CapnSplat

Leg 18 Depart: Angads Airport, Oujda, Morocco (GMFO) Arrive: Es Senia Airport, Oran, Algeria (DAOO) Aircraft: Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk IB (ND Art & Technology) * Flight Plan: GMFO DAOO Distance: 81.9 nm Scenery: Default I've had a great time flying around Morocco and taking in its varied and beautiful landscape, but today's leg will take us over the border into Algeria. Once again, this will be brand new territory for me and I'm looking forward to exploring it! The flight will be pretty straight forward: I'll be departing Angads Airport from runway 06 and fly in pretty much a straight line to the northeast until we reach Oran in Algeria. The plane I've chosen for today is the Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk IB, but it has been painted to resemble the Mk XIIB JS327, which participated in Operation Torch. The actual aircraft was forced to crash land on a beach to the northeast of Oran; given our troubled landing in Oujda, I'm hoping that by selecting this livery I'm not dooming myself to an involuntary littoral landing. I decide to cruise at 7,000 ft and the Hurricane's powerful engine propels the craft to altitude in no time. Within moments I've passed over the Moroccan-Algerian border and can spy the Tell Atlas Mountains below. It's not long into the flight that I begin to notice a problem. I'm flying to the northeast but I keep seeing the coast line on the horizon where I know there should only be more mountains. I double check the compass (which is very small and difficult to see in the Hurricane's cramped cockpit) to make sure I'm heading in the right direction. Turns out this is a bug with the aircraft's implementation of the reflective gunsight. The reticule itself (which I have turned off--no gunnery today!) seems to be projected onto a transparent plane in front of the cockpit, but the transparency of this plane doesn't play nicely with X-Plane 10's atmospheric scattering and reveals part the terrain through the haze, thus creating the 'mirage' of an ever-shifting coastline. Also, strangely enough the gunsight plane casts a shadow, which places the cockpit in constant darkness. You can hopefully get an idea of what I'm talking about in the image below. The weird visual effects caused by the gunsight prove to be very disorienting and make it difficult to enjoy the flight. At this point I'm ready to be back on the ground. I open the throttle and push the engine toward its redline, hoping to make it to Oran as quickly as possible. Finally, I see the Sebkha d'Oran ahead, a long salt lake just southwest of the city. (You can also see another visual artifact caused by looking through the arc of the prop, beyond which the atmospheric effects are not rendered.) I overfly the lake and fly along its north shore, which leads straight to Es Senia Airport. I drop the gear and flaps and gently descend toward the runway. While this aircraft has been giving me some trouble, I'm pleased to see that Oran, the second largest city in Algeria with a population of about three-quarters of a million inhabitants, is well represented with plenty of dense autogen. Phew! Not a bad landing, despite the constant crosswind coming off of the Mediterranean. As I rollout down the runway, I can just make out Mount Murdjadjo looming out of the haze, upon which is the old Spanish fort of Santa Cruz. That seems like a neat place to visit to get a commanding view of the city and the port below. Welcome to Oran! I had had grand visions of flying across this part of North Africa in the Hurricane (especially the tropicalized variant), but owing to the graphical glitches that I'm getting, I'm afraid I'll have to confine it to the hangar until I can figure out a fix. Bear in mind that this aircraft was originally designed for X-Plane 9, so perhaps I was overly optimistic in expecting it to work flawlessly in X-Plane 10. It's a real shame since there aren't very many high-fidelity warbirds available for the platform. Ah, well... caveat emptor! Next leg: Es Senia Airport, Oran, Algeria (DAOO) to Chlef International Airport, Chlef, Algeria (DAOI)

Yes, I understand that SkyMaxx is not a weather injector; I'm wondering whether there have been any improvements to its ability to represent the real-world weather information that is available through X-Plane's weather options. When I last used SkyMaxx, it seemed like it interpreted everything from ominous storms to thick overcast as quaint cumulus clouds. Not sure if I'm being more clear. :[

This is a thread about some guy's silly X-Plane video. Take it somewhere else.

AeroflyFS has been collecting dust in my Steam library for quite a while now. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. Good news!

Nice shots! I quite like that lens flare in SkyMaxx 2.0; maybe not realistic strictly speaking, but it's a nice touch! This isn't the best place to ask, but has SkyMaxx's real-world weather representation improved any in the betas?

Somebody give this man a medal!

Where the hell are the moderators in this forum? I'm probably not the only one tired of seeing half the threads, regardless of their topic, devolve into some useless argument about X-Plane's development or FSX's superiority. As for Nerd3, he's got a ton of videos in which he plays (or attempts to play) various simulators, from DCS to Farming Simulator. Here are some of his other silly flight-related videos. He's also got one for "the other simulator," but I'll not be posting it here for obvious reasons. Although not a flight simulator, his OMSI 2 video is very silly indeed and definitely worth a watch.

Leg 17 Depart: Saïss Airport, Fes, Morocco (GMFF) Arrive: Angads Airport, Oujda, Morocco (GMFO) Aircraft: Douglas DC-3 (Leading Edge Simulations / X-Aviation) Flight Plan: GMFF OJD GMFO Distance: 160.1 nm Scenery: Default Before we get back into the air, here's a fun fact that I forgot to point out in the previous post: by traveling to Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh, and Fes we've visited the four most populous cities in Morocco (in that order). We're well on our way to becoming Trivial Pursuit masters! Eager to continue the push on toward Algeria, I plan to leave Fes at 0930 and arrive in Oujda before 1100. The weather is good along our planned route, so it should be smooth sailing for our final flight in Morocco. We'll be flying our trusty Air France DC-3 again. We depart runway 27, turn ourselves around toward the northeast, and take a last look out the windows at the great medinas of Fes. A few miles outside the city is another artificial lake created by the Idriss I dam. I suppose such reservoirs are important for irrigating Morocco's farms, especially those located in the country's more arid interior. Next up on the horizon is the city of Taza. Located in a narrow river plain appropriately known as the Taza Gap, Taza is flanked by the Rif mountains to the north and the Middle Atlas to the south. You can see the foothills of both on either side of the image below. I don't think I ever realized just how mountainous Morocco is; this tour is proving quite educational so far! We continue pressing toward the northeast where the landscape opens up into a large desert basin. The occasional town punctuates the rivers below as we make our way toward Oujda. Pictured here is, I believe, the town Guercif, roughly the half-way point of the current leg. Guess what? Another artificial lake! They do make useful landmarks, though, especially in the midst of so much dry rock and sand. Lake Mohamed V isn't far from Oujda, so we'll be at our destination before we know it. Angads Airport, once used as an airbase by American forces during the Second World War, is a few miles to the north of Oujda, which itself is only a few miles from Morocco's border with Algeria to the east. This will be our last flight in Morocco for the rest of the tour! On final we have a north-northeasterly crosswind to contend with. At 14 kts and nearly perpendicular to the runway, it's causing me some concern (especially since runway 13/31 is conspicuously missing from X-Plane's apt.dat...); however, the picture out the window looks good and I decide to commit to the landing. I cross the runway threshold and begin to retard the throttles, and... uh-oh... What's that sputtering sound? The plane begins to veer to the left and I can't correct enough with the rudder. Off the runway we go! Once we've come to a stop, I'm better able to take stock of the situation. Yup. Left engine's died. There's yer problem! I'm not completely sure what happened; judging by the image, the blade pitch looks a little high, so maybe I accidentally nudged the left prop handle at an inopportune moment. At least we're all in one piece! After that harrowing landing, welcome to Oujda! Next leg: Angads Airport, Oujda, Morocco (GMFO) to Es Senia Airport, Oran, Algeria (DAOO)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I've flown a few legs ahead of what you find on the blog right now and I'm in the process of writing them up, so expect to see them soon! (May contain tricky crosswind landings, engine failure, and high pucker factor!) For the time being, leg 16 is up. Go for it! There's a lot of world to explore in these sims of ours! Looks like that sound pack was developed for the FSX version; I doubt it will work in X-Plane without modifications. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Leg 16 Depart: Ouarzazate Airport, Ouarzazate, Morocco (GMMZ) Arrive: Saïss Airport, Fes, Morocco (GMFF) Aircraft: Douglas DC-3 (Leading Edge Simulations / X-Aviation) * Flight Plan: GMMZ OZT BML FES GMFF Distance: 206.9 nm Scenery: Default Though I'd love to stay in Ouarzazate and further explore the world's largest movie studio, adventure calls! Rather than continue down the west coast, we're going to turn back north and make our way across part of North Africa. The great city of Fes is our next port of call. Here's the plan for today's flight: we'll depart Ouarzazate bright and early at 0530 zulu, fly north-northeast from OZT to BML on the other side of the High Atlas Mountains. From there, we'll follow the 037 radial to FES and land at Saïss Airport. As far as weather goes, well, it turns out that I spoke too soon. Instead of the near perfect flying conditions that we've had since entering Morocco, we'll have to deal with gusting winds of up to 25 kts in Ouarzazate, mountain clouds, and low visibility over the western foothills of the Middle Atlas range. Hopefully things will clear up by the time we reach Fes. Since this is a little bit of a longer flight and we'll be tracking radio signals, I've selected the DC-3 for this leg. In her Air France colors she's quite the looker too. Once the engines are warmed up and dawn has broken, I steadily open up the throttles and fight against the gusts all the way down the runway. The take off and ascent is a bit bumpy due to the gusts, but the DC-3 chugs along undaunted on the way to our cruising altitude of about 15,000 ft. The sun peeks over the horizon and out of the morning mist. (After some fiddling around with the sim, I realized that accidentally overwrote the sky-colors that I had been using before when I updated to one of the recent 10.30 beta releases. The default sky-colors have what I find to be a very off-putting, buttery yellow glow during the early morning and evening hours. I have since replaced them with Abdullah Almuntassir's Realistic Skycolors and the results seem much more natural to me. Let me know what you think!) By the time we reach 15,000 ft. the gusting has abated, but the skies are a little turbulent over the mountains. We bob up and down as the clouds grow thicker and we pass over the peaks of the High Atlas Mountains below. Out of the my co-pilot's window I notice the morning sun glinting off a large body of water. That's the artificial lake of Bin el Ouidane, which means we've been blow off course by the winds at altitude. I turn east toward the lake. After passing the lake, I turn back toward the north-north east. It's at this point that I realize either SkyVector or X-Plane's navdata is out of date because I'm not picking up BML's signal at all. I double check that I've got my radio tuned correctly, but still nothing. No matter; I tune the radio to FES instead and fly our course from OZT until we reach the intersection with FES where BML should have been. We turn northeast and fly toward Fes. As forecast, visibility tapers off sharply above the foothills of the Middle Atlas, but at least we're out of the turbulent patch of sky that we encountered over the mountains. Since the visibility is low and the skies are smooth, I switch on the Sperry autopilot. Looks like we'll be for the rest of the trip. At about 35 miles from Fes, I initiate our descent. The closer we get to our destination the more the visibility improves. Saïss Airport is reporting CAVOK, so we'll hopefully be out of the haze soon. Sure enough, with the Atlas' foothills behind us the skies clear. It'll be smooth sailing into Fes. I turn east to make the approach on runway 27 and gradually drop the flaps. The modern city of Fes is built around the old, medieval medina and nestled between the hills along the north, leaving little room for an airport. Saïss Airport is therefore placed well outside the the urban area of the city in the fields to the south. We can just make out some of the buildings while on final approach. While it's tempting to call it a day and wander the old quarters of Fes, there's still a lot of daylight left and plenty of progress to be made. Algeria is only a couple of short hops away, after all! For now, however, welcome to Fes! Next leg: Saïss Airport, Fes, Morocco (GMFF) to Angads Airport, Oujda, Morocco (GMFO)

Thanks for reading! Today, yes, sunrise was around 6:15 AM in Paris. However, I originally flew this in late November when sunrise was about 8:15 AM. I forgot to sync the date and time, hence the erroneous summer astronomy.

Thanks, and good luck with your tour! Looks like we've got the same goal, but vastly different ways of going about it. Leg 15 went up last night and includes some views of the Atlas Mountains. Enjoy!

Leg 15 Depart: Menara Airport, Marrakesh, Morocco (GMMX) Arrive: Ouarzazate Airport, Ouarzazate, Morocco (GMMZ) Aircraft: Caudron C.635 Simoun (XPFR, X-Plane.org) Flight Plan: GMMX GMMZ Distance: 70.9 nm Scenery: GMMX - Marrakech: Morocco 1.5 It's a beautiful morning in Marrakech! Morocco continues to bless us with excellent flying weather and now is as good a time as any to make the short hop across the mountains to Ouarzazate. We'll be departing Menara Airport at 0900 zulu, turn southeast, overfly the Atlas Mountains, and land at Ouarzazate Airport before 1000. I'll be taking the Caudron C.635 again, this time in the bright red livery of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This particular plane acquired fame during Saint-Exupéry's 1937 exploratory raid of northern and western Africa, undertaken on behalf of Air France. The plane was lost in 1938 during Saint-Exupéry's travels down the American continents, but it can now fly on in X-Plane! As soon as we're in the air, we can finally catch a glimpse of the High Atlas Mountains to the south of Marrakesh. That's what we'll be flying over in a few minutes--I hope our Simoun is up for the climb, otherwise we may end up in the ground like the real thing! We draw nearer to the mountains and I realize that we're not climbing quickly enough to make it over some of the peaks ahead. The High Atlas Mountains, as the name implies, are the loftiest of the entire Atlas Mountain range. I'm not completely sure, but I believe that one of those peaks in the upper-right corner of the image below is Jebel Toubkal, the highest of the Atlas Mountains (4,167 m / 13,671 ft). I push the Simoun's engine harder to try and reach a comfortable altitude. By looking out the window as we enter the High Atlas range, you can get a sense for how sudden and dramatic the landscape is here. It's worth mentioning that I've tweaked the visual appearance of the aircraft to include normal maps. I found a lone livery for the C.635 on X-Plane.org by the talented Leen de Jager which includes normal maps. Some quick file swapping and object file editing and now the C.635 has a little more visual pop no matter which livery I decide to use. I feel a bit safer at 3,500 m (~11,000 ft) and have a good look at the view below. A picturesque stream winds its way through the rugged mountain terrain and off in the distance the peaks give way to a vast expanse of desert. This is a beautiful part of the world! As we fly out of the mountains and toward the desert, I catch sight of a lake on the horizon. This lake (formed in 1972 after the River Drâa, Morocco's longest river, was dammed to prevent flooding downstream) marks the location of Ouarzazate, which lies at the water's western end. My plan was to descend along the north of Ouarzazate, overfly the lake, and land on runway 30, but a shift in the wind means that I need to make a steep descent straight in to runway 12. As dumb luck would have it, after I took the following screenshot I was reading more about Ouarzazate and learned that it is home to numerous major movie studios. Many Hollywood productions have had filming at Ouarzazate, including The Mummy, Gladiator, and HBO's Game of Thrones, and Lawrence of Arabia, to which the screen below bears at least a . Finally stuck a three-point landing! Next leg: Ouarzazate Airport, Ouarzazate, Morocco (GMMZ) to Saïss Airport, Fes, Morocco (GMFF)

I've been really looking forward to this one! Thank you so much for your hard work!

Leg 14 Depart: Mohammad V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco (GMMN) Arrive: Menara Airport, Marrakesh, Morocco (GMMX) Aircraft: Douglas DC-3 (Leading Edge Simulations / X-Aviation) * Flight Plan: GMMN BRC MAK GMMX Distance: 112 nm Scenery: Casablanca Mohammad V Intl Airport GMMX - Marrakech: Morocco 1.5 Since this evening's flight will take us away from Casablanca, I immediately thought of from 1942's Casablanca. Why not have some fun and recreate it? Well, turns out there's no decent Lockheed Electra available for X-Plane. It also turns out that, owing to the Axis occupation of North Africa in 1942 (and the Allies' impending invasion thereof), the movie's departure scene was not filmed in Casablanca, Morocco, but Van Nuys, California. Furthermore, in the movie, Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo are headed for Portugal in order to secure passage to the US. The best I can manage is an evening departure from Casablanca in good weather to Marrakesh, flying a DC-3 with a Portuguese livery. Oh, well. We'll be departing to the north before turning southwest for Marrakesh. I've included the VORs BRC and MAK as navaids to and from our airports; with night coming on, these will help us to not lose our way in the dark. As the sun nears the horizon, I start up the DC-3's big, radial engines. It may not be the bare metal Model 18 I had wanted for this flight, but the DC-3 in its TAP colors does look rather handsome in the dying light. We taxi down to the end of the runway. A thin layer of low-hanging clouds covers the airfield. I gradually open the throttles and the tail comes off the ground as we pick up speed. Here we go! I retract the landing gear as we leave Casablanca beneath us. Once we've gained a little speed and altitude, I begin our turn south. We'll fly south toward BRC until we pass it, then make for Marrakesh to the southwest. As we continue to climb, we slip above the scant cloud layer. The recent betas have really improved the visual behavior when passing through clouds: the white screen of death is no more! Instead, the wispy clouds seem to pass around and envelop the cockpit as we ascend. I find it to be a very immersive and realistic sensation. As we pass near our VOR, the needle on the radio magnetic indicator begins to spin around; that's my signal to begin turning to the south-southwest. Casablanca begins to disappear into the evening haze and we're treated to a beautiful sunset. Yeah, I know: I took a lot of screenshots of this trip. I do enjoy dusk and night flying in X-Plane! Even though the ground becomes harder to see in the twilight, we're able to easily make out the A7 below due to the favorable atmospheric conditions. We can easily follow the lights and our radio signal all the way to Marrakesh. After miles and miles of inky darkness, the brilliant lights of Marrakesh appear on the horizon (and as the fourth largest city in Morocco, there are a fair few of them to illuminate the landscape below). I fly out to the west of the city to line up with the runway. You can make out Menara Airport as the brighter spot on the south side of the city. The Atlas Mountains lie to the south, but we'll have to wait until morning to get a good look at them. This is only the second time I've flown the DC-3 so I'm still trying to get the hang of landing this bird. Touchdown is a bit bouncy, but we arrive safely in Marrakesh nevertheless! Next leg: Menara Airport, Marrakesh, Morocco (GMMX) to Ouarzazate Airport, Ouarzazate, Morocco (GMMZ)

Nice collection! I love number 16: very atmospheric!

