Post by captrig on Sept 29, 2015 8:26:50 GMT -5
G'morning!
Ahhh... flying Grand Bahama (MYGF)-SEA last night. Just picking up the GEG VOR now from about Elk River, Idaho. I estimated we'd pass 60DME S of GEG and it looks as if that will work out. We're at 88.1DME now & GEG is still 20 degrees off the nose to the right. How cool. I have the EAT VOR tuned up & standing by for the ident to come in. Many things about this simulator just amaze me, such as where ever you are in the world, tune up a NAV facility & it will have the correct IDENT as well as NAV data. From EAT we'll join the arrival into SEA (using retro scenery no K yet) where we'll shoot the ILS to 16 at minimums with a 24 KT XWIND. I don't know about others, but it's work for me to hand fly something like that. Easier to let the auto pilot do it, but then that would be buying into the Electro-Jet philosophy of letting the airplane fly you around while you watch. No thanks'.
I was having much difficulty from day one with the FS 2004 & Window's 7. Son Cliff - my computer tech - tried a partition on the hard drive, then installing Window's XP. Nope, wouldn't work. So, I bought a copy of Windows XP - not easy to find one - & drove the computer from PHX to YKM to have Cliff install the XP, then remove Windows 7 and all of the pre-loaded crud along with it. Then we installed FS2004/09. The results are fantastic. Everything works great...a few little bugs, but they come out with time on the machine.
When I was flying the line in the 727/747 and all that stuff I was amazed that we would get revisions to the airplane flight manuals indicating something they had not known about the airplane for 25 or more years! So too I think it is with the simulator. There are a number of things that I THINK it will do, but I don't know how to do them, such as.
In flight on an established flight plan...say you lose an engine, or what ever and wish to go direct to another point. In the GARMIN 295 GPS that I own, I can push the D direct button, select my destination and away we go. In the simulator I get different views, or other options when I try this.
Here's a big one... as you know we could go VFR in those days. OK, so we're VFR approaching our destination that has subsequently gone IFR. I don't see a way to request an IFR clearance from present position to the destination...Is there a way to do that?? As it is, I just fly the approach anyway. Haven't hit anyone yet.
I finally did figure out the way to darken the cockpit. Now we all know - don't we? - that one of the joys of flying a Red Eye is the darkened cockpit and the associated quiet of flying at night. Got the quiet OK, but could not get rid of the Flourescent's. You might be interested to know that when I charged off across the pond for Japan the first time in the right seat of a NWA 747 that I was - well? - shocked to find out that the NWA boys turn on the fluorescents and flew that way all night! Not only is that very harsh on the body that is already being beaten to pieces with time zones, back side of the clock, noon being midnight while the next day it's around 1500, etc.... but it makes it impossible to see any traffic. OK, there isn't any traffic out over the Ocean, right? But what if there is? Yes, we could paint him on the TCAS - but what if he was not Mode C equipped or was just flying with the transponder off? No TCAS target! So, it has been somewhat frustrating for me flying at night with a brite cockpit. THEN I bought a 55 inch Visio monitor exclusively for the simulator. Poof! I can adjust the brightness of the screen down to a very realistic dark cockpit at night.
I suspect the reason the REAL NWA pilots (I'm from NCA/Republic merged into NWA via the merger) use the daylight cockpit is that one of the really senior boys way back when had the lights on while looking for his lost keys. When something disappears behind the rudder pedals, you will never see what ever it is again. Anyway, the co-pilot picks up on this, then decides that he too will operate a bright cockpit when he is captain. That stuck for some reason. Many of the NWA philosophies were based on "Because that's the way we've always done it!" Don't get me wrong... NWA was very good to me (aside from the Roberts award where I was sometimes as many as 10 years senior to the captain in the 747). 727 much better airplane anyway... I think I've digressed.
For you men who are looking for stories from the DC 3 days? Google Randy Sohn DC 3 stories - and you will find a wealth of very real, no kidding stories from the early days of North Central Airlines.
Back to my flight. Ahhh, I see we passed 79.1 DME S of GEG. Well, I've never seen anyone fly a perfect leg yet!
