>but I prefer flying the aircraft to monitoring systems anyway.This is the reason why I don't plan on flying for the airlines in the realworld once I've gotten my commercial ticket. Or corporate for the same matter because in the bizjets it's much the same thing. My hearts always been in Alaska where I was born and raised, so I think that's where I'll return. I'd much rather fly a Cessna or Beaver through a windy pass.----------------------------------------------------------------John MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private ASEL 141.2 hrs, 314 landings, 46 inst. apprs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

----------------------------------I'd much rather fly a Cessna or Beaver through a windy pass.----------------------------------What fun :) Thats something I always wanted to do but never got the chance. Good luck!! :)

My long haul is no more than 6-7 hours.I do long hauls because, like someone else has said, I like seeing different sceneries and listening to other traffic.I also do long hauls when I try to simulate a real flight that I'm going to take. I live in the Los Angeles area and I visit my family in New York during Easter (sometimes), Thanskgiving, and Christmas.I also do all of it in real time (1x).

I find a long-haul flight immensely satisfying for the simple reason for running windoze for 4-5 hour session without it crashing. I feel pretty lucky when that happens.Plus it's nice to have the flight adventure running in the background so that if I have to be at a computer to program, or do an analysis or whatever it's great to be able to switch to MSFS and enjoy the flight periodically - sort of a pleasant and temporary escape, if you will.

Long haul,Different strokes for different folks.I do them from time to time just to see how it is to take-off fully loaded and to land light which is more realistic.It's amazing how different a 747 feels heavy on take-off and how wrong it feels extra light.On long hauls you have to monitor more things, like fule flow, amount of fuel and fly at the most fuel efficient levels.But really much as I enjoy this I don't spend the whole time staring at the computer.I may go out for a walk in the parkI may go and watch a movieOr make some cloudsBut just taking off and doing a circuit is borig by comparison. Take-off is no challange but setting up the flight is. Landing is a challange especially on Vatsim which I like a lot.So really it's not about sitting glued to the set but having freedom to do other thing and have a sense of doing something in a more realistic manner.I think it's pretty clear we all get different things from doing a long haul.The chances are if you don't do long haul then you probably don't appreciate some of the more technically challanging aspects of flight.Another thing is weather. As you fly longer you begine to see a more varied cloud scape and that doe it for me.Regards,

Hi Gerry,I was doing a search on polar flight plan or navigation issues in FS2004 when I came across this post from August. Just wanted to to give feedback from my first TWO ultra long-haul flights from last week.I first used the PSS 772LR and then the PMDG 747-400 using completely different flight plans but the departure and destination was identical in both - MONTREAL (CYUL) to HONG KONG Chek Lap Kok (VHHH) non-stop!What I learned in terms for efficiency of flight planning and fuel setup/management from these flights, especially the second one with the much shorter range 744 was priceless for a dedicated flightsimmer like myself. The plan was completely different for the two airplanes. The 744's maximum range is 7325NM where the new (to be released next year) 772LR's range is a whopping 9400NM! The flight plan of the 772LR took me over the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Bering strait vicinity, then down to the Vladivostok area and FP distance was 7329NM. The 744 FP was much shorter due to necessity - around 6750NM and I flew practically over the North Pole, using what I believe is Earth's uneven (imperfect) spherical shape to cut down drastically on the total distance. ... And I made it with 31,000 lbs. of fuel to spare with the 744!So the learning is priceless with respect to the planning of the alternate airports for weather situations and extra fuel for contingency. Of course, because of the extreme distances, I could not get nowhere near a full payload but this was a test flight.Enjoy!Can (John) Agbaba

>I really dont understand what is so interesting about it, You>climb to cruise, monitor instruments, descend and land.( And>the FMC does all the flying for you). The most interresting>part seems like the T/O and landing hence In the 12 hours you>put flying the long hauls, you could have flown many shorter>legs and have a lot more action(EX: more T/O and landings,>approaches etc.)>Ive never used the FMC on long flights. Manually fly or make all heading and altitude changes your self. Use FSNav for your flight plan, and keep watch of the moving map. Set FSNav so all changes in Heading or altitude are manual, and keep adjusting trim to maintain altitude. Make heading changes whenever you get off track. Zoom in, so that you can keep it closer, and with RC you are never nagged by ATC because you are off course or altitude.

