What kind of GA pilot are you?

[pilottj 198]

A lot of us here like GA flying.  However saying I am a GA pilot is like saying 'I work in IT' or 'I work the medical field'...that covers a lot of ground as there are so many sub-fields within the medical umbrella.   A dentist and a proctologist are both in the medical field, albeit at opposite ends...literally :lol:  

 

'GA' covers such a large spectrum of flying, its hard to look at something like a Citation, Duke, P-51, Legacy, RV-7, 172, Scout..etc in the same light as they are all designed for different purposes.   In real life they are different types of 'tools' for different kinds of flying, be it for business transportation, personal transportation, training, recreational flying, aerobatics, bush flying and so on.  A business jet, a restored warbird, a beat up FBO trainer, a super slick kit plane...are all 'GA'

 

What kind of GA flying do you do?  Do you stick to one type of GA flying or do you do different things?  Are you a 'right tool for the job' fanatic or do you like to mix the tools for the fun of it...ie flying a warbird in and out of bush strips.  There is no wrong answer since there are no rules or laws in FS.  Lol as long as were are on the subject of virtual GA flying, there is nothing stopping you from using an airliner or military aircraft as a personal GA machine too.

 

Cheers

TJ

[ViperPilot 81]

Well, it really depends on my mood; most of the time I'll fly single engine birds like the C-182, C-206 and my Ryan Navion for bush and off airport work. Of course, when it's backcountry you can't have enough airplanes for that type of work (Kitfox, Rans S-7, Aviat, Flying Milkstool, Super Cub, S.M. 1019)!!

 

For longer, faster X-C trips I'll jump into the Mixmaster, or the Rutan Boomerang (man, does that airplane have legs!).

 

When it's time to play 'Maverick', then out come the MilToys; Iris' Tomcat and P-40 , Kirk's Viper (with the F-16 AirShow add on), Kaz's F-117N, and the ALPHA Mustang. Add Stoney's C-17, and that rounds it out nicely.

There's always work to be done for DC-3 Airways, so of course I'll work the Gooney a bit, especially for the DC-3 World Rally (coming up soon, folks)!

Now, with the releases from TDS, and me discovering the world of SkySpirit and POSKY, I'm 'experimenting' with these big, gargantuan behemoths (just a bit, though).


All in all though, I'd have to say I'm a GA flyer at heart... until the next airplane tugs on me!

[Guest]

I usually fly one plane for months as if I own it.

Most of my flights are rather short, going from 35 up to around 85 nm.

The last few weeks/months I've been flying with VOR and NDB only, which keeps me entertained during the longer flights.

I plan all my flights with Plan-G, usually simple A to B plans, making notes (with pen and paper) of the heading but specially the VORs and NDB's near my destination (or along the route) and then I check a specific site on the internet for the radials I should be flying to get to my destination (in case there aren't VORs or NDBs near my destination).

The A2A C172R has made things even more realistic: I always start cold and dark on a parking spot and ever since I have the A2A I even always start on the spot I parked the plane on myself at the end of the previous flight (cold and dark): I made a habit of saving the flight as default before I quit FSX. This makes it even more realistic. I do the walk around and only visit the Maintenance hangar when I see something is wrong (or when I noticed during my previous flights something was wrong). Sometimes (well, up to now around once a week) I start all over again with a 'new' plane at another location (I only fly in Norway though).

I fly with real weather no matter what (OpusFSX) but I often change the time of day because I often fly in the evenings (real time) but don't want to fly in the evenings in FSX all the time.

[airernie 263]

I keep my GA flying in the Cessna family.  Mostly 152 and 172,although I do occasionally venture into C182, C208B and C337 territory.

 

This is primarily because I learned on the C150 and C172 and I have the Saitek TPM, so staying with Cessna keeps it a bit more authentic. :-)

 

Some might consider that boring, but the reality is that if I could still afford to fly, I would still be limited to something in the C15x and C172 class. :-)

 

Ernie

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

I have about 5 Carenado, from single, to twin, from naturally aspirated to turbo.

I also have the Citation Mustang from F1.

 

They all keep me busy, in general state to state, trans-continental, and bush and cottage flying up north where Santa hangs out.  So really, the full gambit.  I especially like island hopping in the Caribbean.  Keeps me 'warm' in the winter...

[Christopher Low 5,338]

I fly all of my planes "low and slow", and I don't even stick to GA aircraft for this. This ranges from the RealAir Beechcraft Duke B60 to the PMDG 737NGX! In fact, I am currently on a UK tour in the 737. I never fly above 4000 feet, and I cruise along at 140 knots with full flaps down! Strange, but true B)

[Howellerman 104]

Flaps down?  :huh:

 

I have a variety of aircraft in the hanger, most of them high-quality payware, military to Beechcraft. I think the main distinction for the aircraft I fly is they seat six or fewer.

 

I have been recreating a friend's cross-country trip using Plan G, and for the long boring legs over middle America the F-18 is perfect, while a trip of 50 miles is best served by the WACO. The right tool for the job. I could do the whole 30+ flights in the Lancair, but mixing it up is entertaining.

