First time flying since eons, in a helicopter (
Robinson R22 Beta II), around town (my town), at night (3 hours from now, so to speak, if I got the settings correct. Gotta recalibrate it.). No crashes, overspeed once or twice, and quickly resolved it, and landed it at night, in an appropriate spot (kudos to town landmarks and the Flight Control Tower for the local airport, and recognizing it immediately; I knew where to park, since I visited that airfield IRL), and parked it.
Total flight hours: 0.3
Haven't learned how to flight plan yet (FAA would have my hide for that; not to mention any other airman), but damn, was it fun to fly a chopper again. Wait until I break out my
T-65 X-Wing or
V-22 Osprey.
It was peaceful, I was calm the whole time, got lost in the next town (couldn't tell if it was █████████ or ███████ I got lost in), only to regain some bearings and find my way back to the airport, headed to the proper town, found my house (relatively speaking, given the mess proc-gen makes) from the airport, flew past it, went to the national park area and turned around from there, up and down the beach, and made a return trip to the airport. I landed flawlessly. No violent bumps or anything.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition (Includes Acceleration Pack)
After I get more flight hours in, I wanna try a Red Bull Air Race. Using a flight stick again makes all the difference. Flying at night with the lights off certainly adds to the experience. The hat switch on the top of the stick for virtual cockpit helps with piloting these things.
EDIT:
Upped the realism settings to be less forgiving, and allow for crashing. Did it again (but didn't get lost this time), another 0.3 (0.6 total) hours logged; and this time, with some flight music, and a hell of a view of my town from my house at 4000ft. Glided myself back to the airport, and landed safely again. No harm done to my chopper. I'll tackle much less forgiving realism (and probably less fuel, for a duration challenge, limit my flight time and economize my resources; give me something to keep track of) a later time. The first landing also got me a medal (in-game achievement; non-Steam). A flight plan from one airport to another, and back, would also be a good one to have.