Introduction
I am not a pilot, I do not claim to be a pilot, I am a gamer, if you read my homepage you know that
I have nearly 500 games in my inventory, I'm a bit of a collector I suppose.
I never intended to publish my misadventures in FS2002 to the web, why would anyone want to waste
their time reading about me playing a game?
What I discovered was that FS2002 is not just another game, I have always loved aviation, and have
played the original Microsoft flight simulator (the one for DOS) and FS98, I have also messed
with X-Planes, and several flight combat games, (anyone remember Aces over Europe?)
Besides my aviation interests, I love to travel, and it didn't take long to realize I could see
the world with FS2002.
I have read other simpilots experiences with round the world travel, and after visiting the forum
at www.simviation.com , I found a few new friends who have expressed an interest in reading about my own exploits.
I have combined a bit of fiction into my adventures, but we all do
that don't we?
I will warn you now, I jotted down tons of notes along my way, this is going to be a huge document,
I will make every attempt to keep it interesting, and I will break it down into sections so you can read as little or as much
as you want at any given time, then return later if you want to find out what happens next.
Unfortunately I don't have any fancy screenshots, at least not up to this point, but I
may add some later in my trip.
I will not be using a lot of technical pilot jargon, my writing style could be better described
as 'shop talk', I will try to keep my use of offensive language to a minimum, but I have to be me, and in real life I'm a
foul mouth with legs, (Thanks Tori).
I'm going to stick as close as possible to the written journal I have been keeping, and remember,
this is for entertainment purposes only.
The setup
Compaq model 7151WM
1.4 ghz P-4
256 mb Ram
64mb NVidia geforce graphics
40gb hard drive
19" Proview monitor
Microsoft sidewinder precision 2 joystick
This setup will take on several changes along the way.
Let's go flying!
Preface
There have been several times up to this point in my simpilot career that I have thought about keeping
a record of my journeys, I finally decided to do so, in part because the memories of my trip around the United States is still
fresh in my mind, but mostly due to the fact that I am on a 4 hour flight from Hawaii to Tahiti, so now would be a good time
to start jotting down some of my experiences so far.
I probably won't recall every detail of my trip across the U.S. but I did keep notes on the more
interesting events.
I remember thinking my adventures are only beginning as I make my way around the globe to places
I will most likely never have the chance to visit in real life, far off exotic lands that I will discover and explore.
Getting Started
I started my career in FS2002 with the determination and goal that I would actually learn to fly
this time, and most importantly learn how to fly a proper approach and make a perfect landing.
I started off with all the basic lessons, and learned to actually get an airplane softly back to
earth, I never had a problem flying in previous flight sims, but I don't recall ever having a successful landing.
After learning all the skills I needed to take off and land in the Cessna 172, I decided to go
for a cruise around the neighborhood, I took off from my hometown in Dowagiac Michigan and flew to Benton Harbor, I don't
remember crashing, so I guess I was catching on, I made this trip back and forth a few times and figured it was time to move
on.
My next trip was from Benton Harbor to South Bend Indiana, I had a nice flight and remember a safe
landing, however I must have overshot much of the runway or maybe I didn't realize I had to stay on the pavement, all I remember
is running off the runway and straight into a snow bank, resulting in a crash, of course the sim sent me back to where I started
and I made the trip a second time, this time successfully.
The next logical destination was Chicago, which I have visited many times in real life, so I would
fly to Meigs field, which at this point hadn't yet been destroyed by Saddam Daly.
The close proximity to downtown Chicago would be nice for my first sightseeing experience, the
flight was no problem, crossing over the southern tip of Lake Michigan, but never losing sight of land, the landing at Meigs
was routine.
Chicagos awesome skyline loomed nearby, more detailed and beautiful than ever in a flight sim,
but for whatever reason, I never went on the flight around town, I guess I was planning bigger things at the time.
The Arizona Trail part 1
There was never any doubt that I would eventually fly to Arizona, after all I have relatives there
including my Mom who has been living there for many years now. I myself have lived there on several different occasions, but
somehow I always seem to end up back in Michigan.
I was already in Chicago, so I might as well head out west, I would follow the same route which
I have driven mant times over the years, that would mean my next stop would be St. Louis.
Keep in mind that at this point I know nothing of IFR or anything like that, I'm just flying! And the
172 is the craft I would be flying cross country. The only navigation experience I had was following the line on my GPS. It's
all good though, I know enough to fly to Arizona.
My departure out of Meigs came at night, I always fly using real time, so I must have left around
9:00 pm, this was my first night flight and I kept my altitude at 4500 feet.
The flight was uneventful and I chose to land at St. Louis International airport, it was late at night
by the time I got there and I figured I shouldn't have to deal with much other traffic, the landing went smooth, but I have
it noted that I was bitched out by ATC for not being cleared to land, ATC? hmmm.
