After a four day business trip and visit from my parents, it’s great to get back into the sim and resume our WorldFlight tour around the world. I had to spend just a bit of time reading the past trip reports to bring myself up to speed on where we left off and what leg was next up.
The magenta dots are slowly but surely starting to take numbers on our world map. But we still have a lot of ground (and water) to cover before this tour is complete. So let’s stop talking, and start flying.
An updated version of our tour map showing the five previous stops.
History of City
Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city in Sri Lanka. Known for its natural harbor, Indian, Greek, Persian, Roman, Arab and Chinese traders have been visiting this area for over 2000 years. The metro area of Colombo has a population of over 5.6 million with 752,993 in the city proper.
History of Country
The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back as 500,000 years. Today the island is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The majority of the population is from the Sinhalese ethnicity, while a large minority of Tamils have also played an influential role in the island’s history.
History of Airport
The Bandaranaike International Airport (also known as Colombo International Airport) is the main international airport serving Sri Lanka. It is named after former Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and is located 20 miles from the commercial capital of Colombo. The airport began as a Royal Air Force airfield in 1944. Today the airport is more than capable of handling the world’s largest passenger jets including the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380.
History of Airline
Garuda Indonesia is the national airline of Indonesia. Named after the holy bird Garuda of Hinduism from the national emblem of Indonesia, the airline is headquartered in Jakarta which we visited a few legs ago. The airline was founded in 1947 as KLM Interinsulair and commenced operations as Garuda Indonesian Airways in 1949. They have a fleet size of 142 aircraft consisting of 73 Boeing 737-800, 10 Boeing 777-300ER and 13 Airbus A330 to name just a few.
We begin our flight today in the late afternoon. We’ll be serving light snacks and should reach Sri Lanka in the early evening with enough time for our travelers to have a nice dinner before heading to their hotel. We wasted no time in getting boarded and all loaded up for the flight. As the WITT airport is rather basic, I thought I would just cut to the chase and get us airborne.
Hopefully you’re not getting bored with the 737. The fact of the matter is the Boeing 737 is a workhorse aircraft for so many airlines around the world, that it shouldn’t be uncommon for it to get a lot of rotations on our tour. Until the Aerosoft Airbus A319, A320 and A321 releases for Prepar3D v4, the B737 is our best option for short field operations.
Climbing out of WITT for FL340
Spiral contrails from our Boeing 738 with the crescent moon visible.
Another well done livery scheme
Our Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-800 fully configured for landing at VCBI
Another fairly basic default airport.
Down on the ground just before the afternoon thunderstorm rolls in. We’re fortunate to have the ground power and most importantly the ground AC unit. It’ll be another hot and sticky visit.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Tiger Airways livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
Orbx Broome Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
As always, I truly appreciate you reading this trip report. I hope you are enjoying the tour and learning a little something along the way. I know I have.
There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the process of how to update Prepar3D. While the geniuses at Lockheed Martin have created a super easy to follow instruction manual, the confusion regarding this process seems to run rampant on social media. I’m not sure why really. Perhaps it’s the reluctance of reading the manual or perhaps the manual just contains too much detail and not enough step-by-step-by-step guidance. In any event, I’m going to do my best to provide you a step-by-step guide for how to update Prepar3D. Or at the very least, how I update my own instance of Prepar3D.
About this guide
This step-by-step guide was written specifically for the Prepar3D version 4.2 to 4.3 update and written/published in late June of 2018. Lockheed Martin released P3D v4.3 on 25 June 2018. If you are referring to this guide anytime after version 4.3 (v4.4, v4.5 etc.) then this method should also work as well. Unfortunately my crystal ball isn’t working for peering into the future, so who knows how the update process will work for P3D v5 (if there is such a thing). What I’m trying to say here, is content on the Internet tends to live forever and you might be stumbling on this writing a year, two or more from the time I wrote it. Just keep that in mind.
The Update Process
Just a little background for those that may not be aware. I believe, starting with P3D v3.x, Lockheed Martin developed P3D to be somewhat modular in the way one can update and maintain the simulator. This modular setup consists of three main files with the first being the Client, the second being the Content and the third being the Scenery. When Lockheed Martin develops, tests and deploys an updated version to us, we no longer need to completely uninstall the entire P3D application just to take advantages of the updates. In many cases, only the “Client” portion of the update needs to be applied. But you should do your homework to best determine exactly what you need to update to take advantage of all the new bells and whistles available.
Prepar3D version 4.3 Change Log
To aid you in understanding all the changes included in the P3D v4.3 update, please follow this link. Use this information to determine what you want to update.
My Update Process
I’ve studied the change log and have determined my action plan. In short, I don’t see enough value add in the Scenery updates to worry at this time with updating. That’s really the beauty of this modular update system. However, I will of course update the client and also the content. If you are not interested in flying the six different versions of the C-130, then I suppose you can simply skip the content portion. But as I previously stated, my update plan is to update both the client and the content portion of P3D.
Step One
Make note of P3D Settings. Before I perform an update, I typically will start up P3D and take screen captures of all the settings screens. This way, if anything gets changed during the update process…I’ll be able to quickly reset everything back to the way it was before. I like to run P3D with the updated version with the same settings I ran on the previous version first, before tweaking anything. This way I have a better determination on just what improvements were made and how these improvements impact my setup.
Step Two
Download the update files required. As I previously mentioned, I’m only planning to update the Client and the Content. So you’ll need to login to the downloads section of the Prepar3D website with your license or account credentials. Once there, click to expand the individual component downloads section and download the following four files: Install_Client.msi, Install_Content.msi, cont1.cab and cont2.cab. Once downloaded, I typically place all the files into a new folder I create on the Windows desktop for ease of access.
Step Three
We’re going to uninstall one component at a time. I’ve found this to be the least error prone way of doing this. On your Windows gaming PC, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features. From here we’re going to uninstall the P3D Client ONLY.
When prompted “Would you like to deactivate your P3D installation?”, Click NO!
Step Four
Next we’re going to install the updated P3D Client which we downloaded in step two. As previously mentioned, after I download all the appropriate files (in this case four), I create a folder on my Windows desktop and place all the downloaded files in that folder. Right-click on the Install_Client file and select Install.
Pay very special attention during the install to make sure the updated client is being installed in your specified P3D install directory. In my example, everything defaulted in just as it should have.
Step Five
Return to Control Panel > Programs and Features and locate the P3D Content component and just as you did before, uninstall this component.
Step Six
Again, as before…right-click on the Install_Content file and click Install. The Install_Content installer will automagically access the two cab files (cont1 and cont2) as necessary to perform the updated content installation.
Step Seven
Pending everything installed successfully, reboot your PC. While the P3D update/install files will not prompt you or even require you to reboot, it is ALWAYS in your best interest to reboot after installing software and we’re wanting a trouble-free upgrade…so just reboot! Trust me, I’m an IT Guy!
Step Eight
Once your Windows gaming PC has successfully restarted, launch P3D. Don’t be alarmed if P3D takes a little longer than normal to launch the first time. P3D is doing a lot of work behind the scenes and in my experience it took perhaps an additional 1-2 minutes than normal.
Once P3D launches, pay special attention to the screen below. If all was successful with your update, you should see the new “Add-ons” button at the bottom. If so, SUCCESS! Pat yourself on the back as you’ve just successfully updated P3D. At this point, I closed out of P3D as I still needed to perform a few other updates to software accessories such as ActiveSky, Envtex etc.
Additional Notes of Interest
I’m writing this just a little over 24 hours from when Lockheed Martin released the update for Prepar3D v4.3. At the time of this writing, third party developers are working hard to update all the various add-ons which required some level of change due to the new P3D update. Within just hours of the P3D update, ActiveSky, Chaseplane, Envtex/Envshade all had updates available for P3D v4.3. Once I updated these add-ons, these along with all my other 3rd party add-ons work including all my PMDG aircraft, QualityWings 787, A2A aircraft, Carenado aircraft and sceneries including Orbx, FlightBeam, FSDreamTeam etc. etc. all worked as expected. In other words, I did not need to reinstall any add-ons.
Benefits to Updating?
After I managed to get everything updated and launched P3D, I noticed a much faster load/launch time and I’m seeing a very slight increase in FPS performance. The amount of time it took me to perform the update process was about 15-20 minutes. But I can certainly understand ones reluctance to updating…especially if your current v4.2 setup is running stable. To my knowledge, no 3rd party add-ons at this particular time require version 4.3. However, if you’re an Aerosoft Airbus fan and are anxiously awaiting the release of the A318/A319 and A320/A321, then you may need to update to 4.3. But as the release date for the Aerosoft Airbus has been pushed to sometime in mid-late July, you have plenty of time.
Final Thoughts
Over the past 24+ hours I’ve seen a lot of frustration from others who have attempted to update P3D to 4.3. This is one of the reasons I decided to document my update process in the hopes it helps others. However, let me say this. My gaming PC is 100% rock solid. I was experiencing zero issues before deciding to update to v4.3. P3D v4.2 was stable and the only CTD I’ve experienced was caused by the wx radar in the QW787. If you’re experiencing issues with your gaming machine, if you’re experiencing issues with Windows on your gaming machine and especially if you’re experiencing issues with v4.2, then your upgrade/update process may not go as smooth as mine did. While this process is super simple (especially following my method), it won’t solve problems which exist in your system. These problems (what ever they may be) may result in a less than desired outcome.
I wish you the very best of luck. I truly believe if you follow my guide step-by-step as I’ve laid it all out, you’ll have the very best chance for a successful update. Again, the best of luck to you and I hope to see you in the virtual skies very soon.
Until next time….
Happy Updates!
Jerry
P.S. After I have more time to spend flying in P3D v4.3, I’ll post an updated settings post. I don’t anticipate anything changing, but need to update the page anyway.
Our tourists are once again on the move. The time spent in Singapore was certainly not disappointing. Only time will tell just how historic of an event which also took place while our travelers were visiting Singapore. Without getting too deep in the political weeds, I’ll just say that anything positive will certainly be a great thing for not only the region…but the entire world. As mentioned during the last trip report, we will be flying this next leg in the beautiful QualityWings Boeing 787 Dreamliner. For this leg we’re flying the Scoot Tigerair Dreamliner. Scoot Tigerair (not to be confused with Australia’s TigerAir) is a low-cost airline from Singapore. More about that later.
An updated version of our tour map.
History of City
The Sultan Iskandar Muda airport is located 13.5km southeast of the capital of Banda Aceh, in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. Banda Aceh is situated at the tip of Sumatra and has long been a strategic, transportation and trading hub in the eastern Indian Ocean. The first mention in western accounts comes from 1292 when Marco Polo and his expedition visited the city and noted as the logical first port of call for travelers from Arabia and India to Indonesia. On December, 26 2004 the city was hit by a tsunami which was caused by a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The disaster killed an estimated 167,000 inhabitants and destroyed more than 60% of the city’s buildings.
History of Country
The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic location and consists of 17,000 – 18,000 islands of which 8,844 are named and 922 of these are permanently inhabited. Indonesia is positioned along the equator in South East Asia.
History of Airport
Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport also known as Banda Aceh International Airport, is located 13.5km from the capital of Banda Aceh. It is named after the 12th sultan of Aceh, Iskandar Muda. The airport was built in 1943 by the Japanese Government and is currently the 23rd busiest airport in Indonesia.
History of Airline
Scoot Tigerair is a Singaporean low-cost, long-haul airline owned and operated by Singapore Airlines. It launched flights in 2012 on medium and long-haul routes from Singapore, predominantly to China and India. Initially, Scoot’s fleet consisted of Boeing 777 aircraft obtained from Singapore Airlines. The airline began to transition its fleet to Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in 2015.
Once again it’s time for our travelers to head towards their next destination. Our next stop will once again have our travelers back in Indonesia, but this time on the northern side of the equator. Once again the clouds are building as this is pretty much the pattern in these locations. The ground crew in Singapore is getting the final cargo items loaded and soon we’ll pushback and taxi to the runway.
As Scoot is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, the Singapore airlines crew is helping with the ramp operations including pushback.
If you follow aviation news, you may know there are some major issues with the Rolls Royce Trent engines. However, in the virtual world…they work just fine.
Lined up and waiting on runway 20C. The tires have been kicked, we’re just waiting to light the fires on these RR Trent engines and get the Dreamliner in the sky.
Just as the tag-line reads under the Captains window, it’s time to “Lickity Split”.
A little artistry “Dream like effect” for the beautiful Dreamliner.
Rolls Royce Trent engines doing their thing…
I love wing shots. The differences between the Boeing 777 and 787 vary little. The wingspan of the 787 is 197’.
Fully configured for our landing this evening.
Short final into our very basic default P3D airport. Not a lot of eye candy.
Parked and awaiting the ground crew. Another leg is safely and successfully in the books.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
QualityWings 787 (Scoot Tigerair livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Yes ladies and gentlemen, another successful and most importantly safe flight in the books. As I have some real-world travel of my own coming up, it will be a few days before I can sit down and fly the next leg. But when that time comes, we’ll be back in the Boeing 737-800. While I haven’t planned out the equipment for each leg of the tour, my guess is the 737 will end up being the most used aircraft for the tour. But I’ll do my best to keep it interesting. Thanks for reading.
When one is bored in a hotel room and there’s basically not much worth watching on TV, I often find myself surfing the internet and catching up on news related to my favorite simulation based games. To my knowledge, the official release date for the much anticipated Farming Simulator 19 is only known to Giants. In other words, I’ve seen nothing official come from Giants regarding a release date. As I mentioned back in April in my posting titled “T-Minus Six Months and Counting…” history (based on previous releases) had me speculating that FS19 would release in the late October/early November time frame of this year. However….
