Moving up, but which aircraft?

Hey folks, need a bit of advice on aircraft atm. I have been happilly plodding around in A318/319/320's and B737-600/700 models. However now is the time I feel I need to "move up" to a larger airframe. I have been playing FSpassnger and have my own virtual airline, and need a bit bigger airplane to "train me up" before moving in to the "heavy" classes.

The long single isle planes seem extremely out of proportion, which makes flying them very awkward for me as I cant judge them properly for landing. (ie 737-800/777/A321 etc)

So I am not sure what aircraft to move on to. I was thinking of the 787 dreamliner, as this is a widebody and would give me more seats but its still "medium" sized.

But what else could I check out?

DC-10? L1011? 747?

I know! C-17!! Or matbe, for an older plane, C-5A, C-141, and if you like the prop jobs, C-130...

Just a few suggestions, unless you want names of payware planes in specific...PMDG 747, for example.

Pat☺

http://www.justflight.com/product/757-jetliner-freemium

Or possibly the 767, or DC-10/MD-11

The long single isle planes seem extremely out of proportion, which makes flying them very awkward for me as I cant judge them properly for landing. (ie 737-800/777/A321 etc)

The long vs short 737's don't really seem all that different to me when landing.

The only real difference is the higher approach speeds with the longer ones.

I keep tail strikes in mind with the 900, but never have had one yet..

As far as landing, I land them all basically the same as far as below 50 ft.

The flare will be at the appx same altitude for all of them assuming the same

glide path.

The 800 and 900 are generally more slippery than the 600 and 700, and are

often harder to slow down.

From where are you flying?

From the VC -- Judge the Atitude of the aircraft by looking at the MFD / Artificial horizon. 3 to 5 degree nose up is good.

During the approach you can also look outside to Judge the attitude.

When in really close, look at the far end of the runway,

THen focus on pitch, in the PFD.

From the 2D cockpit -- Same, But looking outside gives a wrong impression.

! Especially when zoomed out to much. Do not be zoomed out fully. Reset your zoom while on glideslope.

Focus on your instruments more.

From outside view. -- Does not work at all I think. It may look nice, but you can't manage speed, and your pitc up/down movements will be way to much. Everyone inside the plane would be seriously sick after landing.

I only fly from the VC. 2d is horribad.

And my landings are generally pretty good. Its just these long body aircraft that make me have problems. I am not confident enough yet to handle a proper heavy like the 747 or A380, since I am still getting to grips with some of the instruments and the ILS system.

@zippy - just so happens I picked up that freemium plane yesterday. Need a weekend or two with it though with all the extra switches and stuff.

I understand that you don't enjoy long aircraft, but for the price, the QW 757 is a great plane. Medium amounts of automation, and a great flight model.

If you would rather have a something just a tad larger than a 737, Coolsky's Super 80 pro is a good airplane. The systems aren't nearly as deep as the Leonardo Maddog, but it is still pretty great, even if the VC is a little flat.

Took some of the advice and tried out of a few of the mentioned planes. The MD11/Dc10 is a bit "necky", but handled well enough. Though the analogue flightdeck is a bit tricky to use at first. The 757 is a nice enough but still a bit on the skinnky and long side.

And then I tried a 767 with the default 800 cockpit. Methinks this is a result. Nice to fly, has a flightdeck I know, a little on the long side but its a widebody airframe. Seems like this is the one to fly for me till I can handle the increased size properly.

Thanks for the advise peeps. Greatly appreciated.