What did you do in MSFS today? (Part 2)

Palm Spings(KPSP) to Las Vegas(KLAS) 08R




Approaching Provo(KPVU) 31from Las Vegas(KLAX)




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Evening sky from Northern Michigan. Heading to Alpena. KAPN



Actual photos of Michigan around the same time. Maybe 20 minutes before this flight.


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Alliance to Duluth in the Fokker F28 4000

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Duluth back to Rochester NY in the Fokker 28 4000 completing around the world with an f28

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Night VFR landing at L35 Big Bear

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Short takeoff from KASE before my game ctd. Atleast I got some nice views prior



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KLGA to KORD caught a bit of a head wind but no biggy. 13knt direct xwind in a 787 is not great. Or maybe I’m just not great. But hey hit the touchdown zone brought it in on centerline properly cross controlled. What do you want from me? I’m not paid to do this. :slight_smile:


I think this is the terminal where they send you when they’re disappointed in you.

Had to redeem myself with a great approach and landing into Denver. 18knt headwind. Brough flaps up to 25 and upped the approach speed. Not sure if that’s right. It would be right in a Cessna. Worked great. :butter: I’m putting it in the win column.

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I got three full flights in over the past two days, all in the Fokker 28, and all in parts of the world I hadn’t yet explored in MSFS. Flying internationally in FS9 and FSX was never really fulfilling. The world in those simulators was a quilt of endlessly repeating autogen scenery that looked the same no matter where in the world you flew. Now, to see the world as it really appears in MSFS is a real treat!

My first flight was between Durban, South Africa (FALE) and Matsapha, Eswatini (FDMS). This route was flown in the late 1970s by SAA’s fleet of HS.748s. Thanks to BigMacDYU at flightsim.to, we have a complete set of fictional Fokkers in early and late 1970s SAA liveries. I substituted Mk. 2000 ZS-SBF.

Be still my beating heart! I love a good cheatline, bright colors, and especially bare metal. You can keep your boring white paint, boring logos, and blocky “AIRLINE.COM” labels on the fuselage. Of BigMacDYU’s set, I preferred the more retro “early 1970s” SAA look, but based on the Mk. 2000’s potential delivery date, this scheme is more accurate.

Navigating to Matsapha was difficult, since there’s a distinct lack of usable navaids enroute. That’s one drawback to the Fokker and other golden oldies in MSFS: using GPS is historically inaccurate, but the number of ground-based navaids is dwindling.

Next I jumped into Royal Swazi National Airways’ Mk. 3000 3D-ALN at Matsapha and continued on to Lusaka (FLKK). All the cities to which Royal Swazi flew in 1979 are available for download at flightsim.to, with the notable exception of Johannesburg. (Actually, I noticed a distinct lack of scenery for South Africa, period. I’d love to explore there, but the generic airports in Africa are…uh…not very good.) Thanks to Fab10 for this beautiful skin!

Somewhere over Zimbabwe at FL230. ALN reportedly holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only airliner ever to be hijacked twice, once in the Seychelles and once enroute to Eswatini. I have no way of verifying that claim, but given Royal Swazi’s tiny fleet and the general unrest in that part of the world during the 1970s and 80s, it’s certainly plausible!

Formerly known as Swaziland, Eswatini is very small. I crossed the country’s border well before reaching my cruising altitude! Over one million people live in this tiny nation that is barely the size of South Florida.

All buttoned up at Lusaka. It appears that ALN spent very few nights at Matsapha, overnighting instead at airports around the system. I wonder if the crews were out-station based?

Today I flew Air New South Wales’ VH-FKD to Norfolk Island (YSNF) from Sydeny (YSSY). Stretched to the limit with payload and fuel for a distant alternate airport at Noumea, I had to plan this flight using long range cruise data. It was a long flight at barely 350 knots true airspeed (I’m used to clipping along at 480).

Passing over scenic Lord Hower island. Even in this modern age of realiable jet engines, there’s always a sense of relief when land comes into view after a long overwater leg.

Speaking of long overwater legs… The only reference to New South’s flights to Norfolk indicate that FKD was modified specifically for the route. I’m sure the modifications included the optional center fuel tank, and I assume they also included long-range communications equipment (HF radios, likely), life rafts, and possibly a long-range navigation system like LORAN or OMEGA, or possibly even a navigator. For this leg I activated the optional GNS, but still completed all my own calculations.

Who needs a navigator? My “cockpit” while enroute, with cruise charts, navigation data, calculator, and my trusty CR-3 at the ready. What you can’t see is the cat sleeping in my lap! :blush:

I flew the 10 DME arc to the VOR Runway 11 approach. After 2:45 block time, I arrived at the gate having burned within 200 kilograms of my planned burn. For a MSFS model, that’s impressive accuracy!

What a beautiful place! The Norfolk Pines watching over the terminal are spectacular.

New South’s canary colors were certainly distinctive, especially when compared to the boring “Eurowhite” livery on the competition :yawning_face: (Qantas’s livery in the early 1980s wasn’t bad, but that’s the nature of mixing old and new aircraft in MSFS!)

I’m really enjoying the Fokker! Tomorrow I’ll be “delivering” one of SAA’s Mk. 1000s from Amsterdam to Johannesburg, a multi-stage flight that will likely take a few days. For now, have a great night and keep the stories and photos coming! :love_you_gesture:

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This thread is in my favourites, I get so much ideas to fly from/to.

Myself I had a full approach into Innsbruck from a nearby airport once again, it’s so nice.


-Bram
SkyLane

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Trying to do as many irl M500 flights as possible so here you are

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First flight Switzerland: Reichenbach (LSGR) to Samedan (LSZS)

Second flight England: Thruxton Aerodrome (EGHO) to London City (EGLC)

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JPL C152 for some light sightseeing and touch and go’s at Meigs, with totally fictitious weather.


N723D is a solid ride, equipped with the latest avionics, a snappy black panel, and of course the Boris 152 sound pack which is amazing!


Sightseeing over Chicago, pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to take this exact route in reality. Another reason why reality can be overrated at times.


Back on the ground at Meigs, but we won’t let that engine stay cool for too long :grin:

Happy flying!

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Took a flight out into the moutains to escape the crowds and enjoy a brewski with a viewski


Only to find I was pipped to the post by the locals

:joy:

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Vegas

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Awkward ‘aerobatics’ as I tried out the Extra as part of my ‘Sim-plane-I’ve-not-yet-flown-since-I-started-three-years-ago’ series. vbazillio sure has made southern California lively with his airports. The Extra sure turns on a dime. Of course, the El Cajon area is scenic.










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Longer leg of my Pacific tour in DC-3 in real weather: SCEL :airplane: SCTE
Weather was perfect, except the destination. At first I navigated purely visually, but then the roads and rivers got smaller, so I used help of VORs. As I was approaching destination, it got more cloudy.
At the end of the flight I misread altitude of El Tepual airport and I was at downwind 3000ft above the airport. I realized it only on base. So I did 1 more circle, this time at correct altitude.

The airliner taking off just behind me just passed by me. I thought that ATC should separate IFR and VFR traffic, but I didn’t get any vectors.









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My first full flight to Antarctica. Replaying from FACT (Cape Town) the Norse flight to ENEO/AT27 (Troll). I confess that it was very difficult to land in the snow, as it is difficult to fill the runway on the ice. But there it is… a really cool flight!





:cold_face: :vulcan_salute:

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Sunday trip (LJBO > LJBL) to the highest mountain in Slovenia (Triglav, 9395 ft) and two POIs of WU14 in perfect real weather:

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