PhrogPhlyer

1 hour ago, TomPenDragon said:

I'M HOVERING!!!  There's a 15-knot wind, too, and I'm staying in place.

Congrats!

I remember my first real helo flight, TH-57A (JetRanger) sitting in a hover for the first time was like entering a new world.

Especially after having been flying a T-28C for the past few months!

1 hour ago, TomPenDragon said:

I started hearing reports of an earthquake in New Jersey.  Are you okay, Dick?

4.8 magnitude, strongest in NJ in 250 years.

I'm 40 miles from the epicenter and there was loud rumbling and mild shaking for almost a minute.

No damage here, or reported so far.

It gave me flashbacks to my 9 years living in Orange Co, CA.

All good, thanks for asking!

3 minutes ago, BlueSox14 said:

With all that said, a shameless plug.

Too funny. We all do this at one time or another.

Now I've got to go look at them... darn you!

On 4/2/2024 at 3:33 PM, CHIJB55 said:

A list of as many of the FSX landmarks as I can find.

Not landmarks, but here is a of 429 FSX airports with links to information on each.

https://flight.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Included_airports_for_Microsoft_Flight_Simulator_X

23 hours ago, ianhr said:

Try here: https://www.simtours.net/, the only such site I know.

Excellent site, and the only one I know of its kind.

On 4/2/2024 at 3:33 PM, CHIJB55 said:

Maybe it's just me.  But the new MS Flight Simulator is no fun to play with.  Probably a great training tool.  But not fun.

Not switched to MSFS2020, and for now am quite happy with FSX.

I purchased FSX Acceleration when it first was available, moved there from FS9/2004 and started recreating everything I had done in '9, and I've stuck with it ever since. All these years, tons of add-ons and aircraft, and never spent a penny other than for the program. I really IS that good.

Slowly moved into painting aircraft and creating scenery.

There is still so much to learn.

For me, FSX has everything I need to stay active and have fun.

Welcome to the dark side!

An unusual evening.

Something I've not seen before.

Twelve C-124s all scheduled to arrive at Dover AFB at the same time.

Glad I'm not working ATC when they arrive.

3 hours ago, Melo965 said:

I will definitely give that a try.

If you want NAS Whiting and Spencer NOLF here is the link:

2 minutes ago, jgf said:

Oddly I've found larger helicopters easier to fly than smaller ones,

Generally true in flight sims.

Not sure how it is in FS2004 or 2002, but in FSX the Bell 47 on floats is a dream to fly, and fantastic visibility while learning.

I forgot to mention that Spencer NOLF (NRQ) and KNDZ NAS Whiting (South) are good places to practice helo flying.

Check to see if there are any scenery enhancements for your sim version.

Here is Spencer with FSX addon scenery.

1 hour ago, jgf said:

Throttle is the collective and stick the cyclic, rudder (pedals or twist grip) is the tail rotor.

Absolutely correct.

For flight simming with a helicopter it is less important whether you have a throttle or collective, anti-torque (rudder) pedals or twist grip, or any of the various control peripherals that you can purchase, and more important that you move those controls SLOWLY and SMOOTHLY.

I recommend that you find someplace with good visual cues (straight lines are best) and lift slowly into a hover.

Pan back in VC to get the most visual width, and initially don't get hung up on RPM, torque or other details.

Just work on lifting into a low hover (3-5 ft.), maintaining the hover, landing from the hover and repeat.

Then progress to small forward, lateral, and back ward movements. Returning to the stable hover after each move.

Then slow air taxi in the area, returning to the stable hover, and landing.

Once you are relatively comfortable in the hover/hover taxi environment, then you can move onto translating to forward flight.

I suggest you do this on a long runway (the long straight visual cue helps).

Lift into a stable hover, apply slight forward cyclic (stick) and accelerate into forward flight.

Then slow down (apply back cyclic while decreasing power) and descend to a stable hover (add power as enter the hover.

Then land from the hover and repeat (longer the runway, the more times you can repeat.

After a few time back and forth down the runway, then take the helo around the pattern.

Airspeed will be the hardest thing to visualize, so ensure the airspeed indicator is visible.

I'm putting together a brief to include some pics that hopefully will help.

Do not get frustrated, none of us did well at this the first time, even with many real helo hours.

Good luck.

3 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Cheers, here's luck, prost, campie, bottoms up, etc. boys!

9 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

If only...

9 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Don't forget Nine's quirks...

Basically, technique is the same across all versions.

I'll stick to the basics.

3 hours ago, Melo965 said:

So how does it work in the sim

I'm working on a Helo 101 guide for sim pilots.

Hopefully a few pages of the MUST KNOW gouge.

A great source of info is Helisimmer.com

https://www.helisimmer.com/how-to-fly-helicopters

Just now, taoftedal said:

it means you're old

Check!

Just now, taoftedal said:

I'll bring the pretzels ... 

Much appreciated.

5 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

first round is on me! 

taoftedal, 

Put you're virtual wallet away, the drinks are on me tonight.

I just found out that I've reached Super Grand Master (whatever that is), and I so hope that includes a buffalo hat with horns to go with the title.

1 minute ago, taoftedal said:

When the bar is open first round is on me!  

Now this is what camaraderie is all about!

9 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

The first thing I need to do is flesh out the ideas into some sort of document.  It could be as simple as what you suggest in the quote - most of the minor Challenges probably will not go beyond that.  Something like the GAAG needs a bit more. 

One of the best ideas we all basically agree with is that there should be 2 or 3 major events a year, with several mini's between these. The most recent mini, Meigs or Bust, is a great example of how easy these can be. Show up by this date, done!

Until one gets involved with the planning of one of the major events, one might not be aware of how much effort can go into the planning.

I can speak to this point as I am currently planning an event that will include all sim versions and will have invitations sent to other site beyond FlightSim. Ensuring that all route airports exist in all the various sim versions, what scenery may exist to enhance the route, what scenery can be developed and offered to participants, maintaining interest and coordination with the other sites, are all in addition to the "normal" guidelines and scoring planning. And then to coordinate who will be posting updates between all the sims/sites. Not an easy venture, but hopefully it will be rewarding. I've reached out to several people on three different sites for assistance. The same type of things we are asking here, every little bit helps.

So Tom's point of, I believe, is that the ore we share in these necessary admin activities, the easier it is to have these events.

2 hours ago, jgf said:

just play it by ear, as we've been doing.  Has been fun so far.

I agree with one caveat, one of the most useful functions that assist all of us during these events is a tracking of participants, type A/C and Sim, and a daily update of where we are along the route.

This is no easy undertaking due to having to commit to a daily update.

I did this for the Route 66 event, and TomPennDragon did the same, with much more flair, for the Australian Air Rally.

So basically, we all want to fly and post, but it is compiling and posting these daily updates that assists us all in keeping track of events.

That is the type of admin function that is being asked. It can't just depend on a few to do this, especially for the more major events.

Even if someone stepped  up and did this once a year, it would go a long way to easing work load on others.

So perhaps an "club" is not the right thing, I believe it was suggested as a way to focus all the loose ends of these events. But, whatever way we go, we all love these events, and the stories and daily tallies that go along with them.

20 hours ago, jgf said:

Paint.net are free options, not as versatile as PSP but will work with layers and DDS.

I use Paint.net and have never wanted for more features.

So I would not hesitate to suggest its usage.

9 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Why do helicopter pilots sit on the right?

Because it's the "right" thing to do!

Actually, it has to do with history, engineering and arm strength,

The collective was developed to give you mechanical advantage to lift the swash plate, long before hydraulic or electrical actuators were used.

So with the cyclic (the stick) in your right hand as with an airplane, and placing the collective close to directly under the center of rotation/swash plates (with some cables and pullies to adjust for actual seat position), you could pull up on the collective with your left hand/arm.

The Sikorsky R-4 had a single collective centered between the two seats, and again, the pilot with a normal cyclic position (in your right hand) became to PIC.

9 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Windowed

I normally run windowed when flying, and it is especially useful when using your aircraft to identify exact positions in the sim and can see them in ADE.

I use this often to add a road into the visible road network of the sim.

Also, fsdeveloper.com is the place to get assistance is we can't come up with an answer here.

Search their forums, most everything I've run across they have discussed...

But I still can figure out why I can't see my taxisigns with the UTT scenery I;m doing, but I sent to Lazerson and he can. So it's definitely an issue with my machine,,, hmmmm.

35 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

dive in and read as I go along

Worked for me, but I'm out of my mind!

4 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

What would you add/delete?

Hmmm...

Rule One - Have Fun

Rule Two - Be Respectful

Rule Three - If you don't agree with me... so what!

35 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

Boeing's building slides now?

The slide was delivered per spec and certification, not our fault if the carrier might look the other way.

Besides this is what happens when you let them bring their overweight carry-on with them on the slide.

22 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Can't find a Guide for Dummies anywhere! I know we have the Capability in the Club, but then the cross Platform compatibility issue comes into play because Nine and FSX/P3D are so different.

Well this dummy figured it out, slowly and with minimal frustration.

Luckily ADE works the same whether creating FSX or FS9 scenery, and scenery objects are mostly compatible (but not the actual scenery. flat vs round earth).

Once I clean up more space on the HD I'll install FS9 again, and then see how difficult it is to do side by side scenery creation... make a taxiway in one, then make same taxiway in other.

Slow but might work.