I used to fly into Hopedale, and all the other Labrador coastal airstrips back in the early 90’s in Cherokee Six.
The picture is on the ramp in YYR Goose Bay. Spent the odd overnight in Hopedale.
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Leg 201, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia to Rongelap Atoll, Marshall Islands
DAY03_11.PLN (5.5 KB)
To the Marshall islands, which are slowly drowning with the threat of nuclear waste, from years of nuclear weapons testing, seeping into the ocean added on top…
03-10 Pohnpei Intl PTPN 4:36 PM 300nm next 18 knot headwind
03-10 Kosrae PTSA 6:32 PM 309nm next 7 knot headwind
03-10 Namorik 3N0 8:26 PM
03-10 Jaluit N55 9:04 PM 15 knot tailwind
03-10 Ailinglaplap Airok AIP 9:39 PM
03-10 Jeh PKJB 9:54 PM
03-10 Woja PKAR 10:04 PM
03-10 Bucholz Aaf (Kwajalein Kmr) PKWA 10:36 PM
03-10 Dyess AAF PKRO 10:53 PM
03-10 Elenak EAL 11:09 PM
03-10 Ebadon PKLA 11:13 PM
03-10 Wotho Island PKWO 11:42 PM
03-11 Enewetak Aux AF PKMA 268nm next 12:55 AM The Runit Dome 11°33’07.4"N 162°20’49.6"E
Bikini Atoll 11°35’36.3"N 165°22’41.6"E
03-11 Rongelap Island PKRG 2:54 AM Virtual vision landing
Flight time 10:18 13 stops
Daparture from Pohnpei, quick 180 to get on course
To Kosrae, formerly known as Kusaie or Strong’s Island
Finol Finkol (2,064ft) highest point on the island
Lelu Ruins Historic Park
Lelu Ruins, ancient city, same style as the Nando Ruins
Much bigger than it looks at first glance
Kosrae International Airport
Namdrik Atoll aka Namorik Atoll, Marshall Islands
Nice landing strip along the beach, well everywhere is along the beach on these Atolls
Namdrik Atoll in close up
Jaluit Atoll to the East
Another wide oval composed of thin little islands
Jabor, the widest section of the Jaluit Atoll, where most of the people live
Jaluit Airport
On to Ailinglaplap Atoll, Bigatyelang island
Approaching Jeh island
And a third airport on Woja Island, all part of the same Atoll
All of this could all be gone in the future, a third of the people have already left
Bucholz Army Airfield, south end of Kwajalein Atoll, only US military personnel allowed
Tax dollars well spent
Dyes Army Airfield on the north side of Kwajalein Atoll
Mejato airstrip on Elenek island at the west end of the atoll
And a 4th landing strip close behind on Ebadon island
A long flight to Enewatak island, Enewatak Aux AF
Enewatak is one of two Mashall islands used for nuclear bomb tests
Here the Runit Dome aka The Tomb on Runit island
A radioactive waste repository left by the USA after conducting a series of nuclear tests (1946-1958)
The actual dome and one of the tests
The crater isn’t visible in game, flooded already
An up close look at this ticking time bomb
On to the other test site, Bikini Atoll
On the right the Baker Bomb test from 1946
Castle Koon test site on the left and the hole left behind where the Krause-Ogle Box structure was
Already mostly flooded in game, MSFS is ahead in global sea rise!
Castle Koon Test Site in the setting sun
Parts of the Marshall islands are already just as radioactive as Chernobyl and Fukushima
Still a popular wreck diving site for the high concentration of ship wrecks
Leaving Bikini Atoll behind, no landing strips there
Last stop today at Rongelap Atoll
Landing at Rongelap Island
Heading south tomorrow to visit the rest of the Marshall islands
Leg 202, Rongelap Atoll, Marshall Islands to Arorae Island, Kiribati
DAY03_12.PLN (9.2 KB)
So many islands! Exploring the rest of the Marshall islands and Kiribati today.
03-11 Rongelap Island PKRG 174nm next 5:07 PM
03-11 Utirik 03N 6:09 PM GPS map marker in the wrong place
03-11 Ailuk PKAI 6:32 PM
03-11 Wotje N36 6:51 PM
03-11 Kaben PKTA 7:11 PM
03-11 Maloelap 3N1 7:23 PM
03-11 Tabal Airstrip TBV 7:34 PM
03-11 Aur Island PKAU 7:39 PM Short runway, trees at one end
03-11 Marshall Islands Intl PKMJ 8:04 PM
03-11 Enejit EJT 8:33 PM
03-11 Makin Island NGMN 9:34 PM
03-11 Butaritari NGTU 9:44 PM
03-11 Marakei NGMK 10:13 PM
03-11 Abaiang NGAB 10:24 PM
03-11 Bonriki Intl NGTA 10:37 PM
03-11 Maiana NGMA 10:51 PM
03-11 Abemama Atoll NGTB 11:17 PM
03-11 Kuria NGKT 11:30 PM
03-11 Buariki NGUK 11:37 PM
03-12 Tabiteuea North NGTE 12:17 AM
03-12 Tabiteuea South NGTS 12:28 AM
03-12 Onotoa NGON 12:43 AM
03-12 Beru NGBR 12:59 AM
03-12 Nikunau NGNU 1:11 AM
03-12 Arorae Island NGTR 1:42 AM
Flight time 8:35 24 stops
Departure from Rongelap Island
Utirik Atoll
More Morse code land
Wotje Atoll
Kaven Island, part of Maloelap Atoll
Landing at Tabal Airstrip on Aur Atoll
Aur Island
Calalin Island, part of Majuro Atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands International Airport ahead
The airport is wider than the island
Majuro Atoll
Laura Island, west side of Majuro Atoll, WW2 remains here as well
Alele Museum and Public Library
Mili Atoll
Enejak Airport on Mili Atoll
Makin Island, part of Kiribati
Butaritari Airport
Traditional style house (mostly for tourism nowadays) and more WW2 remains laying around
Marakei Island
Landing at Marakei Airport
Marakei
Abaiang Island
Bonriki part of Tarawa Atoll
North Tarawa and Biketawa, one of the many islands part of the atoll
Maiana Island
Oi, I’ll have some of that juice in that truck over there
Abema Atoll
The water is so clear!
Buariki, just leaving the airstrip
Tabiteuea South, I haven’t seen a bridge in a long time
Beru Island
It’s getting late on the way to Nikunau
Watching the sun set on the way to Arorae Island
Arorae Island
Last stop today, when the sun goes down it gets dark fast around here
Heading west tomorrow, to the Solomon Islands.
Leg 203, Arorae Island, Kiribati via Nauru island to Kologhona, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
DAY03_13.PLN (4.8 KB)
Moving on to the Solomon islands, longing for some better detail. I guess all these tropical islands are mostly hidden beneath the clouds leaving large empty patches everywhere. Interesting nation anyway.
03-12 Arorae Island NGTR 2:06 PM
03-12 Tamana Island NGTM 2:23 PM 19 knot tailwind
03-12 Nauru Intl ANYN 5:22 PM
03-12 Santa Cruz AGGL 8:53 PM
03-12 Santa Anna AGGT 10:02 PM
03-12 Nana AGNA 10:11 PM Trees at end of runway
03-12 Kirakira AGGK 10:23 PM Bad performance, trees?
03-12 Rennell AGGR 11:23 PM
03-12 Bellona AGGB 11:35 PM
03-13 Yandina AGGY 12:22 AM World Discoverer 9°01’23.0"S 160°07’23.0"E
03-13 Honiara Intl AGGH/Henderson Field AGGH 12:57 AM Terrible performance, trees drawing in late as well
03-13 Babanakira AGGI 1:17 AM Landing at 2 fps, unresponsive controls
Flight time 11:11 11 stops
First, last stop in Kiribati at Tamana island, no info on Google maps
Flying by Tapiwa island on the way to Nauru. Still part of Kiribati, also no info.
Nauru island, officially the Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant island
Also here, WW2 remains, Anabar Beach
Nauru Australian Immigration Detention Center
After Nauru ran out of its natural resources (phosphate mining) it accepted aid from Australia in exchange for hosting the Nauru Regional Processing Center. There are 3 of these camps on the small island. It offically closed in 2018, however as of last May 211 refugees and asylum seekers still remain on Nauru.
Arriving at the Solomon Islands, in particular Nendo Island, part of the Santa Cruz Islands
Lata on Nendo Island
Santa Cruz Airport (probably just a standard name in game) at Lata
Lata
Santa Anna Island
Tahaworo, San Cristobal
Kirakira on the north side of San Cristobal
Lake Tengano ake Te Nggano on Rennel island, East Rennel
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the largest raised coral atoll in the world
Bellona Island
No paved runway in reality
Nggela Sule Island where the MS Discoverer is beached after hitting an uncharted rock or reef in 2000
The MS discoverer was build in 1974 with a double hull allowing it to visit Antarctica
Nowadays it lies along the shore between the Indispensable Strait and Iron Bottom Sound
Honiara Intl AGGH - Henderson Field on Guadalcanal across the Iron Bottom Sound
Iron Bottom Sound got its name for the dozens of ships and planes that sank there during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942 - 1943. Part of the Battle of Savo Island which lies in between Guadalcanal and the Nggela Islands.
Honiara is the capital of the Solomon islands, located on the north side of Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal Memorial (American memorial and Solomon Peace Memorial Park (Japanese war memorial)
Many remnants of WW2 can be found near Guadalcanal Memorial
The national museum shows a couple artifacts from the Solomon’s thousands years of history and first encounters with the Spanish in 1542
Final stop today at the other side of the island
Babanakira Airport in game, at Kologhona
Landing at 2 fps wasn’t fun. Something went wrong with tree rendering in the last patch. Hopefully the sim holds together better tomorrow. There’s still a lot of rain forest ahead… More of the Solomon islands, then to Papua New Guinea.
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Leg 204, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands via Bougainville to Momoto, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea
DAY03_14.PLN (13.6 KB)
A bit of a frustrating flight marred by performance problems from the recent sim update. FPS better measured in frames per minute while crossing the forested mountain ranges, main and manipulators thread throwing up times in excess of 1400 ms while the terrain slowly turned into bland squares.
A couple restarts later, reducing the draw distance to half of what worked fine before and it sort of stays in the air. Still periodic long stuttering, not really looking forward to the dense jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Bad performance or not, it never crashed and landing at 2 fps is still possible. Hopefully a hotfix will come soon, for now less trees to keep it sort of going.
03-13 Babanakira AGGI 2:36 PM
03-13 Avu Avu AGGJ 2:50 PM
03-13 Marau AGGU 3:01 PM
03-13 Parasi AGGP 3:16 PM Performance degrading
03-13 Afutara Aerodrome AGAF 3:35 PM 2 attempts, short runway, sim behind, not sure if right spot
03-13 Atoifi AGAT 3:44 PM
03-13 Auki AGGA 3:55 PM Terrible performance, heavy memory fragmentation
03-13 Kwailabesi AGKW 4:09 PM
03-13 Maringe AGGF 4:38 PM
03-13 Suavanao AGGV 5:15 PM Terrible performance, memory fragmentation
Long pauses, long period of sub 1 fps while flying over water along the island, try a restart
03-13 Suavanao AGGV 5:26 PM
03-13 Seghe AGGS 5:52 PM
03-13 Munda AGGM 6:08 PM
03-13 Ringi Cove AGRC 6:14 PM
03-13 Kukudu AGKU 6:24 PM
03-13 Gizo AGGN 6:30 PM
03-13 Geva AGEV 6:46 PM
03-13 Kaghau AGKG 7:08 PM
03-13 Ballalae AGGE 7:46 PM Terrible stuttering, half drawn terrain
Reduced settings, trees down to high, terrain from 200 to 100, disabled online traffic/multi
03-13 Ballalae AGGE 8:35 PM
03-13 Buin UBI 8:43 PM
03-13 Tonu AYVO 8:50 PM Terrible performance, no hard faults, not a ram problem
03-13 Aropa AYKT 9:06 PM
03-13 Arawa RAW 9:12 PM
03-13 Torokina TOK 9:26 PM
03-13 Sabah AYSH 9:44 PM
03-13 Buka AYBK 9:56 PM
03-13 Nissan NIS 10:19 PM
03-13 Boang BOV 10:51 PM Short runway due to faulty water (sea polygon)
03-13 Silur SWR 11:14 PM No runway…
03-13 Tokua AYTK 11:34 PM Bad performance, frequent long stutters
03-13 Tol AYLM 11:55 PM
03-14 Open Bay OBY 12:08 AM Ulawun 5°03’04.4"S 151°19’51.6"E
03-14 Sule SULE 12:25 AM
03-14 Stockholm SMP 12:41 AM Right on the edge of the water
03-14 Kunaye AYKY 1:17 AM Beacon blocking end of runway
03-14 Simberi AYSE 1:35 AM
03-14 Kavieng AYKV 2:03 AM
03-14 Emirua ERU 2:29 AM
03-14 Eloaua Airstrip AYEU 2:37 AM
03-14 Momote AYMO 3:26 AM
Flight time 11:50 38 stops
Deaprture from Kologhona in the morning
Heading to Avu Avu
Sun spotted near Naho
Parasi Airport in Marapona
Waisis harbor on Maramasike Island
Mt Veve (5,801ft) extinct vulcano on Kolombangara island
Mount Veve is the island’s highest point
It looks like the top blew off some time in the past
Pretty place to visit
Nusatupe Airport at Gizo
Manggo Bay Choiseul island
Fauro island and Rohae island
Bouganville, still part of Papua New Guinea for now. Voted for independence in 2018.
Mount Takuan (7,385ft)
Part of the Takuan Group, a volcanic group located in the southern part of Bougainville Island
Mount Balbi (8,907ft) a holocene stratovolcano
Known as Tutue by local people, still active but no recorded eruptions
Nissan Island
Landing in Silur mission, New Ireland. I could not locate any airstrip.
Weitin river coming down the Hans Meyer Range
Hans Meyer Range on the other side, Kait river on the right
Tol Airport on New Britain
Open Bay Airport
Ulawun (7,657ft)
Ulawun is a basaltic and andesitic stratovolcano in West New Britain Province
Last errupted August 3rd, 2019
Locally known as the “father”
Flying out from Eloaua Airstrip
Eloaua island
Emananus island
Watching the sunset over the Bismarck Sea
FInal destination today, Momote
Momote airport, Manus island
More of Papua New Guinea tomorrow. Hopefully the game will hold together.
Leg 205, Momoto, Manus Island to Teptep, Papua New Guinea
DAY03_15.PLN (15.3 KB)
Still bad performance problems but with lower draw distance it survives the worst areas, slow but playable. Hopefully a fix will come soon. Luckily it didn’t take away from the awesomeness that’s Papua New Guinea. Amazing terrain to fly around in. Long marathon flight today, many stops, many challenging landings, lots of fun.
03-14 Momote AYMO 2:02 PM
03-14 Bali BAJ 3:14 PM Drone cam landing
03-14 Talasea AYVL 3:39 PM Drone cam landing
03-14 Hoskins AYHK 3:52 PM
03-14 Bili AYKE 4:13 PM Tricky landing
03-14 Uvol AYUZ 4:26 PM Runway cut off by low res water polygon
03-14 Asirim ASZ 4:40 PM Sim still falling behind, bad stuttering
03-14 Gasmata Island AYLJ 4:51 PM
03-14 Kiriwina AYKA 5:39 PM
03-14 Guasopa GPA 6:21 PM
03-14 Misima AYMS 6:49 PM
03-14 Panasesa Airstrip AYSC 7:11 PM
03-14 Sehulea SEH 7:35 PM
03-14 Esa’ala ESA 7:43 PM
03-14 Salamo SAO 7:49 PM
03-14 Vivigani VIV 8:05 PM
03-14 Cape Vogel CVL 8:18 PM
03-14 Raba Raba RBP 8:28 PM
03-14 Nowata NWT 8:33 PM
03-14 Param PPX 8:44 PM
03-14 Agaun AUP 8:51 PM
03-14 Boure AYPP 9:14 PM
03-14 Safia SFA 9:19 PM
03-14 Uroubi AYUE 9:26 PM Short runway
03-14 Namudi NDI 9:34 PM
03-14 Dorobisoro DOO 9:49 PM Short runway, high trees, sideslip landing
03-14 Jacksons AYPY Port Moresby Capital 10:10 PM Bad performance, heavy stuttering
03-14 Ononge ONB 10:44 PM 2 attempts, go around, short runway on a steep ridge
03-14 Woitape WTP Zero visibily, can’t spot the ground, skip
03-14 Kosipe KSP 10:58 PM
03-14 Sopu AYQO Zero visibility, tree tops only, skip
03-14 Kerau KRU 11:14 PM 2 attempts, touch 'n go, short runway
03-14 Guari AYGF 11:29 PM 2 attempts, go around, no landing downslope
03-14 Kakoro (Koroko) Airstrip KOR 11:44 PM
03-14 Tekadu AYTZ 11:51 PM
03-15 Wau AYWU 12:07 AM
03-15 Bulolo AYBU 12:14 AM
03-15 Nadzab AYNZ 12:41 AM
03-15 Baindoung BDZ 12:51 AM
03-15 Yawan AYYW 1:06 AM Go around to land uphill, very steep runway, weird ground effect
03-15 Sapmanga SMH 1:11 AM Steep runway
03-15 Bunguwat Airstrip AYUT 1:33 AM 5 attempts, weather moved in
03-15 Isan Airstrip AYIS 1:44 AM Steep runway
03-15 Tep Tep AYTP 1:52 AM Steep runway
Flight time 11:50 43 stops
Starting in the dark, DST moved me a timezone ahead. First stop at Ulnea Island
High exposure in drone cam to be able to spot the ground
Bali Airport on Ulnea island
Same at Talasea, dawn approaching
Lalivelo ahead
Hoskins airport, New Britain, enough light now to land with normal visuals
Sunrise at Kaiko
Bili Airport at Pokapuna
Kenminings
Coming in over the Amgen river
To land at Asirim Airport
Departure from Gasmata island
Kiriwina Island
Misima island
Panasesa island part of the Lousiade Archipelago
Beautiful place to go diving
Sehulea, Normanby Island
Ese’ala Airport. Fergusson island in the distance
Ilamu island, the little one below, part of the Barrier islands
Flying over Vivigani on Goodenough island
I guess naming it Goodenough is at least more original than placing new in front of an existing name…
Mt. Oiautukekea (8,320ft) aka Mount Vineuo, the highest peak in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands
Rabaraba, arriving at the main island of Papua New Guinea, New Guinea island
New Guinea is the second largest island in the world (after Greenland)
Nowata Airport
Flying up Mount Simpson (6,047ft)
Nepesi
Param Airport in Nepesi below
Agaun Station near Gisem
Crossing the Tavenei river
Mount Suckling in the distance
Mount Suckling or Goropi is the highest peak of the Goropu Mountains at 12,060ft
part of the Owen Stanley Range in south-eastern Papua New Guinea
Boure Airport
Moni River
Another tough climb at Sibia
Barely clearing the tree tops at Oidobu
Up high over Dorobisoro on the other side of the mountain range
Only to dive back down again to land at Dorobisoro Airstrip
Rounda 2 Hydro, the river missing on both Google and Bing maps
Jacksons International Airport at Port Moresby
Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea on the Coral Sea
Port Moresby Nature Park hosting many unique bird species
A peek inside Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery
Flying back into the mountains at Sigufe
Ononge Airport, took a second attempt, luckily easy to fly on to go around
There are hardly any roads through here, hence all the airstrips
Approaching Kosipe after skipping Woitape due to visibility
On to Supu, dodging the weather
Supu approach, hmm, no visibility here either near the ground
Kerau Approach
After a touch 'n go, stuck the second landing attempt at Kerau Airport
Gauri station at the bottom left
Took a second attempt again, landing down slope just keeps the plane going with the ground effect
On to Kakoro
Kakoro (Koroko) Airstrip
Hamata, Hidden Valley Mine
A gold and silver mining operation high in the mountains
Taking off from Bulolo, a paved runway, luxury
Bulolo on the edge of McAdam National Park
Mount Shungol (9,029ft) part of the Herzog Mountain Range
Quite an interesting landscape
Nadzab Airport serving Lae, the capital of Morobe Province andsecond-largest city in Papua New Guinea
Baindoung Airport
Nearly all the runways are sloped here and getting steeper
Sapmanga, had to go around to land on this very steep runway
The ground effect is weird, still veering me back up while not really slowing the plane down
Bungawat, the clouds were moving in fast while landing. I had to abort and power out.
Then followed many missed attempts to find the runway again.
Finally, down at Bungawat airport, should have just skipped it haha, dog with a bone.
Satisfying to finally get it down though, using little navmap to compare and adjust my approach until it was perfectly lined up with the short runway.
Isan Airstrip, who turned the difficulty up to 11
It cleared up on my second approach, another steep one, parking brake or roll back down
Last one Tep Tep Airport, clouds chasing me trying to hide this one as well
Just in time and very much time to quit
Airport hopping through Papua New Guinea is incredible. They are just a few minutes apart and never a boring landing. More fun tomorrow!
Leg 206, Teptep, Papua New Guinea to Rubol, Papua, Indonesia
DAY03_16.PLN (11.8 KB)
I didn’t cover as much ground as usual in this leg, in straight lines that is. Nearly every airstrip was a fun puzzle to figure out how to land with nearly no visibility. Average speed for this leg down to 76 knots due to all the loops and practice runs before sticking the landing in heavy rain and lightning. “Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Dark Of Night Shall Stay These Couriers From The Swift Completion Of Their Appointed Rounds.”
There are no approach patters to be found here (in this post). My method is purely experimental. Fly to the gps marker, keep the speed up while watching the 3D view for signs of any straight lines where the runway might be. Then when spotted (usually when right on top of it) a quick turn to align with the ‘runway’, fly out, make a sharp loop and start refining the approach until ready to commit to slowing down and setting her down. Skimming the tree tops until they fall away and the space opens up to land.
Fun puzzle and with a little help of little navmap, drawing my flight path so I can more easily duplicate and refine it, possible to land with near zero visibility. I had to draw the line for one destination though, completely hidden under water… No floats, and while landing on water would be survive able for the pilots, it would be game over for the plane. Plus the mail would get wet!
