USA TOUR Event | SAT SEPTEMBER 26TH 16:30 - 22:30 UTC

[SkyBoat]

I installed Adobe Flash and the video plays. Very nice!

[jwocky]

I guess, it was a bit of a special situation because we had a number of 777s and MD-10s. Those are quite heavy models.

[SkyBoat]

I was flying in Frankfort (EDDF) yesterday and had a FG crash. Jomo suggested that I set my frame limiter to 10, rather than the normal 60. There was a lot of traffic at EDDF both on the ground and on approach. I set the FPS to 10 and there was some slight change in the quality of the graphics, and I was running at about 15 FPS, but other than that, my MD-10 performed normally.

The problem with being around other high demand 777s and other aircraft virtually disappeared. I had no issues taxiing and taking off at EDDF and landing at Dusseldorf (EDDL) which was the airport where most everyone was flying to because the ATC was very good. There must have been at least ten planes on the ground.

I didn't have the chance to ask Jomo where he came up with the idea to limit the FPS to 10, but it seems to work. I'm going to continue to experiment with it.

[jwocky]

The point is, if you throttle down the FPS, the internal rendering yields more time to other subroutines. So you don't render a lot of the aircrafts surrounding you which is anyway unnecessary in most cases because you can't see from the outside what makes those planes so heavy. I admit, I don't understand why FG tries to render inside instruments when you look from the outside at a plane.

[IAHM-COL]

And The USA Tour arrives Phoenix, AZ

Last month, the USA Tourist completed the fortieth leg. We travelled from Burlington, VT, to Phoenix Arizona using Wide Body Airliner aircraft not exceeding a MTOW of 785.OOOLbs. As already made custom, we met in the departing airport about 1 h before departure, and greet, chat, prepare. The tarmacs at Burlington very rapidly started to appear rather crowded. The small airport was becoming overload with up to 15 large-sized aircraft. Certainly those tarmacs, and particularly FG's scenario was not prepared for such attendance.

On the mark of the scheduled time, at 16:30 Z, KIWI34 took over the control of the departing fleet. He instructed pilots to form a queue in the taxiway, and allowed us to take off in a successive collection. The Runway seemed too short for the heavies to lift on time, and some wake turbulence calls were also required. But the pilotage of the crew exceeded all expectations, and promptly and without failure every aircraft took off into the Northeastern skies. Sure, FlightGear crashes are common, and not few pilots were forced to restart the application courtesy of unexplainable segfaults. Even KL-666 after many unsuccessful attempts concluded that his computer was not keen to cooperate, and preferred to get "an afternoon beer" instead. --- it's a bummer to loose such accomplished flying pal.

After a very fast-happening hour pilots were enroute. The first of the group -- AVA0028 was already reaching the Canadian airspace in the limits with Eerie lake, by the time the latest bird was just becoming airborn. An spread of about 200 nm that was kept during the whole promenade towards Phoenix. The route was followed with unmatched accuracy for up to 26 pilots simultaneously, which ---as we are already familiar with-- drove attention in the multiplayer maps of the FGFS. As always, we welcome and cheer any new pilot coming to see what on "flightgear" earth is going on.

Well --- I'll tell you what was going on:

IH-COL took an Airbus A350 capable of doing more that 7000 nm of unrefueling route, but left the airport without checking to fill up his tanks. And cherry on the cake-- he also cruised for about 2 hours without either checking fuel consumption or fuel levels. Is this recipe for disaster? Certainly is. Legoboy called in: <<COL, you are loosing altitude fast. Is everything OK>>. Only one reply possible <<Negative. Not OK. Engines off. Fuel finished. Currently just drifting aloft gliding mode :S>> -- well, nice time to practice those emergency plans. --a.k.a none (yup, no plan B in effect). After locating Topeka Airport (KTOP) in the vicinity, IH-COL target it for emergency landing, and even thou proccedures were good, he came short 5 nm of Rwy threshold. (Air catastrophe for the USA Tour #40). Once IH-COL restarted on KTOP and rejoin the group, everything else from there on, was smooth riding, happy singing flying along.

