Hi captain's :)I'm just curious: What is your favorite aircraft and where does your route take you? You operate most PAX or CARGO?My favorite is MD11F FedEx (FSX) and I often fly transatlantic routes. I usually stick in Europe and North America.Leave a comment please. Thanks :)

Most of my flying is in the uK, but I will go anywhere I can get good scenery.I have good scenery for the Canaries and the Balearics so go there frequently.Also use some of Blueskys stuff. Hawaii frequently in FS9, but I'm starting to use his FSX stuff now, so its of to Southern California.IAN

My favorite aircraft is the Carenado Bonanza and I am currently exploring the fabulous RockyMountains North scenery by Orbx..

I like flying classic medium sized jetliners and freighters, and larger turboprop liners and freighters. I especially like high wing aircraft. BAe 146-300 and 146-300QT, DC-9, 727, 737-200, ATR-72, DASH-8, Fokker F-27, Shorts 360 are my current favorites. I like to fly mostly short hops in the UK, especially Scotland. I mostly enjoy the takeoff, climb, descent, and landing. Cruising is kind of boring. Most of the time lately I've just been flying between Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, and Edinburgh. I sometimes go to Iceland for the heck of it, usually in the 146-300QT. I love that plane!

Anything in the US, mainly on vatsim, and only GA aircraft.

PNW - exploring Orcas at the moment. Bird Dog and Dodo Bell Ranger.

Recently I've been chugging around Aerosoft's Madeira in the Flight1 BN-2 Islander, with weather courtesy of ASE and FEX.Brilliant scenery, and my favourite FSX plane at present. Ian

What I tend to do is let the sim take me places through a variety of methods. That's actually one of the reasons why I rate Just Flight's Air Hauler so much, because it can facilitate that voyage of discovery with the jobs it generates. So what I will do is have some initial bases of operation with good scenery, but then fly jobs from those places to locations that I've literally never been before or don't know much about. With that in mind, I have FS Flight Keeper's ACARS with the moving map in my aircraft cockpits so that I can learn the name of any place I am flying over, which I find interesting and educational. Sometimes I will then read up on one of those places and maybe see if there is some airport scenery for it and then carry on that voyage of discovery from there.That's actually how I ended up with the logo for my virtual cargo airline (Atlantic Bridge), which is actually the old seal of the Russian Muscovy Company, which commenced trade with England and Scotland in the 16th century after the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands chanced upon Archangel when trying to discover a new sailing trade route to China from Britain, which is a bit like an ancient version of what I do in Air Hauler with MSFS, so I thought it was quite appropriate. I didn't know all that about that trade history, it was literally a pure chance that I flew a cargo flight to Archangelsk and read up a bit about the place, then I found some scenery for Archangel and stuck a cargo base there.Naturally enough, doing that sort of thing means I'm usually flying big airliners which are suitable for cargo, but there are occasions where a runway might not be of a suitable length to allow that, in which case the good old DC-3, C-123, Twin Otter or some such might get an outing. Recently I've been forcing myself to use FBW Airbuses in spite of the fact that I personally prefer clunky old Boeings, simply because it is interesting to know about how those fancy FBW aeroplanes actually work. Lots of go-arounds have ensued as I've stuffed things up on approach, but it's all good fun. Another thing I have planned is to use several of the fancy payware helicopters I have and try some of that stuff for a while.One of the other things I do is let the products I review for Avsim dictate what happens. Theoretically, as an Avsim reviewer, you can 'bid' on the chance to review any product that has been submitted for review, and I do sometimes do that, but quite often I will simply say to the Robert, the reviews editor, 'send me the thing that nobody else wants to do, the one that's been sat there with nobody bidding to review it', which of course can set me off on a voyage of discovery again as I research whatever it is I end up with. Sometimes that might be make me think, 'oh god, I'm not interested in that at all', but what usually happens is that it ends up being quite educational and fun to find out about something you would never normally have considered investigating.An example of that would be when reviewing the Simcheck A300. The A300 is not an aircraft I was especially interested in, but I got the chance to review it and so I had to learn about it. I bought a used real flight manual for the thing off the internet and some books about the development of Airbus Industrie, and I contacted EADS for some info about the development of the A300's systems. Then I had to learn about the INS navigation system it used and how that combined with its early attempt at a flight computer, so I read a book about that and did some research on it. At the start that seemed like it would be a bit of a chore, but it actually turned out to be really rather an interesting project to educate myself about all that stuff. That's happened with a number of aircraft I've reviewed for Avsim over the years, from the Piper Cub to the Messerchmitt 262, and it's always a fascinating thing to do.It's the great thing about MS Flight Simulator and all the things you can get for it, which can be a fantastic springboard for learning about subjects you would probably otherwise have known nothing about.Al

