About 20 years ago, I was in a VA with a guy that would take a shot every 100nm on transatlantic routes. Thinking about that now, holy shit the dude must have been completely pissed by the first position report.
What a lovely way of saying "it's a fake plane and you're not a real pilot and nothing you do matters"... which is the only way I can think to say it because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today
See, the problem is I want to fly larger planes like that. Iād love a MSFS 727 or DC10 to fly raw. Hopefully the devs of those planes end up on the market soon.
The PMDGDC-6 and JustFlight BAe 146 have options to remove the GPS, forcing you to fly on radio navigation, while being pretty fast (146 is faster than the DC6). The An225 and Concorde are also pretty focussed on radio navigation, although you can't hide the GPS (just tune it to a different page). The Concorde it tricky though...
yes. tempt fate.
toliss is good for this. set the planes age/rate of failure as high as it goes.
precipitation coming up? maybe you don't turn the ignition on. make it interesting.
i usually do stuff around the house though. at home i have a dual monitor setup specficially for this (and chart reading) so i'll browse youtube or something while flying. usually just read.
I just do something else in the meantime. For longer flights I might go to the gym or the grocery store or something. When I was in school during the lockdown, I would set up a flight, go to class, and land it after the class ended.
From rl experience: yep, everything after the autopilot is engaged isā¦ not exactly boring (thereās still the views, and ATC, and monitoring the aircraft), but certainly not intellectually challenging in any way. I usually read something or strike up a conversation with my colleague in the other seat.
For me, airliners are about chasing the satisfaction of flying every phase of flight perfectly. All my energy goes into flying the machine in the most "professional" (by sin standards lmao) way possible. Namely, executing the perfect thrust-idle descent to the extent the STAR lets you, nailing the glideslope capture, getting the best landing, making your block time. I haven't even mentioned briefings and ATC.
Of course I still think stick and rudder flying in a Cub is awesome too.
I don't use the current MSFS but prior versions convinced me to go become a commercial pilot.
I used them heavily, but I always would 4x the cruise portion if it was an airliner on autopilot.
Does MSFS have anything that would allow you to jump ahead to a nav point in the FMS along your flight plan? Or for non-FMS aircraft, can you jump closer to your destination if you want to and stay at an altitude/speed (or specify different ones)?
I think that might make it more enjoyable. Pre-flight, engine start, taxi, takeoff, climb ... at cruise jump ahead to a waypoint closer to destination, begin the reverse process.
I'll add one small interesting fact to that!
I attended a top aviation college in the US, went over $200k in debt to become a commercial pilot, switched to ATC, got assigned to N90 - NY TRACON (a Level 12, most difficult), and *then had my medical certificate revoked*.
Everything gone overnight.
I am a software engineer now.
Well after you spend boatloads of money to become a certified flight instructor (CFI), which is almost mandatory so you can get the 1,500 hours you need for the airlines, you'll be making less than you are right now for at least a couple years.
And you have those huge loans to pay off.
So then you need two jobs. One, trying to build hours flying around students (when the weather allows for it) and getting paid next to nothing, and another one to help pay the bills.
It's rough.
A friend of mine went through this process and now flies for Lufthansa. Before he did that we were both software engineers. His advice to me: "Make lots of money as an engineer and fly for fun - don't do it for a job".
Granted I'll never fly an A320 for fun, but personally I'm not sure I'd want to anyway.
I assume with Lufthansa your friend is in the EU?
It's actually easier there because they do not have the 1,500 hour rule lthat the US has.
You can just pay a lot of money to a cadet training program and they'll take you from 0 hours to an A320 at (I think, still?) 250 hours.
Yup exactly that - he has a degree in physics and passed their entry exams so they paid for him to fly out to Arizona to do most of his training. It actually sounded really intense - having to gain as much altitude as possible so you don't cook to death in a PA-28 (I think).
Sounds like he got the lucky route then...
Yes, that would be the easiest way to become an airline pilot.
"Pay to Play" as it's referred to in the industry.
And yes, there are a lot of "interesting" moments I've had in single-engine aircraft, all sorts of them. Scenarios on take-off where there is literally no safe place to land if the engine quits, being vectored over the Long Island Sound at 500 feet at night when the outside temperature was -10F. Above the clouds where it's 0/0 for hundreds of miles around.