Hello, fellow X-Planers! I wanted to welcome everyone who frequents the X-Plane forums to my AVSIM blog, The Big Tour. In it, I'll be documenting my undertaking of Lew Doh's flight plan of the same name; this is a massive, meandering circumnavigation of the globe that takes place over seven-hundred and four individual legs and spans over one-hundred thousand nautical miles. (I'm currently about 2% of the way through!) If you'd like to read more, check out my introductory post. A complete list of entries and recent posts can be found here. If you want to skip straight to the first leg of my tour, you can read it by following this link. It'll be a long-term project for sure, so please feel free to pop in whenever you'd like to check my progress. In addition to documenting my journey, I'll be sharing various aircraft, scenery, and other addons that I come across. I'm even including some geographical trivia along the way. Hopefully there will be a little bit for everyone! Thanks for looking, and happy landings!

Leg 13 Depart: Rabat-Salé Airport, Rabat, Morocco (GMME) Arrive: Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco (GMMN) Aircraft: Caudron C.635 Simoun (XPFR, X-Plane.org) Flight Plan: GMME GMMN Distance: 58.5 nm Scenery: Casablanca Mohammed V Intl Airport Leg 13 is just a short jaunt down the Moroccan coast to fair Casablanca. For today's trip I'll be flying the Caudron C.635 Simoun, a French-built aircraft used variously throughout the 1930s as a mail plane, liaison aircraft, and long-distance tourer. Because of it's historical associations with long-range, exploratory flights, I expect I'll be flying the Simoun a fair bit throughout this tour. The X-Plane version on the C.635 comes as a freeware package (see above) with the C.630, a number of liveries, and some fantastic documentation of the aircraft's technical specifications, flight manual, history, and even some vintage photographs and newspaper articles about the Simoun's participation in long-distance raids and races. The modeling inside and out is beautifully done and the plane flies like a dream. Clearly the Simoun is a labor of love and I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in old-school aircraft. We depart Rabat just after 1400 zulu. There's a 10 kt crosswind blowing out of the northwest which makes taxi and takeoff in a tail-dragger a little tricky. Nevertheless, we get into the air after a few moments and I begin a large, banking 180 degree turn to the southwest. We settle into cruise at about 1200 m (approx. 4000 ft). Even though the C.635 is relatively low-powered (with its 220 hp engine), it can still get moving pretty quickly in cruise. We zip over the Moroccan coast at around 250 km/h (135 kts). Below us is our first landmark: the small canyon of the Oued Cherrat. A few moments later and we can spot the port of Mohammedia and its seawall that stretches out into the Atlantic. Off on the horizon we can just make out Casablanca. As we overfly Casablanca, I begin the turn south to the airport, which lies outside the city. Although Casablanca is the most populous city of Morocco with over 4 million inhabitants, you wouldn't know it by looking at it in X-Plane. One of the shortcomings of the OSM (Open Street Map) data that X-Plane uses to generate its plausible world is that the results are only as good as the base data and that anywhere that's not North America or Europe is notoriously incomplete in this respect. I thought of using World2Xplane to generate scenery of Casablanca using the most current data, but there's not much to go off of here. You can actually improve X-Plane by adding to OSM; if you're interested, take a stab at it! We fly south to the airfield and line up with 35R. The scenery I'm using for GMMN was actually created for X-Plane 8, but it was so well built at the time that I think it still holds up today. All that's missing is HDR lighting, really. As we pass over the runway threshold I cut the 'gaz' and begin the flare, looking for a nice three-point landing. Close, but no cigar! Welcome to Casablanca! Next Leg: Mohammad V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco (GMMN) to Menara Airport, Marrakesh, Morocco (GMMX)

Leg 12 Depart: Ibn Batouta Airport, Tangier, Morocco (GMTT) Arrive: Rabat-Salé Airport, Rabat, Morocco (GMME) Aircraft: Stampe et Vertongen SV.4C (XPFR) Flight Plan: GMMT GMME Distance: 108.7 nm Scenery: GMTT Tangier Battouta Airport Morocco Well, things got busy again and, to be perfectly honest, I was also growing frustrated with the sometimes-glacial pace of X-Plane development: too few promised bug-fixes and improvements, too many limitations of the SDK, which resulted in too little progress with add-ons, so on and so forth. However, after hearing some good things I decided to update to 10.30b6 and give it a whirl. I was very pleased to find that my framerate had doubled from about 30 fps to a solid 60 fps! I went out for a few brief test flights and decided that I can overlook, or at least cope with, some of the other remaining bugs and limitations of X-Plane now that it runs so well. Seriously, the smoothness and responsiveness of flight at 60 fps makes the whole sim feel so much more alive--it's a game changer for me! This was the kick in the pants that I needed to continue The Big Tour! Please note that some things may look different for the time being. I've uninstalled SkyMaxx Pro since it doesn't seem to represent real-world weather conditions very well; since I prefer to use real-world weather, I'll be using the default clouds, which have undergone considerable improvements both in their appearance and performance thanks to the recent beta builds. Today's flight will be straightforward enough. We'll be departing Tangier at around 1100 Zulu and from there simply follow the north-western coast of Morocco all the way down to Rabat to the south-west. The landscape here isn't the most interesting, but there are a few landmarks along the way that I'll point out. I've chosen today to revisit the SV.4C. Since it's been a while since I've taken to the skies, I wanted to fly something unencumbered by complex equipment. Just a humble, single-engine biplane to get things started! Ibn Battouta Airport in Tangier has gotten a facelift while I was away, thanks to the efforts of tdg at the.ORG. This guy has been a prolific scenery author over the past few months and has populated many airports in the Mediterranean basin while also pushing the limits of what's possible with the Lego Brick system. Definitely keep an eye on this member of the community. There's a gentle breeze out of the north-west and I'm reminded of the tendency for planes to weather-vane harshly in X-Plane and the issue is exacerbated by the Stampe's free-castoring tailwheel. Perhaps I overlooked this important caveat when selecting my "simple" plane; alternatively, I'm just garbage at taxiing tail-draggers! After a few minutes, I swerve my way onto the runway and open the throttle for takeoff. Away we go! If taxiing the Stampe was a bit janky, flying her is as smooth as can be. I climb steadily and begin the turn south-west as I pass over the Moroccan coast. As we leave Ibn Battouta Airport behind, it's worth mentioning that the airport's namesake was one of the most widely traveled individuals of history. It seems most fitting that we begin the first real chapter of this world tour and our first proper flight in Africa from the airport which bears his name. We can also catch a final view of Tangier itself, which lies on the cove off the plane's 7-o'clock. The first major landmark is the River Loukos and the town of Larache, whose appearance off our left wing indicates that we're about one third of the way to Rabat. It's worth noting that Larache is home to the Roman ruins of Lixus, which stand on the isthmus created by the river immediately north of the city; it's a shame such details aren't represented in X-Plane! At about the half-way point of this leg, we fly past Merja Zerga, a tidal lagoon and nature reserve. Further off in the distance to the south-east you can see what appears to be the boundary between the relatively green coastal areas of Morocco and its more arid inland regions. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of desert before too long. The rest of the trip to Rabat is, unfortunately, undocumented. After landing in Rabat, I completely forgot to bring up the replay and exited X-Plane without taking any final screenshots. Chalk it up to that long hiatus! The final minutes of the flight weren't too eventful, though: I approached the airport by flying along the coast and banking around onto final for runway 03. As I'm a little out of practice, I came in a touch too fast and bounced down the runway before being able to exit safely. All in all, it was a beautiful day for flying and the recent performance improvements to X-Plane introduced by the 10.30 beta versions have made me eager for more! Next leg: Rabat-Salé Airport, Rabat, Morocco (GMME) to Mohammad V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco (GMMN)

Looks like there's been a bit more progress as of June 29th:

(Originally posted 12/14/13) Africa __________ Leg 11 Depart: Gibraltar (LXGB) Arrive: Ibn Batouta Airport, Tangier, Morocco (GMTT) Aircraft: Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC Trop. (ND Art and Technology) * Flight Plan: LXGB GMTT Distance: 37.5 nm Scenery: LXGB RAF Gibraltar Welcome back to the first major chapter of The Big Tour! Today we'll be leaving Europe behind and beginning our journey across and around Africa. As I mentioned in the previous recap, I've never once flown in the skies above the African continent so all of this will be a new experience for me. I'm excited to begin, so let's cut the chatter and get right to it! Today's flight is a very short jaunt across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, a deceptively brief introduction to flying over the expansive continent of Africa. Our ETE is under 20 minutes, but the trip will probably be even quicker thanks to my choice of aircraft. I'll be flying the Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC in a tropicalized variant created for combat over North Africa and the Mediterranean. This version is equipped with a robust, 1,480 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engine that will get us going pretty fast over the Strait. I start this bad-boy up on the military apron and taxi to runway 09. For having such a powerful engine, the Hurricane is pretty forgiving on the take-off roll. I retract the undercarriage and begin to climb up and around the Rock. As I pass the southern tip of Gibraltar, I turn south for Africa. Get one good, last look at Europe now because it will be quite sometime before we see her again! It's a mere minute or two before the northern coast of Africa comes into view. The peninsula to the left is home to Ceuta, an autonomous city of Spain, and dead ahead is the peak of Jebel Musa, generally thought to be the southern Pillar of Herakles. As I approach the Moroccan coast, I turn west and fly along the length of the Strait of Gibraltar. Cruising at around 220 mph (just under 200 knots), I make short work of the bulk of the trip; a few minutes later, I spy the city of Tangier off to the left. Ibn Batouta Airport lies to the south-west of the city; I fly west, passing over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time during the Tour, before beginning a large, banking approach toward runway 10. I drop the gear and flaps to prepare the Hurricane for landing. I come in a touch too fast and bunny hop slightly before putting all the wheels on the tarmac. Welcome to Morocco; welcome to Africa! Next leg: Tangier, Morocco (GMTT) to Rabat, Morocca (GMME)

(Originally posted 12/07/13) Prologue - Recap Begin: Paris Le Bourget (LFPB) End: Gibraltar (LXGB) Distance Traveled: 1122+ nm Although this introductory chapter to The Big Tour is, in the grand scheme of things, quite short, I feel as if I have already made significant progress. I'm choosing to think--optimistically--of the Prologue as a kind of initial hurdle. By completing these ten flights, I've shown to myself that I'm more than capable of flying in some less than ideal conditions and navigating unfamiliar terrain completely without the aid of GPS systems. The rest of this grand journey, then, will be a matter of fortitude and incremental steps. It is fitting that the Prologue should take us from Paris, the starting point of L'Oiseau du France, the 1930s inspiration for the present Tour (see the introduction for more on this), to Gibraltar, a historically significant crossroads and boundary point. I am particularly entertained by the Prologue's conclusion in Gibraltar: the Rock and the adjacent North African coast were in antiquity known as the Pillars of Herakles and traditionally demarcated the limits of the known world. It is beyond these Pillars that Odysseus wandered for ten years, encountering all manner of monsters and strange lands. When I pass through the Straight of Gibraltar on my way to Tangier, I too will be entering the unknown: I've never flown in Africa, Asia, Oceania, or South America and It won't be until I return to North America that I begin to enter familiar territory again. Quite the odyssey indeed! Below I've included some selected screenshots that represent a kind of visual summary of the trip thus far. I'll try to do this at the end of each chapter so that those who don't have the time to read through everything can still get the gist of what's happened. Thanks for joining me on the journey thus far! Onward and upward! __________ __________

(Originally posted 12/07/13) Leg 10 Depart: Granada (LEGR) Arrive: Gibraltar (LXGB) Aircraft: Beechcraft Baron B58 (Carenado) * Flight Plan: LEGR MLG LXGB Distance: 98.2 nm Scenery: LXGB RAF Gibraltar The last flight of the Prologue to the Big Tour takes us from Granada to Gibraltar, a small British territory near the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula. I've been looking forward to this flight since I began the Tour: Gibraltar is often considered one of the most scenic and daunting airports in the world, but I haven't before made the attempt in X-Plane. We'll be departing Granada from runway 27 and climbing over the layer of low-lying cloud that's still blanketing the area. After overflying MLG, we'll adjust our course for Gibraltar where visibility might be limited this morning. As planned, we take off from Granada heading west, just after dawn. It's a short flight to the south-west to the coastal city of Málaga, Spain. Here we catch our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea. Nice morning for flying: About 30 miles from our destination, we begin the descent. As expected, the visibility begins to taper off and landmarks become scarce while we pass over this corner of the Mediterranean. Before long, however, the Rock looms out of the mist. The wind is blowing stiffly out of the east so we'll need to circle around the southern tip of Gibraltar and approach runway 09 from the harbor. The downwind leg offers us a good view of the Pillars of Herakles, the ancient boundary into the Atlantic Ocean. Something in the waters below catches my eye as I begin the turn north. A submarine! Looks like he's steaming west toward the Atlantic. I can't help but recall a ; it's a good thing everyone is currently on friendly terms! It's a sharp right turn onto final followed by a steep 5 degree glideslope down to the runway. There's a lot of activity going on in the harbor--the scenery author has done a good job of making Gibraltar look like the busy crossroads that it is. Despite the 20 kt wind and turbulence around the Rock, we land without a hitch. Given LXGB's reputation as a "scary airport," I feel like I must have gotten lucky somehow. But, as we taxi toward the terminal, I realize that maybe the airport is more frightening for motorists than it is for pilots: after all, Winston Churchill Avenue intersects the runway! Just imagine an A320 barreling past you at a traffic signal--pretty spooky! I power down the engines under the Rock of Gibraltar, bringing Leg 10 and the Prologue portion of The Big Tour to a close. Next stop: Africa! Next leg: Gibraltar (LXGB) to Tangier (GMTT)

