Welcome again to our annual Mudspike Christmas Flight! For our third year running, we will deliver packages, hopes, (beverages), and spread good will across the globe as we make our way from our homes to our target location. This year, our rally point is Christmas Island (the Australian territory) – landing at Christmas Island (YPXM). As with previous years, the rules are pretty loose – just get there before January 1st if you can! Conceived by longtime simmer Deacon, the Christmas Flight has given us the opportunity to come together as a community for a fun and laid back event surrounded by the spirit of goodwill that the holiday season often brings.
In the interest of being inclusive, your flight does not have to be a “Christmas” flight – instead, celebrate the New Year, or Hanukkah, Festivus, or whatever you feel represents the spirit of the event.
Resources
SkyVector.com – Great online general flight planning tool with maps and enroute charts (you’ll have to find individual country IAPs along your route though)
METAR/TAFS – Quick METAR/TAF information for many international airports
Global Winds – General wind patterns for the entire planet
We look forward to reading about everyone’s adventures, observations, and mishaps…! I’ll be starting my flight from the airport nearest me (KAKH – Gastonia, NC) and I’ve got some 9,200 nm to cover..so I’ll be getting started soon!
Actually Glowing Heat produced a SR-71 for FSX…and I assume P3D up to v3…that comes with an excellent manual for flying the plane up to altitude and Mach 3. I think it also does simulated airborne refueling.
I may give it a try.
EDIT: Hmmmmm…my nearest airfield is Langley AFB, KFLI…infact I just saw two Raptors take off…but I digress. I am pretty much on the opposite side of the globe fro YPXM. Flying an SR-71 I should probably keep the flight to military/dual use bases with long runways,
Going west it will take 10,305.4 Nm (KFLI-KEDW-PHNL-PGUA-YPXM)
Going east it will take 10457.9 Nm (KFLI-KEDW-EGUL-LCRA-OTBH-VTBD-WSAC-YPXM)
West is shorter by approximately 150 Nm, but heck, at Mach 3 that’s nothing. Plus the route is mostly water-I’ve seen enough of the Pacific in real life. And all the airfields are USAF airbasess-Edwards AFB, Hickham AFB and Anderson AFB…sure great O’Clubs and if I want to squeeze in 18 during the stopover, nice golf courses…but I think I’ll take the “scenic” route. UK (ok, EGUL is essentially a USAF base, but it’s name is RAF Lakenheath), Cyprus, Qatar, Thailand and Singapore.
If I can figure out how to land an SR-71 on YPXM’s 6927 ft runway, I’ll have it made.
My initial idea is to stop in Singapore and download as much fuel as I can and still make the 700 Nm+ flight to Christmas Island at airliner speeds and altitudes, arriving “on fumes” so maybe – maybe I’ll be light enough to stop within 6000 ft.
LOL! That would work! They used to have a MSFS skydiver - I think you had to select it as a new aircraft…but I wold make all the ejection sounds while I switched over