Enroute to Hierro

Inbound to Teneriffe North

Atlantic Fog changes a VFR approach to a difficult NDB (XP12 real time weather only)

On the ground Teneriffe North

All standard XPlane 12 scenery. 

Edited October 17, 20232 yr by coastaldriver

Noticed that at night at those airports with tree close to taxy-way or boundaries that the landing lights illuminate trees correctly - not 3D cardboard looking cutouts but lights shining on and through trees in a normal manner - impressed!. Cirrus is almost there as well - looks good! 

 

Took JustFlight's updated Turbo Arrow out to play yesterday and picked it up where I left it (around Rhode Island). The problem was that the weather wass less than pleasant, 2000 ft base with rain. The airfield was uncontrolled, so I took off, requested flight following and found a hole in the clouds I could climb through. If there's holes, it can't be that bad, right?

Got greeted by an early evening paradise around 7000.

 

I went west, but the cloud layer thickened, so I stayed on top for a while looking for more holes. Had to climb to 10000 for a bit to avoid high cloud tops, but ran into nasty turbgulence regardless.

Later on, I found a small hole in the clouds again, dove bomb below the cover to check things out. Base at 1500 and rain. Not what I want. Back up I go.

This little excursion had cost me more daylight, but it made for some gorgeous views.

 

Had to go around a cloud bank at one point, which I could have flown over (finally justifying the "Turbo" in "Turbo Arrow"), but without supplemental O2...nah.

 

 

 

According to Little Navmap, airfield weather reports in the Hudson valley looked good, so I finally made use of my onboard equipment and radio nav'd my way to a suitable airfield. It was a very bumpy ride through the clouds and down the ILS with squalls of rain, but my landing was a-ok regardless.

In fact, it was so bumpy that I heard a "thud" on approach and thought nothing of it, only noticing on rollout that the passenger door had sprung its latch and was flapping in the slipstream. (I forgot that JF's Arrow had this feature in the first place.)

 

Before the virtu-FAA comes after me, I plead guilty on the following charges:

• Not doing preflight tasks regarding weather
• Joyriding in marginal (if not below) weather conditions with VFR
• Probably exceeding the turbulence limitations of a light GA aircraft

 

While I hate the dark half of the year (note to self: find second home in the southern hemisphere), it does provide more than ample opportunity for watching XP's impressive sunsets when using real world time (and starting the flight early enough).

An eventless flight home from tourist resorts on the Mediterranean coast. The only thing of note is that I mistimed applying reverse after touchdown and had to take the very last exit on a very long runway. The single engine taxi to the gate hopefully compensated a bit for the extra fuel consumed.

 

Edited October 25, 20232 yr by Bjoern

Great shots man 👍

October it seems worn away doing a work up on the X-Crafts E 170 for XP12. Very complex aircraft but highly automated. Few bugs mostly do with the nav data base and the FMS (XP12 needs an upgrade). Despite all this in variable weather in the the Patagonia region - XP12 still delivering 60 fps which is not bad at all for this complexity. No lags or stutters however not sure why but at moment AA has deteriorated I boosted my settings to the max to no avail. 

This one really grows on you!

20 hours ago, efis007 said:

Great shots man 👍

I wanted to go for the "sun through cockpit/cabin windows" shot for the first one, but XP12's lighting engine isn't quite there yet.

3 hours ago, Bjoern said:

I wanted to go for the "sun through cockpit/cabin windows" shot for the first one, but XP12's lighting engine isn't quite there yet.

Thats a whole different discussion that will never end as long as we have people.

19 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

Thats a whole different discussion that will never end as long as we have people.

I know and it's not something I expect will ever be perfectly possible in XP. It was still worth a try though.

When have nights in XP12 become that atmospheric?

 

 

Almost makes me want to hop into a Luftwaffel night fighter and prowl the skies for RAF bombers...

Looks good.

On 10/31/2023 at 10:54 PM, Bjoern said:

When have nights in XP12 become that atmospheric?

Not long ago AFAIK. See here.

Me n XPlane. Location Balikpapang (Seppingan) getting ready to go to Unjung Pandang across the water on another island. The first cast of light and then dawn breaking. Caught my breath. AWX C47.