Again…too much time on my hands (I think I recall some music lyrics in that sentence STYX????) anyway, while reading some Facebook postings I discovered this little tidbit of information on Amazon. Now before everyone gets excited….I have no idea if this is actually true and no idea of knowing if this is legit software. I remember hearing some stories about folks selling vaporware on Amazon and other sites and customers never received their games. But this states a release date of December 31, 2018 (New Years Eve).
I absolutely see no reason for anyone to rush out and purchase this. Even if you typically purchase the boxed versions versus Steam, I would suggest a “wait and see” approach on this and wait until Giants actually announces a release date. But hey…I’m stuck in a hotel room in Orlando and bored out of my skull….so I thought I would share my boredom with you all.
My apologies for communicating to you all this way. I had every intention to record a short video to announce my break from YouTube over the weekend. But time simply got away from me. I’m writing this on my flight to Orlando and plan to create a short video consisting of a title slide just asking everyone to read this note so you’re aware of what’s going on. It’s the best I could come up with and I didn’t want to leave you all wondering what was going on another week.
For those who have been around from almost the beginning of my GBS YouTube channel, you know I live a fairly busy and hectic life. If work isn’t keeping me pulled in a half-dozen different directions, my darling wife and her almost never ending project list certainly keeps me busy, busy, busy. This past weekend was a good example, just before it was time to drive to the airport for another work trip I wrapped up some outdoor work which consisted of replacing a few cedar boards which were showing signs of rot along the side of the house. Anyway….
Between the previous business trip, the weeklong visit with my parents and all the other tasks required to keep an almost 40 year old house running…I’m out of videos. I have more work travel and other work related projects which I’ve scheduled during July and early August…then thankfully, my two week long European vacation will happen in late August/Early September and trust me when I say, the vacation can’t get here soon enough.
Basically, let me get to the point before this turns into another novel. I need to take a break from YouTube for a while. This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be playing my favorite sim games and it also doesn’t mean I’m going to disappear. I may actually live stream from time to time (if time permits) but I just simply don’t have the time at this point to devote to creating recorded content for YouTube.
I will do my best to touch base with everyone on Discord and most likely you’ll continue to see some activity here on my blog site. It’s much easier for me to continue to write about simulation gaming while traveling than it is for me to produce content for YouTube.
I sincerely hope you all understand. Life is busy for all of us and we must always ensure we focus on the areas that matter most and while I consider each and every viewer a friend, I need to take some time away and I hope you’ll understand.
The WorldFlight 2018 tour is progressing along nicely and from all accounts our wealthy travelers are having the time of their lives. Not sure what they enjoy most, the variation in cultural differences or the cuisine. Perhaps both. I suppose if I were able to participate in something like this I would certainly make an effort to try the food (pending I actually knew exactly what it was). YOLO right?
An updated version of our tour map showing Jakarta as visited.
History of City
Early Changi was mostly a malaria mosquito infested swampland and jungle that had several villages spread across the area. The area was first redeveloped by the British as a summer house and getaway location from the city center of Singapore in the 1890’s. During World War II, the area saw mass mobilization of allied troops in anticipation of a Japanese invasion. Today, Changi is an aviation hub and is the current location of both the Changi airport and Changi Air Base. Also, located within Changi is Singapore’s largest prison, Changi Prison. It became infamous as a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the occupation of Singapore during WWII. Changi Prison continues to be Singapore’s oldest operating internment facility.
History of Country
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign city-state and island country in Southeast Asia. Singapore lies just 85 miles north of the equator. Singapore’s territory consists of one main island and some 62 other small islands.
Singapore was founded by Stamford Raffles as a trading post for the British East India Company in 1819. During WWII Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from the UK in 1963. Today, Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transportation hub and is known as the “World’s smartest City” and “Safest Country in the World”.
History of Airport
Singapore Changi Airport (WSSS) is the major civilian airport for Singapore and one of the largest transportation hubs in Southeast Asia. Skytrax (a UK based airline/airport review/ranking site) ranked Changi as the World’s Best Airport for the sixth consecutive year since 2013. Changi is one of the world’s busiest airports by international passenger and cargo traffic. Changi Airport serves as the home base of Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, SilkAir, Scoot, Jetstar Asia Airways and BOC Aviation. Changi Airport serves more than 100 airlines flying to 400 cities in approx. 100 countries and territories. Each week, about 7,200 flights land and depart from Changi or about one every 80 seconds.
History of Airline
Singapore Airlines is the flag carrier of Singapore and is based at Changi Airport. Singapore Airlines was founded in 1947 as Malayan Airways, and commenced operations as Singapore Airlines in 1972. Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for both the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-10. It serves 62 destinations in 32 different countries on 5 continents from its primary hub in Singapore. Singapore Airlines once held the distinction of operating two of the longest flights in the world, both direct flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and Newark with the Airbus A350-500. Singapore Airlines has a fleet size of 115 wide-body aircraft from five aircraft families including the Boeing 787, Boeing 777, Airbus A380, Airbus A350 and Airbus A330.
The stay in Jakarta was brief, but very entertaining for our travelers. Our travelers are eager to reach Singapore as something very historic could take place in the coming days. Finally, this leg will feature an aircraft which is NOT the Boeing 737 variety. For this leg we’re assisting Singapore Airline by moving one of their Boeing 777-300 from Jakarta to Singapore. Our travelers are super excited to have the change of aircraft, it’s a bit unfortunate the distance between Jakarta and Singapore isn’t longer. The Boeing 773 is certainly used to much, much longer flights than the measly 475 we’re flying today. In the real world, the Boeing 777-300 is connecting cities together which are routinely more than 7,000nm apart like Doha to Sao Paulo, Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles, Hong Kong to Dallas/Ft. Worth. But we’ll enjoy each and every mile of our 475 nm journey in this beautiful aircraft.
While our passenger numbers barely occupy half of what this B773 can carry, we’re making up for it in cargo.
The Boeing 773 is one of the largest aircraft we’ll fly during this tour. Of course, for those who truly love the Queen of the Sky, (Boeing 747-400)…you can expect to see her at least once before we complete our long tour.
We’ve been given an expedited departure and are ready to go on 07R.
I just love the engine condensation effects produced by the FSFX Packages 777 immersion add-on. Certainly lots of condensation here in hot, humid Jakarta.
The same add-on adds the condensation effects over the wing as well. And wow…that’s a big wing.
Above the clouds, the humidity and smog…..the GE90-115B engines thrust us to our cruising altitude. For those who may not be as familiar with aircraft statistics. The diameter of one 777 engine is almost the same diameter as the fuselage of the Boeing 737. Pretty impressive if you ask me. And by the way, the replacement cost of just one 777 engine will set you back a cool $24 million dollars.
Simple, yet elegant livery for the Singapore Airlines Boeing 773. PMDG has modeled the wing-flex of this beautiful aircraft very well. The total length of the B773 is 242 feet, the wingspan is 200’.
A little cloud cover as we approach our destination.
More of that condensation immersion. Singapore is just as hot, humid and sticky as Jakarta.
Flaps full.
On Final approach into WSSS. We’re a few hours ahead of the other VIP’s who are flying in for the historic event I mentioned earlier.
Parked safely at the gate before the rain and afternoon storms begin.
It was a joy for me to fly the PMDG Boeing 777-300. While I’ve owned the –300 expansion for the 777 for a while now, I believe this is only my second time to fly with this variant. The –300 is 33 feet longer than the –200. But we didn’t encounter a tail strike on take-off or landing. So all is good. When we resume our tour for our 5th leg, we’ll depart Singapore for Sultan Iskandarmuda, Indonesia in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
I may have previously pointed out that some legs on this tour will be 100% fictional. Meaning, in the real world there are no known flights connecting the two cities or airports together. In addition, the airline I choose to simulate may also not officially serve either of the two airports, but the airlines will be from the region as best as I can setup. For me, the hobby of flight simulation has always been more than just flying. If one chooses, there’s a lot more to be learned from completing world tours like this and I’m very much enjoying performing the research in finding which carriers are flying in these areas and the history and information regarding the surrounding areas. It is my desire that as you come along for the ride, that you may also learn something new from these writings. Thank you for taking the time to read.
An updated version of our tour map showing Broome as visited.
History of City
Jabodetabek or Greater Jakarta is an official and administrative definition of the urban area surrounding the Indonesia capital city of Jakarta. Jakarta is the largest city of Indonesia and is located on the northwest coast of the world’s most populous island of Java. The island of Java is comparable in size to England and the US State of North Carolina. The Greater Jakarta metro area (again known as Jabodetabek) is the second largest urban area in the world after Tokyo with a population of over 30 million. Established in the 4th century, the city became an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom and was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies.
History of Country
The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic location and consists of 17,000 – 18,000 islands of which 8,844 are named and 922 of these are permanently inhabited. Indonesia is positioned along the equator in South East Asia.
History of Airport
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (WIII) is the primary airport serving the Greater Jakarta area on the island of Java in Indonesia. Named after the first president and vice-president of Indonesia and is located 20 km northwest of central Jakarta. WIII is the busiest, largest airport in South East Asia, the busiest in the southern hemisphere and one of the busiest (ranked 8th) airports in the world.
History of Airline
I thought it only fitting since we arrived into Broome on Tiger Air, we would fly out on Lion Air. Lion Air is one of many Indonesian low-cost airlines. Based in Jakarta, Lion Air is the largest privately operated airline and the second largest low-cost carrier in all of Southeast Asia after AirAsia. Lion Air operates domestic and international routes connecting Indonesia to Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Saudia Arabia and Australia. Established in 1999, Lion Air have acquired over 100 aircraft with approx. 250 more on order.
Lion Air currently owns/operates 70 Boeing 737-900ER and was Boeing’s launch customer for this aircraft variant. The livery we will be using for our flight today is in celebration of the 100th 737-900ER built aircraft.
After several days of exploring Broome and the northwestern portion of Australia, it’s time for our travelers to depart Australia and head northwest to Jakarta, Indonesia. We’ve arranged to shuttle a Boeing 737-900 which belongs to Lion Air back to Jakarta. Our passengers find it funny that they arrived into Broom on a Tiger, and leaving out on a Lion. Once again we’re boarding from the tarmac as our passengers are being bussed in direct from their hotel to the airport.
All buttoned up and ready to go. Not sure who owns the small learjet parked next to us. But it must be someone famous or popular as we’ve been asked to depart as quickly as possible so they can escort the famous passenger to his awaiting jet.
Departing out runway 28. This will be the last payware scenery we’ll have for a while. It sure is beautiful here and I’m sure to return soon.
While the textures on the Lion livery lack a bit to be desired, the beauty of the Broom airport and Australia ground textures certainly make up for it. Not to mention the immersion effects.
An un-edited view of our PMDG Boeing 737-900 in the Lion Air Livery. As mentioned earlier, this livery scheme was in celebration of the 100th 737-900.
As we begin our descent into the greater Jakarta area, the clouds are starting to build.
While Jakarta is still in the southern hemisphere, I don’t think the weather and climate will be the same as our travelers experienced in Australia.
Fully configured for landing and on very short final, I’m sure the runway is down there. Can you say “Hot Sticky Mess”?
Finally the runway lights appear through the hot, humid air.
Our Lion Air Boeing 739 is safely parked at the gate. As we open the aircraft door we’re immediately hit with that warm, humid air. Welcome to Jakarta!
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-900 (Lion Air livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our next flight will depart Jakarta, Indonesia and we’ll head north of the equator to Singapore. Also, as promised…out next two flight legs will feature the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 (Dreamliner).
You know the saying, “hell will freeze over before” ______________ (insert what ever comment). Ladies, Gentlemen and Children of all ages….things are starting to get a bit chilly in the devils playground because I woke this morning to the news that John Deere will be included in Farming Simulator 19 due to release sometime this fall.
As I typed on Discord this morning, “It’s 5:20 AM, the hotel coffee is weak today…but OMG. History certainly was made today. John Deere and cotton. WOW…Just WOW. What exciting news. Now hopefully the next time we see anything regarding FS19 it will be actual game footage as I’m not a big fan of CGI”.
So I had my shower and I watched the trailer again. But I’m still not trusting things….on my way to the office I managed to get lost (briefly) then find myself, to get lost briefly again in search of coffee before finally making my way into the office. With a good, strong cup of coffee in hand (and pouring down throat) I watched the trailer one more time. Yep…it’s really, really true. John Deere is coming to FS19.
This is really awesome news. While I’m fully aware we PC users have always had JD green equipment to choose from, and pretty much every single map I’ve ever played (once I was introduced to mods) have had at least one green tractor or other green piece of equipment installed, not all John Deere mods are created equal. As a matter of fact, some of the poorest performing mods I’ve ever come across have been John Deere. So with Giants now having a license to distribute John Deere equipment in FS19 it most likely will mean a much more reliable set of JD equipment which will truly benefit us all.
Hang on a minute…let me watch this just one more time…..
OK…I’m satisfied I’m not dreaming. Here’s the CGI trailer revealing John Deere. Enjoy….I need to get to work now.
From the San Francisco Bay Area….have a fantastic day!
Last night a bit of history was made and I was fortunate enough to have been a part of it. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve been flying on the VATSIM network from its inception, and even briefly before when it was known as SATCO. I’ve participated in many events around the world and just about each and every one of those events left a lasting impression on me. I remember my first CTP or Cross the Pond and the 9/11 remembrance events are always very special. But Friday night I experienced something which out of my 18 year history with VATSIM was an absolute first and honestly I almost missed out on it.
Earlier in the week I had been researching some of the scheduled events taking place at FSExpo18. I recently blogged about this event which is taking place this weekend. I somewhat stumbled onto the VATSIM FNO event (Friday Night Operations) and when I read about it, I knew I had to make every effort to participate. However, the timing couldn’t have been worse. I’ve been extremely busy at work the past few weeks, I’m leaving today (writing this on the plane) for SFO for work, my parents arrive on Thursday and I’m once again traveling the week of the 25th. So much going on, but I so wanted to participate. While I don’t need to ask permission from my wife to really do anything, I explained to her about the event and said I’ll get everything done I needed to do, work right up to the time I need to leave for the airport on Sunday. She agreed that this event would be special. WOW…I have a fantastic wife.
The Event
VATSIM has held, what they’ve historically called “Light up America” events in the past. The goal is to attempt to staff as many air traffic control positions as possible. Keep in mind this is all volunteer effort. While most everyone enjoys the online flying part, we need folks who equally enjoy serving as ATC or Air Traffic Controllers to make it “As Real As It Gets”. This event had the exact same goals and VATSIM was taking it up a notch by hosting it Live from the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas during FSExpo18.
Again, I’ve been flying off and on on the VATSIM network since it was born over 18 years ago. I recall participating in other “Light up America” events, but I don’t recall it being as successful as Friday nights event actually was. This is not to say it never has been, I just don’t recall it and never had the opportunity to participate in any such event.
Return to Twitch
OK…I need to just say one thing. In a few days you’re going to see a blog posting which is a response to an email I received a few days ago from a long-time (somewhat long lost) flight sim friend. He wrote me after seeing newly published content on my blog site about flight sim. In a nutshell, he’s asking me if I had any plans to livestream my flights on Twitch as I once did before I started up my YouTube channel. I replied to me privately, and asked him if he would mind me turning his email, my response and other thoughts into a blog posting for future release. He thought that was a great idea and I had been working on writing that up for release in a few weeks. However, as I began to plan my flight for the VATSIM event, I thought to myself it might be a good event for me to stream on Twitch. So I did and here we are…
Rusty, Rusty, Rusty
It’s been over three years since I had broadcast my flying on Twitch. Back then, I would make every effort to fly to/from airports with ATC coverage…but what I really enjoy most about livestreaming is interacting with my viewers. Unfortunately in an event of this scale, there is so much ATC chatter that it really makes it hard….plus I’m a bit rusty with some of my VATSIM procedures (especially when flying in a controlled airspace) that juggling a three ring circus (ring one my aircraft, ring two VATSIM ATC and ring three my Twitch viewers) could easily become overwhelming. But surprisingly I think I did OK and really only got my wrist slapped by ATC one time and that was my failure to STOP my taxi at SFO after I had vacated 28R, was given permission to cross 28L by SFO Tower, but I was handed off to SFO Ground a bit late (i think) and I unfortunately was changing frequencies and still moving. But all is OK…and I’ve learned a lesson which I won’t forget.
Thank you VATSIM
As you can see from the screenshot I captured from VAT-Spy during the event, America was certainly lit up with ATC. It’s not every day a pilot can depart on the east coast of the US and fly all the way across the country and be within ATC control the entire time. For my flight, I opted to recreate the flight I’m currently on (Denver to San Francisco) with Southwest Airlines.
I must also say, that while I enjoy VATSIM events. Most are situated around a single airport or a single ARTCC region. This places a lot of traffic all attempting to land/takeoff within a small airspace. I would love to see VATSIM organize more events similar to Light up the USA. But I’m also aware it’s all volunteer effort and I really have no idea the amount of work it took to pull off this type of an event. A possible solution might be to divide the US half (along the Mississippi River) and have eastern and western focused events alternate in similar fashion to the Light up the USA event.
Thank you Viewers
As PBS says, “It’s Viewers Like You” and it really is. I appreciate those who turned out to watch my flight. I realize most of my YouTube subscribers are mainly Farm Sim fans, but I do have a mix of fans who enjoy all things simulation and hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I certainly did and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to experience this event, glad I had the opportunity to share it with others and very much look forward to more, more, more.
I need to close for now and I’m going to see if I can upload this via my onboard wi-fi connection. Look for another installment of the GBS WorldFlight Tour later this week and perhaps another edition on Saturday. Sometime I’ll also schedule and release the letter I mentioned earlier which again I wrote not really knowing I would be streaming the flight.
