2026-06-14 Along the Caucasus Mountains

Today we’re flying from the Black Sea through Georgia and Azerbaijan to the Caspian Sea.

We depart from Batumi (UGSB), Georgia’s second-largest city and a vibrant Black Sea resort town known for its striking mix of Belle Époque architecture and futuristic modern towers. Georgia is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations — the Georgian Orthodox Church dates to the 4th century. The country has a turbulent modern history: Soviet rule until 1991, a brief civil war, the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (both Russian-backed breakaway regions), and a short war with Russia in 2008. Currently an EU candidate country, with strong pro-Western public sentiment but a government drifting toward Moscow, a source of ongoing domestic tension and street protests.

From Batumi, we head east through Georgia to Tbilisi (UGTB), the country’s ancient capital straddling the Mtkvari River — a city of sulfurous bathhouses, medieval churches, and a lively old town that has sat at the crossroads of Europe and Asia for over 1,500 years. From Tbilisi, we follow the southern flanks of the Greater Caucasus range, crossing into Azerbaijan to land at Zagatala (UBBY), a small regional airport nestled in the foothills close to the Georgian and Russian borders, surrounded by dense forests and walnut groves. Azerbaijan has about 10 million people, the majority Shia Muslim but largely secular in practice — a legacy of 70 years of Soviet rule. It sits on massive Caspian oil and gas reserves, which funded a dramatic modernization of Baku from the 2000s onward. Ethnic and political tensions with neighboring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh defined much of its post-Soviet history — Azerbaijan retook the enclave by military force in 2023, ending a 30-year frozen conflict. Politically, the country has been an authoritarian state under the Aliyev family since 2003. It hosts a Formula 1 street race in Baku. The country’s name roughly translates as “Land of Fire” — a reference to naturally occurring surface gas fires.

Next, we push a little further into Caucasus terrain to Gabala (UBBQ), a mountain resort town that was once the ancient capital of Caucasian Albania — a fascinating and largely forgotten civilization predating the Arab conquest. From Gabala, we descend toward the Caspian lowlands and arrive in Baku (UBBB), Azerbaijan’s spectacular capital. Built on a peninsula jutting into the Caspian, Baku blends a UNESCO-listed medieval old city with an oil-boom skyline dominated by the iconic Flame Towers.

Finally, we head north along the Caspian coastline to finish the flight at Uytash (URML) — the airport serving Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan. Dagestan is Russia’s most ethnically complex republic — over 30 distinct indigenous peoples speaking mutually unintelligible languages, including Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, and Kumyks, among others. Overwhelmingly Muslim. The mountains of Dagestan resisted Russian conquest fiercely throughout the 19th-century Caucasian War. In the 1990s–2000s, it was a major flashpoint of Islamist insurgency spilling over from Chechnya. Today, it is still considered a sensitive security zone. It is also known for elaborate silver craftsmanship, distinctive tower villages clinging to cliffsides, and some of the most rugged mountain terrain in Europe. Makhachkala itself is a fast-growing, somewhat chaotic city with a very young population.

The flight is 600 miles long, so we want to cruise at about 400 knots, a good opportunity to get back into the cockpit of a fighter jet. I will be in the IFE Tornado. Please fly what you like.

The flight plans are here.

Recommended scenery:

Tbilisi – UGTB

Gabala – UBBQ

Baku – UBBB

Uytash – URML

The complete package is here.

We try real weather. Please set your simulator for a 3 PM local departure.

Multiplayer Particulars:

Date and time: Sunday, June 14, 2026. 16:00 UTC

Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server

These flights are events posted at DigitalThemePark. For these Sunday flights, we use DTP’s Discord Server for communication.

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