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Finally got around to buying MSE Ireland so I've practically got the whole of the British Isles, apart from the Isle of Man, in photoreal scenery.I was trundling over Ireland in the Aerospool WT-9 Dynamic just to test out the scenery.

Over on Youtube, Air Clips have finally posted the 3rd leg of a Lufthansa MD-11F return trip to Frankfurt, piloted by Inge and Claudia, namely Hong Kong to Novosibirsk, so of course I decided to follow suit with my own simulated MD-11f flight. Link to their trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbXoFFBxglY TOW of 263 tons at VHHH. Fuel 64900kg, I had 65 tons on board. I think cargo was 65 tons (I misheard. I think Inge said more than 84 tons on on board!)... In the sim, the pilot flying, i.e ME! may be far uglier looking, but the jet is still beautiful.. Climbing out of Hong Kong (FSX NOTAM: I had inadvertently reduced the shipping traffic below 5% so the Global AI shipping wasn't present!). Somewhere over mainland China.. Somewhere over Mongolia.. and again... Descending to UNNT for visual RWY25...Visual? OK I believe you..! This is going to be a little bumpy.. Out from under the clag.. Hmm.. They were right about the visual approach. Still a tad windy though.. Actually, the wind wasn't too bad.. (FSX NOTAM - need to check the ILS course. According to AIE (ILS inspection tool) the ILS for 25 is 252 degrees, but the sim still has 251 - may need to have a dive into Airport Design Editor. There's certainly an offset!) She's down.. Nicely detailed airport with a big, illuminated sign in case I forget where I am.🍻 As per the real world trip, the freighter is pushed back into its parking spot. Novosibirsk is only a fuel stop - no cargo being unloaded on this occasion. Cheers!

I believe the Campaign Against Aviation allows us to fly as low as we like over water as long as we're not within 500' of persons or structures? Blackpool Tower (not the airfield tower, THE Tower ) (Banter aside, the C.A.A. do have a nightmare of a job just trying to keep everyone safe IMHO on this tiny little, crowded, septic isle.)

I forgot to take screenies of the landing - I was just enjoying the weather and the lighting

Leaving Manaus, bound for Quito (the new one at 7910 feet elevation!).

Join me on a VFR jolly from Coningsby to Warton in a Phantom II (sorry Chock!) with a slight detour over the nearest city to me (Preston, Lancashire) and a couple of it's "landmarks". Not a Pound for Air To Ground, unless you count the gun pod which of course can also be used to deal with squashies, transport columns and light armour. Apparently an AIM-7 Sparrow can also be used for ground attack.. WHAT?? https://hushkit.net/2017/07/31/flying-the-f-4-phantom-ii-british-style/ A brilliant article, and Chris Bolton, the man with the story, is I feel a kindred spirit with his views on the Royal Navy F-35 Here we are in one of RAF Coningsby's HAS (hardened aircraft shelter) getting the beast ready to go. Note the American (US Navy issue) ground power cart. The Phantom is an American plane and so she needs American volts, not good old British volts, hence the green power cart is tucked to one side I do prefer the radome with stripes on it rather than just having the dome in one overall colour cut off at the hinge line. More work for the spray shop sure, but I do like it! Lined up: Bring me that horizon! Most definitely POSITIVE RATE!! DIESEL Power! Aye, Lad. 'Ave crossed over t' Pennines! Rhodeswood Reservoir on the port wingtip.. ..and Hadfield below. Passing by EGCC. Any of you Freight Dogs down there getting jealous?? On a flyby of Warton. Burners lit, I'm off to Preston to break some windows! I guess Preston North End are all training from home... (PNE's football (soccer) ground on Deepdale Road underneath the fuselage). The teal coloured rectangle above the tip of the tail fin is Preston Docks. Just a marina these days.. A quick look at Deepdale Retail Park: The obvious autogen large block building is the empty Toys R Us shop. The photoreal building touching the canopy rail on the right of the picture is Maccy D's (yes!). The angled white roofed structure to the left of Maccy D's houses KFC, Subway, Costa Coffee and Nando's. Back to Warton and slowing her down for a right downwind approach to RWY8. OOPS! Too close to the airfield and didn't turn tight enough! Bless her though, she's telling me she's going to stop flying in a little bit, unless I firewall those throttles, and retract the speedbrakes. Sorted! She has a brake 'chute too! Get the kettle on, chaps! Now where's that telescoping ladder button? FSX NOTAM. I've taken to using the pause button and trying to find the right external view at fast jet speeds is... difficult. Sometimes the screen captured when the red notice was off, sometimes not.. Cheers!

