[Kumiankka]

With the Viking tour over, it's time for us to return to our standard fare of visiting various random airports around the world. The destinations of the last few weeks may have been cold northern locations devoid of any custom scenery, but this upcoming break will be quite different, featuring an award-winning custom scenery pack as well as taking us to the tropics, far away from all the snow and ice. For the February 28th fly-in we will be revisiting Malé, the Maldives (VRMM), another old fly-in location from back in 2006. Back then, the global scenery was still brand new, and enough to impress even without any custom buildings. This time, capella's VRMM custom scenery, one of the runners-up for Best of January 2010, provides plenty of additional detail both for the airport itself and the surrounding islands. Sloped runways on.


Link to discussion/screenshot thread

[Kumiankka]

And for this week, we have an even more southern location lined up for you, again with plenty of detailed custom scenery as well. The airport was the location of our third weekly fly-in back in late 2004, and is one of the world's oldest continously operated airports, having officially opened in January 1920. So don't miss our second visit to Sydney, Australia (YSSY), taking place this upcoming Sunday, March 7th. This is an all-day event as usual, so time zone differences need not be a factor - just show up at whatever time is most convenient for you!

MICKX's Sydney v4 scenery for X-Plane 9 is highly recommended, as are the various AussiePak add-ons by Barry Roberts for other Australian airports.

Sloped runways off.


Fly-in discussion thread now open.

[Kumiankka]

All right, here's an all-new fly-in location for this week, João Paulo II Airport, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal (LPPD). It is the busiest airport in the Azores, and should offer quite a challenge considering the surrounding terrain and sloped runway. Unfortunately, no custom scenery seems to exist for X-Plane, but a suitable MSFS package can be converted using FS2XPlane (search for Azores.zip on FSDome.com).

Sloped runways on this time.


Link to discussion/screenshot thread

[Kumiankka]

Since we've had a number of coastal fly-ins lately, this weekend we'll head for a location somewhat further inland, while also adding another Eastern European country to the list of places we've visited. Scenery for this week's fly-in destination of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Serbia (LYBE) is available courtesy of SkyHighSim team, who have released this previously payware MSFS scenery into free use, and Michael Vladar, who has handled the X-Plane conversion. As the main airport of Serbia's capital city, LYBE is the country's busiest airport. There is only one runway, but plenty of ramp space for those heavier jets as well.

And although it should be self-evident, considering the location, we ask those flying military aircraft to remain within the bounds of good taste, and especially to refrain from simulating any airstrikes or other things related to the recent real-world conflicts in the region. Demonstration flights and mock dogfights should be OK though, just make sure to exercise common sense and not to interfere with other air traffic.

Sloped runways on for this one. Enjoy!


Discussion/screenshot thread now open.

[Kumiankka]

Our upcoming Sunday's fly-in location is going to be even a bit more exotic than usual, but will surely come as a pleasant diversion to all the armchair astronauts out there. The fly-in on the last Sunday of March will take place at Argyre Planitia, Mars (MAAP), with all the challenges that the low-gravity, thin-atmosphere environment suggests. As always, anyone is welcome to join, although practicing beforehand is suggested if you want to avoid frequent crashes on the fly-in day! Mars planes handle quite differently from their terrestrial counterparts, and take quite a bit of getting used to. As flying in from most of our previous fly-in airports might prove a bit tricky, a good starting point might be Nereidum Montes if you feel like flying across the vast Argyre impact basin, or for longer-distance flights, the demo airport at Coprates Chasma.

For those who don't have the Mars scenery CDs, the complete Mars scenery is nowadays freely available by FTP:
Mars North
Mars South

Sloped runways on.


Fly-in discussion thread now open.

[Kumiankka]

Since last week's Mars fly-in went so well, we thought we'd continue with the space theme this week and have our next fly-in take place in orbit around the gas giant Jupiter. What with the difficulty of developing functional spacecraft for X-Plane (and some unexpectedly erratic actions by developer AUSTIN 9000), the only suitable vehicle currently available from the download manager is the Soviet spacecraft Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, featured in this week's fly-in banner. The latest X-Plane 10 beta will of course be required for voyages to Jupiter, as previous versions only support flights on Earth and Mars. Using time compression is also recommended, as otherwise the interplanetary transit time might be a bit long, especially if relying on a Hohmann transfer orbit to conserve fuel. For those who'd rather not try their luck with the difficult rendezvous procedure (involving some accurately timed thruster burns and aerobraking), the fictional ICAO code TMA2 should place you in close proximity to the spacecraft Discovery One, as well as a large, black scenery object of unknown origin with dimensions 1:4:9.

Good luck, astronauts!


Link to discussion thread

[Kumiankka]

All right, as many of you had already guessed, the above announcement was of course our little April Fools' prank for 2010. We are still going to Jupiter, just not quite as literally, as the actual fly-in location for this week is the rather more terrestrial aerodrome of William P. Gwinn Airport, Jupiter, Florida, United States (06FA). It's a rather small airport with the X-Plane default layout only, but then again we aren't expecting that much traffic anyway, since not everyone can probably make it due to the Easter weekend. But for those who will be there, installing the now freely available Destination Florida scenery, as well as the East Florida Orthoscenery (available from the download manager in four parts) should provide plenty of detail for other nearby airports to fly to and from. In the real world, the airport is privately used by Sikorsky Aircraft, apparently for testing purposes, so for fly-in purposes all kinds of experimental aircraft should be quite appropriate.

Sloped runways can be left on.


Screenshot and discussion thread open

[Kumiankka]

This week's fly-in airport of Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States (KLMT) should be ideal for those of you preferring VFR flights, although the airport can handle larger aircraft as well, having formerly served as a US Air Force installation under the name of Kingsley Field. Despite the apparent lack of X-Plane custom scenery for the airport, the surroundings offer plenty of interesting scenery to explore, including the landmarks of Crater Lake and Mount Shasta, which are represented quite well in the default V9 global scenery. VFR sectional chart available here, courtesy of Brad Allen and Myairplane.com.

Sloped runways on.


Fly-in discussion thread now open.

[Kumiankka]

And for next Sunday's fly-in we'll be hopping over to an African country celebrating its 30th year of independence on April 18th, the Republic of Zimbabwe, with the fly-in taking place at Harare International Airport (FVHA). Custom scenery is available from the XP-Africa site, and also includes the smaller airport of Victoria Falls (FVFA). Sloped runways should be turned off this time to ensure that the scenery displays correctly, without floating terminal buildings.


Link to discussion and screenshot thread

[Kumiankka]

Our next fly-in, on April 25th, will take place at the sole airport serving the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, L.F. Wade International Airport (TXKF). Although the UK fly-in guys had already been to the location while those events were still running, for the Sunday fly-ins this will be our first visit to Bermuda so far. Converted MSFS scenery for the airport and photo textures for the coral reefs are available from the download manager. Just don't get lost in the Bermuda Triangle on your way there!

Sloped runways should be turned off this time.


Discussion thread for this fly-in now open.