I am considering doing that too: pick a home base and then fly in the area, leaving the plane where I left it (cold and dark) and also take off from there again. Sometimes wander off far away but making sure that after some time I will get home again. Sure makes it even more realistic!

 

It certainly adds to the immersion. :wink2:

 

I had planned to fly from Unalakleet originally (watched too much Flying Wild Alaska, I guess) but Homer is turning out to be a good choice. Kenai might have been a better hub, as there really isn't much of anything to the south-east of Homer. Kenai is also better situated for flying mountain passes, which is a lot of fun. Would have to spend less time over-water, also...

 

I may have to check on hangar-space up there.

 

My only problem could be the length of some jobs... Some airports don't offer jobs below 200 nm... and for me 80 to 100 is the max. I like 40 to 70 most.

 

One of the reasons I may look for a Job at a nearby airport is to find something about the right distance for the time I have available that evening. And I usually do fly over to the other field first, before starting the Job, unless I'm really pressed for time.

 

I prefer about 100nm but I will do longer ones, time permitting. I rarely take the ones over 200nm during the week, but I often have more time on the weekends. I figure if something comes up and I just have to finish the flight "right now" I can always hit the "Skip" button. Hasn't happened yet, though. <_<

It's kind of fun flying whatever jobs are available at the airport you're at, and only refueling if there is fuel available at that airport. If I don't like the jobs where I am, I'll check the jobs at nearby fields and fly there if necessary to get the job. Sometimes I fly without a job... was very low on fuel at Elim today and had to fly to Unalakleet to refuel without a job... had 4.1 gallons total when I landed (3 gallon reserve, so 1.1 gallons). I wouldn't have made it to Nome.

 

I spend a lot of time flying overloaded in the Maule.

 

Hook

And I usually do fly over to the other field first, before starting the Job, unless I'm really pressed for time.

 

If I don't like the jobs where I am, I'll check the jobs at nearby fields and fly there if necessary to get the job.

 

Aren't those jobs gone by the time you get there? Whenever I find a job I like I don't dare to leave the job board anymore because every now and then jobs seem to be gone suddenly.

 

Thanks for the Kenai tip.

Should be fun landing one of those on some of the small 1800 ft, by 30 ft wide strips.

I think so too! Or are you just being sarcastic?

Ofcourse some airports or landingstrips arent big enough for a bigger sized cargo/passenger plane, but I am really looking forward to the challenge of those kind of landings.

Aren't those jobs gone by the time you get there?

 

I've never seen the jobs change unless I changed something else, like the date, time, season, maybe even the weather.

 

Hook

The Jobs change by calendar date in the game, I thought. Not sure if anything else changes it. If you accept a Job, that Job is no longer available if you cancel it and try to go back to it again, but I never paid any attention to whether or not that also triggers a reset of the other available Jobs.

 

Jeroen, go pick us out a hangar at Kenai. I'll move up there and share it with you!

My time is limited too. So mainly discovering Alaska by jumping from one airport to the other. A daily 30 min fun. I do use exclusively the RV6 , Had a lot of fun with the Icon in the beta anyway. All other planes are not even looked on in the hangar. In the last weeks I startet to play a bit with prop settings as described in a very nice thread here. In addition I try to land the RV at higher speeds on longer runways. I take this as a practice for hopefully soon coming bigger and faster planes. I won't neither buy nor use any cockpitless plane or taildragger anymore. Flight is really great. Especially for me who has been always temptated by MSFS or other sims. I started with Flight and it was perfect for me. I like the approach of it being a game with some sim add ons. In fact it is attracting a larger audience (take myself as example) Problem is that now I would like to have more. More in terms of aircraft and things you can do with them. So I'll give it a chance for the next let's say three months. If the strategy will be to continue to stick exclusively on bush flying I'll be out for sure and spend my money somewhere else. Then MS Flight was a perfect teacher to introduce me into the world of flying and probably I'll go the other way around then many users of this great community: I do have exclusively Flight so far. I understand many of the users are using both Flight and other sims and probably do not feel the need to have a larger selection of planes and jobs in Flight. Actually I do.......

I had to really warm up to taildraggers, as I've always hated them. Now that I've spent a lot of time getting a handle on how to properly land them, the Maule and Stearman are both fun for me to fly. But that comfort was a long time coming.

 

So, don't write them off simply for putting the little wheel in back. If you make yourself "suffer" with them for a little while, they do get easier to manage and they will grow on you.

I always enjoyed searching for the aerocaches in Hawaii, both cache of the day and the normal ones. After the cache it was time to pick out a job. I have never been a big fan of super long jobs so my longest tended to be 100 - 120 miles max. I enjoyed doing burger runs because my favourite plane is the AV6 and I have carried that through to Alaska . I enjoyed doing the Challenges and Missions as well - less so in Alaska.

