Where did you fly today ?

[Rockcliffe]

Nantucket to New London in the C172. It was the latest leg in my tour down the US East Coast ant turned very hairy with an ILS approach in heavy rain to KGON.

[Aptosflier]

CYYZ to KBFI in the TBM.

 

[neilends]

Had some real adrenaline moments today. I have earlier crashed two planes trying to fly from Nepal's Langtang (tiny air strip at elevation 12,557 ft) to Lukla. In between are several peaks of over 20,000 feet. A small but powerful Cap10 could not handle the altitude and spun out of control in high winds very close to Langtang. A larger but less maneuverable Cessna Grand Caravan was too difficult for me to angle correctly while landing at Lukla. So this time I picked a TBM 930 and it seemed just right.

 

This is my crazy-a** route departing Langtang (I calculated this after 3 consecutive tries remember, so feel free to steal, or better it if you can):

 

 

Lukla is an absolutely terrifying airport, when I think about the fact that real pilots routinely land there in planes larger than the TBM. Mind blowing. First, from Langtang you are descending from about 20,000 feet to land at Lukla's 9,337 feet, with mountains everywhere. Second, not only can you be too high to see the airport in its hidden corner, you can also be too low because it is perched up on top of a hill. That's exactly what happened my first attempt. You can see my two attempts here, the second of which succeeded:

 

 

Despite landing safely, I confess that I did actually taxi my plane into a building where it got stuck. Navigating that sloped village is hard. Anyway, I decided to fly to one more nearby airport since I was having such a blast in Nepal. I picked Phaplu (VNPL) only about 15 nm away, and used no external aids to navigate there--just the Beechcraft's G1000. But with live weather VNPL proved completely impossible due to clouds and visibility. I would have no chance whatsoever even with GPS and the artificial aid of MSFS's VFR feature of not smashing into a mountain.

 

On the fly I found another airport a little further away, VNLD-Lamdada, and thought I would give MSFS's ATC AI a chance at helping me. That proved to be close to useless. I could not trust ATC's altitude instructions for one thing, and anyway, they wildly fluctuated. "Please climb to 8,500. Please climb to 9,100. Please climb to 8,500." What the... ? I also do not understand the landing approach it was trying to give me. It felt like the approach it wanted to set me up with was designed for a 747. Cloud cover was still thick. When I could finally spot the runway from a distance, I told ATC to go away and gave it a try visually alone.

 

VNLD is a microscopic air strip located on a miniscule hill that is sloped up just like Lukla. I guess this is a nifty, uniquely Nepal thing. Being able to land there successfully was again an adrenaline rush, as much as you can have one from software:

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by neilends

[casarabill]

I to fly the C-172 from Vancouver B.C. on Saturday a few days ago to Friday Harbor in the USA across the border. In clouds with less then 300' ceiling and wet snow. Something you would not do in real life with a C-172. I was basically on instruments and the GPS immediately upon take off. I flew at around 2000 feet and tried to climb out of the clouds but only made it up to 3000 feet, until I could not climb any more about 10- 15 mins into the flight. Humm.. What's coating on my windscreen edges? Oh that looks like ice forming...better hit the De-Ice boots. Oh I do not have them. And I not climbing but actually was slowly going down, even in level flight and full power. We are not making Friday Harbor.

 

I am now over one of the northern San Juan islands and there is a small strip showing on the GPS. I think I do remember the runway direction, I am at 1000 and going down out of other options. A steep turn into the airport direction and then full flaps on hoping to make the field, not the trees! Out of the mist comes a clearing and we are committed. Flared and landed undamaged. Whew that was pretty good lesson on ice effects in the sim. I am impressed.

 

I did check my log book, got credited for the takeoff, but not the landing..Damm!

[neilends]

I to fly the C-172 from Vancouver B.C. on Saturday a few days ago to Friday Harbor in the USA across the border. In clouds with less then 300' ceiling and wet snow. Something you would not do in real life with a C-172. I was basically on instruments and the GPS immediately upon take off. I flew at around 2000 feet and tried to climb out of the clouds but only made it up to 3000 feet, until I could not climb any more about 10- 15 mins into the flight. Humm.. What's coating on my windscreen edges? Oh that looks like ice forming...better hit the De-Ice boots. Oh I do not have them. And I not climbing but actually was slowly going down, even in level flight and full power. We are not making Friday Harbor.

