Recommendations for fun short flights

[Dominique_K 10,133]

1 hour ago, Jean-Claude said:

 

  Pulau Tioman (WMBT),  

Thank you for the tip. A great runway to land the Corsair 🤣 ! Yes ! A little on the left edge of the runway, one rebound but I got out alive in my first try. Now, practice, practice, practice.

 

[RaptyrOne 1,398]

Here’s something a little different:

Download Skukuza FASZ airport from flightsim.to , the main airport into the Kruger National Park. Author is SkyyStorm.

It has been done very nicely and accurately. Even the trees are representative. If you are alert, you might catch a glimpse of some wildlife around the airport (especially elephant and giraffe are common in the area) and the main Skukuza restcamp to the south of the airport. Also catch a glimpse of the historic railway bridge over the Sabie River flowing in front of the restcamp. 

From there, head north east a few clicks to a small, short dirt strip called Komatipoort. (Not the town with the same name much further to the south east!). That takes you over a very popular rest area called Tshokwane. People are allowed out their cars here to ‘picnic’. From there continue north to Letaba, another major restcamp in the park with a small airstrip. Enroute to Letaba, keep an eye out for Satara, another major restcamp. Then North again to Shingwedzi with its small strip. Then last leg north again to Pafuri.

As you fly you will track roughly along the main north-south tar road in the park. You will also see all the sand roads winding through the park. Most of these are public access for game viewing drives.

Route will take a little over 1:20 in the Bonanza B36 Turbo, a little more depending on if you decide to land at any of the enroute strips. You will have just flown over one of the  greatest wildlife reserves in the world. Home of the big 5. 20,000 square kilometres/ 2 million hectares of pure wilderness. Don’t get out your plane tho, you will be eaten rather swiftly! This ain’t no zoo!

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by RaptyrOne

[nhagag 26]

Another way I use to where I should fly today. I go to FlightAware. Search flights by Aircraft. Then Pick a pair of Depart/Arrival based on unique/new route, distance and time of flight. You do not have to fly the same aircraft, just learn the rout and plan your flight accordingly, Plan it VFR/IFR.

Over the years, I picked up hundreds of routes all over the globe and learned a lot about Airliners, Business aircrafts and destinations

[FakeWayne 84]

54 minutes ago, RaptyrOne said:

Here’s something a little different:

Download Skukuza FASZ airport from flightsim.to , the main airport into the Kruger National Park. Author is SkyyStorm.

It has been done very nicely and accurately. Even the trees are representative. If you are alert, you might catch a glimpse of some wildlife around the airport (especially elephant and giraffe are common in the area) and the main Skukuza restcamp to the south of the airport. Also catch a glimpse of the historic railway bridge over the Sabie River flowing in front of the restcamp. 

From there, head north east a few clicks to a small, short dirt strip called Komatipoort. (Not the town with the same name much further to the south east!). That takes you over a very popular rest area called Tshokwane. People are allowed out their cars here to ‘picnic’. From there continue north to Letaba, another major restcamp in the park with a small airstrip. Enroute to Letaba, keep an eye out for Satara, another major restcamp. Then North again to Shingwedzi with its small strip. Then last leg north again to Pafuri.

As you fly you will track roughly along the main north-south tar road in the park. You will also see all the sand roads winding through the park. Most of these are public access for game viewing drives.

Route will take a little over 1:20 in the Bonanza B36 Turbo, a little more depending on if you decide to land at any of the enroute strips. You will have just flown over one of the  greatest wildlife reserves in the world. Home of the big 5. 20,000 square kilometres/ 2 million hectares of pure wilderness. Don’t get out your plane tho, you will be eaten rather swiftly! This ain’t no zoo!

 

This sounds really cool and much different than my usual routes...will for sure give this a go soon!

[mikealpha 266]

Norway : From Bergen  (AP available at flightsim.to) or Kristiansand to Alesund (both available at ORBX). 

Very beautiful scenic flight over the Norwegian coast and no matter which runway, great departure/approach in the Fjords. 

Mike

[ARCO 245]

Forgive me for deviating from the OP's request for one minute please...

If there is anything that this thread demonstrates, it is the fantastic and marvelous innovation and improvement that this online worldwide scenery streaming adds to a simulator. If it were not for that, we would not be here exchanging ideas about where to go, what to see, etc... The quality and precision of the Bing planet transformed completely the way I fly virtually. I used to be a "tube" pilot with previous sims because I could not be bothered with cartoonish renderings of our planet. I am now a GA pilot again only because of this added value of flying above the "true" planet earth. 

In a little more than two months owning MSFS, I completed a full round the world flight on a TB21 in thirty stops, and I am presently in the midst of a flight around Africa on the same plane, planning another trip around South America and later on to Asia, stopping at places I have known in a different life, sometimes feeling nostalgic about those years when looking at the scenery, something I never ever felt with previous flight sims, and above all, something I would never thought of doing (nothing against the ORBX sceneries...).

