Yippee!
I finally got to fly around and take pictures of Moscow to share. Note that I still don’t know how to take pictures from outside w/o crashing yet.
Question: I was not able to find a command “take screenshot” that I could assign to a controller button. I would like to do that so I don’t have to take my hands off the controls and pause the sim just to snap a picture.
Here we go!
Flying north from Ostafyev, (flying out of Ostafyevo airport), we pass what used to be the ZIL auto, (limousine), manufacturing plant, (lower center with smokestacks), that made the fancy cars for the upper-crust in Soviet times. (Most of these landmarks date from Soviet times.)
Next is a view of the Kremlin. Note that “Kremlin” is a generic term for a “fortress” or walled and fortified position from the middle ages. Kind of like a Russian castle. (Russians didn’t build “castles” per se.)
Here’s a closer view:
You can see the Kremlin, (upper center), Lenin’s Tomb, (the small red building just below the Kremlin), the big shopping mall GUM, (pronounced “goom” like “gloom” - in the center with three rows of glass skylights. Between them the large paved area is Red Square. In the upper center left at the left end of Red Square is St. Basil’s Cathedral. At the other end of Red Square is a large brick building with several spires which used to be the Lenin Museum, but is now the Russian History Museum, (I think). Directly above the center spire is a long building with a bluish roof. This used to be the stables for the Kremlin, but now is a large flea-market.
The golden domed building in the center is The Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer - the seat of the Moscow Metropolitan, the “pope” of the Russian Orthodox Church. (Interesting note: his name is "Kirill, just like my son’s name 
) During Soviet times the original church was destroyed and a large, round, public swimming pool was placed there. It was rebuilt about 15 years ago by the Archdiocese of Moscow, (or whatever the Orthodox church calls an archdiocese.)
The next picture is just up the Moscow River from the cathedral and is a sculpture featuring a sailing ship.
This sculpture was erected to honor Czar Peter the Great during the time of Catherine the Great. (Historical note: She wanted to be one of the “The Great” czars, so she continually associated herself with Peter the Great so that people would think of her as a “great” czar, (czarina), and she erected several sculptures in his honor all over the place, but primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg.)
Extending up from the aircraft in the center is the Soviet Exhibition of Economic Achievements. In the center of the mall just left of the airplane instrument panel’s glare shield is a square building - the Pavilion of Soviet Unity that has sculptures representing all the republics of the former Soviet Union. This was the place where all state funerals were held - not unlike the Capital Rotunda in the United States. On the bottom center-left you can see a pointy spire, (with a stylized rocket on the top), which is the sculpture that the Soviet Union erected after Yuri Gagarin’s first orbital flight. (Historical note: Scott Carpenter, (the first American astronaut), was totally upset because instead of sending a man on the first rocket flight from Cape Canaveral, they sent a monkey - Ham. If they had sent Scott Carpenter, like all the Mercury astronauts wanted, he would have been first in space.)
This next picture is a close-up of the Gagarin sculpture. It also contains in it’s base a museum dedicated to Russian, (Soviet?), space flight.
This next picture is Ostankono Tower, the tallest structure in Moscow.
A closer view. If you look about two thirds of the way up, you will see a small section that sticks out a bit wider than the rest - that’s a revolving restaurant. It is also notable because it houses studios and the main transmitter for the TV channel “NTV”.1
This is the Moscow Center, (not the physical center, that’s near Red Square), Moscow’s attempt to build some modern looking skyscrapers.
Here, in the middle left, is the Olympic Park, built for the 1980 Summer Olympics which were held in Moscow.
This next building (center), is the Moscow State University, one of the most prestigious technical universities in Russia - roughly equivalent to MIT in the United States. Nearby is the Institute of Aeronautics where they teach aeronautical engineering and where most of the Soviet and modern-day Russian aircraft are designed.
This building is noteworthy because it is one of the “Seven Tall Buildings” built during Stalin’s time, (and the only one represented in MSFS 2020). Up until recently it was illegal to build a building in Moscow that was taller than these seven buildings.
Finally! Heading back to Ostafyevo and home!
Bonus picture: A sneak view of the FSB, (KGB), administrative and training center.
Here’s where they teach KGB FSB agents to be sneaky and such - like the CIA training center at Langley Virginia. Note that they make no attempt to hide anything, there’s nothing to see except the buildings.
Home sweet home - Ostafyevo airport.
This used to be a military airport, (and still has the 6’ or so concrete fence topped with razor wire that’s not shown in any airport model, MSFS or X-Plane), but is now called the “Ostafyevo Business Airport”. However the presence of armed guards at all the gates and entrances makes me wonder what kind of “business” goes on there. I tried to go there to take pictures of the layout so that runway builders would have a more accurate layout. At the main gate I was stopped by an armed guard, (with absolutely NO sense of humor), who told me not only no way, but no stinkin’ way was I getting in.
Back safe on the ground at last!
My pride prevents me from showing pictures of how far off the runway I actually landed - thanks for nice smooth grass! I snuck back onto the runway before anyone noticed!
Second bonus picture:
Just to the left of the cockpit is the Gazprom electric generating plant - complete with the cooling towers I was complaining about being missing before. Not only are they there, they’re even the correct color! (In X-Plane they’re a stark white.) Likewise, representations of the cooling towers are present for all the other generating plants around Moscow. 
Footnotes:
- I jokingly refer to NTV as “The Putin Channel” because every news program is 3/4 about Putin or something he did. Supposedly he owns a majority interest in it too.
