newbie needs help finding great sites to fly over

[Guest rd151]

I am new to Microsoft flight sim X. My problem is I know how to fly around pretty good with my Cosair and I am able to locate airports for starting off. But the problem is how do you find great sites to see in the sim when thye are not listed in the flight sim? Like I had to really fly around a lot just to find niagara falls and the pyramids outside of Cario. Is there a web link which locates the location of all these great sites in the US and worldwide. I mean with the airports to start from and what heading to set your compass at? I need all the help I can get.thanks

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Not a bad question at all. Most of the fun is in the getting there, but it helps to know HOW to get there.I use Google Earth to help with flight planning. For example, here's how I'd find the Pyramids:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/186844.jpgThis map shows that if you take off on Runway 23R from Cairo International, and just fly a straight line on that heading, you almost can't miss the Pyramids of Giza.Here's another way ... suppose you want to find the Eiffel Tower. Take off from Orly on runway 08 and fly straight ahead until you hit a river. Turn left and follow the river. Eventually, you will get to the Eiffel Tower.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/186845.jpgOf course, you could fly a straight line to it, but where would be the fun in that? The fun is in the exploring and discovering things you didn't even know were there!

[Guest rd151]

I did check out Earth google and yes it is really nice, but I can't figure out how you got your flight plan in red from one city to the site you desire? For instamce, I would like to see the carved MT Rushmore in South Dakota. So where do I find the nearest city in that state and then how do I get that red line flight plan to work from that city to MT Rushmore?

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

I drew that red line on that picture in Paint ... just to demonstrate how I plan a route.I just used my common sense to figure out a flight plan. Sometimes, there's an easy way to go straight there. In the case of Cairo, it was simple. The runway pointed right to the landmark. Sometimes, you have to follow a river or a road or something you can see from the plane. Here's how I'd find MT Rushmore:1) Type Mt. Rushmore Wikipedia to figure out what state it's in, where it's located, how to get there. Then type it into Google Earth's search box. Google Earth will take you right to most well-known landmarks. Zoom out until you see a local airport (in this case, Custer County airport is within 20 miles of the site). You need to tick the "Show Airports" checkbox to get the airports to show up in Google Earth.2) Figure out a route. Either direct, or using landmarks like roads or rivers. You can copy/paste into Paint and plan your route, or just print out the map straight from Google Earth so you can look at it while flying (running Google Earth and FSX simultaneously is not recommended).http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/186864.jpg3) Once in FSX, choose the World menu, and select Go To Airport. Type in the airport name. Almost every airport in the world is in FSX.4) Fly! It may take you a bit to get there, but that's the fun of it. It's not the destination ... it's the journey.

[Guest SkullxBones]

Or if you really want to get to it fast, you can enter the the LAT/LON coordinates from google into your map in FSX and it will take you there.