Andyrooc

The usual problem for first timers is to unzip the custom scenery into an additional layer of directory, ie: You should see: Custom Scenery\YPAD Adelaide Airport Photoreal\Earth nav data\apt.dat If you have: Custom Scenery\YPAD Adelaide Airport Photoreal\YPAD Adelaide Airport Photoreal\Earth nav data\apt.dat ...then you need to remove the additional "YPAD Adelaide Airport Photoreal" path. ie: don't let your unzip program create an additional directory.

As per http://www.x-plane.com/?article=x-plane-10-30-release-notes This means, if you have the relevant files in Custom Data\GNS430\navdata, the Resources\GNS430 navdata will be ignored (ie:it is pointless to update it).

There's a pretty decent PHNL here: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=21287

ATTR_light_level affects the LIT brightness, not lighting. sim/graphics/scenery/airport_light_level is the dataref you're after if you want to change edge light intensity. You set the level to a value between 0 (off) and 1 (max)

Well, there was the loss of the Nbr2 engine and right side gear - that's pretty sad. This however, was a sad story: http://www.smh.com.au/national/air-new-zealand-pilot-dies-after-landing-plane-at-perth-20141031-11f8xb.html

In Western Australia, this is just the way they roll... http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/nov/03/australian-man-drives-plane-down-main-street-drink-pub

Script kiddies attacked it apparently. Back again now.

That was no mistake. Major Genadi Osipovich (the Su-15 pilot) said "I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing. I knew this was a civilian plane." This was though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 - that incident, and the reasons for it always remind me that these kind of mistakes can happen, even with a highly trained crew with the most sophisticated equipment.

Indeed. I have regularly flown over Afghanistan, Iraq and many countries in the midst of civil upheaval, and have not been shot down even once.

"The International Transport Association said that an initial assessment revealed that the airspace the aircraft was travelling through was 'not subject to restrictions'." The FAA may have issued a warning to US carriers, which is understandable because (as in many regions), the US has political foes. This was a Malaysian airline. Should all airlines avoid areas that US airlines cannot fly? Seems a bit harsh. The European warnings about the airspace were related to availability of ATC for the area. These jets are very easy to identify, by sight as well as by ADS-B, radar, filed flight plans etc etc. IMHO it is a reasonable expectation to be able to fly through unrestricted territory in such a well defined and well advertised manner without having to worry about this kind of attack. Whatever the case, I have to think it was totally unintended, a tragic mistake or accident. No sane person would have done such a thing intentionally.

Most countries - even ones at war, know not to shoot down civilian aircraft. What's a little unusual here is that it would seem that amateurs have got hold of long range anti-aircraft missiles. It is a mistake to lay any blame with the airline. There were plenty of commercial aircraft tracking through that corridor (300 a day). Anyone who walked out the door a looked up would have known this. This is squarely, 100% the fault of the missile operators - whoever they are.

Hmmm, their library validation software must be on holiday.... It's not the first time libraries have been a little off. I'm a little worried about the large fuel tanks right next to that runway too...

I assume everyone knows that Leen de Jager was/is talking about hockey?

I loved the DC-10. I think it was probably one of the biggest jets about when I was a kid. Unfortunately, in NZ it is remembered for a horrific accident when Air NZ 901 flew into Mt Erebus in the Antarctica in 1979 killing all 257 people on board. It was nothing to do with the aircraft though, and nobody blamed it. Even the crew were cleared of wrong doing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_New_Zealand_Flight_901

I looked for an "Unhelpful Suggestion Generator", but surprisingly could find one! Maybe that is why people are resorting to their own efforts? This was vaguely unhelpful though: http://www.unhelpful.org

The manufacturers web sites? ie: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/airports/plan_manuals.page or http://www.airbus.com/support/maintenance-engineering/technical-data/

I do wonder why there are so many PHNL's being built when there are over 20,000 airports to choose from. I know Fred-e(.net) put quite a lot of effort into his one - is it not accurate enough? I am a bit curious, because there doe seem to be quite a bit of duplication of effort.

Should have called it X-God! Neat idea though. Sure lowers the barrier, and will make it more fun to experiment with X-Plane.

See, it depends what you call 'destruction'. Replacing one resplendent nature with another doesn't seem that bad to me. Certainly not destruction. . True you need a big chunk of concrete, but there's no radioactivity, no smoke, no mining, no oil, just somewhere to sail your boat The problem with electric vehicles is, are you simply moving the source of pollution from one place to another? If your power was from a coal or oil powered station, have you done anything to improve pollution? So, while you may not want a car scooting about with a nuclear power plant in it, if it was powered by electricity from a nuclear power plant - not so bad. Getting a plane to run on hydro power? That'd be a neat trick!

Ugly? Scars? Not normally. Lakes are usually quite beautiful. Of course, there are bound to be some, like China's massive 3 rivers dam, but they are only inconvenient to humans for a short time, and to animals less time, and to fish...not at all

Of course there's a small matter of steam. You need a lot of water. And it's quite a bit heavier than avgas. And it tends to freeze under zero degrees C.

I used to get around in a Cessna 402 businessliner - an 8 seater twin engine aircraft. The toilet down the back consisted of a small funnel connected to a plastic hose that led outside the aircraft! There was no curtain either. Never tried it though

No. So, what you do is get yourself this plug-in: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=18878 This allows you to make X-Plane reload scenery without having to restart or move current locations. Sandy has talked about live editing of scenery in X-Plane, but I would estimate this to be a long time from now, given all the other goings on that must be taking a lot of time.

I have to admit I was not far behind Ben. However, Mr Froogle has turned up and written a short novel, answered a few questions, and upped his cred a bit in my book. If he wants to make a name for himself in the worlds best desktop flight sim ( ) community, then good for him, and I wish him every success.

The point is (which this Froogle chap doesn't seem to get), is that he's an FSX guy, not an X-Plane guy. So, he's just a random blogger asking for free content. As he says, FSX is running out of steam, so he want to keep his blog going by switching to X-Plane. Fair enough, but he should try joining a forum or two (like here), make a few contributions, and make himself known first. IMHO.