- OZ Tour 2006 -

Cambridge · Guest

What a great tour! Pics look amazing.

I recently downloaded VOZ for a Broom - Port Augusta flight I'm planning, but the manual says you can't fly across the different VOZ regions. How are you planning on getting around this? I was thinking maybe you'd have to disable VOZ just when you cross regions or something...

Oh...and which mesh are you waiting for?

cheekytrolly · Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:04 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 5
Route: YBUD, YHBA, YGYM, YBMC, YBBN, YBCG, YBNA, YEVD, YGFN, YSCH

Day 5 part 1 map: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/5map1.jpg
Day 5 part 2 map: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/5map2.jpg

This morning, I told myself that I would complete the rest of the leg today, but I didn’t realize that it wouldn’t be until ten airports, 20 take off and landings, 4 hours of flying, and 72 screenshots later that I would find myself writing this flight report! The mesh still hasn’t come in the mail, meaning I needed to download another file from simviation again, and I am beginning to wonder if this guy’ actually has sent a CD to me at all…? Also, the Piper Seneca repaint I created has been uploaded on the official Just Flight website now, so if you want to, you can download it for free here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/downloads_seneca.aspx

I started my flight from Bundaberg (YBUD), where I finished off yesterday, and continued along the coast west towards Hervey Bay (YHBA) which was a distance of 39nm away. I arrived after 21 minutes, landing with ease on runway 11 right behind the town centre, and then briskly taking off again, turning inland to the south towards my next stop Gympie (YGYM)

Following a wide channel between the mainland and a very large island sticking out to the right, I carried on my journey as the sun began to set beside me, causing one of the most beautiful sunset’s I have ever seen on flight sim. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint1.jpg ) It also made the new VOZ landclass appear in a new warm evening light which changed the world’s mood below me, making it appear all relaxed and peacefull. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint2.jpg ). After heading at 159 degrees for 58 nm, I was overhead the towsnship, (See this amazing screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint3.jpg ) and desperately searching for the runway in the field’s around me as the light in the sky got lower and lower. When I saw it out the corner of my eye, I banked right, and then left and I touched down gently on runway 14 before accelerating off again towards ‘The Sunshine Coast’

My next stop was Maroochydore (YBMC) a coastal city that’s popular with tourists, which was small distance of 28nm away, so I only climbed up to 3000 feet because I knew it would be a short flight. I set autopilot to on, as I cruised at a heading of 122 degrees back towards the ocean. The spectacular sunset was just finishing as I tuned into ATC and was guided into land on runway 18. This airport services international flight’s so thankfully the large runway was fully lit and easy to see from a distance. I entered the pattern and touched down, a little fast, but it didn’t matte as I had plenty of room. After taking off again, I began to climb and turned to the south towards Brisbane. Just like the land textures had had changed a lot in appearance as the sun set, so did the water textures which was another pleasant surprise I had not expected from the VOZ team. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint4.jpg ) I was about to retract my gear when the tower randomly told me I was cleared to land again, and as I had plenty of fuel and nothing to loose, I turned back inland for a 2nd approach.

Again, as I started my flight towards the city of Brisbane (YBBN) the stars started to come out in the night sky above me (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint5.jpg ) I headed at 167 south along the coast, following the trail of animated (YES- THEY WERE ANIMATED!!!) car lights on the motorway (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint6.jpg ) until I was close enough to pick up the International Airport ATC, who directed me to land on runway 1. As I got closer and closer, more and more AI traffic became visible which was the only interesting aspect of the area. As a general rule, I don’t like flying around ‘the big smoke’ cities and I far more prefer being out in the countryside or around rivers and mountains. Anyway, it was very dark by now and as I entered the pattern to the right, low town houses, I attempted my first night landing in quite a while. I touched down for a full-stop landing perfectly (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint7.jpg )which I was pleased about, and taxied over to the GA parking area to save my progress so far and switch the time setting to day, so that I could admire my downloaded mesh for the rest of the leg.

