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Now that we have the A2A Spitfire back in our P3d v4 hangars, this sortie marks its return to our Saturday flights. Where else to do this but the south-east of England and northern France. Start at Duxford (EGSU), head south towards London and Biggin Hill (EGKB). From here the flight will mostly follow the coastlines rather than flying the magenta line. Fly north-east to the River Thames, then follow the coast east to the next stop at Manston (EGMH, or the waypoint in the GTN flight plan as the airport was recently demolished), then round past Dover and the white chalk cliffs (screenshot artists get your cameras ready) to Lydd (EGMD). Now we head over the Channel to Le Touquet and Paris-Plage airport (LFAT). Those who have the AI ships package installed might want to turn it up and see what you can see on the way, as this is one of the busiest waterways in the world. After Le Touquet, we follow the French coast to the south-west stopping at St Aubin (LFAB) near Dieppe, then Le Gatien (LFRG) near Deauville. Continue west along the coast past the Normandy beaches to the waypoint at Sainte-Mère-Église, before cutting across the Cherbourg peninsula to our destination at Granville (LFRF). The plan point-to-point is 342nm, but as we'll follow the coast it will be closer to 400nm. Although designed with the Spitfire in mind, it would be ideal for any fast warbird or a higher performance GA such as the Lancair Legacy, King Air, PC-12, C421..... Setting your simulator time to 1700 UTC at the start should bring us into Granville at dusk (and it's lit). Has anyone else noticed that the time has finally been fixed in v4.3?! Flight plans PLN format GFP format Scenery Orbx England, Orbx Global textures, Vector and Europe landclass will enhance the route and upgrade many of our stops. Note that two of the French airports are included in the Orbx freeware airport pack for Europe. We also have a couple of freeware enhancements: ACG Duxford (main download and update) Biggin Hill: Mark Piccolo / Soarfly Concepts (on AVSIM) - used a few weeks ago for the military jets flight. Where & When Date and time: Saturday 30th June, 2018, 1800 UTC. Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D). If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

From the mountains to the mountains: Switzerland and FranceWe depart from Sion (LSGS), Switzerland. Sion is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. The Medieval chroniclers report the occurrence of severe flood events, and during the Little Ice Age (1350–1850 AD) the Upper Rhône had certainly a torrential regime as other rivers in the Western Alps. During the second half of the nineteenth century, anthropogenic activities had a crucial impact on the Rhône basin. The river was channelized twice in the periods of 1863–1894 and 1930–1960 during the so-called ‘Corrections of the Rhone’. These activities reduced the length of the river and gave the river the present-day aspect. In the 2000s, after severe flood events, the ‘Third Correction’ began, following the ‘Room-for-River’ flood management strategy and aims to widen the river, increase the capacity, secure levees, and improve the general environmental quality.Sion lost to Turin, Italy in its bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympics. Sion also bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, which it lost to Salt Lake City, and the 1976 Winter Olympics, which it lost to Denver (the games were reassigned to Innsbruck when Denver residents voted down additional funding). On 10 June 2019, Sion withdrew its bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics after rejection in the referendum. We head north and land at Saanen (LSGK), Switzerland. After some short legs, we stop at the small medieval village of Gruyéres (LSGT), Switzerland. We head west to reach the Thunersee, where an 1889 build funicular still operates today, modernized a couple of times. It links the two towns of Sigriswill (at the lake) with Beatenberg, 3675 feet higher on a mountain.Our next landing will be at Belp (LSZB), Switzerland. This regional airport serves the Capital City of Switzerland, Bern.Bern was made the Federal City (seat of the Federal Assembly) within the new Swiss federal state in 1848.It has a very nice historic district. We fly northwest and land at Courtelary (LSZJ), Switzerland, a small town in the Jura Mountains. Our next stop will be at Les Eplatures (LSGC), Switzerland. It is a small international airport near the town of La Chaux-des-Fonts. We head down to the Lake Neuchâtel and land at the airport Neuchâtel-Colombier (LSGN). We follow the lakeshore a while and then head back into the Jura Mountains again. We land at Vouvray (LFHN), France. The next stop is Amberieu Air Base (LFXA), France. Ambérieu-en-Bugey Air Base is a primary repair depot and supply center for avionics, ground telecommunication equipment, navigation aids, and the manufacture of simple equipment.It also supports calibration and repair of all Armée de l'Air precision measuring equipment and the manufacture and repair of aircrew survival equipment.Ambérieu has two Jodel D140C Mousquetaire aircraft assigned for courier duty. We cross the Jura Mountains again and land at the Spa town of Aix-Les-Bains (LFLB), France. Situated on the shore of the largest natural lake of glacial origin in France, the Lac du Bourget, this resort is a major French spa town, and has the largest freshwater marina in France. A leading town of the Belle Époque, of international renown, Aix-les-Bains was a vacation destination for nobility and the wealthy. Although the thermal baths are no longer the main attraction in Aix, the area continues to be draw visitors for water sports and activities. The town has partially compensated for the loss of visitors coming for spa treatments by developing tourism. In addition to thermal baths and tourism, Aix-les-Bains is known for its national Musilac festival. We cross the Chartreuse Mountains and the Vercors Massif, both parts of the French Prealps. A couple of miles south of Grenoble we turn east and then south to reach today's destination, Alpe d'Huez (LFHU), France.It is a well-known ski area and the Tour de France uses the 21 bends regularly as a special challenge. Source: Wikipedia The flight plans can be found here: Aircraft: The route has 370 nm and 9 landings. A GA plane cruising with about 160 kts would be ok. I will probably be in my A2A Bonanza, but please fly what you like.Scenery: ORBX Open Landclas Europe would be best for this flight. Saanen is an ORBX Payware, Gruyeres is included in that package. Vouvray is included in the ORBX Freeware package for Europe.Sion can be found here: Alp d'Huez is included in Guy Nemoz' Altiports package: Alternate weather could be August 8, 15:00 hrs UTC. Please set your clock for a 15:00 local depature. Multiplayer Particulars Date and time: October 17th 2020, 1800 UTC Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. Latest version is here. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D) If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

This year, Britain's Royal Air Force is celebrating its centenary and there are real world commemoration events planned throughout the summer. So I thought we could join in with a couple of RAF-themed Saturday flights. After this weekend's PNW trip, the following two weekends (12th and 19th May) will be a tour of RAF bases past and present. The well-known Mach Loop low level training area in Wales might also figure. As not everyone is a regular fast jet pilot, I am posting this advance notice so you can get some practice in! The plan will be designed with subsonic jets in mind; these could include the Hawk/Goshawk, L-39, Sabre, F-100 (if you don't go mad with it), Canberra, Hunter... just a few suggestions. If you don't have something suitable already, I have checked out some of the better FSX freeware options and they seem fine in P3D v4 (links below). And of course there are also the P3D default military jets. If you really don't fancy a jet, a warbird or fast GA would work, I would suggest something that can do 250kts or more. Aermacchi MB326 - Dino Cattaneo Dino's website: http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.co.uk/ MB326 download on AVSIM Boeing T-45 Goshawk - Dino Cattaneo Goshawk download on AVSIM Hawker Hunter - Dave Garwood Hunter download on CBFS If you want to get in some practice going round the Mach Loop (which is advisable!), here is a flight plan in PLN format: Mach Loop Practice A good resource is machloop.co.uk, where there is also a very helpful map. You can also search "mach loop" in YouTube, but I'll warn you in advance that you could be down that rabbit hole for some time.....