MAD1

Hi Joop, thanks for the update including your intended legs. Yes, my numerous comments are just my musings (totally all in my imagination), wondering about all the issues involved in doing such a flight as yours in real life. That's the great thing about the sim, one can set up any scenario and actually fly it. My wife and I flew on an A380 from Sydney to Singapore in Dec 2018, landing in early evening, interesting views out the window seat of the islands on the south-eastern approach. Similarly, we came home in Jan 2019 on a night departure from Singapore to Sydney. Also, spent time in India, and enjoyed a nice day flight of about 5 hrs Mumbai to Singapore on Singapore Airlines in Jan 2019, interesting to sight ships in the sea and islands, including the Malayasian coast on approach to Singapore. I don't enjoy long flights, so the Syd-Sing of over 8 hrs is too much in the tight economy seats. Next time, will be Darwin - Singapore, only 4+ hrs. 4 - 5 hrs max is my comfort zone. My first trip overseas was in 1980 as a 25 yr old, on a QANTAS 747 Darwin to Singapore day flight (on way to Athens), window seat of course, good views, and tracked my progress on a map. As I was a recent glider pilot, asked if I could visit the cockpit, they let me, whilst we were over Indonesia. Had a nice 10 min in cockpit, chatting to captain and copilot. Those were the days! Not possible anymore.

Hi all, daspinall and I 'made up' in a private message between us. All good! Back to Joop's trip. Very interesting. Had to look up in Google Maps the Marshall Islands, found Amata Kabua International Airport. Is interesting to second-guess where Joop will go, will take some days to do it all across Indonesia into the Pacific. His posts, answers my question re weather, and the videos are interesting re the ATC: 09-23-2022, 01:13 AM #1 'Stage 00 - Travel preparation. “Flying around the World”, and my rules of the game. ... I do assume to fly in the real weather, so with local weather and wind. ... Whenever possible, the ATC, Air Traffic Control, is activated and the orders are followed.' #3 'Sumatra North - Java Jakarta - Celebes south - Moluccas - West Papua - New Guinea - Marshall Islands and Amaranth Kabua'. My snip from #1 route plan: 1 Sumatra North: WITT Banda Aceh International Airport "Sultan Iskandarmuda". #29 video 10 (8m54s). (Oops, video at 7m35s, landing, ATC 'World Travel 12, you were not cleared to land'!) 2 Sumatra: Medan? 3 Sumatra: Padang? 4 Java: Jakarta 5 South Kalimantan (Borneo): ? 6 Sulawesi (Celebes): ? 7 Maluku Islands (Moluccas): Ambon Detour Ambon-Bamaga. 8 Irian Jaya (Papua): Nabiri? 9 New Guinea: Madang? 10 Bougainville Island?: Buka Town? 11 Solomon Islands?: Honiara? 12 Marshall Islands: Amata Kabua Without making a project 'bigger than Ben Hur', is interesting to ponder adding in the realism of getting international travel permits, customs and immigration clearances etc. Some airports are restricted e.g. they are joint military fields etc. Of course the 'International' ones are open. Also, to ponder alternate airports if a problem and needing to divert, also maintenance available at airports if the Learjet needs anything repaired.

Apologies daspinall if you took offence at my suggestion, it wasn't meant as a criticism, just thought that your idea of the Earhart trip would be a very good thread that'd be interesting to follow by FlightSim members, I would for one, and would be interested to see how the trip planning might unfold over time. Sorry. (PS: I'll stop posting too much stuff e.g. in this thread, just got a bit over excited I suppose, and being on holiday too much time on my hands, so will let Joop have the floor in this his thread.)

