Kerberos42

I belong to a motorcycle forum where each summer we have a game called Motorcycle Tag. Someone rides to a recognizable location, takes a picture of their bike there, then posts it to the forum. The first person to find the location and post a picture with their bike in the same location gets some points and has to then post the next picture taken in a new location. It's really a lot of fun and a great way to get out riding and exploring. While we wait for Alaskan Aerocaches, I thought it could be fun to do our own "Plane Tag". Due to the size of Alaska, and the fact that most of it is trees and mountains and every airstrip looks the same, some navigation hints can be used to help locate the tag. Here's mine to start. Big Lake 112.5 DME: 36nm Talkeetna 116.2 DME: 33nm That should be enough to find it, I'll give the radials if no one is successful within 12 hours.

I've been having a blast with the STOL challenges, and the off airport landings, water skimming etc. Would much prefer a cockpit of course, but it was "free" so given lemons, make lemonade.

I'd probably sniffle and cough all the way and annoy the pilot.

Maybe I've watched Ice Pilots NWT too much, but a DC-3 or a C-47 would be fun, and would definitely help towards those passenger and cargo achievements. I'd also love one if these and some SAR missions to go with it:

Am I the only one that feels a little let down by this announcement? I mean we already have the Cub, and yes it is missing a VC, but its still very much usable, and really is a lot of fun. As far as Alaska goes, it would really benefit from a larger, faster, a/c fully equipped for IFR preferably with a float option. The RV complimented Hawaii perfectly, and while the Cub is an Alaskan staple, it's not the ac of choice for hauling cargo or passengers. Also, with 137 float plane bases, we need a float plane other than the Icon. Jobs flying cargo into remote lakes in close to minimums weather would get the heart going. With a deluxe Cub now, could that mean that we will get a basic Beaver or Caravan or <insert your choice here> next month? If the pattern with Hawaii holds true (Scenery pack plus 1 or 2 deluxe aircraft, then 4 basic aircraft), then personally I'd rather stick to the basic Cub and have Deluxe more capable aircraft down the road. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still happy to be getting a new VC, (maybe it will have a float option?), and I'll be at my desk pressing F5 on the marketplace site waiting for the Download button to appear.

With floats as an option:

I have a love hate relationship with Terrace. I hated being there, and I loved leaving! My bike broke down there on a Friday, and I was stuck there until Tuesday by the time the part arrived from Vancouver. Pretty much all there was to do was sit in the pub all day, especially with no wheels! I should have wandered up to the airport and hung out there.

I've always loved airports, I remember as a kid hanging around small GA terminals and sometime pilots would let me sit in the aircraft. What a huge thrill that was. Somehow now as a 40 year old, they don't seem as interested in giving me that privilege! International airports are always rather exciting to me, I'm one of the weirdos who enjoys layovers. If I'm planning a trip that requires a layover, I'll try to make it at an interesting airport, or one I've never been to before. I've even chosen a layover over a direct flight, just to check out the airport! Its great people watching. When I learned to drive, my favorite destination was to go spotting at YVR, and even just driving around the terminal. Same thing when I got my motorcycle license. That's when I learned that a 500cc Honda can't outrun a Dash-8 400, and airport police are not amused by "plane racing". Not long after meeting my girlfriend it was a really crappy cold wet Sunday (normal weather in YVR), and I felt like a good breakfast, The Fairmont hotel in the terminal had a really good brunch buffet, albeit a little pricey. So I said, "Lets go have breakfast at the airport!" She thought I was totally nuts. Well 6 hours later, we were still wandering around the airport, she had a blast checking out the shops and people watching. Until that moment, she had never really travelled, and had never been outside of Canada. I took her to the book store, stood her in-front of the travel books, told her to cover her eyes and grab a book. The book she picked up was Belize, and three months later we were off to Belize on her first international trip. Since then its a regular thing for us to take a trip out to the airport, have coffee or a snack and just hang out for a bit. She can even tell the difference between a 737 and a 747!

@JPC55 Where is that?

I flew down to Masset, BC in the Queen Charlotte islands. Looks like they have broken ground on the Masset airport and even installed fuel pumps and an NDB. Perhaps upcoming scenery of the west coast is in the works? If you fly across the Bering Strait to Russia, its looks like the Sahara, doesn't seem like it would take much to add trees at least. They've taken some time to put some basic scenery into a least the adjoining sections of BC No coffee shop though...

That's very disappointing. I had high hopes for Hood Lake as it seems the be the very hub of Alaska bush flying. What are the chances that some of the textures and airport scenery could get updated over time? Was there any scenery updates to Hawaii?

I was really hoping for more SAR missions and an appropriate aircraft. They can't expect us to get the Rescued People achievement rescuing the same moron on the Napali coast can they? That was my favorite mission, as well as the photographing airfields one (not the photobook). I found these missions very immersive and even educational.

Wow... 32mph stall speed with full flaps. I can barely keep my motorcycle under 30mph!

Watch out for standing water right next to the runways. I landed (badly) at Sitka (or some where near by) and one wheel went off the edge of the runway, caught in what looked like a small stream and fliped the aircraft over. Pretty realistic I suppose, and I guess in AK water could pretty much be anywhere.

I've trashed a half dozen Carbon Cubs now trying to get a feel for it, especially the STOL characteristics. Without a VC you also don't get the check lists. Does anyone know the ref speeds for this particular beast?

Flying out of Unalaska, my RV 6 switched to stealth mode. Um yeah, no one's gonna see a black plane with all that snow!!! Also, when I spawned on the runway here, I somehow managed to get the landing backwards achievement. I guess the aircraft spawned just high enough off the ground and there was enough wind to register as going backwards?

Lake Hood... haha, that's interesting. I have of course seen many pictures of float planes at "Lake Hood", though I had no idea there were THAT many. For some reason I equated this with Mt. Hood, and thought it was somewhere near Portland, OR. I've often thought that I'd hop on the motorcycle one day and ride down to check it out. I guess it will be a longer ride than I orignally thought, however I have always wanted to ride to Alaska...

I was looking around Anchorage in google maps and found this oddly shaped lake. I switched to satellite view and WOW, I've never seen so many float planes before. Have a look and be sure to zoom in to see just how many planes there are, and almost every bit of shore has either a plane, or parts of a plane on it. A good Alaska Flight challenge would be "Walk around and find your plane" Hopefully this lake is well represented in Alaska. Also, I hope the fact that they mention 137 floatplane bases means they are going to give us a float plane to use. MS wouldn't make us tool around Alaska in the Icon, would they?

I installed the update yesterday and now I get a message on startup about Old controls detected, and I keep clicking no because I don't want to have to re do my mappings. Anyone else have this?

In 2005 I had an all female crew on a Aloha flight from Hilo to Honolulu. I seem to remember them all being very easy on the eyes :)

He looked like he was pretty close to GTOW. Kind of like watchinng a fully loaded A340 take off.

Here's another one that clearly shows the dangers of an unsecured load during take off. Luckily this incident ended well for all. Well, except for the "load" that is. Sorry, I've been on a bird kick lately.

More serious damage has been fixed and put back into service. I guess it's up to the insurers. This particular aircraft is only 9 years old, so I suppose it depends on how much useful life it has left vs the repair costs.

Also included: Landing gear extension http://www.dogwork.com/owfo8/