It started embarrassingly. A cracked Logitech Extreme 3D Pro with a wobbly hat switch, X-Plane 11 running at 20fps on a laptop that sounded like a jet engine, and me — completely convinced I was about to understand how real pilots felt on approach.
I was not. But I was hooked.
A few years later, I have a setup I'm genuinely proud of, a weird amount of knowledge about Colombian airspace, and a deep respect for anyone who lands a heavy at El Dorado (SKBO) in bad weather. This is that story.
Why Colombia?
Simple: it's home, and the terrain is absolutely brutal in the best possible way. The Andes split the country into three cordilleras, which means every single approach into a major Colombian airport is a masterclass in obstacle clearance procedures.
SKBO (Bogotá El Dorado) sits at 2,547 metres above sea level — making it one of the highest major international airports in the world. Density altitude eats your performance. Winds coming over the mountains are unpredictable. And the ILS approaches are tight. It's genuinely challenging, even in a simulator, which is exactly why I keep going back.
Other favourites in the rotation:
- SKCG (Cartagena Rafael Núñez) — sea level, coastal crosswinds, short runway. Completely different beast from SKBO.
- SKMD (Medellín Olaya Herrera) — surrounded by hills on all sides. The visual approach into 02 is a proper challenge.
- SKMR (Montería) — tiny regional airport, great for practicing short-field ops.
If you want good scenery for Colombia in X-Plane 12, the freeware Ortho4XP tiles (ZL16+) combined with the HD Mesh Scenery v4 pack make Bogotá and the surrounding Andes look genuinely impressive. Worth the disk space.
The Setup Evolution
Here's a rough timeline of how things went from embarrassing to decent:
Phase 1: The Laptop Era (embarrassing)
A mid-range gaming laptop, X-Plane 11, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. Frame rates were 15-25fps with all settings at minimum. The joystick had a dead zone the size of a football field. I flew the Cessna 172 and spent most of my time figuring out why the autopilot kept trying to kill me.
What I learned: how NOT to configure a simulator. Also, the basics of VOR navigation because I had nothing better to do at those frame rates.
Phase 2: A Real PC, Finally
Built a mid-range desktop (Ryzen 5, RTX 3060, 32GB RAM). Suddenly X-Plane 11 was running at 45-60fps with proper settings. Night flying became possible. Weather became immersive. I bought the Zibo 737-800 mod (free, and genuinely incredible) and started learning actual airline procedures.
Also finally got a decent HOTAS: Thrustmaster T.16000M combo. The difference was night and day — I could actually hold altitude without fighting the controls.
Phase 3: X-Plane 12 and Actual Seriousness
X-Plane 12 changed things. The weather system alone is worth the upgrade — the turbulence model, the cloud rendering, the way rain affects visibility. I finally felt like conditions mattered.
Added a Honeycomb Alpha yoke (replaced the joystick for fixed-wing flying — it's a completely different feel), a Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant, and rudder pedals. The full setup sits on a desk, nothing fancy, no motion platform — just good inputs and a decent monitor.
The Honeycomb Alpha is great but the build quality has some caveats. I'll write a proper review post about it — there are things I wish I'd known before buying.
What Flight Sim Actually Teaches You
I'm not a real pilot. I want to be clear about that. But spending hundreds of hours in a serious simulator has given me a genuine appreciation for things I never would have understood otherwise:
- Weather matters constantly. Not just "is it raining" but density altitude, wind shear, icing conditions, crosswind components. These are real numbers that real pilots calculate.
- Checklists exist for a reason. The first time you rush a startup and forget to set the parking brake before releasing it, you understand why there are 47 items before engine start.
- ATC is its own language. Using VATSIM (online ATC network) for the first time was terrifying. Real controllers, real procedures, real separation. I studied the phraseology for weeks before my first flight.
- SKBO is genuinely hard. The oxygen-thin air at altitude means you need more runway to accelerate, more runway to stop, and your engines produce less thrust. Managing these margins is not trivial.
Current Favourite Route
SKBO → SKCG — about 50 minutes in the Zibo 737. You depart Bogotá climbing through the Andes, pick up a jet airway heading northwest, descend toward the Caribbean coast, and land on a runway that's bordered by the sea on one end and the city on the other.
Two completely different airports, two completely different challenges, one flight. It never gets old.
If you're into flight simulation and haven't explored Colombian airports yet — go do it. Start with the default SKBO scenery in XP12 (it's actually decent now), grab a freeware 737 or the default 172, and try an ILS approach into runway 13L. You'll immediately understand why I keep coming back.
Next post: probably the RTL-SDR satellite tracking setup, or the Honeycomb Alpha review. Haven't decided yet. We'll see what mood I'm in.
