How To...Learn All Kinds Of New Stuff

By Ron Blehm (26 February 2004)

Are you all happy with your FS2004? I might suggest you go back into some of the old archives here at FlightSim.Com and look at the FS98/FSFW95 graphics just to compare, it's really quite amazing! And there was no ATC back then either. But alas, I'm still working with FS2002. Luckily I can fly most Gmax planes without killing my frame rates.

But exactly how does one go about learning how to fly some new sim program or a new plane or check out a new computer system? (I'm looking for donated upgrades if anyone is giving away a nice fast computer!)

Well there certainly are a lot of ways you could do that but they all require a bit of time and a lot of practice/patience. I, for one, have found that flying some new plane or new sim around the world is the BEST use of your time to work out the kinks. Sure, it takes some pre-planning but that's half the fun isn't it? You'll learn about scenery, frame rates, weather, panels, fuel burn...everything you need to know without flying endless circuits around Meigs Field! And believe me, when you run out of gas 3/4 of the way from Brisbane, Australia to New Zealand you won't make that mistake twice!

Thank goodness there are quality sites like FlightSim.Com to support our little hobby! There have been a lot of stories or reports right here about flying around the world. I pulled up just a few of them:

Regardless of how "into" your simming you are or how "modern" your hardware is, you too have the ability to "escape" for a while and fly away! So get that new plane or new sim "out of the box" and let's take to the virtual skies!

With my hangar full of repaints, all by Tony Radmilovich, I set out to see what I could see. I've planned on each stop lasting just 6 hours so there's not a lot of time to go see Victoria Falls. (If you don't know you'll have to go look it up, and that's the other thing, what a great geography lesson these flights are!) Real world weather was used on all legs.

Day One, Sunday

The weather in New York was horrible. Foggy, 13 mph wind, light rain, visibility was 1/2 mile according to ATIS but I don't believe that. I fired the engines of the classic old 707 at exactly 10 AM for this first leg into Rio, Brazil.

ATC directs me out to runway 13R and once cleared I climb up through the clag and intercept my outbound radial.

The eastern seaboard is overcast but the Caribbean is clear. Darkness catches me over South America as do varied cloud layers. It would have been nice to catch some sleep along the way but other then dozing off I really can't see myself sleeping yet. I come into Rio around some widely scattered showers and via the ILS into runway 5, finally shutting down a couple minutes before 9 PM. Then, despite the famous nightlife of Rio it's off to bed.

Day Two, Monday

No time to see or enjoy Rio this time, too bad for me. I fire up the MD-11 just before 3 AM and taxi out to runway 5 for departure. There are some thundershowers around the area this morning but there is little other traffic and by 03:07 I am picking up my nearly 5000 mile route into England. The day passes quickly when you are eastbound at 35,000 feet. And this wind is amazing! With autopilot engaged I sleep for a couple more hours.

Actually, by nearly 4 PM local time the weather over London is pretty nice, clear but breezy. ATC brings me to the east of Heathrow, over the city into EGSS runway 5, I choose to hand-fly the last 10 miles or so, greased the landing and shut down at the gates at 15:50.

Just a bit of sightseeing, Tower Bridge, Buckingham, etc, then I grab some dinner before heading back out to Stanstead. The weather has cooled off, there is scattered cloud at 500 feet but winds are only 9 mph. I depart from runway 23 in a 747-400 just before 10 PM, turn to 170 and pick up my 5300 mile route to Cape Town, South Africa. What can I say here? The night is dark and I spend about 3 hours step-climbing up to FL 370. Then I sleep. p> Dawn over Africa...there's something about that phrase that just sends chills down my back! I've seen this in real life and while FS is lacking a lot, it's better than nothing.

Day Three, Tuesday

I pass over Cape Town at 7000 feet descending out over the bay, a big sweeping procedure turn, and landing at 10:47 AM to the north. I grab some lunch at a bayside resort. NICE BEACHES! Departure time is 16:47, this time in the Beechcraft Baron, for a hop up into a resort community in Namibia. Weather shows light winds from the north, with widely scattered showers. Departure and climb-out is uneventful and soon enough I get to experience an African sunset. That's when I notice, again, how very DARK Africa is at night. I remember a web-link I once received which was a picture of the world at night, from space. The US and UK, well, a lot of Europe for that matter, full of lights! Places like Africa, Siberia and Northern Australia, pretty dark.

p> I dial up the Nav1 to track into the VOR at Walvis Bay, descend normally but by 5 miles DME I become VERY concerned that I cannot see ANYTHING out there. I continue in, a little lower than normal until I cross the VOR and note that I can see an abandoned highway down there in the pale moonlight. I turn east for downwind, then make a hasty, steep-angle 180° left turn and note the all-white VASI lights ahead. From there it is home free and I park up near the control tower at 19:55. I've been robbed! I've come all this way to a seaside resort in Africa and it's dark! I can't believe my poor luck. Dinner and a short sleep is all I get to enjoy here.

Day Four, Wednesday

Departure from Walvis Bay is in the dark, 01:55 AM. I depart westbound, fly over a local NDB while climbing through 3000 feet and then turn back to the east for my long, morning drive in an ERJ. Today I am treated to ANOTHER, spectacular sunrise several hundred miles before my low-fuel arrival into Lusaka, Zambia. I wake up at 7 AM Wednesday morning, ready to conquer another day. Unfortunately I feel it's a bit too far to venture down to Livingstone and Victoria Falls so I stay a bit closer, taking a taxi-van down to Kafue Dam and then across to Mazabuka for a late breakfast. The people here are nothing short of fabulous to this virtual traveler and all too soon I am heading back to the airport and a cargo version of the 747. Departure time is 13:00, no problem from the 13,000 feet runway. I depart to the southeast and clean-up before turning left and picking up the long, GPS heading into Zurich, Switzerland.

Another African sunset! Another night's rest in the cockpit of another virtual plane.

Weather in Switzerland is bad! Well, not bad but it's "soupy", socked-in. I descend past the Alps, down into the gray of solid cloud, still 23 miles out for the ILS into runway 32. ATIS was reporting 0 visibility with zero ceilings. (Should have diverted to Geneva but this is only FS, I can't die...right?) I set-up for a fully automated, ILS-coupled landing. Full flaps, autobraking, gear down, airspeed dropping...I crossed the fence (I guess, I couldn't see it) and turned airspeed down from 140 to 120. Landing was hard but I immediately turned off AP and took over ground steering. Only as the nose came down could I see the lights of the centerline. I had to request "progressive taxi" because without those pink lines I would never have found the taxiways. I parked up at 21:55 Wednesday night.

Day Five, Thursday

Departure this time is 03:55 AM, so my memories of Zurich consist of a taxi ride and a warm shower, that's it!

I've chosen the EMB-120 for the flight into Amsterdam, just about 400 miles is all. The weather has cleared up, broken clouds at 700 feet, light winds, scattered rain. The flight into The Netherlands passes quickly and I break through the clouds and into heavy rain just 10 miles out from runway 29R. I touchdown a bit early but right on the centerline. Taxi takes what feels like an hour but I shut down at 05:42.

My real-world memories of Amsterdam consist of waterways and an American's efforts to buy a car! I saw this link some time ago and would love to try the flight out in FS2002 or FS2004 to see the improvements but the clock ticks on...

Now, I've tried not to advertise our Flight of the Month Club in this piece, but at this point my two current alter egos ran headlong into each other. We had just completed a Flight of the Month in Scotland and our next assignment was to begin in Vienna, Austria. Vienna also happened to be up next on my "World Tour" list so I arrived back at Schiphol just in time to see myself arriving in an EMB-170 from Inverness, Scotland. The two of us climbed up into the old classic DC-4 and got the old radial engines cranking. The weather was still a bit wet but no worries, there were two of me to handle any emergency now!

