If the flight models were more realistic I would probably opt for GA a lot more than I do...

I do mostly airline, short routes, because I believe they can feel a bit more realistic after all, but from time to time Inspend some good time flying my Got Friends AS33M which I find acceptably modeled and benefits from MSFS 's even if nor perfect still very amusing thermals and slope lift.

Helicopters would surely be my focus too, but I prefer to wait for what ASOBO just announced regarding progresses in their Rotary Wing FM.

  

9 hours ago, Cognita said:

Yea, I fly both, and tend to go through phases of flying only airliners and then only GA, but I have noticed that the GA phase has become longer and longer as the years go by. I don't enjoy airline flying as much as I used to.

This - word for word - speaks for me too! 😎

I've always loved both.  Back when I started in 2004, I'd alternate between planes like the Carenado (when they were good!) C210 and Commander 114, and the Level D 767 and PMDG 737NG.  

I don't inter-mix (eg a 737 flight then a PA28 flight), I tend to fly GA for 1-4 weeks, then switch to airliners for the same.

Recently, I was hugely back into the airliners, and bought the Ini A340, ToLiss A340, PMDG 777s, 737 2024s, TFDi MD-11, etc, etc.    But as of earlier this week, I made a flight in the Black Square Bonanza between 4 airfields that I fly between IRL in the UK and I was hooked again 😎  So I'm back in the GA camp again now.   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.   Flight simulation caters to a thousand different needs.  That's what makes it so amazing.

Worth pointing out that when I fly GA, I rarely fly VFR; I fly realistic (for the aircraft type) IFR flights, with BATC.  When VFR rolls out to the normal edition of BATC, that will hopefully change.

Edited April 18Apr 18 by JYW

An interesting discussion for the weekend.

When I was growing up with MSFS in the old days I remember it was always a light aircraft simulator. In the early days when airliners started to appear , the general consensus at the time was that they were just the light aircraft simulation with bits bolted onto them to make them appear as airliners and flight sim didn’t cater for their aerodynamics and systems.

I know it’s all very different nowadays, sometimes it’s easy to forget just how lucky we are with the level of simulation available.

I own quite a few airliners , Fenix, INI A350, PMDG 737,777, JF 146, RJ, F28 etc but rarely fly them. I just don’t have the time and mental capacity to learn all their systems and procedures, which really if you’re going to fly an airliner properly thats what you need to do. You can , and I do, just start on the runway engines running and blast off of course.

The sort of flying I do in airliners when I do take them up are engineering or training flights, short hops to somewhere and back , local area to test handling , or just remain in the circuit, not under any circumstances a schedule flight !

One of my , no THE most memorable and pleasant flights of my real world flying life was when we took an empty 747-400 from LHR to Shannon and spent the afternoon doing circuits. Legislation meant we couldn’t use a simulator , so a very expensive day out was planned.

I’m also getting a bit put off by flying airliners single crew , I suppose FS2Crew type programs would help.

So for me I’m starting to get interested in single pilot business jets, airliner type performance but a realistic single pilot flight deck, and easy to learn systems.

In a similar vain I enjoy flying military jets low level around the uk, and I also enjoy doing a bit of gliding, and also flying ultralights around.

At the moment the sweet spot seems to be the BS caravan, an aircraft I’ve been inspired to actually fly following the checklists from cold start to shut down, which is something I rarely do in other aircraft.

I certainly think MSFS24 offers so much to the light aircraft pilot now, with masts, wires, trees, rocks, streams , ambient bird and insect noise etc, its great to fly in somewhere small, shut down and just relax in VR

I should probably add in the real world flying airliners can be fun, it’s the working for an airline thats the PITA bit 

Edited April 18Apr 18 by jon b

4 hours ago, vbazillio said:

I know it might seem strange since a simulator lets me fly anything, anywhere, but I prefer keeping it grounded in my reality. Call me eccentric if you want, but that’s how I love to (sim)fly.

Not eccentric at all.  I like taking a more grounded approach as well though mine is a bit more liberal as I do stretch things just a bit.  Thus - 100% GA in planes certified to be flown single pilot.  Basically, I fly planes that I've either flown IRL, or (and here comes the stretch) would/could conceivably fly if money had been less of an issue (though not NO issue).

The TBM 850 is about as far as I've stretched things so far, though I admit I'm still considering a single pilot capable light jet if/when the right one comes along.  That said, most of my time is spent in pistons just as IRL, with the Black Square Turbo Normalized Bonanza my most flown plane since moving from 2020 to 2024.  My first logged hour of instruction was in a Bonanza and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.

Unfortunately, I spend very little time in the plane I actually owned IRL.  I would, but I've just never warmed to the JF Turbo Arrow IV.  I know some like it, but...

 

Scott

I go thru periods where I like to fly some GA.  Mostly airliners.  But when I do GA, I like the piston duke.  

Working vs flying for fun are definitely two different things! Out of my 25+ flying career I rarely used autopilot considering not many airframes were actually equipped with them. All my ferry flights autopilot was either inoperable or not equipped . I must say I enjoy using autopilot in GA  in MSFS because it gives me opportunity of sightseeing ! But IRL stick and rudder is the only time I ever logged  LOL

I have many airline friends who own and fly light GA. I asked them why ? The answer was it's different ! A freedom to fly where you want, how you want, and when you want - basically have pure fun in simplicity. Of course there are some airline pilot who own say Cirrus or Bonanza to commute from place of work home, and use GA for absolute practical reasons - just to save time driving in traffic. But one thing is always true many retired airline pilots end up in flying club and continue flying for fun. I have met tons of those folks as club check out instructor and they most fun to fly with.

