Long haul flights, do you really sit there for 14 hrs?

[Doug47 574]

3 hours ago, captain420 said:

I'm curious those who fly long haul flights like 10+ hours. Do you actually sit there the entire time to monitor everything? I love flying, but I can't imagine just sitting in front of the computer for that many hours, especially during the cruise phase (after ToC and before ToD).

If so, what do you do during those long hours?

Only tedious if you’re flying a boring button pushing airplane like the 777, 744, 787 etc. 

Which is why I prefer the classic 747’s, 707, DC-10 with INS nav. Of which require DME updates to keep it accurate. Checking ahead for VOR stations and tuning in to update the INS keeps one busy. 
Making sure one of the units hasn’t failed requires monitoring as well.  
And inserting the next lot of LAT/LONG waypoints is a necessity that takes time. 
Fuel loads need to be monitored ,and tanks adjusted, changed etc. 
No auto step climbs so that needs to be calculated to keep it at optimum altitude for fuel planning purposes. 
No moving maps so a regular cross check of the current LAT/LONG position keeps me informed of my position. 
Then flying SID’s and STARS with no FMC and nothing more then VOR and NDB’s, planning the descent - without a green band or tod sign - accordingly adds to the rewardable workload . 
Yes, the day I stopped flying the ‘button-pushers’, was the day flying was much more exciting and rewarding.

Back in the early days of flight simming, it was considered a right of passage to be able to operate the above mentioned Classic airplanes. you knew you were part of a small group in the flight simming world that actually could do it and do it well. 

Now it seems the reward comes from having the latest plastic fantastic that does everything for you, and it’s more about the texture quality, PBR and other non-essential whiz bang features. 
 

But us old timers still smirk and walk proud knowing we’re a part of that elite club that doesn’t need a FMC or moving map to operate the heavy iron. 
 

Respect to the few. 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Doug47

[flyinpilot212121 724]

7 minutes ago, Doug47 said:

Only tedious if you’re flying a boring button pushing airplane like the 777, 744, 787 etc. 

Which is why I prefer the classic 747’s, 707, DC-10 with INS nav. Of which require DME updates to keep it accurate. Checking ahead for VOR stations and tuning in to update the INS keeps one busy. 
Making sure one of the units hasn’t failed requires monitoring as well.  
And inserting the next lot of LAT/LONG waypoints is a necessity that takes time. 
Fuel loads need to be monitored ,and tanks adjusted, changed etc. 
No auto step climbs so that needs to be calculated to keep it at optimum altitude for fuel planning purposes. 
No moving maps so a regular cross check of the current LAT/LONG position keeps me informed of my position. 
Then flying SID’s and STARS with no FMC and nothing more then VOR and NDB’s, planning the descent - without a green band or tod sign - accordingly adds to the rewardable workload . 
Yes, the day I stopped flying the ‘button-pushers’, was the day flying was much more exciting and rewarding.

Back in the early days of flight simming, it was considered a right of passage to be able to operate the above mentioned Classic airplanes. you knew you were part of a small group in the flight simming world that actually could do it and do it well. 

Now it seems the reward comes from having the latest plastic fantastic that does everything for you, and it’s more about the texture quality, PBR and other non-essential whiz bang features. 
 

But us old timers still smirk and walk proud knowing we’re a part of that elite club that doesn’t need a FMC or moving map to operate the heavy iron. 
 

Respect to the few. 

 

What decent classics are available in p3d? I wouldn’t mind using a more hands on type airliner the odd time. Any recommendations for something less automated in airliner form?

[Patco Lch 1,465]

3 hours ago, snapshot21 said:

Atleast the real pilots take turns and they have each other to talk to and pass the time with lol

Yep. And the real pilots get paid over $200 an hour for doing it. For that kind of jack I could sit for twelve hours admiring the clouds too LOL.

[Benjamin J 751]

I definitely do not sit all that time in front of my computer, and indeed for a long time I didn't do any long haul because the aircraft I used didn't have an automatic time compression feature. All PMDGs now have it, including the 737NGXu, the QW787 has the jump ahead and the Aerosoft busses are compatible up to 4x or so. So that's what I typically use to speed through cruise. But I don't just do that for long haul, I also do it on medium and even short haul, now that the PMDG 737NGXu has it too. Though with that one I won't always use it, just if I'm in a bit of a hurry... Otherwise I'll just select a different, shorter flight. But yeah, with the long hauls it's an absolute must for me to have some sort of time compression going on. Particularly if it's transatlantic, which I find quite boring. When I did EDDF-KORD I sped over the water, and as I reached land I went back to 1x time compression to enjoy the terrain. But, as soon as clouds obscured the view I went back to 4x, as there was nothing to see anyway.