After a relaxing few days along the eastern coast of Australia, our tour departs Cairns headed west for Broome, Australia. Our tourists will spend a few days in this Australian coastal city doing a little pearl hunting and seeing many of the other sights around the area. The excitement is high and the morale of the passengers is very good. Our flight today will be an equipment transfer for TigerAir. TigerAir is one of Australia’s low-cost airlines and in addition to shuttling our tourists from Cairns to Broome, we’re also assisting TigerAir by moving this Boeing 737-800 over to Broome. While this flight leg is not the longest we’ll experience during our tour, it’s one of the longest we’ll complete in the 737. As will be the case in each of these tour updates, I’ll post an updated route map showing our progress. The blue icons are yet to be visited and the magenta icons are those destinations we can check off the list. Finally, in addition to the screenshots telling our flying journey, I hope you are also enjoying learning a little something about the cities, countries, airports and airlines along our journey. I certainly am.
An updated version of our tour map showing Cairns as visited.
History of City
Broome is a coastal, pearling (as in pearl hunting) and tourist town in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. According to the 2016 census, Broome has a population of 16,000 but grows to over 45,000 in the peak tourist season.
History of Country
As for Australia, officially named the “Commonwealth of Australia” which is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area. Neighboring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor. Our tour will actually visit both Indonesia in just a few legs and PNG towards the end as we make our way back to Sydney.
History of Airport
The Broome airport is a regional hub of the northwestern part of Western Australia and is the 20th busiest airport in Australia. It also has just one runway measuring 7,769 feet (2,368 meters) in length and is one of the reasons we’re once again flying a Boeing 737.
Like Cairns, the Broom airport is a payware add-on airport from Orbx.
History of Airline
Today we are flying for Tiger Airways. TigerAir is an Australian low-cost airline which began operations in 2007. While TigerAir does operate out of Cairns, it does not fly to Broome. I was rather limited due to runway length so I chose to fly the 737-800 once again for this flight and was also limited in the choice of airline livery I could locate on the internet. Just as a point of reference, there are no real-world flights which operate direct between Cairns and Broome. Passengers wishing to fly between these destinations in the real world would most likely connect through major hubs in either Sydney, Perth or Melbourne.
Tigerair currently owns 4 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet. But will be replacing the 14 Airbus A320 aircraft with Boeing 737-800 in the future.
If you fly Tigerair in real life, you can enjoy their Tigerbites which is their own brand of airline food and Tigertainment which is their onboard wireless entertainment system which utilizes a “Bring your own device” concept. Then once connected to their Tigertainment system you can enjoy a variety of complimentary videos and music.
But as I mentioned on the first video of this tour series, my goal is to add as much variety in the aircraft type and also airline brand as possible.
Flight Briefing
QFA1066
YBCS – YBRM
Planned Fuel – 14,000kg
Planned Altitude – 34,000
Distance – 1542.4nm
Flight Time – 3 hrs 55 mins
Route: NONUM1 NONUM J64 AS T11 BRM
Flight Journal
It’s June 4th and our holiday travelers have thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Cairns. We have an early afternoon departure of Cairns and should arrive in Broome in plenty of time for dinner. As you can see from the map above, our route will take us southwest to Alice Springs, then northwest to Broome. As previously mentioned, we flying a TigerAir Boeing 737-800 and once catering has finished we’ll be ready to button up the doors and push back from the gate.
Push and engine start complete. The marshalling team from Cairns have been top-notch and first class all the way.
With Cairns being a relatively small airport, the taxi out to runway 15 was short and we’ve been given our take-off clearance.
An awesome view as our TigerAir 738 turns to join the departure out of Cairns.
Wing views are always my favorite. Cairns airport in the background.
Once again the immersion effect from FSFX Packages is well worth the cost.
During our previous flight from Sydney to Cairns, the ground vegetation was just as it appears here (lush and green) but will soon change.
As we headed west, the ground textures changed to a more desert and baron look.
Another wing shot as we’re descending. Speed brakes are up to slow us as we near 10,000 and our 250kts speed restrictions.
Making our final turn to line up for the visual for runway 10 at Broome.
Runway 10 is just visible in the haze. No ILS at YBRM.
Still just a tad high on final according to the PAPI lights which show three white, one red.
There we go, red on white…we’re alright!
One final shot of our TigerAir B738 all parked up and secure at Broome Airport. Our tourists will spend a few days here exploring and pearl hunting. In a few days we’ll depart Australia and head northwest to Indonesia. Due to the short runway at Broome, once again we’ll be flying the Boeing 737. But this will soon change.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Tiger Airways livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
Orbx Broome Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our next flight will depart Broome, Australia for Jakarta, Indonesia. As previously mentioned, due to the short runway in Broome, our flight to Jakarta will once again be in a Boeing 737. However, once we reach Jakarta…our next two legs will feature the Boeing Triple Seven (777) and the Boeing Dreamliner.
