Where do you fly in your pit ?

[David Rogers]

So, you have this amazing home cockpit..... so where do you fly in it ?!

I fly mostly on-line and up until this week, 90%+ of my flying in in Europe, usually embarking from the UK.

I don't know whether it's ATC familiarity that leads this 'close to home' approach to flying but one thing I did notice is that, generally, the default FS2004 textures for Europe are quite poor.

So, last night, completely out of the normal, I flew from Casblanca, Morocco, to Tunisia, on VATSIM.

Ok, so ATC coverage was minimal to say the least but actually this flight was a real eye opener.... I realized that the default FS2004 textures for North Africa / Sahara are really, really good! (far better than most of Europe). It is also nice flying into some cities that you've never heard of and that you know little about. (I'm not referring to Tunis, but there are many great airports in Africa to fly into).

You have some unique challenges such as few VORs (mainly NDBs but in some areas none of those either!)... and you generally have great visibility for your approaches (I mean in terms of the terrain, not the weather).

I will be flying in Africa a lot more from now on!

:D

[PaulEMB]

I got back into this madness whilst living in Lisbon - my job takes me away from home every week, so I was very used to the approaches, and scenery.
I began to fly the legs on FS that I had flown as a pax during the week, and was amazed how closely the scenery was close to reality.
The approach into Lisbon 03 is still one of my favorites for pretty views.

Nowadays, my default flight starts in Madrid, where I lived for 10 years, although I also fly out of Barcelona.
Destinations - Lisbon, Geneva, Zurich, Stuttgart, Milan MXP, Genoa - other Spanish cities.

Unfortunately, my madness has now led me to be able to mentally work out where I am on my passenger flights, and guess which runway we will use based on the geography.

Sad case, really.....

[Michael Carter]

I fly scheduled service out of Paris for Air France.

Codeshares with Austrian recently started for those trips to Innsbruck that I love so much. Those flights depart from Wien and Frankfurt.

My favorite routes are to Innsbruck, Munich, Vienna, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Berlin, Salzberg, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Manchester, Prague, and a few others.

[Tomlin]

Oh, Paul, stoppit. It's not that bad of a disease. Come now!

Okay, well, since I am still building and finishing off Phase I of my sim, I still fly exclusively out of KICT, Wichita International, since that is where Learjet is based. It has nice long runways and instrument approaches, and some scheduled pax service, which gives me AI for added realism. However, once I fly my 'delivery' flight in a few weeks once Phase I is complete, I will keep the Learjet at either my hometown airport KAYS, or nearby in Jacksonville, FL (far more interesting!). OH, How I wish the Flight Scenery guy would start working on new sceneries and get to KJAX as he has it listed!

Sometimes, even though phase I isnt complete yet, I will fly out of KPVD, KPDX, or TNCM just to make sure that my PC is still handling the more complex scenery and all. December will see the delivery flight from KICT to KAYS, and then a few days later we fly:

KAYS-KMCO-MYNN-TJSJ-TNCM-TXKF-KIAD-KBOS-KPVD-KCLT-KAYS

for our Charity Flight Event. Im sure that this will really test the sim, but that's a good thing!

After that, I will just pick random places to fly to/from but still hangar at my hometown airport, or nearby KJAX.

[Trevor Hale]

Try to fly as much as I can on Vatsim.

My primary airports are KSDL or CYXR, CYYZ for Departures. Either way, I hunt on Servinfo and base my plan on controlled sectors.

What a rush. Generally my test flights are from CYXR to CYYZ back and forth!

Trev

[PaulEMB]

OK Eric,

I admit maybe I am not so affected - :evil:

Its great hobby - I don't "work" on my business flights - i.e. reading confidential documents, so the guy in 25B can read them, so I read novels, and I think.

And plan!

My next addition to the sim, how to make SA_WXR work with my hardware and FSUIPC, the solution to PM Systems and my overhead, how to?....The list is endless.

I hope when I finally get everything sorted, I will get a bit more adventurous - I don't have a good Internet connection, but when I do, VATSIM looks like a great option.

[sas550]

I fly short hops almost always online mainly in Scandinavia and northern Europe. SAS routes mostly since my va has a great flightplanning tool.

[luisgordo]

I fly mainly short range hauls between spanish cities (Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, ...) Online as much as I can (only IVAO, by the way). IVAO is better (I think) for flying in Europe, as there are more users there (more ATC coverage, and more flights), whereas for the US and Canada VATSIM may be better... not sure.

[David Rogers]

In addition to my latest 'African Adventures', I can't believe I missed all the flying I do around Spain - I have been learning Spanish for 2 years, so when I'm feeling brave I like to do at least some of the communicating en Espanol ! My favourites for this, are Spanair flights out of LEPA, mainly onto mainland Spain or La Islas Canarias, although I sometimes take my Mallorcan passengers up to Scandinavia. :)

I fly both VATSIM and IVAO, depending on the coverage available at any time. I like them both... IVAO is generally a little easier going but VATSIM provides more in terms of support, charts, groups, communities, etc.

