Congratulations from UKDirect to all the athletes who made the Olympics such a special event

As I write  this the Olympics closing ceremony is still fresh in my mind, I was  glued to the TV over the whole two weeks and loved every minute of it,  what a special event it was! There are much more suitable places to go  into great detail but I would just like to abuse my position as editor  to say thanks to everyone involved but I especially want to say well  done to our own Team GB athletes - you did us all proud! A paint scheme  to celebrate the event was planned but unfortunately the Olympic  committee are overzealous in protecting their logos so it wasn't  feasible, shame. On a positive note it's natural that flightsim takes a  backseat at times like this, not to mention people going on summer  holidays so its amazing to see as many flights being logged as there is, congratulations and thanks to you all. UKDirect is going for gold!  Sorry, I couldn't resist :)
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Regarding FSA, if your aircraft type ratings don’t include everything you’d like  to fly then just send a message to myself, Simon or Ruud. I’ve also been asked to encourage people to join the forum to help keep them informed  of whats going on and encourage discussion. Recently some of you were  receiving extra emails from the forum due to my attempts to thwart the  spammers trying to hi-jack it. I’m happy to report I have beaten them  but it now requires you to contact one of the administrators first  before you can join.
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The website took an unplanned (and  unexpected) holiday when my hard-drive started making some distinctly  odd sounds. As my pc is of considerable age (in computer years its about 245 years old!) I took advantage of the disruption to improve it’s  overall spec, with a new processor, ram and motherboard. What follows is my totally unscientific findings and impressions which rely on my  slightly dodgey memory but may prove interesting to anyone thinking of  upgrading their pc. I have been asked about this a couple of times  already but I’ll keep this fairly low tech so as not to bore anybody -  so if you want to know more details please message /email me. About 12  months ago I bought a then-quite-new graphics card (nVidia GeForce  GTX570, approx  £230 I think) and was horrified to find it made virtually no difference to frame rates, raising an average of 3-4 frames per  second (fps) up to 4-5. In fact I purchased the FSPS Booster software  for about  £15 not long after which was far better value increasing my  average fps to 7-8. All this was with FSX and Windows Vista (64bit)  running on an Intel Core2 Duo cpu clocked at 3GHz with 4Gb of ram. The  replacement is a Intel Core i5 3570K €˜overclocked’ at 4.3GHz with 8Gb  ram, running Windows 7 and FSX and the same graphics card, frame rates  went upto 80-90 fps!!! However that was on a virgin installation of FSX  without any add-ons at all. The pc can still be brought to its knees  though - with photo-real scenery, VFR trees, UK2000 Gatwick extreme, Real Environment 2 and all the sliders maxed out I brought it back down to  6-7 fps again, but it was a steady image rather than jerky - and WOW, it looked great :)  I haven't installed the Booster software yet so I’m  keen to see what that can do now - I’m just waiting for the €˜key” to be  reset for the new pc.
What I have learnt from this experiment is that FSX is driven by brute force - the faster the cpu the better. Modern  graphics cards don’t really help as FSX was already using long in tooth  graphics when it was released. The biggest improvement was the booster  software which I think works by improving the settings that are not  normally available, certainly not from any in-sim menu at any rate.
Something I just found out - too late in my case - you need to startup FSX after installing it and before you install service pack one (SP1), then start it again after installing SP1 but before you install SP2. If you don't some textures won't work - including some of the window textures in the virtual cockpit, meaning you can't see  out. It’s like extreme IFR! :)
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This month you'll find  all the regular features are here - best screenshot, a mix of real-world aviation and flight-sim news, fleet updates,  competition and humour. The feedback I received indicated that the realworld news was all doom and gloom so to brighten it up I have mixed in some of the more interesting stories that didn’t make it onto the TV news and I’ve restricted the more distressing stories to the big incidents which did make the small-screen. See you next time and keep the blue side up!

