Hello,
I really like the concept of bush trips. One of my favourite things i ever did in a flight sim was take the trip around Hawaii from FS9. These trips remind me a lot of that. There is one huge problem, though. The current bush trips feel like frantically trying to fly blind, not knowing where you’re going, or what’s going to happen. I haven’t done a lot of flying in real life, but i suspect that is not how things should be at all.
I suggest that some sort of preflight be presented before actually flying. We should get a description of where we’re going, what we’ll be seeing, and a map of the route and of the points of interest. Also, very important, a minimum enroute altitude (so we have time to prepare if we need to climb), a weather briefing, and the layout of the airport at arrival, with maybe some hints on how to perform a visual approach. I know this may sound like a lot of information beyond what is currently offered, but it’s vital. No one would fly in real life without knowing these things. And maybe asking for the default trips to be updated might be too much to ask, but i would hope that there are features introduced so that future trips can have this briefing pack available.
Also, i know that we get some of this information in the navlog during the flight. But by the time you’re in the air, it’s too late to figure these things out. And we don’t even get basic info such as runway headings.
Or, hey, maybe this is already in game and i didn’t notice it. That’s possible too.
Thank you.
Even with flight rules, you still do some sort of preflight.
This got bumped by the system. Woohoo! \o.o/ Maybe it’s a sign that it’s coming to the sim.
I know this thread was created for MSFS2020 and it has some great bush trips. We don’t have bush trips in MSFS2024 but we know the team is working on them for their return to the franchise.
I want to chime in with: although pre-flight planning would be great, the lions share of what had been requested by the OP can be done by the PIC.
Since we have an EFB in game for MSFS2024, I bet we will see the route for the particular leg of the trip in there. Using the web based official flight planner and a couple of third party sources we can get all of the pertinent info for the trip.
Back in MSFS2020 I used LittleNavMap as a VFR map source to better understand what to expect during the trip. Flying on Xbox meant that I couldn’t see my planes location in LNM, but it was like having a kneeboard with some VFR maps available for the flight.
There is also SkyVector, NaviGraph, Sim Brief, ForeFlight and other map sources free and premium that are available for the sim pilot.
The Aviation Weather government run website has great information for the US.
Windy.com and Windy.app are two useful wind source programs that cover the globe and will give real time conditions with some forecasting and historical information available.
The in game EFB (MSFS2024) has weather radar data that gives us limited information in GA planes and I hope more features get added to make it the preferred tool to be used.