Amazing job guys! I love the scenery and weather in MSFS.
I just started my journey last night.
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Yeah…please take your time! Enjoying your explorations…! 
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Ah, the Christmas rush: shopping for presents, hanging the lights, trying to make it to Port Stanley by New Years…it happens earlier every year I tells ya!
Normally I wouldn’t even think of starting the holiday haul until I had a belly full of Turkey under my five point harness. But then I usually only two or three leg it (or five or seven leg it once I’ve proven I don’t know what I’m doing).
However I was so inspired by all of your amazing tales of derring do…and sometimes derring dear God please don’t, that I decided that this year would be different. This year I would NOT simply climb into the Moronosphere and let Otto steer while The Grinch Who Stole Christmas played in the background. I would actually, you know, fly.
But that would entail starting early. And a whole crap ton more Egg Nog.
Also, since this seemed to be the year for inspiration (maybe it’s the Nog), I decided on two more resolutions.
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No magenta lines. While I could fly what I wanted, it had to be steam gauges. So it’s VORs. NDBs, and Dead Reckoning for me. Hopefully I won’t have to eat my words, and maybe my foot, in the Andes.
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I’ve been amazed by how good MSFS 2020 looks and how far we’ve come in the last 40 years of flight simming. So, instead of starting my journey at the closest airfield, I would begin with my favorite route from my earliest days in this hobby. I wish I had more comparison shots to post. But I did find just a few that I hope you will find amusing.
So, without further ado:
Leg 1/2- KBOS-KMVY-3N6
The first time I saw any version of Flight Simulator I was at a friend’s house. He had just gotten an IBM PC and there were enough manuals, parts, and cords strewn across his dining room table to make a NASA scientist weep. The faint whiff of Ozone from the electronics was enough to let you know that great things were afoot.
And so, we started her up.
Being 17 year olds, our worldliness only extended about as far as Flight Simulator did in those days, roughly from New York to Boston. Sure, we had heard that there were other islands of civilization out there; like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. But, never having seen them, we didn’t really believe that they existed anyway.
Consequently, we beat the Hell out of the airspace between those two great east coast cities. And it was there that we first invoked the arcane rituals of VOR, prayed to the NDB Gods, and likely terrorized an age of simulated Long Islanders in those days and in the days since.
If there is one cross country that I have flown in EVERY version of Flight Simulator since 1982, this would be it.
And there’s no more appropriate aircraft to do it in than the Cessna.
Enough yapping, let’s get to some pictures.
Taking off on the Dawn Patrol from Boston and turning south over Boston Harbor.
Hugging the coast off White Horse Beach you can just see the sweep of Cape Cod and Provincetown Muni off in the distance.
Running a little short of time, I ducked into Martha’s Vinyard for a break.
I picked up my flight a little later, heading south towards Block Island.
Block Island. A great checkpoint in the monochrome days. I recall this thing wasn’t much more than a lop sided trapezoid in the earliest versions of FS. It’s amazing how detailed it is now.
Montauk Point, and generally a good indication that I haven’t missed Long Island entirely! 
Flying down the length of the island I can manage, magenta line or no. I pass Francis S Gabreski field, an appropriate name for the old Republic Aircraft Plant and staging field.
JFK and the Big Apple in the background. I’m running Samscene here and this will be my first look at it.
I don’t know…looks a little dated to me! Maybe I should adjust the graphics slider!
Amazing how far we’ve come, isn’t it?
Makes me feel old! 
Here’s about where my world ended as a 17 year old. But, as this was only the beginning of my Christmas journey, I thought it’d be appropriate to finish up somewhere memorable.
3N6, Old Bridge Airport. This is where I learned to fly.
And I see that they still haven’t managed to cut the %&*^ trees at the approach end of the field! 
Well, that’s it for today. Sorry it was so long winded…but I did tell you I was old!
If you’re lucky I’ll tell ya about the time I was wearing a yellow onion on my hip, which was the style in those days. Not a red onion, they was saving them for the war! Anyway…
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I finally kicked things off today as well. My plan for this year is to loosely follow the old Pan Am routes as far south as I can. I say loosely follow, because there are a couple of places I want to stop at along the way that are not exactly on the historic Pan Am routing. The PMDG DC6, resplendent in it’s Pan Am livery will be my trusty steed, at least as far as Buenos Aires.
Here is an excerpt from a map showing the 1948 routes used by Pan Am.
My first leg will be a relatively short hop from Austin, Texas (KAUS) down to Port Isabella (KPIL), not too far from Brownsville on the Mexican border. It was a wet and misty afternoon in Austin. It was a pleasant surprise to see a JU52 on the ramp. It made me feel like I was flying something quite modern!
Ready to close the main door and get things fired up.
Off we go!
Leaving Austin Bergstrom behind…
The cloud layer wasn’t too thick and I was soon cruising along on top, in the sunshine.
They don’t make them like this anymore… 
Enjoying the view…
Rather than follow the radial from the Corpus Christie VOR straight to Port Isabella, I followed the coastline along Padre Island…
And South Padre Island…
There should be something interesting to see near the southern end of South Padre Island.
I dropped down to 500ft…. I wonder if Elon is down there somewhere? 
From the Boca Chica SpaceX launch site, I head back towards Port Isabella…
A quick glance at the airport before I turn downwind.
My final was a bit skewed but I was fully configured and on speed (a challenge in the DC6), so not too bad…
A little high…
But I got the airplane down safely and turned off the runway.
About to shut down…
Leg 1 complete!
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Beautiful! I was a little tempted to take that baby all the way.
Such a classy ride.
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PMDG did a magnificent job with the DC6, no doubt about it. It just oozes character and atmosphere from a bygone era. Today’s aircraft are pretty sterile by comparison (although I guess I should be grateful because they are a lot safer too).
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A third leg from Gibraltar, UK (LXGB) to Madeira, Portugal (LPMA); 600nm.
Leaving The Rock behind
Strait of Gibraltar is not exactly wide at some 8ish nm
Water everywhere for almost the entire flight
Madeira on the horizon!
Passing Porto Santo Island
Approaching Aeroporto da Madeira rwy 05
Taxiways not exactly flat 
Time for some playa
And this is the flight path for rwy 05. Will come back for more 
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How do you record that?
Little Nav Map. 
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Leg 2: Port Isobella (KPIL) to Liberia, (MRLB) Costa Rica.
This was quite a long flight, a little over 5 hours. I am still getting to grips with the DC6 but it is getting easier.
Here is the route. A simple case of VOR to VOR for almost 1300nm.
On the ramp, almost ready to go…
Climbing out towards the Brownsville VOR.
The first hour or so was pretty much following the Gulf Coast.
At Veracruz my route crossed the isthmus which put the Pacific on our right side.
The edge of the cloud cover pretty much followed the coastline.
Starting to see some mountains hiding in the cloud layer.
The unmistakeable cone of a volcano. This is part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ that circles the Pacific…
Two more volcanoes can be seen in Lago Corcibolca. Not much time for sight seeing though. I’m in the descent and things are starting to happen fast.
There were rain showers in the area and I ended up shooting an ILS approach.
Down safely.
Shut down on the ramp. All being well, I will push on to Panama tomorrow.
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Did you sit through the entire flight?
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I have to sit through longer flights at work…but no, I don’t sit glued to the screen during cruise while simming. I did have to set alarms on my phone so that I knew when I needed to step back in to switch VOR’s or turn onto a new radial.
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You’re going to be in Port Stanley before I get to Delaware!
Great shots though. I have a sneaking feeling that I’m going to need to do more than 100knots if I ever hope to make it before Christmas.
At least this Christmas.
Leg 3 3N6-KWWD: I began to realize that, by abandoning the heavies this year I wasn’t going to show up for Christmas with very many presents.
Maybe I’ll deliver Christmas cards. Gift certificates? One particularly delicious fruit cake?
Well, too late to worry about that now.
I can already see that this trip is going to be bad for my bank account. Figuring that the next few hundred miles were going to pass many famous military and civilian aviation history sites, I decided to go with a vintage military theme for a bit. Forgive the martial overtones, but if there is anyone who can appreciate peace on Earth, its a soldier.
Anyway I left Old Bridge late in the afternoon on this unseasonably hot and humid October day to fly down the Jersey coast in the Stearman.
The DC Designs Stearman is a very well mannered plane. I’m not so sure that the original is quite so good natured, but it’s a joy to go sightseeing in.
Thus far I have been flying almost entirely on Kentucky Windage. As long as all my destinations are along the coast, that’s fine. But times a comin’ that I’m going to need to do some actual navigating. This Stearman has no Nav radios at all. That’s not a problem, yet.
My first landmark was NAS Lakehurst NJ. I’m not certain what happens in Lakehurst these days, but the area still has all the landmarks of its storied past.
MSFS displays at least one large blimp hangar. The PG looks to show two more that aren’t represented by buildings in the sim.
Picked up the coast for the rest of the way.
Passing Atlantic City. Felt urge for funnel cake and Skeeball. Urge passed.
I said that the lack of Nav radios wasn’t a problem.
What is a problem is taking off with the default half filled gas tank. That little plunger is looking mighty low.
Fortunately I’m running out of New Jersey. Cape May must be close.
Despite the narrowness of the peninsula, I can’t spot the field. I turn West based mostly on faith. In the meantime, and perhaps as a warning against future carelessness, I pass over the monument erected to fallen airman Emilio Carranza Rodriguez.
Emilio Carranza Crash Monument, Tabernacle, New Jersey (roadsideamerica.com)
If I know one thing about aviation, I know two things about aviation:
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The aircraft carrier will always be under the thunderstorm.
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The field will always be in the sun. Especially when you’re short of go juice.
And suddenly, there it was.
Came in a little high, but the plane seems to allow for slipping, so I managed to wheel land it before the long field numbers!
And here we are, Cape May, NJ. I hear that there is a good museum here. I need to go someday.
Next week, viewers; I’m actually going to try crossing some water!
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Very interesting about Emilio Carranza, I had never heard about him. Thank you.
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Nice AAR. It’s all about enjoying the journey.
The DC Designs Stearman is a nice airplane. As you say, maybe a little bit too forgiving, but it is an enjoyable addition to my MSFS hangar.
My progress towards Stanley will be somewhat erratic. I would like to make it down to Quito before I head out on the road again later this week.
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Hey…just keep the coast off your right wing until you are abeam Rio Gallegos and then you can head due east…
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How would you rate the Stearman vis-a-vis the Waco?
I like the Stearman because it is… well… a Stearman 
but am not sure about getting it since I already have the Waco (which I quite enjoy).
That’s a tough one. The Waco, like all Carenado aircraft, is visually stunning. The DC Designs Stearman looks very good, but maybe not quite up to Carenado’s standard. The Stearman is better behaved on the takeoff roll, and I think it handles a little better. Ultimately though, I prefer the Stearman because I flew in one years ago, and it’s a piece of aviation history. I’m not sure if that helps at all? 
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