This flight will take us to a highly contested region. Turkey and Greece had never been friends in the past and even today crossing from one country to the other isn't easy. In real life, this flight would be a challenge in getting clearances and landing permissions.

But for our international community of peaceful pilots, exceptions were made, all clearances and permissions are there, let's go!

Departing from LGRP (Rhodes, Greece) we will land at

LGSM (Samos, Greece)

LTBJ (Izmir, Turkey)

LGMT (Mytilene, Greece)

LTFD (Balikesir, Turkey)

LTBH (Canakkale, Turkey)

LGHI (Chios, Greece)

LGIK (Ikaria, Greece)

and finish the flight at

LGSO (Syros, Greece)

I put some information together that can be found here , together with the flight plans.

All airports are freeware and work well in P3D V4. 

The sceneries can be downloaded using the following links:

LFTD (Balikesir) and LTBH (Canakkale): http://scenerytr.com/freeware/ 

LTBJ (Izmir):  https://mega.nz/#!1YYlDI5D!aZjF5J9Lz1RrCaPqLAcZF_KUOsP02_2kVvEhH6jJQLE

LGSM (Samos): https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=Samos+Keogh&CatID=root&Go=Search

LGHI (Chios): https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=197454

LGMT (Mitilini), LGIK (Ikaria), LGRP (Rhodes Diagoras), and LGSO (Syros): https://simmershome.de/. Please note, that simmershome requires a membership, the application can be found here: https://forum.simmershome.de/wcf/index.php?attachment/210-form-get- clubmember-pdf/ 

 

Aircraft
The route is 483nm. You probably want something faster, like the PC-12, the King Air, or the Do-228, capable of cruising with about 220 kts so that we can complete our journey before darkness. As always, please fly what you like.

Scenery
The above-mentioned airports enhance the experience but they are not necessarily required, all airports are available in the default sim. You can fly without them but I recommend downloading them.

Weather
Usually, the weather is fine in the Mediterranean at this time of the year. In case we do not encounter VMC (Visual Meteorological Conditions), we can use historic Wx from November 4th, 12:00 hrs lcl. 

Where & When
Date and time: Saturday November 10, 2018, 19:00 UTC.

Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D).

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!
 

 

The Visual Approach to Samos Runway 09

Samos is an interesting airport because most flights make a circle-to-land approach due to high terrain and a legally restricted airspace. The Runway 09 approach is preferred in most instances because tricky gusts and windshear make use of Runway 27 difficult for landing. That said, the high terrain north and west of the airport provide an interesting challenge for Rwy 09. Pilots require special training to land here.

Here is an instructive video of a B737 landing with a crosswind. Strong northern "Meltemi" winds, combined with the high nearby terrain, often make for turbulence as well. To get some sense of the ferocity, look here.

You might like a detailed written guide from the Pilots Briefing Room. The visual waypoints are: (a) the pier at Ireo (Iraion) when crossing the coast at 1100ft, (b) the village Mili (Miloi) just before which you turn right 120 degrees at 900ft, and (c) the white shed (greenhouse) over which you pass at 400ft on a direct line to finals. Here is another useful video for a cloudy day approach and landing (crisper video, better music, green season). In addition, while promoting their acclaimed payware scenery for LGSM, 29Palms have crafted a helpful video. Finally, here is a simulation that shows what can be done with state-of-the-art addons.

Takeoff on either runway requires a quick turn to avoid terrain or Turkish airspace. When the northern Meltemi winds are strong and generating turbulence, locals suggest a Rwy 27 departure.

While our smaller aircraft will not demand the precision required of airliners, it will be fun to fly the correct professional approach. And we'll get some appreciation for what is one of the world's more demanding airports.

Great links, thanks Mike!

 

I hope I'll be able to join you, my sim is u/s again, doesn't start at all. I tried everything I tried last time, but no success this time.

I will do a complete uninstall and reinstall tomorrow and hope it does work then.

If that doesn't work I have a system backup stored on an external hard drive, maybe that helps then.

Gunter,

I assume when you say "system backup" you mean a "system image" which is essentially a snapshot of your entire system drive, that I assume holds P3D and all scenery?

If so, I have had success, on numerous occasions, restoring from a system image. I've done this for the specific case of P3Dv4 becoming unstable, and it worked perfectly to solve my troubles. Hopefully your system image is fairly recent, as obviously you would have to reinstall anything that was installed after the image was created.

Here's wishing you best luck...and keep me/us posted about the results, and whether you run into problems.

Kind Regards,

Thanks Steve, yes, I have a fairly recent system image that I could use. Saving data now and then I'll give it a try...

Update: A complete reinstall finally worked. I'm now in the wonderful process of reinstalling all my airplanes and sceneries....

A side note: I had a full system image made with Paragon. To my surprise it refused to write on my system. First, a message stated that my hard drive/partition structure was different to the one saved. That's impossible, I didn't change anything there. It then refused to write back my FlightSim Drive because some files had security attributes that would not allow that. Great!

Anybody has a recommendation for a Recovery/Restore Programm that really works? I used Acronis before but that came once back with "an unexpected error occurred" and stopped working...

Great news Gunter.
BTW. I too am eager to hear suggestions for a robust backup/image/restore software package.

12 hours ago, Viking01 said:

Update: A complete reinstall finally worked. I'm now in the wonderful process of reinstalling all my airplanes and sceneries....

A side note: I had a full system image made with Paragon. To my surprise it refused to write on my system. First, a message stated that my hard drive/partition structure was different to the one saved. That's impossible, I didn't change anything there. It then refused to write back my FlightSim Drive because some files had security attributes that would not allow that. Great!

