Ice, Ice, Baby...
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:35 amOne of the more interesting things I've gotten to do in my aviation career was to fly the ice down in Antarctica. It's a challenging place to fly with some potentially troublesome visual illusions, but I've never taken the time to fly it in the MSFS world. Turns out that even virtually, it's a challenging place to fly with some potentially troublesome visual illusions!
Overflying McMurdo Station on the way back to Christchurch, NZ.
A look back at McMurdo Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf.
The mountain in the background is Mt Erebus, an active volcano which rises over 12,000 ft msl. In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 on a sight-seeing trip flew into the mountainside at 1500 ft in whiteout conditions, instantly killing all 257 on board. The wreck is still there.
One of the things etched in my mind about flying down there is how everything is either white ice and blue sky or white ice and white sky. Occasionally there would be outcroppings of black rock, but otherwise there was not a lot of visual excitement. In that respect, the default textures are a bit overdone, allowing a much greater range of depth perception than I ever experienced while flying the bottom of the world.
FS9
Alphasim LC-130
McMurdo scenery by Julian Avisenis
Overflying McMurdo Station on the way back to Christchurch, NZ.
A look back at McMurdo Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf.
The mountain in the background is Mt Erebus, an active volcano which rises over 12,000 ft msl. In 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 on a sight-seeing trip flew into the mountainside at 1500 ft in whiteout conditions, instantly killing all 257 on board. The wreck is still there.
One of the things etched in my mind about flying down there is how everything is either white ice and blue sky or white ice and white sky. Occasionally there would be outcroppings of black rock, but otherwise there was not a lot of visual excitement. In that respect, the default textures are a bit overdone, allowing a much greater range of depth perception than I ever experienced while flying the bottom of the world.
FS9
Alphasim LC-130
McMurdo scenery by Julian Avisenis