When it came time to leave St. Louis I figured I'd need to cruise uptown and check out the arch
and stadium, then I would head to Springfield and call it a night. I headed for the downtown area and it was pretty well lit
up, except the Gateway arch, which is what I really wanted to see. I could only makeout the silhouette of the arch, which
was a bit disappointing. I turned back toward the west and headed for Springfield, being a night flight, there is not
much to tell. Once on the ground in Springfield, I called it a night.
The Arizona Trail part 2
Now I know my story may seem a little boring so far, I'm flying the Cessna 172, and as everyone
knows, this is the most basic and easiest plane to deal with, but trust me, later on when I start flying the big
boys, this story gets real interesting.
Between flights I would explore the different settings in FS2002, I hadn't had the program very
long and was still getting to know it. I learned that I could download actual real life weather, wow, this seemed really
cool, and I started to use this feature before every flight, it became apparent soon enough that maybe I wasn't
ready for real weather flying, but for now I was loving it.
My next flight would take me to Oklahoma City, I wasn't stopping in Tulsa because I really wanted
to make it to Albuquerque by nightfall, I was pretty sure I could make it.
My flight would take me directly over Tulsa, and this was the first time I actually saw the
detail of a city during the daylight, it was at this point I started to realize the detail in this program was
awesome.
One thing I remember about the last time I was actually in Oklahoma was the winds, and I was quickly
reminded of those winds when I was on approach to land in Oklahoma City, of course I had downloaded the real weather and it
was windy as hell. I guess I landed okay because my notes don't say anything about crashing.
I took a break and headed on to Amarillo Texas, the flight was uneventful but I do mention the wind
again in my notes.
The next leg of my journey would put me in Albuquerque, it was getting towards evening and that
worried me, I didn't mind flying at night in the midwest, but I know Albuquerque is surrounded by mountains, and seeing as
how I am a VFR only pilot at this point, I would have to be there before dark if I were to make a safe trip over the
mountains. It didn't work out that way.
I must have been about 100 miles from Albuquerque when the sun went down, I could make out silhouettes
of huge mountains in the distance, but soon it was pitch black, I increased my altitude to 10,000 feet, I figured that should
be plenty high enough to clear the mountains that lie ahead.
I figured wrong.
I recall getting real close to Albuquerque, like 50 miles from the airport by the looks of the GPS, I
got really worried when I couldn't make out any stars in the skies ahead, I remember this so clearly. There I was, so close
to my destination, paranoid by not knowing what was ahead of me, eyes absolutely glued to the screen, trying to make out any
sign of the horizon, when out of nowhere I saw the pine trees and crashed head on into the mountainside. Sonuvabitch!!
Now I realize that in real life I would have been dead, but I like to think the pine trees kind
of deadened the impact and I survived. Nonetheless I was immediately warped back to Amarillo, so I headed out again, only
this time I landed at a small airfield about half way to Albuquerque, I'll call it a night and hop the mountains in the daylight.
The Arizona Trail part3
I would be able to make it the rest of the way to Phoenix on this third day of my cross country
adventure, I downloaded the actual weather and took off for my daytime attempt to cross the Rocky mountains. It turns out
that it was overcast and raining, this was the first time I had seen the rain effect. So I take off and climb above the clouds,
this was the first time I realized that maybe real weather sucked. I couldn't see anything, once above the clouds I just saw
mountaintops poking through, I could however pick out the mountain I smashed into the night before, if I would have been a
mile or so to the south I would have cleared that sucker, oh well, who knew?
By the time I flew into the valley where Albuquerque lies the rain had stopped, the skies were
blue and I was surrounded by mountains, I made a nice landing at a small airport north of town.
From here I would fly to Flagstaff Arizona, directly over the painted desert, there were shades
of pink and light green, some rivers and cliffs but all in all not a real spectacular example of the actual terrain in this
area, the San Francisco peaks began to appear on the horizon and pretty soon I was landing in Flagstaff.
Only one hop left, my next stop would be Phoenix Arizona, my former home.
There is plenty to see on the route between Flagstaff and Phoenix if you love mountains. The terrain
in this area of the state is extremely rugged, in real life I had driven this route many times, after a while it was obvious
my journey was near it's end when the mountains transformed into the sonoran desert and the urban sprawl that makes up much
of the valley of the sun became the main landscape down below.
I made my way to sky harbor airport where I had spent much of my time parking and watching airliners
takeoff and land when I lived there. I was on final approach and it looked as though I would be making a triumphant landing
to bring this first cross country flight to a wonderful close, I was back home in the desert and landing at the airport I
loved so much, as I crossed the runway threshold with a great big grin on my grill and started to pull back on my stick for
a little flare, a giant burst of wind flipped my plane like a freakin' pancake, son-uva-bitch!!
Well the sim warped me back to Flagstaff but screw that, I was in Phoenix and I was staying there,
I wasn't killed in the crash but only banged up some.
I would be using PHX as my home base from this point forward, and now I would start learning to
fly the big boys and become a free agent sim airline pilot.
This is where the fun really begins.
Learning to land really big planes
My main interest in aviation has always been airliners, this I believe is due to the fact that
my Grandfather's job required him to travel the world. When I was a kid, I would always ride along when Mom and Grandma would
take Gramps to Chicago ORD to catch a flight, he would tell me about all the different jetliners and how to tell them apart.
I grew up in Keeler Township Michigan, and J584 passed directly over our backyard, so there was
always airliner traffic to watch, and I spent many a summer day lying in the back yard watching the jets pass overhead. I
do miss it.
So you can imagine how exciting it was for me to be living only a couple of miles from Sky Harbor airport
when I was in Phoenix, most of my spare time was spent parked across the road from runway 26R watching planes take off
and land. If you are ever in the area, it is a great place to go plane watching.
I began my self training in the default 737, I'm sure the lessons included in the program would
have been quite helpful but you see, I'm one of those guys who will do everything possible to figure something out on my own
before ever looking at the manual. But once I get a grasp on something, I will dig for all the information I can find to learn
as much as possible on the subject.
So my program was simple, take off and land, over and over until I could get the 737 back to earth
safely, at least most of the time. Once I accomplished this it was time to graduate to the Granddaddy of them all, the 747.
I performed the same routine, and eventually got pretty good at landing the giant bird, although not always on the runway,
sometimes I would end up more closely lined up with the taxiway or grassy infield, but as long as I didn't crash I considered
it a successful landing, precision would come with time.
I want to mention that around this time I discovered Simviation.com and when I saw all the freeware
airliners I could add to my sim, I went crazy. It's too late to try to Thank everyone whose creations I may use in my journeys,
but if you happen to read this and recognize a plane I describe as yours, you can trust that I am truly grateful for your
effort.
I took a break from my training and decided to go on a trip to all my favorite places in southern
Arizona in the Cessna 172 (the red and yellow one).
I did a round trip from PHX to Tombstone, Sierra vista, Ajo, Gila Bend and back to PHX where I continued
my practice with landing really big planes. Then I figured I was ready to take on my role as:
Paz-Free agent sim airline pilot
I found a great Northwest airlines DC-9 on the simviation site and used it for several round
trips between PHX and Tucson, it was a short trip in a small easy to handle airliner, I don't have any problems recorded in
my notes, so all must have went well.
My fleet now also included the Southwest Airlines Shamu, I had seen this plane land quite often
in PHX, so I decided to fly it to San Diego, the flight to SAN is not all that exciting, there is mostly desert much of the
way, with some greenery along the Colorado river. This reminds me of one road trip I took that always makes me laugh.
There is a Bugs Bunny cartoon where the terrain goes instantly from brown to green, and that is
exactly the way it was when we crossed the Colorado river into California, you are driving through what seems to be endless
barron desert landscape in Arizona heading west, then you cross the bridge into California and everything is instantly
green, with trees and farmland, I guess you had to be there.
The approach into SAN is quite interesting, I remember feeling as though I was flying right between
downtown buildings while following the glideslope to runway 6. I made a perfect landing and decided since this was such a
nice plane to fly that I would continue service on to LAX.
The flight to LA was simple and uneventful, although I have been to LA in real life, I never visited
LAX before. So I was quite impressed with the great architecture here. LAX is a very cool airport. I landed safely.
Los Angeles
LA was the first really big city I have been in since leaving Chicago, so I figured I would rent
me a Cessna and go sightseeing, I especially wanted to cruise over Hollywood and see the big sign up on the hill.
I took off out of LAX in the 172 and headed towards downtown, the buildings and skyscrapers seemed to
be quite accurate, I flew over several stadiums and could see other buildings popping up from surrounding cities. I flew around
for a while and eventually broke out my Rand McNally road atlas to find my way to Hollywood, with the help of the map I sure
enough found the famous Hollywood sign and the Capitol records building, sweet.
I headed back towards LAX where Shamu was waiting to get back in the air and head for Las Vegas.
Vegas
I spent a couple of days in Vegas while I lived out west, after all, you'd have to be crazy
not to visit this jewel of the desert if you are anywhere near this area of the country. So I was pretty anxious to make a
virtual visit to see how well it was portrayed in FS2002.
The flight was routine but I have it noted that my first attempt to land resulted in a missed approach,
but no details. My second attempt was a perfect landing.
