MAD1

Further to my numerous, over-wordy comments, perhaps I should apologise to everyone. (It's always a good ploy to apologise BEFORE a party, for whatever you might say and do at the party, then apologise again, sincerely, after the party, for whatever you said and did. That way, you're covered on all counts.) I perhaps got too carried away and excited about having some mates to chat flying things with, plus other stuff. I forgot the purpose of this website, flying. Also, I had to take a cold shower and give myself a good talking too, 'MAD1, get a grip, this whole thing is about simulated flying, nothing else'! 'I agree with myself MAD1, I got carried away, will behave myself from now on'. I'm reminded of the Donald Rumsfeld's '4 quadrants of uncertainty': known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, unknown unknowns. In our sim world it's: real real, real unreal, unreal real, unreal unreal. Which quadrant all of the Gaggle activity fits into I'm still trying to figure out. I know I did participate, I'm real; I did do 2 flights, one timed in the race, the other free-flight, both were real, I did sit in the FS2002 Mazda cockpit and flew those in the sim in real time; but the aircraft, airports, routes were unreal; and AC is unreal, the party was unreal. TPD is real, Elias is unreal. And ScottishMike is real, his flying is real, albeit aircraft are unreal, and his characters are unreal unreal. It's a weird place this sim world!!

Re Iron Maiden etc. Well, I must have missed all that. The last thing I remember I was lying under a table, full of beer and food (me, not the table), must have dozed off, when I woke up all was pretty quiet, the party was over! I DO recall opening my eyes and seeing, in the blur, a jumbo nearby and thinking 'That's weird' and then going comatose again. (Be honest guys, we've all been there in our youth!)

Wow, just reading all the posts in the last 24 hours. Good stuff guys! So, now the 'event' is finished, I suppose this is Club/FBO chitchat. I like that. To reply to some comments: 1. Aussie Correspondents (AC) future. Remember, this is MAD1 writing. I've chatted to my friend the AC, and passed on TPD's comments. Typical, AC was still, remotely, hoping for some $ coming his way, so he's been 'left in the lurch' yet again, the so-called 'American philantropist benefactor' has disappeared into thin smoke, pledging to hand him the title deeds to a valueless newspaper. No way AC says, AC was hoping for a brilliant career in the Chachapoya Media Group, who knows, maybe getting on TV as the weather guy for a year or so, and then, if he impressed, snagging an anchor role on 'Chachapoya Tonight', the premier current affairs prime-time show 5 nights per week, 7:30 pm. But no, nadah, zip, nuthin. As VP2 indicated, yes, in future events, a few, short newspaper articles by that celubrious guy, not Giorgio Bianchi who paints bicycles during the day, but Timofeo Bowlachili. Ah yes, Tim, Timmy! That's my man. (Visions appear from old movies: airports in the fog, Bogart and Bacal, "Of all the gin joints ....", yes, that's Timmy's persona, a Bogart character). AC has asked me, MAD1, to pass onto the Media Group that he'd like to pal up with Elias, sometime in the future, for the next event, no longer as AC, but as TB (unfortunate acronym). I, MAD1, have invited TB to accompany him on future adventures, MAD1 does the flying, TB as a passenger will experience the joy of the event and can write the occasional article for the Chachapoya Chronicle. Given that MAD1 and TB will be in foreign climes, not Oz, then they'll be just another pair of foreign tourists in a foreign land, or skies, etc.

Morning (mine) guys. Bosss, you deserve another medal for all your pc hassles. We all breathed a sigh of relief to hear your victorious shout "Success"! (Same as my anguish mid-comp with 'Can't start Windows Vista ...' message appeared, when I had to rollback to a restore point (luckily the old PC had them set up), FS2002 doesn't display as well as it did, can't get fullscreen. Drat, could play with it to try and get back to 'the good ol' days', but that would go against my personality and philosophy of laziness!) TPD, lovely flight story and pics Cairns to Guam, thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading it over my morning brewed coffee and honey toast. btw, I know you were stretched and tired re getting to the party and reporting, but I fully expected Elias to be there with a live radio programme, and as for the band, there was nothing on this FBO site, no pic of their big jet, no pic of the band performing (or is that an episode still to come?), don't forget, you could always publish some pics of the party via the Chachapoya Chronicle, after all, you DO own that newspaper. jgf, agree totally, and not one generation behind, multiple (says he, on FS2002, all that I need for now, and it runs nicely 'out of the box' on my neighbours throwaway laptop Celeron with Vista Home Edition), is applying the KISS principle, plus saves you $, time, and much anguish. Of course, we apply the other principle 'never give up, never surrender' [to the darstardly machine], we have the power, literally, just turn it off and go to the booze/pub for awhile!!!

Have caught up on all the posts. Re 1, 2, 3, all was great, just happy to be allowed to be included in your esteemed company. Am up for anything that you guys want to throw against the wall. Request: please keep this FBO going, initially for the people flying home OS. Me, and I think others, like being 'lurkers' aka armchair flyers, and it's enjoyable just reading others exploits. Like some in the Gaggle, I still work 3 days per wk, so with domestic commitments, hardly any time, energy, mental fortitude to climb into the FS2002 Mazda cockpit and fly. BUT, this event, and this community, gives me a purpose, otherwise I'm just another poor, lonely bloke out in FS world, am sure there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of us worldwide who think 'would love to be with a group of like-minded guys doing stuff, but I'm not'. And of course, once you get the Club thread finalised (which could simply be this FBO rebranded), having a place to keep up with the Club news and happening would be great.

Morning Gaggle, or should that be post-Gaggle. Haven't read the posts yet since the party (barbie) wound down. Any sore heads out there today? Think not, as we're all mature gentleman and those days of being wild young men are behind us, let's hope. I was disciplined, enjoyed great company, good food, and a few good beers.

Am orf guys, catcha all later in this long-haul 24 hour party, will check in to review the damage in about 8 hours, expect to see a few comatose bodies lying around, under the tables, and heaps of empty booze bottles and food all gone. But, there might be the odd 'stayer' whom I might be able to share a few lies with. Until then, it's been a great experience for this newbie.

Elias. Thanks for your great broadcasts, a lot of hard work by the Committee and yourself to keep all those stats going, week after week. And entertaining commentary to boot.

PP 'ow's that'! (Darn, the 182 has gear down, never mind, still good.)

TPD said "the Gaggle will end and the party will begin.". Haven't you noticed, the party has begun already!

I'll go get those pics. Back soonish.

The best beer I've tasted is German and Japanese. (German, Dutch, Austrian etc., with their 'pure beer' rules over hundreds of years, no preservatives, and similarly Japanese Asahi etc., very pure tastes. Yum.) Now about glasses in pubs: NSW: 'middie', 'schooner', 'pint'. QLD: 'pot', 'schooner', 'pint'. And to rub it in, a surly bartender in QLD, if a NSW-man asks for a 'middie of Tooheys New thanks mate' might respond 'It's a 'pot' here mate, you're in QLD now, not NSW'. And vice-versa when ordering in NSW. Protocols: must remove hat/cap when entering bar (or a club). An old school convention, if in a quite country pub, is trust. You can put your cash on the bar, and sit at it with a few mates on a stool, and nobody will touch your money. Plus, the bar staff will serve you with new drinks (perhaps just give a nod when asked, or sometimes there is no talk at all, just gestures, and the staff will take the correct money from your cash on the bar, you don't have to do anything. I like that.)

That Coopers beer is from South Australia, brewed in the bottle, no chemical preservatives. My preferred beer is a dark/black beer, an 'old', e.g. Toohey's Old. I also used to do my own 'home brew' (must start it up again, have all the gear, and the bottles etc.). Our Aussie commercial beers I call 'chemical beer' as they put sulphate preservatives in them, not very good (but still drinkable). I prefer beer 'from the tap' in a pub rather than bottled. Home brew of course doesn't have preservative, seems one can drink a lot without hangover whereas the chemical beers give you a hangover if over-indulged.

Oh oh, just as the banter was picking up, and emoticon reactions were very appropriate, the computer police have stepped in with "Sorry, you cannot add any more reactions today.". So can't give a like, or laugh, or cry or nuthin now. So will just have to do lots of text posts. (Btw, why does the flightsim system do that? What's the problem, load on the system, to put such a restriction in place? It's enough to drive a guy to drink! (Opening my first 'stubbie' of the event [small bottles, 375 ml] Guys, which way to the bar, and where is the booze?

PhrogPhlyer. I'll go fire up the sim (in the barn, in the 'FS2002 Mazda') soon and get those 3 pics you wanted, for the poster, and post here. Just gotta finish my 'sausage sandwich' (Aussie slang: 'sausage sanger') first (my breakfast). [interweb quote: 'The genius of the sausage sandwich is its simplicity – a sausage in a single slice of no-frills, unbuttered white bread, accompanied by fried onions and choice of sauce.']

ScottishMike. Thanks for the lift mate, I really enjoyed the ride. Such a sweet bird you have there. Am feeling a little unwell, in my attempt to help out with the overweight problem, I ate so much enroute that I can hardly move. But I'll be fine for the party. Anyhow, as TPD has informed us, we didn't need to bring anything as the hosts are throwing a really big shindig with everything supplied. TPD. Thanks for the clarification. Will follow your schedule: "- Those in AEDT stay on very late (around 23:00 - 00:00), those in North America get on as early as possible (05:00 or earlier for those on the West Coast, which includes the winner of the '76 and, unless someone surprises us today with a run at it, the Eastern as well), and the folks in the UK come on around midday (12:00 - 13:00 or so), on the 1st of March; - Those on AEDT get on as early as possible (around 06:00), those in North America get on in the early afternoon (around 14:00 EDT, 11:00 PDT), and those in the UK join us in the evening (around 19:00), on the 2nd of March, Australia, and 1 March". Now, this darn maths (USA 'math') is always tricky ain't it. Fri 1 Mar is my today, it's AEDT 0720 at the moment (Cairns 0620 AEST). RW: wife wants to go to the beach, and as the forecast is sunny, no rain, whilst the weekend might bring a little rain, today Fri is the day for it. Mid-morning we're driving to Evans Head, south of Ballina. So I'll be back for this evening and can join the party then. I realise the above is 2 options, still confusing, but hey, what the hell, like any good party of 'good 'ol boys', it looks like it'll go for over 24 hours, and it's like 'hearding cats', 'Brown's cows', the Gaggle is all over the shop, albeit mostly in Cairns. And, taoftedal has already fired up the barbie. So, am sipping my wake-up coffee at my 0730, as soon as I finish that, is it too early to crack open a beer? Conclusion: it IS an international event, so we better just toughen up and dig in for the long haul, per the phrase 'I only drink after 5 pm, is it after 5 pm? It is somewhere in the world'! So cheers boys!!!

Thanks VP2, that clarifies things. I'll be there with my Esky full of my favourites. That includes a steak and some thin beef sausages, nothing like a classic 'sausage sandwich' over a beer (or 3+) which consists of 2 slices of square bread, a sausage, fried onions (compulsory), and sauce - tomato or barbeque. Yum. By the way, a proper Australian hamburger (sometimes called these days by yuppie establishments as an 'Aussie burger') MUST include a slice of beetroot. If I go into a fast food joint (in Auz called a 'takeaway' and ask for a hamburger, and it doesn't include tomato, beetroot, lettuce, then I'll refuse to accept it. The one exception is of course McDonalds, which has it's American version and purveys that across the world. That's OK, because the one good thing about McD's worldwide is it's consistent, which can really help when one is in a foreign land which has a very different culture and very different (strange) food. We've all experienced that. When travelling as a young man, I would ask to go into the kitchen of the local, cheap diner, and look at the pots, in an attempt to identify what the food was. This was in countries where there was no English. I would point at something and indicate I wanted a dish of that. That strategy worked pretty well, but sometimes I was served something exotic that I never knew what it was. The most exotic I think was being served sheeps eyeballs in yoghurt in Damascus, Syria ( I think it might have been, not sure) and told 'it's a special treat, very special food', for breakfast! That was all part of the fun and excitement of international travel. So, I await the first post "The party has started ...'.

20240224 Sat 24 Feb 2024 Cessna Caravan amphibian. YBNA Ballina to YBCG Coolangatta.

Thanks for the comments djtnm. Yes, FS2002, as I'm sure FS2004 is, is really well-designed software. Am more interested in a precise flying model rather than scenery. Makes life simple!

