|
There's a whole website about people flying GA aircraft around the world: https://www.earthrounders.com/ The website isn't the best, but should be interesting to people reading the thread.
fish and chips and dip fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Feb 28, 2023 |
#
?
Feb 28, 2023 09:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 16:25 |
|
|
Welcome back and thanks for joining me. Screenshot galleries: https://postimg.cc/gallery/6WdXTpx https://postimg.cc/gallery/PfthvvH I'm back after a couple weeks' break. Life has thrown a few curveballs at me over the last few weeks that have limited my hobby time. Between a couple midwest ice storms knocking out power and deciding to leave my job, I've not been able to do much other than look for new employment. Fun times. Today, however, we'll be doing two legs to get us back up to current. When last we'd left, we were in Bilbao, Spain. Today's two legs will see us head south to Madrid, the capital of Spain and in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, then east to island of Menorca in the Mediterranean.   Leaving Bilbao was a fairly routine affair, excepting that the field was shrouded in low fog and overcast. Also, the goofy layout of the runways there meant we had to taxi for 15 minutes just to get to the departure runway.  Hang a right at the first stop light...  Go about five miles down Route 22...  Take a left turn at Albuquerque...  And you're there...   Given the low visibility and knowing that there were mountains in the area, we found and followed a SID (Standard Instrument Departure) at Airmate.aero for the given runway. Climbing through the murk, we popped out on top to a beautiful, clear sky.      We flew east over the coast to our first waypoint, the landmark of El Flysch de Zumaia - a towering rocky beach. Looking at the pictures of it in real life, the game doesn't really do it justice.   We turned inland from there and as we trekked further south, the coastal clouds began to break up.    We passed over a wide range of mountains.    These lakes at the top of a mountain cauldron were pretty neat.  Then the mountains gave way to a large, sweeping plain.    Our next waypoint was the City of Segovia, the capital of Castile and Leon, and home to several historic buildings including a roman aqueduct and the Alcázar of Segovia.      From there we turned south, hopped over another mountain range and made our decent into Madrid.    The suburbs of Madrid sprawled out below us as we prepared for landing. Fortunately, the AI ATC didn't pull any of its usual chicanery and the approach & landing were uneventful.    We did get cleared to taxi to a gate, so there's that. I don't think the jetway will come down that far.  A few days later, we departed Madrid in a rain shower and headed east towards the Med.     We scuttled below the deck until the weather cleared, then climbed to enjoy the beautiful Spanish countryside.        We passed over Almansa, Spain and its majestic castle.     Then headed east and out to sea.   Soon Eivissa (or Ibiza) island passed beneath us.  Including some inbound traffic into the local airport.  The next island, Mallorca, was almost totally obscured by a cloud deck, so we plodded on to our destination of Menorca.  Approaching the island, the weather was clear and the winds stiff, but cooperative. We made our descent into the smaller, uncontrolled field on the island as we wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle of the main commercial airport.  The runway was nestled in a small woods.         Thanks for following along. Next stop: A short hop to Barcelona.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2023 13:46
|
|
|
Gewehr 43 posted:Welcome back and thanks for joining me. Bar-THA-lona. And we're back baby! 
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2023 15:38
|
|
|
I can sympathize with the job thing. I left my job so's we could move to New Zealand. Now I'm looking for a job and worrying if I'll be able to find one before we run out of our savings. Fun times. What's the plan for Europe? Just go across, or try and hit all of the major cities/landmarks?
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2023 22:25
|
|
|
Man that stinks; I wish the best for you. Out of curiosity, what do you do for a living? I am in the IT leadership field. I wish I had some cool reason to quit like moving to New Zealand, but my reasons are far less glamorous - I recently took a promotion after 5 years of great success in the company, and it turns out I stepped into an abusive relationship. Terrible leadership at this level. Shame on me. I should have known better when three other people resigned from the same position in the last 18 months. Since I put in my two weeks' notice, they've only ramped up the abuse.  I digress. As to Europe, I'm not really sure. I'm thinking of breaking it into countries and touring each before moving on to the next. Maybe not stopping in each country, but at least flying over them. I'm open to ideas though. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2023 14:03
|
|
|
Gewehr 43 posted:Man that stinks; I wish the best for you. Out of curiosity, what do you do for a living? I am in the IT leadership field. Moving to New Zealand is actually cooler than it sounds. My wife's getting a PhD, so we've sold off everything, and moved so she can get a "Dr" attached to her name. We're very excited, if slightly worried right now. Gewehr 43 posted:I wish I had some cool reason to quit like moving to New Zealand, but my reasons are far less glamorous - I recently took a promotion after 5 years of great success in the company, and it turns out I stepped into an abusive relationship. Terrible leadership at this level. Shame on me. I should have known better when three other people resigned from the same position in the last 18 months. Since I put in my two weeks' notice, they've only ramped up the abuse. Getting out is the best thing you can do. And hey, at least you have some real skills. Like flying. Not just shitposting on the internet.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2023 08:31
|
|
|