To our arrival in Phoenix, we took Eagle 6 Star, and were guided in by the unmatched service of Omega. Fast, precise, surgical. In an exact continuum, every plane was placed in the RWY 08 --- pilots landing as continuously as possible. We were able to place every plane on the ground; with no cassulties, in barely less than 1 hour. Which means basically, the same hour we were distanced from departure. A few pilots joined KPHX to "hallo" the group, and more interestingly, LEGO boy was very (very) closely scorted by a secret admirer --callsignless f14-b. Lego was not enjoying himself... but oh! well.. That's the price of popularity- Legoboy. Your very own papparazzi. And well... as maybe you already know, a Hitler admirer (for God's sake!) came to salute... which additionally had some digestive issues (For their Fuhrer's sake? )

So that summarizes an amazingly entertaining, amazingly complete, amazingly fulfilling USA tour experience: The Leg 40th.
Thanks everyone for accepting the call, and I look forward for our next USA Tour, this month of October.

IH-COL

[IAHM-COL]

A few Screenshots USA Tour Style

(for a more complete series check us out in github)

[IAHM-COL]

Route 40th: Summary

• City_40: Phoenix, AZ
• Route: KBTV-KPHX
• Topic: Wide Body Airliners I: The Large of the Family
• Date: 09/26/2015
  
• Pilots _ 23: Ambro IT (777-300ER), AVA0028 (777-200), FGAF_P3 (Boeing 787-8), Ghasto (777-200ER), IH-COL HK-424C (A350-900 XWB), F-36 (MD-10), JWocky (767-300ER), KB7 (Boeing 787-8), Legoboy YV-5344 (777-200ER), LesterBoffo (L-1011-500), MV-DP (L-1011-500), NV-ELF (DC-10-30), OOKAMI (DC-10-30), SHM (B767-300ER), Side (Boeing 787-8), Skyboat (MD-10), T-URBO (MD-10), USAAir26 (777-300), u]Yesrev YV-187[/u] (787-8),
  
• Company _ 19: ABC (A321-231), METAL (UFO), QA (A321-231), B777 (707-TT), USA193 (777-200 @KPHX 16Z), ET-56 (A340-600HGW), EC-KAT (PC9M in the route), D-07007 (H21 Piasecki on close airport), Beloul (Boeing 777-200 close to the route), KL666 (Boeing 777-200LR @KBTV on departure), LH320 (Boeing 777-200ER ),N-3266G (ERJ-170), Tariq (Citation X @ KORD), AAL11 (B777-200ER cross route), FlyHigh (Boeing 777-200 @ KPHX), Ama III (Seneca II @ KPHX), Unnamed Pilot (f14b escorting YV-53444), Circum (B1B @ KPHX), LH320 (B 747-8i crashing @KPHX), AIC (B 787-8 @ KPHX), KIWI34 KBTV_TW (OpenRadar @ KBTV), Omega KPHX_TWR (OpenRadar @ KPHX)

A Ranked Tabulation of Participants

Code: Select all

Rank| Pilot| Participations | Remarks
0 IH--COL     40
1 JWOCKY    20
2 Lesbof     19
3 Side     16
4 Skyboat    15
5 F-36     13
6 Cain    9
6 LV-EPM     9
7 Legoboy    8
8 Michat      7
9 MD-GRK     6
9 Sbyx    6
9 AVA0028    6
9 KB7     6
9 Falcon N3266G   6
10 Rick Ace    5
10 Ambro_IT    5
10 MV-DP    5
11 D-LASER    4
11 N22     4
11 PH-ETE      4
11 PH-ONOX    4
11 STAR     4
11 Yesrev YV-187     4
12 A-BODY     3
12 KL-666     3
12 lastmin      3
12 Someguy    3
12 FGAF_P3     3
13 ainnuz AIC    2
13 CA-ASC     2
13 Cata     2
13 D-07007    2
13 F-KATS    2
13 F-LANN    2
13 G-MKNY    2
13 Joe454    2
13 OOKAMI    2
13 SHM   2
13 Turbo     2
14 AFL940    1
13 BAW-5154    1
14 Catalan    1
14 CC-DLV      1
14 Circum    1
14 DELTA265 (VladFlyer)    1
14 D-LEON    1
14 Eagle    1
14 Echo1    1
14 F-KIDS    1
14 F-PAUL    1
14 FMG    1
14 HerbyW     1
14 Kaa    1
14 Mattila     1
14 Miguel    1
14 M-J4MC    1
14 N-SCOT    1
14 OOZVY     1
14 PA76    1
14 PALO     1
14 Tikibar     1
14 YV-123B    1
14 NV-ELF   1
14 Ghasto   1


Note: Tabulation above only account for pilots bringing participant planes, not company.

[legoboyvdlp]

LH320 - crashing at KPHX! ROFL.