Hello, I’ve been playing RFS for a few days now. I really enjoy ‘playing’ it.
I know Infinite Flight has more realism to it. Which I thought I’d like to explore.
But is there a way to just fly from and to somewhere, without setting waypoints, without manual planning, without using SimBrief… I just want to ‘play’ it. I can look at the realism stuff next, but I just want to fly, with the AP taking me there, and the APPR landing me itself. Stuff like these… do I have to set them up manually? All of it?
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you can use heading to control the direction the plane is heading in but you will need to set up appr
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Just go to the map, tap your destination and add that to the flight plan. LNAV will then take your directly their. You will have to either land visually or set up the ILS and vector yourself onto the approach though. You will also have to control your altitude and spped (wheither manually or by adjusting the autopilot).
I mean, you did download Infinite Flight Simulator.
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@JeppyG welcome to the community!
Flying by dead reckoning navigation is so well suited to IF, I use it all the time (or not infrequently anyway). You ideally should always have a sense of where you are and how you would switch to flying manually to the end of the flight if needed and have the practiced skill to be able to do so.
Before GPS, VOR’s, NDB’s, ILS and inertial navigation technology, there was only dead reckoning combined with your skill of manually getting back on the ground again.
Automation clearly increases safety by reducing workload fatigue (Charles Lindberg fell asleep while hand flying across the Atlantic if my memory is not flawed, before waking suddenly to avert disaster).
In IF you can rely on automated navigation and landing but have ample scope to practice flying by-the-seat-of-the-pants as necessary to be truly competent with automation or when automation fails for whatever reason.
IF has more than ample ground detail resolution to fly by dead reckoning. I’m often taking off and flying by external visual reverence alone, according to familiar or identifiable land references.
Full disclosure: I’ve never used SimBrief (but think maybe I should, to be more well rounded), I learned to fly irl without GPS, I worked as an engineer on GPS (though was more attached to other space bound systems), I’ve tried RFS and found it a bit too distant from actual flight experience compared to IF.
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Hey there, welcome to the community! If you really want to ‘play’ IF, I recommend you go try the challenges, like the Grand Canyon dash or the Paro approach. I really enjoyed those. :)
Have a great day!
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Hello guys. Thank you for your responses.
So I fly in RFS for a little bit of fun while working, and I can be afk on RFS while A/P is on. I’m not an IRL pilot obviously. I have no idea what the half of the abbreviations mean. I just want to fly for fun because I want to enjoy the sceneries, I want to enjoy as if I’m a passenger IRL/but also a pilot.
I enjoy the ATC thingy in RFS even if it’s just the AI on Single Player (but I play Multiplayer for points).
But I wanted to switch to IF because of power-saving, because I’ve done some research and it’s said it’s more real. Because it has a more in depth user guide (which I have to use a lot of mindpower to read). Because it looks so good. And because my device doesn’t lag so much with IF.
But now I’m worried that it’s too real that I can’t fly in it lol. I’d give it a chance. I paid for one month anyway.
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RFS has WAYYY more bugs than IF.
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I might agree. But at least I can play that. :D
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Welcome to the IFS forum @JeppyG
If you just want to “play” and fly from “Airport A” to “Airport B” you have two options.
Option A
If you want a bit of a hands on experience, take off from from your origin airport and manually use the heading selector “HDG” to navigate your way towards your destination. If you change the heading and immediately open the map, you will see a line show up for a few seconds showing you the heading you are going to turn towards. You can then use the “ALT” button to set the altitude.
Option B
If you prefer to use the autopilot “AP” more, the before you start your flight, open the map, go to the airport you want to set as your destination and click on it, a pop-up will appear and click on the “+” sign and you will automatically get a point to point route from your origin to destination. After you take off, click on the “LNAV” button, set your altitude with the “ALT” button, set your speed with the “SPD” button (250kts or less below 10,000 ASL and 250kts+ <320kts) above 10,000ft ASL.
Hope that helps…?
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Depends, I tried it last week….
Overall experience was good. At least I did not come across any bugs so far….A lot more functionality in RFS. But physics are unrealistic, subscription is costly, graphics are more cartoon like. The only thing I wish IFS had from RFS was the checklists, diverse lighting options and lighting reflecting off of the surroundings.
That helps, might try the LNAV.
Any pointers for landing?
It seems like I have to know that particular airport’s landing procedure etc etc.
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Only thing RFS has above IF is more aircraft systems.
And bugs 😂 as you said
Sending you a DM with landing tips and tricks. A bit unorthodox so many here might not like it and get a bit vocal.
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I don’t want this post to be an IF vs RFS thing.
In fact, I WANT to enjoy IF. I WANT the realism vs what RFS has.
And the fact that it looks and runs better on my phone is a big plus.
Now…
It’s like I will want/like IF if I know what I’m doing. But it’s not as intuitive as RFS.
So yeah. I’m at that place. It’s not an IF thing, it’s a me thing.
If after 30 days I’m still not where I want to be, I might settle with RFS.
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If you have a doubts or need some help, ping me. I’ll either send you a written guide or add screenshots also
RFS is capped at 30 fps and lags more than my IF at 60 fps. Max graphics on both
my phone can’t run max graphics on RFS lol it heats up too much and lags on busy airports
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It’s poorly optimized.
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This seems to be a key theme in your messages?
It certainly is a fair point to consider. Also, as you stated:
I think that’s not a bad thing, especially since no one should ever expect you to know everything all at once.
And IF doesn’t by any means expect you to unaturally learn faster than what humans are capable of:
hence:
Solo Flight Mode
Casual Server
Training Server
Expert Server, and
IFATC certification,
IFAET and prospects for beyond…
abundant IFC member eagerness in wanting to help.
And close proximity to staff completely aligned in wanting to provide an experience to help you learn in a way that is most useful and rewarding.
And, really quite important, the extra reality doesn’t come at the expense of dry seriousness. It’s, can I say this(?), it’s more fun because it’s more real.
Never feel overwhelmed by the prospect of too much info (there’s always the 80/20 principle of irl which applies to everything: we absolutely don’t need to be perfect in all things most of the time, if ever. But that doesn’t contradict a desire and need for increasing one’s levels of competency as time goes by).
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