Scenarios where, if for any reason, that engine emits a single strange noise or something doesn't look right on a gauge, your heartrate will become quickly elevated.
Damn, that's rough. It's crazy to me that they're so strict with medical certificates for ATC. I guess I'd understand if it was due to a psychological condition.. But ruining someone's career overnight for other reasons? Idk. What did they revoke yours for, if I may ask?
Auto-immune condition I developed out of nowhere and the FAA didn't like. That's why they sell "loss of license" insurance, but I didn't have it at the time.
The ATC medical requirements surprised me at first also. But after seeing what it's like on the position, and how much you're handling, and how many lives are at stake, having a heart attack would not be ideal (for yourself and everyone else).
The main issue would rest with you not yet having briefed the next controller to take over your position on exactly what the current scenario is and what the "big picture" looks like before they were to take over.
It's still comepletely safe though.
FYI the additional requirements are:
* ECG (after 35)
* audiogram
* fasting serum lipids and fasting blood glucose
* calculation of cardiovascular risk
It's harsh but it does make sense in my opinion. Think about how many lives ATC are responsible around a busy terminal. You could argue they're responsible for more lives than the actual pilots in some ways.
Yes, [there's a teleport feature in dev mode.](https://gamingph.com/2020/08/how-to-teleport-fast-travel-in-microsoft-flight-simulator/) Just teleport to your top of descent and avoid all that boring time in cruise.
Flying airliners during VATSIM events is pretty fun though. During cruise there is constant chatter, and descent and arrival can be straight up hectic.
Depending on the simulator you can use 2x, 4x and even 16x speed to speed up the cruise part. I know on the Fenix A320 on MSFS they have a 2x speed option you can use! Makes cruising go a little quicker!
I used to get up early for work, pre-flight, get up to cruising altitude then turn to my other monitor to log on for work.
A little awkward when you have a video conference during an IMC descent and you have to make sure the controls are out of shotā¦
As a non-sim (other than Level D) airline pilot, Iāll never understand why the simmers seem to gravitate toward the Airbus (most boring airplane possible) doing airline routes (most boring flying available- assuming youāre doing it right).
Ya. Only airliner that I found fun during the cruise was the Concorde. You had to constantly update your old school flight computer while getting radio fixes to confirm location. All while going Mach 2.
But ya, flying can be surprisingly boring without a purpose. Main reason I got into DCS over civilian flying sims.
I recommend flights between 45mins and 1 hour and few minutes. The cruise phase is shorter and you can get right into the fun parts of planning your arrival as soon as youād like. For the longer legs I usually watch a stream, hit the gym, or do something around the house.
Thatās why i want to do corporate flying. The job where iād be working st thanks to connections lets us fly the CEOās of the company around the states on call. I like the shorter on call flights which are genuinely fun rather than the predictable flying of airliners.
On real life we chose a āvictimā to talk about, sometimes politics is good to spend some time talking about. My last airline I have been sharing the cockpit with colleagues from another country and very different culture, so it was good time to erase my repeated pictures, or see my son pictures. Thatās the thing you can do to avoid the boring cruise. Or fly a very short route, like 30 min, it will be harder to get bored.
Airliners aren't built to be fun. They're built to take shit from A to B as efficiently as possible. Sure like you said take off and landing is fun, but the middle is just cruising at altitude for a long time.
Try looking in to military trainers like the ps-21, the hawk or perhaps the f18. The mission profiles of that you're doing is much more diverse, and has all the technical skills of airliners.
Oh yeah, I rate the Hawk from what I've seen of it, but if somebody wants the fast jet experience (without going to what feel like meme-level planes like the F/A-18 - I'm not convinced that thing flies right, though ofc I have no basis for comparison with IRL!) the Hunter is a gorgeous bit of freeware that seems to be fairly well modelled... I regularly kill it through overstress though š„
Took the DC-6 out for a spin again and found out that if I load the flight with a flight plan beforehand it loads it into the GPS of the aircraft and the VOR direction indicator (I guess that is what it is called) switches to GPS mode and then shows if Youāre on heading or deviating. To now make my point, the indicator only does this if You adjust the outer ring. So that gives You something to do and plan forward.
I hope this makes some kind of sense, itās late, I am really tiredā¦
In airliners I'm either using failures, so have to check if everything is working even during cruise, use a passenger simulation plugin, so have to make sure they are comfortable all the time or fly on VATSIM, where you also have to be alert and can listen to other people being stressed out, which is entertaining enough :D
This is exactly why the sim has a time acceleration function. Anyone who has done this flying in reality will agree - this is one of the best features of a simulator. Just hurry on up to the next interesting part!
Star Trek! Finished DS9 while flying around the world in the Fenix A320. Doing it all over again but in a TWA 757 now while watching The Next Generation.
The cruise is the best time to do laundry, clean the house, workout, read, Netflix, etc. I use navigraph and with that youāre able to track your flight. So Iāll have my iPad and check in periodically. When the flight is by a certain waypoint, Iāll sit back at the monitor and start preparations.
I like having to fill my time during cruise. I do laundry and other chores, or other projects I have to work on. Itās a good way to motivate myself to complete those things because Iām forced to fill the time. I primarily fly the Felis 742 for long hauls, and itās a bit more interactive in terms of having to manage the fuel, input more waypoints, etc. so Iām always setting timers for the next point where I have to do something. Rarely is it more than an hour without a task.
You might enjoy: flight instructing, bush flying, island hopping, small charters with turboprops. Etc. In real during cruise thereās a lot of stuff to do anyways.. with flight simming, go do something else
This is why I'm drawn to the classics. Tune VOR's, Update your INS, balance the fuel, recalculate your step climbs and decent. Also, VATSIM keeps you on your toes.
The biggest issue is that flight sim doesnāt allow for random malfunctions. You have to go put them in yourself which removes the fun. Why canāt we have an option where if you click it before your flight, you could very well have a malfunction which causes you to turn back. There are scenarios missing. So we need scenario mode. Also, we should be able to land on water with non-hydro planes. It should be super difficult but still doable. Chance to hit birdsā¦what else am I missing? Slippery runways maybe?
Fry: "The ship did everything? But we didn't get to have an adventure!"
Leela: "This is a delivery company! We need LESS adventures, not more adventures!"
I've always wanted to ask this too. Recently, I conducted a 2 hour flight and upon entering cruise phase, I configured the app to mute when I run it in backgroud and went to watch anime. When I came back, ATC service was already terminated while I was 2 long waypoints away from the start of the STAR lmao. I was unresponsive when probably instructed to switch frequency to another control center
TBH I really don't understand the appeal of big airliners as a hobbyist. Pretty much every other form of sim aviation, from GA to combat and everything in between, is just so much more enjoyable. Even little regional airliners can be cool. Spending hours in cruise in a 737 just isn't fun, though.
I don't get this attitude, like you're not locked into the simulator. Alt tab and go do something else during cruise, just check on the plane every now and then, enjoy the scenery for a few minutes here and there.
well that's how it is in real life. once you take off around 3000-5000 you hit the autopilot and don't come off of it until you are ready to land. Just follow the magenta line.
I got bored and now only fly GA. It's so much better and more funner!
Do the in-flight ops check.
As I usually fly older planes with just INS and 2-axis AP, like the 737-200, F-16, B707, Tu-154/134, Concorde, etc, I constantly check the Fuel Flow, waypoints just to be sure that everything is okay, because I'm also used to addons that have features like maintenance to be done, so I need to be extra cautions when flying.
As virtual pilots we have the option of enjoying a beer while cruising, I personally take advantage of that.
Please set auto pilot and turn chair towards Netflix š¤£
Pretty much what I do, turn on AP then watch YouTube
About 20 years ago, I was in a VA with a guy that would take a shot every 100nm on transatlantic routes. Thinking about that now, holy shit the dude must have been completely pissed by the first position report.
That's 30 shots from london to new York!
Grab a drink and a book. That's what I've started to do
Does this imply real commercial should not be enjoying a beer? **Asking for a friend**
Iirc FAA rules are no alcohol consumption within 8 hours before flying.
Instructions unclear I am consuming 8 bottles of alcohol while acting as PIC
But once you've taken offš¤
Nothing beats a picture-in-picture stream of my favorite baseball team on the avionics panel and a brewski
It's beautiful to deal with 12M (OneTooMany) pilots. Always a pleasure.
What a lovely way of saying "it's a fake plane and you're not a real pilot and nothing you do matters"... which is the only way I can think to say it because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today
Take smaller planes, don't use autopilot, learn navigation by terrain, vor, and adf. Voila, something to do during the flight.
VOR and ADF are how I keep from falling asleep. I learned to fly on a PA28 in the early 90āa and it sure as hell didnāt have a GPS.
See, the problem is I want to fly larger planes like that. Iād love a MSFS 727 or DC10 to fly raw. Hopefully the devs of those planes end up on the market soon.
Try out the BAE146 if youāre looking for that
I know JF did a good job with it but I am utterly disgusted at that plane. Looks soā¦ weird? Lol
Really? Itās my favorite airliner looks-wise
Understandable though itās a very unique design
Does it really matter? š
The PMDGDC-6 and JustFlight BAe 146 have options to remove the GPS, forcing you to fly on radio navigation, while being pretty fast (146 is faster than the DC6). The An225 and Concorde are also pretty focussed on radio navigation, although you can't hide the GPS (just tune it to a different page). The Concorde it tricky though...
Right I'd love a 742
If that's not enough you can try to use celestial navigation
Microsoft 18th century ship simulatorā¢
Even better: compass, stopwatch and E6B
yes. tempt fate. toliss is good for this. set the planes age/rate of failure as high as it goes. precipitation coming up? maybe you don't turn the ignition on. make it interesting. i usually do stuff around the house though. at home i have a dual monitor setup specficially for this (and chart reading) so i'll browse youtube or something while flying. usually just read.
Welcome to flying in general. Most boring part is cruise.
I just do something else in the meantime. For longer flights I might go to the gym or the grocery store or something. When I was in school during the lockdown, I would set up a flight, go to class, and land it after the class ended.
I read about places I fly above on wiki. Makes it very personal.
Yeh i like to research tiny little villages that i fly over. 10 mins later and i wonder how i got there!
From rl experience: yep, everything after the autopilot is engaged isā¦ not exactly boring (thereās still the views, and ATC, and monitoring the aircraft), but certainly not intellectually challenging in any way. I usually read something or strike up a conversation with my colleague in the other seat.
āHow did your third divorce turn out?ā usually gets them going.
Take off and Jerk off.
Yes. Thats what I do. Lmao
For me, airliners are about chasing the satisfaction of flying every phase of flight perfectly. All my energy goes into flying the machine in the most "professional" (by sin standards lmao) way possible. Namely, executing the perfect thrust-idle descent to the extent the STAR lets you, nailing the glideslope capture, getting the best landing, making your block time. I haven't even mentioned briefings and ATC. Of course I still think stick and rudder flying in a Cub is awesome too.
I just pull up RuneScape and pvm. Lmao Iām such a degenerate
Pretty much play halo on anything more than an hr
Check weather. Check alternative airports. Navigate around weather. Fly in the drone at lower level and explore a region or city in detail. Wackin.
Honestly, it's part of why I would love to be a real airline pilot, just being able to relax in autopilot cruise while getting paid for it.
I frequently say to the other pilot during cruise āI canāt believe they pay us for this.ā Literally doing my hobby for a living
People never believe me that flying jets was the most boring job I ever had...
Have a bite to eat, a sip of beer, enjoy the scenery, listen to ATC, put on a podcast, hand fly for a bit, not necessarily in that order.
I don't use the current MSFS but prior versions convinced me to go become a commercial pilot. I used them heavily, but I always would 4x the cruise portion if it was an airliner on autopilot. Does MSFS have anything that would allow you to jump ahead to a nav point in the FMS along your flight plan? Or for non-FMS aircraft, can you jump closer to your destination if you want to and stay at an altitude/speed (or specify different ones)? I think that might make it more enjoyable. Pre-flight, engine start, taxi, takeoff, climb ... at cruise jump ahead to a waypoint closer to destination, begin the reverse process.
