This is exactly how it is in real life. Older sims made it easy to see airports from miles out, but that's not realistic.

10 minutes ago, FlyingInACessna said:

This is exactly how it is in real life. Older sims made it easy to see airports from miles out, but that's not realistic.

So true sometimes you can be almost over a strip before you see it 

5 minutes ago, Jetman67 said:

So true sometimes you can be almost over a strip before you see it 

Especially at sunset hahah

5 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

The real fun starts when you fly in real life at night and try and find the airport, especially in a big city. 

Yep, on a night cross country with my IP flying up the Detroit River to stay out of KDTW class B, we finally got far enough north to turn west toward our destination KDET. We couldn't have been more than 5 or so miles from DET and IP asked me if I had the airport...of course I didn't! He says...look there in that big black empty area, and sure enough there it was, but if he hadn't given me a clue I'd have flown right over. Actually did fly past KMFD late one night while flying east to west to join final for 23 and was terribly embarrassed to have the controller point out that the field was behind me.

Bob, why did you have to remind me of such bad memories?!

4 minutes ago, FlyingInACessna said:

Especially at sunset hahah

and a dirty windscreen to boot. 

I wish my student had zoon like in XP11 in RL. 🙂 Sometimes we fly over airport and they still don't see it! Lol

Sadly rotation beacon  IRL do not work during the day, unless it's deep IFR. So yeah congested urban area it's no easy to spot airport even on clear day! That is where come aeronautical start and airport facilities directory! There some cool tips how to spot airport specially the one has never flown into LOL Also sometimes on very clear day super dense haze make thing complicated as well.

Here is some haze IRL

Pfft...you call that haze?!  Come and visit the Southeast anytime between June and August. We’ll give you a proper introduction to haze 😄

That is why real world pilots back up their pilotage with instrument procedures, even during CAVU conditions. It prevents you from landing at the wrong airport, which is surprisingly easy to do.

52 minutes ago, Boeing_Driver said:

That is why real world pilots back up their pilotage with instrument procedures, even during CAVU conditions. It prevents you from landing at the wrong airport, which is surprisingly easy to do.

Then there was that British Airways flight that landed in Scotland instead of Germany ....

9 hours ago, LouP said:

The airport,... it was right below me out of sight under my airplane (cherokee).

On my second cross-country (dead-reckoning) with my CFI beside me - we had been flying for about an hour and he asked whether I had the airport in site.  I looked and looked and couldn't find it - got frustrated.  Finally, he said, "Look up!"  I lifted my head up and there it was - coming into view about 5 miles ahead!  I had buried my view too close to the aircraft.  He pointed out that you are in an airplane and can see quite a distance mattering on conditions and your altitude.  "Look out ahead of you and spot it early."

The ironic thing is I flew out of a small turf strip that was probably difficult for those that had never landed there to find, and here I had failed to see a large hard-surfaced airport.  The amount of haze can make a difference also.

Beacons will be on in the hours of daylight when the vis is less than 3 miles with a ceiling of less than 1000' and a  Special VFR clearance will be required to land.

But yes, the intensity is over done in the sim for sure.

i use a real map to see where it should be according to the landmarks. works well and is quite realistic, i use plan g in the back.

Wow, I thought it was just me....having a hard time spotting airports.

1) Using the tree distance mod...with the smaller tree fix did help with spotting airports surrounded by the MSFS "forest."

2) i fly with the G3x now, so the GPS/map gives me a nice "cheat" display.

 

9 hours ago, snglecoil said:

Pfft...you call that haze?!  Come and visit the Southeast anytime between June and August. We’ll give you a proper introduction to haze 😄

I can feel the humidity in that picture!