Awesome write-up @Sine_Nomine! Loved reading every word!
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Those are the worst kind… 
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That’s scary stuff…even in a sim…!
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I’ve seen that- it’s both impressive and depressing simultaneously.
Great write-up! I hate that I’m down right now with tagged-out systems myself (hopefully repairable sooner than later).
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A good illustration of why having two pilots is not so much about one of them possibly keeling over, but rather a division of workload and crosschecking/monitoring. When Celestial Navigation was being actively used in airplanes, there is a very good reason why there was a Navigator who was only involved with that aspect of the flight.
@Sine_Nomine, no need to thank me. Casper wrote the app to inject the XP position into Stellarium, and you wrote your own app to reduce the sightings. I just played around drawing circles in Google Earth 
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For those interested, the three of us are almost ready to release a 3 part tutorial on how to navigate using this system. @TheAlmightySnark will be walking us through the setup of his app, I will be going over some basics and showing how to plot a position using Google Earth, and CP will build on that to take things to a more realistic level, which we just got a taste of. We have been close to pushing this out for awhile now, but Real Life tm has delayed things a bit.
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Eugene OR to Pearson Field, Vancouver WA…
Just a short hop today, but I’m still moving in the right direction…
All set and cleared to go…
From Eugene to Portland it is pretty flat, but mountainous terrain is always visible on either side of as I head North…
Salem, Oregon.
Portland in sight.
Portland is a city with a lot of bridges!
Portland International (KPDX)…
Pearson Field on the nose, just across the river…
I pass directly over the field before turning left downwind for Runway 08.
Left downwind about to turn base with an airliner in the background than had just departed from PDX… hmm, maybe I am landing in the wrong direction?
Base to final…
Another leg complete. Next stop will probably be Anacortes WA…
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Narrator: …and thats how our intrepid reactorman found out his computer did not appreciate margaritas the same way he did.
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If memory serves, IRL at Pearson you have to fly a right pattern for 26 and left for 08 due to its proximity to PDX. If you have time Paul, fly a couple of right circuits for 26. Puts you over a hill turning to base. The first time I flew it in a 172, it was an interesting look for a 100 hr pilot. Not difficult, just something I hadn’t seen before.
Dan, do you remember turning base over a soccer field by any chance?
If so, then this is the hill you are talking about, and yes, it brings the trees and buildings much closer as you turn base.
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Pushing on…
Pearson to Anacortes…
The clear and a million conditions we had experienced before have given way to a misty overcast with low ceilings…
I wasn’t overly happy with the Active Sky rendition of the weather. This is mainly because of the 2D clouds, which look great at a distance, but not so great when up close.
So, I switched the weather redering over to XEnviro 1.13 which gave a more natural looking scene even if the conditions between the two packages didn’t exactly match…
Not too far to the North of Portland, we can see the infamous Mt St Helens. Beyond it on the horizon is Mt Rainier andoff to the right, Mt Adams. Our first large Volcano on this trip was Mt Shasta but we are firmly on the Ring of Fire now, and will see quite a few volcanoes along the rest of the trek to Attu Island.
Approaching Mt St Helens. The tree line is very apparent.
The North side of the volcano showing the massive landslide that occurred as a result of the 1980 erruption.
Cloud in the valleys as we approach Mt Rainier…
As I continue North, the cloud starts to thicken below me…
The summit of Mt Rainier poking up through the cloud layer…
And so I find myself stuck on top of a thick layer. Hopefully it will clear before we get to Anacortes.
It looks like the layer might be breaking up ahead of us…
Before long I found a gap and descended to get below the layer…
By this time, I was well North of Seattle, and so unfortunately I have no shots of the city. The scenery is still stunning though.
Skagit Regional Airport, with the Truck testing track (the OrbX scenery even has trucks driving around the track…).
The Marathon-Anacortes Oil Refinery. Why they would build a monstrosity like this in such a beautiful area beats me. I guess it provides a lot of jobs though…
Anacortes, and the airport beacon is in sight…
On the ramp at Anacortes…
The next stretch takes us up in to British Columbia. To pay homage to the wonderful Chipmunk’s Canadian roots, a new paint job is in order, at least until we get up to Alaska…
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On the way from Cincinnati/Lunken up to Cleveland/Burke Lakefront…
Had to pull the power back a smidge. I guess somewhere in the past few updates of X-Plane some aerodynamic forces must have changed (I am NOT running the latest beta though) so at top end speed, there is not enough elevator down trim to maintain straight and level flight…so the altitude creeps up at 50’ per minute or so. I wonder if I can tweak something in Plane Maker to give a bit more elevator trim authority. Anyway…the solution for now is to just pull back the power a few %, which does drop the top end speed a bit…but at least she will maintain altitude…
I hand an opportunity to fly another leg of the trip yesterday as I had some housework that needed doing and the real weather/time cooperated with regard to icing :-).
