Little Endian writes:

I just don't understand it, why do you need to go to such great
lengths in a simulator?

When flying online, it's important to have realistic delays for various
operations. Landing and then asking to taxi back out to the active thirty
seconds later isn't very realistic if you are supposedly letting off
passengers, having the cabin serviced, taking on new passengers, moving
luggage, and so on.

Knowing what operations must be performed in real life helps you simulate the
delay correctly.

The whole idea of simulation is to simulate real life. The only parts you
leave out are the ones that would ruin the advantage of simulation, such as
driving to and from the airport, dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars on
a flight, being stuck far from home waiting for weather to improve, and so on.

Even in real life its the flying part that is
the most fun, the challenge to level off precisely and accurately with
the minimum of fuss, the thrill of taking off and landing within 100
ft of the numbers, handling stiff X-winds, using only pilotage to get
to a small airstrip etc. Of course taxing is fun too but its only
because of what comes after it or what came before it.

Agreed. But sometimes peripheral activities enhance the illusion of reality.

Most simmers draw the line at anything that happens outside the aircraft, such
as going to and from the airport, filling out reports, and so on. A few go a
bit further and have complete passenger and cargo manifests and flight
schedules to respect and so on. It's a personal choice. However, everyone is
expected to do all the in-cockpit stuff, from startup to shutdown, and
obviously including things like taxiing.

When flying offline, one tends to cut out some parts. When flying online,
everything is done by the book, so that everyone has a more realistic
experience. You don't just pop into existence at the airport lined up for
take-off, for example, because you have to taxi out from the gate or ramp.

If I were to fly in a simulator the only thing I would be doing would
be to fly, fly, fly and never do the mundane things like taxing and
especially never do something as silly as simulating waiting for a
passenger.

That's your choice.

Some people take it further, and consider even flying mundane. They are the
ones who like the combat games and the "missions" of MSFS. Obviously, they
usually aren't seriously interested in aviation if they don't like flying for
its own sake.

Incidentally, if you don't like the mundane things, that's all the more reason
to fly a simulator, where you can skip all the boring stuff.

I don't see why you do not go up with a flight instructor
for an hour or so if you are so interested in the real life aspects of
flying.

In real life, you can't avoid the boring parts and just keep the interesting
parts. You blow several hours of your time in boring activity for a few
minutes in the air, and it costs a fortune. That's not very cost-effective
compared to simulation.

Its like the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words,
similarly one real flight can be worth a thousand simulator flights.

Or it can be a waste of time.

It would save you a heck of a lot of time not having to ask these
questions and time is money.

I have more time than money.

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