Ulaanbaatar Mongolia
This will probably be a pretty short section, because there is really not much to see
round these parts.
Also, I wanted to add this report before I leave the region, due to the fact that I will be
heading towards the himalayas and India, which will deserve a section of it's own.
As I sat there in China studying my atlas, I figured I would head up to Mongolia, just
to check it out, I like deserts, so flying over the Gobi would be very cool, although also boring.
So I loaded up the Falcon and headed out, once over the Gobi there was nothing as far
as I could see in any direction, occasionally there was sand pits to the west.
Just before Ulaanbaatar some hills popped up out of the desert, and nestled in the middle
was the city.
I landed and then cruised a KingAir around but there was nothing special here.
I'm quite sure I did some test flights on newly aquired aircraft but I have nothing special
noted.
Since I was this close to Russia, I figured I would take a little vacation up in Irkutsk.
Irkutsk Russia
The flight to Irkutsk was uneventful, mostly crossing more of the Gobi, but I do have
this written in my notes, obviously referring to some of the complaints I have seen at the forums:
I don't care what anybody has to say about this sim, I am totally amazed at how I can
be clear out here in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere land and if I see a little lake or river or village down below, I can
look in my world atlas and find exactly where I'm at, maybe all the cities aren't perfect, but the landscape and location
of stuff is almost perfect.
But I'd still like to know where the hell the great wall of China is.
Pretty soon the desert started changing into some vegetation and hills, I could
see some snowy mountains ahead which turned out to be the Khamar-Daban range, immediatly followed be Lake Baykal.
Soon I was making my approach to Irkutsk, which was visual as the airport here has no
ILS.
The airport sets right next to the Angara river which flows right into Lake Bakal, considering
the close proximity of the water, I decided while I was here I would try my hand at some floatplanes, I have several in my
hangar but have never checked them out.
I did really well at the water landings and takeoffs, no crashes or anything, I would
leave the airport, go land on the river and then take off from the river, circle back to the airport and get a different plane,
repeat. It was a fun time and I really felt like I was on vacation up here in south Siberia.
As I was wandering through my hangar I noticed a tarp covered machine over in the far
corner collecting dust, I pulled the tarp back and a smile came to my face as I was suddenly reminded of the X-15 I aquired
a while back, oh, I just had to take this baby for a spin!
Now I recall a while back there was a huge debate back at the forums about whether or
not you could achieve 100,000+ feet in this program, with FSTipster offering a reward of a mugful of grog to the person who
could prove he had exceeded this goal. I strapped myself into the rocket and was very confident that this was the machine
that could get the job done.
BLAST OFF!
Man, this plane will put your teeth through the back of your head! I was at mach 2.5 in
no time and pulled back on the stick, the sounds with this package are awesome, giving you the impression that you actually
are in a rocket!
Real quickly I was approaching the magic number, and as soon as I made 100,000 feet the
altimeter stopped, I switched to the outside view and my rocket was just suspended there at 100,000 feet, sort of stuck in
the atmosphere. I wasn't moving, I couldn't rotate my spot view, nothing, that was it then, I had reached the outside edge
of the FS2002 universe.
Nothing left to do but head back to earth, that was easy, I pointed the nose down and
made my way back to where I started, it took me a while but I found Irkutsk, (apparently no GPS in the X-15) and grinded to
a halt on the runway.
What a rush!
Well, I guess I didn't win Tipsters bet, but I did prove you can't break the 100,000 foot
barrier in this sim.
There was one thing I had left to do before leaving Russia, somewhere along the line
I had picked up a DC-3 that is supposed to drop an A-bomb, once I configured the plane with a panel I liked and read the instructions
on dropping the bomb, I took her up and a little ways from the runway I let it fly, the screenshot speaks for itself. cool!
And that's about it, now I'm off for some snowboarding in the Himalaya's.
