andyjohnston

The sole Antonov 225, the largest aircraft in the world, has been destroyed.

I'd also like to get this!

It's not supposed to be anything. There's a tear in the terrain. From one side you see a crazy step down, from the other side (where I am) you see a rip and...I don't know, the underworld?

At CO95

Well, best laid plans. Somewhere over eastern Russia, the plane went down. I'm trying to get home but MSF keeps crashing. Thanks for the latest "update."

I diverted to 7AK2, and from there am going to Yakutat

Thx, I'll be figuring it out as I go. Already, Juneau was too ambitious and I had to divert.

Heading out for the first leg, departing Friday Harbour for Juneau.

I think you've got it ;)

A certain person's worst nightmare

I also just got the same. Some people swoop in and grab domain names so I hope they don't have any issues.

Hey everyone, I see this has now had more than 15,000 views! Hope you were entertained. :)

Let's see if I can explain. wasd are the keys you would use to move the point of view around the plane. Press c to switch back and forth between mode where you are just looking and can control the plane. Same thing, r will go up, f will go down. Then you can use the arrow keys to point the camera in the direction you want. When you press F12, I believe it takes a screenshot but just to memory, then you have to past it somewhere and save.

Would probably be better to ask this in the correct forum rather than the screenshots forum, but you can switch to external view with no hud by pressing Insert from the cockpit. Then you can move around the aircraft using wasd, plus r and f for up and down.

Thanks so much, appreciate the feedback! :)

In all honesty, it was getting old. By the time we got back to LA, it was after dark and I treated myself to a room in a nice place, the Hilton on Century Boulevard right across from the airport. The next morning I met Huey and Lumi at the airport to rent yet another plane. I knew the route back to the little house by then, and didn't have to spend a lot of time planning. I landed way down the road, much to the consternation of Lumi, who wanted to stop right outside the house. Instead I made them walk while I seriously thought about waiting and letting them handle it. But I had come that far, I might as well see how it would end, so I followed to two as they ducked along the tall grass. Huey turned and waved me back, so I went back to the plane watching them as they receded into the distance. I wasn't willing to just sit there, so I started the plane and swung it around, cutting a lot of grass with the prop as I did. I lined up with the road and stopped for a good several minutes as I thought about what to do next. Finally I screwed up my courage and pushed the throttle lever part way forward. The plane rolled gently down the road and I set the flaps to full. There was something on the road ahead of me and as I got closer, Lumi's form became more distinct. She was half running and half dragging something along behind her, and it took me a few seconds to realize it was their son. Somehow I'd expected a baby, but it was a kid of at least two. I stopped the plane and pulled slightly to the left so that the prop wasn't facing them. Lumi pulled the rear door open and heaved the child in before climbing up too. "Go, go!" she said. "What about Huey?" "Go!" she yelled. I gave the plane full power and we lifted off a few seconds later. I took them back to LA despite wanting to look for Huey. Lumi wouldn't hear of it. I had no idea what happened to him for several days, until I got a fairly cryptic text from him telling me everything had worked out. I was in touch with him for a good several years after that, although he refused to give me any details about what had happened, and it didn't take long to figure out he didn't want to talk about it, so I learned to drop the subject. So that was pretty much the story. Most of my jobs I'd gotten paid for, and but this time I'd taken a good hit. At least I'd helped the family out, gotten to do a few new things, and met a few people in the process.

"So..." I looked back and forth between Huey and Lumi. I hoped my intension was clear, even if I didn't say it. We're done now right? Huey took another look at the person we'd captured before looking back to me. "They still have our son." Right, I thought. Okay... I wasn't sure what to say, so instead started off across the field. The other three fell in line behind me. I made my way to the outside of a hangar, where a shiny white truboprop sat. I went to the pilot, who was buffing the fuselage under the rudder, and hired (read bribed) him to take us back to Los Angeles.

Sitting in the pilot's seat of that jet, it was a lot more difficult to spot the shape of a runway than it had been in a tiny aircraft earlier. Looking at the map on the console, I didn't recognize any of the identifiers nearby. Without a lot of choice, I pulled the throttle back and set a deep dive and a steep left turn to head to the closest one that looked like it *might* be big enough to land at. I had no idea what the runway would be like, but then again I had no idea no how much room this aircraft needed to land. It didn't take long to come into view, and we were about perpendicular to the runway. I flew over the field and then turned to the left and flew downwind for a few miles. Then I turned another 180 degrees to line up. As I slowed, I kept an eye on the VASI, until it was half red and half white. Then I pushed forward a little on the yoke while extending the flaps all the way. Now this is not normally the way I would do things, but these were extenuating circumstances. Just as I crossed over the fence a lowered the landing gear and continued to the threshold. Then I held the aircraft just over the surface, pitching up slightly until we finally settled down. I extended the spoilers and pulled the throttle to the reverse position. At around 70 knots, I retracted the flaps and spoilers, and set the throttle to idle just a few seconds later, before exiting to the left. I didn't have to worry about runway length, as I had all sorts of room left. There were a few buildings scattered around and I pulled up to the nearest cluster and then shut everything down. I pushed the door open and the three of us climbed out, pulling our former captor after.

