John_Cillis

That must be a cool route, so much beautiful scenery to fly over, we think we are crowded on this planet but just in the cities, we are a vast planet. That is why I like Phoenix (except for the cars that have hit me, needed to get around) because it is not so densely populated as other world cities, which leads to less crime in certain ways, except for the ever present domestic violence we sadly have in all societies. That is why I like flying so much, I sometimes wish I could just cradle that pain in those big cities down there in my arms, and I suspect many fliers feel that way...., especially those of us who have flown outside the comfort of our homelands so we can see ourselves as others see us, so we can be better at who we intend to be.... John

I forgot to add that my fav other perfect flight is a subset of this flight, Tahoe to SFO in Carenado's/P3D4.4's Shorts 360, same beautiful route at a lower altitude, you fly almost through the mountains!

Yes, Sky Harbor to LAX is a fine route too, one I have not flown often because they did not have a good route to Disney, my only reason for going to LAX, or Knotts, until the last decade or so. In fact the unfinished route was used in the movie "Speed" which probably many did not catch. I know about the LA Metroplex because I set up so many business systems training classes all over the place, plus lived there when I first moved to Cali in '66, plus worked for an insurance company that insured teachers, firefighters, and policeman, and government workers which they felt (of course) were the best risks to insure. It was a no brainer and they have been successful as a family run biz for 100 years, California Casualty out of San Mateo, I was their WAN admin and internal and external systems designer as they grew their business from California across the country in the early 2000's. Do not know what happened to them after that though, competition you know, when I leave a company it is usually because I see the competition coming with a better, cheaper product.... Sadly as a citizen of my country I cannot make the same decision, I have to stay with my gut instinct and stay with my homeland, for they have always accepted me back from my overseas travels and the overseas places I have visited have always accepted my visiting again, so I guess I just have a good circle of life going for now, lol I guess it comes from flying over Russian airspace as I flew from SFO to Tokyo in 92 according to our flightplan, open skies just work for countries that try to keep trade going one way or another... John

Love the touch of snow, always makes me remember the song, Somewhere my Love, from Dr. Zhivago. Now I am dating myself and revealing my own Russian roots! John

Homecoming from my business trips via Salt Lake City. For some reason, SLC has always been my fav airport to rest at for a final leg home, whether to SFO where I used to live near when I lived in Napa, or Phoenix where I live today. There is something about the peace of one of our more spiritual states, the Wasatch Mountains, what the Native Americans and settlers both knew about Salt Lake, a resting place for those seeking their riches in California or for going back to their roots back east (many of us in Phoenix are from east of the Ol Mississippi, like I am). I like living in Arizona because I am both a Northerner and a Southerner, I inspire to be like Abe Lincoln and Robert E Lee, because they were the only two, with Ulysses Grant's help, who could reunite a country almost eternally fractured, and I find Arizona a perfect expression of their dream along with my visits to Washington DC. I learned to respect countries like Russia, and like France, in my travels because every country goes thru their civil wars, their expansion, then realizes their home is where they are, it just takes time and patience and we are in the greatest era of time and patience that air travel has brought into our lives, to know each other, to meet each other, and add the Internet when we cannot get in the air, and we are just here, loving who we are and letting our leaders do the best job they can. People like me do not want to become politicians, they want politicians and leaders to make those tough decisions they cannot, for they see the big picture we do not have time to see and they try to protect us from that big picture, if they are good at their jobs they put us in the roles we serve the world best in, and I feel my country and other countries I have visited have given me that. That is my back story to Salt Lake City, I used to hate the hub and spoke replacements to non stop flights then realized how they helped me stretch my legs and get out of the hobbit hallow I was in, so I became Bilbo Baggins, gave up the ring of power, and have appreciated coming there and back again as so many of us in this hobby have done either virtually or IRL, as we say, in Real Life! Cactus521 (Cactus was America West's callsign, 521 is just the month and date of my bday, that is why I use it, plus I have to watch out for the Cactus living in Phoenix, and inside joke between my ex wife from Mexico and I and fools who rush in, LOL)....

