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