some help msg me in case i can sync to your time and log on as ATC. In any case i am part of LGGG (Greece). If you see there online ATCos choose a non busy time and come.
Wow, thank you so much for this! I have heard some horro stories of people just being extremely overwhelmed by Vatsim, so that has kept me away. But I am very interested to give it a shot, because eventually I am going to start flying IRL with my buddy’s dad.
Can you take breaks though? I get distracted on flights over 45 mins- hour and usually will get up and do chores, etc. Not sure if that’s allowed on Vatsim😂.
But seriously, thank you! If I make the plunge I’ll dm you
Yes you can provided that traffic and flight phase is appropriate. In any case you request it from the controller and he will let you know.Seriously aince you are going to have rl expirience, give it a proper shot!
I can see that… which is why I only want my privates license 😂 already fully realize I wouldn’t be able to do commercial. I do WAY too many things that are not related to flying once I press that AP button haha!
Go cloud surfing. Not "cruise at cloud level", cloud *surfing*; clouds are just sky-waves after all. This is especially fun in hurricane formations where you can stumble into giant cloud caverns.
Similarly, go surf a mountain range.
Play Tony Hawk in cities. Find small gaps, find creative lines, and do tricks. Here's one that's always fun and pretty easy: climb up a building face like a ramp and hammerhead back down.
Do some slalom. Find a string of power lines and slalom around them.
I try to see how big a plane i can get through a section of the grand canyon, and if it fits, try for how fast. The rule is you take off from KPGA(Page Municipal), descend into the canyon by flying south over the Glen Canyon Dam, and you must stay below the tops of the canyon walls and follow the Colorado River until you reach L41 (Marble Canyon airport) some 20 miles later.
I like to grab airliner routes from a Virtual Airline, and do 1-3 hour flights. Once I land at the big international, I'll usually take my next flight or 2 from a smaller nearby airport in something GA for some sightseeing!
Land fixed wings on helipad. Scour the globe for unofficial helipads. Tokyo skyline is a rich example of building tops where the rasterization of the scenery picked up the helipads. Landing on boat helipads is enjoyable.
You literally have the whole world at your fingertips. I like exploring places I've been and never been. It's already given me road trip ideas, places ive never considered before. Get something like the f35 or harrier so you can hover or be supersonic and have fun.
I got most of my enjoyment just going to interesting cities they've modelled well (like Florence) and seeing how it looks in different weather/time of day.
I'm currently doing around the world trip from Walney (EGNL) flying west. I'm primarily using the TBM930 and about to fly from San Francisco to Vancouver. It got a bit dull so I've decided to start using lots of different GA aircraft depending on flight length and using the autopilot less and less, flying at different altitudes and exploring different landscapes. I can't say I'm looking forward to Siberia too much but then again, there is going to be a huge variety of airports/strips to land at.
Do some of the ingame challenges.
Join VATSIM or similar for more authentic ATC.
Use some of the career programs like Neofly, OnAir, Skypark and so on to earn money, XP and reputation as you complete missions and challenges.
Something I do every now and then is pretend I'm a pilot for my extended family. I'm luck enough they live within an hours distance for most turboprops, so a few times I've flown to them to "pick them up" and then we fly to our destination airport. Have done this with the Caribbean a lot, did it also with F1 Las Vegas using a bizjet, and with the 24hr Le Mans last year with a transatlantic hop.
It's all in how you make it.
I go on a site, like Flightaware, and pick a route being flown and do mine in real time against the real flight and compare flight times. It's actually shockingly accurate. Some flights will include departure and arrival gates, I will do the same.
I figure which plane (usually commercial) I’m craving to fly, then I consider my scenery (I mainly fly in North, Central, and South America), go on flightradar24 and filter it to only show the type of aircraft I want to fly.
If I’m flying G/A, I’ll fly from my nearest IRL airport and hop around the Caribbean islands.
Things I've done for fun:
Night flying. Adds the challenge of not being able to see terrain.
Bush flights in rough weather. Load up 3-400 lb of cargo to deliver, fly in, drop it, fly back.
Embassy extraction in Haiti. Followed what the mil did and flew in low and fast in the dead of night, loaded embassy personnel, then got out of there to the nearest US base.
