August 22, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Ladies, Gentlemen and Children of ALL AGES, the time is here….as you’re reading this edition of the WorldFlight 2018 GBS Tour blog update, we’re T-Minus ~ 24 hours from the start of our European vacation. We will be departing Denver for London Heathrow on the British Airways daily flight. Our flight leaves (if on time) at 19:35 on Thursday and we arrive in London just before lunch (11:35 AM) the next day. We’ll spend a few hours making our way across London to London City Airport where we will fly to Antwerp, Belgium. This all makes for a super long day, but the business class seat on the BA flight does help as we both can get a few hours sleep.
But not to worry…I’ve worked hard the past couple of weeks to not only complete ALL items on my honey-do list…but also complete enough flights in advance to keep up with the twice weekly updates during the time we’re away, plus a few extra. Once we return from vacation, I plan to increase the blog release schedule to release three updates per week just so I can wrap up the tour around the time the real tour will complete around 10 November. Of course, there’s more motivation to have the tour completed prior to 20 November as that is the day Farming Simulator 19 releases. YEA!!!
History of City
The City of Leeds dates back to 1207, when Maurice Paynel granted a charter covering a small area adjacent to a crossing of the River Aire. Today Leeds has a population around 784,000 making it the second largest city in England.
History of Country
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and shares borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the West. The best known evidence of human presence in the area dates back to approx. 780,000 years ago.
History of Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport began operations in 1931 as Yeadon Aerodrome. The Leeds airport is the highest airport in all of England at an elevation of 681 feet and the 15th busiest airport in the UK. It serves as a base for Eastern Airways, Jet2 and Ryanair.
History of Airline
British Airways is the flag carrier and largest airline in the UK based on fleet size. Established in 1974 after a merger of four airlines, British Airways serves over 160 destinations around the world and has a fleet size of over 270 aircraft.
Flight Briefing
BAW1066
EDDL – EGNM
Planned Fuel – 11,000 lbs
Planned Altitude – 36,000
Distance – 345nm
Flight Time – 1hr, 25min
Route: SONE7T SONEB UP64 TENLI UL602 SUPUR UL60 KOLAG L60 SOPEK L989 BODSO Y70 GOLES BATLI
Flight Journal
After a short stay and tour around the Dusseldorf area of Germany, our travelers must move on to our next destination in the WorldFlight 2018 tour with that being the city of Leeds, England. While not the shortest flight of the tour (that was the last flight) this flight is just under 350nm away, with a flying time of just under 90 minutes. For this leg we’re ferrying a British Airways Airbus A319 up to Leeds where it is scheduled to resume normal service.
While our travelers enjoy the more roomy/spacious Boeing 787, 777 or even the 737 (or Airbus A320), for a short flight like this, the A319 will do the job and we’re just fortunate to have the support and use of this BA aircraft.
We’re lined up and waiting for our take off clearance. We were just behind a larger Boeing 772 and need to allow a bit of separation to avoid any wake turbulence caused by the larger aircraft.
All safe now, cleared for take-off and we’re airborne.
Making our turn to join the departure. The Rhine River is below us.
The greater Dusseldorf area as we climb to our cruising altitude.
Just off the coast of Holland as we fly over Amsterdam headed towards the North Sea.
A wing view over looking the clouds building over the North Sea.
Making great progress.
Land Ho…the coast of England coming into view. We’ll soon begin our descent.
On final approach into Leeds.
Leeds
Cleared to land.
Parked at the gate in Leeds, England.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
FlightSim Labs Airbus A319 (British Airways livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx EU England
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Finally, some cooler weather. It appears the heat wave which has kept much of the UK and Europe has finally broken its hold on the area. Nice and normal daytime temps in the mid 70’s have moved into the area. Our travelers will spend three days in the Leeds area before heading to our first of three stops in Norway. We’re just two legs away from reaching the half-way point of our tour. I appreciate you coming along for the ride.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
August 20, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Not everyone appreciates the joy of study level aircraft in the flight sim world. At one point in time, I was one of these individuals. My argument (and I believed at the time it was a valid one), was simply I just didn’t have the available time to spend 30 minutes or more on the ground flipping switches and programming a complex FMS. I simply wanted to spend less time kicking the tires, and more time lighting the fires and flying.
It must sound strange…
…to a non-flight sim enthusiast that anyone would spend the amount of money and time on a hobby like this, but truly have no desire to learn to fly in the real world. The argument is a valid one, I’ve spent at least a high four figures (perhaps five) over the years which would have more than paid the costs of obtaining my PPL. While I absolutely love flying in real life (as a passenger), I just simply don’t share the same interest in obtaining my private pilots license.
There’s No Right or Wrong Way
Something my YouTube viewers have heard me say many, many times. There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy the hobby of flight simulation. I recently wrote an article titled, “Default/Freeware Aircraft in P3D v4” where I discussed some of the history of both default and freeware aircraft and the fact that there is nothing wrong with using these models to simulate flight. As I was writing that article, I saw a comment posted in one of the Facebook groups I follow. The individual discussed the fact that he simply doesn’t have the time to study, study level aircraft. He expressed many of the same reasons for not flying the complex study level aircraft which I mentioned in the first paragraph and his bottom line was he wanted to spend time flying for maximum enjoyment to escape the stresses of his day-to-day hectic life. Sound familiar? It does to me.
While I’ll always argue and defend the fact there’s no right or wrong way to enjoy flight simulation. I’ll also add that over the years I’ve found I actually get the maximum enjoyment from the more complex, study level, payware aircraft I once avoided.
Point A to Point B and EVERYTHING In-between
I absolutely enjoy all aspects of flight simulation. I enjoy the flight planning, the setup of the aircraft, the taxi, departure, climb, cruise, descent, arrival, approach, landing, taxi…..basically everything. To me, a flight from point A to point B isn’t complete unless all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed. Yes, it takes some time. But over the years I’ve developed a process which I use to both learn and also fly these types of aircraft.
New Tutorial Series
The past two articles I’ve written did get me to thinking that I should share my processes for how I conduct my flights with the payware, study level aircraft I enjoy flying. I’ve only really started the frame work portion of how I draft and write my articles so I’m not sure just how many tutorials or how in-depth they’ll actually be. But in keeping with my philosophy of “There’s No Right or Wrong Way”, if you are the type of simmer who enjoys dressing up like a real world airline captain and working through each and every checklist, then most likely you’ll not get a lot out of these future tutorials. HOWEVER, if you desire not to spend greater than 30 minutes, 45 minutes or even up to an hour on the ground just to enjoy a flight…then perhaps you’ll learn something from these upcoming tutorials. We’ll see.
The first article will focus mainly on how I learn/study the process of flying a new aircraft and I hope to bring that to you within the next week or so. As I’m looking at my calendar, I have two work related trips I’ll be taking in July, followed by one in early August. Then my wife and I are leaving for Belgium/England for two weeks in late August, early September. I honestly can’t wait for this vacation, but will do my best to at the very least get the tutorial series started before vacation.
As always, thanks for reading. Until next time….happy flying!
Jerry
P.S. You can read my other Flight Sim Tutorials, by clicking Flight, then Flight Sim Tutorials on the GrizzlyBearSims website.
August 18, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Before I get going with this tour update, I just wanted to give a brief shout-out to my fellow virtual pilots from virtual United Airlines. I recently joined this fine virtual airline and one of the members posted a friendly note in the forums about my blog site. Thank you! If you’re looking for a friendly, relaxed virtual airline…visit vUAL and fill out an application. When I’m back from vacation in mid September, I’ll do a proper write up on this wonderful VA. I’m having a lot of fun flying the friendly skies for vUAL and so can you.
As I’ve been keeping you informed on my honey-do list progress the past few tour updates, I’m pleased to let you know that as we’re less than six days from leaving on our real world European vacation, the list is almost 100% done. This blog posting is releasing on Saturday, 18 August and hopefully by the time the sun sets on Sunday…the list will be done. I’m fairly confident the list will be completed, but to be honest the few remaining tasks are not critical to our leaving and if they get done, they get done…otherwise I’m not going to stress over it. As my father often says, “Life is just too short to stress over the little things”. I agree….Let’s go flying!
History of City
Dusseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the 7th most populous city in Germany. Dusseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts, its pioneering influence on electronic/experimental music and its Japanese community. Located on the river Rhine, Dusseldorf is ranked 6th in the most livable city in the world.
History of Country
Germany is a sovereign state in central-western Europe. It includes 16 states covering an area of over 137,000 square miles. Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union with an approx. 83 million inhabitants.
History of Airport
The Dusseldorf airport is located approx. 4.3 miles north of downtown Dusseldorf. The airport is the 3rd largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt and Munich handling 24.5 million passengers in 2017. It is a hub for Eurowings and serves as a focus city for many other airlines.
History of Airline
Eurowings is a German low-cost airline based in Dusseldorf and a fully owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and some long-haul routes.
Flight Briefing
EWG1066
LSZH – EDDL
Planned Fuel – 11,000 lbs
Planned Altitude – 28,000
Distance – 240nm
Flight Time – 1hr, 15min
Route: DEGE2S DEGES Z1 ETAGO DCT HAREM/N0462F340 UN851 LOHRE Z850 ADEMI T854 DOMUX DOMU2G
Flight Journal
You might remember back a few legs (Leg 13), this was the longest leg of the tour with a flight distance of 2,130 miles. This leg, leg #20 will be our shortest leg of the entire tour measuring only 240 miles. But regardless of the distance, the same amount of planning is required. As we’re a bit rushed to get out of Zurich, we’ll start with push-back and engine start up.
Climbing out via our departure.
One last look at Zurich Airport as we circle around to join our departure route.
A quick climb to flight level 280 (28,000 feet) and head towards Dusseldorf.
Our Eurowings Airbus A319 cruising over Germany.
Beginning our descent.
The Rhine River is visible below.
Making our turn to join the visual approach.
The Dusseldorf airport ahead.
Bugs on the windshield? Yep, this is an immersion feature of the FSLabs A319 (soon to be coming to the A320). The windshield will become a bit dirty with bug splats which can only be cleaned while on the ground.
Parked at the gate and deboarding our passengers.
Unloading the bags from another successful flight.
That bag looks heavy. I’m sure that bag belongs to my wife.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
FlightSim Labs Airbus A319 (Eurowings livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Once again our stay in Dusseldorf will be rather short as we’ll be departing for Leeds in just under 80 hours. But that will give our travelers enough time to explore the area and enjoy their stay here.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!
Jerry
August 15, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
As I mentioned in the previous tour update, the honey do list has been growing at a pace faster than I’ve been able to keep up with. But it seems as if everything that needs to be on the list, has been placed on the list and a hard days work last Saturday has things looking pretty good. There’s a good chance I won’t be left at home with chores to do while my wife enjoys vacation without me. LOL Of course, she wouldn’t do that…right? Let’s get right into the tour update so I’ll have some time to get back to the list.
As you can tell from the updated tour map below, the color magenta is slowly, but surely beginning to take a bigger presence on the map. While we haven’t yet reached the half-way mark, we’re very, very close.
History of City
Founded by the Romans in 15 BC, Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in north-central Switzerland and has an estimated population of just over 400,000. Today Zurich is a leading golabl city and among the world’s largest financial centers despite having a relatively small population. The city is home to a large number of financial institutions and banking companies. The official language of Zurich is German.
History of Country
Switzerland is a sovereign state in Europe and consists of 26 cantons (similar to states) with the city of Bern serving as the seat of the federal authorities. Switzerland is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland has existed in its current form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. However, the oldest traces of human existence in Switzerland dates back about 150,000 years.