Newshound aka Mark UKD171

Airbus A319 by Terry UKD186

Do you have a screen shot you are proud of? Please send it in and share it with us.
To enter in the next e-magazine send your entries to Newshound: mark[at]planecrazy.me.uk

You know all that flying your doing... well it earns virtual money and  it is invested into buying more virtual aircraft for us all to fly -  except from the bit siphoned off into Simon's offshore bank account, oh  and the UKD Christmas party slush fund!!  Always looking for a bargain,  Simon is spending money like he is a Premiership football club chairman  on new aircraft, whilst Ruud is looking round the Nevada desert aircraft graveyards to recycle Super Constellations and DC-6.  The pandas  weren't sure whether to paint the last one in the shed or scrap it :)

Once the panda's scrapped the rust off they found a Super Constellation  underneath. This plane can be downloaded from the fleet page and the  package includes a UKDirect livery, two for the price of one! The model is from the California  Classics website and includes lots of information and charts to help you fly this beast. You can just jump in and fly or you can make use of the pilots and engineers panels to start up from a cold and dark position - fun either way and something different to try out if your stuck in a  big-jets rut. Ruud has created a round-the-world route which Mike UKD189 has just completed, congratulations Mike :-)       (FS2004 & FSX)

The next repaint will only be of  interest to owners of Just Flight’s Airbus A340-500/600 package. Its  part of the F-lite range which is a little bit more involved than the  default aircraft but not as complicated as the full-blown systems  simulators such as PMDG and iFly planes. Texures only available on the  Fleet pages (FS2004 & FSX)

Boeing Dreamliner GE Engine Probed After Jet Spews Debris

[15th August 2012]  Boeing is pulling an engine off a new 787 Dreamliner and trucking it  this week to General Electric Co. (GE)’s facility in Cincinnati, where  it will be dismantled to find out why it spewed debris over the weekend.

A visual inspection yesterday showed that damage was limited to the back  end of the engine and doesn't indicate a fleet-wide problem, said Rick  Kennedy, a spokesman for GE. The cause is far from being determined because a team will have to tear the engine apart and examine it piece  by piece, he said.

Debris blew out of the engine during a July 28 high-speed taxi test of an Air India Ltd. 787 at the Charleston, South  Carolina, airport near Boeing's new factory there, igniting a fire in  the grass along the runway and temporarily diverting and delaying flights.

This is very uncomfortable for GE, for Boeing, for anyone who flies 747-8s  and for all the 787 customers who have specified GE engines, said Hans  Weber, chief executive of San Diego-based aviation consultant Tecop  International Inc. So they're going to be working really hard to find  out what happened.

The debris came from the low-pressure turbine area at the rear of the engine, where the blades were damaged, Kennedy  said. It was a so-called contained failure, meaning parts didn’t pierce  the engine casing and instead blew out the back and away from the plane  as they’re designed to do, he said, “so thats good.”

A  Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc (RR/) Trent 900 engine exploded mid-flight in  an uncontained failure on an Airbus A380 superjumbo jet operated by  Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd. in November 2010. After a safe emergency landing, Qantas grounded all six of its A380s for 23 days.  (See video below)
bloomberg.com

The big news recently in the flight sim world is the demise of Flight by Microsoft. It was never a serious contender as a replacement for FS2004 or FSX and to be fair it wasn’t trying to do that but reading details  from industry insiders in the flightsim community it was destined to doom from  launch. Here’s what Mathijs Kok of Aerosoft had to say on it:

The moment we understood what it would be we told each other that it would  not work, that Microsoft just did not understand the kind of customer  that pays our bills. There were promising parts, but it was released as a brain dead simulator. Aircraft without cockpits? What were they  thinking? Strangely enough we did like it, we hoped it would bring in a  new generation of simmers and we hoped Microsoft would see the light. We told them, we spoke to them, they spoke to us, but as so often the  people working on the project at Microsoft had little say.

The  problem with Microsoft is the company itself at this moment. It seems to lack direction in any field except the Operating Systems. They start  and stop projects seemingly without reason, we worked a lot for them but they did not prove to be a very reliable partner.

Just two weeks before FLIGHT was cancelled they were talking to us about new content.

Excerpt from an avsim.com article/interview

Time to get that grey matter working!. Email answers to ukd “at” planecrazy.me.uk or use the message facility on FS Airlines.  Answers will be posted in the next Directions but if you email me your guesses I will reply straight away (in confidence - so no need to worry about embarrassment.