At 7:00am the next day (sim-time), I waited for an AI Qantas 767 to land in front of me before I was allowed to take off again from runway 1, where I had landed the previous night. Once in the air, I banked over the bay giving me a nice view of the airport (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint8.jpg ) I turned to a heading of 130 degrees, and climbed up to 6,000 feet as I started the 30 minute trip down to Coolangatta (YBCG) passing straight over central Brisbane (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint9.jpg ) and Amberley military airport (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint10.jpg ). After a short while, the suburbs ended and the most mountainous (not that you could really call it that) terrain that I have seen so far arose from the ground in front of me (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint11.jpg ) After tuning into YBCG tower, I was amused to hear the controller refer to the area as ‘Cooly’ (similar to Rockhampton which is called ‘Rocky’) He cleared me to land on runway 32, but instead of joining the pattern immediately, I circled low over the city known as ‘Surfers Paradise’ and ended up having a VERY near miss with a Pacific Blue 737 that had just taken off! (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint12.jpg ) I made another full spot landing, because I wanted to check out the airport scenery I had downloaded (See screenshot 13: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint13.jpg ) from virtualvfr.com, and because it was the first time I had seen it, a touch-and-go would have been a waste of time.

After taxing around the terminal, I took off again from runway 32, avoiding any collisions with other aircraft, before turning south again to a heading of 150 towards my next stop, Ballina (YBNA) I was cruising on autopilot, on spot view enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden, the screen went black and the loading bar appeared, then flickered away exactly the same as on my flight to Williamson yesterday! It continued to happen 8 more times before I finished my flight today, randomly for no reason I can think off. Are any other VOZ users encountering this problem as well? If you are please post here or post a solution please because it’s really annoying! Anyway, my flight continued as normal after this event, and as Ballina had no ATC system of its own, I got to pick whatever end of the runway I wanted to land on, without flying around un-necessary airport patterns. I chose runway 24 to touch-and-go on, to complete this 25 minutes section of the leg.

Once I became airborne again, I turned right to a heading of 194, and climbed up to 3,000 feet towards Evens Head airport (YEVD), with no need to activate autopilots because it was just a 17nm trip. I crossed a large was a river delta (See screenshot 14: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint14.jpg ), before smoothly touching down on runway 18, setting me up perfectly for my second to last stop, Grafton (YGFN) another 45 miles inland, in the same direction, where I made an easy touch and go landing on the runway of my choice on runway 18.

With no other traffic around, I set my heading to 161 degrees for Coffs Harbor, (YSCH) the final airport in the first leg of this OZ TOUR 2006. This hop was also a short one, and I flew all 15 minutes of it by hand, with no need for autopilot again. I was so glad to finally see the ocean and town over the hills in front of me that I decided to do a special low fly by over the centre of town (See screenshot 15: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint15.jpg ) I then flew the pattern to the left of the runway, and when I turned onto finals, the tower cleared me for a touch-and-go. I had gotten so used to performing T&G’s, I had forgotten this was my final stop today, and had to take off and fly the circuit twice just like I had done a few hours back a the Sunshine Coast (YBMC)

This was the first time I had seen the add on scenery from the airport I had downloaded and installed last week from virtualvfr.com, and it looked great as I taxied past the main terminal (See screenshot 16: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint16.jpg ) to the Shell petrol pump (See screenshot 17: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint17.jpg ) before parking up in front of a custom GA hanger (See screenshot 18: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/dayfivepoint18.jpg ) as directed to by ATC. It was a pleasant end to this long flight, which I had started at 3 o’ clock and eventually finished at 7pm ready for dinner.

Now I am ready to VOZ in the South section on the switcher to start leg two where I will visit New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria. Although I am looking forward to this very much, tomorrow I will take a break to explore the mesh I have downloaded over the last few days and play on multiplayer.

Hope you enjoyed the ride.
See you next time.

PS: Cambridge, is you read the user manual that comes with the package, you will see there is a program called the 'VOZ Switcher' (see screenshot: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/Switcher.jpg ) that lets you change region textures during mid flight. The mesh I am waiting for is by Andy Weir and avaiable on avsim but because I am using a 56k modem, I am using the simviation stuff avaiable here: http://www.simviation.com/fsdterrainsrtm.htm
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My Flyaway Screenshot Index

cheekytrolly · Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:27 am Post subject:

I have kinda sorted out my problem concerning the random loading bar flashing up on my screen that were interrupting my flights from doing a bit of research at http://63.217.28.218/files/terrain2/readme.txt
which says:

cheekytrolly · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:33 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 6
Route: YSCH, YKMP, YPMQ, YTRE YWLM, YPEC, YSSY

Yesterday I took a break from the tour and explored around the southern end of the ‘North’ area for a while, as it would be the last I would see of that specific landclass for quite a while now that I have VOZed in the ‘South’ region ready to continue my flight.

