Nice leg! Throwing in failures definitely adds a little extra “Fun”™ into the mix!
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Congrats to all of the MUDSPIKERS who’ve reached the pub party in Svalbard so far. The flight reports have been their usual outstanding mix of interesting aircraft, stunning vistas, and expert airmanship. Well done lads! 
I’m running late as usual. My family kidnapped me for a week away from my time machine, but I should have planned better and gotten on with the gettin’ earlier. New Year’s may be doable, depending on weather for the last leg.
A Cub seemed the right ride for the short low altitude flight from Georgetown to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I’d planned to pass over the family beach house on the way and hoped to get a wave at anyone residing.
Leaving KGGE the PA-18 requires quite a bit more foot than the Aerolite to stay on the centerline.
There should be a fairly large marina under my right wing as I leave Georgetown heading north over highway US17. But I suppose since it’s on the water, it gets neither drawn nor the 3D treatment.
As I cut back east toward the beaches, the south end of Pawleys Island in the distance comes into view. My anticipation grows.
But the house looks nothing like the current one, having drawn the short end of the autogen stack of straws. Our neighbor’s is right on.
I mosey up the coast for another 1/2 hour or so (maybe longer, but it’s easy to lose time in the Cub), to reach the resort city of Myrtle Beach, soon to be annexed by Canada. Mind you, it was a great place to visit during highschool or college, but you know how it goes. As you get older, the big places you remember turn out to be not so grand as their memory.
Wanting to follow in the hallowed footsteps of a young @BeachAV8R, I continue north until I spy an airport about where it should be. North Myrtle Beach, AKA Grand Strand (KCRE). Although it doesn’t look familiar, the fact is that I’ve been here before. Offloaded by a chartered school bus, to be boarded onto Mike Mullins’ Super King Air. My brother Bill and I would be last out of the Beechcraft at 14k over a seaside Marriott hotel. We’d be flying a four-way with a couple of US Army Golden Knights, but that’s a story for another time.
Oh the joy of slipping the little bugger in to hit the numbers!
No Super King Air, but the ghost of @BeachAV8R lay thick in the air, as if the Gray Man was upon us. It gave me chills.
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Okay, made the hop to Greenland:
Minus 30 degrees aside, a beautiful day for a flight:
Lots of room for beer this year (after I removed those pesky seats) so my late arrival will be a resupply:
The only challenge this time, and there’s always at least one right, was daylight:
And when I finally got to the runway it looked like this:
Next stop, Iceland!
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It’s like saying Beetlejuice three times…
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Hey, bud! That’s my line. 
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First suggestion for the 2025 flight: Russia’s Platon Oyunsky Yakutsk International Airport
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Nuuk, Greenland. Only because my airline starts flying there in June. And America will soon own it.
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Who’s on SAR duty today? 
So I started my last leg in FS2020 in Tromso and headed out to Svalbard. Total darkness around me, something I usually try to avoid! It took a few attempts to take off from Tromso for me, somehow the plane went out of control quickly. But finally I made it airborne and set on my low alt IFR flight.
Not many pics to share, it was just dark…
The tablet with the magenta line was used extensively.
A bit late I changed from start to fuselage tanks, something that bites me later.
Engines operating in good order.
A glimpse of light from the South!
Eventually the fuselage tanks run dry, I switch to travel tanks.
Now I’m over Spitzbergen and on my way to Svalbard. I follow the ATC instructions and eventually spot the airfield. But, oh my, I forget to switch from travel to start tanks for the landing. Not certain if this is the ultimate reason, or maybe I just was too slow, but maybe 1nm from the runway, my Condor goes out of control and takes a nose dive into the rather cold sea… So let’s go back to the start of this write-up, who’s on SAR duty? 
A bit disappointing end of this tale, but seems we take a swim now.
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Merry Christmas everyone! I would get a helicopter and pull you out of the drink @TeTeT , but my setup is inop as it is partially migrated to the new simpit. I fell ill shortly after starting it and probably won’t have it in a flyable condition before the New Year.
But first thing I’ll do with it, before mounting the throttle, painting the frame or managing the cables, is take this beauty and fly to Svalbard:
Assuming one of the other helicopter or boat aficionados has rescued you by then
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Is that in the sim? That looks completely real!
@TeTeT I’ll be right there. I just need to finish my beer!
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Ah no sorry that’s a real picture.
