August 20, 20232 yr Canyons and Grasland This is a recycled flight. Originally planned by Mike for a flight in P3D and posted here in May 2020, it was a flight over the northern Drakensberg Escarpment and the southern half of Kruger National Park. Now we want to enjoy the area's dramatic terrain and its grand bushland vistas in MSFS. I copied the relevant information from Mike’s post (please excuse the crude plagiarism) and changed some airports to adapt to the new Simulator. For detailed information please refer to Mike’s original post. Our departure airport is the former main airport of Mbombela, Nelspruit (FANS). Today, the airport is mainly used for GA traffic. More than 100 aircraft are stationed at Nelspruit. We head northwest to reach our first stop Lydenburg (FALL), a former Boer gold mining town and now South Africa's "fly-fishing capital." Turning east, and then northeast we arrive at Graskop (FUHC). Then we reach God's Window [WINDOW] from which one can see the steep walls of the escarpment drop down through the clouds to the Lowveld that stretches out into the distance. From here we follow the escarpment until we enter the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve and descend into the Blyde River Canyon itself. We pass the Three Rondavels [3ROND] (grass-topped rocks that resemble the traditional rondavels, the typical indigenous houses). About 2 miles west is the Blyde River Canyon private airstrip (BDR1). After departure, we head back towards the Blyde River, turn at the Blyde River Dam [DAM], and fly out of the canyon over the Swadini resort [SWADN]. Blyde River Canyon is one of the larger canyons on Earth, the second largest in Africa, and perhaps the largest "green" canyon. This is a well-developed tourist attraction. We land at Hoedspruit Airport (FAHT), not far from the SAAF Airforce Base. Our next stop is at the Thornybush Game Lodge (FATB). Shortly before we reach Phalaborwa (FAPH) we overfly the open pit of the Palabora Mine, one of the largest holes in the ground. The town is also a tourist spot, again mostly for those visiting the game preserves as well as Kruger National Park. Finally, we get an extended look at Kruger National Park. Parts have been protected since 1898 when it became clear that the wildlife was endangered. As part of the process, all native tribes were removed from the park. Even today, the Park's wildlife, especially the Rhinoceros, are under the constant threat posed by organized professional poachers from Mozambique. We land at the Letaba Rest Camp (FAQI), on a bend in the Letaba River, which is rated the second most attractive of the park's camps. We head southeast, then south, and overfly Olifants (OLIFAN), noted for its majestic hilltop views of elephants and hippos in the Olifants River and the rolling plains of the Lowveld below. We make a short stop at the Thulamahashi Airport (FUUC) and depart over Satara Camp (SATARA) which is rated as the best for seeing the Big Five. Next, we land at Skukuza (FASZ), the Park's primary camp and the site of the Park's headquarters On the way southward, the waypoint [BATTLE] marks the location of the Battle at Kruger. Further south we reach Malelane (FAMN), an ancient hematite mining area. Today, tourism is an important source of income. To finish our journey, we land at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport [FAKN]. Flight plans are available here. The flight has 307 miles and 10 landings. Almost all GA airplanes are suitable, we want to cruise at about 150 knots. I will be in the Caribou, please fly what you like. There are several add-ons available: https://flightsim.to/file/51462/nelspruit-airfield-fans DangerousBanana https://flightsim.to/file/24908/fakn-kruger-mpumalanga-internation-airport SkyyStorm https://flightsim.to/file/37109/graskop-south-africa-fuhc DangerousBanana https://flightsim.to/file/44799/blyde-river-canyon-pvt-airstrip PieFly https://flightsim.to/file/49044/hoedspruit-civil-airport Fanielang123 https://flightsim.to/file/57077/phalaborwa-airfield-faph DangerousBanana https://flightsim.to/file/13325/fasz-skukuza-airport SkyyStorm https://flightsim.to/file/40865/malelane-famn DangerousBanana For a short time, the complete package is available here. Please note that the Blyde River Canyon Airstrip is not in the MSFS database. Multiplayer Particulars Date and time: Saturday, August 23, 2023. 1800 UTC AVSIM Discord Server: https://discord.gg/K5Vy6UxWNm - AVSIM GROUP EVENTS-SAT. COM3 Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East 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). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks! Regards Gunter Schneider
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