May 2010 - Haiti Relief

Here's how April went down: The FOTM in the Mirage (and subsequent deleting of that aircraft from my hangar) took one day. I spent the next week flying the Lear35 into and out-of some of the smaller Swiss airports. It was pretty fun I guess. I spent the next week relaxing along the shores of Lake Geneva.

While in Europe I was introduced to the An-148, a regional jet from the Russian builder. So I took that on an introductory flight from Zurich to Tivat Montenegro. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmRs7fcK1NE

Now we come to May and another rescue/aide mission (some of my favorite simming scenarios) - this time in the Caribbean. May also brought the first PC upgrade to our house in about five years and with that I dusted off my FSX and tried to get that flying.

Needless to say, more advanced sims require more advanced tweaking so after a day of tinkering I loaded up a 727 (special livery for Tony) and departed for a short flight over to Milan.

So far I'm still not happy with the framerates or the lack of scenery - if I'm going to pull to sliders back to a point where Milan looks like five tall buildings in a field of grey stones I'd rather use FS2004! (pict2) (pict3) Now, I will concede that the ground and trees and buildings and road traffic all look better (pict4)- but this is a FLIGHT sim and I must have aircraft that look and function well! As I taxied to the gate I enjoyed the catering and bagage trucks driving around but considering my framerates I won't be seeing those again. (pict5)

During my time in Milan several donors from across the EU sent supplies and volunteers for the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti and they were loaded into an old L-1011. Meanwhile I continued to tweak computer and sim settings and hunted around for an FSX panel that wouldn't make me load each gauge one at a time when I selected the aircraft. Finally I just loaded up the default 737 panel, the default A321 sound and set off. (pict6) We departed in real-weather to the north and 12 miles out from the DME turned to pick up our GPS routing. (pict7) (pict8) Over the French alps and climbing I was getting framerates in the teens.

Military flights were going via Guantanamo Bay. Civilian flights were going direct to Port au Prince. My plan was to fly into San Juan, Puerto Rico and from there I'd shuttle workers and/or supplies in smaller aircraft over to Haiti. I climbed up to 38,000 feet before crossing over the northwest tip of Spain and I held that altitude (cruising north of Azores) until 150 miles out from San Juan. Cruise with real-weather and winds aloft had me at 23 fps. (Overall I was about 50% less than FS2004 on the old PC - I'll be anxious to see FS2004 on the new PC!)

Real weather in Puerto Rico showed afternoon showers (what a surprise) and I hurridly set up the ILS while dodging rain cells through the last 25 miles. (pict9) Just like in Milan, I found that I had a hard time seeing out in FSX. Either I'm slower or I'm lower or the eyepoint is somehow different in FSX. (pict10) (pict11) Regardless, the landing was smooth and the water effects off the wheels was briefly entertaining (I wish there was a water-spray effect for the engine reversers!) (pict12) I parked up and shut down in a centrally located area ready to start delivering the aide. (pict13)

It was now May 10th and I had only just arrived in the area of the FOTM. I slept that first night on one of the medical cots in the L-1011. The next morning we loaded up a KingAir350 with medical supplies, water and a couple of relief workers and departed about 11:00 AM.

I set in a direct route from San Juan to Port-au-Prince figuring as I got closer I could divert north or south to the area in need. Our first delivery was to Jacmel on the southern coast. An hour later we were over the city and looking for the damp, grass runway. (pict16) We worked in Jacmel until dusk leaving the aide workers in their tent for pick-up on another day. (pict17) I then flew solo back to San Juan arriving well after dark. (pict18) It was quite bumpy and real-weather had some thunder and lightning along my route. Framerates happily in the 20's.
By May 13th I was ready for another flight, this one in a real-live aide-delivering Mission plane! I departed in the PAC-750XL on that Thursday morning, heading to Les Cayes Airport. (Google Maps shows the nearest village is called "Mercy") It was a generally smooth flight and a great landing! Again, we spent the day working in the area before I flew a solo back to San Juan.

Next up, on May 18th, was a C-119 Boxcar. I flew from San Juan to Jeremie, spent the day unloading supplies and providing some medical care and flew back to Puerto Rico that evening.

Yes, Alastair, I know how to read directions. I know that you asked us to fly DC-3's (or similar) this month. So by the 23rd I had a default FSX DC-3 all loaded with supplies and ready to go for the final legs. (pict26) (pict27) I flew from Puerto Rico to northern Haiti. (pict28) That evening I flew to Port au Prince.

From the Haitian Capital I made the short hop over the Gitmo (pict31)and then I was off to Costa Rica for a future FOTM. Alastair, thank you very much for the opportunity to fly some relief aide to those in need - it was a great intro to my new sim!

April 2010 - High Speed through the Alps

This month we have a new FOTM author taking us to ... well, lets just say that I find many things oddly framiliar:

I left off last month in Queenstown, NZ. Bill took us there in June 2003. From Queenstown I flew a private Lear 35 up to Auckland. (Tony had us flying Lear 35s back in May 2005!)

From Auckland I loaded up a Tanaka SST in Air New Zealand livery (I flew one of those after the April 2006 FOTM) and headed northwest to the other side of the planet.

From Zurich I flew a PAC-750XL (I have not featured one of those before) down to Geneva.

