Many people play with different styles. I am wondering how everyone here plays FSX. Where do you usually fly?What plane do you usually fly?What airline do you fly?Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?What is the longest flight you have undertaken?What is the coolest place you have flown to?What is the most remote destination that you have flown to?Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Do you use time accelerator?What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising?Do you have a "home" airport?Tell us how you spend your time playing FSX.

I fly airliners exclusively, or at least have for the past several months. I try to stick to procedures fairly close but I wouldn't call myself hard core. Normal flights done correctly are what I'm after. I have all sorts of addons but have settled down to flying 757 and 767, 737-800, EJets and ERJs. I have been flying a couple of different MD80s lately and have Maddog installed. I will probably spend some time with that eventually, if I can get over the rendition of the VC.Atlanta to Moscow is the longest flight I can remember doing, in a 767. I only fly in real time. I like flying to / in different countries and also domestically in the US.

Fast GA (ES Cirrus, RealAir Duke, Lotus L39, Eaglesoft C750)VFR/IFR with and without charts.... use GPS tooPrefer to fly online but also fly default ATC often...

I don't "play" FSX, I fly planes in FSX. Even though it's fun, the word "play" just doesn't describe it.Dave

Where do you usually fly?Mostly in the US, Central America and Brasil. Although lately I have been flying in Europe a lot and have bought more sceneries for that region. I never used to fly in Europe much because I didn't want to spend as much time flight planning since in the US its really easy to grab a flight plan off of Flightaware, but I just found a site the other day that has loads of flight plans for airline flying in Europe, so it saves me a load of time.What plane do you usually fly?95% of the time the LDS 767, however once the PMDG NGX comes out it, I will fly it 99% of the time.What airline do you fly?Depends on where I am going and if I am taking screen shots to post. If no screen shots are planned no particular livery is required for me since I dont step out of the cockpit to look around.Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?I go thru check lists provided I have plenty of time. However I have flown the LDS 767 so much that I dont always refer to them like I would in real life since I cant kill myself. Plus I never PLAY FSX, I fly planes.What is the longest flight you have undertaken?KDFW to KMIA, then refueled and fly to Rio de Janeiro SBGL. I was copying a flight that I took in real life. I even used the same time, date, gates, flight plan, livery, and historical weather provided by ASE to duplicate it exactly.What is the coolest place you have flown to?Hard to say their all nice, but I have a fondness for FlyTampas Zurich and Geneva, Innsbruck and FSDT's KFLL. Plus I love flying in Brasil.What is the most remote destination that you have flown to?Iceland.Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Dont PLAY, but when I fly its solo.Do you use time accelerator?No, it messes things up sometimes in my sim with AI, LDS 767 navigation and weather updates.What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising?Not all at the same time but I browes the internet, eat, watch t.v., sleep, drink espressos, and sometimes have sex with my girlfriend if she is wearing her sexy flight attendant outfit. The later sometimes requires a holding pattern, lolDo you have a "home" airport?KDFW and it will be even better when FSDT releases theirs in the next few days I would guess.Regards

Where do you usually fly?I usually fly between large US hubs and holiday destinations in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. I also like South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and US airports with nice scenery. I usually choose my flights based on interesting weather and availability of add on scenery. I also some of the more mundane routes like LGA-DCA, LAS-SAN, DTW-BOS... What plane do you usually fly?Right now I am bouncing between the CLS MD80 and the QW 757. I also like the Quest Kodiak and the Aerosoft Twin Otter.What airline do you fly?I don't fly a specific airline. I fly what is appropriate for the flight I have chosen.Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?More casual but I do start cold and dark, file a flight plan, use AES...What is the longest flight you have undertaken?Probably Chicago - Tel Aviv or Hong Kong - Tel Aviv What is the coolest place you have flown to?MaldivesWhat is the most remote destination that you have flown to?Sometimes I like flying in Alaska, Yukon or Northwest Territories Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Solo free flightDo you use time accelerator?Rarely, but if I do, it is on very long flightsWhat do you do (in real life) while you are cruising?I usually leave the computer to do the regular stuff like surf the net, eat, drink beer, watch tv... On short flights (less than one hour) I stay at the controls.Do you have a "home" airport?Not really. I would fly out of DTW more often if I had scenery for it. I do fly in and out of Cancun, Curacao and San Juan quite a bit.

I fly GA more than anything...why? Because to me, an airliner is like a BUS! Point A to point B without any real excitement. GA is so much more involved with the pilot. The scenery today with ORBX and REX textures literally DEMAND that you look at it, absorb it, and communicate with it. You would miss all of this with heavy jet aircraft. Yes, you encounter challenging situations in a big jet, but you don't fly...in my opinion. I would never give up the ability to fly airliners in FSX, but for everyday excitement and seat of the pants flying, you can't beat the GA experience with the weather, scenery, and texture addons available to all of us. I don't fly above the weather...I fly in it!Stan

Where do you usually fly? I like to fly at airports nearby like KDCA, KIAD, KJYO, and KHEFWhat plane do you usually fly? Cessna 172 of course! :DWhat airline do you fly? If I'm flying an airliner it's usually United. I like how they perform there business, plus they've been a great partner of Boeing since it's start!Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually? It depends on how much time I have or if I feel like it, but I usually use checklists most of the time, and some kind of chart like an airport diagram, IAP, Departure plates, etcWhat is the longest flight you have undertaken? About 7 hours. It was very long so I left my plane on AP because I didn't feel like sitting behind the PC for that long, so I guess it kinda doesn't count. I want to try one of the pacific flights, but those are 14-18 hours which is pretty long, and I would have to plan well and depart on time or else if I went to bed and wanted to land in the morning my plane could be hundreds of miles past the airport or in the ocean if it ran out of fuel.What is the coolest place you have flown to? This is a hard one... I don't really remember all my flights to well, and there is no "coolest" place for me because each is unique, but I like British Colombia and Alaska a lot. I flew in BC, Canada when trying to sim bush flying, and I went from the East Coast USA to Alaska in a Mooney when I was trying to go around the word.What is the most remote destination that you have flown to? This is definitely an easy one. As soon as I reached Alaska in a Mooney flights became more spaced apart. Once I crossed the Bearing Strait into Siberia/Russia? I had to look really well for airports because some where literally 600-800nm for the nearest port, and you also have to look for one with fuel.Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM? I fly on gamespy most of the time and I also fly single player.Do you use time accelerator? Honestly, out of the 2 years I've played flight sim, I've used time accelerator about four or five times.What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising? Go outside and play some basketball with friends. Go jogging. Play soccer with some buddies. Sometimes watch TV, listen to music. If the flight is not to long or the scenery is worth it I'll cruise @ the PC if it's not too long.Do you have a "home" airport?KJYO :(

My play/sim style has changed so much over the years I can hardly keep track.From 1981 to 1989 it was a game. I remember being disapointed in an ils approach that the needles didn't guide me in from where ever I was-and asking a real pilot at my work what the deal was. I just expected that you tuned in the ils and no matter where you were-those needles would send you in to the runway lol.In 1989 when I started working on my ppl-the sim was used to reinforce every lesson I took.I would come home with my mind spinning-fire up the sim-and then reinforce what my lesson had tought.I overcame the "steering with the yoke" and not the feet in one day of practice on fs-likewise practiced all ppl maneuvers-s turns etc. with different winds on the sim. Very useful and saved me time and $$$.When I worked on my instrument rating-while in the plane-an ndb approach for instance had my mind spinning. My teacher would be telling me this and that and I'd be on overload. Then I'd come home and fly the same on the sim over and over-pause it, analyze it with the plot on fs, next time it would be a piece of cake-used the sim big time to reinforce for my ifr ticket.Then I started flying all over the United States-I'd use the sim to get the sense of terrain, landmarks, and even daily weather when rw downloads started-I still use the sim in that way though there are not anymore that many unfamiliar areas.Then when working on my commercial rating-it was chandelles, lazy 8's etc. Sure the sim wasn't perfect-but it aided greatly to my visualization-and saved me much time and $$$.Multi rating-did about 10x the engine cuts every day on the sim I did in a week in the real plane. Very helpful.So now-still use it to check out unfamiliar areas/airports. Download real weather to get a sense of daily weather patterns. Use active sky to download weather and re-live past flights. Practice almost daily engine outs in uncomfortable areas of flight for a twin. Fly a different instrument approach or two every night just to keep the rust off with rw downloads.I even used the sim recently to send SAR possible areas for a plane who crashed in hostile mountains in Montana a few months ago to help them with SAR efforts (it took them 3 days to find the plane). They were very interested in my plots. I had flown with the pilot right before the crash so I had a personal stake in helping.So lots of uses for fs.A game-just depends on how you use it. :(

Slightly off topic but was the aircraft that crashed a Seneca outside of Helena, MT?

Slightly off topic but was the aircraft that crashed a Seneca outside of Helena, MT?

Yes..

Ok I'm inWhere do you usually fly?Where I feel like at the time, but mostly in the US. Sometimes it's a requested flight from a youtube member for a video.What plane do you usually fly?Mostly Airliners, I try to use the type prototypical for the flight.What airline do you fly? One that is prototypical for the flight I'm flying.Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?Mostly casual, although I like to startup cold and dark.What is the longest flight you have undertaken?JFK to Hong Kong.What is the coolest place you have flown to?Too many to list.What is the most remote destination that you have flown to?Hong Kong I guess.Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Solo with ATC (Default modified with editvoicepack)Do you use time accelerator?On long flights but I have flown a few of them real time including the JFK to Hong Kong flight.What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising? Hard to answer as it varies. Sometimes just internet surfing.Do you have a "home" airport?Not really, but I do fly out of Orlando more often

Where do you usually fly?Orbx's PNW: I don't fly anywhere else, really...What plane do you usually fly?GA. Right now my default plane is the Carenado Bonanza (and yes, I really hope the upcoming SP3 will finally fix things!!!)What airline do you fly?None. (Used to fly FedEx when I was flying the PMDG MD-11.)Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?I start from a cold and dark cockpit, but do the minimum to get things started. For the MD-11 or similar planes that really needed some setting up to fire up, I always made a checklist with only the mandatory things: everything that I know was always right, I never felt the need to check (that's the advantage of playing a sim on a computer). For GA's I don't need a checklist anymore.I do set the radio frequencies manually, though, so not by simply pressing the number in the ATC window. So I do try to mimic real life procedures, or at least I try to (to me it's all about imaging I am really out there), but I am sure a real pilot will laugh at my efforts. :( What is the longest flight you have undertaken?Must be something like 2 hours... All I remember from it was that is was boring. I usually do very short flights (usually my maximum is half an hour up to 3/4 hour).What is the coolest place you have flown to?The Orbx addons airports for PNW.What is the most remote destination that you have flown to?I guess somewhere down under (where I flew before PNW was released).Do you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Solo.Do you use time accelerator?Rarely. Sometimes when a flight takes too long and I have to go away (or I am suddenly fed up with it) I might use time accel to quickly get to the airport, where I turn it off again and land. But normally I won't use it. I rather plan a short flight in that case than having to use time accel.What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising?Er... enjoy the scenery...? :( On longer flights I sometimes read a book, with the aircraft on autopilot, but I always stay in the VC and TrackIR still on. I don't like to leave the VC while flying, just like real pilots don't like to do that. That's also a reason why I don't make long flights: some people enjoy 6 hours flights but about 5 hours of that flight are spend shopping or mowing the lawn... I don't get that. Why not make short flights when you don't want to actually fly that long? I am really surprised at how many people in this topic say they fly in FSX while they actually do other stuff... :( You could also open the FSX map when you feel like 'doing something else' and drag the plane to the spot where you were planning to return to your plane: that's cheaper than leaving the computer running for hours in vain and you won't be surprised by lack of fuel or whatever... :(Anyway, I don't surf or do anything else while flying: I just fly! I mean, that's the whole idea of FSX, isn't it...? So why would you go do something else in 'real life'? I like to imagine the FSX world is my real life at that moment.Do you have a "home" airport?Not really. My default flights has me parked at Darrington, but I usually make flightplans from and towards other airports (I usually like to fly from and towards airports I don't know yet).

Where do you usually fly?Europe, North America, Australia. Anywhere I can get good scenery, really.What plane do you usually fly?Anything from the Cub to the Concorde. My favorite GA are the A2A Cub, Carenado 185, and Real Air Duke. Favorite airliners are the Leonardo Maddog and PMDG JS41. VRS Super Hornet and Lotussim L-39 are great, too.What airline do you fly?I try to find repaints that are authentic to the area and plane I'm flying.Do you go through checklists and mimic all real life procedures or do you play casually?Checklists and real-life procedures as far as possible. If I am short on time, I pick a simple plane to fly.What is the longest flight you have undertaken?Sydney - Los Angeles, in real time.What is the coolest place you have flown to?Bush flying in Tongass FjordsWhat is the most remote destination that you have flown to?Small airstrips in Papua New GuineaDo you play solo free flight or do you play on VATSIM?Both. I like Vatsim/IVAO, but often there is no coverage when I want to flyDo you use time accelerator?Sometimes, but I prefer real-time flights. What do you do (in real life) while you are cruising?Read email etc. on my second monitor. I try to avoid lengthy cruise segments.Do you have a "home" airport?EKCH

Anyway, I don't surf or do anything else while flying: I just fly! I mean, that's the whole idea of FSX, isn't it...? So why would you go do something else in 'real life'? I like to imagine the FSX world is my real life at that moment.

Northwest's airline pilots surf the web on lap tops while they fly. Although sometimes they miss their destination by a 150 miles or so :( Actually an ex coworker of mine is dating a guy who flys for American Eagle. He told me that on longs flights they take turns listening to their iPods and stuff like that. Not sure what Americans policy is, but that's what they do, just not at the same time.In all honesty though, when I am on a 2 hour or longer flight on an airliner, I can't make myself just sit and stare at the screen. Since I have another computer next to my FSX computer, its easy to browes or find something to occupy the time. I admit though that I prefer to keep my airliner flights to trips that are no longer than about 1.5 hours so I dont need to find time to occupy myself. If I am going to do a KLAX to KJFK run, I will break it into stops in Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, then New York.