History of Airport
The Zurich Airport, known as Kloten Airport, is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the principle hub of Swiss International Airlines.
History of Airline
Swiss International Air Lines is the national airline of Switzerland and operates scheduled services in Europe and North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Its main hub is Zurich Airport with a focus city operation in Geneva. Swiss operates a fleet of 86 aircraft of which all but 10 are Airbus. They operate 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
Flight Briefing
SWR1066
LEBL – LSZH
Planned Fuel – 15,000 lbs
Planned Altitude – 36,000
Distance – 462nm
Flight Time – 1hr, 45min
Route: DALI2P DALIN UN870 MAXIR UN853 MOBLO UZ662 LAMUR Z57 DOPIL DCT
Flight Journal
As we’ve officially entered the European segment of our world tour and while we’re still not at the half-way point, there’s still a level of accomplishment to be pleased about. The next few flights will have us visiting Switzerland (next stop), Germany, England and Norway. We’ll actually visit three different cities/airports in Norway before turning and heading towards Greenland. But before we can get to Greenland, we must depart Barcelona for Zurich.
Lined up and waiting for our take-off clearance. It’s a hot day today in Barcelona and our travelers are ready for a cooler (hopefully) stay in Zurich. But then again, all of Europe is currently suffering under heat wave conditions, but thankfully the hotel has air conditioning.
Up and away from Barcelona.
Heading out over the beautiful Balearic Sea towards the South of France.
Snow in the Alps…that’s a welcome sight.
With the recent high temperatures, I highly doubt there is that much snow in the Alps. But it’s still pretty to look at and I can confirm (living near the Rocky Mountains) that our high mountain peaks will still have snow on the very top usually through much of July and into August.
Beginning our descent into Zurich.
Runway in sight
The Swiss countryside. I hope to visit Switzerland someday in real life. My wife actually lived in Switzerland for several years before we met.
Short final view from the flight deck.
Another Swiss Air just pushing back from their gate and about to depart Zurich.
Parked up at our gate and in the process of deboarding.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
FlightSim Labs Airbus A320 (Swiss Air livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Our travelers will spend a little over 72 hours in Zurich before we pack up and head to Germany. Until then, I hope you are having a wonderful month of August and enjoying the tour.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
August 11, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
As the weeks of summer quickly tick by, so do our flight legs. With a third of the tour safely in the books, we’re closing in on the half-way mark. Life of course is busy, busy, busy for me right now. With less than two full weeks before my wife and I fly to Belgium, I’m struggling to keep up with the honey-do list. It seems for every item I manage to check off, there are a couple more items added. At this rate, I’m really not sure when it all will get done. But the good news for me is I did manage to convince her that we don’t start anything new until after we return, so for now the tasks more or less all involve finishing up a few small projects and then just focusing on things that MUST be done prior to leaving. But of course, this brings up the dreaded “S” word….yes….shopping! Wish me luck!
I hope you enjoyed the write up from tour leg #17. I can’t wait to find another reason to fly into Madeira. I think (for now) this has been one of my favorite legs. As I had never flown into the island before, the visual approach was slightly stressful. Now of course if you are not a flight simmer, perhaps you can’t understand how a flight made in a simulator can be stressful. I guess that’s just the immersion and perhaps the closest thing I can compare this to with other simulation based games might be the stress we feel when we’re running late on an ETS2 or ATS delivery job or perhaps the final days of fall in Farming Simulator and the weather forecast shows rain, but you still have over half of your crops still on the field. It’s a good level of stress and again it just further adds to the immersion. After all, I think that’s one of the reasons we all enjoy our simulation based games so much.
History of City
Barcelona is the capital and largest city of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. Founded as a Roman City in approx. 15 BC, in the middle ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona and later merged with the Kingdom of Aragon. Today Barcelona is the home to around 4.8 million people, making it the sixth most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London and Madrid.
History of Country
Spain is a sovereign state mostly located on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe. With an area of 195, 360 square miles, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union and the fourth largest country in the European continent.
History of Airport
The Barcelona-El Prat International Airport is located 7.5 miles southwest of the center of Barcelona. It is the second largest and second busiest airport in Spain behind Madrid-Barajas Airport and the 7th busiest in all of Europe.
History of Airline
Vueling Airlines is a Spanish low-cost airline based in Barcelona with hubs in Barcelona-El Prat and Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome. Its name comes from the Spanish word vuelo, which means flight. It is the largest airline in Spain by fleet size and the number of destinations it serves. Vueling serves over 100 destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Flight Briefing
VLG1066
LPMA – LEBL
Planned Fuel – 21,000 lbs
Planned Altitude – 36,000
Distance – 1037nm
Flight Time – 2hr, 45min
Route: DEGU3N DEGUN DCT NARTA/N0410F180 B18 ESP G52 MAGUM/N0452F240 UN870 PORLI/N0457F370 DCT UREDI/N0455F380 UN870 RBO/N0451F240 R870 PONEN/N0454F380 UT600 CASPE DCT
Flight Journal
The extra few days we’ve stayed on the beautiful island of Madeira have made a huge difference with the morale and attitudes for all. Our travelers and crew have enjoyed time on the beach, a few diving excursions and just the relaxation of not being under a tight schedule. But it’s time we resume the tour and head into the continent of Europe. Next stop…Spain!
We’re shuttling this Vueling Airbus A320 over to Barcelona. But before we can depart, we need fuel.
Myself, my first officer and cabin crew typically arrive about an hour before our flight to get the aircraft ready for departure. Our travelers have now made their way to the airport and are in the process of boarding.
But of course, we can’t leave until all bags have been loaded and the ground crew here are doing a great job helping us stick to our scheduled departure.
The ground crew attaching the tow bar and push truck to our A320.
Gear going up and off we go headed towards Spain.
One last look at the island of Madeira. I’ll be back…..
High above the clouds at a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet.
The west coast of Portugal.
Beginning our descent into Barcelona, Spain. Our arrival will bring us out over the Balearic Sea.
