Hello all,

I've given myself the challenge of flying around the world, starting and finishing at London Gatwick. I thought it would be nice to document and share my trip - although I didn't think of this when I started! Nevertheless, I already have a bunch of screenshots to bring it up to date.

I'm really bad for always flying routes and airports I know, generally in airliners. Doing this forces me to lots of new countries and airports, which I would probably not otherwise visit!

For this trip, I've chosen the TBM930. I didn't want to do the whole thing at 36,000ft in an airliner, missing scenery and not having the option to land at smaller airfields. But, the TBM930 is fast enough to cover ground reasonably quickly, over the oceans or areas of limited interest.

I have a lot to post, so I'll probably bring this up to date over a few posts!

Starting Point: London Gatwick EGKK Stand 231


I then flew the following through France, Italy,and into Greece, but didn't take screenshots, sorry!
Courcheval - Milan Malpensa - Genova Sestri - Pisa - Rome Ciampino - Napoli - Corfu - Athens

From Athens, I flew to Mykonos via a quick touch and go at Syros. I visited both of these islands (in real life) last year, and really liked them.

Mykonos:



Then onwards to:
Astypalaia (Greece) - Borg-Al-Arab (Egypt) - Cairo (Egypt)

 

End of Part 1 (I promise this gets more interesting, bear with me!)

Edited January 29, 20251 yr by JohnTBM
photo posting issues!

Part 2!

From Cairo, I departed East, and followed the Suez all the way back to the Med, landing at Port Said.

then...

Port Said

Ben Gurion, Israel
Amman, Jordan (with ATC diversion due to fighting at the time)
Turaif, Saudi Arabia
Baghdad, Iraq
Sanandaj, Iran
Tehran, Iran,
Mashhad, Iran
Frustratingly, it appears I didn't take screenshots of these sectors, or at least can't find them. The Iraqi desert is especially impressive, with its deep red colour.

Approaching Qala-I-Naw Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan, at Sunrise

Nice colours on the way to Skardu, Pakistan

Leaving Skardu, into the Himalayas and passing K2.

 

Shimla, India - This is a real gem of an airfield, on top of a mountain.

 

Approaching New Delhi, smog in the distance. Very poor visibility for landing!

Landing into Dolpha - one of the most difficult landings I've ever flown. I would say it's harder than Lukla. You have to make a dive into a valley, being careful to control your airspeed, and then land uphill on a short strip. The TBM wasn't really the correct plane for this one!

Continuing onwards through Nepal, this time to Pokhara. Landed daytime, and departed early morning.

Part 3

Quick stop at Kathmandu

Then to Ramechhap. This airfield has an amazing approach. It's not modelled super well in msfs2020, but very much worth checking out!

No flight through Nepal would be complete without visiting Lukla, so here it is...

 

Next stop, another famous one - Paro, Kingdom of Bhutan

And now, to bring this up to date, my present location Dhaka, Bangladesh

Heres a map of the route so far...

Edited January 31, 20251 yr by JohnTBM

Welcome to this Forum, John...Looks like you've named yourself after your favorite aircraft...🙂...I'd recently flown the TBM930 across a stretch of Africa...nice airplane...

Exciting tour and a wonderful set of pictures here...believe you're flying MSFS2020 here, may like to add a Tag ...Also, if you break your world tour into separate posts, that will work out better (with 20 max (allowed) screenshots per post...) ...

Your pictures bring back some old memories...I've visited (in RW) New Delhi, and Kathmandu/Nepal but missed the bit to Lukla... (the Tara Air Dornier was waiting on the apron to take me to Lukla, but the flight got cancelled in the last minute due to adverse weather at destination...no regrets...better safe than sorry...) ...

You've mentioned smog and poor visibility into Delhi...actually in winter add fog (commonly seen there) to the mix and it becomes extremely challenging. I recall decades ago, after our 747 landed there in such conditions, the Taxi Driver refused to take me from the airport to my hotel. I could see why because you could not see anything beyond 10 ft distance. I told him that a big Jumbo just landed, but that did not convince him...🙂...We could land, however we could not take off in such fog next day...

Thanks for sharing...!

Slow progress recently, due to home renovations and quite a bit of real world flying too! Made it to Papua New Guinea. Next I need to try and cross the Pacific, with Hawaii to the USA very much pushing the TBM's range! Here's some highlights:

From Dhaka, I flew to Vietnam, and then turned south, via Ha Long Bay and all it's tiny islands.

Made a stop at Da Nang. Very moody sunrise!

Few shots of Singapore, arriving in the daytime and departing out early morning.

Mount Agung / Bali - this volcano stands 9944ft tall

A nice sunrise somewhere in Indonesia, sadly I forget exactly where!

Ende, Indonesia, final stop before Australia

I made a stop on Troughton Island, just off the north coast of Aus. Apparently this is managed by two people who spend a month there. It's used as an emergency alternative when one of the other airfields in the area is unlandable due to weather.

North coast of mainland Australia

Arriving in Darwin

Departing Australia's mainland to the North East, after overflying some very scenic areas on the way

Flew due north and stopped at Yam Island, in the Torres Straight

And then proceeded onwards....

...Arriving in Papua New Guinea, where there's no end of bush strips, which I probably shouldn't be landing a TBM at!

That's all for now. Time to cross the Pacific next!

 

 

Edited August 27, 2025Aug 27 by JohnTBM

1 hour ago, JohnTBM said:

And then proceeded onwards

Amazing project, with nice shots. Yes, such a tour takes some time besides having a real life...

Finally made it across the Pacific! From Papua New Guinea...
> Soloman Islands/Santa Cruz Islands
> Tuvalu
>Tonga
> Cook Islands
> Bora Bora
>Tahiti (wrong way, but wanted to visit)
>Back to Bora Bora
>Kiribati (on the international date line, UTC +14)
>Palmyra
> Hilo, Hawaii

And finally...

>Half Moon Bay, California. This was technically outside the range of the TBM, but I worked out that with a tailwind, it was just about possible. I ran out of fuel on the runway, and coasted onto the taxiway. I couldn't have stayed in the air even another minute!

 

Here's some of my favourite locations along this part of the journey:

Tuvalu:

Cook Islands:

Bora Bora:
 

Tahiti

Palmyra, final stop before Hawaii

And finally (for now), the sun setting on a night flight from Hawaii to Half Moon Bay. I chose Half Moon Bay partly because it was one of the shortest distances to the coast, but also because my first flight sim was Flight Unlimited 2, and Half Moon Bay was one of my favourite destinations in that game.

Looking forward to crossing the USA West to North East!

So, I made it from Hawaii to Half Moon Bay in California! Ran out of fuel and had to glide to the runway, but I made it! Couldn't have stayed in the air another 30 seconds. It was a stresssful landing! Didn't want to spoil the challenge my having a crash.

Half Moon Bay, California, and some touring around the San Francisco bay area. 

Then down Big Sur, to Los Angeles, and onwards to Las Vegas.

Crossed Death Valley with a stop at Barstow.

Vegas!

Edited January 20Jan 20 by JohnTBM

And here's some other cool places in the USA. More to come! I'm currently only in Kansas.

Sedona National Park

Grand Canyon

Delicate Arch, Moab.

Salt Flats

Jackson Hole

Aspen

 

by

I've been slowly making my away across the USA, but not many places made for an interesting screenshot, so I don't have much to post. I'm now heading for Niagra Falls, after visiting Chicago. Landed at Meigs Field, which does not exist anymore, but remains in the game for MSFS historical reasons!

Currently routing via Toledo, and around the great lakes to Niagra.

Very cool!