As a husband I hated my wife's employer forcing her to wear makeup to look good in administrative meetings for her school system and work in education. I felt it sexist and exploitative and it was for me, the true glass ceiling, telling a woman what they had to put on their body to have the "look" men wanted in the workplace. And since I have a daughter, I do not want to see her future that way either. as a friend said: God (our parents) all made us equally different. Some parents supported this, some just wanted to get rich at women's expense. Kudos to Virgin for this. This applies to men too, to be completely fair and neutral, until recent retirement I worked in a business casual city, come as you are, your mind is what we want, you could look like Godzilla but if you can work, and help us, you are hired. In my case I pretended I was Edgar in Men in Black, in my Edgar suit, at work I would ask for water with sugar in it but I stopped doing that when I got diabetes, lol. Hey, when u get older it is one thing or another, I like my Edgar suit wrinkles so far, they still fit and they don't hurt so much, lol! http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/virgin-atlantic-cabin-crew-make-up-scli-intl/

I appreciate this. I am a flaming heterosexual I have to admit but I have always felt I have had to love men to learn to accept heaven. It was a group of men who first came to my aid in that intersection a few nights ago, holding my hands with their warmth, hugging my shoulders, lifting me up like angels into the one thousand dollar ambulance ride written down to 90 dollars by Medicare, lol, then taking me to those beautiful women doctors and male doctors and women nurses and male nurses that if not by drugs, healed me with their crying. I heard the women nurses crying by my bedside but to this hour do not know why they got so attached to me, I said some bad things in my pain that I regret but they kept telling me--say them, let it out now, then you won't let it out later. And that is exactly what happens. I still hurt, but my pain is a wound of understanding and I would rather have that hurt so I can understand other's when they hurt. I am not a doctor but if I can help heal by my writing, so be it. I may feel the other way around when I run out of pain meds but I have been able to drag them out with the help of plain old over the counter meds beyond their prescription length. They do not renew opiates now, and gladly so, I learned from my hero pilot, Eddie Rickenbacker, what opiates are good for and what they are not. They are to get you over your peak pain, but do not let them drag you out of life too soon. I am not a politician and I know our poor President has his challenges, but every President I have known in my lifetime has brought some new advice or perspectives on life which I appreciate, and ours has found allies across party lines in his efforts to curb opiate addiction in our society. There are better pain drugs, like ketamine, that remove you from pain but do not kill you in an emergency that first responders are now using in car and air crashes, I was given something like that during my accident that gave me accident awareness, which is so important to get your system out of the shock that the accident has caused. Our bodies have natural pain killers, endorphins, and because I was not using opiates mine worked like champs and immediately after I was run over, otherwise the intensity of the pain, and it was so intense, would have stopped my heart. The endorphins got their first. At 57 I was physically fit and just thanked a pilot friend, the first man who took me up in a Cessna, for teaching me to be a jock and use endorphins for pain relief if I needed them, and OTC meds vs. prescription drugs. That is the only way we can keep our longevity in the air, as I learned from John Glenn and that man who broke the speed of sound, Chuck Yeager, connections to WWII--the past to the future we live in today, with John the God of all of us dreamers... JG -- John God, lol I loved Chuck Yeager's name in his search to break those barriers, it kind of rhymes with cya later, which means in a gentle terminator's way "I'll Be Back" In case you wonder how I write, I post using what I was taught as a poet in high school and college creative writing--"Stream of Consciousness" It releases me from the lock peculiar lock that English Grammar puts on readers by throwing away rules of acceptance we force on our readers, and just given them what they wish which is words to pick and choose from. As a parent I learned that that is what our children want from us, thoughts to pick and choose from, our children naturally understand we have seen things before and naturally know they can grow with us, that is the way I have always felt about our world and the generations that enter it....

PS, now just patiently waiting for the return of HLJames and our family will be reunited again...

