Celebrating a triumphant homecoming from the transatlantic round robin.

Ok... I admit I was overwhelmed when I first signed on here. As with email, the virtual world can seem pretty impersonal - with the user forced to devine the context of all information that races across any given screen. Some people have an innate gIft of communication - the ability to make anyone feel comfortable in any situation, surprisingly even in the emotionally void context of the Internet. Yoland is one of those people - so I naturally gravitated to his Bush Ops section - and what an adventure he gave me!

I felt like a solitary adventurer as I piloted my Saab 340B to remote airports in Newfoundland and beyond. I did have my FSPASSENGERS along to keep me company, but they became an annoying burden - always wanting to be attended to and so fussy and critical (just like real life, as those of us in the service sector know all too well).

I refused to use acceleration, although I did take advantage of copilot mode of Radar Contact to take care of real world things farther away from the flight deck than I would in the real world. This gave me an idea of the real time involved, and the remoteness of the final destination was better appreciated knowing the time it took to get there. I actually felt a certain closeness when I hit our other hubs, that I could reach out and say - "hey, I'm here from SPA", and be welcomed as a friend.

The only really tough leg was returning - I think the stop in Newfoundland - which found me landing in heavy snow. Fortunately I had taken on enough fuel - which you need to figure yourself based on distance and your average for your aircraft - those listed seemed to be off by almost 50% in some cases (which is a good lesson anyway). I'm not sure I followed the approach plate to the letter, and the FSPASSENGERS were unimpressed of course (the spoiled ingrates!), but I landed safely and made it through an incredible virtual adventure - experiencing a wonderful adventure to places I may never see in reality.

I've learned so much here, and I'm hooked. I'm still training for vatsim, and would love to participate in some on line stuff like that search and rescue thing, or even a group or multiple member fly-in somewhere.

As usual, I'm hopelessly verbose again, but I hope others learn as much and have as much fun as I've been having. If I can help, just let me know.

Thanks SPA, and Yoland!

jr