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.
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
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.
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….
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.
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.
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.
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.
As we begin our flight for the 15th leg of our 46 leg journey, we’ll be achieving something we’ve yet to do in the over 13,000 miles we’ve traveled since leaving Sydney just over two months ago. This leg will place us further north (in the northern hemisphere) than we’ve previously traveled and the next ten legs will all have us traveling in a northerly direction as we continue to explore northwestern Africa, Europe, United Kingdom and Scandinavia.
That’s right! We started our little journey (little, who am I kidding?) back on 2 June when we departed a rainy/cloudy Sydney, Australia. Rain and clouds have pretty much been the general theme of this tour. But this is just the luck of the draw really. I’m using a flight sim add-on called ActiveSky which adds real-world weather into the sim and as it happens, each location where I’ve been flying (at the time I’m completing the flights) has been mostly rain and cloudy conditions. This may improve as very soon we’ll be entering Europe which has been experiencing unseasonably hot and dry conditions the past few weeks. But enough about all this….let’s get started with this leg of the journey.
History of City
Ndiass (or Diass) is a village and rural community in the M’bour Department in the Thies Region of Senegal. It is located 40 km southeast of Dakar. Diass has a population of 4,794.
History of Country
Senegal is a country in West Africa and is bordered with Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east and Guinea to the Southeast. The name Senegal means “Our Boat”. Senegal covers a land area of almost 76,000 square miles and has an estimated population of about 15 million.
History of Airport
The Blaise Diagne International Airport near the town of Diass, Senegal. It’s the primary airport serving the capital city of Dakar. The airport was originally scheduled to open towards the end of 2011, but didn’t open for service until December 7, 2017.
History of Airline
Arik Air is a Nigerian airline which began operations in 2006. They have a small, but growing fleet of 14 aircraft. Arik Air has built up a domestic network covering mainly Nigerian and several other Western African destinations.
Our travelers are still talking about the awesome experience they had down in Cape Town with the breaching Great White Sharks, but are equally excited about what all else lies in store for them as our journey continues around the world. Due to the weather conditions, we didn’t have a lot of time for photos on the ground so we loaded up in our Arik Air Boeing 737-800 and taxied out to the active runway for departure.
Positive Rate, Gear Up!
A bit of light chop as we climb out.
We’ll soon be above the clouds.
The African coastline is beautiful.
Last look at the coastline for a few hours.
The Moon as we cruise at flight level 360.
The terrain is slowly changing.
And then changing back as we near the coastline again.
The beautiful lush farm land as we descend below 10,000 feet.
Another strong cross-wind landing.
Our fully configured Boeing 738, cleared to land.
The wing view on final approach.
Fighting the strong crosswind. But we have no choice as there are no other runway options.
Safely on the ground, parked and unloading.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3 ActiveSky Weather Engine ActiveSky Cloud Art Envtex & Envshade PMDG 737-800 (Arik Air livery) Orbx Global Texture VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX Navigraph Charts Desktop FlightAware FlightRadar24 SkyVector Google Maps
Our travelers will only stay two days in Senegal before departing for Morocco. Our next flight will once again be in the Boeing 737-800 as we ferry a Royal Air Maroc B738 to Morocco.
As the flight legs and miles tick on by, we continue to make good progress on our around the world adventure following the course the WorldFlight teams will be using this November. If you’re just joining our little story with this posting, please make sure you start at the beginning to gain the full picture of what this tour is about and why I’m doing it.
With exception to one week in June, I’ve been releasing two blog postings covering two flight legs per week. I officially kicked off the 2018 Worldflight tour from Sydney, Australia on the 6th of June and this blog posting is scheduled to be released on 28 July. If I continue at the pace of two flight legs per week, then all will wrap up on the 5th of December which is a full month after the official WorldFlight tour starts. So at some point I’m most likely to start releasing more than two legs per week so that I wrap up the tour around the same time as the official tour wraps up. But time….sometimes (most of the time with me) there just doesn’t seem to be enough free time available. But we’ll see how things go and for now, let’s just get on with this leg of our journey.
