From Japan to SL

  

SL18B has come! As the last year, there are many free gifts in the Shop and Hop using a huge shopping mall. Last year it used actually 10 SIMs, but this year there are 16! The three SIMs at the center are dummy. There are total of 321 shops, with at least one free gift for each. They are not only clothing, accessories, but also shapes, skins, houses, plants, vehicles, hoses and dragons!




It needs more than five hours to visit the three hundred and twenty shops even when spending only one minute each including moving. I covered all shops within half a day. I did not pick up goods not for me but ended up with more than 150 items. I will enjoy opening them one by one through the rest of the year.



It will be held until July 6th. There is a list of the whole shops that made it possible to TP directly. Sometimes you will appear at the backside of a shop. If you were in a vacant room, please move your camera to find the way to the mall side.
SL18B Stores: https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/8245-your-guide-to-the-sl18b-shop-hop-including-early-access/　



  

Kazumi the owner of the plane kindly let me take pictures of the flight. The one set at the bay was a decoy only for presentation, so she took out the flyable one. I got a rare shot where two giant planes set next to each other.




Engines started roaring with black smoke. The eight engines were started one by one in sequence.




Hughes H4 Hercules coming out on the sea. It is planning smoothly but soon reached the end of a SIM hitting a dry land. This was a maiden flight of H4 for Kazumi and the first attempt was a failure. The real H4 also was not able to fly but only lifted up a little within the ground effect.




H4 floating above the SIM. This was not the world greatest but I think the most beautiful flying boat.




Above the Baba Meeting area. From this close distance, the huge size like the Jumbo-jet can be felt.




Did you notice that I used words “floating” and “above”? It was impossible to fly on the day and this was set still in the air for photo shooting. Thank Kazumi for the cooperation. I wish there would be another chance to shoot the plane flying. But if it were made as real as the original, it would not fly. ^-^




There was a plan of a huge flying boat in Japan too, Kawanishi KX-3. Comparing with the Hercules of 97.51×66.6m, KX-3 was 180×162m, almost double size of H4. I saw the Hercules at Los Angeles when I was at the high school, and the small engines and slim propellers looked not enough to fly this body. KX-3 had twelve propellers and six jet engines, but still, it could be underpowered for this huge plane. You know, this picture is a composite.









  

Next to my gallery, there have been a huge flying boat parked, the Spruce Goose by Howard Hughes, that was in the movie The Aviator. It is so huge that the width covers almost half of the SIM.




I measured it and fount the width of about 100m, the length of 67m. that are the same as the real one. It is not the world largest plane but larger than the 747 jumbo jet and has the world tallest height.




The cockpit was made as simple as that of Cessna. The seat is just a simple cube.




The captain seat of the real one. The eight throttle levers at the center are cool. There are too many switches and levers on the center console, that could be designed to be operated by Mr. Hughes himself.




The flight engineer seat, with a simple box seat. The instruments are only for monitoring engine operation.




Actual flight engineering seat. Also, the main instruments are for engine and fuel. It seems that there is not enough instrument for navigation, so it might not be planned to fly a long distance.




Lookdown view of 747 cockpit with my Microsoft Flight Simulator (of course on my PC monitor). In addition to these switches, there are more on the overhead console, all of them will work actually. I was not able to even take off following the standard procedure.



I have noticed this plane for a long time but never thought this is flyable. The owner Kazumi said it is possible, so next time I will report the result of flying it.




  

There were some flying animals. It was possible to fly with Pteranodon.




Picking on Diplodocus. He should be gentle but a bit scary.




Ikran flying under the floating rocks on the planet Pandora. Free ones are available at a Pandora shop with shape and skin of Navi.




Visited the human base with Ikran. Now nobody is here but Neeko is preparing for a new RPG. I will come back later for news gathering.




My favorite, a flying elephant. It is also possible to walk on the ground.




I am using this flying balloon still now. At that time, I did not know to “add” and I lost skirt every time when using this.




The last scene of “THE INEVITABILITY OF FATE, A story about Angry Beth and Lot” by Rose Borchovski. Let us go together with Lot to a world where there is neither war nor any chance to lose our children!　







  

There were many unique flying machines in SL. A helicopter of Leonardo da Vinci was also flying. This is my favorite one, Mowen of Nausicaa. There is a person who actually made this and flew in RL. It was well accepted overseas too.
Flying Mowen; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNWrJZDPu4Y　




Flappter flying towards Uluru (Ayers Rock). No one tried to make this in RL I think, but there is a wonderful flapping drone that attracted real birds.
Drone like a bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BklB99ybM　




The creator of a space station Barry gave me a ride on his pod. This was a world with air and gravity though.




I do not see the meaning of this rocket, found in the NASA Education SIM. It could be cool to be able to fly freely with this.




Baba SIM was terminated. A farewell party was held and this was the last cleanup. We brought out various things arbitrarily on the vacant ground. There is a height limit of 30m in this SIM but nobody dare care. The Suzu’s panda stands more than 100m tall.




Many starships fired the cannons in salute. It was a great joy that this was done without any preliminary notice.




It is impossible to fly the SL balloon, but it is the best tool for sightseeing. I am using it whenever visiting a new place. It is good for dating, but I seldom had a chance to do so…



I had a chance to ride on a hot air balloon at Aspen. The balloon flew over the sleeping Aspen town. On the dark green forest, the red balloon that departed together was floating quietly next to us, that was a breath-taking scenery.
It might be possible to change the direction by selecting height and air flow, so the three balloons that started together picked up individual course, and the silver one was flying high in the sun and passed the ridge far away.
The pilot pointed at a small grassy area in a forest where a family of fox was playing. Our balloon goes down toward them without any sound, then the burner roared suddenly, and the cubs disappeared instantly.
After about one hour flight, the balloon reached a grass farm and there was a high ridge ahead of us. The pilot said it was hard to come back if passing the ridge. At the center of the grass area, the ground crew were waiting. The balloon went directly to the spot. The crew pulled the balloon to a road with us on the board, then opened the top flap letting the hot air out to set down the balloon.