Game Discussions Microsoft Flight Simulator

Wow just flew over my area and got orientated. Found my childhood home, favorte fishing spot on the lake. Everything is here in immaculate form. I fly all over town following the roads I knew outright giddy. My prison esq high school perfect, every store the massive parking lots, cranberry bogs in all the right spots. Thrilled as I called in the family and I found our current home from the air. Even flew over the cemetery our loved ones are in. Its all here perfect. I could identify every single store, local landmark, everything.

Giddy to the max and blown away. They even have the dirt parking lot down the street with the kids school buses in the exact spots where they all park when not in use. I almost have tears. I am a kid again. 10/10.
 
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Photogrammetry is pretty ugly. I'm tempted to turn it off. And then there's that Jesus car driving on water...

EDIT - speaking of, does photogrammetry cause more CTDs? I was all stable until I went to a city with this feature, now I'm crashing left and right.
 
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For those looking for an awesome ultra-short trip, I just found this one. Havent seen anyone mention it yet so I am taking credit for the find as obvious as it might be. :p

Departure: Syangboche Airport

Arrival: Lukla Airport
watch

Total duration in a 152: +-5 min; a brief flight in the Nepal mountains. Runways are short and at Lukla at a pretty steep downwards slope (when taking off), so best not take a 747. :p Lukla is also one of the handcrafted airfields, and it looks absolutely spot on. It is also a highly notorious airfield, with the runaway ending in a steep cliff when taking off, and in front of a mountain when landing. There is zero margin for error here!

Wow just flew over my area and got orientated. Found my childhood home, favorte fishing spot on the lake. Everything is here in immaculate form. I fly all over town following the roads I knew outright giddy. My prison esq high school perfect, every store the massive parking lots, cranberry bogs in all the right spots. Thrilled as I called in the family and I found our current home from the air. Even flew over the cemetery our loved ones are in. Its all here perfect. I could identify every single store, local landmark, everything.

Giddy to the max and blown away. They even have the dirt parking lot down the street with the kids school buses in the exact spots where they all park when not in use. I almost have tears. I am a kid again. 10/10.

Just had a mate over. He aint much of a gamer, and never played a flight sim. I loaded up a 152 at Calgary, explained the controls and meters in two minutes and off he went. Within 10 minutes he located his house. A few minutes later his office. He then landed safely again (after one aborted run and a tour around the airport). We then went to Rand Airport, South Afrika. He took-off, flew to his former student residence at Vanderbijlpark and landed at a nearby airfield. His final trip was in an Icon A5, where he flew from Takaka airport, New Zealand to Puponga, where he embarked upon a days long hike years ago. He was blown away, constantly making pictures of the monitor and sending it to mates from back then. He was nothing short of blown away.
 
Aaaaand my TrackIR 5 just died. :(

Oh crap, don't say that! Mine is probably 4 or 5 years old, and I worry about it. I've tried to play flight sims and this game without it and It's weird because I still move my head around yet the scenery on my monitor doesn't move. I've actually gotten a bit disoriented because of this.
 
I took off from Sussex Airport KFWN in a Cub and landed in a field next to the barn my father built. A journey he took many years ago... As I took off, looking down at that barn and the town of Layton, where I grew up, a wave of emotion hit me like none ever has in a game. I fulfilled a dream I had since I was a child.
 
For those looking for an awesome ultra-short trip, I just found this one. Havent seen anyone mention it yet so I am taking credit for the find as obvious as it might be. :p

Departure: Syangboche Airport

Arrival: Lukla Airport
watch

Total duration in a 152: +-5 min; a brief flight in the Nepal mountains. Runways are short and at Lukla at a pretty steep downwards slope (when taking off), so best not take a 747. :p Lukla is also one of the handcrafted airfields, and it looks absolutely spot on. It is also a highly notorious airfield, with the runaway ending in a steep cliff when taking off, and in front of a mountain when landing. There is zero margin for error here!



Just had a mate over. He aint much of a gamer, and never played a flight sim. I loaded up a 152 at Calgary, explained the controls and meters in two minutes and off he went. Within 10 minutes he located his house. A few minutes later his office. He then landed safely again (after one aborted run and a tour around the airport). We then went to Rand Airport, South Afrika. He took-off, flew to his former student residence at Vanderbijlpark and landed at a nearby airfield. His final trip was in an Icon A5, where he flew from Takaka airport, New Zealand to Puponga, where he embarked upon a days long hike years ago. He was blown away, constantly making pictures of the monitor and sending it to mates from back then. He was nothing short of blown away.

Ive never played a flight sim before. I am in over my head and loving just flying around my local area. So much to learn about flight, and all these controls are intimidating (Elite was a good ice breaker though), but I am absolutely enthralled.

