Love your adventure. Go, Wilga, go!
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Northern Aroostook Regional - Avery Field - Swans - Leavitt
Another blizzard passed over night and the next day started with blue skies and lots of wind.
I headed some 100 nm southwest to a very nice private airfield at Mooseehead lake.
The lovely scenery of Tom “FlyingsCool” Perry put the Wilga finally back in her natural short and unpaved environment. Still have to getting used to using the flaps after all those 3,000+ runways.
I stayed over night and went on the other day for a very special stopover: Leavitt is a private airfield in the hills of New Hampshire west of Portland and it’s basically a dead end road and a house with a hangar instead of a garage. I stumbled across it accidentally while planning the route and just had to put it on the list.
The weather was great although a bit windy and I found my way easily following the rivers, highways and lakes of Maine.
Due to non-simulated reasons I had to take a spontaneous stopover at Swans, a lovely airstrip near Dixfield.
Whe I was turning into final, MSFS started a sudden springbreak, but unfortunately it didn’t last and when I had reached parking position, the snow had reappeared.
Another hour later, I reached Leavitt and nearly crashed into a chevy escalade that raced towards me. Looks like the airfield owner hadn’t closed the gates properly before my landing, so there was quite a lot traffic on the „runway“.
I pulled the Wilga off the road and went to the nearby town of Conway. They have a nice little bar there called „Almost there“. Indeed, I am.
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Those of you with the finger on the map might have already noticed: I am not on a straight course to Toronto anymore and here’s why:
When I planned the trip, the obvious destination was New York. But I rejected this idea early, because I wanted to make the route realistic and I thought: A slow GA-Plane circling around the skyscrapers in the middle of one of the most crowded and controlled airspaces of the world would never happen in real life, except with a ton of paperwork and some exotic licences maybe.
Imagine my surprise,when I learnt about the Hudson River Corridor
So you’re telling me, basically every pilot is allowed to fly straight through New York? Along the skyline of Manhatten, even circling the Statue of Liberty? And that you MUST stay BELOW 1,300 ft? Count me effin in!
In fact, this is exactly what they did in the reality show that inspired my whole trip, when they had crossed the atlantic with an AN-2.
And that’s my task for today: From Leavitt flyinig down the Hudson, circle Miss Liberty and go ahead to Central Jersey Regional.
Temperatures had raised by a margin last night so that with leaving New Hampshire I also finally could leave winter behind.
After a short stopover for refueling at Noth Canaan in Connecticut and 3 and a half hour of flight, I reached the Hudson River at Peekskill.
Ironically, I had been waiting for several days with the trip because I wanted to make it in real weather. In the end, real weather was blue skies and calm winds, so I could also have easily had it with the default settings. But who’s gonna complain about blue sky and calm winds, right?
Soon, the Skyline of Manhattan appeared on the horizon. I was so stunned, that I missed the first mandatory reporting point at Alpine tower. But at least, I was in the right position in the „tunnel“ between 1,000 – 1,300 ft and on the right bank of the Hudson.
Next reporting point was George Washington Bridge and this one is hard to miss.
Here I was, passing Manhattan, this incarnation of modern and urban culture, just days after the remote polar loneliness of Labrador and Nunavut.
The absolute highlight was the clearance to circle the Statue of Liberty (counterclockwise, of course). It was really hard to grab that I made it all the way from germany to New York in this little aircraft (and half in winter).
Maybe it’s a bit kitschy, but I really understand how moving this moment must have been for pilots doing such an atlantic crossing in real life.
I left the corridor by passing Verazona Bridge and headed to todays final destination: Central Jersey Regional.
One last leg lay ahead of me: Tomorrow I will reach Toronto.
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It’s a bit strange: When I set off to this journey six weeks ago, the first 100nm leg felt like a major undertaking. Todays plan were the last 290 nm to Toronto, near the maximum range of the Wilga (on paper) and yet it felt like one last small hop around the corner.
So off to the final chapter. Spring was knocking on this nice morning in Central Jersey and I hurried to set the Wilga into an efficient flight regime, just a few hundred feet above MSA and on course back to Canada.
When I was nearing Buffalo, the wind had stiffened up significantly. But I calculated, that the fuel would still be enough for a small sidestep from the route. Because, of course, you don’t fly from New York to Toronto without visiting the Niagara Falls.
The special VFR flight rules here were not quite as favorable as for New York, but at least I could spin a round at 3,500 ft before I headed on across the Ontario lake.
Now, the traditional drop in visibility set in but what a sight it gave, when suddenly the skyline of Toronto with the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre rose out of the grey horizon!
I went straight into downwind for runway 08 and drew a picture book landing with stiff, but straight headwind on the nose.
