Simviation Forums

I would like to know who all flies in real time? I mean it must take a really good while to get from London to New York. Or do you guys just press pause when you have to go to the bathroom? Or maybe there is a time to time ratio that you all follow. Care to lay it on the table?

Hi Charles
I do all my flying online with Vatsim, except for testing stuff out. Unless Im on Vatsim I don't  consider Im really up there if you know what I mean. Its just the way I do it, not saying it has to be like that for anyone else  ;) Flying at accelerated speed is not allowed on Vatsim and I wouldn't care to do it anyway. For me unless you actually fly it then theres no point in flying that far.
For that reason amongst others Ive never done a Trans AT flight but restricted it to closer European destinations of no more than 3 or 4 hours.

When the time comes for me to do a long haul flight I will still do it on Vatsim but probably disconnect from the server once I am in uncrontroled airspace and leave it to the FMS to keep me on course, then come back to it before entering controlled airspace, reconnect and when getting closer contact ATC.

Id normally fly in real time, but usually depends on the mood.  Most of the time, from 0-4 hours hauls I wouldnt mind just leaving the plane on autopilot and errm... going to the bathroom.  12 hour flights across the pacific ocean... now thats a whole other story.  Personally, as im not a real life commercial pilot, so i need my beauty sleep! so I pause or save

Rick Rossner is well known to the FS community and when he was PHNL VATsim Chief (Honolulu) he gave us the best idea for compacting long flights -- online or off:

1.) Go to about two-hundred-miles from DEST on the flightplan track and setup the flight for alt/hdg/spd, etc.,

2.)  Save the flight (situation)

3.) Now, when it comes time to actually make the flight, do everything by-the-book (DP) until established on the NAT or PAC tracks and "frequency change approved"  is received from ATC

4.) If online on VATsim, thank ATC for their help and say you are disconnecting

5.) Load the (S)aved flight and contact the nearest (DEST?) ATC_CTR and request IFR clearance into DEST.

Works good and can cut an eight-hour flight down to one-hour -- online or offline.

bill

Yeah, that's one way around it. I prefer to keep my flights short though as you said. I never fly above 3 hours.
My family would be cutting my hair into a really weird cut if I sat there over a fair amount of time!  They seem to think 2 hours in trot is rather 2 much sometimes.
Och well!

Real time for me. Whether it's my short hops from LA to San Francisco or LA to Sydney, everything I do is in real time.  I get in a good nap during the long-hauls though-hey, real pilots do too!

I usually prefer to fly short hops, but if I do set up a long haul flight like London to New York then I will normally get the flight up & running ok, put the autopilot on, check my e.t.a. & then nip off to the pub (a bit like going to the onboard bar I suppose), either that or watch t.v. / have dinner etc.

Unless of course the 'missus' wants to go shopping - then it's absolutely imperative that I remain on the 'flight deck': "Good god woman!! - don't you realise how risky crossing the Atlantic is?? I'm not bl**dy Charles Lindbergh y'know!!!"

Thanks guys. You all are pretty  just bought the FS2004 and waiting for my new computer. In the mean time I'm getting as much info on this FS  can be prepared or at least have a sense of what to expect.

I usually do both. For long haul trips I sometimes either let the flight go on AP or I bump up the time compression. Really depends on what I have going on at home at the moment. For these long flights I hand fly only the take off, climb to cruising Alt. and descent/landing.

That's usually done with one of the long haul aircraft such as the default Boeings or another that I've come to love lately the Flight 1 ATR 72-500. Very complex aircraft by the way. Not one I would recommend to someone new to flight simming. Once however I get to an area I like to do my exploring in something smaller which I do completely in real time.

I don't have any add-ons of commercial jets or even private jets. I don't enjoy flying them. Why you ask? Because I'd rather be at 1000ft AGL checkin' out the scenery, or playing IFR in the cloudes with turbulence! I think I enjoy myself more in 3 hours of flying than most do when flying their 7X7's at 32,000 ft above the clouds with no scenery. That is where light twins come in handy. You can fly (reletively) fast and far, but at lower altitudes in all kinds of weather.

Isn't that why we fly? You know, to enjoy ourselves in the air and FLY airplanes, not click alt hold, mach hold, nav/gps hold ect and go take a nap?

Maybe I'm insane.....

It all depends. I am in the class that has the highest passion for aviation, loves absolutely everything about it, the jet flights and the kingair ones. It's kind of hard to explain, I'm just one of those people that finds the very act of slapping two engines on a piece of metal, putting that piece of metal WITH PEOPLE IN IT into the sky, of all places, along with several thousand other pieces of metal there at the same time, getting it ANYWHERE safely, and then landing this ginormous machine onto a tinyass little concrete strip absolutely amazing, and it will never cease to fascinate me. Real hard to explain why I'm so drawn to commercial ops, why I enjoy cruisng at FL400. Looks like I'm the insane one

[quote]Thanks guys. You all are pretty

LOL I hadn't noticed that...  :o I'm very flattered charles  :-*

I haven't sat for more than three hours yet (still tweaking and farting around with add-ons too much), but what I like to do is fly long trips in saved legs, overwriting as I go. Right now I'm working on recreating a flight I made in a C172 from Marlboro, NJ to New Orleans... sat in real time for the entire first leg (2N8-W91), landed, refueled, then saved. Next I'll mess up the weather a little to try to recreate being diverted to Hendersonville, NC instead of my planned fuel/overnight stop in Rome, GA. Then on to RMG for a quick fillup, and the final leg to New Orleans Lakefront. I'm also working on a "barnstorming" tour in the Jenny- just heading west, using the FS map as a chart to calculate fuel stops, and dealing with real weather (transposed to summertime, of course!).  When I get to California, I'll turn around and come home, stopping at different airports on that trip. Haven't tried the time compression yet, and doubt I ever will. By saving as I go, I can walk away and come back any time, but still log all the time for the flight.  

This is why I stick to PMDG 737NG and Southwest Airlines for flight sim...I follow their frequent, short-haul flight schedule...in real time.