Closer to Home

[Charl]

Spent much of Matariki fixing joystick bindings and tweaking the sim, bought a new helicopter.
Took it up the motorway from Mechanics Bay to Albany.
The sim really is good - I tested it with places that anyone from around the Shore will know.
Clockwise from top left:
New SH18/SH1 intersection at Rosedale/Over the poo ponds approaching Helitranz over the lawn/Oteha Valley Road (just look at the authentic road markings!)/North Harbour Stadium.



Not sure how much of this is pure stock, but it's good enough for me.

Be good to see a NZ paint or two for this one, looks good in black but there are quite a few on register.

[Splitpin]

Bloody hell Charl ....amazing. Is this default scenery?
I'm so tempted .... but I think I'll wait for the new incarnation.
Beautiful shots

[Charl]

Marty I had ORBX Auckland prior, but then there was a NZ sim update, maybe it used some of that.
I haven't added anything lately.
Maybe other users could comment?

Not a bad plan to wait til November for a clean install of MSFS 2024.
By now we know the weaknesses and can hope they are addressed.

As an aside, right after I posted these screens, we lost our fibre link.
This reminded me of how much stuff is reliant on the internet.
Not least: NSFS 2020 would not load!

[Splitpin]

I worry about the whole cloud thing....all my sims are out there in cyber space, no hard copy for any of them.
Was a time when I had a CD/DVD holder thing full of back up discs...I still do, but that software is museum quality now.
Where is the bloody cloud anyway? ....or maybe its a chemtrail ....did I tell I've been sprayed (even have photos)

[Charl]

...did I tell I've been sprayed (even have photos)

Hah Fake News.
Bet it was AI generated, in that Cloud.

[deeknow]

So goood !!!! Sadly I've decided to uninstall MSFS for now, despite enjoying buzzing about in the Cowansim 500. Was quickly running out of disk space and furiously relocating stuff across SSDs and still running out coz I still run P3D primarily so both were taking resources. Gonna wait for MS2024 and then do a rig-rebuild

[emfrat]

...did I tell I've been sprayed (even have photos)

Hah Fake News.
Bet it was AI generated, in that Cloud.

[cowpatz]

I’m quite looking forward to operating a few helicopters in MSFS. A great scenery platform for them.
I’d really like an affordable collective lever system though, or at least an easy home build solution.
There is a 3D printer version but the electronics setup is a bit beyond me from a first look perspective.
That freeware Huey looks fantastic.

[JMBIII]

Charl, From where is/was your heli available ?

[Charl]

It's an Aerospatiale Eurocopter Airbus Heaven H120 from the Marketplace!

[JMBIII]

Thanks, I had looked all over for the heli. I seldom visit the "marketplace".
I'll attempt some NZ regos. Tedious with the way MS locks files.

[Charl]

Excellent notion.
Could you see about HJW maybe?

[JMBIII]

I found two photos of ZK-HJW dated March 2024. It is a EC130. I could try that paint scheme on the EC120. Looks fairly easy.

[chopper_nut]

I've got a whole bunch of pics of NZ EC120s but the Indonesian government has blocked all of the photo sharing websites so I can't upload anything... nor view most images on this forum. I'll upload when I'm in the US in a few weeks.

[Charl]

Wow that's a bummer, be good to see your pics later though.

It is a EC130.

My bad...
Helitranz BC looks nice too, and appropriate for Auckland
https://www.heletranz.co.nz/eurocopter-ec120-b/
Or even INN
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9364519

[JMBIII]

Work in progress (paint is still wet ) I've a couple of actual NZ H120s that I'm working on also.

[Charl]

Oh this is nice to see.
The MS repaint code is waay above my paygrade.

[JMBIII]

Charl, it's above mine, too. I'm working on the metallic look on JW. Slowly (very slowly) catching up on 'how to do' PBR textures and also Blender. Beginning to believe in the old saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks".

[Charl]

Then again:
Potius sero quam nunquam!