Ok, in reality, I’m not sure you can fly like the crow from Midway to DuPage airport. Something tells me there are all sorts of airspace restrictions involved in that trip, and I’m sure I’ll learn about that in the future, but I did it in a Cesna 172 in X-Plane last night.
I was amazed by the scenery. I dialed in DuPage’s VOR (which I think I understand how to use) and combined with what I knew about the approximate heading, I made the trip with no problems. I spotted Fermilab’s rings before I saw the runways, but hey, landmarks are good right? Unfortunately my landing was crap and bouncy. I had the sim checking the real-time weather, so rain and crosswind were just part of the reality of the experience.
What amazed me most was how immersed I became. I have a 24″ iMac, so the screen is pretty stellar, but between watching the panel and trying to navigate over land, I completely lost track of time. If X-Plane wasn’t set to sync sim time with real time, and thus follow the setting sun, I would have been flying for hours and hours last night. But when it got dark out (and in the sim) I figured it was a good time to call it quits.
However, before the sun set, I did play around with the built in 747. Really a breeze to get off the ground compared to the Cessna (like I know how to really fly…). I sorted out the autopilot and the flight computer, but my only complaint is that the text input to the flight computer sucks. You have to type with the mouse by clicking on letters and numbers. I wish there were a way to switch to a keyboard interface for that.
So far I’m extremely pleased with my purchase. For sheer sightseeing purposes, I think I’m going to fly from Vegas to Death Valley tonight. In X-Plane, of course.
I’d like to hear more about your experiences with X-plane as you get more into the software. Just last night I practiced an upcoming night cross country (in FSX) to get a feel for what I might see (city light patterns, major highways, etc). Before I started my flying lessons I flight simmed alot (and I mean a ton), once you taste the real thing it changes how you approach flying on your computer. That said, I think flight sims can be used as an integral part of your flight training (practicing checklists/flows, VOR navigation, etc). Best of luck to you.
Thanks for the comment Michael. I’ll definitely include X-Plane experiences here. There are still so many things happening all at once in the sim that I’m not sure I know what most of it is, but slowly the murky waters are beginning to clear. My goal for my sim time right now is to focus on navigation more than anything else, given how complicated the airspace around Chicago seems to be.
Besides, it’s not such a huge deal if you get lost in a sim right?