Around the world with Ted

This game is pretty spectacular really.  The detail and accuracy. The water reflections. Look at the atmospheric haze over distance. I'm impressed.

Fun stuff! .Do you fly IRL?

No, I don't tanman. I suppose - like most people - I have a fascination for flight. But only in it's simplest form.

The peak of Fuji is 12,000 feet. I wanted to fly across the top and look down into, whatever, but it was a struggle to keep climbing. I got to 11,400 feet but just couldn't keep up airspeed and climb so it would just about stall. There is an altitude limit specification with the Robin but it seemed that the thinner air was making it harder to climb. Would they code that in? I don't know.

 Nice video! The trees look so much better than FSX. 

Damn, this thread is better than PG.

Golf courses everywhere in Japan.  A lot of 36, 54 holers

I wanted to finish off that leg to Hakodate so I decided to make the short jump across the water to Hokkaido at night. 

Hakodate is a good size city and I figured I would see the lights from a fair way out if I maintained a correctish heading. The flight across the water was pitch black so it was all instrument flying. The Atitude Indicator (not altitude) was very useful to keep the wings level without having the horizon as a guide.

I came to the coast but no Hakodate!  There was a road running parallel to the shore with road lights. I had a choice - follow the road left or right? I had plenty of fuel so I could turn back and go the other way but how far should I go in one direction?

Anyway, I turned right and followed the road for a LONG way. I was a bit concerned and considered turning back but there were more lights appearing. It was a Chichester moment that I mucked up. I call that no lives lost. (I could have landed on the road. I can do anything. I'm a rogue pilot.)

Here's a video of Hakodate at night. You can see the flashing lights of the runway in the first part. I wanted to show a video of the lighting in the middle section. The pools of light around street lights and houses I find amazing. Night landing isn't so bad. Flaps down to slow the plane so I can keep a bit of power on (so it can fly). When the angle of the lights at the side of the runway flatten out you know you'll touch down.

I'm going to fly straight across to Russia now.  (Cue ominous music.  Only kidding.  My daughter-in-law is Russian.  Her family came out to Oz for the wedding. Great people. I was affable, warm and inviting to all at the reception. (Free grog.) I held court, laughing with them about Khrushchev's shoe, Peter The Great, etc. etc. Her parents actually live in Siberia. A beautiful area.)

This should be a long haul up the east coast of Russia to the Bering Strait and then on to the US of A !!!

Flew across the Sea of Japan to a little place called Pastun, on the east coast of Russia - about 400 kms north east of Vladivostok. Sadly, I had to leave Yoko in Pastun. She's a good kid but had a habit of singing a lot. It was more like wailing. In fact it probably WAS wailing after the night flight across the sea. Anyway, I found a new co-pilot in a bar in Pastun, Anastasiya Bolkonskaya.  Anna -stah-seeya.

But, boy, is Russia a vast land. The east coast is virtually uninhabited and looking inland it looks even more-so. Talk about lebensraum. (But only talk about it. Nothing more.) There's also a huge Russian island just north of Japan called Sakhalin which I did not know existed. 

If you push in the left stick it brings up a toolbar with various stuff.

Clicking 'Navlog' opens a box with a stopwatch which is more practical than the one hour clock on the instrument panel. One thing that is very consistent is airspeed so you can rely on being at a destination within an acceptable timeframe of your calculations.

Things I've discovered...

1.    There are no golf courses in the east of Russia.

What do you do when you land?   Park the plane?  Refuel?   Go eat somewhere? 

You can do all that stuff like parking and refueling Rob.  You can go through checklists before take off etc. etc. and listen to the ATC and radio in and so on. That would be great realism but I decided I just wanted to fly and go rogue. So I just land and return to main screen.

Anyway, here's some vids of the cloudscapes in the game. All very scenic and peaceful but it hides some horrors below all that.  I'll tell you the story and make a confession next post.

For more hard core simmers that are interested in a career/monetary type experience I can recommend FS Economy. https://server.fseconomy.net/index.jsp

Perc

Well, we finally made it to the end of Russia to a little place called Provideniya Bay - no more than 280 kms from the USA across the Bering Sea.  I'll go across via St Lawrence Island to mainland Alaska and then cross country to Anchorage.

It's been tough flying up the Russian east coast. The weather has been really bad most of the time. That's a BIG country. And seems so empty.

Sadly I have to say goodbye to Anastasiya Bolkonskaya. We both have regrets but forgive each other nevertheless. Anyway, what happens in Okhotsk, stays in Okhotsk. Her catch phrase was, "Don't be fool". We would laugh each time she said it and she had plenty of occasions to use it. What a gal.

Here she is...