Mr. President...

petermcleland · Post by **petermcleland** » 21 Dec 2006, 13:56

British Airways and others were having some weather troubles at Heathrow today and I thought I would pop in and see how the fog was...It wasn't too bad at the time with intermittant Fog Banks. Anyway, I looked at the AI Traffic taxying out and to my surprise, the very first to reach the runway was Air Force One. I didn't even know it was in my system...Anyway, I scrabbled around to get my camera ready and managed a short series of pictures:-

The rest of the short sequence can be seen by clicking this address:-

http://forum.fsscreenshots.com/dcboard. ... =full&page

Thanks for looking :dance:

DanKH · Post by **DanKH** » 21 Dec 2006, 14:22

Must be a fake as she normally comes in pair

Nice surprise

Post by **DaveB** » 21 Dec 2006, 14:51

I love the irony that the majority of shorthaul flights appear to have been cancelled due to poor vis and we have aircraft now long gone (the Trident springs to mind) that could have handled this without any difficulty.

ATB

DaveB :tab:

TomNocturnal · Post by **TomNocturnal** » 21 Dec 2006, 15:41

I flew a 748 out of and into Gatwick lastnight...

Conditions were terrible. Visibility was down to around 100ft.

Lucky I wasn't flying out of City. As looking across the Wharf yesterday from my window at work, I couldn't even see the Tower...

This is my usual view:

The blue-glassed building on the right, in the foreground, is my office...

Those tall buildings are no more than about 500m away... (which I might add... is directly below the approach/take off path for city airport...)

Yesterday, and earlier today, if I had of stood in the same spot, I wouldn't have been able to see those small trees, which where around 40 - 50m away...

We were all talking today, about how it looked as though someone had placed a white sheet of card around our building...

I completely understand why the flights were delayed/cancelled!
:tuttut:

Also, Peter. Is that FSX you are running there?
If not, and Its FS9, can you please point me in the direction of those Traffic packs, Ground/Airport textures and everything else you have running to get it looking so sweet!!! :huf:

petermcleland · Post by **petermcleland** » 21 Dec 2006, 17:43

TomNocturnal wrote:Also, Peter. Is that FSX you are running there?
If not, and Its FS9, can you please point me in the direction of those Traffic packs, Ground/Airport textures and everything else you have running to get it looking so sweet!!! :huf:

Tom, that might be difficult...The AFCAD is my own but it is built for the FS9 Default EGLL and that is what you see there. I scoured through my packs to find Air Force One and actually found I had three. I chose the wrong pair at first and discovered when guiding one of them to McLeland Field, that they were not the very nice model in my pictures. Then I found the correct one and it is the Aardvark model as used in the TAI Pack which I have installed but I'm not sure if it is available anymore. A kind member here sent it to me on a CD.

My London Traffic is a mixture of whatever PAI, TAI and my own PAI based traffic from way back in FS2000 and FS2002, sends in there. I have every PAI pack installed but the British Airways Pack is disabled as I already have my own BA Traffic Pack for Heathrow that I wrote myself.

It is obvious to me that the very best models are Aardvark and they are very kind to frame rates. I would like to change all my FlightPlans to Aardvark models but that is a really major enterprise and I may never complete it.

I don't use FSX for anything serious so practically all my screenshots are FS9. I do sometimes test aircraft and scenery in FSX but that is about all. I just can NOT get to like FSX because of the many unacceptable changes from FS9.

If you want my AFCAD for the default Heathrow then ask and I'll put it up for download, but no good for other than default.

Actually, now that I remember, it is here already:-

http://www.petermcleland.com/dl/HeathrowAFCAD.zip

It uses the old Stand Numbering as I don't wish to change it from the system I was familiar with

TomNocturnal · Post by **TomNocturnal** » 21 Dec 2006, 18:02

:think: :redface:

Looks like I have ALOT to learn about Flight Simming in general...

Most of that went straight over my head... which saddens me somewhat!
:-({|=

I used to "play" FS'98 when I was about 10... but had almost no idea what was going on. I'd just throttle up, and take off (with flaps). Then usually Crash! :sad:

I have always had an interest in flying etc, and joined the ATC back when I was 16. that didn't really amount to much... I missed my gliding Scholarship because I did the French Exchange!?!? ("WHY" I have no idea?)
Since then, havn't really done much aviation related stuff. Apart from "getting into" FS9 this year...

But like I said. Looks like there is a lot that I am missing out on...

Checked your website... looks like youve had the life I always dreamed of...
Too old...
Too tall...
and Too underqualified
these days... but my ambition is to at least pass the PPL etc by the time im 30...

cstorey · Post by **cstorey** » 21 Dec 2006, 18:46

Ho Ho Peter , the weather wasn't really like that at EGLL today! The last I've seen had 250m vis, RVRs varying between about 300 and 550m, freezing fog and no vertical visibility at all, with a QNH now at 1043 ( the highest I could ever remember was 1042). It really is as bad as I've ever seen

happy Christmas to you and everyone else who contribute so much to these boards

Chris

speedbird591 · Post by **speedbird591** » 21 Dec 2006, 19:13

DaveB wrote:I love the irony that the majority of shorthaul flights appear to have been cancelled due to poor vis and we have aircraft now long gone (the Trident springs to mind) that could have handled this without any difficulty.

That was my original thought, Dave, but the explanation in the paper and the News made sense. Apparently the cancellations are not due to the a/c limitations but to ATC restrictions. They've increased the distance between landing and taxiing a/c which means they can only handle half as many.

The airlines, faced with having to cancel 50% of flights have chosen the domestic and some European because there are alternative means of transport (rail and road) and each cancellation only involves a third of the amount of passengers. It's obvious when they tell you, but I hadn't thought of it before :roll:

Ian

Jon Rose · Post by **Jon Rose** » 21 Dec 2006, 19:46

Visiblity According To FS is Around 10 Meters at EGLL.

But Seems Further From My Room.

Post by **DaveB** » 21 Dec 2006, 19:54

Rgr that Ian (and Jon)

They reported late last night that the shorthauls were cancelled (in part) due to minimums.. that being, vis was at around 150meters and the majority of shorthaul aircraft only being cleared for 200meter ops.. the larger aircraft being cleared to operate at 150mtr hence transatlantic and longhaul were not having the same problem. (sri that explanation went on so long)

Seemed reasonable so I accepted it! :roll:

Whatever.. being poor has it's advantages as I can't afford to fly anywhere anyway

ATB

DaveB :tab: