Every time I fly the PMDG 737-700 with FS9, it seems my flights are shorter than the real-world flight. For example, when flying from KBNA Nashville to KPHL Philadelphia, it always takes 90 minutes from takeoff to touchdown, using the FMC with VNAV and LNAV most of the way. This is after slowing the cruise down to M.75 when she wants to use .80. When I check on Flightaware for the same flight, all flights are listed from 1:45 TO over 2 hours. Likewise on airline ticket sites. I realize some of these times may be gate to gate, but even so, figuring about 20 minutes extra for gate to gate, I still beat the fastest flight times by at least 15 minutes. Are they going that much slower, or am I still unrealistically fast? Thanks. tom

There are a number of reasons for this.- Waiting in a queue of aircraft for departure- Spending a bit of time in the holding pattern before commencing the approach- Operating at a lower mach speed for fuel consumption purposesPlus I suspect most simmers 'rush' the engine start, flight control check, pushback tug disconnection and the taxi itself, all of which adds 10 or so minutes to your block time if paced correctly.Since installing AES and upping my AI to 100% I've found my block times are closer to published schedules as I have to deal with ground crew and wait in line for departure, as well as arrival!

Thanks Mark. What is AES and are block times gate to gate? Thanks. Tom

AES: Cool program that adds animated and interactive ground grew and airbridges. It simulates automated pushback (following all the taxi lines no less!) and general ground handling.Highly recommended for that extra touch of atmosphere as you sit on the flight deck of your 744 prepping for departure!http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/ibosh...i?showd,,D10333It's based on a credit system with the base program being free to download. If you have the excellent KBOS freeware scenery you can use it with that for free to get a feel for how the program works.Block times are generally taken from brakes off prior to push back, to brakes on at the destination gate, though I've seen some crew do it from brakes off as they commence taxi as well.

Thanks for the info, Mark! Regards, Tom