How do you fellers decide on the flight you want to do?

[John York]

All in shortish hops I've transposed Australia & New Zealand left to right and north to south and gone round the perimeteres.  The same holds true of the USA, Canada, GB and Europe.  Presently, I'm flying in America trying to follow some of the epic journeys of the original pioneers.

 

However, I would be interested to know how you fellers decide where to fly to and where from?

[Ken Q]

Hard to answer this question, a number of factors are involved.   Although I live on the East Coast of the US, I've been flying the West Coast for most of the last year.  The reason for that is a combination of two factors: ORBX scenery and PilotEdge ATC.  While on the West Coast I consider my "home" airport to be Santa Barbara (KSBA) and I have a parking spot at Spitfire Aviation, located off of RWY 15L between the terminal and Atlantic.  Favorite destinations include (among many others) Palm Springs (KPSP) Bakersfield (KBFL), Monterey (KMRY) and Gen Wm J Fox in Lancaster CA (KWJF).  But I'm also a follower of Jason Flowers' "Aviation 101" channel, and often fly to airports he features, like Boulder City, Page  and Marble Canyon.  Eventually I want to explore some of the sites he covered in his series on his Alaska trip.

 

If you want to follow the pioneers, here is a very interesting flight, but I don't think you can do it in your usual aircraft.  You need something that flies lower (although that is relative considering the terrain elevation -here 8500 ft .is "lower") and slower.  I do this frequently in the Mooney Bravo.

 

The flight is from Reno-Lake Tahoe (KRNO)to Blue Canyon-Nyack. Use Truckee-Tahoe (KTRK) as a waypoint.  Start at Atlantic Aviation at Reno, Nevada.  This is outside ORBX NorCal, and unfortunately ORBX is yet to do scenery for this airport, but PacSim has a pretty good version of it.  Take off (usually RWY 16R or L) and turn west.  There is a pass through the mountains; it is easy to see and follow.  Roads and the railroad run through it.   Follow the pass to Truckee-Tahoe airport (KTRK).  Just to the west (approx. 260 mag) is a long narrow lake lying east/west.  This used to be called Truckee Lake, but now it is Donner Lake.  This is the beginning of Donner Pass, and the site of where the Donner Party was trapped during the winter of 1846-47.  Trapped with little food they were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive until rescued.  Here's a link to the story.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party.

 

Finally, continue through the pass to Emigrant Gap (Where emigrants and there wagons, horses and gear were lowered down on ropes to continue their journey west).  Land at Blue Canyon-Nyack (KBLU)  This ORBX payware airport is wonderful, but it is challenging.  It sits at a mile elevation on a mountain top, and the runway is 3300 by 50 feet.  There are a couple of astronomical observatories that are actually on the airport, adjacent to the parking ramp.

Ken

[Guest]

That sounds an interesting flight Ken.  Thank you. I've made a note and will certainly try it.

[Rodger Pettichord]

Depends on time available or latest geographical discovery. If I have only an hour available, I pick a short flight in an interesting area just for the flight. If I am wanting to learn more about a geographical area, then I do a series of short flights, hopping around -- for example, just starting to look at the Congo. starting at GOMA and going where the ORBX scenery will allow. I also like what you do, John -- take long journeys. I've done the west coast of North and South America, the perimeter of Great Britain, the circumference of the Mediterranean, and so forth. Good thread, I hope others chime in with ideas.

[Jack Sawyer]

I have two gigantic wall maps, one of the USA and one of the world, they have those little pointy stickies where all my Orbx airports are.  And I have a ginormous list of all the Orbx airports I have.  So I look at my list, look at the maps and depending on how much time I have I try to choose an Orbx city pair.

 

Or, I look for bridges.  And what also helps is other's screenshots, they always inspire me to go to a new place.

[Richard Lincoln]

I follow the FIFO routes for practice, so the Pilbara, Hunter Valley , AYPY to AYXM or AYTA. Hops between Gold Coast  -  Emerald -  Essendon. And up around Exmouth 

[Guest]

Well Jack, even if you haven't suggested a flight, that is such a good idea about pinpointing your Orbx areas and airports on a map.  I never know where they are so I'll have a go at that.

