MAD1

Been awhile since I've been online. I like this thread, my thoughts precisely re all posts. 1. Joop: Glad to hear you've seamlessly gotten FS9 running on Win11. (And today am going to enjoy watching all your videos of your 'Around the world in a Learjet' that I haven't had a chance to watch yet. 2. PhrogPhlyer: love your saying 'Always Aviate, then Navigate, then Communicate. And never be low on Fuel, Altitude, Airspeed, or Ideas.'. I'd add the extra phrase 'especially all at the same time!'. In that scenario, the pilot's future is very limited! Ha, ha. 3. Question guys: I haven't got my sim going again, will need to build a new PC (or buy an older one). I have FS2000 and FS2002 (including the original boxes, perfect condition). As I'm only an occasional simmer, don't have much time or inclination to fiddle with stuff. Years ago I visited VATSIM and did lurk for a few sessions, in the proper manner, in my Cessna parked on the grass and observed traffic taxing and taking off. Was a good training experience. Then I couldn't connect anymore via FS2002 into VATSIM, they changed the connection infrastructure. So I believe that you can do group flying using FS2004, perhaps including within VATSIM. Is that correct? 3.1. If you can still connect into VATSIM and group fly via FS2004, is that situation likely to persist for some years, or are there plans to drop FS2004 out of connectability sometime? Anyone heard anything on the grapevine. (Of course, I'd be very disappointed and angry if I went to the trouble of getting FS2004, installing it, in the hope of getting into VATSIM group flying, only to find again my setup is 'too old'. (If there are any plans to drop it, I think there should be a world-wide protest to keep so-called 'legacy apps' being able to be used, for the 'greater good' of the worldwide sim community.)

Hmm, glad to hear FS2002 still lives, at least for some people. I haven't got my sim back up and running yet, need to build a new sim PC. Because I'm cheap, and got FS2000 and FS2002 for nothing (got the original boxes, all more or less pristine), and also philosophically, like the others in this thread, I just want to fly, not fiddle, and imagination is better than eye candy, and also the fact it runs on old hardware and operating systems, low demand on resources, it's good enough for my needs. So perhaps I'll keep it and not chuck it in the bin. Would like eventually to get into group flying, so was thinking to buy off e.g. eBay, FS2004, but unsure if can still connect into e.g. VATSIM and fly with others. Any thoughts guys on the lowest end / simplest /cheapest way I could get into group flying on the major sim networks?

Am enjoying catching up on your vids. Have started at Stage 15 Bamaga to Honiara. But meant to say in my previous comment about your tour of the Torres Strait islands, great that you used the DC3. It indeed has been a workhorse in the past in the remote parts of Australia. Being a DC3, it'll take a lot of punishment and was trusted as a reliable aircraft in those remote areas where airports are scarce and there are vast inhospitable distances.

Yes, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines is a classic movie. And back then when making movies, no computer graphics, the 'props' were often real aircraft (perhaps newly built mockups, perhaps flyable) and filmed for real in the air. Yes, I remembered last night the 'little black book' was Jeppesen's (as the Wikipedia article explains), read about that in my FS2000 book that came with the CDs in the package.

Yes PhrogPhlyer, have read about the early airmail aviators in the USA, it was rather cowboy, many of them died. And who was that fella that had his 'little black book' of flight route tips as he said he wrote up 'so I wouldn't die'. And the beginnings of the big airlines, PanAm, Lufthansa, I read in my book that the first airline was Royal Dutch Airlines, established a couple of years before QANTAS in the 1920s. And BOAC in Britain. Amazing history.

Hi Joop, wow, you're still going, thought you'd be home by now. Will enjoy looking at your vids. Re new house, am in the country now, on a hill (no flood risk, only a minor bush fire risk now), no neighbours, on my heaven of 2 hectares (5 acres), semi-retired, plenty of grass to mow. Still no sim setup for me yet. Got satellite Internet here, works well (as am in a blackspot for standard terrestial Interent). Am enjoying reading about the early history of QANTAS circa 1920s. Amazing how tough those old pioneer aviators were. Will start following your hops again Joop.