Starting off from Coffs Harbor again (YSCH), I took off from runway 3 and banked left over the sea getting a good view of the town out my right hand windows. It look much different from when I landed, with lots of dry brown textures everywhere, unlike the lush green ones I had remembered. I changed the weather scheme to ‘Koorby Clouds 1’ as I headed inland to Kempsy (YKMP) which was a 21 minute flight, heading south at 190 for 59 miles. My first impressions of this new scenery was that it looked like ‘Blue Healers’ country that I had seen on TV in the past, with so much brown and beige everywhere, it gave a new definition to the meaning of ‘rural’ on the simulator, which I liked very much. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint1.jpg ) The destination airport had no manned ATC system, so I landed on the closest runway to me, runway 22 and then taxied over to the fuel pump (see screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint2.jpg ) to top up my 4% full tanks, as I had discovered the pumps at Coffs Harbor didn’t work. Low down, the autogen really complimented the landclass, and I felt as though I was in a whole new, much more realistic environment as I was yesterday. (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint3.jpg )

I was soon airborne again, and flying the Seneca by myself for this short hop, back towards the coast to Port Macquarie (YMPQ) that was only 20 odd miles in a direction of 155 degrees. As the airfield came into view, I remembered that I had downloaded a scenery expansion for the area from virtualvfr.com, but as I had already made a full stop landing at the previous airfield, I didn’t have time to do another one Instead I made a very slow descent onto runway 21, taking in as much scenery as I could. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint4.jpg ) It looked great and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I wanted to finish today’s flight ASAP so I could play with my new radio scanner I have just bought Very Happy

I rolled down the runway, and lifted off right at the end, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint5.jpg ) for my next inland hop to Taree (YTRE) The land was getting pretty bumpy all around me, with farms and bush land here, there and everywhere. I kept quite low at 3000 feet, admiring the new landclass and took note of how much more roads there appeared to be around me compared to back up in Queensland. I wasn’t really paying much attention to anything but the scenery, I suddenly heard the female pilot on the radio announce she had a visual on the runway at Port Macquire, and as I switched to spot view to look for her, I saw her on my screen right below me at 1,000 feet (see screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint6.jpg ) Shortly after, I touched down on runway 22, and marveled some more at the custom autogen around the airport, not a custom add on, but part of the very impressive VOZ package I’m using. (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint7.jpg )

The next airport I visited was Willamtown (YWLM) which was 64 miles of my current location. I promptly took off and climbed up to 4000 feet, clearing the range of steep hills that had arose in front of my, leveled off and hit the autopilot switch. The textures below me changed from farmland to dark mountainous forest and sandy scrub, another new type of landclass that I hadn’t seen before (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint8.jpg ) I picked up “Willy” tower 25nm out, and was permitted a touch and go landing on runway 12. I soon had a visual, and followed the airport pattern to the right of the active runway before I was cleared to land, as was a Qantas Dash Link behind me, who was told to “follow the aircraft on finals” I could see him out my right window at 3nm away, and thinking I had enough room, banked to the left as I turned onto the glide path for finals. A few seconds later, the load whir of turbo-prop engines screamed though my speakers and as I changed to spot view, I saw him right on my tail literally five meters away! (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint9.jpg ) I quickly dived out the way as he ignorantly descended into land stealing my spot without one glance towards me! I followed him instead of him following me but “Willy” tower made him go-around which deserved him right, LOL! As I rolled along the runway, I saw more Qantas and Jetstar aircraft and parked at a terminal which confused me because I thought this was a military airport???

Anyway, I soon took off again, and changed my heading to 198 towards ‘Areopelican’ (YPEC), and airport I had chosen to visit simply because the name amused me. My path led me directly over central Newcastle (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint10.jpg ) which looked much different from the big towns up north like Townsville and Cairns, because it actually used new textures, which was something I didn’t expected when VOZing in the ‘South’ section on the switcher. I was flying along a thing peninsular between Lake Macquarie and the Tasman Sea looking everywhere for the airport, which according to my GPS was directly below me. I finally did see it, a brown dirt strip on a brown field background, about a kilometer behind me and I had to circle low over the lake before making a very tricky landing. Runway 7 was so short that I lowered my speed to 75 kias, with my flaps down as far as they could go so I wouldn’t shoot off the end back into the water. At about 20 feet in front of the runway, I got the stall warning appear and had to push the throttle all the way in again so that I didn’t crash. When I touched down, I had to squeeze the brakes down the whole strip as I didn’t have enough time to bring my flaps back up and perform a touch and go and instead I turned around 180 degrees when I reach the end, so I now faced at a heading of 25 (the direction I originally planned to land at) before taking off again towards my final stop, Sydney.