I am shamefully short of on-line hours in North America, a few flights in Eastern Canada around Nova Scotia and Newfie but that's about it... I'm working up to some JFK departures :)

One of the most challenging thing I find about flying on-line from airports (especially large airports) that you don't know so well is the ground layout. On VATSIM, your taxi departure can be, "Taxi to holding point A1, rwy 07, via delta, Hotel, Bravo, 25, charlie, Alpha".... if you haven't prepared by printing a ground chart, it can get pretty embarrassing asking for directions :)

For those that haven't flown on-line you have to try it.... I shyed away for years, then plucked up the courage and have not looked back since... It's truly amazing, multiplies realism by about 2000%, regardless of your sim set-up.

Right - back to flight planning; Royal Air Maroc, 737-600, Casablanca to Ougadoudou in Burkina Faso.... ;-)

[NicD]

There's this wierd thing called the 'Southern Hemisphere' too. Planes can actually fly there :D

If you want to fly down under for a change there is superb freeware scenery for Australia and New Zealand (and others I'm sure) that makes it a great experience:

http://www.vistaoz.org/

[Michael Carter]

I've been wanting to fly a flight or two out of NZ.

[JBaymore]

I fly a lot in Japan. As a professional potter, I have spent a bunch of time there and speak a little Japanese. The islands are rather picturesque and there is some good scenery available, particularly when you add some of the Japanese airports payware, FSGenesis mesh, FScene Asia textures, and so on. I often fly routes around areas that I know well.

In the USA... I tend to fly out of / into payware airports that support the Aerosoft AES services. Lot of FlyTampa stuff among others. Once you have that AES installed and working right, all else seems a bit lame.

KBOS (Logan in Boston) is sort of my "home base" (Grimshaw freeware that uses AES too). While I live in NH, I live literally in the approach pattern from the west. As the crow flies, I am about 40 miles from "Beantown". So I do a lot of short hops from there like to Lagaurdia and JFK and Newark and Toronto and so on.

I fly online a bit... either on the MyCockpits server or the Simviation server. Haven't ventured onto VATSIM although I am a member....... for two reasons: 1. Setting up the software for simpit use is a tad complex and 2. The level of realism also implies a level of planning time commitment that is often difficult to find.

best,

.................john

[magicaldr]

Well as a GA sim pilot more than heavy metal my flying is more limited range wise. I also have photo scenery of south UK, so most of my flying is near home as I can find my way around VFR near London, or off down to the Isle of Wight.

I have flown a few times out of US cities, and also popped from Ireland to the UK once as well as over the channel. However I should spend more time finding airports around the world to try out, especially if there is nice scenery around :)

I am another Vatsim avoider, I dont have a mike at the moment, but I will have to do something about that one day.

[sas550]

1. Setting up the software for simpit use is a tad complex

Well if You're talking about FsInn I can understand but sb3 is a real quicker. First, install sb3 on the Fs computer. Second, install it on a laptop or whatever that has an ethernet and a soundcard together with WideFs and that's it actually. Now You only need to insert your Vatsim id and password and assign a ptt button in Fsuipc.

[David Rogers]

If you want to fly down under for a change there is superb freeware scenery for Australia and New Zealand (and others I'm sure) that makes it a great experience:

http://www.vistaoz.org/

Heh heh .... I've had VOZ from version 1.0 Nic ...... as you say it is stunning but what bugged me was that you could only 'voz' one area of Australia at a time... but I think they have corrected this in the very latest version ?

In my defence, the only real reason I've never flown on-line in Oz or NZ is the time difference..... you got to remember that my 7pm is about 9am down under - not many controllers on-line! :)

[David Rogers]

Well if You're talking about FsInn I can understand but sb3 is a real quicker. First, install sb3 on the Fs computer. Second, install it on a laptop or whatever that has an ethernet and a soundcard together with WideFs and that's it actually. Now You only need to insert your Vatsim id and password and assign a ptt button in Fsuipc.

Agree - I also found IVAO a bit painful in a network 'pit, but VATSIM was very easy. As Anders said, install the FS PC, install on a non-FS PC, and essentially you're off... :) Even I managed it. :p

Only other factors:-

- Make sure FSUIPC and WideFS are installed properly.
- When you install squawkbox make sure the right box is ticked, as to whether you're installing on FS PC or not.
- The Squawkbox transponder bitmap can 'clash' with some Nvidia cards, (and stop AA working).

[JBaymore]

Well if You're talking about FsInn I can understand but sb3 is a real quicker. First, install sb3 on the Fs computer. Second, install it on a laptop or whatever that has an ethernet and a soundcard together with WideFs and that's it actually. Now You only need to insert your Vatsim id and password and assign a ptt button in Fsuipc.

Therein kinda' lies the problems in the simpit. Loading down the main FS PC with more processing stealing framerates is not something I really want to do, I don't have the PLACE to put the extra laptop IN the pit for display, and that means a separate configuration for VATSIM use versus any other use with the PTT mapped to the yoke for one function on VATSIM and then to a different use for other work (I fly online using Teamspeak on other servers).

All in all... just more complexity.

best,

..................john