OZ TOUR 2006

[ardypilot]

With everyone else posting their flight simulator tours here, I thought I would repost an old tour I did back in January 2006 when VOZ was just released. Bear in mind that I was quite a newbie when I wrote this tour, and so there are quite a few grammer and simming mistakes in there, but I think I have learnt from these.

Beware, there is a lot of writing to get though!

You can find the original copy here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt10637.html

Also, my second VOZ tour can be found here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/postp90289.html but I can't be bothered writing that one up, even though it is quite a bit shorter and much better quality than this one

[ardypilot]

AN INTRODUCTION, 28/12/05

Thanks to Vista Austrails amazing upgrade of Australian scenery (www.vistaoz.org) and the CD's of replacement Australian mesh by Andy Weir that have come into my possession, I have decided to create a tour of the now very beautiful representation of the Great Southern continent this holidays.

I will split my 13,700 km journey into seven legs, starting in the North Eastern city of Cairns and heading clockwise, going south as far as Tasmania, West as far as Perth and North as far as Darwin. Over all I will be landing and taking off from 90 individual airports in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.



I will be flying in my payware Piper PA-34 Seneca (from Just Flight's Flying Club add on) which I have repainted especially for this occasion by adding an Australian flag to the tail, as you see below:


The seven legs are as follows:

Leg 1: Cairns to Coffs Harbor
Leg 2: Coffs Harbor to Mount Gambier
Leg 3: Mount Gambier to Kalgoorlie
Leg 4: Kalgoorlie to Darwin
Leg 5: Darwin to Karumba
Leg 6: Karumba to Cairns

Amongst many, many, many other locations I will fly via Brisbane, Hamilton Island, Townsville, Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong, Hobart, Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Perth, Garden Island, Wyndyham, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Alice Springs, Ayres Rock and Lake Argyle.

You can download my whole 5 page NAV Log here: http://h1.ripway.com/djdarius/OZTourFlightPlan.doc which has every airport code I am visiting, distances, ETA's, cruise altitudes etc etc.

I will update this post daily from January the 1st 2006, until I have completed the tour, with a flight log and many screenshots Please feel free to join me, I will properly fly a good percentage of it online on "67.18.56.106' which is FSIMCAFE's server. All I can say now is watch this space!

Cheers,
Andrew

[ardypilot]

Oz Tour 2006 Log
Please note: I have not posted actual screenshots, but links to them as this helps people with slow connections load the page! Please do take the time to click the underlined links, as I believe I have got some good shots of some fantastic scenery

______________________________

Flight Day: 1
Route: YBCS, YIFL, YIGM, YPAM


Well the day has finally dawned, and the tour has finally begun! Just after lunchtime today at 12:15, I started up the Pipers engines and asked ATC at Cairns International for permission to taxi for take off to the South. For some reason, I got directed to Runway 33 pointing north, so after a perfect first take off, I turned right nearly 180 degrees as I climbed up to 6,000 feet and began the 25 minute trip to my first airport stop, Innisfail (YIFL) To tell the truth, my first impressions where feelings of disappointment, as I had downloaded the Cairns airport package from virtualvrf.com and all the costliness didn't match up with the VOZ ones, and looked untidy. This all changed as I reached my cruising altitude, changed to spot view and started to take in the breath taking North Queensland scenery below me:

Screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg
Screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg

Soon after, I began my descent into Innisfail airport, for runway 14. It's a rural-ish airfield with no ATC system, and with no other traffic in sight, I easily preformed a nice touch-and-go landing before quickly climbing up to 6,000 feet again for the half hour trip south to Ingham (YIGM) Heading at 165 degrees with autopilot on, my path led me over the glistening sea towards the absolutely stunning Hinchinbrook Island, then back onto the mainland, over a few rugged hills before the airport came into sight. I turned wide out to the right; descending through a very picturesque valley before I gently touched down, speeded down the runway and pulled up again for my final stop today. As you can see in the screenie below, there are trees standing right in the way at both ends of the runway which I was quite funny:

Screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg
Screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
Screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg

For my final destination today, Palm Island (YPAM) I didn't climb all the way up to 6,000 feet or use autopilot as this was only a 12 minute hop. Instead I headed at 095 degrees, low over shallow tropical sea waters at 3500 feet passing many little islands on my way. The scenery here is spectacular and reminds me of my payware IWI series (Islands of the West Indies by Flight1) I touched down on runway 15, and taxed over to the grass to park, discovering I had only used up 19% of my fuel so far.

The reason I did such a short flight today is because I am still waiting for my MESH add on CD covering most of Australia which a kind flight sim pilot is sending me in the mail. I will continue my flight after it has arrived and I have installed it, meaning next time I return to the mainland (Townsville, YBTL is my next stop) I will hopefully bee in for a pleasant surprise with more eye candy and more screenshot opportunities

Until next time-
Thanks for reading!

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 2
Route: YPAM, YBTL


I forgot that today was a bank holiday, and the mail doesn't get delivered, meaning I still don't have my mesh- but my goal for this tour was to do at least one flight each day, so that is exactly what I did. :wink:

I took off from runway 14 at Palm Island (YPAM) and noticing on the GPS that the distance to Townsville (YBTL) was only 32 nm, I only climbed up as high at 3500 feet. Once I levelled off, I stitched on autopilot, turned to a heading of 153 and tuned into Townsville ATC. I was directed to land on runway 1, but I was still 30 minutes away, so I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery. I was over a large bay for most of the flight, passing a few of the reef islands on the way with their colourful lagoons. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) As I came over the coast, following a winding river towards the urban area, I noticed how much populated the area was than Cairns and Ingham where I had started out from, with lots of little villages and small towns dotted all over the place. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) I was cleared to land, as I banked over the city centre, paying more attention to the scenery below me (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg and screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) than the airport in front of me and came in a little lower than the recommended guide slope. I parked up in on a GA ramp, with out the pleasant surprise I had hoped for returning to the mainland, although the surrounding VOZed area was far better than the old default stuff.

Thanks for reading,
See you tomorrow!

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 3
Route: YBTL, YAYR, YBWN, YBHM, YBPN, YBMK


Sorry this is a late post, but I have been out most of the day at Auckland International (NZAA) plane-spotting and I have uploaded some photos I took in another forum here at: http://flyawaysimulation.com/postp64662.html Anyway, today is also a bank holiday, and my mesh cd's still have not come in the mail, so I decide to "improvise' a little and downloaded some separate mesh files I found at: http://www.simviation.com/fsdterrainsrtm.htm while I wasn't at home, which worked out quite nicely!

I started back from Townsville, took off on runway 1, and swung around the bay heading South at a heading of 110 degrees towards Hamilton Island. Both Ayr (YAYR) and Bowen (YBWN) were directly in my path, with Ayr being the closest at 37 nm away. I was planning on touching-and-going on runway 11, but as I descended in to land, the area which showed it on the map was just a blank brown space! I had to preform a sharp turn to the right, to land on runway 19, which I managed to pull off, just.

I took off again, turned left back to a heading of 110 degrees and flew low along the coast to my next stop (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ), Bowen, which was 50nm away. I could see the gravel runway a long way off thanks to lovely clear conditions and easily preformed a perfect touch and go, with hardly any other traffic in sight.

