Like others have said, we've all been there.Personally I take a sort of sabatical lasting a few months every year or so.Do something completely different, not aviation related at all.This year I took up an MMORPG, last year it was photographing landscapes.After a while you're getting that itch again to start exploring the virtual world.This year I'm leaving my airliners in the hangar (well, mainly. I do fly them once or twice a month to stay current) and am flying mainly light twins and the MAAM R4D.I've also taken up my recreation of the legendary flight of a B314 Clipper from Hawaii to New York the long way around which took place in December 1941 and January 1942.

<<>. Use your imagination, the more you do, the better it works. Do "Lifeflights" where you have to get someone to the Hospital, from a small town for surgery, like a lot of real pilots volunteer to do. Pretend there are all kinds of emergencies, land on the freeway to pick up accident victims. Rush supplies into the mountains for mines. Fly around the world, following Amelia's routing. Search the internet for past aviation events, speed races cross country, or across the atlantic. Choose the same aircraft, to see if you can match their times. Learn to fly a rotarywing, land on Skyscrapers. Find an old Atlas at a garage sale, etc... you might get it for $2, then plan your own routing through interesting countries around the world. Go Island hopping in the Pacific and/or Atlantic, et.al. My last trip went from KFUL, to Santa Barbara, San Jose, SF, Salt Lake City, Denver, to Ohio, to Boston, Portland NY, Bangor Me, Newfoundland, Iceland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Iraq, Turkey, India, Borneo, Australia (circled the coast in a WACO). To New Zealand, PI, HI, Easter IS, Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Mexico City, Dallas, Phoenix, San Diego, to Fullerton CA, or KFUL my home field. Fly only in the evening, play your flight so that you may arrive at the destination during sunset or at dusk, and see some brilliant sunsets.

Really stop flying FS 2004. If you don

Stop "flying" for a while and get yourself a girlfriend...She will lift you off...Stelios

Stelios, Thanks for the suggestion bud.. Like I said, I have other hobbies, that being one of them. Lets keep this discussion friendly, and helpfull, and most of all on topic. Comments like that help nothing.That aside, there have been some wonderful suggestions. Also, some interesting links posted. Keep the ideas flowing people!-Jason Peters E-3 AWACS Flight Engineer USAF (Former B-52H Crew Chief) [email protected] I'm thinking of maybe a National Parks tour. Anybody ever tried that one? Maybe using the Avanti? Still working on it.http://www.feelthere.com/banner/erjpilot.jpg

>I know other fellow Flight Simmers have hit a 'wall' at one>point or another. What did you do to bring back the enjoyment?>Any ideas? New places I should be flying? New Challenges? I'm>open to ideas and looking forward to hearing from all of you.>Help an experienced simmer find the fun again! :(Hi Jason,My interest has been kept by doing the following:1) Fly online when ATC is available. I found that flying online greatly enhances the flightsimming experience....especially with voice. Although there are many time ATC is not available, I still get something more out of flying just even being able to monitor the Unicom Channel and listening to other pilots. 2) Fly to destinations with a purpose. Call it fantasy flying for lack of a better term. When I load up FS, I know where I'm flying and why. As an example, I happen to enjoy Golf so for the most part, I fly the PGA Tour event schedule. If you like other sports or events, pick a team schedule for the season and fly them around. I like the PGA Tour because I get to fly into some interesting airports in and around the cities the events are played and most are in North America so the flights aren't that long. As you can imagine, I spend quite a bit of time flightplanning.And I do this flying only two aircraft; at first my PIC767 and Cessna 421C. Then I replaced those with the PMDG 737-700 and Piper Merdian with my upgrade to FS9 last summer. I just started flying the 421C again because I just added the Reality-XP GNS530 to it. Got spoiled flying the Meridian. I never used the FS ATC or have ever used AI.Anyway, hope this adds to some of the other good suggestions posted here. BTW....just this morning, I flew from Toronto to Cancun to pick up my daughter whose on vacation. The fantasy was the flight, the reality was the vacation.Lawrie

>Stelios, >>Thanks for the suggestion bud.. Like I said, I have other>hobbies, that being one of them. Lets keep this discussion>friendly, and helpfull, and most of all on topic. Comments>like that help nothing.Jason that was ment to be a joke. Don't be so serious about it. It's X-mas now and we need some fun. Merry X-mas myfriend.Stelios

Another tip I just tried out GTR and am so in love. Best racing sim ever!. It

Practise severe-weather landings, in a 747 at night, with blindor near-blind conditions, in near too short runways.If this fails to interest you Jason, do a barrel-roll, just before touch-down!Hope this is helpful.Peter Sydney Australia

HA! :-lol Done it! Of course the outcome is never great.. the barrel-roll that is.. hehe For me it's usually done with CS's E-3. (I have a morbid sense of humor about work :+)Whats one of the best things about FlightSim? Attempting stuff you would never ever try in a real airplane, with your life involved.. ;-)-Jason Peters E-3 AWACS Flight Engineer USAF (Former B-52H Crew Chief) [email protected]http://www.feelthere.com/banner/erjpilot.jpg

Stelios,Understood, my comment was meant to be light hearted as well. ;-) Who really refers to their girlfriend as just a hobby?!? Thats like looking death in the face and asking for it! :-lolJust trying to keep the thread on topic, as I think this is an important topic in our favorite hobby.-Jason Peters E-3 AWACS Flight Engineer USAF (Former B-52H Crew Chief) [email protected]http://www.feelthere.com/banner/erjpilot.jpg

Hi allWhat I do is find an article in a magazine and use it for inspiration. For instance, in the December Pilot Magazine (UK) there is an article about a guy flying a Piper in a big lap around the Baltic. He visits a whole load of countries I have never been to in FS and has some nice sensible-length legs to fly.CheersRottenlungs

You need addons which help immerse you in the existing product. If you keep buying planes that wont do it. Purchase FS FlightKeeper. Great immersive product. Also, I notice you have PMDG's 737-800-900. Get FS2Crew to provide more immersive aspects to this product.

I find that most often when I become bored with the game it is because I have become to dependant of the autopilot feature offered with the standard game. That is setting up either a short or long haul flight and then switching on the autopilot until its time to land.Hand flying an aircraft with real weather turned on will usally re-spark my interest in the game. I have four great aircraft for hand flying on my system, the the default Piper Cub, the Areosoft Kantana and Beaver. I recently added the Dreamfleet 727 Whisperjet. This aircraft, because of its limited autopilot and flight director, is also mostly hand flown.As an adventure. load up a hand flyable aircraft, turn on real time weather, and fly the plane through the grand canyon at dusk.

ill throw in my 2centsits tough for me to flight sim during the week, i usually like to flightsim only on the weekends, i work out of my home, and am a roof truss designer, so i work and play on the same pooter, after a full days worth of work, im ready to shut this thing off in the eveningi also do tons of other hobbies that are radically different than flight simming1. i play the bongo drums, - take up an instrument2. i fly quad line stunt kites3. i play miniature wargames4. im in my local model railroading club5. i go bowling and am in a mens bowling league6. i like to watch tons of movies and tv7. i doodle and try to paint modern abstract artim also single, im 39 yrs old, i dont have a dog... OH MY GOODNESS - I GREW UP TO BE A COMPLETE LOOSER! - no not really LOL!i had flown tons of tons of bush flying and finally got burned out on that, so now ive been getting into the more diffucult heavy iron, and am especially thrilled with the new DF B727 for me flying into good payware scenery is really thrilling to me, flying into the defualt stuff doesnt cut it much anymore with mestop and just do something really different, nothing to do with flyingciao!Brian S