Anybody has a recommendation for a Recovery/Restore Programm that really works? I used Acronis before but that came once back with "an unexpected error occurred" and stopped working...

Gunter,

I've encountered the partition error before, and it was because I booted BIOS boot device, and not a UEFI boot device. About caused a panic until I realized the problem. In your boot settings you will see options for different boot devices, and in mine, I had both BIOS and UEFI boot devices for my DVD. Initially I must've selected the non-UEFI DVD device. GPT can ONLY be used on a UEFI system, so when you boot BIOS, the system automatically considers all disks to be MBR (Master Boot Record), and not GPT. I suppose it's also possible that the situation was reversed and your drives are partitioned as MBR, but you booted as UEFI - I'M not 100% sure this would cause a problem, because I have no experience on this instance, but I suspect it would be a problem.

I feel really bad that you ran into this and didn't have the solution to get your system image back, but if you haven't gotten too far on reinstalls, you could give it a try, making sure you select the correct boot device for your drive, partitioning scheme!

Regards,

10 hours ago, MM said:

Great news Gunter.
BTW. I too am eager to hear suggestions for a robust backup/image/restore software package.

Mike,

I've used Acronis True Image and liked it, however, at this point I just use Win 10 backup function and select "Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7)", and then just do a system image...about once a month. I don't typically add many critical user files to my system, so I don't really need daily backups. If you need daily backups, I would suggest something like Acronis, and do daily "Incremental" backups, and a system image once/week/month. Or you could just use Win 10's File History, for real-time backup of files, and do a system image about once/week/month.

At one time I used a network-attached drive for backups, but it was just too slow (fast, network-attached storage systems are expensive), so I bought a couple USB hard drives and do my system images to those.

Regards,

Thanks Steve. I understood what you said but I think the problem here was that the DVD I had to boot from would start an OS without the activation of the USB ports, as it did not see my external drive. This made it impossible to restore the backup. So I'm a bit puzzled on how any restore function from an external device could work or how I could make sure that the external drive can be read in case of a backup. Also, a message appeared that the network function is not loaded. A bit too much for me....

I used Acronis for many years. Then, a couple of years ago, I needed the backup when my Laptop had a crash. After about an hour of copying files, Acronis reported an "unexpected error" and stopped.

I think I'll try the Windows function next.

I'm pretty much advanced with reinstalling. By tonight I will have ORBX back (I decided on a fresh download and install of Global, Vector, Landclas, and Regions), airports will follow one by one later.

Strangely enough, I have a problem installing my Carenado PC12 and Do228 purchased from SimMarket. The installer does not accept the serial number, no reinstall possible. I opened a ticket, I hope it helps. Also, I cannot reinstall the GTN750, I can't find the correct installer. Another ticket.... 

 

Sorry to hear Gunter     

 

Roman,

That scene is really funny!

Gunter,

Do you have an extra computer on which you can run Teamspeak? If you do, I'd like to get with you so we can go through the steps to make this work. A system, image scheme that is unreliable is worse than NOT doing a system image. I'm pretty sure we can get you configured so we can read and write that image you already have. I'll be the first to admit that it can be less than intuitive, and that a single wrong setting, or action will keep things from working properly.

Part of the reason I like Windows backup, is that it doesn't require a proprietary boot disk, specific to a non-windows program (like Acronis, or virtually any other 3rd party backup product). With Windows backup, as long as you have your Windows installer disk, you can restore from a Windows backup, system image.

Was the Paragon software that you used freeware, or full-version, payware? It looks like the "Recovery Media Builder Wizard" allows you to create bootable media that includes network and driver settings - would probably solve the USB and network problems you indicated.

I am VERY sensitive to this subject, because I once lost EVERYTHING from my ONLY computer. In about 2003, I had my I.T. guy build me a computer with all the latest and greatest. $1000 worth of dual graphics cards, $1000 processor, 4 WD Raptor, 10,000 rpm drives - expensive, but I don't remember the actual cost...total system, about $4500, in 2003 dollars. The 4 HDD's were configured in RAID10 (0+1: 2 drives striped, and 2 drive striped mirror), which is SUPPOSED to be fail-proof. Well hell, with a redundant array, that can lose 2 drives simultaneously, and be recovered simply by replacing the failed drives - an array that provides it's own backup. So I wasn't doing external backups to an non-system drive...why bother, I had a fool-proof drive array. Unfortunately, the array controller failed, corrupting the entire array (very sophisticated array), and it was not even recoverable by a high-end disk recovery vendor, that I was willing to pay $5K.

So when I see somebody dealing with something like this, I almost get physically sick.

Kind Regards,

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your help!

I'm almost done with reinstalling P3D (everything else was not affected and runs fine). I used Paragon Backup and Restore and I think the main problem is that the OS must find the external hard drive on which the back up is stored. When restoring without a DVD-Bootdisk that is no problem but after a system crash apparently the OS does not find the external drives and thus does not work. 

I hope I see you for our flight later today!

Cheers!

All scenery installed successfully for the flight. A lot of nice finds there, Gunter.

Just as a heads-up, I needed to disable Orbx Vector airport elevation correction for LTBJ Izmir, so you might want to check it.

If you're looking for a shortcut installing some of the airports, I installed just the main scenery folders and didn't add the effects and SODE bits.  It looked fine, especially in daytime.  I can live without animated windsocks.

I've been trying and failing to connect to our Teamspeak server for the past half hour or so.  I can connect to Digital Themepark with no problem. Looks like there might be something up with our server.

If it's not working, does everyone know to go instead to:

ts3.digitalthemepark.com

I'll be there if I can't get in to ours, but I usually need somone with higher permissions to pull me in to the room we use.