I do 4 - 6 hour hauls sometimes over 2 or 3 days. Depends how busy I am with other things. I don't speed the sim up at all. If I had the time, I could just sit there for the whole 4 - 6 hours as I love that.JimCYWG

My longest flight has been about 3 and a half hours of fligh time and it was in the AUSSIM Piper Warrior on a recration of my 250nm cross country. I've had a few 3 and a half hour flights in the 737s lately as well, those end up being about 4 hours with preflight, and taxi at both airports added to it.----------------------------------------------------------------John MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private ASEL 141.2 hrs, 314 landings, 46 inst. apprs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

I love long hauls. My favorite plane is the 744 and that is usually a long haul plane. im also a huge realism freak, and have alot of time for flight sim. flight sim is the closest i have to flying until i start flight school at souther illinois university next year. i never use time acceleration and depart based on the real world time, keeping time difference in mind. theres just something about long hauls, the hour or so of preperations, the anticipation of the long flight. entering the cold and dark cockpit, bringing it to life. wait for the pax to board, then begin pushback. listen to your engines roar to life and hope they get you to your destination. do the after star checks. taxi out. then hear, " cleared for TO." and begin the TO roll. climb out and get to cruise. moniter systems, ATC, ect. catch some rest in the crew bunk. get back for the remaining hours of the flight. then comes approach, that makes is all worth it. setting up for landing. tired, holding the joystick with white nuckles praying you dont mess up the landing. land(hopefeully), get to the gate, shut down, give little Tommy a tour of the cockpit while trying to get his moms phone number. and then pat yourself on the back and think in your mind that you are a virtual stud that just completed a 10 hour flight. then hit the town, meet a beautiful woman, tell her all your stories of the life threatening approaches you had a kai tak and how landed with 1 engine out once. and how you are a captain, ect. then take her to your hotel. then you wake up from your dream.adam

I enjoy flying the heavies, but I don't like sitting there for hours on end watching the simulated world go by. I like simulating real flying, using real STARs, SIDs, airways, etc. that the big boys would actually fly. I don't like the 4,6,8 plus hours of sitting and watching the instruments work. I will speed up the simulation 4x or 8x to get there quicker if I choose to do a rare long haul. I rarely do them because they take so long. Plus if the simulator crashes over half way through the flight I don't feel I have wasted a lot of time.Thats my 2 cents...Kevin

I was flying across the Atlantic to Heathrow and had so many TCAS aural alerts at cruie altitude (with a few really close calls, thanks to MSFS's slow ATC)that it was almost annoying! It lept me on the edge of my chair for most of the flight. Great Fun!I was using Lee Heatherington's freeware TCAS gauge with My Traffic. http://www.graphics-free.com/animations/tr...ges/plane_6.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MD

, I start the>flight climb to cruise then tell the "FO" to take over and do>other things - catch up with what is happening on AVSIM, walk>on the beach, do the shopping etc but I usually go to bed and>get up in the morning just in time to see the coast of Chile. >BrucebBruce, every time I look over to the left hand seat, ther's never anybody there!Where can I get an 'F.O'? LOLDave T. .........On the Devon Riviera and active 'FlightSim User's Group' member at http://www.flightsimgrpuk.free-online.co.uk/

I got the PSS Concorde for the long hauls. I fly in real time and I make it a rule that if I want to go somewhere in the world I have to fly there one leg at a time. I always take off from the place where I landed and it's great that the flight planner remembers your last destination. Inevitably there's the oceans to get across and that's what the Concorde is for. You can get it up to 50 plus thousand feet and it goes at Mach 2 so that crossing even the Pacific Ocean is only a matter of 3 or 4 hours. I wouldn't cross the oceans in anything else.

I too accelerate the simulation to 8X and 16X if the plane can handle it.Yesterday, I verified how long it takes from Toronto (CYYZ) to Hong Kong (VHHH) from the (real-life) Cathay Pacific website, which does direct flights. It takes a whopping 20 hours going (due to winds) and 17 hours coming back!!! So from MOntreal, if there was a direct flight, it would take about 1.5 hours longer in each direction! Wow! Hence, the need for accelerated simulation!I also love using real-life weather, SIDs and STARs and use airport taxi and parking charts.At the end of the day, though, I just have my very affectionate and "talkative" Siamese, Skittles, to tell all about my "adventures"! She looks at me curiously and wonders what "planet" I must be from... :) (to do such long flights and other strange incomprehensible things).Can (John) Agbaba