I have decided to tow my A2A Boeing Stratocruiser out of the hangar and begin a trip around the world.  I will be posting my progress in this thread with the occasional screenshot.  Anyone is welcome to join in their own RTW (Round The World) adventure.  Choose a plane, plan a route, and start flying.  Propliner too slow, you could choose the Concorde for your RTW journey and cut your time committment way down.

 

 

 

This journey will not require period navigation techniques.  I have updated the autopilot to allow it to follow the FSX flight plan for each leg.  This will permit me to perform the longer legs over night and unattended during the cruise phase of flight.  I chose the route and leg destinations based on add-on scenery that I have installed over the years. My currently planned route is ~29,500 nm. 

 

 

 

I will fly with COTS (Captain of the Ship) Career Mode enabled to record the passenger miles, cost per mile, and passenger comments.   I will also run with the RTW Duenna to document the journey and maintain a record of aircraft performance.  I will attempt to maximize passenger miles and minimize cost per mile.  I am imposing no time limit on this journey, I will fly legs when I can and when I feel like it.

 

 

 

I just did a RTW in the old Dreamwings Fokker F-50.  It's not fast but it has excellent range for a small turboprop.  Even so, I had to strip out all the seats and install ferry tanks for the trans-Pacific legs.  Thank goodness for the Marshall Islands and Honolulu. 

 

I did my trip with a VA which demanded hourly position reports so I got no 'sleepovers'!  Your plan is far more sensible. 

 

Enjoy your trip! 

Have a great trip to Jeff. I wish I could catch up and tag along for a leg or two but atm I can't even find 10 mins to have a look around Wales and sak. Buuuuuuu

What you flying it on Jeff? Vatsim or just a multiplayer server?

Right up my street!

 

I did a very similar tour in the JF Constellation propliner about a month ago.   And I'm currently visiting all the major Pacific Island nations, on a tour in the JF DC-6B. :smile:

 

Good luck, and look forward to seeing more progress.

What you flying it on Jeff? Vatsim or just a multiplayer server?

I will be flying these off-line and probably on the weekend nights.

 

Right now I am having a problem with the COTS Career Mode. It keeps getting turned off right after I lift off and does not record the flight. I do not want to "reset" the Career Mode as I will loose credit for my prior flight hours. I am continuing to trouble shoot this problem.

Right now I am having a problem with the COTS Career Mode.

Time to kick that stuff and be an FE again.

This sounds like a great adventure. We look forward to pilot reports...and screenshots!

Looking forward to it, I'm planning to do a tour of Canada in the NGX. Followed by a tour of the US in the NGX.

Leg 1 PANC-KBOS

 

I was unable to resolve the problem with existing COTS log so I re-installed the 337 and have started the RTW with a new COTS career log.  I did a preliminary test flight from Fairbanks to make sure all was working properly and it was uneventful.  I departed Anchorage in the evening and the climb to cruise proceeded smoothly with the autopilot tracking the initial departure waypoints.  I turned the ship over to relief pilot and hit the sack expecting to take over the next morning about 250 miles out of Boston where I would manage the descent and landing.  When I got up and checked the progress of the flight I found that the ship was way off course in northern Labrador heading towards Greenland. Once I determined that I had sufficient fuel, I altered course back towards Boston (then about 3hrs away) using the heading mode on the autopilot.   Made it to Boston with 30 minutes fuel remaining.

 

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?flight=Ar7dAPtk3duM1AfT2RdivDnOE8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great pics, Jeff.  Are you using Accusim as well?  Just curious about whether you can trust it for overnight flights like that.

 

You should really have a word with HR about that relief crew...   :wink:

Hey Jeff good flight but yes, your relief crew sucks.

Leg 2 KBOS-TNCM

 

For this relatively shorter leg to St Maarten I took a medium fuel load and full passengers and freight.  The climb to altitude was slow and the turbo could not generate the required manifold pressue.  I had a warning that carb air was warm on the status panel throughout the climb and the outside temps did not drop as I climbed to the flight levels.  In mid flight I forced a weather re-load and that fixed the problem.  Otherwise a smooth flight.  I was a late on starting my descent (60nm out) and had to do two 360's before setting up the approach.

 

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?flight=s444bAY6z9yCUSdmrztxZOJsJmE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No relief crew on this flight and Otto followed the flight plan without incident, but he must be watched.  I don't trust him yet.  My A2a Statocruiser package is the Accusim version with the added "Captain of the Ship" (COTS) upgrade.  Overnight flights without monitoring are a risk. On my RTW last year on a leg from Athens to Hong Kong I woke up to find that I had blown a turbocharger and had to do an emegency descent into Kumming in the Yunnan province of China.  Very exciting.

My hat's off to you, sir! :hi:

Leg 3 TNCM-SBRJ

 

Very nice evening departure from Princess Juliana and over the windward islands towards South America,  Arrived in Rio before dawn.  ASE weather downloads stopped functioning during the flight and I had static weather for most of the night. I was a bit concerned about the short runways at Santos Dumont and focused on getting wheels down in the touchdown zone but mis-judged the flare and banged her in with a bit of a bounce (accompanied by passenger discomfort noises from the back.)  First crossing of the equator in the RTW.

 

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?flight=8gfmLZF1TIBqjdMkJGs9O6QFX8