My personal ATWC

[stu7708 244]

Hi everyone.

Some of you might have seen that I have an adventure going in the Blog section, but since there's now an appropriate forum for such things I figured I'd move it here.

The challange I've taken on is to cirrcumnavigate the globe using only airfields located north of the N60 Longitude. The trip is split up into 15 legs.

I started my journey at Sundsvall-Härnösand Airport (ESNN), a medium sized regional airport with a 6857 ft runway, and headed over to Helsinki-Vantaa airport (EFHK) for the first leg. From there I headed north into Russian territory and Arkhangelsks Talagi Airport(ULAA), and then continued east to Surgut Airport (USRR) where I am at the moment. The next stop will be Norilsk, and Alykel Ariport (UOOO).

Keeping to my eastern heading the next stop will be Chersky Airport (UESS), and then on to Ugolny Airport (UHMA) for my final stop on Russian ground.

The next target will be Alaska and Anchorage INTL (PANC) for my only stop on US soil. Crossing Canada will be done in four stop starting in Inuvik Mike Zubko Airport (CYEV) and continuing with Fort Simpson Airport (CYFS), Rankin Inlet Airport (CYRT) and finaly Iqaluit Airport (CYFB).

From there vi head over to Iceland and Kevlavik International Airport (BIKF) and then via Akureyri Airport (BIAR) over to Norway and Bodö Airport (ENBO), and then just a short hop back to Sundsvall-Härnösand (ESNN) to complete the tour.

The storyline present in some of the posts are purely fictional, but it does at times incoroprate real world events.

Below you will find the first three legs copied over from my blog. From now on updates will be done in this forum.

So, on with the story. Enjoy the read.

[stu7708 244]

It all started with a few pints and some Single Malt at the local pub, and a discussion about many things with both friends and total strangers.

Some time during the evening we slipped in to aviation, and a friend said.. "You can never manage to fly around the world, staying north of the 60N longitude."

Was I really this easy to manipulate? A simple "You can never" statement and I jumped straight into the unknown of a giant project. And to top it of I came back with, "Not only can I do that, I can also manage a second trip around the world staying within 5 degrees north or south of the equator."

I must be mad. Well, the challange was on, and there was no backing out now. A few weeks of planning led to a plan of 15 stops for the first part of the challange. It would include stops in Sweden, Finland, Russia, The US, Canada, Iceland and Norway before returning to Sweden for some much needed rest before the second part.

The first leg would take me from Sundsvall Härnösand Airport located at N62°31'46.00" E017°26'34.00" to Finland and Helsinki Vantaa Airport, that was just north of my southern border at N60°19'02.00" E024°57'48.00".

The route for the flight can be found below:

ESNN SID DETMO UM852 DEGED UT89 VAS UP854 PIR UT95 AMEDU UL24 LAKUT STAR EFHK.

For the flight I had managed to loan an Airbus A320 from EasyJet that was in the area conducting test flights for a new company route.

Pushing back from the gate at ESNN

Taxi

At the holding point for runway 34

Back tracking down the runway, as seen from the tower.

We have lift off

Climbing and cleaning her up

After flying runway heading for about 5 nm a hard right was needed to follow the SID

The clear skies over Sundsvall was soon replaced with more cloud cover as we started to cross the Baltic Sea. But at FL310 we were above most of it.

Just as we had reached the finish mainland ATC started our stepped decent... (How did I survive the FSX ATC.. RC works so much better)

After desending in steps to FL120 I got my vectors to the ILS approach for runway 04L

Waiting for ILS interception

On long final, with the gears comming down

A view from the office

Touchdown

Decided to go easy on the brakes and use the full runway to slow me down. The terminal buildings in the background. Not bad for a default airport.

And so ends the first leg of this adventure. Next we head north east into russia.

[stu7708 244]

The flight started an early morning in helsinki, parked up at gate 28 with the snow comming down thick and fast.

The Captain of the Aeroflot flight into Archanglesk had kindly allowed me to fly his 767 with him in the Co-pilot seat.

His regular first officer didn't sound to happy when he got the message. Good thing I don't speak russian.

Just to make sure everyone is with me, I'm in the big plane in the middle of the shot

After an uneventful boarding of 100 passengers the jetway was retracting, and we had premission to push and start.

Both enginges running, and pushed back without incidents, but this situation did make the captain wonder what he had gotten himself in on allowing me to fly the plane.

Atleast we got out of it without damage to anything.

The rest of the taxi to runway 04R was textbook stuff, and as a bonus the snow stopped falling..

..and it wasn't long before we were climbing out from Helsinki Vaanta following the SID.

Still climbing. Takes a while to get to FL330, even in a jet.

The "real" first officer was sitting behind me muttering to himself, most likely just waiting for an opourtunity to correct any misstake on my behalf.

Getting close to FL330 and our cruise altitude

For some strange reason a passanger slid this shot under the cockpit door.

As we passed over the finnish/russian border we made a hard left to join the correct Airway.

Even if the sun was up there were still plenty of stars visible. But I really can't tell one star from the other so don't ask me to name any constellations.

A good looking plane, with the sun rising behind it.

Archanglesk is only about an hours flight from Helsinki, so it wasn't long before we were asked to decend again.

26 miles out from the destination. Time to start following the STAR for runway 08. No ILS though.

Had to do a rather steep decent to get down to where ATC wanted me for the approach.

Following the STAR, my destination is somewhere out there to my right.

Runway in sight. But that STAR didn't put me in a good spot. And no PAPI lights either... oh well, here we go.

Got it about right now, just ease her down.

Down, with rubber touching tarmac, again, not to bad a landing either.

Taxiing in to the terminal.

Found a parking spot where we fit.

Now where are those stairs so we can deboard.

Looked like we just beat the rushhour in. Before those stairs where present at the plane it looked like Aeroflot had a staff meeting on the apron.

Now all I have to do is to await my next ride. An A319 from Siberian airline S7. Should be here within the hour or so. Still, with the short days they have up here I have no hope of making Surgat before the sun sets.

Next leg is also underway. So right now I'm heading east with Led Zeppelin in my ears...

[stu7708 244]

It was far from a clear and wonderful summers day in Archangelsk when I finally could get on with my challange.

But before we got on with the story, let me fill you in on what's been going on.

On the planned day for the Archangelsk to Surgut leg disaster struck at my destination when a TU-154 exploded while taxiing to the runway leaving me stuck in Archanglesk with Surgut closed for the remainder of the day. While deeply sadden by the accident I also realized that this was going to mean a lot of trouble for me.

It had been a frustrating task setting up the flights through Russia, and now I would have to go back and cut through all that red tape again to get renewed premissions for the flight. I soon realized that this was going to take a lot of time and effort, and decided to board the first commercial flight back home, and then come back to Archangelsk once everything was sorted...

And here we are, almost six months later :001_th_smiles48:

Now, lets get back to the story.

I had managed to loan an almost brand new Airbus A319 from Siberian Airways (S7) for the 935 nm flight to Surgut. The winds were comming in from the west, so we taxied to runway 26 for departure.

The traffic was nonexisting on this rainy day, so it wasn't long before we we're cleared for take-off and our rubber had left the ground

Climbing towards FL310

The clouds stayed with me for quite some time

Finally the cloud cover was behind me and I could enjoy the view of the wilderness

A top down view of my location about half way to surgut.

As I started my descent into Surgut those pesky rainclouds came back

Further down, and the clouds are still with me

Close to what I guess would be a right downwind following the STAR/ILS approach for runway 25

And here ends this PIPREP. For some reason FRAPS gave me no more screenshots during this session, but I got down in one piece.

[mutley 4,498]

Hi Micke,

It's great to catch up with this again, it's going well! :001_th_smiles89:

[stu7708 244]

Thanks, but I'd say it's going slow since the first flight was done back in november

Next flight will most likely be done in the Comet as part of the review work.

[Sabre 28]

Excellent work Micke, I love these sort of posts, just adds to the interest. Interesting journey, great shots :icon_thumbup:

[stu7708 244]

Thanks Sabre.

And just to let everyone know, the next leg is done and the leg after that is underway. However, I will wait a bit before publishing the shots, since atleast some of it will be part of the images used for an upcoming review. Once the review have been published I'll get the shots from those two legs up in the forum too.

[ddavid 149]

Did you sort the fuel problems out? Wouldn't like a power fail over Siberia...

Nice going - I admire your tenacity, Micke!

Cheers - Dai.

[stu7708 244]

Cheers Dai.

After some troubleshooting with some help from Martyn I have seen some improvement, but it still doesn't work as it should according to the manual.

At least the right side engines are now getting their fuel from the right side fuel tanks, so I have access to all available fuel tanks.

And I'm still getting nowhere close to the published speed in cruise at high altitude.