This is just a page of flight sim photos.
Flight Sim Photos
Taking In The Views
I’ve spent a little time recently flying in X-Plane. Now that my journey around the world is complete I’ve decided to spend some time learning start up and shut down checklists to get a real feel for the aircraft. I’m currently playing with the T-6A Texan that the RAF uses as a basic jet trainer. It’s a good little aircraft. Here are some views that I’ve photographed recently:
I’m really enjoying the whole – potter about a bit – approach to exploring the UK. I’m trying to improve my take-off and landings at the moment, a little crucial you might think, but making them smooth and “butter” is taking some time.
London Views
Now that I’m back in the UK after having flown around the world it’s time to start learning how to fly. I’m going to spend time in the T-7 now that it’s X-Plane 12 compatible and start assigning shortcut keys and learning how to navigate. But, because that all seems like a lot of effort here are some pictures of London taken this morning.
I think I need to assign some new keys to the trim controls along with changing views etc. Let’s see what happens.
Hildesheim Travels
There was an X-Plane update and I thought I ought to “test the system”. I also found some scenery for my favourite airport – Hildesheim. I’ve been to this airport about seven times but I’ve never flown from there. When I visit it is the location of a music festival and the whole airport is a campsite. Anyway, I did a circuit. I don’t think there’s any sound, I’ve got to play with OBS settings a bit more. Also, no visuals of me! Who wants to see that!
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Task – Around The World – Status – Completed
What started as a bit of a “around the coast” trip to look at the scenery ended up being an around the world trip in short hops. I started this sometime in 2021 with a trip from Manchester Airport to RAF Valley, just to see what it would be like. Then I continued around the coastlines of all seven continents. See this communication for the start of the list. All airports landed at are listed in these communications:
- First one. Manchester to Nepal.
- Nepal to Russia.
- Russia to the Falkland Islands.
- Onwards to the Caribbean.
So now we have the final list of airports. From somewhere in the Gulf Of Mexico to Manchester.
- Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, US Virgin Islands
- JAGS McCartney International Airport, Turks and Caicos
- Providenciales International Airport, Turks and Caicos
- Leeward Point Field – Guantanamo, Cuba
- José Martí international Airport, Cuba
- Naval Air Station Key West, USA
- Florida Keys/Marathon International Airport, USA
- Tavernaero Park, USA
- Ocean Reef Club Airport, USA
- Boca Raton Airport, USA
- NASA Shuttle Landing Facility, USA
- Daytona Beach International Airport, USA
- Waycross-Ware County Airport, USA
- Myrtle Beach International Airport, USA
- First Flight Airport, USA
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, USA
- Atlantic City International Airport, USA
- LaGuardia Airport, USA
- Nantucket Memorial Airport, USA
- Beverly Regional Airport, USA
- Portsmouth International Airport, USA
- Seacoast Airfield, USA
- Portland International Jetport, USA
- Saint John Airport, Canada
- J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport, Canada
- Gander International Airport, Canada
- Narsarsuaq International Airport, Greenland
- Bíldudalur Airport, Iceland
- Reykjavík Airport, Iceland
- Vestmannaeyjar Airport, Iceland
- Hornafjörður Airport, Iceland
- Vágar Floghavn, Faroe Islands
- Tingwall Airport, Shetland
- Sumburgh Airport, Shetland
- Kirkwall Airport, Orkney
- Wick John O’Groats Airport, Scotland
- RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland
- Oban Airport, Scotland
- Glasgow Airport, Scotland
- Campbeltown Airport, Scotland
- City of Derry Airport, Northern Ireland
- Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland
- Belfast City Airport, Northern Ireland
- Ronaldsway Airport, Isle Of Man
- Keswick Airport, England – Fictional Airport
- Warton Aerodrome, England
- Manchester Airport, England
And there we have it. All the airports visited as part of this around the world flight. It’s taken around two years but I feel a sense of achievement. The next thing for me to do is to learn how to use navigation aids rather than VFR. That’s my plan for the next set of flight sim activities.
Just Another List
I’ve always enjoyed playing computer/console type games. Ever since the classic Commodore 64 with Chuckie Egg and Manic Miner. So, here’s some of the recent games I am enjoying:
- Fortnite
- Minecraft
- Gran Turismo
- Minecraft Dungeons
- X-Plane
I tend to have quite a bit of imposter syndrome so I think if I was asked I would say that I’m not a gamer. But then I have nearly 800 hours on Minecraft so maybe I am.
