Flights – Local flights – Altitude – Flight Rules – Flight plans – Meteorology – Fuel – Use of AP
To take full advantage of this adventure, it was important for me to establish principles, and this is what we are going to detail now.
Above all, the goal is to see all the Points of Interest (POI) offered in Flight Simulator as well as to visit all the cities of importance, in particular those which benefit from a representation based on photogrammetry technology.
Flights
They will be carried out exclusively with selected aircraft which you can find on the “Fleet” page.
They will be made from an aerodrome and to an aerodrome. There is no question of taking off or landing from anywhere. Preference will be given to small sites, as opposed to international airports. However, if the route only allows the use of a large airport, this will be selected.
The flights will be done with two people on board and 60 kg of fret.
Local flights
Will be considered as local flights, the flights having for object the discovery of a small geographical sector enjoying Point(s) of interest (POI). Take-off and landing will therefore be from the same aerodrome. Barring exceptions, these flights will be carried out by helicopter, in order to take advantage of the ability of this category of aircraft to fly at very low speed.
The flights will be done with two people on board.
Altitude
The objective of this journey is to admire the landscapes. Flying at 15,000 feet would therefore not make much sense.
Nor is it a question of straying from the actual flight rules and, in particular, the safety principles.
The following rules will therefore be applied:
–> flights from east to west: even flight levels increased by 500 feet
–> flights from west to east: odd flight levels increased by 500 feet
Depending on the location and specific conditions, this may vary, but the idea is to fly between 1,500 and 2,500 feet above ground.
Flight rules
Flights will be conducted under VFR.
However, the long-distance links, which will be exclusively over-water links, will be under IFR.
Flight plans
More than flight plans, it will be navigation logs. They will be prepared from aeronautical charts then transferred to Flight Simulator so that they can be made available to you for download.
Meteorology
The flights will be carried out under actual weather conditions.
If the day a flight is scheduled, and the local weather conditions do not allow it (too low cloud cover, wind higher than the aircraft’s tolerances, etc.), it will be postponed.
On the other hand, the schedules will be modified to allow day flights, everywhere in the world.
Fuel
Fuel requirements will be calculated before each flight, with the usual safety margins. The calculated quantity will be loaded onto the aircraft.
Use of AP
What pushed me to embark on this adventure is the pleasure of piloting. There is therefore no question of letting a machine replace it.
I do not exclude, if security requires it, breaches of this rule. However, it will only be used for altitude maintenance and heading maintenance. It will never be used to track a GPS flight plan.