MS flight Simulator and the future of map building

[HisMajestyBOB]

I've been playing FSX with a few scenery mods (not ORBX, unfortunately, because while it's beautiful, it requires an actual graphics card). I've been doing virtual flight training using this book (https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-Pilots-Training-ebook/dp/B00BOZGMXY/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1) and have graduated from the Piper Cub to the Cessna 172. 

I'm still figuring out how to stay aligned with the runway and fly a proper landing approach.

[Caliga]

Yeah, same.  I did a flight from Grand Bahama to Marsh Harbor since the one I posted about but that's it.  I will probably be playing it a lot more once I build my new PC and get proper flight controls.

This weekend I flew from Marsh Harbour -> West Palm Beach -> Miami Opa-Locka -> South Bimini.  When I came in off the ocean headed for West Palm I saw: FAKE NEWS central.

[Caliga]

Oddly enough, we just found out a few minutes ago that my sister in law sailed from West Palm Beach to the Bahamas today.

[Caliga]

Yeah, same.  I did a flight from Grand Bahama to Marsh Harbor since the one I posted about but that's it.  I will probably be playing it a lot more once I build my new PC and get proper flight controls.

So with my new build, FS indeed runs way faster with much improved graphics.  I am still using the same GPU, but putting it in a brand new PC with double the RAM makes a big difference.  My plane is now parked on Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.

[Caliga]

I got a Honeycomb Alpha flight yoke yesterday.  Thing is badass.  Much, much easier to control the aircraft now.  Now I just need a throttle quadrant.

My virtual plane is now in Cayenne, French Guiana.  Flying in that part of the world sucks due to a) terrible navaids and lighting, b) constant overcast/thunderstorm conditions due to being in the ITCZ, c) tricky VFR due to the ground being endless Amazonian rainforest, so few landmarks.

[The Brain]

Navaids? The Navajo plague?

[Caliga]

Navaids? The Navajo plague?

Yeah, it's a big problem in the Guianas.

[grumbler]

Navaids? The Navajo plague?

Actually, the Navajo plague is the Bubonic Plague (about half of the 6-8 people who contract the disease in the US in the average year are Navajo).

The more you know....

[Caliga]

I finished flying down the north coast of Brazil to Natal (where it turns south) and then flew to Fernando de Noronha (small island a few hundred miles into the Atlantic).  I checked the range on some different planes available in the simulator and decided to switch to a Daher TBM 930, a high-performance single engine turboprop, because it has the range--just barely--to fly across the Atlantic from there.  In real life this would be a suicidal flight with only one engine, but this ain't real life, so this weekend I'm going to attempt to fly to Sierra Leone from Brazil.

[Berkut]

https://youtu.be/x3NTfiW17QA

This is pretty cool....

[Caliga]

He did a really good job there.  It's funny to me, because I did that transatlantic flight this morning, and it took me two attempts.  On the first, I just achieved my cruising altitude at 39,000 feet and I bumped the mixture lever on my throttle quadrant, which somehow dropped oil pressure to zero (the TBM 930 does not have a mixture control IRL so this lever would have no function) and of course that caused the engine to quit.  I couldn't figure out any way to restart it and eventually the plane went into a full nose dive and crashed into the Atlantic.  Since it's just a simulator I wasn't exactly panicking but man would that have been several minutes of terror IRL.

On my second attempt I picked a safer cruise altitude of 31,000 feet (FL390 is so high for that aircraft that an oxygen mask would be required IRL, but I was trying to conserve fuel and catch the jet stream) but at that altitude I had an extremely strong headwind the entire way, and barely had enough fuel... basically landed on fumes in Monrovia which I diverted to due to the winds, but I made it.   By far my longest flight ever in a flight sim... over six hours once you factor in taxiing and stuff.

[The Brain]

Is this whole thing online with other players etc? Can you simulate being a passenger?

[Caliga]

Is this whole thing online with other players etc? Can you simulate being a passenger?

Yeah, if you enable 'Live Traffic' (I think that's what the setting is called) if other people are playing and near you their aircraft will show up in the sim.  One time I was flying from Miami to Bimini and another player decided to tail me the whole time... either that or he just happened to have planned the same route at the same time.  He ended up flying parallel to me and I think he was trying to tip his wings but it was hard to tell.

The simulator also brings in real life traffic too... like at the end of the flight I took today, an Air France Airbus came in to Monrovia right after me and it was probably an actual real life flight landing at that time.  I once followed an American Airlines flight into St. Thomas, which was pretty cool to watch.

[Josquius]

You play this in real time?
Or once you get to cruising is there an accelerate time?

[Caliga]

You play this in real time?
Or once you get to cruising is there an accelerate time?

There is an accelerate time feature but I don't use it.  On long flights however, during the cruise phase once I have everything stable I often walk away from the PC and do other stuff, checking it periodically just in case.  Like yesterday during that oceanic flight I did laundry, lifted weights, rode my Peloton, and some other chores while the simulator was running.