As I sat in the cockpit setting the autopilot, I could hear Huey in the back. He was hitting our former pilot, but it didn't sound like he was doing it himself, more like he was using something to hit him. "Tell me where my son is!" he was saying. "I don't know," was the mumbled response. I went back into the cabin. Huey was holding a book which he dropped and strode to the door of the plane. "Well maybe you'll talk if I toss you out." He pulled on the lever to unlock the door, but it wouldn't budge. Here's something most people don't understand. You can't open the door of a plane at altitude, it's impossible. The difference in air pressure makes it so the door weights hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds every inch. Meaning the most powerful person on the planet couldn't budge it. Besides, if Huey threw the guy out, how would that give him the information he wanted? Huey ran into the cockpit and planted himself in the co-pilot's seat. He pulled back hard on the controls, and when nothing happened, he shoved the forward. Seems someone didn't get the concept of the autopilot being in use.

Wow, this thread has had more than 10,000 views now. I hope everyone is entertained!

Thanks, always appreciate feedback :)

"Rise and shine!" Someone was slapping my cheek and my eyes fluttered. Whoever it was turned and walked away before I could see their face. What had happened? It started to come back to me as I looked at my surroundings. I was in a seat of what appeared to be a small jet, next to a windows which afforded my a look at the ground far below. Facing me was Huey and a petite Asian woman in a pink shirt. Ropes bound my hands to the arms of the seat, and the same for Huey and the woman. "Glad to see you're okay," Huey said. "This is my wife, Lumi." Great time for and introduction, I thought. But I didn't say it, just offered a half-hearted nod in her direction, before pulling at the ropes. Lumi watched for a few seconds before squirming until her right hand popped free. I guess there are some advantages to being small. She undid her other hand before taking a quick look around. Then she got to her knees and undid Huey's wrists, and he released me. I stood, and could see the was no door separating the cockpit for the small cabin. I walked to the opening, not sure what to do next. I grabbed the pilot by the throat and squeezed. He flailed against my hands and in doing so banged the yoke, sending the plane into a severe right bank. I was thrown half into the copilot seat, where I grabbed the controls and righted us. Lumi and Huey were on the pilot and dragged him into the cabin where they overpowered him.

It was a real sense of déja-vu that greeted me. We flew back to that little house and landed way down the dirt road. Then Huey and I crept back, keeping low in hopes that the tall grass would make us at least somewhat hard to see. There were a lot of crickets singing to us as we brushed past and found our way to the same window where we'd been earlier. The second time, I kept my head down as Huey peered through the dirty glass. He ducked back down with a gasp. "She's in there!" he said. "I could see my wife through a doorway on the other side of the house." With that, he was off and moving. I had to hurry to keep up. I followed him onto the back porch and it creaked under our weight. I grimaced, hoping we hadn't just given ourselves away, but Huey was already a step ahead, as he pulled the old screen door enough to slip through, holding it open with one hand so I could take it. I was tempted not to, but I had come this far. The inside of the house was dingy. An old couch sat against the wall to our right, with an ancient television in the opposite corner. There was a good coating of dust on the floor, at least I hoped it was dust. From our position we could see to the front door of the house, which was closed, and an open doorway ahead from where two voices were emanating. "Yeah, you do that," one said. "Let's see how long you last." Both voices laughed. Huey stepped forward again, and lifted one hand. He waved into the room, then motioned for me to follow. "I'll be right back," the first voice said. With that there were footsteps. Huey and I had no place to hide as the voice's owner came around the corner. He was probably in his late twenties, with a few day's of stubble, wearing a denim shirt which wasn't done up very well. "Hey!" He had time to get out only the one syllable before Huey was on him. His companion joined him and pulled Huey off. He dragged Huey away as I sized up the guy in front of me. In any fight, I would be less than useless, and I knew it. I held my hands up and backed slowly away. That didn't stop him, and he came at me. I went down like a ton of bricks.

The screeching of tires alerted me that drivers below had seen the plane coming down and were doing their best to get out of the way. Huey's instinct to brace himself was considerably overblown since we touched down, albeit a bit harder than normal, without as much of an incident as he obviously feared. I used the pedals to steer to the side of the road and jumped out. I was running as quick as I could, and heard Huey behind me. We scrambled over the embankment that ran alongside the road, leaving the plane behind. On the street where we found ourselves, I flagged down a taxi. To be more precise, I essentially had to stand in front of it for the driver to stop. As we scrambled in, the driver shook his head in the rearview mirror. "I'm about to go off duty, find another cab." Huey moved to get out but I held him in place. "No, just give us a quick ride and we'll make it worth your while." The driver was about to disagree, but instead snorted and stomped on the accelerator. We took off with a lurch. "Where do you want to go?" "Take us to the closest airport." The ride didn't last more than a few minutes, and I made sure he got a generous tip for his efforts. We wandered around the general aviation parking area of the airport. Huey kept looking around and moving in a way that...it's hard to describe. He just looked suspicious. And that was the last thing we needed. As I glanced at the planes around, I realized we had two choices. Something small would be less noticeable going back to that house, but it might not be able to carry Huey's family if we found them. So we didn't have a lot of choice, we'd have to take something a bit larger and take the risk that it would be more visible. Finally, we came across a 172 parked just outside the FBO. As I turned the starter, the engine came to life and I gave it a little power. It was at that instant that someone came out of the building, waving his arms and shouting, though I couldn't hear him. Too late, I jammed the throttle forward and took off from the taxiway.