1> Movement of the plane about the vertical axis of motion is called?

bank
flight
pitch
yaw


2> When the pilot moves the wheel on the control/yoke to the left the result will be?

The elevator goes up
The right aileron goes up and the left aileron goes down
The left aileron goes up and the right aileron goes down
Both ailerons go down


3> Where on the aircraft would you find the green navigation light?

 Left Wingtip
Centerline, below fuselage
Top of the Tail
Right Wingtip

Answers to last Directions: 1> PA-44-180 Piper Seminole    2>  Embraer E-190

Simon Says...

Dear fellow UKDirect aeronauts ....


Today I managed to acquire a couple of 737-800s for roughly half-price. One  of them did require $2.35m maintenance, but still a major bargain.

I have based one of them at Madrid for the moment, while I suss out how popular Madrid-based UKSun routes might be. If you have any requests for routes out of Madrid (or  to Madrid from the UK that we don't already provide), please let me  know. I'd love to see UKSun routes getting a good usage this year.

The other one is currently in America (while it undergoes its maintenance  that ends mid-tomorrow). I haven't yet decided where we might like to  base this aircraft, so if you have any suggestions (requests) than  please drop me a PM. If nobody has any specific requests then I shall  probably base him at Gatwick, but this is your airline as much as it is  mine so if there is somewhere else that this aircraft will get more use  then please get in touch.

It's nice to see Daz getting back into  old Big Nose (Concorde) and making some wonga for the airline (over $10m in 2 flights, flying the classic EGLL-KJFK return route). But we are  not all about just making money; our leasing operation is making us some good money so don't feel "guilty" about engaging in flights that don't  make the tills overflow - this airline is about flying for the fun of  it.

Remember - we have a bunch of light aircraft (and some  smaller airliners) in our hangars, with a few routes set up for them, so if you fancy for instance taking a Piper on a short hop from  Bournemouth to Shoreham, etc, then go ahead. (Again, if there are  airfields you would like to fly light aircraft from and to, then let me  know, but be aware that some very small airfields are not on the  FSAirlines database).

Anyway, enough blabbering from me for now. Happy flying!

Simon

UK residents will be familiar with the hard-hitting road safety adverts “It’s 30 for a reason” which quote survival statistics of being hit at various speeds.

So while everyone was eulogising over Usain Bolt at the Olympics it’s worth bearing in mind not to let your child step out in front of him as theres a 40% chance they wont survive!  lol

Those raccoons are not luggage

 As migration approached, two elderly vultures doubted they could make the trip south, so they decided to go by airplane.

When they checked their baggage, the attendant noticed that they were  carrying two dead raccoons. "Do you wish to check the raccoons through  as luggage?" she asked.

"No, thanks," replied the vultures. "They're carrion."

Are blind pilots flying?

 One day at a busy airport, the passengers on a commercial airliner are  seated waiting for the pilot to show up so they can get under way.

The pilot and copilot finally appear in the rear of the plane and begin  walking up to the cockpit through the center aisle. Both appear to be  blind; the pilot is using a white cane, bumping into passengers right  and left as he stumbles down the aisle. The copilot is using a guide  dog. Both have their eyes covered with sunglasses.

At first, the passengers do not react thinking that it must be some sort of practical joke. After a few minutes though, the engines start  revving, and the airplane begins moving down the runway.

The passengers look at each other with some uneasiness. They start  whispering among themselves and look desperately to the stewardesses for reassurance.

Yet, the plane starts accelerating rapidly, and people begin panicking.  Some passengers are praying, and as the plane gets closer and closer to  the end of the runway, the voices are becoming more and more hysterical.

When the plane has less than twenty feet of runway left, there is a  sudden change in the pitch of the shouts as everyone screams at once. At the very last moment, the plane lifts off and is airborne.

Up in the cockpit, the copilot breathes a sigh of relief and tells the  pilot: "You know, one of these days the passengers aren't going to  scream, and we aren't going to know when to take off!"