Good to see you back, as someone who has just been near death's door you do not realize the value of your friends until you have almost lost yourself.... See hangar chat to see what I am saying unless you have already seen it, I am still a bit forgetful after my accident, but it has been a happy accident because it has made me closer to people than I have ever been in my entire life, and I just mean people, from strangers who saved me the other day to the friends and strangers here I can joke around with! . Great pictures, such is the love of our hobby because it displays three beauties--the beauty of the hands that craft these birds, the beauty of those that transport us in them coming from the age of the bicycle and horse and carriage, and Roman and Greek and Egyptian chariots before that, to the Oxcart before those just taking the foraging and the foragers home, lol, to the lovely legs of our mothers and fathers who would go to the river in ancient times to fish and fetch water for their children, such is my backwards history lesson from the airplane. That's what I call the Holy Trinity, Legs, Wheels and Wings!, LOL All were involved in saving my life this week, wheels to the hospital, legs to my bedside, and the wings of the angels literally who fly in the medicines we need in times of crisis from all over the world, we must remember many medicines, like the life saving opiates that kept me from dying of pain, are grown in the lands of those we only perceive as our enemies. As humans and flyers, we are all on a search into the future, and with aviation my mantra is the same, as everyone needs their personal and private mantra, the future is now! Thanks again for gracing us with your snaps, a pic is worth more than a thousand words! It keeps a hobby, and our hobbies are our reason for being, for enjoying, alive! Cactus521 (striving to be like Sully, Monsters Inc!) I was "That Guy" on the Laugh Floor in Orlando, 2013 at the Magic Kingdom filmed before a live audience and brought there by US Airways who I worked for one year later to launch their crew scheduling software merger with American, my fifteen minutes of fame with real aviation other than being a student pilot so I did it both ways, as I know many of us hear either have done or will do if we keep our dreams alive

It is so odd, although I started my flight training under light sport I ended it as an ultralight trike pilot. My light sport CFI wanted to solo me after only my third lesson and asked me to mentally prepare. I knew myself, I was not trained well enough for "what if" since light sport aircraft worked with less reliable motors than GA aircraft, or less reliable airframes, in the case of one vendor who suffered from wing spar failures in the high g turns all pilots are forced to practice, short of spinning. I felt and still feel thousands of times safer, as a solo pilot, on trikes but owning one other than in my sims became out of the question, storage and setup being the issue, which cause early wear and tear on a mighty investment. I realized after being run over by a truck at 35 mph the other day that I could survive a trike crash, 35 mph seems to be the limit but people have perished falling off a bike at 10 mph, so I qualify that. You need God with you and you have to acknowledge God not as their higher power, but yours, it is the Freemason's way a Freemason friend and pilot has taught me. He says he worships the door knob and I know why---if you can open one in spite of your daily aches and pains however they come, then you are alive and the door knob is there to let you know it, lol! Took me a long time to figure out that philosophy which I have heard was also handed down thru AA or other self realization, drug free as one can be, programs (I went to a Christian Rock concert and just had the luck to be seated with some cool AA dudes celebrating their freedom from alcohol, but they smoked like Chimneys and smoking and flying do not mix well in certain aircraft like dirigibles and so on and so on). Anyway, I conclude this with memory of a dream I had just last night. A father was trying to teach his sons how to fly an ultralight and they kept having (thankfully) non injury crashes that sure irked us and other airstrip observers. I have lucid dream memory if the dreams are trying to teach me about past or present mistakes. They invited me to come back the next evening to teach them how to teach their kids to take off, and take offs are my best specialty, I nailed them from lesson one in 2006, and my CFI told me yes, it was not from just simming, it was how I simmed, because I would set up the weather with variable crosswinds so I could learn rudder dancing, being light on one's feet as possible. But I reviewed their equipment, and that is where I failed them, they were not using their equipment upstairs. They were preparing their children for wheels up but not for those critical moments of being stable, which is what my lifesavers from my car accident focussed on several days ago when I was run over. Sure it was just a dream but that is what a good CFI drills in you--do not hypnotize yourself with instruments, whether you are a driver, like the one who hit me was, a pedestrian, like I was since I did not account for my left blindnesses and thus broke my rule as I should have crossed against the traffic, or as a pilot u must know where to hold 'em, and where to fold em' I had two CFI's one young and one old who taught me just that, and who made me realize accept for a trike or PPC, I am better off flying with advice in my ears than without it, as these pilots knew to do. That is how religion is part of our lives, because in its simplest form, all religion is is accepting advice then making the best decision we can based on it, we do not need a church or walls but we were all, most of us here, taught in some form of faith, in our parents, our teachers, our forum mods our classrooms and so on whether we chose to become butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, or whatever we wanted to be. As long as we follow absent minded but not so absent minded Dory's advice in finding Nemo, Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming, we can manage crisis. She was not so absent minded as the movie portrayed, she was an imprinter, awakening memories and strengths in the weaker one in that movie, at the beginning, the father that tries to override the chillin mother in us... Cactus521 aka Johnny-Cat

