First Light

After my “maiden flight” returning to FSX, a flight which took me from Bonn-Hangelar to Shoreham in the UK, this next morning my Cessna awaits me at the GA Parking Area in Shoreham (EGKA). The target destination is Campbeltown at the southern tip of the Kintyre Peninsula.

The planned VFR Route takes me north-west, around the control zones and then up north, passing Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester. I intent to cut through the Lake District National Park, then hop across the Firth of Clyde to Kintyre – not taking the “long route” but making the Isle of Arran a waypoint as well. Trip time is planned for 3:30h, the distance is a little bit over 400 NM.

One of the first things this morning is topping off gas – I had roughly used 60% of my fuel yesterday, time to fill it up.

I also used the Cessna’s built-in Maintenance Hangar screen to see if my aircraft was fit for flight – and found it in pristine condition.

It is that attention to detail that I really enjoy with the A2A Cessna C182 – it really makes you think about your aircraft.

I am leaving Shoreham on Runway 21, out to the sea, then a right turn to 0° to intercept my course.

My route takes me north to VOR MID, then over to Lasham Airbase. From there, I am turning 270°, crossing the M3 near Popham Airfield and head over to Amesbury & Stonehenge.

Stonehenge, the great neolithic landmark, today sits in the fork of two major roads and is crowded with tourists.

The photo was taken 2003, on an overcast day that took a good friend and me into the Salisbury Plains. The typical landscape in this part of southern England is rolling hills, small villages, the occasional tree line between two fields. And lots of old stone walls…

My route now changes to a northerly course – next on my list of way points is the old city of Bath and then, heading 015°, Gloucester.

Closing in on Birmingham, I decide on an (maybe illegal) detour over the city center – courtesy to a friend living close by.

From there, it is north to fly around Manchester in the east, enjoying the rolling hills below me.

Once more, the stunning beauty of the ORBX England Scenery catches the eye – with a little bit of manipulation, especially around the water bodies, one could take it for real.

East of Manchester, the terrain starts to climb – Peak Distric National Park shows its natural beauty. Maybe time to climb a little bit above 3000 ft.? Especially with Lake District being next on my list?

South of Carnforth, I am crossing the coast, a short hop over water to Grange-over-Sands and then up into the Lake District. Meanwhile, I did a little en-route climb to 5.000 ft., just be be on the safe side.

Lake District is beautiful – I have been there in 2003 and I really loved it – swore to return once but never made it (so far) as Scotland always took priority. Past Lake District, I am maintaing a north-westerly course towards VOR DCS, then to VOR TRN – both legs roughly 85 NM together.

Past VOR TRN I am out over open water – flying the short 13 Mile hop to the Isle of Arran. Just hoping – once more – for my bird to last, there is little to no landing ground on the island.

The Isle of Arran is interesting – I have not been there (yet) but I hope to go one day. She’s right off the coast of Kintyre, easily reached by Ferry. Maybe 30 minutes away from our most favorite Bed & Breakfast.

I am heading up Arran’s east coast, then crossing the small gap to Kintyre, on my way to Tarbert. The little town of just over 1.300 people guards the entrance to the Kintyre Peninsula. Together with Campbeltown in the south, it is the only larger place down here.

Seen from Flight Simulator (and looking down at the ORBX Scotland Scenery) I can say: it is very well modeled. If you’d imagine me standing at the left of the town, just near that little peninsula there and up near the old castle, you could have seen me taking this panoramic photo.

What makes Tarbert special for me (and my wife) is the twenty-minute ride to our B&B (which we will talk about later) and the fact that the little village has (at least) two great restaurants we enjoy: the Starfish and the Anchorage. Latter is directly at the waterfront, the Starfish in in a side-road off the waterfront. Both require reservations, both are recommendable!

From Tarbert, it’s down the Kintyre Coast – a beautiful scenic drive by car and if I’d ever get a chance in an aircraft, it should be gorgeous.

A little bit south of this scenic viewpoint, the traveler comes across the small village of Clachan and the Dunultach B&B – a clear recommendation from our side. But make sure to book well in advance, Liz & John are always well visited!

On a completely non-Flight Simulator related note, let me spend a few words on this B&B: when we got here first, in 2003, Liz & John were an “accidental booking” because we did not know of them and we did not book ahead – but we were lucky, they had a room left.