 

The Congo Rodger?  Wher on earth is the Orbx scenery for that?

[wain71]

in p3d I use AIir Hauler 2, chose a flight from my UK or US base depending on time, time also helps me decide on GA or Airliner......XP11 is more of an issue but usually somewhere in TE ORBX scenery......sometimes I get inspired by screenshots I see on here..

[Matthew Kane]

I primarily fly New Zealand, secondary Australia and Canada, then USA and Europe. Usually scenery purchases dictate where I go so I get my moneys worth. I will admit I have purchased some scenery even a year ago and haven't even been there yet, this is because of grabbing stuff in a sale and not having the time to explore what I purchased, but at least ORBX gets support for future development and a designer gets paid 

[flyingleaf]

The Mule Team flies all of the Western USA/Canada. Alaska to San Diego.

[YAMBA1]

My wife usually tells me where to  go.  And because  I am  a good husband  I listen.

[teecee]

I usually fly areas that I know..mainly Aus and the UK, but I am also learning a lot about the NW of the USA so I spend time there too.

[YAMBA1]

19 hours ago, YAMBA1 said:

My wife usually tells me where to  go.  And because  I am  a good husband  I listen.

 

Now seriously, I started with Oz then  new Zealand, then PNG (Kokoda trail) Currently I am over seas Hawaii, Samoa Tahiti  lots of little island to visit

 

[Bassman]

I organise and publish VFR flights on Vatpac called World Discovery Flights every Wednesday night at 8.30pm AEDT (9.30Z) . The flights are no longer than 90 minutes including touch and goes at airfields. GA aircraft are used and type is dependant upon aircraft speed and distance to complete 90 minutes flight. Whilst VFR it, is also often necessary to utilize technology and use instruments. The flights are usually at about 4,500ft so I choose the location based upon interesting scenery, interesting facts i.e. in the near future we will fly the entire Route 66 spread over a number of nights of course. Currently we are flying in Lesotho, Africa due to it's mountainous terrain (a bit like PNG but little vegetation) and has challenging little airfields. So, that's how I choose the flights. On Friday and Sunday nights my mate Rusty organizes similar type flights however always in Oceania. We are a very friendly group, not too strict with flight jargon unless a pesky controller comes on. Most of us come from FSInn/CTAF days so the new developments in Audio for Vatsim are most exciting.

We also use Vatpac Teamspeak Daily Focus room for our chat. Please come and join us.

[Aussieflyer38]

I have as heap of routes I have printed out, to various places I've never been  so like to fly those  and check out the airports and scenery along the way. Most of course are default destinations, so rarely a  "wow" experience. Unfortunately at the moment I'm flying a bed.

 

Don 

[ThrottleUp]

For GA hops I just fire up Google Earth and pan around the world looking for places to fly. You can download a .KML which will display all the airports in FSX on the globe.

 

Other sources are articles and documentaries. For example in Plane & Pilot magazine the other day I read an article about Bush Flying and the author mentioned a challenging back country strips. I made note of it and visited it in the sim. Nice advice in the article also.

 

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/backcountry-flying-what-where-how/

 

I know this sounds dark but I also fly to airports mentioned in NTSB accident reports to see the challenges the pilot must have faced. I set the weather (almost always IMC and VFR only pilot spins it in) and fly the approach or the accident path. Its educational and a sobering experience.

 

For airline flights I have to keep it real world and theres plenty of resources for this. My fav plane to fly in this category is the B738 and so I just go to Flight Aware, filter airplanes by B738 and then filter again to 1hr flights and pick one. This way I get to fly all over the world, and fly real routes. The most recent one is Malaysia Airlines SIN-KUL.

