I found myself recently getting into the habit of rushing taxiing and flights in IF and (unintentionally) treating it more like a ‘game’ than a realistic simulator. That was until I took a flight last week, and even though I fly regularly you forget how different real procedures are, so whenever I come back from a real flight I tend to recreate it and pilot more realistically in general (anyone else do this for the period after you’ve been on a flight?) But this time I’ve given myself some permenant tips that have made my IF flying experience much nicer.
Turn off player names and icons. I’ve noticed this makes ground work look so much more realistic. Other planes are harder to spot without their name or tag so it’s a nice suprise to see one, and it looks like it would in real life (see picture below).
Don’t rush. Many players just want to get a flight over and done with, I wouldn’t reccomend using the realistic advanced server to do this. This includes taxiing at a slower speed, say 20kts, or climbing out at 200kts. There’s no need to always hit the maximum 35kts / 250kts violation speeds. It looks so much smoother on the ground at a slower taxi speed.
Departure: don’t change from your runway heading straight after takeoff. Climb out on a straight heading for a period before turning. Many pilots just turn to their next waypoint straight away and could cut up traffic on a parallel runway next to them. This will also help ATC, so if appr/departure is active, wait for them to give you instructions before turning (if possible). ‘A minimum of at least 500ft before turning is correct’ (credit: @Laurens)
High speed runway exits. Take them if you can. You’d be surprised at what speeds some aircraft will pull off the runway. Be sure to take these if there is traffic on final.
Cockpit view: always try to fly in cockpit view. This is obvious as to why it makes it more realistic. Even try some landings without the HUD if you’re brave. I only use the normal view for taxiing as there are no taxiway maps.
Turn off the landing aid squares (fairly obvious) but try turning off the airport names and runway numbers too, it creates a nicer approach as you can see the runway better, especially when the runway lights are on! (Credit: @Sturmovik)
That’s all I’ve got, comment any others you’ve found. I’d suggest tip number 1 is the most important, it makes the experience so much better. And don’t worry, you can always check the map if you want to see player names.
I also highly suggest for a realistic experience, pick an aircraft and livery that corresponds with the region you are in! Too many aircraft from Paris flying in SoCal! Pick an aircraft that flies in that region!
No don’t request straight out if you plan on turning soon but my point is don’t turn Imediatelly after take off. If you read on it says I taxi in ‘normal view’ because there are no maps, but cockpit view at all other times. Turn off names and give it a try, it’s great trust me!
Oh turning after take off and turning right when you take off are two very different things. Yeah you shouldn’t be turning right after take off (unless you are using a sid or real world charts that tell you to)
Oh right of course, just turn using the rudder and pull down using the rudder brake function so you turn and brake simultaneously and if you exit at about 50kts you should be fine
Great tips, I follow most of those as I want to have a realistic flight as possible.
Only exception is that I keep the player names / dots in place. Only reason for this is I keep the aircraft count low so as to not cause lag when flying and I don’t want to taxi through someone I didn’t see!
Usually taxiing at 15-20kts, and climbing with +2000 - 2500 ft/m Vertical Speed and ~200kts Airspeed until I’ve done all big turns and I’m heading towards my destination, then I accellerate to 245kts for the case I’ve not reached 10,000ft yet. This is also the point I turn my seat belt signs off.
I’m used to do this, perhaps a little wing-wave and a small turn away from the airport. Sometimes this is even done in real life, I’ve experienced it myself. It was last tuesday, April 12th and my flight (VY1814) directly made a left turn out of LEBL after climbing to 500ft. And pretty much every plane departing did so.
I usually use highspeed turnoff taxiways if available, even if there’s no traffic on final.
I just like getting off a runway with 60kts and braking on the exit.
Departure / Landing: always cockpit view, for the departure I usually have my HUD disabled, for landing only if there’s good visibility and only little wind. I usually don’t use the HUD on props (besides the Dash).
Mid-air I’m used to have my camera to passenger mode, quite fun as well.
