In Progress I can show you the world - Let's fly MSFS 2024

[Hag]

unplanned alcohol poisoning

In France we call it Monday.

Indeed. Let's see what the 1990 5th edtion "Manuel du Pilote d'Avion - Vol à vue", official VFR training book endorsed by the Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile says about alcohol :

"En ce qui concerne la boisson, l'eau est préférable, cependant une petite quantité de bon vin absorbée au cours du repas est sans danger." (p.38)
"Concerning drinks, prefer water, however drinking a small quantity of good wine during the meal is harmless".

Things have probably change since then. And be careful of those weird "vins naturels"

who needs a clock and chronometer

Don’t you guys have phones?

How do you rate your chances to crash before the end, Hag?

A conservative guess would be 99%. I dodged two crashes already, so it's less a question of whether and more of when and where.

 

[Andnjord]

small quantity of good wine

I love how it specifies good wine. Bad wine will make you crash, good wine will give you wings!

 

[Hag]

And welcome for the second part of this trip. Today's word : ridges.

As an introduction, a quick look at the Federation Peak :

And what's become of it in-game :

Not bad. While the details are missing and the colors are a bit off, the overall landscape shape and lines of sight are spot-on.
Why I am talking about this mountain ? Read on and you'll learn (no, I didn't crashed on it).

Ok, we're set for a 225NM journey.

We're doing a silly notch at the beginning to check the Tasman's Ark we've missed last time then some landmarks hopping : the Neck, the Federation Peak, the Port Davey Marine Reserve (yeah, a marine reserve. Sometimes I can't really explain my choices), Gordon Lake Dam, the Gordon river Horseshoe before landing on the small strip of Strahan.

Spoiler

225NM is 418km, not a small walk by any mean and we're going to need a faster aircraft. Enter the Beechcraft Bonanza :

Huge success for this aircraft produced since 1947. It originally had a V tail and uncommon handling characteristics which earned it the nickname "forked-tailed doctor killer". This one is a modern version with conventional tail and glass cockpit, offering the lazy pilot all the modern convenience of autopiloting and moving maps, but somehow still unable to brew him a coffee.

Needless to say, we won't use any of that (even though I could have used a coffee). We're set and ready to go. Notice at the very right of the windshield two kangaroos doing some weird shit.

Better not disturb them.

Anyway, throttle forward-v1-rotate-positive rate-gear-up-flaps up as would say people paid to fly in real life, and let's take a gander at Hobart, largest city of Tasmania, which is not much to say but still not that backward since, I shit you not, it is the birthplace of Queen Mary of Denmark. Incredible, I know.

Sadly, she's not modeled in-game, but for our viewing pleasure the Tasman's Bridge is here :

You think what I'm thinking ? Yeah, let's crashfly under this shit. Turning and

Wtf
(haven't been able to find any info on that one, but nice catch).
A couple seconds later :

Easy peasy.

The city has full photogrammetric rendering, nice surprise for such a remote place.

Turning East we're coming back to the islands we've left last time. Now let's try to find this goddam ark.

Well, I haven't found anything better than that.
This is what it is suppose to look like :

Otherwise, the large creek above the airplane is called the Waterfall Bay, and the deep notch below is the Devil's Kitchen.
Carrying on we reach the small community of Port Arthur, which I wanted to see because of Battletech flashbacks :

Looks quieter. Imagine living in such a remote place. So peaceful. Apart from morons flying down low buzzing them.

Progressing West we see the Neck appearing on the distance. Also to left side is the Southern Ocean. Next stop Antarctica. We won't be going there.

The Neck isthmus. A bit disappointing to be honest. We have the Presqu'île de Quiberon isthmus at home that's way more impressive. Fantastic trivia : the bay down South (at the leftmost part of the screenshot) is called "the Adventure Bay".
Also see that pointy mountain in the distance. That's where we going.
Pushing further we pass Mount Bounty and its comfy-looking pastures :

Nice cliff head at the back.

Notice how luxurious this plane is. It's empty because passengers have terrible uncanny faces in this game. You can have a copilot and sometimes when you turn right he looks straight in your eyes with a Zuckenberg-like void stare. Scary shit.

Reaching the Adamsons Peak, our current target. Next let's find the Federation Peak.

Aaand that's the moment you've been all waiting for : I fucked up.
I had not written down the precise bearing to the peak so I simple eyeballed the highest mountain the broad direction. Turns out it was not the Federation Peak, famous and very photogenic rock-climbing site, but the much more mundane Mount Picton.
The trip was still worth it as the landscape slowly turned dramatic :

Doing a loop around Mount Picton. Not much to say about it.

But some beautiful ridges rich in lakes stretched along and it was very much worth it. I then turned South to get to the Port Davey marine reserve, turns out there was not even a port but only water. That kind of make sense for a marine reserve in retrospect.

Moving North we pass lowlands en route to Lake Gordon, reservoir of the famous Gordon dam. The ridges intensify.

Made me wonder what kind of geological phenomenon formed those strange shapes.

And here's the dam, it's 140m high. I don't know what's that vertical thing at its left. Pretty sure it is not a waterfall.

We've seen the Gordon Lake and the Gordon dam, nos let's fly down the - you guessed it - Gordon river :

After those austere ridges, we're reaching an easy place of lush and green.

Climbing up you can see the lake at the top left. The sea is never too far away.

And behold, the Horseshoe bend !
Yeah, great. Maybe there's a reason you had never heard of it before.

Flying Westward toward Strahan, over the Macquarie Harbour fjord. It has an average depth of 15m.

Strahan, 634 souls, and its airstrip.

Buzzing the place. Not much to see.

But what an immaculate landing strip !

And back to the plancher des vaches, time for cocktails.

But before, debriefing :

Well, everything went perfectly except that I turned around the wrong summit. I also elected to follow the river downstream instead of jumping some ridge North of the Dam.

And before we part, some Tasmanian tree ferns :

See you soon for our last Tasmanian discovery journey before climbing up to the freaking large Australia.

 

[Hag]

It was early morning.

Maybe too early actually.

Sky was lighting up in the East, and to the East I was going, to Launceston, where our trip had started :

Spoiler

On the distance I could see the mountains, and not much more :

It then dawned (eh) on me that the day was not breaking, the clouds were low and it was not going to be fun. So I decided to climb over the clouds to enjoy a spotless view on sunrise. Seeing the Orion constellation on the way :

By the earliest light I could see another county airport below :

Anytime now :

Or so I thought, as the winter/summer Sun is lazy in those latitude.

But it was such a show of light. Meanwhile I was climbing to find the Sun fastest, flying orbits over Lake St Clair. And finally :

The first rays of the morning. Did I mention this game is gorgeous ?

This game is gorgeous.

After some more time, I (painfully) reached 20000 ft. Not bad for a plane rated at 13500 ft.

Now that light is available, let's get started, one hour into the flight.

Those are some low clouds.

Low and windy. You can see on the aircraft instrument screen a little arrow next to the compass, with a "22" along. It means there were 22 knots of wind blowing on my tail.

Do you remember, in the movie Airplane, how every time the pilots take their hands of the yoke the plane starts to shake violently ? It was the same here and it was painful to fly. I almost crashed twice because of erratic wind gusts along the mountains that sometimes threw my small plane downward.

But the view was worth it.

Mount Ossa (1617m).

And those lakes. Quite a staple of Western Tasmania. Also the clouds started to clear up.

And here is Craddle Mountain. Time head Eastward, crossing broad plateaus :

Passing a dam on Lake Cethana, on the river Forth :

On of these summit has been cleverly called the "Round Mountain". Guess they ran out of explorer names and Biblical figures.

Meanwhile those ridges and cliffs ease themselves into the fertile plains of North Tasmania :

This fat plateau is Mount Roland, prolonged by a small ridge that forms the Gog Range National Reserve. Its two highest points being called... Gog and Magog.

Now is for long stretches of land, welcome relief after the tiring fights against the mountains winds. But Launceston looks bathed in fog :

Luckily hitting the deck allowed me to fly below it and find my way in the hills out of the town, looking for the next landmark :

The Cataract Gorge, barely a mile away from city center. Btw, see those bridges ?

I like bridges.
But it was now time to land in the nearby airport. Just because, I decided to use the VOR radionavigation beacon of the airport to guide me (the green arrow on the compass) :

And we're done !

The flight's trace :

Actually I was planning to fly a much longer distance and leave Tasmania but I lost so much time at the beginning doing those notches and turns waiting for the Sun to rise I decided to cut it short at Launceston. It was almost a three hours flight already.

Next time we're flying over the NE part of the island, to hopefully island-hop up North and reach the Australian coast !

 

[Andnjord]

Damn did that look impressive in screenshots, I wonder how it looks in motion.

 

[Hag]

Damn did that look impressive in screenshots, I wonder how it looks in motion.

Well, on the one hand the screenshots are curated and I don't post the more mundane ones, nor the occasional weird texture or building from up close.
On the other hand it looks very good most of the time, the clouds and light effects in particular are top notch and very much the same than in the screenshots, sometimes even better since it's in motion.
Considering how well it runs (I cap at 60fps and read several players saying it was running actually better than the 2020 version) it's a very competent piece of code.