My next stop was Hamilton Island (YBHM), which I had wanted to visit ever since I saw it on the "United Travel Getaway' TV show. Before hand, the terrain had been pretty flat with lots of wide valleys filled with wide rivers and wide bays, but now the land pushed itself upwards to create some interesting cliffs and hillsides along the peninsular I was flying. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg and screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) I was cleared to land on runway 32, so I circled slowly over the bay, taking in all the glories scenery of the many tropical islands surrounding me, before touching down. I was not disappointed with this stop, as the VOZ creation made it just how I had imagined it, and I wished I could have stayed longer and explored some more, but I was running low on fuel and still had to more airports to land at today. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg )

As I took off again, I turned back towards the mainland, not climbing too high though because my next stop, White Sundays Coast (YBPN) was just 8 minutes away, and instead of setting the plane onto autopilot, I did a little low level flying, and swooped low in the valleys, hugging the trees until I reached the airport (see screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ). With no other traffic or ATC system, I picked runway 11 to land on, came in a little fast, speeded along the runway and was soon airborne again ready for my final stop today.

Mackay (YBMK) was 53nm south of Whitesunday's, so I climbed up to 6,000 feet and set autopilot on and cruised at 150 knots for the next 30 minutes. I was cleared to land on runway 32, so I entered the pattern to the left, lowering my gear right over the small waterfront town. From the air, I could see lots of white blocks around the airfield which made me confused at first, but then I remembered that I had downloaded quite a few addon airports from www.virtualvfr.com and installed them last week, with out testing them out first, so that when I arrived at them on the tour, it would be something new for me to see. I had been tired when I installed it and I think I must have put some of the files in the wrong folders or something because it once happened to me a while ago when installing a NZWN addon. This was a little disappointing, but I was pleased to see a fuel pump and headed straight for it to find out I still had 21% fuel left! I thought I had way less, maybe 5% or 10%, but I topped up anyway, and taxied over to the GA ramp, as directed by ATC and parked up next to another Piper. (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg )

It's getting late now, so I best be off to rest myself for tomorrows flight.
Thanks for reading!

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 4
Route: YBMK, YWIS, YBRK, YTING, YMTO, YBUD


A rainy afternoon here in Auckland with nothing to do outside was perfect for me to get in a few hours more flight simming done inside. I managed to cover quite a distance today, visiting five airports during a two hour flight.

Starting off from Mackay, I took off on runway 32, glad to get away from the untidy scenery I had screwed up during installation, and turned south at 136 degrees towards Williamson (YWIS) over the ocean. The VOZ water textures looked immaculate, (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) as I climbed up to 6,000 feet and cruised with autopilot on for 92 nm. When I got to 14nm out from the airport, all of a sudden, the screen went black and the loading bar appeared for two seconds, and then flickered back and continued as in nothing had happened- strange! I was so puzzled that I forgot how close I was and had to dive down steeply in order to touch-and-go at runway 14.

Once airborne again, I turned to a heading of 154 degrees and flew along the peninsular towards my next big town, Rockhampton (YBRK). The new rural textures where very pleasing to the eye, with such a huge variety of landclass, it looked like photoreal. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) I was amused to hear ATC referring to the airport as "Rocky' as I glided into land on runway 33, circling the suburbs before I touched down, noticing a Qantas Link taxing on the apron.

I was soon back in the air and circling the pretty city, with a lazy river winding though the urban centre and some shielding hills in the background. (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) After I put the gear up, I changed my heading to 166 degrees and headed inland for 70 miles towards Thangool (YTNG) The terrain (downloaded mesh) became much more rugged, and the population much more sparse, which was a little different from my previous flights that have been mainly along the coast. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) It was great seeing all the shadows formed by the landscape, rather than buildings in the late afternoon sun. When I reached the airport, I chose to land on runway 10, since it was tarmac unlike the other "sand' runway which crossed it! (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) "¦what ever floats your boat Mr airport director!

My next stop was "Monto' (YMTO) a small rural strip with no ATC system, or even any GA ramps, not the most interesting of areas, but the airfield just happened to be on directly in my flight path. I climbed up to 4,000 feet rather than 6,000 because it was just 17 minutes away and headed at 120 degrees, westwards towards the coast. I had a hard job picking the strip out visually, and then when I found it, it was nearly too late, so I had to swing sharply round to the right to pull off a decent touch and go landing.

The final stop for today was Bundaberg (YBUD), a big town back on the beautiful Queensland coastline, which was another 64nm away. I headed at 081 degrees, which bought my right past the southern tip of a large, odd shaped lake (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) that I marked with a blue dot on my progress map, then across another long winding river before touching down at the small regional airport. (Unfortunately, the ATC system at YBUD didn't come with an Indian accent, :wink: ) I then taxied over to the empty GA parking area, and at 5:38pm simulator time, I cut the engines. I must have been sitting too close to the fuel pump because my fuel gauge suddenly registered as full, but before landing, I still had 40% left, meaning I could have continued much further if I had wanted. The only reason I didn't though is because the mesh I downloaded only extended as far as this town, and I am still waiting for a terrain CD in the post to come, before I take my sunset flight down into Brisbane.

Thanks again for reading everyone.
I hope to do a longer flight tomorrow.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 5
Route: YBUD, YHBA, YGYM, YBMC, YBBN, YBCG, YBNA, YEVD, YGFN, YSCH

Day 5 part 1 map: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... /5map1.jpg
Day 5 part 2 map: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... /5map2.jpg

This morning, I told myself that I would complete the rest of the leg today, but I didn't realize that it wouldn't be until ten airports, 20 take off and landings, 4 hours of flying, and 72 screenshots later that I would find myself writing this flight report! The mesh still hasn't come in the mail, meaning I needed to download another file from simviation again, and I am beginning to wonder if this guy' actually has sent a CD to me at all"¦? Also, the Piper Seneca repaint I created has been uploaded on the official Just Flight website now, so if you want to, you can download it for free here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/do ... eneca.aspx

I started my flight from Bundaberg (YBUD), where I finished off yesterday, and continued along the coast west towards Hervey Bay (YHBA) which was a distance of 39nm away. I arrived after 21 minutes, landing with ease on runway 11 right behind the town centre, and then briskly taking off again, turning inland to the south towards my next stop Gympie (YGYM)

Following a wide channel between the mainland and a very large island sticking out to the right, I carried on my journey as the sun began to set beside me, causing one of the most beautiful sunset's I have ever seen on flight sim. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) It also made the new VOZ landclass appear in a new warm evening light which changed the world's mood below me, making it appear all relaxed and peacefull. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ). After heading at 159 degrees for 58 nm, I was overhead the towsnship, (See this amazing screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) and desperately searching for the runway in the field's around me as the light in the sky got lower and lower. When I saw it out the corner of my eye, I banked right, and then left and I touched down gently on runway 14 before accelerating off again towards "The Sunshine Coast'

My next stop was Maroochydore (YBMC) a coastal city that's popular with tourists, which was small distance of 28nm away, so I only climbed up to 3000 feet because I knew it would be a short flight. I set autopilot to on, as I cruised at a heading of 122 degrees back towards the ocean. The spectacular sunset was just finishing as I tuned into ATC and was guided into land on runway 18. This airport services international flight's so thankfully the large runway was fully lit and easy to see from a distance. I entered the pattern and touched down, a little fast, but it didn't matte as I had plenty of room. After taking off again, I began to climb and turned to the south towards Brisbane. Just like the land textures had had changed a lot in appearance as the sun set, so did the water textures which was another pleasant surprise I had not expected from the VOZ team. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) I was about to retract my gear when the tower randomly told me I was cleared to land again, and as I had plenty of fuel and nothing to loose, I turned back inland for a 2nd approach.

