Keen to do this. I have no idea why. There will be lots of tedious legs but I seem to have a desire to do it. It seems the 172 is the smallest aircraft with AP.
I know there are older posts similar to this but they are all closed.
I want to keep to a few rules e. g. Taking the weight of a suitcase, the weight of snacks for the flight, live weather and a rule that I have to cross the equator twice.
I’m wondering, can anyone more experienced advise on whether this is even practically possible? I intend to allow myself to take a canister of fuel (as some bush pilots would) but I wonder about things like the lack of ice management on the 172.
I really just want to know if there’s something obvious that would prevent me from doing this, before I devote any more thought to it.
It sounds like a fun goal. There are large tracts of land with no airports, though. Not to mention oceans that you may have to cross. I’m doing a similar thing but I’m not above changing aircraft depending on the length of the leg.
Should be feasible (but not easy), but you may have to get creative on some routes over water. I toy with the idea occasionally, but until the game is more stable I think it would be an exercise in frustration. And I would probably use TBM…
I’ve completed 4 ‘round the worlds’. In the 172, there will be places you can’t go due to limited range (Hawaii, Azores, others) but you can circle the planet otherwise. I’d suggeste giving yourself some wiggle room… change aircraft every continent to help with boredom. Flying over North Africa at 100 kts will seem like forever.
Another tip… at every place you stop, Google it and get an idea of what you’d be seeing if it was real life.
Challenge tip… only land at official points of entry when arriving in a new country. (No flying into Russia and landing at a dirt strip.)
a few tips from a pilot underway to do the same (Single engine, different aircraft: C152, Beech 36, Cap 10, Piper arrow, Diamond DA20):
1 - Take your time. This is gonna take a while
2 - Start from several places. The weather will trap you for weeks at a time. I’ve started out from 3 places, looking to connect them. I got stuck in the Aleutians for the entire winter due to icing, wind, clouds.
3 - C172 does not have a very good range. You will run into trouble across some stretches.
4 - Use Neofly to help you give a sense of purpose, routing options and fun.
5- Have fun! Take some screenshots
I’m currently on my trip around the world in the King Air. I chose this one because you can avoid bad weather situations and you have a decent range. For the first trip I think this saves alot of frustrations. You can always challenge yourself with changing the aircraft but I think completing the trip in one machine gives you a sense of ‘home’ in the aircraft.
Reading about all the different places you fly over is very satisfying, and you gain alot of knowledge not just geographically but also history wise.
I’m currently doing a RTW flight in a Cub Crafters XCub. It has the modern avionics, autopilot and for a Cub type aircraft it’s decently quick but still slower than a 172.
One thing I do really like about it is that it is great for viewing scenery out of both sides of the aircraft. The tandem seating is probably the biggest reason I fly it.
Someone made a modified Cub Crafters XCub which has a pod at the bottom which can be filled with fuel or cargo. Filling it with fuel extends the range from ~600NM to around ~900NM depending on winds ofc.
Here is a map of the Pacific Ocean stretching from Queensland Aus all the way to Mexico. It is handy for island hopping. It shows airfields. It prints to A3. Map making is a bit of a hobby for me. When you zoom in it shows some detail like Island region borders etc. One drive link: - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmtbE8kFX0Z5jH7IsFtX7rlDB6i9?e=qoDR1v
I am choosing the Beach Barron for my round the world flight.
Its faster than the 172 and has a good range.
I have ordered an A2 world map and will fix it to a wall and mark out my flight plan.
Also after every flight I will go to Google earth and stroll around the district looking for somewhere to eat and a good hotel for the night.
I love this sim!
For sure you can do it in the C172 but I don’t suggest you to use liveweather as you will certainly encourter bad weather and being in the clouds with a such aircraft may be very boring as it’s not a fast airplane. Actually I’m flying from KLAX to CYUL in the C172. Very long run, take several days. I suggest preparing your flight with SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts This is the best tool to plan your trip and see where to go.
The big problem I have traveling low and slow is about the terrain quality. Even in USA after the WU3, there is lot of low quality texture and it’s worst elsewhere in the world like Russia, Africa. It’s very boring flying slow over these very large areas. Be aware of that. The really MOST interesting place to fly low and very slow is over the entire England and Ireland territory. Man the textures are high quality. So beautiful. I hope WU4 will be the same quality.
Did you go from Alaska to Russia (or the other way, doesn’t matter)? How did you manage that part of Russia? There are almost no airports in that part and none that I could find with the range for C172.
All my past RTWs were in FSX. And I wasn’t using a low-n-slow airframe like a C172. Going from the Aleutians to Petropablovsk in a T-prop wasn’t an issue (but may have been to the authorities ).
In MSFS, it looks like Casgo Cove to Nikolskoye (288 nm) is the connection from the US to Russia. Getting to Casgo is a leg from Adak (377nm). Seems do-able in a light single.
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