bernd1151

Wonderful shots, Gerold. If you allow me to tease you (again) a little bit: you will love to do the same flight in MSFS. It's soo different

When I served in the Luftwaffe, I was fortunate to have been invited twice to fly in one of our 30 training F104G (which had a twin cockpit) from Decimomannu, Sardinia to Fürstenfeldbruck, Bavaria. Prior to that I had undergone a rigit training, which gave me the Jet Passenger Card. Without that card, such endeavour would not have been allowed. The F 104 was powered by a single General Electric J79-GE-11A engine capable of generating in excess of 17,000 lbs of thrust and exceeding Mach 2. In non-pilot terms, that's roughly equivalent to 36,000 hp. A typical training flight will expose you to a force or 5Gs or greater, a pull toward earth equal to five or more times your bodyweight. The Starfighter, introduced in 1958, can out-perform many current frontline fighters, including the F/A-18. This plane here is the fantastic SSW trainer F 104, which is available here at the Orbx store. We take off from Miramar Fightertown and fly to Edwards AFB, famous test center of the USAF. With the afterburners just slightly engaged, even with full brakes applied, you cannot stop the plane from going forward But of course we are here to apply full afterburners. The brutal force that pushes you into your Martin Baker seat needs to be experienced, you just cannot describe it. And when you switch off the afterburner at level flight, you will be pushed forward so hard as if somebody had applied full brakes Having a look around near Carlsbad, north of San Diego at 7000 ft Let’s bring her up to 40,000 ft. Do this kind of flying for more than 14 minutes and you’d run out of fuel. Btw, with afterburners engaged it usually takes you around 1 minute and 30 seconds to reach 30,000 ft At 61.000 ft, which is the plane’s service ceiling. That contrail below the plane’s nose is a commercial airliner, probably flying at half our height I cheat now a little bit and, by using keys “Y” and “F4”, bring her first up to 77,000 ft The same location, this time with the clouds removed And now at almost 80,000 ft Looks like outer space Ok, back to reality, we are close to Edwards Now the fun part starts: landing. You enjoy flying in the Starfighter tremendously, at least at altitude. But when it comes to landing, the problems come and they concentrate on the compromise of getting this bird as slowly as possible, but above 170 knots, onto the runway If you go below 170 knots, this glorious aircraft will become vicious. The widowmaker does not forgive you the mistake of crossing boundaries Luckily today all went well, I was even a bit too fast And what is your business here?

I love it, Jean Marc!

Jean Marc, François, thank you both for your comments!

Thank you very much Jean Marc. Yes, I have that Zero and I will download your livery. I like all your liveries! Many thanks, Carlos Much appreciated François Thanks a lot, Wayne

Hahaha, you made my day, Gerold! I think we both know the correct answer to this

Not a bad decision. I wish you the best of luck

Low? Absolutely! Slow? Absolutely NOT!

Thank you both, T and John for your comments! Hahaha, absolutely, sir!

Thank you, Landon. It's a beautiful area around there, only (and maybe luckily) a bit time consuming to reach. Many thanks for your comment! Hahaha, thanks so much!! Thank you John, I'm glad you like it.

Very nice trip, Gerold. Oh, what is OLC Asia? Ok, ok, just kidding. Btw, early next year another sim that you might have heard about, will get another upgrade. This time the developers will concentrate on Australia. Should be a blast and it's free! And you are able to fly the default A320 with its modifications by the community pretty realistically. Also the 747 and the business jets aren't too bad with their modifications. And as an added bonus you have an Asia that is much better than any OLC will ever be. This applies to the whole world. Ok, I'd better stop now.

That's strange, they still show up on my side

Superb screenie with some spectacular cloud formation. I wouldn't want to fly through this in anything smaller than an airliner

Jan, maybe you want to repost your pics, or maybe I am the only one, who does not see anything except the URL codes

Smashing screenies, Mikee!

I plan to cross dangerous borders again, but my trusted Indian co will keep me out of harms way. Skardu (which I have unfortunately failed to visit during my 12 months stay in Lahore, Pakistan) is a city located in Gilgit−Baltistan, Pakistan. Wikipedia says, it is situated at an elevation of nearly 2,500 metres (8,202 feet) in the Skardu Valley, at the confluence of the Indus and Shigar Rivers. The city is an important gateway to the eight-thousanders of the nearby Karakoram mountain range. The Indus River running through the region separates the Karakoram from the Himalayas. Skardu is a fairly peaceful city with wonderful surroundings; yet, when you look at the map, it is just two flight hours away from Kabul, one of the most dangerous places on earth these days. Why did I write in the title “or maybe not”? Because after I took off and had a look around, I realized, how magnificent the area here is, so I decided to cancel my flight plan and have a closer look at what this wonderful place has to offer. Also the map with that big lake and Indus river promised some interesting vistas Over Skardu Isn’t this just fabulous, and thank you Orbx for providing us with this superb Himalaya mesh!! Move this area to the Alps or Rocky Mountains, and real estate prices would go through the roof. And here? Hardly anyone lives here

Absolutely magnificient, Mikee. Btw, how do you like the Starfighter? My landings are still a bit on the trial and error side

Tough as usual, my vote goes to Aharon

2 things: - Try to make your mistakes early in your life and let others make the expensive ones - Don't be so humble, you are not that great

Enjoy

Wow, excellent, John. I showed that shiny floor to my wife and asked her, whether she can reproduce similar results in our house. I'm not sure, what was wrong with that, but she gave me one of those looks that told me: Bernd you better shut up now

Thanks Andy. So we can expect some mods soon over on flightsim.to I hope, in case the plane is not encrypted.

That bird looks superb. I'm thinking of buying that package too for the very same reason. How does she fly, Andy?

Many thanks for your kind comment, Gerold! Yes, it is an old FS9 freeware that some kind person had converted a few years back to native FSX standard. That made it possible for me to port it over to MSFS. An FS9 product would not have worked.

I'm happy to hear that, Carlos