I banked left over Lake Macquarie, and climbed up to 4,000 feet, set autopilot onto a heading of 191 at a height of 3500 feet as I made me way across the biggest city in the country (although not the capital, we will come to that later) to land at Kingsford Smith International. I was soon cruising over the suburbs, (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint11.jpg ) yet another variation of landclass textures I hadn’t seen before, with the new VOZ high rise skyscrapers in front of me (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/daysixpoint12.jpg ) and ATC guided me into land on runway 16L. I have flown before lots of times in the default photoreal scenery (not as good as the VOZ stuff, which is also has photo textures, but covers a far larger area and doesn’t lag, take long to load or blur) but never landed on runway 16L, which was another new experience for me. I came in low over the terminal and touched down with plenty of room on the large tarmac runway at a time of 11:08am (sim-time)

I am now parked up at the international GA ramp, wondering whether to continue my tour tomorrow or not. Thankfully, ‘Emmjay’ has offered to send me the mesh files I need! (Thanks man you saved the tour) But they won’t arrive in New Zealand until the middle of the week, and my next flight is into Canberra, which has lots of mountains terrain on the way…I guess it’s up to you guys who read this forum, should I go straight away or wait?

Thanks for reading.
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99jolegg · Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:28 pm Post subject:

Very interesting reading Cheeky Thumbs Up!

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cheekytrolly · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:05 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 7
Route: YSSY, YWOLD, YJBY

Hi everyone, sorry there was no flight yesterday. I was out enjoying myself at ‘Duder Regional Park’ (See photo: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/bayforwebsiteSmall.jpg ) with my family. Back to the OZ TOUR now, and this Emmjay feller has said that the mesh he is kindly sending me won’t be arrive in my country until later in the week, so I wont be flying inland until then. However, this doesn’t mean I can’t fly along the coast, so today I went as far as I could, saying by the sea and stopping at two airports.
Starting up the engine from Sydney, I was told to taxi (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day7point1.jpg ) to runway 16L which was the active VFR runway, and the one I had landed at the other day. All the big jets which were using IFR where on runway 16R, so I had about half of the airport all to myself, which was unusual since it was so big! I was soon in the air and after getting out the international airport airspace, I turned to a heading of 195, towards the city of Wollongong (YWOL) (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day7point2.jpg ) I’m sure not many Non-Australians have heard of this town, but for your information it is a native Aborigine coastal settlement that has grown into the countries 9 largest city with a population of 266200 people. It’s name translated into English means "the sound of the sea". The airfield had no ATC or traffic in sight, so I choose the tarmac runway 16 to touch and go at, and landed after 25 minutes.
My next stop was Jervis Bay Military (YJBY), an airport 34 nm away south of my current location. I took off again, and set on the altitude autopilot for 3,000 feet just below the cloud line as the weather was closing in (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day7point3.jpg and 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day7point4.jpg ) It wasn’t long before I picked up the traffic frequency for the airport, and I was surprised to learn it didn’t have a manned ATC system as it was owned by the airforce! I soon had a visual and I landed on runway 15, slowed right down and pulled off to the right of the runway to park up on the dirt. I was surprised again to see no apron on this airfield, which I definitely thought a military base would have!

That’s it for now folks; all I can tell you is that my next flight should be longer and more exciting with my new mesh. I can make a promise to you now as well by saying that I will finish this flight by the end of the month, in no more than 22 days time. Once I leave the west coast, the airports become less frequent which means longer legs and less stops.

Hope you are enjoying the tour as much as I am so far,
Bye for now.
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My Flyaway Screenshot Index

Guest1 · Guest

Interesting reading, tours looking great!

Agus0404 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

Great job, Cheeky! The screenshots are great! Love

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cheekytrolly · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:38 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 8
Route: YJBY, YSCB, YCOM, YORB, YFLI, YSTH, YMLT, YMHB

Good news; my long awaited mesh has finally arrived, and trust me guys, it was worth the wait! I installed it promptly, ready for continuing the tour today where I managed to cover quite a large distance, travelling through four different states, from New South Wales, into the Australian Capital Territory, onto Victoria and then into Tasmania. That took quite a lot of time to fly too, as I started simming at 4:30pm and have only just started writing this report at 10pm local time, with just one hour’s break for dinner!

