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Leg 8 - Page 2

Rockcliffe Airport, Ottawa to Ronald Reagan Airport, Washington D.C. 6th February 2003

I should explain at this point that the next part of the trip is something of  nostalgia trip for me. I travelled to Cape Cod last March via Newark, New Jersey and Green State, Providence. Consequently, I've taken some liberties in terms of parking at the gates where I actually did (despite being for larger classes of aircraft).

This part of the journey to Newark was 668nm and on the way, I passed over Detroit. After this, the scenery was fairly barren but quite picturesque in places. The eventual arrival of the New York skyline was, as always, impressive.

The final approach at Newark was, frankly, lousy. I was well off course and had it not been for the fact that the runways there are so along, I'd probably have been making my second go around of the leg. Surprisingly, I was number 1 for landing and that was pretty much the last I heard of it. I was fully expecting several go arounds and a long wait before touchdown but I got lucky.

It's quite awesome visiting somewhere that you're familiar with. The skyline is pretty much as I remembered it and although the default airport scenery falls somewhat short, it nevertheless evoked some forgotten memories.

I dispensed with the trip down memory lane, half-filled the tanks of the Baron and headed off to complete the 141nm to Green State Providence. I took a snap of the Statue of Liberty on the way to a fly past of the Big Apple itself. As I passed (visually) about 30 feet above the first skyscraper, my Baron exploded into flames and various fairly important parts (like the wings) fell off. I did a swift instant replay and I didn't hit a thing - honestly. Consequently, I put this down to poor collision detection in FS2002 and restarted from Newark.

52 minutes later I arrived at Green State airport, Providence.

Time was moving on and nightfall was imminent. I took a small moment of self-indulgence to position the Baron at roughly the point of view I had at that terminal when waiting to depart. The VOR that I spent nearly an hour staring at while I was waiting, looked back at me. I made a mental note not to come here again. It's true what they say - you should never go back.

Anyway...enough of all that. I took off unable to resist the temptation to have a look at Cape Cod. It's about the only area of the world where I've been able to obtain both free terrain mesh and landclass files together and I really wanted a look at the area I stayed in to see if it made it remotely recognisable.

I'm going to say here that I think what follows has to be sheer coincidence. Although it was now night time, I recognised a familiar road pattern in the right area. What's more (and I know this sounds incredible), there was an autogen house smack bang where the house I stayed was. I spent a while examining this screen shot. It shows three houses across the road. In real life, this was a dental practice occupied by buildings that would have taken up the equivalent amount of space. I don't imagine for one second that the landclass could possibly be that effective. As I said, just a bizarre coincidence.

With that, I pointed the Baron towards Washington D.C. and headed off down the East Coast.

The weather cleared into a starry night and by this time, I'd been flying for over 10 hours. Washington was somewhere I wanted to visit because on my last attempt at an RTW flight, I'd been unable to locate the Whitehouse. This had always irked me and armed with some kindly provided directions, I arrived almost over the top of it! One quick screenshot and a glance at the clock told me that enough was enough for this leg. I landed at Ronald Reagan airport, taxied to parking and shut down the Baron.

The next leg will see me taking in the Bahamas and Panama. It will also see a slightly modified panel. I've replaced the Hobbs gauge (which steadfastly refused to work properly for a number of reasons I won't bore you with here) with a digital wind direction gauge. I figured after the heart thumping experience at Custer, this might come in handy ;-).

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 Screenshots

25) Comerica Park Stadium in Detroit.

27) Williamsport Regional, Pennsylvania.

28) The Big Apple.

29) Well off course at Newark - good job it's a long runway.

30) Safely down.

31) A view I remember..

32) I know I'm not a heavy but this was the gate I used when I landed here in a Continental 757.

33) Off I go again.

34) The Statue of Liberty.

35) New York, New York.

36) The Empire State building off my left wing tip - notice the strange elevation point in front with the skyscraper on top....

37) Down at Green State, Providence.

38) Again, where I parked on my visit last year.

39) I spent a long time looking at that VOR from the terminal building when I was awaiting departure.

40) Losing the light as I depart.

41) Sunset over Providence.

42) The house I stayed in at Cape Cod (honest!)

43) Down the East coast to Washington.

44) The clear night sky.

45) The Capital Building. (White House in the background - better shot of that next leg).

46) Down at Ronald Reagan Airport - For once I need a bed, not a bar.

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