Your Current FS Flight

[LH-B744]

Hm. I said, I'd use this bird (or one of her sisters) when I'm back home at Rhein/Main.

NW-B744 bowling shoe, reg N674US

And I'm not a man who changes his flight plan within a minute. But... KMSP weather for today is, +16°C or 61 F, and sunny. Well, it seems as if I've been waiting a little bit too long. A NW-B744 bowling shoe in the snow? Probably only next year.

But a flight plan is a flight plan. I'll always love liveries who are the exact opposite of monochrome. See my avatar. See the year 2002 UA-B744 livery (I once knew the name of it..). And see the NW-B744 bowling shoe.

So. My next flight is NW-B744 bowling shoe, from Rhein/Main to KMSP (and back). My suggestion still is, purple lights for this airport.

[LH-B744]

As I've announced in the #.. 497 here, I now sit at FACT with Randazzo's Finest (my LH-B744).

But the signs have changed a little bit since the last day in 2017. Somebody declared my avatar a museum. So then. Why not use a real ancient a/c type, a type which does no longer exist in the USA.

The NorthWest Boeing 747-400 in Bowling Shoe livery. I'll fly the LH return flight from FACT to Rhein/Main, and then it is Minneapolis/St Paul time, as I announced.
In February, a 'Bowling shoe' should look like that. Originally I was lookin for a Bowling Shoe B744 with snow. But this not bad, for the beginning, without purple lights:
NW-B744 with snow.

Hm. We have NW-B742 Bowling Shoes with snow. And NW-B744 with "NW bronze" in snow. But NW-B744 Bowling shoes with snow? Probably we can take this Bowling Shoe and imagine it were February and snow:
NW-B744 bowling shoe in January. With snow?
What a nice and clear winter day. Congrats for this B744 jetphoto!
--

Btw, Did they use purple lights at KMSP during the SuperBowl? I'd have understood that..

PS: And I "know" at least two more jetphoto "seniors", who also understand that. Sad eyes behind sunglasses.

[LH-B744]

Great stuff!

This is why I love this platform so very much. If we are lucky, one of the 21 zillion jetphotos members always post an answer as fast as you'd never expect it.

May I ask, what especially you've found so great, in my last post of the gone year? Do we talk about Captain Randazzo? Yes, he invents great stuff, also since more than two decades yet...

Time flies, we sometimes say, don't we.

PS: Especially for HalcyonDays, I promised to take off in Randazzos NW-B744 simulator. And I tend to fulfil promises, although he refused my jetphotos online friendship. Sorry Halcyon. You can ask Brian. I'm a man who since 40 years
"wears his heart on his sleeve".
-
"Halcyon has made zero online friends here at jetphotos". For me that's ok. I also began to make friends here at the very juvenile age of... 39? I should ask seahawk, he probably knows it, or he's able to look it up.
And some jetphotos seniors never make friends with somebody, if the friendship only exists online. As I said, that's perfectly ok.

[LH-B744]

zero° F are.. minus 17,78°C ?

Hell, I'm really glad that the Randazzo B744 simulator which I bought is operated with degrees Celsius, as (hopefully) all Lufthansa jets are.

Knots, feet and nautical miles are ok, but the temperature? °Celsius, please. Otherwise I'd get mad in my B744 simulator.

PS: I even heard through the grapewine, that the Randazzo B744 simulator is able to be operated with degrees Celsius OR degrees Fahrenheit. Don't know if that's true, I never needed that option. But I can imagine where the knob is, to change it. That's a hell of a simulator, isn't it.

As far as I know, Randazzo even only began to sell it after one or two people had tested it, who normally sat in a cockpit with a nightblue tailfin... So, Mr Randazzo, here is your LH B744 approval for the year 2018: passed.

And, of course, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PS: As some kind of an early easter egg: Randazzos B744 fsx v2, so the thing which he sells since today or only since a couple of days, now has officially been licensed for FSX Steam (and FSX Gold).

I don't know if his B744 fsx v1 also has the official Steam license. I'd rather say no, without having asked the master himself...

[LH-B744]

UA has replaced its last Boeing 747 by... B772. That's true at least when I look at the O'Hare schedule for today.

Today, LH # 430 has a break. The first flight in the new year indeed is tomorrow! The 747 is alive.

But the weather...
Real time weather at the LH # 430 arrival: completely clouded, and -17°C or for our Fahrenheit friends: precisely 1°F. And that's not much. It was even on German news today.

I've just talked to HalcyonDays, who seems to be quite close to the former NWA headquarter. So, let's talk about KMSP.
Real time weather for KMSP: clouded, and -8°C during the day and -15°C during the night.

Good that such a 747 does not freeze that fast (at least not at -22°C). So my plan is: FACT and back to Rhein/Main, and then KORD and back, and then... I really like to do HalcyonDays a favor.

KMSP and back to Rhein/Main on board Randazzos NW-B744 simulator, bowling shoe livery.

PS: Fahrenheit and Celsius, and then try to find out what Google weather tries to tell you... Now after a 5th attempt.. When I ask Google for "wetter Minneapolis St Paul" it should tell me the (almost) real time temperature at KMSP, in °C .
-8°C? I again should ask HalcyonDays before I make attempt #11 and 12...
-15°C during the night at KMSP. And now I indeed ask a second source. Hm.

What do you say now, Google? This is the KMSP METAR TAF (0053 UTC):
-23°C . Oha. Schmoogle again says that's -9,4°F . Hopefully at least that's right...
HalcyonDays?! Help me.

Now I know who I can ask for real time temperatures. And who not, Google.

A third source, and imho, the most reliable one:
The New York Times Weather for this weekend.

An excerpt from the NYT: Saturday night, 14°F/minus 10°C and snow. So, I assume that 14°F and -10°C are the same. I've learned it from the NYT, so that should be true. Sunday night, 9°F/minus 13°C and ... sunny? Wow.

But airline schedules (or pilot schedules) do not always include the best weather on the planet. So I stay with my schedule, FACT, KORD and then KMSP. I almost tend to alter it, KMSP and then KORD, because me, as a winter child, I LOVE 747s in the snow!

[LH-B744]

Oh, it's definitely "my forum section" again?

Has it been the forum section of another jetphotos forum member, since I am here? Hm. My jetphotos friends seem to know more, but I seem to be the only
"jetphotos senior" of the three of us, who still uses

one of the brilliant Randazzo fsx Boeing simulators (LH-B744 in my case) ...

Senior is such a mad word, for a man who is not yet 40 years old...

Back on topic. There is news today. Due to the season in Africa, I preferred to fly LH # 576 instead of O'Hare. Before one of the specialists say something, yes, 576 takes off today with an A343, not with a B744. But I don't care. Africa once has been a LH B747 destination. So, I see no reason why to change that.
Real Time weather at the LH # 576 arrival: clear skies with only very few clouds, +19°C or, for our Fahrenheit friends: 67°F, and almost calm conditions (2 mph, i.e. 175 @ 1 or less ...)

O'Hare definitely is next when I'm back at Rhein/Main again.

[LH-B744]

Back from MRY at BUR, aboard my B58, an IFR flightplan included. That went incredibly well! And the recommended route from BUR to LAX... 28 US-miles in 46 mins . I think LH 457 should be feasible if you arrive at BUR before lunch. Or what do you think...

So, my next flights? Aboard my nickname (pmdg LH-B744, reg. Victor Papa) back home from LAX (LH 457). And then, what would you guess after I added some words to my signature...

O'Hare (fsx by fsdt, the only true version of O'Hare for fsx!)... 77,96 million passengers in 2016. And this is not the biggest US airport? No, there is one US airport with... more than 100,000,000 passengers in 2016?!
The US-Americans seem to be craze (n# always in the air)...

As fsdt has never developed a really cool EWR for fsx, O'Hare is one of my dearest US-airports in fsx, place #1, only an inch above #2, which is my avatar: the SF Bay Intercontinental airport (default fsx version!). Place #3 should be JFK (again the default version).

But O'Hare is next on my schedule. In memoriam John B.

[LH-B744]

Freshman, or as in this case, Jetman questions have to be answered.

But then, I, as probably one of the oldest customers who R.S. Randazzo has ever seen (?), like to take over control over this forum section again.

Your Current Simulator Flight. Ah, post #492, cont'd.

As nobody dared to make the decision between Van Nuys and Burbank, I dared to make the decision by my own:
KBUR 08 on board the default fsx Baron 58, destination Monterey CA, under VFR. People who know a little bit of that region know that if you like to show the Hollywood sign to your passengers in a B58, it does not include North as a direction that you should request via BUR CT...

So, with a little loop, North it goes, toward Laguna Seca. Did I mention what my fathers hobbies were? 1. computer. 2. aviation. 3. motors with 4 or 2 wheels. And I am his son, so, nothin s changed.

Laguna Seca. But what do you do if KMRY declares it is only open for IFR, and you started in Burbank with VFR? Faster than you can say Salinas you get diverted.

With this experiences I took the B58 for the not much more than 5 miles from Salinas to Monterey, which at that time was open for landings over the biggest Ocean. And for the way back to BUR I'll file IFR. For the first time in my life in a propeller. But why not. B58 is a good a/c.

To be cont'd.

[LH-B744]

There are some questions on this planet for which we have to find an answer without the explicit support of the CEO.

Flight Captain Robert S. Randazzo has never been an official jetphotos member, afaik. But today, I am proud to say that almost all of my questions that existed between the company which he founded and my nickname are answered.
1) Is it, and especially with the background of the Randazzo Boeing 747-400 fsx v1, a good idea to buy the Randazzo Boeing 747-400 fsx v2?
- Yes. And since I recently visited "his" homepage, I tend to say, that especially for customers with a B744 v1 background, the v2 is not only recommended, but a must-have!

