I was a little nostalgic for a trip I made last year from Michigan to California and back in my plane-started looking through pictures and then got the idea of doing the same trip in Fs and comparing real shots to the sim. I may embelish the idea in the future-add more shots-and a story line-and add other trips of a similar kind I have made in the past. Anyway-I'll be flying the trip this year again but commercially (cheaper, faster, and more reliable-but no adventure!) :-(http://members.directvinternet.com/geof43/compare/cap.htmlhttp://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog3.gif

Great shots and a very nice comparison. 2K2 isn't so bad to be unbelievable. Thanks! It was kinda educational too. :-wave

Thanks for the virtual tour and comparison. Now, tell us about that beautiful dog with you at one of the stops...a great looking animal..Sherm

Nice pictures/shots.. If I would have known you were flying through St. Louis I would have kept an eye out for your Debonair ;)Jason

Yes-the dog was the reason for the trip. A great dog that I got at the pound-someone told me he might be some type of rare Belgian breed, but I always figured a Malamute, golden mix. When I moved to my new house last year he didn't have the size of yard he had formally enjoyed,and my stepson in California had always had a special relationship with the dog and asked if he might have him.So the trip was to fly the dog out there to a new home-sad for me-but ultimately better for him. He is doing great by the way!http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog3.gif

I'll flash the landing lights next time!http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog3.gif

Yes, I saw the malamute part, but coud not pick out the goldie from the mix. One of our dogs, some years back was a full bred malamute with beautiful blue eyes. As you know, they like to howl, and our daughter taught her the Hallalujah Chorus, at least the first few notes...:-). She came amazingly close. Also, I recorded her howls and she actually went behind the loudspeaker looking for the dog she was hearing. Sadly, she liked to run, and managed to get out of our fenced in back yard. So it goes. Happy Holidays, all!

Hi Geofa,You reminded me of a little story about the real world vs FS.My friends father owns a plane and since I had been pestering him to take me up, he offered a ride to my wife and myself from Buttonville, ON (CYKZ) to Collingwood, ON (NY3). The night before the flight, I decided to have a go at it with the sim. I loaded up the default 172, since it would be similar in perfomance to the Archer II we'd be going in. Loaded up the forecast weather for the day (light winds and CAVU), and set up the gps for a direct course to the Collingwood aerodrome as that's what we planned to use during the actual flight.And since the flight is only about 30 mins long, I decided to fly it at 3,000 ft.Anyways, I took off in the sim using the same runway we eventually did (33), climbed up to 3,000 ft. Set cruise at 110 IAS and followed the needle to Collingwood. Time of departure was 11:30 and we arrived in Collingwood at 12:02. During the flight I overflew Canadian Forces Base Borden with it's closed airfield and yellow x'd runways. A handy emergency field I thought.The next day, we departed the real CYKZ rwy 33 at 11:28, went on up to 3,000 ft. and flew the gps needle on up to Collingwood. Cruise speed was at 105-110 IAS and we overflew CFB Borden, really closed but strangely enough with a few small single engine aircraft parked adjacent to the runways. We arrived in Collingwood at 12:03 where we had that so called $100 hamburger before returning home.It really impressed me how close to reality this sim has come. And this was all mostly by fluke. I chose the departure time as a rough guess at what time we'd be going. Rwy 15/33 is the most used rwy at CYKZ so that was a 50-50 guess. The cruise alt was a wild guess; I suppose I wanted to see the detail on the ground. And when Borden slipped into my view, it was exactly the way it happend in the sim.Kinda the opposite way you are doing you're flight.Cheers,CF-AOA

Yes -this one had an expressive howl for every mood-very conversational and amusing. Never taught him any music though! :-)Have a great Holiday yourself!http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog3.gif

Yep-it is so real now it can be kinda strange. Sometimes when flying for real I find myself saying-gee this looks just like ms2002-guess it really should be the other way around! :-lolhttp://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog3.gif

Great shots and good info. In general, how do you compare FS2002 to the real thing flying your aircraft?Robb

Cockpit and instruments-almost 100%Terrain and outside view-extremely good-better roads would really do it-landclass and mesh add ins make it 90-95%Weather with active sky and Chris's Fs sky world-getting extremely good--flying with live weather can capture the feeling 100%Atc-even default fs is very good for GA ifr flying, add on like rc adds other reality features-combo of both positives would be idealOutside views of aircraft-almost 100%Virtual panning with active cam and future vc cockpit improvements add the realism of movement and 3d.Right now, the only lacking are the flight models and lack of motion.The flight models hopefully can be taken care of in the future release-some are very good now but I hope for this to be a big improvement in the next version.The motion- who knows what the future will hold?-a tool and great program like active cam can almost simulate it on a flat computer screen. FS2002 is a very serious training tool in my mind-especially when your mind can fill in the remaining blanks.http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog2.jpg

I am curious about the nav program displayed in your first shot what is it called and what are its capabilities

That is rms flitesoft-although I use online web planning now at aeroplanner.com.Flitesoft is available at:http://www.rmstek.comhttp://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog2.jpg