 

Check it out:

https://uk.flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/

 

Sometimes I just hop on Flight Radar as well and filter by B738 and look at where they are all off to and pick a route. Although this method is harder to filter by time (I like short flights)

[Guest]

Thanks chaps.  Sorry i haven't replied before.  Your suggestions and comments thank you are keeping me busy!

[Kilstorm]

On 10/2/2019 at 11:30 AM, Ken Q said:

Although I live on the East Coast of the US, I've been flying the West Coast for most of the last year.  The reason for that is a combination of two factors: ORBX scenery and PilotEdge ATC.

Ken

We have a lot in common. I too live on the East coast (Nantucket) and use Orbx/Other great airport scenery developers, PilotEdge and FSEconomy to determine 99% of my flights. Even with having an Orbx detailed airport in both XP and P3D, its having PilotEdge ATC coverage that I enjoy most for the most immersive flights in VR.

 

To the OP. Its taken years of addons coming available for me to become satisfied with finding the best flights that keeps me looking forward to the next flight. My list of needs boils down to these items:
1) Plane must fit the route and be study level-ist

2) Route must involve addon airports that if controlled in RL are controlled in PilotEdge.

3) Flights should not involved long cruise flights. 

4) Flights need to have an FSE purpose

 

So with that in mind, I have a small Colorado network of KDEN, KEGE and KASE that I fly the PMDG JS41 and Twin Otter Extended with.

In KWYS I fly to and from KBZN, KJAC and KSUN in the Comanche.

Have a small route to get pax to and from 65S out of KGPI in the Bonanza.

Play the role of a High Roller with exotic taste that flies his p51 from KMRY to KLAS and back.

In Xplane11 I use my C210REP to fly FAA pax based out of KSBA. Just waiting on So-Cal and the coming Orbx airports for that.

Since this is an Orbx forum, in case others dont know, FSEconomy has most Orbx airports with jobs that go to other Orbx airports. Its a great way to jump in between the different Orbx addon airports in North America and Oz/NZ. Additionally, There are All In jobs for the Dash 8 in Oz and NZ to all those Orbx airports as well.

Lastly for PilotEdge and FSEconomy users there are FAA Pax jobs to all towered airports in So-Cal perfect for GA planes.

[wain71]

latley I have been using a cheap payware program called A Pilots Life, you basically set up with aircraft you want to fly and parts of the world, you then get job overs and then a schedule comes up.......I am currently doing lots of Easyjet stuff around EU in Aerosft A320........it's very basic but I use Simbrief and Navigraph charys to plan and then during the flight I have Aivlasoft efb running......it logs my hours etc and when I want to fly in another part of the world I look at the jobs on offer......simple but gives a purpose and flys me into places I might not go....

[lawrence aldrich]

Amelia Earharts unsuccessful round the globe flight.....I keep having the same problem she and Fred Noonan had...….can't find Howland Island.

So far I've lost 14 Beech twin birds.

Wish me luck...………...

[Aussie123]

Interesting topic.

 

I fly my 737 cockpit, generally around Australia, following know routes and often include most of the Orbx airfields.

 

When I progressively added all of the Orbx European (Inc. England, Germany, Norway etc) scenery and large airports, I went into a local Travel Agent and picked up a collection of European Vacation books.

 

From there, I could then plan routes to match the suggested tours. Eg. Rome -> Budapest -> Berlin -> Amsterdam etc. I had never heard of many of the city's airports so it was good fun planning and downloading charts etc.

 

I find it quite interesting matching the real routes and airways. The well illustrated books also describe and show the POIs at each of the destinations. I would sometimes create a circuit to orbit them before landing. i.e. select a few waypoints over Paris before landing at CDG. Once you have completed all of the routes you like eg Spain > France > Germany you can always reverse them as SIDs and STARs are always different and present challengers.

 

When you have visitors to your cockpit I find they relate to the illustrated tour books than Jeppesen Charts.

 

With GSX2 it is easy to imagine you are loading and transporting tourists between these legs of a tour. 

 

I have yet to replicate this process with the USA but there is plenty of time. :-)

 

Just a suggestion.