F-14D Over Brazil – Nothing Else To Say
All Seven Continents
It’s been a while since my last update to the list of airports and countries I have visited as part of my around the world flight in short hops. I can now confirm that I have reached all seven continents and am about to start making my way back home to the UK. There are some other communications from the first part to the second. So, here are the places I have been since the last communication and since updating X-Plane a short while ago.
Klyuchi Air Base Airport, Russia
Adak Airport, Alaska, U.S.A.
Lihue Airport, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Pacific Missile Range Facility, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Kahului Airport, Hawaii, U.S.A.
San Francisco International Airport, California, U.S.A.
Monterey Regional Airport, California, U.S.A.
San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, California, U.S.A.
Santa Barbara Airport, California, U.S.A.
Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach, California, U.S.A.
San Felipe International Airport, Mexico
Loreto International Airport, Mexico
La Paz International Airport- Manuel Márquez de León, Mexico
Los Cabos International Airport, Mexico
Mazatlán International Airport, Mexico
Tepic International Airport, Mexico
Lázaro Cárdenas Airport, Mexico
Chilpancingo National Airport, Mexico
Puerto Escondido International Airport, Mexico
Commercial Cd Ixtepec Airport, Mexico
Ángel Albino Corzo International Airport, Mexico
Toncontín Airport, Honduras
Juan Santamaría International Airport, Costa Rica
Enrique Malek International Airport (DAV), Panama
Ruben Cantu Airport, Panama
Tocumen International Airport, Panama
Enrique Adolfo Jiménez International Airport (ONX), Panama
Airport Antonio Roldan Betancur, Colombia
Olaya Herrera Airport, Colombia
Aeropuerto Antonio Narino, Colombia
Aeropuerto Mariscal La Mar, Ecuador
FAP Captain José Abelardo Quiñones González International Airport, Peru
Jorge Chavez International Airport, Peru
Aerodromo Maria Reiche, Peru
Juan Simons Vela Airport, Peru
Juan Mendoza Airport, Bolivia
Diego Aracena International Airport, Chile
San Pedro de Atacama Aerodrome SCPE, Chile
Las Breas Airport, Chile
Aeropuerto de Fiambalá, Chile
Aeropuerto Internacional Domingo Faustino Sarmiento – San Juan, Argentina
Santo Domingo Airfield, Chile
Mocha Island airport, Chile
Melinka Airport, Chile
Caleta Blanco Airport, Chile
Drummond Twins International Airport, Chile
Porvenir Airport, Chile
Almirante Schroeders Airport, Chile
Ushuaia Airport (USH), Argentina
Guardiamarina Zanartu Airport, Chile – moved to X-Plane 12
O’Higgins Skiway, Antarctica
RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands, UK
So, that’s all the continents completed. Now to head up the east coast of South America, North America and then home to good old Great Britain – not so great these days!
I Said I Wouldn’t But I Did
On Friday I was chatting to the Legend and I said I wouldn’t buy X-Plane 12 because XP 11 is pretty good and most of my payware might not transfer over. Well, it took all of about 12 hours to change my mind and buy X-Plane 12 even though it’s the development product. It took a while to download because I got the scenery for the whole world – why wouldn’t you!
I had to set up the joystick and configure the keys so they work as I like. This didn’t take a massive amount of time but it’s frustrating when all you want to do is fly around and see the world.
The scenery is amazing. I have turned most graphics settings up to maximum and this works well with my RTX graphics card. I’m getting >20fps which for a flight simulator, especially X-Plane, is pretty darn good. Also, using the taskmaster I can see that the GPU is being used at around 90% and this pleases me. It’s worth having something you’ve paid for working as it should.
I’ve added in some of my custom scenery and it seems to be working well. So, I have my airport in Keswick, which doesn’t exist in reality but it does mean I’m in the Lake District immediately and can fly around and bomb shit.
Now all I have to do is continue my flight around the world and get back to the UK so I can attempt to learn more. My payware aircraft from XP11 kinda work. I’ve tried the T-7 and as long as I keep the throttle high enough it seems to work ok. If I drop the throttle to idle the engine dies and that’s a touch embarrassing.
I’m somewhere in Chile at the moment and I’m heading to an airport on Antarctica. I have no idea what will exist when I get there and I’m only doing it so I can say I’ve “been” to every continent in my around the world flight. Here’s to many more hours of fun.
