Where did you fly today ?

I decided to explore southern British Columbia. My undoing, or the exciting challenge, was to fly the Just Flight Arrow to the San Juan Islands from Kelowna by VOR and ADF only navigation, with a real VFR chart. Been successful in the past, this is my normal "rules" for my simming. With the amazing scenery, it works and also requires constant checking of what I see against the chart.

What I hadnt realized was Kelowna is in the middle of high mountainous terrain. Nearly No Nav aids except the Kelowna VOR. Luckily, the weather was no factor, and when all valleys went the wrong way I climbed up to 8000, eventually 11000. Eventually I got confused. Thinking I was following the Fraser river, but it wasn't, I got super lost. Kept dialing navaids from the chart without success. Eventually I starting getting concerned. (It felt so real as to get me a bit nervous).

After a long time, I broke down and activated the in sim map. Imagine my surprise to find out I was well into Washington state, now over the north cascades. The fuel was getting low, but I was just on the route 2 (Steven's pass) and If I could just reach the west side of the cascades I could land at Monroe and refuel. Oh, that last 30 miles was quite a toe tapper. Watching the fuel guages tick down, I pulled the prop lever back to 2200 rpm, assume the fuel savings could be needed. Finally reached the lowlands and got close to Monroe when the engine quit.

Feather the prop, but didnt have enough energy to reach the strip. I flew gear up nearly to the ground aiming at a farmer's field. Tried to lower the gear at the last second but was to late and I did a pretty sweet belly landing and my adventure ended without a "crash".

Quite an adventure.

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I decided to explore southern British Columbia.

This was an enjoyable read. Situations like these are exactly what I love about MSFS!

With my sim up and running again, I flew a couple of landing patterns at Watsonville in the Cessna 172, then tried my hand at the MSFS landing challenge in a default Beech Bonanza at Nice, and then pleased with my performance a France, flew the Watsonville landing pattern again in the Bonanza. Ever more pleased with myself by this point, I went to Sedona to fly the pattern in the C 172 there, which took some air out of my swelling head. After going around in my first landing attempt, I came in too high and landed too long and fast in the second try and would've slid off the mesa if not for the fence at the end of the runway. I went at it a second time and managed to put the plane on the asphalt, but I bounced it at least once first. I cleared the runway and parked the plane, but I probably would have crumpled the landing gear with less-forgiving damage settings. Anyway, I hope KSEZ's virtual management won't sue me for damaging their virtual fence.

With my sim up and running again, I flew a couple of landing patterns at Watsonville in the Cessna 172, then tried my hand at the MSFS landing challenge in a default Beech Bonanza at Nice, and then pleased with my performance a France, flew the Watsonville landing pattern again in the Bonanza. Ever more pleased with myself by this point, I went to Sedona to fly the pattern in the C 172 there, which took some air out of my swelling head. After going around in my first landing attempt, I came in too high and landed too long and fast in the second try and would've slid off the mesa if not for the fence at the end of the runway. I went at it a second time and managed to put the plane on the asphalt, but I bounced it at least once first. I cleared the runway and parked the plane, but I probably would have crumpled the landing gear with less-forgiving damage settings. Anyway, I hope KSEZ's virtual management won't sue me for damaging their virtual fence.

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Lol!

My daughter and I hiked RIGHT by that exact fence in real life just a few weekends ago. I love that hike because the views are spectacular and while hiking you can look up and see small planes landing and departing.

KSEZ's location on a tabletop mountain can create optical illusions that screw up landings. You're not the first even if you did it in real life. I don't know if that was a factor in this video but the description points to a crosswind causing the crash:

Flew a short flight from KSEA Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle Washington to KPDX Portland International Airport, Portland Oregon with my new (as of today) HP Reverb G2 VR Headset. My gosh, I cannot believe how fantastic things look in VR with this Headset. I used my Oculus Rift S VR Headset the other day for the same flight as a comparison and there is none. The HP Reverb G2 is way superior in my humble opinion.

The Rift S is not the most current headset available from Oculus, though. The Quest 2 has gotten a few software updates in the last few weeks and looks spectacular to me, on ultra settings. I've basically decided at this point that I won't upgrade to a new device again, until reviews come out for a brand new one.

The Rift S is not the most current headset available from Oculus, though. The Quest 2 has gotten a few software updates in the last few weeks and looks spectacular to me, on ultra settings. I've basically decided at this point that I won't upgrade to a new device again, until reviews come out for a brand new one.

I have the quest 2 and the Reverb G2, in flight sim the Quest 2 don't come close to matching the G2... Even so the quest 2 as got considerably better over the span of this year with updates..... I'm interested to see how the Quest 2 performs in flightsim when it gets the 120Hz refresh rate upgrade due in May!

If you can't afford the G2 the Quest 2 is a very good entry in to VR flying.... and who knows with the 120Hz refresh rate in the pipeline it just may be on the same par visually as the G2 in flightsim.... I will not be dumping my Quest 2 that's for sure although my choice of VR in flight sim for now is the G2 everytime... I now use the Quest 2 for other games and movies.....

That would be Nice-Cote d'Azur to Marseille-Provence, France, flight time in the Beech Bonanza 1:02:53. France being nine hours ahead us on the West Coast and moi not wanting to fly at night and miss all the scenery, I cheated, dumped live weather, and set the time for early afternoon. I went to fltpln.com to get approach information for Marseille, then to the MSFS World map to choose a VOR to VOR flight plan. Given a choice of runways, I chose 31R, dialed its ILS frequency into my Logitech radio panel, and set it to "active." In the cockpit of the Bonanza, I clicked on the Garmin's PROC button and selected the ILS approach for RWY 31R, loaded it, and took off to the west, activating the autopilot soon after takeoff. Thereafter, I enjoyed the scenery while adjusting the altitude on the autopilot, eventually climbing to 5,300 ft. to be sure of clearing some mountainous terrain along my flight path.

I would've left the autopilot to its devices, except I didn't much like the indirect approach to my selected runway. So I returned to the PROC button in the Garmin and chose RWY 13R, which offered a more comfortable straight-in approach over the Bay of Marseille. This blew the mind of the AP, which it turned the Bonanza back toward Nice, and away from all the lines on the VFR map. Realizing that the AP was not about to send us to Marseille, I canceled it, took over navigation and flying duties, and turned south toward the bay. I knew where the airport was, thanks to the MSFS several-thousand-foot-high marker in the sky, and reaching the bay I banked left to line up with the runway. Forgetting I'd chosen 13R however, I landed on 13L--which is maybe why the Garmin, tuned to the localizer for 13R, was no help in lining up. Anyway, I landed the Bonanza in excellent form for a change. I was pleased with myself, but ATC wasn't. As I had deviated from my original flight plan without so much as an à votre choix (translation: by your leave) and landed from the opposite direction, ATC reprimanded me for an unauthorized landing and ordered me to clear the runway ASAP. Vive la différence! I muttered into my non-existent mike as I taxied to the ramp area, meanwhile offering up hosannas to MSFT for flying the whole way from Nice to Marseille without a CTD.

Taking off from Nice

I don't know if that was a factor in this video but the description points to a crosswind causing the crash:

 

Yer right. I have a lot of trouble with crosswinds. I know what you're supposed to do--counteract a bank left or right with opposite rudder--but it doesn't come naturally to me in the moment, yet. Although in this case, I was too high on final, forced the issue, and couldn't stop in time.

"MSFS's Baron is supposed to have de-icing capability. Does anybody know how to turn it on?"

 

The Baron's de-ice is the 2nd row of these switches.

I found it; it's for the props only.

I found it; it's for the props only.

The switch on the far right of that row is for “Surface”.

The switch on the far right of that row is for “Surface”.

I forgot; we were originally talking about the Beech Baron. I've been "flying" the Bonanza of late. It has a prop de-icer, but nothing that I could find for flight surfaces.

I wasn't especially ambitious today. This morning I took the Beechcraft Bonanza up for an IFR/autopilot flight from Watsonville to Monterey, with an ILS approach to RWY 10R. The 17-minute flight went without a hitch (i.e., a CTD). I was already dead-on the magenta line taking off from RWY 20 at Watsonville and engaged the autopilot soon after I'd raised the landing gear and retracted the flaps. I cruised at 2,600 ft., the minimum altitude for ZBED, the first waypoint on final approach to 10R at Monterey. Prior to reaching ZBED, I reduced the altitude in the AP to 1,700 feet, the approach plate flight level for MINK, where the ILS kicks in, activating the new flight level upon reaching MINK, and activating Approach on the autopilot (all through the Logitech multipanel). From thereon out, I lowered the gear and adjusted the throttle and flaps to slow the plane to landing speed. I waited until maybe 200-300 ft. AGL to disengage the AP and brought the Bonanza in for one of my smoothest landings, ever. I'm really getting to like this plane.

I flew several landing patterns at Watsonville this afternoon. Live weather produced low-hanging, runway-obscuring clouds, so I bailed on that for the time being, readjusting the weather to clear skies with a few clouds. On my first approach, in the Bonanza again, I tried something called "mushing," which I'd learned from Stick and Rudder, which is fast becoming my MSFS bible. For those unfamiliar with the term (as I was), mushing is what you do when you raise the plane's nose to reduce lift and dump altitude in a hurry--a great technique especially if you find yourself high on final. After setting up for final a couple miles from the end of RWY 20, I "mushed" the Bonanza from around 1,400 feet down to 900 ft. or less (I forget), shedding speed as well as height, then dropped the nose while still above stall speed, lowered the gear, set the flaps, and brought the Bonanza in for yet another nice landing.

Later, after downloading and installing new drivers for my Nvidia GPU (which I hope will reduce MSFS's CTD frequency), I took off from Watsonville in the Baron again, in live weather, with low clouds still shrouding the runway. Being pretty much enveloped by white stuff at about 1,200 feet, I used the drop-down GPS map as a reference for when to turn south onto final to RWY 20. Turning toward the airport, I watched the Garmin's green localizer arrow, momentarily leveling the wings when it was on its side. At this point, the arrow was split, with its runway centerline portion above it, meaning the runway was still to the Bonanza's right. So I then banked right until the arrow became solid, indicating I was in line with the runway, and leveled out again. I had, of course, remembered to drop the landing gear and set flaps by then. From that point it was "just" a matter of throttling down or up as needed to bring the Bonanza in for another very satisfying touchdown.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this simming stuff.

Unfortunately I couldn't fly anywhere today as I updated to the latest Nvidia RTX Driver 465.89 today. Well, all I can say is that it turned MSFS into a slide show with a HP Reverb G2 VR headset. I had to revert back to version 452.06 to get back my smoothness. Right now I am experimenting with other versions between 452.06 and 465.89 to see if there are any improvements or not. I may stay with version 452.06 for a while longer until Nvidia updates actually improve things.

I probably missed a memo somewhere. Am I supposed to be doing something with my PC to update my NVIDIA driver? I believe I have the following specs:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Driver version: 27.21.14.5709

Driver date: 10/22/2020

DirectX version: 12 (FL 12.1).

I wasn't especially ambitious today. This morning I took the Beechcraft Bonanza up for an IFR/autopilot flight from Watsonville to Monterey, with an ILS approach to RWY 10R. The 17-minute flight went without a hitch (i.e., a CTD). I was already dead-on the magenta line taking off from RWY 20 at Watsonville and engaged the autopilot soon after I'd raised the landing gear and retracted the flaps. I cruised at 2,600 ft., the minimum altitude for ZBED, the first waypoint on final approach to 10R at Monterey. Prior to reaching ZBED, I reduced the altitude in the AP to 1,700 feet, the approach plate flight level for MINK, where the ILS kicks in, activating the new flight level upon reaching MINK, and activating Approach on the autopilot (all through the Logitech multipanel). From thereon out, I lowered the gear and adjusted the throttle and flaps to slow the plane to landing speed. I waited until maybe 200-300 ft. AGL to disengage the AP and brought the Bonanza in for one of my smoothest landings, ever. I'm really getting to like this plane.

 

I flew several landing patterns at Watsonville this afternoon. Live weather produced low-hanging, runway-obscuring clouds, so I bailed on that for the time being, readjusting the weather to clear skies with a few clouds. On my first approach, in the Bonanza again, I tried something called "mushing," which I'd learned from Stick and Rudder, which is fast becoming my MSFS bible. For those unfamiliar with the term (as I was), mushing is what you do when you raise the plane's nose to reduce lift and dump altitude in a hurry--a great technique especially if you find yourself high on final. After setting up for final a couple miles from the end of RWY 20, I "mushed" the Bonanza from around 1,400 feet down to 900 ft. or less (I forget), shedding speed as well as height, then dropped the nose while still above stall speed, lowered the gear, set the flaps, and brought the Bonanza in for yet another nice landing.

 

Later, after downloading and installing new drivers for my Nvidia GPU (which I hope will reduce MSFS's CTD frequency), I took off from Watsonville in the Baron again, in live weather, with low clouds still shrouding the runway. Being pretty much enveloped by white stuff at about 1,200 feet, I used the drop-down GPS map as a reference for when to turn south onto final to RWY 20. Turning toward the airport, I watched the Garmin's green localizer arrow, momentarily leveling the wings when it was on its side. At this point, the arrow was split, with its runway centerline portion above it, meaning the runway was still to the Bonanza's right. So I then banked right until the arrow became solid, indicating I was in line with the runway, and leveled out again. I had, of course, remembered to drop the landing gear and set flaps by then. From that point it was "just" a matter of throttling down or up as needed to bring the Bonanza in for another very satisfying touchdown.

 

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this simming stuff.

You work so hard at the technical aspects of landing on the sim, I would really love to see you just run through all the MSFS landing challenges and tell us your highest ranks! I'd put some cash on you in Vegas. :D

I probably missed a memo somewhere. Am I supposed to be doing something with my PC to update my NVIDIA driver? I believe I have the following specs:

 

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Driver version: 27.21.14.5709

Driver date: 10/22/2020

DirectX version: 12 (FL 12.1).

I have the 3070. The driver is compatible, and in case you have any doubts, the Nvidia site checks your GPU to verify compatibility. If you install the new driver, choose custom install. There’s no need to install the “GE Force Experience.” Leave the other stuff checked and then select “clean install,” which removes all the older driver stuff before installing the new drivers. I made the mistake of selecting “express install,” which left my monitor dark, compelling a hard shutdown that for some reason ate my OS.

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You work so hard at the technical aspects of landing on the sim, I would really love to see you just run through all the MSFS landing challenges and tell us your highest ranks! I'd put some cash on you in Vegas. :D

I've done Quito, Ecuador and Nice/Cote d'Azur so far, ranking in the top 10 in both challenges, which sounds good, except I don't imaging a lot of people bother with them. Landing at Sedona is much harder than either one of those. ;-(

I'll let you guess where i flew today.....[emoji4]

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I'll let you guess where i flew today.....[emoji4]

 

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Ayers Rock. Great sim set-up. Do you also have seat belts?

I have the 3070. The driver is compatible, and in case you have any doubts, the Nvidia site checks your GPU to verify compatibility. If you install the new driver, choose custom install. There’s no need to install the “GE Force Experience.” Leave the other stuff checked and then select “clean install,” which removes all the older driver stuff before installing the new drivers. I made the mistake of selecting “express install,” which left my monitor dark, compelling a hard shutdown that for some reason ate my OS.

 

 

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Thanks! The update has considerably improved performance.

MSFS starts you off at around 900 ft. AGL in a Beechcraft Bonanza, on a presumed approach to Donegal (EIDL), RWY 21: L 4,908 ft.; W, 98 ft. I say "presumed," because it drops you off in total soup with rain beating against the windshield, and no runway in sight. Anyone who takes on this challenge is advised to look immediately at the Garmin map screen and/or open the drop-down GPS map to discover your position relative to the runway, or else you'll have to circle around, and around, just trying to find the damn airport. Which is what I did for the better part of the 17 minutes it took me to land. I finally caught sight of the runway as I flew west and just south of it in partial clearing. I banked right, to the north, and flew easterly for another go at it. Turning back toward the airport--with one eye on the GPS map(s) and the other on airspeed, altitude, attitude, you name it--I got myself more or less lined up with the runway, per the GPS map. And a bit later, after keeping under the the soup, but not too close to Irish soil, I finally had the runway in sight. Landing was the easy part after all that. I dropped flaps one, then two notches, did the usual throttling up and down, remembered to lower the landing gear, and set the Bonanza down with only minimal aileron/rudder adjustments. All in all, this was one of the most interesting airport approaches I've done to date. I am now in 6th place on the Donegal challenge leader board. Woo! Woo!

I might go back for another, and hopefully more efficient pass at Donegal, especially as I have since looked up the localizer frequency for EIDL's RWY 21. You can find it on FltPlan.com