These are the necessary steps I take to 'enjoy' a flight in the iFly 737 for example. Sound familiar?

Download current AIRAC from

Navigraph

and install it.

Decide when and where I will fly. Difficult when you have in excess of a hundred payware sceneries.

Bring up

VRoute Premium

and plan route. Download FS flight plan and that of iFly and suitably locate them.

Refer to Wiki airports to ascertain airline data ... hubs, airlines accommodated, destinations etc. and general info.

Run

End-It-All

to close down unwanted background tasks.

Run

CCleaner

to get rid of temp files and other clutter.

Start

ActiveSky 6.5

. Import FS flight plan. Note winds, temp, baro, winds aloft and temp. Note meteo at destination.

Through ActiveSky set

GE Pro

textures for flight.

Start

Track IR

Start

Radar Contact 4.3

. Import FS flight plan. Choose airline for flight.

Start

FS Real Time

Start Navigraph's

nDAC 3

software. Select departure airport. Look at airport chart for familiarity. Select appropriate SID for runway in use.

Start

SerialFP2

to initialise

VRinsight's Radio Stack

.

Start iFly configuration tool and adjust passenger/cargo load and transpose fuel data from VRoute Premium calculation. Edit selected livery to taste.

Start

SharpShooter 2007

, a screenshot capture program.

Start

Topcat

and program takeoff data.

Start

FS9

Run default flight.

Select iFly 737 model and appropriate livery.

Select airport and correct gate allocation for airline.

Cycle through views and adjust viewing angle and distances to taste. Save if necessary in

Active Camera

.

Resize windows in 2D view to suit

TripleHead2Go

.

Put on cap with TrackIR attachment.

Put on

Razor Barracuda HD-DAI

Surround Sound Headphones/Microphone

Turn on battery power.

Execute SerialFP2.

Execute Radar Contact 4.3

Connect FS Real Time

Execute either

FS2Crew Voice edition

or

Multi Crew Experience

on whim.

Execute

AES

And then get on with the flight.Is it any wonder many people prefer shooters? Start and run!

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by Appliance

I had a day off today and, seeing -15C outside, I planned to do some simflying.One of my two flights today was GWI757 LOWW-EDDK with AirSimmer A320.The flight itself was 1 hour 20 minutes (proudly managed to make it exactly as planned).Of course earlier I had to make a decision (never easy for me) and follow it the usual way, meaning in my case:- preparing, printing and studying necessary airport charts (LOWW, EDKK, EDLW alternate)- vRoute flightplanning and export (PDF, FS9, FSNav)- filling in my detailed flightplan form (I use a custom made one for my purposes)- fuel planning via AS Tablet PC- load, takeoff and landing calculations in TOPCAT- printing everything I need (loadsheet, fp form, route map)- loading fuel with Fuel Loader- downloading live weather via ActiveSky- launching the sim and of course the FSNav, moving map view of which goes to the other monitor- walking round the aircraft with ActiveCamera- making a longish preflight preparation with all normal checklists- pushing back for a long taxi to the departing runway (34!)- waiting until several departing and landing aircraft let me line upWell, all in all the whole preparation took definitely more than the flight itself. And I had two flights today (also EDDK-LFMN)!Sometimes I think my wife is the most understanding and loving creature on this planet. Thank you, my love...Is this masochism? Sort of, maybe. But so sweet! :(

I've gotten pretty good at importing plans through three mediums. Flightaware > Sim Routes > FMC Co RouteSo it goes something like:

• Weather check on ADDS (Aviation Digital Data Service)
• Flight Aware Recently Used Routes > Sim Routes > Export to PMDG Format (save it directly to the Flightplan folder)
• TOPCAT Calculations (unless I'm flying out of Charlotte or other familiar places)
• Start AS2012
• Start FSX, load NGX, load Co Route

The rest of the work is A/c prep and taxi. Takeoff, hand fly to 10,000', then let George have it while I do what I need to around the house, checking in every 15 minutes.To break the monotony, I like to take out the recip's. No punishment here, I treat myself when using my sim!

