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I did the most challenging and the most dangerous leg of my trip around Pacific in DC-3 in real time and weather. I didn’t get Russian visa, so I had to reach USA (Aleutian) from the coast of Japan. RCJK 
PAAT with distance 1293 nm. I started preparation already a week ago and calculated it few times. First calculation was that it was not possible. Then I added some risk like no alternate, no deviation from course and good wind. And it seemed to be possible. Also last week the wind was very good for the route, but lot of clouds that would cause icing condition and also no VMC in the destination. And I required VMC in the destination, because PAAT has no IFR procedures. Anyway, I can do such long flight only on weekend.
So I checked weather this weekend and there were positives and negatives. No clouds around Aleutian, but I very little tailwind and I would have to fight crosswind that also costs fuel. Also IMC at departure, but there was easy IFR departure procedure using VOR from RJCK.
And now the flight. Start was not very successful. I am not really used to flying IFR without seeing horizon. Also I made typical mistake focusing on single instrument trying to turn to VOR. And I noticed quite late that I was not climbing. Well, I recovered but it took me some time to stabilize. Also probably because of lot of fuel the CG was more forward than I was used to. I reached VOR and established my course. Later on I got out of clouds, but there was still not much to see, except nice night sky full of stars.
Navigation strategy: I don’t know how to do celestial navigation and most of the flight is over the ocean without any navigation aids. So I relied on dead-reckoning. In Little NavMap I created checkpoints every 100 nm. Then Little NavMap calculated for me bearing at every checkpoint. Both true and magnetic. It would be quite some work to calculate it manually. During flight at every checkpoint (every 32 minutes) I checked deviation in MSFS VFR map. I consider that as 3-rd party GPS. Although, I don’t know, how many satellites are available there. Anyway, I could check first 3 checkpoints using nearby VORs and visual clues. I had very little deviation. And sight was spectacular. Moonrise at first and then followed by sunrise.
But then the odds started to play against me. I had to avoid clouds that started to cause icing. I had to descend to 9000ft and then 7000ft and even go around bigger cloud formation. That was deviation I couldn’t afford. As I was getting closer to my destination I could see more and more I couldn’t make it. I was out of fuel about 50nm from the destination. I could see the lonely island so close and yet so far. Well, I swallowed my pride and I refueled 40 gallons in the air. That was just enough to get me safely to the airport.
As I said the departure was not very successful and there was also another mistake. I should depart from another airport in Japan that is 40nm north (RJCN). I chose RJCK because that was star airport in MSFS. If I would depart from the other airport and wouldn’t need to avoid clouds, I would make it. On the good side, I was surprised how accurate the dead-reckoning was. And my first calculation was correct, the flight was not possible.
Total flight time: 7h32m
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Had a blast flying the updated vision jet from Munich to Warsaw.
Buttery smooth all over. And this was before I found out about the moving maps working between Xbox and navigraph. Can’t wait to try another flight tomorrow.
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Carenado Gee Bee
I was doing some googling about the origins of VOR when I came across Dr Dolittle (PhD in aeronautics in 1925). Well, James Dolittle helped develop the artificial horizon and directional gyroscope….as well as being the guy who led the 16 B25’s off the aircraft carrier in 1942. He features in the top 10 of World Aviators.
I digress. The Gee Bee was built for one specific purpose, speed. It was built to win the Thompson Trophy (seeming forerunner of Reno Air Races), which it did, in 1931. Dr Dolittle won the Thompson Trophy in 1932 in the Gee Bee at an average speed of 253mph.
There were consequences to pushing the speed envelope to the limit of course.
An attempt at the world speed record in 1931 ended in a fatal crash which began the Gee Bee’s reputation as killers. There is a video of the crash on YouTube, I won’t post a link here. Other fatal crashes followed, including the death of one of the brothers who made the aircraft, in 1934, he crashed the aircraft he was delivering.
The Granville Brothers went bankrupt in 1934.
The above is why I gave the Gee Bee a blast.
The Carenado is difficult to get in the air, I used a slow progression of the throttle to full, and small nudges on the right rudder pedal.
It flies very nicely, tail heavy requiring a lot of trim. Really twitchy in quick banks, and impossible to land. I’ve landed a lot of different aircraft in the sim….can’t land this without it tipping over onto one wing despite correct approach speed and required 3 point landing.
On the Dr Dolittle theme, he speaks to the animals in the film did he not - well, this aircraft qualifies as being a real animal.
Great fun to fly around Marble Canyon (L41) as pictured here. A plane to fly just for the white knuckle ride, don’t bother trying to land it, just quit, take off and fly the Canyon again……then perhaps grab a stiff drink to help steady the nerves.
Edit: can’t help but wonder what flying the Marble Canyon is like in VR.
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Busy day, didn’t really get a chance to play, however…
Was talking to someone today for the first time, and he said he is from Springfield Missouri. I said, “Oh yeah, home to the World’s Largest Fork, right”?
He said “I guess so”.
We were talking for a while, and I told him how I am into flight simulator, and I was pretty sure I had flown over Springfield and saw what I thought was the World’s Largest Fork. I looked it up, and sure enough I was right. I told him something from the city he was born and raised in that he didn’t know existed in his city, and he was very impressed. I remembered the city layout and said “you guys have a University located in the middle of the city, right”?
“MSU” he replied.
This has happened several times where learning about the world from flight sim comes into real world conversations. I am not well traveled, but I am virtually well traveled 
He kept asking questions about the sim after me saying how I had never been there and real life and everything I had said came from the sim, including knowing where my current local Walmart was and going there for the first time when I moved here 6 months ago without using GPS, simply used my memory from the night before when I flew over the city.
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Melbourne (YMML) to Sydney Kingsford Smith (YSSY) in the HondaJet
I really wanted to do some vatsim flying in Australia, but since I live in Europe there’s a bit of challenge to that. So I got up, checked the vatsim coverage map, decided on the route, quickly set up my flight plan and got into the HondaJet. Sadly by that Melbourne already logged off, but at least I had ATC on arrival. At first Sydney director was assigning me a visual approach, but as I am unfamiliar with the location he was nice enough to vector me instead. The landing itself was sadly pretty much average at best, I wasn’t properly aligned and pulled up the nose too much.
Full video uploading and will be available here:
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Looks like a gamer PC convention to me!
I just want to know how you see outta’ the windows with all those Christmas lights going. 
I flew the A310 from Venice LIPZ to Edinburgh EGPH.
Except I didn’t get there. The plane suffered a spontaneous decompression over Germany, which caught me quite by surprise.
I had to emergency descend and divert and ended up landing at Frankfurt with no injuries.
I don’t know what caused the decompression, more info here…
It was more fun than black screens!
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Earlier today I flew my mini 500 around Queenstown to visit Skyline.
There’s a fully animated gondola, and chair lift.
There’s a cool downhill cart track which was quite busy with people racing on it.
I watched a few races and then decided I’d like to race it myself. So I parked at the bottom and caught the gondola up.
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Today’s vision jet flight was from Innsbruck LOWI to Ulrichen Airport LSMC.
It was pretty chill during the flight. 
I had to wait for the train at the level crossing.
Time to get the snowboard out and have some real fun. 
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Why are the landing lights on? You seem pretty high up
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Nice screenshots! Especially the ice, I have icing fully enabled in the sim, but so far I have never ever ever seen it happening on any of my flights with any airplance
If I remember correctly I was at around 10000 ft. Probably flipped ‘em on a little early. LOL
Sunday flight: Delta Air Lines A320 from Vancouver (CYVR) to Ontario (KONT)
Distance: 977 nm
Flight time: 2:20 Hours
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Love it!!! Thanks for sharing, that’s an instant purchase.
Departing Billy Bishop, Toronto. Flying over my hometown Kitchener/Waterloo. And a happy landing at CYXU London. The Blacksquare Baron was the ride. Xenviro 2020 weather, and, and, and. Plus, plus, plus.
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