I remember doing the bush trip in the sim that was from end to end of the Appalachian Mountains, super impressive! Knew nothing about the area, have never been east of Arizona IRL myself.
Interesting how you mentioned photogrammetry, I’m on XBOX so everything’s a bit watered down, but it did sound like people were saying that certain areas/cities have better photogrammetry than others, curious why that is.
Your methodical approach is interesting, my brain is probably wired the same way lol, I may implement some of your process to cover the globe one day.
One thing that’s fun if you have the time, is to journal your favourite trips by googling real life images of the airports and POI’s on your route, then putting them together and keeping them. I tried it one or twice and it’s pretty fun to look at real world images of the locations and allow your mind imagine what the flight would’ve been like IRL.
I live in Sydney, Australia. I mainly fly in Australia and PNG (love bush flying in the caravan).
I used to do a lot of flying out of KIKK Greater Kankakee, because when I first got a flight sim (FS2004) I started the default flight out of Chicago Meigs Field, took off, flew south and landed at KIKK.
I then used that as my flight sim base for over 15 years.
But with MSFS live weather limitations I don’t do too much flying outside of my Timezone. Here’s hoping for some kind of historical weather feature with MS2024
Hi everyone, joining this thread to share my experience.
I’m French, and while I have traveled quite a bit in the past few years to various countries (Tunisia, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, Kenya), my favorite place to fly around is the Andes Cordillera, from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, on both the Chilean and Argentinean sides. (Since I have been living in Argentina for 2 years, it brings back a ton of memories.)
Meanwhile, in the simulator, I embarked on a world tour. (Don’t mind the two horizontal lines; they are bugs in the flight log where I crossed Alaska to reach Asia in the west.)
there are actually a few spots/countries I like to refly as well, such as Iceland (which is a destination I definitely wish to visit IRL) and Vancouver/Alaska with its spectacular glaciers. I’m also fond of flying around the Alps/Switzerland, but it’s a bit disheartening that there are blinking tiles glitches over there…
Currently, (in the sim !!!), I’m ferrying a C208 to New Zealand to explore an area I haven’t really flown in yet, just like Australia. So, I can’t provide any feedback on those areas yet
Orlando. Ofc I fly around here a lot but I really enjoy flying over places I’ve been. Turkey, Italy and Greece to name a few. I thought NZ was the most beautiful place on earth when I was there and so I fly down under a lot too. MS did a great job there, Sydney and Hong Kong approaches are fun too.
Nice write up! Sounds like you’ve having a lot of fun too. South America deserves some more attention in the sim doesn’t it! I remember doing the bush trip down in Chile along the coast, the glaciers are absolutely breath-taking at times. Reminds me of a show I watched too, the glacier area in real life looks like a different planet almost.
I checked out NZ when the WU released, back for a 2nd tour now. Started at the north and zig-zagging south, checking out all the hand-crafted airfields, NZA Simulation and Orbx did a remarkable job on them, many the terminals have modelled interiors, even the small ones like Westport (NZWS).
On my XBOX at least, it seems as though they improved the fidelity of some of the terrain/mountains too. I purchased the Mt. Cook package from NZA as well, the mountains looks noticeably more realistic, especially the infamous MSFS melting cliffs lol. They modelled a bunch of mountaineering “huts” in the area you can take a look at with a bush plane or maybe the Caravan too. There’s an ice field that’s relatively flat where they land helicopters IRL I think, take a plane that can be fitted with skis up there and see how much fun taxiing is!
I was just having fun with “The Prisoner” theme from the mach loop fly-in awhile back. It is a bit of a dead end though. Smaller than Regina. I’m going over the wall first chance I get.
Going to spend some time around Spokane before heading south. I want to see if I can spot the de-commissioned silos.
Not much to see. Just off the wingtip you can see the ramp going down.
I live just a few miles from KGSO, home to the HondaJet factory and soon Boom Supersonic - their factory is currently being built there too. I also fly out of W88 for local flights. Beyond that, I have a few fav’s on the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, and US west coast.
I too mostly travel in the areas I have travelled to personally. I am from Chilliwack BC, but I live in the Calgary area now. Consequently most of my flying has been in BC, especially the lower mainland, gulf islands and Vancouver Island, Alberta, Washington State, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The Northwest corner of North America feels like home, and I know a lot of the geography very well. It is really interesting to spot the little details included in the simulator. I fly in western Europe and Asia too, again mostly to places I am familiar with, but not always.
Very cool, what kind of speeds does the wind peak at around Calgary on live weather? I hear there’s some wild weather effects off the mountains? Chinook’s or something?
My “home” airport around here is UUMO, (Ostafyavo), that I use to fly around Moscow and points south - usually places I’ve been before.
Otherwise I fly places I’ve grown up in, but have moved away from, which pulls at the heart-strings when I remember all the friends I had, and those that I lost due to the 9/11 attacks and later on, Covid.
Then I fly places like Worcester or Boston Ma., because those are my stomping grounds when I’m back in the States.
I’ve tried the Crimean peninsula, but that hasn’t gotten much love in the sim.
My big problem is both a lack of patience and boredom. After about 15-30 minutes of flying, I get “antsy” and need to bail.
I really need to see other places, but the “challenges” and “Bush Trips” assume greater skill than I hope to have, (I have real “failure anxiety” issues), and I struggle with wondering where I should go next.
Yes, the terrain around there is not very accurate. I have custom airports for Sochi, Tbilisi, and Batumi. Georgia is very nice for flying but they hide much of the real terrain. Have you tried VR? This changes everything.
It can be pretty windy here. Try flying from Pincher Creek Alberta (CZCP, I think) sometime. The winds can be wicked! Calgary isn’t usually too bad. CYYC has a couple of massive runways, so you have a lot of room to make mistakes.
Hmm, interesting topic, born in the SE USA, but learned to Sim fly in Pacific NW well after spent 3 years in Hawaii, with short forage to Philippines, then Scotland for 3.5 years, but have not flown in that part of world yet. So mostly in PNW/Pacific Islands. Did one trip from Afghanistan to Jackson, MS in FSX-C-17 to see how that would be in RL. Actually now spend most time in SE practicing 737/747 to make sure I get it correct, before I do lots of flights with plan for round trip circle thing, so end up where I started. And as much failure as I’m having, it may be while before I get that started.
I used to visit CYQQ Comox in the sim fairly often, but I find Seattle-Nanaimo-Vancouver to be a nice loop in terms of flight time. I find the Tofino side of the island a bit boring.
That cafe is a license to print money; packed solid every day. We visit the ice-cream parlor more often.
I don’t feel the need to do long flights myself. I grew up on the prairies, and I flew over there once or twice. I got my PPL at Steinbach South CKK7 Harv’s Air. I even did a custom airport for it in FlightGear back in the day so I could practice. I find I keep coming back to a mix of water, cities and mountains in the sim.
I did it one or two weeks ago, very nice flight plan with detours offering spectacular views
