Around The World

Headed over to the hanger after work to witness the delivery of the G58. What a sexy Beech! (Prepare yourself, this joke will likely be overused beyond the boundaries of humor). Excited to put some miles below and behind the new bird.

Departed the hometown and headed for Garrison Municpal, where it'll be the first time my feet will touch North Dakota.

After a couple days on the ground in ND, the coffee cup was filled, and we headed West to Montana.

Looking forward to the mountains as home doesn't have these big-ass wonderous monoliths. Some legs are at elevations that will put the G58 to the test (close to the G58's ceiling). Time will tell if my excitement will transform into fear when these times come.

The major change in elevation during descent into KGPI made for a fast, furious, and fun descent.

Sipping maple syrup and practicing sincere pronunciations of "Sorry" to get into Candadian culture.

Flying over the Columbia Mountains was bumpy and the Garmin was not happy trying to hold altitude. And the landing... holy sharting dingleberries! White-knuckled until the parking brake was engaged. Was able to maintain VFR above the clouds, but things were looking rough below me. We radiod in and switched to the IFR flight plan filed earlier that I was hoping we wouldn't need. Ended up doing a go-around due to unfamiliarity with the airport, weather, and still getting the "feel" of the G58.

After Leg 3's landing, I was a hesitant to takeoff in rain again. But visibility was OK, and found a hole to get above the deck.

While we're up here, we decided to put the G58 to the climb test. This thing ascends like a squirrel with its tail on fire.

Goodbye Canada, I'll see you again before this trip is over. Hello, Alaska! Even with a bit of rain in the weather report, was elated to have a better visibility report. Today's leg started with a steep climb to 17,000 ft. to get over the St. Elias peaks and then rewarded with the beautiful views of blue lakes and glaciers. On a sad note, my wallet will be recovering from a black eye as a result of the local fuel prices.

Left just before sun up to see if I could get some great sunrise photos over Aniachak National Preserve before the rain, but no such luck, the rain won the race.

Quick stop into Perryville, grabbed a cup of coffee, drained the tank of the previous coffee, and set off for PAAK.

Atka, AK - Population: ~ 75. Second to last stop before leaving the U.S. for Russia. Filling the tanks as the next stop is uninhabited with no fuel.

Attu Island in the Aleutian chain is the westernmost point of the U.S. and my last stop before heading into Russia. It's the largest uninhabited island in the U.S. and the site of the only World War II land battle fought in the United States.

No fuel here and had to get prior landing approval from the U.S. Coast Guard. Just a quick stop to stretch the legs and do a bit of fishing.

Hello, Russia. Quite the change of pace to see a busy airport coming from the remote places in Alaska. Going to enjoy some quality (or not so quality) vodka before heading south to Hokkaido, Japan.

Longest single leg so far. Leaving the Kamchatka Peninsula and following the Kuril Island chain to Japan. Some of these island's sovereignty is still disputed today between Russia and Japan, so to avoid complications, just toughing out the long trip to Hokkaido. Will be happy to strech the cramped legs and sore butt after this flight.

Fought a serious headwind the entire flight, ended up in the yellow for fuel.

Sloths? Maybe snails? Tortoises possibly. Oh, hey there! We were just discussing who drives the fuel trucks here at RJCB.

Weather was pleasant, a bit bumpy over the hills, but tolerable, and in stark contrast to previous legs - no rain! Crossing into the 36th parallel, I was able to give the pitot heat a rest.

Landing in Tokyo, I was given landing clearance while a A320 was sitting on the runway. An inefficient tower worker, or the wonderful AI of MSFS ATC? We may never know. We'll be spending the weekend on the ground here in Tokyo.

Departing Toyko and headed for Nagasaki. Fighting another strong headwind (35 knots at 7,000 ft) with not much wiggle room due to VFR visibility at other altitudes, but the optimist in me says it gives you more time to look out the window at what Japan has to offer.

Made an impulse purchase in Nagasaki which caused an extra night's stay to let the painters finish their work. Awww yiss, lookin good.

Today's leg, Lucky number 13 to Taiwan. Lots of ocean until we meet the Central Mountain Range on the western shores of Taiwan. For an island that's only 85 miles wide, Taiwan has some tall mountains! Xiuguluan Mountain sits around 3900m (12,700 ft).

Arrived at Kaohsiung International just as the storms were clearing and was met with sunny skies and a comfortable 82°F (27°C). Going to enjoy this knowing in a few legs I'll be back in the cold and high altitude of the Himalayas.

A bit later start this morning. Called for the fuel truck about 8:15am local time and was shocked it was on-site by 8:20am. Fastest service I've ever experienced.

Faster cruise today only having to deal with a 10-knot crosswind. Arrived in Hanoi to a sweltering 96°F (36°C) and warnings about air quality being at unhealthy levels.

I was lucky to get a clear weather report as it's required for this leg.

The destination is Paro International in Bhutan; the sole international airport of four total airports in the country. The runway is nested in a deep valley on the bank of the Paro Chhu with surrounding peaks as high as 18,000 ft (5,500 m). Flights are allowed under VMC only and restricted to daylight hours. This was a challenging landing!

The weekend in Bhutan gave me time to mentally prepare (with mixed anxiety) over the next two legs which are without a doubt the most challenging of the trip.

From what I can gather, it's legal to fly above the service ceiling as long as you can maintain level flight, and it's not listed as a limitation in the POH, so that's what we'll try with a backup route to go around some of these peaks.

Around 9:00am, the weather cleared and was able to maintain VMC, so we departed Paro and began the steep climb out, fighting for every inch to 20,000 ft. Anti-ice on, engine leaned out, prop and throttle nearly maxed - The Himalayas are a challenge. As expected, this was a very hands-on flight.

The good weather continued, so had to keep on while the opportunity persisted. Made a challenging, yet fun landing into VIBR, grabbed some lunch and fuel while the G58 took a well-deserved breather. Gave a quick hello (and goodbye) to India and back into sky enroute to Kyrgyzstan.

Arrived at UCFO tired from a long, demanding day over the Himalayas. The G58 is ready for a nap.

Aside from the quick climb to go over Mount Boboiob, this leg was mostly desert and a stark difference from the previous couple legs.

Flying over the Karakum Desert where you can see more detail of the ancient sea bed that used to be here. Quick hop over the Caspian Sea and arrived in Azerbaijan. First flight in quite a while where I have a decent tailwind assisting.

Had good weather today, and a strong tailwind on Leg 19, so decided to keep things going. Back into the air and flying over Azerbaijan, small areas of Armenia and Iran, Turkey, Syria and finally landing in Beirut, Lebanon.

Spoke too soon about the wind though... halfway through this leg, the headwind was back to the tune of 30knots on average.

Today's leg carries us over the Mediterranean Sea, Cairo, and the great pyramids of Giza. We then continue into the Libyan Desert.

The destination is Kufra airport. It began as "Burma Airfield" in the 1930s and became a role in the Western Desert Campaign in World War II.

Landing here was complicated. Leaving the airport to see the oasis would've required a tourist visa via a Libyan tour operator along with special permits on top of that. Luckily, we were able to land and fuel up without the option for much else. Back into the air to continue the desert flights of the trip.

Leg 22 is a long flight and again over mostly desert. Starting with the Libyan Desert, then slowly climbing altitude into the Jabal Bin Ghunaymah Mountains, throught he Idhan Murzuq Desert, a small slice of the Sahara Desert, and then over Ahaggar National Park amidst the Hoggar Mountains in Tamanrasset Province, Algeria.

Algeria is more welcoming of travelers than the previous stop. After two long flights, we'll be spending the weekend here before heading to Morocco.

Departing Algeria, we crossed the Prime Meridian and flew between the Erg Iguidi Desert and Grand Erg Occidental Desert. As we exited the sand, we climbed to get over the peaks of the Haut Atlas Mountains and its national parks contained within which welcomed us into Morocco.

Desert flying may be visually boring, but you rarely have to deal with inclement weather. Departing Morocco was delayed until evening until the storms passed and VFR conditions improved.

Passing over the Strait of Gibraltar I recall hearing decades ago about a tunnel that was going to be constructed. After a Google search it appears it's still "in talks" between Spain and Morocco. Sounds like that's coming together nicely. (Sarcasm, duh)

The next few legs are around some of the major European cities and larger airports. Despite all my years of flying (simming), I've rarely flown in Europe, so might as well see the big cities and sights on this trip. Today's destination is Madrid, which is a Spanish trifecta: it's a city, a state, and the capital of Spain.

One thing interesting about flying over Europe is their use of wind energy; numerous windmills over yesterday and today's flights.