03-15 Tep Tep AYTP 5:10 PM
03-15 Bambui BCP 5:24 PM Very short ‘runway’
03-15 Nankina AYNA 5:33 PM
03-15 Saidor SDR 5:41 PM
03-15 Guhu Airstrip AYGH 6:03 PM
03-15 Bundi BNT 6:45 PM 5 attempts, clouds
03-15 Keglsugl KEG 7:02 PM Go around, land up slope
03-15 Ambuluwa Airstrip AYMI 7:15 PM
03-15 Kol KQL 7:29 PM 4 attempts, close call
03-15 Giramben Airstrip AYMU 7:50 PM 3 attempts
03-15 Mount Hagen AYMH 7:59 PM Virtual vision landing
03-15 Mendi AYMN 8:24 PM Virtual vision landing
Still got to eat, no auto pilot flights today, break time
03-15 Mendi AYMN 8:53 PM
03-15 Kar KAK 9:00 PM Bad Performance
03-15 Moro AYMR 9:12 PM
03-15 Kaibo Airstrip AYMM 9:15 PM Bad Stuttering
03-15 Komo AYXM 9:34 PM Super long runway
03-15 Koroba AYOW 9:47 PM
03-15 Pori Airstrip AYTX 9:54 PM
03-15 Kelabo Airstrip AYTV 10:01 PM Tall tree at end of runway
03-15 Suabi AYSA 10:20 PM Mount Karoma not visible
03-15 Tari AYUB 10:25 PM Bad Performance, stuttering low fps
03-15 Pangoa AYPC Under water skip
03-15 Lake Murray AYLL 10:55 PM
03-15 Kiunga AYKI 11:19 PM
03-15 Rumginae AYRG 11:30 PM
03-15 Tabubil AYTB 11:47 PM
03-16 Busilmin Airstrip AYIN 12:19 AM 5 practice runs
03-16 Mindiptana WAQE 12:34 AM 2 attempts, first touch 'n go, short runway
03-16 Oksibil WAJO 12:44 AM
03-16 Mindiptana WAQF 1:03 AM 4 attempts
03-16 Mindiptana WAQH 1:12 AM Only one straight ridge to land on, makes it easy
03-16 Mindiptana WAQG 1:21 AM 0.9nm 2 practice runs
03-16 Sumtamon Airstrip WAMK 1:27 AM Along the river
03-16 Ubrub WAZT 1:54 AM Up to 15K ft to get over the mountain, rain turning into wet snow
Flight time 8:15 32 stops
The day starts of promising, departure from Tep Tep Airport
Bambui airport approach, lined up after a couple runs at it
Beware very short runway, stopped just in time
Getting the machete out to turn this plane around
There are plenty breaks in the clouds as well, however the clouds like to hang out over the airports
Nankina Airport
And departure from Nankina, cloud magnet
Lush forests over Nampa
Near Maibu
Approaching Guhu Airstrip, guess where it’s hanging out
Maybe here
Nope, wrong ridge, I would need the Shock Ultra to land there
There it is, throttle down, ready to land
Just as the clouds cover it back up. My approach path edited in
Near Kesawai
The Ramu river
Over Tauya
Bundi airport, 5th and final approach
The look of disdain on my pilot’s face is priceless, more deliveries to make, get on with it!
Near Moikinangi
Heading for Mount Wilhelm (14,793ft) part of the Bismarck range
View from one of the lakes near the top of Mount Wilhelm
No name, Google only has low res sat data here. Bing has aerial data yet full of clouds, hence no shot of the mountain itself (big mess)
Kegsugl Airport
View from Mount Wilhelm, crossing the range again to the west this time
Ambaluwa Airstrip, it’s a rain forest, got to expect rain
Kol airport, close call but stuck it at the 4th attempt
Over Jiwaka province
Giramben Approach
Another shot of Mount Wilhelm, it’s there, honest
Third approach at Giramben Airstrip
Flying over Mount Hagen, the third largest city in Papua New Guinea
Busy city where all the different cultures come together
Wanaga visible for a few seconds
Mendi in there somewhere
Bigger airport with the runway in the G1000, makes landing easy
After a break flying on past Magura
Moro Airport
Mining operations among the colorful tribes
A sign of 2020 and 2021, more and more face masks appearing on pictures
Following the Tagari river
Looks like a great place for a canoe ride
An RDR2 like game in Papua New Guinea could be awesome
Komo International Airport, the runway stretches on for miles, the Antanov has landed here
Approach to Koroba
Where are you Koroba Airport
Down in the rain
Pori Airstrip, quick landing before the clouds cover you up
I had to skip this one, Pongoa Airport, in the middle of lake Murray
Lake Murray
It has another airport, Lake Murray Airport
Kiunga Airport, the rain is ramping up
A break in the clouds to see Ok Tedi Mine, the run off from the mine
A gold mining operation near Tabubil
Busilmin airstrip, landing after 5 exploration runs
I had to be very sure about this one, dead end, no room to power back out
My ‘process’ coming in from the south, won’t appear in any approach charts!
(Little loop at the end to gain height to get over the next mountain range)
Oksibil Airport
From tiny airstrips to huge runways
Mindiptana WAQF, 4th approach to stick the landing
Taking off is no problem with that angle
Approaching Mindiptana WAQH (no unique names here, just codes)
There was only one ridge in the view finer, makes it easy
Another pretty steep one, I wonder who lives there
Flying out from Mindiptana WAQG, 0.9nm from WAQH
Sumtamon Airstrip
4 stops close together in the valley (coming from the East, leaving to the North)
Final stop for the day, after climbing to 15K feet to cross the mountains again
Urub Airport, one little house to stay the night
Better get some big wedges under those wheels. Don’t walk to the back or it might tip over!
More fun tomorrow, Papua, Indonesia then on to the Philippines.
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Leg 207, Rubol, Papua to Kokoroba, West Papua, Indonesia
DAY03_17.PLN (11.5 KB)
An even slower leg than yesterday’s, 450nm after 7 hours of intense flying. More challenge airstrips and even less visibility. 80% of the leg had no visibility, 100% fun though.
03-16 Ubrub WAZT 5:26 PM
03-16 Ubrub WAVI 5:34 PM
03-16 Nipsan WAWT 5:52 PM 4 attempts, needs a turn to land
03-16 Wurigelebur WAYT 6:05 PM not really a runway, flat enough anyway
03-16 Pangema / hasan WAWV 6:13 PM 2 approaches, break in the clouds
03-16 Prongkoli Airstrip WAXA 6:27 PM 4 attempts, hard touchdown
03-16 Soba Airstrip 6:46 PM 5 attempts, little room to manoever, 6Kft hard to taxi uphill
03-16 Wurigelebur WAYM 6:58 PM
03-16 Wurigelebur WAYQ 7:19 PM 7 attempts, nasty weather, 7Kft too high to land with full flaps
03-16 Wurigelebur WAXR 7:38 PM 6 attempts, very steep
I need a break and dinner at a more reasonable time 
No autopilot possible here at all
03-16 Wurigelebur WAXR 8:12 PM
03-16 Karubaga WANU 8:29 PM 3 attemps, close call, near zero visibility
03-16 Yigi Airstrip WALD 8:43 PM 3 approaches, virtual vision landing mostly
03-16 Karubaga WANN 8:51 PM Trees at end of ‘runway’
03 16 Kqrubaga WANP 9:01 PM Short runway
03-16 Karubaga WANQ 9:13 PM Hard landing, some visibility would be nice!
03-16 Karubaga WANV 9:25 PM Very short runway
03-16 Alama Airstrip WALF 9:34 PM
03-16 Beoga WACZ 10:04 PM Sim falling apart after departure
Terrible performance, stuttering, restart
03-16 Beoga WACZ 10:15 PM Grasberg open pit 4°03’27.0"S 137°06’45.3"E
03-16 Bilogai WACY 10:43 PM
03-16 Bilogai WACX 10:52 PM Bad stuttering and no visibility…
03-16 Bugalaga Airstrip * WX53 11:28 PM 5fps, stuttering, no visibility, trees at end of runway, terrain bug? What’s next
Stuttering only getting worse, restart
03-16 Bugalaga Airstrip * WX53 11:39 PM Starts you on top of kamikaze hill, drive down slowly
03-16 Komopa WAKM 11:45 PM Finally out of the clouds!
03-16 Enarotali WABT 11:53 AM
03-16 Eaopoto Airstrip WAEN 11:58 AM Half in the lake
03-17 Waghete WAXP 12:04 AM
03-17 Moanemani WANJ 12:10 AM Mostly virtual vision landing
03-17 Bomoani Airstrip WABM 12:18 AM
03-17 Magoda Airstrip WABV 12:23 AM
03-17 Timepa Airstrip WACF 12:28 AM
03-17 Bomomani WACV 12:41 AM
03-17 Wasior WAUW 1:18 AM
03-17 Gusimawa Aistrip WABH 1:38 AM Trees at end of runway
Flight time 7:16 31 stops
Departure from Rubol, rain, lightning, little visibility
Same as yesterday, scout, trial runs, then stick the landing, Ubrub Airport WAVI/
At least stopping is no issue these angles
Now and then there is a small break in the clouds, here over Yahukimo regency
It doesn’t last, search for the next airport, landed at Nipsan Airport
Back up another break over Wahe
Just emerging from the clouds, this one is visible!
Now I need to make a quick loop before the clouds have a chance to catch up
I made it in time, Pangema-Hasan Airport
Over Potenpilik
Looking for Wurigelebur
Beatiful location, Wurigebelur Airport WAYM
Ready to go find the next one
The clouds are moving in, looks like the break is over
I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, Wurigelebur WAXR, too steep
Got to keep the throttle open after stopping. Easy to get out of anyway, open throttle to lift the tail up, release brakes, roll back a bit while turning one way until the propeller can pull the plane forward and turn the other way. It’s actually a much easier way to turn around!
Yigi Airstrip, practically zero visibility now
Spotted Karubaga Airport, quick loop before the visibility gets worse again
Still good, looks like a short one though
Pretty short, Karubaga WANV
Reverse turn to get out, easy with these slopes, no push back needed
My flight path through Karubaga, Tolikara Regency
Looking for Alama Airstrip
Just enough visibility to swoop straight in
Easy landing, but I forgot to set my flaps to take off configuration oops
Another advantage of these steep slopes, the extra drag from full flaps doesn’t matter on take off
The rain is getting worse again on the way to Beoga
A little gap over Noemun
Another big gap over Beoga, looks like a good landing spot
Approaching the runway, stay back clouds
Good thing I paused to take a picture, forgot the landing gear Doh!
I didn’t forget it on take off, back out before the clouds move in
The next destination was Grasberg Copper and Gold Mine. Unfortunately it was so hidden in the clouds that the drone couldn’t even pick up more than some vague shapes a couple meters from the walls. I took a drone picture this morning in clear conditions, on the left here
Huge open pit mine, but totally invisible on my flight yesterday
Passing Bilogai, so awesome to fly out of the clouds into scenes like this
It didn’t last long though, Bugulaga airstrip is next
Scouting it out with the drone first, no visibility, first time here as well
After a couple runs to determine the layout of the runway, first practice run
I need to hit this one perfect, not like the standard airstrips out here where there is plenty room to make last second minor corrections.
Second trial run, looking good, I know what to aim for now on the 3D vision monitor
Successful touchdown, err minus one wheel. I didn’t anticipate the hump to be this steep!
I didn’t have enough speed left to make it to the top, the heck is this
I’ll take this as a win, 5fps (bad performance bug popped up again), stuttering, no visibility, trees at end of runway, arrived in one piece. The Bonanza is secretly a taildragger!
It took a while to figure out what direction the runway was in exactly and what to aim for on the 3D terrain viewer. From a distance the runway looks like a place to avoid, only when very close does it update and change into smooth terrain. Fun puzzle.
The real thing, that hump is real, maybe not as steep though
It made turning around easy, throttle up, tail lifts up, release brakes, roll backwards and turn, plane automatically reverses direction when the pull from the propeller overcomes gravity.
Ready for take off, that weird hump behind me
Beware of the tall trees at the end of the runway, I had to veer right a bit to avoid them
I went back here this morning to check it out in clear skies, very fun airstrip. Fly out, turn, land, repeat. You need to keep the speed up to 35 knots when hitting the hump, then full throttle to get to the top. On take off, go slow to the top of the hump, then full throttle when the plane tips down and you get just enough speed for a steep climb out to clear the trees (which shouldn’t be there) This one is even more fun than Lukla! Beautiful place to take off as well.
Onwards, the weather cleared up at Danau Tage. If I remember correctly Danau means lake
Taking off from Eaopoto Airstrip
Approaching Moanemani, it was a nice break from the clouds
Over Abgoigi / Digimani
Ideduwa, the weather is improving over all, much faster this way
Bomamani Airport, came in a bit fast, excited about the view
Pegai, Ideduwa
Teluk (Bay) Cendrawasih
Pegunungan (Mountains) Wondiwoi (7,385ft), hidden
As a local guide said Google “The highest peaks are often shrouded in clouds”
Wasior, Teluk Wondama Regency
Final stop today at Gusimawa Aistrip on an inlet coming from the South side, Arafura Sea. Terrain quality kinda ends here as I’m finding out right now while flying over West Papua. Papua New Guinea had some issues is well but is amazing over all. Great place to fly!
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Leg 208, Kokoroba, West Papua, Indonesia via Palau to Baganga, Davao Oriental, Philippines
DAY03_18.PLN (6.4 KB)
Far less exciting leg than the previous two, a welcome change back to auto pilot. I had some stuff to catch up to and long ocean flights are perfect for that. It’s a shame though that as many other paradise destinations, Palau is a disappointing mess in the MSFS.
03-17 Gusimawa Aistrip WABH 7:00 PM
03-17 Babo WASO 7:16 PM
03-17 Stenkol WAUB 7:26 PM
03-17 Merday WANF 7:39 PM Bad performance
03-17 Anggi WAXO 7:56 PM 3 attempts, local thunderstorm
03-17 Iray Airstrip WAWM 8:00 PM Virtual vision landing, blinding lightning
03-17 Rendani WAUU 8:15 PM
03-17 Kebar WAUK 8:41 PM Mostly virtual vision landing, rain again
03-17 Suswa Airstrip WAAF 9:05 PM
03-17 Sorong Mainland WA1A 9:29 PM
03-17 Jefman WASS 9:34 PM
03-17 Marinda WASN 9:49 PM Performance bug again along the way
03-17 Kabere WANE 10:02 PM 458nm next slight headwind
03-18 Angaur Airstrip ANG 12:36 AM
03-18 Peleliu C23 12:40 AM
03-18 Babelthuap/Koror PTRO 12:54 AM 475nm next 21 knot tailwind
03-18 Baganga RPBN 3:18 AM Terrible stuttering on arrival
Flight time 8:18 16 stops
Departure from Gusimawa Airstrip
Merday Airport
Terrain quality is pretty poor, the trees do a good job hiding the low res terrain
Of course the clouds were still hiding the airports, Anggi Airport on Danau Anggi Giji
Iray Airstrip
It cleared up not much later, here over Lismaungu
Chasing the rainbow over Waramui
A bridge I will never manage to fly under, still chasing the rainbow near Bawey
All clear at Marinda Aiport (Bandar Udara Marinda Raja Ampat) on Waigeo island
2.5 hours later, nothing but clear ocean in between, Angaur Island, Palau
Peluliu Island
Fierce battleground during WW2, many relics and memorials can be found here
Koror, the largest city in Palau, home to about half of the country’s population (of 20K)
The capital moved to Ngerulmud in 2006, not much there though (population 271)
Palau the way it’s supposed to look like
MSFS currently has all the coast lines as vertical walls with patched up terrain everywhere due to clouds on the aerial footage. That one picture out the left window is about as good as it gets.
Koror Belau Museum, traditional long house with stories as decorations
Reminds me of Journey’s story panels
Atpison Museum displaying traditional weapons and more recent ones left from the war
Palau is famous for many of it’s amazing locations, one of them jellyfish lake
More of Palau’s natural beauty
The biggest challenge for Palau is how to manage tourism
On to the Philippines, landfall at Baganga, Davao Oriental
Final stop for today, it was another 2.5 hour flight to here
Tomorrow, exploring the Philippines.
Just looking through all of these now and its an amazing journey. Keep it coming. I fly the Beechcraft and its awesome to see what you are doing with it. Will someday manage to do portions of your tour hopefully. Cheers and Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks, it’s a great plane to fly. Or maybe it just feels that way since I know it better than my car by now. After all these hours and landings, pushing it to its limits comes natural. I don’t even think twice about approaches, stall warning going off while entering the runway at a 90 degree angle. Don’t ever let me get in the real thing, I’ll crash straight on take off 
Leg 209, Baganga, Davao Oriental to San Vicente, Palawan, Philippines
DAY03_19.PLN (12.8 KB)
The Philippines is an amazing country, and as with many paradise locations, terrain quality in FS2020 leaves a lot to be desired. Too many clouds always hiding some of the terrain. It’s still a lot of fun to fly over all the inlets, straits, mountain ranges and land at the small airports scattered around. All while browsing all the beautiful pictures online from the places I’m flying over.
03-18 Baganga RPBN 5:34 PM
03-18 Andili RPAN 5:49 PM Bad stuttering
03-18 Tibagon RPTN 6:00 PM
03-18 Bangoy Intl RPMD 6:09 PM
03-18 Tamayong RPTM 6:18 PM
03-18 Guihing Proper RPGU 6:32 PM
03-18 Buayan RPMB 6:47 PM
03-18 General Santos RPMR 6:52 PM Bad performance
03-18 Kalamansig RPKL 7:19 PM
03-18 Lebak Rural LWA 7:25 PM
03-18 Seahawk LZ RP16 8:08 PM Trees at end of runway
03-18 Zamboanga Intl RPMZ 8:17 PM
03-18 Siocon National RPNO 8:42 PM 404 runway not found
03-18 Ipil RPMV 8:57 PM Bad performance
03-18 Liloy RPMX 9:08 PM
03-18 Ozamis RPMO 9:36 PM
03-18 Findlay Millar Lumber Company Airstrip RPKO 9:40 PM Tree at end of runwau, lumber company…
03-18 Iligan RPMI 9:51 PM
03-18 Cagayan De Oro RPML 10:03 PM
03-18 Butuan RPME 10:27 PM
03-18 Santa Ana RPSG 10:36 PM Narrow runway
03-18 Siargao Natl RPNS 10:56 PM
03-18 Nonoc RP13 11:06 PM
03-18 Surigao RPMS 11:12 PM
03-18 Maasin RPSM 11:29 PM
03-18 Hilongos RPVH 11:34 PM
03-18 San Francisco RPSS 11:45 PM mostly missing bad textures
03-18 Lapu Lapu/Mactan Cebu Intl PRVM 11:55 PM
03-19 Refugio Airstrip RPHA 12:09 AM
03-19 San Carlos City [under construction] RPHC 12:12 AM Indeed under construction
03-19 Bacolod RPVB 12:25 AM
03-19 Sebaste RPSE 12:33 AM
03-19 Iloilo International RPVI 12:46 AM Bad performance, slow down, stuttering
03-19 Antique RPVS 12:59 AM
03-19 Cuyo RPLO 1:18 AM
03-19 San Vicente RPSV 1:57 AM
Flight time 8:32 35 stops
Departure from Baganga Airport
In the air just in time to see the sun come up
Heading to Andili first
Langgawisan, pink fluffy clouds
Flying over the Marangig Falls
Andili Aiport, it’s a bit darker inside the fluffly clouds
Tibagon
With the airport along the Davao gulf
Bangoy International Airport in Davao City
Mount Apo (9,692ft) highest mountain peak and volcano (dormant) in the Philippines
Over Sibulan
Approaching Digos City
Parker Volcano aka Mount Parker, locally known as Mélébingóy (5,985ft)
A potentially active stratovolcano on Mindanao island
Hinalaan
Basilan Island between the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf
Santo Nino (Culabog) on Zamboanga del Norte
Siocon Nation Airport. I couldn’t see any runway so landed in a field next to the coordinates
Pitawe on the Sulu Sea
Bucana, pretty representative of what the islands mostly look like in FS2020
Iligan Airport, runway pretty far from the gps location, but this one is at least easy to spot
It must be said, Philippines has beautiful waterfalls everywhere
Butuan City on the Agusan river flowing into the Butuan bay
Here you can find Magellan’s anchorage
It is believed Magellan made first contact here in 1521 and of course claimed the Philippines for Spain, hence they were named after King Phillip II of Spain.
Hinatuan Island
Nonoc Airport on Doot Island
Pretty place to land
Swooping in to Maasin Airport
Next to amazing waterfalls, the Philippines also has beautiful caves, pretty much on each island
Above, Timubo Cave, Paraiso Cave and Bukilat Cave on San Francisco Island
Refugio Airstrip
Bacolod on the northwest coast of Negros Island
Inampulugan
Nice island
Flying over Sibalom Natural Park
To my final stop today at San Vicente Airport
Performance was down under 5 fps again, good time to call it a day in a beautiful location
More of the Philippines tomorrow, to Manilla
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Leg 210, San Vicente, Palawan to Fuga Airstrip, Fuga Island, Philippines
DAY03_20.PLN (15.4 KB)
Kinda looks like the UK got flooded! Northern half of the Philippines today including the capital, Manilla. Better texture quality in this direction, and a lot, a whole lot of airports.
03-19 San Vicente RPSV 5:12 PM Still dark
03-19 Limanancong RPLM 5:27 PM Drone cam landing
03-19 El Nido RPEL 5:36 PM Virtual vision landing
03-19 Culion CUJ 5:53 PM Drone cam landing
03-19 Busuanga XCN 6:03 PM
03-19 San Jose RPUH 6:24 PM
03-19 Wasig RPLG 6:36 PM Faded runway
03-19 Romblon RPVU 6:53 PM
03-19 Azagra Airstrip RPSF 7:08 PM Traffic on runway, stay on the water side
03-19 Masbate RPVJ 7:32 PM
03-19 Calbayog RPVC 7:55 PM
03-19 Catarman RPVF 8:09 PM
03-19 Bacon Natl RPLZ 8:29 PM
03-19 Legazpi RPLP 8:40 PM
03-19 Naga RPUN 9:05 PM
03-19 Apuao Grande Island Airstrip RPNC 9:21 PM No runway, field
03-19 Daet RPUD 9:26 PM
03-19 Paracale Airstrip RPPR 9:33 PM Short runway
03-19 Jomalig RPLJ 9:49 PM
03-19 Balesin Island RPBL 10:01 PM
03-19 Alabat RPLY 10:08 PM
03-19 Pagbilao Grande Island RP12 10:21 PM Hydropole close to runway
03-19 Fernando AB RPUL 10:40 PM
03-19 Barradas Airstrip RPST 10:47 PM Clear narrow strip of grass between forest and houses
03-19 Ninoy Aquino Intl RPLL 11:03 PM Manilla Capital
03-19 Sangley AB RPLS 11:11 PM
03-19 Corregidor RPLX 11:22 PM
03-19 Subic Bay Intl RPLB 11:35 PM
03-19 Basa AB RPUF 11:44 PM
03-19 Clark Intl RPLC 11:50 PM
03-19 Santa Rosa Airstrip RPSO 11:56 PM
03-19 Alto Airfield RPNB 11:58 PM
03-20 Paniqui Airstrip RPPN 12:06 AM
03-20 Nampicuan Airstrip RPNP 12:08 AM
03-20 Binalonan RPBI 12:16 AM
03-20 Baguio RPUB 12:25 AM Mostly virtual vision landing, bad performance after take off
03-20 Bagabag RPUZ 12:43 AM
03-20 Mrmp RP14 12:52 AM
03-20 Cauayan RPUY 12:59 AM
03-20 Tuguegarao RPUT 1:15 AM
03-20 Dibagat Airstrip RPKA 1:39 AM 3 attempts, very short runway
03-20 Laoag Intl RPLI 1:56 AM
03-20 Jose Parades Airbase Airstrip RPPS 2:02 AM
03-20 Fuga Airstrip RPNA 2:19 AM
Flight time 9:07 43 stops
Departing from San Vincente ahead of dawn
Limancong Airport, still pretty much black without the exposure boost from the drone cam
Culton Approach, dawn approaching as well
Sunrise at Decalachao
Flying out over the Sulu Sea at Buenavista
San Jose on Dinagat Island
Following an unnamed river in Budburan
Pretty forests in Budburan
Romblon Airport on Tablas Island
Nice place to touch down
I like these small airports much more than the big ones
Dual use runway at Azagra Airstrip, stick to the water edge, 2-way traffic on the other side!
Masbate City on Masbate Island
Nice place to take off
Landing at Caterman Airport. And I wonder why passengers never tip me 
Biri Island on the San Bernardino Strait in the Philippine Sea
Part of an island group of the north-west coast of Samar Island
Magasang and Biri rock formations on Biri Island
Taking off from Bacon National Airport, Bulusan Volcano on the horizon
Legazpi at the foot of Mayon Volcano, and next to Albay Gulf
Mayon Volcano also known as Mount Mayon (8,081ft)
Active stratovolcano, renowned for its “perfect cone”
Definitely one of the best looking in game
Wide angle top view
Will need to visit again once smoke and particle effects are implemented
For now, here’s a timelapse of its last eruption in 2018
Naga Airport, fire truck is waiting for me
Apuo Grande Island, airstrip is the field I guess
Daet
Balesin Island in Lamon Bay, which Google thinks is Balaong river
Alabat Airport, at least no trees at the end of the runway
Kanluran Malicboy
Mount Banahaw (7,119ft) active volcano on Luzon
Fernando Airbase
Manila, the capital of the Philippines on Manila Bay
Pasig river winding through the city, connecting Laguna Lake with Manila Bay
Ninoy Aquino International Airport
From left to right, Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, San Agustin Church and Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Fort Santiago on the left, another remnant from Spanish colonial times
Dr José Rizal (1861-1896) National Monument on the right, an executed Filipino nationalist, national hero
A peak in the National Museum of the Philippines
Along Rizal park with many other museums and monuments
Manila also made for a great episode of Don’t drive here
Corregidor
Basa Airbase, heading into some bad weather
Something I haven’t seen in a long time, a highway! Tarlac - Pangasinan - La Union Expressway
Camangaan, leaving the farm fields behind, heading back into the mountains
Mount Pigingan (4,357ft)
Popular hiking destination
Binga Lake
Agno River near Mount Pulag
https://i.imgur.com/NKIpADE.png
Over Poblacion, just getting glimpses of the terrain here
https://i.imgur.com/4LmB1nl.png
Latbang
https://i.imgur.com/7nKDFig.png
The well named MRMP airport, stands for Magat River Multipurpose Project
https://i.imgur.com/GlJOkeQ.png
Mount Sicapoo (7,746ft) or rather cloud Sicapoo today
https://i.imgur.com/Gs1I6Wv.png
Looking for Diogabat Airstrip
https://i.imgur.com/aUBFeU3.png
Difficult one, low between the hills with a very short strip to land on, I stopped right at the far edge
https://i.imgur.com/BDGgB5K.png
Taking off from Agaga - Jose Parades Airbase Airstrip
https://i.imgur.com/qqt4mAK.png
Flying over Dumalneg
https://i.imgur.com/CE3Cnrr.png
Last stop today at Fugal Island, half hidden in the clouds
https://i.imgur.com/gabDwwN.png
Looks like a decent place to spend the night, not sure what those ruins are from though
https://i.imgur.com/3xo5eKt.png
Fuga Church ruins is all I can find on them, I’ll pick the beach location for the night
Tomorrow to Taiwan
Leg 211, Fuga Island, Philippines via Taiwan to Miyako-jima, Japan
DAY03_21.PLN (10.7 KB)
A lovely tour of Taiwan with a very inappropriate landing at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, then on to Japan. A bit shorter leg than on a usual Saturday as my next destination (Iwo Jima) would have been in the dark by the time I could get there. I guess I didn’t need to start in the dark (was trying to make it in time for the long flight to Iwo Jima, but had too much fun in Taiwan)
03-20 Fuga Airstrip RPNA 4:12 PM Virtual vision take off, nothing but black
03-20 Lanyu RCLY 5:19 PM Runway lights! Tricky 16 knot crosswind
03-20 Lyudao RCGI 5:35 PM Virtual vision landing
03-20 Chihhong RCQS 5:43 PM Runway lights, still dark
03-20 Fengnin RCFN 5:48 PM
03-20 Taimali RCTA 5:55 PM
03-20 Hengchun RCKW 6:10 PM
03-20 Kaohsiung Intl RCKH 6:26 PM
03-20 Tsoying Z28T 6:31 PM
03-20 Kangshan RCAY 6:36 PM
03-20 Tainan Aero RCNN 6:42 PM
03-20 Qimei RCCM 7:01 PM
03-20 Wang-An RCWA 7:06 PM
03-20 P’Eng Hu Z28W 7:11 PM
03-20 Magong AB RCQC 7:13 PM
03-20 Chiayi Aero RCKU 7:30 PM
03-20 Hualian RCHA 8:01 PM 3 attemps, very short ‘runway’
03-20 Hualian RCHU 8:05 PM
03-20 Hualien RCYU 8:11 PM
03-20 Hsinchu Aero RCPO 8:43 PM
03-20 Lungtang RCDI 8:50 PM
03-20 Taoyuan RCGM 8:56 PM
03-20 Chiang Kai Shek Intl RCTP 8:58 PM Mind the speed bump
03-20 Sungshan RCSS 9:07 PM Chiang Kai-Sheck Memorial Grand Hotel National Palace Museum
03-20 Yonaguni ROYN 10:17 PM 24 knot head/cross wind
03-20 Hateruma RORH 10:39 PM
03-20 New Ishigaki ROIG 10:55 PM
03-20 Tarama RORT 11:10 PM
03-20 Shimojishima RORS * 11:21 PM
03-20 Miyako ROMY 11:29 PM 872nm next
Flight time 7:17 29 stops
Take off in complete darkness, heading to Lanyu
Lyudao Airport on Green Island, looks more purple to me
Taitung city, south east coast of Taiwan
Dawn over Nevin Village (內文村)
Mutan reservoir
Sun spotted over Checheng
Checheng Fu’an Palace and Sichongxi Hot Springs Park
Flying along the south-west coast of Taiwan
Tainan city
Anping Old Street in the middle and Chihkan Tower on the right
Chikhan Tower is a former military fort built in the 17th century by Dutch colonists. This reveals another gap in my education. Dutch history classes never mentioned that the Dutch East India company got all the way to Taiwan. Of course not mentioning the slavery part is far worse.
I noticed this peculiar shape down below, first thought it was a glitch
It’s the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, awesome building
Of course I could not resist a peek inside
Searching for Hualian RCHA along Hualien Creek (花蓮溪)
Found it but it’s very short and bumpy
3rd time is the charm, good thing no obstructions to power back out and try again
Hualian RCHA tons of room to land here
Hualian Airport RCYU odd configuration, long taxi way
Near Fu Shicun, pretty bad textures in the mountains, trying to find a decent spot
Mount Slyvia (12,749ft)
Taoyuan Yuehua Hotel & Golf Club at Lungtang Military Airport
Chiang Kai Shek Intl, mind the speed bump in the runway
I landed before the bump and carefully drove up there, little height bug
New Taipe along the Tamsui River
Luzhou District
Sungshan Aiport in Taipe, the capital of Taiwan
Heading back out to explore the city, Grand hotel Taipe near the airport
Taipe 101 scyscraper (1,666ft) and Lungshan Temple (1700s Buddhist and Taoist temple)
National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Opened 1980 in memory of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1985)
My gears are grinding, that looks a lot like a runway!
Only that pesky gate is in the way
Dropping down over the gate, plus ground effect, probably can’t stop in time
So I snuck in from the side over the trees, success with room to spare
Pretty place
Leaving the same way I got in, no trace left behind
I wonder where that portal goes… (It’s an empty room, rendering glitch)
On to the National Palace Museum
Featuring one of the largest collections of Chinese art & artifacts in the world
So large they build a second one to the South
Heading to Japan next, first land sighted, Nakanougan island
Hateruma island
Landing at Hateruma Airport
Hateruma is Japan’s Southernmost point
Flying past Kohama island next
Taketomi island with Ishigaki behind
Okinawa Prefectural Yaeyama Hospital build on the old Ishigaki airport
New Ishigaki Airport
Ishigaki island looks very good in the sim
Hirakuboza Lighthouse at the tip of the island (right side)
Miyako Shimojishima Airport on Irabu island
One of the fully modeled airports in game
I’m sure they appreciated that
I flew on to the island right next to Irabu, Miyako which has it’s own Miyako Airport
Looks like a duplicate from Miyako Shimojishima Airport
More of japan tomorrow, first a long flight to Iwo Jima. I already send the plane out this morning to time the arrival at sunrise. It worked after tweaking the mixture and rpm just right. There is no airport there in the sim, I’ll improvise.
Leg 212, Miyako-jima to Kanoya, Kagoshima, Japan
DAY03_22.PLN (7.2 KB)
A long detour to Iwo Jima, thanks to good fuel economy, leaving early, auto pilot did all the work while I was enjoying the good weather outside. The plane broke down on the way back, the islands were mysteriously absent in detail as well (fully featured on Bing). Luckily after getting back to ‘regular’ Japan everything went very smooth. Fun trip.
03-20 Miyako ROMY 10:34 AM 872nm next 8 knot tailwind FL75
18.66% mixture 2432 rpm 50F IAS 136 TAS 153 GS 161 ETA 4:05 PM 8 knot tailwind
17.50% mixture 2432 rpm 50F IAS 129 TAS 145 GS 155 ETA 4:14 PM 10 knot tailwind
16.33% mixture 2432 rpm 50F IAS 118 TAS 133 GS 144 ETA 4:36 PM 10 knot tailwind
16.33% mixture 2156 rpm 50F IAS 112 TAS 127 GS 141 ETA 4:42 PM 14 knot tailwind
16.00% mixture 2157 rpm 51F IAS 108 TAS 122 GS 137 ETA 4:47 PM 15 knot tailwind
16.00% mixture 2157 rpm 48F IAS 110 TAS 124 GS 140 ETA 4:51 PM 16 knot tailwind 26.6 nmpg
Descent to 2,000 ft throttle 82% FLC 110 -350 fpm
Touchdown 5:00 PM, 37.86 gallons used, 23.0 nmpg, 6h26 travel time, 135.5 knots average
03-21 Iwo Jima Airport 24°47’03.6"N 141°19’23.6"E 5:00 PM Sunrise 4:27 PM 546nm next
16 knot headwind now of course, 4,000 ft 6 knot headwind, GS 177
Cockpit animations broken, trying to switch fuel tank, selected fuel cut off, argh
Got it in time, the lever still points to the wrong tank but fuel is being taking from the correct tank
Lever still broken, tank near empty, won’t switch. Not responding to input, game broken
Luckily I was at 6,000 ft to avoid clouds, but still had to use the fuel menu to move fuel over, too many bugs.
The Lever is stuck somewhere in between after moving a little but (All levers and switches are stuck, cockpit is broken)
03-21 Kitadaito Airport 25°56’39.8"N 131°19’35.8"E 8:11 PM
72.49 gallons used, 7.5 nmpg (flat out mostly at 4,000 ft), 3h11 flight time, 171.5 knots avg
Restart to fix the plane, pilots gone, all animations gone, hover board plane
03-21 Kitadaito Airport 25°56’39.8"N 131°19’35.8"E 8:21 PM
03-21 Minamidaito Airport 25°50’47.2"N 131°15’48.6"E 8:25 PM Nothing here either, some cars on basic roads
03-21 Naha ROAH 9:10 PM
03-21 Kerama ROKR * 9:54 PM
03-21 Kumejima ROKJ 10:10 PM
03-21 Ie Shima Aux AB RODE 10:30 PM
03-21 Iejima RORE 10:33 PM
03-21 Kadena AB RODN 10:48 PM 14 knot crosswind
03-21 Yoron RORY 11:09 PM
03-21 Okierabu RJKB 11:19 PM
03-21 Tokunoshima RJKN 11:28 PM
03-21 Amami RJKA 11:51 PM
03-21 Kikai Aero RJKI 11:58 PM 17 knot crosswind
03-22 Suwanosejima Airport RJX8 * 12:26 AM
03-22 Yakushima RJFC 1:04 AM
03-22 Tanegashima RJFG 1:19 AM
03-22 Satsuma Lojima ZZZZ 1:44 AM
03-22 Kanoya RJFY 2:01 AM
Flight time 15:25 19 stops
10:34 AM my time, 11:34 PM in Miyako, time to go
First flight is to Iwo Jima, 872nm, sunrise 4:27 PM (5:27 AM locally)
Bit of moon light not too dark on departure
Climbing to 7,500 ft cruising altitude
Now the trick is to get the ETA at about 4:45 PM (my time) to have light on arrival
Every time I checked the wind had gathered strength, increasing my ground speed. Eventually I settle on 16% mixture, 2157 rpm, IAS 108 with ground speed 137 due to 15 knot tailwind. I switched to the full tank and left it on its own, ETA 4:47 PM
Checking in at about 4:30 pm, the sun should be up any moment now
There it is as well as Iwo Jima
ETA went up slightly despite my speed having increased, I guess there was some turbulence along the way. Only a few minutes ETA now 4:51 PM, time to start the descent
Throttle back to 82%, FLC 110, gave a nice 350 fpm glide
First a fly over of the island, Mount Suribachi at the end here
Checking out the airport, or lack there of. (It’s not listed in game and very low res on Bing)
Touchdown at 5pm, safely on the ‘runway’ or where it is supposed to be
37.86 gallons used, avg 23.0 nmpg, 6h26 travel time, 135.5 knots average ground speed
The actual airport
Iwo Jima, known in Japan as Iō Tō, was the site of a 5 week long major battle between the US and Japan in Februari and March 1945
The US occupied the island until 1968 when it was returned to Japan. To this day the island has not been resettled, only military personnel live there.
Islanders’ Memorial Peace Cemetery Park and Tranquility Hill on the far right
After topping the fuel back up (in the fuel menu, no airport here) on to Kitadaito. This time at full power, see how fast she can get there. Now I have to dodge the 16 knot headwind at 7,500ft, flying at 4,000ft, sometimes a bit higher to stay above the clouds out of any turbulence.
A couple close calls along the way trying to switch fuel tanks. The game has forgotten how to animate the plane, levels, switches were all stuck. Trying to change tanks it somehow ended up on fuel shut off (level still showing the same tank) and down it went. A lot of clicking later and finally it took fuel from the other tank.
An almost fatal incident when having to switch tanks again, same thing, lever not working, went into shut off again or sucking the remaining bit out of near empty tank. It would not use the tank with 19 gallons left. I was gliding down from 6,000ft, at 2,000ft I used the fuel menu to manually edit the fuel into the other tank. Sim breaks down, use sim tools to fix it I guess.
Then I arrived to this, Kitadaito
It’s in full sharp detail on Bing maps, edited in in the top right.
No clue why it looks so bare in the game. Maybe Bing was updated after FS2020 took a copy and Asobo didn’t bother updating this part in World Update 1.
Oh well, another landing in the grass, except my flaps and gear aren’t animating either. Thus simply hoping the gear has extended (confirmation lights also not working) and touch down, sort of
The pilots are gone as well, hrmpf
I restarted the game, which fixed the plane (island still nothing) and landed on an empty field of grass on Minamidaito. Enough of this nonsense, back to Japan proper.
Kudaka Island
Nanjo, Okinawa
Kerama Airport Approach
This is your captain speaking, we’re experiencing some slight turbulence on short final
Nicely modeled rocks around here
The actual approach to Kerama Airport
Cute little airport
I have been trying to get rid of Japanese knotweed from our garden for years, hopefully we don’t get this Japanese grass growing inside our house next!
Time to move on, very nice airport
Kumejima Airport
The rest of Kume Island
Onna
Haneji Dam near Onaka
Tukonoshima
Yoroshima Island
Agina
Suwanoseji Airport Approach
This airport gives me strong Far Cry 3 vibes
Departure just as spectacular as landing
Suwanoseji Island
That volcano probably has a name, not on Google maps
It shows up as Mt Mitake on Bing, except that’s actually near Tokyo, maps…
Yakushima Island, tall mountain hiding in those clouds
Tanegashima Space Center
At the southeastern tip of the island
Old Tanegashima Airport
Too small I guess, not repurposed
The new one is indeed bigger
Taking a peek above (half) the clouds on the way to Lojima
Satsuma Lojima Airport
Final stop today at Kanoya Airport
It’s just starting to rain, good time to call it a day
More of Japan tomorrow, then a big intermission to North and South Korea.
Leg 213, Kanoya, Kagoshima, Japan to Sancheon, South Korea
DAY03_23.PLN (8.6 KB)
This leg should be called “fun with bridges”. I didn’t cover all that much distance with my average speed down to 92 knots, too much fun zooming around the spectacular landmark bridges.
03-22 Kanoya RJFY 5:30 PM
03-22 Kagoshima RJFK 5:41 PM
03-22 Miyazaki RJFM 5:55 PM
03-22 Nyutabaru Aero RJFN 6:03 PM
03-22 Kumamoto RJFT 6:31 PM Kokonoe Yume Otsurihashi 33°10’28"N, 131°13’38"E
03-22 Oita RJFO 7:06 PM
03-22 Tsuiki Aero RJFZ 7:20 PM
03-22 Kitakyushu RJFR 7:26 PM
03-22 Ozuki Aero RJOZ 7:31 PM
03-22 Kanmon Bridge 33°57’43"N, 130°57’31"E 7:50 PM Fun to land on
03-22 Ashiya Aero RJFA 7:59 PM
03-22 Fukuoka RJFF 8:11 PM
03-22 Metabaru RJDM 8:20 PM
Bad performance, main thread dying, reloading plane did not fix it, restart
03-22 Metabaru RJDM 8:32 PM Chikugo River Lift Bridge 33°12’53"N, 130°21’44"E
03-22 Saga RJFS 9:05 PM
03-22 Omura RJDU 9:17 PM RJFU Bridge 32°54’54"N, 129°55’43"E
03-22 Nagasaki RJFU* 9:35 PM
03-22 Amakusa RJDA 9:50 PM Hashima Island 32°37’38"N, 129°44’18"E
Bad performance over open water, main thread spiking, turning draw on terrain off and back on fixed it or coincidence
03-22 Fukue RJFE 10:20 PM
03-22 Kamigoto RJDK 10:33 PM
03-22 Ojika RJDO 10:42 PM Ikitsuki Bridge 33°21’10"N, 129°26’20"E
Bad performance while approaching the bridge, main thread spiking to 160 ms per frame, manipulators spiking as well
Dev mode, terrain etc no difference, pausing under the bridge fixed it… (btw cars are driving on the water)
Problem area is just west of the bridge, clear line where bad stuttering starts
03-22 Iki RJDB 11:29 PM
03-22 Tsushima RJDT 11:48 PM Busan Tower 35°6’4"N, 129°1’56"E
03-23 Gimhae Intl RKPK 12:24 AM 2 fps on landing, cleared up further down the runway
03-23 Sacheon RKPS 12:45 AM bad performance again, messy terrain, 30GB RAM in use
Flight time 7:15 23 stops
Departure from Kanoya just after sunrise
Sakurajima (3,665ft) formerly an island, connected to the Osumi peninsula in the 1914 eruption
Kagoshima Airport near Kirishima
Kirishima Kinkowan National Park
Over Hokita
Watari river
Dokawa Dam in the Hitari river
Stepping through street view on these islands looks very familiar to Ghibli movies
All those lovely narrow streets hugging the mountains and skinny cars to match
Kumamoto Airport
Takaono
Kokonoe Yume Otsurihasi, 568-foot-high pedestrian suspension bridge
You can fit any plane under there, a fly by
Kitakyushu Airport, build on a man made island which seems more common in Japan
Kanmon Bridge connecting Kyushu island with Honshu island (Japan’s main island)
Flying over the Hayatomonoseto Strait to check out the underside of the bridge
Upping the challenge
Wide enough to land as well. They know me around here, traffic kept to the other side, clear runway
Wee, awesome bridge. Take off on the Kitakyushu side, Shimonoseki to the North behind me
Fukuoka, huge city
Kyushu Electric Power Minamihata Power Station
Chikugo River lift bridge
Difficult shot. The Bonanza can fly at an 80 degree bank, maintaining 110 knots IAS, full rudder to maintain altitude. The hard part is to get the circle to align with the gap in the bridge.
Got to check out the bridge from underneath
Omaru Airport with Nagasaki Airport behind on another artificial island
Very nicely modeled airport
And bridge!
Easier in first person view since the trailing camera can’t make sense of flying upside down
My passengers wanted out, so I dropped them off at arrivals
Fun landing, it would have been easier from the other direction, not having to fly under the walkways. But easier to take off in this direction. Good thing here is no cross wind! I did land again on the actual runway to make it ‘count’ (not that the logbook works all that well)
Amakusa Airport
Hashima Island, an abandoned offshore mining facility, also known as Gunkanjima or Battleship Island
Kamigoto Airport
Ikitsuki Bridge connecting Ikitsuki island with Hirado island
Beautiful bridge over the Tatsunoseto Strait
It took a lot of tries to get this right
This bridge makes me want to play Half-Life 2’s bridge level again, Highway 17
One more shot from the cockpit
They must be warning traffic to stay away when I get near
Shimayama Island
On to South Korea (rest of Japan later) Busan Tower in Jung-gu district, Busan
I wondered how close I could get, close enough to admire the reflection
Namhang Bridge in the distance
Not quite close enough for take out, or drop it on the wing, bank left to collect
Gimhae International Airport serving the Busan area since 1976
Final stop today at Sacheon Airport
Ooh nice bridge in Sacheon, when is Korea getting landmarks 
Tomorrow exploring South Korea and heading to North Korea.
Leg 214, Sancheon, South Korea to Sunchŏn, North Korea
DAY03_24.PLN (14.1 KB)
I hoped to see a bit more of North Korea but terrain data is quite messy. It’s already not very good in South Korea, North Korea is mostly low res sat images with often mismatched seasons right next to each other. Plenty places to land although more than a few of these airstrips or nothing but empty fields.
03-23 Sacheon RKPS 5:51 PM
03-23 Yeosu RKJY 6:02 PM
03-23 Beolgyo RKBE 6:13 PM
03-23 Jeongseok RKPD 6:42 PM
03-23 Alddreu Airfield RKGI 6:54 PM Bad terrain, no runway visible
03-23 Jeju Intl RKPC 7:09 PM
03-23 Yeongam RKHE 7:36 PM
03-23 Mokpo RKJM 7:42 PM
03-23 Muan Intl RKJB 7:48 PM
03-23 Gwangju Aero RKJJ 7:57 PM
03-23 G 710 RK6D 8:08 PM
03-23 R 522 RK0J 8:29 PM Short narrow strip, bad stuttering, < 5 fps then back to normal
03-23 Seongmu RKTE 8:47 PM
03-23 Taean RKTA 9:10 PM
03-23 Seosan RKTP 9:16 PM
03-23 A-511 AAF RKSG 9:28 PM Bad stuttering in between, cleared up just before landing
03-23 Osan AB RKSO 9:33 PM
03-23 Suwon RKSW 9:37 PM
03-23 Incheon Intl RKSI 9:51 PM
03-23 Gimpo Intl Seoul RKSS 10:02 PM Terrible performance
Restart, too slow to operate instruments ~ 2 fps stuttering
03-23 Gimpo Intl Seoul RKSS 10:12 PM Smooth after restart
03-23 R 218 RK0M 10:35 PM Short runway, stuttering is back
03-23 R 219 RK0N 10:37 PM
03-23 R 228 RK0W 10:42 PM
03-23 G 233 RK18 10:46 PM
03-23 R 237 RK0D 10:50 PM
03-23 R 240 RK0Y 10:54 PM
03-23 Hyon-ni ZKHO 11:05 PM Messy bad textures, no detail
03-23 Ichon ZKKN 11:21 PM Border crossing 37°54’10.8"N 126°42’33.6"E
03-23 R 107 RK0K 11:42 PM
03-24 Ihyon Ni Highway Strip Airfield ZKHJ 12:02 AM
03-24 Haeju Airfield ZKHA 12:08 AM
03-24 Ongjin ZKON 12:15 AM
03-24 T’aet’an-pihaengjang ZKCH 12:23 AM Very bad performance area
03-24 Kwail Air Base ZKCA 12:33 AM
03-24 Ch’o do ZKCG 12:40 AM Terrible stuttering, bad area around the island, runway not visible
03-24 Unchon Up ZKAK 12:49 AM
03-24 Onchon ZKYN 12:55 AM Rungrade 1st of May Stadium 39°2’58"N, 125°46’31"E Pyongyang
03-24 Kangdong ZKKA 1:12 AM Bad stuttering after Pyongyang
03-24 Sunan ZKPY 1:21 AM
03-24 Sunchon Air Base ZKSC 1:28 AM
Flight time 7:27 39 stops
Departure from Sacheon
Heading to Yeosu first
Yeosu Airport. Part of the bay is ■■■■■■ off, likely to claim more land
Farming in South Korea next to Beolgyo Airport
Jeju-do (island) off the south coast of South Korea
Home to amazing cliffs and Halassan shield volcano (6,388ft) highest point in South Korea
Jeongseok Airport with Halassan National Park in the distance
Alddreu Airfield, on the southwest side of Jeju-do
Jeju International Airport in Jeju-si (city)
Yongduam Rock, Samseonghyeol and Manjanggul Cave, a long lava tube cave
Samseonghyeol is a tranquil shrine dating to 1526, according to myth, the place where the 3 gods (Go Eul-na, Yang Eul-na, and Bu Eul-na) emerged with different family names some 4,300 years ago.
Also here Jeju Love Land
A theme park aimed at breaking taboos surrounding sex, opened 2004
Yeongam back on the mainland
Yongdamdaem
Google maps is quite messy around here as well, no name for the reservoir or river
Daecheong dam, also no river or reservoir name available
Incheon on the west coast bordering Seoul
Icheon International Airport on the left (mess in game)
Gimpo International on the west side of Seoul
Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on the Dangjeong-Dong (river)
Seoul Tower location on the hill on the right, tower missing
Lotte world ahead behind the sports complex, huge theme park
Cheonggyecheon and Namdaemun Market
Gyeongbokgung Palace, 14th century royal palace
Checking out the National Museum of Korea
Host (2006) put Seoul on the map for me
Coincidentally I just started watching Sisyphus the myth on Netflix, pretty good so far
Flying on to the border, Doha-ri
Landing at R 240 airstrip in Cheongyang-ri
The border with North Korea or rather the edge of the DMZ
Farms build right up to the border on the South Korean side
Hyon Ni Airfield in North Korea
No pictures nor any info to be found here
Terrain quickly devolves into mismatched sat level mess, here at Changch’on-ni
Back to the border, checking out Dora Observatory
On a hill looking out over North Korea
Keasong Checkpoint and Panmun Station in the DMZ, Kaesong Industrial Area behind
“Back to back they faced each other”
T’aet’an-pihaengjang Airport near Ugom (on the coast)
South Hwanghae
Ch’o-do (island) in the Yellow Sea
Rungrade 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea
Not much to see in game apart from the one landmark, google maps has a bit more
Juche Tower, Geumsusan Taeyang Gungjeon (mausoleum) and Workers Party Foundation Monument
The well known Mansudae Hill Grand Monument
Statues is one of North Korea’s major exports nowadays, I saw a few in Africa along the way
Many documentaries have been made about life in North Korea, mostly about the government sanctioned good places to live. There’s very little documented about the actual life and poverty in the rest of the country or the public executions that regularly take place.
A take on North Korea from a South Korean
My exposure to the Korean war was growing up with MASH on tv. Probably a very accurate documentary!
Last stop for the day Sunchon Air Base
Tomorrow a trip to China and a bit of Russia before heading back to Japan.
Leg 215, Sunchŏn, North Korea, via Russia to Yanji, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, China
DAY03_25.PLN (14.6 KB)
Terrain quality is very poor around here, so not many pictures today. The good thing, not a single case of slow down.Tons of airports to land at as well, including a lot of air bases.
03-24 Sunchon Air Base ZKSC 5:10 PM
03-24 Pukchang Air Base ZKPN 5:13 PM
03-24 Kaechon ZKYO 5:19 PM
03-24 Taechon ZKPA 5:28 PM
03-24 Panghyon ZKPD 5:33 PM
03-24 Uiju ZKUI 5:47 PM
03-24 Sinuiju ZKSI 5:52 PM
03-24 Dandong ZLAN 5:57 PM
03-24 Changhai ZYCH 6:26 PM
03-24 Sanshilipu Air Base ZJIH 6:42 PM
03-24 Zhoushuizi ZYTL 6:51 PM
03-24 Tuchengzi Air Base ZLUS 6:57 PM
03-24 Shanhaiguan ZSHD 7:29 PM
03-24 Suizhong Air Base ZSUI 7:42 PM
03-24 Xingcheng ZYXC 7:49 PM
03-24 Xingcheng Air Base ZXIG 7:52 PM
03-24 Jinxi Air Base ZYUH 7:57 PM
03-24 Jinzhou ZYJZ 8:07 PM
03-24 Jinzhou North Airfield ZJIZ 8:11 PM
03-24 Taoxian ZYTX 8:47 PM
03-24 Shenyang Dongta ZYYY 8:53 PM
03-24 Shenyang Beiling Air Base ZSHN 8:58 PM
03-24 Xiguantun Muguzu Manzuxiang ZXIM 9:09 PM
03-24 Siping Air Base ZQUU 9:31 PM
03-24 Gongzhuling Air Base ZGON 9:42 PM
03-24 Changchun ZCHC 9:51 PM
03-24 Jilin ZYJL 10:09 PM
03-24 Shuangcheng Air Base ZSHU 10:38 PM
03-24 Taiping ZYHB 10:47 PM
03-24 Wang Kang Airfield ZHAA 10:52 PM
03-24 Jixi Xingkaihu ZYJX 11:59 PM
03-25 Khvalynka Air Base USPA 12:29 AM
03-25 Varfolomeyevka Air Base UNOS 12:41 AM
03-25 Chuguyevka Air Base UCHG 12:49 AM
03-25 Zolotaya Dolina Air Base UHU1 1:15 AM
03-25 Novonezhino Airfield UROA 1:28 AM
03-25 Maikhe Airfield UMNN 1:35 AM
03-25 Knevichi UHWW 1:40 AM
03-25 Uglovaya Air Base UUGG 1:43 AM
03-25 Emar Airport UEMR 1:47 AM Vladivostok on the way
03-25 Yanji ZYYJ 2:29 AM
Flight time 9:19 40 stops
Tearyong river
Sunrise over North Pyongan
Dandong on the Yalu river, the border between North Korea and China
Here you can find a piece of the Hushan Great Wall
A Broken bridge (bombed in the Korean war) and the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge to North Korea
Hou’ershicun, you can always create more land to farm
Jinxi Air Base
Hou’ala river and farms, so many farm fields
Terrain is pretty much all flat here, all farm land wherever you look
Shenyang, capital and largest city of China’s northeast Liaoning Province
Home to Mukden Palace build in 1625
And remains of Xinle Culture were found here
Neolithic culture in northeast China dating back to 5500 - 4800 BC
Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province
Bingxeu Big World, a city made of ice constructed each winter season
A patch of snow over Hailin
Lake Khanka
The largest freshwater lake in the Russian Far East
Chuguyevka Air Base
Zelotaya Dolina Air Base
Knevichi Airport or rather Vladivostok International Airport
Still a ways from Vladivostok, Bukhta Steklyannaya along the way, aka Glass Beach
Vladivostok, a major Pacific port city in Russia overlooking Golden Horn Bay
Located near the borders with China and North Korea with access to the Sea of Japan
Russkiy Most (bridge) over Proliv Bosfor Vostochnyy
The real bridge, FS2020 got 2 out of 4 pillars sort of right
Zolotoy Most and Triumphal Arch for Tsar Nicholas II
Last but not least, Vladivostok is also the end of the Trans-Siberian railroad (Transsibirskaya Zheleznodorozhnaya Magistral) A train ride to Moscow will take about 6 days, 9,198 km.
I flew on to Yanji Airport to land, not much to see there (in the game nor on Google). Tomorrow back to Japan along the east coast of North and South Korea.
Leg 216, Yanji, China via North and South Korea to Tokushima, Japan
DAY03_26.PLN (10.5 KB)
I upgraded my system to 32GB ram, everything runs much smoother now, except MSFS. It’s not using the pagefile anymore so it does survive a bit longer, however the SU3 bugs still wreak havoc. South Korea and Japan had bad slowdown again requiring restarts. Hopefully the hotfix that’s supposed to come today will help.
03-25 Yanji ZYYJ 6:16 PM 32GB RAM installed, back to 200 terrain detail
03-25 Changbaishan NBS 6:46 PM Peaktu Mountain Heaven Lake
03-25 Sungam ni ZKSG 7:20 PM
02-25 Kyongsong-Chuul ZKKY 7:24 PM
03-25 Orang ZKHE 7:28 PM
03-25 Kuktong ZKHR 7:33 PM River height bugged (aquaduct river)
03-25 Kilchu Highway ZKKI 7:43 PM
03-25 Tanchon South Airstrip ZKIO 7:47 PM Might have landed on a road or it’s a dual use ‘runway’
03-25 Riwon Airbase ZKIW 8:01 PM Stuttering along the way, bad area, terrain back to 100, no improvement
03-25 Toksan Air Base ZKHM 8:23 PM Terrible stuttering, keys not registering, AP trying to kill me
03-25 Yonpo Air Base ZKHU 9:29 PM
Restart, ram usage keeps going up for no reason, 33GB allocated, 19GB working set, 2fps, still takes forever to quit but no hard faults
03-25 Yonpo Air Base ZKHU 9:39 PM
03-25 Sondok ZKSD 9:42 PM Smooth again, 16GB allocated, 10GB working set
03-25 Yo-Do Airstrip ZKWB 8:53 PM 28 knot headwind
03-25 Kalma ZKWS 8:59 PM
03-25 Kang Da Ri ZKWN 9:03 PM
03-25 Hoeyang Southeast Airfield ZKHN 9:13 PM
03-25 R 413 RK21 8:28 PM
03-25 Yangyang Intl RKNY 9:37 PM
03-25 Gangneung RKNN 9:46 PM
03-25 Jukbyeon Emergency Airstrip RKTB 10:01 PM Pretty big for an emergency strip, bad performance bad terrain inland
03-25 Yeongju Emergency Runway Airfield RKES 10:17 PM Road traffic on runway center line
03-25 Daegu International RKTN 10:37 PM Terrain getting better, terrain detail at 200 still slowly kills it
03-25 Pohang Aero RKTH 10:52 PM bad performance
03-25 Ulsan RKPU 11:01 PM terrible stuttering on landing ~5fps
03-25 Iwami RJOW 11:42 PM
Restart, ram usage going up again (over open ocean) down to 5fps
03-25 Iwami RJOW 11:51 PM
03-26 Iwakuni MCAS RJOI 12:06 AM Itsukushima Shrine 34°17’49"N, 132°19’9"E
03-26 Hiroshima RJOA 12:48 AM Tatara Bridge 34°15’35"N, 133°3’48"E
03-26 Kochi RJOK 1:26 AM
03-26 Tokushima RJOS 2:03 AM PG Area, bad performance (started well before the PG area)
Flight time 7:16 28 stops
Climbing up Peaktu mountain (9,003ft), active volcano on the border between China and North Korea
The mountain itself is a mess in MSFS, but it provides a decent view towards North Korea
Heaven Lake sits at the top, a very popular destination
North Hamgyong, North Korea
Myongchon
Kilchu Highway Airport
South Hamgyong with the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in the background
Flying along the beach over Namchang-ri
Ryo-Do
Ch’angdo-up as seen from Kumgangsan, near the border with South Korea
Lake created by Imnam Dam, unfortunately a lot of height errors there
Yangyang International Airport, South Korea
Not much to see at the border on the East coast, broken textures
Daegu in North Gyeongsang Province
Back to Japan, Uradome Coast and Shiwagarano Falls at Iwami, Tottori Prefecture
Actually, that’s not where I got back into Japan at all. Tricked again, I entered at Hagi-Iwami Airport which is at Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, 250km to the southwest of Iwami. Oh well, Iwami is very pretty. It is called Iwami airport in game, hence the confusion. Can’t trust any names!
