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...

  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...

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...