As we leave spain and enter France, we have another cross over the Prime Meridian today.

LFPG Ground parked me at a large gate... The G58 looked a bit funny amidst the giant heavy birds. Quick lunch in Paris and then back into the sky for London.

This leg crosses the English Channel. The first flight (in an airplane) across the channel was done by Louis Blériot in 1906, but not the first air crossing! More than a century before, he was preceeded by Jean Pierre François Blanchard and John Jeffries who crossed by balloon in 1785!

Today marks yet ANOTHER cross over the Prime Meridian. The weather started deteriorating, and cloud deck got lower and lower until it was near the pattern altitude of the airport. Luckily, was able to get down on the ground in time though.

Today's leg takes us north back into places where we have to dig out the hoodies from the back and flip back on the heat switches. We'll be headed over Notingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, a small chunk of the North Sea, over the Grampian Mountains and into Inverness, Scotland.

Inverness airport was built by the Air Ministry in 1940 as Royal Air Force station Dalcross, and was in use during the Second World War. Today it's an international airport that serves around a million passengers annually.

After enjoying lunch it was back into the air. The last sights of northern Scotland's beautiful countryside was replaced by the vast deep blue of the North Atlantic as we pointed our heading toward Höfn, Iceland.

Höfn is an Icelandic fishing town of just over two thousand people in southeast Iceland. After bouncing through the large cities of Europe, a nice quiet fishing town sounds perfect.

I found it interesting how the weather here has nearly no variance between high/low temperatures hovering within a few degrees around 44°F (6°C) for nearly the full five-day forecast. On a related note, sunset in Höfn tonight was almost 11:00 PM, and sunrise tomorrow will be 3:00 AM.

Beautiful hop over Iceland and across the Arctic Ocean into Greenland. Much of our journey today is above the Arctic Circle with our destination being Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Kangerlussuaq has very few inhabitants (around 500), and most people who land here change planes onto other destinations.

Sunrise this morning was just after 2:00 AM and sunset will be around 12:20 AM. We'll be spending a couple hours on the ground stretching the legs and taking in the sights and snagging lunch at the Muskox restaurant.

The weather looks better today than next week, so we're back into the air after lunch. Being so far north, the extra daylight helps. Another hop over the Arctic Ocean and into Canada again bound for Iqaluit Airport in Nunavut.

Iqaluit has been an Inuit fishing village for thousands of years. It's the largest city in Nunavut and also the capital of the province, yet only has a population of around 1,700. The city has no roads or rails connecting it to the rest of Canada and only has ship connections for part of the year for importing goods.

Like many of the airports I've visited on this trip, this airport was used during World War II and was known as Frobisher Bay Air Base. It was a refuleing site for US aircraft being ferried to Europe.

MSFS doesn't render the tower properly at Iqaluit airport, but if you check it out on Google Earth Photos layer, it seriously looks like a yellow submarine.

After a quiet weekend in Iqaluit, we departed for Wabush in Newfoundland and Labrador. Today's leg took us over the Hudson Straight and into Ungava Bay, and then over vast expanses of remote wilderness and countless lakes of northeast Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Nested in Ungava Bay is Akpatok Island, which is rumored to have once had widespread cannibalism. Even though that (supposedly) ended around 1900 when the last remaining inhabitants moved to the mainland, needless to say, we won't be making any unscheduled landings here.

Wabush is a small town of around 1700 people, most of which work at the local iron mine.

After lunch, weather was looking good, and to be honest at this point, you can start to feel the finish line approaching, so We took off and once again flew over similar wilderness of last leg, including a couple notable lakes. Manicouagan Reservoir, which was created by a giant space rock 214 million years ago, and Lac Saint-Jean which served as the setting for various prison camps during World War II. The POWs were classified into categories by their nationality or military status and they worked the land, including lumbering and pulp and paper production.

Slowly but surely as we continued on our southwesternly march, the signs of civilization became more and more apparent until we arrived in the bustling city of Ottowa.

Homeward bound today. Leaving Canada and arriving back in the US and the home state on this flight. Hoping for smooth sailing through customs in Port Huron.

So close, and yet so far. Parked at Port Huron, I had left the Avionics for over an hour, came back to finish the flight to KHYX and the battery was dead. Didn't realize MSFS had that level of realism. :-)

After customs and the battery fiasco resolved, we made the quick hop to Saginaw to park the G58 for a well-deserved nap at its home hangar.