Congrats @apollon01 @Deacon211 and @PaulRix! I have even fallen behind on reading reports. There was no way I was gonna make it 
4 Likes
Almost there!
Today I made the short hop from Trelew (SAVT) to Comodoro Rivadavia (SAVC).
Originally I wanted to fly this one with a different plane, but then I thought it could be a nice opportunity to test the new version of Working Title’s G3000.
Initially the sim crashed as soon as I turned on the batteries, but I quickly found out that my “no handle bar” mod was the cause, it is not compatible with the G3000 mod. Grml. I uninstalled it and continued.
The pushback crew went the extra mile, almost pushed me onto the gras there.
Up, up, and away! I only took half the fuel, which makes the takeoff even more impressive.
You can see the fertile valley next to the town, and below me is the local aero club.
Ahead of me are the large empty plains of Patagonia.
The new G3000 is pretty good, definitely an improvement over the stock one. I hope WT continues to develop this.
More salt lakes.
A part of the Andes stretches toward the east here, almost to the ocean.
An interesting landscape, with rocky beaches and small islands.
Some tourists come here, but otherwise not much is going on here.
Comodoro Rivadavia ahead. Its 150,000 inhabitants call it “the capital of the wind” And indeed the strong winds are used to supply the area with energy. Huge windmills are standing near the coast.
The rest of the local industry is focussed on oil.
I planned an ILS approach just to be sure, but the weather was great. Still flew it. I was lucky and the crosswind wasn’t too strong.
Not sure what I did wrong but the autopilot did not correct for the crosswind properly.
I ended up hand-flying the approach. A bit low but OK. The TVV indicator on the PFD comes in handy during landings. Almost like in a fighter jet. I wish I had the HUD as well. I greased the landing though.
NO! Bus guy again! I quickly pulled into my parking spot so he could not steal it.
He proceeded down the taxiway to find another victim. I parked the plane and started to prepare for the final destination of my journey: Port Stanley, 518nm southeast of here.
7 Likes
I’m just preparing my last leg and the ocean crossing, trying to work out how likely it is that I’ll miss the entire island.
Winds aloft. There’s a hefty westerly wind at the moment, which can be expected - given the latitude, we’re flying right across Roaring Forties territory.
Apart from Windy, the only wind data I have access to is from Skyvector’s built-in wind calculator. I don’t know where MSFS pulls data from (and judging from @Deacon211 's flights, sometimes there’s no winds aloft in-game at all!), so I think these sources are the best I can get.
I divided the ocean crossing into 4 circa 150 NM legs to create a few waypoints with a wind correction calculation in Skyvector.
As I went through the outputs, I noticed that the magnetic variance is a bit all over the show. I thought I was reading the whole thing wrong, until I actually went to check where the isogonic lines lie:
That’s why! I’ll be flying across the agonic line, so the flight will start with a western variation and finish with an eastern variation. Can’t have it too easy, can we…it’s not a huge deal in itself, but if I did my TH-MH calculation wrong and failed to account for the wind, I might end up too far east…and there’s not much to land on there.
I’m thinking that I’ll aim for the middle of the island to give myself error margin on both sides.
6 Likes
Well, I have been busy since making the crossing to Columbia but have not had a chance to update everyone. So, I set off on my tour of South America in good weather and spirits and here are several hops.
Headed to Bogota:
However, it wasn’t long before I hit the first bad weather of the trip:
I have no idea how to take a screenshot in VR but the two white circles were one big white out. Luckily, the ship was trim headed into it so all I had to do was hold my breath and hope the mountains were still far off.
Speaking of mountains, this is me flying to Ecuador. I exceeded my 15K foot service ceiling and only just squeaked over the last range.
But then it was all downhill to deepest darkest Peru!
To land at Sea level.
Headed East tomorrow so no chance at Port Stanley by Christmas but I hope to get there before the New Year.
Happy Holidays to you all!
12 Likes
Bahia Blanca (SAZB) - Port Stanley (SFAL)
Well, here we go. Last leg. What a journey. A bit bittersweet to see it nearing it’s end, but what fun has it been.
I arrived to my trusty steed a bit before 7am local time and walked around once more. I took my time and walked through the cabin before heading to the cockpit.
I went through my flight plan once more, paying particular attention to the latest winds forecast, and then it was time to start the engines.
“Three - Six - Nine - Twelve”, counted the flight engineer and the Double Wasps roared to life.
Last check of the radios, set full power, double check the gust lock off, and off we went. I took off into the wind and proceeded to do a left hand turn to capture the 200 outbound radial from Bahia Blanca towards the Viedma VOR station, 134NM south-southwest.
The weather was good and I could focus on tracking my climb performance. Takeoff was at 07:26 local time, I kept the airspeed around 165 kts. I reached 10k ft altitude in 10 minutes, 15k ft in 15 minutes and 18k ft in 19 minutes, with the vertical speed starting to taper off as expected. I got to 20k ft at 7:53, 27 minutes after takeoff - exactly the same as on my Skyvector flight plan estimate. Not bad, so far.
Getting to cruise altitude. I had a couple of small bumps of turbulence at 19k ft, but mostly the air was smooth. I switched VOR-1 to the Viedma station halfway, but realised Viedma VOR didn’t have DME so ended up keeping Viedma on VOR-2 for the needle and VOR-1 on Bahia Blanca VOR DME for distance.
Soon enough, the needle spun over Viedma and it was time to head into the wild blue yonder.
Rather than having the gyropilot track the outbound radial, I had the gyro on heading mode and adjusted for drift myself to get a feel for the winds. I had my flight plan-mapped compass headings but ultimately figured that nailing the wind correction angle according to the actual winds was my best bet, while I was still within the Viedma VOR range.
Peninsula Valdes gave me a visual reference for a little while:
Soon, though, it was just me and the sea, and the VOR beacon behind me. I maintained a magnetic heading between 174 and 176 to stay on the radial, which corresponded to around 3-6 degrees WCA. So far, the flight plan and what I was seeing on the dials weren’t far apart.
And then the needles snapped to the right - I was out of Viedma VOR range.
I wasn’t quite out of navigation aids, though - there was another VOR station on the coast, TRELEW, which was DME equipped and allowed me to track my position via radial and distance for a bit longer. According to those readings, I was a bit further east than I thought, and corrected my heading a couple of degrees to compensate.
I also started to encounter some clouds at this point, which resulted in a bit of ice on the windscreen (OAT -20C), but we were in and out of the clouds and the ice didn’t seem to accumulate so I decided to keep my altitude unchanged and just to keep an eye on it.
Soon after, the cloud layer at 20k ft was left behind, with just a puffy cloud layer lower down reaching into the distance ahead. With no more navaids, there was little for me to do except tune the VORs for Mount Pleasant ahead, run time and distance numbers based on my last VOR-confirmed position and time, and keep an eye on fuel and the engines. I allowed the aircraft to climb a bit at this point (having the altitude hold gyro on while speeding up sim rate results in porpoising, so I manually adjusted the VS as close to zero as possible before speeding up the sim).
And then the needles came alive again! Phew! I was in Mount Pleasant VOR range. I had aimed for the middle of the islands, so I adjusted course and headed straight for the beacon.
Again, no DME on this VOR, but I figured I’d start a gentle descent and adjust as required once the islands came to view.
The cloud coverage was such that I didn’t have a very good view ahead for a while. Finally, at 5k ft, I had a bit of a hole in front of me and I could see land ahead. Islas Malvinas!
I had the flight engineer start running in range checks while I adjusted the course to the east from the VOR beacon. While it was a bit cloudy down low, there was enough clear air to see the outline of the islands fairly well, so rather than going all the way to the beacon and tracking a radial to Port Stanley, I decided to find the airfield visually.
It might have been a slightly sportier decision than intended, as I did go full IMC a couple of times without a clear idea of where I was…but most of the time I could weave my way through and track the coastline.
Port Stanley in sight!
I did a left-hand pattern around the field, set full flaps and came in to land.
And that, my friends, is the trek done!
I taxied to parking for the final time and shut the engines down.
Track made good:
It seems that a combination of overcorrection at that last VOR DME check and the wind turning more to a quartering headwind caused my track to veer substantially to the west. I was 21NM off to the side (cross track error is the word, I think?) by the time I picked up the VOR signal. If it wasn’t for the VOR, I would have in any case made landfall over the islands, perhaps 30-40NM off course, but I would have found the islands. I take it.
That’s all Falks…(sorry, I couldn’t resist…I’ll get my coat) See you at the pub!
13 Likes
Such a beautiful livery on that DC-6.
Congrats on making it @Bearhedge (and belated congrats to @PaulRix as well) - these reports have been great!
