-
Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
**The OFFICIAL All Sims Air Tour Thread**
- Thread starter ViperPilot2
- Start date
bosspecops
Members +
I'm on an FS roll here, heading in toward the end of the Tour. 
My aircraft choice for Leg 26 is another British cargo hauler with a high wing and a pod & boom fuselage, but at the totally opposite end of the size scale to the Beverley. It's the Miles Aerovan, a tiny aeroplane, one third the size of the Bev, TWENTY SIX times lighter, and with 38 times less power! Melo will remember this particular one, G-AGOZ, as it's the same aeroplane that I flew in a Compuserve Flight Rally a long time ago. The Rally was to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and I flew it from where I actually was at the time, in Ireland. The flight took me over two weeks!
This FSX model is a much better one than the one I flew back then, which was in FS4 or 5 I think, and the current version is very nicely done, complete with an opening rear cargo door, and front cockpit door.
Even better, the Aerovan even has cargo loaded aboard, and you can see that the internal door from the cockpit to the hold opens as well.
The 'Van has quite good ground handling, but with only 300 bhp in total it takes a while to get going and it took me a while to taxi all the way down to the Pittsburgh threshold. With 50% flaps lowered I started my take-off run, and eventually lifted off at around 65 - 70 kits, but I needed a lot of runway. The 'Van climbs very slowly, only some 650 fpm and at around a steady 65 kts the whole way. As the cloudbase was quite low I kept to a 2500 ft cruise altitude, and finally managed to speed up to 110 kts as I left Pittsburgh astern.
The panel is rather neat, and quite fully equipped, both in 3D and 2D form, but for some reason neither fuel gauge actually works, reading OVER 100% the entire time!
Heading just south of west to start with, I flew south of Pittsburgh city itself, but it was surely visible over to my right. I had a good set of radio aids to use and was able to home on various VORs and NDBs too, which was good as the Aerovan was buffeted about by the gusty wind quite a bit. Being such a small aeroplane sometimes had disadvantages, I doubt he Bev would even have noticed!
Heading towards Ohio, for a very short while I was flying over an arm of West Virginia which stretches north between Pennsylvania and Ohio, all very odd, but soon I crossed the Ohio River itself and into Ohio itself. Oddly I crossed the river just south of a seaplane base, Wellsburg Base, WV46. Not something I expected to see this far inland.
Heading out into the west the land flattened out somewhat and became very forested indeed, trees EVRYwhere. I passed over one nice little field, Harrison Co. 8G6, right on the edge of those trees.
From that point on I turned a little further to the south and headed directly toward Columbus, the state capital, but it was a long, flat stretch before the city hove over the horizon. I realised I was getting closer to civilisation as more and more freeways started to appear below me.
After that it was straight track all the way onto the runway at Dayton, and was able to throttle back and slide gently down toward I19.
The Aerovan was very pitch sensitive to its flap setting, and with full flap I was coming down like a turbo-charged elevator, and ended up far too low, and had to grab more throttle rather quickly.
I did just skate over the field boundary and plonked Oscar Zulu somewhere on the runway, just not on the centre line, nor on the numbers either, and taxied to parking. I19 is another of those totally building-less fields that seem to pepper FSX, such a pity.
Not the fastest flight I've made, but a very enjoyable one, just keeping the 'Van airborne some of the time. My average speed was 87 kts and I only burnt 11 galls of fuel! Couldn't be more different to the Bev if I tried.
My aircraft choice for Leg 26 is another British cargo hauler with a high wing and a pod & boom fuselage, but at the totally opposite end of the size scale to the Beverley. It's the Miles Aerovan, a tiny aeroplane, one third the size of the Bev, TWENTY SIX times lighter, and with 38 times less power! Melo will remember this particular one, G-AGOZ, as it's the same aeroplane that I flew in a Compuserve Flight Rally a long time ago. The Rally was to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and I flew it from where I actually was at the time, in Ireland. The flight took me over two weeks!
This FSX model is a much better one than the one I flew back then, which was in FS4 or 5 I think, and the current version is very nicely done, complete with an opening rear cargo door, and front cockpit door.
Even better, the Aerovan even has cargo loaded aboard, and you can see that the internal door from the cockpit to the hold opens as well.
The 'Van has quite good ground handling, but with only 300 bhp in total it takes a while to get going and it took me a while to taxi all the way down to the Pittsburgh threshold. With 50% flaps lowered I started my take-off run, and eventually lifted off at around 65 - 70 kits, but I needed a lot of runway. The 'Van climbs very slowly, only some 650 fpm and at around a steady 65 kts the whole way. As the cloudbase was quite low I kept to a 2500 ft cruise altitude, and finally managed to speed up to 110 kts as I left Pittsburgh astern.
The panel is rather neat, and quite fully equipped, both in 3D and 2D form, but for some reason neither fuel gauge actually works, reading OVER 100% the entire time!
Heading just south of west to start with, I flew south of Pittsburgh city itself, but it was surely visible over to my right. I had a good set of radio aids to use and was able to home on various VORs and NDBs too, which was good as the Aerovan was buffeted about by the gusty wind quite a bit. Being such a small aeroplane sometimes had disadvantages, I doubt he Bev would even have noticed!
Heading towards Ohio, for a very short while I was flying over an arm of West Virginia which stretches north between Pennsylvania and Ohio, all very odd, but soon I crossed the Ohio River itself and into Ohio itself. Oddly I crossed the river just south of a seaplane base, Wellsburg Base, WV46. Not something I expected to see this far inland.
Heading out into the west the land flattened out somewhat and became very forested indeed, trees EVRYwhere. I passed over one nice little field, Harrison Co. 8G6, right on the edge of those trees.
From that point on I turned a little further to the south and headed directly toward Columbus, the state capital, but it was a long, flat stretch before the city hove over the horizon. I realised I was getting closer to civilisation as more and more freeways started to appear below me.
After that it was straight track all the way onto the runway at Dayton, and was able to throttle back and slide gently down toward I19.
The Aerovan was very pitch sensitive to its flap setting, and with full flap I was coming down like a turbo-charged elevator, and ended up far too low, and had to grab more throttle rather quickly.
I did just skate over the field boundary and plonked Oscar Zulu somewhere on the runway, just not on the centre line, nor on the numbers either, and taxied to parking. I19 is another of those totally building-less fields that seem to pepper FSX, such a pity.
Not the fastest flight I've made, but a very enjoyable one, just keeping the 'Van airborne some of the time. My average speed was 87 kts and I only burnt 11 galls of fuel! Couldn't be more different to the Bev if I tried.