 

[Hag]

Part 4 : Australia ! Horror ! Disappointment ! Promontory !

Now that we've warmed up our wings with this discovery trip of Tasmania, let's get started for real and head North to the huge Australian continent.

A 410 NM trip. The leg to the East is to see the Bay of Fires and its orange rocks. Then it's a simple matter of island hopping until we catch the Wilsons Promontory Peninsula. I could have landed in Melbourne straight away but I wanted to see the Yarra Valley, famous for its wine (WP12), and most importantly Mount Disappointment (WP13) that, I'm sure, will live up to its name. Then land in Avalon as it's a lovely name.

Spoiler

Such a long trip requires a fast and resourceful steed. And can I find a better choice than the legendary Douglas DC-3 ?

Arguably the most successful plane ever conceived, with 88 years of continuous service, more rugged and reliable than my old Austrian combat boots, a certain restrained elegance and very fun handling in the game.

And look at that cockpit ! These two large instruments are the interface of the A-3 gyroscopic autopilot, a basic autopilot used in WW2 aircraft. Needless to say, I won't be using it (if only because it's perky and bugged).

We have full comfort for the trip, so let's fire those Wright R-182 Cyclone engines and ride the thin air.

Clear left, clear right.

And here we are again above Launceston's hills, Mount Arthur's shape sitting on the horizon.

Northern Tasmania is mostly uneventful, safe for the small hill above called Mount Horror ! Behind is Little Mount Horror, which is kind of cute.

Once again the fertile plains recedes into familiar Tasmanian wilderness.

And once again we find the open ocean. A few thousand kilometers eastward lays New Zealand, but for now let's dive to the Bay of Fires, right in the middle of above screenshot.

Yeah, it's kind of orange I guess. We may need to check closer.

That'll do. Since we talk in the previous posts about how the "real" game looks, I included a few screenshots from lesser favorable angles in this report. So yeah, from close by it can look raw.

Climbing up we leave the Cape Naturaliste and its lakes. That's the last we'll see of Tasmania. Sayonara.

Very soon we find ourselves over the Lungatalanana Indigenous Reserve Island.

Then Truwana Island.

Then the large Flinders Island.

Passing between Mount Belstead and Mount Razorback in the Strzelecki National Park (this shit is going to turn me into some significant geography buff).

Banking towards the Flinders Island airport, one of my waypoints.

But very soon we're back against the blue sea. Next waypoint is the small Kent Group Islands, the largest being called Dead Island. And finally :

Australia coast looming shape !

This is the aforementioned Wilsons Promontory peninsula, highest peak Mount Latrobe.

The game UI was so good as to point a landmark there, zooming up we see the silhouette of a lighthouse cleverly named the Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse. Let's close by.

Couldn't manage to snap a better picture.

Let's resume the flight, over the isthmus.

Looks so flat and inhabited compared to savage Tasmania. This sand bank is called Sandy Point. Let's have a moment to think about Western explorers who had to come with a name for anything remotely interesting they stumbled upon.

Overflying Inverloch, eleventh waypoint. I like this shot.

Quiet plains. The island sitting in the bay on the left is called French Island.
What a nice flight. No turbulence. Easy landmarks. Good plane. Enough fuel. It's so good when all goes according to plan and shit doesn't decide to hit the fan all of a sudden.

Oh, about that :
THEN SHIT DECIDED TO HIT THE FAN ALL OF A SUDDEN.
Engines stopped.
Main tanks were empty.
I switched to auxiliary and restarted the engines.

Nothing happened.

I did it again and still nothing fucking happened and again while checking all the procedures on the internet and still no power and gliding down and again and down and again until FUCK FUCK FUCK SHIT FUCK

I dedicate this screenshot to Andnjord

I was down, in all but in spirit since I was pissed.
After searching around, turns out the default DC-3 fuel selectors are bugged and can only feed the engines from the main fuel tanks. When they are on the "Off" position. Don't ask me.

Well, I was glad it wasn't my fault, and since it's but a game I managed to respawn, repair and refuel above my crash site and carried on. It was however a tad stressful, almost two hours into the flight, and while I was busy not dying the plane drifted in some random direction, so I was lost. In the end I cheated to identify some nice lake I found on my unplanned path :

That's the Cardinia Reservoir for you, straight East of Melbourne.

From there it was easy to reach the Maroondah reservoir, waypoint 12, this unassuming lake whose small size and steep surrounding made for a terrible navigation mark. But at last I was above Yarra Valley.

Looks good from above, looks even better on the internet pictures.

And finally :

Mount Disappointment.

No fucking comment.

Let's get over it.

Heading South.

Zooming in the Melbourne direction brings blurry textures and a hand-placed bridge that I may check next time.

Found the airstrip.

There actually was a bit of wind coming sideways, and I was getting tired.

Let's be honest, that was not my best landing.

But this plane can take a beating so it's not grass that'll stop the flight from being successful.
Phew.

Before getting drunkresponsibly prepare next flight, the trace :

Was good for the most part. The weird loops and westward notch below the Yarra Valley marker are the unfortunate remnants of my crash.
You can notice some unsteady flight and a loop just before landing : I actually tried to home on the airport with the primitive radio-navigation equipment of the DC-3 but a mix of inexperience, tiredness and spacial disorientation made me hunt for the correct heading, and since I arrived to fast I flew a tight loop to bleed off speed.

But at last here we are. We have a continent to cross now.

 

[Andnjord]

I would say about damn time but the fact that the crash wasn’t your fault is robbing me of any joy.


Either way, t’is a lovely sight for sure. I have to wonder though how many “Sandy Point” there are in the world, it’s not like the explorers had an internet accessible database or even decent maps at the time (those really came in the 19th century).

 

[Sinilevä]

I wonder how similar the ground is to the reality. Can't wait to see some familiar areas.

 

[Hag]

I would say about damn time but the fact that the crash wasn’t your fault is robbing me of any joy.

Don't worry, there's still a long way to go. If anything, crashing so early in the trip promises much more. It is kind of a warm up crash.

Either way, t’is a lovely sight for sure. I have to wonder though how many “Sandy Point” there are in the world, it’s not like the explorers had an internet accessible database or even decent maps at the time (those really came in the 19th century).

Wikipedia lists 20 Sandy Points around the world, half of them in the USA. There are also 27 Rocky Points, 20 Round Mountain, and 1 flat point.

 

[Hag]

Part 5 : Where not much happens

Here is the 439NM trip I planned, kind of counterproductive to head W then E again but there are some mountains range I want to check on the Eastern coast :

However, soon after takeoff two things became obvious :
- for some reason my joystick-bindings did not work with the P-51 Mustang I was flying, so I had to rebind them all.
- I was quite tired and flying straight was actually difficult.

So I decided to fly halfway to Mount Gambier and its famous Blue Lake (as unique as the thirty-six other lakes named so). I'll start with a small detour to check Melbourne and its bridge we've made out last time.

Spoiler

The famous Mustang, in all its Flight Simulator glory. Some of you may remember I flew it on some daring DCS trip, so I was eager to compare the two version. Alas, here it is very rough if not bugged. Its engine is overpowered and keeps the same speed whatever you do, it is a bitch to take-off and land because of its ridiculous torque, almost no engine systems are modeled, its range is ridiculously short (while the real-life plane was known for its long endurance) and its default liveries are ugly. Somehow the two-stages supercharger does work.
But it was disappointing, and while its speed could have made it the perfect vehicle for the long legs above the infinite landmass that awaits us soon I'll think twice now before choosing it.

Still it did its job.

Brought us to Melbourne downtown.

The bridge !

Business as usual.

The photogrammetry can be weird from up-close.

The city looks a bit scorched to be honest, I hope it is more pleasant to live than it looked from this brief virtual overflight.

You can guess some landmass in the distance, Maybe King Island, a large empty land NW of Tasmania (one of 15 of the same name).

Some funky lagoons.

Pushing West, the forests of the Great Otway.

Arriving at Lorne. There is some well-known waterfall called the Erskine Falls close by, it was actually a waypoint but there was nothing in-game.

Cute hills above Apollo Bay.

Nice... waves ? cliffs ? glitches ?

Land of small hills ceding to flatter, more arid farmlands.
But also home to the Twelve Apostles !

Or so is the prestigious name of those solitary rocks dropped along the coast, one of the most famous tourist attraction of the state (and modeled in game with a higher resolution). Closer you can see a deeper bay along the cliffs, it is the Loch Ard Gorge, famous place of an eponymous shipwreck. Also the uncommon rufous bristlebird (Dasyornis broadbenti) is often observed around the Gorge.

Carrying on. This surprisingly festive estuary is home of the Peterborough Coastal Reserve. Nearby, by the coast and probably out of the screenshot is the Massacre Hill.

The dry coast of Port Fairy. Far in the distance appears the green summits of the Grampians National Park, home of such marvels are Mount Abrupt and Mount Marum Marum, and that we will cross next time.

And here we arrive at Mount Gambier with not one, but two lakes awaiting us. Closer is Valley Lake, above is the Blue Lake, quite deserving of its name indeed (the color is true to life), and is also called Warwar. It is a crater lake.

And close North is the Mount Gambier airport, where I wrestle the far too nervous aircraft to a decent landing.

Could be worse.

So in the end :

Worst navigation so far, since I was a bit too tired for this shit and mixed two peninsulas during the long leg over water.
Onto next time, have a fresh one, and if you fly do it cautiously.

 

[Andnjord]

“Massacre Hill”

I use to live in a place, it was called Kilburn, street name Shoot Up Hill. Sometimes people get tired of the Avenue Roads or Sandy Points and get a little bit more grim.

 

[Demo.Graph]

Sometimes people get tired of the Avenue Roads or Sandy Points and get a little bit more grim.

 

[Hag]

Good news everyone ! I light of those recent discoveries I am glad to announce our trip will take us to Mount Buggery and Bullshit Hill !

 

[Hag]

Part 6 : Where I discover the importance of that little button top right of the cockpit.

So the second part of the journey to Mangalore, en route to see the glorious mountain ranges of the Eastern Coast (starting with the Mount Buggery), announced itself a tad boring, so I choose a fast jet, the L-39. Also I chose a "Telenn Du" buckwheat beer for the flight.
But whereas the L-39 has a bug where it does not burn fuel, I had the opposite issue with my tasty beverage and it went down faster than expected. Will this have any effect on my driving ? Click the spoiler for the surprising answer !

Spoiler

Here is our cute little ride. The Czech Aero L-39 was the standard advanced trainer of Warsaw Pact air forces, and has been generously exported and upgraded. New versions are still in production today. It is a good looking machine, although in my expert opinion undeserving its official "Albatross" nickname with its short wings. "Jay" would have been more appropriated.

A docile plane, but the shaky takeoff announced a strong wind and a bumpy trip.

Also many clouds. While the clouds lifted by the end of the trip, the wind stayed constant and at altitude the plane shook so much it was ridiculous.

Neatly organized land.

Few hills.

Reaching the Rocklands Reservoir, another inspired name and our first waypoint. We're heading slightly right, toward the dark shape of the Grampians National Park.

Beautiful mountains. I guess. Maybe the view will be better on the other slope.

And indeed it is ! So, what can we see from here ? The pond is the Moora Moora Reservoir. The aggressive peak on the right is the Billimina Rock. In the valley between the two ranges are three hills : the Green Hill on the right, and the two Sisters one almost on top of the other.
On the farther range the can guess from right to left (S to N, farther from closer) either Mount Sturgeon or the Picanniny, then the larger Abrupt Peak, then Signal Peak. Then clouds, then just after the clouds, kind of aligned with the Sisters is Mount Marum Marum. Mount Lang then Mount Frederik are probably around the area where another range appears in the distance.

Passing a mountain in the fog ? The best condition to perform what is called in pilot's jargon a CFIT.

Passing the last range of the Grampians. The fat rocks above the cockpit of the plane is the Major Mitchell Plateau.

And passing the crest we're falling into some low clouds.
You may have noticed that for the few last screenshots the screen on top of the cockpit was off. This was the consequence of pressing a wrong key shortcut. I thought it was benign at first since I was still flying well but it actually cut all electrical power to the aircraft. While the engine was turning fine thanks to soviet engine design, avionics were off. Not a big deal for the GPS, but turns out the gyrocompass, the large heading indicator on the middle-left of the dashboard, was also off.

By the time I realized all of this (until then I was busy shooting the beautiful mountains) I had taken the wrong direction. Funny how much you can turn to try to align a broken compass. I'm sure the beer had no impact on this small error of judgement.

So I ended up in the middle of the plains, wondering where the hell was the town of Ararat that was on the planned leg. I thought it was there, turns out it didn't had an airstrip where it should have, so I was lost.

I eventually managed to power up the systems again and, using the now distant ranges as broad indication, found my way to Ararat. Phew. From now, I'm sure all will go well.

The airstrip at the correct place. The two mountains in the distance are left Mount Buangor and right the Sugarloaf, that's above a plateau called Snowgums Lookout. Australia really is a silly place.

Some wind turbines can be made out on the hills.

Passing the Sugarloaf with style.

And back to clouds. It feels so good to have the gyrocompass back.

Well, after some more flying, I realized that I was lost, again, which was getting annoying. Finally I decided to use the dumb magnetic compass that has been hidden in front of the windshield all this time and there was like a 10° difference with the gyro, that did not magically reset after being turned off and carried a small but very real offset.

Sooo finding no landmark around I turned back.

Buangor and Sugarloaf, this time from the South.

See that minuscule black button on the top right of the dashboard, below this bright orange lamp ? It is the button to realign the gyrocompass. Found it by chance, after looking everywhere else.

Carrying on. Zooming in we see a lake that may be the waypoint I was looking for (it actually wasn't but it was aligned with it so good enough).

To the South, some dark hills above Melbourne Bay. On one of them lies Disappointment Hill, a place I will never forget.

Now it was time to find where to land this ship. I knew the airport was North of this large hill, I looked right, I looked left all to no avail, I couldn't see it.

Because I was straight above it.

Airbrakes out, spiralling to land. After the untamed wildness of Tasmania and all the coasts we've followed, those infinite plains of bright fields are quite a novel sight.

Nailed a pretty solid crosswind landing, despite the flaps not coming down for some reason. You can see the enthusiast windsock above the tail of the blue plane on the left, not bad.

And at last, we are at Mangalore airport. Why is it called like a large Indian city ? Well, let's check Wikipedia :

The area was named by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Anderson, commandant of the penal colony on Norfolk Island, who took up 34,000 hectares (85,000 acres) of land in the area in 1838. He called the property after the Indian military station, Mangalore, commanded by his brother, General John Anderson.

So, about this disaster :

Good thing I was flying above 400km/h, with all the time I lost losing my way. Not very glorious.
But stay tuned ! Next time, we're going for some mountains seeing. Real mountains this time, not those pesky hills we've seen until now.

 

[Hag]

Small update. I was started on the great trip through the mountains, with a nice aircraft and everything seemed to be going according to plan.

However I quickly found that I was going to change my habits. You see, until now I used for navigation during flights the map image I post on the beginning of each report, for example today's flight was :

I gives me for each leg the bearing and distance, and until now the precision was good enough. Following coasts or using isolated peaks or lake as marks left little room for mistake once I knew I was in the right heading.
However to single a mountain among mountains requires a much higher precision. Look at the trail of today's flight (and Wombat Hill) :

Since I couldn't zoom in to see where I was supposed to turn above the lake (I did not remember as I planned the trip a couple days ago) I turned too early. I then passed Mount Buller and its buildings :

Easy to pinpoint on the second zoomed in map, but invisible on the first one I was using. So in the end I targeted the wrong peak, turned NW too early, ran a perfect 44° leg right on heading and time but ended at the wrong place, and since I couldn't check my position against all the roads and rivers I passed I got lost.

In the end I decided to fly back to Manfield on the shores of the Lake, nailing a pretty good navigation since I came within 100m of my target after a 42NM leg :

So next time I'll use the zooming map of Little Navmap, hiding my position during the flight, and all shall be well.

I leave you with a few uncommented screenshot of this aborted flight :

Spoiler

 

[Hag]

Part 7 : Glorious Mountains, Alps, and l337 5k1llz

So, let's jump into our small Extra 300 aerobatics plane and resume our aborted trip, from the small town of Mansfield to Canberra, a city well-known for not being Sydney.

Spoiler

I also had a few crashes trying to start the mission, as well as weird control bugs. It settled after I disabled some mods, but it was the first time the game was acting that shitty for me.
But my initial pissed mood disappeared after a few minutes of flight, because this is still glorious :

I'm also using a modded version of the plane to bring it closer to the real plane specifications and sort out most bugs. Worked well so far.

Soon after leaving the Lake Eildon reservoir, our first landmark : wonderful Mount Buggery (1608m), the very closest domed summit just top of the wingtip on above screenshot. Right closer and sadly under the wing should be the Horrible Gap. The ridge behind (looks like a double peak on the picture) it is called the Crosscut Saw.

And looking port side is Mount Speculation (1666m). There may or may not be jokes to do here. On its right is lower Mount Despair.

And after this rich harvest in silly names we're set for a long line toward Mount Feathertop (1922m).

Getting closer, we can catch a glimpse of the town of Harrietville in the valley beneath. The small place was a gold mining center, created during the so-called Victorian Gold Rush.

Doing a 180° dramatic climb over Feathertop summit. Harrietville valley behind, and fat in the distance appears a great plateau : Mount Buffalo.
We have now entered the so-called Australian Alps, highest mountain range of the continent, and only place where it snows every year.

Gliding down North-East we quickly find ourselves in view of the idyllic place of Mount Beauty. The high summit on its right is Mount Bogong, while the hill above the lake is Little Mount Emu, which is below, of course, Mount Emu.