With all the recent products being offered for free I told myself to stop procrastinating and go and get Flight Sim Jewel's freeware Hawaii together with George Keogh's airports. I'd put it off until now due to the size and multiple parts involved. In the end it was relatively painless to get the stuff installed so I wish I'd done it sooner! So, anyway. I decided to VFR around the islands in the good old Cessna 337 Skymaster a la Carenado. I took off from Princeville airport on Kauai with the idea being to fly around the island's shore and then progressing further down the island chain, flying around each island (I missed a couple out!) and landing when I had to. I wasn't going to "use up a whole SD card full of pictures" , but just wanted to enjoy the scenery and discover it as I went along. However, here's a few pics anyway. Sadly no takeoff pics as I was in awe. Passing by Barking Sands airport, Kauai. Off to O'ahu. Diamond Head below. Looking back at Honolulu Having gone around O'ahu, the cloud had eased a bit so I cut back across the island to head to Molokai and Lanai. Flying over Lanai, looking at Molokai in the distance. .. and here we are on approach to Hilo International on the Big Island with about 20% fuel remaining. Perhaps I should have taken more screenshots! I'd watched a Coast Guard C-130 take off from Kona on my way past (FSX NOTAM, I don't have much traffic enabled), and marvelled at the different terrain compared to little old Great Britain. Touchdown. Shutdown. I was going to investigate the mountain and Bradshaw Army Airfield, but the haze and the broken clouds conspired against me (risk of solid cumulo-granite). I didn't complete the flight in one sitting (burn the heretic!!), but I had a relaxing few hours total, glad that the 337 had an autopilot fitted so I could gawk out of the virtual windows. I must now go and buy (donate) for Hawaii plus for the seasonal changes and volcano action. Cheers.

I thought it prudent to beat up London City airport because... well you would wouldn't you? Then on to complete the mission! Pucara (Fortress) meets bridge.. well doesn't actually meet it as such because that would have been rather messy.. Mind you there is a "crash-test-dummy" sticker near the back of the canopy (the round black & whit symbol similar to the centre of a BMW badge..) which of course is rather fitting because I'm flying her today This is the only Ctrl-Ezy Pucara livery which allows the torpedo to be loaded. Don't worry:- I didn't launch the tin fish at HMS Belfast..

Sky Lease Cargo getting ready at their hub in Miami International. Excellent repaint done courtesy of Enko (many thanks!) Not so sure about the species of trees and the buildings near the airport lol! Oh well with the big iron, its more about the plane and the tarmac anyway. (reasonably accurate airports).Do you know, I've not really posted thanks to Ray Smith: A lot of the freeware airports in my sim are by Ray. Enjoy!

Flying down the west coast of England. All trimmed out nicely and about 90 knots.

I think this is during my cargo flight from Liege to Beijing (ZBAA)

I thought this screenshot looked a bit dark & brooding, hence the title. In real life there are only a few airworthy examples of Curtiss Commandos. I need to fix the disappearing prop texture.

Inbound to Nairobi - Jomo Kenyatta Intl. Mountains looking a bit close before being given the ILS intercept.. Rubbish landing - too much float (yes an MD-11 can float - at least in the sim with a relatively light load lol) and off centreline... bah!

We all know that the stock FSX ATC leaves a bit to be desired, but today left me more puzzled than ever. IFR flight from Quito to Bogota (another high-elevation airport!). So another light load - total guesswork as the clip for the Pilot's Eye TV Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 hop from SEQM to SKBO didn't detail the payload or fuel. Just 10 tonnes of cargo and 22 tonnes of fuel. ATC told me clear for ILS approach to 13L then Circle To Land 31L. I thought the weather was looking a bit dodgy, so why ask me to do that I wonder? Yes indeed! Total madness!! But hey, this is a sim and if ATC want me to play Captain Cowboy disregarding life, limb.... and boxes.. I'll try! Everything hanging out - loads of power and I know 31L will come into view in a second.. This is what the tower saw once I'd got the runway in sight: Ever the consummate professional....hooligan. Who's laughing now, you crazy Columbians?? (Good job I'd made the turn before that tall office block though!!) I left my FO to see to the unloading and loading whilst I stormed off to visit ATC whilst pondering if some controlled substances were not as controlled as they should be.. (clandestine cross-border ATF/DEA operation required) AHEM... any possibly stereotypical joking aside....(I believe that ANY air traffic controller is a highly trained professional person) does anyone know if the stock ATC has specific airports where a circle to land instruction is given? It's not as if the wind was a factor (about 4 knots). It happened on a flight I did to Chambery in France too. Also I know I should have just gone missed, but would I have been vectored back to the same runway despite the conditions?

Here she is in rainy Miami (it happens now and again ), waiting to depart early the next morning. Taxiing out - at least our departure runway is just to the left. However, note that you should always use a longer runway if one is available! Made it though.. Climbing out through the bad weather to catch a glimpse of the sunrise Approaching Cuba Out over the Caribbean.. Somewhat later in the journey, over the vast, relatively flat South American continent (flat compared the Andes!) Our route means that we will cross over the Andes SSW and fly down the west coast of Chile to reach Santiago. Descending for an almost straight in approach to RWY17L Fairly straight on the runway too! 😄 Just like finding a parking spot at the (empty!) mall. Shutdown and offload. Enjoy.

Thanks to the time and skills of AVSIM member Enko here she is: A Western Global MD-11, pictured at Shanghai. An excellent repaint. It seems patience pays off; I think I posted a request back in March or so. A polite bump up the forum each month and here we are. THANK YOU ENKO! According to Western Global's site, they have visited Shanghai, and also Perth. To that end, I going to take this big girl on a flight between the two places and of course post up some screenies too

Just water... bound for Sao Paulo (Viracopos airport) from Dakar. We will be flying down the east cost of the South American continent for part of the flight however..

Apologies to Ultravox and Midge Ure I tried out a long range flight with the Flight1 Islander today. I wish I'd taken more screenshots as I was able to go from Gatwick to Vienna with only minor interruptions IRL - thankfully the Islander has an autopilot and a GPS (nice rendition of the Bendix King KLN 90b).The weather was good and the sim behaved - no OOM dings despite taking off from UK2000 Gatwick and using VFR Real photoscenery in the UK. Lovley freeware LOWW too. Anyway, I was quite surprised to see that upon reaching Vienna the fuel tanks were still approx.1/3 full (see gauge at top right of screen). Surprising because the standard range for the BN-2 appears to be 600 to 800NM. I did only have pilot and co-pilot together with 300lb of baggage and full tanks though.. I should have pushed straight to Athens!! No external shots because I've not asked about a G-AXUD paintjob as yet..

So, at over 2000 nmi away from Athens, the Islander won't make it in one hop. I've said before I've no idea of the ferry range of the winning Islander in the London to Sydney Air Race 1969, and even if I knew the range, it would be a problem having the Flight1 BN-2 behaving as per a ferry configuration. The maximum range more or less gives us the destination of Diyarbakir Airport (LTCC) which is also a military base in south eastern Turkey. The weather is set to be good so off we go. Taxiing out at LGAV. Lined up and clear for takeoff. Hope we packed the sandwiches & refreshments! Settled into the cruise. 9-10000 feet altitude allows me to forget about the throttles and leave them wide open giving the required 20 inches of pressure. Flying past Mount Erciyes, I believe..😖 I would have thought there should have been snow at the summit.. (FSX NOTAM, perhaps the landclass would have displayed it had I been closer??) Approaching LTCC to join left downwind for RWY34 No mistaking this is an airbase.. Not a bad touchdown IMHO of course..😜 Ok then, ready for a Turkish bath.. The next leg will take us into Iran..

