In my last post, I'd traveled from Milan to the island of Sicily located in the southernmost corner of Italy, isolated from the mainland by a thin body of water less than 2 miles wide at its narrowest point. Sicily is an island that I've always wished to visit in the virtual (or real...🙂...) world but never thought worthwhile to do so in my previous SIMs (such as FSX), though I recall there were a few community-created scenery add-ons available. In MSFS here, the default scenery is reasonably good to start with, and, here too, community (freeware) scenery enhancements exist (though those are not available for me, in Xbox). Nonetheless, today, I decided to wrap-up my Italy visit with a coastal region tour around the edges of the island of Sicily, see my EFB Map Route (after all, I must be able to tell my friend, who just finished travelling from Poland to Italy (and back) by road in RW; that I've visited Sicily which he didn't...at least as far as I know...🙂...Oh well...).

I start at Palermo Airport (LICJ) from Runway 25, and after a CCW coastal tour around the island, land back on the same Runway 25 of Palermo Airport. This airport and tower (see a couple of images below) are fairly well-rendered by default MSFS scenery. Regarding Sicily, I found that, contrary to my previous thinking (driven by lack of familiarity), the coastlines of the island of Sicily are significantly mountainous, besides just (well-known) Mount Etna (that I knew before), the (prominent) stratovolcano, that's the tallest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Particularly, the island's northern and eastern coastlines are adjacent to many collocated mountains, where these mountains meet the sea, creating dramatic and beautiful landscape (see a few images below).

Right off the Runway 25 (and while ready to roll), the imposing 3,200 ft tall mountain, Mount Longa (see shot #1), standing nearby on the port side of my airplane, immediately got my attention. I then learned that this is a mountain clearly not to be messed with. In 1972, an Alitalia Douglas DC-8 quadjet, had happened to get involved in a most tragic CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain) on this same mountain, with loss of all souls on board; with root causes of the crash inconclusive. 

If I am not mistaken, before the 1970s, there was no GPS; and the commercial airliners had very little, and often no, automated terrain awareness technology. So, pilots primarily relied on human factors for terrain avoidance. Here, I am glad my Douglas DC-3 Retrofit has at least a basic dual GPS system (though it's a far cry from the Garmin G5000 of my earlier Cessna Citation Longitude C700...🙂...), and a Bendix King KAP-140 Autopilot, not just the (limited and vintage) Sperry Gyro Pilot...🙂... (plus, of course, the very helpful MSFS EFB Terrain Map and ILS Approach track; see shots below), in case the visibility turned for the worse, during my final approach into Runway 25. This is especially because of those (disconcerting) nearby mountains that I have to fly past...🙂...in the last couple of thousand feet of altitude. [Note: The Alitalia Douglas DC-8-40, arriving from Rome, on that fateful day, was also flying (downwind) to the same Runway 25 where I'm landing here today; but for that (unfortunate) flight, darkness had already fallen, and visibility was restricted.]

Notably, on the (LICJ) ILS-W Runway 25 Instrument Approach Chart; I found 3 curious remarks (printed in red text on the chart), as below:

1. WARNING: Landing on Rwy 02 is allowed in HJ VMC only [Note to me: "HJ" => "Sunrise to Sunset" i.e., Daylight operations.]
2. WARNING: Landing on Rwy 02 is forbidden HN [Note to me: "HN" => "Sunset to Sunrise" i.e., Nighttime operations.]
3. WARNING: Some users on ILS Approach reported false LOC captures. Pilot attention is drawn to pay max caution.

In my case, this (stock) DC-3 Autopilot [NAV/VLOC] captured the Palermo LOC (109.5) perfectly (see a shot below of the cockpit ILS Gauge with the LOC/GS needles aligned; in one close-up screenshot of the primary instruments). I did not use (automated) vertical [APR/GS] guidance but chose to manually control the descent (IAS and VS) down to the threshold of the Runway 25.

Hope you enjoy this collection of images from my island tour of the coastlines of Sicily, a most beautiful place on earth, with its sporadic mountains, active volcanoes, oceanic shorelines, and (surely) also replete with historic and pre-historic, charming old villages, nestled beside the mountains; some of which I caught sight of from high above during my flight today...

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited September 25, 2025Sep 25 by P_7878

Stunning shots. You picked a pretty time of day to make this circuit. Even back in FSX I often used Palermo as my departure point...the available freeware photoscenery for the island was quite good.

8 minutes ago, John F said:

Stunning shots. You picked a pretty time of day to make this circuit. Even back in FSX I often used Palermo as my departure point...the available freeware photoscenery for the island was quite good.

Thanks, John.

Yes, twilights are always very pretty around the islands...in our SIM, especially with MSFS lighting. I am particularly also fond of locales defined by the meeting of mountains and seas...e.g., San Francisco comes to my mind now...🙂...

I don't recall visiting Sicily and Palermo Airport in FSX but cannot rule it out either. Yes, I do recall the freeware photoscenery that was available in FSX. Glad, you'd made use of it in FSX.

Cheers...!

Fine set of shots, I think that flying along coastlines is usually always a nice experiment..

At least with a DC-3 🤩

cheers 😉

Edited September 27, 2025Sep 27 by pmplayer

9 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Fine set of shots, I think that flying along coastlines is usually always a nice experiment..

At least with a DC-3 🤩

cheers 😉

Thank you, pmplayer. Appreciated the note.

Totally agree, islands are always fun in MSFS to tour...especially the coastlines ...You can go around it in a jiffy ...🙂...And here is another of your favorite classic airplanes, as I recall...🙂...

Cheers...!

awesome shots and stuff

keep up the good work!!

 

3 hours ago, darrenvox said:

awesome shots and stuff

keep up the good work!!

 

Appreciated the comment and kind words…🙂…Darren…

Cheers…!