There is no way to miss the Vegas strip when you are at LAS, the airport is walking distance away. So,
once on the ground I hopped into a 172 and flew up and down the strip a few times and I must say I was impressed, all the
resorts and hotels are there in all their glory, this is definitly one area that is a must see in this program.
It was getting near sunset and I figured I would go see if the Hoover Dam is where it's supposed
to be, by the time I got back this way it should be dark, and as everyone knows Vegas is all about the lights.
So I headed east until I found Lake Mead, then followed the river south a ways and there it was, The Hoover
Dam, just as I remember it, with impressive detail I might add, I did several
fly-bys then headed back toward Vegas, the sun was setting by this time.
After the sun went down I cruised the strip, for I don't know how long, this has got to be the
most detailed and visually stunning city in the whole world, be it virtual or in reality.
Anybody who is doing a round the world trip, or even touring the U.S. do yourself a favor and make it
a point to visit Las Vegas, you will not be disappointed, and even if it is out of the way of your planned flight, it is worth
visiting. This holds true in real life also, if you ever have the chance go to Vegas.
All good things must end, so after 15 or 20 passes, I head back to the airport and fire Shamu up
for the trip back to Phoenix, this would be a night flight over mountains, which made me a little nervous after the Albuquerque
tragedy. But I took on plenty of altitude and made it back to Phoenix without incident.
I continued my practice at landing the 747, made a few trips in the smaller jets to Tuscon
and LA, then decided it was time to take a cross country non-stop flight in the 747.
My next destination would be Miami Florida.
PHX-MIA and island hopping in the caribbean
There is not much to tell as far as the trip to Miami goes, I climbed to FL370 and it was 3.5 hours
of straight and level flight, I began my descent over the Gulf of Mexico and glided into Miami for a perfect landing in the
747.
When I was young, our family used to take vacations to this area every year, my Grandpa (the one
who taught me about planes) and Grandma, retired to the Florida keys, so I was interested in flying around the area and seeing
how it checked out.
I had downloaded the great Caribbean Sun airlines Dash-8 from simviation and figured I would use
it to explore this area.
My first regional flight was a night flight to Key West, I don't know what possessed me to fly to
Key West in the dark, but I would soon learn it was a bad decision, it must have been the desire to be flying, and it just
so happened to be nighttime in the area.
The dash-8 was a wonderful machine to fly and I recommend it for anyone who is considering it for
their fleet. To the creator I say nice job.
The flight down to Key West was easy, the Dash-8 practically flies itself, however the airport
in Key West was very difficult to find, I don't think it was lit up very well, if at all. Who knows, it may be closed after
sunset. I guess I eventually attempted a landing which resulted in a big SPLASH!
Apparently I ran off the runway or missed it altogether and ended up in the ocean. I guess I'll try it
again tomorrow in the daylight.
Now, my girl has a little bit of an interest in airliners, she used to like going to the airport
in Phoenix and watching the action, she especially took a liking to the British Airways 747 that would land twice per day.
I just completed a 1/144 scale model of that particular aircraft at her request. However, the only real interest she shows
regarding my simpilot career is when I fuck up.
Especially when it's out of my own dumb mistakes, she gets a real good laugh when I all pissed off at
myself for doing something I know I shouldn't, Oh well, at least I keep her entertained.
The next day I made the same trip, this time with no problems, I made a short hop to Marathon before
heading back to Miami, I couldn't believe the navy reconnaissance blimp is actually in this game, I remember it from when
I was a kid, amazing.
Once back in Miami I figured I would do some commuter flights around The Bahamas, my first flight
being to Nassau, from there I jumped from island to island. The scenery out here is really nice, the way the water changes
colors and the beautiful blue color of the area surrounding the Bahama Islands makes it worth a visit if you are in the area.
I worked my way back to Miami and repeated the trip another time or two, I really enjoyed flying
with Caribbean Sun Airlines, I have this area on my list of places I want to return to after I finish exploring the rest of
the world.
I have seen a lot of complaints on the message boards about the scenery in FS2002, Hey, you know
what, you're right, I can't find my house either, WTF!? My sarcastic point is, I too have found vast areas of boring
real estate during my travels, but just the fact that you can travel all over the world and see a pretty damn good representation
of what is out there is worth the price of admission alone, don't you think? Ever since I started exploring the world I have
considered the idea of adding up what it would actually cost to go everywhere I will visit, maybe I will do this at trips
end.
So for the price I payed for this software, I don't think I could buy a ticket on an actual flight
from South Bend to Chicago.
I ain't bitchin'!
In search of the magic kingdom
When the time came to leave Miami, the next stop would have to be Orlando, I've never actually
been to Disney World, at least not that I recall, so I will fly up there and buzz the magic kingdom. I left the Dash-8 in
Miami and flew the Northwest DC-9 to Orlando, the trip took me over Lake Okeechobee, and after a nice landing at MCO I jumped
in a 172 and went looking for Walt Disney world, which I figured should be pretty easy to locate, but I ended up whipping
out the trusty road atlas again to find it.
Well, it's there, the castle and junk, but it was not nearly as impressive as I was hoping, I buzz
around a bit and head back to the airport.
Now at this point, I really didn't have a plan, up to this point I pretty much knew where I wanted
to go next, but now I was sitting there in Orlando not sure what to do. I finally decided I would fly to Atlanta because that
is like a major hub and maybe I would work out a plan once I was there, I figured I would end up city hopping up the east
coast for starters.
Atlanta
My brother was in Atlanta once on a flight to who knows where and met the wrestling guy Jimmy Hart
in a bookstore in the terminal at ATL, I don't know why but I just figured I would throw that in there, here's some more,
my sister in law sat next to the wrestler Rhino on a flight from Toronto to Chicago, she got us an autograph, I have flown
back and forth to Arizona several times and never met anyone famous, but I did meet Jim Dandy in a bowling alley once, thats
my lifelong brush with fame.
My flight to Atlanta ended up with the stupidest mistake I had made so far, my approach was inexcusable,
it was really no approach at all, I was too high, moving way to fast and not anywhere near lined up with the runway,
I don't have it noted what I was flying, but I think it was a 727 I picked up somewhere.
I recall making a huge steep right turn at the last second before touching down on the runway, heading
for the tarmac like a rocket! I figured I would pull up at the last second and everything would be cool, right? Wrong!
The result was the most spectacular crash I had ever seen. We all know that FS2002 doesn't have a very
real portrayal of accidents and this was no exception, but the length of the crash was the amazing part. When I first touched
down I thought I was going to be alright, but I bounced, I bounced big time! and with the angle of my kamikaze approach I
bounced sideways, the aircraft shot back up into the air, and was doing a sort of spin-flip thing, I took major air and totally
rotated around, I'm not sure how it happened but I was lurched back into the air a second time, this time the nose dropped
down and I was flipping end for end, I finally ended up with the nose buried in the ground, and before the program did the
crash thing and sent me back to Orlando, I remember the screen showing my plane planted in the ground nose first and the ass
end sticking out of the ground, Man wouldn't you like to see a screenshot of that!
Touring with Tori
Okay, now some of you may think this is a little weird, but I have always had quite a busy imagination,
so bare with me through this set-up.
I am a huge Tori Amos fan, this plays significantly into the rest of my journey around America,
now if you are not familiar with Tori, that's okay, it's not important. All you need to know is that she was on tour (and
still is as a matter of fact) in the U.S. during the time I was taking my trip.
So, there I was in the intensive care unit in Atlanta after my rough landing at Hartsfield, trying
to decide which cities I wanted to visit next. Basically I kind of like hopping from city to city because face it, the only
real good action is the take offs and landings, holding at a flight level and adjusting the heading now and then is not all
that exciting, and I don't mean that in a negative way at all, it's just true.
Then it occured to me that Tori was playing in Nashville that night, so I make a remarkable recovery
and check myself out of the hospital, grab a cab to the airport and jump in a learjet to fly up to Nashville to catch Tori's
tour. And thats how it happened, it was early in Tori's tour and she was pretty much going everywhere I wanted to visit,
so I printed out the tour schedule and decided to follow it as my flight plan to see the country, I would be Tori's private
pilot.
I'm sure you're thinking by now that I'm some sort of freak or wierdo, really I'm not. (maybe a
little bit of a freak, but you can make that judgement when I get my photo page going)
But it was an instant plan, so I put it into effect.
I was still downloading the real weather before every flight, and the weather in this part
of the country just so happened to be
uber-crappy at this time, I don't have any notes on Nashville so it must have went okay.
Our next stop was Greensboro N.C. and I still had no IFR experience, so I was flying in this
horrid rainstorm on final approach, and I recall having a very difficult time locating the airport, I'm pretty sure I was
given the clearance to land, but the clouds were nearly at ground level, visibility almost nonexistant.
I was flying very low, and finally found the runway, I was very close to finally touching down when
out of nowhere BOOM!!
I was totally rear ended by some big airliner, wait a damn minute, I was cleared to land, I guess I took
too long.
After that I think I had another weather related accident and made the decision not to download
real weather anymore, besides that, I'm trying to see the country and if I'm having to fly above a layer of clouds half the
time, it's really defeating the purpose isn't it. From now on it would always be clear and sunny in my simworld.
I also made the decision to learn IFR flying as soon as I returned to Phoenix.
We made stops in Albany NY,Syracuse NY, Portland Maine and somewhere in New Hampshire, then we were
on to New York City.
