Thought I'd share this flight report ...I haven't fired up FS for over a year now what with one thing and another. I've kept reading forums (and buying add-ons :-) ) but never managed to find time for a flight.Well, tonight was the night that I was home with time up my sleeve so bullets were bitten and up came FS. Took me a few minutes to get enough controls working as I only plugged in the yoke, not the throttle and pedals, and then a few minutes more getting TrackIR up and running. ASX6 wasn't an issue - it just worked :-)What to fly ? Where to fly ? Well ... The default cessna came up, poised on the edge of a dark runway. First off I moved it to one of my local airports (NZAA), and lo, it was daylight. Cool I thought, and didn't bother to check what time the sim thought it was. Uh oh ...I figured the Aerosoft Beaver could handle the sort of landing I was probably going to manage so I changed into that and took off, turned over the city and out over the Gulf islands on a scenic short hop to NZWP. About halfway there I was reminded why I don't particularly like the aerosoft beaver - nice to fly but I have *never* figured out how to work the radios.No matter, I know roughly where NZWP is, so I turned in sort of the right place and managed to stumble into NZWP pointed in the right direction and on a runway about 15 mins after takeoff, even if I was a couple of thousand feet too high on the approach :-yellow1 Well it was a lovely afternoon and I wanted to explore the Gulf a bit on the way back so I swapped into a T6 Harvard and took off again, but after a few minutes the islands started to get a bit hard to see through the nasty gray things that were starting to appear and the T6 was starting to bounce round a bit - time for something a bit bigger. Hmmm ... LD767 ? Nah, too automatic. DF727 ? Nah, too complex for tonight. I know ... The MAAM DC3 ! And so the T6 was magically transformed into a DC3 and on we flew.Oh golly it was lovely. Perfect speed, perfect level of complexity, gorgeous to look at, and I worked out that by undocking the 2d cockpit and radio panels and moving them to my second screen I could fly quite happily from the VC. And so I did.The grey things were getting a lot closer together alarmingly fast (where did they come from ???) and then to my horror I noticed that the sun was about to hit the horizon. That'll teach me not to check the time ! I should point out that I have never succeeded in finding an airport in the dark without a moving map display, and before I started I had promised myself to do this without using that or the spot view. And I'm in a DC3 with an unmodified cockpit, with that bizarre compass thing that works the opposite way to what I expect.Then I got lost. No matter, I know I'm probably south of NZAA, I'll just fly east and a bit south until I hit the coast then head north until the localiser says Hi, and with a bit of luck I'll be down on the ground to watch the sunset. Hah. "Fly east until I hit the coast" my flickering exhaust, should have been "Fly *WEST* until I hit the coast ..."So I got to fly straight into what was left of the sunset while I headed from the east coast somewhere near NZUN right across to the west, with the ADF pointed at the WI beacon. Good navigation practise I guess :-) and I have to say that the DC3 was bang on the numbers using the kneeboard settings for cruise power.By the light of the moon and stars I figured after a while I was at the coast so I turned north and with only slightly sweaty hands waited for the ILS to do it's thing with the intention of then beginning a nice gentle left turn out to sea in a big loop to leave me pointed in the right direction, on the right track. Hah again. As soon as the needle started to centre reflexes took over and the poor DC3 was stood almost on a wingtip while I started chasing the ILS. And what a chase it was - took 4 dramatic tries but I ended up about 5 miles out pointed the right way with both needles centred, descending at the right rate and airspeed, all done on instruments from the VC (with the 2d panel open) and with no moving map. At night.Then the cloud parted and joy of joys there was a runway in front of me - first time that's ever happened ! - and after a couple of minor corrections and with considerably sweatier hands I landed straight down the centreline at about 100fpm. I even (just) remembered to get the gear down.Flight times NZAA - NZWP 15 mins daytime. The supposed return trip from NZWP - NZAA 45 mins daytime + 1 hr instruments + 15 mins night. That was one heck of a reintroduction to the sim. I'm coming back in a couple of days, and this time coming straight to the DC3. (and I'm going to bring my pedals with me, got a bit embarassing when ATC were yelling at me to get off the runway and I had no way to steer it !)Loving itGary

Great story, Gary. Sounds like you would be a good fit at DC-3 Airways.Bill RambowMAAM-SIM http://www.fssupport.com/maam/hgrsm_blkani.gif