[flyerkg 62]

My max sit time is 2 hours for short flights and simulated military training sorties. I truly enjoy having the payware heavies, but it has never been a practice of mine to time-compress or slew towards the long-distance destination. However, back when I had FS4 and FS5 I once flew out of San Francisco and put autopilot on a course nearly due-east of KSFO and left the house to buy groceries. Back then there were only but a couple of airports/cities with any amount of scenery. About an hour after returning home from the store my plane was still flying and out of nowhere this small range of 2D mountains appeared with a few vectors representing what might have been a planned airport. 

[SKEWR 364]

I rarely do long hauls. When I do, I use time compression liberally. When I was flight training to be a pilot, I wanted long haul flights. I enjoy flying. However since the airline pilot thing didn't work out, I will not sit at my PC for 8-16 hours.

 

When I get tired of flying short haul in the US, I'll do a flight to another region. For example: SFO-PHNL-RJBB/RJAA. Then I'll fly the 74 domestically. If you haven't flown in Japan (or another region) please consider doing it as my virtual head was out the window all the time looking at new landmarks.

 

In the 90s I taught myself VOR to VOR, backcourse, procedure turns and a bunch of archaic techniques. While it was a degree of satisfaction doing those things, I prefer today's avionics, as more times than not I want to see all the scenery I paid for!

[sab12 6]

Something else to try?

Way back in my early FS days after I had learned to modify panels, I found a useful gauge called BeThere by Thilo Arndt which is still available in the AVSIM Library. The .zip file download includes instructions for how to use it. There is a .cab file that you put in your sims gauges folder. I haven't tried it but expect that you could also put the .cab in an individual aircraft's SimObject panel folder.

You install it as an additional 2-D window in your panel. When you open it during a flight, you give it a destination point's latitude and longitude and a distance in nm from that point. When that distance is reached, it pauses the sim. I usually try to set it to pause a bit further from a destination than what a more automated a/c would figure as TOD.

When I went to P3Dv4 I was certain that this would no longer work but, to my pleasant surprise, it did.

I am currently at P3Dv4.5 HF2 and using this gauge successfully in a Vertx DA62, Aerosoft Twotter, RAS Scout, RAS B60 Duke, RAS Turbine Duke, and RAS Legacy. Plan to try using it in V5 when I make that move (after HF2 ?).

I can't promise that it will work or not cause problems for you but I have had no issues with it and continue to find it very useful.

Stephen Bickford

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Nah... not anymore.  But I do remember way back when I first got really into the hobby (musta been FS2004),  when I flew in real time from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt.  I took this flight in the real world so I wanted to recreate it.  Took off at the same time (6pm ish),  and flew all night landing at around 5:30am in Frankfurt.

It was actually a lot of fun as simming was new to me and everything I saw was "fresh" even though most of the flight was all done in default scenery.  8 hour flight... not even so much as a hiccup.  Ah... those were the days.  😉

[DChockey08 299]

I usually have 2 hours open a week for a flight... considering flight planning/taxiout and everything else taking time I have just enough time to take-off, climb to cruise, teleport to TOC using map mode (I have a method for doing so in the PMDG) and then descend and land. 

Realistic? Heck no. But I also work full-time and have other responsibilities. 

I could do shorter routes, but I like to fly routes that I know in real life and have flown before as a passenger (SFO-SYD, for example), so it is what it is. It helps that I fly offline. 

[kaha 205]

8 hours ago, flyinpilot212121 said:

What decent classics are available in p3d? I wouldn’t mind using a more hands on type airliner the odd time. Any recommendations for something less automated in airliner form?

I'm also interested in classic airliners with a working INS that stores its content (waypoints mainly) when the flight is saved. I tried Justflights L-1011 Tristar, but all waypoints are lost after save/reload. I use P3D V5.

