So we’ve left the BAe146 behind (was getting to really like it, but defnitely still struggling with the approach and landing) and stepped into something very different - the DHC-6 or Twin Otter. In our case, this time around, it’s the DHC-6-300 Wheels Cargo 3 Blade propeller variant.
It’s been quite I while since I flew what is essentially a GA plane with limted autopilot and no FMC of course, although the upgraded WT GNS530 is much nicer than than when the sim first launched 2.5 years ago.
Overall my take off and landings/approach are going to need some brushing up.
For today’s flight, it is beautiful weather as we head due South from Malta over the Mediterranean to Tripoli in Libya - as we enter a new continent! Hardly a cloud in the sky and so that made my life a lot easier come the landing. Still came in way too low, although touchdown was fine and then a bit of a struggle to stay on the centre of the runway.
Realistic turbulence setting post SU12 seems to defintiely create more turbulence than previously, and in a plane like this, some iffy live weather might make things very interesting over the next 5 flights.
Flight number 2 in the Twin Otter, and after some more practice, definitely an improved landing, although I came in very slow, pulled on the reversers and basically stopped dead on the runway! Still a little wobbly and I find it has a tendency to lean heavily on landing - something more to work on.
Beautiful weather today - clear skies all the way as we head North to Tunisia and Carthage International Airport, hugging the North African coast all the way. Getting to grips with the autopilot and navigation too, pretty much all seemed to go according to plan, which was nice.
This looks like a great adventure. I am thinking of following you in a GA plane (Bonanza). Hope there will not be any long legs for that small plane … Will try this leg 01.
Yes, I saw that. But there is a way around How did you create this fantastic map? Do you have itenerary in some digital format that you are willing to share? I would like to modify it for echo planes so maybe some other pilots could follow?
I created the map in Little Nav Map - a free and amazing little programme for doing all sorts of route planning and many other things flight sim related. Google it, or you can find it here:
This is an Excel file with all the details of the route itself. I had to change the file extension to be able to upload it here, but if you download it and change the file extension to be .xlxs then it should load into Excel properly.
I also used a great website called Great Circle Mapper to find all the longitudes and latitudes of the airports as well as tracking down the most appropriate airport for each capital city.
Thanks. I tried all of them, but what I had in mind was to tweek a little your plan so it can be flown with a echo class plane. Bonanza with tip tanks can go 1300nm, and what I have seen is that there are 6 legs that are problematic. I can fix this with “additional” tanks and do inflight tanking, but I would like first to try to find alternative path for those legs. So I was wondering if you can share that plan so I do not have to enter it all from zero I will understand if you do not want to, just had to ask
BTW I did leg 1 today and almost missed ATC If this gets traction I will start a new thread so we can share this trips.
As @FacetedArrow204 says, the file Capitals Route.txt is actually an Excel file but the forum doesn’t allow those kinds of files to be uploaded, so I’ve fooled it by changing the extension to .txt. So when you download it, change the extension to .xlsx (note xlsx, not xlxs - make sure this is correct!) so that the file name becomes Capitals Route.xlsx and then you can open it in Excel.
Also, if it helps any, these are all the legs of more than 1,000Nm:
Leg
From
City
Country
To
City
Country
Distance (Nm)
Description
177
MMMX
Mexico City
Mexico
NTAA
Papeete
French Polynesia
3,716
Leg 177: Mexico City (MMMX), Mexico to Papeete (NTAA), French Polynesia
176
SBBR
Brasilia
Brazil
MMMX
Mexico City
Mexico
3,689
Leg 176: Brasilia (SBBR), Brazil to Mexico City (MMMX), Mexico
122
FTTJ
N’Djamena
Chad
EIDW
Dublin
Ireland
2,680
Leg 122: N’Djamena (FTTJ), Chad to Dublin (EIDW), Ireland
224
VRMM
Male
Maldives
VNKT
Kathmandu
Nepal
1,565
Leg 224: Male (VRMM), Maldives to Kathmandu (VNKT), Nepal
194
YSCB
Canberra
Australia
AYPY
Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea
1,557
Leg 194: Canberra (YSCB), Australia to Port Moresby (AYPY), Papua New Guinea
218
ZMUB
Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia
ZULS
Lhasa
Tibet
1,333
Leg 218: Ulaanbaatar (ZMUB), Mongolia to Lhasa (ZULS), Tibet
212
WBSB
Bandar Seri Begawan
Brunei Darussalam
RCTP
Taipei
Taiwan (Republic of China)
1,262
Leg 212: Bandar Seri Begawan (WBSB), Brunei Darussalam to Taipei (RCTP), Taiwan (Republic of China)
193
NZWN
Wellington
New Zealand
YSCB
Canberra
Australia
1,254
Leg 193: Wellington (NZWN), New Zealand to Canberra (YSCB), Australia
171
SCEL
Santiago
Chile
SFAL
Stanley
Falkland Islands
1,236
Leg 171: Santiago (SCEL), Chile to Stanley (SFAL), Falkland Islands
195
AYPY
Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea
PTPN
Palikir
Micronesia
1,185
Leg 195: Port Moresby (AYPY), Papua New Guinea to Palikir (PTPN), Micronesia
213
RCTP
Taipei
Taiwan (Republic of China)
RJTT
Tokyo
Japan
1,146
Leg 213: Taipei (RCTP), Taiwan (Republic of China) to Tokyo (RJTT), Japan
210
WIII
Jakarta
Indonesia
WPDL
Dili
East Timor
1,133
Leg 210: Jakarta (WIII), Indonesia to Dili (WPDL), East Timor
222
VYYY
Yangon
Myanmar
VCBI
Colombo
Sri Lanka
1,117
Leg 222: Yangon (VYYY), Myanmar to Colombo (VCBI), Sri Lanka
126
BGGH
Nuuk
Greenland
LFVP
Saint-Pierre
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
1,057
Leg 126: Nuuk (BGGH), Greenland to Saint-Pierre (LFVP), Saint Pierre and Miquelon
211
WPDL
Dili
East Timor
WBSB
Bandar Seri Begawan
Brunei Darussalam
1,029
Leg 211: Dili (WPDL), East Timor to Bandar Seri Begawan (WBSB), Brunei Darussalam
170
SLLP
La Paz
Bolivia
SCEL
Santiago
Chile
1,023
Leg 170: La Paz (SLLP), Bolivia to Santiago (SCEL), Chile
172
SFAL
Stanley
Falkland Islands
SUMU
Montevideo
Uruguay
1,014
Leg 172: Stanley (SFAL), Falkland Islands to Montevideo (SUMU), Uruguay
I suspect these can all be broken up with stop overs on the way to enable you to fly with a max range of 1,300 Nm - although the top one is mainly over the Pacific and so might need a bit of a dog leg to do it.