NYC
New York City is one of the places I definitly wanted to see on my trip, after witnessing the detail
of L.A. I was very anxious to visit NYC, I had visited here in real life when I was younger, and I very clearly remember
looking straight up at the World Trade Centers twin towers, I have always loved skyscrapers and it nearly brought me to tears
watching them collapse on 9/11 for no good reason whatsoever.
Airline accidents are also quite disturbing, so the combination of the two was quite distressful
not only to me but much of the world I'm sure.
If they ever catch those responsible, the death penalty or life in prison would be far
too merciful in my opinion, they should be hung in the desert upside down by their feet and let the vultures deal the punishment.
I chose to land at LaGuardia, it is very close to downtown, and of course I would want
to steal a Cessna and check out Manhattan and downtown NYC, I could see as I neared the city that the WTC was not there.
sad.
So I landed without incident and thought, "hey, I'll cruise around town in the helicopter." of course,
I have never flown the chopper in FS2002, I used to play Gunship and Apache and such so I knew it was a little
different than flying an airplane, but I would just take it easy and I should do okay.
I buzzed around the city, seen the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building, I never did
locate the Pan Am building or United Nations, at least not that I'm certain of, I may have flew right by them.
I carried on to the Statue of Liberty, which is very detailed as is many of the other
NYC landmarks, I was impressed, after buzzing around a little I headed back to LaGuardia and would wait until nightfall for
a night flight around town.
Up until this point I really had no problem with the chopper, but I still had to land the sucker,
this might cause a problem, I knew I had to hover and then bring it down slowly.
I don't know exactly what happened but I dropped like a freakin' rock, CRASH!!
I haven't flown the chopper since.
After nightfall I took a Cessna 172 and cruised around the city again, it was very nicely lit up
and after a couple of passes and flybys I went back to the airport and made a safe landing.
Tomorrow I would head for the nations capitol.
Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. was not an actual stop on Tori's tour but I wanted to visit there and it wasn't
too far from NYC, and once I headed west, I wouldn't be back to this area for who knows how long.
The flight to D.C. was routine, I passed over Philadelphia and headed down the east coast, eventually
I started to see some of the D.C. landmarks, most notably the Washington Monument. I circled around town and made my approach
to Ronald Reagan airport. The landing went fine.
I thought it would be cool to cruise around sight seeing in the sopwith camel or whatever it is,
now the first thing you notice with this plane is that you can't see shit when you are on the runway, basically you are staring
at the sky, but I managed to get it into the air, and this thing is slow, real slow.
I flew around and seen all the monuments, the white house and capitol building and the Smithsonium.
I have never actually been to D.C. I planned a trip there once but ended up going to Chicago instead.
I didn't see the Pentagon or Arlington National cemetary, I looked for them but maybe I just searched
the wrong area, I flew around town a few times and made my way back to the airport,
I don't know exactly what happened, I'm quite sure it had to do with not being able to
see anything ahead of you in this vintage aircraft, but I landed and somehow ended up running off the runway and straight
into the Potomac River, I swam to the surface and there on the bank was Tori pointing at me and laughing.
I felt stupid.
Niagra Falls
I'm going to start skipping a lot of my notes so I can get caught up quicker. Of course I will
still include all the good stuff and dumb moves on my part.
After I crawled out of the river and toweled off, I hopped back in to the Learjet and was off,
my next stop in my home state of Michigan, Grand Rapids to be exact.
In real life I actually went to Tori's concert when she played G.R., I also went to the second night
she played in Chicago back around Thanksgiving, and even though this has nothing to do with with the flight I was about to
make, it's my website and I just felt like throwing it in there.
Anyways, I departed Washington D.C. and made uneventful stops in Toledo and Grand Rapids then it
was on to Buffalo New York, and while I was there I wanted to see Niagra Falls, I have never been there in real life, although
I have been through Buffalo.
So I flew the direct course over the south tip of Lake Huron and made my approach into Buffalo
over Lake Erie. After landing I picked up a 172 and with the help of my road atlas, found my way to Niagra Falls, and
its kinda like this, yes, the falls are there, but don't go out of your way to see them because there is really nothing spectacular
here. Time to move on.
Moving right along
I made stops in Pittsburgh, Erie, Cincinatti, Louisville, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Tulsa. I
have been to all in real life except Kansas City, all flights were routine and no problems with the landings, I credit this
to the fact that I was using the Learjet the whole time and was no longer downloading actual weather patterns.
Then I changed the formula, I wanted to try a different plane and I chose the 777, and it was at
night, now here was a great recipe for disaster, flying a plane I had never flown before in the dark, hell, I should have
just downloaded the actual weather for a perfect witches brew. Keep in mind also that at this point I still fly by the seat
of my pants, I am anxious to get back to Phoenix and gain some IFR skills.
