Active 10 GPS

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Paul Saunders said:

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

Paul

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

Paul

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

Paul

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

Paul

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

In message <[email hidden]>

Paul Saunders said:

Bernard Hill said:

Quoted message said:

Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you have
to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

Quoted message said:

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you have
planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are covered with
them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious walkers when the
weather is bad.

That's a tad harsh. Just because you don't like trudging around in
zero visibility (so you may as well be anywhere), getting poured on
and blown around, doesn't make you a casual walker. All I find those
sort of conditions do is make you really enjoy the shower and pint
afterwards.

--
Simon Challands

Simon Challands said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you
have to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

Quoted message said:

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you
have planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are
covered with them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious
walkers when the weather is bad.

That's a tad harsh. Just because you don't like trudging around in
zero visibility (so you may as well be anywhere), getting poured on
and blown around, doesn't make you a casual walker.

Just because casual walkers tend to be put off by rain doesn't automatically
mean that anyone put off by rain is therefore a casual walker, I didn't mean
to imply that.

But my point still stands, that most hill walking is done in good
visibility. You don't get crowds of people climbing hills on rainy days like
you do on sunny days. Most people prefer to wait for fine weather.

However, if as Bernard said, you've travelled a long way with a view to
doing a specific walk, many serious walkers will tend to do it anyway, no
matter what the weather. And of course, most serious walkers will be
equipped for bad weather, whereas casual walkers usually won't.

Quoted message said:

All I find those
sort of conditions do is make you really enjoy the shower and pint
afterwards.

I've had some very enjoyable walks in the rain, it adds a lot of atmosphere
in the right environment. However, it can be a drag if you get soaked
through. I'd say that my ability to enjoy a rain walk depends largely on the
capacity of my equipment to keep me reasonably dry.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Simon Challands said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you
have to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

Quoted message said:

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you
have planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are
covered with them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious
walkers when the weather is bad.

That's a tad harsh. Just because you don't like trudging around in
zero visibility (so you may as well be anywhere), getting poured on
and blown around, doesn't make you a casual walker.

Just because casual walkers tend to be put off by rain doesn't automatically
mean that anyone put off by rain is therefore a casual walker, I didn't mean
to imply that.

But my point still stands, that most hill walking is done in good
visibility. You don't get crowds of people climbing hills on rainy days like
you do on sunny days. Most people prefer to wait for fine weather.

However, if as Bernard said, you've travelled a long way with a view to
doing a specific walk, many serious walkers will tend to do it anyway, no
matter what the weather. And of course, most serious walkers will be
equipped for bad weather, whereas casual walkers usually won't.

Quoted message said:

All I find those
sort of conditions do is make you really enjoy the shower and pint
afterwards.

I've had some very enjoyable walks in the rain, it adds a lot of atmosphere
in the right environment. However, it can be a drag if you get soaked
through. I'd say that my ability to enjoy a rain walk depends largely on the
capacity of my equipment to keep me reasonably dry.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Simon Challands said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you
have to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

Quoted message said:

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you
have planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are
covered with them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious
walkers when the weather is bad.

That's a tad harsh. Just because you don't like trudging around in
zero visibility (so you may as well be anywhere), getting poured on
and blown around, doesn't make you a casual walker.

Just because casual walkers tend to be put off by rain doesn't automatically
mean that anyone put off by rain is therefore a casual walker, I didn't mean
to imply that.

But my point still stands, that most hill walking is done in good
visibility. You don't get crowds of people climbing hills on rainy days like
you do on sunny days. Most people prefer to wait for fine weather.

However, if as Bernard said, you've travelled a long way with a view to
doing a specific walk, many serious walkers will tend to do it anyway, no
matter what the weather. And of course, most serious walkers will be
equipped for bad weather, whereas casual walkers usually won't.

Quoted message said:

All I find those
sort of conditions do is make you really enjoy the shower and pint
afterwards.

I've had some very enjoyable walks in the rain, it adds a lot of atmosphere
in the right environment. However, it can be a drag if you get soaked
through. I'd say that my ability to enjoy a rain walk depends largely on the
capacity of my equipment to keep me reasonably dry.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Simon Challands said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Most hill walking is done in good visibility

!!!

