Leg 129, Tiraspol, Moldova, via Romania, Ukraine and Belarus to Segezha, Russia
DAY12_29.PLN (7.2 KB)
I thought yesterday was bad, today I literally got blown off the runway. Again up to 48 knot winds, battling icing in a snow storm. I skipped a stop again. The runway was visible but there was just no way to land on a short narrow runway with the cross wind and iced up plane. Luckily there was a wide open field where I got blown off the runway, no way to keep the plane straight, a small miracle I managed to keep it level and back in the air. I did cover a lot of ground with that 46 knot (mostly) tail wind, going 20% faster than normal.
12-29 Tiraspol LUTR 3:00 AM
12-29 Chisinau Intl LUKK 3:13 AM
12-29 Iasi LRIA 4:33 AM
12-29 Balti City LUBA 3:46 AM Runway?
12-29 Balti Intl LUBL 4:00 AM
12-29 Khmelnytskyi UK62 4:21 AM
12-29 Lidavo Airstrip UKZD 4:43 AM Short runway, high winds
12-29 Rivne UKLR 4:47 AM 45 knot wind, reaching 229 GS
51°54’37.54"N 25°54’27.80"E 5:14 AM CTD on final, stuttered and disappeared, restart
12-19 Last know position 5:21 AM
12-29 Horad Pinsk UMHD 5:26 AM
12-29 Asnyezhytsy UMAS 5:36 AM Go around, unclear field runway, stormy weather
12-29 Bykhaw UMBH (Already been to Minsk) 6:34 AM up to 48 knot tailwind
12-29 Andreapol Air Base UANN 7:38 AM Should have died on take off 
12-29 Borovichi ULNB 8:21 AM
12-29 Khvoynaya UKHY Skip, short narrow runway, bad cross wind, icing, no viz, impossible
12-29 Cherepovets ULWC 9:16 AM
12-29 Vytegra ULWR 9:55 AM
12-29 Pudozh ULPA 10:10 AM
12-29 Shal’skiy USHY 10:25 AM
12-29 Segezha ULPS 10:56 AM
Flight time 7:49 18 stops
First up, Chișinău, the capital of Eastern Europe’s Republic of Moldova
Chișinău International Airport
Here you can see the monument of Stephen the Great (1433-1504) in Stephen The Great Central Park
On the right a sculpture found inside the Alexander Pushkin Museum. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.
Chișinău Memorial Complex “Eternity”
Dedicated to the soldiers of the Soviet Union who died in the battles against the German-Romanian troops in WWII.
Approaching Iași, Romania. Some clouds in sight.
Iași, a university city in eastern Romania
Palace of Culture on the left and in the middle on the screenshot above
A view inside the 16th century Metropolitan Cathedral Iasi on the right, the largest historical Orthodox church in Romania.
Khmelnytskyi (Proskuriv before 1955) in Western Ukraine
A big storm is brewing
Approaching Rivne with 45 knot winds pushing me up to 229 knots ground speed
Nearing the border to Belarus, weather radar is solid red
Horad Pinsk Airport, Belarus. The game crashed right before getting here. I restarted from the last known coordinates, which started me high up in the air icing the plane, doh!
Approaching Osnezhitsy, a small break in the clouds
On to Bykhaw through heavy rain and winds ranging from 18 knots on the ground to 45 knots at 3,000 ft
Trying to get a glimpse of the terrain, the rain is too heavy
Trying to climb above the clouds has the predicted results
Yet I manage to find a gap between cloud layers
The sun is still around
Back down to land at Andreapol Air Base, Russia, bad idea
I drove back to the middle of the runway for the picture. I already got blown off the side on landing, no amount of rudder and nose wheel could keep it straight. Luckily there is an empty field next to the runway.
The snow is blowing sideways
Trying to take off like this, very very bad idea
I got blown off the runway again while speeding up, yet somehow managed to keep the plane level while gaining just enough speed to avoid the trees while getting air born. The plane was not happy with me, beeping loudly while trying to flip over.
After getting it firmly pointed into the wind, gaining altitude became much easier
The game needs a de-icing truck!
Eerie sunset on the way to Borovichi
Passing Valday on Lake Valdayskoye
Very dark already on arrival in Borovichi. Luckily a good runway pointed in the right direction.
I skipped the next airport though at Khvoynaya. Too short, narrow and in the wrong direction. I tried 2 approaches but it was clear I was never going to get it on the ground in one piece with an 18 knot crosswind in an iced up plane in the dark. Diverted to Cherepovets instead.
Crossing the Kobozha River
Near Merozha, the weather seems to calm down a bit
Cherepovets Airport, I’ve been here before
Crossing my route to head further North
Lake Beloye. The storm is done, however the high winds still push me well over 200 knots ground speed.
Near Startsevo, loving the moonlit winter scenes
Vytegra, along the shores of the Vytegra River on the Volga–Baltic Waterway
Here you can visit a B440 ( Foxtrot class) Submarine which were in use from 1958 to 1987
It’s in the screenshot above, the thin black shape at the bottom left
Near Ozero (Lake) Kamenitskoye
And final stop for today, Segezha on the western shore of Lake Vygozero
The plan for tomorrow is to reach Murmansk in the North-West corner of Russia