Never Forget

[akoyeh]

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Beautiful central-Illinois day, launching out of KCMI, University of Illinois Willard Airport, Champaign-Urbana in a "borrowed" PA28 181 Archer II for a joy ride.






3,000 ft altitude, 2,200 ft AGL @ 105 kts. She'll cruise faster but the engine sounds right nice here. Tinted windows, nice reflections, and a sweet hand flyer.






Heading north mostly, following the Interstate VFR to virtual sacred ground that doesn't exist any more except within pilot's hearts.






Nothing but you, me, and the lone prairie! Wish to have seen it before it got so chewed up. An ocean of grasslands taller than a grown man by summer's end.






Around an hour later we are arriving, our destination showing in the lower right. Always great to be back here to visit again.






Easing her around into the winds as we descend, variable @ 4-7 knots from 150 degrees. This view never grows old.






Flying @ magnification 1.5X for 30 degrees view, positioning myself to match my monitors 30 degrees of viewing width in real life.






Ooopsie... those lined up blue and whites of Chicago's finest must be waiting for me. Pinching a Piper can have its drawbacks.






Thusly, we'll forego the $500 hamburger to swing back around to the runway and vamoose back to Willard. Ah, fun times!


FS2004



Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane, fellow flight simmers.

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[Nighthawk117]

I didnt realize that Meigs was taken out of FSX it took me a good 10 minutes to figure out is was replaced by grass lol

[Anthindelahunt]

Thanks for that.
I did enjoy that trip down memory lane.

Anthin.

[akoyeh]

I didnt realize that Meigs was taken out of FSX it took me a good 10 minutes to figure out is was replaced by grass lol

Did the same thing myself back in '09 when first flying FSX. One of the first flights was to Meigs... but there was no Meigs Field! My heart sunk. Found some freeware and patched her up but not before making a landing there anyway in a 182RG.

Thanks for that.
I did enjoy that trip down memory lane.

Thanks for the comment, Anthin, appreciated. :-) No one can take those many memorable flights away from us.

Meigs Field was always a place for the hotshot in us to try some bold takeoffs and landings. For instance...




Co-pilot called "Rotate!" just before getting my wheels washed.







Storming conditions, Meigs and Chicago still look great. Manfred Jahn's L-749 Constellation is always a treat as well.







Quick circuit, full load of fuel, 15 knot crosswind/tailwind combo winds from 050 degrees. Delightful challenge.







With all that weight and crosswind/tailwind this is the slowest KIAS dared while landing. Can barely see from the VC to land with my nose pointed to port side.







Touchdown... now to get her stopped before swimming lessons.







Am loving this airport and always will.

Here's a small upgrade download for FS2004: https://simviation.com/1/search?submit= ... n&x=6&y=13 It's not perfect. That's one reason I like it. :-)


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[Anthindelahunt]

Re.Meigs field.
Orbx has recreated Meigs.It looks incredible.

I guess we all started our flight sim experience there.
Do you recall FS 1 and 2?Taking off and heading to O'Hare
and Midway.The wire frame buildings.

Anthin...

[akoyeh]

I guess we all started our flight sim experience there.
Do you recall FS 1 and 2?Taking off and heading to O'Hare
and Midway.The wire frame buildings.

Absolutely! :-) SubLogic's FSII before Bill & crew bought Bruce Artwick out and began developing the simulator in a huge way. Little by little it came far. Was an extra driver for Greyhound lines back in the 1980's, waiting for the call to work whilst flying between Meigs and Willard. Apple IIe with a whopping 64kb of ram, chasing green lines across a monochrome monitor at one frame per second. Lots of imagination filled in the blanks. The way it was, except no color monitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK-iIrIEOyc

Heh, funny too, back then as well as now: It's always about the landing. Friends & family alike would have this strange look of incomprehension on their faces as they were being .treated. tortured with watching this virtual pilot land at Meigs Field. No matter how much more realistic the graphics have become, the look on their faces is always the same. So be it. My happiness never depended on what others think about me, even when I used to think it did.

Am not a real certified & licensed pilot. Far from it. More like a seat-of-the-pants aviator whose visual mathemetian skills allow him to fly halfway decently (when he wants to). Am thankful for all that Flight Simulator has given us over the years.

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[darrenvox]

sorry for the delay but yes lots of times to take big planes off from KCGX

[junglejim7]

OMG , and wow, I haven't seen this video until recently, thank you for sharing, Long story short, I remember those days, I bought an IBM 8088 XT computer, with the state of the art CGA graphics card(lol), and a color CRT to match it. Then.......I came upon the Infamous A.T.P. Flight Simulator in a Store back in...(can't remember), The famous Airline Transport Pilot A.T.P. by Sublogic, it came on 4 5.25" Floppy Disks, manual, and a logbook. And I still have it LOLOL.... I wiped the dust off, and for laughs put it on Ebay for bidding, I shouldn't have done that, I had 50 offers within 2 mins., so I took it off line. Wow, guess I'll keep it for awhile. Anyway, just wanted to share that bit of history. The computer, well I did eventually upgrade to the famous 486, and do I miss those days now ? Take a guess.......lolol

Jimbo