Aspirelot

Any other fans of Andre Rieu here? Best rendition of Vrijthof Square now in WU4. The two church towers are finally there! Never been to Maastrict. Only seen the square on Google, Bing and flight sim Orbx. Would be nice to hear from those who know the place.

There seems to be a glitch with the sim at the moment and I'd like first to acknowledge and thank all the contributors who've alerted us to it. I'll just hold off using the sim for the time being. That was some good flying Scimiter (in the context of this sim of course, I hasten to add). I can imagine some white knuckle rides and heart thumping moments. Good on you over the persistence and congratulations over finding the airport. Might just mention that sometimes, current world events provide leads to interesting flights for me. The recent serious social unrests in Myanmar led to a recent flight from Yangon to Mandalay just for an idea as what the country is like. It turned out that Myanmar borders China and a flight from Mandalay to Kunming provided a good idea of what the border terrain is like between the two countries. It then turns out that the next contiguous region is Tibet - that almost mythical place that I've always wanted to fly over for a look since FSX days. And I found airports! Not just in Lhasa, but also others, which I could use for shorter flights. And not to forget, there's incredible terrain now in the sim, not just in Tibet, but all along the route from Myanmar.

Hi, while waiting for France and Benelux, I thought perhaps we could exchange some interesting flying experiences. My flight yesterday from Qamdo (ZUBD) via Nyingchi (ZUNZ) to Lhasa (Gonggar ZULS) may qualify as one. I hasten to add, I've only been a GA flight sim pilot since FSX, with no special flight or computer knowledge. But here goes: Powering up the default TBM 930 at Qamdo, the oxygen mask warning come on immediately! Qamdo is 14,000 ft up versus highest cabin pressure of 10,000 ft. So, thought if bleed is on, then some time after engine start, the cabin should pressurise and the warning should go away. And interestingly it did, but only after lift off (from memory). The Qamdo runway is 13,000 ft long but there's a slightly narrower but also paved extension of some significant length added to the end of it. I decided to taxi right to the end of that extension for additional runway and also preset a much lower vertical climb rate like 800 ft/min to the auto pilot. As it turned out, and as experienced pilots will know, neither measures were really necessary. The TBM 930 has so much power. The "direct to" westward course to Nyingchi at 30,000 ft was spectacular, over a high region cut up by deep valleys, as Tibet is famous for. These are the wilderness regions, with little signs of settlement. It's at Nyingchi that extensive settlement is visible. Exploring the area with the drone, it's clear why this confluence of three major valleys with water courses is settled and why the airport is where it is, at the bottom of one particular valley. The geography is breathtakingly clear. On a "direct to" to Lhasa (Gonggar Airport), the TBM 930 was flown instead with the heading bug from external view (using the heading knob on an old Saitek Multi Panel), following a deep well settled valley, that ran all the way to Lhasa. The alignment of a roadway that was present in this valley happened to be visible on map view on the MPD display in the TBM and this provided confirmatory navigational guidance on occasion. Much of the valley floor was in shadows, so got out of the sim and advanced time of the day to noon, for a much better view. But also noted, that life on the valley floor would be in shadows for good portions of days and seasons. Lhasa is in a large opening in the mountains with waterways. This religious Shangrila, centered around the familiar Patola Palace (a POI), is a view to behold in its isolation. It'll be worth a revisit with more time on the drone. MSFS has made this worthwhile. Sorry over this plug for the sim. There were two approaches on the G3000 to Gonggar airport, but I couldn't activate either, perhaps not without cancelling the original "direct to" setting. But I was loath to attempt any changes on the G3000 that close to airport, just in case something unexpected happens. So with terrain display on the MFD, known East West runway/valley alignment and 11,000 ft airport elevation, navigated with heading bug, vertical speed, and closing distance for a smooth windless landing at Gonggar (chose clear weather for the flight). Hope there's been something of interest in the above if you've read up to this point. And I sincerely hope I haven't ruffled any feathers in introducing the topic.

I just want to convey a simple thank you to Microsoft, Asobo, Partners and Developers for this wonderful new simulator, no ifs, no buts. To me, it's been a great start for the sim, and a great journey in just six months. And I look forward to the improvements that all of you will no doubt be bringing to this simulator in the years ahead. I started simming from FSX through to P3D because of a love of aircraft and flying, which I never pursued in real life. But to my surprise, the interest morphed to include other aspects of simulation, which were never fulfilled, until MSFS 2020 came along. Yesterday I flew Liverpool-Newcastle and Edinburgh-Dundee in the UK, in the stock Cirrus via stock flight plan on the Garmin glass cockpit, deviating at various points of the route for visual diversions using the drone. Today I flew Outer Skerry-Kirkwall in the Cirrus again (just made it on take off), then San Fran- Los Angeles in the stock TBM 930, again with stock flight plans via the Garmin 3000, again with drone diversions, including skimming the roadway of the Golden Gate among the cars on it. I have no special skills, neither in computers, nor in flying, but the experience I've had so far with MSFS 2020 is bliss. I just hope others who've enjoyed this simulator could also add a word of encouragement to the people who've worked so hard to get this project out .

Hello Ron, I don't know how to use the mouse for the drone, but I'm just wondering whether it is generally known, that the yoke and all the switches and buttons on it (Saitek in my case and yes the same one that I'm using to fly the plane), can in fact be used to control the drone. I'm guessing that the reason this works is that the drone is a separate function, that is activated after pausing the plane. Hence, all the axes, switches and buttons on the yoke for the plane can be "doubled up" for the drone. So in my case, I use the yoke axes for drone yaw and pitch, the hat switch for front back left right translations, one flip switch for up down translation, one flip switch for increase decrease speed of translation, another flip switch for speed of drone rotation. Seems to work very well for me. I don't have an Xbox controller.

Thank you fppilot for bringing this subject up. And thank you Phantoms for providing a nice solution to the problem.

I had the same problem with the 777 200 on FSX, but this morning, it hit me that I might have used my P3D activation key on FSX. Checking my records, sure enough, that was what I had done. Used the activation key for FSX from the past and it all came good for me. Mighty pleased!