My 727 takes me everywhere in Central and Western Europe and the UK. Primarily, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

at first the 787 for various airlines taking me from the US and the Caribbean to Asia pacific, but now im flying the A330-300 for china eastern and Cathay Pacific in china and hong kong to other places in asia

99% of my time is in "heavy iron" with much of that being:PMDG MD-11LDS 767QW 757This involves going to and from North America and Hawaii, Asia, South America or Europe (wish there was a good FSX OMDB so I could go there). My destinations predicate entirely on availability of quality add-on airports, primarily from the following developers/publishers:FSDreamTeamAerosoft (various developers)FlyTampaImagineSimBluePrintLatinVFRI will occasionally fly the PMDG J41 when pressed for time.I've tried, ever so hard, over the years to get along with the Wilco/FT stuff, but it leaves me cold. So, EAGERLY await the PMDG 737NGX. I anticipate many within-North America, Europe and Asia flights at the time. This is nice because most of my flights involve: and hour of planning and setup, take up and climb to altitude, go to bed, wake up, prepare for landing and landing. Then, I'm off with the rest of my day. I'd fly the PMDG 744 more often if I didn't have to be present for the step climb. I realize I don't have to do long haul with these aircraft, but I'm one of those that gets "hung up" on the mission profile of the real aircraft and the airports/markets that they would typically serve in reality.I hope that DA/Aerosoft CRJ will be great so that I can fill that niche - the other alternatives are not adequate.Great question! I'm sure the variety of answers reflects the awesome capabilities and scale of FSX - it can accommodate the long-haulers, the gliders and everything in-between. I've been paying attention to Prepar3D and its inclusion of nautical elements and I'm continually impressed with the sim engine that ACES made. The dev team for Flight has BIG SHOES to fill and could easily ruin the dynasty if they muck it up.

Thanks for many and very interesting replies. It was more varied than i thought. Alot of interesting input, I think now I need to install my Air Hauler again. Almost forgot about it. I too look foward to the PMDG 737. Another aircraft I look foward to is the 777 from PMDG that they are working on (or am I mistaken?)The A300 from SimCheck tempts me very mutch. And I try every now and then to do a proper approach and landing in Innsbruck with low visibility (havent been able to make it perfect yet)Please keep the replies coming. its very fun reading:)Thanks

What I tend to do is let the sim take me places through a variety of methods. That's actually one of the reasons why I rate Just Flight's Air Hauler so much, because it can facilitate that voyage of discovery with the jobs it generates. So what I will do is have some initial bases of operation with good scenery, but then fly jobs from those places to locations that I've literally never been before or don't know much about. With that in mind, I have FS Flight Keeper's ACARS with the moving map in my aircraft cockpits so that I can learn the name of any place I am flying over, which I find interesting and educational. Sometimes I will then read up on one of those places and maybe see if there is some airport scenery for it and then carry on that voyage of discovery from there.That's actually how I ended up with the logo for my virtual cargo airline (Atlantic Bridge), which is actually the old seal of the Russian Muscovy Company, which commenced trade with England and Scotland in the 16th century after the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands chanced upon Archangel when trying to discover a new sailing trade route to China from Britain, which is a bit like an ancient version of what I do in Air Hauler with MSFS, so I thought it was quite appropriate. I didn't know all that about that trade history, it was literally a pure chance that I flew a cargo flight to Archangelsk and read up a bit about the place, then I found some scenery for Archangel and stuck a cargo base there.Naturally enough, doing that sort of thing means I'm usually flying big airliners which are suitable for cargo, but there are occasions where a runway might not be of a suitable length to allow that, in which case the good old DC-3, C-123, Twin Otter or some such might get an outing. Recently I've been forcing myself to use FBW Airbuses in spite of the fact that I personally prefer clunky old Boeings, simply because it is interesting to know about how those fancy FBW aeroplanes actually work. Lots of go-arounds have ensued as I've stuffed things up on approach, but it's all good fun. Another thing I have planned is to use several of the fancy payware helicopters I have and try some of that stuff for a while.One of the other things I do is let the products I review for Avsim dictate what happens. Theoretically, as an Avsim reviewer, you can 'bid' on the chance to review any product that has been submitted for review, and I do sometimes do that, but quite often I will simply say to the Robert, the reviews editor, 'send me the thing that nobody else wants to do, the one that's been sat there with nobody bidding to review it', which of course can set me off on a voyage of discovery again as I research whatever it is I end up with. Sometimes that might be make me think, 'oh god, I'm not interested in that at all', but what usually happens is that it ends up being quite educational and fun to find out about something you would never normally have considered investigating.An example of that would be when reviewing the Simcheck A300. The A300 is not an aircraft I was especially interested in, but I got the chance to review it and so I had to learn about it. I bought a used real flight manual for the thing off the internet and some books about the development of Airbus Industrie, and I contacted EADS for some info about the development of the A300's systems. Then I had to learn about the INS navigation system it used and how that combined with its early attempt at a flight computer, so I read a book about that and did some research on it. At the start that seemed like it would be a bit of a chore, but it actually turned out to be really rather an interesting project to educate myself about all that stuff. That's happened with a number of aircraft I've reviewed for Avsim over the years, from the Piper Cub to the Messerchmitt 262, and it's always a fascinating thing to do.It's the great thing about MS Flight Simulator and all the things you can get for it, which can be a fantastic springboard for learning about subjects you would probably otherwise have known nothing about.Al

The Simcheck A300 seems fantastic, and i like to learn about the INS system. I have a question for you, do you also try the aircraft you review out in emergency, say loss of hydraulic, cabin-pressure or generator power. Or even an total engine failure?It seems to me that this isn't something most of the reviewers write about. I haven't read all of the reviews out there so maybe I'm wrong, but it would be a nice touch to also try- at least some of the big complex aircraft that have complex systems, to see how the response is and how each aircraft handles. This is no criticism of you or the other reviewers at any way because the reviews i read is very good and detailed, its more of a forgotten point that actually is very essential in aviation. And emergencies do happen from time to time. Thanks Al, very nice written :)Kjetil

I've tried, ever so hard, over the years to get along with the Wilco/FT stuff, but it leaves me cold. So, EAGERLY await the PMDG 737NGX. I anticipate many within-North America, Europe and Asia flights at the time. This is nice because most of my flights involve: and hour of planning and setup, take up and climb to altitude, go to bed, wake up, prepare for landing and landing. Then, I'm off with the rest of my day. I'd fly the PMDG 744 more often if I didn't have to be present for the step climb. I realize I don't have to do long haul with these aircraft, but I'm one of those that gets "hung up" on the mission profile of the real aircraft and the airports/markets that they would typically serve in reality.

I hear you. I also like to do the flight's the widebody's are really built to do, but t it's not everywhere. Domestic flight's in Japan is very often B747, B767 and A330. And very often it's not that much more than an hour or so. I was watching a DVD i have about the boeing's buildup for the production of the 747 in Everett outside Seattle. The father himself (Malcom Stamper) of the 747 explained that after a while the Japanese got 747's custom built for short flight's, wich included a rework of the flaps and adjustment of the landing gear and they removed the center fueltank, maybe they did some more details.So I sometimes use 747 within Japan or between Japan and Taiwan.Just an idea :)

That would be the 747-400D. Aerosim make one for FSX, but you'll need to add ISG gauges if you want it to be realistic and have a proper FMC, which is actually what I did with it. Bit pricey, but it is a nice model: http://www.aerosim.co.jp/eigo/a-product_e/fsx_e/b747400fsx_e/b747400fsx_e.htmlAl