Come And Visit The U.S. And The Caribbean

By Bastian Blinten
26 March 2008

Hello again! My last article about North America left out the United States and was mainly about Canada. I promised to remedy this deficit by giving it another chance in one of the next. Here it is.

But there still is a problem. The U.S. is flight simulator country and I will hardly be able to give you insider tips. It won't be much different with the Caribbean so I will do this short and tell you about my personal nostalgia before continuing to the less traveled parts of the virtual world.

The journey starts at my home in Frankfurt Germany in an Airbus A300-605.

OK, let's be honest, this is the smaller sister the A310 but Lufthansa doesn't operate that one anymore and I have never been able to find a good A300 for FS2002. The Project Airbus A300 ruined my installation twice so here we go in the A310.

The A310 is a 220-seater and the difference in size compared to the 737 and MD-80 is enourmous.

I arrive at the U.S. in one of my favourite places of the old FS2 times. It was the scenery with the greatest amount of buildings, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center and even some bridges to fly under.

The first time I saw La Guardia I thought it was a road crossing. All other airports were painted as lines on the ground. La Guardia had a black runway and of course I used it for landing just for fun. It took a while until I was told that this was an airport. How could I know? Fortunately we have overcome those misunderstandings in newer versions. It is now one of the most beautiful places in my collection.

What else was fascinating? Back in the late 80's I was using a black and green monitor so the sea was just another shade of green. Flying over land was more or less boring so I found it a challenge to go for the few little islands with an airport. One is all the way along Long Island and further east: Block Island.

The runway is not too long and I remember how often I had to go around until a final landing. Funny! This time it's just the same but no wonder as I was trying to land in a tailwind.

Next stop, Martha's Vineyard. Another loved location from those very early days. When FS98 arrived it saw a dramatic increase in detail with a photorealistic scenery.

Further north I visit Boston.

It gained high importance in the FS5 days. With the Learjet's range it was possible to fly non-stop from here to Le Havre, France, connecting the few default sceneries of the U.S. and Europe.

Let's cross the continent and visit one of the early flightsim landmarks, the bridge at Tacoma. I used Tacoma Narrows for my first tests with a strong wind. A 60 mph headwind was enough for a vertical takeoff in the Cessna and flying slowly forward and backward.

In the newer FS-versions it is the destination of this tricky private pilot checkride.

On to Las Vegas. I am using a freeware enhancement. It was one of the few larger photorealistic areas in FS. Today the clouds are so low that I take the Fouga Magister down over the strip for safety.

Next stop: Santa Monica. It has always been a kind of base for my flights in California and when I got there in real in 1994 I enjoyed the aircraft museum with the New Orleans World Cruiser and many other old birds. I remember two Spitfires. That's why my trip continues in a Spit MK XIV.

One more of my old-time favorites: flying to Avalon on Santa Catalina. I had the chance to visit it by ship in 1998 and it is one of my most outstanding memories. Avalon is a little beauty of a town with its distinctive "Casino" which is a dance hall and a movie theater. In Avalon only very few cars are allowed and most people drive around in golf-carts. We were fine by foot since you can cross the town in five minutes.

90% of Santa Catalina are a nature reserve owned by the Catalina Island Conservancy. In 1929 a film-team imported a herd of bison. Those felt very much at home and about 125 of their grand-children still live at Catalina today.

There is a single road across the island leading to the airport which was opened in 1946. It has a 3250 foot runway and is regarded a difficult place to land. There is steep terrain in front and behind the runway causing gusty winds during final approach.

The Spitfire comes in nicely and we come to an end with our U.S. journey.

Hopefully the following locations are a little less well known to the reader but there is little hope.

Next stop: Mexico City. An Air Tran Boeing 717-200 takes us to Mexico's capital. It took many years of flightsimming until I first visited this part of the world. Mexico is interesting because it is a high altitude airport in the middle of a city and I remember well my first approach through the clouds and the unusual behaviour of the aircraft in thin air. It is a good training spot for those who like to train for high altitude landings and apart from that the default scenery is pretty nice to look at.

Next leg: Further south in a Baron 58. Unfortunately Central America offers very few add-on-sceneries. A great pity since it is a very interesting part of the world. I land at San Jose in Costa Rica.

It is good to see some fresh green after the cold and grey winter up north.

One place which is probably more popular in the FS-world is the Panama Canal. The file library offers sceneries of the nearby airports, smaller and bigger ones.

After a refuelling stop I follow the canal and set course for the open sea. An almost northern heading takes me to Santiago de Cuba. I'll make things short this time.

Thanks to Toni Agramont and a few others my Caribbean has been upgraded with lots of beautiful freeware. I have no idea if there is any square inch left which has not been enhanced. I have never been there in real life but it has been a favorite location for island hopping since the Caribbean scenery for FS5 came out. Toni's sceneries are available for FS2002, FS2004 and some now for FSX.

Just watch and enjoy the following shots.

South again to Kingston, Jamaica. The airport is on an artificial island in a bay.

My Jamaica has been enhanced with some mesh scenery. You will find it all here at FlightSim.Com

Back north to the Bahamas. The shot was taken near Bahamas Int'l.

Have a look at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

A West Indies Airline MD-83 is waiting at a gate in San Juan, Puerto Rico. BWIA is a carrier with a remarkable fleet. Beside modern Boeing 737-800's, Airbus A321's and A340's they fly types like the Boeing 707, 727, 747-100, DC-8, DC-9, Lockheed Tristar and even the Vickers 702 Viscount. I never ever heard of such a mixed fleet before.

The French "butterfly" island Guadeloupe.

Union, a cute little place for island hoppers.

Tobago, the southern tip of our journey and home to BWIA.

The end of our journey. Where is that? Those of you who used to play on a Commodore 64 computer, do you remember the game "Pirates"? It was a battle for supremacy in the Caribbean of 1590. There was one almighty Spanish city that the little English pirate hardly ever dared to attack: Maracaibo! Here we go!

Today, we leave the guns at home and enjoy the Carribean athmosphere until day breaks for our next journey across South America.

Bastian Blinten
b.blinten@gmx.de