Phileas Fogg Air Cargo Carrier

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 4

 

Well, I spent about a half day sulking about the botched flight recordings, but finally decided to get back to work.  I was back in England, getting jobs on the way to delivering cold turkeys to France.

 

I flew a load from Southhampton to Exeter, since Exeter was kinda sorta on the way to the Cotswold Airport.  Then another load from Exeter to Bristol Filton Airport.  This put me a short hop from the Cotswold Airport.  But the deadline for delivery of the turkeys had passed, meaning the past two days had been a terrible waste of time and a diversion from my trip.

 

Time to get moving.  I hauled another load of turkeys to Le Touquet - Côte d'Opale Airport.  This was a night haul, but at least I was out of England.

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 18

 

This was an interesting, but not particularly profitable day.  I started the day flying out of Dubai, heading to Izki Airbase in Oman with 479 pounds of fruit.  This was an interesting flight as I flew along range of mountains I dubbed the Mountains of the Arabian desert.  The airbase consisted of a dirt strip with no buildings.  This is one case where such a naked strip seemed accurate in real life, because Google Earth shows a naked strip with no buildings.

 

There were no loads heading the right direction, although I could have taken several loads back to the UAE!  So I deadheaded the flight to Seeb Airport near Muscat.  There is actually a commercial scenery from ORYX (not ORBX), which I have not used for an age.

 

There were no cargo jobs heading my way for the rest of the day.  So I hopped across the Persion Gulf to Jiwani, Pakistan (OPJI), and ended the day at Karachi, Pakistan.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 19

 

I left Karachi with 491 pounds of fruit bound for Rajkot (VARK) and picked up 361 points of fertilizer for delivery at Pune Airport (VAPO).  Pune is a short flight from Mumbai.  In fact, I flew over Mumbai on the way there.

 

Pune airport was a rather nice freeware airport, pictures below.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 20

 

I made an early flight into Mumbai (VABB).  After having damage to my landing gear repaired from a hard landing, I delivered 408 pounds of clothing to Hubli Airport.  Unfortunately, I arrived at night.  The runway was not lighted, so I was relying entirely upon my instruments.  I missed the runway entirely by at least 100 feet.  However, I did not crash into any trees.  In fact, Air Hauler rated my non runway landing as being positive.  Positive, my ass!  In any case, I lucked out and did not sustain any damage.

 

By the way this was another naked strip in FSX.  It should not have been.  Google Earth shows taxiways and even a few buildings. 

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 22

 

This was a money making day with a delivery of 317 pounds of frozen turkeys from Hubli to Goa International Airport VAGO (I wonder if there will be an cargo of beef anywhere in India?).  The Goa Airport has a nice freeware scenery.  From Goa, I delivered 100 pounds of narcotics which I had picked up in Pune to Prasanthinilayam (VOPN), another 100 pounds of narcotics from VOPN to Bellary  (VO17)  This was another bare naked strip in the middle of town.  I ended the day by delivering 530 pounds of seafood  from Bellary to Chennai (VOMM).  Go figure, Bellary is inland and Chennai is along the coast.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 23

 

I didn't do much today, except hang around Chennai.  I looked into purchasing a Cessna 404 Titan.  However, that is a $460,000 plane in Air Hauler and I fall well short of having that much.  A C-46 for flying over the hump is entirely out of the question because it is a $6 million airplane.  Even a Beaver is out of my range.

 

Not only that, since my reputation in Air Hauler is 28.73.  This is with over 88 hours of butt time flying and over 75 flights.  It takes a reputation of 40 to lease an aircraft or get a loan.  By the way, new flyers start with a reputation of 20, so over the past month of intense flying, I have gained only eight points.  At this rate, I really will not be able to change planes during this tour.  (By the way, the only plane I could really afford in Air Hauler is the default Cessna 172.  This would not have been a fun adventure with that plane.)

 

I am afraid, I cannot recommend Air Hauler to flightsimmers.  The game designer seems to intentionally stick gamers with a poor aircraft for an extremely long period of time.  This does not make for fun gaming unless one cheats.  This is poor game design.

 

Whether I continue with Air Hauler, or switch to something else, like FS Passenger or FSEconomy is yet to be seen.  I have not played FS Economy in an age, but it is much better suited for this type of adventure.

[highplainsflyer 20]

Air Hauler

 

I am officially fed up with Air Hauler 2.  The developer clearly did not want to encourage the use of "nomad mode," and wants players to operate from fixed bases.  That is, he does not see the program being used for an around the world trip like this one.

 

This becomes apparent with the start up menu.  Nomad mode is clearly the most difficult way of playing the game.  In hard mode, players start with a Cessna 172, reputation of 40% and $250,000 in cash.  In career mode, players start with a Cesna 172, a reputation of 20% and $100,000 in cash.  In nomad mode, which is the mode one has to use for a trip like this, players start with a Cesna 172, a reputation of 20% and $1,000 in cash.  The reputation is significant because one cannot get loans or lease aircraft until one has a reputation of 40%.

 

From my experience at this point in the trip, I have spent over 88 hours of butt time simply flying the plane.  This has increased my reputation from 20% to about 28.8%.  In short, it takes about ten hours of butt time actually flying to gain one point of reputation.  To reach the magic 40%, one would have to spend approximately 200 hours flying planes.  Then, there is the time lost for flights the program fails to record, the time planning flights, the time waiting for FSX to load, the time spent configuring the plane.  That 200 hours becomes 300 hours, easily.

 

Meanwhile, the developer expects players to use the default Cessna 172 until that 300 hours is achieved.  I suspect most gamers, myself included, will cheat and actually load a different aircraft.  But any game where one has to cheat to make it fun, is not a good game.

 

Additionally, from my diary, it is apparent that the majority of my flights using Air Hauler are to uninteresting bare naked airports.  If I liked bare naked airports, I would be using X-Plane.  Engaging in silly flights to boring airports is not my definition of a good time.

 

The most interesting flights come when there is no cargo heading in my direction and I can choose more interesting destinations -- that is destinations with payware or good freeware scenery.  But Air Hauler, on its own will not take me to those distinations.

 

So it's time to dump Air Hauler, and try something else.  I have given Air Hauler more than a fair test, and it simply does not work for this type of adventure.

[highplainsflyer 20]

FS Economy

 

Almost three years ago, Aerosoft sponsored another round the world adventure.  I started to use FS Economy to turn it into a profit generating venture.  This was similar to what I was doing with Air Hauler.

 

I stopped playing fairly early, upon arriving in Jamaica.  The truth of the matter is, I was getting bored with it.

 

I have a couple of beefs with FS Economy.  First, it seems that the long term players have picked the carcass clean, so to speak.  They have bought up all the available FDEs and the nice aircraft.  The problem with these multi-player games is that some players end up stepping on newer players  The newer players end up supporting the older players, but really are not full participants.

 

The second beef I had was that I have lost the planes I earned.  As a result of prior gaming and as part of the older world tour,  I was able to purchase a couple of GA aircraft.  Now, when I come back they are gone.  As a result, I am forced to go back and rent aircraft from some of the older players.

 

This means flying planes I don't really care for.  In some cases, these planes do not have nice models in FSX.  They are basically the leftovers of what the older players don't want.

 

I am going to pass.

[highplainsflyer 20]

FS Passengers

 

I have had FS Passengers for a while, but have never played it.  I am going to give it a shot.

 

Failing that, I will just simply schedule flights between my purchased and downladed scenery.  I have spent a lot of money on addons, both aircraft and scenery, and I see no reason to use dross in my game.

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 25

 

I made the trip from Chennai to Kolkata today.  The trip was broken in two parts.  The first leg, of 416 miles, taking 3 hours and 47 minutes was from Chennai (VOMM) to a city I would not even try to pronounce, Vishakhapatnam (VEVZ).  The Cessna's GPS did not recognize this identifier, expecting VOVZ.  (I suspect this is why I have been having trouble getting the G1000 to recognize certain airports and waypoints:  the identifiers in the G1000 differ from those in the game.)

 

The second leg, of 464 miles, taking 4 hours and 25 minutes was from Vishakhapatnam to Kolkata.

 

Air Hauler actually took me farther away from my target, Kolkata, than if I had simply gone from Mumbai to Kolkata.  In any case, I am done with it.

 

Today, I simply used an online program called  FSX Flight Tracker.  It tracks the distance traveled and the time spent covering that distance, both in real time and in sim time.

 

I also noticed I had an old Aerosoft program, Flight Keeper, which I have never used.  I installed it, and may take a look at it for a future leg.

[highplainsflyer 20]

The High Hump

 

The next goal for the adventure is Hong Kong.  If one is to stay true to Verne, one would take the sea route through the Straits of Malacca.  However, I am rather interested in the flights from Burma to China in WWII.    These flights basically went from Assam in India to Kunming in China.

 

Originally, I thought about taking Just Flight's new C46 for this trip.  I was hoping to have enough money in Air Hauler to do this in game.  But alas, the C-46 in Air Hauler was over $4 million.  I was not even close.

 

But thinking about it even more, I thought it would be more interesting to try this flight with my Cessna 172.  Crossing the Himalayas in a Cessna is just insane.  So let's try it!

[highplainsflyer 20]

Flight Tracker

 

I actually started using the FSX Flight Tracker program on the legs from Chennai, India to Kolkotta, as described in my October 25 entry.  I am now in Hong Kong and I have been using Flight Tracker to this point and am inclined to continue doing so for a while.

 

This program is not perfect.  It is supposed to immediately start when FSC gets started.  This does not always happen.  Sometimes I forget to check it and make sure it is actually working.

 

Or when FSX crashes, as it is so inclined to do, the program may stop recording.  As a result, I did not record my flight from Kolkotta to WGEG, about a three hour flight.  Also, I failed to start one of my flights, yesterday.  I caught my mistake after taking off and the  program recorded it from that time on.

 

One of the nice things about this program is it keeps a map of the flight and some of the basics of the flight and the map can be accessed online.

 

My online page can be found at http://www.fsxtracker.com/myflights/Marston

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 26.

 

I started the day by flying from Kolkotta to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport  in Bangladesh (WGEG)  Unfortunately, FSX crashed and restarted early in the flight.  Flight Tracker did not reset after the crash, and as a result, that flight was not recorded.

[highplainsflyer 20]

Flying the Hump

 

WGEG is really the starting point for flying the hump.  However, the whole trip is really too long for a Cessna, so I broke it into two parts.  Part one was from WGEG to Mandalay (VYMD). Part two went from Mandalay to Kunming (ZPPP).

 

From Wikipedia:

 

"The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from Indiato China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces (AAF) based in China...Flying over the Himalayas was extremely dangerous and made more difficult by a lack of reliable charts, an absence of radio navigation aid, and a dearth of information about the weather.

"The official history of the Army Air Forces states:

"The Brahmaputra valley floor lies 90 feet (27 m) above sea level at Chabua. From this level the mountain wall surrounding the valley rises quickly to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and higher. Flying eastward out of the valley, the pilot first topped the Patkai Range, then passed over the upper Chindwin River valley, bounded on the east by a 14,000-foot (4,300 m) ridge, the Kumon Mountains. He then crossed a series of 14,000–16,000-foot (4,300–4,900m) ridges separated by the valleys of the West Irrawaddy, East Irrawaddy, Salween, and Mekong Rivers. The main "Hump", which gave its name to the whole awesome mountainous mass and to the air route which crossed it, was the Santsung Range, often 15,000 feet (4,600 m) high, between the Salween and Mekong Rivers. East of the Mekong the terrain became decidedly less rugged, and the elevations more moderate as one approached the Kunming airfield, itself 6,200 feet (1,900 m) above sea level.""

With respect to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Wikipedia states:

 

"In 1941, during the Second World War, the British government built a landing strip at Kurmitola, several kilometres north of Tejgaon, as an extra landing strip for the Tejgaon Airport, which at the time was a military airport, to operate warplanes towards the war fields of Kohima (Assam) and Burmese war theatres."

[highplainsflyer 20]

Flying the Hump, First Flight

 

The first flight along the hump route (and my second flight of the day) was from Bangladesh to Mandalay in Myanmar.  My route was VGEG APAGO 70MDY VYGG LEGOB VYMD.  Of course, in WW2, modern navigation did not exist.  And I had a G1000!  The minimum safe altitude was 11,000 feet.  There was a lot of fog and low clouds at Mandalay, so I did not take any screenshots.  I did get a shot along the way.

 

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[highplainsflyer 20]

Flying the Hump:  Second Flight

 

The second flight was from Mandalay to Kunming with a route of VYMD MIA V10 LSO  A599 LINSO A599 GULOT W146 IDPUG ZPPP.  I did not spend a lot of time researching the actual route(s) flown in WWII, but the basic outlines were VGEG to VYMD to ZPPP.  I just followed modern (Victor) airways.

 

To be honest, flying the Hump was something of a letdown.  After doing some online research, I was expecting dramatic high peaks I would have to struggle to get over.  Compared to the Alps or the Rockies, these peaks were pretty mild.  I flew over several long ridges, but the High Himalayas were far to the West.  However, I can see how this would be imposing to aviators flying unpressurized aircraft (mostly C46s and C47s) in bad weather.

 

The minimum safe altitude for the highest part of the trip was 15,100 feet.  It was actually quite doable in the Cessna because I had plenty of time to reach that altitude.  It is very close to the Cessna's maximum altitude, and near the top I was climbing at about 100 feet per minute.

 

The weather was nice for most of the trip.  Even though it was fall, I did not have to contend with bad weather.

 

I found some nice freeware scenery for Kunming.  However, it was misbehaving, and I found the airport in a big hole.  The runway where I was landing was at the right level, so I landed but really had nowhere to go on the airport.  I eventually gixed the scenery.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 27  On to Hong Kong!

 

A direct flight from Kunming to Hong Kong was really at extreme range for my Cessna, so I broke the journey into two part.  Today's flight was from Kunming (ZPPP) to Nanning (ZGNN). My flightplan was ZPPP ATOLO W150 LXI A599 BSE R339 UVUNO ZGNN

 

After a three hour flight, and arrival at sunset, I was not really inclined to do a night flight into Hong Kong.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 28:  On to Hong Kong, Part 2

 

Today's flight was from Nanning to Hong Kong.  It was largely uneventful.

 

There was no good Nanning freeware or payware, but what I found was adequate for my purposes.

 

I am ahead of the curve.  I need to compile my miles from Airhauler and Flight Tracker for the big spreadsheet.

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 29  Hong Kong to Xiamen Gaoqi International

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The first flight of the day was from Hong Kong (VHHH) to Gaoqi International Airport (ZSAM).  The flight plan was VHHH GLN R200 BEBEM A470 TEBON TEB61K ZSAM.  I deliberately did not take a sid out of Hong Kong because I thought heading for the first waypoint might be more interesting.

 

A map of the flight can be found at the Flight Tracker Website:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110547  The first few minutes of the flight were not being tracked because Flight Tracker did not start automatically and I forgot to check.

 

The Xiamen scenery is from Island Sim.

 

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Approaching Xiamen

 

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Xiamen Airport

 

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 29  Xiamen (ZSAM) to Taipei (RCTP)

 

The second flight of the day was from Xiamen (ZSAM) to Taipei (RCTP).  The flight plan was ZSAM JNJ OBKEL HSU RCTP.  A map of the flight can be found at:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110571  Most of the flight was over water and I did not take any screenshots.

 

The Taipei scenery also was from Island Sim.

[highplainsflyer 20]

December 20, 2017 - Finished

 

I finished the world tour, landing at London City Airport at 6:16.

 

A log of my trip can be found at http://www.fsxtracker.com/myflights/Marston  Since I gave up on Air Hauler 2, I switched to FSX Tracker to log my flights.  While the tracker was to start automatically, it often did not.  As a result, in some cases, the logging did not start until I was well into the trip.  In at least one case, between Lake Tahoe and Salt Lake City, my internet connection was lost, apparently meaning that Flight Tracker did not work.

 

To get final distances and flights, I will try to recover the log from FSX and Prepar3d.  I will also work on my diary because I did have flight tracking and I have been making screen shots. 

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Ahoy HughPlainsflyer, welcome to London.

 

Drinks await in the bar at the Mall. Come and join the gaggle. 

[highplainsflyer 20]

October 30, 2017  Taipei to Ningbo

 

Originally I also planned a stop at Wenzhou, because apparently there was a nice freeware scenery for this city.  However, I was unable to download it because its site was not working.

 

The log is at http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110658

 

The scenery was the  Ningbo Lishe airport by Asian Airports.  One of the problems with this scenery is a huge blue cube, which can seen on my screenshots.

 

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 30, 2017  Ningbo to Jeju

 

My second flight of the day had me leaving China for good and making my way to South Korea.  Actually not South Korea proper, but more of a vacation island off of the cost of Korea.  This was largely a night flight, but since it was over ocean, no scenic views were really lost.

 

The flight log is http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110683

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[highplainsflyer 20]

October 31, 2017   Jeju to Nagasaki

 

The next morning's flight was from Jeju in South Korea to Nagasaki Japan.  This flight was mostly over ocean.  FSX crashed in the middle of the flight, and I restarted it where it crashed (thank you FSUIPC!)  I have attached two logs:

 

http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110750

http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/110773

 

The Jeju scenery is by Pacific Island Scenery.  The Nagasaki scenery was by Wing Creation

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