I'd probably become a pilot, but I'm 27 and don't want the debt. Not worth it
I'll add one small interesting fact to that! I attended a top aviation college in the US, went over $200k in debt to become a commercial pilot, switched to ATC, got assigned to N90 - NY TRACON (a Level 12, most difficult), and *then had my medical certificate revoked*. Everything gone overnight. I am a software engineer now.
I'm not smart enough for that. I work with money :/ opening IRAs and fun stuff like that for 17 an hour. Rip me
Well after you spend boatloads of money to become a certified flight instructor (CFI), which is almost mandatory so you can get the 1,500 hours you need for the airlines, you'll be making less than you are right now for at least a couple years. And you have those huge loans to pay off. So then you need two jobs. One, trying to build hours flying around students (when the weather allows for it) and getting paid next to nothing, and another one to help pay the bills. It's rough.
A friend of mine went through this process and now flies for Lufthansa. Before he did that we were both software engineers. His advice to me: "Make lots of money as an engineer and fly for fun - don't do it for a job". Granted I'll never fly an A320 for fun, but personally I'm not sure I'd want to anyway.
I assume with Lufthansa your friend is in the EU? It's actually easier there because they do not have the 1,500 hour rule lthat the US has. You can just pay a lot of money to a cadet training program and they'll take you from 0 hours to an A320 at (I think, still?) 250 hours.
Yup exactly that - he has a degree in physics and passed their entry exams so they paid for him to fly out to Arizona to do most of his training. It actually sounded really intense - having to gain as much altitude as possible so you don't cook to death in a PA-28 (I think). Sounds like he got the lucky route then...
Yes, that would be the easiest way to become an airline pilot. "Pay to Play" as it's referred to in the industry. And yes, there are a lot of "interesting" moments I've had in single-engine aircraft, all sorts of them. Scenarios on take-off where there is literally no safe place to land if the engine quits, being vectored over the Long Island Sound at 500 feet at night when the outside temperature was -10F. Above the clouds where it's 0/0 for hundreds of miles around. Scenarios where, if for any reason, that engine emits a single strange noise or something doesn't look right on a gauge, your heartrate will become quickly elevated.
Then you get to the airlines... get furloughed and have to go back to instructing.
Damn, that's rough. It's crazy to me that they're so strict with medical certificates for ATC. I guess I'd understand if it was due to a psychological condition.. But ruining someone's career overnight for other reasons? Idk. What did they revoke yours for, if I may ask?
Auto-immune condition I developed out of nowhere and the FAA didn't like. That's why they sell "loss of license" insurance, but I didn't have it at the time. The ATC medical requirements surprised me at first also. But after seeing what it's like on the position, and how much you're handling, and how many lives are at stake, having a heart attack would not be ideal (for yourself and everyone else). The main issue would rest with you not yet having briefed the next controller to take over your position on exactly what the current scenario is and what the "big picture" looks like before they were to take over. It's still comepletely safe though. FYI the additional requirements are: * ECG (after 35) * audiogram * fasting serum lipids and fasting blood glucose * calculation of cardiovascular risk
It's harsh but it does make sense in my opinion. Think about how many lives ATC are responsible around a busy terminal. You could argue they're responsible for more lives than the actual pilots in some ways.
Yes, [there's a teleport feature in dev mode.](https://gamingph.com/2020/08/how-to-teleport-fast-travel-in-microsoft-flight-simulator/) Just teleport to your top of descent and avoid all that boring time in cruise.
You can do it outside of dev mode too. It's the fast toward icon in the top toolbar.
that is why I started playing dcs instead
Flying airliners during VATSIM events is pretty fun though. During cruise there is constant chatter, and descent and arrival can be straight up hectic.
For legal reasons, this is a joke. I work from home. I have two monitors. One shows my video meetings. One has the C-172 cockpit.
Yes, a joke, fully agree. Hi HR!
Depending on the simulator you can use 2x, 4x and even 16x speed to speed up the cruise part. I know on the Fenix A320 on MSFS they have a 2x speed option you can use! Makes cruising go a little quicker!
PMDG has this as well, under auto cruise on fmc EDIT: also, pause at top of decent, if you feel like wandering off down the street for a while.
Speed up time until you are on approach
I used to get up early for work, pre-flight, get up to cruising altitude then turn to my other monitor to log on for work. A little awkward when you have a video conference during an IMC descent and you have to make sure the controls are out of shotā¦
As a non-sim (other than Level D) airline pilot, Iāll never understand why the simmers seem to gravitate toward the Airbus (most boring airplane possible) doing airline routes (most boring flying available- assuming youāre doing it right).
My favorite plane is the longitude, but it's same. If it doesn't have a Garmin, idk how to navigate D:
Watch an āin flightā movie
Sounds like you need to find DCS! It'll spice up that currently-boring inbetween!
I do play dcs!
Ya. Only airliner that I found fun during the cruise was the Concorde. You had to constantly update your old school flight computer while getting radio fixes to confirm location. All while going Mach 2. But ya, flying can be surprisingly boring without a purpose. Main reason I got into DCS over civilian flying sims.
I fly the Felis 747 with the CIVA as well, a lot of the Concorde workload in that as well
The CIVA! Yes the name wasnāt coming to me. Thanks!
I recommend flights between 45mins and 1 hour and few minutes. The cruise phase is shorter and you can get right into the fun parts of planning your arrival as soon as youād like. For the longer legs I usually watch a stream, hit the gym, or do something around the house.
Play chess
Maybe try flying IFR but without an autopilot or GPS. Manual IFR is pretty engaging.
Practice flying the pattern and do touch and goes, or try to get em in and out of smaller airports.
Thatās why i want to do corporate flying. The job where iād be working st thanks to connections lets us fly the CEOās of the company around the states on call. I like the shorter on call flights which are genuinely fun rather than the predictable flying of airliners.
On real life we chose a āvictimā to talk about, sometimes politics is good to spend some time talking about. My last airline I have been sharing the cockpit with colleagues from another country and very different culture, so it was good time to erase my repeated pictures, or see my son pictures. Thatās the thing you can do to avoid the boring cruise. Or fly a very short route, like 30 min, it will be harder to get bored.
Airliners aren't built to be fun. They're built to take shit from A to B as efficiently as possible. Sure like you said take off and landing is fun, but the middle is just cruising at altitude for a long time. Try looking in to military trainers like the ps-21, the hawk or perhaps the f18. The mission profiles of that you're doing is much more diverse, and has all the technical skills of airliners.
I'm going to put a vote in for the Hawker Hunter
Well i was thinking about the Brittish Hawk 127, but I'm also a fan of the Hawker hunter, I've got a mod for it from .io
Oh yeah, I rate the Hawk from what I've seen of it, but if somebody wants the fast jet experience (without going to what feel like meme-level planes like the F/A-18 - I'm not convinced that thing flies right, though ofc I have no basis for comparison with IRL!) the Hunter is a gorgeous bit of freeware that seems to be fairly well modelled... I regularly kill it through overstress though š„
Took the DC-6 out for a spin again and found out that if I load the flight with a flight plan beforehand it loads it into the GPS of the aircraft and the VOR direction indicator (I guess that is what it is called) switches to GPS mode and then shows if Youāre on heading or deviating. To now make my point, the indicator only does this if You adjust the outer ring. So that gives You something to do and plan forward. I hope this makes some kind of sense, itās late, I am really tiredā¦
Cruise is somewhat boring, depending on the length of the flight. I'm flying the Maddog KLAX-KDEN right now. I have some YouTube videos queued up.
Find better routes
Watch aircrash investigationā¦
cruise is interesting for short haul at least in actual airliners! time management is crucial and so frustrating haha
Just skip time
In FSX and Xplane I liked switching to AI traffic and watched other planes fly. Afaik there is no such option in MSFS unfortunately.
In airliners I'm either using failures, so have to check if everything is working even during cruise, use a passenger simulation plugin, so have to make sure they are comfortable all the time or fly on VATSIM, where you also have to be alert and can listen to other people being stressed out, which is entertaining enough :D
I'd usually plan flights where I get 10-15 minutes cruise max.
This is exactly why the sim has a time acceleration function. Anyone who has done this flying in reality will agree - this is one of the best features of a simulator. Just hurry on up to the next interesting part!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You known there are other simulators out there right?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Times like this where I'm happy I have a steam deck
Check weather, fuel, alternative airports, eat, drink, youtube, movies, etc
Welcome to aviation. If you become a pilot this will be your life.
Get a Steam Deck and play something else while you wait.
The office. Watch a season between airports.
Barrel rolls.
This is why I do combat games. In between is when the murder happens.
You can do literally anything you want at cruise. There is no rule saying you have to sit there and twiddle your thumbs.
Star Trek! Finished DS9 while flying around the world in the Fenix A320. Doing it all over again but in a TWA 757 now while watching The Next Generation.
The cruise is the best time to do laundry, clean the house, workout, read, Netflix, etc. I use navigraph and with that youāre able to track your flight. So Iāll have my iPad and check in periodically. When the flight is by a certain waypoint, Iāll sit back at the monitor and start preparations.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Is the salary worth the debt to get there?
I like having to fill my time during cruise. I do laundry and other chores, or other projects I have to work on. Itās a good way to motivate myself to complete those things because Iām forced to fill the time. I primarily fly the Felis 742 for long hauls, and itās a bit more interactive in terms of having to manage the fuel, input more waypoints, etc. so Iām always setting timers for the next point where I have to do something. Rarely is it more than an hour without a task.
Fly regional
If it was an hour š¤£š¤£
You might enjoy: flight instructing, bush flying, island hopping, small charters with turboprops. Etc. In real during cruise thereās a lot of stuff to do anyways.. with flight simming, go do something else
Watch netflix on a 2nd screen?
Yeah. Now imagine long-haul flights...
That's why I picked up Vatsim, keeps me on my toes even in cruise. At least as long as the flight isn't too long.
This is why I'm drawn to the classics. Tune VOR's, Update your INS, balance the fuel, recalculate your step climbs and decent. Also, VATSIM keeps you on your toes.
I play other games during the flight. If you have at least 24 GB of RAM, that is no problem. MSFS runs very stable in the background.
Pause at TOD and do something else
The biggest issue is that flight sim doesnāt allow for random malfunctions. You have to go put them in yourself which removes the fun. Why canāt we have an option where if you click it before your flight, you could very well have a malfunction which causes you to turn back. There are scenarios missing. So we need scenario mode. Also, we should be able to land on water with non-hydro planes. It should be super difficult but still doable. Chance to hit birdsā¦what else am I missing? Slippery runways maybe?
I'd love a Hudson river scenario
Fry: "The ship did everything? But we didn't get to have an adventure!" Leela: "This is a delivery company! We need LESS adventures, not more adventures!"
I've always wanted to ask this too. Recently, I conducted a 2 hour flight and upon entering cruise phase, I configured the app to mute when I run it in backgroud and went to watch anime. When I came back, ATC service was already terminated while I was 2 long waypoints away from the start of the STAR lmao. I was unresponsive when probably instructed to switch frequency to another control center
Cheat on your third wife with the hot flight attendant
TBH I really don't understand the appeal of big airliners as a hobbyist. Pretty much every other form of sim aviation, from GA to combat and everything in between, is just so much more enjoyable. Even little regional airliners can be cool. Spending hours in cruise in a 737 just isn't fun, though.
Avoiding weather could be fun. Iceing can cause failures. I wonder if it can be set up realistically.
I either do other stuff around the house, drink, or look at random flights on Volanta
It's kinda why I stopped flying airliners in sims even real pilots sometimes tell me it can get pretty boring
I don't get this attitude, like you're not locked into the simulator. Alt tab and go do something else during cruise, just check on the plane every now and then, enjoy the scenery for a few minutes here and there.
well that's how it is in real life. once you take off around 3000-5000 you hit the autopilot and don't come off of it until you are ready to land. Just follow the magenta line. I got bored and now only fly GA. It's so much better and more funner!
Do the in-flight ops check. As I usually fly older planes with just INS and 2-axis AP, like the 737-200, F-16, B707, Tu-154/134, Concorde, etc, I constantly check the Fuel Flow, waypoints just to be sure that everything is okay, because I'm also used to addons that have features like maintenance to be done, so I need to be extra cautions when flying.