Microsoft Flight Sim 2020

[ZachariasX]

Second half of my last leg. This is the last one, so i'll ad some more comments. It is of note that this writeup is a tremendous collection of mostly useless knowledge. You have been warned.

 

Now the route: From the Swiss border to Locarno and from there following HB-HOT's course to the Segnes pass, maintaining speed and altitude, then make it for Zurich and Birrfeld (LSZF):

 

 

Currently, I am on route just above the VOR SRN(H)n north of Milano.

 

 

I am heading north east now, Lake Como being just visible behind that ridge on the picture just below the aircraft. Como is on the right side behind that hill and the Swiss bordertown Chiasso is on the left side behind that hill.

 

 

Como. [ˈkoːmo] as they call it. A beautiful town. It is easy to go there, as one of Europes main north-south traffic arteries passes the town, you can see it just next to the rudder of the plane. If you are a Bond villain, having your estate on the shores of lake Como is fashionable. It also served as StarWars prop.

 

 

Crossing into Switzerland now, just above the bordertown of Chiasso. It is a slightly shady town (my own accusation) with a huge rail station that has to deal with a big chunk of Europes traffic. It is also home of maybe the largest trading place for gold. They have a very particular sense of humor in that business. For instance by selling "pre-owned" gold. To me it sounds like the sick reference to someones tooth fillings.

 

But I guess bodertowns worldwide share some idiosyncratic properties, Chiasso being no exception. I never stopped there longer than for rolling down the window and declaring "nothing". Yet, many, many stop there as a sizable chunk of the workforce in surrounding Italy comes to work in Switzerland, producing a traffic jam every morning and evening to an extent that we otherwise require the help of millions of Germans, Dutch, Belgians etc. during holiday season. Narurally, locals are miffed by the people who staff their hospitals and restarurants to create such a traffic misery. Public cross border transport has increased such that the Italians, much to their dismay, found it impossible to "make the border a bit difficult" if they feel they want to motivate the Swiss for favors, something that usually worked well. But now it is their own people that come with pitchforks and torches if that happens.

 

 

Passing Coldrerio (last gas station on the Autobahn before you can expect them putting dirty water in your tank when going south) and Mendrisio (just below the aircraft) I arrive at the lake Lugano.

 

 

As I get above lake Lugano, you can see both the Autobahn and the railway on the right side of the lake that eventally cross the lake on a dam at Melide. You mess with this dam, the only viable way to Italy from Germany is via the Brenner pass in Austria or the Mont Blanc tunnel in France.

 

The mountain on the left side of the lake is very special, that is Monte San Giorgio, one of Europes primary fossil excavation sites. The city of Lugano is on the far side of the lake.

 

 

Lugano. The airport is on the left in the flat area between the two ponds.  Now to another peculiarity of the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The Canton being a state, like in the US (we copied that constitution while doing some rephrasing to keep things small; e.g. a president we cut in 7 to make sure that pieces stay small) it is also a somewhat divided state. No state is too small from being barred of such idiocy. But here, the culpit is the Ceneri pass. It is the gap where you see the white Alps just above the airplane.

 

The Ceneri divides the Ticion in two, the Sottoceneri ("below Ceneri") where I am currently, and the Sporaceneri ("above Ceneri"). Both of which think of the others as idiots in a wider sense, The Sottoceneri being all criminal Italians, as this is where draw most of their culture (you will notice this in restaurants as well, In Locarno they will be more organized like you find them in Zurich, in Lugano the restaurants are Italian style) and the other being just boring square northern troglodytes.

 

 

As I cross the Ceneri, you can see the Autobahn and part of the railroad tracks. Recently, the infrastructure project of a century, the NEAT, ("new railway alp transversal") was completed by providing base tunnels for both the Gotthard pass and the Ceneri. That was not just some 57 km and 15 km tunnel respectively, it provides a flat trajectory for the trains. If there is one thing a train can't do, that is go up a slope. It is relatively easy to make a train go fast, but make it tow cargo up a slope is a truly different animal. There are for instance portions of the new high speed tracks for the French TGV from Mulhouse to Paris, where the sections are too steep for the train to depart. It requires the train to go fast and use his momentum to go uphill. If it would stop on that part, it would have to backtrack towards Switzerland. The old track and tunnel across the othard and over the Ceneri are rather steep and it required rather particular locomotives to do the job, the most prominent one being the Ce 6/8, known as the Crocdile. But it goes only 80 km/h at best and like most heavy vintage locomotives, they destroy your tracks.

 

Today, It's 200 km/h on most of the railroad route from Zurich to Chiasso. Still, some public fund abuse happened. Of course. They bought locomotives that can do 250 km/h. They just wanted that, because in principle on the new tracks you can go that fast. The problem is that the infrastructure department of the Swiss Federal Railway vetoed against going that fast, as it would casuse problems with synchronizing such speeds on a tight schedule with the much slower freight trains that go about 160 km/h maximum. And they just wouldn't have those tracks idle just because of some nervous idiots. Now, making a train that can go 250 km/h instead of 200 km/h is like making an aircraft that can go 1200 km/h instead of 800 km/h 8and that eventually only goes 800 km/h) and you pay for it. There is a barrier at this speed that forces you to rethink your entire design. This hurts especially bad as every train under the sun is made to measure, you just cannot buy them off the ramp as a car. Even all the railroad campanies that operate on the very same tracks in Switzerland operate different trains and waggons and they even differ in size, they being just centimeters at times.

