Never.  I just fly my Kodiak low and slow for an hour or so.  I have a collection of flight plans around the world that last in neighborhood of an hour.  I do have a Bar Harbor to Lake Placid flight that takes and hour and a half.  That's my absolute upper limit.

Noel

I don't use acceleration at all. On long flights over water, I usually do other things whilst keeping watch.

Over land, I love to surf Wikipedia. Looking up descriptions of the places I am overflying, their history, populations, industries, etc. I feel that I have learnt a lot about the world this way.😃

My flights are generally 1 1/2 hours or less in duration, often using flight following VFR or IFR flight plan, so I do not use the flight acceleration function.

1 hour ago, Flamingpie said:

Why wouldn't they? There also are serious simmers who save their flights in mid air and proceed a flight the next day. Just as odd as time accel. Some serious simmers go to bed or go shopping during a long cruise: again, just as odd as time accel. (Even more odd imho.)

It all depends on what you simulate. Matthew said 'SIDs and STARs is the fun part': you can be a perfectly fine and die hard serious simmer if you decide to ONLY simulate those phases of flight. Some people like do simulate approaches over and over again and they sure can be serious simmers. Heck, I sometimes even did the initial phase of a flight, going from cold and dark until the take off and then stopped because that was all I wanted to simulate.

Flying a flight from A to B in real time doesn't make you a serious simmer. Sitting behind your desk doing nothing but stare at the screen during cruise absolutely doesn't make you a serious simmer. The dedication and devotion to what you actually do simulate could perhaps define you as a serious simmer but seriously... what is a serious simmer...? 😉

BTW I voted for 'Yes but only rarely when absolutely necessary'. I usually plan a flight so it will fit in the time I think I will have for it but I may use time accell as real life requires it. 😉 I may also use it when I am testing something.

Saving a flight and continuing the next day is fine if they want to fly in real time. I trust they will set weather to the same time as the saved flight.

I can assure you that on a 3.5hr flight in Concorde from EGLL to KJFK I am certainly not staring at the screen doing nothing. I manage the fuel so it has to be constantly monitored and pumps turned on and off to maintain a correct CG. On subsonic flights I keep them to a max of 1.5hrs which does allow some free time during which I read through this forum and others.

I created the poll as I was curious how many time accel their flights. I don't judge people on that. Some have time limitations, others don't.

99% of my flights are flown on acars for a VA and it's against the law. I don't want to go to VA jail so no, I don't accelerate 😂

On 7/12/2019 at 6:56 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Saving a flight and continuing the next day is fine if they want to fly in real time. I trust they will set weather to the same time as the saved flight.

Just to note, your definition of what is and isn't a "serious flight simmer" is not a general rule of fact.  Everyone has their own priorities, and I hope you understand they are not all aligned with your own.

That said, I spend most of my sim time flying FSE jobs in small and slow GA aircraft, and the majority of my fights are VFR and under 100 miles in length so I don't use acceleration much at all.  I do use it occasionally though when I'm flying jobs with longer legs and spending a lot of time at a high cruising altitude.  When I do it's only 2X or 4X, some of the planes I fly are so slow that even flying at 4X it really doesn't feel very fast, LOL.

I never do. I tried it "once" because I was pressed for time. But it was almost a catastrophe because something happened with navigation during that accelerated time that took more time to correct than it was worth.

2 hours ago, Mengy said:

Just to note, your definition of what is and isn't a "serious flight simmer" is not a general rule of fact.  Everyone has their own priorities, and I hope you understand they are not all aligned with your own.

I never said it was. We all have different ways of getting our aircraft from A to B. As I said in an earlier reply I’m not trying to be judgemental. If you think I am I’m sorry.

I find acceleration dull and I dislike using it, basically don't ever think of using it. But not because I am rock hard serious about flight and simulation. It is just a tool of simulation, not a tool of flight, so it doesn't figure in any mental idea of seriousness to me. However I don't mind jumping to a later part of the route, if it's not so important to be along for the ride over say, lots of open sea.

On 7/12/2019 at 4:25 AM, Speedbird21 said:

99% of my flights are flown on acars for a VA and it's against the law. I don't want to go to VA jail so no, I don't accelerate 😂

LOL!  So true when you fly for a VA.  I only accelerate when I am in a stretch between my photo sceneries, which cover from Kansas west to the west coast, north to Montana, and Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.  In Xplane11 I do not accelerate at all, acceleration throws off its autopilot, plus when I am not in photoscenery there, I find its default scenery and landclass much better than P3D, otherwise the two sims are both good and P3D has some features that Xplane11 does not have, including more aircraft to choose from currently.  Otherwise for me acceleration I use only if a flight is coast to coast, or Transatlantic. 

I am unsure why some get upset if acceleration is used when they say it is not "realistic".  Sims are sims, yes training tools as well, but some carry their concept of realism as judgement against those they think of as "non-pilots" and they should stand corrected when they run afoul of someone who has flown real aircraft, like I have.  Sure I never flew a bizjet or multi engine aircraft, or heavy iron, but I know and learned from "Stick and Rudder", the bible my CFI's had me learn to fly by so I could at least carry out a flight from takeoff to touchdown without banging up their aircraft or ruining their composure while I handled the aircraft (LOL). 

My first CFI, Jason Bullard, a cool, confident high time pilot in his early 20's, was unflappable and never antagonized me during a lesson, as some of my later CFI's did or tried to do, until I found my final two CFI's when I decided to go for trike flying.  And in sim trike flying, acceleration is BORING, you do not choose to fly low and slow if you want to accelerate!

John