Tuesday, October 28, 2008

My First 'Round the World Tour in Flightsim

My first Around the World Flightsim adventure was done in FS2000 during the summer of 2000. This was also my first-ever article published on http://www.flightsim.com/ that fall:

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/feature/globe.htm
Here's my original text with photos from http://www.airliners.net/.



'Round the world flights have been done before. One of the mostpopular ones of all time was written by the flightsim comedian BillSmith. Bill's article was a real inspiration to me and many others I'm sure. I had one of the original MSFS games which came out about1983 on a 5 1/4 inch floppy and ran on an IBM-PC. Boy, we've come along way since then! One of my motivations for getting back into flightsim is the opportunity to fly the big iron jets - I love commercial aviation! But it's obvious that there is something out there for everyone.

One problem with these newer simulators is that I am older now andhave a job and a family and a house etc. But I was always curious about what it would take to circumnavigate the globe in FS. How long and in what kind of planes would I do this? Well, with the family happily on the way to Denver a few months ago, I was about to find out!

Gee, I hope the family didn't think that I was pushing them out the door - I really will miss them. Worse, what if they forgot toothpaste or something and come back in half an hour to find me; "On that stupid computer again"? Ah well, life is full of risks isn't it? Speaking of risks, The fact
that aircraft models are designed by different people, and therefore each one handles differently, had never even occurred to me as I bade the family good-bye. See, you just never know what will lie ahead!

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