I made it to Antarcitca from Washington State

[mtrainer 136]

Getting to Antarctica took 23 hops, here was my journey taking a brand new Caribbean Airlines 737 from Paine Field (KPAE) all the way to ISLA REY JORGE (TENIENTE RODOLFO MARSH MARTIN) (ANTARCTICA) (SCRM), a dirt strip about 4,500 ft. long in which I was barely able to get stopped in time.  In total it took 23 landings and 23 takeoffs, not all of which were necessary but hey; I like taking off and landing a lot to keep it interesting.  Most of the Southern South America Airports don't have ATIS by the way, and a couple had no night landing lights either.   One thing for sure, frame rates at these remote/sparse airports are fantastic.

Here is the route I took:

KPAE KBFI KMDW KMIA MYNN MKJS MDST TNCM TLPL TGPY SOCA SBMQ SBSN SBEK SBPV SBRB SPZO SAZY SAZS SAVT SAVC SAWG SAWE SAWH  SCRM. 

Yes not the most direct route but hey, I wanted to explore South America which was something in 30 years of Flight Simming I've never really done (started on the C-64 / SubLogic II by Bruce Artwick in 1983)

After landing at SCRM I found a VOR station called SAWB and flew even farther south (about 91 miles), and although I could see the VOR station but no runway I landed on the ice but it appears my aircraft is bogged down in snow and appears stranded there, perhaps for all of time (or until global warming kicks in even harder).

Some say it is a perfect story ending to a long journey; and while I somewhat agree I was looking to flying this plane around the world.

I kept an Excel spreadsheet with each leg on a separate tab complete with airport diagrams (for those that I could find) along with tons of other detail, VOR / ATIS / Skyvector diagrams including pictures I took along the way.   Free to anyone for the asking. 

Mark Trainer

General "Buck" Turgidson: If the pilot's good, see, I mean if he's reeeally sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low... oh you oughta see it sometime. It's a sight. A big plane like a '52... varrrooom! Its jet exhaust... frying chickens in the barnyard!

 

[Fsxpilot777 14]

Very nice! I might give this a go, seems like a nice adventure. Might do this or around the globe or both! Thanks for sharing.

[kpan 8]

I got that beat.  Made it from Calgary to Antarctica in a Twin Otter using Aerosoft Antarctica X scenery.  They include the real world route.  Calgary is home base for the planes.  South America scenery is pretty bland.

[cannonplug 126]

29 minutes ago, kpan said:

South America scenery is pretty bland.

Though Orbx just posted their first preview shots for the upcoming Open LC South America. I trust this will add a little more interest to that as-of-now neglected continent.

[spearmint_flyer 579]

Were you you trying to make all of these hops or was it by choice? Because some of these routes it seems you had more than enough fuel range to skip it. 

[downscc 1,327]

I made a trip around the globe in the B736 in BBJ livery last winter.  Started at Orange County/John Wayne KSNA PHTO NSTU YBBN YBRM VTBS OMDB LGKR EINN KBOS KSNA.  Longest leg was VTBS OMDB 6.9 hr.  Most legs were about 5hr.  Every location except EINN was an addon airport.  I was surprised at how long it took to cross Australia Brisbane to Broome was 6 hr.

[mtrainer 136]

Hi Warrior - yep I could have skipped lots of those intermediate airports in South America but I do like landing and taking off a lot (and most of those airports are short on nav aids, lots of good old fashioned stick and rudder work there- many airports were at high altitudes too), plus I sampled the local Margaritas at each stop and included the company of many fine women before retiring for the night.

I'm even known for taking the 747-400 for some pretty short hops around the U.S.  My time budget just doesn't allow for a 14 hour flight and increasing the sim speed always felt like cheating to me.

Dan, I may go back to PAINE FIELD and buy another plane and re-create your trip.   Navigating the globe is a Flight Simulator Challenge that is on my bucket list.   I'd love to try to pull something like that off in the new and upcoming DC-6 from PDMG but not sure what its range is....but what fun trying!

Didn't know ORBX was going to be updating South America - that is darn good news - the whole Southern Half of South America is pretty darn sparse.

Mark Trainer

 

 

[downscc 1,327]

2 hours ago, mtrainer said:

I'd love to try to pull something like that off in the new and upcoming DC-6 from PDMG

That will be interesting.  I've already flown her all over Alaska and down to Seattle.  Start at Fairbanks, homebase for Everts, and hop down to Anchorage PANC then PAEN, PAHO, PAVD, PAYA, PAKT and back up the coast or head down to KSEA.  Also been out to Dutch Harbor and Cold Bay.  Dutch Harbor is a heck of a challenge in IMC in the DC6.... it's a dangerous flight before you go out for a dangerous catch.

[harvester21 34]

7 hours ago, mtrainer said:

Didn't know ORBX was going to be updating South America - that is darn good news - the whole Southern Half of South America is pretty darn sparse.

Yep, just announced a couple of days ago. As soon as I saw your post I thought, you did this just a bit too early... Perhaps I will take your routing and do the same when the 737 is out for V4 and Orbx have released their South America update.

Nice post! Thanks!

[mtrainer 136]

Oh Brother!  Just got back from ORBX's site with all the preview snapshots of South America!  I did indeed do this a tad early.  But that won't stop me from buying South America openLC, some of those screen snapshots are simply fantastic.  I look forward to exploring even more of this beautiful country, probably in a plane that generally flies a little slower and lower than the 737, as there is a lot of eye candy to absorb.

I plotted my final full routing on skyvector and when seen all at once you'd see it's a pretty willy-nilly zig-zaggy approach to working myself down south.  Nothing special about it really.  Once ORBX releases SA, there will be no bad routes from NA to Antartica.  In fact if I were to do it again with the new scenery, I'd make a point to visit specific landmarks this time with a fair amount of googling up front which always seems to give each flight more meaning.

One last thing to mention - I did the entire flight using AS16 and real-time weather - the weather in South America can be quite the challenge!  It's always changing and it can be quite intense.

Mark Trainer

 

 

 

 

[downscc 1,327]

23 hours ago, mtrainer said:

probably in a plane that generally flies a little slower and lower than the 737, as there is a lot of eye candy to absorb.

You'll love amblin' along just below CB bases in the DC6.