VFR Flight In The Middle of Nowhere

Last night, I thought I would shake things up and perform a flight in the middle of nowhere.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into until about half way through the flight, which I will get to in a minute.  I recently purchased the A2A Piper Comanche for P3D and I have to say, I love this plane better than the C182 from them.  I don't know why, but it's a great plane to fly, and one of it's features saved my life.

I performed a flight from ENJA to BITN.  I installed the ORBX Jan Mayenfield freeware airport and initially thought it was on the mainland...I was wrong, of course (sometimes my ignorance gets the best of me).  Anywho, I fired up the Piper and took off, not realizing this was the same aircraft I flew over the weekend and my crew forgot to top off the tanks.  The island of Jan Mayen is pretty to an extent.  There a nice beautiful mountain that graces the island, but otherwise, there's nothing...totally nothing up there.  Again, not realizing where I was exactly, I fired up my tablet and pulled up Google Maps...boy was I north, virtually on Santa's doorstep.

Orientating myself, I initially thought about heading to Norway, but then a quick stroke of curiosity hit me and I said "screw it, let's go to Iceland...the other Iceland".  Most everyone likes to fly to Reykjavik, on the western side of the country, taking in the sites there, but I was curious as to what was in store to the north.  Three fourths way through the flight, I got a wakeup call....tanks empty...going down.  Fortunately, that little feature on the Camanche, called wingtip tanks, saved me.  Those were about 3/4 full, so two quick twists of the tank selectors, and I was back in business...thank God, I didn't want to ditch in the ocean.

Anywho, I landed safely in Porshofn Airport, basically a tiny airstrip on one of the northern peninsula's of Iceland.   Pretty uneventful in that regard, and if I was THINKING, I would have had topped off tanks to make it to Reykjavik...maybe next time.

You never really realize how desolate it is that far up north.  I know I wasn't exactly flying the best aircraft for that type of flight, but hey, it's a flight sim.  One thing I love in a sim is scenery, the more mountains the better.  This flight, not so much, but I still felt a little like Thor Heyerdahl.

From an aircraft assessment point of view, the Piper Comanche is a great aircraft that can hold it's own.  Looks like my C182s are gonna sit a little longer in the hanger, this is my new love.

-Jim