I'm departing Blue Canyon Nyack to A30 on a late afternoon into evening flight.  The flight is "only" 170 miles but I end up hitting a huge headwind, so I pull the power way back and enjoy the scenery.  I picked up both of these airports as a bundle - both feature Pilot Controlled Lighting!  (I think irl BLU doesnt have lighting) but I was really excited to try as this is a feature I think all sims should have by default.  In real life, when you approach a small airfield, the lights aren't always on, and you have to key your mic 5 or 7 times to get the edge lights on.

It's another great day to fly!

We're flying the Torquesim SR22 (with Avidyne Entegra avionics) along with the TDS GTN 750/650 Xi

I like this setup because of the GTN support but also because it's different than the usual G1000 which most cirruses have.

XP12's recent lighting improvements are really showing off here - I swear this could be real

We got our oxygen cannulas for flight above 12,500 ft (since we'll be up there longer than 30 min)

We get a great view of the Sierra Nevada peaks along this route!

Like I said we've run into a large headwind, we really slow down to almost cessna speeds as the world turns... fast forward a bit to sunset

We begin our descend into A30

A pic I liked

Mt Shasta, at about 14,100 ft - is perhaps an active stratovolcano

Here we approach A30 airport and try to key the mic 5 times.... but no lights!

Sometimes this happens, but we have plenty of ambient lighting along with our landing lights.  I found out this issue was PEBKAC (the lights do work but you need to install a plugin!)

Down and clear at Scott Valley Airport

It's a nice sleepy little airport lol

An FAA windsock!  My favorite!

 

Nice set Ryan!

Great pictorial, Ryan. Is XP now streaming landmass data like Microsoft?

Darryl

Stunning shots from you, Ryan, no matter the sim. This set was especially jaw-dropping.

29 minutes ago, Ed_S_Pilot said:

Nice set Ryan!

Thanks Ed!  Have you even flown up to this area irl?  I figured you have since you are from socal

18 minutes ago, SP2472 said:

Great pictorial, Ryan. Is XP now streaming landmass data like Microsoft?

Darryl

No not by default.  But it is a free plugin, XP Map Enhancement (by the same guy who did it for MSFS 2020).  There is an upgrade version that is a low cost subscription if you want higher resolution data.  I don't use that yet.

18 minutes ago, John F said:

Stunning shots from you, Ryan, no matter the sim. This set was especially jaw-dropping.

Thanks John!  I expect I'll be utilizing both sims as they mature now.  The only downside is that the cost of addons doubles hehe!

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

Thanks Ed!  Have you even flown up to this area irl?  I figured you have since you are from socal

No not by default.  But it is a free plugin, XP Map Enhancement (by the same guy who did it for MSFS 2020).  There is an upgrade version that is a low cost subscription if you want higher resolution data.  I don't use that yet.

Thanks John!  I expect I'll be utilizing both sims as they mature now.  The only downside is that the cost of addons doubles hehe!

No sir, Never flew that far up.  

Incredible pictures! 😃

A most enjoyable trip travelogue across Northern California, Ryan, using your old but once favorite XP platform...🙂...

The cirrus looks good too with this avionics suite...

(Pilot Controlled Airport Lighting in small airfields is a nice concept. I recall you've mentioned this as a basic requirement on the SIM...)