Recently I have been flying long flights in my PMDG737 of up to around 3000 miles. I get it ready, fired up, take off and get to cruise altitude... on my next ATC hand off I dont go to new station. Then using the FMC on the plane it gives me a time to descent, so I plan my movies along with that :)This is what I got Netflix for afterall LOLReal long flights involve a movie, food then another movie then back to work to head to destination.I have my notebook setup wireless with Nav3.0 over WideFS so I can monitor the flight from where ever I am in the house, check back about once an hour etc...-Jonathan

>>My family thinks I am nuts when I get up in the middle of the>nightMe too :-lolI also prefer real time flights and that's why it's mostly short hops in planes like the Dash 8 or PMDG's Beech 1900.Occassionally I'll load up a big iron flight and let it run for a few hours, but not too often. I think the longest realtime flight I've ever done is maybe a couple of hours in the DF Archer. Then I'm cross checking bearings on my charts, playing with my E6B, etc.I'm not averse to speeding up the sim too if I'm on a long leg, but it isn't quite as satisfying.BlairCYOW

"have a brew". Hey Bob isn't it illegal by international law to drink while in "PF" mode.............LMAO!!!! I agree with you though about the family thinking your nuts. The same goes for me. My immediate family and inlaws all laugh when I attempt to explain spending even 2 or 3 hours of real time flying! They should get a life...LOL! Regards,Tom

This is what I do.On long-haul flights I do it all in normal time. If I get bored, I save the flight and continue it at my leisure. That way it's the same as if I'd flown it non-stop from start to finish. So, if any of you see an aicraft hovering in mid-atlantic, with the passengers banging on the windows as you go by, please don't worry. they will get there eventually.It's all about enjoying flying, that is paramount. To spend all your leisure time doing it, is a marriage wrecker and none of us, want to go down that road, do we?As for the people that have a flight-deck within one of their rooms? (Don't we all envy them ha ha?) the mind boggles but, each to their own.Dave.If it burns Kerosene and makes a noise, I'm interested.

Can you tell me where to find the program that pauses the sim? I use Radar Contact to pause the sim, but there are times when I'm not using Radar Contact and I would like to have the sim pause while I'm away.Thanks,Bruce

Rudi, how in the world do you do this?! (I'm so envious.)Whenever I toggle to another program while I'm in-flight, FS9 pauses the flight. So I can't ever leave the active FS9 screen. I would LOVE to be able to surf the Net, or do work on the computer while I'm level at flight level three-zero, but then it pauses my flight, and I don't want to interrupt my progress. (After all, the most fun part of flying is taking off and landing!)Is this a setting somewhere?Thanks.

Uncheck the "pause on task switch" box in the general settings.BlairCYOW

>So, if any of you see an aicraft hovering in>mid-atlantic, with the passengers banging on the windows as>you go by, please don't worry. they will get there>eventually.ROTFLMAO! That is so funny, Dave!Let's see, guys, here's my answer to the question. First off, I'm really glad this question was asked because I've been wondering the same thing.I like to do my flights in real time also, but I keep them short, 2 hours max. If they get much longer than that, I 4x it. But then I feel even more pressured to stay at the computer, because the ATC transfers come even faster. I really do like the feel of real-time, but when you're up in the stratosphere and there's nothing going on, it gets boring pretty fast. My favorite and most common flights are short hops in a 737 painted in a livery that seems to fit my mood at the time.What do I do at cruise level? I start out toggling between all my views. I check out the scenery, admire the clouds, rotate the spot camera in-flight and admire the airplane, sometimes I even try to sit right in the contrail. Then I toggle back to the cockpit and do my instrument scans. When I get bored with that, I read, eat dinner, or surf the Net a little bit with the the cool VPN browser-in-kneeboard tool available here at AVSIM. (Forget the author's name at the moment, but a big thank you to him!) I'm slowly working my way through the "Hoppin' Round The World" flight plans (also way cool), and when I get to cruise level, I like to pull out an atlas and check out where I came from and where I'm going, and compare the map to what I see out the window. (I'm learning a lot of geography this way!) Sometimes I even go to the Net and look up tourist information about my destination city if I can find it. One idea I've had with the HRW flights is to write a short story for each leg, sort of a fictional diary of some dashing hero who's flying it. I think it would be so cool to have a "literary soundtrack" as it were for an around-the-world flight, full of danger, intrigue, and romance, with each story flavored with the culture and feel of the area it happens to occur in. But I've never actually taken the time to do it.And Dave is right, too much flight simming is a marriage wrecker. It's really frustrating trying to line up for approach in a busy airspace and keep track of ATC's instructions when the head flight attendant is barking about you not finishing your part of the tax return yet. (HEY! How realistic can flight simming get?!) :-)

Awesome, thank you!

