neilends

Are you familiar with VATSIM? I still am not but that seems to be all the rage for MSFS players who want ATC simulation.

I researched whether I could use a laptop for MSFS, because I generally prefer laptops. I concluded it was not going to work, at least not to my desired level of graphics. And the price differences were not worthwhile.

Thank you for the detailed answer! On youtube there are a few pilots out there who have video documented their international travels as they cross borders. If you watch them you don't often see a lot of footage by them of dealing with the paperwork of doing this, and I understand why as it's not hugely entertaining. But I've been very curious about this. And as we've discussed, dramatically crossing borders all over the world is a thing we simmers do all the time. These guys actually offered a decent level of detail about their ordeal flying in to Russia:

Aptosflier, just FYI, I've tried responding to your PM a bunch of times but the website seems to be disappearing them somehow. Let me know if you don't see anything from me. This afternoon, knowing I'd have a bunch of work calls, I picked out a long route for the Cessna 172. Having wandered around the country of Samoa, I set course for NFTV-Vava'u, in the Kingdom of Tonga. Live weather. Cruising altitude about 10,000. Samoa to Tonga basically stretches the fuel capacity of the C172 to its max limit, with some room to spare, which turned out necessary because I had a headwind or crosswind most of the flight. Weather was mostly clear with a few lightning strikes here and there, but no sprinkles or significant clouds. NFTV is non-towered. Landing was smooth. Vava'u looks like a very pretty island, mostly realistic in MSFS land compared to youtube videos of the real place. Total flight time was 2 hours and 55 minutes, covering a distance of about 363 nm. Now in Tonga, there are a bunch of islands much closer by that I will hop around on over the next few days.

I've been learning about traffic patterns and how they work. But here in MSFS land, we do a lot of crazy things that RL pilots typically cannot. On a whim I can fly to the Kingdom of Tonga (I might even be typing this out while on the way there), or land on a grass strip in the Alaskan wilderness. Given all the non-US and random wilderness flying we simmers engage in, how do real life pilots figure out when to use pattern landing and when not to? To be as real as possible, should simmers research the aviation laws of any country they are flying in to find out the requirements for that country? I wonder if there's an online guide for that. And what about bush pilots? I don't see that addressed in the FAA brochure I just looked at, other than to say that non-towered airports still require pattern landings.

This could just be an MSFS bug, as it tries to simulate the real-world G3000 as best as it can. The theory is that the line should be magenta when it is the active leg of your trip. Once you hit a waypoint, the next line is supposed to turn magenta. In the simulation it may be that this just doesn't happen perfectly. (I assume it does happen perfectly in real life but I'm not a RL pilot so I have no idea). MSFS still has a lot of kinks it is working out on autopilot, ATC, etc.

You guys might benefit from using ModManFX. It's an app that makes it easier to load/unload various add-ons at any given time. You can't change things mid-flight but it gives you added flexibility before starting new flights.

Thanks for the PM! My assumption about Hana was actually the opposite direction: I have driven to Hana and got pretty close to car sick, as a lot of tourists do on that drive. Not having flown there, I assume flying is much nicer. My wife and I are also both on our second marriages, and we did our honeymoon in Kauai. The Hawaii depicted in MSFS world is pretty nice in my opinion, because it benefits from the US World Update. I have not been to the Big Island yet and am hopping around in my Cessna with the intention to get there eventually.

I'm not a real pilot but it seems like I see some real-world aspects to how MSFS autopilot works. Or attempts anyway. The "line" you refer to is the representation of a line between two of your waypoints. But your plane is not trying to fly on the line, it's trying to fly to the next waypoint. I've noticed that when the waypoints require turns, the VFR screen attempts to show you curved lines to represent where the plane will probably go, but if you've zoomed in enough those lines are not accurate. Instead, the plane is only going to turn once it has actually reached the waypoint.

I also use a Thrustmaster though I think it's a different model than the others. Like them though, it works great. Currently $160 on Amazon though I think I got mine for $130. https://www.amazon.com/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-One-xbox/dp/B07643TW2V/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=thrustmaster+hotas&qid=1613142624&sr=8-2

Please do post the link to the book. I've also been to Hana. The drive by car is much more vomit-inducing I assume. I also have an interest in Native Hawaiian history. When our family was in Oahu for vacation, I forced the wife and kid to surrender a day at the beach so we could properly tour and appreciate the Royal Palace, of Hawaii's last royal family, in downtown Honolulu. It was sad but very fascinating. We have also been as a family to Maui and Kauai. I keep threatening the wife to take the Hawaii bar exam, settle us all down in a small town on Kauai, and spend the rest of my legal career prosecuting tourists for the various acts of DUI, vehicular murder, sexual assaults and the like I assume they all commit on the island to keep local DA's busy. That is my dream!

With a couple more weeks of MSFS experience, I re-attempted landing at the mysterious Rudraprayag Airport that is not really in Rudraprayag. It's in Gauchar, and is listed in India's airport databases as such. Who knows how MSFS got it mixed up with Rudraprayag (which is a well-known holy destination btw). The landing was much smoother with my additional landing experience, not to mention the joystick I'm now using (I used a keyboard last time). It also helped to properly plan and map out my route ahead of time, so I wasn't wildly flailing left and right through a narrow canyon. There was a significant crosswind and I have not learned how to properly land in crosswinds. The landing was good enough but the wind pushed me off the runway once I was on the ground. I recorded the landing on video if anyone wants to see it:

Just got the same message. First time I've seen that. But it seemed to automatically reset and try again. That did the trick.

I've been flying around Hawaii the last few days. Took off from Hana on Maui Island today, and took this snapshot from the island's high point, Haleakalā. Pretty cool to see the hiking trails and park buildings depicted (not shown in photo here). To do this one needs to climb from sea level up to about 11,000 feet to fly over the volcano, then back down to sea level to land. I landed at PHJH-Kapalua, but it took me 4 miserable go-around attempts to do so properly. And even then it was a crappy, amateurish landing that would have had any passengers in the plane vomiting and telling each other to make sure my tip was zero. Part of the reason for this failure was my using a different plane (I selected the Caravan by accident and was too lazy to go back).

I followed this suggestion and like the application. I was chaotic in my downloads in the first few days of having the game, so they needed some tidying up anyway.

I am enjoying the sim in a similar way to you. Part of its appeal to me is its ability, for those who want it, to begin to learn very basic aviation concepts. Though I've been a simmer for many years, I'd never really bothered to learn about landing patterns, but this version has inspired me to do so. Previously, just flying up to an airport from the sky and barreling down to shove the plane on the runway come hell or highwater seemed to work just fine, so that was my MO. :D The accurate simulation of wind effects on a small plane is pretty amazing, so may as well take advantage of it. That's what makes the software addictive.

Another favorite thing ATC does: ATC: "Please climb to 16,000 feet." Me: *selecting option to reduce altitude by 4,000 feet* Input read-out: "Requesting cruising altitude of 5,000 feet." Huh? *select a different option to try and get it right* Input read-out: "Requesting cruising altitude of negative 2,000 feet." Me: "I am not requesting to literally cruise in hell, I swear." ATC: "Request denied."

Over the last few days, I've been flying gradually from the Fijian capital of Suva, over to the French territorial islands of Wallis & Futuna, landing in the country of Samoa--not to be mistaken with American Samoa, the U.S. territory. Upon arriving in Pago Pago, Samoa, I decided to do a bit of short island-hopping using the VR headset. It continues to blow me away, even though there is obvious room for improvement. By the time I landed at Ofu Island, some 40 nm from Pago Pago, the sun had just barely set. I landed with a beautiful sunset. Then, still in VR mode, I pulled up to the gas facility, turned off the engine, and turned off all the batteries and power. My "flashlight" automatically turned on. Sitting on this dark and isolated, quiet island, I could turn my head and actually see the entire fuel contraption outside, see the grass blades on the ground, the interior of the plane, all as if I was wearing a headlamp. The movement is very crisp and real. Still a work in progress though. As the stars popped out in the sky, they were much too big to look real. Nighttime VR graphics are better, but the in-between period right after the sun sets was pretty fake-feeling because of the stars. The sunset colors were pretty cool.

FS AI for ATC is borderline useless. Just before I saw your post, I was ocean flying to a small airport 40 nm away, in a Cessna 172, at altitude 4,000 feet. ATC instructed me to climb to 17,000 feet. I still mess around with ATC for some dubious realism but lower your expectations. If you want a high-end, human-driven experience while simming, google "Vatsim".

I was flying in Mexico when I got a work call I needed to handle. I didn't know the world of aviation was so demanding. All I did was handle the call for a good 20 minutes or so. When I got back to my screen, I was greeted by this confusing vision. Looks like grass blades? Going to external view solved the mystery, but what really cracked me up was that the plane was literally sliding down this mountain it had crashed into, slowly. I guess I had turned off crash detection:

Sad stories, gents! Unfortunately, this is a tough hobby to become skilled at because of the time commitment. If you're committing to it as a career, that's one thing. But I've already got an enjoyable but busy career, a teenager in high school, a wife with her own career, and 3 spazzy dogs. And a couple of other hobbies too. Something's gotta give if I'm going to make the switch from simming to reality. :D

Fair points maybe, but you compared MSFS to the intro to The Simpsons. That's all I was responding to. As you acknowledge, it's hardly to fair to say that the graphics suck without acknowledging that your settings are not maxed. (BTW I agree with the criticism of MSFS that it's hard for many people to max out the settings).

You may just want to set it to "all players" to maximize how many other users are visible. Also, just an observation: it's pretty tough to actually observe how another player is flying. I'm too busy concentrating on my own plane. I would have to sit and stare at a runway doing nothing to actually watch another user's plane fly in and land. I don't think it's common for people to do that, unless you are specifically flying with other people as a group in the same direction.

I haven't tried the Bush Trip feature on FS, but the important place to check is your general nav log in the sim that should be logging every flight you take, whether or not it's part of a special feature. If your priority is to make sure that there is a log of all flight time somewhere--which is supposed to track your activity the way real pilots do--then you should be okay. Just go and check that log though. From the home page: Profile ---> My Logbook.

I assume and hope and pray I will never actually fly in those conditions in real life, either as a future pilot or as a passenger. But it was a lot of fun to sim it and survive. Currently flying, still in live weather, from Fiji to the islands of Wallis & Futuna, and then eventually on to Samoa.