Christmas Flight

OK folks, it's that time again for the annual SimHQ Christmas Flight.

We had a few takers here last year. Would love to see even more.

The rules are simple:

1. Plane of your choice.

2. From the airfield nearest your home.

3. To the northernmost airfield available to you.

4. And back by Christmas,


As before, if you don't celebrate Christmas, then any other flight of significance to you. Disaster relief. Visit Mecca. Trip to Jerusalem. Angkor Wat. Tibet. All good. It's all for fun and if someone decides to bring Egg Nog to Pango Pango, it would be a nice change from all the snow us north bound pilots are likely to see.


Here's the thread from last year:

Christmas 2013 Flight

I'm gonna cross post this on the Outhouse just to see if anyone will join in our fun.

Hope to see you there!

Good to see this happening for another year, thanks Deacon211 for getting the ball rolling.

I'm traveling quite a bit this Christmas, so might have to spread it out over a few days.

I'm in! Hmm..gotta puzzle over what I wanna fly this year..

BeachAV8R

Sweet! Looks like I am taking a C-17, Just got one for X-Plane 10.

Awesome idea Deacon!

I think I might fly this one to Alert this year - an old model for sure..but it still might fit the bill:



BeachAV8R

Hey guys,

Glad to see you are in! I was seriously considering flying the A2A B-17 which I bought but haven't really flown much.

But, in the interest of time, I think I'm going to opt for the Captain Sim 707...love the classic liners!

Due to family and travel over the next couple of days I'm going to do my outward journey this afternoon. London Gatwick to Tromso in Norway, flying the Tristar (picked one up cheap from the Government surplus, here's a link to a good article about the RAF's last refueling flight with Tristar link )

The weather looks a bit cloudy with winds from the west veering to the north over Norway.

Nice Weeksy!

I think you're the first! I'm flying Louisville to Sault Ste Marie (pretty sure I butchered the spelling on that one) tonight, and flying the rest of the way and back tomorrow.

Good luck!

Deacon

Oh dear, things haven't started too well. Had trouble with the Tristar, firstly I couldn't get the FMC to load the flight plan so I tried the model with an inertial navigation system where I also couldn't input the coordinates. I suspect something is a bit wonky with my installation of this plane.

I'll try again latter, probably with my trusty old DC9 with a bit of VOR to VOR flying. Hope other people have better luck

Not my year this year. Real life has gotten in the way and I've had to abandon about half way to Tronso. Loaded up the DC-9-30 with 100% fuel and enough cargo to reach about 105,000lbs (pretty close to the maximum take off weight) and left Gatwick.



Still pretty good climb ability given the load.



Followed the runway heading (279) briefly before turning nearly 180 degrees and heading for the Detling VOR. I find the DC9 a handful, no auto throttle and a fairly primitive autopilot, coupled with trying to tune the radios for the VORs meant I heard both the over speed warning and the stall horn in fairly quick succession!



Nice weather over the South East with broken cloud.

Nearing the Detling VOR I turned north towards the Lambourne VOR and then out over the North Sea. I climbed slowly to FL250, battling a 99 knot cross wind until I lost the VOR signal over the sea. I used a bit of dead reckoning until I was in range of the first Norwegian VORs.



The sun was starting to go down and time was running out.






Somewhere south-east of Bergen I had to call it a day and return to the real world. I would have liked to have carried on - it was going to be a close call with fuel and I would have liked to have seen it through but, hay its Christmas and family come first.

It was fun and I hope everyone has a good trip and more importantly a great Christmas. All the best, Steve

Well, I *might* be out of this year's Christmas flight too. Sounds like dispatch is getting ready to send me up to Calgary on a real life polar flight <g>...

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N205CM

So we'll see...

BeachAV8R

So the planing phase is complete. Looks like four legs. The plane I am flying will be a C-17.

First leg is KTBR(Statesboro GA) to KDOV(Dover AFB)

The route will be as follows:

CAE RDU RIC PXT SBY

Cruise ALT will be FL300



The second leg is KDOV(Dover AFB) to CYQX(Gander Newfoundland)

The route will be as follows:

SIE ACK YQI YHZ YQY

Cruise ALT will be FL350



The third leg is CYQX(Gander Newfoundland) to BGTL(Thule Air Base)

The route will be as follows:

KU MA HB

Cruise ALT will be FL400




The fourth and final leg wil be BGTL(Thule Air Base) to CYTL(Alert)

The route will be direct

Cruise ALT will be FL250



KTBR to KDOV will be minimal fuel with no cargo, Due to runway concerns out of KTBR, Main concern being length.
KDOV will get about a 1/3 cargo and fill up on fuel, Full load of fuel due to concerns about availability Thule and Alert.
CYQX will get another 1/3 cargo bring cargo to about 2/3 and fill up on fuel.
BGTL plane will fill cargo hold up.

