The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[MAD1]

Re the various comments about Adelaide. For foreigners, you wouldn't know. As was mentioned in The Chacapoya Chronicle, the 'friendly' traditional rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney, there is also common perceptions/mis-perceptions about the other capitals. Some of these are historic and don't apply today, 2024, in this third decade of the 21st century, but people still like to joke about them and rib people from those cities.

Canberra. The national captial. Boring, a public-servant's town. But it does have a dark underbelly, a bit risque after dark (understandable, all those politicians away from home and wives and family, and all those up-and-coming 'bright young things' making a professional career for themselves. Of course, never spoken about 'what happens in Canberra stays in Canberra'! I went to uni there.

Adelaide. A sleepy, dull place is its reputation (from last century). A bit weird, known as the 'city of churches'. A nice town plan layout, rectalinear grid, unlike tha shamozzle of Sydney. This is JSMR's reference to it, he's being disparaging. Seems like he had a stint there, perhaps forced by work, or family, or some other reason. I've visited and personally liked the place.

Brisbane. A big country town feel. Yes, it does have that friendly, breezy feel. My nearest capital (across the border). I've lived there twice for years at a time. I like it. Nothing sleepy about it nowadays. Lovely sub-tropical climate, you got the magnificent Moreton Bay at the doorstep (mustn't say anymore, this post is stealing from that other guy, the Aussie Correspondent, and his newspaper posts in the future.)

Perth. The brash new kid in the west. Seems like another country, far away from the majority of the population on the east coast. Got rich on mining money, perhaps similar to Houston in that respect.

Darwin. The capital of the Top End (Northern Territory, NT). I've lived there too. It's either hot, or hot and wet. Full-blown tropical climate. Also a bit of a weird place, like that Far North QLD of Cape York, a place for weirdos who can't fit into the southern states and cities to escape to. I like it. Perhaps a bit of a 'larrikan' (i.e. rebel) place.

Hobart. Tasmania and Hobart are often forgotten about by some cartographers, leaving this island off the map. A lovely city. A bit cold for me, being a sub-tropical guy.

[PhrogPhlyer]

On 1/22/2024 at 2:26 PM, defaid said:

Found a pair of dark glasses in the nav's door pocket.

These will help you look roguish when flying at night too!

[MAD1]

38 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I use ATC, but but sparingly. ...

Thanks PhrogPhlyer for the info. Yes, I understand and can appreciate, when simming the large, commercial airliners, and instrument flying, that ATC is more relevant. For GA VFR, apart from interacting with a major airport that actually DOES have RW ATC, e.g. going to, leaving or overflying through that airspace, then ATC isn't relevant.

 

And I'm with you and others in this forum, who can't be bothered with the hassle of being connected to the Internet when trying to enjoy a sim session. Without interacting with the Internet, it's a simple joy, everything I need is contained within my software, just fire up the sim, have a fly. Job done!

 

Also, that's why I wouldn't bother with the latest FS2022 (is that it?), with the need for a high-end PC, fast internet, tolerating the gazillion updates. I don't need the realism of the scenery eye-candy, it's the accuracy and realism of the flight model I'm interested in. So the older software is the way to go for this old guy (including that it cost me nothing, zero dollars!).

[PhrogPhlyer]

On 2/2/2024 at 7:28 PM, Melo965 said:

Must be a best seller!

[PhrogPhlyer]

9 minutes ago, MAD1 said:

it's the accuracy and realism of the flight model I'm interested in. So the older software is the way to go for this old guy (including that it cost me nothing, zero dollars!).

Hence, we have events such as this gaggle.

I took up doing repaints, scenery, and articles as a way to share some of my experience and hopefully help perpetuate the value of the legacy sim versions.

[PhrogPhlyer]

24 minutes ago, MAD1 said:

Perth. The brash new kid in the west. Seems like another country, far away from the majority of the population on the east coast.

Only one of these that I , and it was out of this world.

[jgf]

24 minutes ago, MAD1 said:

For GA VFR, apart from interacting with a major airport that actually DOES have RW ATC, e.g. going to, leaving or overflying through that airspace, then ATC isn't relevant.

 

An endless stream of "aircraft, 5000ft at 10 o'clock, report them in sight";  or being handed off every ten seconds, often between the same two or three frequencies (at least I found a mod that cured that).

[ViperPilot2]

4 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Thanks PhrogPhlyer for the info. Yes, I understand and can appreciate, when simming the large, commercial airliners, and instrument flying, that ATC is more relevant. For GA VFR, apart from interacting with a major airport that actually DOES have RW ATC, e.g. going to, leaving or overflying through that airspace, then ATC isn't relevant.

 

And I'm with you and others in this forum, who can't be bothered with the hassle of being connected to the Internet when trying to enjoy a sim session. Without interacting with the Internet, it's a simple joy, everything I need is contained within my software, just fire up the sim, have a fly. Job done!

 

Also, that's why I wouldn't bother with the latest FS2022 (is that it?), with the need for a high-end PC, fast internet, tolerating the gazillion updates. I don't need the realism of the scenery eye-candy, it's the accuracy and realism of the flight model I'm interested in. So the older software is the way to go for this old guy (including that it cost me nothing, zero dollars!).

 

ATC in FS has always tried to steer me towards Runways unfavorable to land on because of Wind Direction. I wanted to try VATSIM, but was too scared to give it a go because of the proper Nomenclature. So, I try to follow the published SIDS and STARS offline on my own; the operative word being 'try'.

 

When I had a tower rig and hard wired Internet, I occasionally tried MP flying with a couple guys at DC-3 Airways because we all flew the same airplane. I thought of trying the old Flight Sim RTW Race with all of the big Sites participating, but it really felt intimidating.

 

MAD1 You're at a point flying FS2002 where I first started out over a Decade ago. I thought it was all I needed until there were airplanes I wanted to add that weren't compatible with FS2002... only FS9. So, when my Tower went kaput and I moved to a Laptop, I went with FS9. I haven't looked back since, except for Scenery and Wx Effects.

[jgf]

2 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

ATC in FS has always tried to steer me towards Runways unfavorable

 

Lol, a major complaint for me is how, when your course has you approaching almost perfectly lined up with a 10k ft runway with full ILS and you radio for landing clearance, they will invariably vector you to the most inconvenient runway from your current heading, which is always shorter and has no ILS.  And I've yet to discover why one of your responses is to request a different runway, when you never get an answer.

[Bossspecops]

7 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Question: do any of you participate in live joint events? Do you do stuff in VATSIM? I presume, as I'm the only person using old FS2002 that nobody would know if there is any group in the world that I could join using my FS2002 software, but does anyone know if there is any group/s that is still using FS2002 and using it's built-in comms software, maybe via other software, it's possible to join a live flying group?
(I'm aware of a fairly modern one, has an Aussie chapter, I joined it, seemed to be mainly young people, but it wasn't for me, can't remember its name.)

 

 

Back in that same period I was with a Virtual Airline, Albion Airways, (Still flying as you can see from the insignia on my Sealand ) and we flew our timetabled flights and more obscure 'operations' under the aegis of VATSIM's competitors in the field, IVAO. We tried VATSIM but they wouldn't recognise non-real airfields (We'd invented our own and made the scenery for it....) and almost went ballistic over some of our planned ops, but IVAO were much more flexible, and at one stage oversaw an on-line flight rally into our invented airfield, and we had 20-30 non-Albion flyers arrive. Great fun!

 

As far as I know IVAO is still running (I still get news of their planned events anyway) and they're worldwide so they may be worth a look see. 

[Bossspecops]

I'm not sure if I can do an 'in flight over the ocean' pic of the Sealand without the aid of my joystick, but I'll have a go later today.

[defaid]

11 hours ago, MAD1 said:

How many Gagglers have/are used/using their sims inbuilt ATC? How have you found it, given you're foreigners and its Australian ATC?

 

I only use FS9's inbuilt ATC on rare occasions, and never for IFR flights. I dislike the voice actors' voices -- not their accents but the pitch and timbre. I'll sometimes use them for awareness in VFR flights--- weather, clearance, flight following et c. For IFR the inbuilt is rubbish for anything smaller than a commercial liner and I don't fly them. Vectors to final can put the player up to 70 lateral nm from the destination which, in a small plane on a short flight is absurd.

 

FS9's choice of runway seems to be based on a priority list that starts with runway number, then wind, ILS, pavement, runway length, number of taxi links between runway and parking, and for all I know pattern of tea leaves in the bottom of the coder's gran's cup. MS could have applied better logic to the priority. I think they start with the lowest available runway designator and then check wind direction. You can end up with an 89° crosswind landing while an alternative straight-in approach into a 0° headwind is ignored.

 

If I want to fly an IFR plan, I use Radar Contact. It's a lot more flexible where arrivals and departures are concerned and has a variety of voices. OTOH, while the player can choose a voice actor for a particular function, the voices are not suited to geographical region being mainly US, UK, ZA and DE.

 

It also requires maximum 1× or 2× sim rate so that there's time for the player to respond but it allows me to hand the plane and the comms to a copilot, which is really useful on long cruises with the low simrate.

