Postcards From New Zealand

[Ian Warren]

Its quite nice cruising over this area at FL20 , that was on a return trip a year ago , those screens shows nothing has changed

[Charl]

Cruising south, further down the chain of volcanoes straddling the North Island.
This one blew up, big time, a couple of thousand years ago to enlarge the lake; the ash turned the sky red, and was noted in China and Rome.



Note to those watching the texture set: Top left is again a step between Rotorua photoreal and GE Pro - all but seamless.

[Ian Warren]

And those Taupo hi risers , least if another blows up , there is enough water to put the flames out , a further nice little intro to the NZ - FS9 simmers

[Charl]

I do hope I'm not on the island when it decides to test this theory!
One out of sequence, here:



Not every day you get to fly a stock MS aircraft...but there are no other R22's out there!
I had forgotten that you could change the rego in the selection menu, so this one at least has the right tail number: HDT

[Ian Warren]

I think Tokoroa will be quite safe for at least another 1000 years , i do wonder what the airfield would look by then , and Charl you may find a museum of how it looked .. from the NZFF archives

[Charl]

Time Capsule...
Now tying up the last southern leg of the volcanic chain

[Charl]

OK making a giant right hook, to take another look at Tauranga, and passing by:



Plenty of good-quality horseflesh around here, and plenty of good-quality aeroplanes, as mentioned especially fat in products of de Havilland

[Ian Warren]

WOW .. all this motion sickness , going this way then going that way Zig - Zaggernest and all over the place and we are still close to Taupo

[Charl]

Well there was a little slip in route, true...I was going to try and draw a Koru, but somewhere lost the plot.
For those struggling to keep up (like me):



I actually had Raglan in there at one point, but blessed if I can find a scenery for it.

[Charl]

On a good day, a nice gliding outing ends here, starting at Drury, 100km to the north



On a bad day, you get fetched from a field halfway between...

[connor]

QUOTE (Charl @ Mar 16 2011,1:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

On a bad day, you get fetched from a field halfway between...

It's ok, it doesn't Matamata.

[Ian Warren]

A little town a few miles east of Hamilton , I can tell you a famous New Zealand aviator lives there but it really dose not Mata

QUOTE (Charl @ Mar 16 2011,8:44 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well there was a little slip in route, true...

Struggling to keep up , nah ... maybe is was your navigator

[Charl]

*Groan* maybe one should include an "h" in the name...

QUOTE (Naki @ Mar 10 2011,11:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...Anyway welcome to Tauranga ..any chance you will open the bar for me?

Thanks and Absolutely, Ole Chap! Just call ahead and we'll send the choppah





A quick paint on the ALPHA Long-EZ...horse and carriage/Tauranga and Rutans





and since we are playing ships, what about the Queen Mary 2 then? Another Hama masterpiece.

[Ian Warren]

All those cruise ships , course the Queen Mary 2 , Charl don,t you love Tauranga following Charl,s fantastic voyage , i have a little question for you all , its simple , but why did the great Canard Line ships have most parts the 'hulls' painted Black .

[Charl]

I do love Tauranga...now before we leave I suspect you need to tell us about the Black Hulls, and Who Lives in Matamata.
Neither of these will Google, although this did lead to establishing that Christchurch has more McDonalds per capita than anywhere else in the world...

[Naki]

Thanks for the drinks! hic, hic

Long-eze looks pretty cool..theres a jet powered (use to have a very noisy Rotary engine) one in Tauranga..haven't seen it fly yet though..have a pic somewhere

Matamata..Cliff Tait?..
...Am also interested why the Cunard Liners are black hulled.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Charl @ Mar 18 2011,10:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I suspect you need to tell us about the Black Hulls, and Who Lives in Matamata.

Paul nailed the Matamata question , the Black Hulls , a tradition carried threw since the days off coal with the coal fired ships off the period and the mess made from the loading with coal dust scouring the sides, most near all ships were painted this way, Cunard Line at the forefront kept it as trade mark .

[Charl]

OK that sounds reasonable...I wondered if that was the only paint they had, that would cover up all the rust streaks!
Got into some interesting reading, thanks, about the Cunard line as its fortunes ebbed and flowed over the years.

Thought I'd use this little break to point out a couple of things I noticed at Tauranga...
Since the re-install was about textures, this shot summed it up for me:



For half a dozen years I've tried to match up photoreal (right) with generic textures, and it does seem to have worked...
Obviously the Landclass has to be right, but you also need good textures to populate it. I think the enbseries settings also desaturate the PR a little, and the result is pretty close.

The other thing I thought about, was that the GNZLAP AFCADs make quite a difference to the RealNZ FS9 airports.
I'd somehow lost the Bayflight Cessna's somewhere, but the re-install put them back where they belong.
Just a little addition which gives me a kick in the sim, to have them lined up in order.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Charl @ Mar 18 2011,5:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK that sounds reasonable...I wondered if that was the only paint they had, that would cover up all the rust streaks!

For half a dozen years I've tried to match up photoreal (right) with generic textures, and it does seem to have worked...

BLACK PAINT .. way back then they called it the dark ages

Photoreal with generic textures FS9 , It s impressive to see simply how close in FSX - VLC captures it , supremely accurate , think we blend a black white photo off specific target areas will again turn your head and really make you believe .

[ardypilot]

Still enjoying this very much, a great showcase of NZ addons!

On the subject of the QM2- here's a quick snap Colin Hunter took out my passenger window from when she was in Auckland this year: