Around The World...with a difference...

[birdguy 3,943]

So here I sit sequestered.  I've been retired for the past 28 years and until this virus hit I had things to do outside the home.  But now I'm stuck here with my books and my flight simulator.  So I thought an around the world flight would be interesting.

My around the world trip involves circumnavigating the continents as well as the globe.

I'll start my trip gong south from my home port of Roswell NM.  Down through Mexico and Central America and then down the west coast of South America and back up the east coast of South America.  Then up through the West Indies and back up the east coast of North America.  Then across Greenland to Iceland and down to Scotland.  Down Western Europe and the west Coast of Africa to Cape Town and back up the east cast of Africa to eastern Europe and Scandinavia.   Then back down to the Mideast and up through …..well, you get the picture.

278 flight plans ranging from 2 to 3 hours a leg in my Kodiak.  278 days or about 9 months if I fly every day.  Let's say it will keep me busy for a year anyway.  By then we should be back to a masks off world.  I've already had my first vaccination and my second one is scheduled for next Saturday.

It's a pretty ambitious project and I may lose interest before I finish it.  But Maybe not.

Noel

[CB_Pilot 54]

Sounds like a pretty intense journey for 9 months - impressive. I've been flying around the world for 3 years now and I'm still only 60% complete 😞. I do pause the world flight for other flights though. If I see you overhead then I'll wave as you pass over Scotland 👋 Enjoy!

[hjsmuc 393]

Have fun with that project. I only hope that we get back to normality before you finish the last leg of that journey. 

[scianoir 610]

3 hours ago, birdguy said:

My around the world trip involves circumnavigating the continents as well as the globe.

I like that idea! The handful of round the world flights I’ve done over the years have all basically been variations of east-west or west-east but bringing in a circumnavigation of the continents adds an interesting additional dimension to it. Am tempted!

Bill

 

[Antipodeslonghaul 78]

Very very cool that! Would be an amazing feat.

As the daylight hours get longer in the Northern Hemisphere, I sometimes like to try a one long day all in daylight westbound circumnavigation in the northern mid-latitudes. Using a 747-400.

For example depart London around 5:30 am at dawn. Touchdown in San Francisco around mid morning for about an hour. Then continue to Shanghai, getting there the next day in the afternoon because of the dateline, but as far as continuous daylight is concerned, for me it's still the same day. Then a late afternoon, early evening flight across Asia back into London. Landing around dusk, before it gets dark.

Maybe around 36 hours flying time, and 38 hours in total for the trip. 

I'll save the flights and do that over something like 3 days, but what you propose, basically following the outlines of the continents, would be amazing indeed.

[fluffyflops 1,850]

2 hours ago, Antipodeslonghaul said:

Very very cool that! Would be an amazing feat.

As the daylight hours get longer in the Northern Hemisphere, I sometimes like to try a one long day all in daylight westbound circumnavigation in the northern mid-latitudes. Using a 747-400.

For example depart London around 5:30 am at dawn. Touchdown in San Francisco around mid morning for about an hour. 

Good luck with getting a slot before 06.00am at Heathrow 😁 

However If you left heathrow at 05.30z you would also land at ksfo at about 1600z which is 0800 local. So you might have to fly a bit slow to land at mid morning. 

Sorry. I couldnt help it.  Just saying. 

 

 

 

[Antipodeslonghaul 78]

11 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

Good luck with getting a slot before 06.00am at Heathrow 😁 

However If you left heathrow at 05.30z you would also land at ksfo at about 1600z which is 0800 local. So you might have to fly a bit slow to land at mid morning. 

Sorry. I couldnt help it.  Just saying. 

Ha! Good point! Although a virtual dairy farmer in Marin County glancing up at my virtual 747 might consider 8 to already be well past mid morning (9 during dst), and for a slacker college student that would still be ungodly early.

I think too near the Equator, a challenge such as this, like if one tried Singapore-Lagos-Quito and back, one can't make it all in daylight with a standard subsonic jet. Choosing segments too far north of course becomes boring during the summer.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Antipodeslonghaul

[W2DR 1,859]

Have fun Noel. The last time I did it I flew 137 legs and I thought that was a lot 🙂. I'd love to see the overall flightplan. I've been thinking about doing it again in a using a C172. I hope you're right about masks-off but it's not looking good here. I got the second jab about a month ago but I'm amazed at how many of my neighbors say they won't do it all. Anyway, blue skies and let us know from time-to-time where in the world you are..........Doug

[Antipodeslonghaul 78]

Right now with a kind of low end laptop and FSX Steam, I'm still quite happy with the view from way up at 35,000 feet doing 747, 777 longhaul flights. But on approaches I can tell my scenery, while not exactly horrible, certainly isn't the best. But as the scenery packages keep getting better and better, more and more realistic, and if I ever get some really decent hardware, I would be very tempted to try a really long, low and slow flight like the OP describes. Personally I'd maybe even want to try it in an ultralight and throw away the GPS, just pilotage and dead reckoning. Plop down in fields, riverbanks, beaches etc. Camp out, get fuel and provisions from some local tribal leader way out in the tundra. It might never be as great as the real thing, but no mosquitoes, no bribing local police and customs officials, procuring visas and overflight permits etc.

[birdguy 3,943]

1 hour ago, Antipodeslonghaul said:

It might never be as great as the real thing, but no mosquitoes, no bribing local police and customs officials, procuring visas and overflight permits etc.

In my Orbx World I am the global dictator.  No wars.  No famine.  No passports required.  Disease has been wiped out.  We got a handle on global warming so the skies are cleared of pollution.  You can travel the world at your leisure without any red tape at all.

The beauty of flight simulators is you can have a world they way you want it to be.

Noel

 

5 hours ago, W2DR said:

I'd love to see the overall flightplan.

While I have the entire route marked in an atlas I bought for the purpose I am just starting to make the flight plans, all 278 of them.  I'll let you know when they are completed and make them available to anybody who request them.

Noel 

[birdguy 3,943]

To any who are interested.  I have completed the flight plans for Mexico, Central America, South America and The Caribbean.  Depart Roswell NM and arrive Jacksonville Florida after circumnavigating South America.  38 days/flightplans covering15,566 miles.  The longest leg is 623 miles and the shortest 201 miles.

I'm starting my first leg tomorrow morning and it will be a while before I start commencing again with the flight plans.

If you want the flight plans PM me and I will email them to you in PDF format.

Noel

Edited March 11, 2021 by birdguy

[W2DR 1,859]

Great stuff Noel. Thanks........Doug

[Mace 1,902]

I flew round the world in 2019-2020 using the A2A Piper Cherokee, so about the same speed as your Kodiak right?  It took me about a year to finish.  I work full time though and some days I was too tired to fly.  From March 2020 the pandemic required me to work more hours too so that slowed me down.  You won't have that "work" thing getting in your way.

If you use real world weather, be wary of flying thru certain parts of the globe in winter....I flew thru Greenland in July 2019 hoping for the best possible North Atlantic weather.  Flew from Frobisher Bay into Nuuk, Greenland with pretty good weather.  Slept overnight.  Woke up and Nuuk was socked in with 45 degreesF and 35 knot winds and rain.  Needless to say I didn't fly out of Nuuk across the ice cap that day I tell you.  It was a 2 day storm.  Once it passed, I was able to continue...