I have a couple questions I will tag onto this post I am having trouble finding info on for anyone who can help.

How do you create a nav point or equivalent while you are just free flying with no flight plan but decide you want to go somewhere?

How do you ask Airports for landing permission?

I also feel like playing and seeing this in action I am part of a paradigm shift in gaming meets technology. It really feels like the future is now type of experience. I sure havnt gotten too many of these... its early, bugs and wonkyness and problems aside, this is something special.
 
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If you wish to use ATC comms, move the mouse to the toolbar at the top of the screen and it's the first Icon on the left. Make sure you get ride of any duplicate key binds for anything that utilizes a control surface or they will be overly sensitive or quirky.
 
How do you create a nav point or equivalent while you are just free dlying with no olan but decide you want to go somewhere?

I am sure someone will show up with a fancy way to create a flight plan on the spot, but I just use google maps and the compass. The big thing is water. When you open the map (press V) and open Google Maps, the one common thing is water; lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks: all of them are in there. Once you figure out where you are it is just a matter of guestimating where you need to go and after a bit use the water again to figure out where you are again. :D
 
I am sure someone will show up with a fancy way to create a flight plan on the spot, but I just use google maps and the compass. The big thing is water. When you open the map (press V) and open Google Maps, the one common thing is water; lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks: all of them are in there. Once you figure out where you are it is just a matter of guestimating where you need to go and after a bit use the water again to figure out where you are again. :D

Right on. I don't know if I'm on that level yet, I was hoping to just say in the middle of my flight hey create a waypoint to JFK NY or something off the cuff, like if you start out with a destination and it shows on a planned a-b trip on the world map.

I watched a real life pilot programming the actual cockpit screen (Garmin 1000?) to do this with the little knobs with his mouse in game and didn't realize you could get the game down to the point where you manually flip every little switch.

I should rephrase the last part, I knew the main switches could be manipulated but I didnt think it went as far as the micro buttons on the instrument screens.
 
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Deleted member 182079

D
Right on. I don't know if I'm on that level yet, I was hoping to just say in the middle of my flight hey create a waypoint to JFK NY or something off the cuff, like if you start out with a destination and it shows on a planned a-b trip on the world map.

I watched a real life pilot programming the actual cockpit screen (Garmin 1000?) to do this with the little knobs with his mouse in game and didn't realize you could get the game down to the point where you manually flip every little switch.

I should rephrase the last part, I knew the main switches could be manipulated but I didnt think it went as far as the micro buttons on the instrument screens.
I recommend a Youtuber called Squirrel. I came across him originally via Euro Truck Sim but he's now doing FS2020 videos for a while, where he normally runs through all the procedures, plus since he has a GA licence he can give some RL context which I always find very useful.

As for the nav plan, there's an icon for it to call it up, haven't tried to add any waypoints yet, but in the ATC window you have the option to select nearest (or further afield) airports and tune into them, and request stop and go landings etc.

Had my first full ATC guided VFR flight last light, it worked really well. Something that was always a bit of a black box for me with FSX.

You can add flightplans and waypoints on the fly with some of the planes, I just haven't worked it out yet. I feel comfortable now with most buttons in the 152 and what they do, will move on to other planes slowly over time.
 
+1 for Squirrel's channel. Really informative & useful, from someone who clearly knows what he's talking about.

The alternate waypoint & flight plan thing has foxed me too. Last night, I decided to set up a plan to fly from Schiphol (Amsterdam) to Charles de Gaulle. A distance of about 220NM. Can't remember which plane... diamond something I think. A wee one. Figured it would be a good night flight over the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

By the time I reached Rotterdam, I realised that it was going to take me more time than I had available, so wanted to set down. Couldn't find a way, even though the Rotterdam ATC was talking to me and saying "Hi there", I couldn't work out how to ask for permission to land. Ended up having to just quit, since I don't think there's a way to save mid-flight.

I'll try again tomorrow.
 
Under the ATC you will see Airports Near Me. Select this and select an airport you wish to land at. Once the airport is selected you get other options. Select Full Stop Landing. You should then have ATC tell you which runway and approach to fly.

Additionally, after requesting landing and ackowledging, you can then see another ATC option to ask for directions to the airport if you can't see it and don't know where it is. The ATC will then tell you the direction to follow from where you are, as well as the remaining distance. Perfect when landing on unfamiliar areas. Whole comms thing is just brilliant.

I recommend right-handed people to bind a button / key to open ATC, to avoid having to use the mouse (and thus having to take the hand off the joystick) to open comms. You can then respond to ATC using the numeric keys (default binding) to select each answer.
 
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