Hi guys. I was just wondering, all you fellow 'bus drivers' out there, if you do longhaul flights do you do them all at once or in bits? Also what do you do to keep you occupied? Bit of a pointless question but it just got me thinking. Thanks

Born_2_fly   
England

in fs2002 with the sim rate at 16X i sleep with my finger on the "1" key to handle the ATC handoffs. it takes a while to get ur reflexes up to the point where u can hit "1" two times while ur half asleep

Stick the autopilot on and then go out. Come back a few hours later and then crash the plane.

LOL This is why I would never make an airline pilot. I start getting bored after 5 minutes of straight & level flight in real life, never mind in FS.

Now where did I spot that bridge?

What's fun is to do the climb like most airline pilots do, manually. Most small airliners, regional jets, turboprops, biz jets, and private airplanes climb by hand. 747s and stuff don't, they are too inefficient, but it's very effecient to jack the throttle on a 737 way up, point that nose high in the sky, and blow a 6,000 fpm climb rate at points.

I take it you file VFR then so ATC doesn't cancel your plan? lol. On the hauls from NYC/Boston to London, Shannon, and Paris I just get me a Big Red, a magazine or two, and sit back and enjoy the ride. On Los Angeles to Sydney (which is a wonderfully long flight) I usually speed it up to 4x. I flew it at 1x one time and that is a little boring. There are no fun little random things to do in FS. In reality, the copilot keeps you entertained, along with your flight attendants, your food, your coffee, ATC, clearances, weather, typical autopilot and FMS problems, and passengers (in two forms, talking to them and then having to tell them to calm down). And damn is turbulence a fun little ride in reality!

I fly from KALB to KTPA and back alot. It's about a 2.5 hour flight. I will usually fly the 737-400 or the Learjet. Real weather has a big impact on flight times here.

Any number of things keep me going. I like long flights because it makes me work hard for a perfect landing. After flying 2+ hours you really want to nail the landing.

Scenery is a big reason too. FS2002 has done a good job representing my home airport , KALB, so when I fly back I think I get a feel for what real pilots see. I also think that the places I fly to are just as good.

Seeing my plane in flight is high on the list. I have active camera, so seeing the plane in a turn at FL320 with the contrails above and ground below makes it fun for me.

Other airplanes keep it fun too. I using PAI, and seeing real airlines in my sim helps me forget that I'm sitting in front of my computer.

Overall, there is always something going on in the sim, so I never get bored.

I am ready to fly to Europe. Mastering the 747 is another story.