The house itself is nice and Liz keeps it up with all her energy. Love to detail and a superb hospitality make this place unique – above and beyond the regular B&B experience.

Flight Simulator (or rather: the ORBX Scotland Scenery) covers the area around Clachan quite well. There are many things to discover and maybe I am going to write a separate piece about the location – but this is what it looks from above.

Following the coast southbound, small sandy beaches and rocky coastline dominate the countryside. The Isle of Gigha protects the coastal waters, as it appears. Again, one more point on the list of things to see one day.

The coastal road from Tarbert to Campbeltown which I am following on my flight is only about 50 km/37 miles. But it takes about an hour’s drive – without any stops in the beautiful landscape.

The photo above is taken relatively far to the south – you can already see the Mull of Kintyre sticking out into the Irish Sea. From here to Campbeltown: probably 15 minutes. Or only 5 minutes to fly – me now getting to the end of today’s leg with my FSX Flight.

In clear skies (rare in Scotland) and no wind (never seen that in Scotland!) I am on my final approach to Runway 11. Campbeltown, a small city of just under 5.000 people, is the southern end of Kintyre, from here it is only a short drive to the Mull of Kintyre. The airfield, formerly RAF Machrihanish, is now a privately operated airfield after having served the Royal Air Force for 96 years.

Me, I am taxiing my Cessna back to the Control Tower (quite a long way – Campbeltown has the longest runway of any Scotish airport!) and tie it down. Now, in real life, I would hope for Liz or John to pick me up…

I have been away from one of my hobbies for about a year or two now – but the recent sale of Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition made me rethink this and get back into it (at least at a certain level).

In the past, I was an all Airbus fan – loved flying the big birds with their complex cockpits but in the end, I had too little time to be in front of the Flight Simulator to handle those machines reliably. It is a matter of practicing, not only a matter of a good machine, good add-on’s and good check lists…

Now, with FSX: Steam Edition back on my computer (which now is also an upgraded hardware with an Intel i7-4770 Processor, 32 GB if RAM and an nVidia GeForce GTX 760) I decided to stay with the little birds, the Cessna’s and the likes.

There were a couple of decisions to make to not overload the new installation – obviously, FSX: Steam Edition needs to be installed, besides that, I have opted for

• Plan G3 by Tim Arnot as a Flight Planning / Moving Map tool,
• A2A’s new Cessna C182 Skylane as aircraft, and
• a mix of European Sceneries from ORBX and others.

So this little “maiden flight” will combine some of these products into a little “joint review”.

Notes on the Installation

I don’t want to cover the installation here – but just on a side-node, especially the ORBX Products do require a lot of attention to detail when performing the installation and then patching the installed base versions. You don’t pay attention, you do get trouble… mostly of the unpleasant visual kind…

The “Maiden Flight” – EDKB (Bonn Hangelar) to EGKA (Shoreham)

For various reasons, the “maiden flight” in the new environment is from Bonn Hangelar to the southern coast of the UK. The Cessna is sitting in the General Aviation area in Hangelar, waiting for it’s pre-flight inspection.

One of the neat things about the A2A Cessna is that it allows a complete “walk-around” with a build-in check-list for the external checks. As much as I remember my last flight, this is “to the point”.

The C192 Pilot’s Manual offers a very detailed set of check-lists – the Cabin Check-List and the Before Starting Engine Check-List are next on my list. With an aircraft add-on so detailed, you cannot get it into the air (or rather: you should not!) without obeying the proper procedures. We are now ready to start the engine.

The Start Engine Check-List will bring the Lycoming 10-540 to life. One thing I notice: it would be great to print the check-lists rather than have them open on a second monitor. Any a yoke with appropriate engine controls will greatly add to the experience.

This time, I managed to get the engine started without “drowning” her in her own fuel. Progress made 😉

Taxiing to the Runway 29 and holding, I execute the Before Takeoff Check-List. Again, this is “to the point” and my Cessna and me, we are ready to go. Outbound course from Hangelar is 275° which will take us into the Nörvenich area and then on to Aachen-Merzbrück as our first waypoint.

Leaving Hangelar takes me over the Rhine river and then over the little village of Sechtem where I once lived. Here, the quality of ORBX’s openLC Europe becomes obvious – the boundaries of the village, the railroad, the streets, and even the farm areas outside are meticulously recreated.

Getting closer to Aachen shows the pits of the brown coal mining sites in the north, the city area and (in the distance) the airbase at Geilenkirchen where NATO is operating the E-3a Sentry AWACS aircraft from.

