Mudspike New York - San Francisco Air Mail Trek - 2020
4 Likes
My First leg. I am going to fly the excellent freeware Potez 25. I am using a new (to me) program for mapping and flight planning. Little Nav Map. It really is quite impressive, and free!
The planned route:
Departing KFRG
The route takes us over what was Hazelhurst Field…now a shopping mall.
You can see the area just beyond the “4 leaf clover” on/off ramp.
The next checkpoint was La Guardia International Airport (KLGA). The route has us flying just to the South of it… so far, so good.
New York City…
We are supposed to cross Central Park at it’s Southern edge…
I pass directly between Teterboro KTEB (my favorite place in the whole wide world 
) and Newark KEWR. The next checkpoint is Morristown Airport (KMMU)…
About 7nm West of Morristown, the Clyde Potts Reservoir…
Next, we cross overhead Hackettstown Airport. I had to look hard for it just as you have to sometimes in real life flying. I’m really liking Forkboy2’s ortho scenery.
Approaching the Delaware River with Belvidere NJ ahead. Beyond the river, we are into Pennsylvania.
Next, we have Bangor, Pen Argyl and Wind Gap. We are supposed to cross the ridgeline just to the West of Wind Gap, passing just to the South of the town itself. Beyond the ridge we should see some ski runs on the North side.
The ski runs are right where they are supposed to be… 
After this the route continued over a number of lakes and reservoirs which made good visual references. The next big town on the route is Sunbury, located at the confluence of the North and West branches of the Susquehanna River. You can’t really miss it!
From Sunbury, it is just 46nm across the mountain ridges to Bellefonte…
I flew over the Bellefonte High School, which is the site of the original Air Mail airfield, and then landed at the current airport, situated to the South West of the town.
The flight took me 2.2 hours. It was a lot of fun to navigate just by visual reference. The scenery was stunning too!
14 Likes
Great leg - really nice that the ortho allows for identifying landmarks and points of interest on the sectional chart. Good old fashioned “look out the window” flying…
1 Like
I’m really impressed with the Forkboy scenery. Combined with a good tree overlay (I’m using XtremeTrees), the results are pretty amazing, and quite close to OrbX TE quality.
1 Like
OK, went ahead, flying from Republic using GEO FS
EDIT : and ‘Photo-realistic sub-meter HD imagery’ trial
6 Likes
The Potez really is nice! I almost went with the excellent Tiger Moth, but the Potez is probably more appropriate, and it’s a truck, much like the DH-4 was (for it’s time). I think you will enjoy flying it.
I went with the Forkboy2 ortho because, to be honest I’m inherently lazy. He did a great job with it and I was able to use his scenery for the entire trip except where I already have OrbX True Earth coverage. It is probably more satisfying to create your own though.
I highly recommend checking out the Little Nav Map program…
I guess I missed out on this one, thanks for mentioning it CP! A quick search at x-plane.org later and I have a very nice Hurricane in my hangar! (that makes 106 Will @Hangar200 ! ).
1 Like
Previous post was just GEO FS ad. 
Originally I thought that I can use it but the simple planes just dont ring some particular bells in me. Then tried FSX but it runs really badly on my laptop and the dated graphics just doesnt work for cross country flights.
So back to XP11 it is. It runs cca 20fps 
on my laptop but the perception of movement in space is much better than in FSX imo.
OK, this is the ride I need
Sure, no visual old school navigation, but I will be looking out the big windows very often
Interesting scenery west of NY
Almost there budy
7 Likes
I thought I’d participate, using Aerofly FS2.
But the scenery coverage doesn’t cover the entire CONUS, so I’ll have to make do with what’s available.
I started in a Pitts S-2, from Montauk to Long Island MacArthur.
A friend took this in flight pic of me, north of Napeague.
Passing the Hamptons.
This country is littered with airports! Too bad not all of them are modelled.
Part of the endless dunes of Long Island. Here’s where my friend turned back to Montauk. From now on there will only be go-pro camera shots from my aircraft.
On final for KISP. Yes, that RWY is closed, IRL, but not in AFS2!
Parked for lunch.
10 Likes
Cool Troll, I am curious how is the scenery looking outside the detailed zones in AFS2.
And that’s one of the things I like about XP. You can get pretty amazing results and experience using just the freeware stuff like scenery, ortho, airplanes, utilities, etc.
My approach to payware stuff starting to be focused more on something new the devs brings to the table.
I haven’t ventured past the detailed scenery… We’ll see soon!
You know, this is kinda fun and relaxing…
Sitting there drilling a hole in the virtual sky, watching the planet slowly roll by beneath me, makes me feel good! I might take up GA flying again. You know, flying for fun… 
Anyways, I left the Pitts for a 50hrs maintenance check. The shop had a 172 rental that I could use to take me to Somerset, where my Beech Baron is waiting to take me to Chicago.
A lovingly maintained Cessna 172 casting long shadows in the morning sun.
Taking off from KISP RWY 33R.
1000ft over Brentwood, I think.
Passing north of Republic KFRG.
Coming in over Manhattan, looking down at Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
Central Park and Empire State Bld. down on my right.
Crossing the Hudson with the dame with the torch, down on my left.
Passing Newark KEWR. I wonder if I should’ve checked in with them…?
I wonder if the natives are friendly…
Crossing overhead for a left hand pattern.
Turning final.
Parked and shut down. Need to find a vacuum cleaner. Spilled a bag of doritos in there.
No airports between here and Meigs… We will see what the generic scenery brings.
Also, the screenshots are zoomed in. I guess it’s because I’m in VR. Will see if I can do anything about that.
10 Likes
I’m definitely doing this. Especially with nothing else to do right now. I have ventured into setting X plane 11 up properly. Can someone take a look at this scenery file and make sure I’ve done the order properly?
I
1000 Version
SCENERY
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - EDDF Frankfurt/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - EDLP Paderborn-Lippstadt/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - EGLL Heathrow/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - LFMN Nice Cote d Azur X/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - LFPO Paris Orly/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Aerosoft - LPFR Faro/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KSEA Demo Area/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KSFO - San Francisco Cable Cars/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KSFO - San Francisco V2/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KSFO - Traffic Golden Gate Bridge/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/KSFO - Traffic Oakland Bay Bridge/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Chicago/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Dubai/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Las Vegas/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - London/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - New York/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Sydney/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/X-Plane Landmarks - Washington DC/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/LOWI Demo Area/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/HD Forests/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/EXT_texas_lights/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Airport Environment HD/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Global Airports/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/MisterX_Library/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/zzz_hd_global_scenery4/
Right now I’ve just downloaded a few of the “TOP 10 FREE MODS for XP11!!!” from a youtuber. Want to make sure I’ve done it properly.
3 Likes
I’m not seeing anything that jumps out at me as being wrong there… other than all the missing OrbX lines .
2 Likes
That file looks ok… other than all the missing ortho lines…
@Troll your pics looks good to me. That zoom is not that bad.
3 Likes
if you find your add-on’s out of control one day (like I did), maybe try out XOrganizer. It’s very useful, organizing all your addon’s, letting you see easily what you’ve got, and making sure the order in the config file is correct.
3 Likes
So the whiskey got the best of me, and I own this TBM 900 now. No clue what I’m doing. I WILL make it to San Fran before I have to go back to work.
9 Likes
You picked up a great airplane. A real masterpiece.
3 Likes
It was between this and the King Air, but I figured there was a stock King Air already. Lots of good reviews on this one. Definitely in over my head.
2 Likes