Airline simmers: your flying ........ real of fictional?

[ailchim 206]

 

 

I tend to cast myself in the role of charter or aid-flight or some other form of nonprofit pilot.

 

I used to struggle finding believable routes for the excellent PMDG MD-11.  This is going to position me as a sad no-mates but you could consider flying imaginary charters, passenger or cargo, to follow your favourite sport.  So Champions League fixtures (I think the LDS 767 used to allow diverts for trouble in the cabin), Formula 1, golf tournaments, gridiron football, take your choice.

[PinkJackal 86]

Once I have flown a flight conducted by my national airliner, I had takeoff at the same time as the real aircraft, with the same plane, the same livery and the same registration. I was using Live ATC just to now what the real plane was doing, I had landed at the same time as the real plane (-5 min ).

Pretty interesting flight, I wanted to know how precise FSX is in terms of time, speed and winds!

I was 5 minutes ahead of the real plane, because I had no traffic delay at the landing airport!

[zmak 331]

Once I have flown a flight conducted by my national airliner, I had takeoff at the same time as the real aircraft, with the same plane, the same livery and the same registration. I was using Live ATC just to now what the real plane was doing, I had landed at the same time as the real plane (-5 min ).

Pretty interesting flight, I wanted to know how precise FSX is in terms of time, speed and winds!

I was 5 minutes ahead of the real plane, because I had no traffic delay at the landing airport!

Thanks for this, very interesting and I would imagine (hopefully) rewarding experience. I listen to ATC and that never occurred to me so I will give it a try

[NGXfanatic 85]

I am very very obsessed with matching real world conditions.  So much so, I can't help but feel I'm limiting myself, but I can't shake the need to replicate real conditions.   Like our real counterparts, I will concentrate on learning and flying one type for months, even years on end.  For the past 2 years up until the release of the PMDG 777, I exclusively flew the NGX.  As is standard practice for me, I go months flying for one airline, learning about that airline's procedures and the options that airline chose to outfit their equipment with.  I started with Delta, then rotated through Southwest, United, and lastly, Alaska Airlines.   Now with the promotion to the 777, I enjoy flying the same routes used by Delta in the 777-200LR.   If the Delta's 200LR doesn't serve the city pair, I refuse to fly it.   Once tire of this, I may move on to another LR operator.  I look forward to the PMDG 200ER expansion, so I can take on the airline route network I have really been wanting to fly, which I flew in real life this past summer during my trip to India: British Airways!

 

I only fly city pairs using the actual equipment, and with the route copied from Flightaware I load up the flight in FSX using the same date and time, with Active Sky 2012 providing historical weather that matches the real conditions down to the exact minute.  I even examine the real route flown in Google Earth, via the Google Earth capture that Flightaware records for every flight, to take notes on which SIDS/STARS are used, the vectors flown inside the SID/STAR, and waypoints bypassed, if necessary.  PFPX makes it very easy for me to just superimpose their google earth output of the OFP, superimpose that over the Flightaware kml flight record, and viola, I have all I need to see to discern where the real route diverges from the planned PFPX route.  Yup, I sometimes even pull up the LiveATC recording to glean what speeds ATC instructs the flight to use in the terminal area during approach.   Very exhausting, but that level of research and my drive to mimic the real flight brings me real joy and satisfaction.   I record these flights in FSrecorder, so after the completion of the flight, I load up the replay, put myself in the wingview, and take in all the sights and sounds that my payware addons have to offer.   I don't get a chance to "sightsee" when I'm heads down in the cockpit and focusing on the flight operation, so I really value having a module like FSrecorder to allow me to just relax and savor the experience, as if I was a passenger on the real thing! 

 

The fruit of all this labor are the diaries I share here in the screenshots forum, as "NGXdiaries".   I recommend everyone at least keep a series of screenshots of their flights, it's so rewarding to have pleasant memories of your flights, something I regret not doing much of when I first started using FSX.  It's kind of neat to pull up screenies from years back and see how FSX has progressed.   My AI collection is a hobby in itself, it's also cool to see fleet changes over the years as documented in my screenshot collection.

 

I dare anyone to go to greater lengths than myself to replicate a real world flight.   It's almost a sickness, lol.   Help me, I'm a FSX addict!!!! :p0503:

[Q_flyer 766]

I respect your dedication to real world ops NGXFantastic and the idea to keep a screenshot diary of memorable flights is a great one! :cool:

[PinkJackal 86]

Thanks for this, very interesting and I would imagine (hopefully) rewarding experience. I listen to ATC and that never occurred to me so I will give it a try

Yes it is! Every one should try this!

When I have time I will replicate a flight from start to finish with real ATC, meaning I will fallow every command that real ATC will give to the real plane, this should be very interesting!

[metalmike 34]

I usually try to do RW routes at RW times. If it's evening and I want to do a morning flight, that's where AS2012 historical weather comes in.