What is your style of flight simming?

[redspade]

I am new to FSX/P3D and have only been flying a year, but I fly every day. Loving it. I generally fly GA, low and slow and loving the terrains, but I will try to fly ANYTHING.... sometimes I do so successfully. Since I am a beginner, I take lots of little short hops to get in more landing practice, forty to sixty miles or so..... anywhere in the world.

[Killratio]

I fly the Spitfire almost exclusively (no surprises there) and all dead reckoning.

A lot of the time I fly over familiar territory in PNG, with real world weather, as it offers challenging and dangerous flying in minute by minute installments.
I usually fly "relocation" flights to change airfields or "to target and return" flights for PRU.

Unfortunately, with the rebuild of the Spitfire, I wouldn't have flown more than 50 hours in the last two years. But something like 2000 hours in that time has gone into research, building and planning.

[AKar]

Because I'm hand flying and manually navigating, the most interesting part of the flight is the long cruise phase. I don't really enjoy the descent or approach that much, but that may be the only time some people are actually flying the plane and the only time they actually have something to do.

I, on the other hand, quite often use autopilot for portions of flight. Not the entire flight, but for more or less straight A-to-B segments. This is because what keeps me busy during cruise portion is to have a tablet with map at hand. I look up various places along the way from the web. As I fly into and over somewhat strange places every so often, it is big part of my fun to look up what these places are there for originally and what they are doing nowadays. Mines and nearby towns make good POIs. Dams as well, historic routes and so on. It is surprising what you can sometimes found when you check out what some places are in physical life.

-Esa

[Hook]

I look up various places along the way from the web.

I like doing that before or after a flight. You run across some very interesting stuff and it really makes a trip come alive. My last flight was to Hokkaido and when researching it I ran across the Ainu people, the indigenous people who first lived there. Quite interesting.

Hook

[caleb1]

Are you an airline captain with PMDG products? A GA or Warbird pilot with A2A simulations products? A corporate pilot with Carenado products? Do you like scenery creation, repainting or even designing your own models?

I would say I'm all of the above, whatever I feel like at the time. GA/Warbirds/Airliners/Turboprops (PC-12 is my favorite turboprop). even designed some scenery and made some repaints.

http://cbsimulations.com

[FireflyChick]

Mainly Warbirds (incl fast jets in XP-11) and GA. Airliners and big jets hold no real appeal to me, they used to when I wanted to fly commercially and I would spend a great deal of time in FS2000 flying "aluminum tubes".

I tend to fly mainly in XP-11 these days even after a recent re-install of FSX and the various A2A products that I own as the host simulator is just so much more stable and I find myself being far less frustrated after an enjoyable flight when the simulator decides to pack in just as I enter the circuit.

Though in real life I fly a Slingsby T67M Firefly, which is a ton of fun

[Canuckshaw]

I fly my A2A Comanche, Bonanza, P-40, Spitfire, and Civ P-51. Usually I fly to or from my home field, Arlington Airport (KAWO) to somewhere, either for landing practice, or an actual cross-country flight. The only non-A2A aircraft that I fly is my Manfred Jahn C-47 v 3.14 (with Accu-feel). The main reason I fly that is because I want to keep active in DC-3 Airways, and because Ernie the copilot and Nancy the stewardess are classic! Oh yeah - I have the A2A Connie, but don't fly it that much, due to the fact that it's not as fun as my other airplanes. I really would like it, however, if DC-3 Airways would let me accrue official flight hours in the Connie, but they only allow time accrual in Douglas DC-2, DC-3/C-47, and DC-4/C-54 aircraft. I plan to fly my C-47, in Plane Saver C-FDTD livery, in the upcoming England-to-Australia Air Race https://bluegrassairlines.com/operation ... index.html




Oh yeah: I am a STUDENT of AVIATION, hence the Academic P3D. No entertainment whatsoever! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Seeya
ATB

Thanks for posting that image of my C-FDTD livery. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of painting it. Followed along all of the Plane Savers episodes and updated it with every change they made. You'll notice the message on the Hamburger Door, the note from Buffalo Joe on the tail and the signature panel on the right lower fuselage. Of course I also added in the registration plates to the interior and painted the Plane Savers logo by the escape hatch. I'm glad you enjoy flying her.

[Dan M]

I have to confess, even with all of the false starts they've made, I most often find myself on MSFS2020 in the 172 or the Baron these days using real weather. This platform has made me swear quite a few times since release but I've also had some genuine "Wow!" moments.

As far as realism and immersion go, nothing beats the A2A T-6. Many flights around Vancouver with P3D using everything Orbx. Somehow, it just never gets boring going into Hope (CYHE) and getting the approach right, trying short-field techniques and so on.

The Comanche and 182 are also favorites for exploring different parts of North America. Longer IFR flights in the 182 are a nice way to spend an afternoon. Now and then I'll jump in the A2A Cub for some touch-and-go practice at Langley (CYNJ).

I do airliner flights less frequently. I only use PMDG's 737 NGXu and their 747 fleet in P3D v5. Real-world European routes in the 737 with some great payware add-ons from Digital Designs. Cargo flights with the 747s through Asia, South America and the busier N.A. routes.

Repeating what others have already said, I do find myself getting bored if a single flight goes longer than 2 hours. For GA it's never a problem because you can easily get two different flight in during that time. With the airliners I find roughly 1 hour and 45 mins. is a good fit; time enough to enjoy some scenery during cruise but enough "busy time" planning the departure, descent and arrival that you're never twiddling your thumbs. And if you are you've probably forgotten something very important

[FAC257]

Although I enjoy pretty much flying all categories of aircraft I prefer..................
-Really big aircraft.
-2 or more propellers.
-Steam gauges.
-Interesting cockpit management.
-Interesting fuel management systems.
-Long range & long duration flights.
-Flights below 31deg North.
-Primary flight area Florida, Bahamas, Caribbean, Central & South America.
-RTW flights occasionally.
-Airports that are tricky to get in and out of safely.

[jcblom]

For me the fun is in painting aircraft. Doing the research, figuring how I'm going to do it and then doing it. Flying is mainly done to watch the paint dry as it were.
My main interest is in WW2 aircraft, not sure why, but that's what I loved about A2A, they made the finest WW2 birds.
I am not that interested in modern aircraft, neither warbirds (never saw the point of the civilian P-51) or GA, and when painting, I like to recreate the WW2 aircraft as they were used as tool of the trade, so with all the wear and tear of heavily used aircraft. OK, I do paint other aircraft, even some tubeliners occasionaly, but that's not really where my passion is.
I do fly for fun occasionally, and sometimes I even land, but I have never, ever, used an autopilot. But even when flying for fun, most of my time is spent on the outside, looking at the textures and the scenery. This is one of the reasons I moved to MSFS, the scenery and lighting is sooo much better. So no A2A warbirds for me at the moment, let's hope they will show up soon in MSFS..

[AerialShorts]

Also a warbird buff. I am not into dogfighting but love formation flying where I can see the aircraft in their natural element, up close and personal. As real as I can possibly get and in VR where the planes appear full size, right there, and a bit dangerous if you get too close. The new jets are cool, old jets even better, but propeller aircraft and powerful engines belting out the bass notes is what I love. I run with seat shakers and feel those bass notes. I miss the A2A P-47 but get my fixes in DCS for VR and warbirds. Really hoping to see some good ones in FS2020 and really anticipating VR’s arrival on the 23rd. When VR hits FS2020 I’ll be jonesing for the T-6, P-51, P-47, etc.

[twsharp12]

Majestic Q400 and the A2A L049 Regional flights take up a majority of my flying. Then 737, and 747 flights, followed by all my A2A GA/Warbird planes.

[ClipperLuna]

I do almost all of my flying in GA airplanes. Unless I'm in IFR conditions (which is rare for me), all my navigation is by pilotage and dead-reckoning. It's very satisfying to navigate with no radio or GPS aids and still end up with wherever you're going right ahead of you in the end. I agree with Hook and Esa about finding the neatest stuff when you do this. I still remember the first time I saw the Anaconda Stack in Montana in the sim. I thought sure it was some kind of glitch, but it turns out there really is a random tall smokestack right in the middle of the hills there (tallest surviving surviving masonry structure in the world, if Wikipedia is accurate).

[Reticuli]

I like digital fly by wire but I also like nuance to it, so I like the A320, Falcon BMS, and a lot of military choppers.

[GaryRR]

I would have to say I am GA with commercial aspirations. I Love GA singles a lot more now with the three great ones I acquired from A2A, the Skylane, Bonanza, and Commanche. They breathed life back into singles for me. Beyond that I really love piston twins. The C421 Golden Eagle is my favorite and with the FDE mods available even more realistic. It deserves to be Accusimed. Needs the persistent airplane coding and engine interaction.
I tend to stay with aircraft that an average guy like me could possibly pilot. Although I have looked with interest at the better airliners. On my short list are the 377 and 049 here. Other publishers would be Majestic Dash 8, Aerosoft CRJ, IFLY 737, Flight1 B200 G1000, and maybe the Capt. Sim 707 and a decent DC-8. I like INS.