How to get to the Grand Canyon in Microsoft Flight Sim

I finally saw the Grand Canyon. It was cool. It wasn’t worth it.

Over the past few weeks I have been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator in small sessions, usually an itinerary or two per day. Most of my flights have taken place at night, after work and after sunset. Because of Flight simulatorreal-time telemetry, it’s limited travel to the other side of the globe, if I really want to do digital sightseeing during the day. (Thank you so much, hemispheres!) But last night I learned that you can customize the precise time of day you fly, opening up a whole world – or, well, half of one – of possibilities.

I first flew over San Francisco at sunset, because obviously. Then one of my roommates suggested that I visit the Grand Canyon. It’s pretty cool, according to him and only him, and I haven’t had the chance to see it IRL. Given the nature of the pandemic, it might be a long time before I can.

First, I left Sedona, partly because I knew it was geographically close to the Grand Canyon and partly because the airport Flight simulator the list literally says “Grand Canyon”. Halfway through the flight, my AOA (I don’t know what this means and I refuse to learn) started to beep inexplicably and relentlessly whenever I pitched above 0 degrees. In other words, to shut this damn thing up, I had to keep my nose tilted down. I fell.

Second try, I took off from Sedona again, because research – and therefore learning all about the much closer starting points, which we’ll get to in a second – is for the weak. At the speed I traveled, I figured the flight would be around 15, maybe 20 minutes. I lost my internet connection after 10 minutes. (To conserve precious space on my Xbox Series X filled with games, I did not download the offline mode for Microsoft Flight Sim.)

Third try! I learned that you can zoom in on Flight simulatorworld map of, showing countless other starting locations than the main tracks in the world. In addition, you can choose a place of departure and start flying without a predetermined arrival. Eh. Not a very appropriate simulation, but great for trying over and over again to complete a route. I took off from Valle, which seemed much closer. On the horizon, I saw a marker for an airport near Grand Canyon Village. A quick crosscheck with Google Maps corroborated that, yes, it would be a lot closer and a lot faster trip to just stop and start from there.

On my fourth attempt, which at this point we’re talking about an hour after starting my flight to the Canyon, thanks to all the jerks, I finally found my destination:

Just wonderful :

I even felt inspired enough to fly my little propeller plane like a Tie Fighter. And then it happened:

Thin.