I know there is nothing to see in this area, so I make the night trip to Omaha in the 777,
the flight itself was simple enough, but I have it noted that the approach was a disaster, and I remember missing the first
approach.
I went around and got it down on the second attempt, however my notes indicate that I didn't land
on the runway, probably set her down on the taxiway, but there was no crash and thats what really counts right?
The next day I headed on to Green bay, Madison and Milwaukee, all in Wisconsin.
Chicago
Since I was right here, I figured I would go to Chicago and do a little night time sightseeing,
in real life I had been to Chicago more times than I could ever attempt to remember, from where I live in southern
Michigan, it is only about an hour and a half trip if traffic is good, in comparison to 4 hours from Detroit. So Chicago is
where we have always gone to satisfy our big city cravings.
Also I just like Chicago, it's a great city.
I used to like hanging out along the lakefront around the planetarium, aquarium and field museum
to watch learjets and small planes take off from Meigs field, guess that won't happen anymore huh? Way to go dickhead!
Chicago O'hare is a huge airport, you can see this thing from a long way out, it has every color
strobe and shiny blinky light you can imagine, and I don't know how many runways running in every which way, crisscrossing
each other and shit.
I don't have it noted what plane I flew here from Milwaukee, but I do have it written that it took
forever to taxi to the parking area, like I said this is one huge airport, I have been to O'hare many times but normally fly
out of Midway in real life because it is much closer to us.
So I get in a 172 and head for town, and I buzzed around the sears tower and John hancock building,
then head over towards grant park to see the museum and try to find the fountain and see if they had it lit up being it was
night and all.
The city was quite beautiful and I circled around a couple of times then made my way back to O'hare.
I was going to make a flight to Duluth yet tonight so I needed to quit screwing around and get back
to following the schedule.
Fed Ex
I had gotten a Fedex DC-10 off of simviation at some point and decided to fly it up to Duluth,
I obviously learned nothing from my previous experience flying unfamiliar aircraft at night, I was soon to be reminded.
I noticed right away why they call the DC-10 a heavy, flying this plane was like trying to run in
waste deep water, and that is not a put down to the guy who created it, as a matter of fact the flight dynamics were probably
a lot more realistic than any of FS2002's default aircraft.
I got her up to a flight level and enjoyed a boring flight to Duluth, when it came time to line
her up with the runway is where the fun began, this plane was so hard to correct when slightly off course, I missed the runway
twice and figured if I didn't get it down the third pass I was just gonna crash and get it over with.
You see, I didn't yet realize the value of lining up for my approach from like 20-30 miles out,
I would just come hauling ass around the corner and try to get down before the whole runway disappeared, so I don't know how
fast I was going when I finally touched the earth, nowhere near the runway, but I know I slammed on the brakes and came
to a stop just before slamming into the terminal. I also might add that I didn't know how to reverse thrust yet either. Man,
when I think back, I fuckin' sucked.
I got myself a fresh pair of skivvies and called it a night.
Mount Rushmore
I flew the next couple of legs in a sweet Republic airlines DC-9 I had downloaded,
someone did a really nice job on this plane. I made a stop in Grand Forks N.D. then continued on to Rapid City South Dakota,
I have never been to Rushmore in real life, I remember my Mom and Grandma planning a trip there when I was a kid but for whatever
reason we never took that trip.
In fact with the exception of Denver and Moab Utah, I would now be traveling to places I have
never been to. But this was the great thing about FS2002, I have flown to enough places in the sim that I actually have been
to, to know that it was a pretty realistic representation of the actual scenery and cityscapes.
After touching down in Rapid city, I got in the red and yellow 172 (I love this color scheme) and
went in search of the big heads. I ended up whipping out the road atlas and headed in the direction I figured Rushmore would
be, it was actually kind of hard to find, I followed some roads leading into the mountains because I figured them must be
the roads goin to the heads, I was right.
Mount Rushmore really isn't as big as I expected, at least not in this game, probably a lot bigger
in real life, but I found them anyways and did a bunch of flybys, called the wife in to see and everything, whoo hoo.
Then I cruised back to Rapid City and by this point every landing in the 172 was perfect,
after some of the shit I have been through in the big planes flying the little Cessna was a vacation.
I don't know what I flew to Denver, probably still using the Republic DC-9, but it was no problem.
Tori's tour actually stopped in Vail Colorado, but I couldn't find any airports around Vail, so
she would have to take a bus the rest of the way.
She was pissed.
Utah and Yellowstone
I would soon be crossing the great divide again, only this time it would be the Colorado Rockies,
certainly this is some of the most rugged terrain in the lower 48.