I found myself a quiet parking lot near the Hanlan’s point ferry dock, enjoyed the view for a long moment.
The airport fence was invitingly low, so I decided to skip the customs and immigration procedures for the moment and visited the memorial plate for Babe Ruth, who had hit his first home run here.
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Six weeks, more than 8.500 kilometers, over 45 flying hours:
I have learnt a ton about flying, flight planning, aircraft engines and weather, the arctic circle, Canada and the east coast in those weeks. Although I’m not sure yet, if I will start another time consuming undertaking like this again, this one was well worth its time for me!
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Thank you for this nice flight report. Every new every was a pleasure to read.
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Congratulations, you made it! It was a pleasure to read.
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In the days after my arrival, I made some hop-arounds to various airfields in the Toronto-region. But without a clear goal, it was not much fun.
That’s why I decided: The trip has to continue, let’s see how far I can take my Wilga from here.
Above the squares of Michigan:
Across Detroit:
On my first leg, I headed 300 nm westwards back to the US. I came to flightsimming and aviation in general with MSFS95, so I simply had to visit the virtually re-opened Meigs Field in Chicago.
In countless attempts, I learnt things like starting, landing, traffic patterns here nearly 30 years ago.
I will re-up this thread now and then and give a short update, if I come across something worthwile to show or tell. Any recommendation for things to visit in North america are very welcome.
Decided to roughly head to the Bahamas, which is allegedly quite a sight to see.
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You are much more patient than I am! Great job! It was a good read too. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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I just read this whole thread. Was great! Very inspirational. If only I had the patience and time to do this, haha.
I suspect that your leg on March 29th probably would have been the end of you IRL. Even if you’d been able to manually restart the engine, I reckon the storm probably would have torn you up. But we’ve all been there, I literally just had a flight last night where I would have crashed 5Nm from the airport as I forgot to switch fuel tanks.
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You’re an excellent narrator, OP. And a brave pilot.
I congratulate you on your adventure. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Thank you @goldokri for your inspirational travelog; I enjoyed reading every moment of your lengthy and interesting journey.
I agree with the other posters above that you’re also an excellent narrator; you provide some really useful aviation insights along the way, great screenshots that really show the beauty and dangers of your flights, plus you offer motivational reflections on what you did well, what was unforeseeable (or unforeseen!), and what you would do differently next time. Overall, you wrote a really thoughtful and captivating log of your journey; I think that you and the Wilga endured the unendurable, so kudos to you!
Speaking of what you would do differently next time, what is next for you? Will you document your travels to and/or around the Caribbean? I would really like to know where you are flying nowadays, and what other interesting sights you have seen. If you have the time and motivation, then please keep writing - you have a really interesting, honest, and amusing writing style.
Blue side up!
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Thank you all for your encouraging replies and kudos, I’m overwhelmingly charmed!
So here’s a brief update: Greetings from Oak Ridge, Tennessee! I haven’t made much progress in the last month, some real life and things had to be done. But now and then I take my Wilga a few miles farther south, still heading for Florida and the caribbean.
Somewhere between Greenland and Nunavut, I had stumbled over this wonderful thread about aviation pioneers discovering the world in the 1930s and started reading some of the books mentioned there. Gunther Plueschows expedition to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the tip of south america catched me, so eventually crossing South america wil be the next big thing, but this is a loong way to go.
For the moment, I will try to find the time to finish and wrap up my trip down to Florida in the next weeks.
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I love this. Here I am, a new fan of the Got Friends Wilga, trying to figure out how to maximize range so I can fly around the world, and Google sends me to your excellent post. 
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This is so wholesome to read, that this special special special interest thread is acually of use for somebody! 
Please let us know where you took your Wilga and how the ride was!
So far, I’m working out the details. It’s funny how similar my approach to this is to yours. I want to fly without GPS, though I will be needing the AP (aside from hand-flying for hours being a PITA, I only have one usable hand). I settled on the 80P right before I got to this post for reasons similar to yours. I also basically had decided on the same rules as you.
I’ve been practicing with it around southern Idaho, where I live, but I think I’m about ready to get going. I’m thinking I’ll go west. Given the amount I’ll be able to fly, I’m pretty sure this will take me into winter, so that will get interesting for sure.
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If range is crucial to you, I’d recommend to consider the 35A or another AI-14R-engine variant. I made some fuel consumption tests recently and found out that the 260hp engine consumes another 10-15% less fuel than the 360 hp M-14P. This pushes the theoretical range well above 1,000 km.
And after the latest update, every variant is equipped with the autopilot, so this is no longer an issue here.
I didn’t check, if the M-14P gives you any advantage regarding the service ceiling, so this might be a con.