History of City
Ikeja is the capital of Lagos State and settled by the Yoruba people. The locality was raided for slaves until the mid-19th century. Early in the 20th century it became an agricultural hinterland for Lagos; kola nuts were first grown in Nigeria in this area. In 1976, Ikeja became the capital city.
History of Country
The Federal Republic of Nigeria, commonly referred to as Nigeria, is a federal republic in West Africa, bordering Benin in the West, Chad and Cameroon in the east and Niger to the north. It comprises 36 states. Nigeria is often referred to as the “Giant of Africa”, owing to its large population and economy. Nigeria has the 3rd largest youth population in the world, after India and China with more than 90 million of its 186 million population being under the age of 18. Nigeria is the world’s 20th largest economy.
History of Airport
Murtala Muhammed International Airport (DNMM) is an international airport in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria and is the major airport serving the entire state.
History of Airline
EgyptAir is the flag carrier airline of Egypt. The airline is based at Cairo International Airport, its main hub, operating scheduled passenger and freight services to more than 75 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. EgyptAir is a member of the Star Alliance.
Once again it’s time to leave and head to our next destination. The weather (or should I say poor weather) has been somewhat of a theme with this tour. But then again, so many of our destinations have been in and around the equator and this one is certainly no different. Today we have poor conditions at both ends of our journey. My first officer and I have been reviewing the weather forecast for Ikeja and are prepared for less than optimal conditions on arrival. But more about that later. We’re all ready to go here on the ground in Libreville. We’re shuttling this EgyptAir Boeing 737-800 up to Ikeja.
Let’s Go!
Up, Up and Away!
Making our turn to join the departure SID.
The sun does exist after all as we break through the clouds.
Cruising at 38,000 high above the clouds and weather. We know this won’t last.
A nice wing shot
Beginning our descent into Nigeria.
It doesn’t look too bad down there. But looks can sometimes be deceiving as we’ll soon discover.
Visibility ?
Making our turn to join the ILS. No visual approach today.
What a mess. Just after receiving our landing clearance, we were instructed to go around. TOGA.
Let’s try this again….
The sun is doing its best to burn off all this fog. But visibility is still poor.
On top of extremely poor visibility, we also have a crosswind to deal with.
My aircraft and full right rudder.
Still managed a center line landing.
Safely on the ground and parked up waiting for the bus to arrive. This was a challenging, but extremely fun flight.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (EgyptAir livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Our stay will be pretty short here and in just a few days we’ll depart for Senegal. I’m pretty sure our travelers are ready to hit the European segment of this tour as we’ll be visiting some really cool places over the next few weeks as we continue our around the world tour.
Of the twelve previous flight segments or legs, the longest flight has been just over 1,300 nm. This leg from Capetown, South Africa up to Libreville, Gabon is the longest of the entire tour at 2,122 nm. We’ll head from the southern tip of Africa all the way to the equator during this one flight with a flying time of 5 hours.
As I’ve pointed out before, most of the flights between our departure and arrival airports don’t have real world flights operating between them. This segment is no different and I’ve tried to ensure a variety of both aircraft type and also airline livery. On all segments prior to this one (with exception to the JANET flight) I’ve been using aircraft and airlines which do fly in and out of the airport pairs. This flight is no different. Ethiopian does in fact fly into Cape Town and they do fly into Libreville (just not between the two). But hey…that’s all OK.
Ethiopian Airlines had a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Cape Town and it needed to be positioned in Libreville for a flight back to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. So we offered to provide the ferry service in exchange of allowing our travelers passage. Of course, we’re also transporting additional cargo which also needed to be taken from Cape Town to Libreville. It’s a win-win situation and our passengers get to once again fly in a Dreamliner and they’ll certain appreciate the added comfort for this long journey.
History of City
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in western central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea and a major trade center for the timber industry. The city’s economy mainly focuses on the shipbuilding, brewing and sawmill industries. As of the 2013 census, the population of Libreville was 703,904.
History of Country
Gabon is a sovereign state on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. The area of Gabon is over 100,000 sq. miles and its population is estimated at 2 million people.
History of Airport
The Libreville International Airport, (FOOL) is the largest airport in Gabon and is located approx. 11 km north of the city. Built in the 1950’s, the airport is home to Nationale Regionale Transport and Sky Gabon. Flights depart daily throughout the EMEA region.
