A Spanish Adventure - Around the world in Microsoft FS2020

[Dpgsbody55]

Great pictures again and some wonderful scenery.  I think the latest version of MSFS, with all it's scenery updates, is the first flight sim to truly begin to capture what a beautiful world we live in.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[themongoose]

I would never see these areas without following along with you. Great thread!

[ChuckD]

Welcome back and thanks for joining me. 

 

When last we left off, we had done some sight-seeing around the Holy City of Mecca, the center of the Islamic faith.  That represented something of a quick detour from our African adventures, and today, we will be winging back to the big continent as we continue northward towards Cairo, Egypt. 

 

Though I forgot to take a screenshot of the exact route, this is roughly the plan:

 

 

We will take off northwest out of Mecca, cross the Red Sea, then head inland to pick up the Nile River valley so we could follow it north to Cairo proper.

 

Weather was again very cooperative with clear skies and light winds.  I was starting to wonder if the weather modeling was broken (it's been buggy before), but checking the actual weather reports at the time proved that the game was in alignment with the actual conditions.  *shrug* Lucky me, I guess. 

 

With fair winds and clear skies, take off and climb out were pretty uneventful.  I'm happy to say that after all this time, I've gotten better on my takeoff procedures (knock on wood).  Generally speaking, when the tail comes up at 40 knots, it's a hard, sharp kick to the right rudder to keep the nose from yawing left.  Then relax pressure to let the nose come right just a bit, then dance on the pedals until the big bird flies herself off the runway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hills that dominate the inbound traffic pattern.

 

 

 

We climbed to the relatively low altitude of 6,500 feet and settled into cruise, leaving Mecca behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon, we had crossed the coast and were over the Red Sea, the sun at our backs.

 

 

 

And before long, the rugged terrain of eastern Egypt crossed the horizon.

 

 

From the coast, it was a short stint westward across rocky, barren desert to pick up the southern reaches of the Nile River and its lush, green valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But from the dry, desolate sand, a long ribbon of deep, thriving green stretched from horizon to horizon.  We'd reached the Nile.

 

 

 

 

Turning north, we followed the river's valley whose fields and agriculture stood in stark contrast to the endless sand seas on the either side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Occasionally, we wouldn't follow a sharp bend of the river and were immediately plunged back into the deepest of the desert.

 

 

 

 

But then the river would wind back and we would again find ourselves over deep greens and urban centers that seemed to spring out of the desert floor itself.

 

 

 

As we worked northward, the agricultural areas widened, and the suburbs of Cairo slowly came into view.

 

 

 

 

Turning slightly left, it was time to do some sight-seeing. 

 

 

 

Out of the sandy, wind-blown haze and urban pollution, distinct and unique shapes began to emerge.

 

 

 

 

We pulled power and descended for a better view.

 

 

 

 

We began orbiting the Pyramids of Giza to take some better photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(we weren't the only ones)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few passes, we turned northwest as it was only a short jaunt to our destination of Cairo West.  Winds were cooperative and presented only a slight crosswind from the left, so we began our approach to runway 34 via a more or less straight in arrival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rolling out on short final, we were on speed and in the groove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We touched down and rolled out to the general aviation parking ramp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I was pretty happy with the flight.  The Pyramids around Cairo are well-rendered and a really neat sight to see.  I'm not a huge traveler in real life, so this is likely as close as I'll ever come to seeing the pyramids of Egypt.  We'll take a closer look at Cairo and its other sites on the next leg as we begin heading west along the Mediterranean coastline.

 

Thanks for following along.  Next up, the desert of ghosts.

[John1]

Nice update Chuck!  What do you have for rudder pedals?   I’ve requested a set for Xmas, hopefully Santa comes through.    Using the twist axis on the control stick just doesn’t cut it any more.  

[ChuckD]

Thanks, John.  I'm using an absolutely ancient set of CH products pedals.  I've had them for probably close to 20 years and they're still going strong.  I've had to take them apart and blast the potentiometer with electronic contact cleaner once, but other than that, they've been pretty bulletproof.

[ChuckD]

Thanks, Maru.  Merry Christmas to you too, my friend.  Thanks for joining along for the journey.

