Antipodeslonghaul

Just got an e-mail from the water works this morning warning "Don't water your plants! Water for basic human hygiene necesseties only!" While we're entering another heatwave in southern Germany, it feels like it'll be a lot less taxing heatwise this time around. Highs around 30, lows around 15. Last one a few weeks ago was more like highs 35+, lows 20 at best, and even if, that was just for an hour or so around 4 am. The night time low makes all the difference. It seems the soil around here has dried out really quick. I think for me personally, I'd still prefer high humidity and lots of thunderstorms over dryness though, but that's just me. I guess I'm more of a swamp rat than a desert rat.

Wow! I'm in Germany and a bit surprised it's that high, but sure enough. Like my food I'll take my statistics with a grain of salt, but I guess as a rough indicator: The worst off seems to be American Samoa at 75% obese. USA proper weighs in at 42%, UK 27%, Germany 20%, France 10%, Japan 6% (not sure if sumo wrestlers count), and Vietnam the winners at only 2%. Maybe sort of a World Bowl championship instead of a World Cup. Yeah, I think walking a lot is good. The last time I was in Taiwan I walked at least 10 km and rode commuter trains daily. Although they have elevators and escalators at the stations, it was usually quicker to take the stairs between the platforms. Going up and down several flights of stairs every day was hell on my knees, but I definitely lost weight. Excellent food, but fairly small portion sizes a few times a day, and lots of tea, it was pretty good. Germany has a trend around the cities and outlying areas, lots of drive thru fast food, lots of parking lots around strip mall style shops. Convenient if you're driving, but unless you make an extra effort, you don't get much walking done apart from pushing a shopping cart down the aisles of a supermarket.

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I still wonder occasionally, is it ok to just go dev mode pause, or open the save window as a pause, or exit the flight and just go back to the startup screen and put the computer to sleep, but don't exit the sim. How long can one continue on doing that I wonder?

I'd say. Here's our current METAR at Munich, temp 22 dp 19. METAR EDDM 300750Z AUTO 11004KT 050V150 9999 SCT010 22/19 Q1023 BECMG 05005KT And this was yesterday around this time, temp 26 dp 17. METAR EDDM 290750Z AUTO 32012KT 290V350 CAVOK 26/17 Q1022 NOSIG It definitely feels just as, if not more "muggy" today, despite being slightly cooler. Anyway, an awesome thunderstorm display last night here including red lightning, "Red Sprites" I believe. Regardless of the humidity though, the cooler temperatures at night and in the morning are more than welcome to get some relief! I guess I'll pick a dewpoint of 15 as a rough rule of thumb. Above it I get that kind of warm tropical feeling, which can be pleasant, but one sure can also sweat a lot without too much effort. Below it is more what I'd consider normal, even in the summer in Northern Europe.

So, if sim development stood still right now, I guess I'd stick with the PMDG BBJ1 I've been using. I've grown quite fond of it. I've boosted the MTOW to 79 according to my own regulations (I think that's what the Australian Air Force uses in theirs). I saw a seating chart where it was outfitted with 20 business angle flat seats in the front (although I think it could also fit as many Polaris lie flats from a United 757, and 66 economy seats crammed behind the overwing emergency exits in the back, so 86 pax in total. Also I've got the max aux tank configuration set up, so overhead bins and space under the seats in front of you crammed to the max! Just set payload at 100%. And I've set up the cockpit to look as old as possible, also with the eyebrow windows (stuff some charts in there if you need to, or just enjoy the extra view). Maybe a little bit of a modernized 707 feeling on long hauls, although a tad bit slower in cruise. And there were a few so called 737-700ER's in Japan a while back which are essentially the same. I'll call it that as well, since BBJ sounds too posh. Quite a versatile little thing. Go lightweight and try super short runways and cramped ramps at tiny remote airstrips, or load up to the max and fly in and out of larger airports. Range is around 6,000 nm if you cut back on the payload. I like it!

Delete Double Post (must be too hot)

I haven't been following too closely, but the games are great to watch when one gets a chance. It seems the 1950 final between Uruguay and Brazil in Rio had the highest attendance in the stadium at 173,850 spectators. I'll just say I'm rooting for Mexico in this one, since I think they haven't won one yet, but any which way, may the best team win!

