This is a little indulgent but I think tells you a lot about P3D and for some why flight simming is such an enjoyable past time and activity. It should be in the screenshots area but probably will be fine here!
A little background COVID but a big hole in our plans to do a trip to Iceland (probably never now, especially getting from OZ to there and back). Fascinating country, amazing but little known aviation history. The Icelandic role in history generally for who has taken the time to read the real " Icelandic Sagas " when your not in the sim is equally intriguing ( A true epic and masterpiece of literature - some 1000 year old true tales of family life in Iceland - hard folk thats all one can say). My curiosity was sparked when I came across an account of how they used Norudyn Noresman on floats before WW2 to start a sort of air service. Then after WW2 began with PBY 5s ex military running from Rekyavik to Glasgow with a few hardy passengers and loads of fish. The family feuds continued with vying groups setting up Flugefelag Islands and Loftliedir respectively with DC3's and DC-4's naturally one lot went West to the US and the other lot went East to Europe and the UK. They have always been big Douglas fans which suited me. They pioneered low cost budget flying with the CL44 and then on to the 727, DC8, DC10;s and then all ended up merged together and falling in a heap and starting again as Iceland Air as they are known today. There are some great old colour films about of Sorri Sorenson a DC-6 captain with a DC-6 going to the UK with a dead engine and fuel streaming from the dump valves out the wing!
Fortunately ORBX did a very good Icelandic demo for FSX which is now incorporated into their P3D Europe scenery - so in the sim it is excellent fun flying and actually very pretty, volcanoes and all. From a sim perspective and real life flying this is a tough place to operate an aeroplane. The weather is generally appalling, low cloud, very strong winds and very cold which means snow and ice continously. They do not have much spare flat land so airports tend to be stuck on rocky outcrops or snugged up the sides of huge mountainous fjords and generally right up the no turn back end as well. I used to use their instrument approaches when teaching IF to young pilots in the RAAF as an example of some of the most difficult and convoluted instrument approaches you will find anywhere in the world. Have a look at the NDB cloud break procedure for Isfadjor and the ILS into Akureyki and you will see what I mean you need to spend a couple of days getting your head around how to fly it and so it is in the sim. Made me also understand why they modified their DC-3s to have two huge and I mean huge ADF dials side by side in the front of the cockpit you needed to read those needles quickly without hesitation in the gloop.
But thanks to all in the sim world and the wonders of P3D I have managed over time to get all the Icelandic birds into the new sim and working just fine. I am sure some of us collect stuff but it was very enjoyable reading about Icelandic Aviation and slowly putting together that heritage for myself in the sim. I am sure we could do it with any number of airlines or military units. But the journey was worth it and it continues to give endless fun and pleasure today. Really an example of what some of us do with the sim and how P3D is king, this is never going to happen in MSFS, sorry guys!
So off we go.
