Take your own virtual flight around the world, using Flight Simulator. Here’s how!

As a student pilot, Barrington practiced flying using Flight Simulator on his home computer. He learned the basics of flying and fueled his dream of one day becoming a pilot. Whether you’re already a pilot, dreaming of becoming one, or are just inspired by what Barrington’s doing to promote aviation, you can experience his adventure for yourself using Flight Simulator on your PC.

Install Flight Simulator

First things first. To use Flight Simulator, you need to have Flight Simulator! The newest version is Flight Simulator X. If you don’t have the latest and greatest hardware, you can use Flight Simulator 2004. Both versions are available online and at retail stores in most cities.

Learn About Flight Simulator

Although it may seem daunting at first, Flight Simulator also offers a wealth of content and features that can open the doors to its realistic world. If you’re new to Flight Simulator, take your time! Learning how to use it all is part of the fun, and simulating a flight around the world (or even part of one) is an ambitious and fun way to get started.

Your best source for information about using Flight Simulator is the Learning Center. You'll find dozens of articles (more than half a million words in total) covering topics ranging from the basics of flying, to using a joystick, navigating, dealing with weather, and more. You can access the Learning Center from the main Flight Simulator screen, and from the Help menu at any time while you’re flying.

Plan your Flight

Barrington has been planning his flight for years, and his route was determined taking a number of different factors into account. Your task is easier, since you know where Barrington is planning on going.

There are many ways to navigate from one airport to another. You can use classic techniques like pilotage and dead reckoning, or more sophisticated methods using non-directional beacons (NDBs), VHF omni-directional radio ranges (VORs), or the global positioning system (GPS).

You can use the Flight Planner in Flight Simulator to help plan your flights. The Flight Planner determines your routing based on the type of flight you want to make, suggests a cruising altitude, provides navigation aid frequencies for your route, provides estimated times between waypoints, and keeps track of all these items in the Navigation Log that appears on the kneeboard as you fly.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Using the Flight Planner”
• “Using the Map”
• “Aviation Charts”
• “Old-Fashioned Navigation”
• “Automatic Direction Finder”
• “What You Need to Know about VOR”
• “Using the G1000” • “Using the GPS”

Select Your Aircraft

Choose one of the many aircraft available. Barrington is flying a Columbia 400. While Flight Simulator doesn’t include that aircraft, you can use another plane. From a Piper Cub to a Boeing 747, there’s something for everyone. Better yet, fly each leg in a different aircraft! Or, you can visit Eaglesoft and get an add-on Columbia 400 of your own.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Selecting an Aircraft”
• “Aircraft Information”
• “Fueling and Loading Aircraft”

Choose your starting location

Set your departure airport for each leg to match one of Barrington’s.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Changing Your Aircraft's Location”
• “Positioning Your Aircraft”

Set the Weather

Set the weather conditions of your choice. For the most realism, use the “Real-world weather” option, which downloads current real-world conditions via the Internet.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Intro to Flight Simulator Weather”
• “Aviation Weather Basics”
• “Using Weather Themes”
• “Using Real-World Weather”
• “Using User-Defined Weather”
• “Changing Weather Settings”
• “Top 10 Weather Concepts”

Set the Time and Season

Set today’s date so that you see what Barrington sees! Start your flight at any time of day or night.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Changing Date, Time, and Season”

Fly!

Ready to go? Click the Fly Now button. The simulation will load, and you’ll be on your way. As you fly, be sure to try out some of Flight Simulator’s many features.

For example, you can use the Air Traffic Control feature. Or, you can fly with other people using the multiplayer system (in Flight Simulator X, you can even share the same aircraft).

If you don’t have lots of uninterrupted hours to fly a leg, you can increase the simulation rate, or save your flight in progress and come back to it to finish it later.

If you choose a simulation rate other than Normal, Flight Simulator will display a message in the upper-right corner of the screen indicating your simulation rate. The Autopilot will not work for simulation rates more than 16×.

Later, you can load the flight from the Free Flight screen (called Select a Flight in FS2004), or from the Flights menu.

To learn more, see the following Learning Center articles:

• “Top 10 Key Command”
• “Using the In-Game Menus”
• “Cockpit Basics”
• “Changing the Simulation Rate”
• “All About Flights”
• “Controlling the Engine”
• “Using an Autopilot”
• “Using the Kneeboard”
• “Using the Radios”
• “Using Views and Windows”
• “Intro to Flight Simulator ATC”
• “Sharing an Aircraft”

Email Us!

If you’re following along as Barrington flies around the world, let us know how your adventure is going. Whether you’re simulating a single leg or the whole trip, we want to hear from you. We’ll pass selected emails on to Barrington, so he can see just how inspirational he’s being!

To send us email, just click here.