"Nothing but the rain"
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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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:
So now we have the final list of airports. From somewhere in the Gulf Of Mexico to Manchester.
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.
I’ve been playing Fortnite since about last October. I quite enjoy it, it’s not my favourite game but it is the only one I play where I get to interact with the family and run around killing things. I’ve played Navy Seals in the past and the online experience wasn’t great, especially if you’ve only just started playing online and don’t have all the time to get good at the game. Fortunately the Legend has guided me through Fortnite and I’ve got some kids who play better than me and carry me a lot. Here are the stats from the Fortnite game itself:
I get carried a LOT in squads. I think I’m most proud of the top 5 statistic in the Duos category. Considering a lot of the time the Legend and I are just driving around breaking things and generally having a bit of a giggle to get top 5 that much I think is impressive.
The above table is all of the stats but percentaged for each category. I honestly have no idea if the percentages are good. Also, to be honest, I don’t care. The thing about these games is to have fun. Once you become too competitive I think it becomes less fun and more stressy. This is the main reason why I don’t play Gran Turismo online that much. There’s too much stress. Oh, I’ve just passed 800 hours on Minecraft – yes, I’ll take that applause, thank you.
I’ve been thinking of having a dedicated Minecraft server for a long time. Prior to recently it has been running on my PC if and when the server is needed. I play on different platforms and while I can use the PC Server anywhere in the world moving my world to a provided external company as a server wasn’t an option as my PlayStations would not join those servers. Currently most platforms, except the PlayStation, allow connection to external servers but Sony haven’t because of reasons to do with safety? So, paying a company for a server isn’t really an option. I needed something that would work at home and independently from the PC.
I quite fancied a Raspberry Pi to do the job and there are plenty of websites out there with instructions. As long as the Pi is reasonably spec’d it should work ok and is relatively cheap to buy and cheap to run. I’ve got experience with the Pi owning two already – both for specific purposes. So I ordered a Pi to see how well it would serve me. A couple of things I noticed I guess. If you use Ubuntu you can’t use the Microsoft Ubuntu server edition because it is designed for a different chip architecture. The are various dedicated Raspbian Minecraft servers and I followed the instructions to create one. I couldn’t transfer over my current world to the Pi server as the file format was different and I’m not sure that I want to start completely again yet. So, the Pi will be used for a different project at some point.
The next option was to get a cheap PC and run Windows or Linux and operate a server compatible with my current world. I searched Amazon and Ebay for mini-PCs and ultimately landed on getting a refurbished Lenovo ThinkCenter. It’s a small box around 15cm square and about three centimetres deep. It has all the things I need. A good-enough processor, reasonable RAM and an SSD. The moving parts are minimal and the count of them is probably two – the fan and the power switch.
I ordered one from an EBay shop with plenty of good feedback. I don’t read the good feedback, I tend to read the one star reviews to see what problems I might encounter. A lot of people out there will leave low reviews for stupid reasons which are nothing to do with the product. i.e. took too long to arrive, didn’t work with my device etc. So the new device arrived promptly and I started the whole boot up, log in procedure. I always find it a little exciting when starting a new device for the first time. I logged into Windows and started to sort out the software and run updates when I got a blue screen of death. I was a little surprised but thought that maybe the update had messed something up. From that point on I would get bsod every few minutes and sometimes I couldn’t even log in to the machine. A number of the error codes suggested the memory was faulty so I got in touch with the company.
They sent me some new RAM immediately. I fitted it and the PC works very now. I have server software running and it’s accessible anywhere in the world. I have remote access to the device and have set it up so it is “locked” after start up. I’ve learnt quite a few things about Windows along the way. I have a better idea of what sort of things are possible. I can also access the files remotely so that I can back up my maps and keep all the work safe. Ultimately I gave the company a five star review on EBay. While the product was initially faulty they sorted it out quickly and it works well now.
It’s a touch annoying when setting up a new server happens to coincide with the day that Mojang release new updates for Minecraft Bedrock. I’d got the server up and running and I went to test it on the PS5 and I was told the server was out of date! Little did I know that the PS5 had updated Minecraft while I was logging in and I then had to update the server software along with updating all my devices that have Minecraft. I think one device still isn’t updated as the roll-out takes some time. I’m looking forward to playing Minecraft in those spare moments and seeing where else I can explore in my world.
There are some other things that need organising. I need to figure out where to put the Server. It’s currently in a temporary place where I can get to it and use it with ease. I’m thinking I might attach it to the underside of my PC desk so that all the nice things are close together. This causes some issues as there will be cables stretching across a currently cable-free area. So, I’ve decided to get another ethernet switch and use that to minimise the cabling required. I think it will all fit nicely and be partially hidden. Also, I can have the server displaying on one of the PC monitors if I need it without moving things around.
