The Scottish Reel - Rotor Run 'Round the Highlands

[PhrogPhlyer]

Break out your kilt, warm up your left over haggis, and raise a glass of whiskey (Scotch of course) as you start your flight prep for...




June first we drop the rotor brakes and spool up for a 'round the highlands reel. Route and more info will be posted soon. Until then, have a sip or two on me...

 

[Tako_Kichi]

I'll be flying but you can keep your dirty Scottish ditch water thanks, I'll take a fine Cognac or a true British Navy Rum instead.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

I'll share a wee bit of rum with you, but you can keep your Frenchie perfumed swill, thank you much.
Then again, if it's free... it's for me!
Cheers Mate.

 

[Naismith]

Sassenachs aren'y allowed an opinion. Awa wi yer. This is why Brexit happened.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Sassenachs aren'y allowed an opinion. Awa wi yer. This is why Brexit happened.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

A few minor tweaks and the event paint scheme for N206PP will be ready.
More scenery to load, and a review of POIs I hope to see along the way.
Looking forward to visiting the land of my Mother's family.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

I was pleasantly surprised at the volume of add-ons available to Scotland.
They really have added to the FSX world.
Still searching for more, but to the FSX'rs out there, here's what I've added that you can search for if you so desire.
The "for Orbx" objects work just fine in a non-Orbx setup.

 

[turbodak]

Just one small point, Cheltenham, its racecourse and associated heliport, is not in Scotland!

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Thanks, I did screen shot of the folders I downloaded, not the one's I've installed.
You going to join in with this Rotor Run?

 

[turbodak]

Regretfully, no. I'm moving house shortly and just don't have the time.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Hopefully we'll see you on the next one. Good luck with the move.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Calling all Rotorheads...
The "Scottish Reel" is open to any and all rotor aircraft.
Adventure Awaits!


Just realized that I never posted the route. See below.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

If anybody uses Little NavMap and is planning to take part in either FSX or P3D I have attached flight plans in the attached zip file just to help out!

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Beautiful morning to take to the air. Departing Edinburgh (EGPH).


Rich lush green fields along this route.


Short 49nm hop to Prestwick (EGPK), 206PP is flying well. Almost to the coast.


Looks like they put the helos on the back 40 acres. I hope the have a crew van, it's a long walk to the hangar.
Maybe the Seahawk crew knows a good place to eat.

 

[tao]

EGPH>EGPL

Continuing my training in the Westland-Sikorsky and accepting an invitation from the RAF we load the coffee and scones (and tea) into the hold ... taxi (slew) out to R24... and climb out to 2,500 feet and set our course to Prestwick which soon comes into view.

Rounding the bend at EKPG and heading northwest past Glasgow the views across the ‘bonnie bonnie banks’ and Isle of Mann on the way to Tiree are wonderful. Even with the default scenery in FS9 one can tell the Inner Hebrides are a special place.

From Tiree we turn to the northwest again for EGPR and then (with the coffee getting cold and the scones consumed) it is north to Benbecula and time for a rest ... a great start to the dance ...

 

[NelsAnderson]

I haven't had a chance to do any flying lately, but I really did want to take part in this so made some time to fly the first leg. This being a tour, I made a point of visiting a couple of landmarks that were only slightly off course.

At the start at EGPH, ready to go:



Apparently the Scots have buried two giant horses, known as "the kelties":



Scotland also has a giant steel woman named Arria:



Scotland is apparently green in more than one way


EGPK in sight:



On the ground, first leg complete!

 

[NelsAnderson]

Continuing my run, starting at EGPK today, making a quick pass at EGPF and landing at EGEO.

Ready for departure from Glasgow:



Clearly not the highlands, but nice and green:



Buzzing the field at EGPF:



Enjoying the terrain along the way:



Now it's getting hilly...



