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Thanks Larry!

Nice set again Chris. Bring me back one of those authentic Chicago Style Pizzas too while your on your way back if you can!

Thanks Johnny! We're living that LCC life with Spirit, so unfortunately we only had a few minutes to get the turnaround done.

I've mentioned in a few of my posts that I use a program call 'A Pilot's Life' by Simbitworld which is basically an alternative to virtual airlines. The nice thing about this program (among other things) is if you get bored flying for the same airline, you can apply for a different airline and not have to start from the bottom. I've flown for Allegiant and Frontier for a while, but I decided it was time to give the third US low cost carrier that operates Airbus a try and took a job at Spirit. Today we take our first flight in the a320neo, a quick afternoon hop from Detroit over to Chicago O'Hare.

Baggage loading in progress on a cloudy afternoon

If we were parked any closer to the tower we'd be in it

Waiting for the Airport Operations van to get out of the way so we can push back

I learned the hard way that the taxiway diagram does not match MSFS even a little bit, but eventually we reached the runway and received our clearance to line up on 27R

Climbing away from Detroit and the clouds are starting to clear up

After only 20 minutes we're already approaching Lake Michigan

Finishing our quick crossing of Lake Michigan and approaching the Chicago area

Downtown Chicago visible under the right wing as we descend into O'Hare

Slowing down and getting configured for landing on 4R as O'Hare comes into view. The winds were calm, so the Windy City failed to live up to its nickname

After a one hour flight we're at the gate and offloading baggage. In typical LCC fashion the baggage for the return trip will be loaded shortly along with the passengers for the return leg, and before you know it the yellow Airbus will be crossing Lake Michigan heading back to Detroit

Thanks for viewing!

Great set of shots, and amazingly done! :)

Thanks!

I've been flying mostly GA recently, so it's been a few weeks since I got in a flight for my American VA, but it was time to get back into the cockpit of the FBW mod a320 and take some virtual passengers from Tampa over to the headquarters of American Airlines, Dallas/Forth Worth. Aside from a few clouds on our climbout, the weather on this flight was perfect. Here we go!

The catering truck is doing its thing, the bags are ready to go on and the passengers are lining up in the terminal ready for boarding. Looks like we'll be leaving on time.

Pushed back on time and already approaching the hold short bars after a quick taxi

"Takeoff power set, airspeed is alive..." Starting the takeoff roll on 1L

And we're off on our 2.5 hour trip to Dallas/Fort Worth

Reaching our cruising altitude of FL320 and still catching views of the Florida coastline in the rearview mirror

After flying over the Gulf of Mexico for about an hour we came back over land near New Orleans

A little over two hours later we're beginning our descent into DFW

Ready to set this thing down on 18L

It's still morning rush here at DFW, so we're quickly exiting at the high speed taxiway to clear the runway for the next arrival

Welcome to Dallas Fort Worth! A view of our aircraft sitting at the gate from a passing Skylink train

I've never been to there in real life so I can't speak for the accuracy, but DFW looks great for a default airport

That's all for this flight! Thanks for viewing!

Nice series! Enjoy historic St Augustine. They have a lot of history, great tours and good food! :pilot:

Thanks, David!

Great shots of the coast Chris. St. Augustine is a fun RW destination!

Thanks, Bill!

Thanks guys!

Nice set again Chris! Did you know that even all the scenery around has all those individual grass blades? Yup, I tried landing on a golf course in my CriCri!

LOL, I have not tried landing on a golf course yet, I'm still trying to perfect my concrete runway landings!

After spending some time in the Outer Banks it was time to continue our trip south to warmer weather. Today's trip takes us from First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina to Northeast Florida Regional Airport in St. Augustine. The weather was perfect for the entire flight, and coupled with cruising at only 4,000' to avoid the strong headwinds above, we enjoyed a great view during our trip. Here we go!

Lined up on runway 3 and ready to blast off for our 2h45m flight

It didn't take us long to get to 4,000', so now it's time to set the autopilot and enjoy the views

Passing Wilmington, North Carolina

Approaching North Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach Airport off our left wing

Historic Charleston, South Carolina

Turning south over one of the many golf courses on Hilton Head Island

After 2.5 hours of flying we're making our turn towards the east coast of Florida

After cruising over the Atlantic for a while, it's nice to be back over firm ground

Airport in sight, we're fully configured for landing and our passengers are ready to get out and stretch their legs

Short final over US Route 1 just a few seconds away from greasing the landing, which was much needed for our confidence after the rather rough landing on the last leg. Welcome to St. Augustine!

That's all for now. Thanks for viewing!

sweet, where is he stowed while you fly him/her there?? lol jk... good shots

I tried to keep him underneath with the baggage, but he wandered up to the tail at some point.

Thanks Bill and David!

My favorite aircraft. Flies really well.

It is a great aircraft!

I missed flying the Baron, so I decided to recreate one of the most enjoyable trips I ever did in FSX. That trip involved departing Reading, Pa and heading south making multiple stops along the east coast before ending up in Key West. For the first leg of this journey I decided to leave from Chester County Airport near Philly, and flew south to First Flight Airport in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. It was a challenging approach with lots of high trees and poor weather, but being able to see the Wright Brothers monument, something I was fortunate enough to see in person, made it all worth it. Let's get going!

Heading to the runway in the early morning hours. The weather was not great on this flight from start to finish, but that's part of the fun, right?

Climbing out into the cloudy, early morning sky

Flying at 4,000' for as long as we could so we got to see views like this

Eventually the bases got to low, so we had to head up. We wound up climbing to 10,000 to stay above the clouds

Descending into the soup

Enjoying the beautiful views of the Outer Banks... It was at this point that I considered diverting to Dare County Regional and flying an ILS approach, but where's the fun in that?

The weather lifted enough near the airport to allow for a safe landing

As I mentioned the landing was challenging so no pictures, but we got a prime parking spot right at the bottom of the hill leading to the Wright Brothers monument

Welcome to a gray and cloudy Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina

Thanks for viewing!

Thanks, James!

Nice shots! You need REX Weatherforce for your weather! So much more accurate, Metar Data read for the sources!

I have REX but that flight was the first time I experienced any issues with it. It would load the snow ground textures, but it was still blue skies. I flew again yesterday and it was fine, so it must have been a glitch. You're right though, it does seem to be more accurate.

Thanks David and Larry!

A spectacular and very enjoyable series Chris and I agree 100% about the FS2020 live weather importing. Sometimes it's right on the money and just as often it's completely out to lunch!

Out to lunch is a perfect way to describe it! I will say it's been more accurate recently, but this flight was a disappointment considering how much I was looking forward to a snowy departure.

If you've seen any of my posts it's pretty obvious I'm a big fan of MSFS, but one thing that drives me crazy is the inaccurate live weather. I do have REX which tends to be a bit better, but for whatever reason today the weather wasn't injecting properly so I was stuck with MSFS weather. The conditions in Denver in real world was snow and very low visibility, but you'll see the weather engine didn't exactly agree. Our arrival worked out to our benefit though as the weather there was supposed to be VFR, but we wound up battling some fun storms, so it all evened out in the end. Frontier Flight 680 from Denver to Orlando, let's go!

Our passengers looking through the iced up window at the icy aircraft. The weather would be drastically different by the time we loaded up and got to the runway

Weather starting to improve as we taxi out to 35L

This is how MSFS interpreted 3/4 mile visibility in snow, frustrating

Lots of cloud cover today so not much to see from FL350

Fast forward three hours and Blanco the Polar Bear is in his element as we descend through icing conditions into Orlando

Emerging from that top layer and getting a look at some of the storm clouds that may impact our arrival down the line

Making the final turn on the PIGLT 6 arrival and realizing we're probably on a collision course with that storm ahead

The passengers are starting to get a glimpse of what awaits us before we touchdown in the most magical place on earth

We battled some bumps and downpours, but we're now established on the ILS for 36R and it looks like that last downpour will be just off to our left

We emerged from the rough weather about two miles from the runway. Now we just have to deal with this tailwind! (real world winds were 340/7) Did I mention MSFS live weather isn't accurate?

After nearly 3.5 hours we've arrived at the gate. I have a feeling the passengers aren't disappointed this flight is over!

That's all for now. thanks for viewing!

I took a break from private jet flying to do some airliner flying this morning. Today's flight takes us from a snowy Philadelphia to the home of the Super Bowl, Tampa Bay. Let's get going!

Loaded up and waiting on the pushback tug to get us on our way

Passengers are listening to the safety announcement as the engines come to life. How incredible are those water effects on the window?

Heading out to runway 9L. Good thing we put the snow tires on this morning

We broke out pretty quick on our climb to FL360

The clouds finally started to break up a bit as were cruising over South Carolina

The weather didn't match the real world weather at all, but at least it provided us a nice view as we descended into the Tampa area 2.5 hours later

Level at 3,000 over St. Pete International

Passing Tropicana Field and Albert Whitted Airport getting ready to intercept the ILS for 1L

Short final for 1L

The weather finally settled in as we reached the gate. Welcome to Tampa Bay, enjoy the "big game!"