Again, as I started my flight towards the city of Brisbane (YBBN) the stars started to come out in the night sky above me (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) I headed at 167 south along the coast, following the trail of animated (YES- THEY WERE ANIMATED!!!) car lights on the motorway (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) until I was close enough to pick up the International Airport ATC, who directed me to land on runway 1. As I got closer and closer, more and more AI traffic became visible which was the only interesting aspect of the area. As a general rule, I don't like flying around "the big smoke' cities and I far more prefer being out in the countryside or around rivers and mountains. Anyway, it was very dark by now and as I entered the pattern to the right, low town houses, I attempted my first night landing in quite a while. I touched down for a full-stop landing perfectly (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg )which I was pleased about, and taxied over to the GA parking area to save my progress so far and switch the time setting to day, so that I could admire my downloaded mesh for the rest of the leg.

At 7:00am the next day (sim-time), I waited for an AI Qantas 767 to land in front of me before I was allowed to take off again from runway 1, where I had landed the previous night. Once in the air, I banked over the bay giving me a nice view of the airport (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) I turned to a heading of 130 degrees, and climbed up to 6,000 feet as I started the 30 minute trip down to Coolangatta (YBCG) passing straight over central Brisbane (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) and Amberley military airport (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg ). After a short while, the suburbs ended and the most mountainous (not that you could really call it that) terrain that I have seen so far arose from the ground in front of me (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ) After tuning into YBCG tower, I was amused to hear the controller refer to the area as "Cooly' (similar to Rockhampton which is called "Rocky') He cleared me to land on runway 32, but instead of joining the pattern immediately, I circled low over the city known as "Surfers Paradise' and ended up having a VERY near miss with a Pacific Blue 737 that had just taken off! (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint12.jpg ) I made another full spot landing, because I wanted to check out the airport scenery I had downloaded (See screenshot 13: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint13.jpg ) from virtualvfr.com, and because it was the first time I had seen it, a touch-and-go would have been a waste of time.

After taxing around the terminal, I took off again from runway 32, avoiding any collisions with other aircraft, before turning south again to a heading of 150 towards my next stop, Ballina (YBNA) I was cruising on autopilot, on spot view enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden, the screen went black and the loading bar appeared, then flickered away exactly the same as on my flight to Williamson yesterday! It continued to happen 8 more times before I finished my flight today, randomly for no reason I can think off. Are any other VOZ users encountering this problem as well? If you are please post here or post a solution please because it's really annoying! Anyway, my flight continued as normal after this event, and as Ballina had no ATC system of its own, I got to pick whatever end of the runway I wanted to land on, without flying around un-necessary airport patterns. I chose runway 24 to touch-and-go on, to complete this 25 minutes section of the leg.

Once I became airborne again, I turned right to a heading of 194, and climbed up to 3,000 feet towards Evens Head airport (YEVD), with no need to activate autopilots because it was just a 17nm trip. I crossed a large was a river delta (See screenshot 14: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint14.jpg ), before smoothly touching down on runway 18, setting me up perfectly for my second to last stop, Grafton (YGFN) another 45 miles inland, in the same direction, where I made an easy touch and go landing on the runway of my choice on runway 18.

With no other traffic around, I set my heading to 161 degrees for Coffs Harbor, (YSCH) the final airport in the first leg of this OZ TOUR 2006. This hop was also a short one, and I flew all 15 minutes of it by hand, with no need for autopilot again. I was so glad to finally see the ocean and town over the hills in front of me that I decided to do a special low fly by over the centre of town (See screenshot 15: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint15.jpg ) I then flew the pattern to the left of the runway, and when I turned onto finals, the tower cleared me for a touch-and-go. I had gotten so used to performing T&G's, I had forgotten this was my final stop today, and had to take off and fly the circuit twice just like I had done a few hours back a the Sunshine Coast (YBMC)

This was the first time I had seen the add on scenery from the airport I had downloaded and installed last week from virtualvfr.com, and it looked great as I taxied past the main terminal (See screenshot 16: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint16.jpg ) to the Shell petrol pump (See screenshot 17: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint17.jpg ) before parking up in front of a custom GA hanger (See screenshot 18: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint18.jpg ) as directed to by ATC. It was a pleasant end to this long flight, which I had started at 3 o' clock and eventually finished at 7pm ready for dinner.

Now I am ready to VOZ in the South section on the switcher to start leg two where I will visit New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria. Although I am looking forward to this very much, tomorrow I will take a break to explore the mesh I have downloaded over the last few days and play on multiplayer.

Hope you enjoyed the ride.
See you next time.

PS: Cambridge, is you read the user manual that comes with the package, you will see there is a program called the 'VOZ Switcher' (see screenshot: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... itcher.jpg ) that lets you change region textures during mid flight. The mesh I am waiting for is by Andy Weir and avaiable on avsim but because I am using a 56k modem, I am using the simviation stuff avaiable here: http://www.simviation.com/fsdterrainsrtm.htm

[ardypilot]

I have kinda sorted out my problem concerning the random loading bar flashing up on my screen that were interrupting my flights from doing a bit of research at http://63.217.28.218/files/terrain2/readme.txt
which says:

The simulator freezes for several seconds whenever you fly over a tile boundary and the system has to load another tile.

And as you can see in the tile map here: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... termap.jpg I have been crossing lots of different tiles during my flight down the east coast. The tiles with the red boundary's are the ones I have installed, and the blue squares represent the loading bar stutter occurrences. What I have had to do is un-install all the .bgl mesh files I had put in my scenery directory to stop this problem, thus returning the terrain to it's default state.

So, there goes my "genius" plan of having a tour round the country with both great land class and great mesh. I wouldn't have started this all if I had only had one of the other, but as I thought I would have both I went for it. Because I have a 56k modem, and all of Andy Weir's mesh files are of large size, is there any chance that anyone reading this who already has them could send them to me in the mail please? If there is any possibility of this, please PM me asap! :cry:

Thanks
Andrew

(I am assuming as no one else has placed any complaints yet that Andy Weir's files aren't in a "tiled' format and don't stutter when you cross different sections"¦.?

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 6
Route: YSCH, YKMP, YPMQ, YTRE YWLM, YPEC, YSSY



Yesterday I took a break from the tour and explored around the southern end of the "North' area for a while, as it would be the last I would see of that specific landclass for quite a while now that I have VOZed in the "South' region ready to continue my flight.

Starting off from Coffs Harbor again (YSCH), I took off from runway 3 and banked left over the sea getting a good view of the town out my right hand windows. It look much different from when I landed, with lots of dry brown textures everywhere, unlike the lush green ones I had remembered. I changed the weather scheme to "Koorby Clouds 1' as I headed inland to Kempsy (YKMP) which was a 21 minute flight, heading south at 190 for 59 miles. My first impressions of this new scenery was that it looked like "Blue Healers' country that I had seen on TV in the past, with so much brown and beige everywhere, it gave a new definition to the meaning of "rural' on the simulator, which I liked very much. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) The destination airport had no manned ATC system, so I landed on the closest runway to me, runway 22 and then taxied over to the fuel pump (see screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) to top up my 4% full tanks, as I had discovered the pumps at Coffs Harbor didn't work. Low down, the autogen really complimented the landclass, and I felt as though I was in a whole new, much more realistic environment as I was yesterday. (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg )

I was soon airborne again, and flying the Seneca by myself for this short hop, back towards the coast to Port Macquarie (YMPQ) that was only 20 odd miles in a direction of 155 degrees. As the airfield came into view, I remembered that I had downloaded a scenery expansion for the area from virtualvfr.com, but as I had already made a full stop landing at the previous airfield, I didn't have time to do another one Instead I made a very slow descent onto runway 21, taking in as much scenery as I could. (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) It looked great and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I wanted to finish today's flight ASAP so I could play with my new radio scanner I have just bought

