John Burgess

With MSFS I very much prefer exploring areas low and slow. I did, however, decide last year to have a final world tour in P3D (I'd spent quite a while fine tuning my v4 installation). Using my old, beat up 737 I started in Seattle and flew a rather roundabout route across to the East Coast. Then headed North over to Greenland, Iceland, The Faroes and home to Scotland. Down through Europe and finally made it as far as the Mediterranean and Istanbul where, of course, the East meets the West. There I ground to a halt. So this topic has reminded me I'd better get going again and head East. Not sure of the route but it'll have to include the Himalaya and Kathmandu. Then I suppose Tibet, China, Japan, Kamchatka, Alaska and back down to Seattle. All done without leaving my study or burning a single litre of aviation fuel. I'm expecting the Greta Thunberg award for sustainable tourism All the best, John

I remember the tradition of the lump of coal being brought in at new year when I was young. I grew up in Westmorland but my parents were originally from Lancashire. Shamefully I must admit I never kept it up. Maybe just as well. Now we are saving the planet I'd probably have to appear at the door with a wind turbine Wishing everyone the best for 2024. John

Happy New Year to all. Just back from our village Hogmanay celebrations - if I have my sums right Rodger still has a couple of hours to go! Best wishes, John

A nice shot Iain - not Carlisle I suspect Just back from our village Hogmanay celebrations - a happy New Year to all. Best Wishes, John

Hi there. There's a .kmz file which can be downloaded from the product page - the link's there though not obvious! As the product page says for some reason it downloads as a .doc file and you have to remove the .doc from the filename. I found that right clicking on the highlighted link and choosing 'save link as' managed to get it downloaded. Not sure if it's absolutely 100% accurate but it'll give you a very good idea of what's there. All the best, John

Don't get technical Delicious either way!

My daughter in law is from Nebraska. She introduced us to it All the best, John

For the festive season my wife usually produces a traditional but very tasty and moist Christmas Cake. I don't really have a particularly sweet tooth but she does also bake some delicious cakes throughout the year (date and walnut then chocolate and beetroot have been amongst recent highlights). The state of my waistline, however, means that I'm only allowed them if we have visitors or we are doing something active (walking, cycling etc) I guess being out for a walk or a bike ride sort of counts as a 'holiday' so I'll go with Carol's Cakes - when I'm allowed All the best, John

All I now have to do is reply to this thread 7,099 times

Okay Rob so you're a VIP and we're not, no need to rub it in Congratulations, by the way. Looks like you reached this elevated status quite recently All I have to do is reply to this thread 7,100 times All the best, John

A great picture John. Unusual to have so little cloud - even my house looks sunny Couldn't resist so had a go in MSFS - not bad despite a LOD issue perhaps with part of the imagery! Will look even better when we get rid of that duplicate HMS Victory down in Portsmouth! All the best, John

Ah, now if we are having various awards how about Adam for taking us back to when music was real music Taylor who? Okay, I have grand-daughters, I know All the best, John

Thank you Iain - that brought some much needed sparkle to my morning. It takes a long time to get light up here at the moment! Happy Christmas to you all. John

Thanks for the pics. Quite an effort hunting down the POI's. Glad the file helped and hope you enjoyed the hunt All the best, John

Around Scotland seals cannot be regarded as either exotic or rare - the guys running tourist boats often promise your money back if you don't see one! However, if I might tweak the topic slightly, they gave me my best memory of meeting creatures in the wild. I used to do some Sea Kayaking and, once in a while, would find myself in the middle of a colony of them. They are inquisitive and heads would appear around you and stare at you. If one got spooked the warning was to splash a flipper on the water and dive, which the others would do as well. Then heads would start to appear again and eyes would study you. The great thing was you could join in. Splash the paddle on the surface, they splashed flippers and dived - then reappeared trying to make sense of this strange creature in their midst. Great memories. All the best, John

Difficult one - definitely a two horse race for me but, given all the help he's given me behind the scene's, I'll give it to Nick by the shortest of heads! As for grumpy - how dare you Graeme. A shining example of Positive Mental Attitude. Right up there with Eeyore and Marvin the Paranoid Android Only kidding Early in the contest but, whilst they are out in front, let's raise a glass to Nick 🍷and a festive toast to Iain 🍷. Thank you gentlemen for all your contributions in the past year. All the best, John

Oops I can confirm the snow in the tower. I know they are a hardy bunch up in Yorkshire but that does look a bit extreme I believe the reason you can't get into some of the terminal buildings is because they have been designed with a collision mesh (I think it's called). Apparently this means that they do cause a collision if you taxi into them but, unfortunately, it also means you can't drone inside them. All the best, John

Ah, I understand! Clearly didn't have enough coffee this morning Here you are. VFR Scone to North Connel.PLN All the best, John

Perfect John - just drop them down the chimney 0.76nm on a bearing of 062 magnetic from the PTH VOR All the best, John

Had to think about this one. Lucky enough to live in a really nice part of the world - about a mile from Scone EGPT so I'd start there (nearest Orbx airport is Dundee). Many have started their flying training there - I once met a couple of pilot's with Singapore airlines visiting to show their wives where it all began. One was now a 777 captain, the other an A380 captain. Anyway lots of nice options but to relax I'd head over to the West coast to EGPO North Connel. Going direct is lovely but, with a bit of time, I'd take a slightly round about route. A few POI's from GB North along the route - a pleasant change from all the noise and bother going on down South Just North of Perth is Scone Palace (I'll not mention pronunciations again!) the ancient coronation place of the Kings of Scotland. Heading north up the river Tay you fly across the true northern boundary of the Roman Empire. Forget Hadrian's Wall - they built that when they were retreating! At Dunkeld the terrain changes - you just crossed the Highland Boundary fault and head on past Pitlochry. Turn left and, in the words of the song, 'by Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go'. It's actually worth heading north through Killiecrankie and up to Blair Castle near EGQI before turning left! Anyway head along Loch's Tummel and Rannoch passing the mountain Schiehallion where contour lines were first used as part of the first experiment to measure the mass of the Earth by Nevil Maskelyne back in 1774. It's also a great viewpoint. Beyond Loch Rannoch pass Rannoch Station on the West Highland line (one of the great railway journeys) and head across Rannoch Moor with the hills of the Blackmount and Glencoe ahead. Turn half right and head down Glencoe (rightly famous for both it's history and scenery) to reach the west coast at Loch Leven. Pass over the Ballachulish Bridge and head South down Loch Linnhe with the hills of the Isle of Mull in the distance to reach your destination. Here's an idea of the route in LNM. Once there the West Highlands and Islands are a wonderful place to explore. Round Mull, take a look at Iona and Staffa (think Fingal's Cave) then up to Skye - the possibilities are endless. Getting carried away a bit. Just lucky to live in a part of the world I love I mentioned Dunkeld. Had a walk up a wee hill there yesterday. A bit of a winter wonderland really. All the best, John

At that speed 'Santa John' you'd better set off now if you are going to deliver my presents by Christmas morning Great video All the best, John

Not much fuss in the Burgess household. A tree and a few other things - we do still get the Grandkids visiting at some point. As to when - whenever Carol tells me we're going to do it All the best, John

Ingenious, a method I'd not thought of! Unfortunately it's the FTX_EU_GBS_PLC_POI.bgl file which determines what actually appears so, sadly, what is in the texture folder is not a reliable guide to what's actually there. As I say don't hold your breath, but I'll mention the models are there if ever an update is planned. All the best, John

I'll not ask how you know that Looks to me there are models of them in the library file (though city ground seems to be missing textures). They are not in the placement file so don't appear. Don't ask me how I know this - I'm just a tester Unless you can produce your own placement file for Molineux then no to the question of activating them. Best I can do (and I will) is suggest they might be included in an update if there is one. Please, everyone, I have not said there is to be an update. That's beyond my pay grade. Edit - just being nosey! Do those two stadiums have a particular significance for you? All the best, John

Simple answer is no I'm afraid. All the POI's are within a single file. All the best, John