Pimp my FSX

Today was advanced birthday for me; my father made me two very very nice presents. First I got the FSX scenery package for Switzerland, my home country. Second I got the PMDG Version of the 737-NGX which changed my virtual life in FSX dramatically.


FSX Switzerland is just breathtaking! You just cannot believe how realistic Switzerland looks like using this wonderful package. Of course not 100% details are simulated, but the realism is absolutely fantastic. And you can imagine that flying through the swiss alps - which anyway is already awesome - is now even more fun. So I installed the whole package (4 DVD's!) and made a few circuits on one of the airports close to where I live (LSZK - Speck Fehraltorf). Furthermore I also did a circuit staring in Buochs (LSZC) which was recommended to my because this circuit is actually leading around a mountain rig. All in all very impressive and I can only recommend to install or use similar scenery. It makes the flight simulation experience absolutely stunning!


The next big task was to install and startup the PMDG 737-NGX. As I never had a valid pilot license nor any real IFR-flying experience the first tutorial was very complicated to me. However, as I had the chance last summer to fly once in a real cockpit from Zurich (LSZH) to Fuerte Ventura (GCFV) - thanks a lot Edelweiss Air!!! - things looked still quite familiar. Also about two years ago I was invited to fly at Swiss Aviation Training with one of the Airbus A340-Simulators. Of course at that time the FS instructor did all the small manipulations and I could concentrate on flying. But again from there some of the procedures I could recollect. The view in the cockpit is just overwhealming and I absolutely believe all reviews of this FSX-addon that this package is close to reality. Programming the FMS with the planned flight route and all flying parameters adds another very interesting dimension to the flight simulation. 


In the first session I managed to program a nice route from Geneva (LSGG) to Zurich (LSZH) and I could take off according to entered parameters. Unfortunately I did not have time to continue and somehow I also did not manage to engage the autopilot. But hey, there's a challenge to continue and I'm very excited to learn more and to continue working hard on that new machine!


Keep on rocking!
PT

Good Bye New Zealand

Today a very very long leg was planned and should start at Auckland (NZAA) in New Zealand and lead all the way back to Australia to the capital city Canberra (YSCB). Again I started in the dark, in that sense very early in the morning local time. I knew from last time that according the flight plan I would have around 3 hours time for that long distance. GPS calculated 1249 nautical miles which meant around 420 knots average speed. So after quite steep climb I reached cruise altitude FL340. Looking at the PFD I could see that I had very strong crosswinds of more than 50knots/hr. Therefore I decided to try out another flight level. Upwards was not economical, so I initiated a decent with a low rate and finally stopped at FL290 where winds were a lot weaker, but still quite strong with around 40knots. Finally ETE calculated was 30mins less than indicated in the flight plan which gave me enough confidence to leave the plane to the autopilot for a moment (in chat language this means "afk" - when I first saw that I had no idea what that means. Meanwhile I know that this means "away from keyboard" which is in that case quite suitable.... - you never stop learning ;-)
Coming back after a while I could already see the coastline on the GPS and in aviation language I was close to T/D (top of descent). Everything according checklist I changed flight level to FL100 where ATC took over around 55nm out of Canberra. The rest was more or less according book. Unfortunately even though I was flying late that evening I did not made it into local daylight (1. flying westwards, 2. changed back 1hr daylight saving time last weekend). Still, I was glad that I made the whole leg without network connection loss and finally I received a huge amount of VL-Points (almost 400!). 


Happy to be back on the ground ;-)
PT

Pingpong in New Zealand

Todays Journey started with a dissapointment. I tried to activate vl for a roundtrip in New Zealand, but bot gave totally wrong and weird flight schedule times. Then I tried at least to start with a regular job and failed again. Bot could not find the destination. Ok - no problem. I still started from Wellington and headed a little backwards to Christchurch NZCH (for those who read my last blog I had to divert to Wellington because Christchurch was not available). I wanted to touch down at least once in Christchurch that's why I did a manual flight. This by the way is also not bad once in a while since you can define your own schedule and feel a little less under pressure. During this 160nm leg the sun started to rise over my left shoulder - just fantastic. Landing was regular ILS approach on Rwy 20 w/o any issues (slowly such procedures turn into automatism ;-).


So in Christchurch I turned around and activated VL. Oh wonderful - it works! and the times given by bot are also reasonable. As a conclusion I would say that Christchurch is the destination that confuses bot. All other FGL destinations on New Zealand seem to work.
According to vl I had to fly back to Wellington. Of course I knew the route and took the same way back. Meanwhile the sun was up and the day in NZ should start. Unfortunately again NZWN has no long enough runway to provide ATC services. But this did not bother me as I did the same approach w/o ATC last time. Everything went quite well.


Next leg was very short, only 78 nm (to NZOH, military airbase). So timing was critical. But I could quickly ascend to only FL10 and shortly after level off already start planning for landing. ATC activated 55nm out and vectored me on rwy 27 - worked very good.


The last and final leg for this day was also smooth (NZOH to Auckland NZAA). No major incidents.


Let me say and underline here again that flying during daylight is a lot more fun than during complete darkness. And to be honest, also a little more easy ;-)


Best regards and hula hopp, 
PT

Departure from Wellington (NZWN)

Made it to Christchurch

Wellington at day

Coastline in Auchland (close to NZAA)

Welcome to New Zealand - Wellington

Originally I planned to land first in Christchurch, as that destination would have been a little closer to Melbourne than Wellington. Unfortunately the bot did not find NZCH so I shortly decided to take a detour and land in Christchurch (NZCH) first. As this leg anyway is longer than 1300nm +/- 100nm also does not make a big difference. 
So I filled the tanks and took off in Melbourne (YMML). Still during night, eventhough also Melbourne is quite a large city and therefore shines quite bright through the dark. Short after departure I came accross the coastline and from there around 2.5 hours I flew over Water. The nicest thing about this trip is that it goes more or less heading East and therefore in direction of the sun. So after 1 hour the horizon started to turn into a fantastic play of light short before the sun actually rose out of the ocean. Very enlightening and a wonderful experience. I hope my passengers felt the same :)


Regarding HHG activity: unfortunately again the bot seems not very well organized for New Zealand or Australia. So the first time asking for the status I received 218mins left, so ETA calculated was 11:18pm (CET). Next time I asked the new calculated ETA was 11:15, then 11:38,  and the last time I asked 11:44pm. So finally I did not really know what to do, but decided to take the first calculated ETA as the one needed to fulfill the job. This assumption turned out to be just right. So take this as a tipp: take the first status time reported as basis for ETA. Do not rely on any further status updates. - Finally made my day with +400 points - very nice...


Maori ahoi, 
PT

turning downwind at NZWN

HippyHappyGermany Manual online!

I am pleased and very happy to proudly present the fist version of a manual to the HippyHappyGermany Server.


The manual can be found here:
http://www.flyby.ch/fsx/HIPPYHAPPY_Germany_Player%20Manual_V1.pdf
You'll also find it in the favourite links next to the blog.


In case of updates and corrections please feel free to contact me and let me know so that I can incorporate it into the next version of the document.


Have fun and see you soon on HHG, 
Phil_Tailor


Disclaimer

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Melbourne - last touch down before New Zealand

Quite a short trip from Adelaide to Melbourne, without any incident. Landing in Adelaide wonderful since the Airport is right in the middle of a sea of lights (big city). Landing at night became almost landing at daylight.
So the touch down at Melbourne (YMML) should be the last one before a very long leg to New Zealand. Unfortunately the bot gives some weird time schedule around Australia, so the next leg most probably won't be a vl but a regular job. However, nice being in Australia, looking forward to touch base in New Zealand. There hopefully with a little more daylight :)


Happy Landings, 
Phil_Tailor

The Pittsburgh Chase

Following the tests last week on Hawaii and on the weekend over Florida I made another attempt intercepting another player on the server. Again mv47 was open to fly his route stable, this time from Europe to New York (KJFK) and later from New York to St. Louis (KSTL). As he was flying vl with the famous Air Zurich International I did not want to bother too much and especially not cause an unwanted 'hardware meeting' in the sky. Due to that fact I tried to be a little bit more cautios.

First attempt was around Newfoundland, where I started from Gander Airport (CYQX). With my DC-10 it was this time quite easy to locate mv47's same DC-10 and to fly various approaches. As I did not want to risk anything I made some safe turns around. See also pictures part 1 below.

Next attempt I made enroute from New York to St. Louis. I started at Altoona Airport KAOO, this time with a newly designed Vampire. Unfortunately the speed locked at 280kt, so I was in now way able to close up to the DC-10 which at that time had a speed of about 460kt. So I changed airplane and airport to Akron (KCAK). With Airfrance's world famous rocket: Concorde I was finally very fast and with mach 1.11 able to quickly join mv47 in the area between Indianapolis and St. Louis. 

