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The 1000-region flight

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The previous week I had a chat with Fatih Incognito and a few others in the Shergood Aviation group. While a lot of people may think Second Life is pretty large, you actually run into the world's edges pretty quickly. So there is no way to fly very far without turning back. And If you want to go beyond 600 regions or so you may be turning a lot really.   I mentioned I had not found a log of anyone flying a credible 1000+ regions in one flight. I mean: I had done 1108 once when circling a corner in my DG-1000 Glider but that doesn't feel genuine. So today, with Canary-colleague Jessica waiting for new computer parts and no other Canary online, I decided to have a go at it. The previous week Fatih Incognito had gotten to 674 region crossings and I to 552, my third longest distance ever. This Saturday 25 November I set out at 9AM my local time, with the Adventure Air DHC-6 Twin Otter and a GTFO!-HUD attached to go smuggling. It took me almost 6 hours, of mainly flying the 50 regio...
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Discovering a new world

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Yesterday I flew my regular Canary scan, to check my 3 sectors in Eastern Nautilus and South Corsica for grid conditions, when I ran into something new: flying into Bijouter Isle, usually the far eastern edge of one part of my route I noticed there were 2 more regions attached. So I steered my S61R Pelican into them to have a look. I quickly realised that this wasn't just a two-island expansion to Tuarua Fiji, but a completely new world. When I went into hover above a small island with palmtrees, someone IM'ed me, welcoming me and asking if I was interested in renting part of a region. This is how I discovered Azure Islands. Or rather, how I found out that it was moved to a new spot on the grid, connecting to Tuarua Fiji and thereby also to mainland Second Life. Since I visit the surroundings near-daily (restart days excluded) not many may have discovered it yet. So, I sent a notice in SL Aviation. I am pretty sure more people will like to see the expansion to their flying opti...
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Alts/Bots and Blatant resource abuse

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 So just now I flew through the Arezzo region with my F-16:   Pretty isn't it? What puzzled me though, is that the region showed there were 20 avatars in it, myself included. You could see them nowhere in the water or on the island, so I edited my plane and zoomed around. The others weren't much worth looking at, as you can see. Anyone who has been around in the area must have seen the circles with alts, or bots as some name them. Many of them are in use for Tiny Empires or some other game. Sadly enough, some 90% of the avatars I ran into today in the area seemed to be these inactive bottom-dwellers. Just look at this minimap... I would not bother much normally, people can choose how to waste their own time however they like. The thing here is of course: regions like Arezzo, where I was at this Wednesday afternoon, can only hold 20 avatars. It would even be impossible to pass through it in a sailboat with just 1 friend aboard. Very sad that this sort of abuse of resources is s...
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Sponsoring a Grid Drive

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The Canary Project sponsored the Grid Drive last weekend. If you don't know what the Grid Drive is: there is this group in Second Life called ' Drivers of SL '. They organise a weekly drive around one or more continents on the Grid. Parts of the drive may include flying or boating. The drive often has a specific theme, takes a few hours and is good fun to be part of. They even have a handy HUD that you use as navigator and that enables you to do the drive at any moment of the week, at your leasure. It's even possible to try some older Grid Drives from the archive at their headquarters . There was a party that also involved setting stuff on fire at Nastya's Weather Station As a creator or group you can also sponsor a Grid Drive. You'd prepare a gift then for the Drivers that finish and maybe help a little with the route. That is what we did. As you see in the photo it ended with a jolly mess at my base. My C-47 Dakota at Aerodrome Amelia Earhart The Grid Drive ha...
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1000 Hobbs hours

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  Yesterday my Canary 2, the Sikorsky S61R Pelican I fly weather reconnaisance with for the Canary Project, passed the 1000 Hobbs hour mark. What is Hobbs? Well, Wikipedia will explain, but in plain English it it the time the helicopter's engine has been running. It's a log normally used for maintenance reasons. While in real life 1000 hours isn't so much, there being airliners with 10.000 Hobbs and more around the world, in SL it means it has done some serious flying. So I am sort of proud of having this extra digit added to my meter. Especially if you consider this helicotper has also been making 160.000 region crossings in Second Life. As reference: the grid has 27000+ regions and the combined mainlands are some 9000 regions large. The combined area I can fly in from my home base is 6800 regions.* Of course, 1000 Hobbs hours also means it is time for some maintenance now. Certainly if you follow this historic moment up by a landing like this...   * Source: http://www.gri...
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The Canary Project

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A weather reconnaissance project in Second Life The Canary Project in Second Life consists of a group of pilots who fly on a near-daily basis to provide weather reports for popular aviation and sailing areas on the grid. We cover most of the seas of the Nautilus Continent and Blake Sea, as well as southern Corsica and a number of private estates, like Tuarua Fiji and Sailors Cove. Canary 2 at the Mermaid Palace, on the westcoast of Nautilus City I started flying with the Canary Project in July 2020, when there was 1 pilot: Jessica 'Conwing' MacDougal. I had been aware of Jessica flying Canary Flights and reporting on grid conditions for about a year or longer, when I offered to assist. Since then our team has gradually expanded. At the moment we have 5 active pilots: Jessica, I, Minastasia, Fen (fenchurch.oh) and Tyson Karfield. Other staff include our ground crew Stephyii and HCI executive Tatyana Thomas. Pilot Bart Exonar is on an extended leave due to internet issues. The Ca...
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Valentine's Love Boat Cruise

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 Last weekend I heard about the Valentine's Love Boat Cruise , organised by Linden Lab, using the great HUD that the Drivers of SL group has for it's Grid Drives. My new Coast Guard colleague and friend Mina suggested we could sail it, so out on the waves we went! Of course the starting location was completely packed already, so I found Minastasia and I a nice rezz spot in someone's garden in the next region along the route... We got her SeaRoo out into the river and we went! As usual, when I am out somewhere over Bellisseria, Stephyii showed up at some point. Here she is overtaking Mina and I in her Rubber Bunny Marlin catamaran. She always manages to catch up with us! The cruise ended with a big afterparty where Missy (mischievious.mole) was the DJ. It was a lot of fun, butfor me it was also a bit late, having a cold in real life on a saturday evening, so after a bit of dancing I left and made room for a new visitor, as it was all packed here too!
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