P3DV4.4 Over the Sierra in the Shorts 360

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Always loved this "bus with wings" since I flew on it back in 1990 out of O'Hare to Springfield IL and back a couple weeks later.   I flew on the 330 going down to Springfield and the nicer looking Short 360 going back to O'Hare.  I loved the picture windows view and flying around 8-10,000 feet.  I remember the sunlight shining in and the nice warmth it provided, then we descended below the same cloud deck we took off under from O'Hare on our way into Springfield.  I took a couple more business trips to Springfield in '94 and '95 and had a funny time with the girls at the front desk, who flirted with me on my first trip to that client in '94 but then heard by their boss that I had been married by my second visit in '95.  When I arrived at the front desk they were whispering to each other and I asked them why to which they exclaimed "You are MARRIED now, our boss told us".  They were great sports about it and still flirted with me.  While I was there I was prepping for a systems class I was going to teach them when I was leaving for a break, only to find out the electronic lock to my training room had frozen and I got locked inside, and there was no end to the teasing as I was trying to get out to use the...uh...facilities.  So as a joke, their boss got a plexiglass frame and somehow got a stuffed Garfield the Cat put inside with the quote on the outside of the plexiglass in pressed on letters "To John, who was locked in training room 320...."  25 years later I still have my Plexiglass "award" they gave me.

Also when I taught, I would give out quizzes to my students to see what they retained from my classes and to see what they needed refreshers on.  One of my classes had some older women who struggled with computers, but one younger guy who knew computers and even thought he knew them better than I did.  He made the women nervous by bragging how easy it was to him, much to the anger of me, his instructor.  So when it was time to hand out the quizzes, I tricked him with the knowing approval of the older ladies, in on my joke.  I gave them quizzes I knew they would ace and I gave him a "special" quiz.  They finished up in less than five minutes while he, to his growing frustration, could not even get past the first question.

Among the questions I wrote:

How many bytes of memory does the application use?

What computer language is it coded in?

What is the network protocol called?

What is the type of cabling used?

How many modules are there within the application

After he struggled for about ten minutes, growing more and more visibly frustrated as the other students tried to stifle their laughter, I finally asked him "Are you OK, is there something wrong?"  To which he said "You did not cover any of this!"  I said "but you told all of us you knew the system so well and you shamed my other students", then they broke out laughing when he finally accused them of being in on my personal lesson for him.  It worked, whenever the other students struggled, he was first to help them, but I suspect he was the one who sabotaged the lock in my training room later that week, to get even, and I knew I deserved it.

Oh, the stories my air and business travel I have had to remember for the past 30 years, the fun of being an aviation nut was having a career as a sky warrior....  Now onto my pics....

 

 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Very nice shots....and I agree with many of your views on this plane....I loved commuting in it.

I bought a version for FSX sometime back but the 3D cockpit is terrible.

I have not found a really good professional 3D cockpit version....can anyone point me to such a version?

[fppilot 4,355]

Loved my flights in the Shorts 360 in Flight Assignment:ATP back in the early to mid 1990's, but had not found a good one since, for FSX.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

55 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Very nice shots....and I agree with many of your views on this plane....I loved commuting in it.

I bought a version for FSX sometime back but the 3D cockpit is terrible.

I have not found a really good professional 3D cockpit version....can anyone point me to such a version?

The Carenado 360 is FSX compatible and although I do not show it, it has a great 3D cockpit and right now is the only 360 on the payware market I believe, there is no freeware competition I am sorry to say.  I found it worth the purchase and on my system, though I do not know how it compares to yours, it is extremely high performing fps wise....

[John_Cillis 2,406]

12 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Loved my flights in the Shorts 360 in Flight Assignment:ATP back in the early to mid 1990's, but had not found a good one since, for FSX.

I took a college level course on Meteorology back in 1979 and also a Geology course in 1980, I have become very good at forecasting weather though was fooled once by embedded unforecast thunderstorms when I flew a friend's Luscombe 8A in Pennsylvania back in 2006.  I wanted to purchase it but was put off not by its performance, but by having to hand prop it, although it started on my first pull while my friend and owner held the brakes.  Actually I did not even give the prop a quarter turn, I have very strong arms and was well coached by the owner on how to start and lean immediately back towards the cabin and hop on board, then we pulled the wheel chocks via a rope attached to them and pulled them inside the cabin. 

He put me up in his home, a wonderful home in the forest he custom built out of logs.  While I was flying the Luscombe west bound from his grass strip, we both saw a flash from behind the clouds to our north and we turned to each other and said "embedded thunderstorms".  I turned the aircraft back to the east immediately for the 20 mile flight back to the airstrip and handed him the controls for the landing once I had set up final because he required a special dive and flare out to clear some 75 foot trees at the end of the runway which he called "the ally oop".  No sooner did we land than raindrops started to hit the windshield then the heavy squalls swept thru while we waited them out at his home.  He then took me to Breakfast then took me back to Philly. 

Unlike reports to the contrary, the Luscombe, the only taildragger I ever taxied, was easy to handle on the ground with no tendency to ground loop, it was as steady and true on the ground as it was in the air and in the air, the most wonderfully harmonized aircraft I ever flew out of a half dozen fixed wing aircraft I have flown, with only light touches on the rudder pedals for harmonized and coordinated turns, a real seat of the pants flyer.  The owner complimented me on my flying and said I was the best pilot he had ever flown with but it was because I had never flown anything larger than a Cessna 172 and was only pilot in command on smaller aircraft with a gross weight like the Luscombe.  Nowadays there are electric starters for the 8A so I may get one in the future, especially if I can find a lighter version with fabric wings and a higher gross.  I have also flown the Ercoupe, so I have flown three living legends altogether, I flew briefly a Cessna 170 once.

John

 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

15 hours ago, John_Cillis said:

The Carenado 360 is FSX compatible and although I do not show it, it has a great 3D cockpit and right now is the only 360 on the payware market I believe, there is no freeware competition I am sorry to say.  I found it worth the purchase and on my system, though I do not know how it compares to yours, it is extremely high performing fps wise....

Can't believe I missed this....I just checked and its P3DV4 compatible! Thanks for this headsup.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

3 hours ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Can't believe I missed this....I just checked and its P3DV4 compatible! Thanks for this headsup.

I like it so much, very nice to have for those short missions of one hour or less.  Carenado has been busy moving their fleet over to P3DV4, all of my former FSX purchases I was able to redownload for free to install on my new system with P3DV4.