As many above I like to fly MSFS airplanes I flown IRL, but not only. Airliners is something I have never flown and never will IRL. So for me this forbidden fruit is very attractive pretending in MSFS flying Part 121 or 135 🙂 But I do share my sim time between  complexity and simplicity both attracts me. I always have periods when I stick to airliners and when I stick with GA. Missing each category is kind of loss for me ! Why not to have fun in everything - airliners, GA, historic, military...?

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.  

When I was a kid I built a lot of flyable model planes out of balsa wood and cloth slathered in airplane model dope.  All had little propeller gas engines that you spun by hand to start.  They didn't have flyable jet model airplanes.  Also spent a lot of time assembling plastic models of WWII planes, 99 percent of which only had propellers.  Never grew out of that phase, so all my planes in MSFS have propellers.

Edited April 18Apr 18 by vp49p3

31 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

...

As many above I like to fly MSFS airplanes I flown IRL, but not only. Airliners is something I have never flown and never will IRL. So for me this forbidden fruit is very attractive pretending in MSFS flying Part 121 or 135 🙂 But I do share my sim time between  complexity and simplicity both attracts me. I always have periods when I stick to airliners and when I stick with GA. Missing each category is kind of loss for me ! Why not to have fun in everything - airliners, GA, historic, military...?

+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... 😁

 

Airliners are my choice, since I did that in the real world for many years. I also instructed, did some charter flying, and flew for a few regional outfits back when they actually used GA aircraft. This was well before the Regional Jet era began. I can certainly see how GA flying would be enjoyable in the sim.

1 hour ago, tttocs said:

Not eccentric at all.  I like taking a more grounded approach as well though mine is a bit more liberal as I do stretch things just a bit.  Thus - 100% GA in planes certified to be flown single pilot.  Basically, I fly planes that I've either flown IRL, or (and here comes the stretch) would/could conceivably fly if money had been less of an issue (though not NO issue).

The TBM 850 is about as far as I've stretched things so far, though I admit I'm still considering a single pilot capable light jet if/when the right one comes along.  That said, most of my time is spent in pistons just as IRL, with the Black Square Turbo Normalized Bonanza my most flown plane since moving from 2020 to 2024.  My first logged hour of instruction was in a Bonanza and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.

Unfortunately, I spend very little time in the plane I actually owned IRL.  I would, but I've just never warmed to the JF Turbo Arrow IV.  I know some like it, but...

 

Scott

You'll want the upcoming FSR Phenom 300E for sure!  It's glass and automated but if you enable all the realism there's plenty to keep you on your toes.

2 hours ago, Stoopy said:

These "Either-Or" types of questions really seem to miss the point of what flight simulation is all about.

Not really.  We all do this for different reasons and with different motives and that, to me, is what flight simulation is all about.. 

In my case, I have almost zero interest in airliners.  At one point in my career I spent almost 50% of my time traveling.  While I appreciate that I got to travel all over the world, the part involving flying in big tubes and dealing with large airports was, in many ways, the worst part of the deal.  I'm not fond of large international airports, but absolutely love regional and smaller GA fields.  I'm not fond of flying in great big airliners or dealing with heavy systems management, but love the more stick-n-rudder feeling of flying and the challenges of flying single-pilot IFR.  Consequently, IRL, I flew commercially because I had to, but flew GA because I loved almost every aspect of it.  The same still applies.  

The fact that I like to self-impose certain constraints is just part of how I make it feel more real and enjoyable.  That doesn't mean I don't respect the choice of others who revel in indulging in full-on fantasies.  THAT, to me is what simming is about.  We all get to enjoy simulated aviation the way we want.  From my approach, to @Christopher Low flying airliners VFR, to you flying everything you can get your hands on and embracing the jack-of-all-trades role.  It's all good, and kinda fun to hear how everyone here approaches things.

No points missed here!

 

Scott

Edited April 18Apr 18 by tttocs
typo

27 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

You'll want the upcoming FSR Phenom 300E for sure!  It's glass and automated but if you enable all the realism there's plenty to keep you on your toes.

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

2 hours ago, JYW said:

  

This - word for word - speaks for me too! 😎

I've always loved both.  Back when I started in 2004, I'd alternate between planes like the Carenado (when they were good!) C210 and Commander 114, and the Level D 767 and PMDG 737NG.  

I don't inter-mix (eg a 737 flight then a PA28 flight), I tend to fly GA for 1-4 weeks, then switch to airliners for the same.

Recently, I was hugely back into the airliners, and bought the Ini A340, ToLiss A340, PMDG 777s, 737 2024s, TFDi MD-11, etc, etc.    But as of earlier this week, I made a flight in the Black Square Bonanza between 4 airfields that I fly between IRL in the UK and I was hooked again 😎  So I'm back in the GA camp again now.   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.   Flight simulation caters to a thousand different needs.  That's what makes it so amazing.

Worth pointing out that when I fly GA, I rarely fly VFR; I fly realistic (for the aircraft type) IFR flights, with BATC.  When VFR rolls out to the normal edition of BATC, that will hopefully change.

The intermix comment is interesting. My friend is a 777 Captain that owns a 185. He intermixes weekly because he uses the 185 to commute. He can't wait to retire and be flying the 185 only. 

I sadly buy almost everything.

I fly a lot of airliners with VA so that keeps you busy.

But my love is really GA.

I try to stay off the autopilot much as I can.

Try and figure out the VFR maps.

Like others prefer to fly something I think I could handle in real life. Comanche Bonanza and  Caravan and the sort.

Edited April 18Apr 18 by Ron Lefebvre