Hello Captains and welcome back for another update post on my Around the World Adventure in the A2A Piper Comanche. When I began this adventure almost a month ago, I had stated that there may be times when I choose to go back to MSFS 2020 for tubeliner flying. But so far that hasn’t happened. I’m enjoying both the Comanche and MSFS 2024 too much to return back to MSFS 2020. Now this still may change as I do tend to grow bored flying the same aircraft over and over, but up to this point the boredom hasn’t hit me. I’m truly enjoying the adventure and enjoy bringing you my updates as I continue around our beautiful planet.
Tom, my friend who joined me back in Singapore, and I have mapped out our planned flight legs from Darwin as we make our way towards Coffs Harbor. If all works out for us once we arrive at Coffs Harbor, we’ll plan our crossing over to Lord Howe Island, then over to Norfolk Island. This is the best choice for then proceeding south towards New Zealand. But we’re still several days away from arriving on the east coast of Australia. From New Zealand, we plan to back track to Norfolk Island then venture further and visit several Pacific Islands before turning back north towards Asia.
Flight Day 26
We’re gearing up for another ~600 mile day as we head towards Timor-Leste. Today will include the final stop within Indonesia as we depart Mataram and fly to Ruteng, then after lunch on to Maliana in Timor-Leste. While Tom and I are both capable of being cooped up in the small cockpit for durations longer than 500nm, we really don’t see the point in rushing the trip plus there will be a few days of flying where we’ll need to fly 500+ miles as we venture towards New Zealand and beyond later in the trip. We’re both retired and really have all the time in the world to complete this adventure. Tom will be with me for some time as he’s not due to leave me until I reach Japan and we’re in no hurry.
Flight Day 27
Today we head to the land down under. We will make a brief stop in Darwin before proceeding to Katherine for the night. As we departed on the 50th leg of this long journey, Darwin with a light rain falling and headed southeast towards Katherine, we finally moved far enough away from the weather and were presented with the beautiful Australian red landscape. It’s simply stunning. Flying across Australia may just be the best part of this entire trip. After arriving at the joint use Tindal RAAF base just outside of Katherine, we took a cab into town to our motel.
Flight Day 28
Got up early to finish our exploring of Katherine, Australia and had time to grab breakfast before heading out to the airport. We’re planning two flights today as we venture further south into the heart of Australia. We will make a brief stop in Tennant Creek for a late lunch, then head to Alice Springs. We plan to spend two nights in Alice Springs which will give us time to explore and also rest up before proceeding east.
Flight Day 29
Another long ~800 mile day planned today with two stops. The first being in Birdsville, then onward to Cunnamulla for the night.
Flight Day 30
We’re off once again for the first of two legs. We have a rest stop planned in Goondiwindi before proceeding on to Coffs Harbour. The plan is to stay in Coffs Harbour for at least two nights. Tomorrow we will give the Comanche a good ole once over just to make sure she is up for the trip out over the ocean as we first head towards Lord Howe Island then to Norfolk Island. Of course, we’ve been monitoring the weather the past few days and we may need to delay an extra day or two before heading out. But we’ll see how it goes.
Well that wraps up another update for my around the world adventure. Tune in again, this time next week for another update.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry