I spend most of my time flying the CRJ-700 wherever my fancy takes me. I think I'm on my third lap around the US and Canada right now. Generally avoid leaving the US since I don't have approach plates for anywhere outside the US. For more local experiences, I fly the 172 and the little Maule around Western and Central Pennsylvania at airports I'm familiar with in real life. A few months ago I departed PA heading east and north and up to Greenland, then to Iceland, and Scotland. I got down to Dublin before I aborted my round the world trip because...I'd picked to use that Maule and that was some slow going.And finally, I have an F/A-18E from FS2004 that I'll take out for just messing around. I think its safe to say I am looking forward to either the expansion pack or that really pretty Super Hornet Vertical Reality is working on.

I have a friend of a friend who is a NW airlines 747 captain. He flies the run to Japan-is required to punch the autopilot right after takeoff till right till landing. To keep current he has to take continual simulator flights and he is so turned off at the not flying part that he is taking a demotion to a smaller steam gauge jet (and hefty paycut) so he can fly again....Maybe why a lot of airline pilots usually own a personal Ga plane to enjoy flying?!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Always enjoy your posts Ian. Sounds like you have your hands full with your family but must be fun and busy. With the price of avgas lately you may be better off with the sim-for now...hope you can get back in at some point though...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Hey, Geof, when are you going to land in Northern VA?

I might have a trip there after this one-I am overdue on a visit to a college friend of mine who lives in Fairfax..usually go to Leesburg-the Washington airspace very difficult now...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>Edit-my itinery:>1st day-a quick fuel stop in kgpi-From your map that looks like KGPH Clay Co. That's in my state but I am down near KCGI at the opposite end of Mo. and I don't get up to the Kansas City area much. We had a Speaker of the House (state house) from up around there a few years back. At any rate, what a great trip you have planned there.KRAP -- don't accidentally land at KRCA (Ellsworth Air Base) as one commercial pilot did a few years back. ;) The MP's wouldn't like it. Ellsworth RWY 31 and KRAP Rwy 32 can look similar.As far as how I fly fs...I do it all. Low like SolarEagle, but also I fly the big iron around. Helos, less so. In FS over the years I have flown to every continent and flown two Round-the-World trips and it's great. Now that I am remembering it, Geof didn't you fly the round-the-world buzz a few years back?Every once in a while in the sim, I will try something crazy, like putting a ferry tank on the Trike and flying from Canada to Greenland. But most of the time I like to fly by the book.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>>For more local experiences, I fly the 172 and the little Maule>around Western and Central Pennsylvania at airports I'm>familiar with in real life. I also like to fly the Maule around the northeastern US. When FSX first came out, the fall textures were going full-blast and so I flew the Maule from my neck of the woods (KCGI) over to Pennsylvania up to Vermont and New Hampshire.Regarding what you did with the MAule, I think that's a pretty good piece of flying, even in the sim, taking a Maule across the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>Right now I have a dh89 Dragon Rapide on my FS computer>crossing central India at 8,300 feet. I'm about two hours ->200 nm - out of Allahabad (VIAL).>Great airplane. Who made it? Jens K.?>I'm flying to Melbourne Australia in an aircraft with a>100-120 kt ground speed and a 600 nm range.>Great trip!>No GPS, no VOR receivers, only NDB's and looking out the>window. I can use FS2004 on another computer as a map, but>noting to indicate where my aircraft is located. I already got>lost once on this trip which started near London at>Mildenhall.>Sometimes I like to fly that way. When I fly vintage aircraft I never use a GPS. If I may ask, where did you get lost?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>Regarding what you did with the MAule, I think that's a pretty>good piece of flying, even in the sim, taking a Maule across>the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.Took off from CYFT bound for BGBW. A practice flight in perfect weather told me I'd have enough fuel to make it, but the real flight had a pretty strong headwind. Fell short of BGBW by a good 60-70 miles. Managed to land on some little island. So I pretended my support team came out with enough fuel to get me to BGBW. Flying across the ice cap was less interesting and very boring. From the east coast of Greenland (BGKK) to Keflavik Iceland wasn't that long a flight, really.Maybe I'll pick up where I left of. I'm a much better pilot and understand a lot more about things than I did then.

HelloI guess it would be Dave Garwoodshttp://www.cbfsim.org/Some really nice stuff there.

My use of MSFS has changed over the years. Like Goef, I used it to pre-fly real approaches and see what unfamiliar airports looked like before flying there. Since I no longer fly real airplanes I have changed my use of MSFS.I have three basic types of flying. I have slowly been buying sectional charts from mypilotstore.com ($7.25 ea). I will use them to fly VFR in the SF-260 or Shockwave P-51. If I am in Alaska it is the Carenado C-206. For a faster thrill, I will lay out a low-level route in the mountains and fly it with the FSD T-38 (FS9), like I did in my RF-4 days. This type of flying is usually between 100-500 feet AGL and evolves as must time upside down as upright.Lastly, I will fly the Dreamfleet Barron or FSD T-38 cross-country.Lately, I have been fooling around with multiple computers and the T-38, trying to get instruments to work on three different monitors for my T-38 pit, I am building. I have tried a couple of software packages with limited success. Probably because I don

Hey Geoff,Will you be blogging about your flight when you take it? It would be great to follow such a cross-country flight.Also, I have to ask (I hope this isn't too personal), how do you AFFORD it? That's big dough.Thanks,Jeff

Dave Garwoods dh89, with a customized panel - added a dual needle ADF guage from the DC-3 and the DC-3 radios.And a GPH gauge from the Extra - on 450-500+ nm flights I really have to fly by fuel usage to make the range.Coming across eastern Iran I had an issue with FS and lost power - actually made a safe dead stick landing in the desert.By the rules I couldn't take on more fuel at a non-airport location. When I restarted, I ended up almost 70 nm off course at the next checkpoint - Hamoon Lake - too far to make my planned stop, so I had to divert to Zahedan.

I'll try to blog when and if I am at a place with an internet connection.As to affording it-that is what partners are for-I have two in the Baron. You also research your fuel stops for sure. I budget about 50-75 hours a year for flying-and this will be about 15-20 of them. When you fly a Baron you might as well go somewhere rather than diddle around in the pattern at your local airport. :-) Since my partner and his wife and my wife are going-the flying cost divided by four I don't think is all that bad. Couldn't go all these places in the commercials for sure for this cost.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

I've never done the round the world thing-but I do like to land in Kennet, Ms. Some of the cheapest fuel in the country and a fantastic Fbo...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/