Hello there! So we all know that when it comes to flying in Infinite Flight, particularly on the Expert Server, there’s a huge bias towards the modern aircraft. You don’t see very many passenger MD-11’s around, for example, or even a lot of support for former aviation giants, such as the 707. But why is that?
To answer that question, I chose to ask it to myself. I found that it sums up to this: Relevancy. We like planes, we like to fly, and we follow aviation. Modern planes are just that, modern, so the vast majority of airlines operate them. As such, they’re everywhere. When going to an airport, flying, or watching the latest news, those are the planes we see. So naturally, they come to mind and are familiar to us when we choose what aircraft to fly. It really is quite natural. If I live in the United States, I’m likely to fly U.S. airlines to American airports since that’s what I’m familiar with. On the other hand, with older aircraft it’s just the opposite. They’re hardly used anymore, and as such are simply not as familiar. We aren’t as familiar with their operators or routes, and since we don’t see them, we don’t really fly them. Out of sight, out of mind.
Now for those of us who chose to make a flight as realistic as possible, there’s no solution to this. For the most realistic of flights you just have to use a current aircraft. But as for the relevancy of aircraft, I have found a great way to keep some of the classics close to heart. Runway Action by Just Planes on YouTube. I discovered this channel last year, and it’s been a great way to earn some greater appreciation for older aircraft. In my personal case, I used to care very little for aircraft or airlines of the early 90’s and 2000’s. Now I am more familiar with them and have a grown a greater passion than ever!
Here’s a video of plane spotting at New York La Guardia from 2000. They also have current plane spotting on their channel!
Thank you for your kindness, consideration, and time!
Quite honestly, I don’t really fly too many legacy aircraft because they don’t have live cockpits. After flying with live cockpits it’s pretty hard to go back to the HUD in a cockpit with frozen instruments. Most legacy aircraft that you mentioned - and even some relatively modern ones like the CRJs and the Dash - have static cockpits and that’s a huge turnoff for me. Nothing to do with how often they fly or how “relevant” they are. But that’s just my own preference.
Great topic, man! It’s obviously well thought out and written very nicely.
I mostly agree; I wish we saw more MD-11s around. @CaptainSooraj brought up a good point though; the lack of live cockpits can be a turnoff for a lot of users.
I do fly the cargo MD-11s decently often, as they fly to both of my hometown airports (PANC and KDFW).
It would be awesome if we could get things like the MD-80, 707, 727, etc.
I also think another reason is because the player base of IF is pretty young. Mostly early-mid teens. And seeing that these young’ins weren’t around when the old planes were in service, they probably would have less of a tendency to use them. I’ll admit I don’t fly them much either, but this has inspired me to start flying them more!
I do fly pmdg MD-11 on Vatsim I even had a home-cockpit project specifically for MD-11 but the one in infinite flight is not fulfilling my standards of quality, maybe if they make a rework. It’s a quite nice plane but they could at least add working displays…
Hi guys! Thanks for your wonderful replies! Not having live cockpits and all the other awesome features of the latest aircraft is certainly a big reason for why the older planes don’t appear as often, and I’d like to think it’s the main reason! But even some of latest planes in infinite flight lag behind others, such as the Monarch, Finnair, and DutchBird 757’s and AirTran 737, or even the old American livery.
The DC-10 and the 717 are probably my two favorite aircraft in the sim. I love all the older stile aircraft in the sim (and liveries), and I wish there were more.
A layman’s route method is to take an old aircraft and pair it with a similar new aircraft. For example, using an Aer Lingus MD-11 (if we had one) on current Shamrock A330 routes. Not perfect, of course, but can generally be applied.
