Well, all is good in the world. Life is settling down, and I’ve finally got some time to start Flying’sCool! back up again. I recently got a call from Ellen Wright at the Roudenbush Community Center in Westford, MA. She thought Flying’sCool would be an excellent addition to their lineup of community education classes for kids and adults. So it’s looking like the first classes will be starting up in mid-May and running through early June.
So I’ve been spending the last month or so wiping away the cobwebs and getting my systems up and going again. In fact, I’ve just finished up building a new computer setup, but I’ll talk about that in a later post.
Now that I’ve got a little time (Danny’s hockey is winding down, work is settling down into a routine of sorts), it’s been good to get some flying in again, albeit the virtual variety. Just spent the last few nights tooling around online putting in some hours flying for Cape Air Virtual Airlines, out of the Boston Virtual ATC multiplayer site. What a blast! I love being able to interact with real, live, very professional ATC people and practice my IFR procedures. It’s nice because Cape Air’s main planes, the Cessna 414, are very simple to fly. So it’s not like you have to take the time to prepare for flying any big iron. Just hop in and tool around. You can even fly the default FSX B58 Baron for them, too. The real Cape Air flies Cessna 402C’s, a close cousin of the 414, but, unfortunately, nobody has taken the time to make a 402 yet for FSX.
Even if you don’t feel like your ready for IFR flying, Boston Virtual ATC is a great place to fly VFR and try maybe some flight following with the ATC folks to get your feet wet speaking the lingo. Just spend some time listening to the other pilots out there, read through their extensive but very readable tutorials and documentation, and you’ll be on your way. There are even people there who will share your cockpit with you to help you learn. One of the very cool features of FSX is that you can, over the internet, share your cockpit with anyone who also has a copy of FSX and the plane you are flying, and they can control various systems of the plane while you fly (radios, flaps, etc.), or you can turn the controls over to them and you can sit back and relax and watch them fly. All in all, Boston VATC is a great all around place to go in the evening to relax.
Anyway, I’ll be trying to blog here extensively, mostly about Flight Simming and getting around in and setting up the software. Hope to see you again!
Flying'sCool! 