Last night there was a program on our television called "Murder Trail".
It covered a huge manhunt in 1981 for a serial killer who stalked remote forests near San Francisco and murdered at least 6 trail walkers for no apparent reason.
It took a several years to identify him*, and frustrated the local police at the time.
So....
Today I fired up FS 2002, as I do, and flew around Marin County, Mount Tamalpais, and Point Reyes, where the murders occurred, and would you believe, the scenery is EXACTLY the same as the that shown on the film at the time...!
I always find it amazing just how wild the country-side is in between the heavily built-up areas around 'Frisco, Marin, Napa, Contra Costa, Silicon Valley, etc.
Just over the hills from Marin County to Point Reyes the area is an absolute wilderness of forest, containing wild bears, etc.
Having installed the land class scenery for California the accuracy of the new scenery is truly amazing...!
I know I go rabbitin' on about California scenery, but after observing it in detail for years since the old Flight Unlimited II days I never cease to be amazed by it's accuracy...!
Here in England, when leaving our towns or cities, we find ourselves in the "country-side", which consists of small fields and meadows, surrounded by hedges, containing crops or grazing cows and sheep, with small woods and clumps of trees.
...peace and quiet..
...certainly no wild bears, and crazed serial killers are also quite rare, thank goodness...!
LOL...!
All the work that Microsoft and others put into the scenery can only really be appreciated when flying small, G.A. aircraft at low level, it will be totally lost in a Jumbo jet flying at 30,000 feet above the clouds...!
The thing I really love about the FS 2002 flight sim, is the possibility of getting into my G.A. aeroplane and fly around areas appearing in the National news, and to visit SimV Members part of their country, all for the price of a couple of hours of electricity!
Cheers all...
Paul.
(England).
... *He is now serving life imprisonment, on death row, at San Quentin jail, (in Marin County), a few miles from his dastardly deeds, and is the longest serving inmate at the prison.
Did you know that San Quentin prison and Alkatraz prison are but a few miles from each other, all near San Francisco...!
I will probably finish up in one of them, due to annoying the SFPD by constantly flying under Golden Gate Bridge...!
(Bring me some chocolate cookies when you visit, please...)!
LOL...!
Here is a shot of the area looking East towards San Francisco, Golden Gate, and the Bay in the distance. The mountain and forest where the murders occurred is in the centre on the picture. Point Reyes is behind, Marin and San Rafael is to the left, the Pacific is out of the picture to the right.
:'(
