Is it just me…?
When I want to fly in an area, I have to travel there first!
If I want to explore Alaska in a bushplane i must fly there.
To make it realistic I use Skyscanner.
Bergen - Oslo (SAS)
Oslo - Amsterdam (KLM)
Amsterdam - Seatle (Delta)
Seatle - Anchorage (Delta)
Anchorage - Unalakleet (Ravn Alaska)
Then I can explore Alaska…
No you are not!! I do it too. Take a long flight to explore the area. Then I look forward to it. It’s just more fun than anticipation. 
@skypilotYTS - I think I just found your airplane soul-mate here. lol
Moved to #flying:world-discovery
It’s the only way to play the sim 
I add in live time and weather as well. The latter I now have to input myself from Meteoblue (as I don’t like the new metar/meteoblue), but I’m finding this is fine. I also fly slow in the 172, so I think carefully about where I want to go as it will take time.
For example I recently bought the TwinOtter which I plan on flying on the actual Logan Air routes where it is used (Glasgow to and from Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra). I’m based out of Dublin, the Twin-Otter is parked up in Campbeltown, and I’m currently on a tour around North Wales. I’ll only board the Otter when I finish my tour and fly up to Campbeltown. Gives me plenty time to read the 160 page manual beforehand.
Also I had plotted a route from Dublin (approx 40 short 172 hops) to Doha for the World Cup at the end of the year, but I’m undecided now, it’s going to take me a long time to get there, and back, and that Otter will be gathering dust.
I just love plotting routes on Google Maps and then setting out to explore kilometer by kilometer. Enjoying the journey not just destination.
My long lost sim brother!
This is how I’ve been from day one (along with some other quirks I have about flying lol). I can’t just “spawn” anywhere. I have to fly the routes to where I want to go. Do all my flight planning, fuel calculations, weight etc… manually then load up and fly.
I always continue from where I left off last, same parking spot, do my walk around, etc before getting in.
It’s as immersive as you want to make it for yourself, and it works for me 
I also don’t hop from plane to plane.
I started in the 152 (did 52 hours learning to fly and basics of navigation), then did 72 hours in 172 continuing to build and introduced autopilot in steam then 72 hours in the 172 G1000 to start learning advanced GPS / AP.
Now doing 82 hours in the CT182 to indotruce complex single, then I have a whole path after that to get to airliners which is the goal, fly Airliners for a VA.
It’s been really fun learning absolutely everything I can to make it as “real world as possible”.
And the DC6 brings me everywhere 
I do that too. Mostly, not always.
Me too! My “fleet” is based at EGNT and whenever I fly anywhere I “have to” return before I can fly anything else. Well not exactly as I’m currently on a trip that is becoming round the world (the Australia Update has arrived just at the right time) but I pick up the aircraft at the last place I landed to continue. I start out at EGNT when I want to fly something else. Always use Live weather and if it’s not suitable I don’t fly - just like IRL. I do change the times though as I’m sight-seeing and you don’t see much in the dark!
I also always fly in real-time and weather, albeit REX Weather and Seasons versus sim.
You’re not alone brother.
Jeez! I’ve always thought that I was the only one simmer that suffer this kind of obsessive behaviour XD I was relieved to hear all of us share the same “symptomatology”.
It makes me smile to see so many kindred folk coming out of the shadows!
Some might consider my flying “boring.” I’m in the Cessna C208B Grand Caravan EX like 95% of the time, although I seem to have no problem buying up airplanes as they come out.
I typically fly around the State of Hawai’i, or within about 720nm or so of PHNL. I use AH2 when I fly, and I’m happy to putter around the state hauling my virtual “meat” or “boxes.” I generally only have an hour or two a day I can devote to the sim, but I love it! Because of the AH2 the plane is where I left it, with as much gas as she had last time. Love it!
You can find me on US West in the in the evening to late evening PST (GMT-8) / HST (GMT-10) times.
Not just you - this is the sort of thinking that led me to fly round the world, but in alphabetical order.
Still on the 'B’s…
Always real time real weather. I started to sim-fly last year after long time without. So I started from the grass strip closest to home (Tuscany, IT) with a C152. Step by step (182, Bonanza, TBM; Italy, UK, Iceland, Greenland) I’m actually in Colorado so I can fly in the evening hours (in Italy) in US daylight. Now I’m heading back North for the spring in Europe. That’s the only way I like to fly.
Not the same but somewhat like.
I always (almost) always fly out of the same airport YMLT Launceston Tasmania, just as you would have to do if you were living there. The times I have flown to Hobart or Devonport I cannot count. Flown a little further on up the Australian mainland, west and north.
All this despite living in Denmark which is a superb country to live in but just not that interesting from the air.
Also regarding plane type it have to be something “realistic” that I would end up flying. Fx military planes hold no appeal for me. How IRL would I end up flying a F16 out of a civilian airport, whereas flying a Twitter between Launceston and Flinders island seem plausible to me, despite being almost equally unlikely.
Just not that much of an explorer I guess or rather the realism issue wins over just seeing new sights.
Always start colddark in real weather too.
The planes I fly I have a POH printed out in a5 in a binder for all of them (the Twitter 938 pages and unsatisfactorily the wiking variant).
As you can see the “sickness” can go a long way.
i am not that strict, but i play as if i have several bases to fly from, and i keep note
where the aircraft are to continue form there.
As another variation on a theme I have multiple aircraft, keeping track of where each one is (I find Volanta helpful for that and tracking my journeys). Each aircraft I pick up from where I left it last. Which one I fly will depend on what I fancy and what the real weather is like. Generally if I start a new aircraft I either start from a known base, or somewhere I have previously visited. On my Eastbound flight following I84 at the time I stopped of in Weiser ID so have used that for bush trips along the Snake River.
Occasionally (i.e. when the weather or time is really bad) I’ll resort to ‘flying commercial’ and pick up a new plane at the destination. I have done this recently for Africa (to pick up a Kodiak out of Cape Town) and for Australia. The rate I travel it would have been winter by the time I got there otherwise!
In the US I’m following a US Road Trip book to gain insight on where I am flying over, without which I probably would have missed EBR-1.