@UitvreterNL has assembled a tour around Indonesia and has been pulling out his last strands of hair over it during the last couple of weeks.
I don’t have the route yet to post here, but we’ll distribute the flight plans at the start of the tour.
Flying GA aircraft over Indonesia really is an awesome adventure. With more than 17,000 islands, dramatic coastlines, volcanoes rising straight out of the ocean, and dense jungle stretching for miles, every flight offers unreal scenery and constantly changing terrain.
We’re going to fly low enough to really take it all in — that turquoise water, tiny island airstrips, mountain ridges wrapped in clouds, and remote villages that few people ever see. Add tropical weather patterns and challenging approaches, and it becomes not just beautiful, but genuinely rewarding flying.
At least that’s what Uitvreter promises. 
We’ll fly bush capable aircraft which can do some 150 KIAS, so a Cub might be too slow and a Citation too fast.
We usually fly Caravans, Kodiaks and the like.
(Image by Nurmalinda Maharfar, Creative Commons License)
Every Tuesday evening (or afternoon, or maybe even Wednesday morning, depending on where the sun is over your horizon) we will fly a leg of the “Indonesia: Exploring the Equatorial Emerald”-tour.
I don’t know the way either, I don’t know where we will end. I’m just a few weeks ahead of you, trying to find a route. Exploring.
According to Wikipedia the Indonesian archipelago comprises thousands of islands, home to some 1300 native ethnic groups, which speak 742 different languages between them. Due to that diversity Indonesia has had many names in the past, from the Dutch East Indies in colonial times to Nusantara (an old Javanese word meaning archipelago), Insulinde (referencing the Indian Indus river) to the nickname Equatorial Emerald.
Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of increased volcanic and earthquake activity that runs along the edges of the different continents, following the outlines of tectonic plates in that part of the world.
As a result the country has many volcanoes, some dormant, some not so. Earthquakes are not uncommon.
The country has the worlds third largest area of tropical rain forest in the world. There are trees, many trees. And then more trees.
The plan is to depart the north western tip of Sumatra, and travel eastwards. As the crow flies the distance between our starting point and the east of Indonesia is some 3000 nautical miles. With an airspeed of 160 knots that should be doable in about ten weeks. But sometimes the crow gets lost, and more often than not we will make detours to explore this country’s highlights. I expect to need between sixteen and twenty weeks of flying, maybe even more if we decide to continue into Papua New Guinea.
Indonesia is associated with bush flying. While that may be true for the eastern part of the country, the first part of the journey will see many airports with long, paved runways. Any old aircraft will do. New ones too.
The average flying distance will be around 300 to 350 nautical mile, a 160-ish kts cruising speed would be nice, to keep it around two hours flying time. But don’t worry: we won’t leave you behind.
I hope to see you online! 
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This time around I’ll drive the A2A Piper Comanche 250… gloooorious engine sounds…
Indiae Orientalis by Nicolaes Visscher, public domain.
Tuesday night, 20:00 UTC is the departure time for our second leg of our exploration of the Equatorial Emerald, a.k.a. Indonesia.
We’ll depart Alas Leuser for the the city of Minangkabau at the west coast of Sumatra.
Bring a reasonably fast plane, some (150-160 knots should do) to complete the flight in 2 to 2.5 hours. MSFS 2024, server SE Asia, BYOB.
Here are the flight plans;
IFR Alas Leuser Airport (WIMU) to Minangkabau Intl (WIEE).pln (6.0 KB)
IFR Alas Leuser Airport (WIMU) to Minangkabau Intl (WIEE).lnmpln (4.4 KB)
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As far as I understand it we won’t be able to see you, and vice versa. There seems to be a solution (third party software) to this problem, but I never looked into that. Sorry.
@DefragDad Do you know how this works?
Ok thanks. No problem - I guess a lot more people are switching to FS24, so events are becoming more specific. Look like a good route though, so I will try it myself off line.
theres this software called unifly (and probably other clients as well) which enable people to fly together while using different simulators. but that means everybody will have to use this client.
Is there a discord channel or how do the pilots communicate with each other?
I think this is a working Discord invite: FlightSimSafaris.com
Image by Seasoned Wedge on Wikipedia, License Creative Commons.
Week three of the Equatorial Emerald Tour takes us from the west coast of Sumatra all the way across the island, to the other side of the Malacca Strait. Our destination today is Singapore.
We fly in MSFS 2024, and the average cruising speed of your aircraft should 150-160 knots.
Flight Sim Safari is also on Discord (see message above) for voice communication.
Departure time is 20:00 UTC.
IFR Minangkabau Intl (WIEE) to Changi (WSSS).pln (3.9 KB)
IFR Minangkabau Intl (WIEE) to Changi (WSSS).lnmpln (3.3 KB)
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Al Islam Muhammad Cheng Ho Mosque in Palembang. Image from Wikipedia by
Firzafp, license
Creative Commons.
Today’s flight is from the city state of Singapore to the city of Palembang in the south of Sumatra, and the second largest city on the island. There will be intermediate stops at the island of Bintan and Sinkep.
We are still in the region of Indonesia where there are long paved runways, no STOL required. But bring something with a cruising speed of around 160 knots.
Starting time is 20:00 UTC. We use MSFS 2024, and the south east Asia server.
Flightplans, one for MSFS 2024:
IFR Changi (WSSS) to Sultan M Badaruddin Ii (WIPP).pln (4.6 KB)
And one for Little Nav Map:
IFR Changi (WSSS) to Sultan M Badaruddin Ii (WIPP).lnmpln (3.6 KB)
There are also a Discord channel for voice, and a Twitch steam.
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