San Juan Islands

[speedbird591]

I've invested in a large piece of virtual real estate in the Pacific North West, courtesy of ORBX. It includes Diamond Point recreational airfield, a small, side-by-side water and dirt strip a few miles away and all the vegetation in between. It's a great base from which to explore the San Juan Islands between Seattle and Vancouver. This is a quick flight up to Orcas Island in my old Skywagon. Classic but not British








Ian

[Scorpius]

Looks fun. Interestingly, I have never been a fan of virtual cockpits but I now find P3D suitable for flying VFR and circuits and using FS9 with a 2D cockpit for all my IFR stuff.

Nev

[speedbird591]

Looks fun.

You know, that just about sums it up, Nev. I've never been interested in VFR stuff before, preferring classic jetliners and, as you say, using 2D panels in FS9 and then VCs in FSX.

But now, with this setup, VFR is so much fun. To just hop in a little hack aircraft and fly around this wonderful scenery smoothly and hassle free is simply a joy. I still want to fly heavies occasionally so I'm going through the fleet to re-assess what works well in the same environment, i.e. what is fun. It looks like only three heavies have made the grade - Captain Sim's 737-200 and C130 and DM's 1-11! Still, early days yet but it looks like P3D and ORBX have changed the way I look at simming.

Ian

[DaveB]

Nice looking scenery Ian. I'm sure there are lots more you'll be 'forced' to buy

ATB
DaveB

[petermcleland]

Looks really good Ian and very much like my Georender of Diamond Point...One thing that is very superior in your scenery is the quality of the trees...I think I still need some trees for my base but I thought I might try cluttering up the F-16 dispersals with military paraphenalia

[J0hn]

I really enjoy flying VFR aircraft in Air Hauler in this area - I normally use UTX Canada (and Alaska is fun, too) and Vancouver, with the LESP (Land's End Sea Planes) freeware bases included, too - it's really good fun and VoxATC is actually fun to use there, too (without getting continually bossed about by Big Brother ) but I always found the OrbX scenery a little too expensive for my meagre pension to cover.

[speedbird591]

I always found the OrbX scenery a little too expensive for my meagre pension to cover.

Actually, £26 for the Pacific North West including Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, the Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan islands at that sort of detail is quite good value, although £26 can still be a lot if you haven't got it! It can get expensive if you start spending upwards of £20 each for the dozen or more add-on airports in the area but the standard airports are still much better than the default ones.

Ian

[DaveB]

... but the standard airports are still much better than the default ones.

That's not difficult mate. The only improvement (if it can be called that) on the default over FS9 is odd aircraft 'shaddows' where the aircraft park Those airports in your shots are head and shoulders over anything default
ATB
DaveB

[speedbird591]

Those airports in your shots are head and shoulders over anything default

Those are add-on airports, Dave. They're another £20-25 each and that's where the expense can come in. But they're optional, the scenery is really good on it's own and it includes all the airports at a lesser quality but still a bit better than default FSX/P3D. It's resisting the add-ons that's difficult. It's no good just buying one - you need another one to fly to etc. etc. ad infinitum...

Ian

[DaveB]

I realised the airports in your shots were addon's mate but not addon's in addition to the scenery. Thanks for the explanation

ATB
DaveB