The Final Leg...

[petermcleland 48]

...of my Northern Hemisphere Cirumnavigation of the World in the IFly BBJ3. This sequence starts at Narita, Tokyo, Japan and finishes at McLeland Field, Alaska:-

I'm just about ready for pushback here...The baggage loaders, rear steps and the Jetway are all backing away and the tractor is positioning to the nosewheel.

Mathias is just going to give the tractor driver the "Clear to Push"...

...And now he is walking out to follow the pushback and saying to me "The left is clear. The right is clear and you are clear to start engines."

The tractor driver does his usual superb job of turning us in reverse through 90 degrees, exactly onto the line.

Now he will go and...

...disconnect the tractor.

Here he is waving me off...BTW here at Narita he speaks with a Japanese accent and to my amazement, one second after this picture he executed a deep bow!

Taxying out now and following the purple line...sorry about that!

Tucking away the wheels and...

...turning immediately onto course...BTW for iFly specialists...Because the course is away in the opposite direction BUT still less than 3 nms away, the LNAV is executing this turn after being engaged at 400 feet. If I had waited a few more moments then LNAV would not have engaged because it would be outside that 3 nms limit and I would have had to induce this turn onto an intercept heading.

On course and climbing away, LNAV and VNAV have control.

I'm using the FS9 Real Weather downloads every 15 mins as I find this the smoothest method with less contrasty changes to upset the aeroplane.

Here we are at cruising level FL330. The time is 00:46 GMT and my ETA McLeland Field (PAMA) is 07:53 GMT with 3418 nms to go. The more observant will notice the wind is on the Port Beam and is 132 knots and you can see the drift angle on the map display.

Naturally at this height we are contrailing...We are about to Coast Out from the Northern edge of Japan.

This is shown well on the FSNav map with our track across the Pacific just touching the southern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula. The Western end of Alaska is in the top right corner.

Here is that aforementioned tip of Kamchatka...

...and confirmed here on the map.

As the Sun is starting to set, everything is going pinkish. The Moon is showing at Last Quarter phase.

If you look very carefully above the middle of the left half of the wiper blade, up to the horizon and then the same distance up again, you will see a small group of stars...They are the Pleiades, sometimes called "The Seven Sisters".

Another view of the Virtual Cockpit.

I found this interesting...The copilot's seat when moved right back then moves over to the right to make it easier to get in and out of. The captains seat does the same but to the left. The old Trident seats did not do that!

Well it is darker now and we have 1507 nms to run to Base.

The Moon looks pretty nice now...

...and even better from this angle.

Here is where we are on the FSNav map

Couldn't resist this dark shot of the Moon...And I managed to capture the flash of the lower beacon lighting the right engine nascelle.

I had to wait a long time for this shot and I have raised the contrast so that you can see the stars. Below the aircraft is Orion with its bottom left star still below the horizon. Just above the aircraft is a "V" shaped constellation with the "V" lying on its side...The bright star at the bottom left end of the "V" is Aldebaron and the Constellation is Taurus. Continue on up to near the top of the picture and you can see the Pleiades.

The green T/D Top of Descent mark is now in sight on the map and PAMA is just coming into view on the 320 nms range circle.

Still looking pretty dark outside but we are now firmly established on the ILS for runway 13 and passing 3500 feet...We have both CMD A and CMD B engaged (duplex autopilots). So we are set for a full autoland and the FLARE is showing in white lettering so it is ARMED.

This is the more dangerous runway here with the 4 degree glideslope passing hills on the left.

Home in sight and we have been cleared to land.

The windsock is showing a bit of a crosswind, but within limits. Someone is waiting to take-off.

Touching down and...

...braking with full reverse thrust and autobrakes at Max...The ship at anchor is the Royal Carribean "Freedom of the Seas".

Clear of the runway and pleased to be home.

Not quite the standard of Aerosoft's AES but this marshaller is the best I could do!

Parked on Stand 6, having circled the Globe.

Thank you for following this very long sequence

[rob16584 42]

Well done peter! Your nighttime shots are really good, not often we can say that about night-shots

[IcedUpPitotTube 0]

Excellent shots as usual Peter. Like what Rob said, your nighttime shots are wonderful; not too dark and not too light. One question: is the iFly 737's VC fully interactive?

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Loved every minute of this adventure - and the shots!

That moon shot is superb!

[petermcleland 48]

Excellent shots as usual Peter. Like what Rob said, your nighttime shots are wonderful; not too dark and not too light. One question: is the iFly 737's VC fully interactive?

Pretty well all interactive Andrew...All the things that can be clicked in the 2D can also be clicked in the VC, plus things like throttles, flaps and speedbrakes. That shot of the copilot's seat...It can be clicked to slde it back and out and the armrests can be clicked to raise or lower them. The HUD can be clicked to fold it away into the roof. I think it is probably the best VC that I have ever seen :001_th_smiles89:

[MarkJones 0]

A nice end to a night flight. Love the 10th photo, very dramatic.

I've left that bottle of Laphroaig behind the bar in the NAAFI for you. :biggrin:

[Aidan 1]

Excellent shots as usual Peter. Like what Rob said, your nighttime shots are wonderful; not too dark and not too light. One question: is the iFly 737's VC fully interactive?

Pretty well all interactive Andrew...All the things that can be clicked in the 2D can also be clicked in the VC, plus things like throttles, flaps and speedbrakes. That shot of the copilot's seat...It can be clicked to slde it back and out and the armrests can be clicked to raise or lower them. The HUD can be clicked to fold it away into the roof. I think it is probably the best VC that I have ever seen :001_th_smiles89:

Till PMDG release theirs

Great Leg- im taking an Sierra LSA around the world on a different forum, maybe when I return from that (in a few months) ill do a ATWT (around the world trip) in a 737 to!

[SEATAC 400]

Quite nice.

[petermcleland 48]

A nice end to a night flight. Love the 10th photo, very dramatic.

I've left that bottle of Laphroaig behind the bar in the NAAFI for you. :biggrin:

Thank you Mark

[MarkJones 0]

Heh it's better then the stuff they normally serve, a slightly mote refined version is sold outside under the name of "avtur"

[stu7708 244]

Great flight Pete.. Those shots of the night sky is very impressive.. must check some day if the FSX night sky is as accurate.

[petermcleland 48]

Great flight Pete.. Those shots of the night sky is very impressive.. must check some day if the FSX night sky is as accurate.

Easy to find out Mikael...Just look at the File "Stars.dat" and see if it is 429kb...if it is less then FSX is not as accurate. BTW the file I use works in FSX as well as FS9 :smile:

[MarkJones 0]

My FSX Stars.dat is 908kb and is dated 09/09/06.

It doesn't look as detailed as in your shots. It has been a while since I done a night flight though.

[petermcleland 48]

My FSX Stars.dat is 908kb and is dated 09/09/06.

It doesn't look as detailed as in your shots. It has been a while since I done a night flight though.

OK Mark...it must have more stars in it than FS9 then...So that answers your question Mikael :001_th_smiles89:

[stu7708 244]

My FSX Stars.dat is 908kb and is dated 09/09/06.

It doesn't look as detailed as in your shots. It has been a while since I done a night flight though.

OK Mark...it must have more stars in it than FS9 then...So that answers your question Mikael :001_th_smiles89:

Either more stars, or a less efficient way of storing the data.. remember it's MS we're talking about after all :th_smiles73:

But I can alway hope that your answer is the right one since I have the same version of Stars.dat as Mark...

[petermcleland 48]

My FSX Stars.dat is 908kb and is dated 09/09/06.

It doesn't look as detailed as in your shots. It has been a while since I done a night flight though.

OK Mark...it must have more stars in it than FS9 then...So that answers your question Mikael :001_th_smiles89:

Either more stars, or a less efficient way of storing the data.. remember it's MS we're talking about after all :th_smiles73:

But I can alway hope that your answer is the right one since I have the same version of Stars.dat as Mark...

I would be interested to know if Orion and the Pleiades look similar or more detailed in your FSX...I suspect that they will look the same and the extra stars in FSX are a Magnitude lower and will therefore only show on a very high resolution screen ...Another possibility is the same number of stars but an element of Colour...If so then Betelgeuse (top left in Orion in Northern Hemisphere) would be Reddish and Rigel (bottom right in Orion in Northern Hemisphere) would be Blueish