Long Range Flights & Scenery

[Mattace64]

I've noticed something interesting about long range flying in FSX, and thought I would comment about it here, and see what people think.  

When I fly long distances in FSX, say from the East Coast to the West Coast, over the Atlantic or Pacific, etc. I usually climb to my cruising altitude and then fast forward by pressing R&+.  When I do this the scenery and ground texture essentially disappears, so when I get close to my destination I return to normal simulation speed well ahead of time to allow the game to load the graphics again.  

What has been quite bothersome, is that even with my scenery radius set at a maximum, whenever I increase the simulation rate and return back to a normal simulation rate, the trees and building load only a mile or so in front of me (after I'm back at a normal rate).  

What I usually do now, is fly over the airport at about 8000ft, to allow the scenery near the airport to load prior to landing.  That way when I land I can see the all of the building and trees as I'm on my approach.  

Has anyone else noticed this?  It's kinda interesting.  

[BFMF]

I do all my flying at real time, so I've never noticed it before...

[Mattace64]

So do you go across the oceans?  I just don't have the patience to sit there for hours watching the ocean go by!  

Just curious.

[BFMF]

[quote]So do you go across the oceans?

[RickG]

When my scenery goes a bit wonky, sometimes I just pause the sim, and let it do its thing, usually within half a minute. Also, I learned a cool trick here a while back--in the key commands, there is one called scenery refresh, or refresh scenery (can't remember exactly) which you can key to  shift F12.  Works like a charm.

[tcco94]

[quote]So do you go across the oceans?

[BAW0343]

I enjoy a good cigar tube flight every now and then, but if the flight is longer then 2 hours then whats the point?

The best parts of flight is takeoff, climb, and landing. Why make the cruise 16 hours when it already sucks anyway?

If you want to land in some exotic airport just pick a start point closer to it.  That's what I would do anyway.  ;D 8-)

[macca22au]

Or go to 8x sim rate.  Gives a good view from high altitudes without having to be a masochist and sit through a real time journey.

If you do decide to do it all at the 1x speed, then don't do it all at once.  Use the Save Flight option and come back to it at a time that suits you and work your way across the Atlantic or Pacific at your leisure.

But I find that too boring.  Go to 8x over long sea legs, and drop back to Normal speed over land that interests youl

[BAW0343]

Or you could just fly over the interesting bits to begin with and leave out the ocean all together! 8-)

That's what I would do anyway.  :D

[Leigh]

or not fly it at all

I used to use the R+ but now i have the Carendo aircraft ive found that lo and slow is the way tooooo gooooo

[Ang2dogs]

If you don't wanna be board doing a long flight try flying it with the autopilot off But for real, I was snowed in last year so I decided to take the ol Jenny crosscountry, San Diego to Brooklyn New York. It took me about 31 hours and some mins just flying time. The whole flight, stopping for fuel and (sometimes grabbing a sandwich and a cold one), and I had to rest after 13hours ( took a 5 hour nap) , total time was around 40 hours. I know have a greater admiration for them pionerring aviators [smiley=beer.gif] Now I am planning a flight for me and my Jenny from Seattle to Miami, and I can't wait

[BAW0343]

Wow nice man! Im impressed.  ;D

[BFMF]

If you don't wanna be board doing a long flight try flying it with the autopilot off But for real, I was snowed in last year so I decided to take the ol Jenny crosscountry, San Diego to Brooklyn New York. It took me about 31 hours and some mins just flying time. The whole flight, stopping for fuel and (sometimes grabbing a sandwich and a cold one), and I had to rest after 13hours ( took a 5 hour nap) , total time was around 40 hours. I know have a greater admiration for them pionerring aviators [smiley=beer.gif] Now I am planning a flight for me and my Jenny from Seattle to Miami, and I can't wait

Did you handfly it and only navigate with a map and compas, or did you use an autopilot, GPS, fancy nav radios, ect?

[Ang2dogs]

Did you handfly it and only navigate with a map and compas, or did you use an autopilot, GPS, fancy nav radios, ect?

First I just want to point out that I have nothing against modern aircraft and the use of advanced navigational equipment. Aviation technology is one of the few technologys that actually is good. And to put it into context It took only 66 years to go from 12 seconds and 120' ( But the final flight of the day carried Wilbur 852 feet in 59 seconds. ) to land a man on the moon, were as sails were used for 1,000's of years before steam, and horses were used a lot longer before the car was invented ( and they still can't figure out how to fix the nut behind the wheel ). But back to the original question, ( Be advised, I won't get to detailed at this time, but if you got a question I'm all ears ) I charted my path using a good ol Rand McNally road atlas. At first I was using a protractor to get headings from town to town, but after a few test flights we now know that not all towns are generated in the sim, also my Ol'Lady was getting pissest at me for spending more time on my quest than her So I resorted to the sims flight planner, and charted my flight but still using the atlas as my primary guide ( cause that's what I'll be looking at to navigate ). So with my headings literally on my knee and my stop watch vrelcoded to my monitor, and at least the compass was in use by than (

[BFMF]

wow, that's incredible.

I know what you mean. I enjoy flying aircraft with modern avionics, but there's just something about an older aircraft that I love.