Yes, it’s really cool to be able to look up online the actual real-world area and airport charts with radio frequencies and all, plan your flight with something like SkyVector (free, no affiliation), and then reproduce it fully in the sim with actual weather and without relying on in-game map for hints.
To a bystander it may seem like watching paint dry, but it’s quite engaging and not so easy.
The worst (and/or most fun) is when you are in a cloud, lose your instruments/AP and suddenly notice your compass spinning like crazy (one time I forgot to switch the alternator on and the battery powering most of the instruments ran out, plus sims usually also have configurable random failures). It’s quite trivial to just lose track of your position as well at first.
I pick some old aircraft like Cessna Skyhawk usually, it has autopilot and most common instruments, but its AP is not so advanced that I’d have to spend a chunk of my time sitting around keying in data in order to fly it properly.
Comments
Yes, it’s really cool to be able to look up online the actual real-world area and airport charts with radio frequencies and all, plan your flight with something like SkyVector (free, no affiliation), and then reproduce it fully in the sim with actual weather and without relying on in-game map for hints.
To a bystander it may seem like watching paint dry, but it’s quite engaging and not so easy.
The worst (and/or most fun) is when you are in a cloud, lose your instruments/AP and suddenly notice your compass spinning like crazy (one time I forgot to switch the alternator on and the battery powering most of the instruments ran out, plus sims usually also have configurable random failures). It’s quite trivial to just lose track of your position as well at first.
I pick some old aircraft like Cessna Skyhawk usually, it has autopilot and most common instruments, but its AP is not so advanced that I’d have to spend a chunk of my time sitting around keying in data in order to fly it properly.