As part of my journey around the world in a flight simulator I am heading up the eastern seaboard of the USA. I’ve just left Florida and was looking for another place to land when I saw an airstrip called First Flight. This made sense when I looked on a map as it is at Kitty Hawk Sands in North Carolina. I landed at the airport and then saw something so I taxied my plane to it.
Hopefully the plane has off-road capability. After the flight I looked this stuff up and it’s all monuments to the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. I’m impressed with the scenery in the simulator. The only thing it doesn’t get right is the grass being a shit colour instead of green.
I’m slightly amused by the monument as there is a road in a circle around it so you don’t have to walk around the thing. Just park up somewhere and see it from a distance.
I landed on runway 21 and then taxied up to the monument which was a bit cheeky really. My next flight is going to be over Norfolk Navy base and then maybe on to Washington DC to see what the scenery there looks like. I don’t think it’s going to be too long before I’m back home and at RAF valley where this thing started.
As part of my around-the-world tour I have made it to Florida. Currently, the state is suffering from what we would call – WLS – or wanker leader syndrome. It’s a shame really. I really liked my time there at the Kennedy Space Center, but I don’t think I’d want to visit now. Other places with more liberal laws can have my money.
I was playing some Team Rumble mode Fortnite the other day trying to get headshots with an assault rifle for some stupid quest. Then I got Thundersticked.
I died shortly after that. But not from the stick through the chest!!
I’m flying around the world in my Flight Sim – X-Plane. There are communications giving my progress, but I’m in the Caribbean at the moment heading to that hellscape that is Florida. I think my last stop before USA [again] is Havana. But, and this is the most important bit, I landed at Guantanamo Bay air station from the Turks and Caicos. I was in a little private jet and somehow it seemed fitting to land there and then depart quite quickly. I left my cargo there to be abused of process and tortured.
The things the “west” have done over the last thirty years distress me immensely. I have a suspicion that if I looked at most of history I would find that it’s all rather terrible and the “west” has pretty much fucked everything up. Anyway, onto Florida where the current governor has banned medical help for women and trans people because – fuck you. I don’t understand people full of hate.
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:
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.
I’m still moving on with my around the world mission in X-Plane. In the last communication I was bombing around over Brazil having visited Antarctica. I’m still working my northwards at the moment to complete the east coast of the Americas. I do have some new kit on the flight sim – two desk extensions that hold the HOTAS system.
So, my last landing was in the Falkland Islands so we shall continue with the next airport visited:
Rio Gallegos International Airport, (RGL/SAWG), Argentina
Comandante Luis Piedrabuena Airport, Argentina
Santa Cruz Airport, Argentina
Puerto Deseado Airport, Argentina
Cañadon Seco Airport, Argentina
General Enrique Mosconi International Airport, Argentina
Almirante Marcos A. Zar Airport, Argentina
Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport, Argentina
Comandante Espora Airport, Argentina
El Palomar Airport, Argentina
João Simões Lopes Neto International Airport, Brazil
Aeródromo de Belém Novo, Brazil
Diomício Freitas/Forquilhinha Airport, Brazil
Florianópolis-Hercílio Luz International Airport, Brazil
Costa Esmeralda Airport, Brazil
Joinville-Lauro Carneiro de Loyola Airport, Brazil
Curitiba-President Afonso Pena International Airport, Brazil
São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport, Brazil
Jacarepaguá–Roberto Marinho Airport, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro/Galeão – Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport, Brazil
Joaquim de Azevedo Mancebo Airport, Brazil
Campos–Bartolomeu Lysandro Airport, Brazil
Guarapari Airport, Brazil
Eurico de Aguiar Salles Airport, Brazil
Una-Comandatuba Airport, Brazil
Val-de-Cans/Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport, Brazil
Macapá-Alberto Alcolumbre International Airport, Brazil
Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Guyana
Piarco International Airport, Trinidad and Tobago
Maurice Bishop International Airport, Grenada
Canouan Airport, Canouan in St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Argyle International Airport, St Vincent
Hewanorra International Airport, St Lucia
Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport, Martinique
Douglas–Charles Airport, Dominica
John A. Osborne Airport, Montserrat
V. C. Bird International Airport, Antigua
Princess Juliana International Airport, St Martin
Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, British Virgin Islands
Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, US Virgin Islands
So, not far to go now. Heading northwards and then I’ll curve over the Arctic to get back home. I’m looking forward to it.