My attitude is OK but the past 24 hours has been tough, only my ex wife's emails have been enough to get me out of bed. I have not simmed, and when I do not sim I get depressed as it aside from travel is my most passionate hobby. My deceased father came to me in my dreams last night and helped me thru my pain, I for one believe an afterlife exists, he was with me until I was able to overcome my pain long enough to get a less strong pain medicine I prefer to take--food and water being a good example, plus chocolate. As they say in Harry Potter the place my friends across the pond tried to show me when I was in London in 2017, chocolate keeps the dementors away, lol. My one fault in the car accident is I wanted to go to my apartment over Phoenix's Diagon Alley and the thought "Diagonally" popped into my head like the movie and SLAM I was underneath and SUV then bouncing and rolling diagonally across the road. However as a man, I was really only worried about one thing at the time--castration, either from paralysis or something else, lol. So at least I did not experience that but at my age why worry anyway, no woman wants a man glued to a simulator! How have I been fighting this pain? By posting a bit less, and telling myself jokes and writing jokes and innuendo that only I probably understand, I poke fun at myself in other words. I learned about that at age eleven, the other great trauma in my life, my appendectomy in 1972 when the brothers who I absolutely hated until that time became demi-Gods by making me laugh my pain from my surgery away. And I will swear on the Holy Bible or anyone else's holy book out of respect for all faiths that their most loved ones will be there for them after they have passed, when they have to endure the pain of death, which there is no other way to describe my accident. I literally had one of those out of body experiences that tells me that all my life's misjudgements are forgiven. For me on a personal note, that is what sin is, judging others. I have to watch that movie Solaris again, to me it answers so many of life's questions including those of travel beyond this earth, which is what we see as the living when we see someone pass away. That is the only way I can express religion, by saying writing our thoughts is our religion and needs to be cultivated in places like here. Cactus521

Bishop in the Owens Valley in California up to Reno, for me arguably the most scenic US route to fly, especially over Photo Scenery. Pick an aircraft that cruises best around 12,000 feet or so, for the best VFR scenery but even a light biz jet is fun to fly. Salt Lake directly south to Phoenix is also incredible, with the flight path just to the west of the Wasatch range and a nice overflight of the Grand Canyon not long before landing in Phoenix. In Europe, Salzburg to Geneva is a great route, to the north of the core of the Swiss and Austrian alps. In South America, Margarita Island to Canaima, to the beautiful flat topped mountains that are home to Angel Falls. John

I am hanging in there but the pain medicine has kept me well asleep and oblivious to all those things we cannot discuss, like politics, religion, sex, etc.... But when I hear an interesting jet fly out of nearby Sky Harbor, I am at full attention, my ex wife would always complain that when I looked at Barnstormers .com, I was looking at pilot porn, lol....

I tried it but did not like it so much, it increased haze for me and since I fly in the desert southwest, it looks unrealistic to me, we are never quite that hazy except during winter storms or summer monsoon season. But I did find another haze adjustment file and I like it a tad more, it looks more real and clearer to me, I believe it was by the same author. Gotta love flywithlua, amazing program! John

Great cloud pic!