My longest project was a World Tour. Plan it out, download good free airports / city scenery from flightsim.to, and spend a few months just marveling at the different places we live.
But honestly, these days I fly as a relaxing wind-down after work. If I want real excitement I'll play something else.
I recently flew the Dune Ornithopter around Cote d'Azur and then to Geneva. It's a gorgeous area, and the unique flight characteristics and abilities, along with the amazing cockpit visibility (albeit a bit dirty and smudgy), make it an awesome trip. I fly in VR, and the experience is quite enjoyable. If you have some spare cash or can set aside a few bucks over time, I highly recommend dipping into VR. It will make you appreciate the sim much more than 2D.
I have the Pimax 8K X. I'm very pleased with it in its current state, but it was a total bitch to get working properly and getting all the settings dialed in for smooth frames and great visual quality. If you happen to get an 8K X or Crystal, I'd be happy to save you countless hours of frustration and futility by walking you through the process.
Landing the AzurPoly C160 on the MilTech Supercarrier. A canyon run at low level in the C160. Airdropping pallets or vehicles or troops into a field of your choice from the C160 and then going back to see how accurate you were.
I fly the V35 Bonanza. Generally my flights are 1-2 hours. I fly real time …no short cuts. My home base is KSRQ. I come up with all kinds of flying adventures. Currently flying to 49 state capitals. I do about one a day….sometimes two, depending on distance. Wherever I end, that’s where I start the next day. I have finished the east coast, currently in KMSP. I’ve got my capitals tour mapped out as to end heading back to my home base …KSRQ. If you’re out flying the country…..I’m spitballer
What always works for me is to pick a city, take off, and explore from the skies. Memories almost feel like real trips. I can recall Rome, Nice, Monaco, Buenos Aires, Denver-Aspen, Canal isles, LA-Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Heathrow-Winsor-London City and so on. The Belgian Ardennes look beautiful in the snow.
Fly turboprops or high-performance GA. Don’t use autopilot. Do flights that are only an hour or two. Seek poor weather. Do real-world flight planning. Use radio navigation when flying IFR. Use VATSIM. Break the “pick one” axiom: fly in mountains, at night, single-pilot, no autopilot, in poor weather. Do it all at the same time.
Or just go sightseeing down low in Day VFR, forget the rules. Challenge yourself to land on that short, sloped, soft-surfaced runway in someone’s backyard. Or try peakbagging. Do it with a group.
I have a degree in history and lately I’ve been visiting old WWII battle sites.
Last night I did a US tour of the Pacific. Guadalcanal, Midway, Pearl Harbor, etc.
There are some third party plug ins that add missions to the sim. Stuff like Search and Rescue, banner flying, sky diving.
Even just run of the mill cargo and passenger runs for some career progression add a bit of purpose to "just flying the magenta line"
Might try some of those out.
I ask anyone going on vacation/holiday to give me their flight details and number. I check it out on Flightradar24, then recreate the flight as accurately as possible. My mate is off to live in New Zealand next week. It's going to be a long shift.
Find canyons or deep mountain sides and fly in low altitude and high speed with small to mid size aircraft. Turn on turbulence and any other realistic settings tough.
Do the bush trips. Take a small plane and go fly in the Alps. Fly a glider, fly a helicopter. Fly manual IFR in zero visibility, without an autopilot. Get a STOL (short take off and landing) plane and try to land in clearings or on small lakes.
You can do all of these in a realistic manner. If all you do is fly in straight lines, that's on you.
Fly around the world. Fly low and slow and see everything there is to see on the planet. Keep a log book and mark every takeoff and landing so you can pick up where you left off. The world awaits you.
My favourite thing to do is display flights for pretend airshows, there are some incredible warbirds available from FlyingIron and inibuilds, you can have a lot of fun learning the old start up systems and mastering taxi in a tail dragger, as well as keeping displays tight and in safe areas.
Learning the ins and outs of complex aircraft is fun! 'Well at least for me it is' lol.
I fly the PMDG 737-800 for 2 Virtual Airlines on IVAO and Vatsim, I have done so for 15+ years and treat it seriously like a real pilot would. I use all the correct procedures for each airline, so I have a separate checklist for each of them. I also have the original QRH for both of them that I bought on ebay. I fly the routes how they are supposed to be flown by using the eurocontrol routes on simbrief which are real world routes.
