FSX FSXA Postcards From Around The USA Mission

FSX-FSXA Mission-Postcards From Around The USA! 256 postcards from select airports throughout the USA and its territories. Just land or do a touch and go to get the postcard. If you have already been to one of the 256 airports (and it's in your logbook) you will automatically get the reward after installation. So fire up your favorite plane and explore the US! By Brian Boyce.

Thanks for downloading US Postcards. This has been a culmination of many, many hours, days, weeks and months of sweating over a hot computer. I hope you enjoy. A special thanks to Paul (you know who you are), without whose help this project would have NEVER been completed. Thanks Paul!! YOU DA MAN!!

Terms of Use:

This is free. Call it my contribution to the world of flight simming and travel. You are free to redistribute this to all your friends. Here is what you’re NOT allowed to do:

1. Take credit for this work.
2. Charge someone money for this work. (I’m not making one copper penny on this, therefore you shouldn’t either).
3. Complain about the contents of this work (you’re free to develop your own, if you don’t like mine).
4. Change this work; i.e. decompile, change (add/delete/modify items or lines), and then recompile under the same or different name (again, if you don’t like it, develop your own).

There is no tech support on this. And there shouldn’t be, because if it’s not working for you, you’ve installed it incorrectly. It is unlikely that there will be any updates to this, as well.

Installation:

1. Unzip file into a folder that you can find later
2. Drag and drop or copy the unzipped file called:
“visit_series_tourist_POIs_United_States_of_America.rwd” into this folder:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Rewards
3. If you installed FSX in another directory other than the default, then you will have to find your “rewards folder” on your own.

Use:

These rewards are CRITERIA BASED. That is, you must meet the criteria to get the reward. For all 256 rewards, you have to land (or at least “touch and go”) at specific airports. The reward file will scrub your pilot records for specific airport identifiers. It is not necessary to land at all the airports concurrently; you will get a postcard (and rare instances 2) if you happen to land at any one of the identifiers. As you land at more airports, if they qualify, you’ll get another postcard and so on.

It does not matter what runway you land on, and if there is a waterway (for you flying boat types) as long as the runway is tied to an airport identifier that qualifies, you will get the postcard as well (however, I don’t think there are too many airports with waterways that qualify…sorry to my flying boat friends).

Notes on the Postcards themselves:

A great deal of time went into this; and I’m sure that someone will feel slighted because their state/city/point of interest was not “duly recognized”. Well, although I have traveled to every state in the union and many of its territories, I am not an expert on your state/territory/city (unless you’re talking about Florida). Much of my time was spent on each state’s official travel website. Some official travel sites were much better than others, and I tried to find the “top sites to see” so to speak, when I could. So blame your official state travel site, (and its lack of usability) if I missed something. And let’s face it; some states/territories are bigger than others. Additionally, I did not receive any money, promises or anything else from any person/entity/official or otherwise to have them or their point of interest added to this project. Nor did I pay or make promises to any person/entity/official to have any particular point of interest added to this project. This is 100% me, and my laborious research of the official travel sites of each US state and territory. Additionally, any images remain copyright of original creators. You’ll see that many of the postcards are related to history; and much of those related to aviation/space history. Still others are big cities; out of the way points of interest, national parks, historic persons, etc. I’m sure I missed lots of things, but I think I covered a great deal. And, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life developing this, so I just got to the meat of things. I think 256 postcards are PLENTY to represent this nation and its territories, and the things to do and see here. So here is how I qualified certain postcards:

All points of interest had to be within 80 NM of the nearest PUBLIC USE airport, within the same state. No private airports and no military-only airfields. There are one or two joint use airfields that qualify, however. And just because there is a postcard for the point of interest, doesn’t mean there is an FSX object in that area. I didn’t take the time to actually model these things; I just made the postcards for them. Many of the landmarks are there (you’d be surprised, actually how many ARE there), most are not. So if you’re chasing around the area looking for a particular building or monument, you’re probably wasting your time. But, there are many that are actually there. If you’re sure that a postcard should be issued for a particular point of interest and you didn’t get one, make SURE that you’re at the closest airport, and make SURE you’re at a PUBLIC USE airport. All Public/Private airport information came from airnav.com, so if I’m wrong, blame them. If you’ve landed at all possible airports around a point of interest you think
should be there and you still didn’t get one, make sure you haven’t changed/updated the identifier. Or, perhaps I just didn’t make that point of interest into a postcard. Sorry.

Also, generally speaking, the thumbnails of the postcards lack much detail; they’re just smaller representations of the larger postcard. Some are better than others. So to really see the postcard, and get more information about it, make sure you click on the postcard from your Pilot Records page, Rewards tab. You can also just pick POSTCARDS in the dropdown menu, to filter out the other rewards.

About the qualifying airport identifiers:

First let me say, don’t be a wuss. Don’t try to decompile the .rwd file, so you can find all the identifiers. Go out there and explore. That’s the point of this. Now I know there are going to be “badge whores” like me out there, but think of it as an adventure. And I’m not going to tell you where all the badges are…GO FIND THEM! Tell you buddies where you found some, and pass it around. I’ll tell you how many there are per state, and that’s the only hint available from me.

These airports are a WIDE variety of types. Some are big international airports; some are teeny tiny grass strips. Some you can land 747s on, some you’ll be trying to get in with a light plane, helicopter or an ultralight. So, if you’re trying to get a specific postcard, make sure you:

1. Find the point of interest you think I may have made a postcard for
2. Find the nearest PUBLIC USE airport
3. RESEARCH the airport for length (a good website is airnav.com, but there are others)
4. Select the appropriate aircraft for the job.
5. You can “bunny hop” down the runway to get the postcard; and you can fly to several different airports and do touch and go’s in one run; you just need the landing for that specific airport identifier logged in your records.

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS FILE WILL ONLY WORK WITH THE ORIGINAL AIRPORT IDENTIFIERS THAT SHIPPED WITH THE SIMULATOR! IF YOU CHANGED OR UPDATED AIRPORT IDENTIFIERS, YOU WILL NOT BE GRANTED A POSTCARD FOR THAT AIRPORT!! THIS FILE WORKS WITH FSX, FSX DELUXE, AND FSX ACCELERATION!!

Postcard breakdown, by state/territory:

Alabama
4
Alaska
7
American Samoa
1
Arizona
4
Arkansas
3
California
13
Colorado
5
Connecticut
2
Delaware
2
District of Columbia
1
Florida
13
Georgia
5
Guam
1
Hawaii
5
Idaho
3
Illinois
7
Indiana
3
Iowa
3
Kansas
4
Kentucky
3
Louisiana
4
Maine
3
Maryland
4
Massachusetts
7
Michigan
5
Minnesota
6
Mississippi
4
Missouri
7
Montana
4
Nebraska
5
Nevada
6
New Hampshire
2
New Jersey
5
New Mexico
6
New York
12
North Carolina
5
North Dakota
2
Northern Marianas Islands
2
Ohio
6
Oklahoma
4
Oregon
3
Pennsylvania
6
Puerto Rico
4
Rhode Island
2
South Carolina
5
South Dakota
5
Tennessee
5
Texas
13
Utah
4
Vermont
2
Virginia
4
Virgin Islands
1
Washington
5
West Virginia
2
Wisconsin
4
Wyoming
3
TOTAL
256

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