Anyway, I started off from Jervis Bay (YJBY), a random military strip where I had parked on the grass. I took off again, and swung back inland heading at 249 degrees straight for Canberra (YSCB), the country’s capital city. Immediately after leaving the coast, the land began to rise up steeper, forming mountains and valleys which where a great improvement of the default rubbish (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point1.jpg ) After a while, the ground flattened out again, at a much higher altitude forming a platu, (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point2.jpg ) Shortly after, I was cleared to land on runway 35, which meant I had to bank to the left before banking to the right and touching down. My Canberra airport was another addon from virtualvfr.com and it looked pretty good (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point3.jpg ) with lots of custom made buildings and AI traffic around. I was soon back in the air, and turning around 180 degrees, heading south towards the southern tip of the country, and flew straight over the city centre (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point4.jpg ) just as Canberra tower cleared me to land AGAIN! This had happened to me before in the tour, and I just chose to ignore ATC’s stupid mistake as I continued flying, over some more mountains (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point5.jpg ) towards my next stop Cooma (YCOM)

Cooma is also known as “Snowy Mountains” according to the GPS, FSNAV and other sources on the net, but as I started my descent towards the airport, there wasn’t any snow or mountains any where in sight! (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point6.jpg ) Is this some kind of Australian Joke or does it snow here in the winter perhaps??? I T&G’ed on the Runway 18, which set me up perfectly for my next stop right on the south coast of Victoria, to a place called Orbost (YORB) The next 97 miles where pretty un eventful, with the only odd piece of scenery below being a weird border between two texture blocks (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point7.jpg ) which is something I think the beta testers missed Wink

I landed on runway 7, with my wheels only touching the ash felt for a matter of seconds before I was up in the air again, turning to the right towards Flinders Island (YFLI) which was all the way across the Bass Straight. This is my longest single flight so far this tour, with a distance of 141 nautical miles between airports which would take me 56 minutes to complete. I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 5500 feet and levelled off, set autopilot on and switched to spot view for a look back at the mainland behind me. It was at this point I accidentally hit “shift+z” somehow and my remaining fuel quantity was displayed at the top of the screen showing 14% left!!! I tried to ignore the fact that my tanks were nearly dry, and continued flying across the wide open sea (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point8.jpg ) trying to think of a solution, but I didn’t come up with one, and at 72nm out, the propellers sputtered to a stop! The only thing I could do was go into the aircraft menu, select fuel and payload and fill her up to 50% again. (Let’s not re guard it as cheating, but say I had an emergency supply with me the whole time Wink

)

Thankfully, land soon came into sight, and I gently descended over the island to the grass strip on the far side. I successfully touched-and-goed on runway 14, then climbed up to 3,000 feet and headed at 157 degrees towards my next stop, St Helens (YSTH), on mainland Tasmania. Just after take off, I saw an odd sight out my left hand window (see screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point9.jpg ) in the virtual cockpit, which happened to be a footy field sticking up right vertically on the top of a mountain range was part of my new terrain! This was not what I expected but hey, at least my mesh was working, so I continued on my journey without giving it a second thought. After 75 more miles and 30 more minutes, I spotted the airfield on a nice quite little bay (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point10.jpg ) and swung around over a peninsular to touch and go on runway 26.

I now had a short 48 mile hop to Launceston (YMLT), Tasmania’s second biggest city, which was 22 minutes away. I hugged the hillsides flying under the low cloudbase (see screenshot) weaving in and out of vallys until I picked up “Launy” Tower on the radio who gave me permission to touch and go on runway 14L. I banked right over the town, before slowly decending into land on the long tarmac runway, and surprised myself at how well it went. Everything went perfect and I pulled off what I thought was my best ever landing of the Seneca, and perhaps one my best landings ever on flight simulator! Very Happy

After rolling down the runway for a while, I pulled back the yoke and climbed up towards my seventh and final destination today, Hobart (YMHB) which was another 78 miles in a direction of 157 degrees. It wasn’t long before I was cleared to land for a full stop landing on runway 12, and taxied over to the fuel pump (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day8point11.jpg ), with hardly a drop left in my tanks, for the second time today! I parked up on the empty GA ramp, and shut off the engine at 3:28pm (sim-time) This is the southern most tip of the tour that I have reached and from now on, all my flights will be in a northern direction. Over-all I am about 1/3 of the way around this huge continent, with many more exiting trips still to make.