Blue skies
Trig
Ahhh... flying Grand Bahama (MYGF)-SEA last night. Just picking up the GEG VOR now from about Elk River, Idaho. I estimated we'd pass 60DME S of GEG and it looks as if that will work out. We're at 88.1DME now & GEG is still 20 degrees off the nose to the right. How cool. I have the EAT VOR tuned up & standing by for the ident to come in. Many things about this simulator just amaze me, such as where ever you are in the world, tune up a NAV facility & it will have the correct IDENT as well as NAV data. From EAT we'll join the arrival into SEA (using retro scenery no K yet) where we'll shoot the ILS to 16 at minimums with a 24 KT XWIND. I don't know about others, but it's work for me to hand fly something like that. Easier to let the auto pilot do it, but then that would be buying into the Electro-Jet philosophy of letting the airplane fly you around while you watch. No thanks'.
I was having much difficulty from day one with the FS 2004 & Window's 7. Son Cliff - my computer tech - tried a partition on the hard drive, then installing Window's XP. Nope, wouldn't work. So, I bought a copy of Windows XP - not easy to find one - & drove the computer from PHX to YKM to have Cliff install the XP, then remove Windows 7 and all of the pre-loaded crud along with it. Then we installed FS2004/09. The results are fantastic. Everything works great...a few little bugs, but they come out with time on the machine.
When I was flying the line in the 727/747 and all that stuff I was amazed that we would get revisions to the airplane flight manuals indicating something they had not known about the airplane for 25 or more years! So too I think it is with the simulator. There are a number of things that I THINK it will do, but I don't know how to do them, such as.
In flight on an established flight plan...say you lose an engine, or what ever and wish to go direct to another point. In the GARMIN 295 GPS that I own, I can push the D direct button, select my destination and away we go. In the simulator I get different views, or other options when I try this.
Here's a big one... as you know we could go VFR in those days. OK, so we're VFR approaching our destination that has subsequently gone IFR. I don't see a way to request an IFR clearance from present position to the destination...Is there a way to do that?? As it is, I just fly the approach anyway. Haven't hit anyone yet.
I finally did figure out the way to darken the cockpit. Now we all know - don't we? - that one of the joys of flying a Red Eye is the darkened cockpit and the associated quiet of flying at night. Got the quiet OK, but could not get rid of the Flourescent's. You might be interested to know that when I charged off across the pond for Japan the first time in the right seat of a NWA 747 that I was - well? - shocked to find out that the NWA boys turn on the fluorescents and flew that way all night! Not only is that very harsh on the body that is already being beaten to pieces with time zones, back side of the clock, noon being midnight while the next day it's around 1500, etc.... but it makes it impossible to see any traffic. OK, there isn't any traffic out over the Ocean, right? But what if there is? Yes, we could paint him on the TCAS - but what if he was not Mode C equipped or was just flying with the transponder off? No TCAS target! So, it has been somewhat frustrating for me flying at night with a brite cockpit. THEN I bought a 55 inch Visio monitor exclusively for the simulator. Poof! I can adjust the brightness of the screen down to a very realistic dark cockpit at night.
I suspect the reason the REAL NWA pilots (I'm from NCA/Republic merged into NWA via the merger) use the daylight cockpit is that one of the really senior boys way back when had the lights on while looking for his lost keys. When something disappears behind the rudder pedals, you will never see what ever it is again. Anyway, the co-pilot picks up on this, then decides that he too will operate a bright cockpit when he is captain. That stuck for some reason. Many of the NWA philosophies were based on "Because that's the way we've always done it!" Don't get me wrong... NWA was very good to me (aside from the Roberts award where I was sometimes as many as 10 years senior to the captain in the 747). 727 much better airplane anyway... I think I've digressed.
For you men who are looking for stories from the DC 3 days? Google Randy Sohn DC 3 stories - and you will find a wealth of very real, no kidding stories from the early days of North Central Airlines.
Back to my flight. Ahhh, I see we passed 79.1 DME S of GEG. Well, I've never seen anyone fly a perfect leg yet!
Blue skies
Trig