Leg one done!

Landing was a bit rough, Forgot my throttle was FWD when I took AP off. But still landed it.

Leg one was 1.7 hours and about 528 miles. Take-off was at 0332 EST and landing was at 0459 EST.


Lined up for take-off



Climb, cruise, and decent





Landing




On final,hard to see but the runway is right in front of me


On the cargo pad, waiting for fuel and cargo.



Leg 2 is about to go up....

So leg 2 is on hold, Bird strike on take-off. Killed the #2 engine.



Made it back to KDOV, Will tied again after the maintenance crew gets it fixed......

I'm cutting it a bit fine, but this is my intended route.



Will be flying Carenado PA28RT there, estimates 4 hours there, but added some airports to land and refuel, so closer to 5 hours there. Will likely take something a bit quicker back, maybe a harrier. I'll be flying on Prepar3D using FSCloud and Active Sky.

May well mix it up and fly something in X-Plane back.

Well, things didn't go too well this year.

I started with the best of intentions trying to get a leg in on Sunday. Perhaps as far as Sault Ste Marie.




It'd be a nice evening flight and would knock off a few miles.




Off we went.




Beautiful evening for flying!




It was shortly after sundown when I had my first crash to desktop. I sometimes get this weird problem where the sim seems to crash at dusk or dawn. It was too late to start again, so I waited until today.


This time I was up at the crack of dawn.





Unfortunately, I began having repeated crashes before I reached the great lakes.

I managed to get to sun up over Hudson Bay before, after about ten crashes I concluded that I was feeling decidedly uncharitable towards FSX and Captain Sim and figured that I might try again next year.






Well, my flight didn't turn out the way I had hoped, but I'm glad that others had better luck. I'd love to see more peoples' adventures and I wish you great success!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Deacon

Sorry to hear about your issues there Deacon.

Just landed at Newcastle, few pictures so far. Already going dark unfortunately, however I don't have any scenery for Scotland, so might not be a huge loss . Plane has been bouncing all over the place so far, but at least its not snowing. Will grab a brew then time to venture even further North.















Apparently a perfect landing. More images on my steam page if you want them. http://steamcommunity.com/id/Fudge/screenshots/?

I'm enjoying this

Got delayed, but did managed to re-enable tileproxy for my sim. Hit Scotland and with it the bangs of a storm. Seems the Scots want to keep me out. Detore to Edinburgh to reduce time over open water, takes some time but better safe than sorry. Even longer as I am trying to avoid the clouds.

Can see the lightning occasionally, would perfered snow for Chriatmas.

Screenshots are being uploads to me steam page, will pick and choose the simhq ones when I am on the ground, hopefully either Inverness or final destination Kirkwall.

Hi Guys!

I hope I am not too late into the show, but just read the initial post, and made me excited, since I planned to do something similar.
I never participated things like this, also stayed away from serious civil aviations so far, but why not start with something brave?

The facts and decisions bellow ensure, that my flight will be exciting, but most probably I am facing a total failure, well, that what makes it worth a try!

1, I just bought FSX on steam (played fs2004 years ago), so you can call me unexperienced. I obviously will do some practise rounds before I hit the road, just to check how different FSX is from FS9.

2, Being a Buddhist myself, I decided to do a different approach, trying to do a round flight touching the following spots:
- LHBP, Budapest, Hungary, my home
- LLHA. Haifa, Israel. Closest significant airport to the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem.(I wont simulate the 2 hour bus trip if you don't mind...)
- OE49, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Muhammad
- VNBW, Bhairahawa, Nepal, closest to the birthplace of Buddha Gautama.

3, I will fly an Ilyushin IL-14P, using a traditional MALEV livery, in the memory of the decommissioned Hungarian Airlines. (Visited this plane in the local aero museum with my daughter recently).

I understand that my approach is more close to Indiana Jones than a real Pilot, but I am sure I will enjoy this as long as it lasts...
Will keep you updated...:)

Well I didn't make it to Kirkwall, or Inverness or Edinburgh,

I started off and things didn't look too bad. Was certainly going dark, but that was to be expected. The change to tileproxy was rather seamless. All was fairly calm...









...till I hit Scotland. Seems there is a Storm that I probably should have noted during planning. Once I reached Scotland you could hear the thunder in the distance. It wasn't long before my first patch of rain, which was over before I knew it...







...and then the flashes of Lightning in the distance.



The original plan took me took me quite a distance over open water. With the weather, and it being rather dark I opted to head towards an NDB at Edinburgh. That plan was scrapped as the clouds were very low and the flashes were a regualr occurance.



Turning towards the next beacon it looked a little clearer than Edinburgh. There were a few rain patches, but it wasn't long before I could see land again.



I started to fiddle with a few instruments, and Plan-G, and well, ended up in a think cloud somewhere over land.







At times you couldn't see anything through the rain, in the real world I don't think you would take such as plane up in this, at night, but it is a sim, so why not

After getting though that patch the weather started to clear up. Enough for me to hit the Autopilot button and get some food, no air hostess in my Piper.





I was hopeful that the worst of it was behind me. I gain some altitude to stay clear of the hills. Getting closer to Inverness though, things were not looking good.



With Inverness at only about 30ft above sea level I decided I had best drop my altitude to something a little closer, about 2500ft was the plan. However I went a little lower than planed and hit a hill when I lsot sight of the airport.









The prop hit the ground and the engine stopped. I managed to glide it down the hill, drop the gear and stop the plane in view of the Airport. Apparently a perfect landing...





Tis a long, wet walk home. Hopefully someone will succeed and make it back to where they started.

Merry Christmas.

So the this just isnt going to happen this year......flight was going fine and then a CTD.....oh well here are some screens from the flight before it crashed. It didnt crash till the transition to night.....













Merry Christmas or Merry whatever you celebrate!

Happy New Year as well!

Hi All.

Adventure starts.

Cleared to taxi at LHBP Budapest, late evening.


Bye Bye Mother Earth



The Office is not too modern, had to spend a lot of time with finetuning altitude, but overall managed to keep the plane on track.



The airplane was eating fuel with big spoon and I soon realised, that I need to land and refuel halfway to Haifa. (lack of planing, see? ).
I managed to find the smallest airport in Turkey, (again, I just radioed the closest one and prayed), so it was quite an exciting landing, but managed to do it right.



I parked down, asked for Fuel, and went into the building... I hope they have some food around!



I need to sleep, but will continue this tomorrow. I have a feeling, that it will be a long long haul, well, if I survive.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hehe, this is great! It's a hoot to see everyone's adventures and misadventures.

Even if not all of us made it, I'm glad to see so many people giving it a try and having some fun.

Nite everybody! And, if you don't get it done by Christmas....there's always Santa's returns department!

Well, I'm on the final leg of my Christmas adventure to Calgary. Sitting in a frigid Fargo now waiting for 90 minutes for enough of my flight time to drop off the front of my trip to allow me to start the final leg home (can't fly more than 10 hours of block in the 24 hour look back period). Since we started in CLT this morning at 2AM, if I take off at midnight eastern the front part of my trip will start sliding off the back of the 24 hour clock and I can get home by 3AM. (Pilot math..never a good thing)..

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N205CM/history/20141225/0500Z/KFAR/KCLT

Not a success in the simulated sense..but got a very sick 1 year old home for Christmas and that was pretty rewarding for a Christmas Eve flight.. And I'll be home to see my own 4 year old come down the stairs later this morning. Hope to make it next year fellas...



BeachAV8R

...
Cardak Airport, Turkey.
Although its a small port, they had good food and coffee (I have some issues with the Turkish way of preparing it, but nevermind, it was hot and refreshing).
I was up in the air around 4:00 AM with full tank, turned into the direction of Cyprus. Weather was cold but calm.

I just left Cyprus, when the first rays of the sun hit the plane.


The flight was relatively uneventful, I read the manual for the plane (errm, yes), so fine tuned the RPMs to the factory requirements.
Turned towards Haifa and started descent in beautiful sunshine.


Haifa Airport was smaller than expected, I had the feeling of a normal everyday Gas Station stop (I really need to look around for some scenery updates before these trips).





I parked the plane, asked for fuel and walked out of the airport, since I need to to catch a bus to Bethlehem!

To be continued...

Well, I think you beat us all in the rewarding department there Beach. Welcome home and Merry Christmas!

Staniol, nice job! Looks like you are having a good run!

After the Bethlehem visit, I head for Mecca.
Coffee did not improved, after this round trip I definitely need to land in Rome... but back to the current mission.
I said goodbye to the birthplace of Jesus and turned south towards Mecca.

I flew over Jerusalem




Soon I was above the desert, it really has a strange feeling.
I was greeted by crosswinds and turbulence, but wouldn't call it bad weather...



After reaching the Red Sea, I followed the coastline of Saudi Arabia.



I planned to make it to Mecca without any stop, but a glance on the fuel gauge advised me to do it differently.



Landed at King Abdulaziz Int, Jeddah for fuel.
This place is not about rain-forests, but at least the airport gives you everything you and your plane can dream of (except proper coffee).



Finally I was over Mecca with full tank, and wasted some time flying around, since it really looks great in the middle of the desert.



Since I planned to visit the city itself on foot, I landed at Mecca East.
Now this is the most barren strip I ever encountered. I was lucky not to arrive here with empty tank...




I must rest a bit (I have a wife, no need for other explanation, right?).
Will continue the journey soon...

Thanks to you for the great idea!
I am visiting places and airports I would never see in any other way...

Really does seem like an interesting route you are taking, keep it coming.

I thought that this Christmas flight will be fast, but did not check the scale of the maps properly.( )
Anyway, I realised that getting to Nepal from Mecca will take at least 3 stops.
It was early afternoon and I thought if nothing extraordinary happens, I can get to Abu Dhabi by late evening.
I used direct gps across the desert, instead of IFR, and stayed relatively low to enjoy the scenery.

As I said, the desert has a special feeling.
For around 15 minutes. After that, its dull. Boring. Big. Empty.



Flying low also means, that its hot. Read through the manual, but could't switch on that nice ventilator.



Sand. More Sand.



Must admit, sunset is beautiful.



Without any issues I arrived to Abu Dhabi, landed and parked fine.







Another exciting day starts tomorrow. Due to safety reasons, I will avoid the Persian Gulf or Pakistan, so I'll fly over the Gulf of Oman and land somewhere in India.
So far I had luck with the weather, hope it stays like this.

(this flight is getting long, sorry for that, next time I bring a learjet...
just let me know if I am ruining this thread with wall of pictures).

Couldn't sleep well and I was up at 4 am local time, maybe the constant buzz of air conditioners or the local food... who knows.
Walked out to the plane and done a visual check, everything looked fine. Fiddled a bit with the GPS and had a cigarette (yes, at the refueling station ... shhh).
A new idea came in to my mind and done a fast search on Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace. I was lucky, it was just a couple of miles away from my planned route. Sooo the plan is to take a direct GPS route to Porbandar, land, turn around without refueling, land at Rajkot, refuel, have coffe, proper food and fly to New Delhi, before the evening.

Climbed into the office, started her up and was cleared for departure before the sunrise, bye bye Saudi Arabia!



Sunrise over the gulf of Oman.



Flight was quite boring, water, water everywhere. It was boring until I saw a coastline, but it did not look like India at all.
I checked the portable gps, zoomed out and realised that I am following a lighter pink line, instead of the darker one...
I was almost over Pakistan! After some correction, I was on the road again.



After this small detour, I managed to land at Porbandar. Parked, stretched my legs, walked a bit thinking about Ghandi, and the fact that although I know a lot about him, still far from enough. One more thing on the TODO list.




Back in the plane and hopped to Rajkot for refuel for me and the plane.
Everything went fine, until I was on final and looking out of the window I realised that the Indians built a tall building in my path... Managed to land, but was a bit scary.





Had rest, food, coffe. Departure was also funny with all these buildings around...
India has a bit more interesting landscape than deserts.



I almost started to enjoy this, when it became cloudy and windy all the way to Delhi.



Just as the clouds cleared up, I reached Delhi, Indira Gandhi International. (yes I have done my homework and downloaded a free scenery of it, which looks great).



Every time I look out of the right window, I think it would have been great to invite an attractive girl, to have someone in the co pilot seat...





While waiting for refuel, I bought a map of Nepal, some cigarettes and food.
The decision I need make is to continue or not today. I don't think its a wise idea to continue flying, with the risk of reaching my destination at night.
There are mountains in Nepal, they say...

Staniol, this thread would be nothing without pictures...keep 'em coming and I think you have to be setting a record for flight time logged on this adventure....which is pretty awesome!

Staniol, you sir have set the standard for future Christmas flights! Awesome job sir!