 

I am now over one of the northern San Juan islands and there is a small strip showing on the GPS. I think I do remember the runway direction, I am at 1000 and going down out of other options. A steep turn into the airport direction and then full flaps on hoping to make the field, not the trees! Out of the mist comes a clearing and we are committed. Flared and landed undamaged. Whew that was pretty good lesson on ice effects in the sim. I am impressed.

 

I did check my log book, got credited for the takeoff, but not the landing..Damm!

 

I enjoy reading these write-ups just as much as I do writing them! I had a similar experience to this when I made the mistake of going for live weather in Seward, Alaska. I gave up on my actual destination and barely landed on a nearby strip. The Cessna 172 was not having any of that at all.

[neilends]

Was flying between some amazingly accurate atolls and small islands in the Kingdom of Tonga, live weather, when I ran out of fuel. I was actually on a long stretch of 60 nm so I was doing work on a separate laptop, with my VR headset sitting on my head so I could hear audio only. To that point the scenery was great:

 

 

But while cruising at altitude 5,000 feet I heard the engine suddenly die out.

 

I know it sounds dumb but... it was a pretty cool experience, because I had no idea what to do and I knew I only had seconds to decide.

 

At 5,000 feet, since I wasn't paying attention, I had to spend a valuable 20 seconds or so getting my bearings to figure out if there was any land that was reachable by gliding. It turns out I was only 15 nm from my island destination (Fua'amotu Airport), so I had hope for a minute. That hope dwindled as I saw how quickly the plane was descending without power. I had not adjusted my flaps properly so I also lost valuable altitude for that reason.

 

Nope, I would be ditching this puppy into the ocean. Thankfully it was a clear day, and being an experienced hiker I am sure that Pilot Me would have brought a go-bag for emergencies as I was flying over water: life vest, emergency beacon, flares, etc. I hit the water pretty hard, over 70 knots, again because I did not think through how the flaps could have helped me. My crash detection setting was off so the sim may have normally killed my plane and the flight on the spot. This experience is a good reason to keep it off, because you can decide for yourself whether you may or may not have survived a given crash, and then contemplate your fate and your life choices while seeing these unpleasant sites in front of you:

 

 

[stinger2k2]

Whilst waiting for the UK update to drop I decided to splash some cash and get myself the Singapore Landmarks package from Orbyx. At under 9 UK pounds I was not disappointed with my purchase. It looks stunning. What you don't see from the image is the amount of ship traffic on show. I counted over 120 ships in the area. I really don't know how this sim copes with this amount of handcrafted scenery and still push out decent frame rates. Every time I fly this sim I am blown away. Lots to explore here and somewhere that in FSX I never visited despite having FSX for over 10 years.

 

happy flying

Stinger

[Aptosflier]

That's Bishop, Calif. to Mammoth Yosemite Airport. I flew the Cessna 172 (non-Global 1000 edition) under VFR in clear weather and mostly in a straight line after taking off to the south from Bishop and looping back to northwest while gaining altitude and getting in line with the GPS routing. As Bishop is at 4,124 ft. and Mammoth is 3,008 feet higher, I climbed most of the way, leveling off at 9,100 feet, about the mid-level of an ILS landing pattern that actually commences at 11,000 feet, according to the Mammoth airport chart I downloaded from Fltplan.com. I'd set the heading bug to 270 degrees for RWY 27 at Mammoth. I began my final descent at about seven miles out from the runway as indicated in the chart's landing graphic. There's no localizer at Mammoth. But I didn't need one flying in clear weather. With the runway in sight, the heading bug sufficed. I used flaps to slow down and continuous throttle adjustments to keep the plane on the glide path, touching down within the first quarter or so of Mammoth's 7,000 ft runway. I noticed a lot of traffic on adjacent US 395 as I was landing. I might try the same flight again, but in live weather to see the surrounding mountains full of snow--provided it's actually a clear day in the Owens Valley.

