Flew around Mount Kenya National Park. I wish Microsoft would soon do something about the details in Africa too! These photos have been taken with oblique angles to masquerade imperfections of the terrain.
Real-weather, real-time:
P.S.ssst: MSFS 2020!!! 
Speed run Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan PR - 2:38 minutes (whew) - averaging around 350T at FL310 in the Vertigo. I cut the fuel planning a little close - landed with about 17 gals. left, Fuel Lights came on just as I was entering the hold for ILS10. Cancelled IFR and just went for it.
Beautiful ride down though. Bahamas and the Caribbean never disappoints.
Picked up the Dornier J Wal and had some good fun with it. Lastovo Seaport to Velva Luka Seaport. Handles really nicely on the water
Rochester (KROC) to Charlotte (KCLT) in the 737 max 8
More Brazil! This time, a flight from Fazenda Haras (SJQT) to Ponte Nova (SNCZ), stopping off for some sightseeing at Ouro Preto.
Fazenda Haras is a rather nice small rural airstrip from which to start our journey:
After takeoff, we follow BR-356 south-east: though the rolling hills and farmlands of the country:
Along the way, we pass over the town of Itabirito:
Keep following BR-356…:
… until just before Ouro Preto, when you want to keep east on AMG-1725 (BR-356 diverges to the south)
There is no airport at Ouro Preto, but for the Paulistinha CAP-4, this is not a problem - the Complexo Esportivo da Agua Limpa makes a great airport for this little aircraft:
You can read about my sightseeing trip in town here.
Back in the air, we head east, following AMG-1725 until it meets MG-129, which we follow until the Junction with MG-126. Continue east on MG-126:
At dusk, we follow the road-lights:
Until we reach the town of Ponte Nova:
Our trip ends at the airport on the north side of town.
Charlotte (KCLT) to Tulsa (KTUL) in the default a321
Tulsa (KTUL) to Charlotte (KCLT) in the default a330 300
To commemorate the launch of the MSFS 2024 marketplace I bought something small and sensible - an Oil Tanker!
Took the big girl for a maiden voyage from Wismar to Travemünde, striking out north towards the ferry routes and then following the Rostock - Travemünde Route west towards the harbour. Simple, relaxing, yet awesome due to the sheer size of that ship!
After watching ‘Guy Martin : Top Gun’ on Channel 4 (catchup) fly the Jet Provost 3 times before flying the Vampire in Switzerland, I thought I’d test fly a Vampire as well.
(Excellent programme by the way, very watchable).
Optional weapons as well.
Nice cockpit
This was the freeware version from Sim Outhouse.
Looks beautiful, inside and out - don’t pixel peep inside though.
Cold start was tricky (no checklist), the ‘fuel cut off’ is well and truly hidden behind the throttle. And, it needs a battery switch and …… there is none. keybind one.
Takes off very smoothly, box ticked.
Roll rate like a crocodile on speed! The real bird (or should I say bat) rolls at 120 degrees/ second - it did on ‘top gun’ as well, slow. So slowed that down in the sensitivity settings to a 3 second roll, I chose 30 on ‘Extreme Dead Zone.’
Now turns and rolls very nicely.
You need to think ahead more because of this when flying the Mach Loop at 500 kts.
Loops without issue, too many payware aircraft in the sim should, yet don’t.
Once you get used to using the speed brakes, lands very well, about 140 I preferred.
Glad I gave it a try, I’ll keep it.
Explored the 4 new photogrammetry cities in WU19 and flew most of the Amazon in the last couple of days. Looking at what additional scenery and airports I want to download for the region.
Multi-post day, also getting caught up on yesterday’s weekly flight. Too much going on to do it on the day
2020, Getting more comfortable with the BAE. Don’t think I’ll ever get free of using the checklist - one very useful function in MSFS… Melbourne to Hobart. Was very happy to have the RNAV catch. Not quite sure how I did that, but it was a relief. Say Intentions did a fine job, even greeting me on arrival at the airport.
Charlotte (KCLT) to Regan (KDCA) in the default 737 max 8 and a heli tour of DC helipads in the a125
Regan (KDCA) to Charlotte (KCLT) in the Cessna 408
Charlotte (KCLT) to Palm Beach (KPBI) in the 737 max 8
Well, I THINK I’m officially retired from MSFS 2020, though my airliners may have something to say about that. 1000+ hours but on to the next.
Continuing to work on my 2024 home set-up during the first 50 hours. For most of those hours went with a stick and STECS set-up.
Today, went with the GA set-up, specifically, Yoko Yoke, TQ6 Throttle and Virpil Panel 2. Got the office situated for some lazy Saturday flying.
Checked a few things off the list:
Go my RealSimGear auto-pilot panel working, which was nice.
Installed TDS GNXi. Seems to conflict with the Kodiak 100’s G1000 when in background though not using. Just logged out and the G1000 worked fine. I’ve already installed Axis and Ohs and works fine with the Streamdeck and my G1000 profile. So far, so good.
Flew the Kodiak mostly. Only apparant issue I saw is the screen for the G1000 is a little washed out and the numbers sometimes get blurry.
Did two flights - Colorado area and Hawaii. Unfortunately, have had to avoid heavy traffic areas as MSFS 2024 seems to bug out when trying to start a flight (it just hangs and never loads). Hopefully they work on the load balancing or bandwidth issues, so for now, hitting less travelled locales.
A good day. Have managed to get the Vision Jet, Wilga and Kodiak 100 working reasonably well and my hardware hasn’t been all that wonky (some little hiccups). Will continue to get the proper sim software up and running and over the next few months will be mapping controls and such to my hardware. Enjoying it.
After installing Parallel 42’s new ChasePlane software, I had some issues getting things working smoothly (not worth going into here), but once I got it all ironied out, I flew the PMDG 777-300ER from KEWR to KDEN tonight, chasing the late-winter sun across the continent. ChasePlane has a Cinematic mode that is effectively a screensaver, perfect to wile away those otherwise uneventful hours in cruise. I kind of love this product already.
