Today I experienced a flight that might not have been completely realistic, but was truly special. 

To try and explore SIDs/STARs and autopilot functionality in MSFS, I have been flying some Topa Sky flights in New Zealand.  The scenery and topography in this sim is pretty amazing as it is, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer unexpected brilliance of an unplanned moment flying from Milford Sound to Manapouri today.

The flight was scheduled for 1830z, but on arrival at the gate it was far too dark to take off given the lack of runway lighting, albeit pleasantly VMC (pesky ops team, scheduling a flight at an inappropriate time!).  Instead, I came to stop at the holding point, shut the engine down and watched a sunrise amongst the mountains of NZ, listening to the increadible ambient sounds Asobo have put in.  The lighting engine is something else, enabling a pretty special sunrise departure.  I decided MSFS wasn't so bad after all (despite, like many, encountering some frustrating bugs over the past week).

Once airborne, I noted with some slight surprise that Asobo have simulated the ambient lighting change you would expect on climbout between mountain valleys and tuned the ATIS for Queenstown (60nm from Manapouri which is an uncontrolled airfield), which indicated FEW at 900'.  It was pretty much sky clear as I flew the 60nm towards Manapouri, which is situated in a valley adjacent to two large lakes.  As I approached I spotted some isolated low level cloud in the valley and idly thought about how it was interesting that the sim was representing the sort of low level cloud build up that might be expected in a watery valley after sunrise.  It was only when I tried to start my descent that I noticed that the cloud was forming over Manapouri and becoming BKN and latterly OVC.  

Long story short, I spent almost 40mins shooting NDB and GPS approaches to minima into fog, approaching minimum fuel and calculating multiple diversion options - before just(!) managing to forward slip into the field during a brief gap - descending from 4000' d2.5nm,  I wouldn't have received any thanks from a real employer, the passengers or the flight safety team - but it felt pretty visceral and satisfying.

The whole thing was completely unexpected and really got me thinking about all sorts of airmanship stuff that I simply wasn't expecting.  Say what you like about the game/simulator debate - today I had about as much fun as I have ever had on a computer - and learned something about my decision making in the process!

Epic...

Outstanding story, thank you for sharing!

I started the day out shooting ILS approaches at my local airport and ended up heading west to explore via VFR and ended up 3 states away after dodging T-storms for a couple of hours.  Later after getting away from the computer and getting ready for dinner, the real-life version of one of the storms I flew around in the sim showed up outside.  

 

1 hour ago, Andy- said:

Say what you like about the game/simulator debate - today I had about as much fun as I have ever had on a computer

Good thing you were not flying in P3D. Fun is a breach of the EULA. 

8 hours ago, MikeT707 said:

Good thing you were not flying in P3D. Fun is a breach of the EULA. 

Ha!

10 hours ago, Stoopy said:

Outstanding story, thank you for sharing!

I started the day out shooting ILS approaches at my local airport and ended up heading west to explore via VFR and ended up 3 states away after dodging T-storms for a couple of hours.  Later after getting away from the computer and getting ready for dinner, the real-life version of one of the storms I flew around in the sim showed up outside.  

 

Thanks.  Yes its easy to lose track of time in the rw! 

I am really hopeful that the weather bugs will be ironed out and (like the ATC issue) it may be saturation at the Azure end.  We'll have to wait and see... until then, I am quite happy re-learning some basics and watching the 3pd content roll in!

Hopefully more people will share their experiences - it always gives me ideas for the next flight!

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by Andy-

You're not allowed to have fun in this sim! Serious simmers follow procedures, they don't have fun. 

11 hours ago, Andy- said:

The whole thing was completely unexpected and really got me thinking about all sorts of airmanship stuff that I simply wasn't expecting.  Say what you like about the game/simulator debate - today I had about as much fun as I have ever had on a computer - and learned something about my decision making in the process!

I didn't want to get involved in these discussions - yes, there are some things missing, there is no question - and I would call myself a "Harcoresimmer" - but it's these "WHAUU" experiences (approaching LOWI with real weather - thunderstorms, building storms etc. )  - that you can't find in the other "oh so great hardcoresim's" (know which ones we are talking about anyway) - I am not talking about a flight and "procedure training" (at least not at the moment) but about those moments where you think "only real" flying is better. I just hope that they get rid of these casual installation and other bugs so that others can enjoy them as well. my SIM is running quite well so I can talk like this.

 

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by AUA425

56 minutes ago, AUA425 said:

but it's these "WHAUU" experiences

I know that X-plane has them and P3Dv5 finally got them, but I was turning onto a runway for take-off and said to myself: what the word not allowed? Why is this runway so short? Then I realized, this thing is sloped! First time in my life I took of from a sloped runway in a sim!

It's a pretty amazing sim. Tons of wow moments to be had. The best part, it will only get better.

2 hours ago, airlinejets said:

The best part, it will only get better.

yes that´s the point !!

I'm just sick and tired of all the comparisons, and I'm staying out of everything anyway.(don't think this weather description from my post above) .

People expect a SIM to be as good as the "old" ones when they release it. They forget that they have been fixed and improved for years, not to mention the addons. And even there in some points the "unprofessional" MSFS (out of the box) makes them look pretty old .And I can't read this constant XBOX and "only for kids stuff" anymore. What many people also forget is that Laminar uses a lot of its resources for mobile platforms, so that kids can fly around X-Plane with their IPAD's and "mobile phones". But there that means again "the optimization is good" - it is also used for the PC, but doesn't that also apply to the XBOX ?

I don't work for MS but it's a very good platform that certainly needs improvement, but there we are.
And even if I can't use all my hardware at the moment, but if the impression or feeling of flying is there, even if "only" visually, well then you can call it SIMULATION. And as much as I'm flying VFR with MSFS now, I've never done.
Cheers! 

 

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by AUA425

29 minutes ago, AUA425 said:

but if the impression or feeling of flying is there, even if "only" visually, well then you can call it SIMULATION. And as much as I'm flying VFR with MSFS now, I've never done.

I'm thinking I will need to brush up on my (pretty much non-existant) VFR flying skills to really enjoy this sim.