It's a no brainer... Orbx!

It's a lot of fun planning out a flight where direct navigation will not work due to terrain, and there are no navaids around and even GPS is not much help unless you add your own custom waypoints. It's mostly pilotage and also I time the legs to cross check. Some of the canyons don't have much room and it can be tricky to even see some of the strips from the air. Usually there are no runway lights or other approach guidance. A really fun challenge.

 

I still haven't settled on a favorite plane for this, mostly I just use the default Cub or DHC Beaver, but I'm thinking about getting the RealAir Scout.

 

I don't know what most people do, but I use sectionals or Plan G to scope out the little bush strips and then use pilotage to find them

 

With Orbx scenery you can also use Google Earth and download the KMZ files from their website.

The Scout is fun, but can struggle to get over some of the high passes, although not much more, if any, than the A2A Cub.  The C185 is a great plane for this kind of flying although the shorter strips can be a challenge for it and off-airport landings take a lot more room.  The Super Cub is made for it, but the Flight Replicas model I have has a LOT of trouble with off-airport landings.  Something in the config just makes it bounce all over the place, so I rarely fly it.  Lately, I've been flying the new Pacer Bush model and liking it quite a bit, but still need to test it on the rougher stuff a bit more. 

Everything I have is tricycle gear :(.  Never even flown a tail dragger.

 

Never even flown a tail dragger

 

I found this vid helpful: 

 

I still need lots of practice.  :(

I'm upgrading my scenery, and I have checked out both Ultimate Terrain X USA and FTX Pacific North West. I'm going to be bush flying mostly, so I want to have the best scenery possible.

 

Which is better, higher quality? UTX or FTX Pacific North West? (If I go with FTX I'll get all of them)

 

FTX is definitely the best you can do, but you can also get both FTX for the areas that it covers, and then also get UTX and GEX, along with improved mesh for the rest of USA and Canada. Otherwise, it's a bummer when you wander out of the FTX scenery into default, but if you have UTX, GEX and mesh for the surrounding areas it's still quite good. You can even include a landclass upgrade sandwiched into the UTX region to upgrade landclass for remote areas not set by UTX.

 

Alternatively, plan your flights to avoid default scenery.  :smile:

 

 

The Scout is fun, but can struggle to get over some of the high passes, although not much more, if any, than the A2A Cub.  The C185 is a great plane for this kind of flying although the shorter strips can be a challenge for it and off-airport landings take a lot more room.  The Super Cub is made for it, but the Flight Replicas model I have has a LOT of trouble with off-airport landings.  Something in the config just makes it bounce all over the place, so I rarely fly it.  Lately, I've been flying the new Pacer Bush model and liking it quite a bit, but still need to test it on the rougher stuff a bit more. 

 

Thanks very much for the info, I'll check out all those options.

Everything I have is tricycle gear :(.  Never even flown a tail dragger.

 

Most taildraggers in FSX aren't very realistic.  A few are pretty nice.  The new Pacer, for instance, is pretty good at modeling taildragger behavior, at least at the lower end of the speed spectrum on landing and roll-out.  The A2A mil-birds are also good at this, but probably not the place to start.   

 

I find that the Scout, and even the A2A Cub and the Carenado C185 (among the bush planes I've mentioned above) are not that good at modeling traildragger behavior.  For the most part, though, FSX taildraggers will not punish bad technique anything like the real world will. :huh:

Re the Pacer, that's the LHC model? They seem to have a sale right now.

Yep, the LHC model. 

I see.  So, what do most folks do when they start?  Find an airport and start learning the area with some dead reckoning thrown in?  Any method to the art?

There are lots of interesting airports in PNW, and I use the RXP GNS for navigation most of the time.  No real need to buy add-on airports IMHO.

 

A comfortable personal plane for the areas is the F33 Bonanza, but a C182, or 210 would be a good choice also.

 

For just flying around, I use the Scout.  When you finally run out of things to see and do in PNW, you can move north with Pacific fjords, or east with RMN - lots of gorgeous scenery!  And the Alaska panhandle is lovingly recreated in Tongass Fjords which blends seamlessly with the Orbx scenery..

Maybe I'll just get out there in my 182 or 337 when I get the chance. 

 

I wish ORBX would do Arcada in California (maybe they will now that they have 'the world' coming).  I just discovered the area and I'd love to see their interpretation of Eureka, the three airports and the coast.

Maybe I'll just get out there in my 182 or 337 when I get the chance. 

 

I wish ORBX would do Arcada in California (maybe they will now that they have 'the world' coming).  I just discovered the area and I'd love to see their interpretation of Eureka, the three airports and the coast.

Northern California is on their list as "under construction"..

they have just announced a 25% sale for england and europe

Northern California is on their list as "under construction"..

Thats awesome That will be an immediate purchase for me!

 

I got ORBX PNW and its amazing!

 

I flew my A2A Cub and used FSKneeboard and planed a whole flight, studied charts , etc.

 

Very happy with the purchase  Ill probably buy the surrounding area as time progresses

Thats awesome That will be an immediate purchase for me!

 

I got ORBX PNW and its amazing!

 

I flew my A2A Cub and used FSKneeboard and planed a whole flight, studied charts , etc.

 

Very happy with the purchase  Ill probably buy the surrounding area as time progresses

 

It's great isn't it. Now is a the perfect time to get all the regions since they just lowered the prices. For bush flying, I would start out with Pacific Fjords.

 

You should also get Darrington and Concrete airports. Great for mountain flying. There are also a bunch of freeware airports over at their official site, and a few more here:

http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1825-ozx-au-complete-ozx-na-complete-ozx-libraries/