Okay, I am already planning my first around the world flight for FSX and I'm wondering if I can get some votes on which default (known) aircraft I should take up on this epic journey...She needs to be able to reach around 30,000' altitude and be a prop or turbo prop, can get in and out of short fields and also have a max range of around 1000 miles... 800 miles minimum...So far I'm considering the Beechcraft KingAir, but my first effort was attempted in the Mooney Bravo... These are my two choices so far, I'm not sure if I should consider any of the new aircraft available in FSX such as the Maule or Grumman Goose...At this point the King Air looks like the winner. Having the twin engines, plus it's excellent STOL ability, good rate of climb and it's ability to fly reasonably fast but also low and slow make it the winner so far, but the Mooney still holds my interest, although the flight would be much slower, and I'd hate to have an engine failure over water somewhere along the way, especially from Johnston Atoll to Honolulu...I'm open to suggestions though as I am planning out this trip...

You did a RTW in a Mooney eh? Were you on the RTW Buzz a few years back, perchance? :) At any rate, I like the idea of the King Air...meets the requirements well. Johnston Atoll to Honolulu...hm long leg. I did a RTW most recently with an iFDG A320-200, and went west to east. I started in Costa Rica and ended there as well. I tried to keep the legs at 3000-3500 nm, which for a lightly loaded A320-200 is quite do-able.Routing:San Jose, CR...to...Rio de Janeiro...to...Accra, Ghana...to....Riyadh, Saudi Arabia...to...Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...to...Cairns, Australia...to...Rarotonga...to...Easter Island...to...Costa Rica.Whatever route you decide to use, post about it here. I'm sure I'll be doing another RTW in FSX at some point, too.Rhett

Hey, umm, might have been me, was over at the other major fs site though at the time, was probably 1-2 years ago... got as far as phuket, but work got busy due to a promotion...I do like the KingAir due to seeing it in Jurassic Park 3 last week (unless it was a 200) anyway... It has the speed, thing is most flights are only 1-2 hours in duration due to the aircraft's performance... I think it might be perfect for the task and still slow enough to grab screenshots of some of the spectacular sites...Oh, I'm curious about whether the FS2004 flightplans will import okay into FSX... This is something I am assuming it will due to adventures etc from previous versions always being allowed to imported and automatically upgraded to the new version...

Kingair in JP3 was a 200Dave

>Hey, umm, might have been me, was over at the other major fs>site though at the time, was probably 1-2 years ago... got as>far as phuket, but work got busy due to a promotion...>>I do like the KingAir due to seeing it in Jurassic Park 3 last>week (unless it was a 200) anyway... It has the speed, thing>is most flights are only 1-2 hours in duration due to the>aircraft's performance... I think it might be perfect for the>task and still slow enough to grab screenshots of some of the>spectacular sites...>>Oh, I'm curious about whether the FS2004 flightplans will>import okay into FSX... This is something I am assuming it>will due to adventures etc from previous versions always being>allowed to imported and automatically upgraded to the new>version...so you said Duck it in Phuket..LOL sorry couldn't resist but you get the drift. I would go with the King Air myself, I used a Baron last time but it almost didn't have the legs over Russia, and 800 mile jaunt left me with my engines on fumes when I landed. That was a little close for comfort.

>>so you said Duck it in Phuket..LOL sorry couldn't resist but>you get the drift. I would go with the King Air myself, I used>a Baron last time but it almost didn't have the legs over>Russia, and 800 mile jaunt left me with my engines on fumes>when I landed. That was a little close for comfort.How did you cross the Pacific? Did you go up around Alaska/Kamchatka?Rhett

yeah that section will be tokyo, across the water to vladivostock, (personal reasons), then kamchatka to the alluetians...on my return jauunt I'll bounce around the pacific islands...I'll start posting my flightplan details once I have them coded...

Hmm, I was just looking through my old pictures of my first around the world effort and realized there is onnly one problem I have with the King Air as an aircraft... Visibility...The Mooney Bravo was great because you could get great views 45 degrees behind you...Now I'm not sure which aircraft I will use... The Mooney I think can make the largest hops I have planned, but then altitude requirements are an issue...

?? Altitude should not be a problem in the Mooney.The Mooney can cruise at 25000 ft MSL...it has a supercharger.The Mooney all of us used for the RTW Buzz had ferry fuel tanks, too, which enabled some pretty long legs.Our route had a long leg across the Amazon, and another in Africa, as I recall.Rhett

Cool, yeah I might need to ammend a leg or two but I'll probably go with the Mooney again... She's a beautiful plane... I'll double check all my flight plans and if anything requires excessive altitude I'll just adjust the flight plan to go around the mountain...Thanks for the info, I was at work when I posted before so I didn't have the chance to double check the Mooney's performance details...Course it will mean longer flights time wise, but that's okay too...Now I have my X45 plugged back in I'll take a quick look from inside the King Air and see how the Vis is... Might be cool if I invested in the eDimensional Track IR system... That way I can lean forward and look back out the windows...Decisions decisions :D

I've flown the Aeroworx King Air some and I love that bird. However, there seems to be someething wrong with the FM because it's hard to get short rolls on landings. Upgrading to "X-treme" helps tho.Good luck.Hm...flying around the virtual globe... Now, THAT's an idea... :-)