UK Tour

**Tako_Kichi** · March 6th, 2009, 13:23

Last night I finally completed my tour of every FSX airport in the UK from north to south (including all the islands) after working on it since just after Christmas. It took me 35 separate sessions of between 1-2 hours each. I saved the flight when I got tired of it and picked it up again later to continue the tour. All flights were done in real weather and between the hours of dawn and dusk. I set the time for dawn at the start and as I restarted a saved flight so the time would be carried forward. When it got dark I would advance the time to dawn of the next day and continue.

I used a variety of GA and small mil aircraft but aircraft choice is critical as some fields are very small and hard to find especially in bad weather.

If anyone would like to give it a try I have attached the text file I used to keep track of my progress. The airports are listed in the order I flew them and to help keep track of where you are simply remove the leading space in front of each line as you fly it, save the file and then you will be able to instantly see where you are by the 'stagger' in the list.

Be aware that there are a lot of very short 'hops' in some places as airfields in the UK tend to be clustered together especially on the east and south-east coasts as a lot date back to the WWII period and large numbers of fighter and bomber airfields were built close together.

It is a lot of fun and at times quite a challenge and has kept me busy for several weeks but now I have completed it I need a new challenge so today I used the FSX flight planner to create a route around all the FSX airports in British Columbia, Canada! This one could be fun if the weather turns bad! Wish me luck!

harleyman · March 6th, 2009, 13:56

WOW Just saw this...I just might have to have a go at this...Never left the Sates yet.....

**Tako_Kichi** · March 6th, 2009, 14:59

It's a lot of fun Mason and you really get an idea of just how the UK countryside changes in just a few miles, from small islands and the largest mountains in the north (Scotland) to flat/rolling country in the south. I found it best to stay below about 4,000 ft as in many cases no sooner are you up than you have to start thinking about coming down again.

harleyman · March 6th, 2009, 15:36

I got your list saved...Very sweet idea to click it and it downloads...Thanks for that

Its just the type of flying I do too...

I am definately up for some of this .....

**limjack** · March 6th, 2009, 15:58

Congrads T_K!!!:ernae: It makes a guy feel good when he sets out to accomplish a mission and finishes it. I am sure you had a great time!

Jim

harleyman · March 7th, 2009, 10:35

Ok I have 4 legs done today inbetween lots of phone help...LOl

Now I want more addons for this area, as I have nothing there but FSX....

Its fun to switch back to the USA and see the vast different with all the addons....

This is getting real fun...

***Dangerous Beans*** · March 7th, 2009, 10:45

For airfields in the south I can recomend UK2000's VFR Airfield
http://www.uk2000scenery.com/vfrairfields/index.html
There made to blend in with 'Gen-X' VFR photographic scenery but work just fine with the default.

**kilo delta** · March 7th, 2009, 11:04

UTX Europe and Adam Mills textures are a must have if you intend to fly in Europe, Harley

harleyman · March 7th, 2009, 11:09

Was just looking at UTX Europe.....

Gotta search for Adam Mills now. have seen his stuff, and believe its freeware.....

Gotta go on a search.....:woot:

Thanks DB and Kilo

**stiz** · March 7th, 2009, 13:18

blimey you stoped off at liverpool ... you brave soul

:whistle:

***Dangerous Beans*** · March 7th, 2009, 13:23

Originally Posted by stiz

blimey you stoped off at liverpool ... you brave soul

:whistle:

LOL I'm suprised the plane wasnt up on bricks when you tried to take off again.

**Tako_Kichi** · March 7th, 2009, 13:25

Originally Posted by stiz

blimey you stoped off at liverpool ... you brave soul

:whistle:

Originally Posted by Dangerous Beans

LOL I'm suprised the plane wasnt up on bricks when you tried to take off again.

LOL......if it's in the UK in FSX I stopped at it....admittedly sometimes only long enough to punch in the next destination in the GPS but I made sure I kept the engine running just in case!

**Tako_Kichi** · September 20th, 2009, 08:13

It would appear that the last server crash lost the attachment with the airport list so I have re-attached it in this post for those that would like to try it.

**nio** · September 21st, 2009, 08:35

Thanks for doing this, TK

best

nio

**IanHenry** · September 21st, 2009, 12:03

Hi Mason,
the photo scenery by Horizon is very good, also Scotflight for Scotland, (Oban and island hopping is good fun).
For freeware airports try Tony M's site:
http://www.arm-computers.co.uk/html/fsx.html

Regards,
Ian

**the soupdragon** · September 25th, 2009, 15:56

Thanks for this post. I am in the process of working my way through the list. (currently at Wick(EGPC)) man some of the island hops barely give you time to retract your flaps before making a landing. I am using the beaver X for most flights so far, and I am loving it. tries the A2A cub for one or two but it is just too slow at the moment , maybe later in the tour.

Thank you for the inspiration to actually fly FSX for what it was made for.

SD

**jetstreamsky** · September 25th, 2009, 16:26

Do a search over at flightsim for Alf Denham and his 'Alf's UK Airfields'

**Tako_Kichi** · September 25th, 2009, 17:14

Originally Posted by the soupdragon

man some of the island hops barely give you time to retract your flaps before making a landing.

The world's shortest scheduled flight is between two of those islands (Papa Westray and Westray)...a whopping 2-3 MINUTES depending on which way the wind is blowing! Needless to say no in-flight meal is provided!

Here's a page showing a typical flight..........

http://www.alanmoar.flyer.co.uk/orkn...t/shortest.htm

**Tako_Kichi** · May 19th, 2010, 06:13

It would appear that the attachments were lost when the new forum software was introduced so I am re-attaching them here.

Enjoy.

**Lewis-A2A** · May 19th, 2010, 06:25

Hey lazzer how about uploading them to avsim, here, fs.com etc for everyone to use?

**Tako_Kichi** · May 19th, 2010, 06:51

Originally Posted by Lewis-A2A

Hey lazzer how about uploading them to avsim, here, fs.com etc for everyone to use?

My tours (and for that matter all my repaints) are created primarily for my enjoyment and then I share them with my friends/family here at SOH. I only upload to SOH.

**bkeske** · May 19th, 2010, 10:00

Originally Posted by IanHenry

Hi Mason,
the photo scenery by Horizon is very good, also Scotflight for Scotland, (Oban and island hopping is good fun).
For freeware airports try Tony M's site:
http://www.arm-computers.co.uk/html/fsx.html

Regards,
Ian

Wow, nice site for freeware UK scenery. Thanks for the link. To bad I just left Inverness for Norway. I may have to download some of these and 'double back' before returning to the States.

**HighGround22** · May 19th, 2010, 10:20

Originally Posted by Tako_Kichi

. . . the last server crash lost the attachment with the airport list so I have re-attached it in this post for those that would like to try it.

Larry, for the life of me I can't seem to find the attachment (help!). It sounds exactly like the sort of sojourn I like to get involved in, so I'm keen as mustard to eventually find yon attachment.

Meanwhile, some of the finest scenery I've seen for this venue is done by Alf Denham, who kindly puts together excellent freeware packages and plops them down on FlightSim.com under "Alf's UK Airfields". I believe he just recently put-up Volume 18.

A search using "UK Airfields" will get them and more. Since he sometimes uses different spellings, I've had to look under "Alf's" as well as "Alfs" (without the apostrophe). But they're all there.

Hope this compensates a little for being a pest.

Edit: 'S'okay, I found it. For some reason, after posting and re-entering the thread, it magically appeared in you post. One of life's little mysteries . . . .