Good FSX Teachings?

[Herr-Berbunch]

Sorry, I only fly VFR, all done with the Mk.1 eyeball and a map. I know Sky flies IMC but he only uses (in case you didn't know) the PDMG 737.

There are lots of fora out there that may be able to help more than we can.

flightsim.com
flightsimworld.com
flyawaysimulation.com
sim-outhouse.com
visualflight.net
mutleyshanger.com

Hope it helps

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Sorry, I only fly VFR, all done with the Mk.1 eyeball and a map. I know Sky flies IMC but he only uses (in case you didn't know) the PDMG 737.

Yes. But there was a life before the 737NGX landed.

Forgot to say that, for General Aviation, some of the Carenado models are said to be good. But I do not know them. Casey, check the review section of www.avsim.com. It's a superb source for flightsim addon reviews, very much indepth articles.

[Skybird]

One thing, I wanted to add that earlier and then forgot it: you said you want to do continental flights and international flight. Well, reconsider that. Doing that in an airliner, already is boring. Doing that in a simulation is even more boring, because once you are on travel altitude of let's say FL410, you just watch out of the simulated window, gaze at the simulated always same sky, and the simulated blue down there that is the simulated sea. And that you do for hours and hours.

That is entertaining not!

Better plan short hops between airports, even with heavy iron. I flew - very unrealistically! - 747s from Hamburg to Cologne, or 767s from Innsbruck to Stuttgart. I plan trips between my addon airports exclusively, and in such a way that between reaching top of climb and beginning of descent there is, if possible, not more than 20 minutes time. That way I always have something to do, with no boring time . The moment I reached travel altitude, I almost start to think about the descent again. I try to fly SIDs and STARs according to my charts, and do a solid flight planning and fuel calculation. But I must not fly the distances specific models would be used for in reality, so why not using a 747 as a local commuter, instead of staring 8 hours at the Atlantic.

I do not know how it is with the default planes, but for complex addons there is a strong recommendation that the time acceleration should not be used - it can seriously mess up your flightplan routing and the FMC. I always run at 1x time, I never use acceleration. NEVER.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Skybird

That is entertaining not!

It really depends on what floats your boat though! I know a lot of people who do like that - although they typically spend that 8 cruising hours doing something else (doing work on another computer, watching a movie, cleaning their backyard, or even sleeping).

You can always join a virtual airline (as I did), which definitely gives a bit more context and purpose to even long flights.

That said, I prefer flying shorter regional flights myself. They are a lot more fun and have a much more intense workload, hour for hour. I do know quite a few people at my VA that practically live for those long-range flights though.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CCIP

It really depends on what floats your boat though! I know a lot of people who do like that - although they typically spend that 8 cruising hours doing something else (doing work on another computer, watching a movie, cleaning their backyard, or even sleeping).

Let them do that with activated chance for randomised system failure, even if set to only small chances.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Let them do that with activated chance for randomised system failure, even if set to only small chances.

Haha, yeah. I do that with fspassengers actually, set to 1% failure chance per flight. It actually makes things a lot more interesting, but as in real life, something happening during cruise... miniscule chance. Most failures happen during departure or landing. The worst I've had out of the 500 or so hours of flying this year was a fuel leak, and it didn't even affect my flight plan since I had enough reserves.

Besides, the far bigger threat on long flights is your FS crashing to desktop

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by CCIP

You can always join a virtual airline (as I did), which definitely gives a bit more context and purpose to even long flights.

I was entertaining the notion of doing the same thing. What has your experience been? How often do you have to fly? What are the perameters? How is the community? (Obviously you like the community, as you are still a member, but you know what I mean)

[CCIP]

It's been really good! It varies from airline to airline obviously, and I've only been a member of one, but it's been a great experience all around. The only mandatory requirement is flying at least once per month, and the booking system for flights is very flexible (at least once you have enough of a rank to have access to all the equipment and routes). The community is good - I wish it were a little more active sometimes, but there's enough to keep me occupied. There's quite an age spread and even simming style spread between people, but there's always people who are similar enough in interests to interact with.

In my VA the main parameters are that you file your flights (with one of a couple of methods) to prove you followed realistic procedure, including routes and performance. All reports filed are reviewed by actual human staff and approved/rejected. There's some pretty clear-cut rules for rejections, but they're not too harsh. The main tracking method is the VA's own ACARS app, which is basically a chat + flight tracker. It actually gives some really nice feedback.

I know some VAs are more strict and demanding, but most are not. There's a lot of fairly casual flyers in mine, but all in all there's a really nice professional sort of atmosphere to it. There's also a lot of flexibility for difficulty - and even I sometimes fly really complex payware planes, and sometimes just slightly spruced-up freeware with basic systems. Some people only fly on VATSIM (and bug others to join them constantly), others don't even use the default FS ATC and just fly silent (I mostly fly offline with RadarContact). The only goal is that your final flight log proves that your flight went mostly like the real thing.

It's definitely done two things to my virtual flying - first it made me fly a lot more than I used to, and secondly it significantly improved a bunch of my flying skills and knowledge thanks to advice that I got there. It's not a good place to get basic tutorials on IFR flying by any means, but once you're at a certain level, I think being in a VA is probably the best way to improve your flying.

Okay, I believe I really made that too broad of a question. What I meant for was the basics. Like using trim, flaps etc, communicating with ATC and GTC, proper procedure for flights, using the flight planner, and the use of the nav system in the glass cockpit and so on.

I want to learn the basics as indepth as I can for now, I will learn about the plane characteristics at a later date. For now, baby steps. I can do little puddle jumps, and Ive MADE a flight plan before, but I dont know how to use it (I was flying a Mooney Bravo of course)

But before all of that, any general tips are well appreciated