Hi all and happy New Year in advance.I am currently flying SA208 from KIAD to FAJS which is a 15 hour flight if all goes well. I am using the Wilco Vol 2 340-600 and to be fair it is working perfectly. Currently well past Bermuda and about 12 hours to go.Got me thinking who else is flying these long flights over the holidays and what are you flying?John

If I have a day off work I fly one of my VA Cargolux routes eg ELLX - WSSS about 12 hours. But on Vatsim so I can chat with enroute traffic, otherwise the boredom would kill me :)

Know what you mean about the boredome factor and wonder how pilots can do this in real life. For myself I am watching a movie and then going to bed and hoping to wake up about a couple of hours from Joburg with enough time to commence the descent.My theory is that this type of flight is only done with 2 crews so the scenario is not too unrealistic.Does rather depend on no CTD but not had that in many monthsJohn

It's Kinda funny, pre 9/11 I used to get ID90 tickets on the jumpseat back home, I was always surprised at how the flight crew seemed so 'No big deal' about what they where there doing, and I would would be so bright eyed looking at every button that was pushed. I dont think I could ever get bored doing it for real.Rob

You guys do know you can speed up the Simulation right? Or are you trying to go all out? I could never do that lol. I never fly IFR until I'm a few 100 miles from the airport.

ummm Yeah right dude... I only have the right to fly x4 outa controlled airspace but I keep it shorthual unless I have the time

yeah but speeding up would spoil things and I am flying with South African Virtual courtesy Flying Tiger Group and dont think they would appreciate accelleration

LH 715, RJAA-EDDM on A340-300 Posky+PSS panel, no speeding up, flown on Christmas Day as I have recently joined FTG Lufthansa VA. Well, for me, the longest part of these flights are the very last 1000 nm :-) when preparing for arrival. Checking fuel capacity, monitoring map, reading books etc. caused the enroute part ending quickly, even for a 12.5 h flight...Also from me, happy New Year to all!Ales

I have a question guys. When do you guys usually start your descent and at what rate do you descend? Is descending at 700 ft/mi too little? I usually start descending from 39,000 about 400 nm away (I think that's too much)

Here's a quote from the learning center:"A good rule for determining when to start your descent is the 3-to-1 rule (three miles distance per thousand feet in altitude). Take your altitude in feet, drop the last three zeros, and multiply by 3.For example, to descend from a cruise altitude of 35,000 feet to sea level:35,000 minus the last three zeros is 35.35 x 3=105This means you should begin your descent 105 nautical miles from your destination, maintaining a speed of 250 KIAS (about 45 percent N1) and a descent rate of 1,500 to 2,000 feet per minute, with thrust set at idle. Add two extra miles for every 10 knots of tailwind."I probably don't do it right, but I carry a little more speed than that. I usually maintain about mach .82 (or whatever normal cruise speed is) in the descent until I reach an altitude where mach .82 equates to 320 KIAS, then I switch to IAS hold and hold 320 down to about 13,000' before pulling it back to 250 KIAS. Sometimes it requires spoilers to be at 250 kts passing through 10,000', depends on the aircraft and weight. I do my homework and load fuel so that I'm not carrying much more than my reserves when I reach my destination. With the extra speed I use the 3:1 rule and add maybe 10% and descend at 2000 - 2500 fpm.Jim

Longest flight I did was YSSY-CYYZ in the Pss 777-200. I departed at 3:30am my time (est) and landed around 9:30pm, 18hours later. It will be awhile before I try that again, but I did have a lot of fun surprisinglyI always fly real time, never time compressed. That's my pet peeve, but each to their own.You can read about my experience on my blog that I started just for that flight. It's and older entry now, you will have to go into archives to find it.http://kittiekatsflying.blogspot.com/:-wave

I usually do a trans Atlantic twice a year, one in the summer and another around the xmas holidays.I'm planning my flight for Sunday night or Monday during the day.

My longest FS flight was EGYP-FACT in a DC-7B - a little over 13 hours. I do long range flights about once a month - mostly in older props, but occasionally a Comet or CV-900. Normally about 4-6 hours is my limit.About 15 of us recreated the McPhearson Race - EGUN-YMEN last July. I flew the DH-89 Dragon Rapide - several 4-5 hour legs. 88 hours, 27 minutes, 57 seconds total flight time for my trip. The fastest was 46:56:15

My most recent long flights were just this weekend from Vancouver to Boston, and then Boston to San Francisco for my VA -- both flights were totally destroyed on final within minutes of landing and after hours of perfect flying! The first was toasted when my dog jump up and hit my flaps and autopilot buttons, extending my flaps full at FL350 290 kts and somehow blowing out a hatch; the second time when my stepson turned on the microwave and blanked power for a split second, crashing my system, despite my emergency battery backup being fully functional! No more for me -- 1 - 2 1/2 hours legs tops. I've decided any longer that that are a complete waste of my time, since so much can go wrong completely unrelated to my flying. Besides, I get more takeoffs and landings in this way!Good topic!Chuck

>My most recent long flights were just this weekend from>Vancouver to Boston, and then Boston to San Francisco for my>VA -- both flights were totally destroyed on final within>minutes of landing and after hours of perfect flying! >>The first was toasted when my dog jump up and hit my flaps and>autopilot buttons, extending my flaps full at FL350 290 kts>and somehow blowing out a hatch; the second time when my>stepson turned on the microwave and blanked power for a split>second, crashing my system, despite my emergency battery>backup being fully functional! >>No more for me -- 1 - 2 1/2 hours legs tops. I've decided any>longer that that are a complete waste of my time, since so>much can go wrong completely unrelated to my flying. Besides,>I get more takeoffs and landings in this way!>>Good topic!>>ChuckYup! Another reason why I don't do long flight too often. Too mnay CTD's. We do ask alot of the sim with all the add on stuff added to it.