4 Likes
Awesome report @Bearhedge!
Congratulations on making it to Port Stanley. Yours must be the longest trek so far, if I’m not mistaken.
1 Like
Nice job @Bearhedge , congrats to making it to Port Stanley!
I made a very similar flight as well, a few hours ago. Comodoro Rivadavia (SAVC) to Port Stanley (SFAL). Here is my report:
I left SAVC and immediately turned 130°
I used GPS to guide me directly to Port Stanley, but for training purposes I still dialed in some beacons, like the Puerto Deseado NDB and the VOR that is next to SAVC as well as the one in Mount Pleasant so I could pick it up once I reached the islands. Gotta stay current with all that stuff.
Wind was pretty strong, 60 knots from the southwest.
This time I took the full load of fuel (I always do when I fly over water), but the plane still climbs well with that.
The last part of Argentinia, the Santa Cruz province. Goodbye Argentina! (don’t cry for me… SCNR 
)
Nothing ahead of me other than water for 250nm or so now.
However the sim decided against that flight going too well so it crashed and I had to restart. I picked the flight up roughly where I had left. Not long after that I spotted the first few islands between the clouds.
A lot of birds live there.
Cape Dolphin, named after HMS Dolphin, the ship of British explorer John Byron. Seals and penguins live here. And people with sheep apparently.
Descending, the Berkeley Sound already in view. I wonder what it actually… sounds like.
The weather did me a favor and was just west of the area. I liked that.
I overflew the field and headed east. I was too high and fast anyway.
Somehow I ended up a bit low on final. But no problem.
The runway looked awfully short from that perspective but I was sure that it would easily be enough.
Just as I was about to land, two vehicles crossed right before the threshold. Perhaps some drunk Mudspikers… I hoped that my engines wouldn’t blow them away and still landed. After all the real threshold is quite a bit further west.
I landed right on the numbers and thanks to my non-functioning thrust reversers I needed almost the whole (allowed) runway. But the landing itself was smooth, the wind had turned to exactly face me. Nice!
I taxied to the parking area, happy to have contributed in yet another Mudspike Christmas Flight. I had halfway hoped for a final confrontation with bus guy, but it seems I really put him in his place back there in Argentina.
And with that ends my journey, for now! Around 7800nm, a bit more than 14000km from Germany to the Falklands.
Thanks for reading, and I wish you all Happy Holidays!
9 Likes
Congrats @Aginor , nice work! To the pub!
I have to say, this year’s trek was really rewarding. It was my first good go at MSFS, but I also kind of rediscovered XP11 a bit, which was nice.
To anyone on the fence, you should give it a go. It’s a different way to enjoy flight sims, but gives purpose to civilian flying in a really cool way. Cough @schurem cough.
3 Likes
Congrars @Aginor and @Bearhedge
What a journey, n’est-ce pas?
I am thinking what next since after this Christmas flight I feel slightly MSFS saturated 
So I am looking at the MiG-21 in DCS…
…but also at the recently delivered Last Flight written by Amelia Earhart
which is giving me ideas 
taking account of the AH Electra in my virtual hangar… (which would mean more MSFS… I know…)
3 Likes
@apollon01 
I know what you mean about saturation… mind you, it’s Christmas soon and we’ll head out of town for a week for NY, so we’ll see how I feel after that little break!
Amelia Earhart, yes, I don’t know the first thing about stars but I’m now kind of intrigued by the MSFS celestial navigation add-on after my oceanic leg…it would be extremely silly to entertain ideas about learning that stuff from scratch… 
1 Like
I really enjoyed reading along on the various treks this year. The DC-6 certainly was the star of the show.
@apollon01 Take the DCS balalaika, it is excellent. Terrifying. Barbarous. Agricultural yet capable of mach 2. Magnificently soviet in all senses of the word.
3 Likes
Outstanding work @Aginor!
Welcome to Port Stanley. We saved a seat at the airport bar for you. 
1 Like
Thought you were going to the Falklands
good work boys, congrats! 
3 Likes
progressing to the Andes
great morning it was with great weather all the way for…
some ridge crossings
some dune surfing
snow in sight turning South
eventuelly reached land of volcanos
she is not perfect fit… for this kind of dirt strips
10 Likes
It would be a cool screen shot to see you guys lined up on the ramp at Port Stanley in your DC-6s and Connie. A very vintage Christmas Card!
4 Likes