Around the World – Update 4
My position as of this posting is LLJR (Jerusalem, Israel)
I’ve traveled a total of 9914 nm
I’ve burned a total of 934 gallons of fuel
I’ve flown a total of 54. 75 hours
My next destination is Cairo, Egypt
Hello everyone. After taking a day off from flying (Tuesday), I’m back at it on Wednesday, 6 October. The route today will take me from Antwerp, Belgium through the heart of France to the town of Cognac, France (LFBG). After a brief stop for fuel I will depart Cognac, France for Gibraltar (LXGB).
I chose Gibraltar as I had watched a History Channel show on the most dangerous airports. Gibraltar was listed due to the winds that are produced by the Rock of Gibraltar and the location of the airport. I can state that FSX along with Active Sky X both do a very good job depicting the turbulence around the airfield. It was a bumpy ride into LXGB but the Mooney handled the job.
Flying downwind at LXGB Gibraltar.
Short final at LXGB
Once refueled I departed LXGB headed south to Africa. But before turning south, I flew past theRock of Gibraltar. (See below)
The Rock of Gibraltar. Awesome huh?
I turned and flew across the Strait of Gibraltar into Morocco. I then turned to back to the east towards Tunisia and DTTA in Carthage. I’m planning to fly across from Carthage to Sicily then continue across to Greece. My future route will continue through southern Europe into Turkey. I plan to then head south through the holy land then back down to Egypt.
One goal I’ve tried to accomplish is to keep things as “real” as possible. I’ve pushed and flown perhaps more hours than might be possible in a real world setting. But I’ve enjoyed the planning for this trip as much as I’ve enjoyed the actual flying. As I set a course through the Holy land, I realize my course may not be the course that would be taken in real life due to political, religious or other reasons. In addition, I’m not omitting countries or regions for any political or religious reason either. I’m simply enjoying what this hobby provides to us and learning a lot in the process.
Did you notice the new paint job on the Mooney? Well it’s not just a new paint job, it’s an entirely different Mooney. I decided to purchase the Carendado Mooney M20J and I’m using the freewaretexturefrom Orbx. Hey…I figured I deserved a little “Eye Candy”. This new Mooney is awesome. However, she is a little slower than the FSX default Mooney, but I figure this is just more “true to life”. I’ve had to look behind me a few times to make sure I wasn’t pulling a trailer. But she’s fine and she’s real purty.
OK…time to move along. I resumed my Around the World – 2010 adventure on Friday, 8 October flying from Carthage, Tunisia (DTTA) to Catania, Sicily (LICC). This is a short leg in comparison to others I have flown at just 270 nm. While I’m headed for Athens, Greece and Athens is certainly in range for the Mooney, I wanted to take in some of the sights of Sicily. I plan to re-fuel and the continue to Athens.
Now speaking of “eye candy”. I also recently installed REX (Real Environment Extreme) and am running it for the next few legs instead of Active Sky X. Both products appear to be similar in depicting real world weather conditions and feeding that data into FSX. However, where REX walks away with the prize is in the textures it produces based on those weather conditions. I’ll discuss REX and my thoughts about this product in a future blog post. But for now, I’m happy with the product.
I arrived in Greece with several hours to spare and decided to go ahead and fly down to Jerusalem, Israel. This would position me for a quick flight down to Cairo, Egypt before heading east into the Middle East towards India.
Passing over Athens, Greece
REX (Real Environment Extreme) has done a beautiful job depicting the clouds and sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.
Clouds over the Mediterranean Sea
Sunset over the Mediterranean Sea courtesy of REX
I arrived in Jerusalem LLJR airport about an hour after sundown. LLJR is closed in real life, but wide open and ready for traffic in FSX.
Short final LLJR
As mentioned earlier, I’ll depart Israel for Cairo, Egypt. After flying around viewing the pyramids I plan to set a course that will take me across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates then across the Arabian Sea to India. From India I haven’t decided my course. I may head southeast to Singapore which will set me up for Australia and New Zealand. I would then head back to Australia from New Zealand then Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, China, Japan and then Russia.
Bottom line, at this stage I’m just a few miles shy of 10,000 nm traveled and I’m still having fun. While I’m still a long ways away from KAPA, I get closer each and every day.
Until next time,
JT