Nazca – Peru – Flight Sim
I’ve written here about my current Flight Sim challenge which is to fly around the world in short stages. Each leg is somewhere from 50 miles to 2000 miles, sometimes you have to fly over the Pacific and there isn’t a load of airports there. I’m currently in Peru and my previous journey had me landing at Aerodromo Maria Reiche in Nasca. While heading there I flew over the Nazca Lines and so I decided to download a scenery pack and go back and see what it looks like. I didn’t want to zoom over at 500 knots so decided to take a Grumman Goose out for a trip. As I’m heading to Lake Titicaca next I might make that trip in the Goose and land on the lake. It’s not very fast so I’ll have to see how much time I have. I might take the T7 to closer to the lake and then swap.
Heading South
I’m still flying around the world in X-Plane. There are a few very boring communications about this within this site. This communication is just to have my recent Avro Vulcan landing published somewhere other than my YouTube channel. I think most of my landings in that airplane had been “less than satisfactory” but this one went ok. I’m still going to keep trying. I’m starting to vary the aircraft a little to see how they are different and to stave off the boredom of another flight sitting at 35,000ft for half an hour.
Still Flying Around The World
I am still flying around the world in a series of flights on the flight simulator. I’ll have to look back through here to figure out when I started but I’m currently on the Kamchatka peninsula heading towards the Bering Straights. My most recent flight looks like this:
I’ve generally been doing flights of a few hundred miles but every now and then I put in one of a few thousand. I’m not sure if I’m going to Hawaii or not at the moment. I wonder if I head there, then California and on to South America. I honestly am not sure. I do know that once I get to Iceland I am pretty much done and then what do I do? It’s been fun planning the flights and heading around the world in this simulated world.
The last communication that covered a list of airports ended at Tenzing Hillary Airport in Nepal and so here is the rest of the list to bring us up to date:
Tumling Tar Airport, Nepal
Lhasa Gonggar Airport, Tibet
Paro Airport, Bhutan
Yonphula Airport, Bhutan
Kyaukhtu South Airport, Myanmar
Yangon International, Myanmar
Kyaukhtu South Airport, Myanmar
Dawei Airport, Myanmar
Myeik Airport, Myanmar
Kawthaung Airport, Myanmar
Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore
Brunei International Airport, Brunei
Syamsudin Noor International Airport, Indonesia
Selaparang Airport, Indonesia
Sumbawa Besar Airport, Indonesia
Sultan Muhammad Salahuddin Airport, Indonesia
Komodo International Airport, Indonesia
El Tari International Airport, Indonesia
Darwin International Airport, Australia
Broome International Airport, Australia
Port Hedland International Airport, Australia
Karratha Airport, Australia
Kalbarri Airport, Australia
RAAF Gingin, Australia
Bunbury Airport, Australia
Albany Regional Airport, Australia
Ravensthorpe Airport, Australia
Esperance Airport, Australia
Norseman Airport, Australia
Port Lincoln Airport, Australia
Adelaide Airport, Australia
Kingston Airport, Australia
Portland Airport, Australia
Warrnambool Airport, Australia
Apollo Bay Airport, Australia
Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport, Australia
Burnie Airport, Australia
Hobart Airport, Australia in the Avro Vulcan
Te Anau Airport, New Zealand
Invercargill Airport, New Zealand
Ryan’s Creek Aerodrome, New Zealand
Queenstown Airport, New Zealand
Christchurch Airport, New Zealand
Woodbourne Airport, New Zealand
Wellington Airport, New Zealand
New Plymouth Airport, New Zealand
Auckland Airport, New Zealand
Nouméa Magenta Airport, New Calendonia
Honiara International Airport, Solomon Islands
Rabaul Airport, Papua New Guinea
Lae Nadzab Airport, Papua New Guinea
Goroka Airport, Papua New Guinea
Kagamuga International Airport, Papua New Guinea
Dortheys Hiyo Eluay International Airport, Indonesia
Rendani Airport, Indonesia
Domine Eduard Osok Airport, Indonesia
Buli/Halmahera Island Airport, Indonesia
Sam Ratulangi International Airport, Indonesia
Naha Airport, Indonesia
General Santos International Airport, Philippines
Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Philippines
Lumbia Airfield, Philippines
Surigao Airport, Philippines
Panan-awan Airport, Philippines
Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, Philippines
Catarman National Airport, Philippines
Legazpi Airport, Philippines
Bagasbas Airport, Philippines
Fort Magsaysay Airport, Philippines
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, China
Wenzhou Longwan International Airport, China
Zhoushan Putuoshan Airport, China
Jeju International Airport, South Korea
Pyongyang International Airport, DPRK
Orang Airport, DPRK
Yanji Chaoyangchuan International Airport, China
Vladivostok International Airport, Russia
Sapporo Okadama Airport, Japan
Monbetsu Airport, Japan
Iturup Island Airport, Russia
Elizovo Airport, Russia
Klyuchi Air Base Airport, Russia
And there we have it. The list so far since the last communication. Not sure how to conquer the Pacific, will keep thinking about it.
This is communication number 2021 and so here are some things that happened in that year of our lord:
- NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter performs the first powered flight on another planet in history.
- Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
- The number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 5 million.
- Barbados becomes a republic on its 55th anniversary of independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Tasman Sea
It’s been tough, this last term. There’s plenty to moan about and discuss. But I’ll leave that to private conversations rather than let everything be out in the open on this site. If you can believe it I have my limits. I’m typing this as my flight sim heads across the sea from Hobart, Tasmania to an airport in New Zealand. I’ve got about fifty minutes to go. This is the longest over sea flight I have done and I keep looking at fuel levels. I think I might travel the length of New Zealand and then island hop to Hawaii, after that I’m not so sure how to get to the Americas. Maybe I’ll head to Galapagos and the South America. I honestly don’t know. I’m not even sure what the maximum range of my aircraft is. I can tell you that the T7 that I’m flying seems remarkably “loose” in the sky and I’m not sure if that’s the updated aircraft or just my flight sim. I guess I’ll find out when I try and land.
Wynard to Hobart, Tasmania. Change of plane for the fun of it. Actually landed this beast [kind of]. X-Plane. #roundtheworldtrip am currently heading to NZ. pic.twitter.com/aLmiHczV86
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 19, 2021
I’ve been tweeting the flights for a while now and I’m looking forward to whatever I’ll do when I return to the start point. I’ll need a new challenge but I’m also hoping that X-Plane 12 will be out by then. If they could make a version that uses multi-core rather then a single core then that would make me very happy. I don’t know how complicated that is but I do know they use an Apple computer for writing everything. I get a reasonable performance at the moment except over very built up areas and so multi-core could sort that out for me.
I’ve been checking online every now and then for PlayStation 5 stock. I was curious but I didn’t think I’d actually end up with a decent result, but . . . the other day I checked Argos and then Currys/PCWorld and it turned out there was a bundle in stock at PCWorld. Well, what could I do? I didn’t think I would buy one but the dream of GT7 on a 4K TV with raytracing got me and I clicked the order button. It’s coming on Tuesday. I need to rationalise AV corner now and think about getting game saves etc over from one machine to another. It’s probably time for the DVD and Blu-Ray player to go. It’s very rare that we actually watch anything on disc and the PS5 can be called into use whenever that ability is needed. I’ve promised myself I’ll try and get into more games over the next year. I want to use the games I have in the library. I will possibly report back on if it’s good or not in about a week.
The kids play mostly PC games when they are here. One on a laptop and the other uses my beast of a machine. I use my own PC for flight sim mostly. My fingers don’t really operate at a ASWD level, they are too used to a PS5 type controller. I could learn but there are other things I’m going to try and learn to push my brain a little. I guess I might reveal those things sometime in the future.
I’ve recently actually paid for a couple of albums. I’ve had Children Of The Dark by Mono Inc. in my head for ages and decided it was time to try and purge the earworm. It turns out that didn’t work and I keep getting their songs going through my head. I’m looking forward to seeing them in concert at sometime in the future. I’ve been wondering about whether it is best to buy an album or to stream music and I’ve mentioned that before on this site. For me, I thought buying an album meant more of the money I’ve spent would go to the artist. If I don’t listen to the songs many times more of the money in terms of royalties goes to the artist than if I just streamed the songs. Now, Daniel Graves from Aesthetic Perfection has said that he makes more money from streaming that album sales because I guess some people play individual songs over and over. I don’t know if it would make my contribution more to the artists as I often only play a song a couple of times and not over and over. It’s something I’m going to think about over the next week or so.
Well, I arrive in New Zealand in about ten minutes so I need to head back to the flight simulator and get ready for landing. I’m really worried about the handling of the aircraft and I hope I don’t crash on the landing as by my own imposed rules I would have to start the flight again!! Keep an eye on Twitter for progress.
This is communication 1997. Here are some things that happened in the year 1997 ACE:
- Hale-Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth.
- The UK hands Hong Kong to China.
- The country went Diana mad. I was left remarkably unfazed by the whole thing and didn’t really care.
- The Prius goes into production.
Bhutan Completed
As part of my around the world trip I have reached the Himalayas and so have visited Tibet, Nepal and now Bhutan. The last of these is relatively small and only has four airports so after landing at Paro International I decided to fly past two of the airports and then land at Yongphulla.
In the above image the black line is the direct route, the pink link a route leg I didn’t activate and the red line is the route I took. I’m flying a little Boeing Saab T-7, it has good feels and has the power of a military jet and so is able to cope with my rapid direction changes and approaches.
Thankfully I now have some time off work! It has been a hard few weeks and I need the rest. As if to let me know I spent all of Saturday lying on the sofa sleeping with aches and pains and general ill feeling. Even Sunday morning I wasn’t great but am feeling back to normal now, nearly, apart from a phlegm filled chest. It isn’t Covid, I’ve done many LFTs and also a PCR when I first started showing symptoms. I did the PCR using a postal service and next time I think I will make sure I go to a drive through centre, the results will be quicker.
My summer of letters has continued with a letter to my MP although nothing good will come from that. Teachers, and many other public servants, have had a massive pay reduction in real terms over the last ten years. My union, the NEU, published some graphs showing how pay had changed over the last ten years when compared to the RPI.
Now this uses RPI rather than CPI and I’ve been over to the ONS to see what the CPI rate has been and I can say it has hovered around 2% over the last ten years being generous to the side of the government. Using that generous rate a teacher’s pay would be GBP 44,805. As you can see even using numbers that flatter the government teachers have suffered a real terms pay loss over the last ten years amounting to a current loss of about GBP 3,000. I am not saying we are more important than other professions who have had a pay freeze and I am not saying we should be given the whole amount now. What I am saying is that the government should recognise these facts and put into action some plan to help correct these issues.
Clearly given the governments we’ve had for the last ten years this won’t happen. They won’t see the unfairness of these increases and they’ll say that recruitment is going well. I would argue that while recruitment is going well it is due to the fact that the rest of the economy is fucked and people are having to retrain after losing their jobs and everyone thinks they can be a teacher. Just as a comparison MP salaries have increased an average of 2.2% per year compared to the teachers increase of 1.2% in the same time. Oh, and they can claim fucking loads of expenses and have subsidised food and drink along with massive benefits like swapping prime residence etc.
I’ve been describing accuracy of lateral flow tests to pupils as part of a conditional probability part of the statistics course and I keep forgetting a couple of the words used to describe how good the tests are. The government likes to bang on about the specificity of the LFTs and that is generally a good high number, around 99%. The specificity tells you how the probability of you having Covid if the test returns a positive result. It therefore seems there’s a 1%, or lower, chance of a false positive result. The problematic number is the sensitivity the LFTs have. The sensitivity tells you the probability of getting a false negative, if you have the disease but the LFT returns a negative result. This is a measure of how sensitive the test is to the disease. Currently, depending on who does the LFT, the sensitivity is running at 40% to 80%. So, LFTs will only be positive on around half the positive cases. This is a massive fucking problem and one the government either deliberately doesn’t mention or is just too stupid to understand. You can’t have a policy of opening up the country when the test you are using to maintain the safety of everyone only catches around 50% of the cases. The government are fucking idiots.
This is communication number 1980 [+-1] and so here are some things that happened in the year of my eighth birthday:
- Saudi Arabia beheads 63 people who did a bad thing.
- 123 people dies when a Norwegian oil platform collapses.
- The first 24 hour news channel starts.
- AC/DC release Back In Black.
- A fire in a hotel in Las Vegas kills 85.
Seems An Important Leg
I’ve been heading around the world in my Boeing/Saab T-7, just hopping from airport to airport. It started as a round the UK coast trip and I’m now in Nepal so I got distracted by more coastline and then mountains. This is not going to be an interesting communication as it is a list of every airport I have stopped at on this journey. X-Plane keeps a log of journeys and so I am able to write this here, also, I have a bit of paper covered with names of places and that is about to run out of space so I need to get this started:
Manchester, England.
RAF Valley, Wales.
Aberporth Airport, Wales.
Bristol Filton Airport, England.
RAF Lyneham, England.
Lee On Solent Airport, England.
Jersey Airport, Jersey.
Quimper–Cornouaille Airport, France.
Nantes Atlantique Airport, France.
La Rochelle – Île de Ré Airport, France.
Cazaux Air Base, France.
San Sebastián Airport, Spain.
Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport, Spain.
Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport, Spain.
Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, Portugal.
Monte Real Air Base, Portugal.
Humberto Delgado Airport, Portugal.
Faro Airport, Portugal.
Base Naval de Rota, Spain.
Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar.
Rabat–Salé Airport, Morocco.
Ben Slimane Airport, Morocco.
Marrakesh Menara Airport, Morocco.
Agadir – Al Massira Airport, Morocco.
Tan Tan Airport, Morocco.
César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport, Spain.
Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport, Spain.
La Palma Airport, Spain.
Dakhla Airport, Morocco.
Nouadhibou Airport, Mauritania.
Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, Mauritania.
Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, Senegal.
Banjul International Airport, Gambia.
Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, Guinea-Bissau.
Conakry Gbessia International Airport, Republic of Guinea.
Faranah Airport, Republic of Guinea.
Lungi International Airport, Sierra Leone.
Monrovia-Roberts Airport, Liberia.
Man Airport, Côte d’Ivoire.
San Pédro Airport, Côte d’Ivoire.
Félix Houphouët Boigny International Airport, Côte d’Ivoire.
Takoradi Airport, Ghana.
Kotoka International Airport, Ghana.
Aéroport de Lomé-Gnassingbe Eyadema, Togo.
Cotonou Cadjehoun Airport, Benin.
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
Ibadan Airport, Nigeria.
Benin Airport, Nigeria.
Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Nigeria.
Ajaokuta Airport, Nigeria.
Bamenda Airport, Cameroon.
Bafoussam Airport, Cameroon.
Ngaoundéré Airport, Cameroon.
Yaoundé Airport, Cameroon.
Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport, Cameroon.
Bata Airport, Equatorial Guinea.
Port-Gentil International Airport, Gabon.
Omboué Hospital Airport, Gabon.
Agostinho-Neto International Airport, Republic of Congo.
Kitona Base Airport, Republic of Congo.
Luanda Airport, Angola.
Porto Amboim Airport, Angola.
Aéroport de Waku-Kungo, Angola.
Benguela Airport, Angola.
Welwitschia Mirabilis International Airport, Angola.
Aéroport de Xangongo, Angola.
Ruacana Airport, Namibia.
Andimba Toivo ya Toivo Airport, Namibia.
Grootfontein Air Force Base, Namibia.
Uis Mine Airport, Namibia.
Walvis Bay Airport, Namibia.
Aérodrome de Lüderitz, Namibia.
Aérodrome d’Oranjemund, Namibia.
Air Force Base Langebaanweg, South Africa.
Cape Town International Airport, South Africa.
Air Force Base Overberg, South Africa.
Port Elizabeth International Airport, South Africa.
Margate Airport, South Africa.
Maputo International Airport, Mozambique.
Beira International Airport, Mozambique.
Aérodrome de Nacala, Mozambique.
Julius Nyerere International Airport, Tanzania.
Moshi Airport, Tanzania.
Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, Zanzibar.
Aden Adde International Airport, Somalia.
Iskushuban Airport, Somalia.
Abdullahi Yusuf Airport, Somalia.
Socotra Airport, Yemen.
Salalah Airport, Oman.
RAFO Thumrait Airbase, Oman.
RAFO Masirah, Oman.
Muscat International Airport, Oman.
Fujairah International Airport, UAE.
Khasab Airport, Oman.
Dubai International Airport, UAE.
Al Bateen Executive Airport, UAE.
Jebel Dhana Airport, UAE.
Delma Island Airport, UAE.
Qeshm International Airport, Iran.
Jask Airport, Iran.
Konarak Airport, Iran.
Turbat International Airport, Pakistan.
Pasni Airport, Pakistan.
Ormara Airport, Pakistan.
Jinnah International Airport, Pakistan.
Rajanpur Airport, Pakistan.
Zhob Airport, Pakistan.
Miran Shah Airport, Pakistan.
Saidu Sharif Airport, Pakistan.
Skardu Airport, Pakistan.
Muzaffarabad Airport, Pakistan.
Chilas Airport, Pakistan.
Hotan Airport, China.
Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport, India.
Ngari Kunsha Airport, Tibet.
Simikot Airport, Nepal.
Jumla Airport, Nepal.
Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal.
Tenzing Hillary Airport, Lukla, Nepal.
And so this journey around the world continues. I have just flown past Mount Everest after [not quite] landing at Lukla. After passing the highest place on Earth I headed to:
Tumlingtar Airport, Nepal.
I think is almost, kind of, half way around? I have no idea. We’ll have to see what the rest of this journey looks like.
This is comms#1979 and so here are some things that happened in that year:
- Sid Vicious dies.
- Compact Disk displayed publicly for first time.
- The last British soldier leaves Malta.
- A human powered aircraft flies across the English Channel.
- A dam failure in India kills up to 25,000.
Jumla and Lukla
I’ve been flying around the world in my T-7 and it’s been fun so far. I’ve covered the coasts of Europe, Africa and the southern Arabian peninsula. Once I got to Pakistan I decided to follow the mountains across Asia. I’m not sure what I’ll do once I get to the Pacific coast. Now that I’m deeply in the Himalayas the airports become a little more challenging. I’ve crashed at a couple – Jumla and Lukla. I’ve crashed mostly because of high descent rates but also because of running out of runway. The little T7 doesn’t have reverse thrust and I’m gradually learning the limit of the braking.
This map shows the route I flew to get from Simikot to Jumla and the fact that my aircraft is pointing the wrong way is not because I’ve started to taxi but more due to the fact that the plane was tumbling along the runway after an “aggressive” approach.
If you expand the image you can see where the runway is and I know it looks fine but I didn’t manage it the first time. I did ok on the second attempt which is not really what you want a pilot to be especially good at!
This is comms#1978 and so here are some things that happened in that year of our lord [what a load of crap].
- The first GPS Satellite is launched.
- Jimmy Carter proposes cancelling neutron bomb development.
- Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is first broadcast.
- Mormons allow black men to become priests.
- 918 people die in a murder-suicide in Jonestown.
- Artificial insulin is invented.
Liushi Shan
Hotan to Leh. This is a picture of Liushi Shan mountain. X-Plane. #roundtheworldtrip pic.twitter.com/p8XqdehdG7
— Ian Parish (@iparish) October 6, 2021
I’ve spent a fair amount of time recently flying around the world, in a flight simulator. Let’s make that clear, I’m playing a game on a computer. I’m not doing this in real life. This started as a coastline tour of the UK from RAF Valley heading south and I just got stuck following coasts all the way to Pakistan. One day there will be a list on this site of all the airports I’ve landed at, well, at least since I’ve been keeping a list, which I think starts in Africa.
I’m going to skip the coastline of India and head across the Himalayas to see some mountainous scenery. I’m not sure where I’ll go once I hat the coast again, and I’m not sure when I’ll head back to the UK. Maybe I’ll just do a trip around the eastern hemisphere for now? I don’t know.
While I’ve been flying I’ve been learning more about operating the aircraft and trying flight plans etc. I think I’ve just about managed to program a plan into the flight computer, but I haven’t yet followed it because I keep seeing valleys to get low down in.
I had been using some software to add other players into my game, but no one is really around where I am so I’ve been using the PC to generate other planes. This picture shows another T7 following me. I was worried it was going to shoot me down as I have combat turned on, but they just kept their distance and left me alone. It was quite nice to have someone else in the sky, even if it’s just an “AI” plane.
So, I#ve recently landed at Leh, in India and I think it’s the first landing I’ve made in India. I’m not sure. The borders around here are a little hazy! Looking at Google maps I’ve just missed K2 and I won’t be going back for it. I’ve got to keep on moving eastwards.
This is comms#1971, so here are some things that happened in that year:
- First One Day International Cricket match.
- Apollo 14 lands on moon.
- Decimalisation of money in UK and Ireland.
- Apollo 15 lands on the moon.
- First Mr Men book.
- A Clockwork Orange film is released.
Follow Me Around The World
I’m not sure when I started this journey but I’ve been flying [in a Sim – X-Plane] around the coastline of the world. I started on Anglesey in Wales and am currently in Iran. I suspect a future communication will just be a big long list of the airports visited as I complete this journey. I nearly turned around once I reached the Red Sea but have decided to see what happens as I head further east.
Dayrestan to Jask Military. X-Plane. #roundtheworldtrip pic.twitter.com/sfzrxm1xm1
— Ian Parish (@iparish) September 8, 2021
As I pass through airports I’ve been tweeting my journey. I’m not sure when I started doing that, I think I just wanted a record of the flights somewhere. They are in my virtual log book and also on a scrap of paper on the table next to me. The first one on the paper is Bamenda. I completed that flight on 13 July.
Landing at Bamenda, Cameroon. Part of the round the world tour in twenty minute steps. Started at RAF Valley, Wales have mostly followed coastlines. pic.twitter.com/HZ2nH0zYlV
— Ian Parish (@iparish) July 13, 2021
I’m not sure in what format to have all the airports listed in the end. Watch this space and see what I say. If you are lucky and go to this MAP when I am flying then you’ll be able to see where I am and what I’m doing. My aircraft user name is Kertz. Click on the aircraft to see which one is mine. You might be told it’s a Cessna. I can assure you it isn’t. Because the JoinFS software I used works across platforms you have to tell it what you are flying. There are some categories, but over all I have found that the system works well and I’ve flown with a friend while they are based in Texas IRL.
Above is what the maps will look like if you can find me. When you click on the aircraft there is information about them that pops up. It’s quite a neat little trick.
