I’ve been close to many planes. But most of those are chilling around the airport or flying about in the airspace around the airport.
I’ve never had an encounter where I’m miles out from the airport and have another plane come “close” to my plane. Close enough that they actually render into view. Only 2 miles apart and 500 ft apart in altitude. (I was at 37,500)
it was an epic moment in my time as a virtual pilot.
What’s the closest you’ve been to another plane while in cruise?
Tbh, that’s not that close. I have in rare occasions collided with others mid-air during cruise, and had a lot of near-misses before
it’s the closest for me. Most of the time it’s usually 6 to 8 miles out from. So to be 2 miles close and they render in is amazing to me.
And also they turned red on the radar when I passed them. Not sure why but it happened.
If you’re within 3 miles and 1000ft vertical distance then it’ll show as red.
As an added note, how come?
I had it several times already that someone seemed to use the same waypoints like me, just in the other direction. But it was always with 1000 to 3000 feet altitude separation. I usually fly at FL380 and other plane was like FL360 +/-
I once saw it on YouTube, when this happens irl, pilots flash each other with landing lights as a greeting. I also did that hereon IF, but although the other pilots were active and not away or AP+, they didn’t flash back.
But I am not sure if one can see the landing lights in 2nm distance, when the landing gear is not deployed. This light is much brighter than the lights in the wings. But I’ll keep on greeting with landing lights, if it happens in future 
hey, it can be fun flying close to other planes but it might not have been too fun for the other pilot. im just telling you this for future reference and as a learning experience, cruising at altitudes with ‘500’ in it are only for VFR pilots.
your flight is an IFR flight and you should only be cruising at flat 1000. Example, 37000ft or 38000ft etc. by the looks of it, you’re on an easterly heading so you should be cruising at odd altitudes.
the most appropriate altitude for this flight wouldve been 37000 ft. either way, have fun and just take this as advice 
Also for people who fly 777 don’t fly to FL380 or more especially across EU since you are only gonna burn fuel for no good reason and mach speed at .84 or .85 if you are faced with strong headwinds.
Why was I at 37,500? I reached my cruising altitude and was cruising. Is there something wrong with being at that altitude?
Read two comments above you 
Yes, typically anything with 500 is reserved for flying VFR. If you’d been at an even thousand altitude, you wouldn’t have had the problem you had, because you would have been at least a thousand feet away vertically
Correct, the only exception to this rule is if you’re flying over China’s airspace, in which they added another 100ft (e.g. FL321, FL331, FL341, etc) to their cruising altitude. Otherwise, you should only be cruising at flat 1000.
Well except that there’s no VFR traffic in Class A airspace (>FL180)… so I’m pretty sure it’s okay, not typical but okay
Sorry…….. I’ve always flown at 500 intervals for as long as I’ve been a pilot in this game.
I never really liked flying at level 1000 ft for some odd reason.
well to avoid busting separation with other planes, you need to cruise at flat 1000
True, but I wasn’t citing VFR as a cause. The reason IFR stays at 1000 intervals is to avoid the problem above. Avoiding loss of separation is the reason why VFR traffic takes the 500 intervals. Of course, this is still a sim and therefore you are welcome to fly at 36,345 ft, but if we’re being realistic, then no.
damn that is CLOSE!
