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Phileas Fogg Air Cargo Carrier


highplainsflyer

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December 13, 2017  Minneapolis to Toronto City

 

It's Taylor Swift's birthday!

 

The next segment of my flight is from Minneapolis to Toronto City.  The log and map:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/114860

 

From Minneapolis there were a lot of choices where to go.  Detroit and Chicago were obvious choices.  However, there really are not any particularly nice Detroit sceneries at the moment.  Sunskyjet has not released their freeware.  Blueprint's and Imaginesim's Detroits leave a lot to be desired.

 

As for Chicago, there are nice sceneries from FSDreamteam (O'hare) and Fly Tampa (Midway), not to say ORBX (Meig's Field).

 

But I had this Toronto City scenery I got a while ago and  have not used.  That made this a good choice for me.  Plus it moved me a lot farther on my adventure.  So Toronto City it was?

 

Things were pretty foggy, so there were no impressive views.

 

The Minneapolis scenery, of course, was by Flight Beam.

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December 13, 2017  Toronto City to New York (Teterboro)

 

With this flight, I attained the penultimate goal for this adventure.  Teterboro seemed an obvious choice for a GA aircraft.

 

It was mostly a night flight, however, for much of the trip, I was below the clouds.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/114880

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December 14, 2017  NYC to Burlington VT

 

The next flight took a somewhat different path than what would be the norm.  Instead of following the Atlantic coast to New Foundland, I went straight north to Burlington VT.

FSX Scenery had recently released a Burlington scenery, and this was  a route I had not taken before.

 

Of course, I took a detour to fly over Manhattan.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/114880

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December 14, 2017  Burlington VT to Quebec City

 

Today I visited two of my newer sceneries:  Burlington VT and Quebec City.  The former was by FSX Sceneries and the latter by FSim Studios.  Yes, the latter is a much nicer scenery than the latter.

 

Map and Log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/114907

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December 15, 2017  Quebec City to Stephenville NF

 

The next day's flight took me from Quebec City to Stephenville, Newfoundland.  Stephanville is part of the Newfoundland VFR short strip scenery package available from the flightsimsstore.  The funny thing is, Stephenville is neither a VFR or short strip.

 

Even though Stephenville is a tiny  hamlet, it does have an international airport.  It was built by the United States Air Force and operated as Ernest Harmon Air Force Base from 1941-1966.  It has a 10,000 foot runway -- long enough to serve as an emergency runway for the Space Shuttle.

 

The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency who are able to process general aviation with up to 30 passengers.

 

Again, it was another overcast day and the runway only became visible at under 2000 feet.

 

Map and Log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115021

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December 15, 2017  Stephenville to Gander

 

This was, perhaps, my most traditional flight for a GA Atlantic crossing However, Gander was not to be my launching point for that crossing.

 

I used a freeware FS9 scenery, however there is a payware version form Xpressims, which I probably should have used.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115034

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December 16, 2017  Gander to Iqaluit

 

Instead of turning east, I contined to fly north to the town of Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.  The scenery was from Simaddo;  since I have most of their other Canadian sceneries, it made sense to add this one as well.

 

It was a long two and one half hour flight, at over 300 nm, over tundra.  It was really quite pretty in spots.  Prepar3d crashed midway through.

 

I arrived shortly after sunset.  Silly Avatar Guy was running around the airport without a jacked.  Silly Avatar Guy!

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115108  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115123

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December 17, 2017  Iqaluit to Nuuk

 

The next day had a 460 mile flight with a duration of over three hours.  Since the days are really short this far north, it was to be my only flight of the day.

 

The Nuuk scenery is published by Aerosoft.

 

The silly Avatar Guy was still running around Nuuk without a jacket.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115220

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December 18, 2017  Nuuk to Kulusuk

 

This was one of the most frustrating flights on my adventure.  I as using a freeware Kulusuk scenery from Flightsim Greenland.  This destination does not have an ILS and the fog was thick.  The G1000 was not doing a good job of showing the airport, and it disappeared from the PFD (with synthetic vision).  Add a strong crosswind, and you have all the makings of a rough landing.  I took a mulligan on this one.

 

Most of the trip was over the Greenland ice sheet, which is something of a surreal experience.  At its highest point, the ice sheet is over 9000 feet, which came as a surprise to me.  The mountains near Nuuk are very  impressive.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115316

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December 18, 2017  Kulusuk to Reykjavik

 

After the landing at Kulusuk, Reykjavik was a dream.  Given the short days, it was going to be a night landing.  However there was not much of a crosswind and the ILS signal brought me in smoothly.

 

Reykjavik is part of Aerosoft's Iceland package.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115326

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December 19, 2017  Reykjavik to Vagar

 

This 462 nm flight was mostly over water.  However, crossing Iceland was fairly dramatic and I had to deviate from the flight plan to avoid mountains.

 

Again more AES problems.  Ruined the landing.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115385

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December 20, 2017  Vagar to Sumburgh

 

The last day of my adventure begins with a flight from Vagar to Sumburgh.  The flight is almost entirely over water.

 

I got my AES issues fixed and left Vagar at the crack of dawn, which was about 9:00 a.m. local time.  Then it was 1 hour and 47 minutes to the fist destination of the day.

 

Sumburgh scenery was by ORBX.  Vagar scenery was by Azurafiles.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115457

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December 20, 2017  Aberdeen to London City Airport

 

My concluding flight for this adventure was from Aberdeen to London City Airport.  This 416 mile flight took over three hours.  Most of the flying was at night.  Plus it was foggy and snowy most of the way.

 

Both sceneries were from UK2000.

 

Map and log:  http://www.fsxtracker.com/viewflight/115478

 

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Concluding Thoughts

 

First, I would like to thank Mathijs and Aerosoft for hosting this event.  It does not strike me as a particularly expensive project, but it is a really nice thing to do for your customers.  It certainly adds value to the products you sell.

 

Second, this is the first time I have actually completed a round the world trip in Flight Simulator.  While I have started many of these trips, I have always become distracted.  For me, the difference is having a limited number of stops in a limited amount of time.  It is one thing to have a round the world trip which spans two and one half years, and an entirely different matter getting it done in three months.  Having a limited number of rendezvous points was also a plus.  While participants had a number of "mandatory" stops, we were free to determine our stops (if any) in between.

 

Third, there was enough flexibility that everyone could play the game the way they wanted to play it.  Going through the diaries, it is obvious the participants played it many different ways.  We have seen travel by ship, railroad, and a variety of different planes.  My use of the C172 and C182 guaranteed more flight time and many more flights.  Someone who did not want to make that time commitment could choose a faster aircraft with a longer range.

 

Fourth, I don't think I would try using a trip like this in conjunction with another program, like Air Hauler or FS Economy again.  It adds a significant burden for too little payoff.  Perhaps FS Passengers would be a better choice, because one can choose one's departing and arrival airports.  The destinations available in AH2 and FS Economy are too random -- sort of like throwing darts at a map.  More often than not, they take flyers to places they don't really care to go.

 

Fifth, if I were to do something like this again, I probably would want to use something other than a slow GA aircraft.  Big parts of the trip -- across both oceans -- have a certain sameness.  I would be nice to explore different routes.  However, this requires aircraft with a greater range.

 

Sixth, I like nice scenery and have spent a lot of money on it.  Some people don't care, but using something other than the default scenery is a big plus.  If it seems every flight is to the same airport, a trip like this could be real boring.

 

Seventh, the advantage of an adventure like this is that it breaks us out of our ruts.  Instead of going to and from the same destinations, or flying the same aircraft, we get to go places we have not been before and try new things.  This makes it a rewarding experience.

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