I’ve bought the online version of the game with my Christmas money and was disappointed to see I have to be grade two in order to be a controller. I’ve read advice about doing long flights and touch and goes and was wondering what the most effective way was. I have a few questions:
if I was doing touch and goes, could I alternate what airports I was landing at. for e.g. landing runway 05 at Glasgow and taking off bound for edi runway 06, taking off there for runway 23 at Glasgow again?
if I was doing a long flight, how long is long. I could fly eddf–ksfo during the night and wake up to land. is this a good idea.
-what is the best plane for touch and goes and what is the best airport(S).
Touch and goes get landing count up alongside XP which is a huge benefit.
Long hauls get a lot of XP in relation to time spent actually having to hand fly/give attention to your flight, however it is low XP per x amount of time overall [compared to touch and goes].
KDEN is the typical ‘best’ airfield for touch and goes. Using 4 runways will allow you to do somewhere around 3 landings per minute with a bit of practice. I’d recommend doing long haul flights if you’re looking to go about it more realistically though 😉
What I did when I wanted to level up is during my free time I’d do pattern work at KLAX (Just a personal preference. 25R then touch and go at 07R and vice versa). Then when I was busy (includes working, going out, sleeping) I’d launch a long-haul flight, preferably off the coast of some continents, meaning that there are a lot of airports that I can land at quickly, instead of risking of miscalculating my time or hitting a massive headwind and not arriving as expected.
Please note that these methods should be kept to casual server to ensure of no ghosts and/or violations.
As mentioned, it won’t take you long at all to become a Grade 2.
It’s cool you like to Air Traffic Control on Training Server. To prepare here are some good YouTube ATC Training videos.
To start off I can recommend the Ground control, Tower control videos and the videos on sequencing.
Have fun and welcome to IF Live!
Definitely get those long hauls in over night. Check out Sim Brief is you want to set up some realistic routes. Then do your touch and goes when you can be at the controls - TBM or the a10 are great for it. I’d suggest you keep pushing for Grade 3 so you can get on the expert server and learn from the pros controlling there.
I recommend touch and goes, and just landing/taking off…
Those are the fastest ways to level up, but you shouldn’t do those.
I understand that you want to level up, but don’t do it the fast way. When I was a grade 2 close to becoming a grade 3, I started touching and going at LAX all day. I would get hundreds of xp per flight!
Then, a few weeks later, I got grade 3. I was happy, took a screenshot, and even called myself “justgotgrade3”. Unfortunately, that joy and pride were quickly washed away by the shame I had because I didn’t really deserve them. I felt bad, and I regretted not having leveled up the “right” way.
IF is a great sim. Enjoy it! It is realistic, fun (and slightly addictive) :)! Take your time, Enjoy flying on this great sim! Don’t waste your time touching and going because that’s boring, and when you level up, you will not feel that good and proud!
Just fly, don’t make the mistakes I did in the past…
Enjoy IF!
Thank you
-Robertine
To be fair though, landings are a critical skill and touch and goes are a legitimate way to practice. There’s certainly lots more to learn, so I’m not advocating only doing it, but it is part of the toolkit.
I’d rather level up doing T&G’s all day then “flying” for hours on end. Really, you’re not flying if you have auto pilot on. Takeoffs and landings are where the skill is and that’s where people should be practicing.
With that being said, you should be doing those weekly on top of your normal flights.
Touch and goes at PHJR in the spitfire. Takeoff from 04L, make a tight turn and land on 22L. Take off from 22L and fly runway heading untill you can make another tight turn to land in 04L. Repeat Repeat and repeat. You can make 1,000xp in 10 minutes of flight time.
When I was trying to get levelled up I went to KEDW although any major multi-runway airport will work. but keep in mind for it to count as a landing you have to be on the ground for I believe 10 seconds before becoming airborne again.
Another good idea is to fly in bad weather so if you find somewhere with bad weather then just flying around for a bit that usually gets lots of XP.
Finally if you are going to do Long Haul don’t expect too much XP. In my case I was quite disappointed. EGLL - KLAX = 2000XP