East to West - Legs 10 & 11

[John York]

These legs take us from Birdsville to Finke (at last an OZx strip) and with a change of 'plane, on to Alice Springs;

This whole flight from East to West is being done in FSX Real World Weather but using REX clouds and water....yeah, well, where there is any!

These are the only clouds you'll see on this trip, but it is quite windy up on these high deserts.

Its a 258 nm flight crossing this part of the Simpson Desert and I was really strapped to see much at all, so it was a relief to at last see

the Finke River and a road rather than a track.  The Mooney is a good 'plane to fly these sort of distances as it's reasonably easy

to fly and surprisingly stable in the windy conditions.

Finke is one of the few OZx airstrips and quite a nice little place.  I'm hoping these people will show me a place for lunch and then

I'll be on my way to Alice.

Off now to Alice.  Just 113 nm away so a chance to use my lovely Cessna 172N.  I'm crossing the Finke River again here.

This is an aptly named place called 'The Horseshoe'.

A first view of Alice.  Of course it'll be well developed now, but I'm not disappointed as this is exactly how I pictured it from Nevil Shute's book.  How

they managed to graze cattle (or was it sheep) in this barren land I'll never understand.  It was the same in the film 'Australia'.  The land is just completely

unsuitable for grazing livestock so how the hell do they do it?

Down we come.  The airport is only a couple of miles or so from the town.

After what we've been used to from Orbx and OZx the airport itself looks a bit like the 'Marie Celeste'.  The buildings etc., are quite acceptable,

but where's all the the traffic and movement that is really needed.  Like this it makes the sim very disappointing and I must say

I would have expected more from such a famous place.  Perhaps it's only famous to us oldn's in Britain?

No.  Absolutely no-one about and nothing moving either.  I didn't think it was a Sunday?

The next legs take me to Hermansburg and on to Yulara where we'll have a look at Ayers Rock - as if you haven't seen it before.

See you soon.

John

Thank you ImageShack - Faultless.

[alexf]

Nice set. Keep it coming!

I don't have AU-Red and don't fly long distances in my fav planes (A2A Cub is not very suitable for those places anyway), so I fly NSW and QLD instead.

[VH-WCE]

That was a great leg!! Cant wait for the next one