#4 London Bridge, but I'm falling down!

Start: EGDM, 1125; $2055.40 and 27gal

A beautiful day for a flight! An early lunch, and we're off 30 minutes before noon. I've added a Poker-faced Policeman to my 2 politicians, so it's a full flight for this leg. More nice pastoral scenery -- FSX seems to think that southern England is made up entirely of small farms. Maybe it is!

End: EGHJ, 1151; 3130.40 and 24gal

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The politicians have exited, and I've picked up a Weather Girl (no pun intended -- I've still got the bobby on board!). I'm at Bembridge airport. Is this the same Bembridge that's mentioned so often in the Mummy movies? Guess I'd better fire up Wikipedia and find out!

I'm headed for London City airport, so I know there'll be some great photo ops. I must confess, though, that I haven't researched London at all (since my actual visit in 2001), so I may miss some of the sights. I think I'll spend a day or two, and do some aerial touring on my own. But for now, I'll just follow the Thames. That should at least get me Parliament, the White Tower and the London Eye. Plus that building shaped like a fat rocketship!

The White Tower, and the Gherkin!

Wow -- I know my system isn't the latest and greatest, but approaching London really slows my framerate to a crawl! I usually get rates in the teens, and sometimes into the low 20s. But now I'm looking at about 3fps, and things are pretty jerky on the screen. I think I may be making out my Christmas List early this year!

Flying down the Thames between Big Ben and the London Eye.

Warning: Kids, don't try this at home. My very first flight in FSX was from San Francisco, and after crossing the city and Alcatraz, I flew under the Golden Gate Bridge. So, upon finding Tower Bridge, I just couldn't help myself. But it's not a good idea, in real life or in FSX. Apparently all that empty space isn't, because FSX registers it as a crash when you go "through" the bridge (either that, or the policeman shot me!). Thoroughly chastised, I dust myself off and restrain myself the next time!

Trying to thread the needle.

I should note that despite the very low framerate, London looks pretty good. This is the default FSX scenery. I have tried OrbX scenery in the past, and I have also tried VFR London, but my system is just too slow and my graphics card is too old. The wonderfully detailed, greatly improved graphics never get a chance to load and everything looks very fuzzy and lo-res. So, for now I have to stick with the default graphics. Luckily, they're pretty good!

End: EGLC, 1236; $4619.15 and 19gal

Cool -- I've got nearly $5,000 to spend in London!

#3 Stonehenge

Start: EGVA, 1720; $2055.40 and 30gal

Now I'm back in business! I've got two Polite Politicians (only in the UK!) who want to go south, and so do I. After a tour of Stonehenge from the air, I'll stop off at the nearby Boscombe Down airstrip to pick up one additional passenger, and then continue on to their destination.

I've not been to Stonehenge, but I've seen plenty of photos. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that FSX doesn't do it justice. Although I'm glad they included it at all, it sure seems small and insignificant. I dropped down to 500 AGL feet for my screen shots, but it still looks to me like a few scattered Logo bricks! See for yourself....

Stonehenge, out standing in its field!

Maybe the problem is that I'm still too far away. While impressive, Stonehenge probably isn't all that large, since these massive blocks were moved by hand (unless you believe the ancient aliens stories). So, from 500 feet up, it might look a bit small. Back at EGDM, I rent a PT Cruiser, and go for a little drive. Using my special VIP access (it costs more, but it's worth it!), I got to park right next to the structure!

Up close and personal!

This may be a recurring issue during this tour. FSX (assisted by UTX and GEX) do an admirable job of rendering the world's scenery. But the great majority of the man-made structures are "generic"; all the well-known landmarks require custom modeling and an unbelievable amount of work to place all over the globe. If Stonehenge was a bit underwhelming, we'll next see if London knocks my socks off!

End: EGDM, 1751; $2055.40 and 27gal

#2 Wales

Start: EGCC, 1415; $567 and 49gal

Now it's off to Haverfordwest with 2 Shakespearean actors. This leg primarily serves as a fly-over tour of Wales. Beautiful country, rendered very well by FSX, UTX and GEX. The rough winds kept up, and my two actors were unusually quiet and just a little green!

Welch countryside

I'm cheating a little bit. Before starting this tour, I flew around Wales a bit (following the route of my actual visit in back in the '90s). Specifically, I flew over both Conwy and Caernarvon castles. Unfortunately, while impressive in real life, they are non-existent in FSX! So, for this tour, I just flew and admired the natural scenery.

End: EGFE, 1544; $1857.60 and 39gal

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I've exchanged my actors for two Private Passengers headed for St. Athan Air Base. That's right on my way, plus I'll have a nice view of the Welsh coastline. The passengers were very private indeed, not saying more than a few words. A bit mysterious and more than a little melodramatic, if you ask me!

End: EGDX, 1631; $2255.40 and 35gal

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No one from the air base is going my way, so I'm flying empty on this next leg. Roughly 60 miles, still heading east. Passing straight over Bristol, but no other noteworthy sights on this leg.

End: EGVA, 1715; $2255.40 and 30gal

#1 Yorkshire Dales

Start: EGNM, 1321; $0 and 54 gallons of fuel

James Herriot (the pen-name of British veterinarian Alf Wight) had a huge impact on my life. He is why I became a veterinarian (although, to be honest, my inner geekiness led me to a career as a veterinary pathologist instead of a cow doctor!). So, the place I want to see first is the Yorkshire Dales. I've been to England twice and Scotland once, but I've never actually visited Yorkshire.

Planning and painting took all morning, so I didn't get started until early afternoon. A quick pre-flight inspection, a few photos for posterity, and we're off! I'm using real-time weather, and the sky is threatening and the wind is gusting up to 20kts. But we've been through worse, especially in a simulator!

The Yorkshire Dales are nice in FSX, but Harrogate is more modern than I was hoping for. I suppose that's the one downside to touring the virtual world -- it's only as real as Microsoft took the time to program. I have installed Ultimate Terrain X (USA and Europe) and Ground Environment X (North America and Europe), and it's improved the appearance of the scenery. But it's still just a simulation. Speaking of which, I find that weather (particularly clouds) takes a real toll on my framerate, so I may have to cheat once in a while for the sake of good photographs.

Anyway, having taking my short detour through Yorkshire, I then headed for the POL VOR, mostly to practice my IFR navigation, and to get me pointed in the right direction! I started learning about NDBs, VORs and ADFs, but somehow didn't really get the hang of it -- a bit too much work to plan out my course by linking radio beacons. Plus, once I found the GPS, I never looked back. But it turns out, I can navigate pretty well without even looking at the GPS! So, I'm off to Manchester to finally deliver my passenger. I hope he didn't mind taking the scenic route.

Yorkshire, and the farms James Herriot used to visit.

End: EGCC, 1403; $567 and 49gal

Early Planning

Today I'm starting my world tour. I'm still working out the details of what to record, how to format it, and just exactly how I'll decide where to go next. I've got a few ideas of places I'd like to see, but there are large regions of the planet that I know little to nothing about. I'm going to try my best to make this tour pay for itself by flying as many FSE jobs as I can, while trying to avoid detours just to chase the almighty dollar. So I suspect that I'll be planning this trip one day at a time, since I'll never be sure just where I'll end up each day. Occasionally, I'll take a day off for virtual sightseeing (or because real-life catches up with me!).

My plane is the FSX Cessna 172SP Skyhawk. It was originally christened "Chicken Hawk", and flown from Idaho to northern Scotland. In preparation for this circumnavigation, I have renamed her "Globe Trotter" and re-registered her as GLOBE (to be legal, the UK registration would be G-LOBE, but that makes it sound like the vaguely risque "G Lobe" instead of "Globe"!). Here's a picture of her new paint job:

As the trip progresses, I'll add flags of each nation I visit, and update the route map on the side of the plane. Wish me luck!

Around the World in 80 Days?

After flying CHKN-HK (the ChickenHawk) just over 6,300 nautical miles across Canada, around Greenland, over to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and finally to the UK, it occurred to me that there's no reason to restrict myself to my planned tour of Europe. So, the goal of circumnavigating the globe was born. But unlike many around-the-world flights, I'm not going to set any speed records. As long as I'm going to fly 24,000 miles (more or less), I may as well see a few sights! So, I'm going to assemble a list of 100 sights that I want to see, based partly on my own interests and partly on FSE destinations. Let's see where I end up going!