@Harry_Bumcrack Nice! I have the Tigercat for MSFS. It’s a fun ride if you can forgive it’s ‘lite’ nature.
I finished my journey this evening, although I am several AAR’s behind. I’ll try to write them up while waiting for MSFS 2024 to download tomorrow morning.
Now that MSFS2024 is out, might as well learn on the job with the Xmas flight.
Leg 1: The Valleys → EGVN (RAF Brize Norton)
Taking advantage of a break in the weather, I persuaded mountain rescue to ferry me to the starting point at Brize. Meeting them up in our top field I had a quick walkaround the farm before departure.
The terrain mapping is more detailed than MSFS2020 though the barn looks like a massive brick office building.
Onwards up the field… no fences or hedges, but trees.
Jumping onboard, cold and start challenge was relatively simple. Turning to the crew to get their thoughts, it appears Hairy Palms has been replaced with creepy Thousand Yard Stare man.
A quick wave to the boss and we’re off.
The route was direct, across the army range then head to the Black Mountains
I can’t seem to get the map up, so have to use the tablet. Its probably buried somewhere, more time in sim needed. Heading towards the Black Mountains, Waun Fach is a nav aid.
I pointed this out to the crew, who were massively impressed.
Onwards into England, we’re making reasonable time.
The trim isn’t working (known bug) in the H125, so I’m continually pitching down which makes screenshots awkward.
Approaching Gloucester, I expected a frame rate hit, but no slowdown at all.
I definite need to spend more time messing with the tablet and setting up some keystrokes/Voice Attack to flip between the charts and flight plan.
Approaching Brize, I was expecting to be able to spot @Victork2’s Humvee.
I’m not sure of the approaches heli’s take, but flew a short downwind leg and turn to approach from the other end on runway 25 and head for what looks like the helipads.
First leg in the bank. I’m still blown away by how far sims have come. The graphics in MSFS2024 are better than 2020 and were butter smooth on my rig on Ultra settings with a 3090 GPU.
Hopefully the next flight will be easier after more tinkering with the controls.
Wow, I honestly didn’t think 2024 would look that much better.
I stand corrected! Amazing!
Upon closer inspection, my house is right a bit
Also, arrows are really hard to do on a phone apparently
They tend to just cross the runway deadside and land wherever they want on the hercules (
) stands and then taxi from there
I’m pleasantly surprised. The terrain mapping is way better.
Could be noisy tomorrow around midday. 
Good luck taking off in berts wake!
After some frustrations at the start with FS2024, I decided to give it a try for the Christmas Trek. A short hop from Kristiansund to Trondheim is on today’s plate.
I’ve picked the De Havilland Canada CL-415 Fire Fighting plane for this leg, as the FW-200 Condor is not available yet in FS2024.
I definitely like the looks of it:
Without any problems I take off from Kristiansund. Note the snow covered terrain!
Conveniently the plane sports a tablet as navigational and whatever other function guide 
The cockpit has probably a dozen functions for the fire fighting water take-on and release capabilities.
I better climb a few meter, oops. Should pay better attention to what’s happening outside the cockpit!
Time for a photo of the ground terrain details.
And my co-pilot is about to scold me for unsafe flying …
We’re back over the sea.
These generators will create some energy!
A look at fuel levels, not too bad, but also not way too much.
Approaching Trondheim!
Oh well, let’s call this a ‘professional’ approach.
Nevertheless at the mere 100 knots this bird is flying, last minute corrections are not impossible. I managed to land and walk away, even from a parking slot.
Now, what to do? Wait for FW-200 Condor in FS2024 or take some FS2024 plane to continue the Trek, or revert to FS2020? All those choices
Nice job! 
Man, that water looks good!
Well, I got my schedule for next month and… 
.
So, the only flying I’m going to be doing around Christmas this year is the kind that pays the bills.
In other words, I’d better get the lead out!
Actually. I’m almost within TBM range of ENSB and certainly within two legs if I include the Bonanza.
My only problem is that I still have several fillies left in the stable. And most of them won’t top 130Kts.
Thus, depending on how you feel about the length of my reports, sorry…or you’re welcome! 
LEG 18: Ben Slimane Airport, Ben Slimane, Casablanca-Settat Region, Morocco (GMMB) TO Gibraltar International Airport, UK (LXGB).
First, we’ll start off with a quick 176NM leg to Gibraltar along the coast of Morocco.
Enter the JMB Aircraft VL-3. It looks fast just sitting there, doesn’t it?
Pretty minimalist cockpit, plus a little F-16 canopy reflection to boot.
Off we go…with auto gear retraction?
Weird!
I head for the coast and pick up my course line. Gibraltar, here we come!
Lovely little plane. But I can’t seem to wrap my head around the engine. I think it is fuel injected, so no leaning. It doesn’t appear to be turbocharged, yet it can climb into the teens. I pretty much pull the prop lever out of the red, leave the throttle firewalled and it seems to climb slowly at about the same speed at which it cruises.
Genius? Coincidence? Accurately modelled?
In any case, I come ashore again at Canal Nador.
And in short order pass Tangier,
to leave Africa behind me with the Rock of Gibraltar on the nose.
The howling winds combined with the VL-3’s low approach speed give me what feels like hours on final! 
I’m so slow that I choose to land long…just so that I don’t have to add power to taxi!
One step closer. Nicely modelled little airfield!
LEG 19: Gibraltar International Airport, UK (LXGB) TO Córdoba Airport, Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain (LEBA).
Same way, different day. Next leg is a short 104NM hop to Córdoba.
And the Diamond DV-20 gets its moment to shine.
Or it would, if it wasn’t cloudy. 
With that big ol’ headwind, I’m out of there in a hurry!
And on my way before the far end piano keys.
Hmmm, another opportunity to excel! 
Luckily, I bust out of the overhanging clouds before I get to Mt Reales on the western end of the Baetic Mountains.
A quick hop over the top delivers me to the same-named Depression.
I feel cold and alone…
This cheers me up however (ah the joys of ADD). Puente Nuevo, one of those rare points of interest that I actually get to fly over.
Super cool!
The remaining transit across the Depression is lovely, but uneventful.
So much so that I get to within about 10 miles of Córdoba before I can even see the airfield.
After a close encounter with a treeline that’s 3.5 degrees…on the 3 degree glideslope.
I flare to a perfect landing attitude…
about five feet above the runway. Then drop the rest of the way to the ground.
Oh well, I made it. The fire truck is just a coincidence, I’m sure.
After all, what does it matter if it’s still airworthy…I was only going to fly it once anyway!
“Hey, Fire Marshal Bill! Dónde Está Chiropractor?”
I was feeling good today. I slept 11 hours, was in a great mood, and decided I was going to jump in before Thanksgiving this year. The idea being since this is a journey to the northernmost airport with regular service, there’s got to be a scheduled way to get there. A quick search revealed that there is often service from Oslo; Oslo is serviced from Amsterdam; Wouldn’t you know it, Delta flies to AMS direct from SLC a couple times a day. Perfect!
So my enthusiastic, caffeinated, feeling good self decides it’s a good idea to do this in three legs, all of which are real flights.
Now, normally Delta flies this route is a 787 or A350. Well, I don’t have a 787 and I’m allergic to skybus so I went with Sparky’s 744- an excellent mod for anyone on X-plane 12 who enjoys heavy iron, btw.
Starting out at KSLC
Don’t let the blue patches fool you. Those are snow clouds loading up the ski resorts and Olympic venues.
I taxied to the runway and got this big, beautiful girl into the air.
And there’s the snow. This is about where my caffeine wore off and I wondered why I would take on a 9 hour flight.
Not to worry, The Queen powered through it and ever so gracefully climbed to the cruising altitude of 37,500 feet, and later 41,000 feet. Time for some more caffeine!
Now, I won’t lie and say my butt was in the seat the entire 9 hours it took to get to Amsterdam. I think my involvement could roughly be considered babysitting the autopilot. Nevertheless, the top of descent came soon after I finished with my day.
For some reason, when I released the autopilot, I got a hard pitch up that required full forward deflection on the yoke and running the trim forward, but I managed to put it down, albeit slightly off centerline.
Here I am all parked up at AMS.
It appears that the next two legs are flown in 737’s, so I will switch to that for those legs… and they’re short enough that I’ll be in the seat for them the whole time.
LEG 20: Córdoba Airport, Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain (LEBA) TO Madrid–Cuatro Vientos Airport, Madrid, Spain (LECU).
Heading off on a long trip tomorrow, so here’s a couple of quick ones!
Next leg, 169NM from Córdoba to Madrid.
Still trying to knock out the non-IFR friendly aircraft in anticipation of foul weather ahead.
So it’s time for the Extra 330LT. At least I’ll get to where I’m going quickly!
Whoo Hoo! A little squirrelly on the pavement. I took my time getting her up off the runway.
First things first. A little sightseeing was in order as I took in the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba and the accompanying Roman Bridge. Spectacular!
With that done, I was on my way.
