Most memorable sim flight?

[John_Cillis 2,406]

We all fly so much here, at least I do, one to two hours a day, ten hours or more a week.  I always try to fly self contained flights from destination to destination--if I do not land somewhere, I feel my sim session is incomplete.  I am curious of members, what are your most memorable sim flights?  And in what sim(s)?  Mine is a very recent one, a dawn flight I flew and saved in Xplane11 in the Aerobask Eclipse from SFO Intl to Reno Intl.  It is memorable for me because of the lighting, which I feel Xplane does so well.  And the route, which I fly often in P3DV4 too, because it goes from the sea (SF Bay), over farmland, into subalpine then alpine country, and finally into the Nevada desert just beneath the Sierras.  It also covers territory I used to drive thru and fly over regularly when I lived in California. 

Of course I have had so many other flights, all the memorable ones comprise scenery changes over the course of the flight, and comprise various aircraft "niches" that I like to fly in--prop, tprop, light jet, and copters.  I never really tire of this, and when I am done with a sim session I almost always watch a movie, the joys of retirement!

Edit: one feature Xplane11 has that I wish P3DV4 had is the ability to save a long flight.  You can save a flight in P3DV4 but after eight mins or so it goes quirky. I have saved many Xplane11 flights to enjoy repeatedly from different viewpoints and angles. 

John

Edited October 24, 2018 by Cactus521

[jon b 2,050]

Funny you should start this discussion now as I have just had mine tonight.

XP11, Just flight Hawk, Orbx True Earth England south flown with thrustmaster warthog HOTAS and TPR in VR using a Samsung Odyssey.

Low level out of St Mawgan out to Lands end, back along the south coast to Exeter, climbing up to FL250 and heading North across the Bristol Channel into central Wales then decending back low level 250ft AGL 420kts through the Welsh Valleys before heading East and landing at Shawbury.

I've not used the VR for a few months and its the first time using it with with True Earth and the Hawk,Completely blown away anything else I've experienced in the past 30 odd years of simming, truly amazing.

[Mace 1,927]

FS2004?  -- dead reckoning a Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Scotland.  I re-created the Alcock and Brown flight of 1919.  My goal was to land in Ireland, but I ended up in Scotland.

I guess I'm due for another.  Orbx TrueEarth England. the BaE Hawk, and VR?  That would probably do it.  I fly that Hawk at low level / nap-of-the-earth anyway already, and it's a barrel of fun.

[Christopher Low 5,354]

The flight I always remember was very short. It was a quick hop from Oakland International to San Jose in the Flight Unlimited 3 Beechjet 400A executive jet. I had departed runway 27L, and had just completed my turn left over San Francisco Bay at around 2500 feet. I turned to look out of the right cockpit window....barely a second before an AI Boeing 777 slammed into my plane! I was then treated to an external view of the wreckage of my plane plummeting into the cold waters of San Francisco Bay below.

I would mention how Flight Unlimited 3 simulated crashes far better than Microsoft Flight Simulator or P3D have ever done.....but that pesky 777 carried on going as if nothing had happened!!

Edited October 25, 2018 by Christopher Low

[Paraffin 2,197]

The ones I tend to remember are the screw-ups. One of my best was an FSEconomy flight, somewhere in NW Canada with a destination out on the coast north of Vancouver.

This was before I could afford to "own" planes in FSE, and I had just downloaded a free model I wanted to try out. It might have been a Piper Meridian, I can't remember exactly but it was a turboprop. That was the big hole in the cheese; not being familiar with that specific model.

Everything went well from takeoff to autopilot cruise. When I got near the destination airport, I switched off the AP and started to descend from something like 10,000 ft. to sea level. I pulled the throttle back and eased the nose down for a nice easy descent. Then the plane gets weird on me... acting like it's trying to stall, but I had enough airspeed that it shouldn't be stalling. I fought the controls all the way down to a spectacular splash-down in the water, short of the destination.

Later, I figured it out. That model was one of the few where the designer had programmed a beta/reverse range at the bottom 10% of the throttle axis, instead of leaving beta/reverse as a separate control assignment like most models. By pulling the throttle back to idle, I had the prop in reverse. I could have recovered by advancing the throttle, but I was too intent on trying to figure out why I had enough airspeed NOT to stall, and didn't understand why I couldn't pull the nose up.

My other epic screw-ups tend to be something like an approach to a bush landing strip in FSE where I'm coming in too high or too fast, overfly the runway, and then prang into a canyon wall when trying some cowboy stunt for a return to the landing strip.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

2 hours ago, Paraffin said:

The ones I tend to remember are the screw-ups. One of my best was an FSEconomy flight, somewhere in NW Canada with a destination out on the coast north of Vancouver.

This was before I could afford to "own" planes in FSE, and I had just downloaded a free model I wanted to try out. It might have been a Piper Meridian, I can't remember exactly but it was a turboprop. That was the big hole in the cheese; not being familiar with that specific model.

Everything went well from takeoff to autopilot cruise. When I got near the destination airport, I switched off the AP and started to descend from something like 10,000 ft. to sea level. I pulled the throttle back and eased the nose down for a nice easy descent. Then the plane gets weird on me... acting like it's trying to stall, but I had enough airspeed that it shouldn't be stalling. I fought the controls all the way down to a spectacular splash-down in the water, short of the destination.

Later, I figured it out. That model was one of the few where the designer had programmed a beta/reverse range at the bottom 10% of the throttle axis, instead of leaving beta/reverse as a separate control assignment like most models. By pulling the throttle back to idle, I had the prop in reverse. I could have recovered by advancing the throttle, but I was too intent on trying to figure out why I had enough airspeed NOT to stall, and didn't understand why I couldn't pull the nose up.

My other epic screw-ups tend to be something like an approach to a bush landing strip in FSE where I'm coming in too high or too fast, overfly the runway, and then prang into a canyon wall when trying some cowboy stunt for a return to the landing strip.

I always have problems getting into short strips, except in my ultralight trike, available here at Avsim, which can land on a dime.  In real life I have been flown into a grass strip only once, in a Luscombe in PA, which was a thrill because we came in high to clear trees, then went weightless as we slowed in ground effect before touchdown.  "Ally Oop" the middle aged pilot called it, a real good, skilled and memorable man.  The Luscombe is the only aircraft I ever hand started, with just one firm pull of the prop, unlike the poor guy in the cub across the field who was struggling to hand start his aircraft.  I had such joy in starting the aircraft, I felt a part of history although I was nervous about losing my appendage if I slipped or fell.  But I held fast, and it is a glorious memory, to use the "Arm"-strong starter, lol....

John