**The OFFICIAL All Sims Air Tour Thread**

[Tako_Kichi]

Rob and I got to fly again last night which was unexpected as I thought he'd be busy unpacking from his trip. As he was back at home with all his toys available he turned up in a new/old bird he wanted to try out, Piglet's Boeing Monomail. He had downloaded it a while ago but not really put any serious miles on her hence wanting to do a leg or two in it. I didn't have it in P3D so I grabbed it from the resources here and slapped it into the sim real quick. I added my usual pop-up panel and GPS unit and connected to the MP server and that's when things went pear shaped!

It loaded into P3D with no issues and Rob could see me in my Monomail in FSX but I couldn't see him on my sim, nothing, nada, not a trace! We spent ages putzing around trying to get it to work and nothing showed in my sim. We did discover that if I aliased him to something other than the Monomail in JoinFS then he immediately appeared beside me, alias him back to the Monomail and poof he disappeared again. We also noticed that he had a red box in my JoinFS 'aircraft' window when he was in the Monomail and no red box when I aliased him to anything else. After more than an hour we gave up and decided we would go with whatever worked so he stayed in the Monomail with me aliased into a Monomail on his sim while I put him into a Dragon Rapide because I could see him in that and jumped into my own Rapide on my sim and we finally got to fly a leg!

Here we are on the take-off run with Rob just lifting off.



The real world WX was showing signs of middle distance fog/mist/haze again and I hoped we weren't going to get a repeat of the bad weather of the previous leg.



The further we went the better the weather got and it turned into a very pleasant flight despite the earlier issues.



I wonder what the designers at de Havilland were drinking when they designed the Rapide and who thought it would be a good idea to create a pointy, single pilot cockpit and then put in a central pillar that completely blocks the pilot's forward view! It makes landing a pain because you can't see the runway on short final and if you are flying in multiplayer you can't see your buddies if they are right in front of you! I know Rob is there from his label but I can't see him at all!



The destination airport came into view (KGMU) and I opted for a WWII fighter pilot's curved approach so that I could keep the runway in sight for the longest possible time before it disappeared behind the windshield pillar!



We got down safe then parked up and scratched our heads about what went wrong and still didn't have a reason for it. We even checked to see if I could see Rob's Monomail at the finish and as soon as I changed his aliased aircraft he disappeared again! Crazy!

 

[MAD1]

Yesterday, finally able to start Leg 1 (will post screenshots soonish). What I thought would be a nice, quiet and peaceful little jaunt in my hired Cessna 152 wasn't, however it was interesting. In my old FS2002, set to Winter, midday, landscape was uninteresting, all white (snow) and flat. However I did add interest and realism by setting weather for the first time, instead of clear sky, set scattered stratus cloud with base at 4,500', light rain. (I don't have Internet access for my sim, and the old FS2002 Real Weather option I don't think is available anymore anyway). Set GPS Direct VFR alt 2k', expecting to get a good look at the countryside if low and slow. As I have no knowledge of most of the route's landscape, I don't know what to expect.

The 152 was nice and easy to fly. These days I have ATC enabled, with full AI traffic density set, and was surprised at the amount of traffic around. My plan for this Air Tour is to do only a few legs, and as usual, learn the geography by researching on Wikipedia and Google Maps where I'm flying to or have been. Also, wanting to do this Adventure 'properly' and enable all FS2002 functionality, for realism. As my FS2002 is the standard default, no extra scenery (don't wish to mess with downloads), for me, this Adventure is more about getting out of and into airports, ATC etc. Quite fun.

Found KYIP somewhat confusing, those crossing runways etc. Enjoyed all the messing about with Ground, Tower, ATC comms, including interacting with the traffic. Wanted to do proper planning, so looked at KYIP airport layout. Forgot to check out my destination however, oops, first rule 'know where you're going, and what it'll look like when you get there'! (Not to mention 'alternates' if I hit a problem, didn't bother with that.) Oh well, once airborne, realised this and thought 'heck, I can study the destination airport chart whilst pottering along at 100 knots at 2k' (My 152 doesn't seem to have an autopilot, so have to fly manually, but it did trim out nicely so was very stable and could go 'hands off'.)

Final observation, all my own planning omissions, in the Air Tour chart I studied some weeks ago, the one VP2 put in the FS2020 thread, it's titled '2003 Air Tour'. I've been remiss to only look at it, which shows the Leg 1 destination is indeed KBTL but I only looked for 'Kalamazoo' (42°14′06″N 85°33′07″W) and got KAZO in the flight planner. I see in the above posts that pilots are going to KBTL 'Kellog Airport' 42°18′23″N 85°15′00″W, nearer to Battle Creek town. Have looked in Google Maps just now and now see the destination vacinity, should have done that before. Will have to see if my FS2002 has it. Don't suppose it really matters, am heading in the correct anti-clockwise direction, but just don't wanna get the nickname of 'Wrong Way' Corrigan! (Oh well, from my saved flight, not far out of KYIP, I'll simply continue on but to KBTL now. As always, all these combibulations just adds to the simming fun!)

 

[Melo965]

Leg 3 and 4: Meigs Field KCGX) to Lansing Municipal (KIGQ) to Lawrence J Timmerman (KMWC)

Flying the Percival Mew Gull in MSFS 2020. Using Active Sky FS for weather and Little Navmap for navigation.
The winds have calmed down here in the Pacific North West so today my flight was successful. Still lots of rain today locally.


Starting at Meigs field. Chicago skyline behind me. Have 84% fuel on board. The wind was from the South so I took off on Runway 18. I rarely took off on 18 over the years in Flight Simulator. It was almost always Runway 36.


Headed south from KCGX.


Straight in approach to KIGQ for my Touch and Go.


Successful Touch and Go. Next did a right 180 and headed back North.


Leaving Meigs Field and Chicago behind me again.


My Cockpit view of the good weather today.


Strangely enough, as I flew north, the terrain below went from white to green.


Spotted the airport ahead. Wind direction dictated a landing on 22R so I flew downwind toward Lake Michigan, then Base, and Final.


Landed a bit long on 22R but there was plenty of runway available. And the short final airspeed of about 55 worked out very well. Did not float and landed easily.


Parked at KMWC. Very few other aircraft on site. Quite different from the crowded airspace I transited near Chicago. I have 76% fuel on board, so no need to refuel yet.