Of course, it’s important to remember to have fun…
The Spanish terrain is broad and sweeping. Very dramatic! Here I approach the Sierra Madrona mountain range.
I don’t know much about the geology of the area. But the mountains feel old. Worn.
There’s something grand but melancholic about them. A bit Quixotic, which is appropriate, I suppose. 
Pretty soon old man mountain is behind me…and I’m back into the flats.
But time for one more pitstop before Madrid; the Alcazar of Toledo and the Puente De San Martin in the foreground.
With the few skyscrapers of the Cuatro Torre Business Area in the distance I made out Cuatro Vientos, my destination for this leg.
Since it’s vaguely criminal to fly an Extra for this long straight and level…
Beautiful paint job!
I’m not going to say that I unintentionally hammerhead stalled it at the top of the pitchup.
I’m just going to say that I rapidly reoriented my velocity vector in the downward direction after a brief transit through the zero airspeed regime.
Which set me up for a descending spiral to the runway.
At least I didn’t drop it in this time.
OK, I’m beginning to develop a complex with all these firetrucks following me around!
Wait a second, this thing has a front seat?
I just thought that there was a lot of leg room!
LEG 21: Madrid–Cuatro Vientos Airport, Madrid, Spain (LECU) TO Biarritz Pays Basque Airport, Biarritz, France (LFBZ).
The second leg today completes my transit of Spain to the city of Bayonne on the Bay of Biscay. 211NM.
Hopefully, it does not share the reputation of its sister city in New Jersey, whereupon it is said that,
“If it smells like Bayonne…you leave it alone!”
In the bullpen for today is an airplane that I have hitherto been avoiding (unfairly as it would happen), the Pipstrel Virus SW 121.
Maybe it was the name.
Or maybe it’s the fact that it sort of looks like an egg.
“It’s an egg. Hold it like an egg!”
But, this little egg is a humdinger!
And check out this cockpit. Got some serious OV-10 vibes!
Here climbing out over the Royal Palace.
By the time the Sun was up over the horizon, I was well into my climb to top the Sierra de Guadarrama Mountains at about 7500ft.
Once up at altitude I engaged the autopilot (yes, this thing has an autopilot), settled back, and enjoyed the beautiful trip across the expansive Iberian countryside. At 140 true no less!
I made one more detour for a selfie…the Hotel Marques de Riscal.
Well, that’s easily either the best custom, or the worst photogrammetry, building I’ve ever seen!
Turns out, it was the former! 
One last ridgeline to cross over the Iberian Mountain System and I spy the Gulf of Vizcaya.
Almost there!
And there she is. I’m high, because of course I am…
But the Pipstrel comes down quite nicely.
Again, little high on the flare.
But, I manage to salvage the landing. Not by much by the looks of that tail skid clearance! 
And that’s it for this leg.
Four legs left, by my counting. Still just over 2100NM to go. Looks like I have a few long legs ahead of me…and not the good kind!
For this leg I planned to test the MSFS 2024. Didn’t happen though…
According to the XBox app, I logged some 10 hours only trying to install the thing. When I managed, it took ages to load and when it finally did, I discovered that I got only a fraction of the fleet available in comparison to what should have been available.
To cut it short, the sim feels rushed and rough around the edges (UI, controls mapping, bugs everywhere…). And when actually looking at the main menu, it sort of downs on me that perhaps the “core simmer” is no longer the main target group.
Aiming at wider audience is probably not a bad thing per se, though it feels like the flight sim portion of the MSFS franchise got a little less love than what it deserved.
OK, it is a newly released product and MSFS has a track record of fixing and improving it so I will give it a benefit of the doubt. It costed me 1 euro so far so in about a week it will go off my drive and I may come back to it later when the most glaring issues are ironed out.
Anyway… back to the ol’ good MSFS 2020 for a leg from Helle to Tromso.
Sitting in a DC-6 cockpit in the little daylight there is.
All four radials purring and ready for take off. Given the rather short runway available, I asked for a wet take off power… and few seconds later lifted off with not much tarmac left.
Cruising at 12k ft just above the clouds.
The weather towards my destination did not look welcoming.
This is how I spent entire approach.
Fortunately at 3000ft I broke out and landed visually.
@Troll’s balcony must be overthere I guess.
The next leg will be the last one. I am still undecided whether to fly with real time or swap the date by a few months in order to actually see something
Pretty clouds 
Absolutely beautiful screen shots.
Agreed, amazing shots!
This may be a bit presumptuous (and only IMO), but the DC-6 wins MSFS 2020 for me. It was one of the earliest add ons and still has very few rivals…I’m not sure of any from the same historical period.
Just a great piece of work!
