Rafal: I'm not sure how I can make myself clearer. As I said: all is perfect right now. I have all the addons "needed" to get everything out of FS2004, so to truly unlock it's potential. GEPro, REX2004, UT Europe, magnificent addon aircraft. FS2004 is now perfected for me and I'm getting some stunning scenes on my screen. The problems I had, started with the fact that I study biology, and I don't usually have the time to fly around and learn complex aircraft. So, I kept buying stuff, knowing that in vacations I can learn to fly them. Now I am at such a vacation, and I have to choose what to fly. Choosing from a rather wide selection, all very different, all great, is difficult when I want to know them all. And so I wanted to know how you guys decide what plane you'll want to learn to fly. That is all. It is not a matter of not liking anything, it is a matter of liking everything and not knowing where to start. I can't see how switching to another hobby would help, and I don't see why looking at the Avsim forums know and then is relevant for my question ("vast amount of time"? Hardly...).Geez, I thought I could get some honest advice to a simple question. Some people gave it, and I thank you for that, but others seem to... I don't know. "What's the problem?" is what I'm curious about. I know for fact that I'm not the only one in such a situation, so I'm simply wondering how come this question raises such amazement.Anyway, looks like I'll be flying around Europe with my PMDG 747.JP_Visser: Yeah, I completely understand what you mean. I greatly enjoyed flying PMDG's JS41 when I was doing the review about it (it struck me as if I wa actually piloting the aircraft, not merely pushing buttons!). Alas, FSX only, so I won't be flying it anytime soon.

Well here is the problem and why people are reacting in such amazement. Imagine someone saying: " I've got a perfect life, I've got everything I've ever wanted, I've got 20 exotic cars, 5 private jets, 4 vacation homes and 6 beautiful girlfriends but I've got limited time to enjoy them. Some one please tell me what to do!" People will look at you like you're daft and some will simply be offended because it comes across as bragging when you've got so many people on this forum who could only dream of having it as good as you. But you DO have it that good and don't know what to do with it? Weird.You've got a perfect flight sim "life", then figure it out, why do you want someone else to tell you what to do with your own personal time? I also don't know what you're looking for. Did you want us to tell you what to fly first or where to go first or how to prioritize your free time? For some people with a setup like yours, they are happy just sitting at a detailed airport and planespotting, others flying that long haul 14 hour non-stop flight, or flying that 172 low and slow to their favorite destinations. Other's learning to fly a A340 by the numbers, learning to fly that perfect pattern entry, practicing touch and goes in zero-zero. Others, simply play it by ear and enjoy whatever comes to mind on a totally random basis. Like religion, each person's relationship with Flightsim it totally personal and different for each and every person. You can't expect US to tell YOU what your enjoyment is can you?I totally agree, its a weird post. Besides, if your time is so limited, why waste it posting here and waiting for us to give you advice. How many hours did you just waste when you could be enjoying your "perfect sim" and FINDING your sweet spot for YOURSELF instead of telling us how great you have it?Just sayin'.

Fully understand your post, Mike, but I think I do made myself clear, since I said it now multiple times: I'm asking what you do when you find you want to follow up on multiple endeavours, but have to choose one. That is what I'm interested it. You don't have to tell me what to do, just tell me what you would do to make a choice. I'm bad at making decisions (although by now, I made mine. It'll be the PMDG 747 over Europe, and the Caribbean, but no trans atlantic stuff as yet) when these decisions are relatively unimportant and innocent. Moreover when there are multiple options that I equally like.Everything is relative. I'm sure that what I call "perfect" for many people would be insufficient. As you said: many people, many preferences, many tastes. It's not unbelievable that even you, Mike, would find my setup to be insufficient, too. For me it's perfect, and for me it's what I have been wanting. There are many posts around Avsim that say exactly the same, many people that think their own setup is good/awesome/whatever. You guys seem to think my computer is a beast that churns out everything at incredible speed. This, however, is a completely garbled image of reality and therefore I find your post regarding my setup to be unjust. For it is hardly "everything" and I never said that. I never said it is perfect for everybody and I'm not sure why you, and together with you, possibly others, took it that way. An example: With the PMDG747, at Aerosoft's Charles de Gaulle airport, I'm content with 7FPS. Not *really* a setup to dream off, but it keeps me happy. It hardly is the perfect life, with 6 girlfriends and all you mentioned, and it's certainly not "everything". It is good for me. It is enough for me. The sportscars you speak off? No. It is more like having a Volkswagen van (which, I think, is a very nice car).As for time, I really don't have as much as you may think. Much of my time is fragmented, so that these "pieces" of time in itself are completely insufficient to do serious learning. All together I might have three hours to spend, but cut it in three, and I have one hour to prepare for the studying, set up the flight, and get going. By the time I'm ready start, I have but 15 minutes left before I have to start preparing to get going again to someplace else. It's really only during vacations that I have sufficient time that is not fragmented. Sadly, I have hardly any vacations. So when I don't, and its weekend, I take the plane I know for a ride. It has always perfectly suited my needs, but in the end, I do want to learn to fly my other planes, too. This is also why I recently decided that, when taking on new reviews, I'll keep to sceneries. They require less time, so I can deliver more in a shorter time span. And I do take on aircraft, I'll do it when I'm sure to have time.For the rest, I'm not too sure what to say. The list of misunderstandings between us is sufficiently endless that I'm stumped. So many misconceptions, misunderstandings, problems with phraseology and "misaligned intentions", that I feel that trying to repair it any further would only hurt. I started this thread with good intentions, but it has gone completely overboard. I feel like people have overreacted and have misinterpreted my sayings for something I have never meant it to be. Feelings of frustration, hurt, offence, that I had never thought would emerge, have popped up their ugly heads. I'm very, very sorry for that, and just hope it won't happen a second time.I guess I have learned a great deal again about communication over the internet.

