So I've just started playing Microsoft Flight Sim as my chill out game and I want interesting places or short beautiful routes I can tootle past in a Cessna on my lunch breaks.
Is there somewhere local near you or somewhere you've been that would be pretty and interesting to fly around?
Sure I could do all the adventure flights around the pyramids and New York and stuff, but I kind of like the idea of places I wouldn't have thought of or know about.
lmao I used to try to fly the 747 between (and yes sometimes into) the twin towers back in like 1998 all the time
Honestly, I was just recreating the pilot episode of X Files spin-off The Lone Gunman!
When the default airport runway launches you strait at them, how could you not?
I played Flight Sim a lot as a kid and I would just 9/11 over and over and over again lol
Ooh, definitely possible. It won't look quite right due to it guessing building style from satellite data but I have been there so I might be able to recognise it anyway. It's going on the list.
Take off from Waimea-Kohala Airport (MUE) in a light jet. You can fly to the west toward the sea, southeast toward the Martian landscape of Mauna Kea, south toward Kona or really anywhere.
Or take a real slow boi and fly over Kohala mountain itself, to the north/northwest.
You can even take a jet northwest and fly to Maui. the largest mountain Haleakala is beautiful and interesting.
Oooh, these sound really great. It'll be a while until I work up to jets I think but I'm putting Kohala mountain on the list for stuff I want to try next.
Nice! Mauna Kea is pretty close too, you just might not be able to fly to good at 14000 feet in some aircraft. But there's plenty of cool stuff to see at 8000 or 9000 feet
Some of the light jets in MSFS are pretty user friendly.
I have no idea what it looks like in MSFS, but Kauai is really cool too. You can take off from Lihue Airport (PHLI) and the whole north-western side of the island is covered with volcanic mountains and waterfalls. The terrain in FlightGear is pretty cheesy, but someone took the effort to go through and add a lot of the waterfalls which is pretty cool.
Oh wow that would be a good island, I should try that. I really liked Lana'i
Kauai to the big island is also a nice "short" flight if you're messing around with jets or airliners.
Wow, that's a lot. I'll give it a proper look when I can. Thanks.
In MFS I like to fly around Okinawa Japan, which is a beautiful place but I'm especially partial to it because I flew there in real life when I took flying lessons as a teen.
My favorite places to free-fly in DCS is Dubai. Cool architecture, cool artificial islands, and a dense skyline makes for a lot of stunts you can pull. I expect it's probably similar in MFS.
Both of these sound like great ideas. I have basically zero interest in Dubai usually but actually you're right that as a skyline and essentially a playground for a flying game it might be great. Okinawa is such a good shout too. How did you get into flying as a teen?
Mom was stationed there, and the Air Force base had a flying club that I joined and did lessons with. It was a cool experience, but I didn't keep up with it as an adult though so I don't do it anymore (it was pretty expensive and I wasn't planning on becoming a pilot).
I'm on console so I'm just using a controller. Mostly I'm coming in way to fast I'm finding.
This sounds cool must admit. I should probably go back and finish the bush flying training first.
Mount Saint Helens / Mount Rainier tour:
There aren't many useful navaids around so this is pretty much VFR. Check your gyroscopic compass and make sure it matches your magnetic compass. Set the heading bug to 60.
Depart from Kelso Longview / Southwest Washington Regional Airport (KKLS) at heading 60 magnetic and climb to around 7000 feet. You've got some time, so you can take it nice and easy. 300-500 fpm should be plenty. This is more of a "cruise climb." Plenty of time to set your autopilot to heading mode, lock in your vertical speed, and adjust your throttle and mixture for optimal performance. Also to adjust cabin heat for comfort.
After 10-15 minutes, you'll encounter Mount Saint Helens (you can't miss it). Feel free to circle around a few times if you like. The best views are from the north and north-east. While you have the plane under manual control and you're having fun, this is a good time to adjust your heading bug to 0 (due north). When you're satisfied, you can depart from Mount Saint Helens heading north. Climb to around 12,000 ft. if you can. This is subjective and depends on how close to the summit you want to get. Aside from the mountain itself, there are no obstacles this high. Again, you've got time (15-20 minutes), so you can take it nice and easy. Don't bleed off too much airspeed in favor of elevation. It is a challenge to get most single-prop planes to this altitude, even if with the perfect fuel mixture and carb heat. This is a perfect chance to try it though. If you want to try this on hard mode, FlightGear simulates windshield, wing, and carburetor icing conditions too :)
Eventually you'll come across Mount Rainier (you also can't miss it). Ranger Creek Airfield (21W) is buried at 2600ft in the valleys on the eastern side of the mountain. It's pretty challenging to locate/land at. If you want to circle the mountain I recommend going counterclockwise to locate the field from altitude on the first pass and help line up a lower altitude approach from the south on the second pass. The terrain map on the G1000 can be very useful here, allowing you to "see around the bend" of the valley you're flying through.
Total flight time is about 45 minutes - 1 hour in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk.
Flying up to Lukla from Kathmandu:
Lukla (VNLK), also known as Tenzing-Hillary Airport, is one of the most ridiculous airports ever built. It sits at an elevation of 9300 ft, surrounded on all sides except the trench you approach from by mountain ridges reaching up around 13,000 feet. It is also incredibly short and has an absurdly steep slope to make landings and take-offs possible. It is the closest airport to Mount Everest's southern basecamp (the Nepal side).
