My World Tour finally completed

[Ray Proudfoot 8,950]

Back in December I decided to fly around the world in the PMDG737-800 in P3D v4.5. Despite the vast majority of the airports I landed at were default it in no way made the flights any less interesting. What made a huge difference was seeing airliners from all those countries at each airport I visited. That was down to Alpha India Group's fantastic Ai package with all their wonderful liveries and models. I didn't fly a leg every day but there days when I would fly two.

I used Radar Contact v4 for every leg and it was so interesting to hear all the centres enunciated. Thousands of them were recorded by us back in 2006 and finally I've heard then spoken for the first time.

The attached map shows the route I took starting at London Heathrow on 17 December 2019 for Keflavik, Iceland and ending today, 20 June 2020, the Summer Solstice back at Heathrow.

Over all I flew 67 legs visiting 39 countries. The route was quite haphazard as you can see especially in the Far East when I had to make a decision in Vietnam as to whether to turn right for Hong Kong or left for India. I turned right and it made the trip considerably longer. But with a lockdown what else was I going to do? 😁

The longest leg was Honolulu to Pago Pago, 2,391nm in 5h 45m. Shortest was the last leg, Paris to London, 212nm in 41m.

Most boring sectors? A tie between flying over the Australian Outback, the Pacific legs and across the Saudi Arabian peninsular. Most exciting was the descent into Santiago, Chile over the Andes and the flight from Zurich to Paris with some seriously impressive CBs. Lots were interesting and showed how different the climate is around the world. Visibility near zero in China and India with heat haze.

No photos I'm afraid. The computer and P3D v4.5 was brilliant. Not a single CTD in the whole journey.

Finally, the totals... Total Distance Flown = 43,449nm. Total Flight Time = 115h 41m and Fuel Used = 576,924lbs.

If you've never done it it's something I can highly recommend especially if you have the AIG Ai package.

[Markek 2]

That's very cool Ray.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Mark K

[Richard McDonald Woods 168]

Very well done, Ray!

I have learnt a great deal from flying all over the world and reading up with Wikipedia as I go.

Next another trek with P3Dv5? 

Edited June 20, 2020 by Richard McDonald Woods

[Ray Proudfoot 8,950]

I didn’t consult Wikipedia but that’s a good move. For my next tour I’m thinking of doing Africa, a continent I barely touched bar Egypt. It’s certainly a lot more interesting that tootling around Europe.

[regis9 4,013]

Well done Ray, it’s something I’ve always thought of doing...might be a good way to do a world tour in MSFS when released and see what the sim has to offer.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,950]

@regis9, that would be the ultimate tour I imagine. How long it would be before AIG’s package would be compatible who knows. With no other aircraft it would be quite lonely.

[scianoir 610]

Well done Ray - that looks like an interesting route! Thank you for providing the itinerary which I might follow at some stage as I have addon scenery for quite a few of the airports you visited or airports nearby and every so often I feel I ought to get my money’s worth out of them!

I’ve completed a few round the world trips over the years but it was only during the last one a couple of years ago that I had the benefit of live ‘realistic looking’ weather (using AS16 and ASCA) which added to the challenge at times and made it so much more enjoyable. 

Bill

[regis9 4,013]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

How long it would be before AIG’s package would be compatible who knows. With no other aircraft it would be quite lonely.

Yes hopefully it will be a pretty quick transition for them.  I agree, part of the fun of flying in areas of the world that you don’t normally visit is seeing airlines and hearing call signs that are all new.

[The Flight Level 2,113]

Absolutely brilliant Ray! I think world tours or perhaps partial world tours will be really popular with MSFS 2020, especially for VFR flights. I can picture this really taking off with the addition of new or specialized sites and forums. Very exciting outlook in this hobby! Cheers and blue skies!

[vc10man 732]

Well Done Ray. I echo Bill's thoughts too. May give it a go instead of faffing around at random, wondering 'where shall I fly from/to today?'

[W2DR 1,860]

Really impressive Ray. I would encourage anyone to try an around-the-world-flight. IMNSO, it's the ultimate flight sim experience..........Doug

[Ray Proudfoot 8,950]

53 minutes ago, scianoir said:

Well done Ray - that looks like an interesting route! Thank you for providing the itinerary which I might follow at some stage as I have addon scenery for quite a few of the airports you visited or airports nearby and every so often I feel I ought to get my money’s worth out of them!

I’ve completed a few round the world trips over the years but it was only during the last one a couple of years ago that I had the benefit of live ‘realistic looking’ weather (using AS16 and ASCA) which added to the challenge at times and made it so much more enjoyable. 

Bill

 

28 minutes ago, vc10man said:

Well Done Ray. I echo Bill's thoughts too. May give it a go instead of faffing around at random, wondering 'where shall I fly from/to today?'

Having a project definitely works for me rather than the random flights between mainly European airports. Yes, it’s nice to see 3rd party airports but familiarity does breed boredom rather than contempt.

From the sun barely rising above the horizon in Iceland in December to the glare of the Saudi desert in temps of 40°C+ in June there were plenty of contrasts. Mt Fuji looking wonderful to the green surroundings of the Nile in Egypt and the interesting descent into Santiago once over the Andes were memorable.

Planning was with PFPX and all flights were in daylight using historical weather in Active Sky with ASCA. FTX Global plus Ultimate Terrain X for Europe, North America and the Caribbean.

I carried 100 pax for the tour. I suppose on reflection I could have planned it better at the outset but deciding what the next destination would be was part of the fun.

I used Aivlasoft’s EFB for logging the flight details and added each leg onto Google Earth Pro before exporting the KML file into Google Maps the result of which you see above.

Give it a go. It’s a lot of fun.

[Beardyman 604]

737, not Concorde ? 😉

[JLuis 409]

I also found it strange, I wanted to ask the same question.😃

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

This is a good idea and I've done similar being somewhat active in "Worldwidevirtual" VA for a number of years. They make tours each year and I've enjoyed some of them. I sometimes do a tour exclusively with one aircraft in order to learn the "ins and outs". I did, for example, one tour of New Zeeland in the excellent TBM for X-plane, and I've done some world tours in PMDGS 747/777. It's really a fun way to discover the world in the sim.