This may not be what you are after, but I usually fly visually and try and pick out landmarks in my field of view and try match them up to Google Maps all in real time without pausing. I'll estimate a heading and look for roads, rivers etc. Basically the definition of VFR.
For example, yesterday I flew from Monza to Misano where there are three race major tracks along the way, and all you have to do is find the correct highway that heads south-east out of Milan and you'll basically fly right over each one of them. That's my deal in FS2020![]()
The Top Gun content is a fun distraction. I was expecting more, like the ability to start a flight and navigate your way to a carrier in free roam (and try land anything you want on top of it), but it looks like the carrier is only available in the small challenge it gives you. That's pretty annoying.
The highlight is the Darkstar. That thing hauls ass. It's not very manoeuvrable because it's designed to fly at high altitude in a straight line, but there is a thrill in flying clear across a whole continent in half an hour. Just be sure to follow the instructions given, but also they don't tell you that you need to flick a few switches to activate the SCRAM jets.
Take off, gain altitude, dive, speed up past 660 kts (be careful as then it will exceed 1000 kts very quickly in level flight and keep accelerating) then climb climb climb. Past 50,000 ft you can turn on the go-fast motors - look for the switch on the dashboard, top left behind a red guard, as well as a button to the right and below the screens for the fuel cell generator. Flick them both and the SCRAM jets should light up if you have sufficient speed and altitude.
You can also climb to a ceiling of 275,000 ft, basically outer space by many definitions, but also where MSFS's seemingly hard limit of altitude is found as that's where the alt meter stops going up.
Here it is parked next to some interesting companions.
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I flew the Darkstar from Malta to Heathrow. Took about 15 minutes. If you're careless with controlling your altitude, you easily climb or fall much higher than some airplane's entire flight ceilings in a matter of seconds.
A weird thought I had while flying over the alps of Switzerland: gee, these mountains look small from 150,000 ft. I wonder what Everest looks like. After all, it's not far from here...
Looking at a map, it's probably a 45 minute flight.
I pointed the nose at the terrain when I crossed the English Channel. The descent into Heathrow was HOT, but it bleeds speed quickly as the atmosphere thickens. Keep it above 200 kts and she flies beautifully on approach.
New stuff!
Be sure to watch it to the end.
I didn't take the time to set up all my gear and just went to try to fly the Darkstar with an Xbox controller. It seemed fine until it basically took over, dropped the throttle to 33% and then flew itself into the ground.
I’m guessing that it didn’t really Mach your day then
Haaawww haaawww
I had no idea this sim had bombs. Hey-oo!
I bought a $35 F14 DLC. It's loud, pretty, and buggy.