Flight Journal: Flying to FSExpo virtually

June 23, 2023

3–4 minutes

I’m attending FSExpo virtually this year but I did squeeze in just enough time to fly the route virtually. This flight journal documents a fun flight I did from London, Ontario to Houston, Texas. Let’s go!

Scenery!

I’ve become slightly addicted to collecting airport scenery and so for today’s flight I’m travelling from one of the local scenery airports that I’ve purchased recently. You may remember CYXU London International airport located in London Ontario in a previous flight journal. It’s not exactly my local airport but its close enough and I love departing from a place with detailed airport scenery.

My destination is KHOU William P. Hobby Airport located in Houston Texas. The airport has a special connection with FSExpo 2023 as its where the expo is being held. The airport was previously the primary airport for Houston, Texas until the opening of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The airport now is a secondary hub as well a the home of the Lone Star Flight Museum. Also modeled in the scenery is the Houston Doubletree hotel where the first day of the expo is being held. Developer fsimstudios was smart to complete the release of this scenery package just in time for the expo!

The journey!

For this flight I decided to pick an airplane that I’ve spent some time with recently. I’m talking about Marwan Gharib’s HJet which I reviewed recently. Fast, simple to configure and fly, and extremely user friendly, this high quality module also looks great and feels great to hand fly when the time comes. I thought this was the idea type to carry my virtual self to the virtual expo.

Configuring the jet on the apron at CYXU, it wasn’t too long before I was taxiing over to Runway 09 and taking off. For this flight I made full use of the runway being sure to backtrack to near the end of 09 before departing. This would be the first time I was flying the HJet with a completely full fuel tank (and reduced cargo and passengers) and I wanted to make sure that I was able to get off the ground without too much trouble.

Concerns were allayed as the HJet soared into the sky without too much trouble. A bit heavier feeling than usual to be sure but still manageable.

Soon I was into the thick clouds blanketing the area and I lost sight of anything for several minutes. Later we would burst through the clouds and into the bright blue sky.

Clearer skies would permit me to see two Lake Erie landmarks – Rondeau Park and Point Pelee National Park. The later marks the southernmost tip of Canada.

Then it was across the lake and over the United States.

Along the way I would spot several landmarks including Memphis, Tennessee and follow the Mississippi River for quite a lengthy period of time.

As I approached Houston, the signs of multiple urban centers ahead and to my left side appeared. Beaumont, Texas and the Gulf Coast slowly revealed themselves in the haze.

Texas and northern Mexico are currently enduring a severe heatwave which affects humans, animals, plant life and airplanes too. ATIS reported 32 degrees and the weather report for that area included high humidity. MSFS does factor in temperature and humidity into its weather modeling and this would be the hottest weather I had knowingly flown into in the sim.

As I approached Houston, I temporarily lost connection to the MSFS servers and that meant that the streaming satellite imagery that I should have been getting stopped. I still had a fun descent into Houston dropping from my 40,000 feet cruise altitude down to just 3,000 feet in rapid order.

As I turned across the beaches and onto my landing heading the lack of scenery loading became especially apparent. No good screenshots to share there until final approach where the more detailed custom scenery came into view. I landed and parked the plane near the 1940 Air Terminal Museum and called it a successful flight!