Caribbean Holiday. A Winter's Escape Down the Lesser Antilles

Last week on Day One, we flew from San Juan through Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Sint Maarten, Saint Barthélemy, and stopped at Saba. Now we shall continue. A bit of sunshine and blue waters and a sip of rum or maybe a margarita after the flights. Good times.
 

Aircraft.         

Something that would be suitable for a Caribbean vacation. We have flown the BN Islander and DHC-6 Twin Otter as well as a Cessna 182 and Beech Bonanza. Maybe something with a speed between 120 and 170kts. Whatever you please.
 

 

The Route.

Day Two.  We start again from Sint Maarten (TNCM) and head for the glittering playground of the rich and famous, Saint Barthélemy. The approach and landing at TFFJ will entertain pilots and onlookers alike. In addition, following the pilots' decision, we may detour to the devilishly difficult Saba (SABA/TNCS). Next we proceed to St. Kitts (TKPK), Nevis (TKPN), Antigua (TAPA), over Montserrat's smoldering volcano, to the big city Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe and its international airport at Le Raizet (TFFR). Then we turn south with quick stops at Marie Galante (TFFM) and Melville Hall, Dominica (TDPD). We end the day at large cosmopolitan Fort-de-France, Martinique (TFFF).

Day Three. We head further south. Beginning in a fast GA aircraft (say a Lancair IVP, Beech Duke or Duke Turbine, Pilatus PC12, Beech King Air, Aero/Rockwell Turbo Commander, Epic LT, Piaggio P180 or similar), we fly from Martinique (TFFF) to scenic Castries, Saint Lucia (TLPC), to Barbados (TBPB), and then to Kingstown, Saint Vincent (TVSV). At Kingstown, we switch to a "low and slow" aircraft for the Grenadines. We shall visit Bequia (TVSB), the fabulous homes of the globe's wealthiest citizens on private Mustique (TVSM), the exclusive resort hotels and golf on Canouan (TVSC), the more friendly Union Island (TVSU), Carriacou (TGPZ) and then St. George's, Grenada (TGPY).

In Reserve. We may add on Tobago (TTCP) and Trinidad (TTPP) if we want. The idea is to fly along and have a good time. We might shorten a "day" a bit just to slow down and enjoy the event. And then rejigger the legs to make them fit our purposes. So the full route will arrive as we fly it. (!)
 

Scenery Suggestions. 

The default scenery in the Caribbean is uninspired. You might like to install a few packages to spice up the airports and give a tropical character to the destinations.

We strongly recommend that you install a scenery upgrade for the Grenadines (for Day Three) over which we shall linger. There is a good freeware and an excellent payware available. Details about these and other recommended Antilles sceneries (freeware and payware) are available. For the scenery information, and the flight plan, download the package HERE.           
 

And later we shall post a narrative for your non-reading pleasure.

The event will recommence on Saturday, March 7, at 1900 UTC. To help others "see" your aircraft, please enter your aircraft information in Roman's Multiplayer Aircraft Alias spreadsheet here.

Ron, Mike, and Nick

March 3, 2015

In the interests of Heath and Safety I'd like to point out that, like last week, the majority, if not all, of the airports we'll be visiting are on islands. Which, if memory serves, are surrounded by water, lots of it! This is NOT a failing of your graphics card or scenery.cfg. This is how it is in real life.

Scenery for this jaunt is FREE HERE. I've collared almost everything except Valladier's Dominica. It has an issue with Canefields. Get DominicaX by Zev C. Richards but watch where it installs! It has a strange idea of where to put stuff. Let it install then place the relevant folders in Addon Scenery and Scenery\World where they belong!

 

For payware I bought St.Marteen Complete from FlyTampa and The Grenadines also from FT. The Grenadines is very good but has a 'quirk'. It puts some entries in scenery that start Z. (Check out my support query on FlyTampa Forum

Apart from that it pretty good.

 

Hope that makes sense to you, it actually 'did me 'ead in!'

Sick of flying?  

 

 

Bring it on!

A descriptive "narrative" of our destinations can be found here.

Wow! That was a full morning of downloading, installing & testing scenery and repaints. Feeling warmer already!      ( -17 F w/ chill this morn ) Anyhoo, while trying to find TFFR & TFFM I ran across this site for scenery. DIdn't use it but rather followed the recommendations listed in the flight package. Just FYI.

 

Here's the link for the plan, including the TTCP/TTPP option, in SkyVector. 

 

Thanks guys for getting this all setup, will cya tomorrow.

Off to "un-read"   the narrative with another cup of java and a few practices into St.Barts.

Thanks to all in this thread. I've been doing the same thing with a patchwork of Caribbean scenery. The links helped immensely.

Thanks to all in this thread. I've been doing the same thing with a patchwork of Caribbean scenery. The links helped immensely.

Well don't just sit there, join us!

 

Here's how.

 

Date and time: Saturdays 19:00 UTC

 

Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com (Casual Flights Channel)

Multiplayer: FSX Multiplayer (IP will be provided on Teamspeak)

 

Teamspeak - If you don't already have it.

Fo - Toes ?  OK..
 
    It was a great flight! Except... 2 of our fellow MP members (Ron & Josh) never showed, at least for the photographer. They were there on radar but not in plane during the flight. :mad:  Those 2 gentlemen have to quit putzing with that anti-matter vessel. After experiments it is still unknown why the 2 never showed up visually. Once we find out we will let MS know, toot sweet.
 
 What is the problem here? If any turbine powered, pressurized sausage shows up at this point, the fence is loaded w/ vacationing idiots. One would guess that 3 Otters at one time doesn't cut it. Their fault.
 

 
  Nick leading with Mike following @ (Insert Airport here) . Smartly done by all.
 

 
  Nick & I. At one point I was ready to say.... That's it! I'm shutting this down now and am going to live here forever... -or until my Captain wages run out.
 

 
 Yup..I would stay here.
 

 

 All the scenery was really good!  Thank You!
 

 
 "The" Gold Medal landing.. No, Nick didn't hit the numbers..  He hit the line. I think the fence was a little scared.
 

 
 Following Nick on the climbout.
 

 
 Approaching Montserrat. ( Had to turn off the WX, otherwise wouldn't have been able to see it. ) 
 

 
 Over the top.
 

 
No matter how it's planned, there just isn't enough room.
 

 
Mike at my 10 O'Clock while Jeff is @ my 11:25 :-)
 

 
Jeff @ the Niner O'Clock
 

 
Just a bit closer... Or is it that zoomy thing on the camera?
 

 
Nick @ my 2 bells.
 

 
Pele !
 
 

Jeff coming in with "Whiskey Indigo Indigo" as you see my sailboat coming in to pick me up. A giant human barge is coming in... Just to ruin next Tuesday.  What day is it? 

Fantastic! No more to say. :smile: