[12 minutes of dawn]

taking the dodosim 206 out for a short trip around concrete (3W5). i randomly chose the time around dawn and loaded up with the live realworld weather and ended up with a breathtaking atmosphere!

everything set and running fine. lets go!

[from 3U2 to KSUN while the sun sets]

flying over the hills of backcountry idaho while the day ends with my 185f tundra. tried to capture the atmosphere in the cabin, but i just couldnt resist to add at least some outside snapshots too...

the hills around are already dark while the sky is filled with the last daylight! :-P

[random skies]

during my tweaking and testing phase i did capture some screenies i want to share, since some of them are really lovely... randomness awaits you! enjoy.

twin otter into the sunset.. or was it sunrise? i forgot! love the shady hills

[sky blues]

after endless tweaking of the enbseries mod ini file, installing the overdrive pack for my REX 2 and trying to find the perfect sky colors and clouds for my tastes i finally have a mix that i like.. for now! some random day shots somewhere in the CRM area!

my amphibian 185f parked under what maybe is the perfect sky! :-P

[along the salmon river]

quick and dirty with the 185f. while testing different rex 2 skycolorschemes i took a short flight along the salmon river in the idaho backcountry paradise!

looks like i found the perfect sky! parked at ID76...

[quest kodiak randoms at 3U2]

double post, because these pictures can't wait to be watched! :-P
quick bushflying action. short and dirty!

parked at 3U2 - ready for action!

[quest kodiak randoms at KMYL]

new addition to my virtual hangar: quest kodiak (from lionheart). excellent modern turbo prop bushplane that will sure give hours of fun around idaho and beyond! all lionheart products are on sale this weeked at the flightsimstore, super cheap prices! anyway... enjoy my new plane at sunset around KMYL trying to get comfortable with the kodiak doing some landings and whatnot.

splendid machine - looks like one of my best shots yet!

[yellowstone in a cub]

another series of random shots i took while exploring different regions of the CRM scenery coverage. this time i took a short trip around the yellowstone area using the a2a j-3 piper cub accusim and even managed to land on a parking lot... :-P

distant clouds somewhere over the yellowstone national park area!

[craters of the moon monument area]

handful of random shots from a quick trip around the "craters of the moon national monument" area in central idaho. the actual craters of the moon are not even on the pictures, i just flew past the area and saw what probably is the visitors centers? wasnt able to find any direct info about the place, but its at the main road going through that area and has several buildings and parking areas... a more indepth trip to this special location will follow at a later date!

this should be some kind of tourist / visitor / park ranger center thingy?

[random idaho backcountry taildraggin']

exploring the idaho backcountry region brought me to some pretty famous spot amongst bushflyers. 3u2, the mile high strip and... hmm. i forgot the name of the other one.. meh! whatever... although i did land on the mile high... it was a borked landing and would have crashed the plane in reallife, have to try harder next time. for now some random pics of my trips!

lovely campsite on a mountainside. the runway leads downards :D forgot the name of this strip

[tri-cities to basin city]

continuing my random exploration trips around the central rocky mountains area it took me to the area of tri-cities this time to see some photoreal scenery alongside the columbia river.

carenado cessna 185f tundra version parked at KPSC

[from Johnson Creek Airport to Upper Loon Creek]

continuing my exploration trips around the brilliant CRM region i found my way into the rugged rural mountain county of custer. the flight starts at 3u2 johnson creek airport, follows the valleys and rivers past s81, 2u8, 0u3, id67 before finally landing at u72.

note: i changed ALL pictures of the blog from PNG to JPG to preserve more serverspace and reduce bandwidth... i basically had to edit all postings and therefore the captions i wrote under most pictures are now gone... meh.

parked at johnson creek.

[eastward]

after seeing screenshots and exploring the region via the google earth kmz i just couldnt resist to spent the cash for the brand new orbx NA gold central rocky mountains pack. it expands the coverage from pnw way eastward and presents a very diverse and different setting that should be good for endless exploration trips!

after downloading the 4GB package, installation, defragmentation and a long time exploring a location for the first trip i decided to dive right into the middle and ended up at U37 (midway airport, atomic city, idaho), since it has this nice desert look to it!

parked at atomic city airport in idaho.. isnt as exciting as the name would suggest :)

[farewell pnw]

short flight from wn55  over to strom field in the south-eastern region of washington state before i move eastward to my brand new scenery! taking heidi for a flight. she actually though my landing was perfect. :-P off eastward after this!

[tundra wheels on a wooden bridge]

cushman meadows once again. some more random snapshots around the area, this time with the carenado cessa 185f tundra. limiting the FPS within fsx actually did speed up the texture loading a little bit (as it is to be expected, since it should free some cpu cycles which then can be utilized to the texture loading) but finding the exact right balance will take some more tweaking as it introduces slightly choppier frame rate variations... but enough nerd talk... i am here to enjoy flying and share snapshots!

[random cushman meadows]

even after removing some of the animated people and static parked airplanes, texture loading is still super slow and they get blurry even at slow flying speeds :-/ ... will have to try to tune my FSX configuration later.. meanwhile i still managed to enjoy the new scenery, this time with the carenado cessna 185f amphibian. enjoy some random shots....

[cushman meadows and a cub]

i just couldn't resist to buy a new airport for my na blue pnw region and decided to go with the KCMW cushman meadows pack. with all eye candy turned on it does push my system to its knees, but even with extreme cloudy weather i was able to take a short orientation trip around this stunning area. frame rate was of course noticeably lower and textures won't load as fast as i would like... lots of blurring.. but anyway...
here we are at cushman meadows in the fabulous piper cub. let's start her up properly!

