ROUND THE WORLD TRIP - COMPLETE NOW! MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Hi all.
Well, it is finally complete. My round the world trip - sort of VFR/IFR and pretty random flying to be honest - has finally come to an end.
Below you’ll find the complete saga, captured as I went along, screenshot after screenshot, random bit of blurb after random bit of blurb. What started out as a “let’s see how this goes” turned into something of a marathon.
I started out on 20th August 2020 from my home town of Edinburgh, and returned there on 1st August 2021. 11 months and 12 days or 346 days in all. Very coincidentally, it took me exactly 80 legs. That wasn’t planned, like the vast majority of my trip, but it kind of turned out that way.
Some highlights as I look back:
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The start was amazing. Being new to simming, I’d never experienced anything like it - the clouds, the sunset, looking down at the night lights. I was in awe and immediately hooked.
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Jan Mayen in the Northern Atlantic - a bit of a random detour, but what inredible scenery in a random place in the world.
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The trees in Canada. Lots and lots of trees! And after the trees, there were more trees.
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My first proper experience of photogrammetry was in Canada and then in the cities in the Northern USA around Lake Michigan. More wow moments, and some stunning screenshots.
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South America turned out to be one of my favourite places on the trip. I travelled the entire length of the Amazon - from high in the Peruvian Andes all the way to the Atlantic. That was an amazing part of the journey - including the awesome airstrip at Chagual. With a short detour to Antartica (very difficult to fly to and from in the TBM), I then discovered Chlle and the Andes again on my way North - incredible scenery and volcanoes. Just beautiful.
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Further North and into Alaska, one of my favourite (and hardest) landings was at Nanwalek - along with some stunning sunset shots.
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Japan had just had World Update I makeover before I arrived, so had a chance to see some of the amazing sights and bridges (especially the bridges) there.
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Micronesia wasn’t that bad either - amazing and beautiful.
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In Australia, Sydney was fantastic, the Gold Coast stunning and then the amazing and vast desert outback with Uluru bang in the middle - a really memorable flight that one.
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Indonesia and Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong - all different, breathtaking sights in their own right.
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Everest and Lukla of course - can’t not mention them. On top of the world there - literally - and a very tough landing.
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I followed the Volga River from the Caspian Sea all the way to Moscow - another amazing city.
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Africa - so much to mention. Mauritious is awesome. Yemen, Uganda, Malawi all stunning - Lake Victoria is just incredible.
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And then perhaps some lesser explored areas up the East Coast of Africa - the amazing sand landscapes of Malawi are especially memorable. I can now say that I’ve “been” to Timbuctu - or Tombouctou more locally.
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Cape Verde must be one of my favourite places - so beautiful and awe inspiring landscape. If you’ve not flown there, try flying out of Mosteiros Airport (GVMT) and explore the island. You’ll not be disappointed.
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And so my last legs were over Europe. In some ways the least “new” to me, being from Europe (not that I’ve travelled extensively) but just more familiar to me than South America or Asia etc. But still some amazing places - Courcheval and the Alps of course for example.
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But in Europe, Scandinavia stood out for me - obviously helped by World Update V, but the scenery there, especially in Finland and despite some pretty dodgy weather, was fantastic.
So some great memories. Below I’ve pasted in the final world map and the completed log book. All 80 legs are talked through too - some in more depth and colour than others, and apologies for that - sometimes the real world got inconveniently in the way!
And of course, we need to have some stats to finish with don’t we?