 

Aussie

[Guest]

Thanks fellers.

 

Lawrence, perhaps you're going the wrong way round?

[Dadtom65]

On 10/3/2019 at 1:51 AM, Jack Sawyer said:

I have two gigantic wall maps, one of the USA and one of the world, they have those little pointy stickies where all my Orbx airports are.  And I have a ginormous list of all the Orbx airports I have.  So I look at my list, look at the maps and depending on how much time I have I try to choose an Orbx city pair.

 

Or, I look for bridges.  And what also helps is other's screenshots, they always inspire me to go to a new place.

Hi Jack. You and your bridges but I like the idea of the wall map, great idea if I only had the space for one, but seeing as we have our youngest son now living with us now that will be a no no. Getting back to the post sorry John but the trouble I have even though I started in Fltsims years ago with Sub-logic and have played all the Fltsims that have come out, yet I’m a bit into Shooters, not the online stuff but just the normal games like at the moment I’m playing Ghost Recon Wildlands, which I said I would never buy but in a sale it was cheap and it’s not too bad. I do like XPlane now especially with the Orbx True Earth series so I just pick a saved flight and go for a quick spin now and again. Derek.

[petehowell57]

Hi John

I fly mainly ORBX TEUK in XP11.  As time constraints seem to be limiting my flying time at the moment I tend to try flying over areas I have recently visited for real just to compare the Real World with Sim Scenery. And you know what it's pretty good!!!!

 

I also use a program called FS Instant Approach (hope it's OK to mention that) that allows me to position my aircraft on an approach path to a chosen airport (ORBX of course!). Thus with limited time one can practice approaches and landings very easily - very exciting with some of the contoured runways ORBX are introducing.

 

Best wishes

 

Pete

[lawrence aldrich]

5 hours ago, JohnY said:

Thanks fellers.

 

Lawrence, perhaps you're going the wrong way round?

Could be!

I've been using a polar route.

[ThrottleUp]

21 hours ago, petehowell57 said:

I also use a program called FS Instant Approach (hope it's OK to mention that) that allows me to position my aircraft on an approach path to a chosen airport (ORBX of course!). Thus with limited time one can practice approaches and landings very easily - very exciting with some of the contoured runways ORBX are introducing.

 

Very interesting! Thanks for mentioning that, its exactly what Im after. I know Xplane11 already has a similar function built in but this little addon  looks much better. Checking it out now 

[YAMBA1]

I have been using FSFlightControl for years. Controls every facet of the aircraft . Great for training,  I have this addon set up on a tablet (Surface Pro) Works wonder.

[John Heaton]

nice topic - just found it

My Method is simply to get out my actual VFR Logbook of some 70/80s 500 GA hours - and re-fly 

any one of those - which are massively Australia and NZ - and some visits to the UK and middle East

One thing I notice - the scenery hasn't changed all that much!!

[Mark Speechley]

Yes a good topic which I am faced with on a weekly basis. I have a flight crew that I give a mission to every week so I have to put in considerable planning for them. One of my commonest ideas for a flight comes from the news. Just last week I flew from Whakatane to White Island, in New Zealand, the scene of the eruption with unfortunate loss of life and severe injuries.

Prior to that was an article on mountain climbing in the Himalayas. So I had my boys fly from Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu, up the valley, with Lukla on your right, up to Mt Everest and then either fly to Lhasa Gonggar airport  to see the Dalai Lama or really challenge them to Paro in Bhutan.

So listen to the news for inspiration for your next flight.

[Guest]

These are all damn good ideas and I've made notes.  I've just installed True Earth Gt.Britain so I'll be having another look around my own Country in something approaching accurate looking scenery for a change from the flatness that comes with photographic.

 

Happy Christmas and New year to everyone..