History of Airline
Ethiopian Airlines is Ethiopia’s flag carrier and is wholly owned by the country’s government. EAL was founded in December 1945 and commenced operations in April 1946, expanding to international flights in 1951. Ethiopian Airlines is headquartered at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. The airline flies to more destinations in Africa than any other carrier. It is one of the fastest growing airlines in the industry and is the largest on the African continent.
Our “Around the World” journey has taken our tourists to some pretty exotic and fun places with a whole lot more to explore in the coming weeks/months. But Cape Town seems to have been a hit with most of the crowd. I believe the breaching great white sharks they witnessed was most likely the hit amongst the crowd and who can blame them. But we must stick to our schedule and once again it’s time to move on.
As previously mentioned, this next flight leg will be the longest of the entire tour at a whopping 2,122 miles. We’re busy readying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for an early morning departure out of Cape Town in the hopes of arriving into Gabon just after lunch.
Just as catering is completing their task of stocking our aircraft with food and beverage, our tourists all arrive by bus from the hotel.
The last of the ULD containers are being loaded into the belly of the B788. A few of these contain all of our travelers luggage and others are freight we’re transporting on behalf of Ethiopian Airlines.
With everything loaded, all doors closed…it’s time for pushback and engine start. We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.
Lined up and ready to go.
The massive GE turbofan engines make light work of getting our heavy aircraft off the ground and into the skies.
Our Boeing 787 Dreamliner turning to join the departure out of Cape Town.
Love the wing shots.
Climbing to 40,000 feet.
Goodbye to the lush green of South Africa and hello to the desert sands.
Look at that wing flex.
As per our usual luck, the thick carpet of clouds blocks our view as we begin our descent.
Making a turn along the arrival STAR into Gabon.
On final approach into Libreville, Gabon
Flaps Full
Cleared to land
Parked and waiting for the bus.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.3
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
QualityWings Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Ethiopian Airlines Livery)
Orbx Global Texture
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
After a few days of exploring the area, our group will travel 500 miles to Nigeria then on to Senegal, Morocco and then into Europe. While we’re making great progress, we’re still not yet a third of the way through the trip.
Virtual Farmers…are you paying attention? There’s a whole lotta goodness coming our way this fall. Yes, Giants is set to release Farming Simulator 19 for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 20 November 2018. The ability to pre-order your very own copy is available directly from the Giants website, Steam and even places like Amazon. At the present time, the going rate for FS19 is $34.99 on both the Giants website and Steam. Amazon appears to want $5.00 more with their price set at $39.99. If you want my advice, pick the Steam version and enjoy automagic updates and a carefree method of managing the install/licensing etc. But whatever purchase method you choose, I firmly believe the very best agricultural based simulator to date will be Farming Simulator 19.
Will you Buy FS19?
From all that I’ve read, from all that I’ve heard…Farming Simulator 19 will break a trend in which we’ve seen with past releases of this popular franchise. It’s been argued in the past that the differences between versions have been minimal at best. While I didn’t play FS11 or FS13, I did come onboard with FS15 after perhaps 2-3 months after initial release and of course I’ve played FS17 for over 800 hours. Personally speaking, when I look back and compare FS15 to FS17 I see the value in upgrading. After all, with FS17 we were introduced to the amazing Seasons Mod which truly changed the way FS17 is to be played and gave us a much, much higher level of immersion than we’ve had in previous releases. Yes…even including the Soil Mod which truly lifted the imaginative game play on FS15.
Going out on a limb
I’m going to go right ahead and crawl my big ole bear butt right out onto the limb and state for all to read….Farming Simulator 19 will be the very best agricultural based simulation ever released by Giants AND will be the very best of all of these genre based games currently available to us at this time.
My Excitement
I’ll admit I found the Missions/Contracting options in FS15 and FS17 somewhat boring after a while. I felt in FS17 more could have been done to make it more of a real job by allowing us to use our own equipment and also the ability to do tasks such as empty the combine. In FS17 the combine could hold an infinite amount of whatever and this sort of blew the immersion out of the water.