At the start of the flight I had an issue with one of the engines operating a little cooler than the other. I noticed it on startup and taxi, the gauges being uneven between the two led me to restart the flight. I am going to pretend that was the reason why I have not had a flight in over a week as I needed to schedule time to have a mechanic pull apart the virtual engines and see what was going on.
This trip sees me flying out of Winnipeg, Manitoba (CYWG) for Regina, Saskatchewan (CYQR). Weather seems good as long as I stay under the canopy, reported at FL090. I opted for an IFC flight plan, just to have the confusion of ATC to keep me busy with the system.
I fell back on the Velocity V-Twin for this flight as the newly acquired AirFlightLabs Beechcraft King Air 350 has more complicated systems (and preflight, which I seem to enjoy) and the AirFlightLabs Cessna 172 SP is a little slower than I would like at the moment 
Speaking of the weather, here are the details from ActiveSky XP:
Looks good. Here’s a copy of my flight notes for the trip as well.
The flight itself was uneventful for it’s duration. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for that weird engine temperature reading at the start. With a heavy on my tail, I felt a little pressure to get off the ground
And the scenery in the specific places that the ortho is installed, is looking great
Soon enough, clouds hit their targets and the scenery returned to default, which was not bad.
Coming in to land at Regina International.
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That really is a sharp little airplane. I know what you mean about speed too. I’m enjoying the Chipmunk immensely, but it’s 100 knot cruise speed means it would almost be quicker to drive. 
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Did a hop from Cincinnati/Lunken (KLUK) up and across to Cleveland/Burke Lakefront (KBKL). Not really headed the right direction to get to Alaska, but I’m visiting some places I’ve been in real life that I enjoy.
Coming out of Sunken Lunken…
I know I say it every AAR - but I love the GTN 750. The ability to pull up charts and frequencies is really nice…
Some nice weather patterns on the way up to Cleveland…
One of the more interesting approaches I’ve flown is the ILS 24R with a circle to land to 6L. There are no approaches to 6L or 6R, probably due to the stadium and other high features west of the field along the shoreline. The circling approach at night over Lake Erie should give you pause…it is dark…very dark over the lake and the circle is an easy maneuver to mess up if you get some spatial disorientation.
Procedure turn…
We track the ILS down until 24R is in sight…then we commence the circle about 100’ above the circling minimums…
Then it is just a matter of monitoring your airspeed, altitude, and make sure you don’t fly into the lake…
At night…the approach is a really different animal and you had better be very, very careful…
Getting ready to start the turn to the base leg…
A touch high here…but it all works out…
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We do still have speed limits up in the Northwest, ya know (and they’re not that fast). 
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There is a good chance that at 100 knots @PaulRix might be flying backwards when he gets to Casco Cove:
TEMPORARY: The following changes expected for less than half the time period
Winds: from the SSW (200 degrees) at 57 MPH (50 knots; 25.7 m/s)
gusting to 69 MPH (60 knots; 30.9 m/s)…
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Maybe I should have gone East from Austin! 
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Anacortes WA to Bella Coola, BC…
After a few days resting in Anacortes it was time to continue onwards…
My faithful Chippy looks great in her new Canadian colors…
Noise abatement signs Ugh! I really dislike having to appease the people who choose to live near an airport but don’t like the sounds associated with it.
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Farewell Anacortes!
I dutifully wait until I am over the water before making my turn.
Pretty airplane if I ever saw one.
And here we see the end of the OrbX scenery, which means we are crossing the border into Canada.
It looks like the US Navy is invading!
Some shots along the way…
The weather is starting to deteriorate up ahead. Not what you want to see while flying a small single engine airplane, with minimal instrumentation while over this kind of terrain.
It is getting close to sunset. Looks nice of course, but I really need to get on the ground before dark.
Golden hour…
It was going to be tight… Still, I just need to fly up this fjord and turn right at the end.
I see a light in the valley up head… almost there.
It starts to rain as I enter the Bella Coola valley.
It was pretty squirrely on final, with a gusty crosswind.
And no runway lights! I made it here in the nick of time…
The landing was…ahem…firm. Nothing broken except my pride though…
By the time I shut down it was pretty much completely dark. Phew!
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