Somebody said orange? Actually why it was so purple!? 
I’m pretty sure it will…
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Alrighty…next leg commencing while I study for my checkride tomorrow…LOL…(but…but…Mr. FAA…that is a legitimate Dash 8 Q400 limitation!)…
927nm leg from Bucaramanga, Colombia (with an O this time) to Cruzeiro Do Sul, Brazil (SBCZ), allegedly the western most airport in Brazil…
Weather looks pretty good…forecast is for some cumulonimbus…as expected…
METAR: SBCZ 152130Z 16003KT 9999 BKN006 OVC090 24/23 Q1011
TAF: SBCZ 151600Z 1518/1618 30005KT 9999 SCT015 FEW020TCU TN23/1608Z T X31/1618Z PROB40 TEMPO 1518/1522 5000 TSRA SCT025 FEW030CB BECMG 1522/1524 000 00KT CAVOK BECMG 1612/1614 33005KT SCT015 BECMG 1615/1617 30005KT SCT025 RMK PCQ
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Once again, nice and sloooow this time.
HSSS to HAAB. It is little bit off road but the VOR approach to HAAB seemed to be nice. In reality the terrain was not so scary (unusual in Africa 
). And again in nice weather, I want some challenging weather finally.
Turning south after passing lake Tana in Ethiopia
This was the plan…
…and this realization
As the landing was so-so, the reversers came handy at Addis Abeba
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That’s a nice arc…! And the fact that the breadcrump trail didn’t end partway through means you didn’t hit anything. Mission accomplished…
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I’m going to shoot the VOR RWY10 with one turn in the hold (w/ a parallel entry) to get established on the outbound leg since I’m coming from the north…
LEG 2
KATL → KLAX → PHNL → NFFN → NZCH → McMurdo
Somewhere in the time period between the departure of wife number one and my embarking on career number three, I found myself visiting and staying with friends in Southern California, in particular the communities of El Segundo, Manhattan and Hermosa Beach, that is coastal towns adjacent to and south of KLAX. Those were the transition days when Manhattan Beach was moving from quaint beach village, where people didn’t lock their front doors when they walked down the hill to stick their toes in the Pacific, to the more hip renovation that it became in the 90s.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to stay in touch with two excellent dudes, Kirk, a self-employed heavy equipment contractor whom I was staying with, and Jack a successful celebrity portrait and fashion photographer living in Malibu. Both are doing very well, but have vastly different lifestyles.
On the other hand, all three of us share a two-wheeled addiction. That should more accurately be characterized as becoming an increasingly rare pastime for me, since becoming a dad. But kidless Kirk has a garage full of Ducati track bikes, and bachelor Jack a BMW R1200 RS. Kirk also keeps an old beater, a 1987 GPZ 600R, that he lets me borrow when I’m in town. Don’t get me wrong Ducs are nice and I’ve owned two of them, but the devil you will pay if you ever drop one.
Though it’s massively unsophisticated by today’s standards, I really enjoy riding the little Kawasaki because it reminds me of a time when we were all so young, unattached, and fearless.
It’s fun…except when you are invited to go on a quick ride with Jack and some of his buddies, the ride turns out to be a serious all day affair, and Jack’s riding buddies are movie stars. To make matters much worse, not only does the value of your bike not amount to a Duc piston, but you are wearing a borrowed open face “scooter” helmet, a borrowed denim jacket, and running shoes. So not cool of Kirk and Jack to do this to me.
Jack and one of his riding buddies.
There was the obligatory cruise down Hollywood Blvd, followed by a canyon run, that culminated in burgers and California IPA in Venice. And even though this is LA, a certain member of our party drew a little higher level of attention from the wait staff than I am normally accustomed. All of which was survivable and great fun.
Kirk had to leave early this morning for a highway department contract, so I slipped on running shorts and shoes, and stumbled down to the corner to where I remembered the best little coffee shop in Manhattan Beach sat. Only now it’s been replaced by a spectacular contemporary home, the west side constructed mostly of glass. Shrugging, I turned two seven zero, mosey down the hill to the boardwalk to the bike, skate, and run path, which spans contiguous beach communities at least from Redondo to Venice. Or as far as I’ve ever cared to ride a bicycle. Without my morning mojo, I pretty much suffered through the first twenty minutes of a forty minute run. I kept my eyes open for a Pamala Anderson protege, but the beach patrol must have begun hiring on ability for a change :C
At 8:00 AM the beach parking lots were surprisingly crowded, and in fact I began to realize what had been nagging me the last few days. That was that this was not the place that I fondly remembered. It was too crowded, too commercial, and a lot less neighborly.
Later in the shower I realized that it was time to move on and get back to the business of hauling a great big load of Christmas gifts and supplies to McMurdo. Real men don’t leave thank you notes, but I did place a bottle of Evil Twin Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break on Kirk’s kitchen island with a sticky that read, “Next time I get the 1198 and Alpine Stars you ■■■■■■■.”
Lining up for departure on 24R.
Bu-bye L-A-X
So long sunny beaches. Sssseeeee ya.
The route for today.
Last look at US mainland for a while.
We lucked into another nice day for aviating.
Was this thing really designed completely in CAD?
Getting my vapor on again.
We get vectored west of Oahu for our arrival. Well into the descent.
“Land ho!”
As we near land the water becomes resplendent with reefs and captivating hews.
The volcanic ranges of Hawaii.
Somewhere out there is Pearl and beyond Honolulu.
Turning to final for 8L.
Hand flying approach is awesome in the big Boeing.
Slight crosswind, so right main down first…
…then left…
…and nose wheel.
Time for a clean up.
Such beauty abounds. Time to explore.
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Holy Cow - what a story and what gorgeous screens! Wowza!
I successfully flew the three hour leg to Cuzeiro Do Sul, Brazil after an early morning departure from Bucaramanga…
More pics from the trip later… 
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Antarctic Stop 10: AT57 Jang Bogo Station
The first of several quick stops in the vicinity of Mario Zucchelli Station, we flew over and para-dropped a parcel for the South Korean contingent at Jang Bogo Station…
Antarctic Stop 11: AT09 Enigma Lake
Close by, but on a 600-foot plateau above Mario Zucchelli Station lies Enigma Lake. This was a challenging approach, so we’ll let the photos do the talking…
Antarctic Stop 12: AT02 Browning Pass
Not much for us to see here, but the folks there were happy to see us…
Goodies unloaded, we say Good Bye to the settlements of Terra Nova Bay.
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Bucaramanga looks like the coolest airport ever.
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Yeah…it’s fun watching your radar altimeter go from 1500’ to 10’ in about 5 seconds…LOL…
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So our 5th leg takes us from the spectacular mountaintop airport of Bucaramanga, Colombia (SKBG) southbound for 927nm to Cuzeiro do Sul, Brazil…
It is an early morning in Bucaramanga - about 0545 local when we get the engines fired up and head out…
I still haven’t found a way to activate the pushback tug - so I put in a little beta and back off the gate…
Grabbing the altimeter setting on the taxi out…
The sun is just getting ready to peek over the eastern horizon…
Lined up with the flight director set for my initial climb and the VOR course for the Jet Airway dialed in…
Launching off the end of the runway feels very much like an aircraft carrier as the terrain drops precipitously…
One of the really cool effects of either SkyMaxx Pro or X-Plane 11 (don’t know if this is something that happens in default XP11) is the recog/landing lights illuminate the clouds as you rush toward them…a really cool (and realistic) sensation of speed…
The terrain is quite lumpy heading southbound. If it weren’t VFR I’d have had to use the SID to assure terrain and obstruction clearance…
Some of those “God’s rays”…
X-Plane and DCS probably have some of the best low-angle lighting in any sim…
Hitting one of my Jet Airway turnpoints…
It got progressively cloudier as I worked my way south…
Around San Vincente you leave the northern Andes mountains behind hit the broad, flat area that makes up the Amazon Basin…MEAs drop from near FL200 to just 4,000’ or so…
And then there is just hundreds of miles of rainforest as far as the eye can see…I drop down to 3,000’ for the 45 minutes of the leg…
Soon enough we are coming up on the Cruzeiro do Sul airport area…I set up to shoot the VOR approach even though I catch a good glimpse of the airport…
In the parallel entry to the hold, which will bring me back around to take up the outbound leg for the procedure turn…
Completing the procedure turn and swinging the gear as we descend to the MDA…
Touchdown after 3 hours of flying and burning around 4900 lbs. of fuel…
Nice Cruzeiro do Sul scenery by Rafamsilva…
We are getting there!
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Next up is going to be Cruzeiro do Sul to La Paz, Bolivia (SLLP) (got your Diamox?)
Anticipating shooting the short arc segment from ELAKO to the ILS 10…
Good forecast…
SLLP 161600Z 1618/1718 14012KT 9999 SCT017 TX17/1620Z TN02/1710Z TEMPO 1620/1622 FEW017 FEW020CB BECMG 1623/1701 04006KT FEW015 FEW017CB TEMPO 1706/1710 4000E VCFG FEW002 SCT012
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Mesmerizing…the equatorial trades from this perspective make it look like the globe is moving…LOL…
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I was thinking of flying there in my little PA-46! Unfortunately I may not may the southpole in time due to real life commitments… I’ve signed up for a funrun and after that I’ve got about 1 day to fly all the way south unless I can squeeze in a few short legs in the morning. And I always sleep in on evening shifts…
LOL…(actually, don’t buy that…I think it is broken in the most recent XP10 release and XP11…)
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