In the sim, that fighter (but in the boring white livery) is probably still at @Victork2 's place, since my even shorter 2022 Christmas flight
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Thanks! Bring a beer too, it’s damn cold, but not too cold for a fresh brew
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Reykjavik (BIRK) - Vigra (ENAL).
This leg was the longest I flew on this trek. The winds were favorable and I was able to knock out the 760nm with a comfortable 30 minutes of battery charge remaining when I landed.
The scenery of Iceland is stunning and it is definitely on my bucket list to go there someday to see it for real. I did do a fuel stop at Keflavik once but never left the airport unfortunately.
As the sun set, I was pleasantly surprised to get some Aurora, the result of an addon that I had installed several months ago and then completely forgot was there.
Next stop will be up to see @Troll at Tromsø…
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Leg 03: North Myrtle Beach (KCRE) to Joint Base Edwards (KADW)
Sim: FS2024
Equipment: iniBuilds T-33 Jet Trainer
We’ll be sure to keep a sharp lookout for alien drones attacking New Jersey’s critical infrastructure as we transit the TFR.
For the leg, we’ll be switching to FS2024, the sim having become stable enough to risk a cross country flight. iniBuilds was one of the first 3rd party add-on creators to provide a free FS2024 update for their app and outstanding T-33 Jet Trainer.
With its roots in the P-80 fighter, this 1940’s Kelly Johnson design is superbly capable for the time. The iniBuilds version has a very complete dual cockpit in both analog and Garmin G3X Touch versions. Although I normally fly the traditional analog panel, for this leg I opted for the modern version. Blasphemy you say? Yes, but the autopilot and magenta line would come in handy, since we were behind schedule, there were presents to wrap, and eggnog to drink!
Lining up and waiting…
We’re off.
We bank to the northeast and take up roughly a heading of 027 magnetic. I had difficulty convincing the Garmin to use GPS as the Nav source, so ended up using HDG mode. Not a big deal. VS mode was spot on.
Another flight, another sunrise. Definitely CAVU today.
The T-Bird eats up the miles quickly. She’s a little snappy in pitch and roll, but a stable platform once you adjust.
As we neared our destination, here and there we saw a light dusting of the fluffy stuff. Just in time for Christmas. I must have missed pitot and windshield heat at the line, but a little frost snapped me out of my lethargy. Both came in handy.
A bit of complaining concerning the fuel management has arisen in the T-33 topic on the Microsoft forum. But I followed the manual’s suggestion of main tank pump only for takeoff, followed by main and tip tank pumps on until the before landing checklist. Then switch off tip tanks. That seemed to work well and fuel was a non-issue. There is a really nice interactive checklist available in the FS2024 EFB, as well as configurable options in a separate a/c specific popup panel for the T-Bird.
I made occasional use of the dive brakes during descent, but held them off until the flare, mimicking F-15 technique. That worked perfectly. Touchdown was smooth.
It’s chilly, but must raise the canopy to look fighter pilot cool, lest we be judged by bus drivers. 
Hello Andrews. Been a minute.
Speaking of long legs, that pimped out Boeing might be just the ticket for the next hop.
Naw.
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Awesome! I forgot about the T-33.
Under the heading of Anal Retention, does the T-33 come with a mil pilot? I have at least three dents in my head from flying, and was with a helmet!
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Sadly, no military pilot figures for the T-Bird. I hope that is in the pipeline.
Edit; @Deacon211 If you ever have a chance to fly the iniBuilds T-Bird, it would be great to hear your thoughts. I really enjoy flying it.
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Okay, headed to Iceland. Getting smarter. I realized that it gets dark out there early this time of year, I left Greenland at O’Dark Thirty:
Figure, it’s easier to take off in the dark than it is to land .
Then I had my Ladyhawk moment (hopefully everyone is old enough to get that reference):
Winds a loft were 23 knots but the tailwind made a quick trip to Rekjavik (my old 310R made 210 knots groundspeed) and a nice landing into the wind on runway 19:
Two more hops to my goal .
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Nice job!
After the resupply, there’s still some beer left. 
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Okay, so realized that Iceland is much wider than I realized and that planned first leg was about 950nm. So, I shaved a little with a short jump from BIRK to BIEG. The weather was agreeable again:
Interesting, got a second monitor for the holidays. Need to figure out how to take screen shots of just one.
Tomorrow, on to Norway! This time for real
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