 

Many thought is was irresponsible of spending billions and tow decades of work on such an enterprise, because what good are trains when the tracks would end somewhere in the dirt one step across the border into Italy. Truth is that despite some troubles, the Italians not only (mostly) kept their end of the bargain but on top of that put a high speed train into operation, the Frecciarossa. Meanwhile in Germany... There is this old joke of what happens when the communists conquer the Sahara. Answer is: Nothing for ten years, then sand is getting scarce. The Germans on the other hand... After ten years of thorough mismanagement of tze Deutsche Bahn and ten years of constant deficit, they increase the board's salary. Nuff said.

 

 

Crossing the pass I arrive in the Sopraceneri, the lake Maggiore being just visible on the far left. The airfield of Locarno (not to be confused with Lugano, that's the others, as said) is barely visible just next to the lake with snowy runways, just at the edge where thing get green again. From there, HB-HOT started her last journey.

 

 

After departing west over the lake, they flew direction Bellinzona, from there the Leventina Valley that rises (as the name suggests) all the way up toward the Gotthard pass. They followed the Leventine up to Biasca.

 

 

Passing Bellinzona (just underneath the aircraft) and looking back down the valley to lake Maggiore, the "big lake". Bellizona is your typical highwayman-meets-bordertown settlement. It is evident the way it is situated, it controls all valley that cross the Alps in the single bottleneck junction the local geography provides. What did they do? Built three castles and a wall asking for cash whoever wanted to go through. This worked fine until they sufficiently p*ssed off people long enough and eventualy got burned into the ground. A raid of 600 (!) Swiss soldiers/mercenaries/brutes did that to 10'000 Milanese troops. Walls however have some sweet and cozy home in a wide variety of of human pathologies, hence it was kind of kept. A wall works both ways after all. The main castle, Castelgrande, is resored by the local architect Mario Botta and transformed it into an archtiectual gem.

 

Today, the Gotthard base Tunnel exits just north of Bellinzona. You can cross the Alps from Zurich to Bellinzona in 1 h 39 min.

 

 

Going north, HB-HOT didn't follow up the Leventina Valley (left) all the way as mentioned above, but turned right into the Blenio valley at the town of Biasca. If you want to drive home after summer holiday, it might be that the traffic from the Gotthard highway tunnel reaches all the way down here. Unless you caought Malaria, that is probably the low point of your vacation then.

 

As for HB-HOT, the idea was not going toward Lucere, but toward the Segnes pass in the Grisons to show off the "Martinsloch" or "Martins hole", a hole in the rock formation along the mountain crest next to the Segnes.

 

 

Going up Blenio valley will lead you to the Greina pass. It is not just a pass, but (now covered in snow, it is about 7'500 ft.) also an alluvial site of national importace. It is a plateau of unique biological diversity. If you like hiking, it is can make for one of the most fantastic tours you can do in the Alps. It was "discovered" when local power companies looked for further places to flood, making it a reservoir and turbine electricity from. It was in high risk of being flooded for decades until enviromentalists had their way. This because local municipalities do like a nice environment but do need the money from powercompanies as well. Eventually, the municipalities were compensated with the "Landschaftsrappen", a tax on power companies that requires them to pay municipalities anyway, regardles whether they flood and dam places or not. Hence municiplaities were not too keen anymore alienating other stakeholders and no grants were issued to power companies to build dams.

 

 

Passing the Plaun la Greina as it is called in the local language Romansh, I arrive in the upper Rhine valley in the Canton of Grisons. The highest mountain on the horizon, just above the cabin of the aircraft, is the Tödi, the highest mountain in the Alps of the neighboring Canton Glarus. You can see it well from Zurich on clear days.

 

 

Turning into the upper Rhine valley, I am officially on the northern side of the Alps. The valley extends all the way east towards Chur on the far side, the capital of the Grisons. I will now appoach the ridge of the northern flank of the valley, turning north east.

 

 

Looking down from here, I can see Brigels, a resort town and was home to a military light AAA firing range for our mosquito inseminators, the 20 mm Oerlikons. (Disbanded some 20 years ago). There was a huge platform on that little ridge just next to the town.

 

 

They would fire up in this valley just in front of the aircraft up the Kisten Pass (or: "Kastenpiss" to the commom soldier). Target tug planes would zoom down that valley, hoping that the rope of the bag  is longer than your average idiot's aiming scatter. This was not always the case, of course. And that was then the difference between the target tug losing the bag and making a pass over the platform or just losing the bag and diving away. The fist case hapens like once in two weeks of everybody trying and you get home leave and lots of hooray!! if successful; the later case just makes a lot of people very, very angry and lots of papers will have to be filed. The target tug will cut the rope to flee when he sees tracers around him of gets hit.

 

Oh well. Good to leave all of that behind in every way.

 

 

A couple of kilometers further, I arrive over the next ski arena, Flims. Normally, this place schould be littered with paragliders. Just dreadful. But there's lots of other traffic as it is one of the prominent places where you cross the Alps. Circling just over the ridge to the left I well remember a formation of Tigers passing, the leader passing me to the left and the wingmen to the right. I have never been closer to someone piloting an F-5 than at that very moment and I am sure he made the same face under his mask that I made. Airprox back then was when you hit something.