(Originally posted 12/05/13) Leg 9 Depart: Seville (LEZL) Arrive: Granada (LEGR) Aircraft: Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (Carenado) * Flight Plan: LEZL SVL LEGR Distance: 102.6 nm Scenery: LEZL Sevilla Eager to get to Gibraltar and conclude this first chapter of the Tour, I decide to make a late afternoon flight, hoping to beat the sunset into Granada. After departing runway 09, we'll fly the 100 degree radial out of SVL until we reach Granada, where we'll circle around to land on runway 27. Since Granada lies at the foot of Spain's Sierra Nevada mountains, I'm a little apprehensive about making this flight so late in the day. As planned, we depart Sevilla heading east. It's not long into the flight that I realize we'll never make it before it's completely dark. It's nearing winter and the days are getting much, much shorter. However, we are treated to a nice sunset. We descend toward Granada through an eerie layer of cloud and fog. Fortunately, we break out of the clouds as we turn onto the base leg. Still, pretty spooky looking! I put the plane on the ground just before a thick layer of fog rolls over the airfield. I'm suddenly in the mood for a warm drink. Next leg: Granada (LEGR) to Gibraltar (LXGB)

(Originally posted 12/05/13) Leg 8 Depart: Córdoba (LEBA) Arrive: Sevilla (LEZL) Aircraft: Douglas DC-3 (Leading Edge Simulations / X-Aviation) * Flight Plan: LEBA SVL LEZL Distance: 56.7 nm Scenery: LEBA Cordoba (custom) LEZL Sevilla Today's flight is a short jaunt to the south-west from Córdoba to Sevilla. At only 56 nm, Leg 8 will be the shortest individual flight during this introductory chapter to The Big Tour. After departing Córdoba, we'll fly toward the Sevilla VOR/DME (SVL) and line up for a landing on runway 27. The aircraft I've selected for this leg is the legendary Douglas DC-3. I recently acquired this bird during a Cyber Monday sale over at X-Aviation so this will be the first time I've gotten to take it up. Even though I've read the manuals, I know that this flight will definitely be a learning experience. Apropos our continued adventures in Spain, I've picked the Iberia colors for this flight. Because the DC-3's great, big, 1,200 HP Pratt & Whitney radial engines can be temperamental if treated unkindly, initial checks and start-up are a painstaking affair. But, after following the check-lists to the letter, I line us up for departure. The Twin Wasps have a lot of get-up-and-go and before long we're in the air. After a short initial climb, I circle around and overfly the airfield on the way to SVL. The scenery that I'm using at LEBA is just something that I threw together while trying to get a handle on OverlayEditor, so don't judge it too harshly! I cruise at a mere 6,000 feet so that I can spend some time fiddling with the Sperry Autopilot, one of the first autopilot systems ever produced. Even with the system enabled, constant adjustments are required to keep the plane on course; the DC-3 is by no means a hands-off plane! Our flight takes us over the valley of the Guadalquivir, one of the largest rivers in the Iberian peninsula. The surrounding countryside, which you can see out the windows, is pretty flat and featureless. It's a big change from the hills and mountain peaks just a few flights previous. The DME ticks town the last remaining miles to SVL and, as the airport comes into view, I turn on course with runway 27. I drop the flaps and ride the glide slope in for a safe--if somewhat bumpy--landing. The DC-3 is by far the largest tail-dragger I've ever flown, so I misjudge my height off the ground and bunny hop before I can flare properly. Like I said, this flight would surely be a learning experience! After taxiing off the runway, I pick a parking spot off to the side and cool the engines down. Leg 8 and my first successful flight in the DC-3 is in the books. Expect to see lots of flights in this bird! Next leg: Sevilla (LEZL) to Granada (LEGR)