I am following my course to about Eschweiler, them making a turn to 240° and just south of Aachen back to 270° to avoid the control zones of Liege and Maastricht. A close-up shot of the Cessna’s main panel shows the attention to detail (and fine graphics) the A2A Team has put into the aircraft.

Now, I have chosen the flight route not “randomly” – of course, I wanted to take out the Cessna but I also wanted to prepare a (possible) route for this year’s “old men’s flight” with my friend Ernst. And there is a reason for the tour: this is the very area I am currently covering in a discussion of my Grandfather’s War Diary from 75 Years ago (if you are interested, click here).

I am now approaching the Albert Canal south of Maastricht with the former Fort Eben-Emael. Flight Simulator, of course, show’s nothing of the history of the place but a very nicely shaped landscape!

Turning slightly to the left, back to 270°, my next waypoint is the city of Tongeren. Passing the city and looking at the route ahead, I am deciding on a south-westerly course, roughly 230° to Waremme. This will get me around the control zones of Brussels, Beauvecain, and Charleroi.

From above, the ORBX openLC Europe Textures are looking quite nice – beautifully recreating a European landscape in Summertime. West of Waremme, crossing the highway, a slight course correction is required, new course is 250°.

Down below me, around Hannut, one of the first major tank battles of World War II was fought – the Battle of Hannut. At Gembloux, I am reaching the southern end of the control zones around Brussles, turing west again, to 285°. Next waypoint: Kortrijk in about 60 miles.

I thought, I’d give you a “top-down” look to emphasize the beauty of the textures below me… the next 60 miles are “straight forward”, except a little correction to get back on track near Ronse. Over Kortrijk, I am setting for 270° to the city of Ypres. Meanwhile, from up here, the North Sea comes into view – still at the horizon but I am getting closer to the coast.

Below me, Flander’s Fields. Down there, some of the most fierce battles of Word War I were fought. Very few areas in the world can – if one allows himself to be taken to history – combine hobby and history so closely. Below me – the city of Ypres.

Now, it is off to the coast which I will cross between Calais and Cap Gris Nez. Another 55 miles of flight, then a hop over the channel and along the coast to Shoreham. Near Calais, the British Coasts starts to shape out of the mist – the White Cliffs of Dover.

At Cap Gris Nez, I am leaving continental Europe, heading out over the British Channel and for the Isles. A 30 Mile hop during which I do hope to not run into any issues with my little bird…

… and right here, FSX: Steam Edition crashed on me… which allows me to cover a few of the issues I had run into during the flight:

First of all, an occasional delay in texture loading of the Cessna’s Cockpit resulted in some very “rare” view of the front panel when switching views.

It’s not bad – it takes a few seconds to recover and then all is fine again. Next, I keep loosing my connection to my USB Saitek X52 Pro occasionally – all that helps then is to swt FSX to full-screen mode and back which re-enables the stick… wonder why. Last but not least, the Crash To Desktop I just experienced – well, that can happen but it should not.

I resume the flight – or rather: I start a new flight! – from Calais, quickly heading south to catch up with my previous location. From there, it is again course west until I reach the British Isles near Lydd.

Here, it is not only flying over the United Kingdon, it also means a switch of Scenery, from ORBX openLC Europe to ORBX England. The scenery is much more detailed than the general openLC Europe (which is already good!) but now, the nitty gritty fine details ofthe country side are worked out to the extend.

I am flying along the southern coast of England, towards the city of Brighton. Brighton itself is famous for its seashore but to me, it seems to be too dense, too packed.

Finally, I am circling the airport, Shoreham, for a final approach on Runway 03 (the grass runway), land, taxi to parking and put my Cessna right between the other GA-Aircraft sitting there, waiting for my next leg up to Scotland.

Conclusions

A couple of closing comments: first of all, it’s good to be back in a cockpit and I enjoy the relatively low learning curve of the Cessna. No comparison to an Airbus, no obligations for frequent flights.

ORBX openLC Europe and ORBX England are both worth having – patched to the latest releases and with a few glitches to sort out during installation, they are both tremendously upgrading the VFR experience.

The A2A Cessna C182 is really worth flying – a beautiful aircraft, nicely modeled, neat graphics and a nice inflight feeling… not a waste of money, I would say. From here, it is now “up north, to Scotland”!