Amelia Earhart Around the World 2026 Edition

ravenwings27 · January 2, 2026, 3:01am

I completed this flight a few years back and finally want to try it again. Flying this really gave me an appreciation both of the scale of the undertaking - the vastness of our planet - and the unrelenting pace at which Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan sought to complete it. This time around I come prepared with more details. I’ve compiled takeoff times and weather conditions to the best of my knowledge, and I’ll use that rather than guesswork and live weather.

My plan is to space this out over the course of the year, and try to make the Howland Island flight on/around July 2. I’m not worrying about celestial navigation at this time, but I am going to try limiting my use of the VFR map to regular intervals. Feel free to join in if you have the Electra or a similar plane of the era. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be plodding along on US-East for the next 7 months lol.

The tools:
Aeroplane Heaven Lockheed Model 10E Electra
1935 Oakland by Red Wing Simulations
Lae Runway circa 1930s by SkyborneVisions
Howland Island Kamakaiwi Field (HOWL) by SkyborneVisions

Leg 1: Oakland, California (KOAK) to Burbank, California (KBUR) - 293nmi - 5/20/1937 16:00 - Few Clouds
The weather was decent in Oakland to get things started. I took a little extra time for photo ops and posterity’s sake. There was some rust after a few years away, but the Electra felt familiar at the same time. Much like riding a bike. I really like the 1935 Oakland scenery. It’s not perfect - there are some seams and odds and ends with the water masking - but it really helps create the mid-30’s atmosphere. I had done all of 1 warm up flight before this, so I was really rather counting on those bike riding skills. Luckily the Electra had my back. We made a smooth take off and then climbed out headed for Burbank.

The clouds were pesky at times, but all in all the flight was very pleasant. I had to make a secondary climb when I got to the last bit of the mountains - they came up steeper than I anticipated! That put me up higher than I wanted to be as I neared Burbank, so I did some lazy esses and fully appreciated I run with crash damage off as I came in hot on the final descent. Landing was surprisingly smooth, and although she tried to getting squirrely, we kept it under control to bring the 2 hour flight to a successful conclusion!

Alone with the Electra in Oakland

Preflight complete

Ready for takeoff

And so it begins!

Hello Burbank!

MsAvianna · January 2, 2026, 3:46am

This is great! I’ve had the recreation of Amelia’s flight on my to-do list for a while but haven’t made plans yet, so I’d like to join in if and where I can. If I can’t make the flight, I look forward to following your posts here

OneFang666 · January 2, 2026, 7:50am

I’ve reached KTUS in the Boeing 247D (FS2024).

Generally using dead reckoning with an online E6B calculator to managed wind impact and distance/time calculations and no following in LittleNavMap. Tricky but fun. Enjoy your flight!

My plan is to alter the Howland Island leg. The 247D will not make it. So from PNG I’ll head towards Japan and do coastal legs then the small hop from the top of Russia across to Alaska. Going to take a while.

ravenwings27 · January 3, 2026, 4:50pm

Thank you for the kind words. I’ve been fascinated with Amelia Earhart since I was a kid and it’s remarkable that we have the tools now to follow her footsteps virtually. I’ll be taking off on leg 2 shortly - will post details below.

OneFang666:

I’ve reached KTUS in the Boeing 247D (FS2024).

Generally using dead reckoning with an online E6B calculator to managed wind impact and distance/time calculations and no following in LittleNavMap. Tricky but fun. Enjoy your flight!

My plan is to alter the Howland Island leg. The 247D will not make it. So from PNG I’ll head towards Japan and do coastal legs then the small hop from the top of Russia across to Alaska. Going to take a while.

That’s awesome! I’ve read such good things about the 247, it’s a shame the developer has disappeared, but nice to see you got it working in FS24. I don’t know if the Electra works in FS24 (AH hasn’t commented on it that I’m aware of), but I have my scenery and everything setup for it in ‘2020, so that’s why I’m using it for this flight.

ravenwings27 · January 3, 2026, 4:54pm

Leg 2: Burbank, California (KBUR) to Tucson, Arizona (KTUS) - 406nmi - 5/21/1937 14:25 - Clear Skies

Setting up for the next leg. Hopefully departing in the next half hour or so!

Apollon0011 · January 3, 2026, 6:26pm

Hey, just to let you know that I am following this thread with interest.

Got two books about her round-the world-attempt with the intention to replicate and follow her footsteps one day.

Fingers crossed

MsAvianna · January 3, 2026, 9:19pm

So true, and flight simulation is really the only way we’ll ever be able to experience these vintage planes, and the historic flights done in them, it’s wonderful to see many of these classic planes modelled so faithfully.

