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Geofa

Gps, vfr flight, sim savvy photoscenery vs. generic for vfr flight

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There have been a couple threads I've participated in lately and I wanted to post these screen shots to show my position on these subjects. Used is Fsx with sim savvy photoscenery, xplane with generic.

 

The first one was "do you use a gps when conducting vfr flight"?  In my neck of the woods I would answer yes...

The airspace in San Diego is very complex-even in the outskirts where todays sim flight is. But beyond that-there are those pesky tfr's that pop up all the time-and for me that means an xm feed or adds b also required. Luckily in my plane we had all covered-an ifr certified panel mounted gps, a portable mounted garmin with xm weather, and an ipad with wingx (wingx works great with flight sims by the way!) with a portable adds b unit.

 

Even with a vfr flight-planning is required. Today's flight is a scenic takeoff from krnm, a passover of Cedar Creek Falls-one of the more famous hiking trails and waterfall in the San Diego area, and then heading out to the desert for some looks at the san dunes from the air. After a briefing todays flight will be a little more tricky-there is a forest fire out in the mountains with a nice big tfr around it, along with a tfr at ksee just south-the airspace should not be a problem as we will get permission from the tower at krnm to head southeast and just skirt the airspace south. Here is the route on Wing X-once past Cedar we can find an appropriate mountain crossing that keeps us out of the tfr and keeps a safe distance from terrain:

 

 

Takeoff from krnm-note that buildings that are not autogen do appear on the sim saavy scenery-and the reality of the rocky mountains that give this area its character are apparent in the photo scenery:

 

 

After takeoff we will head towards Mt. Woodson  with a gradual left turn and then head up to the town of Ramona to get our bearings. Note that Mt. Woodson is a vfr checkpoint on the chart-due not only to it being one of the bigger peaks, but its fame of huge boulders strewn all over it making it an ideal checkpoint. Also note the subtle coloration of the rangeland below that photoscenery is able to capture:

 

Finding my way to San Vincente road is a piece of cake in the photoreal-notice just behind the tail is the track at Ramona high school-after heading to that I know to take a right and head for the chicken coops at the farm just to the right of the nose. In the generics is is pretty much impossible though I stumbled upon the right road (I think).

 

Just past there I know to head to the golf course at the San Diego country estates. You can see the swimming pool at the clubhouse and the tennis courts below. See the tennis court to the left and some little white bleachers? That is where Tennis player Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court in the first of his "Battle of the Sexes" tournaments in 1973. John Wayne and Charlton Heston were watching from those bleachers below:

 

Continuing down the San Vincente valley we see the distinctive peak of Eagle Peak directly ahead, and Mt. Gower to our left. Here I am only a few 100 ft. agl and the critic of photoscenery can apply-a little blurry and the houses look flat. There were some comments on clouds in the xplane forum a little while back-is it more important that they look real or behave real? Me I'll take both. I'll also take the photoscenery that shows real house placement, vegetation placement and roads that look like roads over generic at the cost of flatness down low (I'd be busted flying this low over a populated area anyway so it really is not much of a factor).

 

 

Cedar Falls is one of the most famous trails in San Diego, but perhaps not ultimately for good reasons. Every year people die on the trail from exhaustion, and many a soul has died jumping off the waterfall into the pool below. It was closed due to a death last year but has recently reopened-but still I see the police helicopter go down 1 or twice a day:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/cedar-creek-falls-julian

Note in the photoscenery the trail is clearly seen-and so is the waterfall just on the right wing tip!

 

 

After crossing the mountains the desert awaits-and here is a real shock-xplane's generics has the sand dunes-and remarkable they look! Bravo Xplane! Now I hope I can get photoscenery scenery like this in Xplane at some point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you for a very nice presentation!

 

HLJAMES

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