Classic British Flight Sim

Hello all! I've been thinking about this for quite a while, and I hope you take it in the good-natured spirit intended, but for those of you who spend a lot of time flying military aircraft, what do you actually do?
One of the things I love most about our hobby is the incredible choice we have in what we choose to virtually fly. I know that a lot of people like to stick to a particular aircraft and that's fine, but it's not for me. Yes, I do lean mostly towards vintage airliners, but I love how if the mood takes me I can jump into a helicopter, business jet, Spitfire or Hunter.
I suspect I'm not alone when my better half talks about me 'playing on flight sim' I correct her and point out it's a simulator, not a game! But let's be honest, there is a certain level of imaginative role-play involved. And that's where my question comes in. I know what to do with my Air UK F27, I'll fly from Norwich to Newcastle, just like I did as a kid. Livin' the dream! But when I climb into my virtual Spitfire or Hunter etc., what do I do? I enjoy flying them, and I'll try to fly from authentic airfields (my Dad worked on Hunters at Bournemouth Airport in the 90's, so that's a no-brainer).
But beyond doing circuits and enjoying the aircraft for its own sake, what next? Yes of course there are many dedicated combat simulators if you want to blow things up, but that's not what I'm asking.
So, I'm genuinely interested in any thoughts, ideas or suggestions about how you get the most from your military aircraft, whether vintage or modern. By the way, I'm still on FSX Steam , but that doesn't really matter.
Thanks in advance for your responses, and apologies for the long post!

Hi Swanoir,
If you don't want to be flying combat missions, there's always navigation exercises, or you could do goodwill or lecturing visits around relevant airfields.

My only other offering would be instrument testing, {which apparently was sometimes used as an excuse to get airborne and possibly find a combat during the test}. You could decide which instrument to check, then prove its accuracy or otherwise. Be careful, though, I've read true life reports of crews going up for instrument testing, and crashing. You'd probably turn on instrument failure before take off.

Have fun, and don't crash

When I fly Hunters its usually been from a home base in the UK to somewhere like Malta, Gib or Cyprus. I did follow the route of the Macrobertson air race in on that Paul suggested in one and that was great fun. For shorter jaunts it's the Mach Loop or hunting ships in the Irish or North Sea. Almost always in the Hunter.

Great suggestions, thank you!

I started out flying combat sims and couldn't see the point of civilian sims as they seemed boring with nothing to shoot. Then a friend gave me his copy of FS9 when he got FSX and I started to see why people flew the non-combat sims. I used to take part in the flight sim Round the World Race every year and flew a lot of warbirds in that but I very rarely fly a warbird anymore. I'm mostly flying GA, regional props/jets (historical not current), military transports and helicopters.

I used to fly a lot of online hop-lists where the server would tell you where to go next and keep a record of your progress for the next time you joined but as online flying went the way of the dodo I started to convert a lot of those hop-lists into flight plans so that I could fly them off line. I currently have several different ones active and I pick and choose which one I am going to fly each day based on mood and real weather conditions (I like to fly in real weather). I currently have active routes in Canada, the USA, Papua New Guinea, the UK, Switzerland and recently completed a 950+ leg trip around the world that took me many years to complete!

I also make a lot of routes/flight plans based on historical data. For instance, after I bought P3D v4.5 last year and discovered Manfred Jahn's amazing P3D native C-47 I started researching what airlines flew them after WWII and where (particularly in Canada and the UK) and came up with flight plans based on real world time-tables for the period (mostly the 1950s). I am currently flying the 'BEA UK South' routes in a C-47 which visits all the airports that flew scheduled DC3/C-47 aircraft and have already completed the 'BEA Scottish Highland and Islands' routes. After I have researched routes I create a flight plan in 'Little NavMap' (my planner of choice) and then export it to a P3D plan. I save both plans in my hop-list folder and when I want to fly I call up my saved flight that already has the flight plan loaded and fly the next leg. When I'm done flying I save the flight at the current location and it's ready for the next time I want to fly that route.

There are a lot of choices but it does require a bit of effort and dedication!

Thanks for that Larry, the BEA DC3 flights sound right up my street. I wish I had the free time to do even half of what you get up to!

I'd be happy to share my flight plan(s) with you if you'd like them (they work in P3D or FSX). If you have Little NavMap I could send you that flight plan too. Drop me a PM with your email address and I'll pack them up.

As most military flights don't involve combat at all, I do what others do - low level VFR navigation (eminently possible in MSFS202 & 2024 ) in the JF Hawk, airshow routines in DG's Hunters, or long-range deployments in JFs Vulcan from, say, Scampton to the USA, Cyprus, Singapore and right down to Australia and New Zealand. Another one that I'm planning to do is a ferry flight in GKS' F-111 across the Atlantic. There's a stack of things to do with military aircraft.

Thanks Paul, I think the display routines and low-level would probably suit my flying style more than the long haul missions. Thanks for the suggestions, great stuff!

Swanoir wrote: ↑

02 May 2025, 12:38

Thanks Paul, I think the display routines and low-level would probably suit my flying style more than the long haul missions. Thanks for the suggestions, great stuff!

Don't forget to post some pictures.