I alternate between weeks of only flying heavies like the PMDG 777 and then weeks where I want to fly lower and slower like with the Duke v2. This way I never get tired of flying.

 

I also spend time just training.  I look for things I'm weak on or haven't tried and find a place to do them for proficiency.  If I'm rusty on pattern procedures in a plane I'll do some touch and goes...even in larger airplanes.  Arc approaches, ILS, NDB, VOR, offsite-VOR.

Commercial twins and turboprop operations intertwined with A2A/RealAir and co... guaranteed to keep the boredom at bay!

 

A

Don't forget real airline pilots feel the same too sometimes. After all work in an industry that's gone down the pan for enjoyment over the last 20 years.

 

I spent last year really enjoying the NGX, as I was flying a Q400 and hating every moment at work. Mind you the work was mind numbing.......Now in the middle of a 737NG conversion and I don't miss theQ400 at all, just the people I worked with.

 

FSX- I've just gone back to the J3 Cub- Love it! I don't have my controls here with me yet (Had to relocate to Turkey to get out of the Q400) but even flying it on the keyboard rudder is fun.

 

To be honest, simming with a decent non flying real word job is possibly ideal. If only I knew when I was a kid....  

Wait for Oculus Rift Consumer Version and then come back to Flight Simulations. Belive me i am flying Prepar3D 1.4 with Oculus Rift and its a whole new experince. Your are sitting IN the Airplane, its so natural. The 3D is like in real life. You can messure distance to runway on final precisly. This piece of Hardware will change alot in the Flight Sim Community.

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by Chriz2

as I was flying a Q400 and hating every moment at work.

 

Is the Q400 such an awful plane or were there other factors involved? This would interest me ... Also interesting glimpse into the airline business in your "About me"!

 

Cheers,

Sascha

Well, the difference is that he was working when flying the Q400, and playing with the 737NGX. As far as I am concerned, that's like the difference between night and day :smile:

Simming is fun - RW commercial aviation is not.

Sorry, back now. OK. I once worked for a lovely company called "Skiyannen Vannin"(JE), where everyone was like family, really. everyone pulled together and working was fun. Then "Birdseed"(BAW) bought it out and "managed" it into an overcomplicated corporate entity where fun was outlawed. We sort of clung on and they sort of mostly left us alone to get on with it as they mis-managed the company onto it's knees. then sold it to "Flylo"(BEE). I flew the ATP then BAe 146 for 6 years and absolutely loved that airplane. The changes that happened I could live with as long as I had G-MIMA to play with at work. 5 early starts, long days, no problem.

 

Then they sold it and put a 146-100 in that was bearable but a bit dog eared. "Flylo" came along and swapped us onto the Q400. modern, new and clean, they burn half the fuel of the 146 and are almost as fast. However, "Flylo" don't do mods, they don't update or even wash their aircraft much. The company sort of existed as a means for the owners to move money about. This last year have seen redundancies and lots of unrest.

 

The aircraft is tricky, full of glitches that should have been sorted but "Flylo" won't pay for it and Bombardier won't fix for free. Plus it appears that flying Turboprops in the UK is like having leprosy as far as other companies are concerned. It's a high performance aircraft, difficult to fly smoothly and complex, yet you're seen as a second class low life not good enough to fly a jet. Give way, slow down to let the jets passed, every day. It gets to you. Now they've decided to shut our base and push everyone off the Island I live on. If I had to leave my own bed every night, it wouldn't be to fly a bloody Dash 8!

 

So to finally get back on a nice aircraft, I've had to leave my family there and move to Turkey with (XQ)- Hardly ideal but necessary and a decent company and probably the best of the ,lot out here. At least for the next two years and probably a lot longer.

 

There you go.

 

In summary, the Q400 is a complex high performance beast but the 737NG is so much easier to fly it's unreal.

