My answer: it depends.I typically use time compression on flights longer than roughly 2 hours on aircraft that I am familiar with. If I am learning a new aircraft, I may run longer flights at real time in order to have more time to experiment and gain familiarity with the aircraft systems while in flight.I have been known to keep a laptop handy and surf the net on longer flights, akin to certain real-world NWA pilots of recent infamy... :(

I love the Cirrus. Did some training on it a while back. Great flight deck and amazing handling. The "stick" took some getting used to though!Cheers

Landed on Tuesday night with a 60 degree x-wind and it handled really well. Just got checked out on the Perspective. Synthetic vision, integrated autopilot with AIS & VNV, Keypad (FMS like) and EVS to name a few new features. It makes the Avidyne look somewhat antiquited. :(

With the big LCDs on the new 787s they can watch a movie straight on that, or play xbox ;)Just need to add some inputs :(

They can't do anything yet - the bird hasn't flown! :( Iain Smith

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/26/airliner.flyby/index.htmlin reference to real pilots :)

RW, I fly cross country in a Cirrus (full glass avionics) and after a an hour or so of cruise it does get a bit boring. Good news is I usually have some "interesting" passengers aboard. :(

I own a Cirrus as well... my wife and I fly all over the country and the one thing I've found that keeps us from getting bored is the XM Radio that comes with the XMWX subscription... it's a godsend on those long trips between the east and west coasts! She also brings her portable DVD player sometimes.. but I keep myself occupied a lot of times by taking lots of air-to-ground photos!- Alex

I also never use time compression, but after doing many many long 11+ hour flights have been doing more hops on the smaller size, from 1 - 6 hours.However, if I ever had the luxury of flying with these folks, I don't think I would ever be bored :(

There would be no time to be bored, I would either be laughing hysterically, or would constantly be trying to save the plane haha.Pilots can do things to entertain themselves though, see here.

I own a Cirrus as well... my wife and I fly all over the country and the one thing I've found that keeps us from getting bored is the XM Radio that comes with the XMWX subscription... it's a godsend on those long trips between the east and west coasts! She also brings her portable DVD player sometimes.. but I keep myself occupied a lot of times by taking lots of air-to-ground photos!- Alex

If I am ever in the position to buy an aircraft the CAPS feature on a Cirrus would be the clincher, let me ask does having that system lower any insurance costs at all?

I've heard a similar description that so many times that I just have to ask - what do you get out of it doing it that way?I mean, if you play with the kids, go buy groceries or sleep, isn't it the same as not running the simulation at all? Why not just set up a scenario 200 miles from your destination and fly the approach from there? Is it maybe you get a feeling of actually "travelling somewhere" as the simulated plane behind a turned off monitor is flying along in real time to some far away destination? How would you describe it?Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean this in a patronizing or condescending way! I'm just really curious as I can't understand it myself :(

I only do those things while at cruise. It still takes me an hour to get to that point from when I start FSbuild to compile a flight plan, and then another 40mins while I bring the airplane into the airport those last 175NM. On those 12 hr flights I don't see the point of sitting in front of the monitor the whole time as the navigation systems seem to do a pretty good job of getting me from point a to point b. For me it's the flight planning, pre-flight, taxi, take off, initial climb, descent, approach, and landing that I love, with emphasis on the approach and landing. I always handfly the last 10miles, and landing, and sometimes the climb using the pitch bar. Most of my flights are 4-6 hours but the longer ones give me the pleasure of fuel planning and flying the aircraft when they're really close to MTOW.

Boring you sayhttp://www.liveleak.com/view?i=47d_1202124772L'maire

Pretty sure you should remove that

Hi,after playing flight sim for many years i have always wondered aboutthe boredom of being a real pilot.I love flying sims but if the cruise time is more than an hour or soi tend to speed up the simulation speed.Except the occasional radio contact and turning some fuel pump off ect it just isnt much to do and get kind of boring.I know that on long routes they have extra pilots rotate but stillyou have to sit there for hours.It is important to monitor the systems ect i get that but it cant be directly fun?So my q is, is it boring in real life also ?Is it something one just gets used to and find not so bad after some time ?Secondly do the 2 active pilots get to do anything or do they just have to sit there?Can one of them play a handheld game or watch a laptop movie while the other monitors the systems ?Extra question to simmers out there.Do you sit hour after hour in cruise just watching the systems or do you tend to speed things up also ?

A real world ATC once told me flying an airplane for the RW guys was like starting up your car and taking it on a Sunday drive. I took that to mean somewhat routine and mundane.I would suggest that most things that we do as an avocation quickly turns into being work once we start getting paid for it. My experience supports that theory.I never ever grasped why any simmer would sit in front of a computer for hours upon end while in cruise. To me FS was about learning. It is about flight planning, studying weather, learning the rules of the road, learning about navigation, learning the controls, learning the plane, learning to takeoff and learning to land.I quickly learned that it was all about taking off and landing.I have never increased time it would be too unrealistic to me so why bother. I pretty much choose my flights for something around a maximum 30-minute cruise. Incidentally I also never performed an inverted roll in a passenger aircraft, messed with weather (it is as ASA reports it) or messed with the time (it is always whatever time it is).I used to go nuts when I ATC

Pretty sure you should remove that

I'm sorry i really don't want to offend anybody. It's just a joke. If somebody could tell me how remove it i'll do it rightaway.L'maire

If I am ever in the position to buy an aircraft the CAPS feature on a Cirrus would be the clincher, let me ask does having that system lower any insurance costs at all?

Yes.. but not by very much...

I quickly learned that it was all about taking off and landing....../...I asked a friend of mine ....that if he thought I had a hope of being able to jump into a Cessna or something (having never flown RW in my life) and actually be able to start the thing up, take off and land and live to tell about it? His response "Gary, you could do that and fly an IFR approach RW no problem.".../...Moral of the story

Hi Gary,If, as you say, you have never flown RW in your life, may I suggest that you take ONE flying lesson. Maybe it'll change your outlook on what's easy (or important, or fun, or boring etc.) and what is not !Kind regards, Bruno

Only problem with that is Flightsim suddenly doesn't feel as realistic as it did before!