Flight number 3 in the Twin Otter, and I’m definitely getting there wih the landings. A little off centre with this one, and as I was approaching on a VOR DME approach, I was a bit late on the glideslope so was coming in quite steep. Got it down though, and realised that I can land with flaps 20 at around 90 kts rather than having to get it down as low as 75 kts and flaps 40.
Once again, some nice weather over the North African coast. Today we fly pretty much due West, hugging the coastline all the way. Stunning scenery throughout.
Flight number 4 in the Twin Otter, and we are heading back into Europe after a brief foray into Northern Africa.
I’m struggling with this plane in two main areas - not sure if it is me, the plane or something else. On take off I need to use a fair bit of rudder to keep the centre line, and that leads to the plane starting to tilt over to the extent where it feels like we are going down the runway on one wheel - I probably need to apply some opposite aileron, so will try that next time.
On landing, the same thing happens, finding it really hard to land level and then the plane drifts to one side of the runway and I’m scared to apply too much rudder in case we tip over. This time I landed OK, but then drifted to the edge of the runway and put a wheel on the grass. I did get it down in one piece though, so not all bad.
Andorra is a really interesting little airport. Built up on a plateau in a valley between some steepish hills, it’s a really beautiful approach. Wind was luckily not too bad and managed a reasonable descent, although, once again, speed on final approach is hard to maintain. Someplace to come back and visit again I think.
Weather was nice - a little cloudy at times, but generally good views.
Our final flight in the Twin Otter takes us West over central Spain to Madrid. It’s an early morning sunrise take off for us, with stunning views over the mountains around Andorra. A really beautiful flight.
Certainly got to grips with much of the Twin Otter now - although landings remain a handlful. Landing at slightly faster speed with less flaps seems the way to go but I still get a lot of runway drift on landing that correcting with the rudder makes me feel like we are tipping over.
Next up is the CRJ-1000, a plane I’ve never flown, so I think some practice is going to be needed before we leave Madrid!
Spain
Capital: Madrid
Area: 505,990 sq km
Population: 47.1 million
Language: Spanish
Life expectancy: 79 years (men) 85 years (women)
Logbook
This Leg
Leg
42
Date
26/04/2023
Aircraft
DHC-6-300 Wheels Cargo 3-Blade
Departure Airport
ICAO
LESU
Airport
La Seu d’Urgell Airport (nearest)
Capital City
Andorra la Vella
Country
Andorra
Runway
21
Arrival Airport
ICAO
LEMD
Airport
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport
This is our first flight in the CRJ-1000 - a bit different to the Twin Otter!
Heading South today from Madrid to Gibraltar with some stunning scenery, especially the mountains as we approach the South coast of Spain before turning to the West as we approach Gibraltar.
The CRJ seemed nice to handle, although I needed to do a visual approach into Gibraltar as there doesn’t seem to be any procedures to follow and no ILS. Landing was OK, although was a little wobbly on approach. Controlling the speed of the CRJ in the descent requires a bit of planning.
Looking forward to heading back to Northern Africa and Morocco with our next flight.
Gibraltar
Capital: Gibraltar
Area: 6.8 sq km
Population: 32,194
Language: English
Life expectancy: 82
Logbook
This Leg
Leg
43
Date
30/04/2023
Aircraft
Aerosoft CRJ-1000
Departure Airport
ICAO
LEMD
Airport
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport
Second flight in the CRJ-1000 and this was a nice short hop from Europe to Africa - Gibraltar to Rabat in Morocco. Some amazing views of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea before we head over Northern Africa.
Bit of a better landing this time, and finding the CRJ relatively straightforward to fly, and really quite enjoyable. Need to be carfeul of controlling the speed on descent (I went a little slowly on descent and came close to stalling at one point).
So all good. Next time we have a much longer flight North to Lisbon in Portugal.
Flight 3 in the the CRJ-1000 and things are going well. I seem to be able to fly this thing reasonably well, managing speed in descent being the slightly tricky part - fot this flight I left the speed brakes on right up to final approach which wasn’t great! Lisbon has photgrammetry - which looks great - but I did suffer some major stutters right before the runway, so lining up was a bit tricky and we hit with a pretty solid bump. Didn;t bound though and got it down fine from there.
Nice flight today with good weather again. Headed North straight up from Rabat, across the Portuguese Algarve and on to Lisbon. The city does look beautiful.
Next we are heading to Guernsey of all places. Should be fun.
Flight 4 in the the CRJ-1000 and I’m definitely getting to grips with it. Really nice flight today, with a lot of sunshine and few clouds. Straight North from Portgual, over the Bay of Biscay and Northern France before heading into the English Channel.
… Will try this leg 01.