 

I capped the afternoon with some more landing practice--mostly in the 172--at Watsonville Muni, following the sim's bracketed landing pattern, which I find forces me to be more disciplined in my approaches. For something different, I also tried flying the pattern in a Beech Bonanza. I had trouble keeping the Bonanza within the brackets and at the proper speeds and then had to go around when I couldn't toggle the landing gear down. Frustrated with my inability to handle this faster, more powerful plane, I quit that flight and returned to the more sedate 172 for my final landings of the day.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Aptosflier

[djfierce]

That's Bishop, Calif. to Mammoth Yosemite Airport. I flew the Cessna 172 (non-Global 1000 edition) under VFR in clear weather and mostly in a straight line after taking off to the south from Bishop and looping back to northwest while gaining altitude and getting in line with the GPS routing. As Bishop is at 4,124 ft. and Mammoth is 3,008 feet higher, I climbed most of the way, leveling off at 9,100 feet, about the mid-level of an ILS landing pattern that actually commences at 11,000 feet, according to the Mammoth airport chart I downloaded from Fltplan.com. I'd set the heading bug to 270 degrees for RWY 27 at Mammoth. I began my final descent at about seven miles out from the runway as indicated in the chart's landing graphic. There's no localizer at Mammoth. But I didn't need one flying in clear weather. With the runway in sight, the heading bug sufficed. I used flaps to slow down and continuous throttle adjustments to keep the plane on the glide path, touching down within the first quarter or so of Mammoth's 7,000 ft runway. I noticed a lot of traffic on adjacent US 395 as I was landing. I might try the same flight again, but in live weather to see the surrounding mountains full of snow--provided it's actually a clear day in the Owens Valley.

 

 

That is one of my favorite areas. A valley with mountains on either side, Mt Whitney lurking in the background, Mono Lake and the gateway to Yosemite. We love camping at Onion Valley, way up in the mountains west of Independence.

 

As far as the weather goes in that region, it does not play. If it's not good visibility I probably avoid it until it clears. Recently I was flying with real world weather set, but switched it down to scattered so I could enjoy the scenery.

[neilends]

That's Bishop, Calif. to Mammoth Yosemite Airport. I flew the Cessna 172 (non-Global 1000 edition) under VFR in clear weather and mostly in a straight line after taking off to the south from Bishop and looping back to northwest while gaining altitude and getting in line with the GPS routing. As Bishop is at 4,124 ft. and Mammoth is 3,008 feet higher, I climbed most of the way, leveling off at 9,100 feet, about the mid-level of an ILS landing pattern that actually commences at 11,000 feet, according to the Mammoth airport chart I downloaded from Fltplan.com. I'd set the heading bug to 270 degrees for RWY 27 at Mammoth. I began my final descent at about seven miles out from the runway as indicated in the chart's landing graphic. There's no localizer at Mammoth. But I didn't need one flying in clear weather. With the runway in sight, the heading bug sufficed. I used flaps to slow down and continuous throttle adjustments to keep the plane on the glide path, touching down within the first quarter or so of Mammoth's 7,000 ft runway. I noticed a lot of traffic on adjacent US 395 as I was landing. I might try the same flight again, but in live weather to see the surrounding mountains full of snow--provided it's actually a clear day in the Owens Valley.

 

Your description inspired me to go back to the basics a bit instead of cavorting around Nepal and the Kingdom of Tonga. I attempted a night flight at what might be a rough equivalent in Arizona to Bishop-Mammoth: Sedona to Flagstaff, in a Cessna 172. Being night in live weather, I tried to use instruments only. Damn near killed me several times. The first near-death was my own fault, as I failed to climb properly and almost smashed into Sedona's red rock mountains. But at one point this is literally what ATC was doing to me as I approached elevation 7,000 feet Flagstaff:

 

Phoenix ATC: Please contact Albuquerque tower.

 

Ok. Contact.

 

Albuquerque ATC: Please contact Phoenix tower.

 

Ok. Contact.

 

Phoenix ACT: Please contact Albuquerque tower.

 

About 6 consecutive rounds of this happened. Since I was trying to stay disciplined and land on instruments, I just played along with this goofy game by the AI. Winds were strong at Flagstaff and almost blew me to the ground, but I managed to land safely. Among the things I want to study next: landing in crosswinds; RNAV navigation; VOR/DME navigation.

[Aptosflier]

I attempted a night flight at what might be a rough equivalent in Arizona to Bishop-Mammoth: Sedona to Flagstaff, in a Cessna 172. Being night in live weather, I tried to use instruments only. Damn near killed me several times.