painedforever posted:IT. My last job was technical sales. That's where you reign in the salespeople by injecting a little bit of reality into their blather. Before that, I used to set up data centres. Y'know, figuring out where the hardware needs to be installed, working out IP schemes, generating documentation, physically mounting, testing, installing operating systems and the basic suite of applications before passing them on to the next team. I know your work well. I started in a helpdesk role about 16 years ago and worked my way up to a CIO/Director role back in 2016. I've rearchitected and rebuilt datacenters a number of times and have a close working relationship with a lot of sales engineers in the field. A good sales engineer will recommend and design you a great set of hardware/software. A great sales engineer will do that and put the brakes on the unfounded enthusiasm of the sales rep. painedforever posted:Moving to New Zealand is actually cooler than it sounds. My wife's getting a PhD, so we've sold off everything, and moved so she can get a "Dr" attached to her name. We're very excited, if slightly worried right now. I can relate to the worried part. This will be the first time since I was a teenager that I don't have a full-time job. I have an LLC and can do some consulting work to help make ends meet, but that doesn't entirely alleviate the concerns you/we are feeling. I fully believe that things will shake out soon. If I don't get any traction on the jobs I've applied for by the end of the month, I'm going to dive hard into getting my CISSP cert. I've been doing security design at the executive level for years, and I'm pretty proud of my IT security project portfolio, so I think I'll be in pretty good shape if I get that cert. painedforever posted:I can sympathize. That'd been my story about 10 years ago. Got promoted to middle manager, and suddenly, I'm getting into regular fights with upper management and HR. Hey, don't take away from my ability to shitpost. I agree with the sentiment regarding getting out. My mental health was/is suffering so, it's time to go. No job is worth that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2023 12:40
|
|
|
Well, rather than boring people talking about our issues, let's talk about the last flight. That castle, Almansa Castle, looks beautiful (in the game and in pictures). But no famous stories associated with it. Not even on the tourism website. I was hoping it was Château de Montségur (I didn't remember the name, I had to look it up, so I didn't know if it was French or Spanish). That was the Cathar stronghold which was pulled down, and then replaced with another fortress. Looks similar, except the French fortress is much higher and in worse condition.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 07:26
|
|
|
Welcome back and thanks for joining me. Screenshot galleries: https://postimg.cc/gallery/N2BspWW https://postimg.cc/gallery/77sxWNG Hello, everyone. We're back on the continent today after our brief tour of the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of Spain. Today's flights will bring us from the island of Menorca to Barcelona, with a further sight-seeing tour of the city itself. The route back is a pretty straight shot over the Balearic Sea back to Barcelona.  The weather was decent, with just some low-lying cumulus clouds and favorable winds. After a short back-taxi, we were on our way.     Climbing out, we punched through a few clouds.      But, we were soon over the smooth, clear air over the Balearic.   Without much fanfare or ATC chicanery, we were vectored in for the visual approach to runway 24R.      With just over an hour of flight time, I still had it in me to do a little sight-seeing. So, we drove to a nearby rural airfield and rented a Cessna 170B, the taildragger version of the venerable Cessna 172.  The plan was to head southeast, climbing over the hills just west of Barcelona, then follow the coastline northeast to overfly the city proper, then return.  Winds were a little tricky for the little taildragger, but we got off the ground in one piece and began our climb out.   First thing we noticed was a radar station perched on top of a hill south of town.  Barcelona was busy, but the controllers were kind enough to clear us through their airspace.  We turned north to parallel the coast and stay clear of the busiest of Barcelona's airspace.  The sea lanes were thick with container ships and other cargo vessels.    A number of cruise ships were docked in port. As we continued north, I tried to grab a number of screenshots that gave the name of each of the major sites in the city. In all, the photogrammetry used in this game for larger, more populous areas is a bit of a mixed bag. It definitely gives a more organic, natural feel to the buildings (vs procedurally generated buildings), but it can get weird with things like dock cranes and other vertical items.                          Getting back to the rural field was tricky as well - the winds were just as difficult as they had been on the way out. From ~3000' to ground level, their direction changed almost 180 degrees. Crabbing the little taildragger into the wind, we made our approach.    We *might* have put a wheel into the grass on the side of the runway as directional control was extremely difficult with the winds. But, any landing you can walk away from...   Thanks for following along. Next up: Vive la France! Chuck_D fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 1, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 12:43
|
|
|
La France  Barcelona is pretty cool as a place to visit
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 12:50
|
|
|
ilmucche posted:La France Noted and corrected. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 15:38
|
|
|
Hang on a minute. I just noticed this. The Beech has digital readouts? Or at least, LEDs? What a weird thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 22:01
|
|
|
Yepper. Retrofitting is a hell of a thing. Do the right paperwork and you could legally put a glass panel in the Wright Flyer. Edit: I'm thinking of live streaming some of these flights to youtube, but I'd like to gauge the interest in that. Would that help or hurt the general vibe of this journey?
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2023 23:24
|
|
|
At Menorca were you flying into Menorca Airport? (MAH) It looks like it because of the way the harbor looks - that's Mahon, one of the best natural harbors in the world and a center of British naval activity in the Med during the Napoleonic Wars. (Aubrey-Maturin book series fans will know it well)
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 20:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 16:25 |
|
|
Gewehr 43 posted:Yepper. Retrofitting is a hell of a thing. Do the right paperwork and you could legally put a glass panel in the Wright Flyer. Oooo, I don't know about that. How long is a flight, and how much of it is actually exciting? I mean, I'll bet there's plenty to do when you're actually flying, but is there stuff for passengers? Are you planning on doing it from a hot tub? I've heard that's a thing you can do.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2023 21:06
|
|