Aah, Ambon to Bamaga, about 1780 km, 960 nm. I just looked at your original route, and see that you're heading across the north of Indonesia 'Sumatra North - Java Jakarta - Celebes south - Moluccas - West Papua - New Guinea - Marshall Islands'. And instead of West Irian / northern Papua-NewGuinea, down to Bamaga. Do you do real-life planning, with alternative/emergency strips planned in case of having to divert due to engine trouble or bad weather? Pretty remote territory you're heading into, if you do do alternate planning, some of the strips I would have thought might be a problem for the Learjet. Bamaga, tropical, so hot and dry or hot and wet. You're in the early Wet season (Nov-Apr). You might find interesting the two flags: Aboriginal - black, red, yellow symbolising the red earth, the yellow sun and the black for the people; Torres Strait Islanders - green for the islands, blue for the sea, and a traditional headdress. Joop, post the day and time you expect to land at Bamaga, and I'll take a flight up there to welcome you with that beer! I'll drive to Brisbane (2.25hr), take a commercial flight to Cairns (2hr), then another to Bamaga (2hr) via either Rex or Skytrans (Dash8 or Cessna Caravan). Airport interesting 'Airport History. Bamaga Airport was created late 1942, in WWII as a substitute base for bomber planes, replacing the Horn Island Airport which was receiving heavy Japanese fire and rapidly deteriorating due to flooding. Initially known to the Americans as 'Red Island Point', and as 'Jacky Jacky' to the Australians, it was later renamed to 'Higgins Field', in honour of Flight Lieutenant Brian Hartley Higgins 400620, RAAF, killed in air operations, May 1943. There are two aircraft wrecks located near the airport, a Beaufort A9-190 Bomber lies North of the runway and a Douglas DC-3, VH-CXD now preserved as a war memorial can be found 3km North-West.' By the way, I can spend all this time on this stuff because I'm on annual leave currently, normally am too busy.

Hi Joop. Are you including either built-in ('canned') or real-time weather in your sim? Interesting to consider it. Of course, in the Learjet you fly way above the soup, however as not all airports in your flight plan have ILS e.g. Bamaga, departing and more critically landing could be a challenge. You might have to wait a few days for a particular leg to be VFR conditions at your destination airport at least. Here is the current satellite imagery of cloud (via our Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the Japan Meteorological Agency satellite Himawari 8) http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/satellite. http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/satellite/?tz=AEST&unit=p23&domain=15&view=06&satSubmit=Refresh+View 'IDY28000 Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology Bureau National Operations Centre Satellite Notes for 1800UTC Chart Issued at 9:14 am EDT Thursday on 01 December 2022 ... Another trough lies off the Top End coast and connects to a low moving east over the western coast of Cape York Peninsula ... Showers and thunderstorms can also be seen over the Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York Peninsula including the Torres Strait ...'.

Thanks daspinall for the info. Interesting that the radio direction finding equipment wasn't working. Perhaps an accident, perhaps not (many good things e.g. discoveries, and bad things e.g. tragic events, happen via an accidental alignment of random events). Suggest it'd be good for you to start your own thread re the Amelia circumnavigation attempt (so as not to steal Joop's thunder in this thread). Doesn't matter if you don't get to do the flight for a year etc., am sure like me, many simmers worldwide would find your flight planning interesting to follow, plus the related geographical and historical tidbits.

The island is US territory, and much US activity in the 1930s and WW2.

Wow Joop, over to the Aussie continent (contrary to what some people claim, Aus IS the largest island in the world as well as being a continent), to Bamaga, Cape York, Queensland. IATA: ABM, ICAO: YNPE. I'll have to clean up the place to welcome you, and (in my imagination) get to Bamaga to welcome you on landing with a beer and a tour around the local area! Here is the local info https://www.nparc.qld.gov.au/services/airport and by the way, I work (from home) in a Queensland government department, in geographic data management (GIS) for water management. So, your original route map will need updating. Also, daspinall, the Amelia flight would be very interesting to follow. I recall she disappeared over the Pacific, is that right? Yes, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart : 'During an attempt at becoming the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop before Howland Island and one of their final legs of the flight. She presumably died in the Pacific during the circumnavigation'. Just read the local council blurb. Interesting, especially the WW2 history and the two wrecks - Beaufort and DC3. Wikipedia has the airport listed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Peninsula_Airport and Cape York IS a very remote area, and that area is has a very high indigenous population. I haven't been to Cape York (been to Cairns and Atherton Tableland, at the southern end, but would like to go someday). In the Wet season (monsoon) in summer, huge rainfalls occur and many places get cut off for months. Now, serendipitty, just reading the Wikipedia article re Howland Island, much content relevant to airmen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howland_Island. I didn't know anything about the island or neighbouring islands. There are so many stories, unknown, about islands in the Pacific, and the WW2 and subsequent history is unknown to most folks. Fascinating!!! And this is our 'near north'!