I don't often do long flights. Seems pointless to me <---my opinionComputer games/sims are entertainmnet, they're supposed to be entertaining. If it's so boring that I have to leave the computer and do something else, then there really is no point in doing it at all. If I'm going to have the computer on, cauing wear and tear on the components and using electricity, I'd rather run SETI or help find a cure for cancer.There are some more "adventurous" long flights that I want to try. I tried for a RTW flight with the Baron back in FS2002, but I didn't get very far because it became boring. I was too lazy to properly plan the flight so I just created Point A-> Point B GPS flightplans and left it on auto - very boring. Also, the generic scenery in FS for most of the world, mean such flights aren't very rewarding.One flight which I'm thinking about doing this summer, is a tour of the US. I'd get FScene, and good mesh+landclass first to make it more enjoyable. I'd fly from Seattle down the entire coast, then fly across to the east coast. I want to use either a small ultralight/trike or an old biplane, ideally not using autopilot or GPS at all. Will see if I get myself to it or not, and if I can get all the needed maps and charts.

I'm on one of those flights around the US. Started at Miegs and my FP has me going to every Capital city in each state as well as all major landmarks, Class B airports etc. I'm about half way thru it and started with my first flight of FS9. I fly all the small stuff and VFR. Did my tour of the grrand cayon in the robinson. every once and a while will do a lear flight but fly most flights less than 1 hour legs. One thing thats nice is having GS traffic at all these little uncontrolled fields even some doing T&G's. After I complete this tour then I'm going to start doing the histortical flights. If you want I can attach my flight plan. Its 12500nm with I dont even know how many waypoints.

This is a great thread and very illuminating on how we all see/use our hobby.Just reading some of the posts has had me in stiches!!Its the element of surprise that this sim throws at you that makes it for me. I recall my first 'news' trip (see earlier post in this thread) to Maderia, where I had never been to. Well the approach is terrifying and awesome, so I immediatly save the flight at this realisation point, and may even walk away from it till I have more solo time to concentrate on the sim.My success criteria is simple. Have I survived!! Have I landed these terrified passengers on the runway and safely taxied to gate. This is what makes for me the point of long/short flights. Lets face it the take off is the easier bit, the navigation is relativly straightforward, from flight plan, and keeping the speed limits is possible. Its the arrival, and whatever weather, AI, ATC that is waiting for me. Soemtimes the AI aircraft have drunken idiots flying them, sometime the ATC is on another planet, and altogether a possibly fair reflection of 'as real as it gets'. We all do our thing, and that shows the versitility and amazing complexities of this sim.I also do all the real world flights I am going on, or have been on in the aircraft I was a passenger in. It is uncanny, you can see on the sim, the flight time mirror the real world flight time.Importantly we are all still sim flying, and long may it continue.

How do you do this? I've tried and tried and every time I get sentto the airport I started at. Can you "walk me" through this? I amusing FS2002.Thanks>You can also lose the flight plan, allowing it to cancel, and>then use option to create flight plan again, but DO NOT go to>airport, just stay where you are and the plan will work itself>out again but from wherever you are.>>I do this on long flights so that I have proper(?) ATC>approaches and landings.

Ok I am using 2004, so this may not work in 2002.If you allow the flight plan to cancel, it reverts to standard next ATC checkpoint. There is also an option at start of onscreen menu to create/open a flight plan. At this point select this, it asks if you wish to save over the original, say yes to this. It is the same flight plan you originally made!Here is the crucial bit...Say NO to the next option, which is do you wish to go to selected airport. By saying no, you drop into wherever you currently are! Then ask for IFR approval (on menu). You are now back in ATC loop all the way home with full approach instructions.As I said, this may only work in 2004, as I only started doing this in this version.

Ronald,Thanks for the instructions on how to revert back to IFR flight.Unfortunately, those options are not available in FS2002. Bummer.Thanks,Luis