[ChuckD]

Welcome back and thanks for joining me. 

 

Today, we'll be covering the progress of two legs flown over the course of a week over two separate posts.  I'd planned on making it one long trip, but got busy with household stuff and decided it would be smarter to land and call it a day, then do the remainder later.  The first leg was flown on Christmas Eve and was a relatively short hop from Cairo to Mersa Matruh by way of El Alamein.

 

 

 

As I've mentioned, I am a WWII enthusiast, to the point where I'd probably call myself an amateur historian.  Those who know me well enough know that my passion for WWII history has been the predominant characteristic of mine throughout my life.  I can attribute that largely to a pair of books.  The first came in kindergarten at age 5 or 6.  One day, while wandering around the room during library time, I found a book about the Battle of the Coral Sea (we'll visit that too) on a wire rack in my elementary school library.  On the front was this iconic photo of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho ablaze and taking a torpedo to her starboard side. https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/g10000/g17026.jpg  Awed, I checked the book out that day and have been hooked ever since. 

 

For those of you familiar with WWII history, the name El Alamein may ring a bell.  For several months in 1942, this small stop on the Egyptian railway saw heavy fighting between the Axis forces of Germany and Italy, and the Allied forces under Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and others.  It was there that the vaunted German Afrika Korps's eastward advance towards the Suez Canal was halted and eventually pushed back.  Capture of the Suez Canal by Axis forces would have been a catastrophic blow to the Allies and their ability to wage war in the Mediterranean and China/Burma/India (CBI) theaters.  With the benefit of hindsight, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the course of the war could have been vastly altered had the Commonwealth Allies not sacrificed and made their stand at El Alamein.

 

All that being said, the two WWII theaters that I have studied the *least* are the North African campaign and the Sicily/Italian campaigns.  So, for anyone with additional knowledge of those campaigns, feel free to correct me.

 

For more reading:

North African Campaign overview (June 1940 - May 1943): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_campaign

The First Battle of El Alamein (July, 1942): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_El_Alamein

The Second Battle of El Alamein (Oct/Nov, 1942): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_El_Alamein

 

The first order of business on this flight was to see some more sights in and around Cairo, as we were more or less ready to be done flying when we'd arrived previously.  Departing from the Cairo West airport complex (*shockingly*) west of Cairo, we turned east and climbed to 2000 feet.

 

 

 

 

 

Low clouds and smog hovered over the city like a heavy pot lid.

 

 

 

 

 

As before, the areas nearest fresh water are surprisingly green, while the areas just outside are arid and barren.  The contrast is profound.

 

 

 

 

 

Cairo itself is huge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a few points of interest marked in the city proper, so I thought we'd go take a look.  I briefly turned on the in-game markers to help me find them.

 

 

 

 

 

Passing over them southbound, we looped east through a 270* turn to overfly them.

 

 

Note the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan directly below the aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque-Madrasa_of_Sultan_Hasan

 

 

 

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

 

 

 

The Cairo Tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Tower

 

 

The Sofitel Cairo Nile El Gezira (a hotel)

 

 

And across the river, Cairo University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_University

 

From there, we left the city proper and took a couple more laps around the Pyramids of Giza for good measure. We weren't the only ones with that idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a good look at the Sphinx which, for some reason, I almost completely neglected to see on our trip in.

 

 

 

 

And with that, we bid adieu to Cairo and turned westward, the barren desert again spreading out below us.

 

 

As we neared El Alamein, the thing that struck me is the vast flatness of the terrain.  While the battles there were often centered around "ridges," they were only ridges in the context of the vast, flat wastes of the desert.  With such flat terrain, direct-fire cannons could theoretically see and engage targets for miles, and the thought of being in a Sherman tank while German 88mm cannons are picking you and your mates off from miles away is terrifying.

 

Approaching from the west, we headed parallel to the line of advance of the allied forces.

 

 

 

 

This battle map shows the general dispersion of forces and in the above photos, we are almost directly over top of the British 1st and 10th Armored positions.

 

 

 

 

Where once there was vicious fighting, tank duels, trenches, obstacles, and acres upon acres of minefields now stands a golf course.

 

I wonder which had a greater impact on the environment.