[Christopher Low 5,338]

Flaps down means "as slow as possible". I am basically flying the plane at landing speed! It's a technique I adopted when I used Flight Unlimited 3. Because the two high resolution regions (Seattle and San Francisco) were relatively small, I wanted to make them feel bigger by flying as slow as possible in my favourite aircraft (the Beechjet 400). A side effect of this is that it makes flying simulated planes incredibly easy, since I don't have to adjust the trim. Take off, cruise, and landing are all performed at roughly the same speed. I just control ascent and descent entirely with the throttle. Not even close to the real world, but who cares? This is flight simulation. We can do what the hell we like!

[Auralumin 1]

I like it all! Here are just some of my favorite things to do:

Load up the Twotter with little gas and lots of skydivers and do a maximum turning climb to 13000ft. Line up and then change the load to simulate them jumping. With a now very light airplane I move a safe distance from the divers and spin the airplane down and do a short field landing... all to do it again.

 

Load up some serious weather at night. Now fly that light plane to a remote strip of your choosing to drop off supplies or p/u an injured person and get them to civilization.

 

I use fsrecorder to record an unusual demonstration. Sometimes I am "Dukes over Miramar" or "The Skymasters" and I will record a flight that usually incorporates high and low speed passes and maybe a loop. Then I play as traffic and record a second plane in formation until I have a 'team'. A good tip is to fly that first one very smoothly never using full power or quick throttle changes.

 

I have a routine I am perfecting to demonstrate the Twin Otter capabilities as if in front of an airshow crowd.

 

I am also planning a around the world flight to complete at my leisure. I use Ideal flight software for planning sometimes.

[simmerhead 885]

All kinds. Depends on my mood and time at hand. Each spring I hone my C172 skills and do everything by the book in prep for real flying, but sometimes I just want to buzz down 5th avenue in the Extra and see all the skyscrapers flash by.

[FloG 148]

It depends entirely on my mood - sometimes the default Trike is enough, I actually enjoy that thing every now and then, e.g. flying in Africa as a ranger for a national park.

Then, if I just want to have fun doing something really stupid, I might jump into the A2A Cub and take that plane to its limits: Flying loopings, barnstorming, landing on very short "strips" etc, or the Alabeo Extra to do the same things at much more speed.

For the more serious business, I love the Carenado Caravan and C185, the default Goose or more recently also the A2A 172 or the new Twin Otter (but I still have to learn how to really master those two) for bush flying in the ORBX NA area, and the C337 and Lancairs (both ORBX and RealAir) for fast travels between two points (and of course for seeing how fast I can get them, and man, those things can be really fast).

As someone mentioned business jets, that's not really my area of interest - although I love to fly airliners, if I don't fly them too often (but of course often enought so I don't forget how to use them ).

 

And that's the beauty of flight sim: I can fly my plane (whichever that might be) the way I want to fly it where I want to fly it (and all that for relatively little money and effort compared to real life flying)!

[Dominique_K 10,133]

I love geography so I relish 1 to 1.5 hour flights with one of my favourites, the A2A P40 and P51 civ, the RA Legacy and the AS Huey in an OrbX or a Pacific Islands  Simulation sceneries. I try to end up with a challeging visual or a navaid guided landing.

 

But the question is what kind of GA flyer I am. Room (a lot...) for improvement :rolleyes: . I can land my P40 on a jungle, one way only, diminutive strip of a PNG forgotten island, in the red dust of an OzX strip of central Australia or a coral atoll. I can see the day where I would be not to bad  at handflying GPS, VOR or ILS approaches with the P51 civ. or the Legacy in weather, in daylight, but I've just gone thru a litmus test that showed me that room (for improvement) : handflying a ILS approach with the Legacy, at night. Goods news is that I landed safely, bad news is that it was really, really badly flown (overreacting in all the four dimensions). Now let's speak about landing the Huey on a wooden firewatching platform in Idaho . Naaah.... maybe another time.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

Lately, I'm flying the Dukes and the Flight1 Mustang on one hour flights.  While they're considered high altitude aircraft, generally fly them low...7000-14000 to enjoy the scenery and get IMC practice.  90% of my flying is by hand, even when I do go up high.  I have been looking for a high quality 4-6 passenger GA single (not Carenado) with some performance.

[ematheson 19]

Well, I used to be a "punch holes in the sky" kinda flyer. I've been doing longer flights lately, though, using ded reckoning to get me from place to place. The Piper Cub, my current go-to, has so far accumulated 30 hours in the last couple months (That's all the time I have between work and school and homework...)

I'm looking forward to some $100 hamburgers or some bush flying, though. I just bought FSCargo and I'm going to be spending some hours building routes and hauling freight...

[CoolP 283]

I started to plan a bit on the ferry flights stuff for the ga planes. So e.g. pffft (wait, that's PFPX) comes in handy and then I take literally everything I have to jump over the Atlantic. Includes trying to divert to the Faroe Islands (great freeware by the way) and, later, feeling like a master of bad weather landings. :lol:

 

I haven't had the courage to use the A2A C172 yet (on these flights) but my JetProp, King Air and soon the TBM should complete some experiences. I also performed those flights on the centre route (Azores to St. John's) with the mighty B-17. 'Captain, engine number two has a problem'.

 

I've read a bit on how many small ga planes actually circled the planet. Few. So maybe that's what I'm doing too, if time permits. I currently have a sweet spot for the single engine planes and Carenado usually delivers those every two weeks, lol. In between, there's the Q400, not really ga flying but still a nice prop. Did I mention that I really like props? :wub:

 

Oh, lets not forget that I have a DC-2 which would also be a nice option for covering some distance. Mmm, could also take the Basler freeware. Lets see.