Granted, much remains to be done to bring MSFS to where we all hope it will be, but let's be grateful for what has already been accomplished!.. Now back to topic, my apologies for this unplanned deviation.

[Bobsk8 12,584]

I fly for a VA and like to fly about an hour or so. I fly GA only, so I look at Skyvector, find a takeoff airport which is most of the time where I landed at the previous flight, and then looks around for an airport around 125-150 miles away. I then load simbrief, put the two airports in, get a Flight plan, either one of the simbrief ones, or I make my own , load it into the sim, and away I go. This way I am always seeing a new airport, and most of the airports in MSFS look pretty good to me. 

[andradef 59]

I like flying from Base Aérea de Santos (SBST), on the coast of São Paulo (Brazil) to Congonhas Airport (SBSP), the famous airport in São Paulo that is right in the middle of the city. Some things that make this flight interesting:

• Santos is at sea level, but São Paulo is in the high plains and there's a mountain range sort of around Santos. If you take off from SBST on RWY 35 in a Cessna, you won't be able to climb fast enough to get over the mountain range, so you can't depart direct and give yourself room to climb. If you take off from RWY 17, toward the ocean, keep runway heading for a little while over the ocean to buy yourself that climb distance. 
• Weather often involves rain and clouds - makes it interesting.
• Congonhas (SBSP) is right in the middle of the city. There's a lot to see while approaching the airfield. 
• There's quite a bit of live traffic because a lot of people like to fly there.
• There is freeware scenery for both Santos and São Paulo. 
• If you are doing the opposite trip (SBSP to SBST), once you clear the mountain range, if you are landing on RWY 17, you will have to descend fast to make it to the runway with a reasonable altitude. 

[cianpars 1,164]

A few short flights I've enjoyed in the UK are Leeds/Bradford to Manchester accross the Penines.

Carlisle to Walney Island around the Lake District.

A flight around Snowdonia (there are a few airfields to choose from, though I've flown from Welshpool a few times.

There are nice versions of Welshpool and Carlisle over at flightsim.to

coastal and mountainous regions always seem the best for me and I am yet to try most of the mountain ranges in MSFS.  I've done a bit of the Alps, but want to do the Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Pyrenees and Urals fairly soon (in winter and summer).

[flyblueskies 143]

On 4/26/2021 at 10:41 AM, ThrottleUp said:

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

 

 

KUL(WMKK)-SIN(WSSS)
CCU(VECC)-GAU(VEGT)
CCU(VECC)-DAK(HEDK)
DEL(VIDP)-IXC(VICG)
CJU(RKPC)-TAE(RKTN)
CNX(VTCC)-BKK(VTBS)
MNL(RPLL)-ILO(RPVI)
CGY(RPMY)-CEB(RPVM)

[ThrottleUp 617]

@flyblueskies thanks 👍, I totally forgot that ICAO is more sim friendly 🙂

[Anxu00 176]

Very good thread with many good suggestions.  Thanks

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

Some good short Aussie VFR flights taking in 3D scenery are:

• Take off from Shellharbour (YSHL) home of the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society and Australia's only flyable Super Continental  "Connie" and follow the coast past the derelict Port Kembla Steelworks and the city of Wollongong and overfly Kingsford Smith in Sydney (YSSY) and Sydney Harbour before continuing on to land at the former home of Aeropelican,  the tiny strip at Lake Macquarie (YLMQ).
• Second Leg.  Depart Lake Macquarie (YLMQ)  and follow the coast north, past the  city of Newcastle NSW,  landing at the combine Civilian/RAAF Military base at Williamtown (YWLM) .

Edited May 8, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[mikegrr 108]

A Slightly different approach. Fly tourists on a ride through Arches National Park, Utah. Download the Arches scenery from flightsim.to, Take off from Canyonlands Field Airport, KCNY in your H135 Helicopter. Follow route 191 to the entrance to the park and hang a left to enter the park. Follow the roads and hover around the amazing scenery. Finally, head northwest towards the airport and land in one of Heli spots. A very satisfying ride and only takes 30-45 minutes. I guess this could be a bush trip too.

[ARCO 245]

Another suggestion for the week-end: Take-off from Stans (where the Pilatus are made) in Switzerland, visit the beautiful Luzern area and mount Pilatus (the mountain...), then head for Grindenwald (South West), climb up to 12'000 feet look for the Jungfrauhoch (the observatory) and follow the wonderful Aletsch glacier, down to Brig, turn right (West) to Visp (Viège) and South to Zermatt, circle the Cervin and find your way to the Dent Blanche and the Val d'Anniviers (use Google Earth to locate these places) if you can't, simply turn back to Visp (Viège) and the Rhone valley, and make an attempt to shoot the 6° ILS approach to LSGS (Sion) to runway 25. Then give me a call and I'll join you for a drink at the bar terrace! 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Jean-Claude