Final approach into Barcelona.
The Spanish coast looks nice.
Cleared to land.
On the ground in Barcelona, Spain.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
FlightSim Labs Airbus A320 (Vueling livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Aerosoft Madeira X Evolution (LMPA)
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
Another spectacular flight in the books. Once again we’ll resume our faster paced touring schedule and will be departing Barcelona in just three short days and we’ll knock out the European portion of the tour in just a few weeks (hopefully). We’ll slow things back down again once we reach Norway. As always, thank you so much for reading the tour progress articles.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
August 8, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Our next destination has somewhat been on my Flight Sim “Bucket List” for some time. The small island airport of Funchal-Madeira features one of the more challenging approaches of any airport we’ll be encountering on our tour. The airport is on the list of the 10 most dangerous airports in the world. If you would like to watch a YouTube video featuring an Airbus A320 making the approach and landing into Funchal, watch this video.
While the majority of our airport destinations have been on default P3D scenery, I’m pleased to be able to feature the Aerosoft payware scenery for the Funchal-Madeira airport. This will both enhance my immersion of the approach and landing, but also give us more more to look at as well. In addition, this is also the first time I’ve ever attempted this approach and landing. As I previously mentioned, Funchal-Madeira has been on my bucket list for some time, but as I didn’t have the scenery, I wanted to wait before I attempted it. Hopefully we’ll get our Airbus A320 on the ground safely as we begin the European portion of our tour.
Speaking of Europe. You’re reading this edition of our long tour on Wednesday, 8 August and in two weeks, + 1 day my wife and I will head out to Denver International Airport for our British Airways flight from Denver to London Heathrow. We’re both very much ready for our European vacation to Antwerp Belgium. We’ll spend one week in Belgium and one week in the English countryside before returning to Denver. For the most part, I plan on being mostly unplugged from social media during the two weeks abroad. However, I may occasionally post some pictures and comments in Discord. But no guarantees. But enough about all that…let’s get this journey started. I can’t wait to attempt this approach.
History of City
Funchal is the largest city, municipal seat and the capital of Portugal’s Autonomous Region of the island of Madeira. The city has a population of 111,892 which makes it the 6th largest city in Portugal and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries. Because of its high cultural and historical value, Funchal is one of Portugal’s main tourist destinations.
History of Country
Madeira is an archipelago of Portugal and lies in the North Atlantic Ocean southwest of Portugal. The total population is estimated to be 267,785. Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in 1419 and settled sometime after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Age of Discovery. Today, Madeira is a popular year-round resort, being visited every year by about 1.4 million tourists (almost 5 times the population).
History of Airport
The Madeira International Airport Cristiano Ronaldo is located 8.2 miles east-northeast of the regional capital of Funchal. Officially opened in 1964, the airport runways have been updated multiple times over the years. Often considered to be the Kai Tak of Europe because of its singular approach to runway 05, the runway was extended to its current 9,124 foot length using a concrete platform partly over the ocean. In 2016, it was announced that the airport would be renamed Madeira International Airport Cristiano Ronaldo in honor of Madeira native football player Cristiano Ronaldo.
History of Airline
Air Arabia Maroc (not to be confused with Royal Air Maroc) is a Moroccan low-cost airline, setup as a joint venture between various Moroccan investors and Air Arabia. The low-cost carrier was launched on 29 April 2009 and started operations that same year with its maiden flight serving Casablanca to London Stansted. Still a small airline, operating 7 Airbus A320’s serving Brussels, London, Marseille, Milan and Paris.
Flight Briefing
MAC1066
GMAD – LPMA
Planned Fuel – 16,520 lbs
Planned Altitude – 36,000
Distance – 403nm
Flight Time – 1hr, 30min
Route:
Flight Journal
As previously mentioned, the past few legs of our world tour have been fast paced. Since leaving Cape Town, we’ve spent less than 48 hours in each of the locations we’ve landed and both our travelers and crew are starting to grow a bit weary and I believe we all could benefit from slowing the pace down slightly. I believe our stay on the island of Madeira will do wonders for travelers and crew alike.
One really couldn’t ask for better flying weather for this leg. We have some mid afternoon clouds starting to build in Morocco. We’re loading the fuel needed for the 90 minute flight onto our Airbus A320.
Our passengers have arrived.
And so has the luggage
Time to pushback.
Take-off clearance received and acknowledged. Let’s Go!
Off we go into the wild blue yonder…
We’ve made our turn to join the departure and the airport is just off the right side.
Another turn before heading out into the North Atlantic.
Goodbye Africa
Cruising at Flight Level 360
Nice and simple livery for the A320
The island of Madeira coming into view as we descend into the area.
The runway at LPMA just to the left. Our approach takes us west of the island and then back around.
Island view
The airport just off to our right side.
Making our final turn on the visual approach for runway 05.
We have the runway in sight and we’re cleared to land runway 05 at LPMA.
Safely on the ground at Madeira.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
FlightSim Labs Airbus A320 (Air Arabia Maroc livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Aerosoft Madeira X Evolution (LMPA)
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Computer Hardware Specs
This was a very enjoyable flight with a challenging, but fun approach and landing. It was nice to be able to check this airport off my flight sim bucket list and I’ll certainly be returning here for more flights down the road. Our group will stay here for several days before departing for Barcelona, Spain.
The overall progress of the tour is coming along nicely. The next leg is a little over 1000 miles, but then we hit a series of really short hops of just a few hundred miles each. I plan to crank out a few of these flights in quick fashion so I can continue with two sessions per week while I’m on vacation. Once I return from vacation in mid September, I’ll resume flying the tour legs and hopefully will be able to increase the blog writings to three per week just to try to wrap up the tour around the time of the actual event.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!
