Adriatic – Flying Boats along the Dalmation Coast

This tour was specifically designed for the Latécoère 631 flying boat with harbour landings, but I have also included a flight plan with nearby airports for land plane participants.   The route features many POI’s and photogrammetry cites from WU14.

 

We begin the tour in Venice, on the Grand Canal with a view of St Marks Square and the iconic Campanile.  After boarding passengers and taking off we will do a circuit over the city for a bit of sightseeing before heading east towards Trieste.

The first POI is low flyby of Miramre Castle on the Gulf of Trieste followed by a landing at the import Austo-Hungarian deep water seaport of Trieste. Today the port of Trieste is one of the largest Italian ports and next to Gioia Tauro the only deep-water port in the central Mediterranean for seventh generation container ships.

Proceeding southeast 39nm we fly over Socerb Castle and into Croatia to Rejeka for a flyby of Trsat Castle and the Krk Bridge.  Next POI is Nehaj Fortress.  Nehaj comes from the Croatian term meaning 'don't care'. It was named by the builders because they wanted to emphasize to the citizens of the town of Senj, and all of those that lived in the vicinity of the town of Senj that they should not care that someone will conquer this hill or the Fortress until they are there. Continuing down the coast we overfly Church of St. Nicholas before landing at the harbor of historically important city of Zadar.

Leaving Zadar we head inland to Stari Maslenicki and then climb to the Knin Fortress located near the tallest mountain in Croatia.  The route backtracks to the Dalmation coast passing the Krka Bridge before reaching the St Nicholas's Fortress turm point.  We turn southeast towards Split, first reaching Fortress Kamerlengo, then overflying Split before landing in the harbor near the Diocletian Palace below Marjan Hill.  It will require careful water taxi skills to maneuver out of the inner harbor for a takeoff to the southeast.

The route leaves the Dalmation coast and proceeds inland to Mostar and a series of POI’s.  We first overfly the observatory site Star Village Mosor, then continue onward to Mostar and the Mostar Old Bridge, Vrelo Bune, Mount Krizevac.  Additional POI’s in this part of the route include The Pocitelj Clock Tower,  Stolac Fortress, and Hercegovacka Gracanica.

The final section of the route takes us back to Adriatic south of Dubrovnik.   Turning north we overfly quarries before making a counterclockwise tour of the city and then land at the historic old port. 

 

Flightplans (FB = Flying Boat, LP = Land Plane) and some custom camera view files are HERE

A flying boat is preferred for this tour, highly recommend the Latécoère 631 if you have it.  An alternative is Hercules H-4 if you want something larger.   I have also included an alternate flghtplan that includes nearby airports for those wishing to fly a landplane.  Plan for about 170 knots cruise.

 

NOTAM 1: If using Global AI Ship (GAIST) remember to select mediterranean-routes active in the addon linker.

NOTAM 2:  For those using the Flying Boat (FB) plan, the departure waypoint is a water start location.   When you load the plan and start MSFS the aircraft will be positioned in the air at several thousand feet.  When you hit Fly Now you must immediately initiate the slew mode ([Y] is the default keyboard command) and then slew down to the surface of the water ([F1] is the default key command to slew down).  When you exit slew ([Y]) the aircraft should be floating in the Grand Canal with the engine off.   You may want to extend your floats before starting your engines.  

NOTAM 3:  There is a second plan provided Adriatic (LP) provided for those choosing to fly a land plane that adds some nearby airports proximate to the Flying Boat landing locations.

 

Recommend Departure time of 3:00PM local

Particulars:

•           Date and time: Wednesday Aug 16, 18:00 UTC
•           https://discord.gg/cgNm9Fh3
•           MFS Multiplayer: US Eastcoast Server

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

 

 

Great tour! It seems that the FB flight plan follows a completely different route, and not your description above?

Thanks for the heads up on the flightplan.   The zip contained an early version.  I have updated the zip with the current FB flightplan

The model matching tool is available now:

 

Multiplayer Model Matching (M3) for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

It needs some time to set up, but it seems to work ok, with some restrictions.

On 8/16/2023 at 3:26 AM, Viking01 said:

The model matching tool is available now

Just set it to match the Flying Boat to the Grumman Goose.. just need someone to test it with.. 😉

I‘ll be happy to test, Bert. Maybe before or after today‘s flight?