Simply the Best

[Guest missionballer]

Tonight, while watching the Oklahoma Sooners dismantle the Tulsa Hurricanes on the football field, i decided to fire up FSX for a leisure flight. Usually i fly out of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, but tonight i felt like i didnt want summer to fade away so soon and i decided to fly out of Faaa, Tahiti. I chose my Aerosoft DeHavilland Beaver as my flying instrument of choice and let the sim boot me up on the GA ramp of NTAA.With my setup of Active Sky X and Just Flight's Traffic AI addon, plus FSGenesis mesh coverage, I was greeted by the FSX version of an island paradise, having Real Sky Pro Edition installed brought out some magnificent colors to the skies and the clouds which were scattered, the lowest layer looking to be at around 4000 agl. During my walk around i noticed the Traffic at the airport picking up with a lot (for this airport) of GA planes heading out to the threshold in an effort to be the first one to take the active. I decided to wait my turn. Soon the speeders had gotten out of my way except for TWO (!!) Robinson Helicopters practicing touch and go's in the pattern. I got permission from the tower to take the active, and Tahiti not having a parallel taxiway, but simply one in the middle of the runway, i decided to test the short field capabilities of the Beaver. I opened the throttle up and the bird responded and lift up into the sky with plenty of concrete left below us. Bringing the throttle back down to around 3100 rpm after leveling off at 1000 feet, i decided a nice circumnavigation of this beautiful island was in order, so i dialed in Tahiti approach and asked for flight following just in case things went sour. The flight went smooth as silk as i guided my plane along the coastline of one of the pearls of the Pacific. As I came back around to Faaa, I radioed the tower and they put me into line behind an arriving Air Tahiti Nui Airbus 340 arriving probably from Los Angeles. Keeping my distance from the wake of the big jet, I guided myself gently back onto Terra Firma and steered the Beaver back into the barn. Agreeing to myself that the flight was worth it, I walked to the airport bar for one of those fruity island drinks i always hear Jimmy Buffett sing about and called it a night.----Just a little story of how a little imagination, and a heck of a GREAT sim can go hand in hand to bring myself and others many, many hours of enjoyment.I give kudos to Microsoft ACES team for bringing us yet another jewel of a flight simulatorThanks also to the many addons i have installed to make it all the better. Active Sky X, FSGenesis mesh, FlightSim Commander 8.1, Real Sky Pro Edition, and of course probably the greatest payware addon plane i have EVER flown, the Aerosoft DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver.I have screenshots of this flight, but im new to this forum and i am not sure of the rules regarding posting them, so they have been omitted.

[Mace 1,909]

I wish people posted like you did more often. It is always interesting to read about other people's flights, and the way they use the sim.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

[srburger 0]

Hey missionballer,Thanks for mentioning my Sooners!Best,KenUniversity of Oklahoma, Class of 1979

[Bell417 0]

Sounds like fun! R-22's? Did you have to use an addon traffic package to get those as AI? What are your system specs? If the screenshots are from your flight then you are welcome to post them. I have posted ones from my flights and never gotten in trouble. Yesterday I was bush flying in British Columbia...with a CRJ-700!!!:-eek I set the weather to 100% cloud cover in layers from 11,000 feet down to 1000 feet and vis ranging from 10 miles up high to 3 down low. The CRJ was only carrying a 7000lb payload and a 60% load of fuel. I fired up the engines, took off, leveled off a 10,000 feet to clear the mountains. 15 minutes later, I decended down to 3000 feet and snaked my way through tight mountain valleys(they were more like ravines,) all the while in 3 mile vis and in 100% cloud cover. Then I followed a river gorge south-west until I came to a bend. I turned right with the ravine...and kept turning (:-eek) until I was facing a sheer cliff rising above me, then I turned back to the left ( I had been hugging the cliff because the approach path for the runway requires it) applied full flaps, deployed the spoilers and lowered the landing gear. I made a sharp turn to clear the trees a the end of the runway and flared for touchdown. I came down about 500 feet down the runway and immediately pulled my throttle back for reverse thurst and stopped about 100 feet from the end of the gravel runway. What airport was I flying into? Scar Creek, a small, 2900 foot, field on the raised bank of a river.:-eek :-cool The best part was, I made the approach and threaded the ravines from the VC! If you are an excellent pilot, have good reflexes and enjoy bush flying and a good challenge, this has is for you.;) I'll have screenshots in my next post.

[Guest Mike707]

Thanks for mentioning my Sooners too, although I went to Oklahoma State instead.

[Guest missionballer]

The flight was fun. And the robinson R-22's apparently are used as helicopter AI traffic in JustFlight's Traffic 2005 addon, which has been patched to work in FSX. I have tried MyTrafficX 5.1 also and didnt like it as much as i have the product from JustFlight. I have also seen the Bell heli flying around as AI traffic also. And Traffic 2005 is also big on GA planes doing pattern work and touch and goes. I have noticed this alot at smaller airports, which is pretty realistic, since all the little airports around my neck of the woods always seem to have planes in the pattern doing t&g'sMy system is a AMD64 dual core running at 2.2ghz, 4 gigs of ddr2 ram and a NVIDIA 8500 GT PCIE 256meg vid card. It is soon to be upgraded to the 8800 GTS OC. I also fly alot out of British Columbia (Prince Rupert, CYPR) but havent gone bushing it in a CRJ yet, lolwith my system i have most all the sliders maxed out, the only thing i back down from is the water silder which i keep in the middle and i get a smooth steady 25 fps most the time except around major airports where the traffic is heavy, then it dips by 10 fps or so, but still very much flyable.

[Bell417 0]

Here are some pics I took while on the flight I spoke of in my last post:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178348.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178352.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178349.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178350.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178351.jpgThe reason the lines aren't smooth is becuase had to resize the pics to meet the size constaints. I made the landing on the first attempt.

[Guest missionballer]

Nice pictures. Betcha that made the locals look up when they saw that big bird flying through their canyons. I have been on a sort of payware buying spree as of late and just acquired the Eaglesoft Columbia 400 this morning. I am reading through the POH's right now because it does include a full rendition of Avidyne Entegra avionics. Gonna be a sweet plane once i figure out all the bells and whistles.