Flight Distances

[SeanTK]

Just a question out of curiosity that was inspired by the helicopter flight distances thread of a few days ago.

While my FS time has been rather limited over the past couple of months, I have noticed that in general my flight distances have been shrinking noticeably in radius even if I have an entire afternoon to fly as much as I want!
I used to be content flying over 300nm flights in any variety of reasonably quick aircraft (jetliners, fast commuter class aircraft, etc) , but now I'd be hard pressed to push close to that unless I'm in something very, very swift.

Lately I've been doing helicopter hops over the Pacific Northwest (Orbx of course), and some light turboprop operations (PMDG Jetstream) in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (and Northeastern Quebec) or the US Northeast Megalopolis, of no more than 150nm at the absolute most.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City_–_Windsor_Corridor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis

While some may consider the Jetstream complex, I've found that I can get it going in an awfully short amount of time, and lately I've had no desire for the more complex systems out there, like my Tu-154.

Just wondering what kind of distances most here find themselves flying on an average day.

 

[fliger747]

Actually not too many completed flights as I mostly do test and development work, and do many short segments to test particular parts of the fliht envelope.

I did once do a real time 747-400 flight KHSV-VHHH before doing the same flight in the real plane, 18 hours.....

Yes the choppers are fun!

T

 

[kjb]

I prefer the low and slow aircraft and something within a 200 mile range, most of the time. A typical flight would be visual without GPS or VOR. It could be in a Cub or Cardinal, generally over a photo scenery with decent landmarks. I lean toward aircraft that I might actually be able to buy versus something I couldn't afford in my wildest dreams. If I decide to fly a longer cross country, I'll go ahead and use VORs or the GPS and autopilot, like the time I flew from KBLI to KPRC.

One of the best flights was just from Bellingham to Forks in real time weather. The weather closed in before I reached Forks and I had to divert and find the ILS at Port Angeles. By the time I got there, the wind was nasty and the wrong direction, but I could see the airport for a visual landing. I was sweating when I got it on the ground and thinking "what a ride" without leaving my chair at home

 

[Bone]

When it comes to flightsim, I don't do distances. I do time, which is roughly limited to 15 minutes per flight in one of the following three areas: solo aerobatics, formation flying, or down low and fast in rolling/mountainous terrain. Depending on when I'm home and what I've got going on, I may be able to squeeze in one or more 15 minute simming blocks into the day.

I don't count Beta testing as flightsimming, because it's too focused on micro tasks such as looking for visual flaws, system flaws, or performing a specific flight manuever over and over.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

For most of the year my flights tend to be short in terms of miles as I like going up and down better than sitting at altitude on AP and staring out of the window. I fly hop lists online with friends and we will tend to do several hops strung together so the distance is generally short between take-off and landing but we may fly together for several hours so the miles accumulate.

For three months of the year that changes to longer leg lengths as we practice and then take part in the annual 'Round the World Race'. During that period the leg lengths increase to 750 Nm (the leg limit in the race) but there are usually trans-oceanic flights to consider too.

 

[robert41]

Depends a lot on what Iam flying and where. What I feel like flying today. I like to fly real world historic flights. Lately I have been learning the sextant and flying some long over the ocean flights. Otherwise, usually, some days for an hour or two, other days maybe 12hrs at a sitting. Distance could be anywhere from 20 to 2000nm.

 

[FAC257]

I tend to go for time in the air versus distance flown. The longer the flight, the more satisfaction I seem to get out of it when I'm detailing out my log book.

In my last 20 logged flights, only 5 are of less than 3 hours. Most are in the 7-10.5 hour range and the longest at 14 hours.

FAC

 

[Dain Arns]

I fly helicopters, so unless its a Chinook or Sea Stallion for example, it's about two hours and however far I get in that time.
Although I must confess, I'm still flying the RealAir Lancair Legacy a lot.
You can cover a lot of ground in that machine.

 

[falcon409]

Up until 2007 I was strictly Fighters (probably because I was still in the AF and had that "Need for Speed", lol). For that reason distance wasn't a factor and flights of 300-1000nm were common place. After that though I started switching from time to time to GA but they still had to be capable of at least 200kts and the distances dropped to no more than 300nm. I have a few ultralights that I fly periodically around the Orbx scenery I have and we're talking about individual flights of less than 50nm. I don't fly Commercial stuff at all and never venture into major hubs unless I see something interesting, which I haven't thus far, lol, so extended flights of a commercial nature are not something I will ever do.

One thing I have tried many times to accomplish is flying an extended flight of 100 to 200nm in something like a Cub or Cessna 150/172. Just can't do it, after about 50 or 60 miles of that low and slow stuff I've hit the "R+" keys and sped up the sim speed to get it over with, lol.

 

[Pips]

Almost all my flight time (easily 80%, if not more) is spent flying vintage or 1930's aircraft. So flight distance doesn't really rate with me.

But I do spend at least an hour, often 1½ - 2 hours in the air when I do fly. Mind you, even in aeroplane's like the Bleriot XI, Hawker Demon, Dh89 or Tiger Moth (as an example) I can still travel a fair way. But as I said, it's really about the air time rather than the distance covered.