A Spanish Adventure - Around the world in Microsoft FS2020

[Juggernut]

If they make a Lockheed Electra, one might recreate Amelia Earhart’s journey.

[ChuckD]

13 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Okay, I think I’m starting to warm up to this.  So the weather you encounter on each leg is pretty much what is actually going on at that moment where your Beech is flying?  How do they do that?  How does it know?  

 

Yep, you've got it absolutely right.  There are a lot of websites out there that take in and aggregate global weather data for pilots and flight planning.  Microsoft has tapped into that for live weather updates.  

[John1]

7 hours ago, ChuckD said:

 

Yep, you've got it absolutely right.  There are a lot of websites out there that take in and aggregate global weather data for pilots and flight planning.  Microsoft has tapped into that for live weather updates.  

OBG - the sim also has “Live Traffic” so you are seeing commercial jets during your flight at the same position, speed and altitude as the real thing.   It’s pretty neat.  

[ChuckD]

Full screenshot gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/d3T1Fvs

 

Date: 08/01/2022

Leg: 004

Depart: Vilo Acuna, Cuba (MUCL)

Arrive: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (MTTP)

Route: Overfly Grand Cayman, overfly Kingston, Jamaica

Total time: 5.5hrs

Instrument time: N/A

Night time: N/A

Takeoffs (Day/Night): 1/0

Landings (Day/Night): 1/0 

Instrument approaches: 0

 

Total trip time: 14.9hrs

 

Route:

 

Weather:

Clear with generally light winds.  Heavy turbulence over mountainous areas.  Heavy haze over Port-au-Prince.

 

Narrative:

After a brief overnight on the beautiful island of Cayo Largo del Sur, we checked the weather, planned our flight, and loaded up 72Z for the trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  With such beautiful tropical weather, we decided to take something of a scenic route, bouncing from Cayo Largo to Grand Cayman, to Jamaica, then Haiti.  This also helped keep us reasonably close to land in case something went south and the Beech decided she’d had enough.

 

After a quiet overwater flight, Grand Cayman Island slid over the horizon.  

 

 

On reaching Cayman’s southern shore, we swung east and headed towards Jamaica.  

 

 

It wasn’t long before the lush green island came into view amid a scattering of puffy clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

Soon, Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, hove into view.  

 

 

 

I was surprised by the density of the urban area.  It was by far the most dense we’d seen since leaving the US.

 

 

Just east of Kingston is a series of mountains with towering peaks that, despite our altitude, we were looking up at.  We detoured slightly to the south to avoid them… almost.  I wanted to get a good up close view, so I flew probably a little closer than I should have.  The turbulence was terrific.  At one point, we were tossed upwards at over 2000 feet per minute by the winds racing up the mountain slopes.  

 

 

 

 

Back over the ocean, the turbulence calmed and we were soon over Haiti’s long southern peninsula.  Again, the mountain turbulence tossed us all over the sky.  

 

 

 

 

As we neared our destination of Port-au-Prince, I tuned in the AWOS (automated weather observation system) there to get a bead on the weather.  The news wasn’t good.  An afternoon fog had rolled in, dropping visibility to just the bare minimums for visual flight.  

 

 

 

To be safe, I had my instrument approach charts handy, but opted to at least try for a visual approach first.  Making heavy use of the GPS to approximate lining up with the runway, we groped further into the afternoon murk.

 

 

At three miles, the faintest outline of the runway emerged from the fog and we swung round to the final approach bearing.

 

 

 

 

With a squawk, 72Z’s tires kissed the damp pavement and we rolled to a stop.  Despite requesting parking at the GA ramp, ground control insisted we taxi to the main terminal gates.  Seemed odd, but I’m not one to argue.  

 

 

After half a day in the cockpit, we were all relieved to be on the ground again.  But, we weren’t planning on staying long as we wanted to get to St. Croix soon.  Calling the line crew for fuel, I was off to plan the next leg of our flight.  

[Oldbaldguy]

Astounding.  On these overwater legs, does the sim show cloud shadows on the water?  Cloud shadows on open ocean will really mess with your head if you are looking for an island.  Speaking of which, you should turn off the GPS and autopilot and hand fly it between some of these over the horizon islands.

[John1]

50 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Astounding.  On these overwater legs, does the sim show cloud shadows on the water?  Cloud shadows on open ocean will really mess with your head if you are looking for an island.  Speaking of which, you should turn off the GPS and autopilot and hand fly it between some of these over the horizon islands.

I've been thinking about flying a ferry route from France via Scotland via Iceland via Greenland to the US in a Cessna 310.   Old school six pack instruments and an ADF.  No way I'm going to handfly tho, I'll use a basic heading / altitude hold autopilot.     Realtime weather.   Depending on length of the leg, I might cheat with a bit of time compression while in cruise.   

 

Really enjoying this journey! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChuckD]

When flying IFR, I tend to rely a little less on the autopilot, oddly enough.  Seems counter intuitive, but I tend to use fewer AP axes when climbing out, descending, or approaching in IMC.  That said, AP in route follow mode linked to the GPS is the only way I'm going to get through these flights.  Once I'm in cruise, I can go to my model room and work on my projects while just monitoring the flight's progress on my decrepit PC there.  It works well enough.

 

As to clouds shadows on the ocean, yes they are there.  I feel they're kind of under-represented, but then again, I've never actually flown across large expanses of water.  It seems like in general, the shadows of thinner, puffier clouds are pretty weak.  Once you start getting into heavier, towering clouds, their shadows and corresponding sun rays can be pretty pronounced.

[Woody V]

OMG, flight sims have certainly improved since the last time I used one - Hellcats over the Pacific, 1991ish.

 

[John1]

On 8/23/2022 at 8:13 AM, Archer Fine Transfers said:

OMG, flight sims have certainly improved since the last time I used one - Hellcats over the Pacific, 1991ish.

 

Total garbage.   Everyone knows the multifunction display in the F6F was located on the left side of the instrument panel.    That's the wrong shade of green on that Zero as well.   SMH...

[ChuckD]

 

Date: 8/1/22
Leg: 005
Depart: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (MTTP)
Arrive: St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (TISX)
Route: Direct
Total time: 3.6 hrs
Instrument time: .1 hrs
Night time: 2.7 hrs
Takeoffs (Day/Night): 1/0
Landings (Day/Night): 0/1
Instrument approaches: 0

 

Total trip time: 18.5 hrs

 

Route:

We will be departing Port-au-Prince, climbing through the valley between the mountains to the east, then detouring south of the remainder of Haiti and Puerto Rico to hit St. Croix after dark.  The idea is to keep us relatively near land, but far enough away that we don't have to worry about hitting a mountain in the dark.

 

Weather:
Very hazy with low vizibility at Port-au-Prince, light clouds throughout remainder of flight with relatively clear skies near destination.

 

Flight Log:
Welcome aboard for the next leg of the journey.  This one will take us from the capital of Haiti to tropical resort island of St. Croix.  In our last leg, we landed in poor visibility after a long overwater flight over Grand Cayman and Jamaica.  We wanted to make a quick turnaround, so after arriving at Port-au-Prince, we refueled, stretched, hit the head, and got ready to go again.  

 

The weather was, as can be expected, still lousy, but 72Z (which, I realize I forgot to mention, would be referred to as "seven two zulu") wound up faithfully. Seconds after engaging the starters, both engines were purring smoothly.  She seemed ready, if not eager to fly again.

 

Taxi and takeoff were normal and we were soon climbing out of the murk.

 

 

 

The urban density really stood out to me.  Even from afar, it was clear to see how closely packed the buildings were.  Sadly, I can only imagine the squalor of some of the living spaces there and my heart goes out to those residents.

 

 

Extending ESE from Port-au-Prince is a long valley filled with lakes and with steep, rugged mountains lining either side.  This flows east until it his the Caribbean Sea at Naiba Bay.  This valley made a perfect lane in which to climb to our cruising altitude.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the lakes, Lago Enriquillo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Enriquillo), was almost an ocean unto itself. 

 

 

 

Racing eastward, away from the setting sun, sunset descended upon us quickly.

 

 

Undaunted, 72Z carried us into the deepening darkness.

 

Slowly, the lights of St. Croix began to emerge from the inky blackness.

 

Descending, we lined up the runway, switched on the landing lights and prepared for landing.

 

GUMPS check!

 

Gas
Undercarriage
Mixture
Props
Seatbelts

 

 

With a gentle wind down the runway, touchdown and landing were uneventful.  We taxied to park and cut the mixtures, letting 72Z's Pratt & Whitney R-985s wind down to silence, ticking softly as they cooled in the tropical night air.

[ChuckD]

Full photo gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/4g39Tzk

 

 

Total trip time: 23.4 hrs

 

Route:

Today, we'll be having some fun.  I've been pretty excited about this leg.  I'd seen videos of some of the airports around the Caribbean that really have no reason to be and I really want to check some of them off my bucket list.  The first stop would be Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport.  At 1,312ft, it is widely known as the shortest commercial runway in the world.  After that, we'd turn northeast and hit Princess Juliana International at St. Martin.  This is the famous airport where tourists taunt fate by standing directly behind departing 747s as they spool up for takeoff (see: here).  Lastly, we'd hit Gustaf III Airport (TFFJ)on Saint Barthélemy.  Why?  Well, I'll let the video do the talking.  Once we have our fun, we'll climb, turn south, and cruise to our destination of Pedernales, Venezuela.

 

Weather:
Beautiful flying weather.  Relatively clear and calm with puffy clouds scattered across the route.

 

Narrative:
After a quick overnight, it was time for some fun.  The sun rose on a bright, sunny, and beautiful day for flying.  Preflighting the Beech saw no major issues, so we topped off her tanks, loaded up our luggage, strapped in Fatpuppy, and were soon thundering down the runway at St. Croix.

 

Climb out was without incident and 72Z performed beautifully.

 

 

We wished we could have stayed at St. Croix a bit longer as its beautiful, white sand beaches stretched out for miles all around.

 

 

But soon, St. Croix was slipping over the horizon behind us and I was giddy with anticipating of trying a landing at Yrausquin "airport," which truly is nothing more than a flat space hacked out of a mountainous island.  With a full load of fuel and passengers, I didn't 72Z had what it took to stop on the short runway, so I began making plans for a touch and go landing.  

After a short, over-water jaunt in crystalline skies...

 

...the positively tiny Dutch Caribbean island of Saba came into view.

 

We made our descent and came around the south side of the island, wanting to get a lay of the land - and hopefully a windsock reading (spoiler alert: no windsocks are modeled at this airport ) - before trying an attempt to land.

 

 

In a blink, the airport flashed under us.

 

 

 

After clearing the island to the north, we executed at 180* turn and prepped for a touch and go landing.  

 

The rocky cliff faces were ominously large, but 72Z carried us to a hasty touchdown.  

 

As the wheels hit the runway, I mashed the throttles forward and 72Z clawed her way skyward again.  (I didn't get a good screenshot of the touchdown as I was way too busy trying not to die.)  One airport down.  Now on to St. Martin which was just a short shot north from Saba.

 

I requested and was cleared for a full stop landing.  I wanted to top off Zulu's tanks before we began our trip to South America.  

 

 

Touchdown was uneventful and after a brief stop at the pumps, we were climbing up and out of St. Martin...

 

...rocketing our way south towards St. Barthélemy.  This would be the trickiest landing yet.  Having never been there before, I didn't know what to expect.  

 

Turns out the runway is on the back side of that hill in the center of the shot there.  Eeek.  The approach was/is nuts.  You clear vehicles at a roundabout at the crest of the hill, then drop like a stone while trying to keep your speed down till you hit the runway.  Again, I missed the shot as I was focused on not A) smacking a mountain, or running off the end of the runway into the lagoon.  After an unceremonious *whump*, I firewalled the throttles and pulled skyward again.

 

Zulu responded without hesitation and soon we were circling the area, in awe of the fact that people considered this an "airport."

 

 

With the goofing around done, we climbed to 12,000ft and set a course for our destination.  One by one, each island in the Caribbean chain slid by silently under an intermittent blanket of soft, pillowy clouds.

 

 

 

Eventually, the long arm of the Paria Peninsula came and went and we began our descent into Pedernales.

 

 

 

With towering storm clouds gathering to the south, we made haste for the safety of the runway. 

 

 

 

 

Touchdown was uneventful and we taxied to what appeared to be the only building on the grounds.  Jungle birds and wildlife called in the distance as Zulu's engine's wound to a halt.  After almost five hours in the air, the silence was deafening.

 

Tonight, we would celebrate our arrival on the new continent in the small town of Capure before turning in for the night.  Tomorrow morning, we had a decision to make.

[Dpgsbody55]

Saba and St Barts are two of the trickiest airports anywhere.  At least the good news for flight simmers is that MSFS terrain data is too low for the top of that hill at St Barts, making it easier than in real life.  At St Barts, if you haven't touched down by the halfway point on the runway, you're either going around, or going for a swim.  Saba is not much different.

 

St Barts crash landing

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

[ChuckD]

Indeed.  I took the Beech to a nearby airport the other day to practice short field takeoffs and landings.  With half tanks, she's actually pretty nimble.  I might do a for-fun flight into and out of Saba and St Bart's just to see if I can stick it.  

[ChuckD]

Full photo gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/F9BqQ1m

 

 

Total trip time: 27.2 hrs

 

Route:

 

We would depart northwest, passing over Isla Margarita at 8500', turn west to track a VOR station at Coro, then turn southwest en route to Maracaibo.  With clouds and weather in the area, the idea was to scoot just north of the coastline to avoid any mountains or other terrain hidden in the weather.  Once crossing the Coro VOR station, the terrain was flat enough to mitigate any risk of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). 

 

Weather:

Moderate cloud deck around 5000' at departure, but clearing nearing destination.

 

Flight Log:

At this point, we had to make a decision.  The original idea had been to follow the old South Atlantic Ferry Route used to ferry heavy bombers to the various combat zones during WWII.  That would have taken us southeast along the coast, then east to Ascension Island and across the Atlantic.  But, as we wound down for the night after arriving in Pedernales, we realized that if we did not take this opportunity, we would likely never see any of South America again.  So, after some consideration, and a few drinks, we decided to "take the scenic route" and loop all the way around the South American continent in a counter-clockwise path.  In retrospect, I'm glad we did.  Our first stop would be Maracaibo, Venezuela.  Then from there, on to the Panama Canal, then south along the western coast of South America till we round the southern tip and begin the trip northward again.

 

Arriving at the Pedernales airport, we found the weather was more or less fair above us.  However, just south, angry thunderheads were building, slowly towering over the landscape.  Not wishing to delay, we taxied Zulu through the grass and lined up on the poorly-maintained strip.

 

 

 

Advancing the throttles, her R-985s responded smoothly and we were soon bidding farewell to Pedernales.

 

 

 

 

 

We climbed to 8500' to get above the cloud deck and began the first leg of our trip towards Isla Margarita.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully, as we neared Isla Margarita, the clouds began to break up, though they never fully dissipated.

 

 

Reaching the center of the eastern portion of Isla Margarita, we banked left and headed towards the Coro VOR station.

 

 

 

 

 

Isla Tortuga, in all its barren, desolate glory slid silently past.

 

 

 

From there, it was a long, lonely over-water flight to reach Coro VOR.

 

 

 

Once the To/From indicator on the VOR2 radio flipped - indicating we'd passed Coro - we banked southwest towards Maracaibo.

 

 

 

We skirted the taller mountain ranges to the north, though we were clear of their 6000' peaks.

 

 

 

With the Gulf of Venezuela on our right and Lago de Maracaibo to our left, we began the decent towards Maracaibo city, which lay on the far side of the inlet.

 

 

 

From the cockpit, Maracaibo was a bustling metropolis.

 

 

 

 

 

Maracaibo's airport is situated on the western outskirts of the town proper. 

 

 

 

We received vectors for a visual approach to runway 3L, an asphalt runway nearly 2 miles long and set up on a left downwind.

 

 

 

Dropping gear and flaps, slowing the aircraft, we made our final approach, the long, clean runway beckoning.

 

 

 

With a gentle squawk, we touched down and taxied to shutdown.  Thus ended the first leg of our South American journey.

 

 

 

[ChuckD]

On 9/1/2022 at 12:19 AM, Dpgsbody55 said:

Saba and St Barts are two of the trickiest airports anywhere.  At least the good news for flight simmers is that MSFS terrain data is too low for the top of that hill at St Barts, making it easier than in real life.  At St Barts, if you haven't touched down by the halfway point on the runway, you're either going around, or going for a swim.  Saba is not much different.

 

St Barts crash landing

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

 

As a bit of an update to this, I finally did a for-fun flight in the Bahamas in the Beech 18 last night.  I did three full stop landings at Saba, and while they weren't super pretty, they were absolutely livable.  Taildraggers in this game are incredibly squirrely on the ground.  The tendency to weathervane is, in my opinion, massively overmodeled.  So, landings under anything like a crosswind are always tenuous.  Add to that a 1300' runway on a slope and things get interesting quickly.  

 

Once I did those, I flew over to St. Barts and managed to stick a half dozen landings in both directions.  You're right in that the terrain data is a little out of whack, but I think the game makes up for it by having a big plot of trees at the crest of the hill.  So, my procedure was to come in just over the tops of those trees at about 68kts (just above full-flap stall speed), chop the throttle as I passed over them, and dive for the big "10" on the runway.  Pull back and flare at the last second, then heavy braking as soon as the wheels stuck.  I found by doing that, I was able to touch down within the first few hundred feet and be fully stopped just past the midfield taxiway.  

 

To be fair, I was doing this in an aircraft with ~1/3 fuel and no cargo.  So, she was light and nimble.  Good times.