Great AAR with some great VFR checkpoints. Love the fuel switch confusion…LOL…sound realistic!
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I’m playing with settings in graphics right now- I think the generated objects was a bit too low. Trying to find that sweet spot right now. And also diving back under the hood of x-organizer. Again.
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Tinkering with the install is half the fun!!!
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Chicago to Iowa City…
Ready to roll at Meigs…
Climbing out to the West…
Approaching the site of the original Air Mail airfield. It is located next to the Veteran’s Hospital, just across the road (1st Ave) from Miller Meadow park.
An interesting landmark, to the South of DuPage Airport is the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. It is hard to miss, and makes for a great turn point.
From the Accelerator Lab, it is a short leg to Aurora (party on!)…
From Aurora, we follow US30 almost due West for 54nm to Sterling…
The terrain is now flat, with farmland as far as the eye can see. I stuck to US30 like glue…
At Stirling, using the airport as a turn point, I head South West, generally following the Rock River towards Moline.
Getting closer to Moline, I catch sight of the Mighty Mississippi off to the North.
Eventually we get to Quad City International KMLI. In 2007, I flew my first solo King Air flight to this airport from Dayton Ohio to deliver the airplane for new paint.
At this point, we start to follow the Mississippi for a stretch There is no chance of getting lost in this area!
We follow the Mississippi for about 20 nm until the river makes a distinct turn to the South at Muscatine, at which point we turn North West towards Iowa City.
Iowa City up ahead…
Airport in sight!
Shut down on the ramp…
Flight time was 2.2 hours. Next Stop will be Offut AFB, Omaha, Nebraska.
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Just a reminder that there may be hope of finding things of that type at the Internet Archive.
Wheels
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I have been guilty of that… also, that’s a good rego!
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Back to the first leg again…finally got my gas and spark plugs sorted out in Slatington (69N) and set course for Bellefonte (N96), this time making sure I had enough gas…!
A high broken layer kept the views sort of gloomy until we crossed the Susquehana River, then ActiveSky broke us out with beautiful sunlight and just some scattered clouds…
Pilotage is so much fun in X-Plane. Orthos definitely help and I’m constantly flipping back and forth from my running X-Plane and Skyvector to compare things I’m seeing out the window to where I want to be. I tend to do mid-course corrections TO the points of interest…sort of like an inertial update, but one where I actually fly over the point instead of just marking on the map where I am relative that point. This works good in a sim where you aren’t paying money for flying a bit out of the way, but is less efficient if you are in an actual airplane.
Lots of good terrain features with these long, worn down ridgelines along the route…
Making sure I line up on the right airport since University Park is just a couple miles south of Bellefonte…
First leg complete…!
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My trek is taking a slightly different path as it seems international airports don’ t appreciate you landing unannounced and parking at the main terminal gates in Cleveland. Little bummed about losing my plane and my job.
While waiting in jail, I met some nice fellows who just so happened to be really needing to get to San Francisco also. The pay seems good, but the aircraft was located closer to downtown at Burke Lakefront. Off we go!!
My clients secured a helicopter for our trip to Burke Lakefront
Should be located just to the left on downtown, on the coast of the lake
The Browns are so bad Xplane didn’t even model their stadium!!! Should be right there in that oval neighborhood i believe.
Here we are, wonder what they have for me?
(upload://fANBgJ0nsbnXBiZdhQgSM6zxQCc.jpeg)
The next day I went out to check out what they wanted me to fly. I wonder how they got this?
Either way they seem way more laid back when it comes to regulations so I think I’ll fit right in.
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As I have read in the Dev blog that also GTX900 series cards are now supported in 11.50 I tried it with my older laptop with GTX950m (after driver update).
The results are better than I expected! On medium(objects;textures)-low(effects;reflections) settings I am around 40fps what is great. Previously it was low settings and fps 20 or lower.
So did the hop from Chicago to Iowa City
Iowa City airport
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First leg in 0600-0758 Republic Airport (KFRG) to Bellefonte Airport (N96). So about 22 minutes ahead of schedule.
The Boeing Model 40 saw service during the 1920’s and 30’s as a airmail plane. Originally designed to use the Victory V12 engine (they had a whole lot of them left over at the end of WW1), they were later redesigned for the P&W Hornet radial. The model here is a 40B, using the 425hp P&W Hornet. T
I elected for a dawn take off rather than the historical start time of 1000, to give myself more daylight flying time for pilotage. Our modern world has a lot more urban areas to be confused with versus the 1920’s
Climbing out of FSX scenery of downtown NYC, combined with some ortho scenery at 4/m per pixel, which is just a hair blurry at the altitude I’m flying at. I might go down to 3/m and see how that goes.
Hackettstown to our north, meaning we’re on course.
Martins Creek power plant just south of Belvidere NJ, so I’m a little south of my expected line of flight. That’s fine as when I hit the Susquehanna River I can just follow it north to where it Y’s
View from the office. Not a lot to work with, but enough in VFR.
Crossing over the split in the Susquehannah River. Point the nose on 281, and look for a pair of airfields adjacent each other after about 20 mins located in a valley. Can’t be that hard to find…
Okay the cloverleaf was actually a lot easier to spot and our runway is pretty much due north of there.
A nice little flight, with only one real gripe. This model has a serious roll to the left, and no trim to fix it. I am not keen on holding my joystick over for almost 2 hours to keep it flying roughly level and straight. I may stick with this model (which was my plan) or I may go for something else, we shall see.
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Totally missed the actual flight path of this trek, but I’m still resigned to hit San Fran.
This evening going from Burke Lakefront in Cleveland to DuPage just west of Chicago. My clients do not like large airfields.
Looped back around and heading West. Will be staying under the clouds this time.
Skimming over the top of Lake Erie
This might be Michigan City, couldn’t tell Just trying to follow the highway.
Here’s Chicago. DuPage should be due west from downtown
Passing by old Meigs
The plan was to follow the river walk to 64 which would take me to DuPage. They wanted to test me I guess, so I gave them a good show!
DuPage in the far distance, O’Hare at 2’oclock
Approach was terrible, but I’m not getting paid to pass a checkride. Just get there!
Tucked in for the night.
I’m a little concerned these guys aren’t who they said they are. I overheard plans for the next leg to be Fort Dodge in Iowa. Why would guys I met in Jail want to land at a military facility??
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You are definitely driving it like you stole it… 
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I think there may be something to that…
…you may not want to look in the cargo holds too closely…
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I still need to write up the report, but a few days ago I pushed on to Offut AFB, Omaha Nebraska. Not much to report other than navigation was a bit more challenging due to a lack of prominent landmarks… I’m firmly in the flat part of the country now. That won’t change until I get to the Rockies. Progress has been a little slow on this trek for me, thanks to a couple of major distractions (Condor 2 and the Just Flight Vulcan…and more Condor 2 
. I’ll get there eventually though.
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Currently generating the ortho terrain down to Iowa City, I should hopefully be able to make it from Bellefonte to at least Chicago this evening.
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Entertaining reading as always @Sine_Nomine! Did you see the big airship hangars at Akron?
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First wing walker in a trip report if I’m not mistaken.
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Should be a badge…
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