Today's destination in sight:



Very accommodating airport at Oban! Actual helipads with a nice water view:

 

[Tako_Kichi]

I finally got a chance to make a start on this event yesterday! My MP flying buddy (Rob) and I were going to do the event as a multiplayer pair but when we did the Marrakesh run a few weeks back we ran into all sorts of issues with my helos not showing up in his sim via JoinFS no matter what we did. He can only see me in whatever AI helos he has in his FSX build so even if I was in a MD530 he would have to put me in a CH-53 as that was the only thing that would show up. We still haven't been able to sort the problem out so I decided I would do the event solo and if we do ever sort his issues out we can run the event again as a pair.

With all that said I will be using P3D v4.5 with Orbx FTX Global and a Scottish land-class I found online thanks the Phroggy's info above. For helos I will be flying whatever takes my fancy on the day in question so expect a lot of swapping and changing!

So let's get to it!

Leg 1 EGPH-EGEO

The helo choice for Leg 1 was the Cera Sim Bell 412EP in the colours of the UK Defence Helicopter Flying School.



I had added a scenery item from Phroggy's list too but unfortunately it doesn't want to display correctly in my P3D. The item is a scenery BGL for all the UK's wind farms at their correct locations but when I approached the first one just SW of Edinburgh all of the turbines were black for some reason!



I have imported the BGL into MCX and played with settings and export types but I just can't get it to display correctly.

I have raised a question over at FSDeveloper so maybe someone there can help me to get white turbines instead of black ones! Any way on with the tour. The first check point at Prestwick was duly found and looks well represented in P3D Orbx land.



Moving on I came across what I expect to see rather a lot of as the Scots invented the game and that is sea side golf links!



The next check point was Glasgow, an airport I have flown into and out of three times while making trans-Atlantic flights from the UK to Canada in 1992!



As I left Glasgow and headed North the Scottish Highlands started to make an appearance in the distance.



As I was crossing the River Clyde heading NW I spotted an interesting ship so that of course meant that I had to make a detour to inspect it!



It turned out to be the Gorch Fock which has a very long and interesting history!

Gorch Fock (1933) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Leaving historical ships behind I carried on to the next check point, North Connel airport.



It was at this point that I decided to land for the day as it was getting close to 'trough time' in the T_K household!



We will see what the next day brings and what I fancy flying I guess.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Leg 2 EGEO-EGPO

Leg 2's flights started out with a dreary overcast sky that did not lend itself to 'Kodak Moments' but we took what we could. The sun seemed to shine on hills in the distance occasionally but for the most part the overcast followed me around. Helo choice for today was the Milviz Bell 407 and here we are where we left off on the night before!



It was a pretty uneventful flight across the Isle of Mull to the Hebrides with no shipping to see and low light making it very gloomy. We did manage to find Tiree without too much trouble though.



Then it was off to the NW to find the island of Barra on the southern part of the Outer Hebrides island chain.



A 27 Nm trip up the western sea-board brought us to the town of Benbecula and it's airport EGPL.



As we turned NE towards the final airport for this leg I was reminded of the fact that you should never ask "Is it going to rain today?" when in Scotland but always ask "When is it going to rain today?" as it is almost guaranteed at some point on almost every day (unless it's snowing of course!)



The fact that the next island is shrouded in mist and low cloud was starting to get concerning especially as I knew we had quite a ridge to climb over before reaching the destination. As we got closer the visibility did improve slightly but there still wasn't much room between the tops of the hills and the bottoms of the cloud base.



We cleared the final ridge (by less than 250ft according to the digital radar altimeter on my pop-up panel) and the WX looked a lot better on the far side. There were even some patches of pale and watery blue sky too!



The town of Stornoway came into view and thankfully the rain stopped which made things a bit easier in terms of visibility.



Down safe in a cloud of standing water from the rains and time to think about the next leg.



It will be the longest leg of the entire event (116 Nm) and over open water for 95% of the way. Hmmm, maybe I should dig out a floater just in case but which one? The Sea King, the Merlin, a regular helo with floats maybe? I guess we will have to see what tomorrow brings!