We climbed out to just 7000 feet and bumped our way along through light to moderate chop and clearing skies arriving in Vienna just a couple of minutes before 2 PM on this Thursday. Now, I had set some widely scattered random failures in and about halfway to Vienna we had lost the ADF radio but with one working VOR/NAV radio we made it in without using the GPS. In Vienna you'll find garden walks, Mozart's house, the Danube River and plenty of fine food. No time for sleep today what with this hand-flying and some shorter legs. Certainly fatigue will make it hard to drag myself back out to the airport, climb the hill into the cockpit of the DC-3 and set my route into Genoa, Italy via Slovenia. Departure time, will be well after dark at 20:00. After another three hours in the air I bring her in for a smooth landing to the northwest. Shut down is at 22:49 Thursday. It has been a huge day!

Day Six, Friday

After catching just a bit of sleep in Genoa I'm up early, ready to take on the next adventure. Back out to the seaside airport for the next leg. I had hoped for a bit more daylight on this run, maybe I'll take my time and get a good sunrise shot? I start-up the Decathlon a little late at 4:55 AM and take my time taxiing out for departure a couple minutes after 5 AM.

Next stop is Nice, France but with the darkness still pervading the hemisphere and a lack of IFR instrumentation I hesitate to risk a low-level flight up into the French/Italian Alps. So, I turn south and head off to the northern tip of Corsica instead. The sun comes up about halfway there so I turn back and land at 8:09 AM (below left).

Lets see, Provincial France, Monaco, the French Riviera...and only 6 hours to take it all in. HA! Not possible! By 2:10 PM Friday afternoon I'm in the Sud-Aviation Caravelle winging my way across the Mediterranean into Morocco. I use VORs to hop across Corsica, southern Spain, Algeria and into Morocco (above right).

Arrival in Marrakech is visual to the west, landing is uneventful at a few minutes before 5 PM. Moroccan Tea, a traditional "bath" and massage followed by a meal at a local restaurant.....10:53 PM Friday night finds me climbing into the BAE 146 heading back up north to Carthage Airport in Tunis. Now THIS is an old city! I arrive inconveniently at 02:27 AM Saturday (below left). There is just time to check into a room for about 4 hours sleep before heading off to my 8:27 AM departure in the Dash 8 (below right).

Day Seven, Saturday

It's a rather long ride over the sea, over Italy and Austria before coming into Munich, Germany at 11:12 AM. Lucky for me I was able to sleep for another hour or so on the way. Sheez this is exhausting! I cut the approach into the southern runway short to save gas and get on the ground sooner (real life was calling at me). Another lesson learned, don't to this in a Dash 8 when you've had too little sleep - it's a looooonnnnng ride!

European chocolate, autobahns with fast cars, quaint villages, have I told you lately how much I miss going to Europe? Departure from Munich is 17:15, another after dark departure, which is too bad because this classic old "Super Connie" is a sleek-looking plane for her age. Very modern and with a great range we climb out to the west before making the gradual 180° turn and setting sights for Vienna, then Budapest, then Bucharest, then Ankara, Baghdad, Kuwait, Qatar and finally landing in Abu Dhabi. This incredible leg takes over 7 hours! I am able to catch some catnaps but never really sleep hard as I'm not sure how much I trust this great old bird. And it's a good thing too because about an hour out my random failures jump up to kill my number two engine! No problem landing on the remaining three however. But now I've test-flown a new download and am ready to burn that one onto CD-ROM, so test flight done and another leg of the tour checked off!

Day Eight, Sunday

I find these new, Middle-Eastern cities bright and shiny, like a desert diamond. Food, shops and beach today. I had some friends in college from U.A.E., I'd like to have a real visit sometime! Departure is after breakfast in an MD-80. Real weather has me heading out of town to the north, convenient for the turn toward Zahedan, Iran and on in to Kabul. There is some high-level wind to deal with but otherwise the flight is nice, uneventful (which probably makes for a poor story.)

"There I was at 33,000 feet when the rear cargo door ripped off. Passengers screaming for their very lives I disengaged autopilot and took manual control..." Oh well, I crossed the airport 4500 feet AGL, made a left downwind for a 7 mile final eastbound parking up at the gates at 12:24 PM.

The surrounding mountains sort of remind me of Denver, Colorado! I'm sure that as this region works to rebuild and recover I could find some great food and shopping here. Seems that the further I get from home the nicer the people are. I remember from my first virtual tour I ran into some wonderful hosts in northern Pakistan too.

I will have a hasty departure from Kabul as I taxi, in the darkness, back out to the end of the runway in the Dassault Falcon. Departure time is 18:27 Sunday and I set my initial rate of climb at 3000 fpm! Once up through 20,000 feet I set a course for Calcutta, India and slow my rate of climb to something less like a fighter jet!

Weather is what I'd expect, clear, slightly breezy but visibility only 20 miles. Before too long ATC is vectoring me for landing into the northbound runway. I actually rather dislike flying this plane, it always seems hard to control, twitchy or something like that. Therefore I keep the AP engaged far longer than I should, right down to the flare! After landing safely I taxi to parking with shutdown at 21:59 local time.

Day Nine, Monday

Nice hotel...I'd love to stay longer, I'd love to sleep more than 3 hours at a stretch! Four o'clock AM departure time, this time in the 727. For once it seems I'm flying this plane in decent weather. Not sure why, but it seems that 727s and I always run into something challenging. This morning's route takes me from Calcutta, over Rangoon, down along the Myanmar/Thai coast, over Phuket, Thailand and into Kuala Lumpur. I guess I spoke too soon about the weather because as I travel south the high-level clouds build and I land through scattered thundershowers at a few minutes before 9 AM.

The press and hustle of this big city is a bit too tiring for me and I end up in the beautiful resort town of Port Dickson! (I'll have to try FLYING there next time I pass through the area.)

By 14:51 Monday afternoon I'm readying the King Air 200. It'll be a long leg up over the Gulf of Thailand into a northbound ILS landing in DaNang, VietNam. There is no extra fuel to spare on this leg but lucky for me I don't need any extra. I doubt I could have done a go-around. 'Nother lesson learned. Arrival is uneventful at 19:13, then into town to find a bed, nothing fancy.

Day Ten, Tuesday

Try as I might there is no sleep this night and my departure time of 01:13 AM comes too soon. Next up on the list is the PC-12 business-class turboprop (another newer plane for me, yet to be burned to CD-ROM) bound for Kota Kinabalu. Departure is again to the north, this plane really gives you the feeling of speed and power. Lotsa' fun to fly and steady as a rock(et)! I climb quickly to cruise altitude and turn southeast, back into Malaysia for my next stopover. Arrival in this little resort is pre-dawn at 4:50 AM local time. Definitely a "keeper"!

I'd love to rent a Land Rover and spend a day exploring these dense, lush jungles. Didn't I hear that the world's largest natural orangutan reserve is near here? It is so far removed from anything familiar that I do just that. This stop becomes particularly relaxing despite the ruggedness.

Day Eleven, Wednesday

After this unexpected 24-hour stop I'm back on schedule for a 4:50 AM departure time in the Airbus A320. I take a VOR-hopping route into Cairnes, Australia arriving just in time for lunch at 12:33 PM Wednesday.

Maybe I should've taken the 24-hour stopover here on the Gold Coast! Departure time is again in the dark, 18:35 in the Dash 7. Because of my poor planning (or lack of geographical sense) I have to take a shortened GPS-direct route into Brisbane. I do however, make it in at 23:20. Then it's off to bed.

Day Twelve, Thursday

I depart Brisbane in the dawn hours about half-past 5 AM in the EMB-170. Peter Stark and his son Jeremy have written some scenery add-ons, which are available at www.toomuchfs.com, one of which is for the airport NZFC on New Zealand's south island. Another long GPS route in allows for an hour or so of additional sleep before I realize that I'm running out of gas! Rather than doing the reasonable thing and putting down on some island I try to stretch it to land, gliding...until I splash down about 20 miles from shore.

So I reload in a great Boeing 733 and re-depart at 5:30 AM. Finally I successfully descend over these rugged mountains and into the visual approach to runway 2L. I arrive in New Zealand at 10:07 AM.