I always enjoy reading the Christmas Flight thread. Very cool AARs guys!

Had a chat with some locals and checked the map again.
No mountains on the road and still have enough time, soI decided to fly to Nepal this afternoon.

Taxiing, takeoff and off we go!



Headed straight to Gautama Buddha airport. Weather was fine again.



Soon I saw the first mountains... beautiful.



Landed near Buddha's birthplace just before sunset as planned.




The airport wasn't busy at all, spent some time in the bar with the local pilots. All those stories about the everest... hidden airports, you name it.
I got some GPS coordinates to visit, yes, I assume you already know, I couldn't resist to take a trip through the mountains.



Tried to sleep well and was up in the air just before sunset, to visit the Everest. How exciting is that?




Had luck with the weather again and this region is beautiful. I was speechless. Wall of pictures coming.



That green stripe under the left wing is the famous Lukla airport with its sloped runway. My big ship cannot land there, I am sure, no time for more risk taking...










A small piece of landing strip in the middle of nowhere, Kargil. Visited this place before midday.
Good for refueling, but nothing else to see here... apart from the beautiful mountains!




After Hours of mesmerising flight, I slowly left the mountains, and prepared for landing in Samarkand.






I was tired but completely happy. Laid back in an armchair with a cold beer and a cigarette.
The Il-14 proved to be a good old lady I could count on in any situation.
Moreover to that, tomorrow I fly home!

Left Samarkand early again, I really wanted to be home as soon as possible.
You know what was coming? Yes, desert in the middle of Uzbekistan.



The plan was to land at Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Passing the city of Nukus, halfway to Aktau.



As I was getting close to my destination port, the weather started to work against me, for the first time during my trip.



Clouds gathered at low level, had heavy crosswind and turbulence too.



Visibility was really low, had to be careful with this landing, but pulled it off successfully.




Had a small rest in Aktau and checked the map while pumping fuel.
I wanted to avoid Ukraine in the current situation, but to lose as small time as possible.
Next stop will be in Sochi (which we all well know from DCS, and its predecessors).




From here, only one refuel needed, which I planned to take in the City of Bucharest, capital of Romania.



It was already snowing in East Europe.



Romania is a beautiful place especially the mountain regions.


Finally, after another long flight across the great plains of Hungary (where, actually, my birth-town lies), I managed to reach Budapest, and landed safely.





Let me put this last picture here in the memory of Malév, Hungarian Air Lines.

I am still running this airline in FSX with world of AI.
Malév flew me a lot of times across Europe during my work and holidays, its still hard to accept that they are no more.






Deacon, thank you for the great idea of Christmas flight, sorry for deviating a bit from the original concept, but you mentioned Mecca as far as I remember...
Sorry for my English, and happy new year to all virtual and non virtual pilots!

This was a great AAR, Staniol! Creativity while still remaining very much in the spirit of the season.

This year I didn't have time for the X-Mas flight - a 17-month old takes up a lot of time. Next year I hope to join again.

How about a Christmas flight this year guys? Anyone up for it?

Left Currituck NC this AM in this:



Half hour later I'm flying over my office at NAS Norfolk:



Just departed Watertown NY:

Awesome guys!

Haven't installed FSX on my new co outer yet so I won't be able to participate, but will love to see how others flights went.

It's just a nice tradition to keep going here at SimHQ.

Happy Holidays everyone!

After all the food visit and family stuff, I started my flight tonight.
The only plan I has is to follow north from Budapest and see where it gets me until I must turn back.
This year I choose a Mooney, for speed and comfort.
Weather is cold, but at least clear, I started late night from LHBP.


This airplane is cozy and agile with a low tone calm engine noise.



Despite heavy traffic, I stayed low, tried to follow the scenery.
Unfortunately as I left Hungary and started to climb to the Slovakian mountains clouds gathered and I realised, that I cannot see too much. It started to get dangerous.



I decided to take the plane to the nearest airport and don't risk night flying in these conditions.
The closest was Silac, managed to get them on radio and started to descent slowly.
It was great that the Mooney is well equipped with various digital instruments.





Parked it down, asked for a coffee and planned for some rest.
Hopefully I will have clear weather tomorrow, after this bumpy start.

Morning was much better (and cold).
After a smooth takeoff, I headed north, crossing Poland.
Clouds are still problematic, and also had some wild crosswinds, but so far, so good.











Baltic Sea, Sweden, a bit of Norway, thats clear, but after that I think I will need some plans before I fly further.