Fire up P3d.

Wait for it to launch.

Wait some more for it to launch.

Lose my patience and launch FS9 instead.

Realise I meant to add that new AI I downloaded yesterday.

Shut down both sims.

Spend the rest of the evening installing and tweaking.

Notice the time and wander off to bed regretting having not flown.

Again.

54 minutes ago, RLJR said:

Take a leak.😁

You forgot...grab a beer! 🍺

4 hours ago, SteveW said:

I hit the Next Flight button on Ideal Flight.

Without any further intervention, that finds all the airports relevant to my aircraft that lie within the doughnut of preferred time, which is usually one to three hours, and from a subset of airports, that may be my addon airports or all airports depending on my preset criteria. Then from that list if chooses one airport at random and creates an airways plan for it depending on the aircraft, jet or victor. The GPS plan is automatically set into the GPS and also if needed is exported to the aircraft so that once sat in the cockpit I can load in the plan to my PMDG or whatever. The complete flight details including planned waypoints, airports and anything else is exported to an html file and also exported to the kneeboard in the simulator. The navigation is set up depending on my criteria ready for the flight.

The second thing I do is press the Fly! button which starts the simulator right into the cockpit, and I do the flight. Whether novice or experienced I can do more flying.

I've been looking at Ideal Flight - hoping for a P3Dv5 version soon (or is it already supported?).

1 hour ago, Gridley said:

I've been looking at Ideal Flight - hoping for a P3Dv5 version soon (or is it already supported?).

Thanks. It's in beta for v5 available from the forum.

(look in the support section for latest preview build)

Edited June 17, 20205 yr by SteveW

3 hours ago, lambourne said:

Depends. If I just want to fly for the fun of it I'll pick either GA or a war bird out of the hangar and either bash the circuit or climb to a suitable height and throw it around a bit.

If I'm going for a VFR flight:

- Start Littlenavmap, pick departure, destination and route according to whatever airspace I feel like transiting or avoiding, and what ground features I want to see en route. Stock P3Dv4 has little to see outside big cities or mountain regions. I'll also make sure my plog and navaid frequencies are ready to hand.

- Open Active Sky and P3D itself in that order, loading the aircraft on the right apron spot.

- Set the plane up for a cold n dark start. Typically just running the shutdown checklist.

If GA IFR I'll copy the LNM route into Navigraph Charts and load my departure, destination and alternate plates. Otherwise it's the same workflow.

 

Commercial IFR:

- Open Simbrief and pick departure and destination. Select aircraft, select route and alternate. Use aircraft's fuel calculator utility to fine tune the Simbrief fuel calculations (holding, alternate, finres) before generating the route.

- Export route via Simbrief downloader to aircraft and Active Sky formats.

- Open Active Sky and load route.

- Open P3D and load aircraft at departure gate.

- Set off pre departure flows in aircraft, enable the load sheet (fuel, pax, cargo). In one aircraft I can tweak the load for weight and balance purposes using its payload utility before exporting to the sim.

- Start cockpit prep and pre departure checklists: loading the route in the FMS and cross checking, loading the payload, starting the APU etc.

If I'm feeling dedicated I'll also complete the Simbrief flight plan (out/off/on/in, half hourly fuel checks, etc) but that's rare!

Flying on Vatsim also adds to the workload. You start to feel the limits of operating a dual crew aeroplane as single pilot after a while!

I enjoy it as a change from real life but I do find myself blocking out 30-40 minutes before I expect to leave the virtual gate.

A man after my own heart 😉

Great discussion everyone - thanks for contributing!

7 hours ago, Dave Morgan said:

Fire up P3d.

Wait for it to launch.

Wait some more for it to launch.

Lose my patience and launch FS9 instead.

Realise I meant to add that new AI I downloaded yesterday.

Shut down both sims.

Spend the rest of the evening installing and tweaking.

Notice the time and wander off to bed regretting having not flown.

Again.

That is absolutely classic and so true to a certain degree!

13 hours ago, SteveW said:

I hit the Next Flight button on Ideal Flight.

Ideal Flight is a great utility to help you choose on a suitable flight (as well as doing so much more). Highly recommended!

Bill

22 hours ago, W2DR said:

I just hop in the 172, start the engine, take off, and go wherever I feel like at the moment. I've flown enough in RL to just ignore the rest of the stuff. Been there...done that..........Doug

Same here. Sometimes though I will pick a spot on the world map and fly from somewhere I've never been to somewhere I've never gone. It's the adventure that I enjoy.

 

12 hours ago, lambourne said:

Depends.

[...]

I enjoy it as a change from real life but I do find myself blocking out 30-40 minutes before I expect to leave the virtual gate.

 That sounds familiar.

VFR: Is the weather good enough where I want to fly?
Great, let's go!

IFR: All the supporting apps open.

Route planned in SimBrief and verified against the real world flight that I'm emulating, and exported to SimToolKitPro and ActiveSky.

GSX does it's magic, and for a bit of extra noise, Self Loading Cargo running in the background, whilst I plug the remaining details into the FMC.

If there is LiveATC.net coverage, I'll have that playing in the background for some extra authenticity.

45 minutes after deciding to go somewhere, I've finally pushed back, another 15 minutes to taxi to the active and a further 10-minute wait for departure!

'As real as it gets!' 😆
 

Edited June 17, 20205 yr by F737NG