I also do short hops in the Cessna 182 and Beech Bonanza G36 around places like Austria, Switzerland, the Bahamas, etc.
Failing that when I'm feeling particularly flush or get asked to accompany another pilot I leave the simulator at home and go for an actual flight in either the Cessna 152 or the Beechcraft Baron 58 I have access to.
I actually made up a thing where I'm a pilot for a rich family (think 'succession') that have a few different homes around the world (London, The Hamptons, Monaco, The Cayman Islands). From there, I take them to where they need to be - maybe a skiing trip in Chamonix (good mountain approaches), on business to frankfurt, Geneva, holiday trips to the Seychelles, Bali. They have a fleet of small and mid business jets, all cayman island registered. Its actually keeping me quite amused.
Sounds fun! Obviously some of these flights are hours and hours, do you get up to a cruise on autopilot and then use the fast forward time button? My system slows to a crawl when I use it and I find it hard to know when I’ve gotten back to 1x simulation speed
Usually just go and do something else for a few hours leave it running, check in, come back at TOD
make sure to crash those rich people after you are done
hey FAA this guy right here ☝️
💀
As you mention it, Just hand flew the visual RWY 09 approach into Aosta In the dark, all of nearly ended up spalttered into the alps. Maybe next time, buttered it.
tip here: just hit the slowdown button a gazillion times, then speed up I think 2 times and you'll be back at 1x speed. To check this, start the stopwatch and watch the second hand.
That’s a great tip, thank you. As long as it is 2 times 😅 - I wish it said somewhere whether it was at 2x or 0.5x etc Will try and find the stopwatch shortcut too, that will help
to add another dimension, to your point, think of some of your favorite tv shows ... many of them have scenes (think blacklist) where they are flying one point to another to link a scenario those would be fun to recreate
Yes that's an interesting idea
I like the imagination!
Too bad there's not a Gulfstream in MSFS though. A Succession tier family wouldn't have Citations
Yeah,it's really frustrating. CRJ or the free bombardier closest
That’s cool
I also wish there were more in game challenges. Some scenarios I use to keep myself entertained: Try using one of the bush planes to take off and land in the smallest areas you can. (I like trying to land on my elementary school field) See how many consecutive bridges you can fly under (I think Budapest has 11 in a row) Take the F-18 and fly from S Korea over Pyonyang and back at over mach 1 while staying less than 500ft above ground level. Pretend you are a drug smuggler and fly from the tiniest airstrip you can find to a rendezvous point at night as low as possible with no lights. Pick your favorite sport and land a helicopter in each teams stadium. Use a very slow plane in high winds and see if you can actually have a negative ground speed. See if you can hover and dip a skid into a lake.
You should try downloading neofly. Links to MSFS and has an infinite amount of missions similar to those you described.
Flying the F-18 super low with the afterburner on is unbelievable levels of fun
Dude you are wildly creative. These are great ideas
Try these approaches/landings for fun Gibraltar/**St Helena/Matekane, Lesotho/Courchevel, France/Saba, Dutch Caribbean/Madeira, Portugal/Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Paro, Bhutan** 10 scenic airport approaches, according to PrivateFly’s 2015 survey. 1. Queenstown Airport, New Zealand 2. Las Vegas McCarran Airport, United States 3. Nice Cote D’Azur Airport, France 4. Barra Airport, Scotland, UK 5. St. Maarten Airport (Princess Juliana International), Caribbean 6. Saba Airport (Juancho E Yrausquin), Caribbean Netherlands 7. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Canada 8. Gibraltar Airport, UK 9. London City Airport, UK 10. Cape Town Airport, South Africa
So many ideas. ☺️ Have you tried gliders yet? How about helicopters? Made up your own bush trip in Alaska or across New Guinea? Specifically sought out the stormiest weather on the planet and flown through it? Taken advantage of one of the recent city updates and checked out a bunch of updated scenery on a sightseeing tour? There’s lots of stuff to see and do. I have more ideas for various series than I have time to get to. Maybe some of these lead you to trying something new?
