^^^^^^^
I crossed a line. Giving myself a 1 month Mudspike break. (We all need them from time to time.)
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Unapproved. Or, if that doesn’t work, time accel times 64…means you get half a day off. See you this evening. 
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Yes! Thanks a lot, feel free to delve in to as much depth as you like! looking forward to the read. 
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Aaaand here we are. This is my first entry for the Christmas Challenge.
Click to reveal AAR
It’s a grey afternoon in Montreal. There is a low cloud layer but no rain. As I climb into my trusty A319, I fire up the APU and start the MCDU dance once again.
Start-up is painless; looks like all this studying I did on the A320 finally paid off! Taxiing is uneventful.
Taking off on CYUL Runway 24L
Up we go!
No fancy SID, this time. Direct to the next Waypoint VEVKU, above Cap Saint-Jacques.
Au revoir, Montreal!
Even waypoints remind me of that horrible hockey team we have (nicknamed the “Habs”).
Even with max passenger and cargo capacity, the A319 still climbs like a race car in comparison to the A320.
Zoom!
Crossing the US border
Near Syracuse, New York. Lake Ontario in the vicinity.
Heavy winds above PSB (Philipsburg)
Any idea why the blue stripes on the wing? I always wondered…
Washington DC and the Potomac River
Mountains of West Virginina and the Shenandoah Valley. Absolutely stunning.
Charlotte, with Lake Norman and Rodhiss Lake
Beginning of sunset
Savannah
Oconee National Forest, with Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair
Approaching Atlanta
Wow… this city looks MASSIVE! Deploying speed brakes to slow down in a hurry.
Descending towards Runway 09L
Visibility is getting low
Last turn
Manual landing. Visibility is… err…
Almost there!
Landing is a bit long but very smooth
Slowing down
Thrust reversers because why not?
Looking for a parking spot
Enough for today.
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Beautiful AAR! Good idea to use a “hide details” block!
Really
Country road…
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Yeah like that the thread won’t be super cluttered.
John Denver never gets old. I actually drove through West Virginia when I visited Washington DC last summer. Breathtaking landscapes.
Great write-up, Chuck!
Since you’re open to suggestions, I was wondering if you’d like to do another leg or two in the Q400 this year? I’d love to see you work the Universal Avionics UNS-1.
Leg 2 EHAM —> EGTE
Start-up (click to read)
just a light, friendly drizzle as I get her up and running again.
The boot-up happens under ground power to save me some fuel. Speaking of fuel, I’m having her pumped up to the required block amount and a little extra for the fairly long taxi today.
The gas flows while I do the MCDU stuff again. Pretty nice feat that you can just enter WP’s and the bus adds the correct airway on its own. I also had the third the third navigation system all fixed up. The repair crew was really professional, all it took for them was one firm, solid hit with a hammer on that fault light, and all my problems were gone.
The route is in! We’ll head out straight for the North Sea. We’ll get over England right near the mouth of the river Thames and overfly london. For our descent we’ll make our way to the southern coast until we get to EGTE.
APU is looking good. The refueling is done. disconnecting the ground power and asking EHAM ground for the pushback. I asked nicely if they could push me out of the gate, and then tow me along a little to the correct taxiway for runway 27. EHAM ground agreed.
TOW truck… wait… The tow truck finally shows up. Luckily, he was not carrying ATGMs of any kind.
Nose gear lifted a few inches up, the parking brakes are off, about to get pushed and starting up engine #2.
Engine number 2 coming online during the towing phase of the push-back.
Climb, Cruise, Descent (click to read)
After being set up for the taxi, the driver shows me the bypass-pin and heads for a well deserved break.
On the taxi-ways…
Holding short of 18L/36R, almost there now.
Here we are. Runway 27, our sheduled take-off runway for today. The same one as we landed on last night.
Getting ready to roll
Take-off was pretty uneventful, we go ‘feet wet’ within a few minutes after take-off.
Continuing our climb towards cruise over the North Sea.
And up to conning alt. I love everything about x-plane, but cons are one of the things I’d hope they will one day do a little better than it is now.
Top of climb! Still a fairly short section with only 15 minutes worth of cruising time.
England occasionally pops up inbetween the clouds.
‘Feet dry!’. Right next to the river Thames as planned.
Double checking on the terrain display. London sits between LAM and OCK.
Cruising over London…
And we made it to the top of descent.
So far we’ve only seen it being partially overcast, and that slight drizzle we had at EHAM. But now, I see nothing but overcast weather on the route up ahead.
50 miles out of EGTE I can pick up their ATIS. Winds 270 for 8, variable 230, 330. Overcast 1600, scattered 21500, rain, visibility 9. EGTE does not have an ILS system but the conditions are acceptable for the planned RNAV approach.
Hitting some turbulence as I start to dip into the clouds.
Starting to see that rain they mentioned. Last pair of turns before landing
Getting close! I wish I could show you guys the RNAV approach using V/DEV and FDA FD but it turns out the FFA320 avionics don’t play along nicely with the replay functionality, hopefully next time.
Manually flew it to touch-down. Just a slight, little bounce…
Taxi and shutdown (click to read)
Safely slowed to taxi speed.
The default scenery looks remarkably close to how I remember the airport when I last visited, which must have been in 2014.
At the ‘gate’!
And shut down…
Distance travelled: 4.13%
Thanks for reading! (the vids don’t work when tucked under a details block, sorry!)
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I waved…!
Great AAR - glad you squeaked in to ATL. Looking forward to the next leg…!
Woo hoo! Another Airbus? Is that in the rules…? 
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yup! The A320 again! Don’t worry, the next leg is the last one I will do in it for the forseeable future, even though it is just to much fun to fly!
Me too 
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Joining in. I didnt decide on frames and I didnt decide on the full route yet. In the end it is simple - for me it is to the E and then to SE.
One thing I gues I know. Inspired by @smokinhole I am going the HELI way 
Crossing border to the E, first stop Uzhorod. Local airport ( in XP ) is nothing to write home about so I found another spot to park my Ranger for the night.
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Start up in Uzhorod Ukraine, next stop Maramures Romania.
After crosing border to the S low clouds forcing me to find my way through waleys. Only ’ trusty ’ ADF helping me out.
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Haven’t decided the route or aircraft yet but am considering a “reverse Columbus” as it were…head east to get to the…um…well…more east, as it were.
I’ve read some about the early trips from London to Australia…very interesting routes.
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The most challenging part of my journey will undoubtedly be the very long oceanic crossings, from San Francisco to Honolulu, and then on to Pago Pago. Before we get to that part though, I need to get myself to the Bay Area from Austin Texas. I wanted to fly something vintage, and as I flew the whole trip in the DC3 last year, I decided to pick up something different for this part of the trek, so…
My trusty steed for the journey to Oakland, California, is the Alabeo Beechcraft Staggerwing. Here we are departing Austin Bergstrom Intl. Next stop will be Roswell, NM. The weather was pretty crumby at Austin today.
Downtown Austin visible through the murk…
Climbing up towards clearer skies…
Cruising along at 8000ft. She’s certainly easy on the eye .
The panel is simple but looks great.
A couple of hours later, somewhere over New Mexico.
Turning base at Roswell. Unfortunately there is no stock 3D airport scenery here.
And that concludes my first leg. Next stop will be Sedona, Arizona.
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Leg 2 from Roswell KROW to Sedona (KSEZ) was uneventful. I made a slight detour to take in Meteor Crater near Winslow, and then headed straight to Sedona.
Meteor Crater
After Meteor Crater, I use Mormon Lake as a visual reference point.
Sedona airport is located at the top of a Mesa…
Gear traveling…
Short final…
Next stop Las Vegas Baby Yeah!
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Very nice…!
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I’ve always loved the Staggerwing. When I think of the “golden age” of aviation that was the 30’s, I think of the GeeBee, the Ford Trimotor, and the Staggerwing. I might have to pick up that one for X-plane myself.
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I’m definitely going “the other way around”. Less water and if I landed in Vegas…well let’s just say that my Heatblur F-14 fund would take a serious hit. 
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