GWJ FBO: Flight Simulation Catch-all

How has that Comanche been working out for you?

I flew last weekend, but it was the first time I've been able to for the past few weeks. The weather here has been nice so I've been outside a lot, leaving little time for flying.

For that last flight, I did end up flying into the "starred" airport SPGL (Chagual, Peru). I managed to find a flight plan that wound through the Andes at 12K feet and under, so I took my C310R instead of switching into a turbo as planned. That turned out to be a problem, but not due to the altitude.

I managed to wind my way through the mountains, finally reaching the Marañón River. SPGL is found at a bend of this river, in a canyon, between the river and a roadway. I didn't plan very well, and kept far too much altitude so I overshot the airport. Somehow I managed to go downriver enough to find a wide section of the canyon, and was able to turn around.

Coming back, the runway was not well-situated for landing, due to a small hill and a curve in the canyon. Unfortunately, it was late IRL and I did not relish going back upriver to turn around again, so did my best. I managed to put the aircraft down at the airport, if not on the actual runway. I got back on the runway, but ran long and ended up in some bushes. I somehow didn't manage to break anything on the aircraft, although the brakes needed some repair.

If I had gone just a little farther, I would have dropped off into the river. For this airport, both the elevation and the runway length are about 4000 feet.

Looking at that airport in satellite view, the runway looks curvy. I don't think that was modeled in FS. Also, despite its remote location the satellite image just happened to capture a small twin-engine aircraft on the runway.

As for my next flight... I just read that SimWorks Studios had put their Kodiak 100 on sale 50% off (until Sunday), so I grabbed that for €14.99. So I've got a little work to do before taking off again.

I had been thinking about getting the Comanche after working my way back out of the Andes, but that might wait a while.

Thanks for the note on the Kodiak, I picked it up as well. Did a flight in South America today.. pictures not that exciting since its basically all rain forest. I did finally manage to get speed right on final though in the Comanche and actually land without bouncing it.

Now I need to spend the first hour configuring the Kodiak in Spad so I can actually get everything to work!

If you're using an Alpha/Bravo I think SPAD is required. It is the "final" reason why I feel comfortable flying in MSFS vs. Xplane12 right now. My recent flying in MSFS is almost solely because I got SPAD to work. I've purchased a lot of these flightsim-backoffice like addons before, and this is probably one of my top 2 or 3. In MSFS I also prefer to fly GA, but I would find jetliners impossible to fly without it.

There are enough examples, tutorials and snippets out there that you should be able to configure however you want, and with some minimal programming experience you can really fine tune it and dial it in.

If you end up getting SPAD, let me know if you need some help. Les O'Reilly's youtube channel is the bible of tutorials and tips. Not sure if he's a developer or just a partner, but watching his beginners series and videos for an aircraft you have (I used his PMDG 737 stuff), really gets you on the right path.

So much so, that I'm considering getting the Xplane addon as well. Xplane allows you to create custom lua scripts to bind more exotic controls, and i've done a bunch of that, but being able to build and test them in this UI is so much better.

I curated a list of les oreilly videos in my own playlist. that includes all of the relevant new user ones.

Maybe start with that. Includes one specifically for the Kodiak.

I think there's a newer "New User 1.1" video that just came out, but other than that, he hasn't updated it that much.

I looked at both as well, and while all along I thought Axis and Ohs would be my choice, a few things changed my mind: 1) the UI in Spad is just better. I watched a few of videos for each and while both require work, its just easier in Spad. 2) The Spad trial is a full 30 days.. AAO is like 30 minutes 3) the Spad discord is pretty active, and Les Oreilly hangs out in there and will answer questions directly. There's definitely a bit of typical RTFM that this community loves to use, but if you ask specific questions you'll often get an answer.

If you think you'll make the leap to airliners (PMDG or Fenix or any future "good" ones) its a must, and I don't think you can fly the A2A reliably without it.

The previews of the Blacksquare TBM 850 are blowing me away. The Xplane 11 version of the TBM 900 was one of the best aircraft to fly in, that sim, and if/when it gets upgraded to XP12, I was for sure going to hop back in, but MSFS looks like its going to beat it to the punch.

I know I just picked up the Kodiak as my turboprop, but it may get quickly replaced.

This was posted yesterday (Wednesday):
Just Flight says Black Square TBM 850 due out tomorrow!

I guess if you're really interested in adding this to your hangar, you only have to wait a few hours!

That 152 is pretty great. The systems modeling is a step above a lot of paid products too.

The most recent updates to the 152 were done by the same person with an equally great paid 172 mod that is worth picking up.

Ah, yeah, by 'systems modeling' I meant the realism changes; like the oil system and electrical systems are pretty heavily modified I believe, and all of the autopilot stuff, plus the various bits of eye-candy. In discord the last note from the dev was that the flight model was 99% the same as Asobo's. The 172 has a pretty heavily modified flight model from what I understand, and the systems work appears to be even more intricate there.

I did finally manage a second flight in my Kodiak, making my way southward along the Pacific coast toward Lima, Peru. I'm expecting/hoping that the colder weather will provide me with more flying time.

Since I got the Kodiak, it seems we're being flooded by good turboprop aircraft. First, there was the Black Square TBM 850. Now, the FSReborn M500 has arrived and looks pretty good. For some reason it is only available on the MS marketplace though, and I'm reluctant to buy anything from there.

