BillD22

With the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season approaching in mid-September a NOAA WP-3D taxis and takes off from Grantley Adams International Airport (TBPB) in Barbados to check out a tropical disturbance in the Central Caribbean. [Click on the images for a full-screen view]

Thanks, Phrog & Macro - not too bad a night - 1+12 en route from Kodiak to Anchorage.

A Reeve Aleutian Lockheed L-188 Electra gets ready for a night-time departure on the ramp at Kodiak, Alaska (PADQ). Reeve was the last airline to fly the Electra in regular scheduled passenger service. [Click on the images for full-screen views]

An awesome series Aharon! I didn't realize Buffalo had actually gotten a RW 737 - thanks for sharing that! Checked it out and found this short YouTube video about it:

Let's not forget these guys!

+P3 and KC-135

A Navy F4 "Phantom" climbs out of the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland (KNHK) trailing the F4's characteristic (and hi-viz!) brown exhaust cloud.

Frank Thanks for this very interesting and educational video. Having flown into and out of Lajes AB (LPLA) many, many times IRL it brought back a lot of great memories. Didn't know much about the WWII background of the base so learned something new here. The Azores are truly beautiful islands. Hidden gems in mid-Atlantic.

For sure. The Cirrus CAPS and Safe Return Program are safety game changers. Here are some FS2020 shots of the Cirrus SR22 and Vision Jet SF50 overhead CAPS controls. Not functional in the sim airplanes but give a good idea of the RW control layout. The SR22 has a CAPS overhead pull handle between the 2 crew seats but not the Safe Return program and push button. The Vision Jet SF50 G2 has both systems on the front overhead panel.

100% agree on needing more edit time.

Just for fun here are some shots of a RW P3 #1 engine loiter shutdown. Unfortunately, the E handles in the FSX P3 don't work but they do in the Team FS KBT L188 Electra which has a virtually identical cockpit layout. Here's the Team FS KBT L188 with working E handles. These are P3D shots but it's the same model and works the same in FSX.

Thanks, Michael. It's longer going West!

Here are a couple of quick shots of a Cirrus Vision Jet SF50 climbing out of KSFO with an unexpected encounter on the departure. Lined up for takeoff on runway 19L Taking a screenshot while airborne and turning on the departure under the left ruddervator we see an AI Alaska B737 rapidly overtaking and turning into us from a departure on 19R. Fortunately, it made a sharp right turn and climbed away. "SFO Tower, Vision Jet 5NA, uh, WT**?" Up thru the scattered cumulus into clear air on the way to FL310.

Thanks, Phrog. The model is the Team FS KBT P3C Orion for FSX. It's in the Library here:

A Lockheed P3A "Orion" makes the short flight from North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, California (KNZY) out to the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (NALF) on San Clemente Island (KNUC). Lined up for takeoff. The belly sonobuoy launch tubes on this Team FS KBT FSX model are features of the current day P3C but the white over gray mid-'60s paint scheme and the 150 series Bureau (Tail) number tell us this is an original "A" model. A truly accurate "A/B" model would also show a searchlight under the right wing outboard of the #4 engine. There's one of those floating around somewhere in the FS world that I used to have but haven't been able to relocate in my musty, dust-covered FSX files. For our flight purposes today this one is "close enough for government work.!" The #1 on the nose indicates this is the squadron CO's aircraft. Take off, gear up, and climb out over Point Loma. Turning West towards the coast the runways of NAS (now MCAS) Miramar are visible in the distance. Heading out over the Pacific San Clemente is visible on the horizon off the left nose and Santa Catalina off the right wing. En route, we do some crew engine management training by practicing shutting down, feathering, and restarting the #1 engine. This is a routine P3 fuel-saving measure on long-duration missions. Approaching KNUC with #1 restarted we enter a downwind for Runway 05. On the ground turn off the active, shut down, and park on the ramp. Welcome to San Clemente!

It could be altho I think more likely a flaw in the AI taxi program. The A330 was cleared to taxi to 19L and cross 19R. After crossing 19R it suddenly stopped as the 19L traffic approached with its tail still out on 19R and stayed there until the traffic landed, then resumed the taxi. In the meantime, Alaska had to go around.

Shots of a Connie that is! Here's just a quick one.

Thanks, Phrog. This kind of thing seems to be happening a bit more frequently IRL these days!

In these shots of FSTraffic AI, the overhanging tail of a Hawaiian A330 holding (way) short for landing traffic on KSFO Runway 19L causes an Alaska B737 landing on 19R to have to go around.

Amen to that! This post was just meant to show how it would look using FS2020 to try and recreate an old photo. That's all there is to it!! No drama. How bout we move on!?

In a Connie, this would actually be approximately the right view angle from the Flight Engineer seat. Again, keep in mind that the idea behind this shot was to compare a real Connie photo to an FS version of the same scene.

Looks that way! Good eye Phrog.

To approximate the portions of the instrument panel covered by the pilots in the vintage shot. Let's try not to take this stuff too seriously!