June 28, 201213 yr Author Believe me, you will, if you fly in a real aircraft.. The C-172 I was in bounced around like a ping pong ball. Oh, I have no doubt. I'm disappointed not to find any there in Flight. Maybe in different weather... I have been through Lake Clark Pass in the Real World. One thing missing from the scenery is all of the aircraft wreckage from people whose navigation was not as good as yours. Turbulence is also pretty rotten through there. Very bumpy that day... Lack of aircraft wreckage notwithstanding, how do the visuals going through those passes match up with reality? Reasonably close but a little disconcerting in places, as I found Hawaii, or totally out to lunch?
June 28, 201213 yr Vor's don't work every well in that kind of terrain. They are line of site devices. Hence my comment and question. I've had VORs shoot clear through to the other side of volcanoes in Flight in Hawaii (which is obviously not how these things work in real life), which is why I was wondering if all the intervening terrain in the pass blocked them or not, which it clearly should quite often when low enough that the mountains block line of sight.
June 28, 201213 yr One thing missing from the scenery is all of the aircraft wreckage from people whose navigation was not as good as yours. Nikolski airstrip (PAKO), western Aleutians DC-3 wreckage
June 28, 201213 yr Great stuff! It's a shame that you need real maps to do flights like these because the ingame map is completely and utterly useless for this because it shows no detail at all. You can't plan a flight on it and you can't follow a flight on it. Switching to the map during a flight is useless: the only thing you can see is if you are heading for an airport or not. Flying the passes by looking at details like lakes and so on is impossible... Pity I don't have an iPad or something like that to show me the maps while flying.
June 28, 201213 yr Author Great stuff! It's a shame that you need real maps to do flights like these because the ingame map is completely and utterly useless for this because it shows no detail at all. You can't plan a flight on it and you can't follow a flight on it. Switching to the map during a flight is useless: the only thing you can see is if you are heading for an airport or not. Flying the passes by looking at details like lakes and so on is impossible... Pity I don't have an iPad or something like that to show me the maps while flying. Jeroen, what do I have to do to convince you to order a couple of paper sectional charts or WACs to fly by? I was using a WAC for those flights, but sectionals show even more terrain detail. You just have to buy a lot more because they cover a much smaller area. You seem to love navigation in Flight. The first kind of navigation a pilot learns is pilotage... simply looking out the windows, then looking at the map in his lap to compare what he saw to what is marked on the chart. Look and compare, to always know exactly where you are. Then do it again. And again. Until you see your destination. Yes, paper maps are a little expensive if you can't find expired ones, but you don't have to buy them all at once. Yes, paper maps are huge, and a pain to fold down into a manageable size that still shows your route. Or part of it, at least. Then you get to fold it some more. But I find manipulating and using those real-world paper charts to be just part of flying. And they are by their nature perfect for finding your way around in a flight sim that accurately models the terrain and uses radio navaids. Add a plotter, and you can take accurate bearings and precisely measure distances as well. Find an area you really enjoy flying and order just one chart covering that area. I bet it will not be your last.
June 28, 201213 yr I bought Sectionals and IFR Enroute charts back in early 2010 for the next version of Microsoft flight simulators. If you don't want to purchase sectionals you can use http://skyvector.com/ The Inner Passage on the Juneau and Ketchikan Sectionals is pretty fun to fly.
June 28, 201213 yr I bought Sectionals and IFR Enroute charts back in early 2010 for the next version of Microsoft flight simulators. If you don't want to purchase sectionals you can use http://skyvector.com/ The Inner Passage on the Juneau and Ketchikan Sectionals is pretty fun to fly. I started buying Sectionals for FS9 back in 2005. Many of them, I got for free at FBO's because they were expired when I got them, and they knew I wasn't going to use them in a real RA. That is a great link for looking at sectionals you don't have. Jut printed a section of a chart I needed and it worked great.
June 28, 201213 yr Nikolski airstrip (PAKO), western Aleutians DC-3 wreckage Looks more like a B-18 except it should have a twin tail, They never do a good job modeling these wrecks. They could look a lot better with little effort.
June 28, 201213 yr Maybe an old laptop with Skyvector will do the trick... I might be able to get an old laptop somewhere.
June 28, 201213 yr How about foreflight for MSFight?? :) www.foreflight.com . I got it for my iPad for flying my J3 Cub in real life.
June 28, 201213 yr Author Seems kind of pricy overkill for sims, when free solutions are available. But for real flying, yeah, looks nice!
June 28, 201213 yr Nice to hear the name 'Merrill' again after all these years. Famous in the annals of FS flight. Blackrat
June 28, 201213 yr Jeroen, what do I have to do to convince you to order a couple of paper sectional charts or WACs to fly by? I was using a WAC for those flights, but sectionals show even more terrain detail. You just have to buy a lot more because they cover a much smaller area. You seem to love navigation in Flight. The first kind of navigation a pilot learns is pilotage... simply looking out the windows, then looking at the map in his lap to compare what he saw to what is marked on the chart. Look and compare, to always know exactly where you are. Then do it again. And again. Until you see your destination. Yes, paper maps are a little expensive if you can't find expired ones, but you don't have to buy them all at once. Yes, paper maps are huge, and a pain to fold down into a manageable size that still shows your route. Or part of it, at least. Then you get to fold it some more. But I find manipulating and using those real-world paper charts to be just part of flying. And they are by their nature perfect for finding your way around in a flight sim that accurately models the terrain and uses radio navaids. Add a plotter, and you can take accurate bearings and precisely measure distances as well. Find an area you really enjoy flying and order just one chart covering that area. I bet it will not be your last. J van E, Check with some of the Air Force Bases with a simple email addressed to the Control Tower and ask for old, obselete Sectional charts of Alaska. My local AFB gave me a dozen or more of Alaska and most of the the Western US. They were all dated around 2008, but every control tower has a full set of sectional charts issued every so often, some trash the old ones, others keep them for no known reason other than maybe for Flight Simmers. Ray When Pigs Fly . Ray Marshall .
June 28, 201213 yr an old laptop with Skyvector will do the trick S'what I've been using..and the iPad, though for once it's a bit small Great pics Ray..Love the tour! I have been flying the coast in the Maule in the new chageable weather theme..It is truly awesome..You cannot trim for any length of time, and the valleys and ridges are very hairy..lots of flying sideways close to mountains.. I am a bit smitten JAKE EYREIt's a small step from the sublime to the ridiculous...Napoleon Bonaparte
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