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by ZachLW

I have been thinking this for several years now, but I never had the time to make a list of all the procedures I had to execute just to get to the preflight briefing . . . :(

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by Chuck_B

Just prepping the Flight 1 C172 Skyhawk thrashes my brain into pulp !David

I have become way too lazy to load everything up each time. My sim runs of two networked machines and I keep them running all the time.Active Sky, FSreal time,wideclient, TOPCAT, IVAP,FSbuild,Fuel loader,Navigraph charts, on my networked PC. On my main machine, I have the aircraft sitting cold and dark at the gate until my next flight. Only time I restart the sim is to update the Nav database and reinstall scenery or give the machine a defrag every now and then.I just use my laptop connected to my TV for movies and music and Iphone for work and other stuff.It still takes me a good 20 minutes from preflight to the runway even with everything setup before hand! And I dont even get to fly much anymore. Probably spend more time fooling around with Xplane on my Iphone then actual flying in FS.Regards

Yes we are! Definitely!I say so for experiencing all the above and since last tuesday furthermore bought PFE to opt in on an alternative on Radar Contact 4.3!Now, talk about immersion! Even when combined with the Protu-154 - more bells, more whistles, more keyboard shortcuts! YIKES!

Another jolly variation on this 'startup everything for a sim session is this.Do as mentioned by orig poster , then get up to go to the fridge for those vital in-flight requirements I.E beer ,in the process knock keyboard onto floor, on contact with floor,magically hit key combination that ends flt and terminate's FS9 .This is a MOST joyful experience indeed.Andy

Or quite simply, once you have gone through the trouble of all the pre-flight/departure checks etc, your computer crashes and those 6 dreaded words pop up: MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR HAS STOPPED WORKING....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! :(

You guys are completely nuts. :Nerd:I decide where to fly, plan fuel, then set up the aircraft and leave.Charts I have on the desk and everything else is in the sim soI'm on my way in 15 minutes tops.Once underway I will usually plan the next flight a bit.Hmm ... guess I am nuts as well :(

guess I am nuts as well

You sure are! There are no normal people with more than 100 posts around here.

I'll just erase a 0 then (yes, post number 1000 who would've thought!)

I sometimes enjoy all the planning/setting up more than the flying :-) Although take off and landing are fun ;-)

This really highlights the range of sim enthusiasts that exist. At the other extreme perhaps is the load and go, get me in the air, buzz the airport type. And then everybody else in between. Freedom rings!No wonder there's sadness, anger, joy, and "can't wait" all brewing simultaneously over in the Flight forum.

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by sweetmusic

Steps:-Bring my Laptop to my flight station,-plug all hardware in,(not hard, everthitng mostly runs on a powered hub except for my yoke, so one plugin and its all good to go)-plan flight, usually go into flightaware for route and flight number,(I also make sure I go look for available scenery for my dep. and arr. Dont like flying default airports)-go to my 737 fuel planner and see how much fuel is needed,-open up config, set a random load, and load the appropriate fuel,-open up active sky and get my route setup in active sky,-open up track IR and get that going,-mount my fs9 disk 4 I made an image so i dont have to constatnly grab my cd.... by the way, is this allowed as it is MY original disk image, so I cant see why not.-open up game booster and launch fs9-setup at departure airport with the c172 and bring it to a cold and dark state,-switch aircraft to my usualy 737(only thing I have been flying for a long time)-get my Iphone and open up 2 pages in safari, one page with departure metar, the other page with the arrival metar( then i just hit refresh when i want an update)-get my Iphone again, and open up a few more pages with the charts im going to need available online.(now i just have to swipe left or right under safari to get all my info i need anytime Usally about 20 minutes I can get to checklist.NOW IM READY TO GO WITH MY FLIGHTWow, putting it into perspective, FS has got to go.................yea right!!!!!!!!!

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by flyinpilot212121