Up to now I still use the destination marker but as I now have G-Plan and GMap up and running I might try turning it off and use a flight plan instead.

 

I would say the major difference between how I used to fly in Hawaii and how I fly in Alaska is the aerocaches. None to look for in Alaska so I tend to do far more jobs instead. I have also found that I use VOR`s and ILS`s less than before and just fly straight to the destination.I have started getting into the longer journeys as well now and pay far more attention to the fuel flow, fuel levels etc.. as a result . So I guess getting Alaska has improved my flying .

 

I have really enjoyed researching up on navigation , watching the vids and doing the tuts. It is so nice to have a flight sim that works smoothly on a laptop.

I really like J Van E's posts because they're very motivating and he gives some very cool tips! Makes me like Flight even more.

 

After I bought Hawaii I started exploring the islands one by one. Starting with the Big Island until Kauai and spotting different landmarks (Kilauea, Waipio Valley, Cliffs of Molokai, etc.) and using different weather themes to determine which were my favorites (heavy weather, low and threatning, isolated thunderstorms). Usually flying the RV6.

 

Now I fly various jobs with the maule around the islands and once in a while use VOR and ILS approaches when possible.

I always pick up from the last airport I landed at. Usually I search for jobs with destinations in the general direction of where I'm headed. I still haven't quite figured out how to reliably reset the job board. Usually changing the season, then close out the flight conditions window, then changing it back to where I was will do it, but other times I seem to have to fiddle around more to get the board to change. And I am slowly cycling through the seasons as I fly, usually a few weeks or a month at a time.

 

I usually have a general idea of where I want to get to, but that normally changes as I end up flying to ever more out of the way airports. Right now I'm at Cape Newenham, on the southwest, non-Aleutian, corner of the state. I've been intending to go to Nome since I was back on the Yukon river, but I keep on flying jobs that take me further south. I also intend to stop at areas with challenges and do those as I get to them. I think there are a few at Nome, so I hope to get those soon. I would also like to see aerocaches in AK, not just daily ones, but the regular ones too.

 

I like flying at dawn and dusk too, but I've discovered that setting the time to a few hours before dawn is great too, especially if you are flying south or east. Turn on some kind of cloudy weather and you'll get a gradually brightening horizon, until the sun finally peeks over the mountains and the shadows spread out beneath you.

I really like J Van E's posts because they're very motivating and he gives some very cool tips! Makes me like Flight even more.

 

Thanks! Think I'll print that and frame it.

I pretty much fly the same way that you do Jeroen, but I dont use Approach Charts as I dont know how to read them.

I think that we are all good examples of the type of flyers that this game targets.

 

I don't have a lot of time either, so flights are generally short. I like Aerocaches, but I usually keep the Sensor off and take off from a nearby airport like Larry.

 

Without Aerocaches in Alaska, I am doing short jobs most of the time, or short hops from one airport to another, exploring the different regions. Since Alaska is so vast, It will take me a while to get comfortable and find what I like the most, whether the region or the activity or even the season.

 

PlanG and GMap are so important for somebody like me who has absolutely no knowledge of Alaska. They are great for "situational awareness", as they say. I would certainly contribute via PayPal to Tim Arnot if I could figure out how that is done. If anybody knows, please tell me.

 

The Cub is now my favorite airplane, although I must say that it was my favorite in the last few versions of FS as well. So, I am very faithful to the ones I like! But, I do also like the RV, Stearman, Maule. Haven't flown the Icon since I went to Alaska, though, and I seriously wonder if the real thing will sell there.

 

All in all, I am very impressed by the Alaska terrain. It was clear from the start that subsequent scenery would never have anywhere near the level of detail that was present in Hawai'i. That would be impossible, as you know if you have ever made scenery. But, there have been major advances in the terrain and it is extremely varied and very well done. So, a lot of my flying time is dedicated to ogling the terrain, particularly the rivers that are pretty spectacular.

 

However, I hope that there will soon be Aerocaches and Missions, and that the Jobs will start having more Alaskan themes. I mean, no more jellyfish venom, and more dead moose and fishing tackle sort of thing.

 

Best regards.

Luis

Right now I am flying around areas of Alaska that I am familiar with, either in the sim or from my real life visit. The longest flight I have made so far was from Ketchikan to Juneau in the Maule. Most of my flying has been short flights around McCarthy, Swift Creek, May Creek, Long Lake and Jake's Bar area. I became familiar with that area in FS2002 when Bill Lyons made the Globe Swift and detailed Swift Creek. I made scenery for McCarthy and the rest and spent a long time flying around that area in the Swift. Now I am flying around in the Carbon Cub with the view shifted back into the cockpit. Pure VFR of course without working instruments.