[around mount baker]

part three of my mountain round trips. this time it is the dodosim 206 again, real weather, and a lot of lovely mountain views! started from green mountain helipad, hopping over to three fingers, then evergreen mountain and miners ridge before finally diverting over to 6s9 while the day is about to end!

[around mount rainier]

chopper time again! this time i explored the region around the wonderful mount rainier area using a GPS course to some of the helipads around, realworld weather and of course the dodosim 206 on max. realism setting! starting from the ranger creek airport, making stops at suntop, mount freemont and tolmie peak and finally heading over to kapowsin field for a latte!

[oh canada, eh]

somewhere on the west coast of canada there was a twin otter with floats flying from CAW5 to CAG6... or something. not familiar with the area yet, just wanted to fly in the canadian part of the NA orbx PNW scenery!
i was using a GPS flightplan so i wasnt completely lost, also tried to use VOR navigation, but basically failed :P

[undine liberation otter]

fictional modification of one of the default twin otter dhc-6 100 paintjobs to represent the undine liberation front.

[otter rosso]

fictional repaint of the aerosoft dhc-6 twin otter in the colors of porco rosso's savoia s.21...

[blake sea tours 2]

i made a new repaint for the twin otter, not very good, but its a start and i  already have ideas for different ones. :-O

[skating on water]

it's cub time again and today we gonna skate the water!

[above the clouds]

another day, another twin otter!

[blake sea tours]

one of my favorite planes is the de havilland dhc-6 twin otter. its a twin engine turbo prop, can seat around 19 passenger or cargo and is famous for its extreme STOL capabilities. it is still in use around the world at the most dangerous places to fly (i.e. himalaya, antarctica, around the tiny airports of the caribbean, and the remotest areas of africa and papua new guinea). the FSX version of this masterpiece of a plane was released by aerosoft and while it already pretty old and graphically outdated it nails the STOL flight dynamics pretty damn close and is the perfect addition for every bush flyer! you won't find the fancy indepth simulation of internal systems in this machine, but you can experience the thrill of approaching nose down with full flaps, flying slightly above stall speed and then pull reverse throttle and hear the props howl, the stall horn beeping and touching down perfectly! :-O

[around 3w5 concrete municipal part 2]

while tundra wheels are not floats, they are big enough to give the cub the ability to skate over the water! with the accusim add-on to the a2a piper j-3 cub you can try that yourself. but beware, don't get too slow and hold the stick tight, otherwise you might dive nose over into the waters or just sink :-P

[around 3w5 concrete municipal part 1]

enjoying the scenery around the town of concrete in my cub on a lovely day, again...as always... :-O

[free undine]

the undine liberation front invaded the olympic national park! watch out america and beware of the cubs! :-/

[a visit to the bonneville dam]

cub time again, today i decided to go with the normal variant and explored the region around the bonneville dam at the columbia river. you cannot really see it in the pictures, but it was extremly windy! 18knots gusting to 25knots! the wind actually pushed the parked cub backwards and when i started it was almost instantly airborne into the gusting winds!

[nucular?]

this time its the amphibian version of the carenado cessna 185f. starting from the tiny field wn65 circling around the never finished satsop nuclear plant and then for a twist... watch yourself! :P

[around mount st. helens]

flying the carenado cessna 185f skywagon tundra around the beautiful scenery around mount st. helens. while this plane relies on the default FSX system simulation it still is fun to fly with reasonably realistic flight dynamics making it perfect for those adventurous bush flying trips around the NA blue PNW scenery!

[rainy day, boring flight]

the dodosim 206 helicopter is the peak of realistic helicopter simulation for FSX. you have to exactly follow the real world procedures or you probably will damage and ruin the engine or just simply crash. it uses custom coded flight dynamics and system simulation to replace the not very realistic FSX helicopter simulation model and makes even the start-up sequence exciting!

[lazy hellcat day]

you might think that all those pictures are starting to be repetitive and boring by now, but personally i always find some new little detail and things that make me want to post them all. these pictures are not staged like a photo shoot, they are just spontaneous snapshots made while i am flying. so now let us visit 3w5 again!

[wintertime]

to spice things up i decided to take the cub out on a little winter sightseeing trip around the concrete municipal area. with freezing temperatures you have to handle the machine even more carefully, just like the real thing.

[lonely sunset]

flying the orbx lancair IV-P from 3W5 concrete municipal to orcas island at sunset. it's a great little plane, but even the SD version strains my computer just too much to make it fully enjoyable. lets begin with going through the checklists and starting up the engine properly!

[i just had to]

USS Nimitz + a2a piper j-3 cub = big love! just make sure you get outta there as quick as possible! :-O

[in the navy for a day]

with the default f/a-18 from the acceleration pack i visited the USS nimitz again complete with a carrier landing on the moving deck and a quick catapult start!

[ships and a helicopter]

let's enjoy helicopter flying navy style! using aicarriers 2 add-on in conjunction with the magnificent USS nimitz pack 2(by Javier Fernandez) to get a whole new level of challenge in flying the dodosim 206. first i visited the USNS Patuxent replenishment oiler, then it gets bigger!

[landing on the big e]

quick old school carrier landing with the hellcat using the aicarriers 2 add-on with a model of the old USS Enterprise CV-6 (by Bruce Fitzgerald).

[hellcat in pink paradise]

a short round trip with the vertigo studios f6f hellcat. from the cold and dark manual engine start-up sequence to the almost borked landing and everything pinkish in-between!

[random helicopter floatiness]

dodosim 206 with floats flying around the san juan islands area. watch out for antennas and birds!

[cub on a hot and hazy day]

with temperatures around 30°C you just have to fly with the door open!

[cub over san juan islands]

random screenshots of the a2a piper j-3 cub accusim flying over the san juan islands.

[sunset and a helicopter]

dodosim 206 helicopter over orcas island.

playing around with different enbseries settings, realistic but too dark!