One Step Further!

8...7...6...Main Engine Start...3...2...1...

Hi all.

Been a while now..

I´ve fallen into another trap! Ofcourse this will never rival my interest in Flight Simulation, but this is really cool. And the best thing about it; IT`S FREE!!!

I´ve gone further up all the way into space with Orbiter Space Flight Simulator!!!
It´s the most rewarding Freeware thing I´ve EVER seen!




"Go at throttle-up"


I´m very much a newbie at this point, but I´ve learned how to get the STS up and to get the orbiter (The thing that looks like an airplane with wings and all commonly referred to as the shuttle) into orbit, both manually and automatically, and how to make the orbit circular.





Leaving Cape Canaveral far behind.


Next step will be how to change the orbit into the same as a target (like the ISS-International Space Station) and to dock with it. And then ofcourse the adventure to get back home.. When I´ve done all that a couple of times I will be ready for the Moon!! As with FS there are nomerous free addons to make the experience even cooler!





Good separation! (The two Solid Rocket Boosters
are later recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, to be
re-used)




Passing another country of my relatives, Italia!





The "OMS-burn" completed and the orbit is
close to circular.





Speeding at 7765 meters/second towards the
first orbital night.



Sounds interesting?

Here it is!! All Free! http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

KLM 1189: Amsterdam-Bergen

Right now climbing out from Amsterdam (EHAM) on a northbound route towards Bergen (ENBR), Norway. I was planning to make a scenic short VFR-flight, but since a got a little extra time, I thought; Why not?



The CFM-56 Engines Roar at takeoff.

As usual on my IFR flights the equipment is Boeing-produced. A 737-700. I´m a member of a Virtual Airline (or rather a community wich allows you to fly flights from any airline); www.virtualpilots.org . In a communty like this you gather flighthours and all your flights are recorded and processed before you´ll get the hours accounted. The flights that I assign to myself are Real World Flights. They have the same number, is operated with the same aircraft, goes between the same places at the same time as in the real world. The fine thing about FS is that you (unless you fly online) can simply set your FS-time to match the "Real-world-time" when the actual flight occurs.




Not alone off the coast of Holland. The sourrounding
traffic is AI-generated. I use the "Traffic 2005"
-payware addon.




On Final Approach to Bergen, Rwy 17.

The beautiful landscape of the country my
grandmother came from, Norway.

I´ve been going on about flightsimming for three posts now without mentioning the Savior when the problems occur. The greatest FS-forum on the web is without a doubt www.avsim.com . If there´s any problem, the help is here! Totally awesome! And thousands and thousand of great freeware files!


Well the landing was a little tough-one! About 17 knots of right crosswind. But I got the bird down in one peace! ;)



Touchdown! Not a walk in the park, this one...



That´s it for now.

Oh, one more thing... You Can Click On The Images To Enlarge.

AND DON`T BE AFRAID TO POST A COMMENT! ;)

(just click on "comments" to add!)

Fly Safe

/Johan

A nice trip in Micronesia

So after spending an hour and a half (thank you Annie, my dear, for your understanding) to find a "perfect flight" regarding to time, location and aircraft I finally found a good one.

This took me in a Boeing 737-800 with Continental Airlines (Continental Micronesia) from Guam Intl. (PGUM) to the very small Chuuck Intl. (PTKK) in the exotic Micronesia.



Pushing back from the gate at Guam.


The weather was wonderful and the flight lasted just less than two hours.
I love to explore new areas in the Flight Sim, and the more exotic the more interesting.
I usually fly the high standard models from PMDG (like the 737´s or the 747) and it´s just great.















Climbing out of Guam.


I happen to know a Captain on Britannia Airways Sweden (TUI) and have had the pleasure of joining him in the jumpseat (the "extra-seat" on the flight deck) a couple of times. I will dolve into these adventures on a later occasion. Anyway, he has type-rating for the 737-800 among other aircrafts, and says that the PMDG versions are great. (NO, I´m not being payed by PMDG, trust me)
















Enroute for Chuuck!


Well, anyway, the flight was smooth and the approach was a Visual one. (There are two ways of flying; VFR: Visual Flight Rules and IFR: Instrument Flight Rules. Basically, in VFR you´re only allowed to fly if the weather allows it. In IFR you can fly in much "worse" conditions. And most of the commercial flights are IFR. But sometimes small airports don´t support all the technical stuff required to land by the instruments. And thus you fly a Visual approach.)



Touchdown at Chuuck. Nice landning, every-
body happy!


Fly Safe


/Johan

The First Post

Ladies and Gentlemen, Captain Windh speaking.

In this blog I will try to unfold my flightsimming interest to the world. For those of you not familiar with flightsimulation it´s best described like this:

You sit by your computer and you fly airplanes in a virtual rendition of our real world. You can fly pretty much everywhere you want. You try to learn a lot about the actual aircraft you´re flying and you spend hours and hours in front of the screen and YOU LOVE IT.

That´s about it. If you want more about the basics of flightsimming just google it!

I am, like the majority of the flightsimming community, using Microsofts Flight Simulator. (the most recent one for the time being is the ninth in the row, Flight Simulator 2004, or FS9)

I use a CH Yoke (you know, the "steering wheel" of an airplane) and a CH Throttle Quadrant, to control the flight. I will post images of this equipment the second I get a new camera. (the old one was lost in a tragic canoe-accident this summer)

As I´m writing this conducting a virtual Cathay Pacific flight between Hong Kong Intl. (VHHH) and Ninoy Aquino Intl. (RPLL), Manilla, The Philipines. I´m flying a 747-400 and we are level at 35,000 feet. The weather is fine and we´ve got a slight tailwind.

Here´s the planned SID (Standard Instrument Departure) from Hong Kong.







(the white dotted lines are runway extension lines, the double white lines are the runway and the purple line is the planned course. the screenshot is showing the Navigation Display in th 747-400 cockpit)






Lining up with the runway for takeoff, Runway 25L.

(The runway number actually represents the heading of the runway. 25 is in the vicinity of heading 250. the letter represents, if there are paralell runways, wich one you´re on. L=Left)




Making the first left turn after takeoff.




The Boeing 747-400 is a nice BIG bird!


The thing that makes Flightsimming so realistic is a good blend of good ADDON PRODUCTS.

There are thousands of addons for FS9, both free and payware. These products stretch from sophisticated airplane models to a better rendition of your local airport.

One of, in my opinion, the most rewarding addon products are the ones from PMDG (precision manuals development group) http://www.precisionmanuals.com/

They make addon aircrafts to MS flightsim. And they are SO realistic. Just the fact that the FMC (flight management computer) on their Boeing 737´s are programmed in the highly complex code that the real thing is, makes it so great!

Well I guess this was a good opening of my blog. Time to start descending towards Manilla. Back to the Flight Controls!


Fly Safe




/Johan