I looked for FSE Truehaze.lua but could not find the file or a download link for it, just mention of other sky files in Xplane.org's forums. Do you know of a download link? Edit: Never mind, I found it

Yeah, it saddens me there was another pedestrian accident on the same road yesterday which turned out to be fatal. But I never imagined it would happen to me, so painfully, in the way it happened. The body just seems to have this "curl up and take stock" reaction when hit with such a severe impact. The hardest struggle I have right now is I always felt strong, and safely seen as a pedestrian. I wear light clothes at night, and I walk briskly to cross the street quickly. I will change my walking habits a bit, I will cross intersections against the traffic so I can see it coming, even if I have to go the long way around to make it to a bus stop. Pedestrian accidents at night are so common, a poor former colleague of mine hit and killed someone jaywalking at night, he was hurting so bad even though he was found not to be at fault. I do not jay walk and I won't even cross at unmarked crosswalks. Since it took me 57 years to get hit so hard, and since albeit with the exception of a 24 hour stay in ICU, I guess I and my higher powers above came out of it alright. It's on days like today that I like to say I have low friends in high places, lol...

Thanks for the heads up, while I recover from having been run over last night, a good movie might be a good bit of therapy. John

Thanks, despite the aches and pains I forced myself to walk to the store which is what my doctor recommended. First female doctor I have had in long memory and the drugs they gave me made me want to marry her, lol, but a catch like that certainly has a significant other.

I will not be posting for a while. Last night while in a crosswalk at the green cross light, I was run over by an SUV. Two of its tires went over me and I hit the back of my head on its transmission, and I was thrown about 15 feet. Wonderful civilian first responders were there in the blink of an eye, they told me I was in shock and not to move until help arrived, first the police in seconds, then the paramedics who rushed me to the hospital with sirens blaring. I was first run over on my back but then instinct kicked in and I rolled on my stomach, the way I was taught when I was studying martial arts way back in high school, which is the only use I ever had for my training anway. I am in intense pain, that is the bad news, the good news is I am intense pain with no broken bones or internal injuries, just deep cuts and a sprained right wrist and two sprained ankles but walkable. My daughter contacted my ex wife for me and she was so wonderful in lifting my spirits for me this morning, and my daughter too. I believe my Avsim and Facebook guardian angels were watching over me although I resent the pain. The driver who hit me was citied for failing to yield but the driver was not found to be under the influence. Estimated speed at impact was 35 mph. These things do affect your psyche but at least it was only an overnight stay in observation after X Rays and a half hour long Cat Scan, the type where they inject the nice warm dye which I happen to like, it helped me relax. See you soon when I am out of bed rest. John

I forgot to mention I also have all of the Hawaiian islands covered as well. Great Basin park is where I have driven the highest in my life, over 11,500 feet to the parking area just below the trails to the summit. I went there when the aspens were a brilliant yellow, the sky a pristine blue. I hiked for about seven miles, did not suffer altitude sickness because I had already acclimatized myself by hiking in Glacier, the Tetons, and Yellowstone the week before. I would love to fly around that park in a private aircraft some day, it is a small park but the road up that mountain is just amazing with its overlooks, trees and wildlife. There is also a cave there but I did not explore it due to US caving rules that one cannot hike thru a cave if one has been in another cave within a certain period of time due to contamination issues. John

Great Basin national park is an out of the way park in remote Eastern Nevada, near the Utah/Nevada border. I decided to expand my Ortho scenery with what drive space I had left so I could cover almost the entire desert southwest and west Texas. I have included a map of my Ortho coverage.... John

Out of Amarillo TX, lovely countryside to view from the flight levels... John

They seem to be the Carenado/Alabeo of the Xplane11 world, at least for me, for the types of aircraft they churn out that cover certain niches pilots like to explore in their studies, I have two of their payware Microlights (VSkylabs), a gyro, some trikes and a Mini 500 Copter. They all fly well in the flight envelopes you would expect from such light aircraft, at least I see that from my real world experience with aircraft in that weight range, fixed wing and weight shift. Meanwhile Aerobask has modeled two prophetic aircraft, the smooth running Epic and Eclipse. I just added west Texas and southwest Colorado to my photo-scenery coverage, and their aircraft make flights over that beautiful scenery all the more interesting, I find myself remembering things I have only seen in my business travels. John

I continued some random flights today and I can just say performance is improved, it seems to be because of the AI fix they put in for the release, I use to get a long pause at times when some AI came into my vicinity, not anymore, and they referenced an AI issue in their changelog. I was pleased with my flights today, so pleased I added west Texas and all of NM to my growing Ortho scenery stable. John