Karl

[snapshot21 254]

8 hours ago, flyinpilot212121 said:

What decent classics are available in p3d? I wouldn’t mind using a more hands on type airliner the odd time. Any recommendations for something less automated in airliner form?

The Aerosoft DC-8 is really good 🙂

[cwburnett 1,809]

8 hours ago, flyinpilot212121 said:

What decent classics are available in p3d? I wouldn’t mind using a more hands on type airliner the odd time. Any recommendations for something less automated in airliner form?

The Coolsky DC-9 and the Aerosoft DC-8 are my go-tos for classic flying.  I don't own either of them, but there are a couple classic 737-200s that are v4 compatible (Milviz and someone else). I think one of them at least has an FMS, but really not sure.

The DC-9 has no INS, so VOR+ADF navigation only. In the US you can still find plenty of classic SIDS/STARS (not RNAV) and you really have to brief those to fly them correctly.

The DC-8 does have a well-simulated INS with DME updates and the works.  For that I usually program the INS route's first waypoint at the end of the departure procedure. You can manually program it or use the auto-loader to import an .fpn file.  If you're flying somewhere that only has RNAV procedures, you can cheat and include the RNAV departure/arrival waypoints in your flight plan.  Simbrief has the option to save as .fpn with or without SIDS/STARS, so that's convenient.  Both of these aircraft have pretty rudimentary autopilots as well, though the DC-9 does have (as the real aircraft did) a rudimentary auto-throttle that only works on an approach.

Neither of these are v5 compatible, but I expect the DC-8 to be soon and I doubt the DC-9 will be further upgraded from the v4 release. They are both reasonably priced and worked in some initial v5 testing I did in April, though I don't currently have either installed in v5.

Lastly, the Maddog X configured with the old/original FMS is also fun and adds some work.  The FMS itself has no VNAV capabilities, there's a separate performance computer for that and it is more challenging to get it all working correctly.

Those are all great options if you want to take a break from button pushing.

[snapshot21 254]

2 hours ago, cwburnett said:

The Coolsky DC-9 and the Aerosoft DC-8 are my go-tos for classic flying.  I don't own either of them, but there are a couple classic 737-200s that are v4 compatible (Milviz and someone else). I think one of them at least has an FMS, but really not sure.

The DC-9 has no INS, so VOR+ADF navigation only. In the US you can still find plenty of classic SIDS/STARS (not RNAV) and you really have to brief those to fly them correctly.

The DC-8 does have a well-simulated INS with DME updates and the works.  For that I usually program the INS route's first waypoint at the end of the departure procedure. You can manually program it or use the auto-loader to import an .fpn file.  If you're flying somewhere that only has RNAV procedures, you can cheat and include the RNAV departure/arrival waypoints in your flight plan.  Simbrief has the option to save as .fpn with or without SIDS/STARS, so that's convenient.  Both of these aircraft have pretty rudimentary autopilots as well, though the DC-9 does have (as the real aircraft did) a rudimentary auto-throttle that only works on an approach.

Neither of these are v5 compatible, but I expect the DC-8 to be soon and I doubt the DC-9 will be further upgraded from the v4 release. They are both reasonably priced and worked in some initial v5 testing I did in April, though I don't currently have either installed in v5.

Lastly, the Maddog X configured with the old/original FMS is also fun and adds some work.  The FMS itself has no VNAV capabilities, there's a separate performance computer for that and it is more challenging to get it all working correctly.

Those are all great options if you want to take a break from button pushing.

Unfortunately, The Aerosoft DC-8 is confirmed that it will not be updated to P3Dv5. Ill try installing it directly to v5 and hopefully it works good.

[Joseph29 225]

I did a few long haul fights (6+ hours) when I was using FS9. Now I don't fly anything longer than 4 hours.

 

I have done a US coast to coast flight (with a stop for fuel in the central US) with a fighter jet. I forget how long that took, but it wasn't to bad.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

16 hours ago, flyinpilot212121 said:

What decent classics are available in p3d? I wouldn’t mind using a more hands on type airliner the odd time. Any recommendations for something less automated in airliner form?

Justflight is good for classics. I don’t know how old you want, but the one-eleven and L-1011 have just been updated for p3d v5. I’m going to try them out this afternoon. I also have the dc-8, but that is still only for v4 and earlier.

if you want even older aircraft, A2A is a great bet. I have the Connie, which is a lot of fun to fly.