"Nothing but the rain"
I’ve been trying to fly in X-Plane a bit recently. I need to do more I guess. There’s a plugin called Volanta by Orbx which I’m using to track my flights and it has some challenges it can add to the simulator so that gives me things I can aim for. I recently took a dawn flight from Biggin Hill to Le Touquet and I flew under the QE2 bridge and alongside my village. In the second picture here you can see the village where I live, if you know what you are looking for.
This is just a page of flight sim photos.
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.
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.
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!
Like and subscribe!
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 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.
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!
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.