Just Flight & Just Trains blogs

Some people say I am sad and it may be true! (Plus Trains, Planes and Washing machines…)

Well last Monday 27th August, we in the UK had our last ‘Bank holiday’ (I.E. “National day off”) of 2007. This year in the UK the summer weather has been very poor even to our standards with lots and lots of rain and in some parts of the country severe flooding with many thousands of people affected – luckily I was not personally affected. Apparently the cause of this “wettest summer since rain recording records begun” was that the jet stream that flows from east to west high up in the atmosphere like a circle around the globe was doing its stuff lower down and overhead the UK rather than the more normal higher up to the north pole route that it takes – why has it done that? I have no idea but I wish it would not bother in future please. The boffin from the Met office said “The jet stream, a ribbon of very strong winds about 10km up in the atmosphere which brings weather systems to the UK, has been much further south and stronger than usual this summer. This has brought depressions across many parts of the country.” Exactly! Especially to me : -)

I had seriously considered spending my annual holiday in the UK (it’s a beautiful place) but after weeks and weeks of rain I just did not want to risk staying in the UK and it continuing to rain – really the last thing I want to do on holiday is look at the rain pouring down through some leaden grey sky when I and my family should be out and about in the sun, so the UK holiday plan was abandoned and I went to Menorca in the Mediterranean and had a great holiday with mass’s of sunshine every day apart from two – utterly fantastic.

Me? I like a ‘proper’ summer, as in a decent period of long hot sunny days one after another for around 2 months in length starting at 1st July and ending 31st August. Now that’s a summer – plenty of time to get out and enjoy the world around without getting soaking wet, freezing cold or depressed by near continuous overcast cloudy grey skies. I LOVE blue skies with the occasional high Cirrus cloud any day over an overcast of Cumulus and this is where the sad part comes in. Sad as in “Seasonal Adjustment Disorder” not sad as in “have a look at my collection of car registration numbers” or a subscriber to the part-works “The official Columbo DVD collection” that is now being advertised on TV (who buys this crap?).

Now I have never been diagnosed as being sad, although I hear it quite a few times being muttered at Just Flight towers for some reason (? weird), it’s just that I really am in a better frame of mind when the sun is out then when it is not, and I am convinced the two things are linked together, others also say they prefer the sun to cloud so I reckon there is something in this, but I am pleased that I do not have to go to the lengths that some people have to go to and sit in front of sunlight replicating bulbs to feel better if they are affected by sad, anyway back to the bank holiday – the weather forecast, which in my mind seems to get more unreliable as time goes on said that the Saturday and Sunday before the bank holiday Monday was going to be overcast but that the Monday was going to be all sunny and summer, but of course it was totally wrong, the weekend was glorious with blue skies and hot sun and the Monday was all overcast and grey – I was quite disappointed as I really did expect to have three days of lovely weather after the first two with the unexpected sunshine but at least we savoured two sunny days instead of one – I even had a barbecue, the first and most probably the last of the year, on the Sunday! It was just great to go outside and have the kids playing in the garden in warm decent sunny weather.

13th August in the UK:

More ranting (aside from the summer, lack off, 2007)!

Stuff I have earmarked to rant about but won’t (well in any depth) in this posting:

1) The UK football season – why does it seem like it only has a two week break before it starts again – it’s supposed to be a winter sport?
2) ‘Micro cars’ – stupid, cheap, crappy, small, must be horrendous to be involved in a accident in and the vast majority are so ugly looking and lacking in any decent exterior design that they must have been created by a set of stupid Monkeys (sorry Monkeys) in the dark. (ONE exception to this ‘Scotty’s rule’ – The Smart).
3) Heathrow airport – the lie that it is – I will be returning to that Curates egg for sure to expose why it actually should never have existed.
4) Mobile phone roaming charges – great news - in Europe they are going to be greatly reduced, BUT after the summer holidays (the latest time they are allowed by law to do so) when all the people (holiday makers) that don’t usually have the charges are back home from their holiday. Thanks for nothing.
5) Quoted Hard Drive space. It may say “500GB” on the box and specs but when you actually go to use it the actual amount of usable space is NOT 500GB, so why can they not say ‘500GB – 480GB usable’? Or even that is it a 480GB drive and not a 500GB drive as you do not actually get 500 GB of usable space? Would that not be a lot more honest and ethical? It’s like saying a can of beans is 500 Grams but there is only actually 480 Grams of beans in it – that’s illegal so why is that not the case of quoted HD sizes?
6) The Soil Association – they are the people who make sure that organic food is organic right? So what are they doing moaning about planes transporting food from far away places and thus creating ‘excess’ “food miles”? Get back to the real organic issues please I.E. not using chemicals to cultivate food.

I am sure there will be more! :- )

Two many buses (yes I know it should be spelt ‘Too’ but I was having word fun OK?)

