Connecting the dots

I did it! The dots are connected. 27 flights, 11.730 nm, 72 flying hours.



After leaving Omsk (UNOO), I took the Beech to Yekaterinburg (USSS, formerly Sverdlovsk) the city, where a certain Boris Yelzin was born, known throughout the world as the heavyweight binge drinking world champion. The next stop was Samara (UWWW) and from there to Bryansk (UUBP) just 50 nm from the belarussian border. Having the crossing of russia almost completed, I left the Beech 1900 behind, because Bryansk is, where she will be based for scheduled flights to Saransk, Kaluga, Homiel (Belarus) and Charkiv (Ukraine).

The trip continued on the C414 towards Kaunas (EYKA) in Lithuania. The next stop planned was Bornholm in Denmark, but seeing, that the remaining 650nm to Emden were well within the Cessna's range, I decided to just make a beeline for it. I didn't know that it is possible to get emotional about flying in the simulator, but when I got the following transmission :

Interflug 026, contact Berlin Control on 123 decimal 225

my eyes started to water. Now, mind you I technically never left German soil in the last 10 days, in fact I didn't even leave the boundaries of Ingolstadt, but all this simflying at the far end of the world gave me a feeling of coming home from an epic journey. Well maybe I'm just an idiot, but it somehow felt great :-)

And now for the promised pictures from the Novosibirsk-Omsk flight

view from a dark and cold office

Gate assignment, russian style (note the ultramodern airstair) ...

...while all the big stuff stands in the cheap spaces

Taking off just in time. An inbound S7 Tu-154 is already on final. Wouldn't wanna cramp their style, eh?

touchdown bang on time in excellent weather

after flying halfway across the globe I seem to have become useless at parking...

So,what purpose did that serve? Well, several :

• I have now 70+ flying hours and by FSPax rules I'm now legal to fly Jets up to 44K lbs (don't try this in reality)
• I've seen places (virtually), that I never was at before.
• I've done a lot of approaches without any gadgetry or navaids to turn for help to. And I've become a lot better at getting it right.
• I've managed to overfly the most eastern (big diomede island) and the most western (leaving Kaliningrad oblast for poland) of russia and I racked up 35 flying hours in between. That puts a perspective to the huge landmass, that is russia.

So now it's the life on the line ahead. Actually not quite. There are still 6 Beech 1900's standing in Filton, after getting their coat of paint, so the next days will be a flurry of flying birdwhackers from Great Englandland to Germania to their respective bases. Oh joy.

Cheers, and always keep your takeoff-landing ratio at 1:1