Fully understand your post, Mike, but I think I do made myself clear, since I said it now multiple times: I'm asking what you do when you find you want to follow up on multiple endeavours, but have to choose one. That is what I'm interested it. ...

That's easy! Take a brake from the FS World!!! One day you will "return", and I am sure you won't have difficulties to decide what to do then.

For the rest, I'm not too sure what to say. The list of misunderstandings between us is sufficiently endless that I'm stumped. So many misconceptions, misunderstandings, problems with phraseology and "misaligned intentions", that I feel that trying to repair it any further would only hurt. I started this thread with good intentions, but it has gone completely overboard. I feel like people have overreacted and have misinterpreted my sayings for something I have never meant it to be. Feelings of frustration, hurt, offence, that I had never thought would emerge, have popped up their ugly heads. I'm very, very sorry for that, and just hope it won't happen a second time.I guess I have learned a great deal again about communication over the internet.

Benjamin the beauty is you learn everyday, and the most important one is to be patient and try to understandwhere everybody is coming form (different ages / cultures / native languages / etc...).Maybe the question was meant in another way as it sounds now ;-)Don't be offended when your question isn't understood as you intentionally meant...Try to learn from it, as for Flightsim and your time and learning capabilities you could tryto master one difficult aircraft with systems in steps.You will notice that once you are at that level of knowledge the learning curve for new aircraft will be far shorter.In that case you can enjoy your other aircraft in your limited time too.As suggested on line flying is a whole other dimension too, bottom line it's just what you're "mood" is at that particular time and just choose and enjoy you're flight(s).Have fun with that 747 ;-)Cheers,Andr

Take the 747 on a short hop. You can fly from say Rio to St. Maarten just to fly over the beach.

since you have so many options dont get overwelmed with what to choose. How I do it is I just pick a "type" of flying and concentrate on that for a while. Then I choose a different "type" of flying. For example, I had fun flyin the "frieght dogs" (highly rec this one), seat of your pants bush pilot stuff in Alaska in a Beaver for a while- very fun. Then I joined United VA and flew with them for a while in my B1900 hopping around with regional flights out of DEN. Then I spent some time flying Captin Sims F104, that was cool, even bought a few books on the plane to read up on this historic machine. So thats what I do. I have been flying FS9 since it came out, what 6 years ago? So like you and a lot of other people I have addad a bunch of planes and stuff over those six years. I have not touched some of my addons for months, but I'll get to them eventually. Usually I'll see a plane or an area of the world on tv or in a magazine and think, "hmm, that would be cool to fly there in that thing" and then I'll spend some time doing it, learn it (not an expert) , and then move on to some other thing that catches my interest.Some nights I drink beer, some nights whisky - its that simple.Try focusing on a type of flying then go through your vast supply of addons and make it happen for a while, then move on..

Thanks, I'll follow your advice and I'll see where it gets me. Probably, when I understand the 747, I'll notice that the 767, 757 and 737 will be already a lot easier, since it's mainly the FMC and A/P that eludes me (that is what I find so difficult with Airbus aircraft, anyway).Whiteknight: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it out!James: Sounds very sensible. Thanks! That's probably how I'll edn up doing it too, but thanks for sharing!I think I know enough by now :-P The thread ended up having its own "steep learning curve" :-P Now it's time to get that plane off the ground. Thanks to all that supported, advised or were otherwise involved.

Thralni,I would say that if you have too many planes to pick from then dedicate some time to just one and get as familiar with it as possible. Maybe if it is one that you have real-world time in, you can work on flying your local area. Pick an airframe and time frame of 1 month or more and fly just that plane by the numbers. If you are happy with everything else, I would ask what are you using for ATC? Radar Contact, ProFlight Emulator (PFE), VOXATC, VATSIM, etc... Or default ATC?I have been in the same mindset for a while and recognize that default ATC can wreck a good flight cause everything that is "perfect" to go to pits in a hurry.Keith

I actually desperately need to have better ATC. I have never been much of an online guy, and every online game I had eventually ended up not being played, and if I did play it, I chose the singleplayer mode. So, I'm a little reserved when it comes to VATSIM. I will follow up on people's advice reharding that, and I'll see how it is. However, I eventually plane to get Radar Contact. first, though, I think I should learn to fly my aircraft, before I spend another 38 euro and come to the conclusion that it's too much to learn all at once. My plan as it is now:PMDG 747 (printed out all tutorials, and it looks great. I can't wait until my vacation starts, so that I can start doing them :()Wilco A330-200/A340-300Other planes I really want to learn to fly: Wilco 737 PIC, Ariane 737-700, QW757 and LDS767. I suspect all of these will be a lot easier after I'm ready with the PMDG 747. Somewhere in between, I'll get Radar Contact and learn that, too. Now that I want to do flights with SIDs and STARs and all that, default ATC is nothing short of annoying (and I never understood why it always seems to want to fly a non-ILS approach, when there is the possibility for one...).