Help! Thinking of quitting Flight Sim!

[Benjamin J 751]

Yea i did, 7 weeks cause of exams! But after a while i get bored from it :(. What do you do to make it fun?

Yes, I know the feeling. I have had it several times and the result was that I didn't touch FS for at least half a year. However, I discovered what makes FS fun for me: having a goal. Without a goal, it's like you're doing nothing. So, I need to do actual flights. Just taking off at a random airport and looking at the scenery is something that bores me, but I can load up a full 747 and fly from Tel Aviv to Hong Kong, and I have done at least three transatlantic flights in the past three weeks. As long as I'm going somewhere, and doing it in a realistic plane, I have fun with FS. Usually I get the plane in the air, turn on the sound so that the rumble of the engines smothers out any other sound, and then I do homework, or read a book. The engine sounds sooth me and provide me a great environment for concentration and learning. And while I'm doing something useful, the plane approaches my destination.So in short, here's what i need:- A realistic plane (PMDG 747, LDS 767, PSS 777, also the QW757 is good for me)- A goal (a somewhat realistic destination, so I tend to fly flights that would be flown in real life)- Airport sceneries for departure and destination (I have become spoiler, so default airports don't do it for me no more)- a book or homework.

[OPS1 1]

Get yourself some good payware aircraft. If your system isnt good i reccomend the LEVELD767. Thats what i started off in. I had not a clue how to fly it. The FMC was too hard too work, i couldnt even start the engines. But i went on to youtube and watched some brilliant tuorials on how to fly it, and now its a piece of cake flying it. Also get some good scenery. Join VATSIM. you will not get bored of VATSIM, get Vroute Fuel Planner FsPassengers etc and its just like flying the real thing. It will take time though, as its a lot of new stuff to learn.

[Dave Morgan 68]

...I discovered what makes FS fun for me: having a goal. Without a goal, it's like you're doing nothing.

I agree. Fly around the world, a country at a time. Use an overall plan for the entire route, make a list of airports you want to visit each time you arrive in a new country then file a proper plan for each flight. Pick up scenery & liveries for each new country to fill your virtual world out as you go. Learn a new plane each time you cross a border. Do it online with real people when you can.Or...Add your own home-made scenery and airports. When they're done, upload them for the rest of us!Or...Download a boat, yacht, ship and mooch along the coast having a holiday.Or...Download a dirigible and see how dull even a short flight can be!Or...Share your PC with your kids. You'll never get bored- you won't get enough any stick time.Regards,D

[Captain_Barfbag 31]

All is not lost. I recently came back after about 8 years off.I switched to model railroading - not simming, real modeling, with glue, plastic, paint and all that. I still ran FS2002 for a while, and then we went to Hawaii. You know what they say about how the Volcano Goddess gives you bad luck if you bring back lava? Well, guess what my wife put in our bags. When we got home, we had a dead refrigerator full of rotten meat, and a crashed hard drive with a huge amount of scenery, aircraft and flight plans. I walked away and never even tried to get it back. It had just been too much effort.I discovered that I'm a Builder, when it came to the trains. I put stuff together, get it working, create scenery, but I hardly ever just "run" the trains. Feeling like I was spending too much time on one hobby, I bought FS9 and started up again.And y'know what? I'm a Builder. Within a few hours, I was downloading scenery and planes. I started re-learning AFCAD and TTOOLS. With my old computer (the same one, just a new disk) I've learned to avoid the frame-rate-gobbling stuff. But, I've already spent many more hours building the virtual world than I have flying in it.So, do you run FS9 right out of the box? Or have you looked for scenery for nearby airports and installed it? Does the ATC chatter include JetBlue and Southwest, or are you stuck with World Travel and Pacifica? Is Memphis just a collection of blue shoe boxes and a few random planes ambling around, or do you have the organized chaos of the FedEx hub? Did you know that Missionary Flights International flies relief supplies to poverty-stricken people in the Caribbean out of Fort Pierce, Florida, using DC-3s?The developers of the FS series have purposely given us an open architecture that we can build on. Go for it.

[TheBFG 1]

I found a great deal of entertainment from fseconomy. I highly recommend it, will get you hooked all over again.