This is communication 1959 and here are some things that happened in that year:
- Alaska becomes the 49th USA state.
- A referendum is Switzerland turns down women’s suffrage.
- British Empire Day is renamed Commonwealth Day. Why do we still have MBE medals??
- The X-15 makes its first powered flight.
- The first known human with HIV dies in the Congo.
X-Plane Views
I can’t remember how long I’ve been flying around the world in X-Plane. I know I started at RAF Valley in North Wales and I’m now in Oman. I almost decided to quit and head back to the UK just to see something other than desert. Maybe the views will get more interesting once I hit the Indian subcontinent? I’ve tried the terrain following radar and that seems to work quite well, I do suspect that at times the system gets into a System Induced Oscillation and I have to keep an eye on that while chucking it along at 600 knots and 200 feet. I could set the thing to go lower but I don’t know what the lead time is when heading into the hills.
I’ve been using both screens as a wide screen monitor and I’m impressed with the results. I’m getting 50FPS in the desert and at altitude which is good. Then, when over simple towns it doesn’t change much but over Kent the frame rate drops to around 24 which, if I’m being honest, is fine as far as I’m concerned. There are some strange ways that X-Plane behaves and the limit isn’t the graphics card it’s more likely the fact that the simulator only uses one core in the CPU.
I flew over the Alps from Saanan to somewhere close to Italy and on the way I popped up over the Matterhorn. This was me testing the new set up and frame rates in a complex, but basic in terms of human infrastructure, area of the world. I wanted to see how smooth the flight simulator felt and I will say that it worked perfectly. I could increase the framerate a little more if I used a different aircraft but why would anyone want to do that?
It’s not so easy to get the external pictures when using a widescreen set up but I think I managed it well. Not sure if I can get the widescreen look with an in-program snap shot but I could keep trying. I’m not sure if it would look good as a picture though.
While heading over the desert in Oman I tried to get some shots of my bombs firing and I think I did well. I’m lucky that none of the detritus flying around destroyed my aircraft! That has happened many times when I’ve been flying too low and drop bombs in the past. I release the bombs and then the aircraft blows up and the world is suddenly quiet as the game ejects me from my fighter. Oh well!
Today, as I write this, it is the last day of August and I was hopeful that I would beat my previous communications per month total but this month is going to come in second as the most I’ve ever published is 68 in May 2013. There is very little chance of me beating that at any time in the future. It’s too much and I think I’ve become more snobby about the “content” on here and trying to increase the quality of the subjects that I write about. I doubt the actual words I write have improved, but then while learning a lot about language recently I do know that grammar and meanings are very fluid and maybe we shouldn’t shit on people so much for not being able to write good.
This is communication number 1944 and so here are some things that happened in that year of the common era:
- 521 choke to death after a train stalls in a tunnel in Italy.
- The prohibition on married women working as teachers is lifted in the UK.
- 167 people die in the Hartford circus fire.
- Last evidence of the Asiatic lion.
Is Three Enough?
I recently spent some time at RAF Syerston and saw plenty of flight simulators there and generally the fashion was that you can’t have too many screens. So, because I’ve had a spare screen sitting on the dining room table for the last eighteen months I decided to fit it, again, to the PC. The only place it can go is at “the top” although I’d be tempted to place it into an aircraft instruments position at some point. I had all the gear because I had already tried the monitor there, but didn’t like the look of it. I’ve probably changed my mind for now.
So, this screen shows the flight simulator running with aircraft view on the right and various instrument views on the other screens. I’m not entirely sure I like this set up and I will try another way of doing this.
Have changed to have the cockpit view spread across the two centre screens, ancillary instruments at the top and a tablet with flight information on it under the main screens. This set up makes more sense as far as I’m concerned. I know the items on the upper screen wouldn’t be there in a real cockpit but I don’t have the kit to move the monitor. It would take too much hassle to make it look proper and I don’t use the PC as a flight sim all the time anyway.
I’m not necessarily happy about the bezels in the middle of the cockpit view and I know I could adjust the offset to make it look slightly more realistic, but then I would also lose some of the centre instrumentation. I guess the only answer is a massive curved screen. Maybe I’ll get one sometime in the future but I am massively aware that my hot water boiler is fucked and I need to think sensibly about spending money for the next while!!
This is communication number 1942 and so here are a few [non WWII] things that happened that year:
- The Sikorsky R-4 first flies
- A coal dust explosion in china claims 1549 lives.
- The first nuclear accident occurs in Leipzig.
- Plutonium is isolated.
- The first man-made self sustaining nuclear chain reaction at Stagg Field in Chicago.