Recommendations for fun short flights

[FakeWayne 84]

What are some of your favorite short route flights? I typically fly GA and like to stay under 2 hours flight time.

Preferably outside of the US, as I do 90% of my flying there and have been trying to branch out to other parts of the world. 

 

[ADamiani 470]

Short hop expert here, due to limited time 🙂

Saint Marteen to st. Barth on a 172 is always great, with the two different approaches depending on wind.

LIRA - LIRU again on a 172 is a scenic flight over Rome: if you pick the right time and meteo it's really something to remember

If you like airliners, LIRF -LIEO is cool

A.

[ThrottleUp 617]

I fly a lot in Asia having lived in several places in the region. I too like to keep my flights under 2 hours. I fly airliners on real world routes but you can fly GA in them too. Maybe in a King Air or bizzjet. These are a selection of routes I fly a lot. They are all about 1hr flight time in a jet. 

• KUL-SIN
• CCU-GAU
• CCU-DAK
• DEL-IXC
• CJU-TAE
• CNX-BKK
• MNL-ILO
• CGY-CEB

 

 

[eslader 1,783]

Second St. Maarten to St. Barth. Do it in the TBM and on the hill approach, challenge yourself to land and slow down short enough to turn onto the taxiway without having to turn around on the runway.  You can make it a 3-point trip if you then head SW of Barth's for about 30 miles to Saba, where you'll encounter one of the shortest paved runways on the planet, with a drop off a cliff into the drink on each end. Your landing has to be pretty much perfect to get it stopped in time, and it's made extra challenging by the sudden downdraft you'll encounter right as you fly over the seaside cliff at the end. 

You'll want the TBM improvement mod if you do it, though, just for the ground handling - getting the stock TBM turned around in the tight quarters on Saba is a chore.

 

 

[ARCO 245]

One of the most scenic flight I ever did in real life and recently reproduced in MSFS: Take-off from Islamabad in a single or light twin engine aircraft and fly up to Gilgit airport through the snaking Indus valley, the approach is very special, it will make Kai-Tak IGS 13 a simple beginner exercise, you can only land one way and have to make your last left turn a couple of hundred meters from the runway threshold with a mountain on your right side and another in front. Use the VFR map to help you navigate safely. This is strictly VFR.

Once in Gilgit, fly up to Sust and the Baltoro glacier, still in the Indus valley close to the Chinese border. You will be surrounded by peaks of over 7'000 meters, turn around over the glacier, you will have plenty of space for that (but do explore the glacier, one of the longest in the world) and come back either through the same valley or climb to 25'000 feet (using for example the TB21 if you have it or any pressurised aircraft like the TBM) and look for the K2, be aware that you won't top many of the highest peaks around there and that turbulences will make for a bumpy but spectacular ride, something that was not possible before MSFS 2020. Evidently, don't use real world weather and select blue sky if you want to enjoy the experience!

Here is a Wikipedia link (if it is allowed) for more information. Happy flying!

Edited April 26, 2021 by Jean-Claude

[bean_sprout 1,201]

KORS - PAJN
KSHR - CYBD
KJAC - KTEX

KSHR (Sheridan WY) is on the MP.

Maybe a little longer than you want but great framerate friendly scenic routes.

Cheers

bs 

Edited April 26, 2021 by bean_sprout

[Rockcliffe 5]

Not really a route, per se, but the stark, desert terrain around Ghat, Libya, is some of the wildest I’ve ever seen in flight sim. Like flying on Mars.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

• Milton Sound NZ to Queenstown (Download the Milton Sound freeware addon )
• Geneva to Nice
• Dundee Scotland to the Outer Skerries

 

 

[johnbow72 2,722]

Check out this site : https://worldtour.flights/

 

Cheers

John

[styckx 1,871]

Take a step back in Flight Sim time to the MS Flight days and fly the Hawaiian island chain 

[nhagag 26]

Flying over the Japanese Islands especially after the Japan update. Most Airports are couple of hours apart.  Beautiful Terrains.

[Dominique_K 10,138]

I don’t have « favorite » flights as this sim more than any of its predecessors lends itself to discover the world It makes the proverbial aviate and navigate a new challenge every session, specially with Live Weather.

 Google Earth is my favorite pre-planning tool. Move the globe around a bit and ask your in-house monkey to send a dart. Then find a close airport, find all the airports at a one-hour or less flying time. Slant GE to see the relief. If everything pleases you, go for it.

My very last flights were in the amazing deserts of Somalia from the coast deep inland (an interesting navigation problem with a speedy aircraft only equipped with a compass). Before that the Andean highlands of Argentina, before that South Vietnam and Franche- Comté in France  and so on and forth.

 

 

 

[Farlis 2,287]

@Jean-ClaudeThank you for the suggestion, I just did that flight after checking the weather would be perfect for it. A dream to fly in VR, especially when Nanga Parbat suddenly shows up on the horizon and grows ever taller as you fly up the valley.

I was a bit distracted on base because someone wrote a message into the mountainside that you have to face while approaching, reading "Defenders of the North".

Funny what kind of details you pick up in MSFS if the images are good enough.

[Scottoest 1,561]

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

I don’t have « favorite » flights as this sim more than any of its predecessors lends itself to discover the world It makes the proverbial aviate and navigate a new challenge every session, specially with Live Weather.

 Google Earth is my favorite pre-planning tool. Move the globe around a bit and ask your in-house monkey to send a dart. Then find a close airport, find all the airports at a one-hour or less flying time. Slant GE to see the relief. If everything pleases you, go for it.

My very last flights were in the amazing deserts of Somalia from the coast deep inland (an interesting navigation problem with a speedy aircraft only equipped with a compass). Before that the Andean highlands of Argentina, before that South Vietnam and Franche- Comté in France  and so on and forth.

Now I have to buy a monkey? God this hobby has so many bloody expensive add-ons.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Scottoest

[ARCO 245]

35 minutes ago, Farlis said:

"Defenders of the North"

Yes this area nearby the Karakoram road is disputed between Pakistan and India, this is what this "message" is referring to obviously. The Nanga Parbat was called the "widower" because of the number (68) of climbers who died attempting to succeed the climb (8126 meters), it is known as one of the most difficult in the world.

Another suggestion of short flight I can make is from Singapore Seletar (WSSL) to Pulau Tioman (WMBT), an island located just off the shores of Malaysia a few miles out of the Mersing VOR. When taking off from Seletar, select VMR VOR (about 60 miles North) and then Tioman is barely 30 miles out North East, so this is a short ride indeed but a tough one. The runway is (I have not flown yet with MSFS but went there an immoderate number of times on a TB20 thirty years ago) about 1'000 yards long and could be used only one way as it was ending into a cliff of rocks and trees. Any pilot flying there had to be certified for the runway by the Singaporean or Malaysian Civil Aviation Authorities. Once you make your decision to land in final, you just cannot go around...! The cliff is facing you.

The procedure is/was, descend to 800 feet on right base leg, gear down, flaps 1, when turning final, flaps down, speed 5/7 knots above stall speed and... dive for the threshold. Some pilots did walk away from that runway with a dent to their dignity... A Warrior of the Singapore flying club was a testimony of this for years, crushed on the trees at the end of the runway, a stark reminder of the difficulty of this approach leaving no place to complacency. That's a good exercise to test one's piloting skills. Single or light twin engine aircraft only. Good luck!