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Default FS9. Bell 206 with Floats by Owen Hewitt. Flight Time about 22 minutes. 🙂              

Love the Japanese Ground Crews... they do a pretty good Job. All fully animated - No need for AES in Japan... 

Quite a sleek aircraft jgf!

Our multi-month fly-in adventure continues this month, where we pick up where we stopped last month in Kelowna and continue to Ketchikan. Incorporated on August 25, 1900, Ketchikan is the earliest extant incorporated city in Alaska, because consolidation or unification elsewhere in Alaska resulted in the dissolution of those communities' city governments.   Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island, so named in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver. Ketchikan is named after Ketchikan Creek, which flows through the town, emptying into the Tongass Narrows a short distance southeast of its downtown. "Ketchikan" comes from the Tlingit name for the creek, Kitschk-hin, the meaning of which is unclear. It may mean "the river belonging to Kitschk"; other accounts claim it means "Thundering Wings of an Eagle".   Canadian Xpress would like to invite all pilots to join us on Saturday, May 25th from 21h00edt (Sunday 01h00z) to 24h00est (Sunday 05h00z) for our May 2024 fly-in where we depart from Kelowna (CYLW) and fly to Ketchikan (PAKT).   One lucky Canadian Xpress pilot* will win: • Any Just Flight Product from: https://www.justflight.com *Please see Fly-In PDF for contedt details and eligibility requirements.   This is an open invitation to all pilots no matter what your flying experience to attend this Canadian Xpress event that will be flown on the VATSIM network. More information regarding this event including operational details, charts, optional add-on scenery and Canadian Xpress Model Sets can be viewed by visiting https://canadianxpress.ca   See you all on Saturday the 25th!  

Haven't flown the Canal Zone in ages;  mostly default scenery with GEPro textures and an old mod that enhances the locks ...nothing to see here, move along.  Also haven't flown this plane in ages, a reminder that I never finished the panel work and the trim control is too coarse.     "Hi, I'm Johanna.  If you click me I will hide."   Only a couple dozen of these planes were made, almost all sold in the US, all to private pilots;  so this is a thoroughly fictional livery, but it's sharp.   We're off   The first batch of ships.  Base transit fee for a small boat (less than 65ft.) is around $1600, this includes a certified canal pilot who takes command of your vessel for the duration;  if you do not have the necessary lines they are provided ...for a fee;  if your crew is not knowledgeable of the canal requirements, help is available ...for a fee;  there is a mandatory inspection fee of $75 for every vessel before it enters the area.  Cruise ships were once charged by number of berths, today it is by length and displacement, averaging about $60,000;  a large cargo ship can pay over $300,000.  Several people have swam the distance, not illegal but you must get special permission ...and pay the transit fee, around $1 (not stated whether they also had to pay the inspection fee).   In 2023 rainfall was far below average, so lock operation was slowed greatly.  Many ships had to wait days for passage;  one company offered to pay to bump the line and be the next ship through, it was allowed ...but cost them nearly $4 million.  Private boats pay an average of $75/day for dock space while they wait, large ships lie at anchor just offshore;  cruise ships often return to their departure port rather than wait.   Gatun locks   Large ships require cycling of around 52 million gallons of water during passage     The first bridge ...I shan't fly under it   Miraflores locks     Next bridge, I'll refrain from flying under it also     I believe that's the destination   But off to the island first (I don't have all the same scenery, so I'm winging it)       Turn to final   Easy landing   And park   Probably an impressive flight in MSFS, but I doubt this cutie of an airplane is available there.  (It's the Nardi 333 Riviera.)

Tried it just now and same for me.  I found the same with KLEX this morning.  I was troubleshooting and didn't load the KLEX freeware airport that I normally use.

At Duxford, Claude Marx and Crassus Terrani move their Dakota into the line of exhibits for a Duxford Flying Day, and are soon gathering a crowd after offering tours of the aircraft for £5 a head.   After the crowds have gone, Claude and Crassus ease the Dakota into the air, on their way to Old Warden for one of their Open Days.   Old Warden isn't that far from Duxford by air, so Claude keeps FX low over the English countryside.   Soon, they touch down on the comparatively short runway at Old Warden...   ...and are parked in front of the Museum's cafe ready to meet the visitors.    

