My attempt at getting around the world in A2A B-17 Accusim Flying Fortress!
Rules
- realtime flights, no time acceleration
- real weather by ASN
- VFR when ever possible
- no repairs on small airports
- no maps that automatically update the plane location, only onboard navigation instruments and normal maps
Route
- https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit? ... V95KEWPb1s
- long legs can be divided to shorter ones and plan may change
I'm using FTX Global + Vector and FSGlobal Mesh for scenery and Active Sky Next for weather. Didn't take too many pictures in Europe because i was (am) still learning and didn't realise that all i have to do is press "v"
Anyways, here are some photos, a fast recap of what has happened so far:
Flying over Santorini, heading to Heraklion
During flight from Cyprus to Istanbul I had my first scare, a massive thunderstorm above Antalya. Even I knew that anvil shaped clouds were bad news... foolishly tried to run through it, wasn't a good idea...
The turbulence was too heavy so I had to do an unscheduled stop at Denizli after almost crashing the plane. The landing wasn't easy either, but we survived!
After waiting for a boring few days in turkish countryside for the weather to clear we carried on towards Istanbul
Next a visit to the winter olympics in Sotchi, Russia. The approach was guite interesting, houses on both sides not more than a 100 metres from the wingtips...
Next stop, Middle East and Africa! Landed on the lowest airport in Israel, then on towards Cairo
A looooong flight over the Sahara desert was up next, so a few days off was in order. Had a wonderful view of the pyramids on departure
After that it was just blue skies...
...and a LOT of sand
Time for the first real problem with the plane: about half way to Marrakech I noticed the hydraulic pump running constantly, there was a major hydraulic leak somewhere and we were losing fluid rapidly. Great, just what I need over Sahara during a totally dark night. Suddenly my heart was pounding. Checked the maps to see if there were any runways with lights on them, didn't find any so kept my fingers crossed and kept on going to Marrakech. Luckily I still had some pressure left when I landed!
Departing Marrakech after the leak has been fixed
A quick stop at Madeira, then towards Kap Verde
Kap Verde to Dakar
Dakar in sight
Somewhere over Monrovia
From Monrovia the plan was to head northeast until meeting with the river Niger and the follow it to Tombouctou. The river was easy to find, i was huge
Tombouctou
Then follow the river again, to south. Clouds made it a bit challenging this time
Arrival at Gaya Airport, Benin
More to come!
I will definitely give it a go!
Had to repair a bunch of stuff, including a complete overhaul to engine #1... 