I've been trying to get friends and family to talk only about temperature and dew point, and just ignore the relative humidity value altogether, as it gets too confusing at such vastly different temperatures. But they're all like "What's that you nerd?" Like if Singapore and London are perhaps at the exact same temperature today, then sure, comparing relative humidity in the two cities would give you a good indication of how they feel, but otherwise I always prefer to just look at the dewpoint to see how sweaty it is out there. Anyway, I was shocked and saddened to hear about all the drownings these past few days. I remember one time when I panicked a bit swimming in Florida. I got caught in a really strong rip current. I knew all about them and exactly what to do, it's just I'd never directly experienced one quite like that before. I can comfortably float about on my back and tread water for hours. I might have just taken it as a free ride to the Bahamas. But I did momentarily feel a sense of panic and flailed about a bit. But then calmly swam parallel to the shore and was very soon out of it and easily able to swim back to the beach. I guess it's a bit like a strong narrow jetstream in the air.

I'm definitely looking forward to the 787. Interesting how Qantas apparently deliberated for quite a while between using the 787 and A350 for the SYD-LHR and SYD-JFK nonstops. I still like to fly those ultra long hauls, but definitely cheating. I avoid all the sid's, stars, airspace closures, and only use Great Circle Mapper and Earth Nullschool Wind Atlas to plot a few waypoints along the way and off I go. Not getting into the background but on the surface it must be incredibly annoying for the airlines to deal with so many airspace restrictions, enroute diversions and such. The SYD-LHR nonstop is supposed to be commencing soon, but seems like a very tough one to plan. SYD-JFK would seem a bit more flexible regarding routing.

Thanks for that tip, ads are gone now. I had noticed the ads increasing recently, but wasn't till today there were numerous ones covering pretty much the entire screen, making it nearly impossible to read anything. Was using Chrome on an Android phone. One weird thing is my phone provider recently upgraded me from 500 MB to 1 GB per month. I'm on the cheapest plan. I think it's not so much greater though, just there are so many pop up video ads nowadays that quickly suck up all one's data.

About 12 years ago I remember taking Norwegian between the US West Coast and Europe, roughly 10 hour flights. A small water or soft drink was like $5, and a sandwich maybe $10. But it was ok. I knew all about it beforehand. The roundtrip ticket with all the taxes and fees was something like $280. I brought and empty bottle to fill with water at a drinking fountain after security, and a few snacks like pretzel sticks and goldfish, and it was totally fine. The economy seats and entertainment on the 787 were more or less the same as on any other airline. It actually felt great to be traveling so cheaply. But if you don't know what's in store for you like the poor SOB's (I mean souls on board) in the article, yeah, that would be a hellish flight for sure.

I had also forgotten about those bathrooms, but seeing the picture, I remember them now! It was around mid 1990's I was booked on a Continental DC-10 from Frankfurt to Newark, but at check in the agent told me the flight was cancelled due to a snowstorm shutting down Newark. He handed me some paperwork and told me to go to Delta for a flight to JFK. I said won't JFK be closed too, but he said no. Later on board the Delta L1011 about halfway across the Atlantic the captain came on and said Kennedy's just been shut, but we already anticipated that. We've got plenty of extra fuel and we're going to Atlanta. So I had a long flight in an L1011. It was very comfortable. I very much enjoyed it!

Ha, I guess the viagra didn't help. An additional two years for that possible without a prescription. A friend of mine from California had a prescription for weed for pain relief back in the 90's early 2000's, and she traveled to Europe with it a few times. She never got searched anyway, but I thought it seemed a bit risky even with a presciption as things were stricter back then. In some places like UAE or Singapore one should be extra careful with those kinds of things. It's weird, I normally just quietly mutter under my breath when things go awry during travels, but a few times I feel I might have almost come close to flipping out like that guy. I try and think of central Alaska in the summer. There are tons of mosquitoes and they're extremely annoying! They can drive one crazy. But there's no use. They're there anyway, and they'll still be there no matter how one reacts to them. So any time I travel, or drive my car for that matter, I just expect to encounter some craziness beforehand, and since I'm already anticipating it, it doesn't feel as bad when I do encounter it.

Thank you! I got away with a bit of a scare. Was wearing a thick cap, that probably helped. Speaking of coastline, sneaker waves can be quite terrifying! I've experienced them a few times. Like you're at the water's edge still in your street clothes and rolled up your pants as far as they'll go. You're mainly looking down at the area around your feet, looking for sand dollars, seashells or whatever. You think you've got the rhythm of the waves down, and then suddenly BOOM! You're lucky if you just get flipped over and soaked. Oh well, nowadays one can do all sorts of adventerous sightseeing on (virtual) foot in the flightsims. That's the last time I'm ever venturing out into the real world. Nah! At least a little bit of freezing, getting soaking wet, being bruised, battered and shaken can't be all bad, when done in moderation.