Getting ready at WG's main hub - Florida Southwest Regional. Cleared for takeoff RWY6 Lovely airport scenery, Latin VFR! FSX NOTAM - I wish Sky Sim could recreate the gear door animation problem and fix it... (sigh) Climbing out over Florida, the Gulf of Mexico is in the background. Feet wet over the Atlantic Passing by the coast of Ireland Vectors for RWY22 ILS Stansted Airport 70 tons of cargo safely on the ground. Taxiing in to Apron Z Shutdown.

FSX NOTAM: Just seeing if ILS Inspector would change the ICAO code of Jorge Chavez (Lima) from SPIM to SPJC and thought I may as well do a cargo flight to try it out for "real" . "Objects in mirror may actually be huge!" Turning on to course. In the cruise. It's going to be a night time landing. An atrocious landing. Well, a bounce followed 5 seconds or so later by the landing!! . There was a crosswind and a moment's inattention..and I cannot blame the F/O.. The firefighters were getting a bit anxious! Enjoy.

Even in the chaos, cargo flights continue This one is from KMIA to SUMU Uruguay. Pushing back. Taxiing out. Positive Rate! FSX NOTAM, I wish Sky Simulations would fix the gear door animations which appear to be missing in V2.2, but they told me that they couldn't reproduce the fault Turning on to an initial course and heading towards the ocean. Bye bye, Miami! Over Cuba Initial cruise altitude. FL350 I think. Later in the trip we'll head on up to FL410 when most of the fuel's been burned. I believe the mountain over the port wing is Pico Cristobal Colon, Colombia. Sunset over the South American continent. The bright lights of Montevideo off to starboard. We're being vectored for the ILS on RWY24 Approach is OK so far.. She's down... not bad. for one of my landings. Enjoy.

Time for N542KD to take a break (C-check I believe). Departing PHNL in the early hours, bound for Western Global's maintenance, reapair, overhaul facility at KSHV. FSX NOTAM - no idea why the BRAKES caption is on. Perhaps I'd hit the brakes when taking a screenshot! The sunrise beckons, as does many miles flying over the Pacific. At last, the west coast of the USA. Lovely afternoon at FL400 Being vectored for visual on RWY32 A bit hazy on the approach however! A firm touchdown, but still.. :) Taxiing to the MRO. The building looked bigger in the brochure! hehe. Ahh.. all her bits hanging out in the breeze. Enjoy. Actually this was quite a timely virtual flight because in real life, this happened to one of Western Global's MD-11s recently - No.2 engine fire! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihKZfbuGWmQ

Now that Just Flight's VFR Real 3D Scotland is out, I have all the mainland UK in photoreal. Note that Prestwick & Edinburgh are the cut-down free versions, but I do have several of their payware airports! I decided to take a quick trip before my evening meal (you can see 17:51 on the clock - actual UK time during my flight). Not exactly the best weather for VFR across Scotland, but it got slightly better at Prestwick. The 114 is a pretty little GA 4 seater, and the view in the late sunshine was worthy of the £200 hamburger! 😉 Enjoy.

In view of the recent "modification" to the port of Beirut a Western Global freighter was chartered to fly aid to Beirut. Departing from EGNX, bound for OLBA. Preparing for loading & fuelling. Ratcliffe on Soar power station in the background. Punching through the haze which had moved in. FSX NOTAM nope, no help for the lack of undercarriage door animations to date Approaching the French coast - no small boats in sight.. For the majority of the flight we'll be cruising at FL350, but climb up to FL400 when we're a bit lighter. Passing over the Swiss Alps. Venice is off to the left of the picture, the flight plan roughly follows the east coast of Italy. The heel of Italy.. About to overfly Cyprus. Beginning the descent to Lebanon. Being vectored to visual for RWY34. We were expecting some haze, but they could have turned the lights up a bit!! BUSTED! One of my better landings, but it was just in the displaced threshold... (sigh...) Oh well in for a penny - celebrated by wheelying quite a distance down 34 A bit of reverse idle in conjunction with the brakes one the nose was down and use the last turn off. Taxiing in down on side of the airport buildings... ...and up the other side to the cargo area! Time to let the ground services get busy. Enjoy🍻 FSX NOTAM - lovely freeware airport available in the library from Lebor Simulations. There is also some free photoreal Lebanon scenery but I hadn't downloaded it at the time of the flight