How realistic do you like to fly?
I know a lot of people prefer to fly real world procedures but how strict are you when simming?
I personally like to fly routes with all waypoints programmed in when I’m in the 737 and also follow the real world approaches. But I find that when I’m flying GA I like to just follow the GPS and make up my own approach when landing.
The way I fly is subject to change as the accessibility of the sim improves. Right now though, i use the aI copilot feature to taxi, and when it’s about to take off I turn it off and do it myself in the airliners. Otherwise, in GA I let the AI take off and then turn the AI off and switch on the in-plane autopilot and follow the GPS.
I was able to capture the ILS for an approach recently but still don’t have the ILS achievement unlocked. I’m not sure how to do that.
I try to fly as realistically as possible when it comes to airliners. For this I use a bunch of tools.
First, I usually start from Cold and Dark. In the case of FBWA320, I use FS2Crew for the crew management between me and the pilot-non-flying and of course the flows and checklists. All with voice recognition. For ATC I use Pilot2Atc (also with speech recognition) and for the ground handling GSX pro. I also use Live Weather, Live Traffic and the current time whenever possible.
When I fly GA, I do what I want. Most often sightseeing by helicopter. For example, I fly from Hamburg to Marseille with the Airliner and then I get into the helicopter and look at the city and the surroundings.
Always cold and dark. Always live weather and time.
Traffic settings depends on whether I’m on VATSIM or not, which is 70% of the time.
80% GA, always IFR with Navigraph and Simbrief.
90% checklists use, always use checklists if on VATSIM.
GSX for pushback, whenever it plays nice that is, and AST for easy model matching.
The question is probably not so much airliner vs. GA but should be IFR vs. VFR.
I only fly GA and 95% of that is VFR. VFR is much more self-reliant and independent, at least in the US. You guide mostly yourself (except of if you getting flight following etc. and/or if you’re in controlled airspace Class D, C, B, A).
I like that self-reliant flying much more than being cleared and followed/controlled.
I try to fly as realistic as possible which means:
Knowing allowed altitudes
Restricted and prohibited airspaces
Flying techniques above various terrain (mountain flying, flying over large bodies of water)
How to get into and out of uncontrolled airports in a manner that you would do IRL
Which frequencies need to be used and monitored
Checklists
Live weather
Cold and dark
Mostly visual navigation by looking at a VFR map and looking out of the cockpit
etc. etc. etc.
A32NX
Navigraph
Simbrief
VATSIM
I fly say 66% realistically. Cold and Dark, IFR flight plan generated in Simbrief, with Navigraph subscription.
However, I never use ATC. Maybe someday I’ll watch some Vatsim demos on Youtube. But until then, “it’s my (simulated) planet and I’ll fly however I want”. 
If I ever decided to become a real world pilot, ATC sounds like the most intimidating piece, so maybe that’s why I skip it here.
Oh, I almost always up the Sim Rate to 4x when I’m at cruise, and I leave my pilot seat frequently.
Dark Star - Slew Mode and Awaaaaay! 
Cold’n’dark 100%
Live Time & Weather 100%
Zero Assists
Only depart from the last airport i arrived at
I flap my arms really hard but nothing happens - I figure that’s pretty realistic tho
When flying airliners (seldomly until now) I like to go to some higher altitude, then idle the engines and make a sailplane landing.
Especially funny are landings on a narrow landing strip with a Boeing 747.
The runway’s perspective there is something you must have witnessed. If you did not so until now, higly recommended !!! 
bye walter
That’s pretty hardcore!
You’ll only get the achievement if you fly the entire flight gate to gate without any AI assistance. Autopilot is fine, but you can’t use the copilot or any of the other assistance options.
I have no idea how “realistic” any of my flights are because I am no real pilot.
But what I care most is 100% realism in aircraft systems, system programming, system failures, flight dynamics and flight physics, and the overall realism of the plane
The procedures are real but slightly basic, all checklists are handwritten based on real pilot training YouTube videos (engine start and stuff), but I never use any radio no VATSIM and fully ignoring virtual traffic.
Instead some great audiobooks are running in the background to keep me entertained, while I look around inside the cockpit, enjoy different angles and pilot or copilot seat, check the circuit breakers every 15 minutes etc.
The flight itself is hmm… a rather casual set of waypoints with some nice ILS or FSL landing, preplanned with flightsimplanner, Skyvector, Google Maps. I cannot read approach charts yet that´s why I rely on the preprogrammed ILS.
Now we come to the interesting part…
The setting or “background story” of a flight is in no way realistic because I am bored to death by regular scheduled passenger flights with 130 drunken idiots swarming into the plane on the Mallorca airport followed by five hours of staring onto the PFD (and nothing else) while the drunkards punch each other in the cabin behind me.
That´s why I only fly special flight guests, VIP, special agents - and/or cargo.
For every flight I imagine a different VIP, sometimes it´s fictional like Mulder and Scully flown to the crime scene of their latest eerie case because a new X-file was opened, sometimes it´s Elon Musk, sometimes it´s Stephen King.
And sometimes it´s one Umbrella Corp agent with very dangerous cargo and the freight room full of top secret stuff from the Umbrella Corporation.
I am not allowed to talk about this cargo but it is always declared as “pencils and drawing utilities” when signing the final loadsheet. (but when turning down the cargo room heating angry roars growling and snarling and hammering against the container from the inside can be heard - so it´s clearly not drawing equipment.)
If you think it look like this what Umbrella does, you are wrong. It is camouflaged by looking like absolute casual cargo flown in unmarked regular planes.
And Weyland-Yutani and Umbrella are always the highest bidders when chartering my Fenix
You are so crazy 
Next time I want a story too. Let me think …
All assistance turned off
GA aircraft only Bonanza, Baron, C310, KA350i
Cold’n’dark 100%
Live Time & Weather
ATC
usually use Approach procedures
I pickup where I leave off (wish MS/Asobo would get the message and complete save where we are when we shut down)
airliners as realistic as possible, exept perhaps the shutdown to leaving the plane.
GA aircraft depends on the time and route i want to fly. But most of the time i just use a gps route or fly as i go
I like to fly as realistically as the simulator allows me to. I always use ATC and follow their instructions and I look at charts and airspaces the day before I do an IFR VFR flight. I make sure to look at skyvector for all airport restrictions and rules and I will follow them as long as ATC allows me to
Thank goodness for that; I thought it was just me…