Noting that this flight was recommended to be flown with a higher power aircraft with good STOL characteristics I thought 'I have JUST the thing in my hangar!     Yes, the Westland Lysander that I  flew on the Route 66 rally. I've updated her a bit since the early Route 66 stages and she now carries a hefty belly tank and a ladder to persuade the pax to leave the warmth of the cabin when we reach our destination, wherever that may be.   Downloading the FSX scenery file for Milford Sound was a matter of moments, but I couldn't find an upgrade for Queenstown, but that didn't really matter as the default FSX scenery there is pretty good.   Locating the good 'ole Lysander at Queenstown went fine, and I powered up my Active Sky software for real weather, drew up an IFS flightplan as the cloudbase was quite low and I anticipated being IMC for at least some of the flight.    BIG mistake, but see later.   Here I am on the ramp at Queenstown, no local traffic, just me, so I started up and hit the 'Shift-P' button so I could turn around and head for the threshold.     To my utter amazement one of the little push-back tractors over by the tower started up and raced over toward me to aid in the push-back! NOT a good idea with a single engined prop powered aeroplane as the tractor driver was likely to get his cut off by the prop!     However both my Bristol Mercury engine and the tractor driver seemed to survive and I got out onto that looooooong runway and headed off to the west.     My FSTramp produced a rather strange SID for that Queenstown runway which involved a 270 degree turn to port, passing directly o'head the airport before setting course for Milford Sound, but who was I, a mere Brit, to argue such things, eh?     Having got airborne in a minute fraction of the Queenstown runway the Lysander was climbing as only a Lysander can, and I was on my way.     After a short while I passed over the field and headed off to the south for a short distance, still climbing to the safety height, noted as 8500 ft by FST.     But all the while I was being tossed about by horrendous wind gusts and the aircraft was climbing and diving almost at random, nothing that I could do with the stick seemed to have much effect, and pretty soon I was in the cloud.     And that was pretty much that. I didn't have a single glimpse of the apparently awesome scenery of the South Island and all the time I was being battered and bashed by the weather. There was a single major turn on the flightplan, and that was fairly close to Milford Sound and just before my planed start of descent, but I was till IMC at that time.     Descending over all those mountains was a mind numbing procedure and I was wondering if I should open the canopy in case I needed a quick exit after a crash landing! As it happened I popped out of the bottom of the cloud almost directly o'head Milford Sound field, but I was way too high and headed past the field by then.     I tried making some spiral descending turns but they left me well west of the field and heading AWAY from the runway, which wasn't too clever. Seeing that hefty rock ahead, I planned on passing it to the north and making a 180 deg turn around it to come around the west side of it and nicely lined up.   WRONG!     But the rock was just the pointed end of a hefty chain, and there was no gap west of it so I headed up the canyon in the pic until I found airspace wide enough to carry out a 180, which wasn't easy. Luckily the Lysander is a pretty nimble beast and made the turn ok, and I was headed back to my destination, but at a very low level.     Lining up was not easy and the gusts we re still bashing me about, even deep in the canyon here, and my first attempt was a total failure, I was WELL over to one side of the runway, so I opened up and went round again.   And I did that THREE times before I could plonk her down. And at last I landed, but waaaaaay down the runway.     Taxi-ing in was a slight problem as the Lysander wanted to weather-cock into the wind and only some hefty differential braking turned me off the runway and onto the ramp. I was VERY glad to shut down, I can tell you!     Of course the main problem was using real world weather, in the Real World I'd have never attempted a flight with the wind gusting like that and the cloud that low, so I may try it again but with some customised weather, bright sun, light breezes and either no clouds at all or a little cirrus at around 35000 ft. 🙂

Ieuen- just trying to keep [Club Chachapoya] in the same area until/if we can utilize what Nels recommended.  Despaiir not, there was conscious thought involved.  If a community had to segregate any comments of a communal happening in each sim ANY website would devolve into useless data points.  (At least that's what the abacus salesman said. 🫠)  

Only thing i could find related is   https://www.eaa.org/-/media/files/airventure/flyingin/2019-notam.ashx Make your own flight plan and add something like this 'EAA AirVenture Oshkosh' for MSFS.   I'd love to see an approach/departure w/ simulated traffic but presume the various traffic add ons might discourage the development. 

Honestly never thought that FS9 could look so photorealistic as shown above. What a hugh step -almost like MSFS. Wonderful!

Uni Air  McDonnell Douglas MD-90 | B-17919 Fukushima Airport, Japan  Ready for Taxi, bound for Nagasaki Fukushima is one of my more beautiful and most appreciated Airports around the World. 

Just wondering if anyone offers a challenge add-on to simulate the Fisk arrival scenario to AirVenture Oshkosh. I AM aware of the SimVenture event taking place in July but I'm interested in an aftermarket flight challenge that could be flown in MSFS2020 at any time.

Are any of them DRY yet???  🤔