Disney After Humans

Amazingly, the storm passed and the skies cleared after just a few minutes. OK, I took control of the weather so I could fly without worrying about it. I took back off from Executive Airport planning to head southwest and find Disney World.

As I took off and started climbing out over Orlando I noticed something interesting. This part of Orlando appears to still be within the MegaScenery Earth territory I downloaded, so the ground is a photographic image. But because it's a city, there are also 3D buildings. What's strange is when there's a 3D model of one house, and just the flat 2D image of the house next door.

Anyway, I turned to a heading a 225 degrees and then tried to dial in the 225 radian from the Orlando VOR. I was off to the northwest of my correct line, so I turned south until I found it and then resumed by original heading. By then I was a couple of miles out with Disney estimated at 18 miles.

At 16 miles, I happened to look out my right side and saw the big globe of Epcot going by. I banked hard to the right to get a better look and grab a picture:

It was at this point that I realized Disney wasn't going to look as nice as I'd hoped. They seem to have sold off most of their property, including everything right around Epcot, and let it return to farmland.

I continued my right turn, knowing that the Magic Kindom itself was north of Epcot and should be within sight. I found it easily enough, cut power and descended to 1,000 feet for a flyby.

As with Epcot, the Magic Kindom seemed to have been taken over by nature. It reminded me of that Life After Humans show where they digitally simulate famous places as nature takes back over (assuming all humans have disappeared).

All that's left of the Magic Kingdom is Cindarella's Castle and Space Mountain, plus a few odd buildings including a badly modeled version of the hotel that the monorail goes through. The shape is roughly correct, but they seemed to have skinned it with regular brick building facade, which doesn't look right at all.

I was so stunned by this discovery that I completely neglected to take any exterior shots, so all I got were these out the window views.

Having accomplished my mission, I turned back to the northeast and found a heading to take me back to Orlando. I got back quick enough, requested clearance to land, and returned to the same runway that had vexed me in the bad weather.

This time it was a bit easier. I still didn't nail the middle of the runway, but the landing was smooth enough and at least all three wheels touched down on concrete:

The more I use this joystick, the mushier it seems to get. I've tried recalibrating it, but that doesn't seem to help. I'm surprised I don't crash more often (knock on wood), as sloppy as the controls are and with no rudder pedals to help.