Of course with that kind of airplane it is much more difficult to fly approaches, since the speed variability is really very hight. Nevertheless, it is really a lot of fun and I can only recommend to try out same once you are on a multiplayer environment. But please, please keep the rules and do not risk anything. And if you note that the other player feels uncomfortable (you may see it on the chat) please change to another one. We want to keep the virtual life as realistic as possible and therefore unnecessary near-misses are not welcome. 

In that sense - happy landings and interceptions ;-)

PT

Newfoundland:

Overwing-view from mv47 - thanks for the pics!

Pittsburgh - St. Louis


1. Attempt - Vampire

2. Attempt - Concorde

Frontview from mv47 - thanks for the pics!

YPWR - YPAD

Just a short hop from Woomera (YPWR) to Adelaide - YPAD (not to confuse with iPad ;-) brought me back to the coastline. No big incidents, only that bot (Server Flight scheduler) messed up a little with the flight plan and allocated -16mins instead of 65mins. So I decided shorthand to fly a regular job, which I succeeded as mentioned w/o any special issues (and still resulted 100pt).


Excited to soon quickly leave Australia towards New Zealand (see planned route or map on top right of the blog). Still not sure how I will make the long leg, but I will be a very nice side visit to that fantastic country.


Looking forward to the next few hops, 
Phil_Tailor

Florida Sky Meeting

If you come from my last blog you already know that I'm gonna write something about constellation. This time it is not about a star constellation but about the famous constellation L-749 (which was the first aircraft in the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line able to cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop*). As with the last experiment on Hawaii together with mv47 we decided on another attempt for squadron flight. So he changed to the L-749 and started a regular flight in Miami (KMIA) with heading north following the mainland. When he was around West Palm beach I started my intercept flight with a faster Boeing 737 - with the nice Swiss painting. Looking at the map I decided that Fort Pierce - Saint Lucie County Intl. airport suited the best and took off. Right after taking off I had mv47's L-749 on my screen which made it even easier to follow and change to the same course. Of great help was the live map on fsxtools.de even though the altitude and speed values were not fully correct. 
Finally after some minutes, right above KMCO I finally had the same altitude, speed and heading on my instruments and could slowly approach mv47. Everything was done by Autopilot and quite stable, but still it is not an easy thing. By doing that you learn very much about the dimensions in the air and the ratio between the three mentioned parameters. 
The best thing to do is to lock 2 out of 3 parameters on autopilot and change the third variable manually. Still then it keeps being a very complex job. Especially the fact that pressing "v" for a screenshot causes a 1/10's of a second simulation stop which causes the plane that is being chased to jump a few feet away. 
However, here's the results of a very interesting experiment that we will for sure repeat soon:


* source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-749_Constellation

View from a passenger seat - breathtaking!

Distance 0.1nm = 150m, vertical distance - almost same!

Weekend at Ayers Rock - rocks!

After shortly deciding to detour my trip over Australia I first touched ground at Ayers Rock (YAYE). Absolutely nice scenery, even though it was dark and night again - the Ayers Rock shone through the windows of the aircraft. Especially the location of the airport is cool, it is just few miles away from that stunning mountain. ATC also did a pretty job, by guiding my approach right around that famous rock. Very nice!
Next day on the way out I left Ayers Rock towards the south of Australia. The second leg lead almost to the coast to Woomera (YPWR). Flight was nice, you could almost see the star constellation through the night (speaking of constellation  - read my next blog ;-). 


Greetings from Woomera, 
PT

Turning final - in front of Ayers Rock

Short before landing, YAYE is really close!

Rerouting over Australia

Today time was right to fly two legs in a row. Generally this is very good in multiplayer mode since the second leg in a row multiplies the points you get on the HHG server. This time it should be a little different.
First leg from Argyle (YARG) to Curtin (YCIN) was good, even though somehow I was very fast and had to fly a holding abuout 60nm out of the airport. Finally I landed on time, unfortunately again in the middle of the dark.
When I wanted to continue to Port Hedland (YPPD) bot allocated 999mins for that 277nm leg which was of course out of any reason (I guess it's a bot bug). However, shortly I decided to reroute to another FlyGermany-Lufthansa destination, so I chose on short notice Telfer (YTEF). Quickly entered the new values into GPS and AP everything went well.
With the last drop of fuel I touched ground in Telfer. Seems to be right in the middle of nowhere, difficult to say, 'cause now that I fly more in the south and again westwards, the sunrise got delayed again...


However, everything well - still in Australia, enjoying the trip and looking forward to the next few destinations (e.g. Ayers Rock, Adelaide, New Zealand).


Over and out.
PT

Approach in YTEF

Tower View I 

Tower View II

Tower View III

Argyle by night - Aloha Hunter

The first leg in Australia led from Darwin to Argyle (YARG). Unfortunately night was back again, so the beautiful scenery was again in the dark. However, the flight was nice and this time a little bit special. 
For a very long time I haven't seen any other player online and nearby where I was. As you know I am still flying at HippyHappy Germany Multiplayer server in the name of FlyGermany-Lufthansa. Obviously the destinations I touched so far are not the most famous ones, so actually since about London City I haven't met anybody else on screen, other than in the chat or through ATC commands on radio. This time it was different. Myself and mv47 we organized for a meeting on the way from Darwin to Argyle. mv47 actually started from YARG and came in straight on the same track. Around Kununnurra we finally saw each other. While I was following may way on the VL, mv47 did a small teardrop maneuver and followed me on the approach to Argyle. Very nice to finally see anybody else out in the dark :-)
ATC catched me as usual around 55nm out of the destination and this time guided me to rwy 01. So I came across the airport and had to fly as well a little teardrop. With mv47 still behind me I managed to finally land on this small airport in the middle of the dark. After touch down and full stop I turned around to observe mv47's landing. Very interesting to see and quite exciting (see some screenshots below).


Aloha Honolulu


After that nice event we decided to fly together in Hawaii, but this time with a small fighter jet, our famous Hawker Hunter with the swiss army painting. That was a big jump - indeed. Not only geographically but the Microsoft team really did a wonderful job designing this small island in the pacific and of course daylight is definitely a relief after flying almost 11'000nm in the dark.


The experience was awesome. Although it is quite difficult with that plane to control the speed, first test was fantastic and we chased each other around Hawaii. Please also see some impressions in pictures below. We definitely plan to repeat this and continue improving our squadron flying skills.


And... - you may want to watch out while flying on HippyHappy Germany. You may have a wingman without knowing it :-)


Happy Landings and greetings from Honolulu / Argyle.
Phil_Tailor

Rencontre in Argyle Australia - Phil_Tailor and mv47

Aloha on Honolulu

View from mv47's cockpit - thanks for the pics!

Hawker Hunter on 26R - PHNL (Honolulu Intl.)

Chasing around Hawaii

Welcome to Australia

New day, new leg, new destination.... new continent! Finally I reached the third continend on my trip around the world. After Europe and Asia I'm thankful to Australia that it is going to host me and my wonderful DC-10 for some days, probably few weeks. First touch on the ground after leaving Asia in Timor Cakung (WPEC) was Darwin International (YPDN). 
And as if by a miracle all the navaids are back! After so many landings w/o ILS or in some cases any Navaids (and in some heavy cases w/o light during night flight!) it is like coming home. Totally relaxed APP did almost everything and led Swissair DC-10 smoothly on the ground.
Furthermore it also seems that time of the "boring" night flights without any visibility to the nice sceneries are gone now. Even though it was not complete daylight, one could see where the sun will rise and with every minute into the day more and more details were coming out (see also my last post).
So again - I'm happy to be in terra australis and on the ground of the first host airport in Darwin.


Last but not least: I assume you know after which famous person the city was named - yes it's Charles Darwin, the father of evolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin). But did you know that he originally wanted to become a doctor (after his father), but as he couldn't stand the sight of blood he first became a pastor and then started to study naturalism? Interesting, isn't it? (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/educators/lessons/lesson2/act1.html)


Ya minyah*




*Good bye in Wiradjuri

Holidays on Bali

Before taking one week off for holidays the last leg started on Java - Jakarta (WIII) and ended on the nice holiday island in Bali (WADD). Nice trip, although I lost network connection and therefore could not finalize the VL. However, the landing on Bali island was wonderful.


After one week in the mountains (Switzerland, but Bali would for sure have been nice too ;-) two more legs took me more eastwards on the island of west and east timor (El Tari - WATT and Cakung/Baucau WPEC). Finally I reached a timezone where I'm able to fly again with better daylight. So the last landing was already 5am local time. Sun was not there yet but you could imagine where it will rise on the horizon. Navaids are definitely not Timor's or this region's speciality (VOR/NDB indicated in GPS but unfortunately no frequency found to tune in...). But still, as there are so many islands with almost unique shapes flying around and navigating by looking out of the windows works very good.


See you soon when touching ground in Australia,
Hau ba lai ("goodbye" in East timor)

Departure in Jakarta

Bali at Night

How it should be :)

Flying to the moon (on the way from Bali to West Timor)