Enjoy the little things

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The simple pleasure you can get from this sim amazes me at times.

This morning I had the urge to fly and figured I’d get in on the action down the Hawaii region. I planned my flight via sim brief and loaded into PHNL in TBM. After careful planning, I contacted ground, who sent me to a runway that was farther than I wanted, but instead of requesting another, I obliged to go for the longer taxi. Along my taxi to RW 08R in my little TBM I got the pleasure of seeing a few Boeings coming in to land right over head. Server seemed to be functioning well and it was a pleasure watch them descend to the touchdown.

Soon after, I departed on the SID and began my Journey to PHOG, a route which I have executed countless times in my time flying the sim. However, flying in this region seems to never disappoint.

Shortly after reaching my cruising altitude I start the process of planning my arrival and approach into Maui. Visibility is about 6sm with winds gusting to about 25kts.”Typical” I thought as I continued to plan. The arrival I was on instructed me to plan the ILS 02, so I entered this approach into my plan. Since there was no Approach or tower online I chose to perform the whole procedure, which called for executing a hold (which I needed to get to the proper altitude anyway) and then following the Glideslop and Localiser down to the DA of about 240 or so feet.

Next I made direct entry to the fix and performed one circuit in the hold from which I make my way inbound. Shortly soon after visibility decreases and I am in IMC. Fortunately I have LNAV activated and am following the glideslope almost perfectly. I get sight of the runway at about 5nm and proceed visually to the runway. The landing was firm with a slight bounce yet, otherwise stable. I quickly decelerated and excited the runway smoothly as there was Triple 7 traffic on final (forgot to mention that element).

I make the call that I am clear and head over to transient parking where I shut off the engines and enjoy watching the 777 (who ended up parking next to me lol) and a delta 737 land.

I got a large amount of satisfaction even from a simple flight like this. This flight encompassed many of the things that I find so awesome about aviation. I hope through reading this you may develop a deeper appreciation for this sim and the endless possibilities that it offers while it is still (in my opinion) in its infancy.

Hope you enjoyed the read

-Chad

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I can relate to this - sometimes a flight just feels different, and it’s so satisfying when that happens!

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i will say, the amount of unrealistic-ness of certain planes I saw bugged the crap out of me but it was nice having my two favorite airports have atc. and, OGG always has a good amount of wind haha

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That’s one of the reasons of why I did PHOG-PHNL and then I decided to do PHNL-PHLI and then for sure I decided to controll PHNL Ground and tower. This region is amazing 🤩

B717 Hawaïen 🌺 is an amazing and fun plane to fly (hard to land) hehe 🙃

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Exactly. I’d rather see it get traffic than be empty. And man I remember I used to fly in with the Citation and it would ALWAYS be windy. Think I actually performed my first true crosswind landing there.

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my first IRL landing and IF landing was there haha

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That’s so awesome

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This is why Infinite Flight is amazing, the little things. Last night I flew an Air France A350 from Tel Aviv to Paris, the views of Greece and Italy were incredible. Passing other flights along the way, fellow pilots flying to their virtual destinations. Flying in this game is always a pleasure for the most part!

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Beautiful. It’s fascinating how beautiful this simple sim can be at times.

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Great story Chad, I really do enjoy these types of moments.

For example this morning, I departed last night from San Francisco, in an Emirates 777 bound for Dubai. When I woke up this morning, I was over the Atlantic and able to see a Lufthansa 747 passing just 1000 feet below me. l was fascinated by the fact that this other pilot and I, crossing paths in the skies, headed to our own unique destinations around the world.

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I agree! I typically am the one to use airliners all the time (in fact, i’m flying KIAD-FACT rn), but when I take out the Cessna of TBM, it’s so relaxing to glide slowly overhead cities, mountains, beaches, etc.

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It’s always nice to change up the pace. Fortunately IF offers a decent opportunity to sim Commercial Airline Ops and/or GA. Love when both can mix in the same airspace.

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