Until next time,
Thanks for reading.
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My Flyaway Screenshot Index

cheekytrolly · Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:10 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 9
Route: YMHB, YDPO, YSMI, YKII, YPID, YMML

Sorry this is another late report, but I didn’t get home until mid afternoon after a day of trekking through the New Zealand “bush” then cooling down with a relaxing swim afterwards Wink

Anyway, today I didn’t fly as far as I had hoped, due to the sun setting as I landed in Melbourne. I hoped to get as far as Adelaide but I simply ran out of time and decided to give it a rest as the simulator turned to night time.

I started off from Hobart (YMHB) and took off from runway 12, the same one that I had landed on yesterday. I climbed up to 5000 feet and banked right, changing my heading to 319 as I made my way north across central Tasmania to the seaside town of Devonport (YDPO) which I choose to land at because there’s a suburb in my city that I live in, Auckland, that has the same name. The 113nm journey took 50 minutes, and cruising below the low cloud line, there was lots of interesting landscape below to admire as I passed by, including lots of mountains, cliffs (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point1.jpg
) and lakes. One lake in particular that took my interest was the first one I passed over, which shores were fringed with snow (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point2.jpg
) I’m interested to know if this was a simple mistake or do the Tasmanian highlands get snow in summer? (If you do know, please inform me)

I was cleared to land on runway 24 for a full stop landing, instead of a touch and go, because I wanted to keep my fuel tanks as full as possible after the near disaster that happened yesterday when I ran dry. I taxied over to the pump to fill up next to a parked Qantas Link (see screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point3.jpg
) which I was surprised to see here as this airport didn’t even have an ATC system! Once 70% full changed to 100& full, I taxied back to runway 24 and took off again, pulling the landing gear up right over the town (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point4.jpg
) and changed my heading to 303 degrees for the trip west along the northern coast towards Smithton. (YSMI) I had the airport in sight after another 35 minutes, and began my descent into land on the gravel runway 24. As my aircraft started to turn to the right by itself, I realized that for some reason the throttle slider on my joystick was only controlling the left engine and I had to switch to the Virtual Cockpit mode and use my mouse to control both engines as I made my approach.

To be fair I made a pretty crap job of the whole thing and skidded off the runway onto the dirt before I managed to get the plane back under control and airborne again before leveling off at 3000 feet under the low cloud base and heading out to sea towards King Island (YKII) which was another 79nm miles away. I switched on autopilot for the 35 minutes trip before land came into sight, and I chose to land on runway 34. As I descended on finals, I noticed the surface in front of me was gravel again, and once I touched down I turned off onto a taxi way, which to my surprise was also made of gravel. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot of this but it sure is unusual; why not check it out for yourself? The reason I had preformed a full stop landing was because I wanted to top up with fuel again, just to be safe. The only problem was that there was no pump in sight, and this made me realize a huge dilemma that I now faced: When I planned this trip, I set each flight up with a distance between airports that the Piper could easily reach on a full tank, but what I had forgot was that not each airport carries fuel, so I might just have to use my imagination in future when I reach an airport with no pump, and open the aircraft menu like I did yesterday to edit the fuel and payload.

As there was nothing more I could do at King Island, I taxied back to the runway I had landed on, pulled the flaps up and set off again towards my next destination, Phillip Island (YPID) that was all the way across the Bass Straight again. I set autopilot on again once I reached 5000 feet and let the plane fly itself for the next 105 miles. I was busy spraying mozzie repellent around my room when all of a sudden, land became visible on the top of the screen and I had to make a steep descent into land. I has planned to touch and go on runway 4, but as I approached the airport, in the now fading light, all I could see in front of me where taxiways and hangers! I touched down on the plain dirt, which was the right place according to ATC, and promptly lifted off again towards my last stop today, Melbourne (YMML), the big smoke!

This journey was today’s shortest, lasting only 25 minutes as I flew back onto the mainland and low over the sleepy suburbs. It was evening by now, and as the sun was setting behind me (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point5.jpg ) the new custom-built high rises of the CBD popped up on the horizon. I tuned into the international airport ATC who cleared me to land on runway 16, meaning I had to fly right past the city downtown area (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point6.jpg ) where somewhere below me, Rove McManus was flying “flick ya switch” Soon I was cleared to land right behind a heavy Qantas 767, then I parked up in the GA bay (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day9point7.jpg
) after a long taxi past the main terminal, and was pleased to see I still had 45% fuel left in my tanks.