From Geneva, as instructed. I loaded up a Mirage III fighter and headed east over the region where Rik had us fly back in May 2003 - that's like ... seven years ago! As instructed I was staying low.
As we head east from Switzerland, over France ... I mean Switzerland ... I mean Italy ... errrr, still Switzerland ... I landed in Lugano where Hans took us in April 2007.
After taking several minutes to walk around, admire again the beauty of this place and breath in some of the bright, fresh air, I climbed back up into the Fighter Jet and headed north, over the Alps, across the whole of Switzerland

to the start of Hans' April 2007 FOTM, the Bodensee. Without landing I made a sharp turn to the southeast and headed for the destination of our December 2005 FOTM, Innsbruck, Austria.
I landed in Innsbruck and headed into town for some lunch.

From Innsbruck I headed back across Switzerland, southwest this time, made a touch-and-go through Lucerne, flew over Bern, near Fribourg (someone visiting our website back in 2004 or so suggested that we fly around Fribourg - I wonder if that guy is still reading our PIREPs??) Finally landing up in Payerne, as instructed.

Great Fun! I found the Mirage Roll-rate to be outstanding but the elevators and graphics left too much to be desired - I no longer have a Mirage in the Hangar!

Chris, thank you so much for hosting us this month. Good Luck in your next phase of life - may blessings come to you and yours. Now if you'll excuse me ... I'm off to get some fresh bread and cheese and head down to Lake Geneva for some dinner.

pretendpilot@yahoo.com
P.S. I started the month in a Lear 35 and I ended the month doing MediVac Flights in a Lear 35.

March 2010 - A New Simulation

Editor's Note: This month it was suggested that we download a free flight simulator (demo version) to try our hand at flying without Microsoft.

WHAT?

Hans wants us to download, and install and figure out an entirely new sim? Is he insane?

Actually, I kind of like the idea. It's a great plan and makes for a fun FOTM challenge.

But here's the problem: It was just after my son's birthday in Mid February ... we were putting photos onto the computer and got the notice, "YOUR COMPUTER HAS NO MORE MEMORY - FULL, DONE, FINISHED. YOU MUST UNINSTALL FLIGHTSIM IF YOU WANT YOUR FAMILY TO CONTINUE TO LET YOU LIVE IN THE HOUSE."

Okay it wasn't quite that bad but I had to uninstall about 50% of the Hangar (It's okay, some of the planes I had never installed or even flown.) Then I moved the entire hangar and paint shop to a removable disc. Also, we put all 4,000 of my son's photos onto a removable disc as well. This cleared up some of the memory, allowing "Carlos" to live on for the time being. "What on earth kind of .... 'stuff' has taken up 80 Gigs over the last 6 years?" I spent the next month running C-Cleaners and Uninstallers and Defrags to get us back up to a whopping 37% free space. No wonder my sim had been a bit jerky lately! Also, I was concerned about keeping the sim and movie-making features working well because I am actually teaching some classes next summer/fall and will need those to be working for that.

Really, all of this is a big, fat excuse - although you really will have to believe that I am truely, in some part, interested in Hans' proposal.

Anyway ........ I left off in San Diego last month, just in time to travel there in the real world.

While I was trekking back and forth to my classes it occurred to me that what we really needed was a San Diego Flight of the Month Feature. Well, I'm not sure when that might happen but why not tour the area this month? Besides, if Bill follows Hans' instructions and puts a new sim onto his PC and flies it, I will print out this report and EAT IT!!!!

On the east end of San Diego's airport property there is a giant gate in the fence where Coast Guard aircraft can taxi across the highway over to the Coast Guard Headquarters there - This is where my FOTM starts.

#1 This is our starting position for this FOTM, at the Coast Guard Station, San Diego. My aircraft will be the Red Baron Fokker Tri-wing.

#2 Just off the end of the runway, 200 feet south of the approach lights is the little Motel where I stayed.

#3 Harbor Drive skirts right along the Marina and San Diego's excellent Maritime Museum. This is also an area where large cruise ships dock (just like in the sim).

#4 About 4 kms south of the airport, just around the corner is Embarcadero Park - in real life it's beautiful! (not like the sim)

#5 A little further on is the Convention Center. That's where I was in February.

#6 Within easy sight of the Convention Center is the famous - arching, Coronado Bridge. Ummmmm? It's right there .... near-by ..... apparently NOT in the default scenery even which desities maxed out.

#7 On south a bit more and the map shows the "Coronado Amphibious Base" so we check that out too.

#8 The Sea N Air Golf Course, near the Hotel Coronado.

#9 The North Island NAS.

#10 Point Loma and Fort Rosecrans.

#11 Shoreline Park.

#12 Back to San Diego's airport.

More info on the airport in this article: http://www.flightsim.com/main/feature/sandiego.htm

After spending some extra time here in sunny San Diego I was ready to move on. I flew a World War 2 Corsair up past Riverside and my old stomping grounds, then west to Camarillo where I stayed overnight. The next day I flew down to LAX and then took a great old classic, the "Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays" L-1011 to Honolulu, Hawaii and set about spending the rest of the month learning how to fly the new 747-8i. You can watch videos of that week here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnU3bimctVs

Somehow or other I ended up in New Zealand where it was very windy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc8B2wPXqIo

So where ever we are going next month I'll be setting out from here.

pretendpilot@yahoo.com