...OK...🙂...Part of the title sounds like a line that might be from one of the African novels of fellow Chicagoland-er (and one of my favorite authors) Ernest Hemingway. The globe-trotting author was born ~25 miles from where I live...🙂... and supposedly spent the first 20 years in Oak Park, Illinois (btw, that reminds me I need to find some time to visit one more time his birthplace Home and Museum). 

Anyway, in my previous post, I was roaming the airspace around the Cape Town International Airport (FACT), in the various Airbus A350 types. That's because I've been lately thinking of (virtually) visiting bits of the (vast) African continent. The other reason for this post is my concurrent desire to fly the (iniBuilds) A310, an airplane (and SIM) I like a lot, but have not flown in a while. Today, when I streamed back the MSFS2024 version of the A310, along with all the repaint-packs of this airliner (I'd acquired from the Marketplace), I especially noticed a set of metallic liveries of the A310 (please also see rmeier's FSS B727 post for a bit of related discussion about the (classic) polished aluminum liveries of yesteryears, long abolished in our modern times in favor of carbon-fiber fuselage aircraft skins). 

So, for this post, I fly a short distance eastward, skimming the Indian Ocean, from Cape Town to the city of George, located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, situated on the famous Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. There are some mountains just north of George, but, in today's flight, my en-route destination is the Swartberg Mountain range, a prominent range known for its rugged beauty, located about 75 miles directly north of George (see my EFB Map). 

Indeed, my detour, on today's flight, paid rich (and unexpected) dividends. Though under 8,000 ft elevation, I found Swartberg to be a remarkable mountain range with fascinating geological features of complex ridges and creases (see images below; reminded me a bit of the great Appalachians of eastern America). Here, I've tracked most of the Swartberg range eastward, as far as I could, (in the comfort of the A310...🙂...) with Swartberg's peaks passing by impressively under the wings of my airliner...🙂...flown steady at 10,000 ft altitude...

Moreover, the final stretch to the ILS Runway 11 of George Airport (FAGG) was also most pleasing to the eyes (MSFS has actually done an excellent job for this region, it appears). The approach path landscape was characterized by pretty farmlands and rolling (green) pastures, punctuated by picturesque lakes and rivers etc. (see a few images below).

The iniBuilds A310-300 performed flawlessly, from my perspective, during this (African) adventure flight, from takeoff to a smooth touchdown. I've used the [NAV] mode to safely guide myself, from atop the Swartberg, back to the FIX for FAGG/ILS Runway 11, but have not used the [PROF] mode today, choosing to use either [LVL CHNG] or [V/S] to climb and descend, as needed.

Hope you enjoy this collection of images of this A310-300 wearing the legendary Pan Am colors of "Clipper Northern Light" (see my shot #1), while also glowing in the sparkle of polished aluminum...🙂...something you get to see now only in our virtual world...🙂...

Thanks for viewing...!

Another great set !

cheers 😉

7 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Another great set !

cheers 😉

pmplayer, John, rmeier:

Appreciated the comment and responses. Glad you liked this metal A310…in Africa…🙂…

(Folks in U.S., Happy Labor Day.)

I'm currently at FACT and visit that George, PE route frequently! MSFS is so lifelike! Great pics.

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by Peter Webber
Typo

12 minutes ago, Peter Webber said:

I'm currently at FACT and visit that George, PE route frequently! MSFS is so lifelike! Great pics.

Appreciated the comments and kind words, Peter...from someone who actually lives in and flies around this region ...🙂...

I am so glad I chose to divert north a bit towards the Swartberg mountains ...while sitting here 8,000+ miles away...🙂...I think I tracked the ridgelines of most of the 150 miles of the range, indeed quite fascinating, this whole region is. I also agree MSFS has done a remarkable job here, as corroborated by your remarks too...

Thank you.

1 hour ago, P_7878 said:

Appreciated the comments and kind words, Peter...from someone who actually lives in and flies around this region ...🙂...

I am so glad I chose to divert north a bit towards the Swartberg mountains ...while sitting here 8,000+ miles away...🙂...I think I tracked the ridgelines of most of the 150 miles of the range, indeed quite fascinating, this whole region is. I also agree MSFS has done a remarkable job here, as corroborated by your remarks too...

Thank you.

It's a pity the continent receives little attention from Asobo (world updates) and scenery developers (airports), etc. A "gold mine" awaits them should they decide to divert from the "usual". Peter.

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by Peter Webber

On 9/1/2025 at 2:27 PM, P_7878 said:

pmplayer, John, rmeier:

Appreciated the comment and responses. Glad you liked this metal A310…in Africa…🙂…

(Folks in U.S., Happy Labor Day.)

Check out iniBuilds....soon releasing FACT for MSFS24!

4 hours ago, Peter Webber said:

Check out iniBuilds....soon releasing FACT for MSFS24!

Thanks for the heads-up, Peter.

iniBuilds is normally pretty good about releasing their products into my Xbox/Marketplace arena...🙂...hopefully, not too long after they do it for the PC...

I am less than impressed with the default MSFS2024 rendering of the beautiful surroundings of Cape Town...especially would like to explore the Table Mountain, which I read, has got a special mention in the iniBuilds promo text.

 I'll keep a look out for it.

Cheers...!