CV60

Thanks. I wanted to showcase some of the natural beauty of the US in this virtual adventure. Plus, I'm virtually exploring places I would like to see in real life in the next couple of years, so this is a bit of a "recce flight" for me.

Leg 14 pre-flight and flight -07 April 2019 Kransas County (KRKP) to Scholes International Galveston (KGLS) As predicted, in late afternoon, the weather improved to MVFR conditions as the front moves to the north east and out of the area. While the ceilings are marginal, the weather forecast for tomorrow isn't particularly good, and I'm getting itchy to fly. Plus, I'm hoping to get further north, as the flying weather here hasn't been good the past couple of days. Based n the weather reports, it looks like I can get to Galveston, TX before the weather starts deteriorating to IF

7 April Preflight Well, that was a quick preflight. Staring at darkening skies doesn't take much time..… Looking at the TAFs, I may be able to try a short leg around 4 PM local time today.

Here are some real-world images of some of the places I flew over in leg 13: Website of Gulf Coast Aerial Photography. This is worth looking at for some nice real world photography of the places I traveled on this trip: http://texascoastgeology.com/misc/misc.html Ground Level Panorama of Padre Island. (Image Credit: Me) USS Lexington

Leg 13 pre-flight and flight -29 March 2019 Alice International (KALI) to Kransas County (KRKP) I decided to cut short the leg to the Mexican border, and instead cut across to Padre Island, and then north to Corpus Christi This route will take me over the Padre Island National Seashore. I also hope to do a flyby the USS LEXINGTON (AVT-16) ex-(CV-16), which is now a museum ship docked in Corpus Christi, TX. The route is below: My take off is scheduled for 2045Z. Weather looks good, with scattered clouds at around 5000 feet. I can expect gusts of up to 30 knots

Here are some real-world images of some of the places I flew over in leg 12: Image 1 Robinson Ranch, Round Mountain TX (source: https://www.landsoftexas.com/property/FM-962-Round-Mountain-Texas-78663/1938852) Image 2: Pedernal Falls State Park, TX Image 3 Canyon Lake, TX Image 4 Choke Canyon Reservoir

Leg 12 Flight -28 March 2019 Horseshoe Bay (KDZB) to South Texas International (KEBG) I took off from Horseshoe Bay at 1838Z. My take off was a bit sloppy, as I had too much right rudder as I lifted off, than overcorrected to the left. North of New Braunfels , the cloud base lowered to 2500 feet, requiring me to drop to 2000 feet, which is the MEF for the area. However, that was (barely) the safe altitude above the various towers near my flight path, and visibility was 6+ miles, so I was not too concerned about descending that low. Shortly after passing New Braunfels, the cloud base

Leg 12 Pre-Flight -28 March 2019 Horseshoe Bay (KDZB) to South Texas International (KEBG) Today's flight is to position me back on the Texas-Mexican border, preparatory to flying up the Texas gulf coast, along the Padre Island National Seashore and on to Louisiana. The weather outlook looks good. I am planning on taking off at 1815Z. At that time, there a few clouds at 3300 feet. The wind gusts on take off shouldn't be bad-19 knots, but they are down the runway, so there will be virtually no crosswind. The weather guessers are predicting a 20 knot wind from the SSW at 30

KMZ files of flights to date Several weeks ago, I promised to upload the .kmz files of the flights I had made to date. For anyone who is interested in following this adventure on Google Earth, the files are here: https://we.tl/t-KAIjGYemEr

Real World Images from Leg 11 Image 1 Enchanted Rock State Park Image 2 Enchanted Rock Panorama Image 3 Garner State Park

Leg 11 Pre-flight and flight -13 March 2019 Hondo Municipal (KHDO) to Horseshoe Bay Airpark (4XS7) The southern leg of the "Cyclone Bomb" blew through the San Antonio area earlier in the morning. By 1600Z, when I was doing my flight planning, the bad weather had moved to the east, and the warm front behind it was bringing clear skies and gusty wind conditions: Image 1 National WX Image 2 METAR and Radar in San Antonio Area 13 March 1600Z Although the winds are relatively calm at 1600Z, the NWS says that for the Hill country area, "Mixing and a restrengt

Here are some real world images of this leg: Lost Maples State Park The Big Valley © 2012 Jeff Lynch Photography, Ltd.Note: this photo is copyrighted, so I'm not going to post it, but below is the link: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8083/8355423499_6cec0cd6f0_b.jpg Vanderpool, TX

Leg 10 Pre-flight and flight -12 March 2019 Real County Airport (K49R) to Hondo Municipal (KHDO) This flight is to help get me familiar with my new aircraft, a PT-17 Stearman biplane. Because of this, it will be just a short hop to Hondo Municipal, located WSW of San Antonio. The flight will include a brief flyover of the Lost Maples State natural area. Tomorrow, I hope to fly around the Hill Country area of Texas, ending up in Horsehoe Bay Airpark. Today's flight to Hondo will consist of the first two legs of the route below: The weather today was rainy and c

Well, I played around with the L-5. It isn't going to work for me. The flight model seems wrong-the aircraft has significantly more power, more speed, and a better climb rate than it should. At sea level, I was easily climbing at 1000 feet/min and hitting 140 mph without difficulty. Looks like I'll be transitioning to the Stearman. I will continue to try to get my beloved A2A Cub working, but FSX has been irritating me for some time, so my patience with it is wearing thin.....

