Until I moved in with my gf, MSFS was really do-able, and I could leave it running in the background while doing some other stuff or I could schedule full morning sessions for me but ever since couple-life happened this has become really difficult and I’ve grown distant with flightsimming (something I have been doing for years)
How do you manage? I’d like to hear your suggestions, how do you juggle all the things? saying this since MSFS is really time-consuming, especially if you are like me, into jetliners and trying to sim airlines operations, briefings, proper planning, contingencies, etc.
I really dont see why would that be an issue, or any different from other time consuming hobbies (most hobbies are). A caring partner most certainly want to support their love’s hobbies and the activities they like, even if they themselves don’t join and/or have other hobbies. Planning a day in the weekend or some nights for your hobby shouldn’t really be that difficult. I guess I’m spoiled both my husband and I like gaming, but we each have other hobbies that we give room for and support. Well with kids, thats a different thing.
It’s the same as anything in life. You have to manage your own time and priorities. At the end of the day it’s just a computer game. You place it in whatever priority you wish.
When I had kids I took 20 years off from simming. When I came back to it, FSX had come and gone, P3D was version 5, Xplane was version 11, and this didn’t exist. Enjoy it while you can.
My wife loves to game on her PC, we have 2 PC’s next to each other in the living room on a huge double desk. The sim rig with another PC and TV screen is also in the living room. She encourages me to build out my whole cockpit so i consider myself very lucky.
I always do short flights, no more than 1h or 1h15m. Including flight planning, start-up from cold and dark, taxiing and shut down (plane and PC) I usually spend 2h total. That is perfectly compatible with wife, family and usual RL duties. And - as others stated already - time-wise not much different from any other hobby.
I fly both airliners and GA a/c, and the choice of plane depends on the distance I want to cover. During winter (I live in Germany) I usually migrate virtually to Asia, and getting there with 1h hops takes weeks, even if I fly the 737. But I do get there eventually, and - as a bonus - with a really good grasp of how big our planet really is!
Long haul flights in the sim have never been my thing. As the OP mentioned, it may require to have the sim running unattended for hours (long cruise segments are mostly boring, both in the sim and in RL). But of course, to each their own…
Like any other hobby. Take a musical instrument for example. You really need to set aside a certain time every day to pick that instrument up (unless it’s a piano, because that would be dumb) and play it.
Same with this sim. Pick a time (maybe when the GF is watching ‘Dancing With The Stars’ or ‘The Bachelorette’ or something equally mind-numbing) and fly.
Seriously, great question. I struggle with this, too. I have to balance work, real-world flying (and all the other stuff that goes with aircraft ownership lol), trying to play/practice as much golf as possible, my daughter’s school and sports schedule (golf tournaments every weekend during the season), stuff my wife and I like to do together, simple downtime… and simming.
For me, I usually get free of those other commitments around 8:00 PM and it gives me time to: check VATSIM radar for ATC online, plan a quick flight on SimBrief, hop into VR and spend 1.5 or 2 hours in an alternate reality
For me, sim time isn’t just fun - it’s therapy and an escape from the stresses of real life. Getting vectored all over the place, getting put in a hold, or flying a challenging approach during a busy event is nothing compared to the real world. It’s relaxing and fun and theraputic!
So I try to make time as many evenings as possible for it. And it’s better than anything on TV for sure! Heck, some people plop down on the couch and watch 3 hours of TV a night. For me, simming is more relaxing.
My wife has hobbies aside from mine. She does her thing, I do mine. I can’t fathom being in a relationship where I couldn’t enjoy my hobbies. I also play after my daughter’s bedtime, mostly.
Set realistic expectations and achieve some sort of balance
Keep sessions relatively short or just do it a few times a week
Communicate - if it’s important to you, that should be known, but also listen to why the time you spend isn’t meeting their needs
Be on top of everything else that needs to be done
Sim when younger kids (or significant others) are sleeping
Involve your significant other if you can (my wife really wants nothing to do with gaming, but thinks it might be fun to try to have me teach her to fly the sim during one of my streams)
Be prepared to back off or tone down simming for a while
Be prepared to take an unexpected break during a session
It also helps if it brings in a little scratch (or at least defrays its own costs) and/or is being used to stay up to date with real-world flying. I will tell you this: it’s a lot less money, worrying, and stress than actual flying. Lots of balance needed there, too.
I’m retired and I spend a few hours a day on it between my other honey-dos. There have been times when I’d rather do this than a lot of other things, but life is about balance. And the bonus is that when I finally do get back to MSFS, I find that I appreciate my hobby even more.
This is an irreconcilable source of personal guilt for me. Since 2020 I have spent nearly 1,200 hours playing MSFS. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I’d have spent that time honing my musician skills instead, since that’s my sideline. Musical technology is an undeniably deeper rabbit hole, and one that leads to the promise of creating a viable real-world artifact: songs. Yet I walk right past my music area on the way to the Simulation Dungeon where I spend my time with the Quest 3 on my face and earbuds in my ears, and the sights of simulated Earth passing beneath me. Is this dissipation? What is this addiction?? What is wrong with me??? Boy I can’t wait to fire up the sim later!!!
My wife likes to read (a lot). She sits in her chair in the kitchen doing that, while I am simming downstairs. Downstairs has an open connection with the kitchen (called a ‘ vide’ ), so we are still in the same space together. She is mildly interested, more like she likes me to have this hobby.
She’ll never will go flying with me irl though, which is of course a pity… too afraid something will happen, or she’ll become sick.