Here goes:
Legs: 80
Total distance: 89,750 Nm - 1,122 Nm average leg
Total flying time: 343:43 hours - 4:17 hours on average
Longest leg (distance): 1,752 Nm (PGUM Guam to ANYN Nauru)
Longest leg (time): 6:41 hours (PGUM Guam to ANYN Nauru)
Shortest leg (distance): 243 Nm (SPVI Vicco to SPGL Chagual)
Shortest leg (time): 0:59 hours (SPVI Vicco to SPGL Chagual)
Screenshots: 5,014 taking up 11Gb of disk space
Different countries landed in: 56
List (in order flown over)
Scotland
Iceland
Greenland
Canada
USA
Jamaica
Greneda
Colombia
Peru
Brazil
Uruguay
Argentina
Falkland Islands
Chile
Bolivia
Ecuador
Honduras
Mexico
Russia
Japan
Philippines
Micronesia
Fiji
New Zealand
Australia
Indonesia
Singapore
Thailand
Hong Kong
China
Nepal
Sri Lanka
India
Azerbaijan
Russia
Turkey
Kuwait
Yemen
Uganda
Malawi
Mauritius
Mozambique
South Africa
Angola
Central African Republic
Mali
Cape Verde
Spain
Gibraltar
Tunisia
Greece
France
Portugal
Czech Republic
Finland
Norway
List (alphabetic order)
Angola
Argentina
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bolivia
Brazil
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Ecuador
Falkland Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Greneda
Honduras
Hong Kong
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Jamaica
Japan
Kuwait
Malawi
Mali
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Mozambique
Nepal
New Zealand
Norway
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Russia
Russia
Scotland
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Uruguay
USA
Yemen
Different countries flown over: 122
List (in order flown over)
Scotland
Faroe Islands
Iceland
Greenland
Canada
USA
Cuba
The Bahamas
Turks and Caicos
Haiti
Jamaica
Dominican Republic
St Kitts & Nevis
Antigua & Barbuda
Dominica
St Lucia
Barbados
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenda
Venezuela
Colombia
Peru
Brazil
Uruguay
Argentina
Falkland Islands
Antartica
Chile
Bolivia
Ecuador
Panama
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Honduras
El Salvador
Guatemala
Mexico
Russia
Japan
Taiwan
Philippines
Federated States of Micronesia
Nauru
Fiji
New Zealand
Australia
Indonesia
Malaysia
Cambodia
Thailand
Laos
Vietnam
Hong Kong
China
Bhutan
Nepal
India
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
Afghanistan
Iran
Azerbaijan
Latvia
Lithuania
Belarus
Ukraine
Moldova
Romania
Turkey
Syria
Iraq
Kuwait
Bahrain
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Oman
Yemen
Somalia
Etheopia
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Malawi
Mozambique
Madagascar
Reunion Island
Mauritius
South Africa
Namibia
Angola
Democratic Republic of Congo
Republic of Congo
Central African Republic
Cameroon
Nigeria
Nigeria
Mali
Mauritania
Senegal
Cape Verde
Spain
Morocco
Gibralter
Algeria
Tunisia
Italy
Greece
France
Spain
Portugal
Switzerland
Germany
Austria
Czech Republic
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Netherlands
Belgium
England
Wales
List (alphabetic order)
Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Antartica
Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
England
Etheopia
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Finland
France
Germany
Gibralter
Greece
Greenland
Grenda
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Kenya
Kuwait
Laos
Latvia
Lithuania
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Congo
Reunion Island
Romania
Russia
Scotland
Senegal
Somalia
South Africa
Spain
Spain
Sri Lanka
St Kitts & Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
The Bahamas
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks and Caicos
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay
USA
Venezuela
Vietnam
Wales
Yemen
So I think that about wraps it up. It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve got to know the TBM very well indeed, and I’ve got to know the simulator very well too. It has it’s issues of course, but it has delivered an amazing and unforgettable experience for me, and hopefully, for some of you reading this too.
So to finish, some quick thank yous:
To Microsoft and Asobo @Jummivana - obviously because without the sim, none of this would have been possible - an amazing job
To Working Title @Bishop398 for their G3000 mod that made such a big difference to the TBM and the flying experience
To Bijan Habashi @bijanstudio for his great seasons mod (only came in towards the end of my trip, but it’s great anyway!)
To Ither for his No Handle Bar mod which is a lifesaver for anyone wanting to take screenshots on the fly!
To Fabio Merlo @Kartijno for his FlightControlReplay software that, in the latter stages of my trip, helped me to have more fun actually flying the plane and going back afterwards with the replay to capture the screenshots rather than having to continually pause landings and take offs to try to get the shot
And finally to all of you - thank you all for watching!
Safe flying!
p.s. I’ve started my next adventure 
see here for more details
The complete map
The complete logbook:
BACKGROUND AND INTRO FOR NEW READERS
Having completed my travels I thought I should put a little intro here for those who may be coming to this thread new.
First off, I am new to flight simming - I have tried xplane, but never really got into it. The visuals of MSFS attracted me, and here we are. As this is a sim, there isn’t progression or missions etc to provide clear focus on achieving goals, so I decided that it would make my flying more enjoyable if I did have a purpose or aim to it. So I decided that I would circumnavigate the globe, mainly VFR - i.e. a sight seeing tour of the world. Starting from my home town of Edinburgh.
I also decided that I shouldn’t simply go around as fast as possible. I thought I should try to see a bit of the world as I go and in MSFS there is certainly a lot to look at. Hence my journey cannot be considered a direct route! I post a progress map from time to time to keep everyone up to speed with where we are.
Thank you for viewing/reading, and I hope you enjoy the screenshots and my descriptions of the journey, albeit my story telling is somewhat limited - oh, and the snacks (you’ll see…)
Please enjoy and feel free to add your thoughts and comments. All welcome.
LEG 1 - Edinburgh, Scotland (EGPH Edinburgh) to Reykjavik, Iceland (BIRK Reykjavik)
824Nm, 2:58 flying time
Start of my marathon around the world flying nice and low to check out the amazing scenery. Using the TBM. Starting from Edinburgh, first leg is up the East coast of Scotland, via the Orkneys and Shetfland and then on to Iceland. Early morning start, so sun rising oevr the North Sea. Sigh.