Jerry
August 7, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
When I was a child (keep in mind I grew up in the 70’s, early 80’s and sneaking up on year 52) my mother and grandmother absolutely loved their soap operas. I always found it interesting that while I didn’t watch them regularly (no, really…I promise) I could either be home sick from school, on summer or holiday break and catch 5-10 minutes in passing and then repeat in a few weeks/months time and feel as if I really hadn’t missed anything. Yes, those WERE the Days of Our Lives!
About a week ago I wrote a detailed piece regarding POSCON (Positive Control Network). Now let me just state for the record that I am not involved in any capacity with the POSCON team. I know a few of the folks behind POSCON, but I’m personally not involved. Said another way, I’m merely an individual who is interested and highly excited about the possibilities POSCON is planning to bring to the flight sim community. Period!
Drama, Drama, Drama
Since the time I published the article last week, a whole lot of drama has bubbled up regarding POSCON’s plan to purchase one of the existing online multiplayer networks. If you are new to the hobby, we only have three online multiplayer ATC networks and they are VATSIM, IVAO and PilotEdge. It became clear who the target was fairly soon after news broke about the plan and the VATSIM network found itself in the crosshairs. The dollar amount offered for the VATSIM network was $50,000 USD.
I’ll be honest and once again state for the record that I really don’t understand exactly how an organization such as VATSIM could simply be acquired. If someone offered to purchase my blog site which is solely owned/operated by yours truly, then yes…I understand how that financial transaction would take place. But VATSIM is simply a non-profit, unincorporated entity which is made up of a Board of Governors and the general membership. I’ve been a member of VATSIM for 17 years, I have never been charged a dime to use the service, I pay no dues and to my knowledge there has never been any method to contribute/donate/gift funds to cover the operational costs for the network. So in this sort of setup, exactly who would one write a check to? Who would benefit from the $50K?
Nothing in life is free
That’s right! Absolutely NOTHING in life is free. Someone, somewhere is paying. While I charge nothing for folks to read my articles, view my mods and add-on spreadsheet or review my hardware/software configurations….it costs money (my money) to have this website and no I’m not about to start charging. But my point is this. People (and it all started with the original VATSIM Founders) have been footing the bill to run the VATSIM network for the past 17 years. While I would assume much of the development of the software/database etc. has been done by fellow VATSIM members, there are still hardware costs associated to keeping the network operational 24×7. My guess is $50K wouldn’t even come close to covering all the costs which have been incurred over the past 17 years. But the point I’m making here (or trying to make) isn’t about the $50,000. Please keep reading!
Hate runneth over
As much as I love the Internet age we all find ourselves living in, I for one could certainly do without all the hate and negativity which goes along with it. Seems like every rock you turn over, you’ll find a troll lurking under it….just waiting to pounce and then retreat back under the rock. This is one of the reasons I have given myself a break from YouTube and Twitch. But that’s another story, for another blog post…
When the news broke about the $50,000 offer from POSCON to acquire VATSIM, speculation run amuck over what POSCON’s true intentions were. Folks began piling on their bandwagon of choice and filling the interwebz with hate and speculation over how POSCON (and certain individuals associated with POSCON) were going to destroy our hobby. The general consensus was just because POSCON was offering money to acquire VATSIM, that at some point in time there must be an equal or greater return on that initial investment.
The Park Across the Street
True story as we take a brief break from the POSCON v. VATSIM story. I live and work in what is called the Denver Tech Center. It’s a wonderful and beautiful part of Denver and my commute from home to office is generally less than 5 minutes. If you know anything about Denver traffic, then you know this is a HUGE benefit. After all, every minute not stuck in traffic is a minute I can spend doing something else. But I digress….
Across the street from my neighborhood is a fairly large park. The land was donated/gifted many years ago with the intention that it would always be used as a park for people to enjoy. The park is very well maintained. It is mowed weekly, there are numerous trash cans which are emptied on a regular basis. And each year around Christmas, lights are placed in the trees in beautiful fashion. On any given day, you’ll find both young and old enjoying the benefits in which this park gives to everyone. Yet….there is no admission fee to enter. There is no “pay for play” entry fee to enjoy this little park across the street.
Of course, YES….our tax dollars are used to cover the costs of maintaining the park. But this just further proves my point from earlier that nothing in life is free. But the bigger picture here is that someone with very generous pockets gifted this land for the purpose and benefit of others.
Back on Point
Just because someone, somewhere steps up and makes the decision to financially back something or even create something new and different, doesn’t automatically mean at some point in time it will turn into a “pay for play” subscription offering. Likewise, just because someone else appears to have a lot of different projects in various stages of development doesn’t indicate dubious intentions. Individuals do often care enough to give for the betterment of all.
My Final Thoughts
As I’ve said before, it’s never been my intentions to write about breaking news content. I chose to write the POSCON article last week simply because I found it exciting and wanted to share that exciting news with my readership. As I sit here writing this follow-up, that level of excitement for what I believe POSCON will bring to this hobby HAS NOT WAVERED. I’m just as excited and I’m just as confident in the people behind POSCON and their ability to deliver the next generation flight simulation network.
My advice to the POSCON team (should they care to read it) is to just simply move forward with their plans. Draw a line in the sand and say everything which has transpired up to this point is on that side of the line and everything we have to look forward to is on this other side. Then continue marching forward.
As for VATSIM, there’s a reason why I’ve been a member of this online community for 17 years. However, VATSIM hasn’t done a good enough job in keeping up with the times and the VATSIM leadership appears to have acknowledged this oversight and only time will tell just how serious they are in correcting it.
My advice for anyone still reading this. Try VATSIM, try IVAO, try PilotEdge and perhaps sometime after the first of the year…give POSCON a try. Then make a decision. But understand that you absolutely do not have to limit yourself to just one online network. As I pointed out in the article last week, POSCON may not be for everyone and that’s absolutely OK. But please….let’s stop the hate. Let’s not turn this into another measuring contest where we divide and single folks out simply because of how they define their enjoyment of the hobby. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and all my writings. This will most likely be the last mention of POSCON until such time as I have the ability to experience it first hand.