I rolled down the runway, and lifted off right at the end, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) for my next inland hop to Taree (YTRE) The land was getting pretty bumpy all around me, with farms and bush land here, there and everywhere. I kept quite low at 3000 feet, admiring the new landclass and took note of how much more roads there appeared to be around me compared to back up in Queensland. I wasn't really paying much attention to anything but the scenery, I suddenly heard the female pilot on the radio announce she had a visual on the runway at Port Macquire, and as I switched to spot view to look for her, I saw her on my screen right below me at 1,000 feet (see screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) Shortly after, I touched down on runway 22, and marveled some more at the custom autogen around the airport, not a custom add on, but part of the very impressive VOZ package I'm using. (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg )

The next airport I visited was Willamtown (YWLM) which was 64 miles of my current location. I promptly took off and climbed up to 4000 feet, clearing the range of steep hills that had arose in front of my, leveled off and hit the autopilot switch. The textures below me changed from farmland to dark mountainous forest and sandy scrub, another new type of landclass that I hadn't seen before (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) I picked up "Willy"Â￾ tower 25nm out, and was permitted a touch and go landing on runway 12. I soon had a visual, and followed the airport pattern to the right of the active runway before I was cleared to land, as was a Qantas Dash Link behind me, who was told to "follow the aircraft on finals"Â￾ I could see him out my right window at 3nm away, and thinking I had enough room, banked to the left as I turned onto the glide path for finals. A few seconds later, the load whir of turbo-prop engines screamed though my speakers and as I changed to spot view, I saw him right on my tail literally five meters away! (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) I quickly dived out the way as he ignorantly descended into land stealing my spot without one glance towards me! I followed him instead of him following me but "Willy"Â￾ tower made him go-around which deserved him right, LOL! As I rolled along the runway, I saw more Qantas and Jetstar aircraft and parked at a terminal which confused me because I thought this was a military airport???

Anyway, I soon took off again, and changed my heading to 198 towards "Areopelican' (YPEC), and airport I had chosen to visit simply because the name amused me. My path led me directly over central Newcastle (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg ) which looked much different from the big towns up north like Townsville and Cairns, because it actually used new textures, which was something I didn't expected when VOZing in the "South' section on the switcher. I was flying along a thing peninsular between Lake Macquarie and the Tasman Sea looking everywhere for the airport, which according to my GPS was directly below me. I finally did see it, a brown dirt strip on a brown field background, about a kilometer behind me and I had to circle low over the lake before making a very tricky landing. Runway 7 was so short that I lowered my speed to 75 kias, with my flaps down as far as they could go so I wouldn't shoot off the end back into the water. At about 20 feet in front of the runway, I got the stall warning appear and had to push the throttle all the way in again so that I didn't crash. When I touched down, I had to squeeze the brakes down the whole strip as I didn't have enough time to bring my flaps back up and perform a touch and go and instead I turned around 180 degrees when I reach the end, so I now faced at a heading of 25 (the direction I originally planned to land at) before taking off again towards my final stop, Sydney.

I banked left over Lake Macquarie, and climbed up to 4,000 feet, set autopilot onto a heading of 191 at a height of 3500 feet as I made me way across the biggest city in the country (although not the capital, we will come to that later) to land at Kingsford Smith International. I was soon cruising over the suburbs, (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ) yet another variation of landclass textures I hadn't seen before, with the new VOZ high rise skyscrapers in front of me (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint12.jpg ) and ATC guided me into land on runway 16L. I have flown before lots of times in the default photoreal scenery (not as good as the VOZ stuff, which is also has photo textures, but covers a far larger area and doesn't lag, take long to load or blur) but never landed on runway 16L, which was another new experience for me. I came in low over the terminal and touched down with plenty of room on the large tarmac runway at a time of 11:08am (sim-time)

I am now parked up at the international GA ramp, wondering whether to continue my tour tomorrow or not. Thankfully, "Emmjay' has offered to send me the mesh files I need! (Thanks man you saved the tour) But they won't arrive in New Zealand until the middle of the week, and my next flight is into Canberra, which has lots of mountains terrain on the way"¦I guess it's up to you guys who read this forum, should I go straight away or wait?

Thanks for reading.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 7
Route: YSSY, YWOLD, YJBY



Hi everyone, sorry there was no flight yesterday. I was out enjoying myself at "Duder Regional Park' (See photo: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... eSmall.jpg ) with my family. Back to the OZ TOUR now, and this Emmjay feller has said that the mesh he is kindly sending me won't be arrive in my country until later in the week, so I wont be flying inland until then. However, this doesn't mean I can't fly along the coast, so today I went as far as I could, saying by the sea and stopping at two airports.
Starting up the engine from Sydney, I was told to taxi (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) to runway 16L which was the active VFR runway, and the one I had landed at the other day. All the big jets which were using IFR where on runway 16R, so I had about half of the airport all to myself, which was unusual since it was so big! I was soon in the air and after getting out the international airport airspace, I turned to a heading of 195, towards the city of Wollongong (YWOL) (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) I'm sure not many Non-Australians have heard of this town, but for your information it is a native Aborigine coastal settlement that has grown into the countries 9 largest city with a population of 266200 people. It's name translated into English means "the sound of the sea". The airfield had no ATC or traffic in sight, so I choose the tarmac runway 16 to touch and go at, and landed after 25 minutes.
My next stop was Jervis Bay Military (YJBY), an airport 34 nm away south of my current location. I took off again, and set on the altitude autopilot for 3,000 feet just below the cloud line as the weather was closing in (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg and 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) It wasn't long before I picked up the traffic frequency for the airport, and I was surprised to learn it didn't have a manned ATC system as it was owned by the airforce! I soon had a visual and I landed on runway 15, slowed right down and pulled off to the right of the runway to park up on the dirt. I was surprised again to see no apron on this airfield, which I definitely thought a military base would have!

That's it for now folks; all I can tell you is that my next flight should be longer and more exciting with my new mesh. I can make a promise to you now as well by saying that I will finish this flight by the end of the month, in no more than 22 days time. Once I leave the west coast, the airports become less frequent which means longer legs and less stops.

Hope you are enjoying the tour as much as I am so far,
Bye for now.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 8
Route: YJBY, YSCB, YCOM, YORB, YFLI, YSTH, YMLT, YMHB



Good news; my long awaited mesh has finally arrived, and trust me guys, it was worth the wait! I installed it promptly, ready for continuing the tour today where I managed to cover quite a large distance, travelling through four different states, from New South Wales, into the Australian Capital Territory, onto Victoria and then into Tasmania. That took quite a lot of time to fly too, as I started simming at 4:30pm and have only just started writing this report at 10pm local time, with just one hour's break for dinner!

Anyway, I started off from Jervis Bay (YJBY), a random military strip where I had parked on the grass. I took off again, and swung back inland heading at 249 degrees straight for Canberra (YSCB), the country's capital city. Immediately after leaving the coast, the land began to rise up steeper, forming mountains and valleys which where a great improvement of the default rubbish (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) After a while, the ground flattened out again, at a much higher altitude forming a platu, (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) Shortly after, I was cleared to land on runway 35, which meant I had to bank to the left before banking to the right and touching down. My Canberra airport was another addon from virtualvfr.com and it looked pretty good (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) with lots of custom made buildings and AI traffic around. I was soon back in the air, and turning around 180 degrees, heading south towards the southern tip of the country, and flew straight over the city centre (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) just as Canberra tower cleared me to land AGAIN! This had happened to me before in the tour, and I just chose to ignore ATC's stupid mistake as I continued flying, over some more mountains (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) towards my next stop Cooma (YCOM)

Cooma is also known as "Snowy Mountains"Â￾ according to the GPS, FSNAV and other sources on the net, but as I started my descent towards the airport, there wasn't any snow or mountains any where in sight! (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) Is this some kind of Australian Joke or does it snow here in the winter perhaps??? I T&G'ed on the Runway 18, which set me up perfectly for my next stop right on the south coast of Victoria, to a place called Orbost (YORB) The next 97 miles where pretty un eventful, with the only odd piece of scenery below being a weird border between two texture blocks (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) which is something I think the beta testers missed

I landed on runway 7, with my wheels only touching the ash felt for a matter of seconds before I was up in the air again, turning to the right towards Flinders Island (YFLI) which was all the way across the Bass Straight. This is my longest single flight so far this tour, with a distance of 141 nautical miles between airports which would take me 56 minutes to complete. I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 5500 feet and levelled off, set autopilot on and switched to spot view for a look back at the mainland behind me. It was at this point I accidentally hit "shift+z"Â￾ somehow and my remaining fuel quantity was displayed at the top of the screen showing 14% left!!! I tried to ignore the fact that my tanks were nearly dry, and continued flying across the wide open sea (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) trying to think of a solution, but I didn't come up with one, and at 72nm out, the propellers sputtered to a stop! The only thing I could do was go into the aircraft menu, select fuel and payload and fill her up to 50% again. (Let's not re guard it as cheating, but say I had an emergency supply with me the whole time :wink: )

Thankfully, land soon came into sight, and I gently descended over the island to the grass strip on the far side. I successfully touched-and-goed on runway 14, then climbed up to 3,000 feet and headed at 157 degrees towards my next stop, St Helens (YSTH), on mainland Tasmania. Just after take off, I saw an odd sight out my left hand window (see screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) in the virtual cockpit, which happened to be a footy field sticking up right vertically on the top of a mountain range was part of my new terrain! This was not what I expected but hey, at least my mesh was working, so I continued on my journey without giving it a second thought. After 75 more miles and 30 more minutes, I spotted the airfield on a nice quite little bay (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg ) and swung around over a peninsular to touch and go on runway 26.

I now had a short 48 mile hop to Launceston (YMLT), Tasmania's second biggest city, which was 22 minutes away. I hugged the hillsides flying under the low cloudbase (see screenshot) weaving in and out of vallys until I picked up "Launy"Â￾ Tower on the radio who gave me permission to touch and go on runway 14L. I banked right over the town, before slowly decending into land on the long tarmac runway, and surprised myself at how well it went. Everything went perfect and I pulled off what I thought was my best ever landing of the Seneca, and perhaps one my best landings ever on flight simulator!

After rolling down the runway for a while, I pulled back the yoke and climbed up towards my seventh and final destination today, Hobart (YMHB) which was another 78 miles in a direction of 157 degrees. It wasn't long before I was cleared to land for a full stop landing on runway 12, and taxied over to the fuel pump (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ), with hardly a drop left in my tanks, for the second time today! I parked up on the empty GA ramp, and shut off the engine at 3:28pm (sim-time) This is the southern most tip of the tour that I have reached and from now on, all my flights will be in a northern direction. Over-all I am about 1/3 of the way around this huge continent, with many more exiting trips still to make.

Until next time,
Thanks for reading.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 9
Route: YMHB, YDPO, YSMI, YKII, YPID, YMML




Sorry this is another late report, but I didn't get home until mid afternoon after a day of trekking through the New Zealand "bush"Â￾ then cooling down with a relaxing swim afterwards :wink: Anyway, today I didn't fly as far as I had hoped, due to the sun setting as I landed in Melbourne. I hoped to get as far as Adelaide but I simply ran out of time and decided to give it a rest as the simulator turned to night time.

I started off from Hobart (YMHB) and took off from runway 12, the same one that I had landed on yesterday. I climbed up to 5000 feet and banked right, changing my heading to 319 as I made my way north across central Tasmania to the seaside town of Devonport (YDPO) which I choose to land at because there's a suburb in my city that I live in, Auckland, that has the same name. The 113nm journey took 50 minutes, and cruising below the low cloud line, there was lots of interesting landscape below to admire as I passed by, including lots of mountains, cliffs (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg
) and lakes. One lake in particular that took my interest was the first one I passed over, which shores were fringed with snow (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg
) I'm interested to know if this was a simple mistake or do the Tasmanian highlands get snow in summer? (If you do know, please inform me)

I was cleared to land on runway 24 for a full stop landing, instead of a touch and go, because I wanted to keep my fuel tanks as full as possible after the near disaster that happened yesterday when I ran dry. I taxied over to the pump to fill up next to a parked Qantas Link (see screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg
) which I was surprised to see here as this airport didn't even have an ATC system! Once 70% full changed to 100& full, I taxied back to runway 24 and took off again, pulling the landing gear up right over the town (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
) and changed my heading to 303 degrees for the trip west along the northern coast towards Smithton. (YSMI) I had the airport in sight after another 35 minutes, and began my descent into land on the gravel runway 24. As my aircraft started to turn to the right by itself, I realized that for some reason the throttle slider on my joystick was only controlling the left engine and I had to switch to the Virtual Cockpit mode and use my mouse to control both engines as I made my approach.

To be fair I made a pretty crap job of the whole thing and skidded off the runway onto the dirt before I managed to get the plane back under control and airborne again before leveling off at 3000 feet under the low cloud base and heading out to sea towards King Island (YKII) which was another 79nm miles away. I switched on autopilot for the 35 minutes trip before land came into sight, and I chose to land on runway 34. As I descended on finals, I noticed the surface in front of me was gravel again, and once I touched down I turned off onto a taxi way, which to my surprise was also made of gravel. Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot of this but it sure is unusual; why not check it out for yourself? The reason I had preformed a full stop landing was because I wanted to top up with fuel again, just to be safe. The only problem was that there was no pump in sight, and this made me realize a huge dilemma that I now faced: When I planned this trip, I set each flight up with a distance between airports that the Piper could easily reach on a full tank, but what I had forgot was that not each airport carries fuel, so I might just have to use my imagination in future when I reach an airport with no pump, and open the aircraft menu like I did yesterday to edit the fuel and payload.

As there was nothing more I could do at King Island, I taxied back to the runway I had landed on, pulled the flaps up and set off again towards my next destination, Phillip Island (YPID) that was all the way across the Bass Straight again. I set autopilot on again once I reached 5000 feet and let the plane fly itself for the next 105 miles. I was busy spraying mozzie repellent around my room when all of a sudden, land became visible on the top of the screen and I had to make a steep descent into land. I has planned to touch and go on runway 4, but as I approached the airport, in the now fading light, all I could see in front of me where taxiways and hangers! I touched down on the plain dirt, which was the right place according to ATC, and promptly lifted off again towards my last stop today, Melbourne (YMML), the big smoke!

This journey was today's shortest, lasting only 25 minutes as I flew back onto the mainland and low over the sleepy suburbs. It was evening by now, and as the sun was setting behind me (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) the new custom-built high rises of the CBD popped up on the horizon. I tuned into the international airport ATC who cleared me to land on runway 16, meaning I had to fly right past the city downtown area (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) where somewhere below me, Rove McManus was flying "flick ya switch"Â￾ Soon I was cleared to land right behind a heavy Qantas 767, then I parked up in the GA bay (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg
) after a long taxi past the main terminal, and was pleased to see I still had 45% fuel left in my tanks.

Once again, Thanks for reading
See ya's tomorrow

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 10
Route: YMML, YBLT, YHML, YMTG, YNRC, YGWA, YPAD



Today I decided to finish off the rest of Leg 2 and the start of Leg 3, travelling across central Victoria, visiting seven airports, and then crossing over territories to arrive in Adelaide, Australia's 5th biggest city, and the pit stop for my 10th day of touring the country.

