This Monday evening, I was on Southwest flight 300 from Tampa, FL to Baltimore, MD. I snapped the first picture using my crappy cell phone camera.

Last night, I decided to duplicate that flight in MSFS. The second picture is a screen shot taken on departure. I made no attempt to get the same area in the pics, it just happened.

Pretty cool!

SWA needs to clean the windows on their aircraft a little better.

I used to do this whenever I took a real world flight in the older FS sims.  It never looked as close to reality as what's possible now.  

I will say this, what FS2020 has taught me is that the older sims weren't that far off for the technology of the time.  Modded scenery areas and even in some cases default coast lines weren't that far off to what we see today in FS2020.  Makes me really appreciate what developers over the years were trying to do (both MS in house Aces guys and third party creators).  Without all that effort we wouldn't have FS2020.  FS is years in the making that built on itself going back to FS98 on CD when the world was fully covered for the first time.  

Edited December 1, 20214 yr by Dillon

I am certainly impressed with where we stand. I've been waiting my entire life for a sim that looks like this.

The tint of the sky is a little off, but everything else is spot on. I wonder if I'd have had the sun flare in the screen cap if I had just taxied a little faster?

I used to do this all the time, either before or after the real flight.  I’d say things to my wife like “good news honey, I managed to do our flight successfully so the real pilots should have no problem!”  Eye roll every time, but hey she knew who she was marrying! 🙂

Unfortunately I haven’t flown since MSFS was released, but I can’t wait to be able to get back to duplicating my real world flights again.

This is backwards as the sim clip is first, then real life. But right idea; chronologically, I did the real life flight a few months ago, then just re-created it in the sim.

https://www.twitch.tv/stearmandriver/v/1217898546?sr=a

 

Wow! If you were looking a the back of a head in the sim it would be nearly identical.

I've been doing that for years. Once, back in the FSX days, I took a laptop on the plane with me and duplicated the flight I was currently on. I had the dinkus next to me convinced I was controlling the plane from my coach seat.   Oy.

 

 

I've flown nearly every RW flight I've ever taken in either FSX, MSFS or both.  That includes 150 hours PPL in 152s and 172s, Internal flights in Fokker F27s, ATRs, Dash 8s, Shorts 360s a Jetstream 31 and BA146s

Also simulated holiday flights in Boeing 737s, 757s a BAC 1-11 an MD87 and Airbus A319s, A320s and A321s.

Additionally, I've done glider flights in Ka7s, Ka8s, K13s, Bocians and Blaniks in FSX, plus a few weightshift microlight flights.

A flew in a Beagle Huskey once.  It was apparently the one Prince Charles learned to fly on.

My first ever flight was in a DC9 operated by Aviaco in the 1970s, but I don't recall a decent DC9 simulator model being available.

This is the first time I've ever listed the above and I had no idea of the number of flights and types I must have flown.

Edited December 2, 20214 yr by cianpars

I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. Although 9 times out of 10, I only got to relive the TO because FSX always crashed before the end of the flight, usually on final. It wasn't until DTG came out with FSX-SE that I finally got to do entire flights. I have to say, MSFS is the only sim that ever gave me deja vu. When I made that screen capture, I was completely astounded at how it looked compared to what I saw the night before. I was shocked when I noticed that I had snapped the exact same area in both pictures and how similar they looked.

It was a great flight to be sure. I finally figured out all of the little tricks needed to make all of the Simbrief integration work on the FBW properly. Then, the departure looked absolutely perfect, I got to do my first night landing on runway 33L (missing from the default) at the new BWI I've been working on for myself (which looked pretty darn good), and the default ATC actually did a satisfactory job. I was impressed. The only thing I had to do was keep ahead of them on descent through the STAR and request the proper altitude decreases ahead of time. Sometimes everything works. Others, it's a word not allowed calico bass shoot. Life is fun.     

Edited December 2, 20214 yr by MDFlier

17 hours ago, MDFlier said:

This Monday evening, I was on Southwest flight 300 from Tampa, FL to Baltimore, MD. I snapped the first picture using my crappy cell phone camera.

Last night, I decided to duplicate that flight in MSFS. The second picture is a screen shot taken on departure. I made no attempt to get the same area in the pics, it just happened.

Pretty cool!

SWA needs to clean the windows on their aircraft a little better.

If it wasn't for the different locations and the obvious plastic glass effect in the cabin, I'd have a hard time telling which one is the real one. Amazes me every time again and again.