Glad the race is starting a week later than normal this year, otherwise I would almost certainly miss the start, for I am at NAS Whidbey Island, WA all week.
The flight out was amazing. Salt Lake City is always impressive to fly into, snuggled as it is between those mountain ranges. The final [air] destination was KSEA! I was particularly interested in what it would look like for real, having flown so much around that city in FS. As we approached from the east, we turned north to make a wide left-handed pattern to land on runway 16 (not sure which one now.) The down wind leg provided a spectacular view (from the port side of the plane) of Seattle. The final approach provided a more close up view of the city, but from the other side of the plane. I could easily pick out Boeing field, from the odd runway layout (two runways, one huge one tiny, parallel) only because of FS. It all looked exactly like in FS (imagine that!) except the textures were awesome, the mesh was fantastic, and no frame rate hit! Oh, and Mt. Rainier was spectacular! We could clearly see all three of the big volcanoes at one point, Rainier, Adams, and Hood. Awesome! We flew right past Rainier, pretty close, during the descent.
Then I had to drive to NAS Whidbey Island, located 100 miles (by car) from Seattle. There’s only one way on and off the island, and the bridge crosses a geological feature called Deception Pass. Wow! I’ll have to find that in FS when I get back!
I’m quitting job and moving here. It’s beautiful as heck. The locals here like to joke about how scare everyone away by telling them the weather is bad all the time. I think it was only a half joke!
The flight out was amazing. Salt Lake City is always impressive to fly into, snuggled as it is between those mountain ranges. The final [air] destination was KSEA! I was particularly interested in what it would look like for real, having flown so much around that city in FS. As we approached from the east, we turned north to make a wide left-handed pattern to land on runway 16 (not sure which one now.) The down wind leg provided a spectacular view (from the port side of the plane) of Seattle. The final approach provided a more close up view of the city, but from the other side of the plane. I could easily pick out Boeing field, from the odd runway layout (two runways, one huge one tiny, parallel) only because of FS. It all looked exactly like in FS (imagine that!) except the textures were awesome, the mesh was fantastic, and no frame rate hit! Oh, and Mt. Rainier was spectacular! We could clearly see all three of the big volcanoes at one point, Rainier, Adams, and Hood. Awesome! We flew right past Rainier, pretty close, during the descent.
Then I had to drive to NAS Whidbey Island, located 100 miles (by car) from Seattle. There’s only one way on and off the island, and the bridge crosses a geological feature called Deception Pass. Wow! I’ll have to find that in FS when I get back!
I’m quitting job and moving here. It’s beautiful as heck. The locals here like to joke about how scare everyone away by telling them the weather is bad all the time. I think it was only a half joke!
If you're interested in military archeology (as in old coastal gun batteries) be sure to visit Fort Casey in Coupeville. Beautiful view of the Olympic peninsula from the fortifications.
...that's me waving at ya! I live just outside of Sequim up in the foothills.