Because I had landed at Melbourne International last night at sunset, I decided to switch the simulator time to dawn, because I had not seen the land class in this sort of light yet, and it would be another pleasant experience to encounter on my journey around the southern send of the country. So, I started up my engines at 4:30 am, just as the sun was climbing over the distant horizon, and taxied over to the fuel pumps to top-up my tanks. I was then directed by ATC to take off from the active runway which was number 16, but had to hold at the end for a while as a Thai MD-11 was on finals (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) I was soon airborne and turned right to a heading of 269, as I made my way across the sleeping countryside (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) towards the town of Ballarat (YBLT) which was 23 miles away.

I arrived after 22 minutes and touched down on runway 23, then pausing the game quickly and changing the time to 7:00am to give me a better view of the surroundings I would be flying over for the next few hours. I quickly un-paused the game, and lifted off towards Hamilton Aero (YHML) which appeared to be a very small town in the middle of no-where, Central Victoria. The distance between the two airports was 82 miles, which would take me 35 minutes to fly, so I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 5,000 feet and let autopilot do the rest of the work. As this airport had no ATC system of its own, I chose to land on the gravel runway 28, setting me up perfectly for my next stop, Mount Gambier (YMTG)

For the next 61 miles I basically flew in a straight line, crossing over the state border into South Australia, which took me 25 minutes. I had been seeing the same brown and beige textures for a long time now (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) so I decided that when I landed, I would save the flight so far and go into the "Switcher' and VOZ in the west section, which will hopefully refresh the scenery for Leg 3. Again, I picked what runway I would land on, and I choose number 18, as it was tarmac, and preformed a full stop landing.

I didn't notice anything new as I re-started the flight, and the textures all looked the same as when I had landed. Something in the back of my mind reminded me that there was some info about this in the readme file that came with the VOZ installation package, which I opened and flicked through briefly, just to find out that "In this version (0.99) there is NO difference between South and West versions"Â￾ Dang, that really burst my bubble! But oh well, I guess Australia is so big that you are bound to get huge open areas that all look the same, and therefore it's virtual re-creation was accurate enough for me.

The next stop was Naracoorte (YNRC), which I had chosen to land at for two reasons. 1) because it was on the way, and 2) It's name sounded cool :wink: I taxied around the airport until I was on the same runway I had landed on, but at the opposite end facing South, because I wanted to fly over the Mount Gambier township as I departed (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) After I did this, it was just a short 50 mile trip north lasting only 20 minutes until I reached the next airport and touched down on the turf runway 18, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) and taxied over to the GA parking area to fill up my half empty tanks, because my next destination was 131 miles away, making it the longest flight today.

Goolwa (YGWA) was my next stop, a small town perched right on the edge of the sea. I took off from runway 8, banking right over central Naracoorte (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) as I turned to a heading of 305, climbed up to 5000 feet and set autopilot on. I was feeling restless and couldn't be bothered to sit at the computer for the next 52 minutes to watch the same textures pass by again and again (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) , so I went off to have lunch and then went down to the post box to deliver some mail before returning to the PC. When I sat down again, I was just 20nm out, and flying over the coast again, (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) something I was glad to see, as I hadn't seen any water since I left Melbourne. I touch-and-goed on runway 1, a short grass strip before lifting off again towards my final stop today, Adelaide (YPAD)

This last hop was very short, lasting only 15 minutes as I crossed 33 miles worth of farms and small hills (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) where somewhere below, the new season of "McLoads Daughters"Â￾ was being filmed. I tuned into Adelaide International airport, who cleared me to land on runway 23, and made me follow a Virgin Blue 737 in before I touched down, passing right over the central city (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg ) and suburbs (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ) as I made my approach. Unfortunately there was no custom scenery here, although the new VOZ stuff looked much better than Microsoft's efforts. At one time on my old computer, I had a version of the Adelaide region which included the main airport, Edinburgh Military and the whole of downtown, with each individual shop, like McDonalds and Toys R' Us! If you are interested and don't already have it, I think it is available at virtualvfr.com under the file name "adel_v2_stevenroyals9.zip"Â￾ I then taxied around the airport and was surprised to see how busy it was, (See screenshot 12: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint12.jpg ) with a Malaysian Airlines Boeing and two green and white Australian Airlines planes already parked up, as well as numerous Cessna's and Qantas' planes too.

I switched off the engines at 9:53 am after a long flight between two of the county's biggest cities. I am now ready for short break before I continue the tour along the south coast, over Kangaroo Island, heading as far West as I can go, and then up into the famous "Dry Red Centre"Â￾

Please feel free to leave your comments here
Thanks

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 11
Route: YPAD, YKSC, YPLC, YKBY, YCDU



Although I didn't do any flying yesterday, I had an interesting new idea for the OZ TOUR which includes you guys reading this forum. The Piper Seneca I am using is part of a payware package, but "Just Flight"Â￾ offer a "fly-before-you-buy"Â￾ policy, meaning you can download and use it for free for 30 days! I thought that it would be neat if you all could download it here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/ and then download my repaint from here: http://www.justflight.com/flyingclub/do ... eneca.aspx so that I reach my final flight leg back to Cairns, everyone can all log onto a multiplayer server with me end the tour with me online! It would sure make some great screenshots, so if you are interested, tell all your mates, then send me a PM with your e-mail address so I can give you more details when the time comes.

Today I started back in Adelaide (YPAD) after a day off, and departed to the west for a short flight over to Kingscote (YKSC) on Kangaroo Island, which was a 67 mile trip heading at 219 degrees for half an hour. As I crossed over the sea, on the beautiful sunny morning, I realized I was seeing something that I had not seen before on this tour, completely blue skies with out a cloud in sight (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) The airport was soon in sight, right near the coast, and I choose to land on runway 21, meaning I had to bank slightly to the right over the shoreline cliffs (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) before performing a full stop landing following a Cessna Grand Caravan on finals. I topped up my tanks which I had forgotten to do at Aderlaide, then taxied back towards runway 21 for the next hop north to Port Lincoln (YPLC)

I was soon back over the sea, letting autopilot fly me across the Spencer Gulf for the next 165 miles, which took a whole 54 minutes, heading at 316 degrees at full speed. Nothing interesting happened while I crossed over the tip of a peninsular that stuck out to sea from the north of Adelaide, followed by a few long thin rectangular islands. At 30nm out, I tuned into the Port Lincoln traffic and decided to land on runway 33, which was most convenient as it pointed in the direction I was tracking, and I preformed a full stop landing with no other planes in sight. I topped up my tanks again even though they were just down to 74%, just to be on the safe side, and then took off again from the sand runway I had landed on.

The next destination was Streaky Bay (YKBY) which was another 132 miles north again. I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 3,000 feet and set autopilot on for the second time, letting it fly the plane for the next 43 minutes. To start off with, I flew over a few low lying hills (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) but after that, there was just lots more farmland, as we have seen before. On "top-down"Â￾ view I could see a lot of long straight roads, connected together in a grid which looked weird and out of place because this region has hardly any population or need for a giant motorway system! (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) With no other traffic in sight again, it wasn't long before descending in for the first a touch-and-go today on runway 31, coming in a little too steep after switching off auto pilot to late.

Once airborne again, I change my heading to 319, for the flight up to Ceduna, (YCDU) the shortest flight today only 15 minutes and 50 miles away. I flew this by hand, only switching to autopilot to take some pictures of the orange desert patches that were becoming more and more frequent along the coastline as I ventured closer into the middle of the country. (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) Now it was just a short journey over a small bay (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ), and a few more farms before I was able to pick up the Unicom, and make my last landing today on runway 29, before topping up my tanks and parking up, switching off my engines at 12:29 (sim-time) ready for some lunch.

Next time I continue the tour, I will be flying across the "Great Australian Bight"Â￾ and the "Nullabor Plain"Â￾ as I cross a huge open area with a sparse population and few airports, with individual "hops"Â￾ lasting up to two hours!

Hope your still enjoying it,
Thanks for reading

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 12
Route: YCDU, YFRT, YNSM



This will properly be once the shortest flight report I ever make, ironically after the longest flight I have made so far this tour lasting for four whole hours! By the way, I have just found out that the link I gave yesterday to the free trial "Just Flight Flying Club"Â￾ aircraft is only for the Piper Tomahawk, not the Seneca, sorry! Perhaps we can still all fly online but use a default aircraft instead, keep the PM's coming in. Cheers.

I started from Ceduna, (YCDU) where I topped up my tanks, ready for my longest hop yet, to Forrest (YFRT) which was a distance of 297 miles away, which would take me about 2 hours cruising at 155 knots, at a heading of 278. I took off from runway 29, and climbed up to an altitude of 5000 feet over the Nullarbor Plain (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) with the Great Australian Bight (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg
) to my left. I set autopilot on and left the computer running for the remainder of the flight, and went off to watch TV, setting my alarm for 1 hour and 50 minutes time in advance. When I returned, I was still 20 nm out, so I tuned into the unicom, and with of coarse no other AI traffic in sight, made a full stop landing on runway 27.

As I have mentioned before, this was one of the airports where I had to use my imagination and pretend there was a fuel pump around, while improvising in the Aircraft menu and filling the tanks back up, from 30% to 100% ready for another long flight to Norseman (YNSM) which was another 335 nm away, westwards at a heading of 250 degrees. Again, I climbed up to 5000 feet above the barren wilderness below me (See screenshot 3 : http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg
) and set autopilot, and my alarm again and went off for dinner. I estimated that the trip would take me 2 hours and 20 minutes, cruising at a speed of 155 knots, but I had accidentally left the throttle nearly all the way in, and when I got back to the PC, I found that I had overshot the airport by 25 miles, and that my engines were VERY, VERY warm!

I had to spin around 180 degrees before descending into land, but I couldn't see any township or airport in sight and I had to rely on my GPS for direction, which I wasn't very good at and ended circling the supposed airport area two times (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
) before touching down on just a flat field, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg
) with no runway visible and taxing over to the only recognizable airport object in sight which was a GA parking ramp (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) This was really weird, and it's the second time on the tour I have landed at a VOZ airport where the runway is not visable! Could you people reading this who have VOZ installed try taking a flight from YNSM and see if you have the same problem please? (And then post your results here)

Thanks for reading,
See ya'll tomorrow

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 13
Route: YNSM , YSCR, YCUN, YPPH




Something that I didn't realize during yesterdays flight was that I crossed the border between territories, from South Australia into Western Australia. Today I am continuing my flight westwards today to the city of Perth, Australia's 4th biggest city, in the most isolated position imaginable on the edge of the Indian Ocean.

I started off from Norseman (YNSM) again, and took off from the empty "field with no runways, heading at 295 degrees towards a airport 236 miles away called "The Southern Cross"Â￾ (YSCR) The new land class below me was nothing special, just the new VOZ textures we have all seen before, but this time scattered with odd large white patches everywhere (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg
) and with my little knowledge on the area had know clue if it was meant to be either sand or snow??? When I arrived I was happy to actually see a long strip for landing, even though it was gravel, it was better than the Norseman, and I preformed a full stop landing to top up my 70% full tanks for the next hop over to Cunderdin (YCUN)

This next journey took me 47 minutes, heading at 259 for 111 miles, but instead of the same barren landscape looking repetitive and boring below, the sun started to set in front of me illuminating the scenery in a whole new light that looked rather pretty (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg
). I enjoyed the rest of the flight as more farms, homestead and villages came into sight, with their lights flickering on in the early evening light. I soon had the runway in sight, and banked to the left, ready for a touch-and-go on runway 23 (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg
)

I still had 49% fuel left which was plenty enough for the 3rd and final trip today to the big international airport at Perth (YPPH) and while my wheels were still on the runway, I switched the simulator setting to day time as the last major city I visited, Melbourne, was in darkness so I thought I would spice things up a bit so I didn't have a repeat. The trip lasted for 28 minutes as I headed west over some forests and lakes (See screenshots 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
) before tuning into ATC who have me permission to land on runway 3. Because the runway was so long, long enough for 747's and the like, I flew level along it at 30 feet until I crossed runway 24 before touching down and taxing over to the GA ramp. I passed another green and white "Australian Airlines"Â￾ plane during my taxi which is odd because I can't find any info about them on the net- perhaps it's just my out dated Ultimate Traffic package? (If there are any ozzies here that know about the company, please post it here) I haven't posted any screenies of Perth city yet because on my next flight I will be flying straight across the centre of it to Garden Island which will give me plenty of opportunities for picture taking unlike today where I only reached the eastern suburbs.

Well that's the end of my flight for now, as I am now ½ way around the tour. I still have a lot of long straight trips to make as I go deeper into the dry red centre, crossing the Great Sandy Desert and VOZing in the "Central Section' on the switcher. I don't think I will be posting any flight reports for the next two days as it's the weekend and there's plenty more things to do that just sitting around flight simming :wink:

Thanks for reading.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 14
Route: YPPH, YGAD, YGIG, YPKG



Well after a two day break from the tour, I was back to it today, and managed to finish off the rest of "Leg 3' flying firstly west out to sea, and then east inland from Perth to the city of Kangoolie.

I was cleared to take off from runway 3 at YPPH, and once in the air, turned left as I flew south over the central city of Perth (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) and then over the beach lined coast to Garden Island, (YGAD) another destination I had previously seen on the travel show "Getaway' The trip only took 10 minutes, heading at 221 for 24 miles but I still clearly remember the scenery below "cos coastlines (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg
) in this area had been done really well by the VOZ team.

After a close call with a Cessna above me, (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg
) I touch-and-goed on what must have been the shortest runway ever (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
) before banking right and following this island north (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg
) then back over the eastern suburbs of Perth, (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg
) and over a few forests (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg
), before tuning into Gingin (YGIG) tower who cleared me for a full stop landing on runway 8. I pulled over by the tower to the pump and refuelled my 85% full tanks for the 290 mile trip I now faced to Kalgoolie (YPKG)

I took off again from the same runway on which I had landed and turned to a heading of 086, climbed up to a cruising altitude of 5000 feet and set autopilot on for the 1 and a half hour journey back in land, flying east right along side the path I had been westbound on just a few days ago. I was watching TV for most of the flight, but checked back on the computer a few times to make sure everything was going smoothly, when out the cockpit window I saw some more of the odd white square patches (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg
) which I still have no-clue what they are meant to be!

After a while, the township came into view on the horizon and I descended into land on runway 11, opposite a Learjet taxing to the parking area. My tanks were nearly dry again so once again I filled up at the pumps and switched off my engines at 14:01 sim-time.

For my next trip, I will be VOZ-ing in the central section and I look forward to seeing some exciting new custom Australian desert land lass as I start "Leg 4' of my tour. As I previously mentioned, I don't think that I will complete the tour this month like I wanted to originally, because time seems to be slipping away fast. My new goal is to complete the journey by the end of February, but I may finish way before that, who knows.

Thanks for following me once again.
See you next time. :wink:

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 15
Route: YPKG, YLEO, YLTN, YWBR



Well I have VOZed in the central section now, and boy it makes a heck of a difference. Today I flew straight into the outback, heading directly into the dry red centre as I continued the tour and stopped at three more airports along the way.

Back at Kangoolie (YPKG), I taxied to runway 36, and took off flying north over the centre of town (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) before banking to the left a little to a heading of 356 as I lined up for the 115 mile trip up to Leonora (YLEO). Although the flight would take 45 minutes, I decided to stay at the computer and admire the new orange textures that were passing below me (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) I expected to fly over Lake Carey, as my atlas and FSNAV showed was en-route but I flying and flying with no sign of water, although when I switched to the top-down view and zoomed out it was visible (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) but after zooming back in, it had gone (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) I was disappointed, but still made a perfect touch and go landing on the grass runway 4 a short while later.

Now I faced a quick 20 minute hop, east 60 miles to Laverton (YLTN) heading at 074 degrees. I flew low at 2500 feet and nearly bumped into a Cherokee coming in the opposite direction (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) The textures below where fantastic (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) but they weren't as bleak as I had expected, with plenty of variation between dark and light shades, instead of one big orange mass. I soon saw runway 7 in front of me, and without tuning into the traffic frequency, and preformed a full-stop landing presuming there was no other planes around in the middle of the desert. After touching down on the tarmac runway, I then taxied over to the pumps to top up my tanks for the next long 1 and a half hour journey I was about to make. As I turned on my engines, and switched to spot view, I was very surprised to see the piper I had just had a close call with touching down on runway 7. (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) The pilot was obviously stalking me so I quickly made my way towards the active to get away from him as soon as possible, but it seemed he had other ideas and there was a grim face off on the taxiway (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) as he tried to block my path to keep me on the ground. I was getting really scared by now :wink: so I just took a shortcut over the dirt before climbing away steeply towards the next airport.

I levelled off at 5000 feet and set autopilot on, heading at 056 degrees across the next 266 miles of "desolate wasteland"Â￾ (No offence Outback Jack) and then switched on the latest Rickey Gervais podcast to entertain me for the remainder of the journey. It was a very long time before I picked up the Unicom and banked to the right for a full stop landing on runway 36, parking up with 46% fuel left at 16:50 sim-time.

Tomorrow I will arrive at the famous Ayres Rock, also known as Uluru, where I will get to see the new photoreal addon I downloaded from virtualvfr.com for the first time.

Until then,
Thanks again for reading.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 16
Route: YWBR, YAYE, YBAS



And so the 16th day has finally dawned upon us, the time to cross 425 miles of desert and view one of the magnificent natural wonders of the world, Ayres Rock, which also known to the Aborigines as "Uluru."Â￾

I started off from Warburton (YWBR), which I strangely forgot to mention was the final airport I landed at yesterday, and topped up my tanks via the aircraft menu as there were no pumps in sight. Then I took off from runway 31, and turned to a heading of 075 as I made my way 244nm to Ayres Rock Airport (YAYE) which is also know as Connellan. (Not to be confused with Uluru) About half way though the journey, the ground below started becoming more elevated, with lots of small peaks here and there (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) The textures also where becoming more consistent, with more orange textures than before, (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) making the virtual world appear like the VOZ postcards on the website (www.vistaoz.org) and the screenies in the user guide, which I was very happy about.

As another hour and half passed, the sun behind me began to set (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) which was exactly what I didn't want. What I had wanted was to see the mighty rock in full daylight, to fully appreciate its sheer size and presence, but I guess I'll have to do that another time once the tour finishes. Soon, I picked up the airport Unicom, and guessing I was pretty close to the rock now, I took a detour south, in search of the downloaded photoreal addon from virtualvfr.com that I was about to see for the first time. On the horizon I could see a big bump and headed towards it figuring that it must be the place, but once I reached it, I became unsure because there where many smaller rocks and hills around it (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg
and screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... day16point 5.jpg ) and think it may actually be "Kata Tjuta"Â￾ After circling the area for about five minutes, I decided that it was definitely not the right place, and followed a desert highway, as my guide even more south until I was close to the territory border before the real Ayres Rock became visible in front of me (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) It looked marvellous and I swooped down low over the coach car park to circle it in the glowing evening twilight. (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg )

Once I was all the way around, I could see the runway lights of YAYE out my left hand window, and announced I would land on runway 31, which took me about 3 more minutes to reach. I touched down and pulled over to the pump, filling up my 46% full tanks for the next 1 hour trip to the famous town of Alice Springs (YBAS)

Instead of re-setting the simulator to day time, like I have done three times previously when I have made a dusk landing, I took off again at night time, ready to experience a my first night time flight of the tour over the next 180 miles of desert. There was nothing interesting to see, apart from the deep red sky behind me (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) which soon faded away leaving me in complete darkness. According to FSNAV, I was meant to pass directly over the tip of the huge Lake Amadeus on my route (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) but as per usual, it didn't show up with the beta VOZ addon :cry: I decided rather than sitting in a dark cockpit (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg ) for the next 50 minutes, that I would leave the simulator running while I swapped applications on the task bar and started to right up this report until it was time to descend into "The Alice'
I contacted ATC when I was 20nm and they directed me to land on runway 30. It was pitch black, and I didn't see the lights of the town like I had hoped for as it was on the opposite of the airport from my downwind approach. I think I made a pretty good attempt of landing considering I have never landed this aircraft at this airport in the middle of the night. I was checking the GPS every couple of seconds, and fanatically panning around lots of different views to help me find my way around flying a practically blind VFR style approach in IFR conditions, but I managed to pull it off, plonking the plane down in the middle of the runway (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ) with still 60% fuel left.

Tomorrow I will continue the journey north, in daylight, making my way up to the next big destination, Darwin. I hope you are enjoying my screenshots so far, and hopefully they will soon be converted into downloadable splash screens soon.

Thanks for reading

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 17
Route: YBAS, YYND, YHOO



Well today I managed to kill a few more hours off the tour, journeying north across the outback from Alice Springs to Hooker Creek, covering a huge distance of 393 miles!

Last night I had landed in pitch black darkness, so I went into the "World/ Time"Â￾ menu and changed it to daytime, from 7:45pm (I thought it was nearer 10 or 11) to 10:30 am, sim-time. I then requested taxi to take-off on the active runway 30, and took off climbing up to 5000 feet over Alice Springs township (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) The terrain around this area of the desert was pretty rugged, with lots of cliffs and canyons below me (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg and screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) I set autopilot on once I had turned to a heading of 303 degrees, ready for the 150 mile trip to Yuenduma (YYND) which was 1 hour and 2 minutes away. There was lots of low cloud settled on the ground below me, which was something like 2 of 3 thousand feet above sea level (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) which was covering up the bright orange ground textures (see screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) that were brilliantly contrasting with the deep blue sky above.

After following a dirt track highway (see screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) for the last part of the flight, I descended into land, for a quick touch-and-go on runway 30, a random tarmac runway in the middle of nowhere. I was soon airborne again and changing my heading to 340 degrees as I continued north for 243 more miles to Hooker Creek (YHOO) over lots more desert (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) that was noticeable getting blacker flatter than the terrain surrounding the central Alice Springs area. I set autopilot on at 5000 feet again and cruised along at 160 kias for the next hour and 35 minutes, with absolutely no radio chatter or other aircraft in sight until I picked up the traffic frequency and permitted myself for a full stop landing on gravel runway 28 (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) Once landed, I taxied over to the pump to fill up my 23% full tanks, and searched the surrounding area in vain for any sign of a river or creek (I didn't see any hookers for that matter either! :roll: ) before switching off the engines at 12:08 sim-time.

That's all for today, I know it's a rather short report, but I managed to cover I huge distance. Tomorrow I will be venturing back into Western Australia as I fly to the shores of Lake Argyle on the way to the coast.