Hook-Thanks for the offer. I'm wondering if a recent Windows update killed FSX-SE. I actually uninstalled and then reinstalled FSX-SE, to no avail. That is making me think it is Windows itself. I will look you up in Steam FSX:SE forums, as I really want to do this in the A2A Piper Cub. Frankly, the A2A Cub was the only reason I still had FSX-SE on my computer. With all the hand holding that FSX requires, and the availability of P3D4, I was transitioning away from FSX-SE, except for the A2A Cub. As far as this particular virtual adventure: I may continue to play with FSX-SE a

I hadn't really thought about the Chipmunk. I was hoping to use something a little more basic. Hence the Piper Cub and Stearman. I might go to the C172, only because I already own it, and A2A's attention to detail would make the trip more realistic. But I really wanted to fly with just a very basic, even rudimentary aircraft. (I actually even considered the Nieuport 17, but I thought that was a little too basic). I'm hoping my reinstall of FSX-SE will solve the problem. I will hopefully know tomorrow. If not, I'm leaning to the Stearman-It has slightly more power, but a basic set of i

Quick question: I'm having a little trouble with FSX-SE the past week. Basically, it doesn't want to work anymore. I'm not sure if this is because of a recent update to Windows or not. I'm going to continue to play with it a bit and see if I can get it to work. However, all is not lost if I fail to get it to work. I also own P3D4, so I can continue to fly the US-I just can't do it in the A2A Piper Cub. If I have to switch to P3D4 does anyone have an opinion on what I should use for the remainder of this journey? The choices are: 1) P3D4 Piper Cub ( a definitely inferior model when

Leg 9B Flight -04 March 2019 Terrell County (K6R6) to Real County Airport (K49R) I took off at 2102Z, and flew east at 3500 feet. There was an approximate 15 knot crosswind from the northeast, but it was fairly consistent, making navigation easy. During the first half of the flight, there was some gusting wind, which caused moderate buffeting of the cub, but otherwise the flight was uneventful. (Note: when checking the .KMZ file, I discovered the wind is listed as only 9 knots, so apparently I miscalculated it. The wet compass on the J3 is only marked in 5 degree increments, so eve

Leg 9B Pre-flight -04 March 2019 Terrell County (K6R6) to Real County Airport (K49R) I'm going to make a push to get to the Hill Country today, after being defeated by the weather yesterday. The flight plan is very simple: head east for 2 hours: There won't be many roads or landmarks on this leg. I've identified a couple of checkpoints (circled in blue), but aside from the Nix River Ranch airstrip, the remainder are railroads or roads, so none of them will adequately identify if I'm off course. Instead, they can only tell me if I am ahead or behind schedule.

Here are some real world images of some of the sites visited the last couple of legs: Iron Mountain, near Marathon, TX (Flown on Leg 8B, 2 March) Credit: Danny Self Alpine, Texas (Leg 8b):

Thank you!

Here's something I might be able to do. Using "FS Flight Control" I can generate a GoogleEarth flight path with all the data from the flight: altitude, heading, excessive bank/pitch angle, etc. I can periodically upload those kmz files, so people who are interested can download them. The would look something like this, except they would be zoomable (The attached image if from my flight out of Carrizo, NM to the Trinity site): Full disclosure: You will see all of my mistakes, navigation errors and just plain messing around. (You will also see those point were I'm trying to land at

Leg 9 Flight- 03 March 2019 Alpine-Casparis Municipal (KE38) to Real County Airport (K49R) I rush my preflight checks, as I really want to get past that IFR area near Terrell county airport. Fortunately, the engine warms up quickly in the 75 degree air temperature. I'm off the blocks at 1833Z, and off the ground ten minutes later. About 30 minutes after takeoff, I noticed the visibility began to drop (Image 1) but it then quickly improved back to 10miles with scattered clouds, making it very easy for me to follow the US 90 highway east. Image 1 Decreasing Visibility 191

Leg 9 Pre-flight and Flight- 03 March 2019 Alpine-Casparis Municipal (KE38) to Real County Airport (K49R) Sunday morning dawns bright and fair in Alpine, Texas. The rest of the state? Notsomuch. There's a whole lot of IFR out there.... Those two low pressure areas I was concerned about yesterday are giving my flight planning a whupping.... Image 1 Aviation Forecast However it could be worse. I could be flying anywhere else in the country, and I would be dealing with this kind of icing: Image 2 Icing I had hoped to make it to the Re

Leg 8B Pre-flight and Flight- 02 March 2019 Big Bend Ranch State Park (3TE3) to Alpine-Casparis Municipal (E38) After spending the night at Big Bend state park, I wake up to a fine flying day for the flight to Alpine. Weather in the area is VFR, with winds aloft from the west at about 9knts at 9,000 feet MSL, and temperatures around 21 degrees C. A low pressure area coming in from the NE, and the low along the Gulf coast of Texas is creating IFR conditions to the east, so I won't be able to fly towards San Antonio after landing at Alpine. That front also may create a problem fo