Until next time….
Be Happy!!!
JT
P.S. No, my blog site is not for sale. LOL Second, I hope to share some really exciting news with everyone very, very soon regarding an opportunity which I’ve been offered (which has nothing to do with the content of this article) and something I’m really looking forward to. As a teaser, yes it does have to do with writing and it has to do with the flight simulation hobby. But beyond that, you’ll just need to wait a few weeks to hear the rest of the story….
August 6, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Before I get going with this article, let me just clarify who the target audience is for this default/freeware aircraft in P3D v4 article. I’m NOT writing this article for the seasoned, hard-core flight sim enthusiast who most likely will read the title of this piece and even without reading the article immediately pass judgement on the author and/or on others who may actually benefit from the information it contains. I’m writing this piece for those who don’t buy into the hype that only sophisticated, complex, study-level, payware aircraft is the end all, be all in our hobby. Not every individual who is new to our wonderful hobby can immediately afford to drop money for whatever sim platform they have chosen, then turn around and drop even more money on payware aircraft.
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time all we had available to us were default aircraft. I spent dozens, hundreds of hours back in the early 1980’s flying around Meig’s Field on my Commodore 64 in a Cessna. It’s all we had and we made do. I vaguely remember at some point subLOGIC released additional scenery disks which included more airports and larger regions to explore. As I moved from the C-64 to a PC in the early 90’s things began to change. But change really didn’t start happening until the dawn of the internet age and around the time of Flight Simulator 95 (1996), Flight Simulator 98 (1997) and then Flight Simulator 2000 (late 1999).
Actually, I believe it was the release of Flight Simulator 2000 which we owe the biggest amount of gratitude for as it was this particular release which brought about the largest amount of improvements and helped to launch the online network SATCO, which eventually became VATSIM in 2001. It was also FS2000 which brought us the Concorde and the Boeing 777 as default aircraft.
Freeware is Cool
Freeware began making the flight sim scene through early websites created by Avsim and Flightsim.com. Even online networks like CompuServe offered the ability to upload/download and share various freeware add-ons. My earliest memories of good, quality freeware aircraft was from a group called Project OpenSky or POSKY for short. I believe of all things (not including Microsoft Flight Simulator) that could be singled out as the #1 draw of bringing more enthusiasts into the flight sim community, it would be POSKY. POSKY had the very best freeware models available anywhere. You wanted to fly a Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757 etc. POSKY had it and the community supported them. Some of my fondest and earliest memories of flying on the VATSIM network in the early days were flying POSKY aircraft.
Birth of Payware
I honestly can’t remember when I first began to see payware aircraft hitting the market. I can tell you the first payware aircraft I ever purchased was the Level-D 767 and I absolutely loved it. I would take a wild guess and say it was around 2002/03 timeframe. Next was the iFly 737 NGX as it was released before PMDG released their NGX and honestly the rest were purchased as they became available.
Payware kill the freeware star?
Just a little play on words there and another musical reference. The more you read my articles the more you’ll see small references to my favorite decade of music. But in all seriousness, there was a period of time where both the freeware and payware markets were healthy, vibrant and lived together in harmony. But at some stage the unfortunate thing began to happen. As payware aircraft began to gain in popularity, the decline of good, quality freeware (and those who were developing it) also began the slow decline. Today, it’s difficult to find descent looking and performing freeware aircraft for Prepar3D (especially v4). But I’ll share a website with you shortly that may be changing all this.
The Advancement of Default Aircraft
If you look back at the different versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, each new release offered something new. The earlier versions all focused around single engine aircraft. Today I view this as all part of my overall sim-based learning as one must crawl before we can walk. I think it was sometime in the very early 90’s before the 747 appeared as a default aircraft in MSFS. One thing I remember about the MSFS default aircraft is they always performed really well. Some of the POSKY aircraft I mentioned earlier was more or less based on the default aircraft and performed equally as well.
But if you’re a fan of the tubeliner, and you’ve just purchased Prepar3D…you’ll be disappointed as you won’t find a Boeing 737, 747, 757 etc. in the fleet of default aircraft. But of course, there’s an important reason for this…as P3D isn’t licensed for entertainment purposes even though I firmly believe the majority of licensed users fall directly into that category. But let’s not go down that rat hole.
Freeware Still Lives Here
As I mentioned at the top of this article, not everyone can afford to shell out the cost of the new sim (P3D v4), then rush out to purchase their favorite Boeing or Airbus airliner. While I’m of the opinion that most payware (even study level category) is far superior in performance and provide a higher level of immersion and overall enjoyment than freeware, I must admit that I’m impressed with the selection of freeware aircraft available from Rikoooo.com. I’m not really sure how long this site has been operational, but I see more and more folks posting screenshots on Facebook from some of the freeware aircraft options available. There’s even a pretty descent Airbus A380 which I’ve installed and spent a little time playing around with.
No Time for Study
As I was writing this article, I saw a Facebook comment posted in one of the flight sim groups I follow. The individual posting mentioned the fact that he really didn’t have time to study, the study level aircraft. He didn’t want to spend the necessary time to flip switches, program a complex FMS. He wanted to basically fly and that’s how he defined his level of enjoyment. I take my hat off to this individual for recognizing what he wants from his time in the sim. But if did get me thinking and I’ll share my thoughts next week. I also plan to document/create a short series of tutorials breaking down how I learn and fly the more complex, study level, payware aircraft. After all, if I can do this….anyone can do this.
Final Thoughts
I’ve already started drafting the frame work for next weeks article. I think the title will be something like “The Joy of Study Level Aircraft” (or something like that). It’s shaping up to kick start a short series of tutorial articles on the processes I go through when flying these types of aircraft. Yes, you’ll need to devote a bit more time….as one does need to do a little switch flipping and FMS programming, but I believe the satisfaction is much greater in the long run and I’ll explain why I believe this as well. But between now and then, let me leave you with something most of my YouTube viewers will have heard me say more than once in my videos.