Good luck Joop with your fuel planning. And if you get it wrong, you'll be enjoying a nice swim in the Pacific Ocean!

In recent years it's never been better to be an 'armchair tourist', whereby with e.g. Google Earth and Maps, and Streetview, plus Wikipedia, one can wander the globe, almost as good as doing it for real (however nothing replaces actually being there). Indeed, it's great for nostalgia, revisiting places one has actually been to. I also do the same as CRJ_simpilot and enjoy Streetview to explore. Putting all that into your FS experience provides a rich environment, only needs a little imagination to pretend you flew into an airport, with a few circuits before landing (or as Joop does, jump into another aircraft to get an overview of the place), then hire a car and went into town to see the sites.

Hi chris34, somehow I missed your first two posts 4-5-22, 8-3-22, or vaguely remember the posts, however I don't recall looking at your YouTube. Just watched your 'Love letter to Flight Simulator 2004'. Beautifully done sir, lovely music and your dulcit voice commentary, and I love the gentle pace of the video. Very professional video work, Hollywood quality. Will now watch the 747 video on this lovely sunny late spring morning here in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. You have a new fan! You've captured the essence of the joy, fraternity and pure altruism that is the flight sim community.

Hi Joop, glad you're back, thought I might have invaded your adventure too much and you decided to stop communicating. Of course, European summer holiday season explains you're absence. Haven't read in detail your last two posts yet or watched the videos, will enjoy them. Thanks for the info re your flight planning, interesting. Enjoy your eastward journey towards my part of the world.

'Don't change nuthin'! As others have said, call it whatever you want on your own home installation. In the forums, this flightsim.com, and elsewhere, there is enough alternative naming already to cause confusion, especially to newbies. The best and preferred nominal naming is 'FS' FSyyyy for the official year of the product (even though annoyingly Microsoft released each of them the year before!) hence we all understand the naming convention: FS98 (for 1998), FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 (aka FS9), FSX (for the tenth iteration, i.e. FS10, or 2010?), FS2020, ... . The alternative of FS9 etc. (for the 9th iteration of the FS lineage?) we also understand. Whatever any individual wants to use as an alias is their business.

Interesting that this thread was started 13 Nov 2017, here is post number 1. Now, 5 years later, it's still occassionally picked up. Moto: 'FS2002 lives!'. Re Rod Machado, see https://rodmachado.com

Hi Joop, have watched Stage 2 and now just watching this Monday morning here your Stage 3 Rome to Athens https://youtu.be/YuCw9vu1LYo. As I've never used any flight planning in my FS2002, but have wanted to, am interested in your flight planning. What is your strategy/logic? Is it basically the simplest direct route, or do you let FS2004 guide you? Does the sim recommend a route e.g. with AI enabled, are there smarts built into the sim that help you plan your flight? Am interested to follow the route using Google Maps and plot those waypoints, then fly via Google Maps the route (given that all my computers went under water in the catastropic flood here Feb 28 this year, but I do have the original FS2002, and FS2000, boxed sims (didn't go under water, the plastic box I store them in floated!) including original CDs so can re-install FS2002 when I get time to do so). One thing I like about your project, it seems simple and 'off the shelf' software, just the sim and the built-in functionality in it. Hence any of us with only the standard sim can do the same. Shows that it's indeed possible to have both fun and a fairly realistic flying experience with an old sim (that runs on older, cheaper hardware), without going out and trying to find the newest gadgets. This is my world, my trusty FS2002, so much built-in functionality. Finally, your landings are very smooth, looks like you're on automatic, not manually flying the final few seconds before the flare and wheel-touch. Is that so? Does the Learjet have that functionality, flying e.g. an ILS all the way to touchdown? Cheers, your 'armchair co-pilot'. MAD1.

Just watched the first video Stage 1 entirely. Very good, nicely done video.

Very interesting is your commentary - I like the comments about the experience on each leg, both visually and with the actual flying. Having done some of that route - the long haul Australia to London, Australia to LA etc. a few times in my life as a passenger in e.g. a 747, it brings back memories of some views out the window. Keep posting your progress as you do each leg please, as I and possibly some other people are keeping you company as 'armchair tourists' or in this case 'armchair flyers'. I just had a quick look at your first YouTube video (didn't watch all of it, only a few snippets), very nice, well done. So I can and will definitely be sitting in the copilot's seat and fly the world with you! (Especially given that all my PCs and FS2002 is not working these days, having been flooded to the roof in my house in Feb 2020, so being able to be in the cockpit and be a passenger is very good, including the sound. Just like being there - in the sim that is!)

