Official GAAR 2011 Forum

[Allen Peterson]

Hang in there, Queenslanders, you gotta keep a goin'.

Andrew, my flight planning for all flights is almost done and I'll be starting the flights soon.
I must say that while the DC-3 Airways Rally 2010 was quite a challange, they had the whole world to work with. I think you have done an amzing job with the limited area that you had to work with. By the way, how long did you have to search to find the "pylon" on the large island?

[Andrew Godden]

Allen,

Thank you. "Pylon" , what "pylon"? ;D To be honest, I just headed for the centre of the island - but it did involve a lot of planning, though.

[0603 Kenny]

I had to do some research to find out where, and what is the Flinders Group so I could find the largest island. Learn something new everyday.
Hat's off to the GAAR team for another great rally.

My thought's to the families devastated by the floods down under.

[johnl]

Kenny,
Try S14* 11' E144* 15', (about 185nm NNW of Cairns)

[uhug]

Who in the family GAAR 2011 is using "orbx australia flight simulator X" ? On short final YBUD sudden a white screen! No idea why. It's a tricky leg anyway..

[Andrew Godden]

Jan 14, 2011 12:57:36 GMT -5 uhug said:

Who in the family GAAR 2011 is using "orbx australia flight simulator X" ? On short final YBUD sudden a white screen! No idea why. It's a tricky leg anyway..

Urs,

Ever since I first installed FSX (or some point just after) I would periodically get a flash of "white screen" (it would last about a second, if that).

I don't think it is linked to Orbx because I didn't have it when it first started happening to me. I still haven't worked out why either, but haven't done too much reading to find out.

[Bill Von Sennet]

The Fireworks download by John Lawler works in FSX.

I only tested it at one airport, YAPH at the start of Leg 6.

I simply pasted the bgl files into the Addon Scenery/Scenery folder

Thanks John!

[flaminghotsauce]

Going through the flight planning, I WISH I had a real chart.... I'm drawing them out by hand. I'm going to be totally guessing on headings.

[Andrew Godden]

Jan 15, 2011 17:28:00 GMT -5 flaminghotsauce said:

Going through the flight planning, I WISH I had a real chart.... I'm drawing them out by hand. I'm going to be totally guessing on headings.

flaminghotsauce,

A stupid question, but are you using the MSFS "Flight Planning" tool?

[flaminghotsauce]

Yes.

[flaminghotsauce]

I downloaded that Flight planning tool, but it's giving me headaches. It locks up and does nothing. I've been scanning through the 104 page manual. I don't think I'll be using it yet.

I think I'm going to employ a small laptop next to my FS computer and just run Google maps in Terrain mode. It's the best solution I can find. I still will guess at headings, but at least I'll be able to identify landmarks. I don't even know the magnetic variations and things down under. I'm a paper chart and plotter kind of guy (or flying by the seat of my pants), so this is going to be a challenge on some of the legs.

Should be quite an adventure!

[Ed Burke]

The mag variation varies from 10*E at Coolangatta to 7*E at Cairns. GE will give you a true bearing with the 'ruler'.

You can always get the FS variation by slewing northwards. When you are getting no change in longitude on your 'Shift Z' display (or the FSX equivalent) you are on the magnetic heading for true north

I tend to do a flight plan in the sim and use the print out. Ed

[Andrew Godden]

Another solution, and at the risk of suggesting additional software, is "Plan G" by Tim Arnot. It is great for VFR flight planning as this is what Tim developed it for. It is also freeware and available at Tim's web site.

www.tasoftware.co.uk/

Ver 2.02 of Plan G was released late last year. Two great aspects of Plan G are, you build a MSFS version specific database for your installation so it picks up all "Add-On" scenery, and it gives you the range of the NDB / VOR when you hover the cursor over the NAVAID symbol.

More importantly for Flight Planning purposes, by hovering the cursor anywhere over the map, it gives you the magnetic variation for that area. By adding in wind direction and speed it automatically calculates the magnetic heading for the leg and you can even print out the maps. The only thing it won't do is make you a coffee, at least not that I have found yet.

Now, as Tim is also participating in the GAAR I think that does it for the unpaid announcements. ;D

[flaminghotsauce]

Yep. That's the one I downloaded. I took a break this afternoon to watch football, but I'm going to give it a go again. It looks like it'll be great when I get it all figured out.

[Andrew Godden]

One small trick with Plan G, that I have found to minimise "lock-ups" / "freezes" is reduce the amount of detail you are showing at each "Zoom Level" on each "Map Type".

It is a little laborious initially, but I "un-check" / "un-highlight" all the Airports, Navaids, Airspace (this takes time to respond sometimes, but wait), and User Waypoints at every "Zoom Level" for each different "Map type".

I then choose a "Map Type" and "Zoom Level" I prefer to work in and "check" the items I want to see. This really minimises problems as the program is not trying to load all the extra items at each level for each map. Well, I could be wrong, but that is how I understand it to work, and it does fix the problem.

Occasionally, on opening the application, I get partial views of the program or the view disappears altogether. A simple "Alt-Tab" to the Plan G icon fixes that and I am off again.

I hope you work it out.