Hi GuysHaving just acquired my PPL within flight sim, i'm looking for some VFR flights that will test my newly acquired fight skills and show off my most recent purchase, that of Ultimate Terrain USA. However, as a UK pilot, i'm not overly familiar with VFR flying within the US so some pointers to interesting flights together with any good sites where i could download some VFR maps would be very much appreciated !!!So far though, UT looks the biz...All the bestGary

A short one I commonly do is KBFI - KCLM. You'll fly right over my house. ;)

If you want something fun, take off from Lake Havasu, AZ (KHII) and follow the Colorado river north to Lake Mead, passing the spillway of Cooley Dam. Snake along with the river and fly about 1000ft AGL in the canyons. Once at the lake do a straight in appraoch to Los vegas (KLAS), landing west. Then out of vegas, fly to Yosemite. There is an add on scenery that animates all the waterfalls in the Yosemite area and you can fly around and find them. Check the files area.

As a UK pilot myself I heartily recommend flights in and around the Washington State area, beautiful scenery and fairly testing little airports. If you want to further enhance your experience then please look at the payware airports from that area available through Lago (Georender series) and FSAddOn which is where the guys from Georender went. If you do buy the Georenders then may I suggest Simmarket as Lago seem to have more or less given up the ghost.

May thanks, guys - i'll definitely give them ago...

Check out Cabin Creek, a US Forestry Service strip in the Idaho mountains:http://www.airnav.com/airport/I08Beautiful scenery, and extremely challenging to get it, especially if you are using AS6. Grab a STOL plane.Fly in from KSMN, 40 nm east or so.http://www.airnav.com/airport/KSMN* Orest

Another one to try is out of Portland Oregon (KPDX) Fly the Columbia River Gorge, or head North to the Volcano's (Mount St Helena)

If you are looking for sceneries to load for the US, you might start at my website. Click the link below, select Microsoft Flight Simulator on the left, and I have a list of many of the sceneries I load. It is heavily biased to the Northeast US, where I live and fly, but I also have a link to a search for Holger Sandmann's releases, including the Columbia River Gorge (make sure to get the correct files), all of which are a set of MUST HAVES. He has a support site dedicated to his releases that is a very good place to go for information, too.There's a lot of other info for MFSF at my site, too. And I am constantly adding to it.Hopefully, I'll be releasing a bunch of northeast airports in concert with a new release of Freeflow NE soon, too.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

"Having just acquired my PPL within flight sim, i'm looking for some VFR flights that will test my newly acquired fight skills and show off my most recent purchase, that of Ultimate Terrain USA."I'm a bit late for this discussion, but one great flight is from Reno to Bishop--especially if you start about 2 hrs. before sunset. It's one of the most beautiful flights MSFS offers, and with UT it can't be beat, with the crest of the Sierra Nevada on your right and the stark desert for contrast on your left.-John

In real life I often depart from Caldwell, NJ (KCDW) and follow I-80 west to the Delaware Water Gap, the river that separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania. Continue on past the gap and head to Allentown (KABE) or Reading (KRDG). Reading has some hills surrounding it making for a mildly challenging approach.

Cooley on the Colorado? What's the name of the dam on the Columbia river then? What happened to Hoover Dam (OK there was one FS version, it MAY have been 2000, where Lake Mead was mysteriously hanging without support in Boulder Canyon)?There are enough volcanos in Washington and Oregon you can follow the chain VFR when the visability is good.There's a long list of bridges the 9.1 update added on Microsoft's game website.Some other US landmarks that are represented in the scenery:Mount RushmorePearl Harbor Memorial. Aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk nearby in several versions prior to FS 2004.Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk in the Pacific off the entrance to San Francisco Bay (FS 2004). The Constelation is in the same position in several earlier versions.In some versions there are hot air ballons in the Everet Washington and Phoenix Arizona areas. While over Everet check out the Huge Boeing assembly plant.Gateway Arch in St Louis, MOGrand Canyon if you continue up the ColoradoMicrosoft's main Redmond facilities. You've probably found the Seatle landmarks like the Space Needle and the nearby EMPAerostat near Key WestCapitol buildings represented in most state capitals.Many well known government and museum buildings in Washington DCMANY landmarks in and around New York CityVehicle Assembly building and shuttle launch pads at Kennedy Space Center. The Saturn V moon rockets all launched from one of the pads used by the shuttles.Shuttle parked at Edwards Air Force Base in California.Oil Derecks in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana.Dineyland California and Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Alas! Robert is right--I meant Hoover Dam not Cooley Dam (different US President!). Flight is no less fun tho, if you have a good mesh scenery for that region.