Will be interesting to watch your progress along the route. Being in Australia, am interested in the airports you've selected near me, I see on your route map that it's across Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, then I think it looks like New Caledonia, the islands across the Pacific. Without checking the atlas, I think it's Fiji, ?, Hawaii, LA. Could you provide a list in this chat of those airports please. Someday I'd like to do a similar around-the-world flight. But that'll have to wait until retirement I think. Good luck with the trip.

There is a vast library of scenery available, some development by commercial scenery businesses and some developed by 'amateurs', all of which was built with different types of software and techniques. Give us some more info about what you are interested in. Also, to clarify, this forum is for the very old Flight Simulater 2002 version (the year 2002) not to be confused with the newest variant 'Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020' which many people refer to as FS2020 and which has it's own forum in FlightSim.com.

I have limited time to devote to my 'hobby', have looked at a couple of his videos, and yes indeed, they are excellent. There is so much info out there re flight instruction, it can all be a bit overwhelming. But, I suppose that just indicates the passion of such a vast international fraternity, which is a good thing. Thanks lnuss for reminding us of those videos.

Wow NMLW (poster 6), 18,183 posts! I agree with ViperPilot2 (poster 3) 'it'll run on just about any old computer out there ...What better way to introduce someone new to FlightSim? For us old gummers on a budget, FS9 is an ideal platform, with decades worth of content to draw from.'. Good design and a good product will last. The fact it has endured in the sim community (with many sharp critics), if it continues to be heralded by those critics, it must be good. As a professionally trained IT guy, similar to a bicycle, once the fundamental design is sorted out, there's nothing to change except tweaking around the edges, pretty cosmetics etc. And if it does a reasonably good job as a flight sim, not just eye candy or a gamey thing, then it will endure. Other posters here also give the evidence of 'why?' And if endorsed by the 'old boys', as it has in this thread, then the jury is in, it's simply good! (For me, being FS2002, its predecessor, I feel much the same way about FS2002, seems to have everything I need as an occasional user, again not wanting to blow a load of cash on hardware. I hope to upgrade to FS2004/FS9 sometime. As the saying goes 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' might be morphed to 'if it makes you happy, don't change nothin'!

I have the Logitech Extreme 3d Pro, bought new maybe 10 years ago Australian $50. Well made, have hardly used it as I find it too 'sharp', i.e. reactive in its movements, but then again I didn't spend much time to fiddle with the settings in my FS2002 setup. Then I came across an old yoke, which was much more gentle and responsive to small movements. When I get a chance (that damn stuff keeps interfering - life, work, wife, household chores etc. etc.) would like to revisit it.

Hi ftldave, when I lived in London for 2 years 1981-82 I went to Farnborough once, must have been 1981, a dream fulfilment, and saw the British Concorde do a low pass. Wonderful. Yes, agree with all that you say, but it seems the Overture will really happen. And yes, maybe the Overture is just so much hoop la. We'll see. The new aviation fuels are real, a major theme at this years Farnborough apparently. I think all this new world 21st century thinking is wonderful. About bloody time (to use the UK/Aussie vernacular). Wow, 1999, was it that long ago, no wonder I'm feeling old, that tragedy seems much more recent. And the US recent floods we saw on TV was Kentucky.

Well CRJ_simpilot your post is up to your usual standard, very interesting if a bit strange - the anti-gravity thing I mean, certainly the quantum computing thing is a reality, if only in a research sense. Re weather and climate, we see on the news here about the devastating floods in Texas I think it was recently, plus the wildfires in California I think, and just today, more heatwaves and fires in Europe, and 40+ degrees C in England, unheard of. Could this be climate change in action as predicted 40 years ago? Something seems to be happening, more intense and more frequent extreme weather. Re supersonics, I wonder if any of you are interested to get your hands on a sim of e.g. the Overture or XB-1. No doubt somebody will put out a sim soonish. Keep calm and safe CRJ_simpilot, the world needs people like you to rattle our traditional thinking.