Where in TX are you? Austin/Round Rock here!
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Yeah, I’ve narrowly avoided saying „I know it from flying over it“ once or twice already in a conversation with others about far away countries. That would have been a really weird thing to say, but it’s how I feel…
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It’s a frequent cause of accidents (e.g. came across this accident analysis yesterday). There is even an on-Board video of an airplane that experienced exactly that on YouTube. Good that you experience it in a sim only.
Goes to show how well these effects are simulated!
The Patagonia bush trip showed me how unbelievably vast and rough it is, but still there are roads and villages and even cities, and I thought a lot about how it feels to be born there and growing up there. Does everyone try to leave as soon as they can? Or does everyone just enjoy the breathtaking nature, the cheap estate, and the silence? How do you find a partner there?
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Having flown down what remains of it, part of the Appian Way just south of Rome is still the longest straight section of road in Europe.
The Earth is round
Papua NG is a great place for bush flying.
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that our planet is HUGE, especially the oceans (in relation to us)
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I have finished UK 3 islands 15 days tour flight, USA great west valley 11 days tour flight and many short tour flights around world. Now i am on half way for New zealand 11 days tour flight. So many places to go in the following years. Great sim !
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Africa is really huge
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LMAO I was on a student exchange in North Dakota in 2003 and I think the largest hill we saw was that concrete hill in the middle of the intersection…
The greatest thing I discovered in MSFS though was that incredible amount of lightning coming from NO clouds at all… I’m speechless, never knew that was even possible at that grade. You never stop learning 
ok… serious forum, serious answer: It’s the first sim I have used to really enjoy VFR, and I mean by definition. Flying in any sim I have never cared much about legal flying, I have always done what I want, enough regulations and limitation in the real world to think of, all above being german… 
In MSFS however I found my muse to start SkyDemon at home and fly by the ICAO charts and navigate visually with ED-Rs and Delta airspace in mind. Additionally to that I’ve been ziggzagging the globe (! ;-P) with the DC-6 for more than 600 hours and found so many beautiful places I would have never gone with a 737 or a low and slow plane otherwise. Previous scenery textures were simply not worth it.
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HAHA yep… In P3D I wanted to bring the A2A Piper Cub from Cairo to Capetown… I think I made it to Luxor. In MSFS I could even imagine to actually do the flight(s).
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Oh that’s so true! Sectional charts for the eastern hemisphere are a little hard to come by so I’m practicing with the easily obtainable US/Canada charts. I’ve wanted more scenic routes to fly and central and eastern US are incredibly flat. California and Washington are a good mix of elevation.
What I’ve learned about our planet through MSFS is the scale of it all. Flying from one island to another takes a long time, wind seriously hinders your flight plan if you don’t consider it. I’ve also learned that I do love all the regulations from the FAA. I mean, for one, I now know (care about) what the FAA does. Those regulations removes a lot of the mystery in flying. I now look at planes as obtainable like how we drive cars–you can just do it vertically.
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I’m on my last leg of following Interstate 80 west to east. I’m flying it low (~1000ft agl) to enjoy the scenery. While large parts are flat there still plenty to look at, especially the changing land use and colours of the earth.
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I’ve been doing a lot of flying over the northwestern US; Washing, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, etc… And the biggest thing I’ve noticed is how much erosion has happened over the eons and how much water would have been in the now dry lakes and rivers… The long deep ancient glacial valleys of Montana and Wyoming are amazing from the air. 
Also, flying of southern BC and Alberta, between 8-10,000 feet, you can see how the mountains have grown and folded over time… Incredible.
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I’ve also learned that I do love all the regulations from the FAA.
Since the drop of FS2020 and now using VR since June, I’ve been doing a lot “real world” procedures and trying to learn HOW to aviate correctly. Although I live in Canada, access to Canadian “rules” is limited unless you buy them through NavCanada, so I’ve been “training” using FAA rules and the TONNES of free books and youTube tutorials…
My Wife thinks I’m insane!
Surprisingly; my wife fully supports my aviation efforts. It was a bit of shock for me. One flight I’m trying to plan is from Seattle up to western Canada and work my way east using VORs. I dunno, it’s crazy, but that part of the continent looks so amazing and untouched.
On another note I started out using skyvector for all my planning, but I normally have my tablet with me when I fly on the Xbox. A friend recommended FltPlan.com and that app is so good. US and Canada sectionals and victor lows are easily available.
Sahara is freaking huge!
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OH my Wife supports my flight sim habit, she just thinks i’m insane, especially when I spend 2+ hours setting up the sim for 30 minutes of actual flight time…
Insanity - something utterly foolish or unreasonable
As for flight planning, I use SkyVector and Navigraph. If your flying Seattle up into Western BC, I recommend heading north around the western side of Vancouver Island, past Port Refrew and Tofino, then around Cape Scott and come south flying low through Johnson Straight, pass Campbell River into the Georgia Straights. Then head east from Vancouver and up into the Fraser Canyon… Enjoy.
That California isnt really burning! 