NZFF

After a couple of years on the forum, mainly watching in awe of people's FSX setups while I was trying to live with FS9, I finally made the jump. I didn't upgrade my system and instead decided to just take the risk and boy has it paid off! I have FSX running on my Toshiba Satellite laptop (about 3 years old), and it runs at 25-35 FPS pretty much constantly. So I have decided I will do a tour that I never finished in FS9 - Taking on the South Island

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LEG ONE - NELSON to TAKAKA
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The alarm rang loudly in my ear, yet another 6am start to shoot down to Nelson Airport to pick up my newest group of clients - 3 extremely wealthy Yanks who have decided to take a one month break from the hustle and bustle of New York and come to our beautiful country to pursue our finest array of game animals. I will be their private guide over the next while, taking them around the majestic South Island of New Zealand in chase Red Deer, Thar, Chamoi, Boars, Fallow Deer, Wapiti and Wallabies.

We will start our journey in Nelson, and head from North to South and back up, eventually finishing up where we started.

I will fly the trio around the South Island in my Beech King Air 350; however at various stages, in order to take the group up to some remote hunting areas, we may use local aero clubs aircraft.

The sun was coming up over the eastern ranges of Nelson while I shot down the road to the airport. Jumping out of the car, the sweet smell of Avgas got me excited for our departure in an hour or so. I waited for the Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to arrive with the 3 on board. It finally touched down at 7:18am, and I was introduced to three mildly overweight Americans who were about to realise the real world. Would they last in the remote high country, chasing Thar over snow capped peaks, stalking deer over slushy river flats? It looked to me as if they were more used to dieting on Latte's and Biscotti.

Grabbing their gear and throwing it in the back of the Hilux, I took them back to my place for a gourmet Kiwi breakfast - free range country eggs, bacon, tomatoes, hash browns, fresh orange juice, and a nice cuppa. Over breakfast they gave me the impression that they wanted to get up in the air as soon as possible, so once our bellies were chocka, we were back in the truck, headed to the hangar.

There she was, the glistening Beech 350 King Air sitting proudly in the hangar ready to tackle whatever the South Island had to throw at her in the next couple of weeks. We loaded her up with all the gear, rifles, ammo, food, and of course a lot of Speights. I then sat in the cockpit planning our flight that would take us out over Tasman Bay, back in to Motueka, then follow the Abel Tasman around to Takaka which would be our destination for the night. Depending on the weather, we may head out this evening for a flight over Farwell Spit in the sunset - we will wait and see what mother nature throws at us!

We fired her up, fully loaded and ready to go....

On the apron at NZNS


Climbing out of Nelson, towards the West


Ominous rain cloud near Motueka


Approaching Kaiteriteri


Totaranui and Seperation Point

ScottyB wrote:

QUOTE (ScottyB @ Feb 19 2012,10:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LEG ONE - NELSON to KARAMEA
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We fired her up, fully loaded and ready to go....

[Screenshots coming shortly - currently flying this leg now ]

Great start to your tour. You have grabbed my interest even without the screen shots!

"You have grabbed my interest even without the screen shots" as Greg said......Lets go

I'm not going to far as I'm now an over weight Kiwi Dude who ate to much off that brecky .

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RE-START
LEG ONE - MOUNT COOK TO FRANZ JOSEF
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After a tedious couple of months with no aircraft, my tour was postponed. Upon arrival in Takaka, we noticed the engine running very roughly. After getting a local aircraft engineer down to the field in search of more info, he regretfully told me that my beloved Beech would not be up in the air for a very long time. The engine had basically given up.

So it was back home to Christchurch in search of another bird to fly around the Mainland in. Weeks of internet searching and enquiries led me to a stunning Beech Duke B60, from Germany. After agreeing on a price and sorting the complicated transportation, it arrived in one piece in Christchurch last week.

A couple of test flights over the plans and the peninsula wowed me, and I soon couldn't wait to get back into my tour of the South Island. A friend of mine works for DOC at Mount Cook, and was scheduled to be posted in one of the huts in the National Park from Queens Birthday weekend onwards, so I thought what better way to get me old pal down there but fly him! We headed down on Friday night and spent the night in the Hermitage, sinking a few beverages and pondering I would be running into in the next few weeks.

Saturday morning I awoke to a low cloud base and a bit of drizzle. Not ideal conditions for this leg, in a new aircraft and in the wild terrain that surrounded me. My mate headed off, and I snuck into the reastaurant for pancake breakfast. It seemed with every mouthful, the cloud rose higher and higher until about mid-morning it was almost non-existant. So I raced up to my room, grabbed my gear and checked out. Off to the airport I was!

As I strolled onto the tarmac, the sheer beauty of the Duke B60 astounded me once more. It really is a top top aircraft. I did all my planning and pre-flights, then loaded up and fired her up.

Soon we were rolling and airborne, tracking up the Tasman Valley. The weather was great - smooth and great visibility. We passed some incredible scenery as you will see in the shots.

One thing you have to enjoy about New Zealand is it requires only a little time to get anywhere but have the view and terrains change so quickly and such a variety of airports and approach's , makes for a Great South Island Tour

Very true there Ian! With the amazing addons we have available to us, there is no better place to sim

Another update coming soon

Well when you get time and a mic , you should invite team regular MP team in for a multiplay , at any time i could host , with comm's i'm sure you would enjoy it .

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 10 2012,12:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well when you get time and a mic , you should invite team regular MP team in for a multiplay , at any time i could host , with comm's i'm sure you would enjoy it .

Good to see that you're considering flying a GA aircraft there Ian!!!!!

scaber wrote:

QUOTE (scaber @ Jun 10 2012,11:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good to see that you're considering flying a GA aircraft there Ian!!!!!

I was considering the Vulcan , now only allow to fly as a GA aircraft , but guess a Rapide or Devon may do .

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LEG TWO - FRANZ JOSEF TO HAAST
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After a night with a local farmer whom I had met in my younger days, I awoke to a beatiful, crisp West Coast morning. I walked to the letterbox to get the paper and took my time to gaze up at the cascading glacier running down the valey toward me from the snowfields afar. What an incredible environment to live in, I thought to myself.

I put on the jug and made myself a cup of tea and sat down at the table to plan my flight ahead. With hardly any wind about (302°/2 kts), it made the planning stage very easy. After a big bowl of Weet-Bix I strolled down to the field an preflighted the aircraft.

Half an hour later I had her started and rolling down the runway; and soon I was climbing out to the South, enroute to Haast.

It was a fantastic flight, although leaving at 5:30am proved to cast a wee bit too much darkness on the surrounding scenery for me to really take it all in. However, in the latter stages of the flight the rising sun from the East was a beautiful sight as it glistened on the snow covered Southern Alps.

I soon found myself descending into Haast, and no more than five minutes later I was on the ground in stunning South Westland. While I'm here I may head up for a quick deer hunt in the Landsbrough River Valley - I managed to sneak in my rifle!

Enjoy my shots!

We have all cruz'd these spots and trying new areas to create screens .. a thought , you could edit the top right corner with text , makes it more enjoyable

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 11 2012,6:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We have all cruz'd these spots and trying new areas to create screens .. a thought , you could edit the top right corner with text , makes it more enjoyable

Or just put HideInfoText=1 under "Main" in your fsx.cfg and it will turn it all off never to get in the way again. Also turns off Parking break etc but you should be visually checking anyway. I found after using camera views a fair bit you pretty much know what view your in without the txt anyway.

Extra text for config's think should be posted and possibly pinned and a discript for the use , there are so many , It would so easy to copy then paste into the main FSX.cfg folder .
A little job for someone .