I am fairly new to MSFS and flight simming in general, besides using ProPilot waaaaay back in the day when I was a kid. To get familiar with the simulator (such as doing screenshots and finding my ideal key and stick binds) and the TBM 930 (awesome little plane), I’m doing a World Tour. I started in Sacramento, CA and headed down the coast to San Diego and just landed in La Paz, Mexico. Next, I’ll cut over to Guadalajara and then down to Acapulco, with the idea to continue into South America, then back up into the Caribbean and back into the U.S. towards Canada, Greenland, then Europe and Africa. Then I’ll finish off by heading into the Middle East, Asia, and back down into North America through Alaska, eventually ending back in Sacramento.
That first landing in San Luis Obispo was…rough. Oof. But I’m slowly getting better as I learn the aircraft.
In any case, one of the things that has struck me so far is just how wide open and empty everything is, especially in some parts of Mexico. I was doing some research last night on getting around the Tibetan Plateau (I know, that’s a long ways away), and again the same thing: beautiful area, but also very empty.
So, in your respective world tours, what have you discovered? What stands out the most for you? Also, if you’d like to offer any tips for my own tour, I’m all ears! I’m keeping a semi-detailed log in Excel and really enjoying BushTalk, both the information clips and the local radio stations.
Generally try to go West to East if possible and make full use of all winds and jet streams in your favour even if that means waiting a bit for the right conditions
Everywhere feels longer and slower than you expect
Don’t be afraid to cut your sectors in to smaller chunks
Make sure you have the WU & any add ons for the area you’re flying in installed beforehand
Make sure you have an aircraft suitable to be used in both freezing & hot temperatures and that you know how to use these functions on the plane
The Sahara & Australian deserts are far more pretty than I expected
Excellent advice. Thank you! So far the TMB seems to be doing well, but of course I’ve only just started and haven’t really experienced any extremes yet.
I did decide to make the run from La Paz to Guadalajara tonight and I failed to check the weather. The surprise rain and last minute visibility of the runway made things interesting.
Awhile back, I followed the route that Amelia Earhart took. I used the Beechcraft Baron G58 because the speed is similar to the Lockheed 10A. I simulated each leg, used live weather and journaled it. I researched the route prior to my flight using the same airfields she did. Many airstrips were no longer there so I used the ones that were closest to the actual departing and landing sites.
My recommendations:
Take your time. I recommend keeping your legs manageable. It’s a big world and you will get bored. To keep boredom at bay, research your route’s geography and local history. This makes for a more interesting site seeing experience.
Use the auto pilot for long stretches. This reduces fatigue. Manually fly as much as possible especially landings.
Fly VFR. The point is discovery.
Use live weather. If the local conditions are IFR don’t fly. This adds to the experience.
Pay attention to fuel usage. Make sure you have enough with a 30 minute reserve for your leg.
Listen to local radio stations if available. This adds to the experience. These can be streamed live.
Don’t feel like you’re in a hurry. If you can’t fly for a week, don’t. Take the time to enjoy the experience.
Journal each leg. What you saw, time of flight, fuel usage, and anything you feel relevant.
Manage your own navigation. Try dead reckoning if you’re up to it.
There is much excellent advise in this thread already. On a long route I like to fly a leg every other day, doing the flight planning in between and maybe a short exploration of the area, perhaps in a different aeroplane for a change. The challenge a ‘flight adventure’ provides for me adds immensely to the enjoyment of flight simulation. Personal favourites are Australia and Africa, but I have come to realise there is fabulous scenery to be found everywhere in the world.
I haven’t done a world tour, but I’ve lead/streamed eight group tours (ranging from 5 to 12 three hour flights each) following US highways end to end. In researching and compiling the programming for each segment, I’ve discovered a lot more about the history of this country and why people and places are where they are. The world is an amazing place and this sim is fantastic for tying together the historical and current connections between physical and cultural geography.
I completely agree. Your idea sounds awesome; being local to Northern California, I’ve always wanted to hop on 50 and drive it all the way to the East Coast. I saw elsewhere that someone did a tour of the capitals in each state. That might be added to my bucket list as well!
Haha, greetings from another NorCal native! US-50 was the second chapter in The Roads Less Traveled. We used a Cessna 337 Skymaster and went from Sacramento to Ocean City, MD over the course of about 10 days, IIRC. It was an absolute blast going from the Sierras into the Great Basin, crossing several National Parks in Utah, into the Rockies, then out across the plains (which actually provided way more content than I had figured), across the Mississippi, up the Ohio, into the Appalachians and down into the Tidewater. We’ve also crossed the country longitudinally twice more, well, partially at least on US-90, then fully on US-2, with a foray into Canada along the way. The rest have been north-south highways from border to border or thereabouts.
Today I made it to Mexico City. Listening to local stations along the way has been a blast. There was quite a bit of haze in the air, but some beautiful sights along the way. As I came into CDMX, I decided to switch off ATC and buzz Teotihuacan, the site of the ancient Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. I have seen them in real life, so I thought this might be kind of fun.
Alas, as you can see in the picture, the sim has interpreted the satellite imagery in a bit of a…strange…manner. Haha! Nonetheless, a fun day for flying. Tomorrow or the next day, on to Acapulco.
I’ve done 3 or 4 world tours now and I’ve discovered that there is a sameness to the trees, buildings, farms, the colour of the water in rivers and lakes in every country all over the world that is not a true representation of the real world and so becomes quite boring after a while.
Pretty useless for sightseeing (except for the PG areas) if all you see is the same generic stuff over and over.
Wow. Thank you for starting this thread. I have only just purchased an Xbox Series X and Flight Sim but this is exactly the kind of exploring I am hoping to do once I get more competent.
As somebody who is more interested in the exploring/ sight seeing experience than the actual aeroplanes themselves, all the replies in this post are inspirational and giving me ideas for my own exploration.
For the time being though I had better concentrate on just being able to find the airport I have taken off from again in my little Cessna!!
I will keep following this post, and good luck with your adventure
Hopefully this is something that will be better in MSFS 2024. On the dev streams they’ve talked about 20+ different biomes, and seasons too. Should jazz it up a bit.
