Really funny to see how everyone uses the sim in a different way. Which is something we should always keep in the back of our mind when we discuss things here on AVSIM: we all think we are discussing MSFS here but we aren't. We all have our own 'version' of MSFS in mind when we discuss things and so we might be talking about a 'totally different sim' in certain cases without knowing it.

Anyway, I am one of those guys who seldom flies by hand. Don't like it. Almost hate it. And I CERTAINLY never ever fly without a PLAN...!!! I know some people like to take off and explore the surroundings, simply flying wherever they point their plane towards, without a real plan or anything. I am allergic to that kind of flying. Don't ask me why LOL but whenever I fly like that I am utterly bored and done with it withing a few minutes. Can't stand it. Feels useless. There is no goal. There has to be a purpose LOL

There are two things I love about flight simming:

1. setting everything up properly so the flight will be perfect from A to B. There is nothing more satisfying to me than reaching my destination and landing flawlessly thanks to proper preparation. I just LOVE seeing all those systems doing their job perfectly thanks to my perfect preparation! Take note: this doesn't mean I only like glass cockpits and A320-like planes: I have just as much fun with the GPS-less old school C310 panel, planning VOR-only flights using triangulation and so on.

2. enjoying the views during flight (no matter if I am flying high or low).

18 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I have been flying GA aircraft since I got MSFS 2020, over a year ago. Recently I purchased the Fenix A 320, and only flew that  for weeks and over 100 flights. The Fenix is a great aircraft and the best flying tubeliner I have ever flown in a sim. About a week ago, I got out the Milviz C 310 again, and quickly realized that while the Fenix was great to fly, there was not much to see of the great scenery in MSFS at 30+ thousand feet. I also realized that I missed that low level flying, over the cities and country side, and now I am back to flying only the C310, at least for awhile. Wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing. 

I see your point Bob, and many moons ago in times of fs9 / fsx I did the same, jumping from simulating airline operations to GA singles and twins ( thanks mostly to RealAIr and A2A ... ).

These days I only use flight simulators ( XP and MFS, maybe AEFS4 too one of these days... ) for airliners, and in particular 80% of the time Airbuses... 

I do own the PMDG 737-700, and I find it really great, and I also own their DC-6, but I seldom take those for a ride...

The only GA flying I do is in the Kodiak or the Caravan, or in gliders ( to test the new soaring weather features or replicate rw flights ).

Maybe in the future I can find some motivation for GA flying again 🙂

 

1 hour ago, tup61 said:

but whenever I fly like that I am utterly bored and done with it withing a few minutes. Can't stand it. Feels useless. There is no goal. There has to be a purpose LOL

Have you ever heard about airwork? 😎
There are tons of fun exercises to perform which have nothing to do with flying from A to B 

• fly the "oscar"-pattern (instrument scan technique)
• Wing-overs, steep banks, power on/power off stalls or even do some  real AVA.
  • requires a darn good flight model though
• Precision navigation with paper map / pen / timer and fly over wpts at an exact time (it's actually harder than it sounds)
• power off landings / emergency descents
• Learn proper taildragger techniques

Luckliy the flightsim world doesn't end with Airliners and being relegated to a systems manager. 😆

11 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Airline captains fly GA aircraft on their days off.. for the sheer fun of it!  🙂

Flying for an airline is a job. Flying GA is recreation! (With some exceptions, of course)

Wasn't there an economy add-on for older sims that was similar to the Truck Simulator games? The idea that owning and flying a GA plane is expensive (costs of fuel, parking, repairs, etc), so you would fly for an airliner to pay for your GA hobby, which included actually having to buy new planes if you wanted to fly them. It gave purpose to flying airline routes, which made it more fun for those who enjoy "leveling up" progression in their games.

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by Keto Ketchup
grammar

I was a hardcore airliner guy for many years.. got into GA and helos with XP11 a bit, but never got into it deep enough.. went back to boring tubeliners.. but in the recent few months, I've become a hardcore GA guy.. I bought the Flysimware C414A .. was looking for something as close to Airfoilabs as possible for a GA.. and this was it.. absolute joy to fly and insane amount of detail.. 

Not just that, I discovered how challenging GA VFR flying is.. (actually more than tubeliners).. I am now deeply buried into VFR sectionals, cross country flight and fuel planning, also slowly getting into ATC comms etc.. also learning how to land properly.. all this with photogrammetry ON.. so that's a blast as well..nothing like low and slow over southwest US scenery.. my fav approach is KMYF (you can see so much variation in landclass and elevation on final).. 

basically, i've gone back to basics and discovering the joy of flying all over again.. 

I'm actually bummed now that there's no proper AI for GA traffic.. that's how much I've gotten into GA now.. 😀

1 hour ago, Keto Ketchup said:

Wasn't there an economy add-on for older sims that was similar to the Truck Simulator games?

There are plenty of such add-ons for MSFS. Just do a Google search for "msfs career addons"

1 hour ago, SAS443 said:

 

Have you ever heard about airwork? 😎
There are tons of fun exercises to perform which have nothing to do with flying from A to B 

• fly the "oscar"-pattern (instrument scan technique)
• Wing-overs, steep banks, power on/power off stalls or even do some  real AVA.
  • requires a darn good flight model though
• Precision navigation with paper map / pen / timer and fly over wpts at an exact time (it's actually harder than it sounds)
• power off landings / emergency descents
• Learn proper taildragger techniques

Luckliy the flightsim world doesn't end with Airliners and being relegated to a systems manager. 😆

I'm with you...

Unfortunately some of the items are so far from RL when played in our desktop flightsims, with some remarkable exceptions like those of at least a couple of combat flight simulators where we can almost get to try in a realistic way some of the maneuvers you mention, less the control feedback & g forces... 

Taildragger techniques that could be used in the sim as close to RL as possible, producing the same effects, are just one of the examples. Unfortunately X-Plane, FSX, P3D, MFS, AEFS are all too far from reality for my liking. I'd say IL2 Great Battles is the sim which brought me closer to RL in that area, and other... 

Stuff like the "simple" aerodynamics of a sideslip, stalls and spins and their variations ( including isipient ), are examples of stuff I have long given up trying in a desktop flight simulator game. Sometimes I open IL-2 just to feel closer for a while...

In some ways even Aerowinx PSX does a much better job than the graphically fancy sims we use for airliners. At least the feel of an approach under gusting / turbulent conditions can really be tricky, in a way that is a lot closer to reality than what we get in the other sims...

Because of that I decided to play these sims ( XP, MFS ) procedurally. For navigation training & proficiency that can be just good. If your objectve is that of playing with emergencies resulting from simulated systems failures in an aircraft, then again these sims can offer some enjoyment too.

For me, as a glider pilot, I sometimes use MFS now to get familiar with areas I plan to fly across, or to debrief a given task I flew IRL. Again MFS given it's excellent scenery similituide to RW is just Great ! Appart from that, the "simple" glider aerodynamics leave a LOT to be desired, and the same applies to the concurrence.

Edited July 11, 20223 yr by jcomm