You use VR, right? Did you "attempt" your flight in VR? And how did that feel?

[Aptosflier]

That is one of my favorite areas. A valley with mountains on either side, Mt Whitney lurking in the background, Mono Lake and the gateway to Yosemite. We love camping at Onion Valley, way up in the mountains west of Independence.

I've skied at Mammoth a couple of times. The first time was in late 1972. We'd flown out to California to visit my wife's parents in West Covina and we rented a small car (a Ford Pinto!) to travel around the state, driving up the coast to San Francisco, up to Truckee and then south on U.S. 395 with a stop at Mammoth. I was new to skiing back then and what I remember most about that visit was having to quit early because one of the bindings on my rental skis failed. We drove the rest of the way down 395 on our return to L.A. I learned a lot about the Pinto's deficiencies on this trip. The Owens Valley is indeed a beautiful area.

 

I skied at Mammoth again about 10 years later, flying there this time from Palo Alto as a passenger in a small plane. In case you missed it, I've shared my story about that experience on FlightSim.com here.

[neilends]

You use VR, right? Did you "attempt" your flight in VR? And how did that feel?

 

I did use VR, and VR's main weakness right now is definitely night flying in MSFS. (Some might say that realistically viewing the instrument panel is the greatest weakness, but you can use your mouse to improve instrument viewing right now).

 

In daylight VR's resolution is a bit degraded compared to 2D, but it's not enough to bother me. In part the exhilaration of feeling like you're in a plane and can actually look all around you compensates. But at night, the degraded resolution stands out more: the stars are an important aspect of realism in a flight sim, and the stars pretty much look silly. Viewing the ground and city lights is better and not so bad. The night sky does not look realistic at all though.

 

Surely they can fix this, given how amazing it is to use VR when flying through clouds.

[Aptosflier]

Continuing my tour of airports I've actually flown to (as a passenger), today I took the trusty 172 from Colorado's Montrose Regional Airport to Gunnison-Crested Butte. In another life, I flew to Gunnison several times via Denver to ski at Crested Butte--a great ski area and a great little town, by the way. Not wanting to invest the time that would've been required to fly from Denver, I started the flight in nearby Montrose, which also saved me the effort of climbing in the Cessna to clear the Front Range. I filed a low-altitude IFR flight plan for this trip, in clear weather. Before I could get going, however, I had multiple false starts when the sim first tried to force me to fly at night (again) and then tried to start me off in today's forebodingly local live weather. (I'd checked today's weather forecast before I launched the sim and knew it was bad.)

 

Anyway, I finally got everything right and took off. Montrose is at 5,760 ft., and the Cessna took its sweet time climbing to my assigned cruising altitude of 11,000 ft. (Gunnison's airport is at 7,680 ft.; the ski resort's base elevation is around 9,000, and it tops out at around 11,000 ft, for some great views and hellacious runs.) Taking off to the south from Montrose, I headed almost due east to Gunnison. Shortly after departing Montrose, ATC directed me to fly on a certain heading to a waypoint. I dutifully followed their directions and soon realized I was not going the right way. I pulled up the VFR map to confirm this, and got myself back on track with the flight plan I'd filed in the first place. (ATC did something like this to me the other day when I was flying from Watsonville to San Jose in clouds and entirely dependent on my instruments; why?) Anyway, I got back on course to Gunnison or KGUC. (I've always been struck by that abbreviation and how it funny it sounds.)

 

I had studied the Gunnison airport chart prior to takeoff and noted that VOR beacon southeast of the airport named Blue Mesa (HBU, 114.90) and dialed its frequency into my NAV radio figuring I would head toward that. Unfortunately, in the decades since I last MS flight simmed, I'd forgotten how to navigate to/from a VOR beacon. So just dialing in the VOR frequency was no help to me at all. I arrived at Gunnison anyway, lined up with the runway, but way too high, and had to go around several times. On the last go around, I noted a highway below (Highway 50) running parallel to the airport. Using the highway as a reference, I banked left and got myself lined up with the runway again. Lined up with the runway localizer/ILS, and applying varying combinations of power, flaps, and trim to slow the Cessna and shed altitude, I landed pretty smoothly without eating up an inordinate amount of KGUC's 9,400 ft RWY 6. Total flight time, 42 engrossing minutes. Tomorrow, I plan to go back and fly the HBU VOR radial 261 to intersect Gunnison's ILS and nail the landing. I been studying.

