I've been doing a lot of biplane sightseeing tours and have been wondering if other people are flying them and enjoying them as much as I am.When all I had was the main island, they weren't my favorite activity. But the other islands open up a lot of possibilities.A typical "high score" sightseeing tour is as follows:100 for the mission.500 for a dawn flight.400 for visiting both landmarks that you are directed to.1000 for landing to let the passenger pee.65 for each landmark visited, 130 typical for two landmarks.That's a score of 2130 if you just visit the two landmarks.However... if you know where the landmarks are, you can visit as many as you want for an additional 65 points each. The points aren't worth much, but this can be a lot of fun.Before I post my current high score, I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried visiting a lot of landmarks. Here's a hint: Oahu has at least 22 landmarks to visit, and you can do them easily on one flight in about an hour. There are 7 near Ford Island alone.Hook

I love those biplane sightseeing tours - love flying the Stearman - and to be honest, have never really paid attention to the scores I got. I never really pay much attention to any scores, well except the challenges you can get a bronze, silver or gold award for...Nice tip on viewing additonal landmark, nice hint on Oahu, I will have to make sure that I do that one and see the additional sights.Thanks,

If you're just going to be flying around sightseeing anyway, take a passenger. Fly around the coast looking for lighthouses. Fly over any interesting terrain feature. Fly up the crest of ridges, and always check out the highest points on any islands. I got the Protected Crescent aerocache just because I saw Molokini and flew over to check it out. It's a landmark too, by the way.It's not really the score that counts anyway. For me, it's just seeing how many landmarks I can collect on a single flight.Hook

Ok, top this:I started at dawn, flew over 4 islands, returned to my departure airport and landed. Final score was:100 Mission500 Dawn flight400 Landmarks1000 Let the passenger pee2015 Additiional sightseeing bonus (3015 total including the pee bonus)------4015 Total scoreThat incudes visiting 31 separate landmarks, including the two directed ones. That's 2015 / 65 = 31.And I did it on one tank of fuel. Oahu: 22 landmarksMolokai: 3 landmarksMaui: 5 landmarksKahoolawe: 1 landmarkYou could probably collect a few more on the main island if you knew exactly where they were and were feelilng adventurous. You'll have to do some strict fuel managment though, which is a mini-game in itself. Or, you could wimp out and land for fuel at any time, but where's the game in that? :DHook

You can have an additional 1,000 points from me if you ask the passenger to unfasten her harness so she can reach forward and let you pass her a 'lady john', whereupon you should roll inverted and lose the silly cow permanently. There'll be no more points for that, but you will have the eternal gratitude of her husband I am sure.

 

Al

Making sure you're near a landing field at the right time for the passenger to pee is another mini-game. I've found that if I take off from Dilingham, I can usually make Ford island, or Honolulu Intl which flies me over the Hickam Field landmark on the approach.

 

Hook