I have always wondered this as a month to a month and a half ago I saw someone flying a real world flight from LA to China. so the question is above.
Yes I try and do this as much as possible. I even will plan a real world flight in IF a week earlier and sometimes I will wake up really early in the morning to copy a real world flight lol
I’d say 99% of my flights are based off real-world. I also enjoy emulating real-time flights. Most times, I am usually off by a few minutes (just so I can see where and how the aircraft taxis, departs, lands, etc using FR24).
A good friend of mine was flying UA768 last summer from SFO-BOS on a 772. I figured it’d be awesome to mimic his exact same flight. This time, I tuned into ATC and followed the flight in real time +/- a few second delay. Probably my most successful attempt at a realistic flight. I followed the flight as much as I could on FR24 and LiveATC until I no longer could (during cruise), but tuned back in during approach. ‘Twas a ton of fun! I was slightly inaccurate but it’s still impressive nonetheless.
Lately though, because this takes a lot of effort and time, I don’t prefer to sit around listening for ATC so I do this on an occasional basis.
This specific flight was a challenge as well. There were some thunderstorms in the Boston area so ATC was vectoring aircraft off the usual approach plate to avoid them (hence the wonky looking approach path).
I, personally, try to have all of my flights be based on RL. Since I am not a part of a VA, I try to have all of my call signs as accurate as possible and I will only fly a route that Infinite Flight has the aircraft for. At some points it’s challenging, but on days like Thursday, when KLAS, KSNA, and KSJC were open (on the expert server of course), it is really easy to find a route. I also try not to fly a route that someone else is already flying if they have the accurate call sign, as this has caused confusion in the past for controllers when I am landing. For the route, I use SimBrief’s route, unless there is a RL route provided on FlightAware. It is also helpful to have a subscription to something like Navigraph, where I have access to the newest AIRAC data and all of the charts can be downloaded as well.
I actually build my own flight plans based off of the actual flight using sky vector. If I’m in a hurry, I use FPLtoIF since it mostly uses valid airways. Also, if there’s severe weather, I’ll follow a real life flight and try to avoid it like this:
Actual flight:
I use FPLtoIF and then flightradar24 to see how they execute it in the real world, so I could modify my waypoints as close to rl as possible.
But there’s a catch: I’d like to watch a live, ongoing flight on fr24 minutes before I mimic that flight (descend speed n all, the works!), particularly for challenging approaches, its like watching an interesting movie as your plans are being executed in real time by rl pilots somewhere in the world minutes before my own flight! :) :) :)