[neilends]

Love your descriptions, Aptosflier.

 

I went back to Nepal to complete some unfinished business there. Days ago I managed to fly a TBM 930 from Kathmandu to the tiny, high-elevation air strip at Langtang (after one death crash). From there, I made it (after two more death crashes, or maybe one I would have survived as it was on the landing runway) to Lukla. Once in Lukla, after colliding with a building while taxiing due to the weird slope of the airport, I landed in another tiny air strip called Lamidada (VNLD).

 

I know most of you have know idea where these places are off the top of your head, but do me a favor and take off one day from Lamidada. It is the most spectacular air strip I have seen in the sim. It would be a dream come true for me to actually fly there one day. But of course, much of Nepal is exactly like Lamidada. There seem to be variations of Lamidada everywhere I fly in Nepal. As for Lamidada, it is sloped at an angle and perched at the very tiny top of a mountain village. Even if you had a larger plane, you could simply roll it off the mountain and instantly drop a few thousand feet (I figure) to take off with a short runway.

 

That brings me to today, when I decided to complete a difficult journey back to Kathmandu using only the Cessna 172 and some well-researched map planning. From Langtang to Lukla you need to reach elevations of almost 25,000 feet. But in the southern regions of Nepal, it is possible to chart a trip at an altitude as low as 6,500 feet for most of it, by following river valleys. Although I set out doing this, the live weather was nice and the 172 had no trouble climbing to 12,000 feet, so that shortened the winding path I had originally plotted. I first landed at a village air strip called Ramechhap (VNRC). This is a paved, small airport right on the bank of a mountain river. I crashed the first time arriving there because I could not visually locate it, and flew into a canyon with insufficient turn-around distance. The second time was no trouble, other than having to descend from about 12,000 feet to this river airport at elevation 1,620 feet, and then climb up again to 12,000 feet for the final leg to Kathmandu.

 

Ramechhap to Kathmandu was uneventful though very windy. I had to fly in a pattern when taking off from Ramechhap in order to gain enough altitude to make it over a range of mountains. Once I did, it was smooth sailing to Kathmandu, which was actually quite busy with other MSFS users. I am still being lazy about pattern landings, having gotten into the habit of setting waypoints that line me up without bothering to do patterns. I need to break out of this bad habit if I am interested in real aviation, I know. In my defense, my rear was getting tired from sitting in my office chair and my wife is going to bed and I don't want her to feel like a sim-widow. So no patterns tonight anyway.

[neilends]

Just thought I'd add this screenshot from Nepal. Full strength of MSFS's amazing graphics on display. And remember I have to reduce resolution and width for the sake of saving space for the forum!

 

[tiger1962]

Proof positive that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is what MSFS is all about, it's not just scenery or even flying a plane - it's the EXPERIENCE, that moment in time - what used to be advertised as "that Kodak moment".

[Aptosflier]

In brief, following up on my IFR flight in clear weather yesterday, and after checking the real-life weather at Montrose and Gunnison this morning, I flew VFR, in live weather, "VOR to VOR," from Montrose to Gunnison. Well, it was really just to one VOR southeast of Gunnison. I wanted to reprise this trip to (1) use the OBS gauge to navigate to a radial intersecting with the Gunnison ILS localizer/glidescope, and (2) see the snow on the mountains.

 

Prior to clicking on "fly," (and using my Logitech flight radio panel), I set my NAV1 and NAV2 radios to the Gunnison ILS and Blue Mesa (HBU) VOR frequencies, respectively. Once in the cockpit, I used my mouse to set the bug on the OBS dial as closely as I could to HBU's 261 degree radial. Those preliminaries out of the way, I took off into a sky that was clear except for a definite lid of barely broken clouds at an undetermined altitude from ground level. As it turned out, the ceiling was comfortably above my 12,200 ft cruising altitude. I had a most excellent Zen-like adventure following my instruments to the VOR radial and then to Gunnison's ILS beacon. And there was plenty of snow enroute.

