Flying low and slow, over Merry England (Central)

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

[LewisW296 4]

Beautiful shots there. If you enjoy flying over England in VFR then I'd highly recommend a trip through North Wales. I find myself frequently trying to pick flights that cross the mountains there. Another beautiful and much better known spot is the obvious Scottish Highlands. I absolutely love picking my way through the Cairngorms and over the Trossachs. 

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

9 hours ago, LewisW296 said:

Beautiful shots there. If you enjoy flying over England in VFR then I'd highly recommend a trip through North Wales. I find myself frequently trying to pick flights that cross the mountains there. Another beautiful and much better known spot is the obvious Scottish Highlands. I absolutely love picking my way through the Cairngorms and over the Trossachs. 

Thanks for your great scenic recommendations. Will certainly follow them!

[HighBypass 2,339]

On your way up to the Highlands, you should try the Lake District in the northern part of England.

I don't know how restrictive the real world is for overflying these areas, but hey, in the sim, the residents don't complain!

[LecLightning56 33]

Cannot help but feeling how X-Plane? (I presume) looks so much better than P3D v4.5, if you are using Orbx True Earth. Some areas in P3D v4.5 look like the scene of nuclear devastation than the lively images portrayed here. Plus, I like the realistic appearance of the motorway in your shots, obviously very important features for VFR flying. It is nothing short of hilarious watching road traffic negotiating very bumpy road definitions in P3D v4.5 with Orbx True Earth (unless I am doing something wrong!). It also highlights how desperately P3D needs to move on and break ties with its ancient origins.

Edited December 30, 2019 by LecLightning56

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

5 hours ago, LecLightning56 said:

Cannot help but feeling how X-Plane? (I presume) looks so much better than P3D v4.5, if you are using Orbx True Earth. Some areas in P3D v4.5 look like the scene of nuclear devastation than the lively images portrayed here. Plus, I like the realistic appearance of the motorway in your shots, obviously very important features for VFR flying. It is nothing short of hilarious watching road traffic negotiating very bumpy road definitions in P3D v4.5 with Orbx True Earth (unless I am doing something wrong!). It also highlights how desperately P3D needs to move on and break ties with its ancient origins.

Roadways, and highways are very well done, in XP11.x (or 41 as I am running), and I enjoy flying miles along (as well as very well defined, and train-animated railways, to each town and city...as they traverse the T.E. region. Of course, they are simply stunning at night...especially if you download all the series of night light extensions, found over at the .org under most popular downloads. They are highlighted, and I have each and everyone of them installed. I also am running in these shots, xVision 1.4, as well as the nVidia Sharpening filter as on, and active. They both really dial in the wonderful visual features built into the Xplane engine.  I have both entries of Sharpening , disabled within xVision, so as not to corrupt/defeat and/or interfere with the final sharpening driver put to the screen.  All in all, your reasoning, along with others I hold, is why I fly T.E. products exclusively purchased for Xplane.  The one soon to be released, Florida, I most likely will purchase for P3D 4.x as P3D 4.x walks all over Xplane, for realism of water  (ocean/lake/river) representation and visual animation.  Being that Florida is surrounded by ocean, has a large inland lake, has the bogs and swamps, ...AND, that I would most certainly wish to land and do water approaches with wind driven waves, etc to taxi into seaplane bases and marinas,...I'll first buy it for P3D 4.x so to do so.  Unfortunately, water (surface 'look' and animation) is dreadfully inadequate within Xplane, and basically is a mere shallow (if you excuse my pun) step up from the ancient FS9. This the only 'negative', alongside no Xplane 'native' seasons other than the Spring/light Summer look, that I hold for the entire Xplane franchise, 

For all my water operations,  I start up P3D 4.x for sure!   So,  until we see what MS2020 can render for 3-D land, its auto gen, it handling of elevation(s), and of course (important to me, oceans/lakes/river depiction and animation of such water body surfaces...),  It's T.E. Florida heading for P3D 4.x   When the next deep sale comes along, then I'd also pick it up for Xplane,  just so to have it, and enjoy the visuals, and understand that taking off from, water taxi, and landing, will not be the T.E. Xplane Florida's strength.

The one interesting thing I was thinking of, as regards T.E. Florida, when, or even IF, it will be released for P3D 4.x...is whether it will kill off SEASONS for the entire State?!?!?   I wonder if anybody else has thought of this...being that all the other T.E. areas released for P3D 4.x do NOT have the other three seasons....and overwrites that seasonal change, once you install any T.E. product for P3D 4.x...I'd assume, that no Spring, or Autumn representation would be seen, there on after.  So...I guess, something to also consider.  If you do own and run with T.E. within Xplane, then obviously that would not be a deal breaker to that user...to lose seasonal change depiction.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

6 hours ago, HighBypass said:

On your way up to the Highlands, you should try the Lake District in the northern part of England.

I don't know how restrictive the real world is for overflying these areas, but hey, in the sim, the residents don't complain!

Actually, I have been there, as I own all three GB T.E.'s. Very nice...as well as I have bought all the Orbx custom international and regional airports for each region.  When I took these shots, I had taken off from EG20, and wanted to follow the M (routes) to check out the animation through morning, afternoon, evening, and full night.  Also, I had always run with the transparent roadway feature, but discovered that if you don't run the default roadways surfaces, you lose a lot of visual 'location' for VFR.  I now actually prefer a more pronounced roadway surface as I crisscross the regions.  So...turned default back on...and am very happy with the result/visuals for roadways deployment. Also,  approaches, with you still above 2,000 feet AGL, is much better visually with animated road traffic upon the more well defined roadways (pavement) default depictions, no matter in high, or low light scenarios. To my mind, anyways. (large smile).

Edited December 30, 2019 by Sesquashtoo

[LewisW296 4]

One of my more memorable flights for GA was taking a Piper 28 from Bristol to Valley. Flew over both the Severn Bridges and then set a course for North Wales. Lovely flight and only about 60 - 80 minutes.