I was wandering around the forums, especially the " What did you do in MSFS today? (Part 2)" forum and I was struck by something interesting - the sheer variety of interests in simming.
Some people like to take aircraft and see how small a space they can land in a forest without wrecking the plane. (And it’s not always deliberate! )
Others fly these gigantic beasties of commercial airliners that have more knobs and indicators than a nuclear power station.
Others grab a classic aircraft and “boldly go where no aircraft has gone before”. (@ZILLNIAZI17, I’m talking to you. )
Then there are those that challenge “old skool” propliners like the McDonnell Douglas DC-3 through the DC-7 or experimental aircraft like the Rutan EZ.
Balloons, helicopters, it’s all good fun, though some of the aircraft are like wrassling an armload of snakes. . .
Thank you for that lovely testimonial, sir. I stand honoured.
Thank you for watching and liking my flying closely. I really appreciate that.
Blue skies and tailwinds to you, Captain!
P.S: By the way, I am not going to upgrade to MSFS 2024. It’s certainly not for me. It has been deployed to turn the serious hobby of flight simulators into a game for one and one reason alone: MONEY. And it was certainly not Microsoft’s idea.
And when passion is lost and money comes in first, we all know where that leads.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think I’d have to go with general sightseeing. I love it. From places I could never dream of going to, to flying over my own town over and over again. I love the views from above.
I think my second favorite thing about flight simming is just the variety itself. Two days ago I was down low buzzing over farm fields in the Powrachute. Yesterday I took the Draco X over Asheville, NC and explored all the forested hills. Other times I’ll set up a longer flight in the Beaver or DC-3 and simulate a cargo run. Every day can be a different experience, and it’s a blast.
I’ve seen comments like this and it’s entirely confusing to me. It provides everything 2020 did, and even more so. Along with better trees and lighting, making for a visually more stunning world that you can be more immersed in, they’ve implemented better physics, and it also goes much further with flight planning, and the EFB is fantastic. Aside from the considerable amount of bugs and performance issues currently, 2024 is everything 2020 was and more from a simulation aspect.
The mere fact the MSFS 2024 streams from the servers is off-putting. Did they ever think that people could be living in parts of the world where the Internet is not so fast? How would they stream it?
Visiting parts of the world I know, or parts of the world I don’t know.
One thing stands out for me. In 1981, I went on holiday to Corfu as a child. I vividly remember one particular little beach we went to on that holiday, a really picturesque little cove. I decided to try and find that cove in Flight Simulator, based entirely on 43 year old memories.
I found it.
That sort of thing is what I love about this game.
Drinking a cold beer waiting for the sim to load (MSFS2024).
Then having the ability to pick an aircraft and fly anywhere in the world, whether that be just flying around locally in C172, or taking to the skies in an airliner. Then making a perfect landing, sometimes!!
Sometimes my brain goes into Walter Mitty mode and I conjure up some scenario where I’m hauling something like a load of “The Captain” out of TISX headed on a short hop to TNCM where it will be delivered to the Sunset Bar. Another scenario that justifies flying something with extra seats is just chartering rich vacationers from one resort to another, or a restaurant owner and kitchen staff from Austin to Galveston to talk to a shrimp boat owner about a supply deal. Other times it just sightseeing over the mountains, like a hop from Innsbruck to Sion.
Bad wx- the badder the better, and ILS approaches and landing. Because so much of the sim ATC is flawed many of the approaches become a real challenge. Fun!
Virtual touring. IFR practice. Challenging approaches and landings. Flying airplanes I’ll never fly into places I’ll never fly. Mentoring people who want to learn more about flying. Sharing it all in real time with a fun community.
They removed AI pilot, hangar, estimated trip length on globe, save and load flight, go to approach and other parts of trip.
Worse:
The map while flying is worse, the performance is worse, the user interface is worse, there are more bugs with first party aircraft, the external hud is worse, the controls are worse, eclipses are worse.
Missing and worse currently but hopefully not permanently:
Can’t locally install anything, can’t disable content, all third party non aircraft content is disabled, not all aircraft are transferred eg zero just flight, marketplace is disabled- particularly annoying for people new to the sim since black Friday sale is on.
And majority of what you named are bugs and temporary issues, which is why I said aside from those things. We’re all well aware of the current problems. But once things get sorted out this will be a better sim than 2020, no doubt about it.
My favorite part of flight simming is letting me virtual live out a dream. My Grandfather was a contemporary of Cessna, Beech and Stearman, barnstormed in the ‘20s, was the lead designer for Pheasant Aircraft company, was a U.S. Marine aircraft mechanic, was an instructor in the Civillian Pilot Training Program teaching the Marine Corp Ace Joe Foss , became a crop duster and airport manager till he passed away in the 60s. My eyes kept me out of becoming a pilot in the military so I ended up driving ships in the U.S. Coast Guard for twenty years.
Flight simming lets me enjoy the classic aircraft of the 30s and 40s, and in a manner letting me enjoy the thrill of flight that my grandfather so enjoyed throughout his career. Also being semi-retired keeps me active in learning about aviation, avionics and providing a mental challenge trying to fly as close to reality in this virtual world.
Mine used to be flying with a magnificent group of guys on a private server, especially using “shared cockpit” to either observe the other pilots, watch the scenery from around 1000 ft AGL, or teach a new ‘student’ about flying (X real life CFII, MEL COMM, INST.)
Since 2020 is lacking in so many of FSX features and the major glue that held the group together passed away (RIP Michael Greenblatt ), I barely fly anymore, probably less than 50 hours in the last 4 years.
One of my favorite things was to create custom flight plans of about 1 1/2 hours that would take the group over scenic areas to share the experience, adjust the altitude to keep us low enough to see it all, use the AP for hands off flying so we could all enjoy the scenery.
With Mike passing the group broke up eventually. When FSX got replaced I hoped for the best, bought all new controls (HoneyComb A&B), new PC from NewEgg, Bought MS 2020, loaded it up, tweaked it, was blown away with the graphics, then got bored after a few weeks, and now collects dust while waiting for MS/Asobo to add back missing features.
Now I wait until either they make 2024 playable or the group decides to get back together. I actually heard from one guy yesterday that bought 2024 and is working on it so maybe there is hope yet, we shall see!
)