In one of my earlier posts, there was a (member) inquiry about the Apennines Mountain Range of Italy, but, I did not have enough coverage there of this beautiful mountain range (which is often overshadowed by its more prominent cousin, the Alps). The Apennines consist of a chain of mountains uniquely located like a backbone along the length of peninsular Italy. The Apennines contain some of the most in-tact ecosystems in the whole European continent, which has survived the human intervention such as best preserved forests and highly diverse flora and fauna. Geographically, the Apennines appear to be continuous with the Alpine system, but they are, however, not the same system and did not have the same origin. The Alps were millions of years old before the Apennines rose from the sea.

Corno Grande (Mount Corno), at 9554', situated in the central Apennines, is its highest peak. For record, Mont Blanc, in France, the highest mountain of the Alps, is much higher at 15,777'. But, the great thing about Corno Grande, is that "regular" people, can climb/reach its top. One does not have to be a seasoned mountaineer. On one side of the Corno Grande, one can sight the Adriatic Sea and on the other, the Mediterranean Sea, and it must be a majestic sight indeed! The usual route of ascent is via the western ridge along a "gentle" slope, but there is the more direct one that ascends the southern face for the daring types. Per an actual climber, "On a quiet Sunday, I decided to climb Corno Grande, it was a straight forward and moderate climb to the top by the "normal" route, but the hardest part of the journey was finding a spot to sit on the crowded summit. It was a good way to spend the morning (4-6 hours round-trip), and if you go on a clear day the views are fantastic. At the top, there were about 50 other people squeezed between rocks and eating their panini. We waited our turn for a summit photo and found a small space to sit down for a snack of our own". In this post here, I've included a few shots of the Corno Grande as seen from the A300.

And, about the aircraft here: the A300 holds the distinction of being the world's first twin-engined wide-body airliner, and first aircraft of the Airbus family to bear the name "Airbus". For comparison, its first flight was 1972, vs B727 (1963), and B737 (1964). Its production ended in 2007, but it had already proved its merit by then, and remains an Airbus Classic much in the same spirit as the revered B727/B737 Classics. Moreover, A300 was the original/root, which, just past the A310 variant, eventually evolved to the highly successful A320 series (Note: A318/A319 had followed after A320).

Please find the A300B4 variant here (in the color of former Olympic Airways) flying from LIMS (Piacenza) to the island of Sicily (LICC: Catania-Fontanarossa) - closely tracking the length of the Apennines chain. I have auto-loaded 9 INS waypoints (per the tutorial) into the in-built INS CDU of this aircraft for navigation - to stay true to the spirit of this aircraft (although I seem to also have an FMC-addon, that I do not recall using with it).

Before arrival at the (destination) LICC airport, please also note one shot of the spectacular (and highly/constantly active) (10,912') strato-volcano Mount Etna - which, in recent times, has had almost one eruption every year since 2001. Hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed flying this classic Airbus over the Apennines. [AS-Simcheck(A300B4)/MSE(Italy)/REX]

Nice shots. Pity Simcheck didn't updated this beauty to v4.

14 minutes ago, pedrotrindade said:

Nice shots. Pity Simcheck didn't updated this beauty to v4.

Muito sim, Amigo +++1

One of the best from Simcheck.

Great shots of the A300!

Took a coach ride thru the Appenines in 2017, great to see them from the air again, I have flown over them a few times in real life in '77 and '95

John

Thanks, folks! Yes, it felt good to fly it after many years...installation and flight went so smoothly (I was impressed). I will fly it for a couple of more times at least. It's dated but a "gem" of a SIM, I agree!

John: A coach ride thru the Apennines must have been marvelous....Actually, I noticed several such ads for transportation services while looking for information about the Apennines on the internet...including one (pop-up) chat from possibly a (local) Travel Agency, "Can we help you?", from which I'd to quickly sneak out...And, flying over these mountains (in RW) should be almost as scenic as flying over the Alps, if not as majestic...