My PMDG collection (as soon as I get the extended downloads) consists of the NGX, Queen X, and MD11, and I was wondering what realistic flights, much shorter than the average for all three of these?Patrick Boynton

The NGX is a short-medium haul aircraft (Phoenix-Nashville). Flights are about maybe 3-4 hours.The Queen is long-haul. Flights are in the 10+ hour range (Sydney-LAX or Detroit-Tokyo (Delta)). Not economical for short flights.The MD-11 is also long haul. I use her for flights across the country (JFK-LAX). I think you can also get her to fly short flights.

Let's see:737NGX:Los Angeles International (LAX) to Los Vegas' McCarran International (LAS)Salt Lake City (SLC) to Jackson Hole, WY (KJAC)Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Houston (IAH) 747-400:Tokyo-Narita (NRT) to Sapporo, JapanTokyo-Narita(NRT) to Hong Kong (HKG) [you could also pretend you're pre-1999 and fly into Kai Tak for a big challenge.MD-11:Taipei (TPE) to Hong Kong (HKG)All above are real-world.

Where do you prefer to fly? All continents have all kinds of routes for the NGX, both realistic and fictional, that work really well.If like you say, you want shorter than realistic routes, then for the 747 and MD11 you could look at routes that are very busy but closer together, if you want to remain realistic. Airlines will sometimes put aircraft on a non-conventional route to alleviate pressure, à la Hawaiian airlines using a 767 throughout the Islands when ATA and Aloha closed a few years back. Some ones I'd look at:Anchorage - SeattleDallas-Forth Worth - Los AngelesNew York - Sint Maarten (TNCM)London - RomeSydney - AucklandAlso, as a tip, when I'm planning routes for my VA, what I tend to do is find out how long I want a route to last, then I use a standard 400kts as the average groundspeed for a turbofan aircraft and plug in a radius around the departure airport on www.gcmap.com, like this:Then you can visualize how far you can fly in your allotted time period. I plugged in 1500NM around Tulsa and plotted a couple of destinations, so you can see how I did it:http://www.gcmap.com...=400&SU=ktsJust change the ICAO from KTUL in range, to wherever you want to start from and use about 400NM per hour as your rough guestimate. You'll soon find all sorts of awesome routes.

Some nice short hops with a good Westjunk/Canadian bias:CYYC - CYLW - 40 minutes to a hourCYVR - CYLW - SameCYEG - CYQU - 45 minutesCYYC - CYEG - Very quickBasically anything around the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle goes by pretty quick. I myself typically do something like start in YYC (Calgary), rip up to YEG (Edmonchuk), followed up by something to YQU (Grande Prairie) or YZF (Yellowknife). Mix up where you start from too...can go YVR-YLW-YYC as well.Paul's got a great idea up above there as well. Choose a suitable home airport (your own or whatever) and see where you can rip to in your desired length. If you're looking for realism, take you results and plug them into flightaware...see if the correct equipment you're simming operates said route and go nuts!

For the Queen there is a very short real world flight done by BA and that's London Heathrow (EGLL) to Cardiff (EGFF). Cardiff is where the major BA 747 and 777 maintenance is done. I guess the distance can't be much more than just over 100NM's. Of course there is also the return flight. It's an ideal flight to hand fly all the way.

Or the Queen, flying from Madrid-Copenhagen, the Company called Pullmann, they fly this forth and back every summer with Cruise guests. :-)

I think the shortest B747 I know, isTobago [Crown Point] - Grenada [south Caribbean] by Virgin Atlantic on a complete rotation of EGKK-TTCP-TGPY-TTCP-EGKK.Also for maintenance British Airways fly all their Boeing aircraft from Heathrow to Cardiff.Now there is a short flight!

BA use the 777/747-400 Bahrain to Doha (OBBI-OTBD-OBBI) around 80 miles, block time is 20 minutes and crz is around FL140/FL150MD11F and 744F have a huge amount of routes under 200nm in the real world and you can find a lot of shorthaul 744 routes.Another BA 744 route is Kingston/Montego bay Jamaica. Pretty sure it's less the 100nm I used to fly that a lot when I was younger with British Caledonian on the 747-200Not sure why some simmers created the myth that heavys are not used for shorthaul. When I fly the 744 to Doha the aircraft is packed. Qatar airways operates four A330 aircraft on this route everyday.The shortest flight I know of is OBBI - OEDF. Gulf air used to operate an A340-300 trip is 60 miles!

I remember that route Kingston to Montego Bay with Air Canada 747-400 back in the days when fuel cost were lower.

London to Paris and back?Each has three or more international airports, and many minor ones. Congested airspace! Loads of traffic. Loads of SIDs and STARs to chose from. Restrictions and constraints galore that you can follow or ignore as you wish. Almost 24/7 coverage on VATSIM if you like to fly online.How about Biggin Hill to Le Bourget in a gulfstream? Or LFPA Persan Beaumont to EGSX North Weald in the default C172 VFR (though Carenado 206 IFR in filthy weather is much more fun).RyanAir 737 Stanstead to Beauvais?BA747 Charles de Gaulle to Heathrow ?FEDEX MD-11 Gatwick to Orly?There are loads of options and loads of variety. Explore and enjoy.

It all depends on the company procedures. The 737 is very common for short flights, for example SAS uses them as short haul aircraft where the airplane just barely is able to reach the cruise before it starts descending. The 737 is also very good for medium flight which are 2-5 hours long.With the MD11 you can fly all types. The aircraft is capable of long haul but it differs from company to company. Fed ex (the largest owned of the MD11) uses them a lot for medium to short haul traffic just because it is so big. The MD11 basically flies to every major city starting from Memphis.

You could fly YSSY-YMML (Sydney-Melbourne) in a 747, which is about 1.5 hours - United flies this. This flight is the domestic leg of journeys like YMML-YSSY-KLAX. Also, you can do YSSY-YSCB (Sydney-Canberra) in the NGX, this is about 55 minutes- Qantas does this with 737-800's.

I got the simmer sky japanese airports and really wanted to recreate some high density in house flights. They are nice and short and in the 80-90's japanese and chinese carriers used large AC for these routes. My favourite is the golden route, taipei-Hong kong.Alan

The 736/7 is good between Ibiza (LEIB) and Barcelona ((LEBL) flight time about 1 hour you can also substitute Menorca (LEMH) and Majorca (LEPA. Similar flight is Faro ((LPFR) to Gibraltar (LXGB) no ILS and tricky approach remaining clear of Spanish airspace. Athens (LGAV) to any of the Islands Corfu (LGKR) or Santorini (LGSR). Vienna (LOWW) to Geneva (LSGG) or Innsbruck (LOWI) are good sometimes challenging approaches if the weather is bad. All of these destinations are supported by good scenery that doesn't kill your frame rates. All of these destinations are serviced by the 737 fleets.