A leisurely ride to Mount Cook

[Florian_S]

Today I'm heading to the beautiful Mount Cook/Aoraki area....The flight would take us over some very scenic mountain landscapes so I decided to do some true VFR. The Piper PA-18 Super Cub may not be the fastest GA plane around but if you want to see something along the way she is an absolutley perfect ride!


At Christchurch Int'l awaiting the departure of a Pacific Blue 737-800...My little Cub seems almost out of place here.


Our turn for departure...


Climbing out over Suburban Christchurch


Soon the flat landscape gives way to more rugged terrain...


...and we are forced to a higher altitude.


At about 9000ft and skimming over the peaks which then give way to plunging valleys below.


The views here are just breathtaking...


Before decending I decide to do a flyby of the imposing Mount Cook.


Fun and games over, I decend into the valley.


Moments before touchdown


Even the terminal here is beautiful and suddenly the Cub doesn't seem so out of place anymore!

I know I've said this a number of times already but I just can't emphasize it enough....The Kiwi flight sim community has really done such a great job as a collective whole to come up with such a fantastic product for the world's simmers to enjoy....NZ is definatley one of the best flight sim experiences.

Cheers
Florian

[Naki]

Nice shots Florian - Aerosoft Cub?

[Florian_S]

Cheers Naki, Yes it is the Aerosoft Cub

[Alex]

Nice work Florian, great to see the tail end of your tour!

Alex

[Adamski]

V-e-r-y nice!!!

As I'm relatively new to NZ flight simming - I wonder whether the poster(s) of screenshots could include info of what/whose scenery was installed - freeware, payware etc. as well as aircraft repaint info etc. Then I know what to save up for!!!

[ardypilot]

Good stuff Florain- after browsing through these pics, you gave me the incentive to go take a flight at Mount Cook for the first time in ages... got myself into a Huey and headed up the Tasman Glacier to find the 'easter egg' that is included with Peter's airport scenery as shown above. Quite a lot of fun if you ever have a spare 20 minutes

QUOTE

As I'm relatively new to NZ flight simming - I wonder whether the poster(s) of screenshots could include info of what/whose scenery was installed - freeware, payware etc. as well as aircraft repaint info etc. Then I know what to save up for!!![/quote]
Pretty much every screenshot in this forum includes the Red Baron Entertainment mesh of some variant, either the freeware low res 75m stuff, or the payware 20m package.

The Mount Cook airport scenery can be downloaded free from avsim under the filename 'nzmcv1.0.zip'

Last edited by ardypilot on Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Apr 19 2008, 10:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pretty much every screenshot in this forum includes the Red Baron Entertainment mesh of some variant, either the freeware low res 75m stuff, or the payware 20m package.

The Mount Cook airport scenery can be downloaded free from avsim under the filename 'nzmcv1.0.zip'

Thanks for the Mount Cook link, Trolly ... I'll go grab it!

I currently have the [freeware] 75m mesh. Are there any sites with comparative screenshots (20/75) so I could see how much difference $100 makes? I'm sure there used to be.

[ardypilot]

QUOTE

Are there any sites with comparative screenshots (20/75) so I could see how much difference $100 makes?[/quote]
http://www.geographx.co.nz/downloads/mesh_manual.zip

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Apr 19 2008, 11:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://www.geographx.co.nz/downloads/mesh_manual.zip

Aaah ... thanks for that - I knew I'd seen them somewhere. That pdf must be buried on one of my many FS backup CD's! The test shots show that the free 75m mesh is a MUST - and it doesn't look all that bad, compared to the 20m shots shown. Maybe other areas of NZ show more marked improvements. I suppose I could always spend $100 on Rob's excellent series instead

[ardypilot]

If you run the 75m mesh, you will at least need the Red Baron Topo Scenery which fixes all the lake levels and gives you accurate coastlines, rivers and roads. A must have!