Simviation Forums

I see on some virtual airlines you are allowed to use faster simulation rates....how does this work? Are the planes actually flying that much faster? Any info on this is appreciated, 5000nm flights seem overly intimidating. And where do you change the sim rates?

You can change the simualtion rate by either clicking on Options/Simulation Rate and selecting the one you want or by pressing "R" and then + or -
Increasing the simulation rate th eairplane does not actually fly in a higher speed. Your IAS will be the same but the FS time goes faster (2x, 4x etc.) so a 5000nm flight which would normaly take 12 hours on a B744 will take about 1.5 real hours to complete at a rate 8x.
Inevitably you takeoff and land at 1x as otherwise you cannot control the aircraft unless you are the superman.

Also, with several VAs including the VA I operate, there are rules against time compression.

What I find works the best, is for reallly long flights. Trans-Pac, West Europe-Pac coast, Oceana-SA/NA, get up a little early, fly the plane up to cruise alt., trap the ATC between controllers, go to school, come home, and I'm only a few hours out, hopefully there were no critical failures, or your royally screwed. I havent done this for my VA yet, just on random flights.

You can also save the flight in the middle and come back to it when your ready.

Thanks for the replies. As for the getting up early and letting my machine fly all day, thats way too risky if you are flying for a virtual airline and your pireps are automatically monitored and sent. I could come home to a big pile of rubble and a nasty note from my CEO  ;D

You CEO is not that nasty (lol). However I do prefer to use time compression in long flights too since leaving the FS unattended is not that safe as you mention and does not have any added value to the pilot's experience (or entertainment) especially if the time compression is allowed.

Well, I have left it unattended once in an individual flight (not for a VA) in VATSIM. I knew there was never a controler around Africa. Shame on me.

LOL.... see? He's got eyes everywhere!!!  ;D

The only real objection any VA could have to this is if the flight is done online as some like to 'keep it real' with proper schedule times, etc. However, if you do the flight on your own and simply file a Pilots Report then there should be no penalty. (How would they know anyway?)

Flight monitoring systems keep trakc of the used time compression and this is reported automatically to the VA's database. However our