The cute strip of adorable Mount Beauty. Looks like a positively laidback place I'd love to rest to.

But we leave, shedding a single tear, as we still have a few dozen thousand kilometers to go.

Took some altitude on the way. In the valley we can see in the distance lays the town of Mitta Mitta. Hidden from view is Mount Misery, but the summit slightly left of the weird triangle wing apparatus s Mount Welcome.

Lake Dartmouth reservoir, one of the waypoints, is quite glitchy.

Our next destination lays hidden beneath a cloud. It is Mount Kosciusko (2228m), Australia highest summit, and beginning of the Snowy Mountains range (still part of the local Alps). It was named by some Polish explorer after the Kościuszko Mound in Krakow. Of course it had several Aboriginal names before that but their opinion was not needed.

Getting closer...

And here it is ! Kind of Alpine looking indeed, compared to all those small summits we've seen until then. But there is no snow.

I tried changing the date to Southern winter to see if the satellite images updated but no.

Still not half a bad place. The small ridge right above the plane is called the Etheridge Ridge. I'm sure some of you are starting to believe I'm making those names up (I'm not).

Carrying on eastward along this bumpy slope. Wait, what do I see in the distance (apart from various summit such as Mount Perisher, The Paralyser or the Blue Cow Mountain) ?

Snow ! This trip delivers.

And sliding down we've already quit the mountains.

Crossing Lake Eucumbene reservoir, after we passed the Cobrabald Hill.

The small Adaminaby settlement.

Looking the other side, another beautiful valley. I must say I very much enjoyed the views on this part of the trip.

Mount Gudgenby shows us some nice rocks.

Soon the weather turns... unclement.

But I shall carry on, trying not to get distracted by taking too many screenshots of the clouds and light patches. This last peak single-handedly carrying the clouds is Mount Tennent (1375m), the last we'll see of this Southern Alps range.

Finally, passing the Murrumbidgee river, is Canberra.

And dominating Canberra is the Telstra tower. What an eyesore.

This otherwise ugly building is Capital Hill, on top of the Parliament House.

From which flows toward the river a green patch carrying the Old Parliament House. We can see Canberra is not exactly a sprawling city.

Approaching Canberra Airport.

This is an aerobatics plane after all. Aviation nerd moment : the Extra 300 wings have no angle of attack, to allow easy upside-down flying (the caveat must be that it always need to fly at some angle).

And done. Despite having no flaps, this plane lands easily. Lift surfaces are for nerds anyway.

And the best part :

A perfect on target flight. Turns out finding your way is easier when you have a precise map.

This was one of the best flight I've done so far, pleasant, varied and satisfying. Next time : Sydney, and our last grasp of the sea before a very long journey inland. Cheers !

 

[Hag]

Part 8 : WTF

Soldiering on North-East, toward our secondary target : the Blue Mountains, West of Sydney, that I really want to see because the pictures look beautiful. Also because it is the name of a world in the first Rayman, and I really loved this game.

You know, maybe I've let myself get carried away looking for mountains with funny names lately. Maybe it's time to resume more serious operations. Anyway, our first landmark is Mount Wog Wog. From then we'll reach the coast, to some randomly chosen lighthouse, then to the Kangaroo River Valley and its picturesque Hampden bridge, then go sightseeing in Sydney, before closing at the Blue Mountains and their dedicated airport.

At least, that was the plan.

Spoiler

So we start back at Canberra, with an AI plane crossing our path and some menacing clouds.

We're back in the slow and friendly DR400. I added a realistic mod for it but alas, I didn't notice any difference. It suffered from an annoying tendency to stick to a precise speed whatever I did. I wanted to take up speed so I stayed low but couldn't pass 100MPH, which is a tad annoying when you're set for a 220NM course. In retrospect, maybe the 30MPH wind that made my light craft shake in all directions did slow me.

A small stretch of barren lands after the lush Canberra area.

Found this curiosity by complete chance. An aircraft graveyard ? A small museum ? A Royal Australian Air Force secret facility ? We'll probably never know.

Soon we found us surrounded again by forest green. It's the Bees Nest Nature Reserve where coils the lazy river Shoalhaven.
You may notice there are no mountains in front of us.

So when the timer indicated me I was right at Wog Wog Moutain, I looked around. But Wog Wog was hidden from me. Or was it one of those pesky hills ?

I turned a while, double, triple checking terrain maps to look for clues. On the shape of the hills. Or the turns of the roads.

After a while I decided to head straight South, toward the highest peaks I could see, believing that mountains usually stick together.