 

The crest right ahead is Piz Segnas and the idea is to cross the Segnes pass right in front of that. I am approaching like the Ju-52 that time from the wrong side. You can see the valley closing up with the thehighest part right in the way of an exit turn.

 

 

Before making the left turn, I will pass along the ridge. Looking at Andys video above, you know what that can mean when the wind is from nortwest (as it is most common). Now there is almost no wind and it is very cold, my conditions are not bad and as long as I can mainatin elevated speeds to make whatever turn, I should be fine.

 

 

I am coming in with high reserve and speed up to the end of the green arc. Yet even then I will not be safely able to exit once I am inside this bowl with the Segnas peak to the right to make it across. 

 

The scenere here is very bland. In the last seconds of their lives, the passengers got at least to proper view of the real thing.

 

 

Taken from a passengers mobile phone camera. You can see the hole in the crest and the little gap next to it where the pilot aims for. It is also evident how much nose up attitude there is, as the pilot had throttled back to make a slow, descending pass next to the "Martinsloch". The left turn inevitably brought him im proximity to the Piz Segnes and from a downwind zone next to the crest to the left into a considerable updraft of the Segnas flank to the right. This with a tailheavy, now slow flying aircraft.

 

 

The now well known result. The updraft made the AoA exceed maximum and the plane at one stalled over the inner, slower wing with zero chance of survival.

 

 

If you are fast and descensding and still have reserve, then you can play with a mountain crest. But it is still a bold move.

 

 

Past the ridge I arrive over Elm, a drastically unerapreciated ski resort on the mountains opposite, the town of Elm just underneath. This is the end of the Sernftal or Kleintal, the appendix to the left being an artillery range. A convenient one, as it is not one of those that from where weekend warriors are occasionally shelling Italy by grace of alternative understanging of geography.

 

 

As I fly down the valley, I arrive where it joins the valley of Linth river, over Glarus (just underneath the aircraft). To the left is the towns landmark mountain, the Glärnisch. almost 3000 meters in height. The military airfield Mollis (and the town) are just at the right wingtip on the picture. In terms of topography, these moutains are a convenient entry for glider pilots on their way to the high Alps.

 

Some more absolutely useless knowledge: While it might seem a remote area (for Swiss standards), the town of Näfels (just above the right wingtip) was the site of a battle 700 years ago between Glarus along with their allied Old Swiss Confederation against the Habsburgs, where the latter got his again. As losses were (Wiki) some 79 to ~1'700, which gave the Swiss considerable leverage in the following negotiations and just get lost! became an acceptable solution for the Austrians. The victory of this battle is still commemorated (somewhat) each year by a pilgrimage to the site of the battle, the Näfelser Fahrt.

I should add that today, Näfels hosts the one and only factory of confetti in the whole of Switzerland. It also has a nice shop for model trains if that is your thing.

 

 

Pressing on to the Swiss Plateau, leaving the Alps behind. Just right of the plane is the Linth valley. Some 150 years ago it was malaria infested swamp. At that point, local people were generally sick and poor and the smart ones emigrated to the USA. But the remaining folks did the reasonable thing of draining the swamp and turning it into agricultural land. It is also now home of one of the premier airfields for glider pilots, Schänis (LSZX).

 

Just above the plane is lake Zurich. To the far left you can see the Sihlsee or "lake Sihl", a dammed lake that is one of the main power sources for the Swiss Federal Railways. This being the main reason why we have 16.6 Hz AC current for the trains. When they stared elecrifying the tracks, 1000 rpm was the max. specification to which they could build turbines for hydro plants. Most of the national railroad system is run on water power.

 

 

I tune in the VOR of Zurich airport and arrive there soon after. To the bottom right, Dübendorf military airfield, where HB-HOT should have arrived. ZRH just ahead, Zurich with the city center on top of the lake, by now extending all the way to ZRH and Dübendorf.

 

 

Finding Birrfeld is easy in a world where I can ignore Zurich center. Just take the outbound radial from ZRH at 264° and this brings me the the main Autobahn forking past the town of Baden, residing in our nuclear Canton of Aargau and thus home of prominent nuclear power plants. Kind of like our own Nevada. The airfield is just right where the Autobahn splits in direction Bern (left) or Basel (right).

 

 

I make an approach like a pig, but in such nice weather that works.

 

 

There I am, just where I started. A long time and two aircraft ago. One taken by Chinese and the other by my own (direct) stupidity.

 

 

A long voyage, and I must say such fun how I never had with a civ flight sime before. I have had them almost all in most iterations. But this, while not perfect, is a whole new level.

 

The best flying? Italy, Switzerland, the USA. The worst? Greenland, Turkey, the Aleutian islands, that order. Afganistan was rather eerie and more of a challenge than I imagined. I also learned that mountain ranges are like the Spanish Inquisition. The worst appear where you least expect them.

 

[AndyJWest]

32 minutes ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Kinda waiting for the "monkeys throwing rocks at you" DLC.

 

?️↗️⛅➡️☁️➡️?️➡️⛈️?❗⛰️?

[AndyJWest]

Excellent write-up on you final leg, ZachariasX. ? Any sort of ball-park figure for how far your tour was in total?

 

My world tour is on hold for now, as I'm in Japan and can't really go much farther north until it warms up a bit. I want to get across the dreaded Aleutians as soon as I can, but in an XCub with no anti-ice, I've got to be sensible.

 

Did a bit of mountain flying myself today, gliding in the Caucasus. Started off in live weather, but MSFS disagreed with windy.com, leaving me two knots to play with, which clearly wasn't going to work. A bit of fiddling with custom settings gave me 7 kt at ground level, from the SE (which is what windy.com said was happening) increasing to 20 kt at 20,000 ft. Which I intended to use...

 

I set off from Mestia Airport (UGME), Georgia. Very pretty and alpine-looking. The wind veers about a fair bit, but climbing out of the first valley isn't too hard.

 

Onward and upward. Glaciers!

 

My target in sight. Mount Elbrus, Europe's tallest peak, all 18,510 ft of it. Sadly, even at this distance I can see that MSFS has had trouble rendering parts of it. Probably down to a lack of good cloud-free satellite imagery. The altimeter is misleading, since it doesn't have a 10,000 ft needle.

 

Getting higher takes more and more effort, as the terrain refuses to cooperate. There is lift, but it is patchy and unpredictable. Even with Kinetic Assistant's useful wind direction indicator on my second monitor, I won't really know if a ridge will work until I try it.

 

Made it! Elbrus looks bad due to the blank patch, but the view from up here is spectacular otherwise. 

 

Looking back towards Georgia.

 

I decide to go north further into Russia to land, rather than heading back to where I started - the airport there was ok to start from, but it's in a valley, and I'd either have to land downwind, or do some tricky low-level turns in potential downdrafts. I've got 40 nm to go, but if I push the nose down, it won't take long, and I've got plenty of altitude to play with. Engage bee-line mode!

 

My destination, Krasnyy Kurgan Airport (ULRH). A nice big grass strip - just don't collide with the multi-story building MSFS has decided sits right next to the approach. ?

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by AndyJWest

[ZachariasX]

10 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

Excellent write-up on you final leg, ZachariasX. ? Any sort of ball-park figure for how far your tour was in total?

 

Google says ~56'000 km but given my navigation precision it was certainly above 60'000 km.

Spoiler

 

 

Btw, your glider, is it this Discus 2b?

https://de.flightsim.to/file/6768/discus-2b-glider

 

 

[Monostripezebra]

Oh, this addon looks neat !

https://aeroplaneheaven.com/product_cspit.php

[AndyJWest]

9 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

 

Btw, your glider, is it this Discus 2b?

https://de.flightsim.to/file/6768/discus-2b-glider

 

 

 

Yup. A work in progress, I'd say, but good enough to scratch the ridge-soaring itch until something better comes along.

[Tektolnes]

Corsair is now officially out: FG-1D Corsair for MSFS2020 (milviz.com)

 

Bought and installed so will give it a go later tonight.

[Gambit21]

On 3/27/2021 at 12:50 PM, AndyJWest said:

Corsair sure looks nice. I'm a bit reluctant to buy warbirds for MSFS though, just because I'll likely find the lack of dakka-dakka dakka-dakka kaboom frustrating. And a Corsair really needs an authentic carrier with realistic wire trapping physics to do it justice.

 

Aye - I feel much the same way - especially after watching the ED Corsair demo.

I'm fairly certain I'll burn a fairly significant amount of time with it when it comes out, even if taking off/landing on a carrier, and shooting some ground targets is all I can do with it for a while.

[Lusekofte]

3 hours ago, Tektolnes said:

Corsair is now officially out: FG-1D Corsair for MSFS2020 (milviz.com)

 

Bought and installed so will give it a go later tonight.

I gonna buy this. Can't get enough Corsairs, that is impossible. If all nations had them, evolution would stop , no need for it

[DD_Arthur]

17 hours ago, Tektolnes said:

Corsair is now officially out: FG-1D Corsair for MSFS2020 (milviz.com)

 

Bought and installed so will give it a go later tonight.

 

Okay, awaiting a review ?.

The forty bucks price point versus the limitations of the MSFS flight model makes me think I’ll have a spot of buyers remorse with this one at the moment.

[Blooddawn1942]

As with the Spitfire Mk IX I'm waiting for the Corsair to appear in the in-game store. 

[Ribbon]

New Spit version is out

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by =VARP=Ribbon

[ZachariasX]

I am looking so much forward for a study level vintage addon aircraft with a Sperry autopilot.

[Retnek]

Prepare to fly a high school level Super-Connie with a G5000-cockpit first ...

[ZachariasX]

I want the A2A Connie...

[AndyJWest]

The guy who did the Bleriot XI for MSFS is apparently working in a Boeing 247, which should have an autopilot.

[Tektolnes]

On 4/2/2021 at 1:40 PM, DD_Arthur said:

Okay, awaiting a review

 

Just had one short flight so far but seems like a solid add on to me. The exterior model looks good. Cockpit textures are generally very nice and seems like pretty much everything in the cockpit is clickable.

 

Take off is a bit of a handful but not too bad once you trim it up right beforehand. Landing is fairly straightforward once you come in right. Engine sounds good to me but I'm no expert so can't say how well it matches up to the real one. General flight seems pretty sensitive - I had a bit of a hard time trimming it out for level flight. Throwing it around in a bit of aerobatics required some work to get it done. Definitely a bit more of a handful than the Spitfire that was released recently. The engine management is more involved too than the Spitfire as you have manage your temps or the engine will blow. 

 

So all in all I'd say it's worth it quality wise but like you I wonder how much I'll actually end up flying it. 

[AndyJWest]

Engine management? Unnecessary distraction. ?

 

This view may seem familiar to DCS players.

 

At a pinch I might have been able to fly to Iran. I got up to 11,500 ft. Safer to just head back, and do some aerobatics to use up all that height.

 

Not the best terrain for soaring. Rather bumpy up there.

 

This was live weather, but time shifted because it was getting dark. There's a hefty blow coming down the strait from the west, and no cloud. May stay that way for another day or two, if anyone else wants to give it a try.

[Bremspropeller]

Has anybody else had the problem of the keyboard stopping to work in mid-game?

 

Nevermind, I had set the keyboard to "default"...

Edited April 3, 2021 by Bremspropeller

[busdriver]

1 hour ago, Bremspropeller said:

Has anybody else had the problem of the keyboard stopping to work in mid-game?

 

Nevermind, I had set the keyboard to "default"...

 

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Tech Support, we're not happy until you're not happy. "Pour le français, appuyez sur l'étoile suivante, le signe dièse, le point d'exclamation, neuf ... Merci."

[Lusekofte]

Lost planes after last update. They are in the content manager as uninstalled. And update 0mb until I restart the game , then I can dl it again. But still say uninstalled. It is bought modules like the L 19. Yet I have the Bleriot. In the markedplaced it say I own them. And they worked before

[ZachariasX]

8 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

Lost planes after last update.

That is odd. And by clicking on it in the module manager, it will not download?

 

I bought the Blériot as well. Gave up resisting. So far, I have been flying mostly with the Gnome powered one and I must say it is very pilot friendly implemented. But I love it. Still I'm trying to get the best out of the engine, as I intend to follow Oskar Biders flights.

 

I guess I need to cheat first in getting the HUD gauges on to have an idea which mixture setting works the best. There is no audible effect on the engine. It either runs and makes a certain sound, or it idles/cuts. But there is no feedback from any intermediate mixture setting. Anyone has some more insight on that?

 

 

Getting at max. altitude for making a crossing at the Jungfraujoch (the three mountains in the back, Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau; I'm aiming for the gap between the middle one and the right one) makes best use of the mixture lever paramount I guess.

 

 

So far, I made it up to 3000 m departing with 80 kg of pilot (I get a sense that a pilot >70 kg is overweight for the plane) and about 95% fuel to make for max. T/O weight. I should reach Domodossola after all. 3000 m is still some 400 m short of what I should have in minimum, better 500 m. (I'd still be way too low for safe passage, but in the sim you can take the risk.) The Jungfraujoch is is just inside this small cloud.

 

The alpine mesh of MSFS leaves much to be desired at this point. I hope in a future world update, ASOBO takes the chance and shows what they can do. Swisstopo, the government agency for surveying just released ALL maps for free, this means that all exact maps of the country that were taken in the last 150 years or so are freely available in any resolution. Thus, you not just have it down to ecvery single house in vector, but also you have maps and aerial images covering the whole of the country going back to the early 1930's. These stereo images were the base for any country wide survey and were the base of any vector maps drawn from those images. These maps used to be rather pricey. Now it's all free access. They figured in the age of Google Maps, selling 1:20'000 maps is a moot business and they much rather encourage some innovation. What a nice way to recognize that a former profit center has gone the way of the Dodo.

 

The way the Blériot is implemented, it seems to be very much in trim for a good climb and can be flown almost hands off (I very much doubt you could do this in the real Blériot).

 

I am somewhat hesitant for just getting me a nice NW wind. It might just postpone the problem, as I have to fly some kilometers down the Aletsch galcier to arrive in the Rhône valley.

 

[ZachariasX]

The mixture does make a difference. But mountain flying is something with that bird. If you make use of the wind to carry you, you are always at risk that this very wind can exceed the strenght of the airframe...

 

This plane is fun!

[DD_Arthur]

21 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

Lost planes after last update. They are in the content manager as uninstalled. And update 0mb until I restart the game , then I can dl it again. But still say uninstalled. It is bought modules like the L 19. Yet I have the Bleriot. In the markedplaced it say I own them. And they worked before

 

These are planes you bought through the market place?

 I had this problem recently.

 I’m not at my pc but from memory you have to navigate your way to the folder where they reside in your game.

They will not be in your community folder.

Once you find them you can delete them and then restart the game and they will be available to download again in your content manager.

[ZachariasX]

Some more Blériot flying.

 

Now I used the supposedly difficult to fly Channel Flight "RIP" edition. While it is drastically underpowered and weighting more than 40 kg creats overweight should you consider bringing along an engine. Never mind fuel in reasonable quantity.

 

While it is true that the aircraft is handicapped in controls, it is actually simple to fly as such if you can make your peace with the fact that the only control you can use is the rudder. If you think of that aircraft as the very, very beginner type of RC model with only rudder control, then it becomes straight forward to use. This mainly due to the fact that the programmers put the aircraft in trim such, that the one and only position of the elevator control is neutral stick position. Hence, even this aircraft can well be flown hands off. It is actually best that way. But I do have serious doubts that even with perfect rigging, "neutral" elevator doesn't create a stick force, namely a stick back force.

 

If the tailplane is rigged correctly, I agree with the implementation of this brid that, level flight is achieved with "center position" of the stick. There are many pictures of Blériots taking off or landing that have deflected elevator surfaces, like this one:

 

 

This is the late Javier Arango piloting a homebuilt version (built 1911!) of the Blériot XI. See here.

 

 

This is an old picture from the Shuttlewoth Collection Blériot, from a time where they flew more than just straight down the runway. Note, also this one features elevator up significantly. I would say that both pictures are taken during the final flair in landing the aircraft.

 

 

Here, monsieur himself, flying an incredible 6 minutes at an amazing 40 meters altitude. One can see that the outer elevator parts are flush with the stabylo. A photo I have of him, taken from a ship during his channel flight, also shows the elevator being flush.

 

Some say that it is best taking off this aircraft by pushing forward and accelleratin in the ground effect until "safe" airspeed is reached. At least in this addon, I very much advise against that practise, as you make the aircraft fly out of trim. What works best (and makes the aircraft easy to fly once you get used to the rudder that handles the aircraft in flight as we have the Spit do it on the ground in this sim) is just don't touch the stick at all. Move it away and just let it go. The RIP edition will fly itself off at some point, and all you have to do is keep direction with the rudder. It will automatically accellerate in ground effect, as it cannot outclimb ground effect altitude, until sufficient airspeed is reached. You have no instruments, nothing to tell you about the plane. You cannot trim the plane either, but conveniently enough, default neutral stick position is the trim for the best (and only possible) flight speed. Pushing forward will make you go too fast. Pulling has no purpose in this aircraft anyway except flair out in landing.

 

A propos landing, we need proper devices for that:

 

 

Make no mistake, this cable can be used for landing and take off. Adolphe Pégoud though this was a great idea and demonstrated how it is done. This was thought as an alternative to a patch of grass, should that not be available. Him being French, it must have confused the English considerably, as he got extremely popular in London and Paris. I'm just trying to think where exactly in England or France you cannot find a flat patch of grass. And where you'd still want to venture with such a crate.

 

Anyway, I gave it a try to do some more world flying, Blériot edition. From Krueger Park Airport to Maputo. Reasonably close, no mountains in between that I can remember. Sure, @Dakpilot would know better. Still, on the map it shows that it is out of the range. But there's some airstrip in between. I'll gas up there. But these aircraft are meant for just one way to operate them: "I have no idea, let's try."

 

 

Taking off went reasonably well, given I am obscenely overweight, about 200% or so. Filling the tank excludes having a pilot on board. But be it. I have a very hard time entering more than 70 kg for the pilot, but it dn't want to cheat. Full tank. Live weather.

 

Whoo-hoo, it lifts off readily, but then... it remains in the ground effect. I just let it hover and it gets faster... but you see those treeline at the end of the runway. They had to collect me from such a tree.

 

2nd try. This time I was careful about chosing the smaller trees to overfly. It worked.

 

 

The problem is now that passing the perimeter of the airport, you're going over a drop into a shallow valley that is home to town like Broedersvrede, Nyamazaneni, Daantjie etc. A bunch of settlements grown together. What whorries me is whether I make it across the ridge ahead. I have no instrumentation, but it is late afternoon. If I keep the shadow of the rigging projecting ahead, I should be venturing east. And there is no way out in that direction but crossing that ridge ahead of me.

 

Hands off the stick, keeping the aircraft on course with the rudder, I venture on, hoping for the best.

 

There is this old joke (I heard it in the guise of a joke about the Polish) about an advice the mother would give her daughter, saying that if there's absolutely nothing she could do about it, she might as lie well back and enjoy it. I think this largely covers flying the Blériot as well. 

 

 

I barely make it across that ridge, updrafts have been helpful. Eventually and over time I even make some altitude.

 

 

I finally can make out FAMN - Malelane airport. But as I still have some drops of fuel left and have an almost obscene amout of altitude, hence I venture ahead. There's another airstrip down the way, Komatipoort Airport (FULB).

 

 

What airport? I am struggling with reading my printed maps and I am sure I must be right overhead that "airport". I just can't see it. At some point I just decide that this patch of grass must be it and I throttle back to make for landing. Oops. Throttling back makes the engine cut such that it can't be reasonably restarted. No matter. The Blériot is so slow, you can just circle directly over your seleted fairway and once you're down, just straighten out and you're there. Where am I? Hic sunt leones, I guess...

 

 

I restart with full fuel, selecting the airport as departure where I assumed I did the landing. Lo and Behold, looking over my shoulder, I just came down next to the runway on that slope next to those trees.

 

 

Indeed, looking back after take off, it is in that clearing on the other side of the trees lining the "runway". All hands off flying. There are several hills that surround this place, all uncrossable. Getting around the trees is problematic enough.

 

 

But once I am clear, I just can let it fly... fly.... And I make some altitude. Past these hills must be Maputo. It shold be easy to find, as large of a place as it is.

 

 

Indeed. The airport is just ahead of the left wing. I cut the engine and circle down. Using the shadow of the rigging really did the trick. There's no playing with the mixture on this Azani powered crate.

 

 

Now that went well, even tough I got lost plenty of times. But not having controls on your desk in front of you makes pondering the maps more convenient. Is it always that easy? How is the weather on the Channel?

 

 

Les Deux Caps (LFIS). It could be worse, but it is really windy. I proceed down the runway at the speed of someone walking next to me and by the time I am clear if the airport, I already have altitude enough to cross things. Again, I put in 80 kg of pilot & full fuel. I'll need that.

