Flying Ferret

  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

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