Thanks Beach!
I forgot how fun the Christmas Flight was (well, the not-unintentionally-inverted parts). And it’s never looked better than in FS2020. Such awesome pics!
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When MSFS2020 gets some quality classic aircraft I’ll be in hog heaven.
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Would be nice if PMDG would bring their DC-6 to MSFS…
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I think they said it was on their ‘to-do’ list, but my guess is that the 737 etc will come first.
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Calm before the storm I think. The SDK group members on the MSFS forum shows about 180 aircraft in production for release ‘sometime in 2021’, and that’s just the commercial developers and not the free-ware or open source ones. There’s going to be some good ones and some not so good ones next year, so relying on you and Chris to buy them all and tell us what works! 
Hopefully the free ones so far like the FBW A32NX and WT C4J are raising the bar, as if people want to charge money then they’ll have to make them better than a quick FSX port.
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It’s going to be an expensive year then 
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Putting my flight on hold for the VR patch.
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I should probably adopt the callsign ‘Imelda’ lol.
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Natal (SBNT) to Ascension Island (FHAW).
For this leg across 1248nm of cold, unforgiving ocean, I decided to take the Citation Longitude…
From the screenshot above, we can see that the aircraft should be able to get us comfortably across the South Atlantic, and even to Cape Town if we were to really push things to the ragged edge. Knowing that the MSFS Longitude has (ahem) fuel burn issues, I decided to take full tanks and make a stop at Ascension. I’m certainly glad I did…
Time to roll!
Farewell South America, it’s been fun.
The weather was pretty decent for the crossing…
I cruised along at FL450 trying to optimize my fuel burn. It became apparent that this was going to be much tighter than it should be… and the sun was setting.
I had long passed the point of no return. It was Ascension or bust. Unfortunately the fuel burn calculations were not working out. I decided the best option was to adopt a shallow descent to keep my speed up while allowing a reduced power setting.
With much relief, Ascension Island came into view beneath a scattered cloud layer.
Airport in sight!
Set up on a right base for Runway 31
At about this point, my number 2 engine flamed out…and about 10 seconds later, number 1 followed suit!
Fortunately, I had enough excess altitude and airspeed to make it to the runway…
I rolled to a stop just shy of the runway exit. They had to tow me off the runway to parking.
The next morning, on the ramp.
So, lessons learned. If you fly the Longitude over the ocean, plan on legs of no more than 1100nm. It burns fuel a lot faster than it should. Some Googling revealed that this is a known bug and it will be addressed by Asobo at some point.
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Good grief that was close. 
Next time take some Victor tankers with you!
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It just illustrates why, in the real world, we keep such a close eye on fuel burn vs the flight planned fuel when we are over a large body of water. For this trek I’m pretty much just pointing the nose at the destination and applying power. For the record, that’s not how I do it IRL .
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Nice report!
And yes, this thing guzzles fuel. More than 1000 miles is pushing the envelope.
Also noteworthy: Flying high is actually often not the ideal thing to do. You might have a higher speed and use less fuel on FL320 than on FL450.
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Many years ago…I flew for a company that loved to stretch fuel (because they owned the airport FBO and fuel farm). I can’t tell you how disconcerting it was to takeoff, climb to altitude on our way to Mexico…and see negative numbers showing in the FMC even though we were already at cruise.
“The winds die off over the Gulf…”
Yes…yes they did. But about that thunderstorm parked over Cuernavaca… 
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Also noteworthy: Flying high is actually often not the ideal thing to do. You might have a higher speed and use less fuel on FL320 than on FL450.
That’s the Global pilot in me I guess… 
The general rule of thumb though (IRL) is that the higher you climb, the less fuel you burn. That doesn’t seem to work with MSFS2020 right now. In fact I think the most efficient way to fly in MSFS at the moment is to fly at an altitude where you can achieve the highest TAS (which coincides with what you are suggesting @Aginor)…
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There have been a few flights that I have been on where the flight plan says we can comfortably make it, but the FMS begs to differ. The flight plan has always proved to be right, so far at least… 
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My next leg is in the books as well.
It takes me from Luanda to a small town named Ondangwa in northern Namibia.
FNLU → VNA → VHU → OAV → FYOA
Live weather and time, follwing the VORs. The last one of those sadly had an abysmally short range, but other than that the flight went as advertised.
Good day, and Goodbye Luanda!
I checked with Windy and figured out that a cruise altitude of 38000ft should give me the best ground speed. Below FL320 it would have been a 20 knots headwind or something.
Passing the Cuanza river.
Southern Angola has rain forests and hills.
Some farms as well.
Weather good worse, so my waypoint, the city of Huambo, was covered in clouds. But I could still catch a glimpse of the big lake a few miles south of it.
I passed the bad weather and left Angola, entering Namibia. 100 miles to go, so when I saw the clouds clear up a bit I started my descent.
The rain forest has ended approximately a hundred miles north of here, and has been replaced by steppes.
I went a bit lower and checked out the terrain. Pretty accurate, as far as I can tell from pictures of the area that I have seen.
I shot a perfect VOR approach toward runway 26 of FYOA. Until I was three miles away and they told me to land on runway 8…
On final. No ILS here.
The landing was a bit rough, and needlessly so. The jet just floated and I put it down unpatiently. No damage though.
That’s it! Next up: Fly a short hop through Namibia. I might “rent” a smaller plane for that while someone else flies the Citation down to Walvis Bay as that is a short hop.
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Yep, there is something wrong with either the flight model or the atmospheric model, like you mentioned that is not the way it works in real life.
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Because of fuel burn concerns I looked ahead at my planned route from Ascension. I had originally intended to hop over to St Helena and from there step into Africa somewhere in Angola or Namibia. That isn’t going to work now, so instead I decided to head to Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Departing Ascension Island…
It’s a small island in a big ocean. I was very lucky to have made it on my last leg.
I wish I had taken the time to compose this shot a little better. just a beautiful scene…great lighting, the sun on the water, scattered cloud below and a hazy overcast.
There was some ice in that overcast as I climbed through it…
The weather deteriorated as I approached the African coastline.
Land Ho!
Skirting around a cell, the airport is out of sight to the left. I’m high, so I dirtied up a little early.
Rabbit in sight… I really should have flown an instrument approach, but be so kind as to hold my beer for me…
Another case of trying to take screenshots and fly at the same time.
Piece of cake…
Ok, I’ll take my beer back now…
.
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DIAP - DGAK
At Abidjan, I traded the Longitude for the Carenado Piper Seminole. From Abidjan, I head East to DGAK (Kpong Airfield in Ghana).
In my excitement of flying something new and shiny, I forgot to take a screenshot of the takeoff. I did get one as I turned out to the East. Look at those steam gauges! 
The Seminole isn’t the greatest performer, but she’s a great looking airplane.
Lovely detail on the left engine cowl.
The city of Koforidua…
Kpong Airfield. It wasn’t easy to find visually, so I ended up flying directly overhead before setting up for the landing.
And with that, I am now finally caught up with my AAR backlog. 
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