hahahahhahaahLMAOi did read somewhere that sometimes(carrier option) pilots startup the APU prior to landing and keep it runnning after takeoff till a certain alt...had a nice flight here guys :)

Hey Mike,First off welcome to a wonderful world of virtual pilots and controllers who love this hobby and go above and beyond to make it better for all of us!As for the scenery questions, there might me some official policies on what scenery is used by the controllers listed on VATSIM, but I imagine if there is any questions, default scenery is assumed.If you're sure there is no way to remove the static scenery from a particular file you're using, then you'll have to just imagine its not there when you see another player taxi into it. :)We all do not use just default scenery...some of the more popular addons are generally assumed (like Simflyers) and you'll find that in most situations any scenery is "close enough". Most controllers won't yell at you if you appear to be taxiing in the grass a little bit because your scenery is shifted off just a little from theirs.If an organized event coordinator really wants everyone to use the same scenery, they will let you know before the event and usually post it for download (if its freeware of course) with instructions. But I have not seen too many events like that. Most people just want to fly into a general area together as recreation...without stressing over something like scenery shifted off a bit or getting in the messy issues involved with getting scenery installed on every participant's system.The best advise I can give is to use what you got, and if it happens to be so far off from what the controller expects, he'll tell you. :)And its a great idea to log on and just listen and watch for a while if you are new...its almost as fun as participating!And the most important part to remember is that this is a VIRTUAL world...please don't limit yourself to just your local area, come to the U.S. and visit! Go to Europe and tour France, England, Spain, Germany. Go to the Asia and visit all the great airports there. One of the coolest things about this is learning how each part of the world handles air traffic in their own unique way. I love to come and visit your part of the world whenever I can, and your controllers are top notch and fun to talk to (I get a kick out the accents...I'm sorry, but like most Yanks...I get this vision of Crocodile Dundee whenever I talk to controllers

Well the VATPAC controllers had a great time shepherding you across the ditch from New Zealand to Australia, and on your way to Honalulu.Mike, you did a great job organising everyone and providing the plans and information such as SIDs and STARs (we still call em STARs down here ), making the ATC job that much easier.Here we were in Sydney, thought we had it all sorted using parallel runways (34L and 34R) to ensure adequate spacing; then the weather switches us to single runway ops! Kept things exciting!Thanks to the patience of the pilots as we tried to sort things out, I'm glad to hear your journey continued sucessfully across the Pacific. It was fantastic to have you all in our airspace. As Oakland Oceanic comes online, linking with Brisbane, Honiera and Nandi Radio, we hope there can be more 'fly and forget' long hauls between the Regions. Everyone seems to be becoming very adept at Oceanic position reports.. (easy with the POS Page eh? ;) )In case you were wondering, around 0515Z there was either some serious network or internet problems at our end, we lost a swag of controllers, voice servers disappeared, and some people lost their ISP all together. So apologies if you found yourself without controllers from this period - it was frustrating to leave you in the lurch...Hope to see you all again soon;John Golin

I wish I could have been there. I'm looking forward to the next one."i did read somewhere that sometimes(carrier option) pilots startup the APU prior to landing and keep it runnning after takeoff till a certain alt..."Some of Air Canada's aircraft are required to operate with the APU running prior to engine start until the aircraft exits the ETOPS area for all ETOPS flights except in the Caribbean.

Hehe...I'm not sure if its Delta's policy to have it on during approach, but I can find out.:) (I didn't see it on the Delta Normal Checklist, so I don't think it is)As far as damage, page 2 in the APU section of the Delta Pilot's Reference Manual under the section called Use states (and I quote) "....However, it may be operated in-flight to the aircraft ceiling with the following restrictions.* Bleed air is available up to 20,000 feet.* Full generator output up to maximum operating altitude."(in reality I always forget to close it...good thing the jetA I use is cheap!) :-lolRegards,Steve Dra

Thanks for that Steve.Yes I have spent some time just listening and watching and it really is a good investment. I now have to get my airskills up to speed, so that I do not get in the way too much.Actually, I have a hat that is not too far from the "Croc"s in style so perhaps I will stick it on before making my first g'day call.Now I need to start another thread seeking help about PIC's autoland that worked sweet-as until recently and now turns the aircraft about face and starts a full autoland approach in the opposite direction to the runway - with a green LAND3 illuminated! This is using just the MCP not the FMC. Something has gone dreadfully wrong.Cheers Mike

>Some of Air Canada's aircraft are required to operate with >the APU running prior to engine start until the aircraft >exits the ETOPS area for all ETOPS flights except in the >Caribbean. What do you mean, 'until they leave the ETOPS area'?

I think he means when the aircraft is past the area that ETOPS is in effect. For example, if your airline is under a 180 min ETOPS restriction for a certain aircraft, getting closer to the closest airport (i.e. now only 170 mins. away) would mean that you are out of an "ETOPS area". Hope that convoluted explaination helped. :)Regards,Steve Dra

Okay I see what you're talking about. :-)

EnjoyUsually I take upwards of 25 pictures for a short 55 min flight, be happy i didnt go shutter happy on all the legs And Id like to say Im sorry to whoever BN oceanic was on my leg from Wellington to SydneyI made the mistake of just .atis CONTROLLER CALLSIGN HERE, and I neglected to change my COM1. DOH!So I am sorry I made a few guys slow down, as I was barreling into the SHARK intersection, rofl. Good times.Im gonna do a short SFO - LAX flight now. . . AVA BOS is offering double hours for flights into LAX (why didnt you pick LAX as our destination Mike? lol 24 hrs easy ;))Thanks again Mike, and everyone else for participating. I had a blast, and cant wait for the next one.

I always forget to close the thing... now it's on my checklist.BTW, I think you can pick up an APU for a 767 on eBay.DSCVA3339

Give me an e-mail at [email protected] and I'll get you details about fligthsimming on-line in New Zealand.RegardsRussell Jourdain (NZL007/ZK-RHJ)

Yeah, I penciled it in under the last entry on the taxi checklist! :)Regards,Steve Dra

Had great fun with this one.Started off being surrounded by a PWA flight, BAW01 Concorde & ANZ737 who couldn't be raised on voice :-hah. A quick takeoff, after BAW01 had taken off & PWA had walked off for a trip to the beach (no, seriously, he ended up in beach near the treshold of 23L!).Enroute with Auckland CTR, who I barely spoke to :-eek, before descending with Wellington CTR (had to hold at Tory while descending from FL340 to 4000 :-lol). Off to Wellington departure for a STAR16 approach and then.... Chaos :-wink2 - Final approach behind a cardinal meant lowest practical speed at 8 dme, and I could only watch as my aircraft drifted off to the right of the runway. At the end, I was waaaay off and a go-around was initiated and then.. whazam :-zhelp - my PC rebooted :-bluegrab I checked my PC, and it appeared to be a heating problem, so Saturday was spent on cooling gel for my CPU :-8

Hi Mike and team,Congrats on an excellent PIC767 Fly In.As the attached PIC's hopefully show, there were plenty of aircraft at Wellington, Auckland and Sydney to keep ATC very busy, not to mention we "pilots".I loved the "Ants to a Honey Pot" views from Servinfo, into SydneyAs the temperature passed 44 deg C (approx 110 deg F) in Melbourne, my computer and I started to overheat, so I didn't join you for the last leg to SFO.Thanks for all the excellent FMC FP's and related files. They were fantastic. Lets do it again.CheersIan (QF007)