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Grrr! Woof! Down boy! No one bit you Zach... :) I rather thought that FSX dust was also sensitive to wind direction, but I might well be wrong...

Haha - of course... Music while I drive to work, music when I ride a bike, and definitely music when I 'fly'. Only this morning I was playing some of Enya's winter/Christmas music, flying the Cub over a thousand Alaskan Christmas trees, as I realised just how featureless Alaska can be in winter as rivers and lakes freeze over into an endless whiteness... Cheers, Nick

Yeah - seeing that yesterday did make me smile...

@JC - yeah - it was a static wave - I checked the location on Googlemaps and reckon the mesh has lifted up over the untextured Fairway Rock @DM - If we had gigantic animated icebergs then we'd all be insisting they roll over every now and then. It would certainly make landings on them more interesting...

Any one else seen one of these? I'm guessing it's the Fairway Rock, which I spotted on a flight out to the Diomede Islands... From a distance it looked like a ship - but the 'wave' was pretty cool too... :)

I really don't agree that article is "a wonderful parody" - Yes, the concept is quite amusing, but as noted above the bitterness shines through and detracts... It's neither particularly witty, nor a thing of wonder... As it happens I've just returned from a 'Flight' out over the pack ice to the Diomede Islands. As I found happened with Hawaii, I am looking far more closely at Alaska then I ever would if the whole world was available. I read about the islands first (and never knew they were 2.5 miles but 20 hours apart!). I was surprised just how low the sun stayed at those latitudes, but then it was February... Now that flight, with the low sun glinting on the icy sea, and reflections dancing in and around the cockpit, had greater wonder in it than Austin's attempt at parody :)

You mean a 'poke' would actually make you jump?! Lol...

Ha! Just back from a week's holiday in the sun, with that 'post-vacation-blues' feeling - so this IS a nice surprise. Will be dusting off the TrackIR kit very shortly...

Looking at that wingspan, I think we'd need a BIGGER hanger!

I enjoy both Flight and Aerofly and in some respects Aerofly feels impressive. It supports TrackIR which is handy, and the photorealistic scenery is mapped onto sharp looking mountains which are just breathtaking. The planes are modelled nicely - and have cockpits. Though they do not have VORs DME etc, some do have a GPS style moving map... There are limited airfields that are nicely modelled (seeing those fluttering flags was a Wow! moment) - and many are basic. Zurich international is just a big flat space... So, no multi-player (yet), no AI planes, no ATC, no changing time of day (or night) - in short, not very lively, all a bit Swiss in fact ;)

My wow was not just the delightful smoothness of the sim but the complex modelling of shadows and reflections in and around the cockpit. One evening, with the sun low, I had just entered the cockpit, and then sat in amazement looking at the swaying shadows of palm fronds playing across the instruments of the RV. Double wow!

Good call Jeroen... I can only speak for myself, of course, but I don't generally read this forum for info about FS9 or for anything other than objective comparisons with any other sim. Sadly I have never been able to justify 'investing thousands' in add-ons, but if I ever did I would surely classify such spending as 'expenditure' rather than kid myself it's an 'investment' ;-) In that spirit I am ready and waiting to expend dollars on Alaska :)

Hey Liz, I think you'll find a bunch of friendly and experienced folk here... My understanding (limited) is that the pull to the left is caused by the effect of a big prop up front turning round and round...whatever the technical explanation, it is cured by feeding in right rudder as the plane rolls forward down the runway. Are you flying with a joystick with twist rudder? If so just twist a bit to the right. Like everything, practice makes perfect :) Cheers, Nick

That sounds like it should be printed on a T shirt :)

Slightly OT but I was watching a BBC documentary last night about Britain's Golden Age of flying, in the twenties and thirties. Fascinating archival footage of the big biplanes and the majestic flying boats carrying the super-rich of the day in luxury from London down to South Africa and later across to Australia. Experiences that can never be repeated, with incredible low-level flying views, and a huge number of re-fuelling stops needed for journeys (adventures?) that might take over a week to complete... The bit that caught my eye, though (in the context of Flight) was that these long-haul flights were all accomplished by manually flying each leg. No auto-pilot, very primitive navigation, and much of the journey with no ATC either... sounds familiar! Cheers, Nick

You can just pick it up from a low fly past as well... I was checking it out from the RV (and wondering where to land on the force field) when the cache was assimilated as I flew past...

Thanks for the kind words all - it was just a bit of fun :) It's a cheapo game called Depth Hunter from a company called Biart... http://www.biart7.com/node/14 Apart from spearfishing and taking photos, there are challenges that involve swimming down to catch certain types of fish as well as find bits of treasure, and some cave exploring that gets a little intense when air supply is low... In my mind free swimming like that that is close to flying :)

Anyone else found the hidden 'Easter Egg' sub-game? Here I use the amphibious Icon to fly me out to Molokina bay to catch me some fish... :Waiting: [media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhI7pW5CTc&list=UURV2f7HxuYZinj077ytLv0w&index=1&feature=plcp[/media] Gotta keep myself amused with Flight until Alaska comes along... :Party:

Another approach that offers super fast looking around is using the mouse with the right button depressed. The wheel is then also a handy zoom...

Cool - something to try this evening :) How critical is that 5,000ft? Would +/- 250ft do it? Not that I can't hold 5,000 exactly, of course ;) Just wondering how big that target zone is...

Great resource. Thanks for sharing that link... Suction not 'pressure' :) Only obvious when you understand the principle... (and still got 60 more pages to read).

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that one, as at that point your view is, to all intents and purposes, the view from the plane. Yeah, the P-40 looks good, but is not the most agile of planes :)

If fickle is the opposite of dogmatic, then that works for me too ;) Just did my first aerocache in the P-40 - flying at high speed and tree-top height down the Honokohau Valley. Got the aerocache but then overshot the Kapalua runway - not easy landing with no cockpit. I tried the moving eyepoint back trick, it kinda works but is not too aesthetically pleasing... So - next stop... Alaska?!

This sort of constructive help is exactly why Jeroen is now a member of the Avsim mod team :) Quick question on the video... I have always thought it better to descend sufficiently in advance that you can then intercept the ILS glideslope from 'underneath' it - rather than needing to descend steeply down into it from above... Can any one comment on what is considered best practice? Or are both methods used? Cheers, Nick

I used to fly a Rotax powered 'Powerchute' all over the South of England, and even in France down the Loire Valley... Instrumentation was limited to a crude altimeter velcro'd to the 'keel' of the aircraft (which was wide open) and a compass hanging around my neck... Life was simple ( and slow) then :)