 

We continued westward to Mersa Matruh, again, open desert spreading out everywhere south of the Mediterranean.  There are many stories of troops cracking and frying eggs directly on the armor of their tanks during this campaign.  While possibly apocryphal, given the temperature, the burning desert sun, and the lack of any shade whatsoever, it is definitely feasible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from being the destination for the first leg of this journey, Mersa Matruh was an important battle in its own right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mersa_Matruh  As the allies retreated from the Afrika Korps in the summer of 1942, the German General Erwin Rommel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel) strove to cut their lines of escape at Mersa Matruh.  Though they did succeed, the German forces were too weak to maintain the encirclement, and the Allied forces were largely able to make their way further to the west.

 

We descended into the field with cooperative winds and a relatively clear sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The touchdown was uneventful and we taxied to the ramp. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following along.  The next leg of our journey would be something of a sentimental one.

 

[ChuckD]

Welcome back and thanks for joining me. 

 

The route map for today:

 

 

You are probably wondering why on earth we're detouring 646 miles off course to the middle of the desert.  No, there's not a city under the icon for that southern waypoint.  There's not an oasis, a village, or a wadi either.  There's nothing.  For hundreds of miles.

 

So why bother?

 

To pay a small homage to these poor souls:

 

 

Meet the crew of the B-24D Liberator (Army s/n 41-24301), nicknamed "Lady Be Good."

 

Left to right:

- 1st Lieutenant William J. Hatton, Pilot

- 2d Lieutenant Robert F. Toner, Copilot

- 2d Lieutenant Dp Hays, Navigator

- 2d Lieutenant John S. Woravka, Bombardier

- Technical Sergeant Harold J. Ripslinger, Flight Engineer

- Technical Sergeant Robert E. LaMotte, Radio Operator

- Staff Sergeant Guy E. Shelley, Gunner/Asst Flight Engineer

- Staff Sergeant Vernon L. Moore, Gunner/Asst Radio Operator (Still Missing)

- Staff Sergeant Samuel E. Adams, Gunner

 

By spring of 1943, the Allied air forces had established heavy bomber bases in North Africa.  From these, aircraft such as the B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress could reach German and Italian targets in Sicily and Italy proper, probing what Churchill called "the soft underbelly" of the Axis powers. 

 

It was on one such mission on April 4th, 1943 that the Hatton crew boarded the brand new B-24 nicknamed "Lady Be Good" to attack port facilities in Naples, Italy.  It was to be both the crew's and the aircraft's first combat mission.  As the last part of a second wave of attackers, they were one of the last to get off the ground, departing around 2:15pm local time.  As they climbed and made their way north, 8 of the 12 aircraft in their wave got separated in a sandstorm and turned back.  Four, including the Lady, continued on to Naples in the gathering darkness. 

 

As darkness fell, the straggling group got separated, each ship now having to navigate its own way home.  But fate was against the Lady and her men that night.  Shifting winds, faulty navigation equipment, and an inattentive and inexperienced navigator all conspired against them.  As they droned southward towards their base at Benghazi, they became hopelessly lost.  Believing they were still fighting a headwind and deep over the Mediterranean on this pitch black night, they continued south for hours.  Owing to sandstorms and low clouds, they didn't see the flares fired by the ground crews at Benghazi - fired when the ground staff could hear the bomber droning overhead.

 

Onward they went, further and further into the desert, all the while believing they were over the Med. 

 

At 2am, after 12hrs in the air, the engines began to sputter for lack of fuel.  First one, then, two, then three of the big bomber's four engines fell silent.  Only the outboard engine on the right wing continued on its fumes.  Still believing they were over the sea, and knowing the odds of surviving a ditching in a B-24 at night were slim, they donned their life vests and jumped into the night; the Lady flew on.

 

One can only imagine their shock when their boots thudded down on a hard, gravelly plain instead of cold sea water that dark night.  In the gloom, they fired pistols and flare guns to find each other and, before long, all but one man (John Woravka, the bombardier) had joined them.  Realizing their error, they began walking north.

