Out in the misty mid-west again. Heading out from Tinker AFB this time. I did a mainframe class for the USAF here back in the day, and they wouldn't let me onto the site. Apparently the Brits were (are?) a well know security risk so I remember staying for two weeks in a motel just across from the base. Main form of entertainment was crushing roaches. I remember coming down to the reception desk on the Saturday morning on the middle of the two weeks to ask something and the guy on the desk was totally amazed to find anybody staying there over a weekend. He did actually ask me why! I also remember that when I eventually flew out to head back home even the airport security said things like "you've been here two weeks?" with a look of absolute amazement.

I think the place suffers from a major self esteem problem! Mind you, it was around the time of one of the many economic turndowns of that era. I remember looking at the real estate pages in the local papers and seeing houses I could have bought on my credit card, never mind with a mortgage. And for 150k USD I could have bought something that looked like the Governor's mansion (hey, perhaps it was <grin>).

So yes, it did have a run down air about the place when I was there, but it may be all yuppied up by now, and either way, I was very glad to see it in the sim. Even if I might not go as far as Mr Berry in my evaluation.

So, out of TInker and just pottling around a bit

KOKC, Will Rogers World

Nothing special, but I like the atmoshperics and the scenery.

cheers,

Andy

Great story and pics to go with it, Andy! Love that Ryan. I think I need to buy it too. Brits a security risk at a US AFB?? Man, you once were noble allies!! Maybe me, a German, they wouldn't even allow to enter the city. 😄😄

Nice story indeed. 

From Kansas to Oklahoma, you had kinda doomsday weather😄 !

 

5 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

From Kansas to Oklahoma, you had kinda doomsday weather😄 !

Yes. Was about to ask him about thunder and lightening.  I positioned myself at my local airport about an hour ago.  Scattered small cumulus clouds both in MSFS and real world.  Lightening and thunder going crazy in MSFS.  Would be over the top unrealistic for even a very very severe thunderstorm.  So wonder how he fared in those conditions.

1 hour ago, bernd1151 said:

Great story and pics to go with it, Andy! Love that Ryan. I think I need to buy it too. Brits a security risk at a US AFB?? Man, you once were noble allies!! Maybe me, a German, they wouldn't even allow to enter the city. 😄😄

Cheers Bernd. I wasn't taken with the Ryan when I first saw it, but then saw another shot of it a couple of days ago and for some reason it just grabbed me. As for the allies thing, well what can I say. I certainly never got any feeling of comradeship trying to get through immigration going over there, in fact I often got pulled aside and grilled about the number of visits I was making, as I was probably out there about eight or ten times a year, anything from one to five weeks a trip. Mind you, could be worse, New Yorkers don't even like to let folks from the other states in <grin>

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

Nice story indeed. 

From Kansas to Oklahoma, you had kinda doomsday weather😄 !

 

59 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Was about to ask him about thunder and lightening.

Thanks Dominique, and re the weather for you and Frank, I almost never select live weather. Maybe I should try it more often, but I'm not that othered about replicating any kind of real experience. I have the SoFly "Weather Preset Pro" package, which is really just an extra set of pre-coded presets, and there are a couple of thos that I quite like to use. Both my recent sets were using the SoFlly "Misty Morning" setting. The also have very nice "Tropical Rays" and "Desert Conditions" presets that I use quite a bit.

4 hours ago, andy1252 said:

I think the place suffers from a major self esteem problem! Mind you, it was around the time of one of the many economic turndowns of that era. I remember looking at the real estate pages in the local papers and seeing houses I could have bought on my credit card, never mind with a mortgage. And for 150k USD I could have bought something that looked like the Governor's mansion (hey, perhaps it was <grin>).

My guess is that was in the early 1980's.  In that timeframe I lived first about an hour west of Tinker and later about 90 minutes NE of the base.  In both cases I traveled first the western half of the state and after that the eastern half.  Also lived in Kansas twice, though both times up near Kansas City.  I was in the farm equipment industry so loved your agricultural screenies in this topic.  Tinker in that era was a high secured base as it was the home if I recall for AWACS.

Edited July 12, 20214 yr by fppilot

46 minutes ago, fppilot said:

My guess is that was in the early 1980's.  In that timeframe I lived first about an hour west of Tinker and later about 90 minutes NE of the base.  In both cases I traveled first the western half of the state and after that the eastern half.  Also lived in Kansas twice, though both times up near Kansas City.  I was in the farm equipment industry so loved your agricultural screenies in this topic.  Tinker in that era was a high secured base as it was the home if I recall for AWACS.

Hi Frank, not sure but I suspect it might have been more like early '90s. I wasn't working in my travelling motormouth mode until the late '80s. I have to say that despite the roaches and the run-down areas I did quite enjoy Oklahoma City, or what little I saw of it. But I found that with all sorts of non-touristy places I got to visit out there. Working somewhere is a great way to see another country, even if only in two week chunks. I loved the feel of, at least temporaily, "belonging" in a place in a way you just don't get as a tourist/holidaymaker. Maybe I'm a bit weird, but its like I much prefer looking out for a regular diner to eat in than a fancy restaurant. Feels more like home. Although those roaches . . .

Edited July 12, 20214 yr by andy1252
typo

May I add my bit, Andy, from a stretch of (cross-country) road-travel...I'd done across Oklahoma...couple of years ago...

Basically, somehow (and unintentionally) having ended up on the interior OK state routes, my car's (and my phone's) GPS didn't receive any signals...so, I was lost in the middle of nowhere, and, kept running into similar-looking cattle-ranches and horse-farms...then, unexpectedly, out of nowhere, I caught a "Walmart" sign...went in and asked if they have a road-atlas...hard-copy of course...the Walmart associate was surely wondering why, in the world, someone would want a paper-atlas in these modern times of automobile navigation...(and, might have also guessed that someone probably didn't know where he was either, though I'd already figured that much out, for myself)...however, politely, he sent me to one of the corners of the store, where I picked up a good old Rand McNally Atlas (the one for full 3 countries - U.S., Canada, and Mexico).

In my stationary car, it took me a 5 min look-up, and, then just about 40 mins of drive, to reach the Dallas outskirts...and one of the major highways from there....(never had felt so grateful for the older technology of navigation...🙂...)...

Anyway, Oklahoma is OK, and your story and screenshots, Andy, are excellent...(btw, your screenshots are now bringing back some memories, for sure...🙂...)...

8 hours ago, P_7878 said:

a good old Rand McNally Atlas

Funnily enough, I've just been clearing out a bunch of old cassette tapes from one of my desk drawers, and behind them was a pile or two of the various local atlases and street map books that I accumulated in my travelling days around the US. Bought back some memories. Nothing quite like arriving somewhere like Newark at around 23:00 after a six or seven hour flight and then having to get in a hire car and try and figure you're way an hour or so north through the maze of freeways. Especially with everybody driving on the wrong side of the road! No satnav then, so I have quite a nice little collection of road atlases.

Not that I use satnav if I can avoid it, prefer a map anyway. One and only time I used it over here I had turned off a motorway (freeway) as I could see a huge queue up ahead in the distance and knew I could cut across country and pick up an alternate route, and I then spent about 20 minutes listening to the **** thing telling me "turn around, turn around" like some increasingly demented elderly relative in the back seat.

Glad you enjoyed the pix. I shall have a couple more flights there yet - I seem to remember a zoo of some kind so I shall see if I can find it in the sim.

***Incredible Captures