Once again, Thanks for reading
See ya's tomorrow
_________________

My Flyaway Screenshot Index

cheekytrolly · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:41 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 10
Route: YMML, YBLT, YHML, YMTG, YNRC, YGWA, YPAD

Today I decided to finish off the rest of Leg 2 and the start of Leg 3, travelling across central Victoria, visiting seven airports, and then crossing over territories to arrive in Adelaide, Australia’s 5th biggest city, and the pit stop for my 10th day of touring the country.

Because I had landed at Melbourne International last night at sunset, I decided to switch the simulator time to dawn, because I had not seen the land class in this sort of light yet, and it would be another pleasant experience to encounter on my journey around the southern send of the country. So, I started up my engines at 4:30 am, just as the sun was climbing over the distant horizon, and taxied over to the fuel pumps to top-up my tanks. I was then directed by ATC to take off from the active runway which was number 16, but had to hold at the end for a while as a Thai MD-11 was on finals (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point1.jpg ) I was soon airborne and turned right to a heading of 269, as I made my way across the sleeping countryside (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point2.jpg ) towards the town of Ballarat (YBLT) which was 23 miles away.

I arrived after 22 minutes and touched down on runway 23, then pausing the game quickly and changing the time to 7:00am to give me a better view of the surroundings I would be flying over for the next few hours. I quickly un-paused the game, and lifted off towards Hamilton Aero (YHML) which appeared to be a very small town in the middle of no-where, Central Victoria. The distance between the two airports was 82 miles, which would take me 35 minutes to fly, so I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 5,000 feet and let autopilot do the rest of the work. As this airport had no ATC system of its own, I chose to land on the gravel runway 28, setting me up perfectly for my next stop, Mount Gambier (YMTG)

For the next 61 miles I basically flew in a straight line, crossing over the state border into South Australia, which took me 25 minutes. I had been seeing the same brown and beige textures for a long time now (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point3.jpg ) so I decided that when I landed, I would save the flight so far and go into the ‘Switcher’ and VOZ in the west section, which will hopefully refresh the scenery for Leg 3. Again, I picked what runway I would land on, and I choose number 18, as it was tarmac, and preformed a full stop landing.

I didn’t notice anything new as I re-started the flight, and the textures all looked the same as when I had landed. Something in the back of my mind reminded me that there was some info about this in the readme file that came with the VOZ installation package, which I opened and flicked through briefly, just to find out that “In this version (0.99) there is NO difference between South and West versions” Dang, that really burst my bubble! But oh well, I guess Australia is so big that you are bound to get huge open areas that all look the same, and therefore it’s virtual re-creation was accurate enough for me.

The next stop was Naracoorte (YNRC), which I had chosen to land at for two reasons. 1) because it was on the way, and 2) It’s name sounded cool Wink

I taxied around the airport until I was on the same runway I had landed on, but at the opposite end facing South, because I wanted to fly over the Mount Gambier township as I departed (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point4.jpg ) After I did this, it was just a short 50 mile trip north lasting only 20 minutes until I reached the next airport and touched down on the turf runway 18, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point5.jpg ) and taxied over to the GA parking area to fill up my half empty tanks, because my next destination was 131 miles away, making it the longest flight today.

Goolwa (YGWA) was my next stop, a small town perched right on the edge of the sea. I took off from runway 8, banking right over central Naracoorte (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point6.jpg ) as I turned to a heading of 305, climbed up to 5000 feet and set autopilot on. I was feeling restless and couldn’t be bothered to sit at the computer for the next 52 minutes to watch the same textures pass by again and again (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point7.jpg ) , so I went off to have lunch and then went down to the post box to deliver some mail before returning to the PC. When I sat down again, I was just 20nm out, and flying over the coast again, (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point8.jpg ) something I was glad to see, as I hadn’t seen any water since I left Melbourne. I touch-and-goed on runway 1, a short grass strip before lifting off again towards my final stop today, Adelaide (YPAD)

This last hop was very short, lasting only 15 minutes as I crossed 33 miles worth of farms and small hills (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point9.jpg ) where somewhere below, the new season of “McLoads Daughters” was being filmed. I tuned into Adelaide International airport, who cleared me to land on runway 23, and made me follow a Virgin Blue 737 in before I touched down, passing right over the central city (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point10.jpg ) and suburbs (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point11.jpg ) as I made my approach. Unfortunately there was no custom scenery here, although the new VOZ stuff looked much better than Microsoft’s efforts. At one time on my old computer, I had a version of the Adelaide region which included the main airport, Edinburgh Military and the whole of downtown, with each individual shop, like McDonalds and Toys R’ Us! If you are interested and don’t already have it, I think it is available at virtualvfr.com under the file name “adel_v2_stevenroyals9.zip” I then taxied around the airport and was surprised to see how busy it was, (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day10point12.jpg ) with a Malaysian Airlines Boeing and two green and white Australian Airlines planes already parked up, as well as numerous Cessna’s and Qantas’ planes too.

I switched off the engines at 9:53 am after a long flight between two of the county’s biggest cities. I am now ready for short break before I continue the tour along the south coast, over Kangaroo Island, heading as far West as I can go, and then up into the famous “Dry Red Centre”

Please feel free to leave your comments here
Thanks
_________________

My Flyaway Screenshot Index

cheekytrolly · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:00 am Post subject:

Flight Day: 11
Route: YPAD, YKSC, YPLC, YKBY, YCDU

Although I didn’t do any flying yesterday, I had an interesting new idea for the OZ TOUR which includes you guys reading this forum. The Piper Seneca I am using is part of a payware package, but “Just Flight” offer a “fly-before-you-buy” policy, meaning you can download and use it for free for 30 days! I thought that it would be neat if you all could download it here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/ and then download my repaint from here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/downloads_seneca.aspx so that I reach my final flight leg back to Cairns, everyone can all log onto a multiplayer server with me end the tour with me online! It would sure make some great screenshots, so if you are interested, tell all your mates, then send me a PM with your e-mail address so I can give you more details when the time comes.

Today I started back in Adelaide (YPAD) after a day off, and departed to the west for a short flight over to Kingscote (YKSC) on Kangaroo Island, which was a 67 mile trip heading at 219 degrees for half an hour. As I crossed over the sea, on the beautiful sunny morning, I realized I was seeing something that I had not seen before on this tour, completely blue skies with out a cloud in sight (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point1.jpg ) The airport was soon in sight, right near the coast, and I choose to land on runway 21, meaning I had to bank slightly to the right over the shoreline cliffs (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point2.jpg ) before performing a full stop landing following a Cessna Grand Caravan on finals. I topped up my tanks which I had forgotten to do at Aderlaide, then taxied back towards runway 21 for the next hop north to Port Lincoln (YPLC)

I was soon back over the sea, letting autopilot fly me across the Spencer Gulf for the next 165 miles, which took a whole 54 minutes, heading at 316 degrees at full speed. Nothing interesting happened while I crossed over the tip of a peninsular that stuck out to sea from the north of Adelaide, followed by a few long thin rectangular islands. At 30nm out, I tuned into the Port Lincoln traffic and decided to land on runway 33, which was most convenient as it pointed in the direction I was tracking, and I preformed a full stop landing with no other planes in sight. I topped up my tanks again even though they were just down to 74%, just to be on the safe side, and then took off again from the sand runway I had landed on.

The next destination was Streaky Bay (YKBY) which was another 132 miles north again. I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 3,000 feet and set autopilot on for the second time, letting it fly the plane for the next 43 minutes. To start off with, I flew over a few low lying hills (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point3.jpg ) but after that, there was just lots more farmland, as we have seen before. On “top-down” view I could see a lot of long straight roads, connected together in a grid which looked weird and out of place because this region has hardly any population or need for a giant motorway system! (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point4.jpg ) With no other traffic in sight again, it wasn’t long before descending in for the first a touch-and-go today on runway 31, coming in a little too steep after switching off auto pilot to late.

Once airborne again, I change my heading to 319, for the flight up to Ceduna, (YCDU) the shortest flight today only 15 minutes and 50 miles away. I flew this by hand, only switching to autopilot to take some pictures of the orange desert patches that were becoming more and more frequent along the coastline as I ventured closer into the middle of the country. (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point5.jpg ) Now it was just a short journey over a small bay (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/flightsim/day11point6.jpg ), and a few more farms before I was able to pick up the Unicom, and make my last landing today on runway 29, before topping up my tanks and parking up, switching off my engines at 12:29 (sim-time) ready for some lunch.

Next time I continue the tour, I will be flying across the “Great Australian Bight” and the “Nullabor Plain” as I cross a huge open area with a sparse population and few airports, with individual “hops” lasting up to two hours!

Hope your still enjoying it,
Thanks for reading
_________________

My Flyaway Screenshot Index

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