2024 Christmas Flight Ideas

About that time of the year again, dang time flys.

So anybody got any suggestions?

EDIT: There is a poll on post 15 or just click the following link. It will be live till Sunday Sept 8th @ 1200 Zulu

Just read an article where the sky team Alliance serves both the Northern most and Southern most airports after SAS joined.

SkyTeam

So was thinking this year maybe we can got from

ENSB to SAWH

Lonhyergyen Salbard Airport(ENSB)

               To

Ushuaia Malvinas Argentinas International Airport(SAWH)

Thoughts. We got a little time but the holidays are fast approaching.

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8500 nm :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Sounds good to me :+1:

I would probably fly from the South to the North, though.

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Hmm. I see that there is one of these for X-Plane 11 (which I own):

image

I’m familiar enough with the Proline 21 avionics to use it… what are the rules for the Christmas Flight to make it a valid entry?

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The rules are…there are no rules.

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Anything and everything!

Be fore warned thought on Xplane anything above 70N isnt there.

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Ah good to know! Thanks!

Edit: looking through the Steam library I have FSX Steam Edition… does this have the airports?

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Is this really the tenth year doing this? I’ve definitely missed a few of these.

I did a little research to see what the destinations were for previous Christmas flights, summarized below:

  1. 2015: CFS Alert, Canada (CYLT)
  2. 2016: Marambio Airport, Seymour Island (SAWB)
  3. 2017: Christmas Island (YPXM)
  4. 2018: Pago Pago, American Samoa (NSTU)
  5. 2019: Casco Cove, AK, USA (PAAT)
  6. 2020: Cape Town, South Africa (FACT)
  7. 2021: Port Stanley, Falkland Islands (SFAL)
  8. 2022: Charlotte, NC, USA (KCLT)
  9. 2023: Daocheng Yading Airport, Sichuan, China (ZUDC)

Apologies for the awful Paint map… but I’m on the road and it was about the best I can do on this machine.

Ushuaia could be interesting but I’d imagine it would feel very similar to both the 2021 and 2016 treks.

It does stand out that we haven’t had any trips conclude in either Australia or Europe, perhaps something could work in one of those areas? To be fair, Christmas Island is an Australian territory and Pago Pago is fairly close as well, but we haven’t done anything on mainland Australia.

Thoughts?

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Funny you should mention Australia… I’m thinking of going this way. It’s a good bit farther but should take me to some places I haven’t visited before.


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And how about ANY flights which end either in Svalbard or in Ushuaia?

Good points.

This is also the first time we would have an Origin and a Destination.

What if we did

ENSB to YMHB

Lonhyergyen Salbard Airport(ENSB)

            to

Hobart Airport(YMHB)

OR what about

ENSB to NZQN

Lonhyergyen Salbard Airport(ENSB)

            to

Queenstown Airport(NZQN)

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I kind of prefer the destination with each person picking there own start, which is usually local. That way we see a lot more of the globe than starting with a fixed point. Just me 2 cents.

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good idea, I already started from Paris in helicopter :smile:

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Flying where?

I like the Svalbard as destination. It would allow me to explore places I have not seen yet and which are on my agenda.

That’s an excellent point. I hadn’t thought about the fact that everyone would be in and around the same areas with a starting point and an ending point.

That’s what makes it great seeing all the different spots as everyone progresses to the same location from all over.

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  • ENSB (Svalbard Airport)
  • SAWH (Ushuaia)
  • NZRC (Ryan’s Creek Aerodrome, New Zealand)
0 voters

So a poll with 3 choices.

ENSB which is up north in an area we haven’t been yet.

SAWH which is down south and close to a spot we have flown

NZRC south in New Zealand. A spot where we haven’t been yet but we have been close.

As a few have pointed out having a starting spot ruins the fun. So lets pick a destination and have fun.

I leave the poll open until Sunday 8th Sept at 1200 Zulu. Then we can can set the destination with the most votes.

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I voted for NZRC mainly because I have a lot of New Zealand scenery (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Mt Cook, Queenstown, Milford Sound etc). I have been fortunate enough to have done some real flying over there so I’m probably just feeling nostalgic.

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I don’t know if I ever really thanked all of you for the CLT destination in 2022. I will go back and read through that thread… It was a rough year for me and I know you all did it to support me through that. Thank you doesn’t seem adequate.

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If anyone is up for sailing part of the trip, Sailaway 3 is out, but not available on Steam yet. I’ll do a short review once I’ve kicked it around for a couple of weeks. Get it here…

Steam version to come.

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I might have to give that a try Dan. I remember on one of the Christmas Treks that Cygon Parrot used Sailaway 2 for some of the journey. I’m still hoping he will come back to Mudspike someday.

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NZRC, not so much because it is close - I could always fly a Westerly course and try to emulate Kurt’s epic 2022 circumnavigation - but I had already decided that my personal challenge this year will be ‘propellors only’ and with what I have in the hangar, flying East will make that a lot easier.

Also because I already have the XP11 hi-rez ortho for NZ :wink:

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