The small portable tripod that I carried during the photo session made my life much easier, because the lack of light required a fairly long exposure and a total absence of movement. In the background, you can see the Hotel Le Concorde Québec and its revolving restaurant.
The Joan of Arc Garden in Quebec City on the night of St-Jean-Baptiste 2022.
In the center of the garden is a large monument of Joan of Arc by American sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and donated by her and her husband Archer Huntington in 1938.
Several publications and websites state that the donors of this statue are anonymous. This possibly adds a bit of mystery to this beautiful work, but nonetheless shadows the gift the couple gave in honor of the patriotism and courage of the fighters of the battles of 1759 and 1760.
Both photos were taken with a Canon 5DSr full frame camera equipped with a Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8L II USM lens. Click on the link for more pictures of Quebec City in summer on my blog.
Today’s flight consists of two virtual short landings using the MSFS 2020 flight simulator(or as some call it, FS2020). We will be landing on Île d’Orléansand on the Battlefields Park.
First of all, I admit that the Cessna 170B’s windows are dirty. For realism, the designer Carenado left a little dirt here and there to show the wear and tear of this very old aircraft.
The picture above shows Île d’Orléans as seen from the Cessna. Since there is no landing strip but a golf club in the area, we will use the open fairways to land the aircraft. If there is a golfer on the course, I will open the window and yell, as is customary, “Fore!” (Falling Object Returning to Earth).
On final for Île d’Orléans
We are established on final for the small portion of open ground ahead. With 40 degrees of flaps, the stall speed is particularly low and the landing should not be too difficult.
On Île d’Orléans ready for take-off.
Although the available strip was not very wide, it was long enough for the landing, the taxiing and the maneuvering to turn the aircraft 180 degrees for its take-off to Quebec City.
Airborne from Île d’Orléans with a Cessna 170B
Back in the air, direction Quebec City. The take-off on soft ground requires about 20 degrees of flaps.
Enroute towards Quebec City.
Quebec City is in sight. In the Cessna C-170B I flew in 1981 across Canada from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to Edmonton, Alberta, there was no modern navigation aid installed on board as in the photo above, where the GPS helps the pilot find his way. The flight was flown using 14 VFR charts and nothing more. (If you are interested, click to read more about real-life flying stories on my blog).
Hôtel le Concorde and its revolving restaurant, visible on the right.
We are now above the Plains of Abraham. On the picture above, on the right, you can see the Hotel le Concorde and its revolving restaurant. We will possibly disturb the quiet atmosphere of the meal as we fly by…
The MNBAQ and the Battlefields Park are in sight.
Above, straight ahead, the gray buildings represent a portion of the Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Québec (MNBAQ). A little further on is the open area of the Battlefields Park. In 1928, Lindbergh landed on that field to bring badly needed medicine for his friend Floyd Bennett. Can we normally land on the Battlefields Park, in the heart of Quebec City? Of course not. But that’s the beauty of a flight simulation; you can do whatever you want!
Cessna 170B on the Battlefields Park in Québec City.
Once landed, the aircraft is allowed to decelerate gradually and then turned 180 degrees for the next takeoff. When winds are light, there is no need to worry about the direction of the takeoff.
Aerial view of Battlefield Parks with the Cessna 170B under MSFS 2020.
Above, an aerial view of the Battlefields Park, with the virtual Cessna C-170B ready to take off again.
Partial view of Quebec City in flight simulation with MSFS 2020
One last picture, this time with some additional buildings. The realism of the virtual scene with FS2020 is amazing!
I hope you enjoyed these two short flights. Whether you use the short landing technique for the Battlefields Park is really up to you, as there is enough space for a normal landing. But it is good to practice landing in the shortest distance possible. You never know when your engine will quit!
The crowd on the Plains of Abraham, in Quebec City, during the 2018 Festival d’été de Québec.
The Quebec Summer Festival draws huge crowds every year to each one of its shows. I decided to use the crowds to compose a photo in which there are only two subjects. In the foreground, one of the trees on the Plains of Abraham. I use the tree to create a diagonal that crosses the picture and, at the same time, helps balance the colours in the picture.
In the background, the crowd, without any other distraction. The people fill every available corner of the picture. They are the ones bringing the picture to life. It is also because of their presence every year that the Quebec Summer Festival is a success.
The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR camera equipped with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM lens. The focal length was 200mm and the shutter speed 1/250. Despite a 200mm focal, the people were still too far to be clear enough.
The goal being to crop the picture enough to enlarge the people, the ISO had to be quite low. It was set at 640. Once those priorities were established, the aperture could only be set at 5.0, which was good enough for the result I was trying to obtain. The 50.6 megapixels full frame sensor of the Canon 5DSR helped a lot.
For other pictures of Quebec City, click on the following
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