50 Favorite Flights

This is an FSDoldrum. I'm thinking it is rather prevalent in our sim world. It's not bad enough that we're all enamored with what could be successfully described as a child's game. Of course, it would have to be a really smart child, but you get my drift. What is a sim pilot to do?

As I've said in the past, the antidote for the FSDoldrums is add-ons. This, naturally, has the capacity to either further entrench us in our Doldrums, or liberate us. You see, it all depends on the add-on. The last thing I need at the moment is another 737 add-on, or an airport eye candy add-on. Same genre. Get it?

This is why, when I happened upon 50 Favorite Flights, while there may not have been cherubs and Heavenly Angel Music, there was at least The Four Tops playing a ballad, and a sense of anticipation.

You see, this is not your ordinary add-on. Let's start by saying this is an add-on which is targeted for the beginner/intermediate sim pilot. There are six categories of flights, each containing ten scenarios. Last time I checked, that makes 60, so what the developer George Day has done is given us something along the lines of a Baker's Dozen of flights. The categories are ILS Instrument Approaches, VFR Visual Approaches, Cross Country Challenges, North Country Adventures, Short Hops and Practice Landings. Let's have a closer look at these.

Note that 5 of the 6 categories share several things in common. Each use only default aircraft (but you may switch to any which may tickle your fancy), each has flight documentation available on the CD and right on the kneeboard, and each has a navigation chart on the CD. Being the hopeless compulsive that I am, the first thing I did was to print out all of them, and place them lovingly in their own three ring binder. And perhaps what I like best, they are scenarios from all over our flight sim world! I've been to some really charming little airports that I doubt I would have ever found! The 6th category, Practice Landing, offers no charts or kneeboard data. These are for those of us who are looking for some quick practice, and are particularly good for novice pilots. Each of these ten feature a different default aircraft, and as before, these may be switched out to any other, including payware birds.

The ILS Instrument Approaches contain, no surprise, instrument approach scenarios. These are predominantly in the default 737, in varying conditions of rain, fog and snow which can be quite challenging!. You may tinker with the weather, season, and time of day/night to make them more or less challenging.

The beginning of a clear weather instrument approach, with my custom painted 737. Don't be fooled, they get much more challenging!

Nuthin' to it, right?

Perhaps we should consider the alternate?

Breaking from the weather, I think this is why Boeing made the TO/GA button...

VFR Visual Approaches give the pilot a variety of approach scenarios in mostly single and twin engine aircraft, in good weather. These offer a particularly nice opportunity to view any eye candy scenery you may have added to the sim, as they take you all over the world - from the Air Force Academy to the pyramids of Egypt to Capetown, South Africa!

Cross-Country Challenges offers a wide variety of aircraft with mostly favorable weather conditions. These are longer flights in which the kneeboard description and navigation maps come in handy. These will take you to places that perhaps you've never been, such as across the Sea of Okhotsk or from Seoul to Tokyo.

North Country Adventures are of the Cargo Dog variety, in single engine aircraft. You'll be visiting some fairly obscure backwater locations in fair to moderate weather conditions. You'll also get a chance to see some glorious Alaskan scenery that you otherwise might have never found!

Short Hops is perhaps my favorite. They afford me the opportunity to fly more than one flight during my limited opportunities to fire up the sim, to places such as Ulrichen, Asiago, Italy and Interlachen in the Swiss Alps.

Upwind at Interlachen.

Typical navigation map. They make it easy to navigate, particularly for the new pilot.

Something that I found quite unusual is the provided navigation charts. In keeping with his desire to keep his program a user friendly introduction for the newer sim pilots, the developer decided to avoid approach plates. For those pilots who have put in enough hours, the plates are invaluable. But for someone who has not yet learned how to interpret them, they are a mish-mash of numbers and diagrams that say little. The included charts are easy to look at, and have a real visual orientation to what the pilot is seeing outside the glass.

As you may have surmised, this is a program that is geared towards the beginning to intermediate sim pilot. But, this doesn't mean that we old geezers who have been doing this for a while will get nothing from it. This program offers a refreshing change from our usual bunch of flights. It offers a variety of situations from which to choose, and gives an opportunity to brush up on skills that we may have allowed to become rusty.

Like anything else, what you get out of flight simulation will be proportional to what you put in. I find 50 Favorite Flights to be a terrific opportunity for starting pilots to get a handle on several aspects of sim piloting. It also offers the more experienced set a bag full of new places to fly, and an opportunity to improve our skills. All the way around, this program offers something for everyone!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber@optonline.net

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