So, seriously, even with all the wonderful, detailed payware out there, this is my recipe for FSX happiness.

 

I find the more I concentrate on familiarizing myself with a single plane's performance, controls, procedures; the more I fly around one airport or one flight plan, familiarizing myself with the geography, and the visual elements on the ground that help me navigate and set up approaches..... the more fascinated I become.

 

Try it! You'll like it! It's great to have all the choices, but it really is a lot of fun to also make use of what you have.

 

Now, I just have to get better at flying into WN10 after touring Mt. Saint Helens in the AN-2........ Made it last time, but then got stuck in the trees and couldn't taxi out!

 

Steve

 

Don't you get bored with just 1 plane and 1 airport  .. I like flying different places in different aircraft depending on my mood. Some days I like to fly tubes and other days I like GA, and never the same flightplans. :rolleyes:

I also like too use live weather so that also restricts where I fly..

 

But keeping it that way sure will save you alot of money :lol:

Interesting you should bring this up. I have been planning to try a specific scheduled route three days a week for a month with the only change being each day's real world weather. It would consist of an early morning flight from A to B and an evening flight from B to A, and I have pretty much settled on using the Carenado Cargomaster.

 

Thought it might be a fun experience.

 

 

Try it! You'll like it! It's great to have all the choices, but it really is a lot of fun to also make use of what you have.

 

We all sim for different reasons.  Nothing wrong with what you're doing, but one size doesn't fit all.

 

I do enjoy limiting what I fly and focusing more on keeping it "real" - but even that is usually a rotation of 3 planes with the rotation evolving over time - but one airport and area?.  When I owned IRL, the point of being an owner/pilot to me was to have the freedom to go different places, see new things and enjoy the challenge of new airports and environments.  The novelty of local flights wore off quickly.

 

Likewise, even thought I liked owning and not having to hassle with scheduling rentals (especially difficult for multi-day trips in many rental situations), I often missed the variety of being current in several slightly different types, hence my preference for a small rotation in the sim.

 

Different strokes and all that...

 

Scott

I don't take it to quite the extreme as described by the OP; but I do certainly concentrate on specific planes for around a week (and usually flying that plane around a specific area).

 

So all last week I was in the Ants Airplanes P92 Eaglet (LSA) in FTX CRM .......... this week, I've been in Europe, flying the Airbus.

 

Next week is already planned;   I just bought Orbx NZNI to go with NZSI that I bought some time ago, so going to do some domestic flights in NZ..... just haven't decided on the A320, Q400 or a nice GA yet. :smile:

Sure thing! I'd probably be embarrassed to reveal how many payware planes and ORBX airports I have - including all of A2A's warbirds except the bomber (that sounds like a full-time career in itself!); and I certainly am not criticizing such accumulations at all!

 

It's more just a question of the joy of going really deep. As said above, the fewer variables in a situation, the more you can isolate and test out various kinds of things, "theme activities" if you will. And what continues to surprise me, particularly with the quality of payware in the past few years, is the amount if depth and freshness available.

 

And I even continue to be surprised by FSX as well. Tweaking is part of the whe experience for me, top to bottom.

 

Nevets

 

Many planes, many airports.

 

I love fast singles and or light twins.

For me it's 4 planes, 1 country (New Zealand). They've been keeping me happy for the last 5 years

Truthfully, I'm really glad I read this post.  I've often thought the guys who fly a new and different airplane every flight are way off base (I bet I'll hear about that--that's OK, I've got big shoulders).  I too fly one airplane for a week (or two).  But, I never do the "one airplane, one airport" thing.  Think about it--real world training programs and pilots always tell the student pilot "beware the habit of only ever flying the same hour over and over".  This means you need to always fly into and out of different airports in differing wx conditions.  Flying the same airplane (or very few airplanes)??  Admirable.  Always flying at only one airport??  Not so much.

Keep things simple with planes is good philosophy get the fundamental down no point flying 747 if you can't manually land a basic piper or Cessna. Airports the criteria less than hour between them.

Keep things simple with planes is good philosophy get the fundamental down no point flying 747 if you can't manually land a basic piper or Cessna. Airports the criteria less than hour between them.

Right and after the fundamentals.... the finesse.

 

Agreed if I were RL training that just sticking to one airport/situation would be a bad idea. Then again, I don't have all the different approaches, SIDs and STARs and hi/lo jetways and VFR maps around KSEA memorized, yet.... And it's just entertainment, for me.

 

I enjoy studying a VFR plate and thinking about all the notation, and then trying to find it in the FSX scenery (and no, I'm not so crazy I will complain to ORBX if my favorite water tower is missing! Though I appreciate it if it's there...).

 

I enjoy the rush of flying into a new airport or airstrip, and then thinking about different ways of setting up for landings under different conditions. Try landing on a small mountain strip in the rain, at night, something you'd probably not do in RL but fun to practice in FSX! Without cheating, now....

 

I enjoy getting a feel for the different flight regimens of an aircraft under different conditions, altitudes, fuel and payload weights, seasons. I like flying the SRT22 unbalanced with the copilot seat empty, just to do it and nail the trim for that, for example.

 

I enjoy hitting a familiar runway with different levels of traffic, winds coming from different directions..... how many degrees off the ILS do I have to fly in a crosswind to stay on flight path?

 

See otherwise, for me at least, with GA aircraft, it just falls into flying the Cessna 172 with tweaks, prettier models and tweaks made to the aircraft.cfg. Avoiding the collapse of the fiction into that reality is my imaginative job, and along the way, helps me appreciate the thousands of person-hours put into building aircraft, scenery, weather models, FSX itself, regardless of whether an FDE is off a few knots, climbs too slow, ground loops too easily or not at all, etc.

 

No criticizing all those critiques, that's just as much part of the fun for the hardcore as flying the plane itself.

 

I'm just one guy that devs can know spends at least a fraction of the time with all the hard work they've done, and sees it, appreciates it, and enjoys it.

 

And the contrasts are intensified by doing this, too! Nothing like flying intensively in one place, with one plane, to make what might otherwise seem like subtle differences when you change planes/locations into real drama! Get really used to one approach at one airport, then go elsewhere and recognize how many instincts and touches of familiarity you've built and relied on that are now missing, and have to be reconstructed.

 

It all comes from too many years of listening to classical music, and recognizing when a French conductor performs, say, a Rossini opera and you say to yourself, hmm, too light and intellectual! Not Italian enough in style!

 

Just some thoughts, certainly not a prescription for anyone.

 

Steve

Interesting topic. Imagine if you were a real airline pilot- I'll use one of my home airports and airlines as an example, a United Airlines pilot based in the Denver (KDEN) hub. You would most likely be flying an aircraft that requires a rating (anything with a Max GW of 12,500 pounds, and/or a turbine engine), and I believe that this airline, so do most, require that you only actively flying aircraft that require one type-rating (even though you may be type-rated in other aircraft as well).

 

You would most likely fly out from and back to Denver every day you worked, and when you flew "for fun" on days off it would be most likely on the Denver area (or where you lived if not in Denver). Probably from and back to the same airport where you hangered your aircraft or where your flight club is located.

 

One of the great things about FSX or other flight sims is that we can create an unrealistic flight environment, and "fly" a B744 today and an A320 tomorrow..... but the OP may be more realistic than many of us realize....

 

Thanks, Bruce.

FleetingThought:  I just read your reply above and see how many times you said something like "I enjoy".  Can't argue at all with where you are mentally.  You're having fun, and sometimes many of us other flight simmers forget about that in a relentless search for "as real as it gets".  Have fun buddy.  You are wiser than many.

Thanks! There's also nothing wrong with pushing developers to not make sloppy/careless mistakes, I can fully understand that; it helps bring up the quality and discovery of new possibilities, if you approach it the right way.

 

I'm sure/I hope those who love to pounce on the errors are also enjoying all the things done right, at the same time! It may just not occur to them to share that side of their experience sometimes.

 

Ok will stop being long-winded now, I don't want to freak out the Twitterati!

 

 

 

Ok will stop being long-winded now, I don't want to freak out the Twitterati!

 

Love it!  Keep freakin' 'em out, says I!

 

Scott