Hi all, been offline for some months, busy buying a new home in the country. Am now settle in, it's heaven! From my new local library got a coffee-table book about the 100 year history of QANTAS. That spurred me to look for more books, got a good one about Hudson Fysh, one of the founders. He with a couple of other guys came back from WW1, having learnt to fly and were in aerial combat, with a passion to fly, and to try an airline startup. Very interesting read, repeated the world over, many startups failed. The first QANTAS aircraft was an Avro 504K, they flew it in 1921 from Sydney to their home base, Winton in outback Queensland, where QANTAS was born. It could carry two passengers. Amazing the stories of the trips, no airfields as such, frequent engine problems. Amazed at how hardy those pioneers were, I think today most guys would simply give up and walk away. Would like to one day when I get my sim going again, to recreate some of those early routes and flights. I know there are various nostalgia sim groups worldwide who do that.

Hi Joop, glad to see that you're back. Will enjoy working my way through all your stages. (Been offline for awhile, busy moving into my new house.)

Sounds like you're in the Goldilocks zone, 'just right'. Good tips, thanks, will revisit once I get my computer and FS2002 back up and running later this year I hope.

Hi Windy, have been away from this site for awhile, busy buying a new house. Re Ozzie (aka Australia), no I don't know the Terry Pratchett books. Just looked at the link you included, to his 'The Last Continent'. The Ozzie sense of humour (notice British spelling, not humor) is a derivative of the British, and is understood by Kiwis (New Zealanders) and Canucks (Canadians) but unfortunately not as well by Yanks (USA folk). It is very self-deprecating. And it often plays on opposites, e.g. a redhead is called 'Bluey', we have a few weird (for fun) institutions e.g. the Alice Springs Sailing Club, in the centre of this 'driest continent on Earth', which has an annual regatta in the Todd River, which is just sand! They make boat shaped things and guys and gals get in them, with their feet on the dry creek bed, and then race each other. So it IS a true regatta, just no water! And on the rare occasion that there is water, the regatta has to be cancelled, because of the water! Yes, touring Ozzie by air seems like your best bet. Am happy to ride along as virtual copilot or passenger as needed, and can give tips of places to see, as I'm sure the more experienced simmers on this site. I haven't done any of that, don't have the scenery files etc. One activity you might enjoy, I downloaded a FS2002 flight a few years ago but never got around to installing it, is the historical (hysterical) flights, this one is Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (he of the trans-Pacific inaugural flight) in his famous Ford trimotor (he called it 'the Old Bus', which is in a display hanger at Brisbane International Airport, from Sydney to Brisbane. I can get a reference to where it is on this site if you wish. So, nothing heard from you since Jan 26, are you still with us Windy? How is your flightsim journey going? Cheers, MAD1 (Crocadile Dundee to the punk kid in New York: 'heh, heh, that's not a knife, THIS is a knife!)

You've crossed the Pacific in the last two weeks, quite a journey, and yes, it's not called the 'Mighty Pacific' for no reason, it is really BIG. Now that you're in continental USA, am sure you're much more relaxed with plenty of strips to divert to if you need to, and scenery to watch. Will continue to watch your progress back to the Netherlands.

I don't know anything about the new site. I just clicked on a post and typed. The font size you see is what I typed, I didn't adjust font size. But typing this just now, I see at the top of the box a menu ribbon with 'Size' dropdown, it's showing '(Default)' where you can change the size from 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 points etc. Try that. And to the right is menu of a page icon 'Preview' which pops up a box that shows you it what your post will look like.

Hi Windy, from an 'armchair pilot' in Australia. Whilst I only have 6 hrs solo in a Blanik glider in 1979 for real-world piloting experience, like many guys I enjoy flying vicariously through others, and always enjoy the 'old boys' stories such as yours. I think simming is not only beneficial during aging to keep the mind active, for someone in your situation it's no doubt useful for physical rehab.

Hi Joop, glad you had a good tour over the Torres Straight islands. Thursday Island is the main population centre up there. I've never been, would like to go someday (farthest north I've been in QLD is Cairns and Mareeba). So, you're on your way across the mighty Pacific. Good luck that you keep your feet dry and wings out of the ocean! Hopefully you'll post your stories and videos once this site meets your satisfaction.

Oh, wow, a new site! First seen today Fri Jan 27, a bit of a shock! Been offline re FlightSim since Xmas, busy buying a new house. Will take time to get used to it (and like most things, just makes me feel even older!). Best wishes Nels, as others have said, time to take it a little easier.

Just watched both videos, enjoyable. Re Bamaga, it's very remote, not much at the airport (interesting WW2 wrecks), township is small. Joop, once you go exploring, you might like a swim (watch out for the crocs), have a beer, relax. Another day, a day trip to the Cape York tip of the Australian mainland (Australia actually extends north to the Torres Strait islands, and only a few km from the Papua - New Guinea mainland). It's hot and sticky (mid summer tropics), ensure you have a broad-brimmed hat, sunscreen, drink heaps of water.

Welcome Joop to QLD. As I threatened, have a 'cold one' on me, the classic QLD XXXX ('four x'), it's not a very nice beer, chemical, not like the good Dutch, German etc. pure beers without preservative. Not too hot in Bamaga today, cloudy, but sticky: Horn Island weather station - now, at 1:18 pm, humidity 87%! 'Peninsula for Saturday. Cloudy. High chance of showers, becoming less likely this evening. The chance of a thunderstorm. Winds W 15 to 25 km/h becoming light in the evening. Daytime maximum temperatures around 30.' Haven't watched the videos yet, will be interested to watch them later today.

Hi Robin, glad you reminded us all of your bingle with a vehicle (machine 1, human 0). Your resilience is an inspiration. As I said in another post, for those of us who faced life-threatening issues in 2022, here's my wish for us - have a most boring 2023 with nothing significant happening!!! On a different note, isn't it a pain that one person's setup isn't the same as another person's setup, so the thousands of posts, Youtube videos etc., whilst helpful, if we try the advice and setup, for some mysterious reason it still might not work for us! Drat! Too many variables in the equation.

Same from me. Whatever is meaningful for you wherever in the world you are. (For me and our local community, having suffered a natural catastrophe here 28 Feb 2022, I saw a humorous local post recently wishing all to have 'a most boring year for 2023', so if you've faced difficulties this year, let's hope there's none of that next year!)

Thanks JSMR for the info, very informative! As you know, I live close to you, just down the road in Lismore NSW. Many Coolangatta based GA training flights use Lismore for training, circuits with touch-and-go, numerous B200 class twins do it. I track them via Flight Aware. Yes, can appreciate the satisfaction of doing a successful sim flight 'for real' i.e. real time, if a flight is n hours, then doing it in n hours, and staying in the cockpit, or, if on autopilot, leaving the cockpit for whatever reason then returning close to your next action point. But what if ATC gives you an instruction whilst away? I 'lurked' (my Cessna parked on the grass at one of the airports that a multi-player flight was using) a few times on VATSIM some years ago to self-train, wanted to join the multi-player crowd, but my setup wasn't able to. Would like to get to it someday in the next year or three, would need a new PC and better sim, e.g. I understand minimum is FS9. Also, yes it's very important to keep wifey happy - 'happy wife happy life'.

Wow JSMR, I couldn't do that many hours in a single stint. Congrats. Yes jgf, once I started to play with commercial flights in FS2002 and reading the FS2000 hardcopy manual, it dawned on me (perhaps years before that) that the glamour of being a commercial pilot, I mean a tubeliner, seems to be quite boring, e.g. flying week after week in a single shift Sydney-Melbourne, Melbourne-Brisbane, Brisbane-Sydney. Boring! But the uniform, respect, and 'pulling the chicks' was probably the appeal! Yep, I know, the interest for the flight crew is flying a good flight 'per the book', dealing with weather, ATC etc. But, to do that for 30 years? Suppose I shoudl cop the same criticism for being a computer jockey (Geographic Information Systems, GIS, maps etc.) is the same. But I like it! Hence, GA is more realistic and total freedom, plus I can imagine that I could possibly do it. (I dreamed of being a commercial pilot when in high school, but never went down that path, considered joining the air force (RAAF) or trying to, but the thought of getting up early, all that discipline and saluting, didn't appeal to my lazy self!!! Ha ha. Re the sims, I think they're all amazing, old or new. Trying to get all that realism into a computer program ain't simple or easy. The MS Flight Simulator developers (all versions) did a truly amazing job 20+ years ago. They need to be recognised and celebrated. As others in this thread have said: whatever 'floats your boat' or more appropriately 'flies your plane', just enjoy the damn hobby, if fiddling with add-ons and gadgets, tweaking configs etc. is your thing, fine, if simply enjoying going for a fly is your thing, fine. Simply enjoy. I think one of the greatest enjoyments is engaging with the fraternity of fellow nutters, as in this FlightSim community. I have mates to 'chew the fat' with.

So, now in Ambon. Will be interesting to see your video Joop of Singapore to Ambon. Slowly making your way across Indonesia. Yes the movie Entrapment, Wikipedia: 'heist in Kuala Lumpur: $8 billion from the "International Clearance Bank" (which refers to the Bank of International Settlements in Malaysia) in the North Tower of the Petronas Towers.'. There's the Darwin - Ambon yacht race held every August (not for last two years due to COVID, but planned again for Aug 2023. Ain't this a fun way to enjoy world geography! So, the 45 ('Range: 1,968 mi (3,167 km, 1,710 nmi) (4 passengers)') hasn't got the fuel capacity to safely do the big Pacific hops, hence upgrading to the 60? ( 'range (with 4 passengers and 2 crew) of 2,405 nautical miles (4,454 km) with NBAA 100 nmi (190 km) reserves, ISA.'

Hi Joop. Interesting video Singapore surrounds and then Singapore to Surabaya. Interesting also as you were interested in, to see what is in the FS9 scenery etc. When you flew past the Petronas Towers (Petronas is the Malaysian state-owned oil company) in Kuala Lumpur, they were in probably because they were opened in 1999. Was interested to see if in Singapore the very futuristic Marina Bay Sands Skypark, but no, it was opened in 2010.

For me, I enjoy both - the GA e.g. Cessna, as it simulates what I can do for real, go to my local aero club and do a course for a Private Pilots licence (I won't, don't want to spend the money). My puttering around the circuit in the Cessna 172 default airplane I can imagine doing it for real. My sim setup has me parked outside the hanger at my local airport (a local guy did very good scenery about 15 years ago, including photos of the two small terminals, plus the terrain topography is realistic, the hills are in the right places!), I do a pretend walkaround, startup (including calling out "clear prop"), taxi, take-off, a few touch-and-go circuits, land, taxi back to the hanger, shutdown. Quite realistic (especially when I had the setup in my retired 1981 Mazda 929 car, left front seat, being in a metal cabin made the experience better than just on a desk. One can practice real procedures. Then to change mental gear, just for fun, to do something that's impossible for me, to ever be a commercial pilot, and especially to drive a big tubeliner. That's unrealistic for me, as I'm not immersing myself into all the components that the commercial fraternity here in FlightSim have experienced and know about, but still fun and I learn a lot, it's mentally engaging. PS: I only had 6 hours solo in a Blanik glider in 1979, and only joy rides with my local aero club ever since, plus the commercial flights as a passenger.