Just a few hours later the morning clouds have burned off into a clear day, breezes have picked up a bit and I depart south from runway 20L in a 742 cargo bound for another scenery add-on airport, PHFC in Hawaii. When this plane is fully loaded it sure uses a lot of runway and a lot of sky. I set my initial rate of climb to just 300 fpm until I can gain speed and clean up, then I increase that to 700 fpm until I complete my 180° turn onto a heading of roughly 010. Then I slowly step-climb up to a final cruise of 39,000 feet where I proceed to join the darkness outside and sleep.

Day Twelve, Thursday Again

I sleep long and hard with hourly checks of the fuel/flight progress. About 30 minutes before 4 AM ATC directs me to begin descent into the Hawaiian Islands. Somehow I feel that I am nearing home? Maybe I just miss going to Hawaii? Anyway, once I get the VOR to fire-up I am already lined up for straight-in approach to 35R. A quick check of ATIS shows no winds and hazy visibility at 20 miles. I shut down at 4:25 AM.

10:25 AM: After breakfast and a hot shower I venture back out, this time into the Boeing 767. I fire up the FMC and program in my waypoints to Mexico City. With light breezes out of the south I depart from 17L and again step-climb up to 39,000 feet. Another chance to sleep in the cockpit before ATC lets me descend and turn south to intercept the ILS into runway 5. By the way, we know that Mexico City sits at a high altitude, but watch out for those surrounding mountains!! There is light rain and only 2 miles visibility in Mexico City, otherwise not too bad. I ride the autopilot all the way down to autoland this time and I get parked at 9:52 PM. p>

Day Thirteen, Friday

I take a taxicab into my hotel downtown, dinner and a brief rest before catching the EMB-170 (non-crashed version) in to Phoenix, Arizona. Bleary-eyed I ride back out to MMMX where the little plane awaits the ride up into the USA. ATC has me arriving with the dawn at my tail and I shut down at the gates at 05:40 AM, still dark.

After a quick breakfast and a phone call to some friends in the area I climb my stiff body up into the cramped little cockpit of the P-51 Mustang. Now this puppy ROCKS! I depart at 11:40 AM and shoot up to 9000 feet. With the throttles mashed forward I progress at no slow pace into Las Vegas, Nevada. And even with a quick buzz over Lake Mead, I get to arrive 5 minutes before I left! (time change)

At 17:35 I leave Las Vegas in one of my all-time favorite planes, the 757. I fly high-altitude jetways to Cleveland, Ohio. No time for sleep over the old USA because ATC and vector changes keep me too busy! Cleveland presents me with light snow showers and gusty winds. I fly the coupled ILS to 5 miles out before taking hand control of pitch, bank and yaw. Landing is long but smooth and I am able to shut down at midnight -10.

Day Fourteen, Saturday

Just two weeks from my departure date I fire up another new download, this one a Boeing 735 with Penguins on it! After having a four hour nap in Cleveland I depart at 06:10 AM and fly the "commuter" run back into NYC.

The sun forces its way up through the multiple layers of clouds as I force my way down. Visibility is good for the ILS into runway 31 but traffic is heavy this morning. ATC takes me into a 25 mile final and I am third in line to land. Again, we may find things to complain about in our FS games but remember, it's only a game, and a REALLY FUN ONE at that!

I fight the crosswind all the way to a cross-controlled landing - I hoped to end on a better note than that but oh well, at least we survived! Ground directs me to the other end of the state, which is gate 10, and I finally shut down next to a company 747 at 07:39 AM Saturday. Finally, I'll be able to spend a day in bed! Then, I'll need to find somewhere else to fly...maybe Nepal?

I hope you've enjoyed this little world tour. I hope that you have been inspired to give the "Round-The-World Flights" a try. I tell you, it's some of the most fun and challenging times you'll have learning anything...and besides, if you're LEARNING it's easier to justify your "research" to your better halves!

Ron Blehm
pretendpilot@yahoo.com

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