Courchevel airport LFLJ

A dangerous airport located in the French Alps, this runway is only 537 Metres long with a gradient of 18%. It serves the small ski resort of Courchevel. Details include hotels, ski lifts and a restaurant and some very detailed hangars. Good for light aircraft or helicopters. Available from LLH Creations.

Cessna 185F Ski ready for takeoff

Looks like a restaurant/bar

Takeoff into the valley, hotels on left

The summit ski lift station

It's a good scenery and does not impact the frame rate too much, either available stand-alone or in a pack with nearby resort airport of Meribel.

L52 Oceano County Airport, CA

This scenery comes from the North American Pack 1 of Orbx free airports. It is a small airfield on the Californian coast just north-west of Santa Barbara. Not much to see here, just some hangars and a single runway 29/11. Following screenshots are with FTX Global.

Oceano runway is 709 Metres long, opened in 1947 as a public airport. It does not have an ICAO code. Walking distance to the beach,

Takeoff from runway 29

Curious structure on this side

Chivenor, EGDC,Royal Marines Base, North Devon, UK

Chivenor is an airbase on the outskirts of Braunton village on the north coast of Devon in England. It is another place I have been lucky to live. For many years it was a Royal Air Force base, but in 1995 was transferred to the Royal Marines. It was active in the Second World War and after has had Hawker Hunter and BAe Hawks. It still is a base for Sea Rescue helicopters (Sea King) and Hercules.

Hawker Hunter takeoff from Chivenor (VFR1 + FTX England)

Marines train on the nearby Braunton Burrows and Saunton Sands. Today I have been flying AlphaSim Hawker Hunter, takeoff from Chivenor, fly over Barnstaple and then out to Saunton Sands.
I was comparing the default scenery to that provided by Orbx FTX England combined with UK2000 VFR-1 Airfields. As you can see by the following screenshots, UK2000 Airfield is better than the one included in FTX England. FTX England is a huge improvement over the default countryside, towns and coastal scenery. It actually includes the new road bridge over the River Taw at Barnstaple. The scenery of Barnstaple, Braunton Burrows and the coast is quite accurate.

Barnstaple, FTX England

Fly over Chivenor and Braunton toward Saunton

Over Saunton Golf Course and Braunton Burrows

FTX England airfield

RAAF Amberley Airbase, YAMB

I was interested in Amberley airbase as it was the official home of the F-111C squadron based in Australia, it is also a convenient location for a trip to the Pacific islands and especially my new Orbx FTX scenery for American Samoa (Pago Pago NSTU).

I use the excellent freeware scenery provided by Robert Graham for YAMB. This seems to work well the Orbx FTX Global. The following screenshots are the Virtavia F-111C at Amberley prior to flight to Pago Pago.

Ready for takeoff at YAMB, default FTX Global airport

Ready for takeoff at YAMB, RPWG freeware

View to right on runway 33

Takeoff to the NE with view of the main airbase

Look back SW at the whole airbase

It is not quite as detailed as RAAF Pearce, but it fits in well with the default Orbx FTX Global scenery and is a big improvement over the default scenery.

Virtavia F-111C cockpit panel variants

I have flown both A8-125 Clean and A8-138 Harpoon, which are both RAAF F-111C and I noticed after I flew the A8-138, I could not find the clock on the A8-125. I took screenshots of each panel and sure enough they have different cockpit front panels. The two are shown below:

A8-138 Panel approach to Pago Pago

A8-138 Camo with Air to air missiles

A8-125 Panel

A8-125 Clean

Of course there is more variation with the other models including in the Virtavia F-111 package:

1. FB-111A 'Sleepy Time Gal' , 509th BW
2. FB-111A 'Spirit of the Seacoast', 509th BW
3. F-111C A8-138 camo, 1 Sqn. RAAF
4. F-111C A8-125 grey 2007 Anniv., 6 Sqn. RAAF
5. F-111C A8-125 grey 2010 Anniv., 6 Sqn. RAAF
6. F-111E 77th TFS, 20th TFW, Upper Heyford
7. F-111F 524th FS 'Hounds', Cannon AFB
8. F-111F 'Miss Lyberty II', 48th TFW, Lakenheath
9. F-111G 'Boneyard Wrangler', 6 Sqn. RAAF
10. F-111G 428th FS 'Buccaneers', Cannon AFB
11. EF-111A Raven, 430th ECS, Cannon AFB

Virtavia F-111C at RAAF Pearce, Western Australia

In the 70s, I used to live in Bullsbrook, right under the approach to RAAF Pearce and the F-111C was the most impressive aircraft to be seen flying in and out. The original variable geometry fighter/bomber was delivered to the RAAF in 1973 with 24 aircraft. The aircraft, compared to it's contemporaries in a similar role, has a very long combat range and high payload. The ferry range is 6760 km with a combat radius of 2140km.

A8-138 ready for takeoff

F-111C over Pearce, ORBX Global

The Virtavia model, includes repaints of some RAAF F-111C aircraft, including A8-138 that I was flying. The original aircraft is shown below.

A8-138

I put it to the test, by flying to Kuala Lumpur, a distance of 4177km. I departed Pearce at 3:30am just before sunrise and got to WMKK at just before 5am, cruising at an altitude of 37000ft and 660 Knots.

Pilot's instrument panel

The model is a pleasure to fly, seems to have a really good flight model and looks fantastic. Most of the buttons and instruments work. I did not read the 63 page manual, but worked out how to use the autopilot and head-up display and terrain following radar. I dialled in the cruising altitude and heading and selected heading hold and altitude hold and auto-pilot master switch on. I managed to get to Kuala Lumpur with 44% fuel remaining, so almost possible to make the return flight. The wings sweep forward for takeoff and landing using the normal flap control keys.

Arrival at runway 32R, WMKK

I used the free scenery for Pearce and the excellent KLIA scenery by AA Sceneries for Kuala Lumpur International airport. There is some really good traffic at the busy airport that did hit my frame rate.

Aerosoft Carenado Christmas Sale

Aerosoft have a promotion on with massive discounts on all Carenado aircraft. I am a big fan and already have quite a few in my collection. Some of the prices on the light aircraft are very cheap, so I bought a C185F Skywagon Bush for 6.97 Euro! (reduced from 23 Euro) This is not even the cheapest aircraft, as there is C172N Skyhawk II Ski/Float and the C208B Super Cargo Master (expansion) even cheaper.

C185F Bush, Tundra version

C185F Bush, Float version

C185F Bush, Ski version

C185F Cockpit Panel

As I was so happy with the C185F, a couple of days later I bought the C172N Float for 3.28 Euro. This comes in two colours, green and blue.

C172N Float cockpit panel

C172N Float in green

Lakenheath Airbase EGUL

The scenery here is UK2000 VFR Airfields Volume 2, which I believe is the original version as there is now an updated Version 2. The screenshots are from a Saab J37 Viggen, which is free ex-payware by AlphaSim (now Virtavia)

Lakenheath airbase is mainly a US airbase operating 48th Fighter Wing F15 Eagle air superiority fighters. In the second World War, it was used as a backup base for Mildenhall due to Luftwaffe bombing campaign and also setup as a decoy to divert bombing from Mildenhall, which is very close.

Saab Viggen lined up on Lakenheath  runway

Aerial view of Lakenheath with Mildenhall in the background

From the Aerial view, notice the 9 hole golf course located within the airbase, the village of Lakenheath should be be right behind the golf course, but is missing from this scenery.

Breckland Pines Golf Course located on the airbase

RAF Marham EGYM, Freeware Scenery

This airbase is just south-east of King's Lynn in Norfolk, UK. It is a Royal Air Force base, home of   No. 138 Expeditionary Air Wing (138 EAW), Panavia Tornado's GR4/GR4A. It has been an air base since 1916, was home to the V-bomber force and has one of the few runways able to accommodate the B-52 strategic bomber. The UK fleet of F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft will be based at RAF Marham from 2018.

AlphaSim Hawker Hunter overfly

Actual aerial view of RAF Marham

JustFlight provide a nice packaged free download of the scenery, made by the Airfield Construction Group.

It is one of my favourite RAF sceneries, as it is very detailed, with a lot of hardened aircraft shelters.

AlphaSim Hawker Hunter, takeoff from RAF Marham

AlphaSim Hawker Hunter, post takeoff from RAF Marham

Compare the control tower with the actual one:

The only issue I have is trying to get the AI aircraft on the ground. I have no aircraft even after downloading and installing the MWAI package. I think it needs conversion from FS9 and some tweaking. I also am using MyTraffic 2013, so not sure if that is an issue.

Update: I have one Tornado GR4 on parking, check it out in this screenshot below:

AlphaSim Tornado F3 with GR1 Traffic in parking

Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu to Lukla, Everest in Nepal

Aerosoft make a fantastic airport scenery addon for Lukla airstrip (Tenzing Hillary Airport) at the base of Mount Everest in Nepal. It is perhaps the most dangerous airport in the World as it is very short, treacherous terrain, changing weather, very short and sloped runway and with no possibility of go-around.

Takeoff from Lukla

The Addon is only 75MB Install size and some very detailed and accurate buildings in Lukla village, the sloped runway and also two local strips and high definition local mesh. It is a good strip to use the Aerosoft DH-6 Twin Otter with for the landing. In fact it is possible to takeoff with the default Boeing 737!

Parked at Lukla

Check out the free Pilotage terrain map for the area. It does not mark Lukla on the map, but it's easy to see where it is by following the valleys down from Everest. It is quite a dramatic, steep descent to the airstrip and one needs to hit it right at the threshold, beware the uphill slope but that will help to cut off speed once on the runway. You will need power to get into the parking area, otherwise the risk of rolling backwards!

Approach to Lukla

Lukla is the starting point for all expeditions to Mount Everest, which is just to the NNW. Regular flights from Kathmandu take about 25 minutes. For an authentic flight, try the Thai Creations, Kathamdu International airport addon (Tribhuvan VNKT). It is not maybe a class scenery, such as expected from Aerosoft, but it is a vast improvement over the default scenery. When having this scenery loaded, it is important that Lukla is higher up the list in the Scenery Library, otherwise the mesh for the airstrip is incorrect.

Takeoff from VNKT

The Airport terminal at Kathmandu

AlphaSim Freeware Aircraft

AlphaSim closed down and some of the ex-employees opened a new company Virtavia, based in New Zealand. They have some excellent new products but also have posted some of their older aircraft models as freeware, available here for download.

I particularly like the Hawker Hunter, shown below at Marham Airbase, but have not tried out all the aircraft yet. Most of them are fs9, but there are some fsx models too.

Hawker Hunter taking off at Marham AB

T-28 Trojan

B-66 Destroyer