I've been flying LZ-127, the Graf Zeppelin, this morning. I thought you might enjoy some pictures.



Taking off from Moffet Field.



Climbing out, a slow process.



Up to cruise altitude.



The view from the bridge.



Cruising south along the California coast.

The old airships are pretty challenging to fly what with ballasting, charging and venting and all. It took me awhile to get the hang of it. There were a few airship disasters until I got it right.

Yesterday I was flying the modern Zeppelin NT. It has modern avionics, much better controls, and is way easier to manage. Here's a look at that. It's nowhere near as big as the old timers, but it's a great airship!



The U. S. Navy is now flying airships again, a modified version of the American Blimp Corporation A-170 designated the MZ-3A by the Navy. It's operated by VXS-1, the first airship since 1961. Trust them to bring back airships after I retired. Man, that would have been good duty!

Cheers!

Rick...

Very cool Sauron.


Wheels

Is that the stock Moffett Field? Also, what scenery add-ons are you using for the rest of the bay area landscape there?

I fly out of KSQL and am constantly looking to upgrade the appearance of the Bay Area in FSX. Stock is absolutely horrible. Right now I’m using MegaScenery Nor Cal (for FS9). Can’t wait for ORBX NorCal…

That's all stock FSX scenery. There are new, more detailed blimp hangars for Moffet Field out there, I have to hunt them up and install them. Also, I'm planning to install "San Francisco Bay Living World", a freeware offering from Striking Software:

http://www.strikingsoftware.com/other.shtml

And I like FS Water Configurator from that same site, and the new water normals they also offer. I'll probably grab their Carribean stuff too.

You can get the Graf Zeppelin, if you're interested, here:

http://theoldhangar.adventureasylum.com/

It was made for FS2004 but works fine in FSX, except for four gauges you'll have to comment out or replace.

The modern Zeppelin NT is available in the FSX miscellaneous section at Simviation or at http://www.flightport.de if you want that. It's very nice.

Cheers!

Rick...

Hmmm... I'll have to investigate. I'd swear my stock SF Bay doesn't look that good.

Funny, I just posted about Striking Software in the GA Forum!

Nice pics!

Rob

Argh! Wait a minute, I forgot one thing. I'm running FSGenesis USA Landclass. That's the difference. And I have everything turned up to full blast on the eye candy settings. Sorry about that, I forgot the landclass.

Cheers!

Rick...

What monster PC have you got Sauron? I still can't max out FSX.

The airships look great BTW, never thought about flying them.

LOL! I'm running a six core AMD Cyberpower gamer at 4.0 GHz with eight gigs of DDR3 RAM and a Radeon card that guod helped me spec out. The man knows his stuff. This thing is an unstoppable beast, at least with the titles I play!

Cheers!

Rick...

Didn't even know there were 6 core CPU's now! lol

Me either until guod told me, LOL! I'm one of those old buzzards who doesn't bother to keep up with technology.

Give those airships a try, Mace! Great stuff! You haven't lived until you've hit "Flyby View" in FSX and watched a dirigible go shrieking past...and past...and past...and past...

The upgrade for the blimp hangars at Moffett Field are available at flightsim.com as file name "hgr_one.zip". While you're there, grab "uss_macon.zip" if you want a good airship that's reasonably easy to work with. Here she is in a couple of screenshots:



Dumping water ballast on "up ship" from NAS Moffett Field.



Off we go, cruising the skies of sunny California!

Relaxing, slow paced fun. It's like Zen.

Cheers!

Rick...

I'll bet those airships make WW 1 era aircraft seem absolutely blazing fast.


Wheels

Fantastic stuff, Sauron. Got any pics of her in afterburner?

LOL! Nope, no afterburner shots! And it can't catch those pesky WWI aircraft, they're just too damn fast!

Here's another one worth downloading, a U. S. Navy Goodyear K-Ship, K-28 of ZJ-1 (that's a squadron, ZJ-1, like VF-84, only it's a zeppelin squadron).



She's like a sports car compared to USS Macon.



This one has a great VC. That's the view from the rudder seat.

You can download various versions of the K-28 at flightsim.com as file names:

k28usnzj1.zip

k28neam.zip

k28usn.zip

Those are each slightly different versions created as the real one was restored by a museum. Top quality stuff, as good as most payware, and the K-Ship isn't so ponderous as the larger airships.

Besides, chicks dig zeppelin pilots, everyone knows that. I think there's some Freudian mojo going on there.

Cheers!

Rick...

Looks like you are having a lot of fun in the slow lane.


Wheels