fs2ff VS MSFS2020-PilotPathRecorder

For a sim, I prefer MSF2020 because of the real world scenery. As a VFR pilot, I can fly at my local airport and see the same home depot building where I make my base turn in real life. I have a a high end system (5900X, KP 3090) and use a Reverb G2. You can also hook in Garmin Pilot or Foreflight into either sim and use it as you would in the plane: https://github.com/astenlund/fs2ff/releases/tag/v0.1.13. While the sim helps in some areas can hurt a little in others. I had reinforced some bad habits by sim flying that I'm still trying to break in real flying.

Foreflight is easy to get working. There are a couple options but I use this one because it also shows the sim traffic: https://github.com/astenlund/fs2ff

ForeFlight, connected to FS2020 via https://github.com/astenlund/fs2ff

I use Airmatre connected via FS2FF

FYI out of all of the apps I tried FS2FF works (https://github.com/astenlund/fs2ff). Strange that it (Garmin Pilot) likes some and not others.

You can do that with MSFS 2020 as well you just need to run another app on the side. I use fs2ff

here

There are many ways to approach the planning and recording your progress, but I will advocate for simplicity here. Google Earth is free and widely used app. The reason I use it for planning is because you can examine the terrain in 3D and determine if it will be interesting enough to fly over. But it also becomes a great visual record of the trip once you use a simple app like PilotPathRecorder that is a freeware and it will generate a Path that can be easily imported into Google Earth as KML file.

This was the track of my attempt in MSFS 2020 to land a Cessna 172 at KIAD 1R using the localizer with DoNotBeOnFire's fog preset active. I tracked the approach using Pilot Path Recorder, then recorded the track in Google Earth using OBS.

I recently completed a scenic tour of the US in the DC Designs F-15. I designed the route around national parks, major US cities, and places I've been before. The speed of this plane enabled me to cover hundreds of miles in 30-60 minute flights, and finish the trip in a reasonable amount of time. The flights were recorded with pilot path recorder and imported into Google Earth. VFRmap was also used for navigation. I took close to 500 screenshots from the trip, but narrowed it down to a few below.