Flying Ferret

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...

 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...

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...

  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...

  Given that there is no central authority in Second Life that issues Pilot's Licences and that Shergood Aviation has such a project going on, but it is far from ready yet, I decided to obtain mine through a friend who is sort of an authority. Or at least, so she claims. The Queen of ɮɝɕɏȸʥʞɝ was kind enough to provide me with the first ever pilot's licenses issued by her Kingdom, which is situated somewhere on Jeogeot's coast. It's rather small, so it may take you a while to find it... I don't think she likes aircraft much since the licence reads that I am qualified to 'pilot all sorts of things', with the following limitation: 'provided they are kept away from us.' I suppose that means I am allowed to fly anywhere, except for in the Kingdom of ɮɝɕɏȸʥʞɝ There it is! I keep my license safely stored in my hangar, on the Ground Power Unit, next to the pizza boxes.  

I've been flying in SL since 2010, so it might be about time I make a blog. Especially since many of my previous publications on forums etc. have vanished with the years, due to Second Life's Aviation forum stopping for instance. So.. this is a good occasion for me, since today I took out my Shergood Aviation Brantly B2B helicopter for it's longest flight to date: Jeogeot Gulf Airport in Spurness , with a stopover in White Star Airport and then on to my other homebase: Aerodrome Amelia Earhart in Xobite . Arrived at Aerodrome Amelia Earhart That spans 5 of Second Life's mainland continents: Jeogeot, Bellisseria (this is most of the flight distance), Satori (once also called maebaleia), Nautilus and Corsica. About to take off from Spurness The idea came to mind after I tested the B2B's fuel consumption and contemplated it might just make the 300 regions between Spurness and White Star. While nearing the destination, I realised I had 1/4 of the tank left, the grid w...