I passed lot of various hills and cliffs and rocks.

And here at last waited Wog Wog Mountain, that after all that research I can now find effortlessly on any map. It took me a while to get there. But it was not in vain, as it bore a kingly gift rewarding my patience.

Quite the glorious sight.

Tempted to fly along those cliffs I decided to forego the planned path and instead follow the relief to the sea, where I was headed anyway.

This whole area was breathtaking. Really made me forget how janky this game can be. The pointy summit we've seen in the last shots is the Pigeon House Mountain. Notice the sea in the distance.

Turning toward the sea, with a cute lake perched on a hill. The clouds were not getting any better though.

It was worth getting lost for a while. This little detour did however taxed the fuel.

And since I was quite high already, and the coast was not promising that much, I decided for a change to escape the wind and climb above the clouds.

Man I love clouds. We can peek at Swan lake, and the strangely named Sussex Inlet town.

Further West is the Jervis Bay RAAF airbase. The clouds opened before me to create this corridor I was much pleased to stroll. At least if you can stroll with an airplane.

Vincentia town if I recall correctly.

Coming down over the mark, the Crookhaven lighthouse, somewhere on this rocky point.

Down there weather was still windy and now rain had joined the fray. This is the Shoalhaven river mouth, the same we've passed early in the flight but that is making quite a detour to come to the sea. Kangaroo valley is behind the crest we can see in front of the plane.

We've come back to civilization and its agriculture.

Kangaroo Valley !

I decided to hit the deck, looking for the Hampden Bridge, but to no avail. Found a nondescript lake.

Turned back and oh, the rain is coming to us. I also suffered a case of spatial disorientation as I thought the small lake was North from the bridge, when it was actually West (I misread the map and mixed it with an unrelated lake further away), so when I backtracked I got lost in a, like, 15NM long valley.

After way too much time I nailed the place where the bridge, the river and a small burg should have been, but they weren't in game, so I elected to carry on, a tad disappointed and starting to get weary.
Notice the small dots in the field on the left. I only noticed them afterwards when browsing through the screenshots. I believe those may be the fabled kangaroos.

Full power, pushing the very limited climbing capabilities of my small plane to clear the cliffs.

Easy. Now was about the time I started getting "Engine Malfunction" messages. Nothing was feeling off, but the fuel quantity wasn't getting any better and, two hours in the flight and still a long way from Sydney, I decided to call it off before the engine exploded and elected to divert to the closest airport.

Which was, very fairytale-ly, behind this veil of rain at the end of the valley.

I passed through the rain for the first time, and while the sound of raindrops was really nice, none were showing up on the windshield. Turn out it is a case of "this bug as been reported by 418 people already and may be fixed one day".

And here is the Wollongong airport, unplanned but providential end to today's flight. Still got malfunction messages, still no noticeable issue (It is possible that I overheated or over-revved the engine, but the gauges were all good, so it'll stay a mystery).

Landing was mediocre, but another surprises awaited me as I turned to park the plane.

First a rainbow, then, out-of-nowhere, the HARS MUSEUM. Nice PBY Catalina you have there.

Further on, a Lockheed Neptune maritime patrol aircraft, for some reason in the French Navy colours.

As well as a Saab 340 commuter, and a 747 Jumbo Jet.

Having parked the plane in a fence, I went for a gander around and found this mess.

Along with an unmaked Beechcraft Texan with a gimbal camera. WTF was going on.

And the Catalina, in a sober livery. Turns out A24-362 is a real flying Catalina, with this very livery, based in this very airport. The Jumbo Jet exists too, and you can visit it if you happen to live in the real life and not Flight Simulator. There is also a Neptune, albeit in Australian colours. Not sure what is the deal with the Saab or the Texan though.

Still a pleasant and a bit bewildering surprise at the end of this tiring trip, as no in-game mark indicated there was anything of interest here.

So, what's the flight ?

The real question is why on earth did I had the wrong course during the first leg of the flight. The map gave a 77°M heading, and if you check the screenshot it matched. I have no idea. Since I mostly eyeballed the remaining of the trip, I have no other data for comparison.

I'll leave you with some kangaroos I found when fooling around in freecam at the end to see if there were more aircraft hidden at the museum (nope) :

 

[Hag]

Just flew the last part of last unfinished trip. I'll write the report in a few days, meanwhile I'll leave with a modest spoiler of things to come :

Was it an accident ? Was it a bug ? Is this four-masted barquentine somehow responsible ? Can it be considered a successful landing ? Stay tuned for more news on this novel approach to flight safety !