Now this is why I love MSFS. The iFLy 737 is a wonderful aircraft, and I'm really enjoying it (although I wish it were a bit more amenable to us non-piloty types - different states like "cold and dark", "all systems running/ready to taxi", "ready for take-off" etc would be a huge improvement and needn't distract from all the clever stuff for those that want it) but by far my main motivation and pleasure is discovering and exploring interesting places around the globe.

This set started because I saw a new airport, DTTZ, on SImMarket a few days back. I check that site at least once a day to see what's new, and there's many a gem among the dross. I looked at the sample pix and was impressed - no interiors but a lovely setting and very well done. So I fired up the sim to check out the default DTTZ, and it actually isn't bad at all, but the setting generally was so intriguing so I bought the payware version anyway.

Part of the fascination was what looked like a large stretch of water nearby, presumably an oasis of some sort. When I investigated online, I discovered that DTTZ is right on the edge of the Chott el Djerid, which is a massive (250 x 20 km) salt lake extending almost the entire width of the country to the Mediterranean (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chott_el_Djerid ). It does carry water in the winter months, but is mostly your basic salt lake in the summer. Been used in lots of movies, and you will almost certainly have seen bits of it in a film at some point - definitely so if you're a Star Wars person. Unfortunately, it's not particularly well represented in the sim. It's ok at some angles, and is alright from way up high, but close up it suffers from long straight line "shores" where the AI obviously couldn't decide how to project the water surfaces on top of the satellite images. But I live in hope, maybe it'll improve in 2024, although I have tried it using the map enhancement pgm with both Google and Bing latest and there's no real improvement so it probably won't change unless someone takes it on as a dedicated project.

But I did a nice flight out of DTTZ, across the Chott to the Med and then down the coast to Tripoli. A bit of messing around for me with the 737, as I had to cheat a bit in the sense of starting parked allowed me to play with GSX ok, but then to get the WNA ("word not allowed") thing started I had to start a new flight "hot" on the runway and slew it over to the parking stand so I could then taxi out and take off.  And yes, I know most of you will find that a bit odd and I'm sure many will think "just rtfm and learn how to do it properly", but I have flicked through the FM and I just lose the will to live after a few pages. I did initially think I'd give it a go, but the bottom line is that most of the manuals assume a familiarity with all sorts of other stuff like flight planning, charts etc that I'm also not interested in. It's not that I can't do technical - I spent 20 years teaching IBM mainframe OS internals around the world - but I have absolutely no inclination to learn all the cockpit stuff. I don't use multiplayer, have ATC turned off, and as far as I'm concerned it's my own personal planet in MSFS, so it's not as if I'm going to impact anyone else. I enjoy "flying" in the sim in the same way I enjoy "driving" in real life. I expect to get in, turn the key, stick it in gear and be able to move away. Once I'm moving I'm happy enough working the pedals and steering (the real essentials) and the various things like the wipers, lights etc (the not quite as essentials), but to continue the driving analogy, I've never seen the point of a manual gearbox if you're not actually driving on a racetrack or through a forest, and I'm sure there are all sorts of other things to worry about in an F1 or dragster. But you can still drive around perfectly safely and contentedly without knowing a lot of stuff about how the engine is performing down to it's last little bit of valve timing or whatever. Like I said above, all I really need is the ability to load a couple of different states in an aircraft - or even better, just give me good old "ctrl-E".

Flight planning and the ability to get reliable automation would be nice too, but from what little I've bothered to look at in terms of 2024 previews it seems that aspect might be starting to happen with 2024. Currently I either hand fly completely if it's no more than about an hour's flight, but if I want to play long haul I do it as two flights (dept and arrive).

Anyway, wandered off topic a bit, so back to this flight. It may have involved a bit of WNA'ing around but I enjoyed it enormously. I shall explore this area some more, plus I have bought a few other odd little airports in the likes of Libya recently that have yielded some interesting results so I may post some of those as well soon. But for now  .   .   .

welcome to DTTZ!