I'm tempted by this, but probably won't get another plane until I've put a lot more hours on my Kodiak.

Before heading southward along the coast of Chile, I took a quick flight from Calama/El Loa (SCCF), up to Atacama at 17K+ feet, then back down to the coast at Cerro Morena (SCFA).

A bunch of simulated radio astronomers are probably pretty angry at me right now, for overflying ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter Array).

This is the village of Toconao, just downhill from ALMA at a mere 8153 feet above MSL.

While at Cerro Morena, I picked up my new FSReborn FSR500 (based upon the Piper M500).

I've been enjoying the Kodiak, and decided that I want to get another turboprop that flies a little faster and supports state-saving. I've seen almost universally good reviews of the FSR500, and tbh really like the support & attitude of the dev.

I don't think the FSR500 flies that much faster than the Kodiak, but it seems really happy to go up toward 30K feet and zip along. The Kodiak supposedly tops out at 25K but it always felt like a struggle to get it above 20K.

The M500/FSR500 automates turboprop operations a little more than the Kodiak does, but still gives you enough things to keep your attention (particularly at startup).

The ground support extras that come with the FSR (fuel truck, passenger vehicle) are neat but I think I will end up skipping them most of the time. The EFB, though, has a direct interface with Simbrief. I've never used Simbrief before given the way I fly, but I did set up an account to give it a try. Importing a flight plan seems to work really well, but I don't see myself using it much unless I decide to start learning how to fly IFR. It also pulls Navigraph charts right into the G1000 but I don't have a paid Navigraph subscription.

I've been having some issues with the FS drone camera, so only got images from on the ground or inside the cabin.

Apparently only truly needy passengers fly on my plane, always demanding food & beverage even before we've reached cruising altitude.

I think this Jet A-1 truck just follows me everywhere I go.

I flew the FSR500 three times over the weekend, and I'm now parked at La Florida (SCSE) Aerodromo Viña Del Mar (SCVM) just outside of Santiago, Chile. That is over 33 degrees south of the equator. I plan to cut over to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, then finally go north. I thought about just going all the way down to Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands but I don't think I'll do that.

At this point I expect to stop in the capitals of all 10 CONMEBOL teams since I've already stopped in Caracas, Lima, Quito, La Paz, and soon Santiago.

So, about that....

Here is a map of the flights I've taken since landing at SCVM.

I did end up flying the FSR500 all the way down to SAWH (Ushuaia International), supposedly the southernmost international airport, in the world's southernmost city, and a gateway for expeditions to Antarctica.

Edit: Maybe 5 minutes after posting this, I was watching youtube and was served an ad for cruises to Antarctica. Coincidence, I'm sure.

One thing I learned is that even in late spring, it is really really windy down there, especially flying over the mountains. I got a number of overspeed warnings because I was flying near top speed when gusts started to knock the aircraft around. When I landed at SAWH, there were headwinds about 40 knots. My landing was "ungraceful but successful". I also learned how much it sucks to taxi in weather like that. I was too busy flying to get any images.

The next day I decided to do a little sightseeing in the Kodiak.

After cruising over the city, I headed past the end of the Andes all the way out into the Drake Passage to some really remote islands (Islas Diego Ramirez) that are probably not as flat as they appear in FS.

You can see the lighthouse down there if you zoom in.

From there I flew back to SCGZ (Puerto Williams), a much smaller Chilean airstrip just south across the water from Ushuaia. Puerto Williams also claims to be the world's southernmost city despite having less than 3000 people.

Back in the FSR500, I flew past the very tip of continental South America, before heading up to the Falklands.

I visited both SFAL (Stanley airport). It was the site of some fighting during the War in 1982, and was famously bombed by RAF Vulcans on very long-range missions. I also visited EGYP (RAF Mount Pleasant) which was built after the war.

Stanley Airport.

I know I mostly post VFR images, but I have been having a little fun learning Simbrief and attempting to create flight plans in the G1000 NXi. After leaving the Falklands I planned a modest flight back to the nearest airport in Argentina. Once airborne I checked the weather and ended up learning how to divert and ended up far to the north. That resulted in the single longest flight I've ever done: 2:27, almost 600 nm. You can see on the map where I suddenly changed course to the NW during the last flight.

Good stuff Hrdina. I've started a tour in Africa in the Kodiak 100 though I'll probably change up the aircraft a bit as I go. I'm using as a starting this set of airports in Africa from flightsim. Only did one leg so far in Angola, but will see how far I get.

This was from Menongue, Angola (FNME) to Bie airport (FNKU) in Kuito, Angola.

I just wanted to say thanks for all of the recent posts. I had to put up my gear for now, so I’ve been living vicariously through the posts here.

I've been using Addon Linker for a long time. It's indispensable.

Unfortunately, the World Updates don't go into the Community folder, so the Linker won't help with those.

I think I have enough space on my game drive (over 1 TB free on a 2 TB M.2). I just don't want to bother spending the time to download and update the WUs while I'm not actively flying there. Funny that despite all the great WUs that have been released, I'm currently flying on the continent that's received practically nothing from Asobo.

Maybe I'm just being grumpy about what is an awesome project, provided for free, but seeing "Please make sure you have all World Updates installed" in the readme file got my attention. I think that of the 15 WUs so far, I only have 3 installed currently (the two US updates, plus Oceania).