I’ve been busy over the last while playing Minecraft now and then. This video is long overdue as it’s a walk through of the latest base area, which I think was finished a few months ago but I just hadn’t got around to recording the walk-around. Things have been quite busy. This last weekend gave me the opportunity to spend some time setting up the recording software again [it hadn’t been used really since the new screen was purchased]. It took a while to figure out how to create new scenes and get widescreen recording to work nicely. However, this Minecraft video is in standard 16:9. Why? Because I don’t think Minecraft looks good in ultra-widescreen. I’d rather put a decent product onto YouTube than one where I think I’ve compromised in video quality. I’ll be uploading some flight sim stuff soon and that will be in lovely widescreen.
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.
Bhutan Complete
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.
Teacher Pay Rises Versus 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.
MP Salary
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.
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.
Heading Past Mount Everest
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.
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.
Crashed At Jumla
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.
Jumla 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.
Something went wrong. I’ve recently been adding some extra information to my communications, partly to keep track and partly to add content that might be interesting. I’ve been using the “posts” count within WordPress and at the end of each communication I write a little about what happened in that year, just as an extra. I did try this somewhere in the 1600s as I thought it would be fun but I got bored and couldn’t be bothered. Then I started it again in communication number 1897.
There has been a problem along the way because the communication number I have been using at the end of each post is now out of synchronisation with the number that WordPress thinks it is on and I have no idea how that happened. Either I can’t count [which is likely] or WordPress can’t count, which is also quite likely as there is no fool proof method for computer systems to count things. So, this communication will not have any exciting information at the end of it to bring the comms# into line with the WordPress number and to make sure that I hit 2000 spot on, or close enough. It’s almost embarrassing that the count on this site is going to be 2000+-1.
So, for a little extra content here is an embedding of my most popular YouTube video when scored by views:
This video was recorded just at the beginning of my lockdown in 2020 and features my new Philips Ambilight TV.
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.
The Coast Of Hingol National Park
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.
China India Border With A Friend In Tow
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.
Just Over Surigh Yilganing Kol
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:
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. #roundtheworldtrippic.twitter.com/sfzrxm1xm1
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
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.
You Can Track My Flights
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??
I think I’m going to stop. I’ve bought a beast of a machine with screens to match those abilities. I remember I first bought a PC for making music and I wasn’t really bothered about gaming performance, and that’s still mostly true. I’m not a hardcore PC gamer but I am very interested in flying. It just happens to turn out that the flight sim of choice – X-Plane is quite consuming of PC power. It’s also an odd program with the way it utilises the cores of the PC. Anyway. I’ve been trying to get the best flight simulation screen-age. I think I’m there although to use all the pixels to the maximum I will need another PC but that’s going to have to wait.
The Beautiful Front View
I’m not going to go through the specification of everything. Needless to say I’m very happy with it all. The curved monitor is very bright! It also chucks out a lot of heat so I think I’m not doing my bit for the environment. To keep everything in this position there’s a level of chaos to the reverse view:
Takes To Have Beauty
The curved screen has its own stand and the two top monitors are connected via 100mm VESA things to different arms on the metre high pole screwed to the desk. Look, it all works fine and is lined up to within tolerances.
This is communication 1953 and so here are some things that happened in that year of the common era in keeping with recent tradition:
Derek Bentley is executed [murdered by the state] in Wandsworth prison.
The North Sea flood kills over 2000 in coastal countries.
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?
The Matterhorn, because it’s there
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.
Bombing Run – Oman
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.
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.
The Flight Simulator System
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.
Current Flight Sim Set Up
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.
