One of the problems I keep running into is having a strong desire to fly, but not knowing where to fly to or from.

I think some type of online community flight/job board that is easily accessible within the sim would be a great idea in helping other simmers, veterans and newcommers alike, explore places they've never been to while also instilling a sense of purpose to one's flight if so desired. I'm thinking sort of like a 'mission creator lite' but where a user can just simply create a flight plan, and then upload it with a brief written scenario description and screenshot where other users may then download and fly said flightplan, all automatically imported and within the sim.

It doesn't have to be complicated. For example, someone could simply upload a flight plan that just involves flying waypoints over Orlando and Disney World with a written description saying "As a new pilot for our company 'X Tours', take this family of three sightseeing above the Florida suburbs in one of our light aircraft.." The user may then choose to fly this flightplan which ever way they feel fit whether through the books VFR following procedures in a Cessna at sunset, or simply picking up and using dead reckoning in a Piper during the early morning. The same can apply for commercial taxi-like flights with airliners. I think this system would compliment and be able to coexist well with the more structured mission types that you find in FSX. Where the more structured missions can focus on cool scripted events and specific unique scenarios/challenges (like seeing a UFO over the Nevada desert), the community flight board could provide a more open ended straight forward experience where the entire world and the community's imagination is the stage.

Perhaps users can also leave ratings and feedback on these flights to help improve and curate the flight board as well as a search option using the world map to filter jobs that are in the general areas you would like to fly around.

 

♫Yeeeah.... Yeeeah....... Yeeeeeah!♫

Edited November 9, 20196 yr by Benzhangar

I often bookmark "exotic" airports for later use. I especially find island hopping to be an amusing way to kill some time. An added bonus is that your frames will be quite high compared to flying between large cities 🙂 

The following website dedicated to abandoned and little known airfields is a gem.

Thanks to its author, it could be a big well of inspiration for wonderfully scenic small aircraft flying in MSFS, and bring purpose to the flight in order to find some of these disused fields. 
 

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/index.htm 

Fly to and land at every airport in your state or whatever geographic dividers where you live. 

 

Maybe we could tell Azure what type of flight we want (weather, terrain, sightseeing or procedure based, time of day) and it could recommend places to fly.  also include distance/time of flight.

I have found places to fly by just flying the takeoff runway heading, choosing a random direction, typing in random codes into the GPS, or just wondering "whats that over there".

downloadable flightplans could be great but we might easily get overwhelmed if they arent categorized somehow.

On 11/9/2019 at 8:45 PM, Gami0522 said:

One of the problems I keep running into is having a strong desire to fly, but not knowing where to fly to or from.

I

There are multiple answers :

- for airliners, pick up the flight schedule of your favorite company and enter departure and arrival points into your planning program to get a route ; 

- some sites (Orbx for instance) have a flight plan forum ; 

- there are existing software like FSEconomy (freeware) or announced these recent months  (Skypark , OnAir) offering what you are looking for ;

- my favorite solution : open GE, throw the proverbial dart on the map, slant GE to get a feeling of the relief and make up your flight. Imagination, the best software of them all 😏

 

Edited November 11, 20196 yr by domkle

Something similar to the OP's idea, but going in a slightly different direction:

A new simmer (or myself 😀) wants to fly lets say 30 minutes. Especially for the new simmer it is maybe a bit difficult preparing everything. The simulator could help them. For instance dialog):

1. What aircraft do you want to fly? (Selection)
2. How long do you want to fly? (Selection)
3. From where (or where to alternatively) do you want to fly, and the opposite:
   To where (or where from) do you want to fly.
   The simulator lets them pick locations via a map or via a dialog window etc.
4. Then the simulator can suggest a route and altitude (we have this part roughly today in FSX in the (tiny) flight planner dialog).
5. Then the simulator also puts the right amount of fuel into the tanks. E.g. I liked flying the 737 from KSJC to KSFO, which takes perhaps 10 min, so you would not fly with full tanks.
6. The simulator could then also ask about the desired weather etc.

This could be more complex I guess, and they have already said, you can use the new checklist system or skip it etc. But something that helps a new simmer doing flight that make some sense could be helpful. (I admit, I have not fully thought through the above, just a quick idea).

 

Are you guys so bored & lazy that you cannot decide what to fly & where to fly?

We do not need a sim to tell us what to do, there are 10's of thousands of airports around the world, South America, etc.

So you want the sim to decide for you, so all you have to do is to set up the auto pilot?

Try lear to fly with a drift meter & a sextant with whatever sim you currently have..You you want to be spoon fed?

Take a paper map, decide how far you want to fly, draw a circle with a compass, decide how much fuel you need & plot your route manually.. Dont be lazy, you will lear a lot more this way!