[Ken Q]

As noted above, I like flights to and through areas of historical interest, and I share John's interest in the old west.  I did another such flight today. I went from Gen. William J Fox near Lancaster CA to Kern Valley near Kernville in the southern Sierra Nevada.  So the history. At the same time that the Donner Party was struggling towards their destiny, John C. Fremont was exploring the Sierras.  I'm the days before photography, exploring expeditions took along artists to record what was discovered. In this case a Philadelphia native named Edward Kern. At one point he and some companions were sent farther South to explore.  He mapped the Rio de San Filippe, reaching the valley through the pass previously discovered by his companion Joseph Walker. While exploring they camped at the junction of the two branches of the river, now known as the Kern River.  The camp site later became the original site of the town of Kernville.  Later, after WW2, the lower Kern River was dammed, creating Lake Isabella.  This covered the original site of the town so many or the buildings were moved up the valley to the new site.

 

The airport is a little South of town north of the lake.  At 2600 ft altitude, it is surrounded by 8000+ ft mountains, so the approach is always challenging.  Today, though I came in from the east, coming through Walker Pass. Interesting flight, and in Orbx Land, breath taking scenery.

Ken

[John Heaton]

Now that I just about have the whole of Orbx Europe - I have introduced a new series of flights

My Dad served WW11 in a Halifax Bomber as the mid upper gunner - and although he rarely commented

on the missions they went on - he did talk a little about the last few months of the war.

 

His whole crew were given a new Halifax without the upper turret - transferred to the S.O.E and retrained to drop supplies

and personnel -  and they were sent to North Africa and Italy in 1944 - and operated  over Yugoslavia - Northern Italy and 

a special trip to Poland - Warsaw. Those flights required drops @ 500 feet - in mountainous territories

Dad was retrained as the dispatcher  and had to undergo Para training at Ringway in Manchester - because of the hazardous duty.

 

Whats this got to do with choosing sim flights ??

Some years ago - aroungd the time of the birth of Orbx - Just flight brought at a sim DVD called the "Dambusters" 

and as well as including a Lancaster Bomber - simulated the raid on the dams - and other famous raids of the

Dambusters - such as the Tirpitz etc I was never able to hit the Dams - it was rather difficult handling a huge 4 engined bomber

at precisely 60 feet over water for quite some distance !!!!!!

 

. I also recently purchased 4 - WW11 Bomber A/c - The Halifax - The Lancaster - The B17 - and the German Heinklel 

 and I  have been trying to replicate the type of missions that these men undertook at ages between 20 and 30.

 

Just think about a take off at dusk in East Anglia - arrive at the Dutch coast at a precise spot for Nav POI - and then navigate

around Europe looking for a specific spot - turn around - and make your way back - all without any so called Navaids  - pitch dark

20000 feet ++ - and freezing cold.   I have tried it and I have yet to find a single target - despite every thing is lit up

The B17 is a bit easier in Daylight - but when trying out some of the flights in my dad's logbook from Brindisi to drops in the Balkans

the mountains get very "HARD" to run into.

 

Just an idea of what might be tried instead of listening to canned Air control and all the mod aids of today including VOR - DME -ILS etc

just a very simplified ADF and 4 huge engines and a few tons of bombs  - instead of tourist passengers - in a modern pressurized   Tube 

 

 

 

 

[Ken Q]

That, and add enemy fighters and FLAK to it!  Yes, there are pretty good combat sims available, but nothing can replicate the experience (and horror) of the great heros like your Dad.  We can only honor them and their memory as we use our simulators to get a glimpse, "through a glass darkly."   It is truly amazing what these guys accomplished with the machines and the technology they had, and as bad as the casualties were, it is a miracle that they were not worse.  

 

My father was on an LST in the Pacific during the War.  I never got to talk to him about it; he died a week after my second birthday.  Now I'm trying to get some idea of what he went through, researching and reconstucting as I go.

Ken

[lifejogger]

I have all my Orbx scenery listed and numbered in an Xcel  spreadsheet. I then run a rando number generator and then what every number comes up I see what scenery has that number and then plan my flight based on that scenery.

[Guest]

Brilliant!

[John Heaton]

I just came across this suggestion on the MS2020 site

Worth a look

 

https://flightloc.com/