There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy a simulation based game. Only each individual (YOU) can determine what they want from the time they spend playing. If a default or freeware aircraft model does that…then you’ve checked all the boxes and don’t let anyone tell you different.
Until next time…
Enjoy Flight on YOUR TERMS!
Jerry
August 4, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
While I’m certainly hopeful you are enjoying this tour and learning a few things along the way, I’m certainly enjoying flying and documenting it all for you. Of all my years enjoying the flight simulation hobby, this tour as found me flying more in Africa than I believe I’ve ever done before. I’ll also be honest and say that other than Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways, most of the others I had never heard of until I began planning this tour. For this leg, (our final leg in Africa) we will be flying the PMDG Boeing 737-800 in the Royal Air Maroc livery. You can learn more about this airline below.
While we’re making great progress, we still haven’t passed the half-way mark of our journey. But as previously stated, this will be the final leg within the African continent. Leg 17 will have us flying northwest to the small island of Madeira where our travelers will spend several days exploring the island and relaxing on the beach. Madeira is one of Portugal’s main tourist destinations.
History of City
Agadir is a major city in mid-southern Morocco and is located on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and near the foot of the Atlas Mountains. It is 508 km south of Casablanca and is one of the major urban centers of Morocco. The mild winter climate and good beaches have made it a major “winter sun” destination for northern Europeans.
History of Country
Morocco is a unitary sovereign state located in Northwest Africa. It is one of the native homelands of the indigenous Berber people. Geographically, Morocco is characterized by a rugged mountainous interior, large tracts of desert and a lengthy coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
History of Airport
The Agadir – Al Massira Airport (GMAD) is located in Temsia, 20km from Agadir proper. In 2007, the airport served over 1.5 million passengers and is a popular destination served by many European destinations.
History of Airline
Royal Air Maroc was founded in 1957 and is fully owned by the government of Morocco. The airline operates a domestic network throughout Morocco and scheduled flights to Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America.
Flight Briefing
RAM1066
GOBD – GMAD
Planned Fuel – 19,000 lbs
Planned Altitude – 39,000
Distance – 1035nm
Flight Time – 2hrs, 45min
Route: YF UR975 ARSOL ARSO2A
Flight Journal
For the most part, our tour has been uneventful. I think everyone agrees the weather could have been a little more cooperative. But hey, you just have to roll with the punches and make the very best out of everything life offers. Said in another way, when life gives you lemons….make lemonade! Our travelers have been doing just that by taking everything into stride. After all, this truly is a chance of a lifetime for many.
The itinerary for the past few stops in Africa has been rather quick, but still packed full of action and adventure. But I can tell the constant Go, Go, Go is starting to take its toll on many. Not to worry…once we reach the island of Madeira, the pace of travel will slow down a bit and our travelers will have several days to just soak up the sun and enjoy themselves. This will also be nice for myself and my crew. But first, we must load up once again for the 16th leg of our journey and fly the group to Morocco.
Our travelers have arrived by bus and will soon board the aircraft.
All have boarded and we’re ready for pushback.
A short taxi out to the active runway in our Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737-800.
Once again, we’re up, up and away….
Climbing out on our departure SID.
The Royal Air Maroc 50th Boeing 737 livery.
We’ve witnessed many different types of terrain on our journey. The sand dunes of the Sahara below.
More dunes
Thunderstorms in the area delayed our approach as ATC vectored us around the strong cells.
Runway insight and we’ll be landing soon.
On the ground in Morocco. Our travelers will deboard soon and be taken to the airport customs facility.
Once again, our stay in Morocco will be short. In just a little under 36 hours, we’ll depart Morocco for the tiny island of Madeira. For myself and the flight crew, the approach into Madeira will be one of the most difficult of the journey. More more about that next time.
Until next time…Thank you for reading!
Jerry
August 1, 2018 / admin / 2 Comments
POSCON – Positive Control Network Will Be Awesome! Yep, you heard it here first….
But let me be brutally honest. When I first learned of a planned new online flight sim multiplayer network I sort of rolled my eyes and pondered WHY? Unless you’re new to my blog postings, then you know I’ve been flying computer based sims since the 1980’s and have been a part of the flight sim community since the dawn of the Internet age and have been blogging about this hobby for well over 10 years. I’ve also been an active member of the VATSIM network since the day it was founded back in 2001. Yea…I’m nearly old as dirt, I have opinions…but I absolutely love this hobby. Much of the reason I asked “WHY” was down to the fact that I figured a third online multiplayer network would just further dilute IVAO/VATSIM, which in turn would just make all three mostly a wasteland of virtual air space. After all, contrary to popular belief, the flight sim community is rather small in comparison to other gaming communities.
What is POSCON?
POSCON or Positive Control Network is the next generation flight simulation network. The team behind POSCON are a mix of aviation professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts who have experienced the need for an improved, modern flight sim network that supports the latest and greatest technologies.
But Why Something New?
As I previously mentioned, I too asked myself why. After all, not all change is good. Yes, I’m fully aware that both IVAO and VATSIM have their issues. While I’ve flown on both networks in the past, VATSIM is my primary network of choice and while much of their infrastructure is seriously outdated (especially their voice codec) my initial thoughts were let’s focus on fixing what we already have, before we head down the path of something new. After all, both IVAO and VATSIM were born as a result of management differences with the old SATCO network which was developed in the late 1990’s.
POSCON Is Not Just Something New
That’s right! From the outside, yea….sure….POSCON will be a new online flight sim multiplayer network. But, once you begin to peel back the layers, you’ll soon learn that POSCON is not just something new. Instead, POSCON is something DIFFERENT! Very, very, very different from what we have now.
POSCON Will Be Immersive
A total immersive experience is the absolute goal behind POSCON. The immersion factor begins well before you get into the flight deck and will end well after you’ve landed and parked at your gate/stand.
POSCON will not be just a casual flying network. Today in the VATSIM/IVAO environment, the immersion ends immediately after the flight. POSCON will include additional features to reward virtual pilots who want to achieve full immersion before, during and after each flight. POSCON will include a system behind every thing that is done on the network. The additional immersion features will ensure there’s more to your flight than just landing after diverting to another airport and logging off the network. Pilots will be rewarded for making the extra effort to submit a logbook entry just as it’s done in the real world.
POSCON Events
POSCON events will be different from what we have experienced with VATSIM/IVAO. Events will no longer be just a point A to point B only experience. Air traffic during events will depart from multiple airports within a region to other multiple airports in another regions. The overall experience during events will better simulate real world air traffic with flights arriving into large international airports, smaller regional airports and overhead cross traffic. In other words, the experience is not just about trying to land 500 planes into one airport.
AI Traffic
Don’t always have time to fly during events or when most users are logged in? Neither do I and sometimes it does get a bit lonely being the only aircraft landing/departing from our favorite airports. If flying offline, most AI Traffic packages don’t always simulate real-world operations. It bugs me to no end when I see AI aircraft landing on runways which I know are not used in the real world.
POSCON will fill the virtual skies with interactive AI. Quoted directly from the POSCON website “Imagine for a minute a network without any traffic dead zones. For pilots, this means a flight that never gets boring. For ATC, this means you can sign on at 9 AM and still work a busy sector. Our algorithms will generate traffic based on real world airline flight schedules and inject them into the live network. Controllers have the option of tracking these targets and, when they do, the AI drones will come onto the frequency and be controllable through voice. As live traffic on the network increases, the untracked AI traffic will begin to drop offline to allow for a manageable level of traffic for controllers.” Pretty cool, huh? I thought so too!
Real World Scenarios
Yea…I’m guilty of seeking out the worst weather imaginable. Whether it be a massive snow storm or hurricane force winds/rain I’m often loading up my sim, logging onto VATSIM and thinking YOLO (You Only Live Once) and flying my PMDG 737. But in the real world, airlines and pilots would never do this. POSCON may close airports in these types of scenarios and offer pilots one of two choices. Option one…divert! Option two…hold! I think that’s cool and that my friends is total immersion!
Air Traffic Controllers will also have access to real world weather conditions right in their POSCON controller client and will be able to vector traffic around strong storm cells just like real world operations.
POSCON Data Link
POSCON data link features for enhanced commercial flying will be a feature. Example, You’re flying an American Airlines 738 into Denver. You’ll receive a message via the POSCON Data Link providing you the gate assignment on arrival. The ATC controller client will also receive this same information. In the event someone spawns in and occupies that same gate, then POSCON will attempt to provide a gate change assignment. However, as is the case in the real world (flown into Heathrow lately?), pilots may experience a ground hold until gate assignment becomes available. POSCON will reward pilots for their patience and/or effort in helping to keep the immersion to a high standard. These rewards will be part of the POSCON pilot record.
In addition, communications for large events like Cross the Pond would be handled most via data link messages just as they are in the real world. At any given point in time, hundreds of aircraft are flying across the Atlantic…but very little verbal audio communications take place. It’s all done via data link messages.
POSCON Audio Quality & Communications
POSCON audio is custom and will be as clear as real world communications and at times may be as distorted as real world communications can be. Modulation simulation, HF/VHF simulation will all be simulated into the system. POSCON will also offer a voice Unicom and will be managed via the AI system and will monitor pilot behavior. The system will have the ability to take a snapshot of the pilot behavior for review by supervisors.
POSCON will not have the ability for free form text messages, but instead will include predefined messages that can be sent to the controller. While ATC in the real world is English only, POSCON will have the ability for non English language support. All predefined messages will be translated into multiple languages. A Chinese virtual pilot could send a message that he/she would view in Chinese, but other pilots/controllers would see that message in their native language or English.
What About Model Matching
One of the major bugbears with VATSIM and IVAO is model matching. Simply put, model matching means if I’m flying online and another aircraft is nearby, I want to see that other aircraft depicted in the exact type of aircraft AND livery as it should be. POSCON plans a very unique method of handling model matching where multiplayer traffic will be stored on the cloud and dynamically downloaded and injected as the user navigates online. Only the models which are needed will be downloaded, displayed and deleted as necessary. Very Cool!
What Else Can I Tell You?
POSCON is expected to be released sometime mid 2019 with early access beta possible in very early 2019. The plan is for an open beta as the POSCON Dev Team wants 100% transparency. So any and all who would like to participate will be able to participate.
You might be asking yourself, gosh Jerry this all sounds absolutely amazing…but how much will all this cost me? Great question and the answer to that question is NOTHING! POSCON will be 100% and absolutely FREE!
Final Thoughts
I doubt these will truly be my final thoughts on this subject. But for this posting and at this time, I’ve just got to say that if POSCON becomes reality…then this will truly be a thing of beauty. Of course, many are saying that POSCON will kill VATSIM and IVAO. I don’t think so. I think POSCON may prove not to be for everyone and in this case, those virtual pilots will continue to enjoy VATSIM/IVAO just as they do today.
But as I’ve said many times before, the changes I’ve seen in the flight sim hobby over the past 35+ years have truly been amazing. Whether it be the features of ground handling services of GSX (when working properly), the injection of real world weather from ActiveSky, the icing effects and bug splatter on the FSLabs A319 and hopefully all the goodness I’ve just been blabbering about from POSCON. When I think back to what things were like in the early 1980’s on my Commodore 64 to what they are now…God it’s truly a great time to be alive.
Want to learn more? Yes, I’ve covered a lot and I think I’ve just about covered everything publically available today with regards to POSCON, but should you want to know more or just want to check out the POSCON website, then please do so. I’ll certainly provide more details as it becomes available and I truly look forward to the open beta and the general release of what is shaping up to be a very cool addition to our already amazing hobby.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