I remember driving back from Arizona once pulling a U-Haul trailer with a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger
over vail pass which is like 13,000 feet or so, we were moving at like 20 MPH, and my girlie was freaking out thinking we
weren't gonna make it over the mountain, I pointed out to her the fact that we were passing semi trucks like they were standing
still, it's a hell of a drive through those mountains, but some damn beautiful scenery.
Tori's next stop was Boise Idaho but I wanted to stop in Salt Lake City and then go to Yellowstone,
along the way I made a brief stop in Moab Utah, I didn't explore but it didn't look like much there, in real life this is
an awesome place to visit.
After flying over some really big mountains I was getting close to SLC. My approach took me right
over the downtown area so there was really no need to explore, it looked like a pretty nice town, surrounded by mountains
and of course the great salt lake.
Once I departed SLC and headed for Jackson Wyoming, I remember being quite amazed at how big
the salt lake actually is, it's really, really big.
I headed north in the Learjet and would land at Jackson Hole Wyoming where I would take a 172 around
Yellowstone park,
I was looking for old faithful, but never found it.
I just recently got a copy of the national parks add-on, however, considering that I am currently in Hong
Kong, it does me little good.
The great northwest
I left Jackson Hole and headed to Boise, I had gotten a copy of Flight1's Greatest Airliners
737-400 professional add-on, and decided to give it a test fly while in Boise, I immediatly crashed on take off, there is
a lot more to know than in any other aircraft I have tried so far, I would grow to love this add-on in the future.
I got back into something I could actually fly, and headed for Spokane and then Seattle.
Seattle is very nicely detailed, I have a cousin who lives in Seattle but I have never gone there
myself, I also have an Uncle in Montana, but have never gone there either, sounds like a good reason for another roadtrip
someday.
I took a 172 and explored Seattle for a while, it's worth a see if you are up that way.
My next stop was Portland and then Eugene, I was wondering where exactly Crater Lake was located,
and discovered on my road atlas that it was directly on the flight path to Reno, so even though Tori wasn't going to Reno,
I was.
So I made my flight to Reno and cruised right over Crater Lake.
Reno turned out to be very nice, I recently purchased a Reno air racing sim, so once I get back to the
states I will head back to Reno and do some racing.
Goin' back to Cali
I left Reno at night which was actually stupid because I don't know the terrain between here and
Sacramento, it was quite nerve racking not knowing if I was going to kiss a mountainside or what.
I have it noted that the landing was rough but no explaination, I called it a night.
I have always wanted to visit Yosemite national park, when I lived out west we almost went there
once, but we ended up spending an extra day in Vegas which eliminated our trip to Yosemite, and for whatever reason,
I haven't made it there in the sim yet either.
I headed out of Sacramento and flew towards San Francisco, another town I had intentions of visiting
in real life but haven't been to yet.
But I was damn well going to visit SF in FS2002, the landing was good and I took the 172 for a fly
around town to see the sights.
Downtown was cool, and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, I flew over there and
did several fly-bys and on my way back towards town I noticed a funny little island out in the bay that turned out to be Alcatraz,
sweet!
Once back at the airport I got in my Learjet and headed down the coast towards Santa Barbara, the
flight was simple but for some reason my approach was too slow and I stalled which resulted in another very wet landing.
My next flight would take me back to L.A. where I would be leaving Tori's tour schedule, I arrived
at night and LAX was all lit up purple and pink, L.A. at night was quite a sight. I would now be heading back to Phoenix and
Tori would start her way back across the country, first Albuquerque and then Texas, I offered a ride as far as Phoenix but
she declined.
It was a nice way to see the country.
Bye Tori! I waved but she just walked away and acted like she didn't know me. I guess I crashed
us too much!
Back in Phoenix for more training
Upon returning to Phoenix, I immediatly started training for IFR flight, I was hoping this would
help me with my approach and landings, I was a much better pilot now than when I left on my trip which started on February
24 with my flight to Miami, I returned to Phoenix on March 18, I had been gone for 3 weeks.
I can't believe how great IFR is, if I would have known how helpful this would have been earlier
in my career, I guess I wouldn't have had as many stories to tell.
I flew a bunch of IFR flights around the valley between PHX, Williams gateway, Falcon field
and Scottsdale.
Then I ventured out of the valley and made some IFR flights to Globe and Tucson and back to PHX.
I was hooked. Absolutley wonderful, with ATC setting me up for approach and all, I may never crash again.
I had aleady made the decision some time ago to take a flight to Hawaii, and from there I would
explore the world, I took off from PHX and made a stop in San Diego. From here I would fly to Honolulu and parts unknown.
I thought back on all my experiences so far, and wondered what would lie ahead once I leave
these shores, there is a whole world out there and I aim to see it, and it suddenly occurred to me as I stood there watching
the sunset that my adventure had only just begun.