No, have no time to mess with things like that. Before Feb 2022, when my house went under water in a flood and computer lost, I did have local scenery, a guy in Lismore did up a very nice Lismore (YLIS) airport with real world (RW) pics of hangers etc. But haven't had time to go find it and download it again.

Final post from me for now. To TomPenDragon, condolences about Ilan Papini (I looked at his website www.hangsim.com). By coincidence, I spent some time in Israel in 1980 as a young man, a 'traveller' (aka backpacker) on a kibbutz, and then revisited in 1988 and spent time on a moshav. I did a glider joy flight at Megiddo.

All, as an early 69th birthday (May) gift to myself, will obtain a Concorde. I have the FS2000 default fleet version, just have to install it from the CD. Think it'll work in FS2002. (A year or 3 ago, I had both FS2000, have to have the CD in the drive for it to run, and FS2002 installed on my spare HP desktop, in the sim, and it was working, but all that stuff went under the flood in Feb 2022). To save me searching around in FlightSim.com libraries, or elsewhere, where is a good place to get a Concorde that'll run in FS2002 that might be an improved version from the FS2000 fleet version? Thanks in advance for any info. (As an alternative, am liking the look and idea of a Canberra. I wanta go fast, Mach 2 or thereabouts, to get to places quicker in the sim. Also, it has enough space to sleep in, can set up a bed in it. They were used by the RAAF in Vietnam, has the name-sake of our national capital, and outside Amberly air base west of Brisbane, in a guy's paddock, a decade or so ago I drove past two remnants, near the road, just rotting away. Am sure some enthusiasts (e.g. aviation museum) had enquired with him if they could buy and restore them, but there was a sign on the fence 'No entry. Trespassers will be prosecuted etc.'. Was sad to see, weeds growing up through and around them. Couldn't believe it, as drove past thought 'oh, old airplane fuselage over there in the weeds, wait a minute, I think that's a Canberra bomber, and two of them! No idea if they'd still be there today, and no idea whereabouts near Amberly it was.) Now, our local seaside town of Evans Head (lovely little place, great beach, no crowds like Byron Bay, not a backpacker in sight) has a little aviation museum, containing a Canberra, F1-11 (the 'pig'), Caraboo, Orion. Why is it there? It's at the old WW2 airfield which was a training base for bomber crew. The nearby bombing range is still used by aircraft from Amberly, F/A-18F Super Hornet and F-35A Lighting II aircraft.

ScottishMike, 8 hrs ago posted "Back in Brisbane and we are sold. This is the craft for fun.". If you're still in Brisbane, can I get a lift with you guys to Cairns. I can easily get to Brisbane. Please advise, can meet you at the airport. Meet at the GA office (northern end of the airport, Brisbane that is, not the main GA airport of Archerfield, which is to the south-west of the CBD)?

Elias, could you please give us a precise, detailed info bulletin about the party. 1. What time. Please give Cairns local (AEST) - day, date, time and UTC. (Am writing this my today, AEDT Thu 29 Feb 12:33 pm, which is AEST Cairns 11:33 am (AEDT= UTC+11, AEST=UTC+10, UTC Thu 29/2 0133. You can understand the risk for confusion.) I haven't missed the party, given Elias you posted only 2 hrs ago indicating the party is still in the future. Suggestion: if you pick a good time that suits the whole world, e.g. Cairns evening will be US morning, then we could all attend 'in real time', and be able to post in this thread all together, might be fun. Also, and alternatively, you Committee guys might be able to organise a instant message type chat session, is such a mechanism available here in flightsim.com, where we could have an actual conversation by text 'in real time'. Just a thought. 2. Where precisely at the airport. It has many outbuildings. Please post a pic of the hanger. 3. Wet weather prep. You said a hanger is available, not just open ramp space, so I presume there is a place under cover if needed. I'll be attending, will get to Cairns somehow. Will be good to meet all of you guys who are there 'in person', albeit virtually. 4. Is it catered? Is there food and grog there (hopefully yes, one of the benefactors might be able to put on a 'good spread', or do we need to bring our Esky with our own food and drinks?