 

The weirdest thing though. When I did my Q400 course, I remembered loads about the ATP...both P&W turboprops with DC based electrics. On my 737NG course, I'm remembering loads of 146 stuff I thought I'd forgot.

 

I will probably have to get a good 146 Sim  to play on now.

 

 

Sorry if I rambled on. The life of a real pilot is rarely as you'd think. loads of nomadic contractors all over the world. Not a Porsche in sight. Those working for the Majors/Flag Carriers are few and lucky, for the rest of us it's not so nice. 

Thanks Mark, for your instant reply! Money seems to stop progress these day, not advance it ...I wish you all the best for your future career!

 

Sascha

Simming is fun - RW commercial aviation is not.

 

Because in the real world you have a schedule and sleep patters get disrupted and you get tired of the same routes because you're lower on the list than more senior pilots. That is where the real world can make being a pilot into just another job.

Every time when I feel lack of motivation to fly, I watch one particular video on YT:

It's just amazing. 

Great video! Will add it to my favorites.

I think the key to fight 'boredom' is to not get stuck doing one type of flying.  There is an extremely wide variety of aviation challenges within FSX.  Like everyone here, I have a few favorite types of flying, but it is good to do other things.  Personally I love the thrill and sounds of the A2A and Classics Hangar warbirds.  Strapping into a virtual warbird that is a handful to fly, and will bite back hard if I mistreat it, gets my brain going trying to think ahead of the plane.  That all while screaming along the deck with a big beautiful sounding V-12 or radial up front gets my heart going, makes my ears happy, and puts a big smile on my face.  

 

That being said, I think it is important to try all sorts of things so I don't get 'stuck' on one style.  Gliders, GAs of all sorts from bush to bizjet, tubeliners old to new, military aircraft from transports to fighters, choppers...its all there, waiting to be tried out.   Find ridge lift in a glider, plunk a bush plane on a small strip in the back country, trap a jet onto an aircraft carrier....its all good and fun.  

 

Even better, mix things up and be 'unrealistic' once in a while....you won't get arrested or loose your virtual pilot's certificate.  Plunk a GA on to a carrier, turn a warbird into a bush plane, do some aerobatics in an tubeliner, fly airline profiles in a jet fighter.....why not? B)

 

Cheers

TJ

I think the key to fight 'boredom' is to not get stuck doing one type of flying.  There is an extremely wide variety of aviation challenges within FSX.  Like everyone here, I have a few favorite types of flying, but it is good to do other things.  Personally I love the thrill and sounds of the A2A and Classics Hangar warbirds.  Strapping into a virtual warbird that is a handful to fly, and will bite back hard if I mistreat it, gets my brain going trying to think ahead of the plane.  That all while screaming along the deck with a big beautiful sounding V-12 or radial up front gets my heart going, makes my ears happy, and puts a big smile on my face.  

 

That being said, I think it is important to try all sorts of things so I don't get 'stuck' on one style.  Gliders, GAs of all sorts from bush to bizjet, tubeliners old to new, military aircraft from transports to fighters, choppers...its all there, waiting to be tried out.   Find ridge lift in a glider, plunk a bush plane on a small strip in the back country, trap a jet onto an aircraft carrier....its all good and fun.  

 

Even better, mix things up and be 'unrealistic' once in a while....you won't get arrested or loose your virtual pilot's certificate.  Plunk a GA on to a carrier, turn a warbird into a bush plane, do some aerobatics in an tubeliner, fly airline profiles in a jet fighter.....why not? B)

 

Cheers

TJ

I like these suggestions  :lol:

 

I think I often struggle to get enjoyment out of it because I find simming a bit easy these days. The challenging bits now are all the procedural stuff which just isn't intrinsically fun! Anyway i'm having fun just messing around with random planes doing nothing particular at the minute  ^_^

Love the GC232 videos... Look up dnhug on YouTube as well... Highly recommendable and great motivation to fire up the sim and fly a tube or a GA...

 

 

Andrew Entwistle