Thank you for the heads up, unfortunately it was about 5am here in Tasmania so I wasn’t able to join along this time.

ravenwings27 · January 3, 2026, 9:49pm

Leg 2: Burbank, California (KBUR) to Tucson, Arizona (KTUS) - 406nmi - 5/21/1937 14:25 - Clear Skies

Leg 2 is complete!

Weather was perfect, if a little warm. Departure was a piece of cake, and I was feeling really good about the day, that is, until I tried to set the autopilot. It wasn’t the weather that got me today, it was mechanical gremlins. The autopilot would not stay course after a few attempts, so I disabled it while considering my options. Eventually I realized the Sperry’s displayed heading was off. Once I set it to the compass instead, we were golden.

Extra info that doesn’t pertain directly to the flight itself: My understanding of the autopilot in AH’s Electra (no idea how accurate it is) is that without level hold on, it will kind of hold pitch at whatever the angle is when you enable it. So my normal procedure for an autopilot climb is to get in a steady climb first, before enabling the AP for my set course. This normally works like a charm, but today the ship kept banking rather sharply to the right, even though I had it set for dead ahead. I eventually realized the “actual heading” of the Sperry was for some reason displaying roughly 180* off, so when I matched up my “set heading” to the “actual heading”, it would then immediately start turning to my new heading that was in reality 180 or so degrees behind me. I remember this happening at least once in the past on a practice flight. I don’t know what the cause or connection is because it normally works fine, so in “story mode” it’s just gremlins.

The rest of the flight was smooth and uneventful. I am still adjusting to not having my VFR map open constantly. For now, I am teaching myself just to “wait a bit” before checking in (like I tell my children lol) and then kind of making a blind adjustment based off my instantaneous location. For the Howland Island flight, I am thinking of checking no more than once an hour, but for now I figure I’m over land so it’s not cheating too bad since I’m sure Earhart had much better VFR skills than me anyway.

I started my descent early on purpose, and the only challenge was spotting the runway. Even though the weather was perfect, I still was straining to spot the airport as soon as possible and make sure I had the right one since there were 2 others in the vicinity, and I wanted to do a straight in approach. Eventually I found it and the landing was smooth, but then I sort of bit myself - I don’t usually use the tailwheel lock on takeoff but I decided to today - and, shockingly I know, I forgot to unlock it once in the air lol. So once the tail settled on the runway, it was a pain trying to get centered. I immediately realized my mistake, and looked down briefly to disengage the lock, and then all heck broke loose as I tried to recover and maintain control. Luckily there was a perfectly placed runway exit for my swerving plane to grace with its presence. And so a should-have-been boring flight was still an adventure!

All set with perfect weather

Dodging birds just after takeoff from Burbank

Having found a workaround for the Sperry acting up

Hello Tucson!

OneFang666 · January 4, 2026, 9:35am

I found this a good resource for the PDFs it contains for some historical text.

https://flightsim.to/file/46168/amelia-erhart-s-circumnavigation-of-the-world-in-1937

ravenwings27 · January 4, 2026, 5:09pm

Leg 3: Tucson, Arizona (KTUS) to New Orleans, Louisiana (KNEW) - 1087nmi - 5/22/1937 7:30 - Few Clouds

First flight using the extra fuel tanks is in the books. My mechanic worked overnight repairing the Sperry autopilot so it was in tip top shape. The weather was good with a few clouds for window dressing. Take off was good, I remembered to unlock the tailwheel when I cleaned up in the air, and it was smooth sailing from there. I elected to fill the main tanks full and only put the extra necessary, plus margin for error, in the fuselage tanks. Last time I did this world flight, I had missed a fuel tank change once or twice along the way, so I was extra careful to NOT miss it this time lol.

The world trip is still young, and yet I’m already seeing the geography change. The valleys and mountains of the southwest gave way today to wide open plains and pastures as I crossed Texas. Things turned green and luscious as I crossed the Mississippi River and arrived in New Orleans. The tail wheel is still giving me grief, getting squirrelly after touchdown, but it didn’t manage to kill me yet so tomorrow is another day!

Engines turning in Tucson

Off we go!

Crossing the Mississippi

Safely on the ground

Hello New Orleans!

SneeryRocket682 · January 7, 2026, 6:28pm

This is very interesting. I did Amelia’s flight years ago using FS (not sure now which one) and the Electra. I plan to follow along behind you guys, I’ll be watching your weather, etc. and set to match. The Indian Ocean was a real challenge then.

By the way, I also replicated Amelia’s trans-Atlantic flight from Harbour Grace Nfld, which is about 40 nm west of my real location (YYT); don’t know whether her plane then is available for FS2020.

Cheers, don’t check your 6!

Barry Mackay