I wish it were so.

Having travelled tens or hundreds of miles to a walking area you
have to be really lucky to stay out of the clouds.

Quoted message said:

But then you're obviously pretty serious about doing the walk you
have planned. I was thinking more of casual walkers. The hills are
covered with them on sunny days, but you usually see only serious
walkers when the weather is bad.

That's a tad harsh. Just because you don't like trudging around in
zero visibility (so you may as well be anywhere), getting poured on
and blown around, doesn't make you a casual walker.

Just because casual walkers tend to be put off by rain doesn't automatically
mean that anyone put off by rain is therefore a casual walker, I didn't mean
to imply that.

But my point still stands, that most hill walking is done in good
visibility. You don't get crowds of people climbing hills on rainy days like
you do on sunny days. Most people prefer to wait for fine weather.

However, if as Bernard said, you've travelled a long way with a view to
doing a specific walk, many serious walkers will tend to do it anyway, no
matter what the weather. And of course, most serious walkers will be
equipped for bad weather, whereas casual walkers usually won't.

Quoted message said:

All I find those
sort of conditions do is make you really enjoy the shower and pint
afterwards.

I've had some very enjoyable walks in the rain, it adds a lot of atmosphere
in the right environment. However, it can be a drag if you get soaked
through. I'd say that my ability to enjoy a rain walk depends largely on the
capacity of my equipment to keep me reasonably dry.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk/weblog/

Paul Saunders said:

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul

Thanks, sounds great. I haven't yet got around to upgrading my 5 year
old MESH Athlon 1800 1GB, so in view of your concluding comment I
wonder if I would need to do so before I could satisfactorily use FSX?
Your observation seems reinforced at this page
http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt24372.html where I read:
"However, there is one FUNDAMENTAL problem: how come no-one can run
FSX properly? By that, I mean without compromise in graphic visuals,
whilst retaining playable framerates. To give you an idea, even the
high-end computers at the Microsoft E3 show were struggling to show
off FSX in all its beauty."

And also

"FSX is very much graphics resourceful (i.e. the importance of having
a powerful graphics card surpasses that of having a fast CPU)."

My graphics is a modest 64MB NVidia Geforce2 MX/MX 400, although it
does give me pretty good touring (and tour capture for video clips) in
Google Earth.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul

Thanks, sounds great. I haven't yet got around to upgrading my 5 year
old MESH Athlon 1800 1GB, so in view of your concluding comment I
wonder if I would need to do so before I could satisfactorily use FSX?
Your observation seems reinforced at this page
http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt24372.html where I read:
"However, there is one FUNDAMENTAL problem: how come no-one can run
FSX properly? By that, I mean without compromise in graphic visuals,
whilst retaining playable framerates. To give you an idea, even the
high-end computers at the Microsoft E3 show were struggling to show
off FSX in all its beauty."

And also

"FSX is very much graphics resourceful (i.e. the importance of having
a powerful graphics card surpasses that of having a fast CPU)."

My graphics is a modest 64MB NVidia Geforce2 MX/MX 400, although it
does give me pretty good touring (and tour capture for video clips) in
Google Earth.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul

Thanks, sounds great. I haven't yet got around to upgrading my 5 year
old MESH Athlon 1800 1GB, so in view of your concluding comment I
wonder if I would need to do so before I could satisfactorily use FSX?
Your observation seems reinforced at this page
http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt24372.html where I read:
"However, there is one FUNDAMENTAL problem: how come no-one can run
FSX properly? By that, I mean without compromise in graphic visuals,
whilst retaining playable framerates. To give you an idea, even the
high-end computers at the Microsoft E3 show were struggling to show
off FSX in all its beauty."

And also

"FSX is very much graphics resourceful (i.e. the importance of having
a powerful graphics card surpasses that of having a fast CPU)."

My graphics is a modest 64MB NVidia Geforce2 MX/MX 400, although it
does give me pretty good touring (and tour capture for video clips) in
Google Earth.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Paul Saunders said:

Terry Pinnell said:

Maybe I missed a subsequent post in which you mentioned what flight
sim software you are talking about here? Around 28/10 I recall your
saying something like 'Use your 3D features ...jump in your virtual
plane...". Did you mean a dedicated flight sim app or perhaps Google
Earth's new 'flying' facility?

