Where did you fly today ?

Unfortunately, you are off by 20 years. Mt St Helens erupted in 1980. I should know. I lived in Spokane Washington at that time and can still remember the dark clouds coming over the city. We had no idea what was going on as there was no internet or any mobile communications back then. You had to rely on the (extremely limited) television news for what was going on but there usually was a long delay of information. We thought a storm was coming but it got as dark as night. Then it looked like it was snowing but it was volcanic ash. It got a couple of inches deep and I did not own a car back then and had to walk though all that for a couple of miles to go to work and back home. It was miserable. Had to wear a scarf around my nose and mouth so as not to breath in that ash. It was a very fine power, like talcum powder, and got into everything including automobile engines, which destroyed them. I didn't know until the next day that a volcano erupted (Millennials would have had a fit back then since they could not get instant information). I worked at a auto repair shop at the time and we replaced many engines through the vehicle owner's auto insurance. Looking back, those were good times compared to what's happening now. Even today, if you drive from Spokane to the Tri-Cities in Washington state, you can still find piles of ash on the side of the highway. I even have a bottle of it on a shelf in my basement just to remind me of the good old days. Edited June 23, 2021 by kevinfolsom

Unfortunately, you are off by 20 years. Mt St Helens erupted in 1980. I should know. I lived in Spokane Washington at that time and can still remember the dark clouds coming over the city. We had no idea what was going on as there was no internet or any mobile communications back then. You had to rely on the (extremely limited) television news for what was going on but there usually was a long delay of information. We thought a storm was coming but it got as dark as night. Then it looked like it was snowing but it was volcanic ash. It got a couple of inches deep and I did not own a car back then and had to walk though all that for a couple of miles to go to work and back home. It was miserable. Had to wear a scarf around my nose and mouth so as not to breath in that ash. It was a very fine power, like talcum powder, and got into everything including automobile engines, which destroyed them. I didn't know until the next day that a volcano erupted (Millennials would have had a fit back then since they could not get instant information). I worked at a auto repair shop at the time and we replaced many engines through the vehicle owner's auto insurance. Looking back, those were good times compared to what's happening now. Even today, if you drive from Spokane to the Tri-Cities in Washington state, you can still find piles of ash on the side of the highway. I even have a bottle of it on a shelf in my basement just to remind me of the good old days.

 

You are absolutely right. I looked up the date, because I’d forgotten the year. Then I mistakenly deducted 20 years. I’m 76. I think I was subconsciously trying to turn the clock back 55 or 56. My bad. Senior moment.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I flew from Norman Oklahoma to the Beech Factory in

Wichita Kansas.

I had an appointment to have my Beloved Baron repainted in the colors of FlightSim.com.

I would show you the new colors but I have yet to master the art of photography with this sim.

Not a whole lot to see in Oklahoma. Just miles of flat country.

You have to travel to the south east part and a few other spots to see anything close to what we call mountains and other people call hills.

I flew a 172 all over Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas in real life in the 80’s and now I am recreating some of those flights in FS20.

I made 10 touch and goes on this trip with only 2 or 3 bounces.

The trip was at 2000 ft.

I lifted off 12 AM and somehow it was really bright outside as though it was High Noon.

VFRguy

Edited June 23, 2021 by VFRguy

Actually, flying from Duncan to Hobart at 4,000 feet will cross some pretty rugged terrain. The only bad thing is you can't stop in Meers for a Meersburger (one of the best hamburgers in the country!).

What is even more impressive is to look out north from the heart of the Wichitas and realize that the rocks you are standing on, are about 50,000 feet below the surface just 10 miles to the north.

BTW, I am at 5,000 feet, and skirting the south side of the mountains in this trip. I have another set flying north out of Lawton somewhere in the screenshot forum.

Edited June 23, 2021 by plainsman

Try KDUC to ONEST to KHBR.

BTW in real life you are restricted to above 5,500 feet, but the bison don't hear you in the sim, so they are not disturbed at lower altitudes.

Edited June 23, 2021 by plainsman

I would show you the new colors but I have yet to master the art of photography with this sim.