Hiroshima Bay as seen from Iwakuni
Flying by Itsukushima Shrine, 16th-century Shinto shrine
The gate appears to float at high tide, which it always is in MSFS
Hiroshima, the place where the first nuclear bomb was used in 1945
Here looking at Peace Memorial Park
Hiroshima castle, recreation of 16th century castle destroyed by the 1945 attack
Atomic Bomb Dome on the left, the iconic building near ground zero that ‘survived’ the blast
The recreated Hiroshima castle on the right
A peek into Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, one of the many sites in Peace Memorial park
There is also information here on the second bomb that fell on Nagasaki. Whether a second nuclear attack was ‘necessary’ is still being debated today. Sidestepping the question whether it was ‘necessary’ at all. The worst thing is, nukes are far from the worst horrors humans can inflict upon each other.
Hopefully we’ll never see the likes of this again
A haunting historical manga, not easy to watch.
Nowadays we have White Phosphorus and depleted uranium ammunition, creating lots of birth defects in Iraq. Instead of big bombs, now we’re poising the land one shell at a time.
Time to lighten up the mood, Tatara bridge will do
Looks harder then it is, enough negative trim will keep the plane stable and level
There is no collision detection with the upper part of the bridge
(Bottom is bugged, height problems, cars driving on water)
Can try as many times as you like without fearing to hit the pillars or wires
Dozan River
Mount Miune (4,050ft)
Mount Tsurugi (6,414ft)
Sakashukito river
Takushima, the capital city of Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku island
Located around the Imagire river (seen here), Yoshino river and Kyuyoshino river
Last stop today was at Takushima airport. On to Honshu Island tomorrow, Tokyo and many other things to explore.
Leg 217, Tokushima, Shikoku Island to Fukui, Honshu island, Japan
DAY03_27.PLN (10.4 KB)
Oof, this is a big one, 10 hour flight time of which I spend an hour and a half just exploring Tokyo. More fun bridges and cool landmarks along the way as well, lots to see around here.
The patch helped get rid of the bad areas, but didn’t solve the general slow down and memory problems when running at terrain detail over 100. At 100 it’s smoother now than it was before at 200, not really surprising. Yet when trying 200 or 150, memory usage sooner or later starts to creep up and everything slowly grinds to a halt.
Thus I’ll continue with a lower draw distance than before SU3, not that it really matters when flying low. Maybe Asobo increased the base draw distance since I don’t really notice it being closer at 100 as opposed to 200.
Lots to see, barrage of screenshots incoming
03-26 Tokushima RJOS 4:50 PM
03-26 Takamatsu RJOT 5:00 PM Takamatsu 34°21"0N, 134°3’0E Bridges 34°21’55"N, 133°49’30"E
03-26 Kasaoka RJKS 5:44 PM Bad performance, high ram usage, reducing terrain to 100
03-26 Okayama RJOB 5:57 PM Himeji Castle 34°50’20"N, 134°41’34"E Akashi Kaikyo Bridge 34°36’52"N, 135°1’8"E
Terrible stuttering, restart 6:05 PM End process, RAM usage keeps going up (29GB allocated, 15GB active)
03-26 34°49’3.73"N, 134°9’10.58"E 6:12 PM The patch fixed the bugged areas, not the slowdown nor runaway memory allocation
03-26 Kobe RJBE 6:45 PM Akashi Kobe Tower 34°40’57"N, 135°11’12"E
03-26 Kansai Intl RJBB 6:52 PM
03-26 Yao RJOY 7:01 PM Horyu-ji 34°36’52"N, 135°44’3"E
03-26 Akeno Aero RJOE 7:30 PM Suzuka circuit 34°50’44.1"N 136°32’20.3"E
03-26 Chubu Centrair International RJGG 7:51 PM
03-26 Hamamatsu Aero RJNH 8:08 PM
03-26 Shizuoka RJNS 8:20 PM
03-26 Shizuhama Aero RJNY 8:22 PM
03-26 Nijima RJAN 8:41 PM
03-26 Kozushima RJAZ 8:49 PM
03-26 Hachijojima RJTH * 9:16 PM
03-26 Miyake RJTQ 9:41 PM
03-26 Oshima RJTO 10:03 PM
03-26 Gotemba RJGO 10:21 PM Fuji Speedway 35°22’17.5"N 138°55’40.6"E
03-26 Atsugi Aero RJTA 10:47 PM Yokohoma Bay Bridge 35°27’18"N, 139°40’27"E Yokohoma Tower
03-26 Kisarazu Aero RJTK 11:15 PM Wind Tower 35°29’29"N, 139°50’5"E
03-26 Tokyo (Haneda) Intl 11:26 PM Tokyo Gate Bridge 35°36’38"N, 139°49’35"E and many others
Lot of landmarks Tokyo Skytree 35°42’36"N, 139°48’39"E
Polyphony Digital 35°40’31.1"N 139°48’51.4"E
Ghibli Museum 35°41’45.6"N 139°34’14.0"E
Studio Ghibli スタジオジブリ 35°42’11.2"N 139°31’45.4"E
03-27 Chofu RJTF 12:53 AM
03-27 Shimofusa Aero RJTL 1:06 AM
03-27 Narita Intl RJAA 1:15 AM
03-27 Kasumigaura RJAK 1:24 AM Tsukaba circuit 36°09’02.9"N 139°55’15.2"E
03-27 Utsunomiya Aero RJTU 1:44 AM PG area
03-27 Tamamura RJTM 2:10 AM
03-27 Matsumoto RJAF 2:39 AM
03-27 Fukui RJNF 3:16 AM
Flight time 10:19 28 stops
Tokushima Airport at dawn, ready to go
Departure right before sunrise
Sunrise over Takamatsu
Takamatsu, port city on Shikoku Island
Takamatsu Symbol Tower, 30 story skyscraper completed in 2003
Shishi-no-Reigan, hill with scenic spots overlooking the city
The E30 connecting Okayama with Shikoku island, via Yoshima island (in the middle)
Three awesome bridges in a row, first KitabisanSetoŌhashi Bridge
I’m taking this one commuter style, start to end
Iwakurojima Bridge in the middle
ShimotsuiSetoOhashi Bridge the third one on the northern side
Back to Iwakurojima Bridge, train tracks are on the sublevel
Okayama Airport
Himeji Castle, circa-1613 castle known for its white facade
Akashi on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge
The world’s longest suspension bridge
Connecting Awaji Island (behind me) to Kobe
Kobe Port Tower. Kobe is well known for its signature marbled beef
I didn’t spot any cows though…
Horyu-ji, Yamatokoriyama. Completed in 607, once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples
Buddhist temple with the world’s oldest wooden buildings on its grounds.
Also in Yamatokiriyama, Koriyama Castle Ruins (16th century castle) on the left
In Nara (next to Yamatokoriyama) Yakushi-ji Temple, opened 680, also one of the Seven Great Temples
Sorenji River running through the Kochi-dani Valley
Mount Kuroso (3,402ft) and Amagadake (3,140ft) on the right
The world famous Suzuka Circuit on Ise Bay, as seen from Spoon curve
I wanted to land on track but it’s all a bit messed up when getting close
Old picture I took in GT Sport on the right
Hamamatsu Aero
Kozushima, volcanic island created by Mount Tenjo
Fun landing and take off
Diving in the bay looks fun
Mikurajima with Mount Oyama
Miyake island, inhabited volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea
That’s one of the best detailed craters I have seen
Mount Mihara on Oshima island
Mount Mihara, active volcano
Mount Mihara’s major eruption in 1986 saw lava fountains up to 1.6 kilometres high
Nagisacho, getting back to the main (is)land, Mount Fuji in the distance
Nishiatami Golf Course
Gotemba Airport at the base of Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji, Japan’s iconic (active) volcano, and one of Japan’s 3 sacred mountains
Highest mountain in Japan (12,389ft) and 7th highest island peak in the world
A pilgrimage site for centuries and the subject of numerous works of art throughout history
Fuji International Speedway on the eastern side of Mount Fuji
Yokohama, just south of Tokyo
Yokohama Landmark Tower
It was tallest building in Japan until surpassed by Abeno Harukas in 2012
Yokohama Bay Bridge across Tokyo Bay
Kawasaki Artificial Island, air vent for Tokyo Wan Aqua Tunnel underneath the bay
Perfect angle to fly in between
https://i.imgur.com/6mrJJs2.png
Tokyo International Airport Hanada
https://i.imgur.com/nSdkk5k.png
The very recognizable arch, mind the cables
https://i.imgur.com/zNjQ6TB.png
Flying out over Terminal 3
https://i.imgur.com/Tq2XErx.png
Tokyo Gate Bridge
https://i.imgur.com/HbA3oQv.png
Truss bridge opened 2012, connecting to Chuobohatei and Sea Forest Park
https://i.imgur.com/TnSgy9V.png
Kōtō City, special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis
https://i.imgur.com/lJZEKg3.png
Tokyo Skytree, world’s tallest freestanding broadcasting tower
https://i.imgur.com/5mFwnFJ.png
Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest temple, completed in 645, built to honor Kannon, the goddess of mercy
https://i.imgur.com/RgDK3KR.png
Shinjuku Station with Tokyo Mode Gakuen behind
https://i.imgur.com/hrZG4c7.png
Comparing this shot with Google, it seems Shinjuku-L Tower went missing, odd
Yoyogi National Gymnesium built for the 1964 Olympics at Yoyogi Park
https://i.imgur.com/aL03RcA.png
The world famous Hachiko Square, aka Hachiko Plaza at Shibuya station
https://i.imgur.com/Jlwhk6i.png
Named after Hachikō (1923-1935), a golden brown Akita remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner. Hachi’s famous bronze statue is located right in front of Shibuya Station’s Hachiko Exit, which was named after him as well. He was supposedly sitting here every day to wait for professor Ueno.
https://i.imgur.com/m9HCLoI.png
Tokyo Rainbow bridge, colorfully illuminated at night using solar power
https://i.imgur.com/Y85B2lD.png
I’m taking the bicycle lane on this one
https://i.imgur.com/ulQ3H51.png
Playing Wipeout in Tokyo!
https://i.imgur.com/TMA8e2J.png
Tricky getting out on the other end
https://i.imgur.com/jtJZ1eO.png
(Actually it doesn’t work, some invisible barrier slams you to the ground)
Last shot of Tokyo, Daikanrasha, 100-m. neon-lit ferris wheel
https://i.imgur.com/i9j3umD.png
Tokyo at night, can be a bit overwhelming
https://i.imgur.com/m20dRNH.png
Meiji Jingu, Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken
https://i.imgur.com/U3U8HpI.png
A peak in the National Museum
https://i.imgur.com/hkA4DBl.png
Though I was much more interested in the Ghibli museum
https://i.imgur.com/bnhleZd.png
No inside pictures unfortunately and the museum is outside the PG area as well.
My favorite concert from Joe Hisaishi, the composer of all the music for the Ghibli movies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY1XtWyKlJA
I also visited the animation studio, no PG data but it was nice to walk around in street view.
Initially retired (again) in 2013, Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement in 2017 to make one more movie, How Do You Live? Of course he’s come out of retirement before to make one final movie Who knows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td25KusvzME
Time to move on, Chōfu Airport west of Tokyo
https://i.imgur.com/p9TyYJf.png
Tsukaba Circuit located in Shimotsuma, a neighboring city of Tsukuba
https://i.imgur.com/yTwRJQg.png
Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo
https://i.imgur.com/5T6qhTR.png
Following the Kabura River into the mountains
https://i.imgur.com/diZAXJi.png
Nishinomaki
https://i.imgur.com/K1WeZIu.png
Matsumoto Airport
https://i.imgur.com/JNqCEI5.png
Azusa Lake, made by Nagawado Dam
https://i.imgur.com/UiHlO1P.png
Nagawado Dam, 1969, 509ft high
https://i.imgur.com/OovQ8ur.png
Shiramizu Lake in Hakusan National Park
https://i.imgur.com/kzvgsmG.png
Vast park with traditional mountain villages, hiking trails, old-growth forest & hot springs
https://i.imgur.com/ItjlA6L.png
Last stop today in Fukui on the north side of Honshu island. Tomorrow, exploring the north coast and further up Japan towards the Sea of Othotsk.