spilok

I really did enjoy it. Besides Avebury, every visit was somewhat challenging. The trek to the Tintagel Castle was especially rough. Lots of hills that are so unbelievable steep, that, had I known, I would have probably not have made that particular walk. Other than that, it was good to see places outside London, where we enjoyed the people as much as the sights.

I saw a sign for Spotted Dick,but chose not to investigate it (not into steamed pudding). Had fish and chips several times over 10 days. I believe the fish was Haddock and in other places, Cod. Found a few great pubs and took delight in having the Perfect Guiness. In America, the Guiness is ready in about 20-30 seconds...in one pub, the Guiness arrived in about 4 minutes, and it was great. We went with a travel group, so I didn't drive. All the tours in Wales and Cornwall were arranged so we traveled at least 1100 miles over the 10 days there. London was on our own, so we walked a lot in Hyde Park, and we did a tour of Buckingham Palace. King Charles was in Balmoral Castle so we were able to see Buckingham inside. I've been to London before, so we've gone to Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, the Tower, Royal Albert Hall, and my wife's favorite, Harrod's. England is so desperate for RAIN, and everything is so dry. Crops had to be harvested far too early and it's pretty frustrating for so many people. Hopefully, the rain will come soon. Several years ago, I rented a car in Ireland and drove from Shannon to Jameson and Guiness and Dublin. Then packed up and drive clear across the country to Galway, and I adapted fairly well to driving on the left. The first few days are the worst, but it does get easier, but still challenging.

My wife and I just returned from 10 great days in England. We experience Virgin Atlantic's A350-1000 and WHAT A PLANE! Perhaps one of the most comfortable planes we've ever flown on. 5 hours and 15 minutes to Heathrow from JFK in New York cruising at 41,000 feet and well over 600 miles per hour. This was a huge WALKING trip. We visited Stonehenge, and little known Avebury Henge & Stone Circles. These surpass Stonehenge in weight and size, but it's out there off the beaten path compared to Stonehenge. Loved our trip to Salisbury and we especially enjoyed visiting Plymouth (Pilgrims and Mayflower history). Especially loved the GIN at Plymouth Gin Distillery (Oldest still operating Gin distillery in England). We really enjoyed our stay in Bristol. Trekked up to the castle ruins of (supposedly) King Arthur...Tintagel Castle. We loved the quaint town of Glastonbury. Another enjoyable stop was at SHEPPY's CIDER, in Taunton, Somerset. They've been making cider for a few hundred years there and it was delicious and could be quite intoxicating if you know what I mean. A real highlight was BATH, and the Roman Baths where the warm water is still flowing after countless centuries! Finally, we finished our tour in London. Visiting the FIRST, ORIGINAL Hard Rock Cafe where it all started in 1971 was a thrill beyond belief. Seeing many pieces of memorabilia of England's Rock stars and having their unbelievable Hard Rock Burger highlighted my day there. Lots of walking but well worth it. Now I'm going to some of these great places in MSFS and P3d. That's always a fun thing to do when I return from travel. Missed talking to you guys in the last week or so. Stan

Jonathan, Enjoying 1.3 so far. Helicopters feel better and all aircraft have been given new life. As you know, I'm a Microsoft FF2 user since that stick came out. I've been simming for well over 25 years now, and I've never been able to enjoy flying WITHOUT Force Feedback, and I've TRIED. I have been using Russell Dirk's FS Force in P3d for well over a decade, and I used XP Force for MSFS 2020 and 2024. Your FFB-Bridge software beats them all! I will only use FF-Bridge in MSFS from now on. I've deleted XP Force. P3d is still fine with FS Force UNTIL you make FFB-Bridge compatible with that sim. All I know is that flight simming seems "dead" when there is no force feedback. Of course, that's my opinion. The "hold back" on simmers moving toward FF is the total lack of good sticks out there. I stay alive by buying FF2 joysticks on Ebay (I have 5 now, just in case) since they are no longer made. Hopefully we will see a new interest from the manufacturers, like Microsoft, to produce a state of the art FF stick. I believe it will actually rejuvenate the world of flight simming as it exists now. Keep up the excellent work, Jonathan. I'm sure many others besides me, really appreciate it. Stan

Thanks, Ray. We are SO looking forward to this holiday. Taking Mr. Branson's Airbus 330 out of JFK to Heathrow.

Sorry but the cost of AC has come down considerably over the years. Today in Eastern U.S. we are concerned about the toxic air quality that's occurring because of massive fires in Canada. The air in Pennsylvania smells smokey and doctors warn that you must stay inside...and hopefully turn on your AIR CONDITIONER. Opening windows is certainly not recommended, nor are using fans that are attached to windows, obviously. This has been going on now for close to a week, and our weather has been in the 90's (F). Air conditioning set to re-circulation helps considerably in this situation. Immuno-compromised, asthma sufferers, and seniors are the ones most affected by the air outside now. My wife and I are leaving next week for Cornwall, Wales and London for about 10 days. Looking forward to all the history to which we will be exposed. Stonehenge is just one of those places on my bucket list. Sure hope the hotels have AIR CONDITIONING!

Wow! I would fly with her always. She is so good. Love this video.

Noticing today (late today) that AVSIM has speeded up. Hope it stays that way.

Is AVSIM really slow and seemingly bogged down lately. I know it's not my computer, because everything else is quick and responsive. Just want to know.

Yesterday I purchased, from the MSFS 2024 Marketplace, the Textron Aviation Citation CJ3+. I was looking for a business jet that had some decent speed and I love the Garmin 3000. To my surprise, this plane does NOT have an autothrottle. I really would like to put one in this plane so I don't have to "babysit" it on a long journey. I enjoy the way this plane flies, but the autothrottle, or lack thereof, makes it so much less enjoyable to fly. So, is there a way to put one in this jet, or a way to just set it at the speed I want it to stay at? I've tried Shift + R and CTRL +' but neither of those commands works. I would appreciate some help on this if you know how to accomplish this command in the Citation. Thanks.

Is the traffic missing in MSFS today? I see no other planes at airports I'm flying from or arriving at. Did I miss some news on this?

I'm a huge advocate of Active Sky. Use it in P3dv5.4 always. DID use it in MSFS2024...however, for the past month I've been using MSFS real weather, and I'm extremely pleased with the weather and especially the cloud formations. In my humble opinion, I'm staying with the built in weather that MSFS provides. I'll bet it even gets better as we go along.

Yes. I did use the comma key to adjust correct altitude. I try that for barometer. Thanks. Yes. Love my personal "jet"!

Yes. I did use the comma key to adjust correct altitude. I try that for barometer.

Flying the Vision Jet the other day, I wondered why I really could not get it up to speed. When I increased the Barometer setting, the jet seemed to kind of level off and the speed increased (on Auto Throttle). I did hit the B key to supposedly set the barometer correctly over 18,000 feet, but that really had no effect. Question: Sorry for this obviously basic question for you serious pilots, but I really don't know how to set a barometer correctly in MSFS 2024. Is there a basic tutorial on this or can you explain simply what I have to do to learn how to employ this important function the correct way? Thanks.