 

 

As I am crossing the Channel, I make a bit of altitude all the time. As the winds from the west get stronger, I for the first time start pushing the stick forward, even though this means basically overspeeding the aircraft. Winds get stronger the closer I get to the English coast ahead.

 

 

By the time I reach the cliffs, the wind carried me eastward such that I now have to fly west to reach Dover. Now the winds are such that the aircraft is almost stationary.

 

 

But just north of Dover, there is a glider airfield. I fly crabwise in that direction, shut down the engine and land... and get blown over, once the aircraft came to a halt. Crash. But this is the way you cross the Channel in a Blériot.

 

 

Funny, I did this "Blériot-detour" as well.

 

 

How cool.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2021 by ZachariasX
Some of the many typos

[Monostripezebra]

I am looking forward to the 25th of july and many bleriots crossing the channel

 

right now I did some holiday trips to france.. and flying back from the Ile de Yeu in poor weather was quite one of the most fun MSFS2020 experiences.. the weather is great and flying short hops in a bleriot in marginal weather feels really good and moody.

 

 

I noticed that it is a lot more stearable on the ground if you ad forward stick and use the negative turnmoment (counter aileron, so to speak, despite having none).. which makes the Bleriot halfway taxiable.

Edited April 10, 2021 by Monostripezebra

[Monostripezebra]

And I just discovered that due to the extreme visibility of the position lights, 2nd hand IFR is a very real option in MSFS2020

 

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Monostripezebra

[DBFlyguy]

World Update 4 is out:

 

 

[Monostripezebra]

the french / Benelux update is wild. Paris and Amsterdam are beautiful.. and it is wild chaos over the paris inner city sights.

 

[DD_Arthur]

Picked up the Bleriot in the market place sale to be ready for the twenty-fifth of July?.

 

Paris by Gina and 16gigs of DDR3.

 

Even after the slightly eccentric update process I’m still amazed by how well my rather ancient rig can run this thing.

[Blooddawn1942]

Picked up the Bleriot to. Man is this kite fragile. Don't know if I get to fast or jerking her to hard around. And I'm obviously to stupid to get her started from cold and dark. 

[Chief_Mouser]

Got it as well. Half-price seemed well worth it. ?

[AndyJWest]

Edgley Optica. 

 

This is freeware: https://flightsim.to/file/12731/ea-7-edgley-optica

 

Apparently there is a payware Optica in production too. Perhaps surprising for such an obscure aircraft - only 22 built.

 

[Monostripezebra]

On 4/15/2021 at 8:51 AM, Blooddawn1942 said:

Picked up the Bleriot to. Man is this kite fragile. Don't know if I get to fast or jerking her to hard around. And I'm obviously to stupid to get her started from cold and dark. 

 

That should not be too difficult.. on the anzani engine you just need to put iginition on and pull the prop with the mouse.. on the gnome engine you need some pump strokes to pressurize first. done in seconds.

 

22 hours ago, 216th_Cat said:

Got it as well. Half-price seemed well worth it. ?

 

Oh absolutely.. be ready to join for the aniversary channel crossing bleriot swarm on July 25ths?

 

 

8 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

Edgley Optica.

(..)
 

freeware: https://flightsim.to/file/12731/ea-7-edgley-optica

 

Apparently there is a payware Optica in production too. Perhaps surprising for such an obscure aircraft - only 22 built.

 

 

Hey, it was the star of this absolutely fantastic C-movie with Mark Hamill: Slipstream!!

 

Also on a side note: There is kind of a tunnel in MSFS

 

but the walls are non-colidable

 

 

[SYN_Vander]

Well I secured my Bleriot as well! Btw, when did someone turn Dover castle into a hotel???

 

[Monostripezebra]

Just a heads up, the MB-339 without tip tanks fits the Arc

 

 

[AndyJWest]

My new toy. A payware Bell 47G for MSFS from FlyInside.  ?

 

 

 

 

It costs £25, and is well worth it in my opinion. The flight model (in 'realistic setting') is fairly similar to the DCS Huey, and seems plausible enough, from a brief couple of flights. It looks a bit too clean, but apparently they are working on 'dirty' versions.

 

The real thing has a piston engine, with no throttle governor, though they've made the latter an option to simplify things. I kept that on, and turned off damage, after my initial effort at taking off went a little awry. Obviously needs practice, and a lot of concentration.

 

Flyinside website: https://flyinside-helis.com/
MSFS forum thread: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/payware-bell47g-by-flyinside-available-now/379099

[ZachariasX]

Allright. Some more flying, PTO flavor.

 

With MSFS being what it is, we now have a good impression of where or in what kind of environment the southwest Pacific offers. Hence, some bush flying in Papua New Guinea and other islands of the theater is on the menu now.

 

It is of note that I did have to make three attemps to this first leg of the journey, as after about an hour into the flight, I got very bad framerates, they dropped from 30+ to 10+. Deleting both manual and rolling cache solved the issue. It might well be that my 300 GB rolling cache, that after my world tour was certainly full, was too much for the sim to handle. I could see that the main thread got stalled by other threads not fetching data in time. After deleting the caches and making them smaller, all went well agin.

 

I decided to start from Cairns, Australia with the Cessna 172. I don't really feel like taking the cheat woth powerful aircraft and GPS.

 

Spoiler

 

The C172 can do 1000 km at best, hence in Australia still means I still have a full fuel load to go before I reach Horn Island Airport (YHID).

