Tako_Kichi
May 26th, 2009, 12:08
Some of you may have seen the UK tour I completed at the beginning of the year and my recently posted British Columbia tour (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=16805). After completing the BC tour I thought I would try a water based tour as I hadn't flown a floater for some time and as there has been a plethora of floaters released recently (Kodiak, Catalina, Albatross, etc.) I thought a few people might enjoy it.
This tour visits every FSX seaplane base in Minnesota (80+ legs), the land of 10,000 lakes, and it is turning out to be quite a challenge (I am only about halfway through it at the moment) as it can be difficult to find the lake you are supposed to land on when there are so many in close proximity. You really have to keep a sharp eye on the GPS and zoom in to less than 5 miles range in order to find the correct place. Even then you can sometimes hit problems as it seems as though the GPS nav point and the water runway location are sometimes a bit 'off' and you have to do a bit of taxiing around (or fly a circle over the lake) in order to get the GPS to advance to the next leg.
If you would like to fly the tour proceed as follows:
1. Download the attached file and save it to a safe location on your computer, unzip it and then place the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file in your 'C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files' folder (assuming you are running XP and not Vista....I am not sure of the location for Vista users....sorry).
2. Start FSX, go to the 'Free Flight' screen then select your initial aircraft (remember these are all seaplane bases so ensure that you pick a 'floater' ;) ), the time and season and your weather preferences (I used real weather to add some variety during the tour).
3. When you have the above set click on the 'Flight Planner' button then click on the 'Load' button at the bottom of the screen. Navigate to the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file and double-click it.
4. Click on the 'Find Route' button and you should see the same as the screenshot below.....
http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090526/b_145700.jpg
NOTE: The flight plan only shows the start and finish locations at this point.
5. Click on the 'Load' button on this window and reload the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file. You should now see the entire flight plan as shown below....
http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090526/b_145808.jpg
6. Click on 'OK' and then click on 'YES' on the notification pop-up window.
7. Click on 'Fly Now' when you are ready to start the tour.
8. When you reach a point where you want to stop for that session simply save your flight with a suitable name and it will also save the flight plan at your current location. When you want to continue the tour simply reload the saved flight using the 'Load' button on the 'Free Flight' screen and the GPS will already have the flight plan in it and will show the next leg to fly.
Hopefully a few of you will give it a try and maybe even leave feedback as to what you think of the tour. ;)
Once I have completed this tour I am going to have to sit down and think of somewhere else to fly :isadizzy:. Anyone got any suggestions for a new tour, with interesting scenery or places to visit? I seem to be going for an 'all of something' theme as in all the UK airports, all the British Columbia airports, all the Minnesota seaplane bases etc.
So many places to fly and so little time! :mixedsmi:
This tour visits every FSX seaplane base in Minnesota (80+ legs), the land of 10,000 lakes, and it is turning out to be quite a challenge (I am only about halfway through it at the moment) as it can be difficult to find the lake you are supposed to land on when there are so many in close proximity. You really have to keep a sharp eye on the GPS and zoom in to less than 5 miles range in order to find the correct place. Even then you can sometimes hit problems as it seems as though the GPS nav point and the water runway location are sometimes a bit 'off' and you have to do a bit of taxiing around (or fly a circle over the lake) in order to get the GPS to advance to the next leg.
If you would like to fly the tour proceed as follows:
1. Download the attached file and save it to a safe location on your computer, unzip it and then place the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file in your 'C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files' folder (assuming you are running XP and not Vista....I am not sure of the location for Vista users....sorry).
2. Start FSX, go to the 'Free Flight' screen then select your initial aircraft (remember these are all seaplane bases so ensure that you pick a 'floater' ;) ), the time and season and your weather preferences (I used real weather to add some variety during the tour).
3. When you have the above set click on the 'Flight Planner' button then click on the 'Load' button at the bottom of the screen. Navigate to the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file and double-click it.
4. Click on the 'Find Route' button and you should see the same as the screenshot below.....
http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090526/b_145700.jpg
NOTE: The flight plan only shows the start and finish locations at this point.
5. Click on the 'Load' button on this window and reload the 'Minnesota_Water_Tour.PLN' file. You should now see the entire flight plan as shown below....
http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090526/b_145808.jpg
6. Click on 'OK' and then click on 'YES' on the notification pop-up window.
7. Click on 'Fly Now' when you are ready to start the tour.
8. When you reach a point where you want to stop for that session simply save your flight with a suitable name and it will also save the flight plan at your current location. When you want to continue the tour simply reload the saved flight using the 'Load' button on the 'Free Flight' screen and the GPS will already have the flight plan in it and will show the next leg to fly.
Hopefully a few of you will give it a try and maybe even leave feedback as to what you think of the tour. ;)
Once I have completed this tour I am going to have to sit down and think of somewhere else to fly :isadizzy:. Anyone got any suggestions for a new tour, with interesting scenery or places to visit? I seem to be going for an 'all of something' theme as in all the UK airports, all the British Columbia airports, all the Minnesota seaplane bases etc.
So many places to fly and so little time! :mixedsmi: