LOL Good topic. Shows how different we all are.I'm still and FS9 heavy flier. Love nothing more than following all the heavy procedures, real wx, FS2crew, trackir. Since FSX I now find myself doing some small vfr prop flights in FSX. I find FSX very good for this low level stuff in some nice low, dirty weather. But mostly I fly FS9 for the serious jet time.

>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.jpg>Forum Moderator>http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/Oh, I thought you were one of the RTW Buzz pilots. I guess Victor West is the only one who frequents these forums. Maybe LAdamson is who I am thinking of.Someone from the Kennett TKTX FBO came up to Cape (KCGI) one time and I talked with him for a while. They were wanting to get Confederate Air Force B-25 Mitchells to come to Kennett, and CAF guys were not sure if they had enough runway for them.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

Geof, enjoyed your post, and the entire thread. I started flying fs initially on the apple 2, which prompted me to get my license for real (my home a/p was kbfi in seattle). After that I used fs (ver 3 by then) to practice procedures. That's what got me into scenery design, cuz the vfr reporting points weren't present in the scenery of the day. All my flying was recreating my own experience, so it was all in skylanes, skyhawks, and piper cherokees.Then kids, and no $, so no more real flying, and fs became my substitute, but modelling had taken on more interest for me.So then fs became a viewer to try out my scenery design ideas, which took me thru fs2000, 02, 04, and fsx. My scenery has always been about making my sim flying more like what I remember from the 80s, so it stays local to Washington for the most part, and I have friends at some of the small airports making it possible to get photos. Each version of the sim puts me back in the cockpit enjoying the world version from the default scenery and that's still going on with fsx. I've flown mostly the skyhawk, the baron, and the ultralight. My longest and most coordinated flight was from my home in Seattle, to Prince Rupert, Juneau, Anchorage, Kodiak, Adak, and back. Amazing terrain in the default FSX scenery.Good luck with your trip, Port Angeles was always a favorite destination for my flying, long runway, good services, and interesting visuals, what with the dungeness spit and its lighthouse, and the mountains just south...can be pretty spectacular. Enjoy, I'll follow your blog.Bob Bernstein

You are living the dream, I wish you well on your journey

Thanks for the nice words and I have always been a fan of your scenery.I am looking forward to Port Angeles and hope it stops raining the day I come in!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Thanks! :-)http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

I mostly fly helis (I'm finding that there are a suprisingly small number of us rotorheads), and bush planes into the shortest strips I can find. I also sometimes fly the the jets (the A321 can be quite fun when you turn off the computers controlling the flight controls) however I rarely fly the 747 because I think its panels (2D and 3D) are low quality work. I never fly gliders because I don't have the patience for that kind of flight (way to slow). Btw, has anyone besides me noticed that when you are taking off in the deault red and white Beech Baron, the sides of the wheels turn white after you hit a certain speed?

This time of year, you might actually *not* have rain at Port Angeles. :)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

Yeah-I could always get lucky. My flying partner and I have a pretty good luck of getting tailwinds and clear sky's-but only when we fly together-when we fly individually it never works that way-so I'll keep my fingers crossed. :-beerchughttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

I just remembered another way I fly FS...Sometimes I like to 'fly vintage' in that I will take an old bird with not many nav instruments, like a DH Comet, and fly it long distance using dead reckoning and pilotage, or possibly NDB's. It's fun to navigate that way I think. And it's fun getting yourself "un-lost", too. Flying concentric box search patterns to find an airport, and so forth.There is nothing like flying hours over open water, to see your tiny island destination materialize in front of you. "Then, you know you are not just a pilot, but a navigator." (I'm quoting a former U.S. Navy navigator).And you can do it in FS without all the risk of getting wet, or running out of gas in the Kavir Desert of Iran.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

One of my instructors and dear friends was a WWII carrier pilot-korean war etc...It still sends shivers down my spine when I asked him how they navigated. He said-we took off from the ship-then would record that we turned "x" degrees for so many minutes-and then "y" degrees for so many others-w'ed fly out an hour-have a battle-then try to retrace our exact steps back to the ship before we ran out of gas.Wow-no fms-no gps-just guts and headwork! Those were real pilots and heros! http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>I mostly fly helis (I'm finding that there are a suprisingly>small number of us rotorheads),Have you looked at the Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana in the file library here? It's pretty fun. and bush planes into the>shortest strips I can find. I also sometimes fly the the jets>(the A321 can be quite fun when you turn off the computers>controlling the flight controls) however I rarely fly the 747Of the default FSX planes, I too fly the A321 a lot. 747 not much.>kind of flight (way to slow). Btw, has anyone besides me>noticed that when you are taking off in the deault red and>white Beech Baron, the sides of the wheels turn white after>you hit a certain speed?I think that has been reported before by others. Can't say I've ever loaded that paintjob on the Baron (!) to see if I can see that thing on the wheels.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

I have downloaded the H-21. I have only flown it a few times though, is there any way to make its default view point any closer to the aircraft? Speaking of the A321, one time I was messing arond with it in Male and when I was throttleing up for my touch-and-go, an AI Dash-8 took off not 100 feet in front of me and 50 feet over the Airbus (I had been in tower view and hadn't seen it coming). So I turned off the flight computer, hunted the Dash 8 down and proceeded to do barrel rolls around him, come up under him at highspeed and then pull up right in front of him and do other crazy things for about nine minutes, all the while flying the A321 from the AI Dash 8's spot view. I think the pilot of that Dash 8 might have needed to change his shorts when he landed.:-lol I had a blast and even made a video of it but it was around 17 gig so I deleted it. After hearing that, you might not believe it but, usually I take my flights seriously.

>I have downloaded the H-21. I have only flown it a few times>though, is there any way to make its default view point any>closer to the aircraft? >CTRL+ and CTRL - will allow you to move the viewpoint in and out. >Speaking of the A321, one time I was messing arond with it in>Male Male Atoll? hehe, that is a neat place to fly. There is a GIGANTIC atoll around there called Suvadiva which is amazing to see.To do those barrel rolls, I guess you turned off 'Aircraft Damage Due To Stress'?I have been turning off the three right-hand flight computers on the default A321. I am able to fly it with them on, but imo the FBW isn't perfect on that aircraft. I don't fly barrel-rolls with it, but I do like to avoid the FBW downstick that occurs on short final.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

>To do those barrel rolls, I guess you turned off 'Aircraft Damage Due To Stress'?Nope! I did them with crash detection, and 'Aircraft Damage Due To Stress' turned on! I think it would cool to have a mission where an A321 flying into Seoul, South Korea discovers that its GPS is messed up when 2 unfreindly Migs appear out of the clouds off their wingtips. You would then have the choice of selecting to land at some obscure airfield (could be a trap) ;-) or the option of "I have something better in mind. I say we dive for the deck, fly nap of the earth (with the three right-hand flight computers turned off of course) and try and escape to international airspace!":D