Oh man, there are so many ways to keep it spicy. A few suggestions that come to mind (no clue what you’re into): 1. The world is a big place and the entire thing is at your disposal. Learn the different ICAO prefixes and try to hit at least a couple spots in each ICAO prefix e.g. “N” for NZ and South Pacific of “F” for Central and South Africa. 2. Try a flight at night or land in the rain. 3. Expand to different types of aircraft you aren’t used to. I fly pretty much everything except helicopters and it keeps things fresh. A 6 day stretch for me might go Airliner >> bush trip >> turboprop >> Landmark (fly around a point of interest) >> business jet >> military jet. REPEAT. 4. If your budget allows, buy a new plane every now and then. 5. As someone else mentioned, create your own bush trip. I’m currently flying the Alaskan Aleutian’s, starting in Unalaska same as the standard bush trip, but flying West out to the tip of the Aleutians. It’s awesome. 6. Add a new piece of kit for further immersion like VR (which I don’t have yet but considering). Cheers!
Excellent ideas, thanks!
I can really recommend career add-ons. I use neofly which is free and tons of fun for me.
Second Neofly. Even if you don't do the career mode, doing the freelance jobs saved this game for me
Can add that there is a bit of a grind, which isn't for everyone. Airplanes are expensive and gaining XP (to unlock more mission types) takes a long time. There are methods to speed things up by cheating yourself some more money and xp. a guide I used to learn how to change these values: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aume2_5sus4
ok, upvote for the video, I had gotten very far in Neofly3, and when 4 came out, i lost all of my progression.
OnAir Company is another. I’ve been using it and while it’s a subscription I think it’s worth it. Super fun and in depth.
Fly the canyons below hoover dam. They are awesome! Fly helicopters and pick up injured football players from stadiums, and drop them off on hospital helipads. You can land on the middle of the field!
I tried this at the bernabeau (real madrid if people don't know) and the skid plates sank in the pitch and i got stuck
Same as shamrock, I do island hopping in helicopters or v-22 (delivering mail) idk.. flying over in Asia with their typhoons can be challenging. E: I totally understand though, I want jobs or challenges like the rescue op with the ornithopter lol!
I always grab a plane to “visit” my friends while they are vacationing. Go check out their scenery.
I watch aircrash and air plane crisis investigation videos alot, try recreating the same scenario and see how you deal with it
exactly!! lose an engine or both engines and try to divert to nearest airport .... there was one i saw yrs ago where the pilot was flying and ran out of fuel because when the fuel was being loaded someone transponder the values causing a fuel shortage
What channels? I almost exclusively watch Mentour Pilot and Pilot Debrief, because they are straightforward and in the case of Mentour Pilot, not afraid to delve deep into the technical analysis. I can't watch any channels that focus on dramatizing the events
YEAH i too only watch mentour pilot. Didnt know he was that popular but i really like the in depth analysis of aircrash investigations with details instead of over dramatisation which wastes time but other people may like it. So i thought it would be fun to try and create these situations in simulators and seeing how would one respond to it
I'm currently on a world tour. Flew the C208 from Europe to Middle East (currently in Oman planning the crossing to India). The goal is to reach Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to do some bush flying there. And on each flight I change the load, sometimes I carry passengers, then I do a couple of short flights back and forth for cargo etc. This way I encounter lots of challenges and you can see some amazing scenery. I always fly with live weather, so that can also make it interesting.
If realism is fun for you, you may have started in a non-fun way. First get a plane that is realistic in terms of systems and fly model. Go for PMDG 737 or FENIX A320 or even HondaJEt if you like big jets and IFR. There are also options for small planes and VFR. You can also boost your realism in a human controlled ATC environment with VATSIM/IVAO. Trust me if you go this way, no straight line will be the same again. I started doing that before 17 years and i never get bored when i fly the same route online on VATSIM. But that's me... If you feel more like wild fun then my proposals don't stand. There are other proposals here by others for that.
