As Real As You Get?

[Lucy.P 168]

Following on from a thread that included some tongue in cheek train sim comments, it got me thinking about how immersive we get outside of aircraft, scenery and environmental add-ons. Personally I like to stream online radio from the area I fly in, whether it is England, Scotland, Poland or New Zealand. For instance, I like to practice touch and go at Gisborne airport (NZGS) Familiar as I used to live a mile away. So when doing that I tune into Gisborne local radio.

I also try to fly from whatever airport I last arrived at. If flying a major national airline I will often search Youtube for their boarding music to play while passengers embark and I go for a last minute pee.

I don't expect many replies as I can't believe many of you are that daft

[UKJim 502]

I don't do any of this but I do try and learn how real world pilots fly and what rules they follow so I can try and do this in the sim. I try this even when FSX doesn't enforce it so example would be aircraft lights and how to use them properly. 

 

Sounds like fun though all your things you do - keeps it interesting at the end of the day. 

[J G 927]

@Bumblebee the bad news is yes you are that daft. The good news is so are the rest of us.

 

I think your idea is a great one and surely enhance your sim experience.  I am going to give it a try.

[hifly 925]

Mrs Hifly aka Kate bought me an airline pilots shirt for my birthday as a joke. I have yet to wear it.

 

BTW, she bought it from a charity shop cheap and still in its original wrapper.

[allardjd 1,853]

Love the idea of streaming the on-line radio from the area, however I'm under the impression that monitoring ATC in the UK is illegal, which is why Live ATC has no UK airports in their listings, or hadn't last time I looked.

 

John

[Lucy.P 168]

I don't mean ATC, I mean streaming DJ radio stations with music and local news and weather, just for the ambience..

[mutley 4,487]

@allardjd  John, I have a 1000 band air band radio tuned in to EGHI ground and radar along with Goodwood, Lower Upham and Bournemouth. I also have a book with 1,000s of frequencies both civil and military, the best one to listen to is the Red Arrows when they are in the neighbourhood! 

 

It's not illegal here to own these radios, you can even buy transceivers you just mustn't interfere or act on the information. (I think) 

[mutley 4,487]

@Bumblebee I refer you to your own topic "Too much flight simming when..." to see you are not alone in your 'madness' 

[Lucy.P 168]

38 minutes ago, mutley said:

@Bumblebee I refer you to your own topic "Too much flight simming when..." to see you are not alone in your 'madness' 

AHHH yes..quite true

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I add to my FS realism by stopping at any GA field along my driving route whenever possible. I like to have the real images accesable upstairs as I fly in and compare . I made a visit to Hana airport while on vacation in Maui...and chatted with the Fire Chief for a bit after taking pictures. I like having Local Knowlege while landing at an away from home field. Visiting a place and walking on the ramps is a huge Immersion boost for me.

[mutley 4,487]

15 minutes ago, Captain Coffee said:

I add to my FS realism by stopping at any GA field along my driving route whenever possible. I like to have the real images accesable upstairs as I fly in and compare . I made a visit to Hana airport while on vacation in Maui...and chatted with the Fire Chief for a bit after taking pictures. I like having Local Knowlege while landing at an away from home field. Visiting a place and walking on the ramps is a huge Immersion boost for me.

 

That's the sort of thing I try to do, it's easier with the with the GA friendly airfields, but the bigger regional airports curse the ground you stand on! 

[allardjd 1,853]

Our local airport sees a lot of bizjet traffic, partly because there's a pretty high-end horse-breeder sales lot right across the street.  We see the 727 horse freighters in and out of here fairly often.  These are not cheap nags they're marketing and the clientele are fairly well-heeled too.  There are also some local celebrities who value their privacy, and though they sometimes do, they don't normally use this particular airport.  

 

I've been told by the airport manager that they get frequent complaints from those flying in when they see people taking photos around the airport.  They consider it an invasion of privacy and sometimes even try to claim it's a security risk.  This is the same mindset that causes some of them to make use of the FAA's option to hide their N-number in the publicly available databases, making it invisible to N-number look-ups and to flight tracking software like FlightAware, for instance.  

 

As you say, the smaller, uncontrolled, GA-friendly airfields are much more laid back about that kind of thing.

 

John

[Bruce (a.k.a. brian747) 142]

@JohnA

 

<sigh>  It's even worse than that at my local airfield (see here).

 

It is used as a VVIP bizjet airport within easy reach of London but where its customers (notably the stars of stage and screen, politicians, and royalty) can emplane and deplane with no photographers or paparazzi being able to get a long lens on them. It can handle anything up to a BBJ, and any photographs published are required not to show tail numbers.

 

Only the very rich need apply. Money talks, and all that jazz.

 

Cheers,

 

bruce

a.k.a. brian747