 

Fifteen years later, the world had done its best to move on from WWII.  The post-war boom was on in full swing and everything needed oil; exploration teams set out across the globe in search of the precious liquid.  On a blistering day in 1958, a British Petroleum oil survey team was searching the Calanshio Sand Sea - a vast, tractless waste of gravel and sand dunes that stretched from horizon to horizon.  Something caught their eye and when they moved closer, they were shocked at what they saw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A B-24 bomber stood alone in this vast nothingness where it had made a near perfect crash landing on the hard gravel desert floor.  Though weathered and wind beaten, her perspex windows sandblasted to complete opacity, the name Lady Be Good was stenciled on the right side of her nose.  The survey team picked through the wreckage carefully but found no trace of the crew.  What they did find was a perfectly-preserved time capsule.  Log books, working machine guns, operable radios, even a survival kit with potable water, edible rations, and more were among the items still on board the Lady.  Puzzlingly, the navigator's log did not have a single entry in it after they'd left the target area in Naples.  What it did have was doodles in the margins; throughout the log, the o's and b's and other letters with a circle in them were absentmindedly filled in.  It was almost as if the navigator, Dp Hays, had just given up when they'd gotten separated from the other ships in their flight.

 

Reporting their find to the nearest US military authorities, the team moved on.  As the US had no record of aircraft losses in that area, they ignored the report.  A few months later, a subsequent team investigated the site further and finally, on May 26th, 1959, the US Air Force sent out a recovery team to determine what had happened. 

 

In February 1960, the bodies of 5 of the 8 crewman who'd managed to join up that cold night in April 1942 were found huddled together 81 miles north of where they had met the first night.  On the body of the copilot, Robert Toner, was a diary that told their tale, woven with welling agony, fear, and despair.  It is available here, scanned in entirety, https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/06/16/lost-and-found-the-story-of-lady-be-good-and-her-crew/ showing that they survived 8 days in the desert with a single canteen of water to share among them.  They had trudged ever farther north, expecting the Mediterranean to appear over each rise, only to be met with more sand, more gravel, more wind, more blistering sun, and more freezing nights.  Several days in, the desert transitioned from hard gravel to soft, sweeping sand that seemed to melt under their feet with each step.  Imagine their despair as they fought their way up a soft, pillowy dune, struggling to reach the crest, only to see countless more beyond this one.

 

After a few days, they were all but spent. Toner's diary indicated that five of the crew could not go on, but Shelley, Ripslinger, and Moore set out north, desperately searching for help.

 

Shelley made it another 20 miles (101 miles total). 

 

Ripslinger 27 miles (128 miles total) further than that. 

 

Moore was never seen again.

 

In August 1960, Woravka's remains were found not far from the crash site, his body crumpled under a partially-deployed parachute.  Some might consider him luckier than his crewmates.

 

I learned about this ill-fated ship and crew in the early 90s when I, by now firmly entrenched in my interest in WWII, checked out a book called "Log of the Liberators" by Steve Birdsall from the local library.  The story of the Lady Be Good and the Hatton crew are the opening chapter and Birdsall told their story in such a way that it absolutely captivated me.  Now, in my middle ages, I see that these guys were just kids and it breaks my heart.  War is a story of infinite tragedies, but the story of the Lady Be Good and her crew stuck with me over the years.  So, I knew I had to visit the site.  Thanks to Little Navmap, the flight planning tool I use, I was able to enter the lat/long coordinates exactly into the GPS.

 

I realize I'm just flying a flight simulator, and that I didn't *actually* go out to the desert to pay homage to these guys, but I was still in a somber mood as we picked up out of Mersa Matruh and began our trip south into the desert. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We cruised at 3000 feet, occasionally scudding under some low clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An oasis slid under us, then gave way to endless waves of undulating, shifting sand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had hopes of trying to land at the spot where the Lady Be Good touched down, but the terrain didn't allow for it, so I would have to content myself with circling the site.  A few minutes out, we descended to the deck and slowed somewhat.

 

 

 

At the waypoint, we turned off the autopilot and circled quietly.

 

 

The shadow is almost directly on top of the point where the Lady Be Good came to a stop.