[Chuck_B 2]

A bunch of great suggestions -- I've found realism and immersion are the secret to longevity in this hobby, and addon aircraft and scenery can be the key to that. And if you're looking for a "virtual purpose" with few restrictions on your style of flying, and a great place to learn about flight simming, check out our virtual airline. Best thing I've done since starting to sim:<< http://air-source.us/ >>

[kiwiflyer45 123]

:(

I agree. Fly around the world, a country at a time. Use an overall plan for the entire route, make a list of airports you want to visit each time you arrive in a new country then file a proper plan for each flight. Pick up scenery & liveries for each new country to fill your virtual world out as you go. Learn a new plane each time you cross a border. Do it online with real people when you can.Or...Add your own home-made scenery and airports. When they're done, upload them for the rest of us!Or...Download a boat, yacht, ship and mooch along the coast having a holiday.Or...Download a dirigible and see how dull even a short flight can be!Or...Share your PC with your kids. You'll never get bored- you won't get enough any stick time.Regards,D

:(

[kiwiflyer45 123]

All is not lost. I recently came back after about 8 years off.I switched to model railroading - not simming, real modeling, with glue, plastic, paint and all that. I still ran FS2002 for a while, and then we went to Hawaii. You know what they say about how the Volcano Goddess gives you bad luck if you bring back lava? Well, guess what my wife put in our bags. When we got home, we had a dead refrigerator full of rotten meat, and a crashed hard drive with a huge amount of scenery, aircraft and flight plans. I walked away and never even tried to get it back. It had just been too much effort.I discovered that I'm a Builder, when it came to the trains. I put stuff together, get it working, create scenery, but I hardly ever just "run" the trains. Feeling like I was spending too much time on one hobby, I bought FS9 and started up again.And y'know what? I'm a Builder. Within a few hours, I was downloading scenery and planes. I started re-learning AFCAD and TTOOLS. With my old computer (the same one, just a new disk) I've learned to avoid the frame-rate-gobbling stuff. But, I've already spent many more hours building the virtual world than I have flying in it.So, do you run FS9 right out of the box? Or have you looked for scenery for nearby airports and installed it? Does the ATC chatter include JetBlue and Southwest, or are you stuck with World Travel and Pacifica? Is Memphis just a collection of blue shoe boxes and a few random planes ambling around, or do you have the organized chaos of the FedEx hub? Did you know that Missionary Flights International flies relief supplies to poverty-stricken people in the Caribbean out of Fort Pierce, Florida, using DC-3s?The developers of the FS series have purposely given us an open architecture that we can build on. Go for it.

Excellent (and funny) points. (What else would I expect from someone with the screen name "Captain Barfbag?") :( Though I probably fly more than I 'build,' I often find myself diverging off the established track and having a blast modifying aircraft, doing some new AI paints, or modifying airports and then go flying and experience a whole new environment. I don't have any great PC skills but you can do wonders with many of the freeware products and I highly recommend Flight1's AFX and Instant Scenery. Using some freeware objects and modiying AI aircraft (or adapting non-AI by tweaking) I have recreated an entire Vietnam war era network of airfields with highly realistic period traffic, revetments and aircraft shelters, watch towers, etc etc - huge fun to fly into with the Cloud Nine F4E Phantom or Captain Sim's C130. I have literally given myself "goose bumps" watching a Pan Am 707 taking off from Danang with a bunch of virtual GI's and Marines going home, or an AC47 taking off at dusk to go do his "Puff the Magic Dragon" thing and save a virtual hamlet from being overun in the night. I have even created a couple of helo "adventures" by using AFX and Instant Scenery to place 'scenes' to which I can fly in a thunderstorm in the AlphaSim CH53 to pick up some wounded Marines or extract a downed pilot. There really are almost infinite ways of making FS9 "come alive" all over again.(No guys, I can't upload any of it - I have no idea where I got many of the objects or AI aircraft from and trying to get all the necessary permissions is more than I could handle) But I will post some screenies if you're interested. Okay, I talked myself into it - here's one! :(

[kiwiflyer45 123]

Danang, circa 1966. Cloud9 F4E in foreground, C142, C133 and C130's in the background, (mostly HTAI), repainted C130 in foreground, repainted F4's behind. (USAF and Marines) Out of sight are all kinds of goodies - O1 and O2 FAC aircraft, VNAF C47's and A-1s, etc. And lots of Vietnam era choppers arriving and departing courtesy of Flight1 Helo Traffic.The basic scenery was downloaded from AVSIM - "Indochina 1962" is the file name I believe, then I just modded it to suit my own fancy and FPS limits, including adding the later parallel runway so it could handle all the AI traffic I wanted coming and going. Was great fun to create and even greater fun to finally see it all onscreen and then start flying.

[Guest Flyboy78]

Flying offline with A.I. got boring quick. Once I decided to make the switch to VATSIM and 100% online flying, it got a lot more fun. Like the others said...goals, flightplanning, etc. Join a VA. Make up your own!

[out 769]

did you already try online flying ?

Absolutely! After you start thinking MFS brings you no more joy, do some professional flightplannig (this task itself makes me excited, lol). There are so many great tools now, some freeware. To mention just a few: FSNavigator, FSCommander, FSBuild, vroute, Plan-G, vDispatch. RouteFinder, etc...Next check VATSIM traffic with Servinfo ( http://www.avsim.com...o/downloads.htm ) and/or vroute ( http://www.vroute.ne...ent/view/79/52/ ) and have a look at the VATSIM calendar and website:- http://www.calsplus.net/vatsim- http://www.vatsim.net/Make your on-line flight! After the first VATSIM flight the difference for me (measured mainly with emotions, but really not only) was comparable to switching from FS98 to FS2004 (theoretically of course, I did go through all the versions between them). :smile:Additionally:- buy, and learn to details, a top notch aircraft (like already mentioned above), e.g. LH Maddog 2010, DA Fokker, PMDG 744/MD-11, Level-D 763 or iFly 737NG- get some great scenery- fly to different locations, don't stick to one just because, for example, YOU ARE FORM THERE- having no ideas for airports, plan a Round-World, or at least a Round-Continent tour with a few or even tens of flights- make a good map of the airports you have to find the one you feel like visiting today with just a glanceHere's an example of mine (Europe where I do most flights, I also have a global one) - the original version is larger, hanging on my wooden board with currently installed airports coloured with markers:PS: When it's printed on my board, I mark the AES-equipped ones green and pink for non-AESed- exercise procedures like ILS and VOR approaches, SIDs, STARs, missed approaches, etc. You will LOVE your skills when necessary one day- do something for the flying society (a scenery, a repaint, or just an AFCAD)- take some excellent screenshots, edit them a bit, choose the best ones and show them off- get FRAPS (or another tool), make an FS video you really like yourself and show it to the world via YouTube- improve your AI traffic by adding some more exotic but realistic airlines and aircraft (with TTools) in the places you fly- build a simple home cockpit for your flying - it will add more being-there feeling than you could dream- get a co-pilot to share your virtual flights

[Nandan Patel 10]

Hi all, I have flown on vatsim since 2008 and have accumulated a few hours on it (I think 500 or so) and also have lots of payware addons (scenery and planes alike). But it all seems repetitive, and autopilot all the time gets kinda boring don't ya reckon? I have also flown for virtual airlines and like flying payware birds such as PSS POSKY B772ER merge that i do for Singapore Virtual Airlines Group (http://singaporevirtualairlines.org/).I don't get that feeling i did anymore that i got when i was like 12 years old. 5 years later and i have lost the feeling, it feels like a waste of time...:Cry:Yea, that's the story...:Sigh:Thanks for the suggestions and keep em coming! Appreciate it...

[out 769]

But it all seems repetitive, and autopilot all the time gets kinda boring don't ya reckon?

Really? Then put your hands on Ready For Pushback 747-200 with CIVA or ProTu Tu-154M and tell us it's boring again! :wink:Or invest some money in one quality GA plane to prctice all possible manouvers and procedures 100% manually.

[jagabom 22]

Hi all, I have flown on vatsim since 2008 and have accumulated a few hours on it (I think 500 or so) and also have lots of payware addons (scenery and planes alike). But it all seems repetitive, and autopilot all the time gets kinda boring don't ya reckon? I have also flown for virtual airlines and like flying payware birds such as PSS POSKY B772ER merge that i do for Singapore Virtual Airlines Group (http://singaporevirtualairlines.org/).I don't get that feeling i did anymore that i got when i was like 12 years old. 5 years later and i have lost the feeling, it feels like a waste of time...:Cry:Yea, that's the story...:Sigh:Thanks for the suggestions and keep em coming! Appreciate it...

I know the feeling. Its just not there anymore. I like to work on my 77 Ford F150 more now. That is just the way it is.JimCYWG

[Captain_Barfbag 31]

<br />I don't get that feeling i did anymore that i got when i was like 12 years old. 5 years later and i have lost the feeling,

<br /><br /><br />Got room for some trains? When I got back into model railroading in my late 50's, I did get that "8-years-old again" feeling. It's great. And sometimes, it is indeed absence that makes the heart grow fonder. But, I can certainly appreciate that feeling, and the lack of it.You need a break. You're in too deep. It's not a job. You don't have to do it. Come back when you're ready. Having done that, I've been born again myself, and now it's the locomotives that are looking up and saying, "Why won't you play with me?"