A good day of flying

Flew my beat up Huey from Ambleside to the Aerodrome in Abbotts earlier today without a hitch. Then later today flew her back from the Aerodrome to Waterhead.

It was rather interesting.. had my alt on the other machine as a passenger, and had the main map up on that screen as I was flying. The navigator if you will. A couple excursions in between ended up in my losing my helo, parcel full or a couple instances where the region handoff expired..

What tips do the aviation folks have to share with the rest of us when it comes to aviation in SL? I really enjoyed this, burps and all. It was neat to be able to fly a helicopter from one end of a continent to the other. I was up >1500m though so the view was a bit boring

Were you the idiot who almost took my head off while I was skydiving at Abbotts today?

>1500m ??!!??

That's restricted airspace buddy, let's see some ID and a current license.

Ive flown six passengers across the continent in a dropship, only one fell to their doom at a sim border. ( screamed "aaaaaa" all the way down) At a high altitude of 2000 meters you dont find many obstructions. The border crossings are perilous, you really need to slow down before hitting one. Corners of sims are especially hazerdous. Unfortunetly the only way to even hope to have a possible chance of a successful cross country jaunt is to fly at those whacked out altitudes. As you noticed, its just blank sky. If you dont watch your map curser move along its the equivilent of just sitting there. For the real flying experience you need to fly along at your draw distance from the ground. Problem is, SL will screw with you in a myriad of ways down there. And if its not the tech issues knocking you out of the sky, it will be your fellow man. Visit the countless threads on the nature of air travel in SL to see what the sightseer is dealing with at the lower altitudes. Its can get downright ugly.

It very well may have been. What color is your hair? I'll check my rotors for chunks of it

I have done this also, started at abbotts and went all over the grid (well at least that continent). I did it with my ingame gf in my Huey Cobra (CCC off of course) and also in the Cubey Airship (smoothest ride). I even asked the club i frequent if I can get a logo of theirs for my blimp so I was advertising Club Venom while I was flying cross country.

One thing I have noticed is the northern continent by and large seems to have less invis barriers and no fly zones than say the southern continent... I have not flown the eastern one yet. Generally when I am in the blimp (or any of my many choppers and TIE fighters) the perfect altitude seems to be either right above or below cloud cover... below gets me an awesome view for the myriad of aerial photos i take. My secret to "staying alive" is to slow to a crawl before crossing sim borders... much easier to handle this in the blimp though. My MD-500 does not like sim borders at all...

Though there was this one time I ended up in the water near the second life logo and my blimp was like 5 sims away in some dude's living room. I had a whale of a time explaining that one to him.

I love flying.... now if only i can get a REALLY GOOD 4 seat helicopter. so far the best are made by Jillian Callahan, and Lahar Broadway, but neither builder have a 4 seat civilian chopper. maybe i should make my own...

Thanks for starting this thread. Inspired me to finally got around to exploring flying in something other than a jetpack or a hoverpod, and I had great fun. I've found that I really, and unexpectedly, like helicopters (I can't figure out how to get my plane into the air without crashing on the runway, and I seem to be quite good in my hoverpods, or helicopters). I like how you can mark something on the map, and then fly around for a while, and when you are done you can fly back to that red pole, or conversely set the red pole somewhere and fly to it.

Oh, and that 4 person helicopter - I thought the Russian sounding one might be a four seater. Have look again (and remember to go and buy it ).

Oh, and thanks - found the perfect use for my castle roof now - landing pad for my hover plane and helicopter .

There was a time when alot of folks had flying vehicles and used them. Teleports were routinely borking up and hopping into your flyer was a great way to get from point A to point B. At some point though LL did a release that made sim crossings really ugly and that put the kibash on flying for many folks.

Sad day that was. I really miss seein my bro getting around in his flying snail drawn chariot.

"flying snail drawn chariot" - That sounds interesting, too bad he stopped.

I haven't attempted to cross sim borders yet, so I'm not sure what will happen (though I've gotten stuck in corners). Well, not crossed while flying. Trying to drive in my car, or on my motorcycle can get quite annoying when I either hit borders and go flying, or hit an area slow to rez. Hate when my wheels magically get stick in the ground after the rez is finished.

Oh, and I hate those very quick security orbs. My horse accidently places one foot on someone elses property (property lines can cross into the road) and I'm instantly flung home - horse left to munch on some grass somewhere.

I'm starting to get more interested in vehicles for getting around but I've been sticking with freebies for the time being. My favorite so far is an airship I picked up in Caledon* so I think I'll eventually be looking for a nice dirigible or blimp before too long.

My property is on a right-of-way (can't really say road since it's not paved....) so I can launch from home pretty easily. I've gone pretty far in both directions on the ROW and over other land but I don't like having to go home to start over if I crash or get security-orbed, etc. How does one find places away from home where they can rez something to drive, fly or sail?

*Seats something like eight avatars!

Note: That helicopter I mentioned earlier appears to sit only one, sorry.

Oh, and since I'm here: I like how my Claww sent me an IM with altitude and location data. Just the one message so far. Interesting, the top of my castle is at 52 meters.
Useful if I fly it around. Really hate ban lines - there is one that seems to go up into space.

I could always turn object entry off.

I have a hot air balloon and can pretty much fly across the new continent at around 170/180 meters a little lower and you hit ban lines and you know the rest.

The Fairchang Discovery is a four seater. Works well.

Troll much?

I gave up flying in SL a long time ago. When the nitwits and thier security orbs took over. Once in awhile I fire up the old sea plane for a cruise.

Something I used to do that was fun.. Take the abbot drop ship to about 10,000 meters and jump out. Pull your rip cord as soon as your free of the ship.
You can take and long slow ride over the land. Once I made from one side of the main land to the other. I don't think you can do this anymore. Too many idiots and thier secruity orbs.

Happy Flying

Rox