1 hour ago, kerosene31 said:

I'm 100% GA at this point.  I haven't touched an airliner since maybe FSX or even 2004?  I want to say the last airline I flew was the Dreamfleet 727?  I might mix in the occasional business jet, but that's about it.  

There's a few factors, but time is a big one.  Maybe I can find the time to sit down and learn every system on a Boeing or Airbus.  However, I'll eventually take a break from them and have to relearn everything.  

With an A2A or Black Square GA plane, I can get up and running without a ton of work.  

Another factor - scenery.  With 2020 and now 2024, low and slow is actually fun.  I remember the days in FSX and before where you had some landclass and maybe rivers.  Roads if you bought an addon?  But still it was generic landclass.  Today?  I can fly patters around my local airport and recognize reference points.  In the old days, VFR flying wasn't great.  

At this point too, I just enjoy hand flying patterns more than tons of automation.  I get why people like it for sure, but time and other factors just make it not for me.  

Agreed, that's the big factor for me too. As I live overseas now, I can't enjoy GA flying anymore like I did in the US. But thanks to the scenery engine in MSFS, it is pretty close to what I remember. And a much larger variety of aircraft than I used to have access to IRL, at a few hundred dollars (sim + addons) instead of tens of thousands. It's frankly amazing to me still how good it looks...

1 hour ago, Stoopy said:

+100

These "Either-Or" types of questions really seem to miss the point of what flight simulation is all about.  I'm the polar opposite of sd_flyer in that I have a whopping total of 6.5 hours of actual logged flight instruction for my entire life but have been simming since the early 1980's.  In my virtual fantasy sim world, Stoopy is an In-Demand Highly Experienced Jack-Of-All Trades pilot of all things flyable, jetting around to faraway destinations in bizjets and airliners one day, then exploring each destination in depth the next via helicopters, bush planes, piston twins, military, ultralights, aerobatic birds etc. until the local wine and women have grown tired of his devilish good looks and handlebar mustache and it's time to move on... 😁

 

Doesn't matter how we have touched the world of aviation as flying professionals, hobby flyers, passangers  and etc. But as long as we manifest our passion to explore and an achieve ultimate freedom of flying what we want, how we want, and where we want , modern  sims tech give as that opportunity todays more than ever !

Some of us remember, back in days, we had to use a lot of imagination flying vector graphics  in virtual world! I'm grateful to live long enough  to experience MSFS (even with all shortcoming LOL). I know most of us desire more changes for a better, and we tend push developers to expand boundaries and enhance our experience. But if I look back of my excitement to fly Sub Logic ATP, experience high now MSFS 2024 is huge leap! 🙂

 

2 hours ago, tttocs said:

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to at least give this one a shot.  It's more automation than I like, and I would've been happier if he'd done the 100 as it fits more closely with my self-imposed constraints, but...  That itch for a light jet is there, and I know the implementation will be of the system depth and quality level I find necessary for my personal enjoyment.

 

Scott

The pending FSR Phenom 300 may be more to your liking as it’s irl single pilot certified?

Id recommend also you consider the SWS Lear 35.  It’s not single pilot certified, but I’m feeling rather comfortable in it. The main challenge isn’t systems, it’s really the acceleration, nimble maneuverability, and lack of vnav, etc. All of which are areas that give me a great deal of satisfaction. 😎

41 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

The pending FSR Phenom 300 may be more to your liking as it’s irl single pilot certified?

Id recommend also you consider the SWS Lear 35.  It’s not single pilot certified, but I’m feeling rather comfortable in it. The main challenge isn’t systems, it’s really the acceleration, nimble maneuverability, and lack of vnav, etc. All of which are areas that give me a great deal of satisfaction. 😎

Both the 100 and 300 are single pilot certified, my preference for the 100 simply a result if it being the smaller plane.  That said, since the 300 is the one FSR is doing, I'm pretty sure I'll end up going for it anyway.

I have seriously considered the Lear as in many ways it's more my style, but the lack of RW single pilot cert has kept me stubbornly on the sidelines.  Yeah, I know... 🙂  Silly, self-imposed limitations, but it works for me.  Acceleration, maneuverability and lack of VNAV are all pluses to me too.  I don't have a single VNAV capable autopilot in any plane in my v-hangar and I quite enjoy figuring descents out on my own, with the "banana" on the GTNxi serving as confirmation that my simple math isn't egregiously off base if I have any doubts.

 

Scott

10 hours ago, JYW said:

For me, this helps prevent boredom and repetition.  I could never be one of these simmers who flies the same 3 (or 1!) airliners on the same routes, in the same country, day after day. 😊  But I have nothing but respect for those who do.

Can't imagine what it must be like in real life. Imagine doing the same thing 600 times for 2 years. There's got to be more to flying than repeating the same thing over and over again. Interesting note about what Fred Trump Sr. (father of Donald) said to one of his sons Fred Jr. (Donald's older brother) becoming an airline pilot “An airline pilot is nothing more than a high‑class bus driver.”

Edited April 18Apr 18 by Matt Sdeel

19 hours ago, CFIJose said:

I'm GA Jets 100%.  C510, Vision Jet, Honda Jet, Learjet, Phenom, CJ4, Longitude, etc.

I have even done touch & goes in small strips in the Bahamas with my beloved c510.

Some of my GA Jets have modern avionics and gadgets like spoilers or reverse thrust.

They are easy on fps and lots of fun to hand fly.

That's me same here, GA bizjets are mostly my type of flying it is so much fun and you have taste of both automation and hand flying you can go anywhere you want.

On 4/18/2026 at 6:20 PM, Matt Sdeel said:

Can't imagine what it must be like in real life. Imagine doing the same thing 600 times for 2 years. There's got to be more to flying than repeating the same thing over and over again. Interesting note about what Fred Trump Sr. (father of Donald) said to one of his sons Fred Jr. (Donald's older brother) becoming an airline pilot “An airline pilot is nothing more than a high‑class bus driver.”

Rest assured, no 2 flights are ever the same in the real world.  While there is familiarity, at no point are we truly doing the same flight over and over. And regarding Fred Sr., that’s a statement made by an awful father who belittled his son for pursuing aviation.  Not hard to see that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

1 hour ago, snglecoil said:

Rest assured, no 2 flights are ever the same in the real world.  While there is familiarity, at no point are we truly doing the same flight over and over. And regarding Fred Sr., that’s a statement made by an awful father who belittled his son for pursuing aviation.  Not hard to see that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Probably why the son died young from alcoholism.

On 4/18/2026 at 3:20 PM, Matt Sdeel said:

Can't imagine what it must be like in real life. Imagine doing the same thing 600 times for 2 years. There's got to be more to flying than repeating the same thing over and over again. Interesting note about what Fred Trump Sr. (father of Donald) said to one of his sons Fred Jr. (Donald's older brother) becoming an airline pilot “An airline pilot is nothing more than a high‑class bus driver.”

Repetition makes you better and better at the task at hand. It is the difference between a professional and an amateur.

6 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

Repetition makes you better and better at the task at hand. It is the difference between a professional and an amateur.

That family is not really concerned with professionalism, only gain. 

Airline pilots are NOT 'high class bus drivers'. They are safety professionals, people managers, expert users of complex systems, and (usually) masters of logistics. There is nothing routine about professional aviation, even if it looks that way to people who have never done it (and can't)