Jess-b

Well, after a few days waiting on the weather, today i finally got a break and the journey could begin. I spent a few hours working out various routes with my preferred choice leading me from the airfield in Cardiff, over the Severn estuary to Yeovilton before routing out over the channel, making landfall at Cherbourg and on to an airfield just outside Chartres. Unfortunately, the route proved unusable as the Yeovilton VOR was DME only and Cherbourg offered only offered an NDB, which the DA20 doesn't have fitted. So Instead I chose a route to the south, heading out over the Bristol Channel,

Yeah. The weather will make it interesting. Current weather at Cardiff is 1500 meters visability with cloud at 300 feet! The forecast doesn't show any hope of it lifting any time today. Tomorrow is forecast with heavy rain so I'm hoping for a Friday get away. I'll post the route up later. Jess B

Hey guys, Don't worry, there'll be plenty of screenshots and plenty if info to cover each leg including the route map for said leg provided by plan-g. I'm hoping to complete the first leg this week, weather permitting of course. ;-) Jess B

Hi guys, One of the things that I love to do with FS is collect scenery. The closer to reality I get the better. But given my love of flying airliners, I either miss the scenery I've bought, or if I'm lucky, i fly into a new airport scenery. Either way I think I'm missing out. Well I think I'm due a change. This summer, as I do every summer, I get a month off and so I dissapear to some part of the world to enjoy the time off. This year I went to Vienna for a month, a city that features great coffee, great food and of course, the blue Danube. The danube is one of the most famous rivers in th

Here's one to add. Aerosoft's excellent Da-20 katana. It can be installed and if you leave it in simple flight mode, it flies well. However in realistic mode you'll be probe to random failures. I've had engines fail if I change the time and date, batteries fail in flight and so on. It's most likely a sim connect issue as p3d has slightly different protocols to the older FSX version. Jess B

Hi guys, just a quick update from my collegue Jane Whittaker posted over at Avsim: Hello All, I just wanted to give you all a quick update and another huge thanks for all of your efforts! The appeal for Tony is really gathering pace, but we still have a long way to go. Your kindness and generosity has been incredible, making me very proud to be part of this community. I have had contact with Tony and his wife Kim and they are overwhelmed, very emotional and incredibly grateful for the support of everyone. You are already making a huge difference, bringing some light to this dark period of t

Thanks Brian. I guess you understand the kind of pain Tony's going through more than anyone. Jess B

Thanks joe. The response so far has been astounding. Since posting the original appeal that afternoon, donations of over $1500 have been pledged and it's still climbing. Avsim are even featuring the story on thier main news page. In fact I've just been told we've crashed avsims forum.

Hi guys, I'm posting this here in the hope of getting some help for my friend and pc pilot collegue, Tony Radmilovich. For readers of the magazine, you'll be more than familiar with Tony's reviews and articles. Well he's in need of some help. Here are the details as written by Jane Whittaker Gang, I am contacting you with some urgency with a request to publicise and help with a plea for help from Tony Radmilovich. As you may know, Tony is a key member of the flight sim community. He has written for the flight sim websites, PC Pilot, Computer Pilot and is an active member of many flight s

Great read Micke. Loved the scenery.

Nice shots Jaydor. I love the uk2000 EGLL scenery, Dispite it being very heavy on my system. Kieran, I had the pleasure of standing at a A380 gate in heathrow with both 747 and A380 present. The size difference is very noticable, but I know which one I love. Best wishes, Jess B

I think I can answer 'a' at least. Yes the 600 series are pci-e 3.0 compatable, but they're also backwards compatable with PCI-e2.1. I'm running a 680 on a PCI-e 2.1 motherboard. As for b, interestingly, the series 600 cards are more power efficient than the 500 series. The 580 for example needs a 600w psu whist the 680 only needs a 550w psu. It's the same with the 570/670 cards, needing a 550w/500w psu respectivly. So I wouldn't worry about running out of juice With the 600 series, in fact I'd say they're a better option. Best wishes, Jess B

If you can wait, the new 660 ti looks promising. Rumors are it offers performance on par or very close to the old 580! It should retail around the £200 to £300 mark, probably the former. Jess B

Hey Alan, Ammanford's a bit to far for me. I'm around 20 or so miles from Swansea and brecon and just 30 miles from the capital, sitting just before the start of the valley's (I don't live in them any more. Just at the mouth of two of them.) it means we have both mountains and space. Jess B

I remember sitting in several jet provost's when I was a teen. Lovely old girl she is to. Nice pics.

I hope the QW 146 is better than their 757. I really didn't like that bird (and I really love the 757)

Nice looking shots there Jaydor. May need to put my hand in my pocket for this one. :-) Best wishes, Jess B

This is on my must have list. :-). Looks great.

Thanks Dai. I used iMovie for iPad. (no pc as we're travelling light.) the reason J.S. Bach is on the video is because I had one music track on the original that breched copywite. So I used you tube to replace the audio so I could post the vid. I'll remove the original track from the video I made and repost with better music plus the amibient sounds of the cockpit intact. Diolch, Jess B

Here's a video of the experience (lynda sneakily used her camera to record it). It's a bit long, some 12 mins and features some classical music that doesn't run to the end. (it's my first Video and I was working from an iPad :-) ) anyway enjoy the scenery and the good landing is at the end.

Flying an airbus A320. Yes today I paid a visit to a small company that have just started offering simulator experiences to both current pilots and the general public like me. :-). So for the sum of just €79 (around £65) I spent a very nice 30 mins enjoying a fixed base A320 sim. The sim itself is a brand new set up from flight deck solutions in Canada, and thanks to a projector, domed screen and 5 pc units I got to enjoy two takeoff's and landings at Salzburg airport. (at my request. You'll see why later.) anyway, I was greeted by two very nice Austrian gentlemen. Dressed in appropri

Oh there's never enough time I find. Btw there are still a few more I could name, but that would be showing off a bit (or looking a bit to nerdy! Lol) Regarding aerofly fs. It looks beautiful, but a few caveats before you purchase. If I remember correctly, there are no nav aids so navigation via instruments may be tricky, and of course it's limited to switzerland. However until I pick it up (sometime next week I'm hoping.) I can't Be more definitive. I don't think we've reviewed this, but if you drop rob or joe a line, I'm sure they can sort someone out to look at it :-) Best wishes, Jess

Mike, I'd say my favourite is FSX (I don't even have FS9 installed at the moment) however I'll be moving to P3D soon once V1.4 comes out. The one to really watch is XP10. It has massive potential and from what I've heard on the grapevine (rumors only at the mo) many ex FSX developers looking to develop for the platform. The move to 64bit will be the big thing. The one thing I've nevere got though, through the whole flight release or xp10 for that matter is why people want to stick solely to one sim. There were many posts on forums all over the place say things like 'ive completely removed FS

So the end has come. I can't say i'm shocked. When I downloaded the beta in January it became clear to me that ms had made a miscalculation on its target audience. They went after a market that didn't exist. The casual flight simmer doesn't exist. Dropping the word 'simulator' from the title and adding a more 'gamey' feel to the whole thing like flying through gold rings, did little to get more players in. In the end, flight was to much of a simulator for the casual Xbox player, but not enough of a simulator for the existing FSX/FS9 audience. It's marketing was crazy, headed up by a guy who

It's a great little aircraft. I love it. Beware though, the compass works in reverse, so heading east by the compass will send you west and vice versa. North/south is fine though. Jess B