When the cross-hatch lines on the ILS gauge began moving, I banked left from the radial to intersect the runway centerline, as indicated by the vertical line on the gauge. At this point I was below the glideslope. I held my altitude until the two lines intersected and reduced power to start a 500 ft/min descent, using flaps to slow the plane and tweaking the power and trim to stay on the glideslope. I still have my experience settings set for assisted landings, so when I commenced my final approach the red brackets showed up telling me I was going too fast. With more throttle and trim adjustments, I turned the brackets blue, floating serenely down to RWY 6 at Gunnison. I had to apply a bit of rudder to stay centered over the runway in the last few seconds. (Physical rudder pedals a big help there.) I didn't flare, just let the Cessna settle onto the tarmac like the flightsim pro I would like to be someday.

 

It wasn't until I had parked the plane and cut the engine that I realized I'd taken the wrong Cessna! I'd meant to fly this route again in the 172, as I had yesterday. However, I'd finished yesterday's session flying (and forcing) a pattern-landing at Watsonville in a Beech Baron. I clicked on the first over-wing Cessna I saw when I changed planes--the 152. No wonder the instrument panel looked so different!

 

To make up for that goof, I left the 152 behind at Gunnison and went to LAX, where I took off in the 172 without a flight plan. I wanted another look at the 172's cockpit to confirm the presence of an OBS dial. (It's there.) And since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to take a look at Marina del Rey, where we lived for several years in the mid- to late-90s, in a big low-rise apartment complex--Mariner's Village--adjacent to the channel. The marina didn't look right to me. The real marina is very crowded (see Google Earth); the boat slips in the sim are way too far apart. As for Mariner's Village, it looks like Asobo missed it entirely. I'll have to go back sometime and circle lower and slower in the 152 for a more conclusive look. As it was coming up on lunchtime by now, I had to put down somewhere. (I don't like to leave a plane hanging.) So I headed a bit northeasterly to Santa Monica, where I flew a truncated pattern and cowboyed a landing in the 172 without consulting any instruments or so much as a by-your-leave from ATC. (Woo! Woo!)

[plainsman]

EBLG to EINN

EIAB to EIKN

[terrylawdinn]

Decided to go have a look at the UK Lake District - it's only about a 20m flight from my home airport - to see how well the UK Update was treating it. Initially had to turn back as the autopilot was playing silly games and for some reason we were being thrown about all over the place.

 

Started again, this time with live weather turned off and selecting a nice sunny day. Except I forgot to remove the mappundi spikes removal mod and the Lake District was hilarious - every body of water now at 2000ft asl! Back to Newcastle, have lunch then reset it.

 

 

This time a lovely flight in the afternoon winter sun. The Lake District was always pretty good before the update but now is stunning. Down to Blackpool for a cuppa then return to Newcastle, checking out the scenery in Yorkshire on the way. To my mind it has all been improved so well done Asobo/MS - looking forward to having a look at some of the other improvements.

 

[neilends]

Decided to go have a look at the UK Lake District - it's only about a 20m flight from my home airport - Started again, this time with live weather turned off and selecting a nice sunny day. Except I forgot to remove the mappundi spikes removal mod and the Lake District was hilarious - every body of water now at 2000ft asl! Back to Newcastle, have lunch then reset it.

 

Are you in Newcastle Upon Tyne? My parents attended university there, though I've never been. I intend to fly around out there some time on MSFS. My parents were there in the mid 1960s so I don't know if my mom would recognize anything from a flight video I would send her, but I might try anyway.

[pops52]

Well I set out on a 3.5 hour flight from Phoenix to Denver but CDT after 2.5 hours in flight. :(

[sfojimbo]

Well I set out on a 3.5 hour flight from Phoenix to Denver but CDT after 2.5 hours in flight. :(

 

Why do you overclock your CPU?

My CPU usage seldom gets above 25%, it seems to me that your CPU, at factory setting, would have no trouble keeping up with MSFS.

[kevinfolsom]

I have the same processor O\C to the same speed and I don't have any problems. The sim runs fine.

[sfojimbo]

I have the same processor O\C to the same speed and I don't have any problems. The sim runs fine.

So you're saying that all i7 9700s will run fine at 4.7 gigs?

Then why didn't Intel just clock them all that way?

 

BTW do you know what temperature yours is running at?

His?