Yes, we will need to find a way to contain ourselves until 20 November. But I truly believe the extra few weeks we’ll need to wait will be 100% worth it. Want more info on FS19? The Giants website is always a good source, PC-SG will also have all the latest and greatest news and YouTube….There are a number of YouTube videos discussing all the wonderful new features FS19 will hold and I would expect we’ll all see preview videos from the usual suspects when they received their pre-release copies and showcase game play on their channels. So get that popcorn ready, get your farms all tidy and ready to sell on FS17 and draw a BIG circle around the 20 November date on the calendar and be prepared to work hard.
Sometimes, we have the idea or the mindset that “I’ll never do ____________” (insert word or phrase) because of this, that or some other reason. I suppose the phrase “Never, Say Never” comes roaring into my head. By the way, did you know the first recorded mention of the words “Never, Say Never” was from Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers in 1837. Anyway….I must say that I’ve recently purchased something which I’ve previously said I would never do. I also recognize the topic of this posting is extremely controversial within the flight simulation community. I’ll post some final thoughts at the end of this piece and will welcome any comments (pending they are civil) from my readers. Also, will just remind anyone reading this outside of my blog website (GrizzlyBearSims.com), my writings are syndicated on a few different other websites and the opinions expressed in this piece belong to me and may or may not be the same opinions expressed by the owners of those other websites.
Before I get long-winded, let me just say right off the bat that YES, I’ve purchased BOTH the Flight Sim Labs Airbus A320 and their newly released A319 aircraft. I’ll get into all the reasons for my change of opinions in just a moment. First, let me just provide a little background history regarding both Flight Sim Labs (FS Labs) and their Airbus aircraft.
First Things First
I first heard of FSLabs several years ago when I was researching information regarding home cockpit building and specifically some utilities FSLabs had developed for some third party hardware add-ons. Thanks for FSLabs as their solution helped me get my GoFlight hardware working with the older PMDG 747 in FSX. This was all around the 2009-10 timeframe.
Of course, I’ve also been aware of their Concorde-X and their A320-X aircraft add-ons for many years. I almost purchased the Concorde-X several years ago, but if I’m not mistaken…one of the reasons I didn’t was because I was transitioning from FSX to Prepar3D v2.x and at that point in time the Concorde-X was not compatible. While the Concorde-X is now compatible with P3D v2 and v3, it’s not compatible with v4.
Flight Sim Labs Airbus A320 in American Airlines livery.
If it’s not Boeing…
So you all know the saying, “If it’s not Boeing, I ain’t going”. Yea…I’ve felt that way for a long time both in the real world and also in the virtual sim world. But I have this little issue…perhaps some might say it falls into the superstition category…but typically when time permits I enjoy recreating my real world flights in the simulator. A few years ago I was flying from Denver to Indianapolis on Frontier Airlines for a business trip. The flight was going to be on an Airbus A319 and while I really had no experience with Airbus aircraft in the flight sim, I decided to do a little research. I discovered FSLabs offered an A320 and Aerosoft offered a package including the A318, A319, A320 and A321. At the time, it was sort of a no-brainer decision. I had a desire to fly the real-world Airbus A319 Frontier flight and Aerosoft had the add-on aircraft which was compatible with the sim I was using at the time.
Time Keeps on Slippin’, Slippin’, Slippin’….
…Into the Future. Yes, another musical lyric segue….but now as a few years have passed since my original purchase of the Airbus product, we find ourselves one year post Prepar3D v4 (64 bit) release and while many add-on developers were quick to release their P3D v4 compatible aircraft models, scenery and other add-ons….Aerosoft (as of the time of this writing) still haven’t released their Airbus series for P3D v4. But let me just say that this blog article is not about the Aerosoft Airbus delays.
Back on Topic
And back to my opening sentence of this writing. I’ve expressed my feelings towards the Flight Sim Labs PR debacle both here on my blog as well as in other corners of the web such as flight sim related forums and various Facebook flight sim groups. If you’re not aware of all that has transpired and you don’t care to read my older posting linked above, I’ll just quickly summarize the happenings over the past several months below:
In an effort to prevent pirating of the FSLabs A320X aircraft add-on, FSLabs inserted a bit of malware which only became active if the software was an illegal, pirated copy. FSLabs apologized, explained the reasons and admitted the action taken was “a bit heavy handed”.
A few months later, it was discovered that the FSLabs A320X installer was directly writing files into the system32 and SysWOW64 directories.
Then a little spat began to brew between FSLabs and the folks over at Reddit. Some threatening words and legal action were exchanged.
Finally, someone using the name “RandomRedditor” hacked the FSLabs website and forums.
While the actions taken by FSLabs was and is a major failure on their part, certainly two wrongs will never make it right. Meaning, the individual referring to himself/herself as “RandomRedditor” is just as much in the wrong as FSLabs has ever been (in my opinion).
My Change of Mind/Opinion
Let me state once again for the record, I condemn the actions taken by Flight Sim Labs in their effort of preventing the piracy of their software. However, I also recognize software piracy is wrong and as it relates specifically to our flight simulation hobby is directly damaging it by forcing developers to charge more for their add-ons. In other words, here’s yet another example of honest, hard-working individuals having to carry the burden for those who would rather steal.
Last week I was watching one of my favorite Twitch Streamers from the UK, Chewwy94. If you are unfamiliar with his channel I would encourage you to follow him. He’s an excellent flight sim streamer, he runs a very positive and informative channel and as I said, he’s truly one of the best doing what he is doing. Anyway, Chewwy (real name Matt) was showcasing a pre-release copy of the Airbus A319 from FSLabs. I don’t always have time to catch all of his streams, but it just so happened that I was in Orlando for work and spent the evening watching most of the replay of this particular stream.
Yes, at the very beginning of the stream my attitude matched pretty much what I had said in the past. More or less, that I didn’t plan on doing business with Flight Sim Labs due to their previous antics. But the more I watched, I began to reflect back to my early days with flight simulation. I’m often reminded just how far this hobby has come over the past 35 years that I’ve been flying computer based sims. If you weren’t around in the mid-80’s, here’s a little video I’ve shared previously of about 60 seconds of recorded footage showing subLogic’s Flight Simulator II for the Commodore 64.
Even in the past 18 years (the VATSIM age) the level of added immersion and realism which has been given to all of us by the various developers, has truly helped to bring meaning to the old Microsoft Flight Simulator slogan of “As Real As It Gets”. I had to take a minute to swallow my pride somewhat and realize that what I was actually seeing from my own two eyes on Matt’s stream was something I had never seen before. Yes…truly the future of flight simulation and that future had been developed by Flight Sim Labs.
Two Choices, One Decision
The reality of it all after watching Matt’s stream was I had two choices to make. I could continue down the path I was walking by simply avoiding doing business with FSLabs and hope that at some future time down the road some of the advancements FSLabs had coded into the A319 would make their way into other aircraft models. OR, I could take a lesson from a man who is of far greater importance than anyone I know and show a little forgiveness. After all, I tend to follow the advice of this man as much as I possibly can in my life and it’s worked out well so far.
In closing
Yes…I’m the proud owner of both the Flight Sim Labs Airbus A320 and the expansion A319. I’ve been reading, studying and learning this truly “study level” aircraft and will admit that I’ve learned more and have been challenged harder than I have ever been with any payware, “study level” aircraft add-on to date and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The flight sim hobby is more than just about flying virtual aircraft around a virtual world. While I have no interest in learning to fly in real life, I enjoy and very much appreciate the challenge of learning a complex, study level aircraft. Doing so (in my opinion) gives a much deeper appreciation for flight and adds the level of immersion we all seek from our favorite simulation based games. In time, I’ll write a review of the Flight Sim Labs Airbus A320 and A319 and share in greater detail all the immersion I feel should be celebrated by the community.
Finally, I will also add there are still very strong opinions and attitudes expressed by many towards both Flight Sim Labs and also towards those who use their products. I’ve expressed my opinions and my overall reasons for changing my mind and attitude. I welcome any comments on this subject, pending they remain civil and on point. I will not tolerate any hateful comments regardless if they are directed towards FSLabs or directed towards me. My money, my opinions, my decision, my blog site. Thank you for understanding!
Until next time….
Happy Flying!
Jerry
P.S. I plan to write a more in-depth, review of the FSLabs Airbus A320/A319 in the coming weeks.