Not a huge hub, but interesting. You can see me parked over on the apron in the distance

Cabin crew boarding

Ready for pax

All loaded up, and (ahem) taxi-ing out

And away we go

Whole lotta nothing, plus the "lake" in the background

DTTZ / Nefta is ringed below, and you can see the scale of the Chott here

And this is our route to Tripoli. About 75 mins flight

This is the unfortunate shoreline effect

On the way now

The transistion to evening / night is pretty quick around this latitude, and as we're approaching Tripoli we are greeted by a rather splendid moon (ignore any values you see on the instruments - this is me flying, remember)

One of the things I like about this plane is that it is actually quite manageable and easy to fly by hand. By which of course I mean it handles steadily up and down and side to side. And yet it feels very solid, unlike some of the cheap big tubes I've been known to use.

Welcome to Tripoli!

Definitely an area worth exploring (and an aircraft worth buying!)

Edited October 20, 20241 yr by andy1252
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Nice set and yes this is a beautiful AC, well done from the IFLY Team !

cheers 😉

Nice set of photos! I've been very tempted to pick up the iFly Max. (But I was expecting the Triple 7 Freighter to arrive this past week as well!)

I didn't purchase the iFly Max for P3D...the reviews were very positive for that one...and this one for MSFS as well. I know I won't be able to resist temptation for too long!  😊

There sure are a lot of commercial aircraft choices for MSFS these days!

Not only the aircraft...you've posted some great scenery shots as well!

3 hours ago, andy1252 said:

have ATC turned off, and as far as I'm concerned it's my own personal planet in MSFS

My approach as well, Andy. Hand-flying gets me around to see what I'm interested in seeing. Last night it was UlaanBaatar, Mongolia. No PG available there, of course, but it was amazing nonetheless. 🙂

Cracking set of shots Andy.  Cheers,

Calum

18 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Nice set and yes this is a beautiful AC, well done from the IFLY Team !

Cheers pmplayer! And not only is it a great looking plane it hand flies beautifully too. Responsive, stable and yet feels "heavy", but in the proper, solid, dependable sense.

16 hours ago, rmeier said:

Nice set of photos! I've been very tempted to pick up the iFly Max.

Thanks! Go for it! you won't regret it.

16 hours ago, John F said:

My approach as well, Andy. Hand-flying gets me around to see what I'm interested in seeing. Last night it was UlaanBaatar, Mongolia. No PG available there, of course, but it was amazing nonetheless. 🙂

Cheers John! I've been having my mind blown a bit lately with a lot of hard sci-fi and trying to cope with the numbers and sizes involved. More than 100 billion stars just in our galaxy (and let's not even start to think about how many other galaxies out there), and yet the sky looks pretty empty from down here. Nearest one what? four light years away? (and that's a huge number of miles / klicks). In universal terms, this planet of ours doesn't even quality as a speck of dust. And yet you look at some of the places on Earth, here in the sim, and there are huge distances involved in human terms. Still lots of wild and wide open spaces out there, and that's just the land masses. We've no idea about the oceans, essentially. I totally love that we have a sim now that can be literally awe-inspiring. And hey, bring on those pebbles! I daresay somebody somewhere has calculated how many there are on the planet!

23 minutes ago, CBass said:

Cracking set of shots Andy.

Cheers Calum, glad you liked them.

On 10/20/2024 at 10:35 AM, andy1252 said:

....and I just lose the will to live after a few pages....

...🙂.... We certainly cannot allow that Andy....So, you're good here with whatever does it for you....🙂...

Didn't hear or know the Tozeur-Nefta airport before, so nice know it now...Lovely set of pictures with the iFly 737 MAX, their house livery you've used, goes way back for me, when they did a 747 "freeware" in the same livery. It was a wonderful SIM that had given me my first intro to Boeing FMC/CDU, which I still remember...

Glad you're enjoying this a/c while exploring interesting places around the world...Have fun...!

21 hours ago, P_7878 said:

Didn't hear or know the Tozeur-Nefta airport before,

Cheers P_7878! I'd not heard of it either, and it's such a joy to discover places like this. I can happily wander around exploring for hours, and I'm really looking forward to what MSFS2024 might bring in terms of such things (ground travel plus the new levels of scenery -the famous pebbles etc)