How do you decide what and where to fly?

[Tyrion101]

Do you use real world or whim to decide what and where and how you fly?

[mith]

When you say, "Real World"... is that a product with photo scenery? Until recently, I just flew locally with, "Mega Scenery" (SO Calif which is where I live). Then I bought Sim Savy which is a photo scenery product that covers the whole USA (for $300 plus the 2 terabyte HD). I love it because now, I can fly anywhere with photo scenery. My favorite plane is Carenado's Skymaster (push me/pull me plane). Photo scenery is awesome... being able to fly AND see your house is pretty cool.

[aputech]

Tyrion101, I use both. If I'm slotted for flight time in a single or a twin at a rw airport, I usually pre-fly the flight in FSX if I haven't been there before, or I'm a little fuzzy on a few details regarding the airport itself and the surrounding terrain. All of the airplanes I'm checked out in for rw flying are in my FSX. I select the appropriate airplane, bring up Google Earth, my airport/facility directory books, my pertinent charts and sectionals, my Electronic Jepp E6-B, route sheets, and my plotter. I plan and plot the flight, then fly it in FSX a day or so before the actual flight. When flying on a whim in FSX, I pick out an airplane, single or twin, check its maximum range, and plot a one-way flight to an airport or airports just short of the airplane's max range (at 75% power, with only 30 minutes reserve day, 45 minutes night). I prefer to fly IFR, because it keeps me sharp for my rw flights in IMC conditions (rare as they are here, unless I'm flying to a coastal lightly fogged-in airport.
When I feel like flying a heavy (not checked out rw in any jets), I like to pick airports I've never been to before, irrespective of state, country, or weather. The type of heavy I choose varies with the mood. If I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll fly a 727 series, or a 707. If I'm feeling cocky, I'll fly a 757. For G.P. I fly the 737 series. If I'm in the mood for a long haul, a 747, MD-11, or 787 will do. I try to find out as much as I can about my destination, then fly there, hoping I did enough prep work to nail the landing on the first try. More often than not in that scenario, I end up going around. I try to fly the airplanes manually for as long as practicable because using the AP too much makes me feel like a spectator, and I end getting distracted, disinterested, and restless. Keeping a heavy in trim, at altitude, on heading and on-speed manually is a nice challenge, and challenges chase away boredom, and keep me busy, I think. How do you normally choose your planes/flights, Tyrion101?

aputech

[jomni]

1) I manily fly with the Air Hauler add-on which gives me jobs to do.
2) On occasion, I fly VA routes (air-child).
3) Last is I fly to anywhere I like but I do this mostly in X-Plane.

[Emile]

Hello,
I fly around the World with my prefered C130 Belgian Airforce. Actually I am in China going to North Korea ...
It's fun.

[djadlib]

For my airline flights:
Most of the time I select a departure and arrival airport from one of my addon airports (I have well over a hundred). And than go to flightaware to see if there's a airline that does that route. Than I use that info (Airline, aircraft type, flight number etc.) to plan my route.

For GA flights I mostly fly out of the same airfields in The Netherlands, as that is where I live in the real world

Harro

[PPSFA]

I fly online with a small group and let them decide what and where, as long as they keep the flight to around an hour or so, otherwise I get bored and start messing with them :-)

The great thing about FSX is everyone can set their own weather, time, and scenery and not affect the others while flying.

[Adam24]

I like every kind of flying. Sometimes, when I want to, I do flights like London-Berlin, Warsaw-Zurich, Dallas-Mexico City, allthose medium range flights. But more often I do VFR flights from my home airfield, using different planes (trikes, Cessnas, Antonov an2, Wilga...). Its fun to do the same flights in the same planes that I see from my window.

[Daveo]

If I see something interesting on the news I'll hop in whatever will get me there non-stop from one of my home base airfields.

[Supamav]

FSEconomy