Hello Captains and welcome back. On Friday, 15 August I embarked on the first few legs of my multi-leg journey to circumnavigate the world in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 flying the amazingly awesome A2A PA-24 Comanche. Much like my 2010 Around the World Adventure in the Carenado Mooney, I’m traveling in an northeasterly direction and plan to make my North Atlantic crossing from far northern Canada to Greenland.
Flight Day 1
On my first day I departed Georgetown, Texas (KGTU) and headed northeast for a fuel stop in Jonesboro, Arkansas (KJBR). From Jonesboro, I continued towards Georgetown, Kentucky (K27K) to end the first day of the journey. I covered just under 800 miles in 5 hours of flying. That’s enough for day 1.
Flight Day 2
Day two started early in the morning with coffee and a light breakfast where I studied the route and weather along the way. Light rain is forecasted for Gettysburg, but shouldn’t be an issue. After a full walk-around of my A2A Comanche, I departed Georgetown, KY headed northeast to Gettysburg, PA (W05). Upon arrival into Gettysburg the weather began closing in and I decided instead of pushing further I would spend the rest of the day exploring the area and spend the night here.
Flight Day 3
Once again day three started early. After studying the charts and weather for todays journey, I also have made some decisions regarding the all important north Atlantic crossing. While I have a few options, I believe I’m going to play it safe and make every effort to keep the individual flight legs less than 500nm. This means flying a little further north into Canada to depart Iqaluit (CYFB) direct to Nuuk, Greenland (BGGH). I had a nice breakfast and departed Gettysburg for the Saratoga County Airport in Saratoga Springs, New York (5B2). After a re-fueling and grabbing a quick lunch I once again set off towards Lincoln Regional Airport in Lincoln, Maine. This will be the last night I’ll spend in the US for some time as tomorrow I’ll head into Canada for the next few legs of the trip.
Flight Day 4
Starting today, my wife will join me on my adventure for the next several legs. She flew into Bangor and hired an Uber to bring her to Lincoln. Together we’ll continue in a northeasterly course for Canada with a fuel stop at the Michel-Pouliot Gaspe Airport in Gaspe, Quebec (CYGP). Originally our plan was for my wife to join me in Reykjavik, but plans changed and she is joining me much earlier. As usual, the morning started with a light breakfast and coffee while I checked the weather conditions along our planned route. This morning was nice and crisp with a temperature of just 48 degrees when we departed Lincoln. The main challenge for me today is managing the temperature of the cockpit as my wife likes it warm around 74 degrees and I prefer much cooler around 69-70. But I think I can compromise with 72.
We arrived safely in Gaspe and had lunch and made the decision to bypass our next planned stop at Natashquan which was just 135nm from Gaspe and instead fly all the way to Makkovic (CYFT) which was our planned stop for the night anyway. This is a longer leg around 450nm but could bring us to a decision point regarding our route to Greenland. If the weather holds and we feel up to it, we can go direct from Makkovic to Narsaruaq, Greenland (BGBW) and not only save about 800 miles by not heading further north in Canada, but also a day or two.
Flight Day 5
Up early checking weather before breakfast. We made the decision to head direct to Greenland and the Makkovic airport today. The weather forecast is looking good for the next few days, but some weather is expected towards the weekend. Not sure if this will be the remnants of Hurricane Erin, but I think we should be able to complete the crossing and even make it to Iceland in the next day or two. We were planning to spend a few days in Iceland anyway. I managed to pick up a small freight job transporting 100 lbs. of spare aircraft parts. While this work doesn’t pay very much, it will at the very least cover a meal or two.
Once at the airport I performed a complete walk-around and inspection of my Comanche. There will be no room for error on this leg otherwise we may need to swim. Another quick check of the weather forecast and we were go for departure towards Greenland. This will be our longest leg of the trip so far and we’re ready to go. In previous legs I’ve kept my cruise altitude around 3,500 – 5,000. Today we’re going for maximum efficiency and set our cruise at 10,000.
As the leg to Makkovic only took us under 5 hours, we decided to have an extended lunch break and then push on northward to Kulusuk (BGKK) and thus remain in Greenland to better setup the leg to Reykjavik (BIRK) tomorrow morning.
Well that’s enough for this update. I’ll provide another update to cover the next five days of flying as I complete my around the world adventure in the A2A Comanche.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry