The Rotate MD80 is pretty good but it’s missing some features like Autoland, which is being worked on but at a snail’s pace. If you have the choice I’d wait for the Leonardo MD82 for P3D/FSX that is about to release at the end of this year, it seems like a more solid product.
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Nice report - that TFDi 717 is very, very nice. I wrote the review for it for the magazine last issue and I was very impressed.
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Ah, well I might jump the gun anyway, I don’t care much for autoland when landing is my favourite part of flying! Besides I’ve moved to X-plane 10 a year and a half ago and I don’t plan on running two simulators.
Leg 4 of Chuck’s Return to Montreal
YPDN (Darwin International Airport) - YBBN (Brisbane) - YSSY (Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney), Australia
Now for a longer trip of 1900-ish nm with the PMDG Boeing 777.
Needless to say, this plane is HUGE.
I load up about 135000 lbs of fuel and taxi to runway 11 of the Darwin International Airport.
Once I get clearance from the tower, I throttle up and start accelerating.
Up we go!
The aircraft feels a bit heavy so I need to pick up a decent amount of speed before I start my climb.
Bye bye Darwin!
I start my climb to 34000 ft. This might take a while.
Lotsa clouds on the way up
Cruising
I see Groote Eylandt in the distance as I begin to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria. Groote Eylandt is part of the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve. GEMCO, a South32 / Anglo American plc joint venture, operates a large manganese mine near the community of Angurugu. The first recorded sighting of Groote Eylandt was in 1623, by the Dutch ship Arnhem, under Willem van Coolsteerdt. However, the relative prevalence of the hereditary Machado-Joseph Disease in the Groote Eylandt community (a condition otherwise mainly to be found in the Azores) was previously suggested as evidence of early contact with Portuguese sailors. Recent genetic studies showed that the Groote Eylandt families with MJD shared a haplogroup with some families from Taiwanese, Indian, and Japanese families. The island was given its current name in 1644, when Tasman arrived.
Pellew Islands The group includes Vanderlin Island, North Island, West Island, Centre Island and South West Island.
Once I’m done crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria, I take a turn south towards the Karumba River, near the Mutton Hole Wetlands Conservation Park.
I fly South-East in Queensland, briefly seeing Lake Maraboon and Fairbairn State Forest, partially hidden by clouds.
A better view of Fairbairn Dam and Lake Maraboon
Queensland is much greener than the desertic landscapes in the West of Australia.
Wuruma Reservoir and the Coominglah State Forest
Funny thing in the 777, you get a message if you’re doing nothing (aka flying on the autopilot) for too long. Apparently, it’s a safety feature for pilot fatigue.
So far the 777 is a real breeze to fly. It’s got tremendous power. Each time I see one taking off near Montreal, I am always astounded to see the sheer size of this thing.
Approaching Brisbane (YBBN). Lake Wivenhoe lies under the clouds in the distance
I descend to 20000-ish feet to see Brisbane a bit better. It’s quite a sight to behold. Moreton Island lies in the middle of Moreton Bay.
Flying over Brisbane Airport
I climb back up to FL340, we have still about 400 nm to go until Sydney.
I start my descent a bit early, about 100 nm from Sydney Airpot (YSSY)
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Beautiful!
Apparently, the television series “Skippy the Bush Kangaroo” was shot in northern Sydney at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the adjacent Waratah Park.
On Approach to Sydney
Strangely, my STAR brings me way off runway 16R. I hesitantly disconnect the autopilot just to make sure and attempt a manual landing.
That runway looks waaay too short. Surely this isn’t the right one. I decide to abort at the last second and ram the throttle forward to go around.
I circuit around to come back for a second pass. With FlyTampa’s Sydney airport, Orbx Australia and the PMDG 777, my computer’s framerate takes a real nose dive. The approach gets more difficult since I’m more stressed about FSX crashing on me than my actual plane crashing on the runway.
I finally pick the correct runway this time.
Touchdown at 145 kts with flaps 30. I’m really not used to land a plane of this size.
Phew, wheels down.
Vacating the runway
Oops, wrong way… gotta turn around.
Taxiway contamination with rain. Pretty cool effect!
Time to step off the plane.
Ugh… gotta stretch my legs.
Overall I like my trip but the FlyTampa Sydney Airport in addition to the framerate-hungry 777 and Orbx made the airport very difficult to land to.
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Nice write up Chuck! I like the fact that you disconnected the autopilot at the first sign something didn’t look right. You are thinking like a Pro. 
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So I’ve finally decided to have a go at the Mudspike Christmas Flight. I could not decide between a jet and a prop as first so decided to go Turboprop. 
I’ll be using (at least initially) the Aerobask Epic e1000 v2 in xp11, flying from Nottingham East Midlands ariport EGNX.
There she sits ready to be loaded with Christmas cheer.
My first leg, which will help me get used to flying this once more, will be to the Polish airport of Zielona Góra.
Just north of the Czech Republic it should be roughly 10 percent on the overall distance.
We’re still climbing to our cruising altitude of FL250 as we cross the coastline of the UK. There is a lot of very high speed traffic about…
Turns out there are more than a few SR71s flying about. Who knew that they made so many.
With a decent tail wind, we are not doing too badly ourselves with a GS of 405kts as we cross over the Netherlands.
As we approach Poland, the weather takes a turn for the worse, and the sun starts to do down we begin out descent, our plan is to follow the ils approach for runway 24.
On final approach to a rather gloomy Zielona Góra airport, lots of low cloud and rain on the way down.
Parked up, now for some hot food and rest before the second leg.
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Migrate to P3DV4 and say goodbye to instability. Great screen shots BTW.
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Well I’m stuck in a situation where migrating the PMDG modules I have would cost me 3 x 135 USD… For modules I already have.
PMDG is the EA of flightsimulator 
One of my best friends from high school was crew on her back in the early 2000’s- he actually met his wife there when they were both aboard at the same time.
Did you know that Claudine Christian, the crew member who lost her life in the sinking along with Captain Walbridge was actually a descendant of Fletcher Christian?
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Great history and a fascinating read. Indeed, the loss of the replica ship during Sandy was quite a scandal apparently. I love stories of these incredibly brave crews that explored the world. I can’t imagine the feeling of apprehension that the crews must have felt when sailing into parts unknown of the world.
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A most interesting tangent CP, and please keep them coming. I am about 1/2 way through book two of the Aubrey-Maturin series, and am finding the subject matter fascinating. That is Royal Navy circa is 1800. Excellent point concerning the lack of Marines on board, especially in light of how much of the crew might have been procured. Having said that, what might seem horribly cruel today (flogging, gagging) may have been necessary and thoroughly expected at the time.
IE, the beatings will continue until there is a marked improvement in morale
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Oh, I had a long list of folks on my ship who I would’ve gladly flogged. Or keel-hauled. Or both.
And in the modern service, they just find different ways to beat the crew.
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Have either of you read any of the Horatio Hornblower books? I loved the old A&E TV movies they made, but haven’t picked up the books yet.
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Negative, but will gladly add Hornblower to the reading list. Likewise, thanks @Sine_Nomine for the Monserrat recommendation.
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This is really good looking plane and great performer.
I njoyed reading your report and also review by Chris
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So after agonizing for weeks over what I wanted to fly - I’m going to go ahead and settle on a relatively fast bird, with great range, that can still do some low speed stuff and squeak into some interesting strips along the journey.
She’s not perfect - in fact, she’d got some downright frustrating tendencies (Carenado’s fault), but it’s a beautiful plane and ticks off a lot of the things I was looking for in this flight.
The cockpit is very nice…but Carenado uses some quirky mouse hot-spots for things that are really annoying. As I spend more time with the plane, I’m sure I’ll adapt to them, but they do get on my last nerve (things like the altitude pre-select scrolling all four digits, and the scroll wheel for zooming in accidentally landing on a scroll spot, etc…)
Heading out for takeoff from my “home” field (nearest to my house) of Gastonia, NC (KAKH)…
Good weather this afternoon, with just a high overcast and some breezy and cool conditions…
I use a “green needle” departure, flying the old HUGO3 departure from the Charlotte terminal area with the DEBIE transition (255 radial) down to the Greenville area…
Joining the departure transition…
Just a brief climb up to 8,000’ for this short segment. I decide to go ahead and practice an RNAV approach since I’m sure I’ll be needing those in the weeks ahead…
Descending on the RNAV approach 23 at KGYH, Donaldson Center…
At approach flap settings, the plane feels a bit odd, like it wants to fly with too much nose down pitch (almost 5 degrees). If you slow from 130 to 70 or 80 knots, the pitch deck angle takes on a more normal feeling 1 or 2 degrees nose pitch down. I don’t know if this is realistic or not - some planes (like the CRJ-200) fly those approach segments kind of nose low…so who knows…
At the final approach fix, the gear heads out and I start tracking the psuedo-glideslope on the RNAV approach…
On the deck at KGYH - time to get all my stuff out because the reason we are here is the plane is getting repainted at Stevens Aviation. It will have to be in the paint shop for a few days - we needed something specific to the Mudspike Christmas Flight…!
66 miles down…!
9,283 nm to go!
TRIP TOTALS:
66 NM FLOWN
.3 HOBBS
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Very nice, Chris! I can’t wait to read more about your journey.
In the meantime, I think Mrs Chuck Owl is gonna be very much displeased when she’s going to see where some of my pennies went…
I think I may have a condition of some sort… 
This one has to be one of the most surprising discoveries I’ve ever made… and I mean that in a good way.
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Yes, it is a really nice plane to fly, I first picked it up before Aerobask implemented the Skyview addition, but I’ve really liked how they have continued to support it and has been worth throwing a few extra pennies at them for the additional features.
I have experienced some autopilot quirks such as occasional oscillating climbs and descents , I’m not sure if that is something within the module, within xplane, or (most probably) user error.
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Love the Carenado PC-12. Reading the LR dev blog, it looks like 11.10b8 is the last beta with FM changes, and the next release will be rc1 with bug fixes only. Let’s hope that the PC-12 is high on Carenado’s list to update and hope that we don’t have to pay full price again. Likewise the TBM850.
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