Just like buses, two come at the same time, well not quite true or accurate but sort of-ish.. 1) It’s not two but three, 2) it’s not buses but trains (sims) and 4) where did three go? Ah! 3) there it is, they are not all going to arrive at the same time, but apart from that what I said is correct… : -)

After a semi drought in train sims apart from the evergreen Trainz there are three sims on the Horizon (apologies for swearing). First to arrive at your virtual platform will be Trainz Railways (known as Trainz Classics in other parts of the world). This is the latest version of the Trainz line (ho ho more word fun) and this time all the content has been built for the product instead of heavily relying on the 3rd parties to supply the content – its looking good and in the UK Just Trains (us!) are the publisher.

Next arriving on platform 2 will be Railway Simulator. This is a UK developed sim built by Kuju, the people who built MSTS1 for Microsoft – this is looking REALLY good and should keep lots of T-simmers happy for some time.. UNTIL….

Microsoft Train Sim 2 arrives – no date set on this but my guess it will be around October 2008 – there are some early pics out from it and it looks very good, the difference on MSTS 2 is that it is based on the FSX engine and will include all the worlds rail lines, I guess in a similar way that FSX includes all the worlds airports – this could/should really revolutionise the Train sim world.   

Trainz Railways picture:

Microsoft Train Sim 2 picture:

Rail Simulator picture 1:

Rail Simulator picture 2:

Rail Simulator picture 3:

Great video of Rail Simulator here:

http://www.railsimulator.com/images/RailSimulatorClip.wmv

Keep checking our Train sim site for the latest news at:

http://www.justtrains.net/

Ok, Ok now some stuff about FS! (Hooray! I hear you say)

Our recent releases:

Archer III – our next Flying Club aircraft better than ever is now for sale online – Uses tons of FSX only features in FSX but is also designed for FS2004.
Tiger Moth Float and Ski packs – If you had enough of wheels then take to the snow or water with these packs – the Tiger Moth pack is not required – these are stand alone for FSX and FS2004.
VFR Real Scenery Vol. 2 – Out now – the best around.
VFR Real Scenery Isle of Wight – fantastic photo scenery of a really interesting and beautiful island exclusively on download.
Track iR 4 – a really great piece of hardware that allows you to do things you really cannot easily do in FS.
Space Shuttle – out of this world – our first from in Space – would you like some more Space stuff? Please tell me if you would.
VFR Flight Plans – a great add-on for flying around the UK in especially if you have our VFR Real photo scenery installed. Good sight-seeing flightplans.

Imminent releases:
Airbus Series Vol. 1 – just out now!
VFR Real Scenery Vol. 3 – cor! – Nearly done.

Imminent-ish releases:
R44 Helicopter – follow on to the superb S300 CBi with a few FS ‘firsts’ in it.
P38 Lightning – classic American twin boom WW2 fighter.

Less imminent-ish releases:
Airbus Collection – Long haul. Heavy metal F-Lite takes to the airways once more with the CLS A330 and A340 200/300 series in one pack!
Rescue Pilot. Looking pretty good – something to do in FSX – we will be releasing a full mission from the pack as a demo ASAP.
Mosquito. In test for FSX and FS2004 but unfortunately not quite ready yet.
VFR Real Scenery Vol. 4. Being worked on hard!
Typhoon (Eurofighter). Still in test.

Rumour mill:

C130 Hercules for FSX early-ish new-ish year-ish (apparently and I did not say which year though!) and please don’t ask me for any more info – I don’t have any.

‘Announcements/news/other bits’:
Avsim.com Readers awards – If you like our products then please go and nominate one or more of them at:
http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=251
Traffic X announcement – yes! The next volume is in development and is better that ever – see:
http://www.justflight.com/newsDetail.asp?newsID=534
Google Earth ™ has a flight sim in it – yes! If you have the latest version then press: CTRL+ALT+A to start it up.

Domestic appliance update.

Offending washing machine:

Yes I know, it’s the bit you have all been waiting for, well here it is. After a relatively stable period of things not breaking down the washing machine has gone west. First a week before my (sunny) holiday the drum stopped rotating.

Hmm motor brushes I thought – and yes it was and the nice man from British Gas came and fitted a new set, so that sorted that and we were back in business 4 days before my break so we were able to get all our holiday togs sorted in time. BUT… two weeks after my return there was a strange smell coming from the kitchen – like lacquer or paint. Yes something was overheating, so sniffing my way around the kitchen I decided it was the $*%*$£ washing machine. So out came British Gas once more and they diagnosed a potentially faulty drum motor and drain pump, so they came back 2 days later and replaced them – problem solved, also whilst there he checked out the other domestic appliances that they cover to ensure they were all safe and they all got a clean bill of health – so anyway here’s until the next Domestic Appliance failure…

News just in:

Andy, our erstwhile leader, is climbing (again) for charity this time up not one but three peaks – please consider sponsoring him here:

http://www.justgiving.com/paynespeaks

Next Blog:
Sponge Bob square pants has the future of home flight simulation now! (Yes its true - I have experienced it!)

Till the next time.

Keep safe.

Scotty.