 

 

 

After making a few circles, we turned north and climbed slowly to 9500 feet for the return flight.  This leg of the flight took us roughly over the path that the crew walked as they searched in vain for the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met the sea at Tobruk, the site of the famous siege https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tobruk and turned west into the setting sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With darkness gathering around us, we settled smoothly and quietly into Benghazi, completing the journey that the Lady and her men never could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following along.

Edited January 2, 2023 by ChuckD

[Shoggz]

Fascinating and illuminating - I’m enjoying hitching a ride with you Chuck.

[John1]

Nicely done Chuck.   

[Tnarg]

Just found this and binge watched your trip from the start. What an amazing adventure. Thanks for taking us on the ride.

 

Tnarg

[ChuckD]

4 hours ago, Tnarg said:

Just found this and binge watched your trip from the start. What an amazing adventure. Thanks for taking us on the ride.

 

Tnarg

Hi and welcome aboard! Glad you're enjoying it.

Edited January 5, 2023 by ChuckD

[Dpgsbody55]

Great screen shots again.  Love the Cairo pictures especially.  It's a fabulous place to visit if you love history as I do.  I started studying ancient history at school when I was 11 and was fascinated by it.  When I was 12, my family emigrated to Australia by boat and we got off for a tour of Cairo and I found myself standing inside Khufu's burial chamber in the Great Pyramid totally in awe of the achievement in it's construction.  Then we had a look around the Cairo Museum which was equally mind blowing.

 

Then someone realised there was going to be a war (the Six Day War) and late that afternoon we found ourselves floating about on a leaky tub at Suez jumping from that onto our ship which wasn't allowed to dock to pick us up.  Our ship was the fifth in a canal convoy of twelve, and the second last to leave Egypt before the war commenced. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[ChuckD]

Whoa, close call.  Thanks for sharing that.  I'm fortunate that I don't have to deal with the politics in any of these flights.  I just pick a spot and go, without having to worry about any of the logistics behind the scenes.  Glad you and your family got out of there.

[ChuckD]

Welcome back and thanks for joining me. 

 

Over the Christmas break, I got a little out of the rhythm of my previous posting schedule.  Typically, I do the write up for the previous week's flight while cruising on this week's flight.  Posting two narratives in short order over the holidays meant I didn't have anything to post last week during the flight.  So, here we are, back on track so to speak.

 

When last we left, we had landed at Benghazi after visiting the crash site of the Lady Be Good.  Today's flight would see us continuing our trek westward across the Mediterranean coast of the African continent from Benina in Benghazi to Carthage.

 

 

 

We'll leave Benina, cross the gulf of Sidra, then fly over Tripoli before finally turning north towards Carthage in Tunisia. I briefly thought about bopping up to Malta, but I figure I'll save that for my tour of Italy.

 

Firing up in Benina, we soon lifted off into a clear blue sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The deep reds and browns of the local landscape wove a rich tapestry.

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised by the overall size of Benghazi.  I'm not sure why - I guess I just thought it was a small town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we reached our cruising altitude of 7500 ft, we were already well over the Gulf of Sidra.  The air smoothed out nicely and we cruised peacefully through a cloudless sky.

 

 

 

 

 

Returning to the coast, a few puffy clouds dotted the skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Libyan landscape slid quietly beneath us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...until we reached the metropolis of Tripoli; the city sprawled in all directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued westward, following the coast until we hit the town of Gabes, where we turned north towards Carthage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The airport at Carthage sits just north of the Lake of Tunis, which, bisected by a highway, served as an excellent visual aid as we made our descent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear down!

 

 

 

 

 

And locked!

 

 

 

With calm winds, we were cleared for the left base pattern entry for runway 29.

 

 

 

A little high on short final, but speeds are on point and we've got a lot of runway to work with, so I'm not too worried.

 

 

 

 

A little better, but I overcorrected low.  4 red PAPI lights on very short final isn't entirely out of the norm, though I think I habitually aimed my approach at the end of the concrete, whereas the usable runway doesn't start until the white hashmarks.

 

In any case, touchdown was reasonably good with only a little lateral instability on rollout as per usual.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for following along.  We are nearing the end of our African journey.  Only another leg or two to go, then it's off to the Iberian peninsula and Europe proper.  If you have any recommended sights to see, feel free to mention them!