 

VFRguy

You can reduce MSFS screen shots to a size that will meet Flightsim.com's restrictions here. On the site, drag your saved screenshot to the dotted-line box where it says "drop your image here." After you do this, you'll see some options below the box. Where you see a choice between a .png and a .jpg image, select .jpg. Next, notice that you can reduce your image's size by a percentage or by pixels. Choose pixels and set the first parameter at 1,600. This will give you an image 1,600 x 900 pixels, which in most cases will meet Flightsim.com's restrictions. (If it doesn't, you'll have to further reduce the image to, say, 1,500 pixels for the first parameter, which has worked for me in most cases.) Next, click on "resize." Then, download the resized image to your PC, taking note of course to what file it's going to, and finally, upload it to your post on Flightsim. There may be other sites with simpler ways to reduce screenshots, but this site has worked well enough for me. Good luck.

Those are the Canary Islands.

OMG! Another place I've been to that I have to revisit in MSFS. In Jan. 1970, a buddy of mine and I flew from Roberts Field in Liberia to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria for the start of a much-need, mid-tour Peace Corps vacation that also took us to Morocco, Spain, Portugal, and Senegal. After some days on Gran Canaria (I forget how many), we took a ferry to Tenerife, where among other things, we rented a car and drove up Mt. Teide, a dormant volcano, nearly getting stuck near the summit in loose lava gravel, or scree, or whatever you call it. We liked the Canary Islands so much that we went back toward the end of our trip, visiting another of the islands, Lanzarote. Lanzarote is a little gem. We rented mopeds there and spent a day touring the whole island.

You are absolutely right. I looked up the date, because I’d forgotten the year. Then I mistakenly deducted 20 years. I’m 76. I think I was subconsciously trying to turn the clock back 55 or 56. My bad. Senior moment.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Not a problem. I'm 13 years younger than you but I find the "senior moments" happening to me are getting more and more. Incidentally, many babies were born 9 months later after the eruption, including my oldest daughter.

Not a problem. I'm 13 years younger than you but I find the "senior moments" happening to me are getting more and more. Incidentally, many babies were born 9 months later after the eruption, including my oldest daughter.

 

Oh to be 63 again. Did you name your daughter Helen? At this point in my life, when years seem to fly by faster and faster, time contracts, and 40 years past is sometimes hard to distinguish from 20.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

KPHG to KCNK

That's Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain), to Tenerife Sur, to Tenerife Norte in the Daher TBM.

 

I visited these two islands and one other in the Canary group--Lanzarote--in 1970 during a vacation break from a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) in Liberia, West Africa. A Peace Corps friend and I flew from Liberia to Gran Canaria on KLM, with a stop in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the way. Not wanting to recreate that flight, I started in Gran Canaria today. The trip to Tenerife Sur took about 40 minutes in the Daher, including a somewhat prolonged approach--much quicker than the all-day ferry ride my friend and I took 51 years ago. I followed a low-IFR flight plan to Tenerife Sur, then returned to the World Map to set up and fly a low-level IFR course to Tenerife Norte.

 

 

The climb out from Tenerife Sur to a cruise altitude of 6,000 ft. was pretty exciting. Like the volcanic Hawaiian islands, Tenerife rose out of the sea millions of years ago. Today, Tenerife rises to 12,188 ft. ASL at its highest point, the summit of the Mt. Teide volcano, considered still active. Tenerife's landscape rises abruptly above Tenerife Sur, and given the course I was on--ATC instructions notwithstanding--the autopilot would have flown me into a mountainside if I hadn't temporarily disengaged it and taken over the flying chores myself. I was skimming pretty low over that mountside before I cleared it and returned the controls to the AP.

 

Tenerife Sur (Reina Sofia) from 6,000 ft; about to enter the landing pattern

 

Clearing the north coast of Tenerife after skirting the flanks of Mt. Teide

 

On final for Tenerife Norte. The airport is at about 2,000 ft. ASL

 

Tenerife Sur and Norte have ILS systems and I selected ILS approaches for both of them, but I didn't have the locator frequencies for them. Without the locator information, I couldn't activate the ILS approaches to these airports. I was nevertheless able to land the Daher pretty handily at both without relying on ILS. Either I'm getting much better at this, or the Daher is an exceptionally forgiving airship.

 

I still prefer ILS to guesstimating when it's available, so I went looking for a source of said information for international airports and found OpenAIP.net. This site may be old news to some here, but it was new to me so I'm sharing this link. You can search for, and find any airport seemingly anywhere on the globe here. Type in the airport code if you have it, hit return, then click on "view" next to the airport's name and scroll down the page until you come to a list of all its available ILS frequencies.

First, I flew an aerial tour of Tenerife (Canary Islands), taking off in the Beech Bonanza from Tenerife Norte (GCXO), climbing to a cruise altitude of around 12,000 ft. and flying clockwise around the island and Mt. Teide, Tenerife's towering (and still officially active) volcano, which last erupted about 112 years ago.

 

Climbing out, Mt. Teide out the copilot's window

 

Southern Tenerife

 

Mt. Teide's summit is 12,188 ft. ASL

 

Mt. Teide caldera

 

Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This is the island's main port. A friend of mine and I visited this city in Jan. 1970. We rented a car and drove up Mt. Teide to within several thousand feet of the summit, where our car got (temporarily) mired in the road's loose volcanic soil. This was in late afternoon, when the temperature was starting to plummet. (Incidentally, I really tire of these pop-up "incorrect heading" boxes; forgot to clear this one.)

 

Tenerife Norte; I'm commencing an ad-hoc landing pattern, out to sea and back again.

 

After a nice landing at Tenerife Norte and a detour to the World Map, I took off for Lanzarote in the Daher TBM.

 

Leaving Tenerife, climbing to 6,000 ft. For history buffs: Francisco Franco was stationed here in 1936, when he and others launched a coup to overthrow Spain's left-wing, Republican government, commencing the Spanish Civil War.

 

An hour later and closer to Northwest Africa than the rest of the Canaries...

 

Lanzarote is a desert island, averaging 16 days of rainfall annually.

 

Commencing approach to CGRR. The airport is on that point to the upper left.

 

Taxiing at Lanzarote after landing. I'd set up an ILS approach, but was unable to activate it, so used the autopilot to control my descent down to 300 ft. ASL before completely taking over the controls.

KOLU to KPHG

In the second shot you can see the railyard for the Kyle Railroad, which has shops in Phillipsburg.

Having flown to Lanzarote (GCRR; Canary Islands, Spain) in the Daher TBM a couple of days ago, I went back for today an air tour of the island in a Cessna 172. I flew counterclockwise around the island, along the abrupt cliffs on its high side...

...and back to its low side, where the airport is.

Like all the other islands in the Canaries chain, Lanzarote is volcanic in origin. But it's unusual in the way it seems to be canted toward one coast like this.

 

After landing at Lanzarote again, I traded the Cessna for the Daher, after a detour to the World Map to file a new flight plan for Gran Canaria (GCLP), where I started my three-island junket. In the cockpit, I went into the Daher G3000's MFD screen to confirm my ILS approach to RWY 3L at GCLP and activated it, hopeful that it would actually work. I took off, turned on the autopilot, hit NAV and let the AP handle the plane while I rubbernecked.

Climbing out; adios Lanzarote...

 

On the climb out, ATC first instructed me to climb and maintain 12,000 feet, which seemed more than enough altitude for a low-level IFR flight over open ocean. But soon I was directed to climb to "two-zero thousand" feet. "Okaaay," I thought, "I'll play along," and did--marking the highest I've ever flown anywhere in MSFS to date. Against my better judgment, I trusted ATC to direct me to descend to 2,500 ft. in plenty of time for the final approach to GCLP....

Here I am, closing in on Las Palmas, still at 20,000 ft. It was at about this point that ATC instructed me to descend to 2,500 ft. Despite setting my AP for close to -3,000 ft/minute VS, I never had a chance to make the runway. I declared a missed approach over the airport (still several thousand feet below me), disengaged the AP, and circled around to land on my own. (So much for testing the Working Title-modified G3000's built-in ILS landing capability.)

 

Landing was a challenge. I lost sight of the airport while turning out to sea and away from it. What I thought was a final leg turned out to be a cockeyed base leg, my course being oblique to the runway. Referring to the locator on the PFD (I'd dialed in the frequency before takeoff), I corrected my course to fly more or less perpendicular to it until I could turn to final and land. Otherwise, everything went swell.

Parked at Las Palmas

 

The moral of this story about MSFS AI ATC: Trust, but verify--by checking the NAV log before you close the World Map flight plan screen, something I forgot to do this flight. I could've saved myself some time and trouble if I had.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Aptosflier

Williston, North Dakota to Regina, Saskatchewan

I was on the Iron Maiden tour from Vegas to Monterrey today.... uneventful trip

 

Thief River Falls, Minnesota to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

then

Carter Ranch, Texas to Natchitoches Regional, Louisiana

KSJC to KDEN (connecting to KORD)—on UAL for real

Late departure from KSJC due to weather conditions enroute. Officially, I had an extremely tight connection and was worried I would miss it. I ran, as much as I can with luggage, a gimpy hip and a cane. At 5,200 ft., I Got got pretty winded in the process, unaccustomed as I have become to anything higher than a few thousand feet ASL. But I made it with time to spare as it turned out, because flight the crew for the Chicago leg delayed by the same weather that delayed my inbound from San Jose. For the record, the first leg plane was an Airbus 320. The plane to Chicago was a Boing 787–the “Dreamliner.” Never flown on one before. It’s really nice, especially up front!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited July 3, 2021 by Aptosflier

KBIS to KGTF

Today I completed a flight around the entire coastline of Australia in a Beech Bonanza, starting and ending at Perth, flying a counterclockwise route. Took me 2 months and a day, with frequent stops and short side trips. Amazing scenery, most of it in remote areas I had never seen before, either in person (I have been to Australia but only in the southeastern part) or in a simulator. For me this trip illustrated the tremendous capacity of MSFS for "virtual tourism", a topic that has received attention in this and other forums.

KPHG to KHDE

As the flight crossed the Nebraska line, a freak storm came up to the west. Harlan County Reservoir had some waves The flight was able to skirt the storm and got safely on the ground.

Nelson New Zealand to the North Island.

 

Courchevel to Interlaken in the F22. 13 minutes flight time all nap of earth. Yes the 22 made it off the runway on the first go and the big surprise was the power lines at the end of the Interlaken runway. The freeware aircraft is a joy to fly but doesn't exhibit accelerated stall in maneuvers which should have caused heavy buffeting.

I flew into Denver from Chicago in RL yesterday, in a United Airlines Boeing 777, landing on RWY 7. This is what the downwind leg looked like:

 

I wanted to see how RL KDEN compared with MSFS KDEN, so this afternoon I flew the same approach in the Daher TBM (but from McCook, NEB; coming from Chicago would've taken too long), and this is what the downwind leg looked like in MSFS:

I was at 9,000 ft. in this screenshot, the flight level for the first final approach intersection--and, I assume, the downwind altitude of the Boeing 777 in the first picture.

 

Here's the RL base leg of the approach to KDEN's RWY 7:

 

And here's what it looked like in MSFS:

 

I watched for the runway during my UAL flight's base leg yesterday, but I never saw it before we turned onto the final approach. In the airport between flights, I saw a pilot and remarked that the base leg seemed short to me. He confirmed that ATC was cutting corners, as it were. Of course, being a mere passenger yesterday, there was no way I could compare the RL final approach view with the cockpit view in MSFS.

52F - KGGG SR22

KGGG-KUOX BE58

KUOX-KISM CJ4

7FL6-KISM C172

 

Finally got back into Vatsim and it was just as fun as I remember.

 

Thanks to the controllers who helped along the way!