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