RTMM Dispatch 2

Working my way through the dispatches at RTMM. This one was a cabin check tour (as the Dispatch story goes...). First, the install was much easier with most of heavy lifting done on the initial scenery and library installs for Dispatch 1.

This time only the Eagle Lake Cabin was added - the rest I believe were part of the original Tongas Fjords (with patch 1).

It was great fun flying around this scenic area, and hard to believe so many cabins were nestled in this relatively small area. As usual - some of them were a bit difficult to find, and several times had me checking the real cabin locations by google maps, as they are a bit more detailed than the RTMM version. I would then verify by RTMM photos that I had indeed found the correct cabins!

I've posted my 'discoveries' in my photo album.

I continue to very much enjoy the RTMM adventures.

John

I agree John; they're a lot of fun. I just posted some photos from Dispatch 3. I've now had a chance to check out the DHC2 Beaver amphibian, the Quest Kodiak amphibian and the Foundair Bushhawk amphibian. I prefer the Bushhawk, even though it has no autopilot, as it seems to handle best on water.

I must admit I had trouble finding some of the cabins, until I learned how to build the Lat/Long of each cabin into my Plan G flightplan and then load it into my GPS - cheating I know, but I'm not a "real" VFR pilot.

Mike

Westcoast

Thanks for the Info Mike,

I hadn't hear of the Bushhawk. I'll have to give it a try. I seldom use AP on bush flights, so no problem there.

Yes - I've thought of punching coordinates into my gps once I've found the destinations, but I enjoy the hunt. The most recent issue I had was the Reflection Lake Cabin - the terrain looks different on FSX than the google map, with the actual lake separated by a strip of land where in FSX it appears to be a much longer strip of water with a jog in the lake layout where the lake in reality appears split in two on google. At any rate, the location on google map of the cabin matched the approximate location in FSX, disregarding the lake shape discrepancy.

I do enjoy being able to find these places on actual maps and charts. I think a compromise in my case would be to add the locations to my VFR charts for the area, thus allowing me to eyeball the approximate location without following the GPS line. I still use the GPS for general geographical layout - as I'm no where near familiar with the area (although I'm getting used to the PAKT-Misty's Place route.

John

John,

What are you using for VFR charts? The sectionals seem to be on too small a scale to be useful and most of the features are not named on Goggle Maps.

Mike

Mike,

I've been testing out a number of things, but my favorite (and most costly of course) is the Foreflight app for my ipad. It's used by real pilots I think, but I have an addon that links it to my FSX and shows the location of my plane on the charts.

I haven't used the positioning linkup with RTMM until this last Dispatch (4), and then just near the end - when, tiring of going in circles trying to find the right pond without hitting a mountain, and not recognizing the various versions geographical representations between 1. the RTMM map 2. My GPS map 3. My Foreflight map. For expediency I finally connected the fsx to the Foreflight that guided me to the right pond to find the cabin in.

I have the RealityXP GPS also - and I could just program the coordinates into that, but it's nice being able to do it at the table prior to flying without fiddling with that little screen during flight.

I did find a fairly nice map of the PAKT area at RTMM "Tools" area. That might help some too - I just didn't pull it up tonight - and I'm not sure if the terrain will match that on the GPS, the FSX or yet another new variation.

Perhaps it the mesh I'm using GEX over laying some of the Orbx and Tongas stuff, but it can be confusing - but it sure is very pretty scenery around there.

On another note, I tried out the Bush Hawk, but I think I actually like the humble Beaver the best for look and feel. The Bush Hawk reminds me a lot of the Kodiak but without the power. For my recent RTMM Flights I've returned to the Beaver Amphibian.

I've also been playing with an application from Aerosoft (FS Flight Keeper). This is kind of a nifty all-in-one program that can be the ACARS, rate your flying, show you a gps map and keeps an ongoing log of all your flights in a database.

The GPS feature provides both elevation hazard (the terrain turns red if your low enough to hit it) just like RealityXP does, but it can grab the FSX Plans without having to manually enter them like I do with RealityXP. Also, FSFK has TCAS which RealityXP doesn't. The problem is that the terrain graphics are not as detailed as RealityXP - a real problem when using with RTMM if you don't have the plan already punched into fSX. Perhaps there's a way to adjust that - I haven't researched it that far. Just - gave it a test run yesterday.

The nice thing about Foreflight is that it shows your position over the top of the actual flight charts - not a GPS terrain representation - I've included a pic in my album.

John

<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Oct 07, 2014 - 11:23 AM</em><!-- end editby -->