You depart from Kathmandu International Airport (VNKT) in a STOL aircraft (highly recommend the DHC-6 Twin Otter, as seen in the above video.) VNKT has a VOR/DME station at 112.3 MHz. After taking off, follow a heading of 93 from the VOR station. I don't remember exactly how high you need to get, but there will be a couple mountain ridges in your path and you will have to climb to something like 13,000 ft. You don't want to make your final approach from this altitude though. When your DME reads about 70 nautical miles, you have to turn north. By now you should be at about 11,000 ft, and now is the time to start searching for the right crevice to snake your way up until (hopefully) the airport appears on your right. A GPS or Terrain map will be very useful.
Going back is basically the same thing in reverse. It is a lot more simple though, since you can home in on the VOR station from any direction once you're clear of terrain. It is probably a good idea to fly out of Lukla first, before flying in, just to get an idea of what the terrain looks like. That said, you need to take some extra precautions when taking off, such as turning the throttle all the way up while sitting on your breaks as long as you can until they are no longer capable of fighting the engines, then launching. Flaps all the way down (that's 7 or 8 clicks on the DHC-6). You might also need to lean your fuel mixture a bit at that altitude to get the most performance out of your engines, but I don't remember exactly how that works on the DHC-6. It seemed less temperamental than the Cessna about it, but I can't tell if that's how the plane actually works, or how the model was designed in this particular simulator.
Lukla places you only 15 minutes or so (as the crow flies) from Mount Everest, but you need a jet with a pressurized cabin if you want to get anywhere near the summit. These tend to be heavier while STOL (short takeoff and landing) planes need to be light as possible. The STOLs are basically skydiving planes, not airliners. You could take off from Kathmandu in an airliner or fighter jet though, follow a very similar course (leaning maybe 5 degrees more north), and check out Mount Everest itself (and getting there much faster than a prop plane).
The flight is about 35-45 minutes each way.
Disclaimer: I've only flown these in FlightGear and X-Plane myself.
Also, thumb through this free e-book when you get the chance.
Wow, this is an amazing breakdown and both flights sound amazing. Thanks so much for all the detail and effort. I'm not even comfortable with the heavily assisted basics yet but you've given me some serious goals.
The first one could be made a lot easier by going for a landing at Seattle Tacoma International (KSEA) instead once you've had your fill of sight seeing. (It's off to the north-west from Mount Rainier) :big-cool:
The second one I still fuck up the navigation on every time. I'm not sure which course the actual airline pilots take, but I've gone through a few iterations of trying to come up with a more fool-proof flight plan. It's not quite there yet.
Edit: Lol. I just watched a youtube video of someone else trying it and they got lost too. It's not easy.
There's actually a sort of guided tour of Manhattan in game so I'll do that for sure.
Toronto Island (CYTZ) is pretty cool, almost like an aircraft carrier in the water and it's right next to the city centre. From there you could fly to Niagara Falls (looked pretty shit on release but I think it's been updated.)
Also an easy flight if you want to fly VFR without any navaids, just follow the coast south from Toronto and you're there.
From there you could fly to Niagara Falls (looked pretty shit on release but I think it’s been updated.)
On PC, there's definitely a mod that makes Niagara Falls look good, if they haven't fixed it in the stock game by now (haven't seen it in MSFS). In FlightGear and Xplane-11 it looks like absolute dog shit. I've messed around a little bit with the GIS data to see if I could load some improved terrain in FlightGear and I've come to the conclusion that this is due to the fact that Niagara Falls exists exactly where the US elevation and terrain dataset ends and the Canadian/international data begins.
I was at my friend's house really drunk one night and we tried flying to Niagra Falls in MSFS but the game crashed twice before we could make it there.
This is a great suggestion with what sounds like a really good take off and destination. Definitely doing this. Cheers!
Flying little jet planes through the trenches is basically just pod racing but better
This looks amazing and I'm not familiar with that bit of Spain at all. Definitely trying this. Thanks!
Yep. That's where I spent my honeymoon. Precisely because nobody outside of Spain seems to know about it.
So I just spent an about two hours decompressing from work stress and news stuff by doing this.
Took off from Santiago Del Monte in the rain and cloud and headed inland a bit and East. It was amazing when the clouds finally started to part, the sun started shining, and suddenly there was all these lush green hills with the Picos De Europa in the distance.
It took a little while to get there but then I mostly explored the mountains, following valleys and rivers, finding mountain lakes, and being amazed at how many little towns and villages were nestled on the mountains even as I flew further and higher into the range.
I finished by flying a lot around the Potes region on that side of the range and it was great. So thanks so much for the suggestion!
Did it all while listening to the new Bonobo record which is very good too.
Hell yes.
There's actually a town in the Picos called Bulnes that is inaccessible by road. Used to be the fastest way there was about an hour long hike through a river canyon, but they built a funicular in 2003.
I'm gonna look for it, even if I have to take of and land (crash horribly) on the little local airfield (field) I found.
Amazing. I might give it a try tonight if I get chance. I'm looking forward to the next update doing stuff with Spain & Portugal. Hoping for Sintra maybe.
Or just do soft field touch and goes without letting the nose wheel hit the ground, that’s always fun
This seems like one of the most fun things you can do in aviation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOZTzQrz014