 

 

At least the weaher is nice and I take oof to the south, then a lefthand climbing turn passing Cairns and the airport and on my intended course. Flying like that is easy. No wonder they were happy with having the central base for the southwest Pacific in Townsville.

 

 

Suprprisingly enough, I have to climb as fast as I can to make it across the mountains lining the Kuranda National Park. They have Kangaroos on trees down there!

 

 

But after a while, the unexpectedly large forest gives way to an incredible expanse in reddish-brown. That's about 500 km with hardly any road. Looking down, it just makes it apparent how lost the Japanese would have been, should they have tried to conquer this continent form any beachhead on the far side. If the supply could (and most certainly would have) been attacked, they would have met their end all by themselves out there in the sun.

 

 

Reaching my first waypoint, Rocky Point. Took a good while until I could tune in on the localizer, for the most part on the way here, I was following the "From" localizer from Cairns and after losing that one, kep on going by use of the heading bug. As my destination airport does not have a localizer, I use the localizer from Weipa Airport just ahead.

 

 

On my way to Horn Island Airport, I am passing Jardine River National Park, an area that encompasses several Aboriginal groups, a living cultural landscape.

 

 

Crossing into Torres Strait, I reach Prince of Wales Island (Muralug) and Horn Island (Ngurapai) beyond.

 

 

There is no ATC service on Horn Island airport, so I have to guess a runway by looking it up on Windy. Turning in on approach.

 

 

At least I am not alone out here. I fetch some gas and fill her to the gills. My previous would tour taught me well, that pointing your nose toward the ocean without havig the tank full is a big no-no!.

 

 

For the next leg, I chose one of the few localizers as first waypoint and navigate from there to my destination Moro Airport (AYMR). I don't expect too many mountains as I am crossing Torres Strait and then a huge river delta on New Guinea. Moro Airport supposedly is at 6 ft. altitude.

 

 

The weather looks good as well, although at my destination, it might get cloudy. I have been looing up this area a couple of thimes when playing this sim, but these kind of clouds ALWAYS seem to be present on this island. Be it then. At some point, one takes the chances. At least, a 1000 km theoretical range seems to be ok for getting places on that Island. I downloaded some community airfields to do some bush flying, also the WW2 Buna airfields and the WW2 airbase on Bougainville island.

 

 

Australia is great for flying. The weather always nice and off to the north I go.

 

 

There are plenty of islands in the Torres Strait. Saibari Island ahead and Dauan Island to the left, behind them should be New Guinea.

 

 

Indeed, there it is.

 

 

They definitely called the wrong island "Greenland". The one they call such I remember as an infernal orgy in white and grey.

 

 

Occasionally, there's a hole in this sea of green that they deem an airfield. Most have no localizer. With the appearance of these clouds, it seems to me that even the simplest of all fields might pose some challenge. This is Andakombe Airport (AYDC), I suppose. While I am cruising at 3'000 ft. to get a look at what might be down there, clouds get denser and denser.

 

 

And suddenly there's somethething in my way. I still can't tune in on any of dear localizers, and now I know why.

 

 

Ok, the trees are creeping now up under my but and I am climbing as much as I can. But now... if I manage to climb above all that, will I ever find a way below that to find my airfield?? At least I can pick up Moros localizer and go in that direction. That the ground climbs as fast as I can is most disconcerting.

 

 

Yey, there is a gap! It is incredible how fast these clouds formed and and towered up, engulfing me. Just incredible!! Luckily, I can see the lake next to which the airfield is supposed to be located. As I crossed that ridge, I follow the localizer from Moro Airfield. The approach to Moro has to be done from the side of the lake, as only there I get an idea of the ground elevation without relying on a map alone.

 

 

At least I have a good visual now. Those hills behind the airfield.. ugh...

 

 

As I continue the approach, the weather over the airfield is clearing up. I am surprised how clear it gets next to the rain cells.

 

 

The only place not in a swamp that I can find is a helo pad. Be it. That started out so easy but turned out to be a rather neasty affair. Aequatorial flying indeed has some charm to it. As there are no real seasons here, I cannot expect the weather to be nicer at any time. Now I've flown in many places in this sim and I can hardly think of pristine weather to be closer to heavy weather than this. Flying here just by dead reckoning and inaccurate maps must have been extremely entertaining.

 

 

Some defbrief. One can see my three tries departing from Cairns until deletion of the cache solved the FPS issues. But it was easy flying. Even though the repeater compass in the Cessna is a danger for anyone involved, the auto pilot maintains direction even though the repeather creeps off constantly. Passing the Torres strait, I couldn't pickup the localizer of WP1, but at some point I could tune in to Moro. That is when cloud problems really started. I was lucky finding a gap in the clouds to descend through. One thing I've noticed is that cloud base in these parts goes often all the way down to the trees.

 

Hopping from airfield to airfield here is gonna be some work...

 

[CUJO_1970]

Question now that I’ve got my new rig built - are you guys using Steam for FS2020 or buying it direct?

 

Any advantages or disadvantages of either? 

 

 

[AndyJWest]

3 minutes ago, CUJO_1970 said:

Question now that I’ve got my new rig built - are you guys using Steam for FS2020 or buying it direct?

 

Any advantages or disadvantages of either? 

 

Doesn't make a lot of practical difference, since regardless of where you get it from it ends up doing its own thing, installation-wise, rather than following the standard Steam install. Microsoft like to be in charge...