 

It does allow short turns onto final (a blessing for GA): "Tower, Piper tango romeo golf, right downwind. I'll take any short-cuts you can offer" and full pilot discretion when requested but is also bloody frustrating at times. I had what's best described as hellish fun a couple of months ago when trying to declare an emergency: see the 'Arrival and Approach' part of this post:

 

 

When you ask about how foreigners get on with Aus ATC, do you mean the (lack of) accents? Radio telephony and ATC phraseology are standardised globally: the same phrases and structure are used everywhere although there are still differences: the USA tends to omit leading zeroes, English is not required for VFR... I recall hearing Kennedy Steve have a little dig by stressing a leading zero in a runway name in response to a BA transmission.

 

Any old flyers from the States remember the complaints when "position and hold" became "line up and wait"?

 

Still, my simming is mostly just play and using any ATC is always a positive choice.

 

D
 

[ScottishMike]

Hope this is ok for your montage:

[Bossspecops]

After a bit of fiddling with FSTramp and the 'slew' control I managed to come up with this, any good?

 

 

It was darn frustrating NOT being able to fly it to that particular piece of airspace, but that's life I guess. 

[defaid]

10 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Also, that's why I wouldn't bother with the latest FS2022 (is that it?), with the need for a high-end PC, fast internet, tolerating the gazillion updates. I don't need the realism of the scenery eye-candy, it's the accuracy and realism of the flight model I'm interested in. So the older software is the way to go for this old guy (including that it cost me nothing, zero dollars!).

 

Fully agree with this. 

 

Not having a dedicated connection to the rest of the world, I've never done multiplayer. That also has a direct bearing on newer sims...

 

I'd love to try 2020, with hardware to do justice to it. Eye candy might also be described as visual realism but the mandatory huge updates and several user interface issues are putting me off. I got burned by P3d some years ago, adding to my disinclination and, as you've said, what I have works exceptionally well.

 

That Steam also demands a proper internet connection is pushing me towards broadband. By the time I cave in (another five years and a new PC?), 2020 may be stable and I might give it a go but, as with the "eye candy" thing, asking questions and airing my concerns are likely to be perceived as trolling. It adds a lot of difficulty to obtaining info that would help with the decision.

 

Whatever, with FS9 doing so well, it's not a priority.

[taoftedal]

18 hours ago, defaid said:

One of these do?

 

LOL defaid ... and I thought I couldn't follow directions (not that my screens are going to win any awards) ... but just think of the example you're setting for JMSR!

[TomPenDragon]

Responding to MAD1's questions from yesterday:

 

Re: ATC, I fly GA and Warbirds, rarely anything larger than a Citation X or a Howard 500.  ATC in FS9 seems to use a form of AI that I call, "Absolute Idiocy."  At least I'm not the only guy in my simworld who doesn't know what he's doing.  I used to use the ATIS to check the winds and the FS active, but I found that, as my simworld became built-up, it would cause CTD's (always on arrival).  Now, I tune the tower frequency, listen for the active, and try not to cut anyone off in the pattern.

 

Re: Joint flying, it's a lot of fun, but you've got to be careful of ashes in the keyboard and burning holes in the screen - I prefer a bong.

 

Re: Flying with other people online, I've never really been interested in it.  Most of the time I've had FS9, I haven't had an internet connection to support it anyway.  But then, I don't do social media, either.  I once tried signing up for an antisocial media platform (that Facebook-Twitter mashup, "TwitFace"), but they wouldn't have me.

[taoftedal]

On 2/2/2024 at 10:06 PM, jgf said:

FS2004 scenery with FS2002 airplane, don't snicker ...

 

What?  I'd kill for some of your screens jgf ... mine tend to set a new bar for the lowest common denominator ... 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Just now, taoftedal said:

It's a plain plane!

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

It was darn frustrating NOT being able to fly it to that particular piece of airspace, but that's life I guess.

Your frustration is noted and appreciated!

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, ScottishMike said:

Hope this is ok for your montage:

Absolutely!

[taoftedal]

On 2/3/2024 at 11:52 AM, TomPenDragon said:

... another few days of eating ... would put his Twinkie over maximum take-off weight ...

 

So that's why I had such a hard time maintaining altitude ... 

[JSMR]

Taking a screenie now. Sorry getting there. 
 

I was busy researching fun things to do in Adelaide. Nothing came up.

[JSMR]

Is this ok? I use limited visibility. 

 

 

Or..

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

29 minutes ago, JSMR said:

Is this ok?

Should work, thx.