Primarily the flight sim. I wrote another post specifically about that in
this thread earlier today (at 6:17).

Anquet and Memory Map both have 3D viewing facilities, but the resolution of
the aerial photos isn't as good as the flight sim. Also the viewing options
are somewhat limited and fiddly. To make matters worse the lighting effects
aren't very good. For example you can't position the sun precisely, and it
doesn't look at all realistic like the flight sim does.

With the flight sim on the other hand, you can choose the exact time and
date and get the correct shadow effects for that time, which is great for
planning photos (if you want to use it for that). You don't even have to
fly, you can simply "slew" around the landscape and position yourself at any
viewpoint you want, so you can "park" the plane on a summit to see the view
from there (a helicopter is better for this obviously). You even get the
correct phases of the moon and the stars in the right positions.

As for Google Earth, I haven't heard about this new flying facility, but
unless they've improved the terrain mesh I wouldn't bother. The best bits of
Google Earth have an excellent photo resolution, but the worst bits are
terrible (i.e. most of Wales), but even where the photo res is good, the
terrain mesh is far too simple and inaccurate so you don't get the correct
shape on the land, which makes it a complete waste of time for the purpose
of familiarising yourself with the topography.

Anyway, if you're interested, you'll need to buy the latest version of
Microsoft Flight Sim, called FSX. There's a standard and deluxe version, I'd
recommend the latter, you get more planes. Don't be put off by the price,
it's much cheaper if you shop around, you can get it quite cheap on Amazon.

Then there's the photo scenery. Only England and Wales are covered
unfortunately, not Scotland.

There are two products available, Just Flight's VFR Real Scenery (in 4
areas);
http://www.justflight.com/vfr-info.asp

And Horizon's VFR Generation X (in 3 areas);
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74

I've made detailed comparisons between the two and I'm in no doubt that the
Horizon product is better. Both have 1m per pixel photo resolution, but
Horizon has a 5m terrain mesh compared to Just Flight's 10m mesh. Also
Horizon are creating lots of extras for their scenery, most of which are
free downloads.

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

I got FSX Deluxe for about £27, and all three Horizon scenery packages for
about £67, all inc p&p. So that's £94 for the best 3D photo scenery of
England and Wales currently available.

If you want more, I'd recommend FSDiscover! which adds 36 million geographic
names from all over the world, which is great for getting to know your way
around. As I mentioned, UK summit name coverage is not great, but you can
create your own files to fix that. I'm currently compiling some summit lists
for use with it.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc

And for real immersion, get a copy of Active Sky X, which provides amazingly
realistic weather effects and downloads real time weather conditions from
the internet as you fly.
http://www.hifisim.com/products.html

Oh, one more thing, you need quite a powerful computer to run it.

Paul

Thanks, sounds great. I haven't yet got around to upgrading my 5 year
old MESH Athlon 1800 1GB, so in view of your concluding comment I
wonder if I would need to do so before I could satisfactorily use FSX?
Your observation seems reinforced at this page
http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt24372.html where I read:
"However, there is one FUNDAMENTAL problem: how come no-one can run
FSX properly? By that, I mean without compromise in graphic visuals,
whilst retaining playable framerates. To give you an idea, even the
high-end computers at the Microsoft E3 show were struggling to show
off FSX in all its beauty."

And also

"FSX is very much graphics resourceful (i.e. the importance of having
a powerful graphics card surpasses that of having a fast CPU)."

My graphics is a modest 64MB NVidia Geforce2 MX/MX 400, although it
does give me pretty good touring (and tour capture for video clips) in
Google Earth.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Both offer demos so you can try them out first, although you'll need a full
version of FSX to install them, they won't install into the FSX demo. Again
you can pick these up much cheaper than RRP from Amazon.

Alternatively there are demo videos. I just played a couple from VFR
which impressed me. Looking at the Horizon site right now but so far
not found any.

BTW, I'm interested in viewing, not aircraft flying. Presumably you
can switch off all evidence of the cockpit etc?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK