Many years ago I fulfilled a dream of learning to fly. Having been influenced at a very young age by stories of great aeroplanes and of pilots in war and in peacetime. Reading of their pioneering spirit, and their fighting spirit as well as flights that echo pure romance, adventure and freedom, regardless of when or where the story might take place.
Having joined the Air Training Corps at just under 13, I soon had my chance to make my first proper leaps into the air (I had flown on a BEA Vickers Vanguard in the late 60's but this was a little too long ago to have the impact of later flying). During this time, I had wonderful flights in Hercules', Dove and Chipmunk aeroplanes as well as Kirby and Sedburgh gliders.
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| Tri Pacer Flight to Coventry to deliver my CPL coursework |
Two strong triggers have remained with me from my precious aviation adventures over the years and these triggers never fail to entice me to long to fly...
The first: The sound of a Skylark on summers day (they are synonymous with open airfields and big skies).
And the second: The incredible lure into magical layers of warm, pastel amber and blue, or even to an angry metallic hued expanse that follows the receding storm! All simply revealed by just a momentary skyward glance.
It is not always possible to accept the lure of the sky, sometimes we patiently wait for a time that can be long and uncertain while we battle with everyday issues of finances, work schedules and care for our loved ones and our homes. But, that absence allows our imagination to revisit and reflect... given a suitable quiet period.
To fill this time, we always have the story laden books, "old friends" of many years as well as new discoveries which never fail to reignite a moment of a carefree daydream.
But now, in the age of virtual reality, we have another dimension at our fingertips that can, if we choose, blend the story, lifting it up from the page, wrapping around us to cast into the virtual world of a digital re-creation....
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| Air Atlantique DC3 eve departure from the Faroes FSX |
Simulation offers unlimited skies of great mood, fearsome and beautiful. Climates of damp and cold, picturesque winter wonderlands or a warm, uplifting Mediterranean glow. Real world weather introduction inducing constant automatic updates bring the forecast to life, always a requirement for the longer journeys if you choose. But a pioneer flight of 1928 might not have a luxury of forecast weather, to our pioneer flight, choosing real world weather synchronization and deliberately omitting to read the forecast information will add an element of the unexpected, an ADVENTURE!
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| DC4 Canadair Argonaut, recreating a 1990s Air Atlantique DC6 Transatlantic flight in FSX |
Navigation, how will you get there? As in reality you have choices to make, it might be a quick VFR (visual) hop, you might know the area and fly to your heart's content. But, it might be a trip over the sea or even an ocean. In 1935 you might consider your options, not too many? You can use ded' reckoning, will you make the correct drift allowance for the crosswind, do you have sufficient fuel for error? You might use HF/DF ranging radio, quite primitive, but may increase your chance of success. You may even choose to use a sextant for an astronomical fix. "In a flight simulation game?" you might say, but yes they are all there if you search down through the superficial "game" facade of the software and into the sim community, you will be surprised.
Over the coming months I will use my time of imagination to share my 5th dimension research and virtual preparation, we can enjoy a flying adventure to see the outcome of our particular recreation.
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