I guess we’ve all done a Round the World flight at some time or other. I’m currently doing a Phileas Fogg trip, stopping off at all the places he visited and refuelling at various stops in between. I’m currently flying across the Nile Delta and it is massive. Next stop is Suez. VFR Twotter.
When I do these flights I set myself various little rules that I must observe, just to give the trip some challenge.
I must refuel at an airport and it must have Fuelling facilities, either trucks or pumps.
Same plane from start to finish.
Sim realism set to hard.
No crashes allowed otherwise start again.
Real weather unless flying is impossible and then I cheat a bit.
I must land at an airfield at the end of the day (no saving flights in progress)
If I’m switching the sim off I must park at GA parking and switch the ac off.
I must resume in the parking area cold.
Anyone else set themselves rules for these flights? if so what are they?
Me too, very similar rules and pleased to see that you will tweak the weather when it gets too bad! I did the Aerosoft ATWI80D and it was fun & very interesting. By the way, I crossed the Pacific using the string of volcanic islands from Japan all the way to the Aleutian Islands then Alaska rather than the Bering Straits - in the JF Arrow III. The Twotter sounds much better. I’m thinking I’ll do it again in the Milviz C310 and do more manual navigation. By the way, one amazing leg was Wendover KENV to Salt Lake City crossing the salt flats.
That sounds like a wonderful way to explore MSFS and the world with a lot of realism.
I think I might just try the same scenario you posted but with a US tour…
Sounds like fun… Thanks for sharing that !
Pretty well all my flights are “tours” - that’s what I bought the sim for, and I stick to those rules too but no cheating; if it ain’t fit to fly I don’t fly!
I started an all-U.S. states and Canadian provinces tour with very similar rules, flying the C172 1000. I’m on Xbox Series X. SU9 brought my tour to a screeching halt, but I’m hoping to start up again soon. A main goal is to learn more about flying this plane, so one leg I flew (almost) completely on AP, the next using pilotage as much as possible, and so on. Starting cold and dark is a goal I haven’t gotten to yet. I also want to get a handle on leaning the mixture properly. Since I generally only get a chance to fly after midnight in real-life, I’ve been time-shifting to fly duringt the day, but I do plan on doing some night flying as well. I always use real-time weather.
I haven’t figured out how I’m going to get to Hawaii in a C172. Perhaps my corporate sponsors will surprise me with a longer-range aircraft.
My world tour has evolved from airframe to airframe, started with the Piper Warrior (South America) until the pitch became unflyable for me, then the 310 (Canada, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe [NOT Russia]) until the Devs became intolerable to me, then the WB-Sim 172 (Baltic states), which is a nice plane, but after the 310 I wanted better speed and more range, so in the process of having a Bonanza (Improvement Project) ferried to me in Italy, while I relax in Venice for a bit.
I have a spreadsheet where I’m trying to keep track of all the costs, including hotels and food. The only thing I’m not including are the costs for visas, etc to the various countries (and associated bribes), though I am tracking Air Navigation and Airport fees.
It takes you to parts of the world you’d otherwise ignore. I’d forgotten long tours, exactly the same type of exploration.
My flying time is restricted so I grab what I can by bending the weather rule slightly.
That is a very good question. I haven’t done this before in MSFS although I did do it several times in FSX. Previously I used the C172 and it was very tricky sticking to the fuel rule. When in fuel dry areas (guess work) I would typically start looking for fuel at about 50-60% remaining. Overflying airfields looking for the pumps. I can’t remember if I cheated at times.
Now I’m doing it in the Twotter with bigger range I don’t really expect there to be a problem…but who knows?
The fuel rule was quite important to the thrill of the flight and very good at teaching how to fly with economy. Looking for favourable winds, varying altitude, mixture/best speed calcs…definitely a rule worth sticking to (if you can)
Nice rule…I might add that one
Following Phileas Fogg I will have to do the Pacific… Yokohama to San Fran Sisco. I’m not terribly keen on flying over vast expanses of water, too boring and I doubt the Twotter will make it anyway. I expect I’ll go up and over the Aleutians and make it a longer flight.
I’ve completed 4 RTWs over the past ten years but none of those in MSFS (due to my dislike of stock ATC). Each one had increasing restrictions… the last RTW requiring each country visited must have first landing at customs point of entry (not a random airfield).
One thing I suggest for anyone doing RTWs… Google every place you visit. Pick a hotel. Look at street views (if any) and images. Read about the culture and history. Makes the trip seem more ‘real’.
As regards fuel availablilty, I use Little Navmap for my planning VFR, or even just have it open as a map on my second monitor. If you right click on an airfield/airstrip etc and select Display Information in the drop-down box it shows if fuel is available, as well of course as lots of other info. Can do the same thing with the search box if you know the ICAO code - the other search parameters don’t work well for me though.