2) Will there be something like a Randazzo Boeing 747-800 fsx v2?
- Yes.

But v1 customers don't really get a discount, or do we. The Victor Mike is always a pleasure, even outside the cockpit:
B744 fsx, the newest version which the captain published, inflight.

And btw, thanks for the video, that's very .

PS: The B744 fsx v1 is not really bad imho. But I see a B748 fsx v2 in the lane, with, as I assume, finally full B748i flight dynamics. And that's the future, not only friends know that...

[LH-B744]

Currently I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro. I'm thinking about getting an X800 (AGP). But it'd be a bit of a waste I think. In a few months I think I'll start looking into new Socket939 motherboards with PCI-E and see about an X1900 (with Dual DVI outputs)

I always say that I am a service orientated guy. But I think we can return back on topic, for at least a week, after all the service.

KLAX nonstop, on board my LH-B744 simulator.. Men who are born in Europe and 1.5 times as old as me or older always say, KLAX is a happening. And it is. At SF Bay Intercontinental, they have a name for steep procedures, they call it... nose dive? All those bigger Californian airports.. craze.

But I have a question. In a simulator, you don't have to take the next flight to Europe, so..

Sometimes I wonder if you can't see the Hollywood Sign when you look outside the jet window. But for this purpose, imho, you can rather take a Baron 58. Now the question.

Which airport do you recommend, Van Nuys or Burbank?

PS: And btw, no raindrop in LA for the next four days? Sometimes that grand ole song seems to be right:
"got on board a westbound 7... 47"

[LH-B744]

Answer 01: Video Card (GPU) Benchmarks that are good for MS Fsx

[kindly supported by PassMark Benchmarks, California, USA: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html]
Radeon HD 7870 XT -- 4419 points
Radeon HD 7870 -- 4334 points
This card and everything that is 10% higher is definitely good for fsx in combination with pmdg. More examples, between 4334 and +10%,
4767 benchmark points:

Radeon R9 370 -- 4722 points
Radeon HD 7950 -- 4764 points
Radeon R9 280 -- 4764 points.

As far as I can remember, the R9 is the successor of the HD 7000 series. So, you can see that I am a Radeon man and not... But Passmark, of course, does also test the "and not" video cards.

I don't know where a X800 can be found, quite probably not in the "high end" section. But if you type "Passmark Benchmarks" in one of the big searching machines, you'll get the "mother homepage".
And that will also include the X800, I'd assume in the "High to Mid Range Video Card Chart".
---

Answer 02: CPU Benchmarks that are good for MS fsx.

It is the same Benchmark provider. Either you try Passmark and you can find your info, or you wait one week, and I'll do it for you.
---

IMPORTANT: These info only contains benchmarks. I do neither know if these products are available where you live nor which would be the price in your currency (shipping always included, if you'd ask me).

[LH-B744]

Currently I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro. I'm thinking about getting an X800 (AGP). But it'd be a bit of a waste I think. In a few months I think I'll start looking into new Socket939 motherboards with PCI-E and see about an X1900 (with Dual DVI outputs)

Welcome to JP. Wow. And what Flight Simulator do you wanna use? I must be honest, I use fsx since... a couple of years with one or two semi pro addons,
e.g. Precision Manuals B747-400 X (in those days sold on DVDs.. ),
and I have found a hardware combination that almost seems "perfect" for that purpose.

I built "my solution" during a couple of months, because, well, fsx is a hardware eater and semi pro hardware is not cheap! Fsx, especially in combination with a pmdg a/c, only really "takes off", with a 1 Gigabyte video card. That's what Cpt Randazzo always recommends.

I have to confess, since I've found "my solution", I do not pay attention to the benchmarks every day. But your forum entry makes me curious.

[sarutok]

Currently I have an ATI All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro. I'm thinking about getting an X800 (AGP). But it'd be a bit of a waste I think. In a few months I think I'll start looking into new Socket939 motherboards with PCI-E and see about an X1900 (with Dual DVI outputs)

[LH-B744]

Hey maybe we should get one of the mods to make this thread a sticky!

Believe me, in my eyes it is one of the most prominent threads here at JP. And probably, as an almost-senior, I should tell you stories... no. But one info must be allowed. Not always the mods are your friends, you should better have a look one step beyond...

As long as I am a JP member, and I do not only tend to become a Senior because of my age.., I always have used at least one computer program that was very close to aviation simulation. Rod Machado has published important books about aviation. And since a few weeks he no longer publishes his age?

But besides my father, he is one of the men who made aviation attractive for me. I publish my age since I am here, so... Mr Machado is definitely older than .. 17.


So, you can be sure, that this forum topic is regularly visited by one or two experienced men. Also without the 'very important' label.

Btw, welcome to JP!

[Ruiii]

Hey maybe we should get one of the mods to make this thread a sticky!