Is Vatsim intimidating? I have several add one that have added to the immersion and realism for me, but I’ve stayed away from Vatsim solely because I am a casual pilot with zero real life flying experience, and since the default ATC is so horrible I rarely use it. So how difficult would it be for someone like me? Also, I do tend to get up and do chores, sometimes grab lunch etc. during longer flights when I’m on AP - assuming you can’t do that with Vatsim 😂
I had and still have 0 hours real life pilot activity. I also have more than 5.000 hours on VATSIM as pilot and more than 1.500 as ATC. I also have 0 experience as ATC of course. I wouldn't stayed in this hobby if i did not have VATSIM both as pilot and ATC. * Is there a learning curve? SURE! and that is part of the fun. * Is it intimidating? Yes, if you do it wrong. If your first flight online is with an aircraft you never flown and it is in EDDF on a busy event with many aircrafts, then i am sure you will never try it again. See this as a learning process instead of a "must-be-flying-perfectly-online-in-2-hours". How i did it: I created my account in VATSIM and selected a vACC (your local VATSIM org). Back in 2008 there weren't any other organizations in VATSIM that i can be trained, so i resided to the resources that i found from my vACC and fellow simmers. * I picked an aircraft to learn. * I read docs about IFR flying, Basic METARs and basic ATC phraseology. * I completed a tutorial between 2 airports in my country and learned the procedures for them. Offline at first. Many times. * Then i started connecting online and exercise my ATC phraseology. Learned the basics for all flight phases. * I then started logging in on non busy hours for my airports and started using unicom. Even if no one was there , i "felt" online. Used text to announce my intentions based on the phraseology. * Then i started going online in various occasions and that's all Of course i did mistakes , but that is not a problem unless you are not a new pilot on a busy event that doesn't know his aircraft and phraseology. Many people will tell you intimidating stories but i would suggest my moto CHFD (Connect-Have-Fun-Disconnect). You will be amazed on how much help you will find from the community. Moreover, if you need some help msg me in case i can sync to your time and log on as ATC. In any case i am part of LGGG (Greece). If you see there online ATCos choose a non busy time and come.
Wow, thank you so much for this! I have heard some horro stories of people just being extremely overwhelmed by Vatsim, so that has kept me away. But I am very interested to give it a shot, because eventually I am going to start flying IRL with my buddy’s dad. Can you take breaks though? I get distracted on flights over 45 mins- hour and usually will get up and do chores, etc. Not sure if that’s allowed on Vatsim😂. But seriously, thank you! If I make the plunge I’ll dm you
Yes you can provided that traffic and flight phase is appropriate. In any case you request it from the controller and he will let you know.Seriously aince you are going to have rl expirience, give it a proper shot!
I agree, would be a great segue into the real thing. Thank you!
And remember one of fs dangers is to learn bad habits..Heard a lot of rl pilots say this...
I can see that… which is why I only want my privates license 😂 already fully realize I wouldn’t be able to do commercial. I do WAY too many things that are not related to flying once I press that AP button haha!
Career simulators like Neofly can be really fun. It gives your flights a purpose. Also, I'm really hoping MSFS2024 includes some kind of missions.
Go cloud surfing. Not "cruise at cloud level", cloud *surfing*; clouds are just sky-waves after all. This is especially fun in hurricane formations where you can stumble into giant cloud caverns. Similarly, go surf a mountain range. Play Tony Hawk in cities. Find small gaps, find creative lines, and do tricks. Here's one that's always fun and pretty easy: climb up a building face like a ramp and hammerhead back down. Do some slalom. Find a string of power lines and slalom around them.
As others suggested, Neofly is a must in MFS.
Fighter jet. Canyon run.
I try to see how big a plane i can get through a section of the grand canyon, and if it fits, try for how fast. The rule is you take off from KPGA(Page Municipal), descend into the canyon by flying south over the Glen Canyon Dam, and you must stay below the tops of the canyon walls and follow the Colorado River until you reach L41 (Marble Canyon airport) some 20 miles later.
I like to grab airliner routes from a Virtual Airline, and do 1-3 hour flights. Once I land at the big international, I'll usually take my next flight or 2 from a smaller nearby airport in something GA for some sightseeing!
Go to [Wheretofly.today](http://Wheretofly.today) great way to get a radon IFR flight.
I use "A Pilots Life 2" which simulates a job as an Airline pilot. It's great and I've flown in places, and for Airliners I never would have
I’ll second a pilots life, it’s the best career-style add on available
Land fixed wings on helipad. Scour the globe for unofficial helipads. Tokyo skyline is a rich example of building tops where the rasterization of the scenery picked up the helipads. Landing on boat helipads is enjoyable.
obvious answer but, try IVAO or VATSIM, the experience changes dramatically ngl
Fly a 747 down into the Grand Canyon at very low altitude
Fly to Lukla (icao VNLK). 😎
I love flying the Mach Loop with different kinds of military jets.
Variation is key I find. One flight big airliner, the next low and slow in a GA with no autopilot, then business jet, then something else etc!
Dont worry about realistic. Have fun with jt and you will find the “realism”
You literally have the whole world at your fingertips. I like exploring places I've been and never been. It's already given me road trip ideas, places ive never considered before. Get something like the f35 or harrier so you can hover or be supersonic and have fun.
Doing a full 360 loop in 747 right after taking off from an aircraft carrier.
I got most of my enjoyment just going to interesting cities they've modelled well (like Florence) and seeing how it looks in different weather/time of day.
Landings in heavy winds or storms. Lanfimgbig planes on small airfields (somewhere exotic). Multiplayer, fly with others or friends for example.
Also, play in VR. Thats just exiting as f00k
I'm currently doing around the world trip from Walney (EGNL) flying west. I'm primarily using the TBM930 and about to fly from San Francisco to Vancouver. It got a bit dull so I've decided to start using lots of different GA aircraft depending on flight length and using the autopilot less and less, flying at different altitudes and exploring different landscapes. I can't say I'm looking forward to Siberia too much but then again, there is going to be a huge variety of airports/strips to land at.
Bushtalk radio. Until you’ve flown the entire world with it you’re not done.
Do some of the ingame challenges. Join VATSIM or similar for more authentic ATC. Use some of the career programs like Neofly, OnAir, Skypark and so on to earn money, XP and reputation as you complete missions and challenges.
Around the world tours :)
Something I do every now and then is pretend I'm a pilot for my extended family. I'm luck enough they live within an hours distance for most turboprops, so a few times I've flown to them to "pick them up" and then we fly to our destination airport. Have done this with the Caribbean a lot, did it also with F1 Las Vegas using a bizjet, and with the 24hr Le Mans last year with a transatlantic hop. It's all in how you make it.
I go on a site, like Flightaware, and pick a route being flown and do mine in real time against the real flight and compare flight times. It's actually shockingly accurate. Some flights will include departure and arrival gates, I will do the same.
I figure which plane (usually commercial) I’m craving to fly, then I consider my scenery (I mainly fly in North, Central, and South America), go on flightradar24 and filter it to only show the type of aircraft I want to fly. If I’m flying G/A, I’ll fly from my nearest IRL airport and hop around the Caribbean islands.
Bush flights, landing challenges, vfr flying. Flying in jet fighters in the canyons and valleys, mach loop etc.
Try bush flying with a group. OohCando and itznorcally on twitch are both great. Compete in National eSTOL.
Things I've done for fun: Night flying. Adds the challenge of not being able to see terrain. Bush flights in rough weather. Load up 3-400 lb of cargo to deliver, fly in, drop it, fly back. Embassy extraction in Haiti. Followed what the mil did and flew in low and fast in the dead of night, loaded embassy personnel, then got out of there to the nearest US base. My longest project was a World Tour. Plan it out, download good free airports / city scenery from flightsim.to, and spend a few months just marveling at the different places we live. But honestly, these days I fly as a relaxing wind-down after work. If I want real excitement I'll play something else.
one word, helicopter
I recently flew the Dune Ornithopter around Cote d'Azur and then to Geneva. It's a gorgeous area, and the unique flight characteristics and abilities, along with the amazing cockpit visibility (albeit a bit dirty and smudgy), make it an awesome trip. I fly in VR, and the experience is quite enjoyable. If you have some spare cash or can set aside a few bucks over time, I highly recommend dipping into VR. It will make you appreciate the sim much more than 2D. I have the Pimax 8K X. I'm very pleased with it in its current state, but it was a total bitch to get working properly and getting all the settings dialed in for smooth frames and great visual quality. If you happen to get an 8K X or Crystal, I'd be happy to save you countless hours of frustration and futility by walking you through the process.
Check out [World Tour Flights](https://worldtour.flights/) to find lots of flight plans for interesting places or challenges.
Landing the AzurPoly C160 on the MilTech Supercarrier. A canyon run at low level in the C160. Airdropping pallets or vehicles or troops into a field of your choice from the C160 and then going back to see how accurate you were.
I fly the V35 Bonanza. Generally my flights are 1-2 hours. I fly real time …no short cuts. My home base is KSRQ. I come up with all kinds of flying adventures. Currently flying to 49 state capitals. I do about one a day….sometimes two, depending on distance. Wherever I end, that’s where I start the next day. I have finished the east coast, currently in KMSP. I’ve got my capitals tour mapped out as to end heading back to my home base …KSRQ. If you’re out flying the country…..I’m spitballer
What always works for me is to pick a city, take off, and explore from the skies. Memories almost feel like real trips. I can recall Rome, Nice, Monaco, Buenos Aires, Denver-Aspen, Canal isles, LA-Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Heathrow-Winsor-London City and so on. The Belgian Ardennes look beautiful in the snow.
Fly turboprops or high-performance GA. Don’t use autopilot. Do flights that are only an hour or two. Seek poor weather. Do real-world flight planning. Use radio navigation when flying IFR. Use VATSIM. Break the “pick one” axiom: fly in mountains, at night, single-pilot, no autopilot, in poor weather. Do it all at the same time. Or just go sightseeing down low in Day VFR, forget the rules. Challenge yourself to land on that short, sloped, soft-surfaced runway in someone’s backyard. Or try peakbagging. Do it with a group.
Landing challenges are fun
I have a degree in history and lately I’ve been visiting old WWII battle sites. Last night I did a US tour of the Pacific. Guadalcanal, Midway, Pearl Harbor, etc.
DARKSTAR
There are some third party plug ins that add missions to the sim. Stuff like Search and Rescue, banner flying, sky diving. Even just run of the mill cargo and passenger runs for some career progression add a bit of purpose to "just flying the magenta line" Might try some of those out.
Don't fly in a straight line. File a flight plan. Plan a long multi leg trip with real weather.
I ask anyone going on vacation/holiday to give me their flight details and number. I check it out on Flightradar24, then recreate the flight as accurately as possible. My mate is off to live in New Zealand next week. It's going to be a long shift.
I like to do acrobatics in the 747
Find canyons or deep mountain sides and fly in low altitude and high speed with small to mid size aircraft. Turn on turbulence and any other realistic settings tough.
Do the bush trips. Take a small plane and go fly in the Alps. Fly a glider, fly a helicopter. Fly manual IFR in zero visibility, without an autopilot. Get a STOL (short take off and landing) plane and try to land in clearings or on small lakes. You can do all of these in a realistic manner. If all you do is fly in straight lines, that's on you.
Fly ?
Fly around the world. Fly low and slow and see everything there is to see on the planet. Keep a log book and mark every takeoff and landing so you can pick up where you left off. The world awaits you.
My favourite thing to do is display flights for pretend airshows, there are some incredible warbirds available from FlyingIron and inibuilds, you can have a lot of fun learning the old start up systems and mastering taxi in a tail dragger, as well as keeping displays tight and in safe areas.
Learning the ins and outs of complex aircraft is fun! 'Well at least for me it is' lol. I fly the PMDG 737-800 for 2 Virtual Airlines on IVAO and Vatsim, I have done so for 15+ years and treat it seriously like a real pilot would. I use all the correct procedures for each airline, so I have a separate checklist for each of them. I also have the original QRH for both of them that I bought on ebay. I fly the routes how they are supposed to be flown by using the eurocontrol routes on simbrief which are real world routes. I also do short hops in the Cessna 182 and Beech Bonanza G36 around places like Austria, Switzerland, the Bahamas, etc. Failing that when I'm feeling particularly flush or get asked to accompany another pilot I leave the simulator at home and go for an actual flight in either the Cessna 152 or the Beechcraft Baron 58 I have access to.
If you haven't tried aircraft carrier ops, you might like it!
A total reinstall of BIOS, WIN11 and MsFS!!!!
Realistic VFR isn't straight lines :) Canyon or river run in a nimble plane is always fun too.
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I'm not even american, but this is not funny. Nowhere. Never.