PhrogPhlyer

I’ve never had an opportunity to fly around New Zealand. This flight allowed me to enjoy the rugged majesty of this region. A fun and challenging day. I planned on flying between 800 and 1200 feet above the terrain to allow for an up close and personal experience. On the ramp. Queenstown Airport NZQN. Lined up for takeoff. A clear day with a light breeze. Excellent for low and slow. Climbing out. Lake Wakatipu spreads before me. The small islands are the Lake Willow Islets. Continuing down Lake Wakatipu. Will turn right after Mount Creighton. First glimpse of the ruggedness that’s ahead of me. Keeping Pig Island and Pigeon Island off my right, I head towards the Caples River valley. I’ll turn left when I get there and then head up the Greenstone River. The area where the Carples and Greenstone rivers converge seasonally flood and become Elfin Bay. Looks more like a lake to me. Continuing north along the Greenstone River. Steele Creek flows in from the right. Even for its age, I am amazed at the reality of the scenery that FSX can offer, especially as you get away from urbanized areas. See a comparison with a screenshot taken from Google Earth. Following Marian Creek, I approach Lake Marian. Running out of valley I need to start climbing. 5000 feet over the dual Lakes, Marriana and Marrianette. Over Gertrude Saddle and it’s all downhill from here. First, I fly down the Gulliver River into the Cleddou Valley. Then continue along the Cleddou River. Finally, Milford Sound airport NZMF is off the nose. Lining up for runway 29, being pushed by a brisk right crosswind coming off the Milford Sound. Over the fence. Almost touching down. I’ll hold the 30 deg. Right crab all the way to landing. This model Ercoupe has no rudders, so can’t land ‘wing down-top rudder.’ The landing gear is stressed for landing in the crab, and then pivoting straight down the runway. Shut down, canopy open, feeling the fresh breeze. That was one beautiful flight.

Thanks zippy, learn something new everyday!

OK, I posted the NZ flight in the wrong thread, how do we move this?

One thing I still need to do, Congratulations!!!

Yes, this agreement was one of the best ever done in DOD. And unfortunately the US Army still treats aviation. artillery, armor, and infantry the same way; "Combat Arms" i.e. individual weapons. The Army has no place wanting extensive long haul aviation logistical capability. That is the job of USAF. In theater rapid relocation, yes.

So far, as of 30 seconds ago, there are no download problems using DuckDuckGo browser.

No apologies needed, many positive responses were made concerning space related issues, Not sure why comment on this in a Rotorhead thread.

Why yes I did!!! My best friend lives in Parker, and flies Lear 60's from Centennial. Since he rented the 206, he has the cert. Now that I found the pic, I think it must have been about 10 yrs ago.

This rings of truth. We always knew which base nearby had the best happy hour buffet, flight line hamburger, or breakfast sandwiches. Often we'd fly to Pt. Mugu for the best chocolate milkshake in California. Even when afloat, we'd go to any ship cruising with us that had a helo pad. They never failed to either give us a tour of their ship followed by a meal or to bring out wrapped meals that were big enough for several people. Hard not to gain weight.

A few years ago I flew a 206 out of Centennial and landed at Leadville. Pretty thin air. That was a fun day!

The yellow ring is surrounding a static grounding plug, and the two white circles ate static ports. The plate is the aircraft data plate. I will do some more research and see if I can get you exact stenciling and data plate info.

John, Thanks for the clarification on how FS functions. One of the challenges of FS is working to make it as real as we the uses want it to be.

To me, in reviewing the ADE information and the actual approach plates for URSS, none of this makes any sense. If FS was basing any of the arrivals on real world charts, there would be NO fixed wing landings on 20 or 24. All the instrument approaches are for 04 or 06, with no circling weather depicted, meaning, no circling to land on 20 or 24. This is due to multiple terrain obstructions NE of the field. And the missed approaches are for a climbing turn ( away from those obstacles). Also there are no approach lighting systems nor VASI/PAPI for 20 or 24. And the extensive airport remark data pages make no reference to VFR or IFR landing on 20 or 24, only take offs. So, the landings on 20 may be an FS default coding (airport or traffic) with no bearing on real world operations and possibly non-adjustable with ADE. You even stated that " By default, ATC use 02 for landings and take-offs." which is not what apparently happens at the actual airfield. This is just a guess on what is happening. I do hope you find a way to make this work appropriately, i.e. TO/Dpt = 20/24, Aprch/Lnd = 04/06. Ref: https://opennav.com/airport/URSS

The joys of "new and improved." Glad it sorted itself out.

There are two sides to this, yes one is that there are people that wealthy, but without their interest the space program would be DOA in the US. I also believe that it took several other counties launching their own space initiatives to "almost" get the US program off of the coroners table.

I miss the days when schools would either let you stay home to watch a launch or they would project the TV in the auditorium for all to watch (yes TV, no computers or internet at that time). I watched every launch from Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the early shuttles. Unfortunately the Columbia incident, the over televised shots of the explosion and the shocked families at Canaveral, accelerated the already decreasing public support for these missions. That was seen by many as the same type of event as the Hindenburg and the Concord crashes. I hope that the the new budding interest in space continues to grow and people can share the joy and wonder I did during those early years.

Frank, During this trying time for Boeing, it was a welcomed relief to relive some of the glory days. What made this such a good review of the 747 was that you covered not only the highlights but also tragic incidents. And you exposed the viewer to the amazing scenery that can be found in MSFS. As always, well done!

Nicely done. "Felt" like the real deal.

Lighter than air history is a story of great advances interspersed with epic tragedies. After decades of casual LTA research and collecting, please allow me to suggest a few websites to get your interest going. Luftschiffbau Zeppelin https://www.zeppelin-lz.com/ Airship Heritage Trust https://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/index.html Lighter Than Air Society https://www.blimpinfo.com/ Naval Airship Association https://www.naval-airships.org/ Excellent series on current considerations and status of airships. https://lynceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Part-1_Intro-text-and-tables_Rev-3_26Aug2021-converted-compressed_1.pdf And of course YouTube and Archive.og.

Absolutely have enjoyed sharing the adventure with you.

Thanks, I'll look there. No, I'm working on the Piasecki/Vertol facility in Morton PA.

Would anyone know if a helicopter rotor whirl tower/stand or just a set of rotor blades exist as a scenery object for FSX or FS9? I'm adding a rotor whirl tower into a scene, it now has the tower, but no rotor. Thanks

FS2002 has a flat earth, FSX a round earth. So no. "Maybe" some of the scenery objects "might" be usable, but nor the scenery itself.

This tool is a must for anyone getting into retexturing your aircraft. For detailed explanation of all this texturing lexicon see https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Texturing There is a lot of trial and error involved when first saving textures and seeing them work, or not, on an aircraft. For anyone starting to retexture, I recommend that you write down the textures/alphas you use for a given aircraft, so you don't have to relearn these saved formats each time. I found that doing several repaints of a given aircraft helped me learn the steps and I feel I improved with each one. Also, I exclusively us paint.net for my repainting needs. It's free and does everything I've wanted to do. And it opens PaintShop psd files. Here is the simplest tutorial I've found. https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php/Repainting_an_Aircraft Good luck to those who haven't started yet.