Wait, do the bush trips have flight assistances turned on? Is there a way to disable them without fiddling with files?
I can see why a bush trip developer might not want a user to fiddle with the weather, but again is this reason enough to encrypt the trips? I mean it is not that the user is cheating to get points for something.
I would also say that a developer might not envisage his trip being a multiplayer flight but why not allow it.
I point out again the key point which one of the trip developers raised a bug about. He specifically set the multiplayer status=1, however multiplayer does not work. So is it a bug, as multiplayer should work, or has the multiplayer option been specifically disabled.
I do not expect a next day fix/change but it would be nice to know which it is and whether or not work will be carried out on altering the current situation.
Sometimes the custom weather file has a specific purpose in the bush trip. Like the France trip, the very first leg, there is a cloud over the runway you are to land at. The rest of the day is sunny… lol. Just that cloud sitting right over the runway. The Alusian trip from the Anniversary, you wanted worse weather at each leg, and it was the point of the trip. So I don’t mind custom weather files, just as long as they are good quality wise.
I remember one of the Australian trips though, they wanted bad weather, but it did not render right at all on my computer. It looked like something out of Star Trek on some foreign planet where there was some dangerous energy field. It was sparkling and grainy and seriously looked like something Scotty had to deal with. I hope that doesn’t come over just as it did and that they fix the textures for that storm.
No, traditionally, bush trips you were to navigate via the landmarks given. So you were supposed to be looking out the aircraft and using the stop watch while following heading. When 2020 first came out, bush trips actually turned OFF your navigation aids. Your flight plan did now show up. You had to navigate visually. That was the whole purpose of the "back on track’ button, that if you got lost, you had a button to take you to the waypoint you missed, but you wouldn’t get the achievement. If all people had to do was follow the purple line on the avionics, then there would have been no purpose for that button.
I’ve not flown all the bush trips, but in 2020 all the ones I did fly had the Preset=ASSISTANCE_PRESET_BUSH_TRIP enabled, so I suspect this is true for 2024 also. This preset contains the PresetSections:
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_PILOTING”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_AIRCRAFTSYSTEMS”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_FAILUREANDDAMAGES”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_NAVIGATIONAIDS”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_POI”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_NOTIFICATION”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_USER_EXPERIENCE”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_FOR_GAMEPLAY_ONLY”
“ASSISTANCE_SECTION_WIP”
There are flow events in the mission can disable / enable / set the atc, copilot, checklists, fuel, weather, and pretty much anything else the creator of the mission wants to enable / disable.
AFAIK, there is no way to disable them without modifying the various mission files.
Try the Breckenridge to Mariposa Yosemite, this one was a challenge in 2020, as the savage cub has only analog instruments and there was only the navlog to follow by. So you had to use the stopwatch and the heading to navigate. Together with the waypoint description you had to find the thing in the world it was talking about in the navlog.
I think, this was the actual intended way to do bushtrips in the beginning or FS2020. Cause even on aircraft with modern avionics, the flightplan would not show. Same in the VFR map panel. They sadly went away from that later on.
In 2024, you can just look at the EFB map and follow the line. Try not to do that. Just keep the navlog open in the EFB. This way you will have to navigate by visual reference. At least in the trips that use aircraft without modern avionics.
yep, I feel the same. A lot was lost by making them more accessible. I loved the entire ‘puzzle tour’ spirit of it.
Well, at least in 2024 you do have some options. You can
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Switch from GPS to VOR to remove the directional guidance, & pick some random Nav1 radio frequency - e.g., for a glass screen:
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Use the “Direct to” GPS option to point to either your ultimate destination, or jus choose a random destination that has no relevance to the flight if you want to avoid seeing any bearing or distance info that could help you:

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Just keep the navigational directions page open on the EFB & not use the EFB map.
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If you have LittleNavMap, disconnect from MSFS, and just use your choice of map theme to help with VFR guidance.

yes, and in my opinion; that sucks ![]()
they were a lot better when it was just the navlog, a compass, and a stopwatch. Finding your destination airport was a challenge, and it felt great when you found it.
Well, if one was new to flightsimming in 2020, bush trips could be quite intimidating, and might turn one off flying them, which would be a shame.
In 2024, new flightsimmers now have more guidance available, and us experienced folks know how to disable all the visual assistances to have a truer VFR experience.
IMO, options are always good to have, which is why I don’t like all the enforced presets that are present not only in the bush trips, but also the other activities & career-mode too.
sure, to each their own, but to me flying true VFR with the navlog, compass and timer in the savage cub in the Mariposa bushtrip opened up a part of the hobby I might never have found otherwise, so that goes both ways ![]()
I’m happy it was the first one I did. I made sure to completely delete the GPS flight path, and zoom in the map in the plane all the way in all the other bush trips after that.
The reason why they went away from it for a while was the bush trip developer was getting lazy in their descriptions. They would tell you to fly to a highway or a particular town. If you knew the area, the descriptions made sense. But if you didn’t, and there are three towns below you, which one is Maplewood? Which highway is route 20? It went on that way until feedback finally got to the developer, and they started to be more descriptive. But by that point, the standard of having avionics show the flight plan was now expected.
The only one that was really intimidating was the France one. They made that one hard. First leg, you had to land at an airport where the runway was covered by a cloud. Then they had you landing on airstrips in the mountains to the south of France. Then you were landing on airstrips in the Alps around Mont Blanc. It was like every leg had a challenge. There should be an achievement for just finishing the France bush trip… lol
The grass strips need to be more visible. Some of them are indistinguishable from the surrounding fields.
You are right but I do not think this is exclusively a Bush Trip issue. It very much exists in Career mode and Free flight and since day 1.
Have you flown grass strips irl? I did, and to me they are quite realistic. You could check them out on any maps app and see for yourself.
Actually, I have. My uncle was a crop duster and he kept his strip mowed such that it was easily spotted. It actually used to be in the sim, but he passed a few years ago and since it’s no longer maintained, apparently they’ve dropped it.
He kept a J3 Cub there in addition to his spray plane and I’ve flown out of it quite a few times.




