How to Plan an Around the World Flight

Many of us from the F.S Flight Club International have flown global circumnavigation flights. In fact, that's kind of how we all got together. I'm sure that each one has their own way of setting up, planning and flying these things but I thought, for the "newbies" out there, that I'd write a little "How to..." guide. So far as I'm concerned, this is THE BEST way to learn:
1) about a new simulator version
2) about a favorite airplane
3) about how to fly different aircraft
4) about geography and navigation
If there are ANY of these four things you want to get better at, this is arguably the best way to accomplish your goal.

Step One: Well, you need to have a working Flight Simulator Game installed on your working computer. I guess that's a given huh?

Step One A: Next, you'll need to decide WHAT your goals are. Do you want to fly just ONE PLANE the whole way? If so, WHAT PLANE? Some things to bear in mind here are the range of your aircraft and what facilities are needed. If you choose a 767 for example, the range won't be as big a challenge as finding runways long enough. If you choose the Cessna Caravan then range could be a BIG deal! Also, the Caravan can land places that you wouldn't want to take a PC-12 for example so then, planning becomes almost a bigger issue than the actual flying.

Step Two: Once you decide WHAT you're going to fly you need to figure out WHERE/HOW you are going to make it happen. You'll need some good maps. It has been my experience that most towns on a map have at least some kind of a strip shown in FS. Now, if you are taking an A310 you'll need to use FSNavigator or do some FS database research to be sure that the town you picked to land in has more than a 2,800 foot dirt strip! As for maps, I use this great website: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html [If you are using something like a Decathlon, you need to know the range. Then get your map out, measure 2/3 to 3/4 of your range and pick your destination (quality of strips are less important for a Decathlon or DC-3). Other than that, good luck getting across the oceans!]

Step Three: What I like to do is fly different planes on each leg. There are two ways you can do that:
A) you can pick random destinations and find planes to fit the legs
B) you can pick random planes and plan a route based on what you're flying. (Here you need to be careful that you don't end up an ocean away from your destination with only a Cessna and Beechcraft left to fly) For our example here today, we'll do option B.

Picking your planes: Lets not overwhelm you with 50 legs. I'm working off all of Tony's great FS Flight Club Repaints available on our website (http://www.toomuchfs.com/) Lets pick maybe just 23 planes to get us around. You can be random however you want but I chose 34 Club Planes from my hanger, then I alphabetized them by manufacturer, numbered them 1-34 and then dropped from the list every third plane until I had 23 left. Then I re-alphabetized them by designation (A320, 737, Baron, Dash 8 etc) and that is the order they'll fly in.

Finding a Route to fit the planes: Well, we could throw any old town to fy to/from but we'll try and hit most of the continents of the world. Where to start........who knows? Somehow I came up with Palm Springs, CA. (It's fun to start and stop somewhere you know or somewhere close to home.) I know that there is one daily non-stop between Palm Springs and Portland, OR so that'll be leg one in the A320.









Leg 2: How about Portland to Sapporo for the 707?










Leg 3: Sapporo to Shanghai for the 737?










Leg 4: Ready to find the rest on your own? How 'bout Shanghai to Port-Villa, Vanuatu for the 757.










Leg 5: Port-Villa to Perth, Australia for the 767.










Leg 6: Perth to Adelaide, Australia for the 737-500 Faces.











Leg 7: Adelaide to Taipei in the 747 TooMuchFS Cargo.










Leg 8: Taipei to Kuwait City in the 747-400.









Leg 9: Kuwait to Karachi, Pakistan in the EMB-120.








Leg 10: Karachi to Addis, Ethiopia in the Caravelle.










Leg 11: Addis to Cape Town in the Super Connie











Leg 12: Cape Town to Joburg in the Dash 7










Leg 13: Looks like I got us stuck in Africa for awhile. Well sometimes you get a run of smaller planes and you get to see parts of the world you don't always fly to! Johannesburg to Blantyre, Malawi in the Dash 8? That'll be a long haul!










Leg 14: Blantyre to Goma, Dem. Repub of Congo (used to be Zaire) for the DC-4.









Leg 15: Goma to Entebbe, Uganda in the Decathlon. (Nice views of the northern edge of Lake Victoria!)











Leg 16: Entebbe to Cairo, Egypt in the ERJ?











Leg 17: Dassault Falcon takes us Cairo to Bursa, Turkey. ('nother nice spot near the water. Warning: Do not land a 767 here, unless you're me - did that once!












Leg 18: Bursa to Sofia, Bulgaria in the King Air 200.













Leg 19: Well, I was hoping to have the MD-11 for "Crossing the Pond" into South America but that isn't working out is it? Are we stuck? How about MD-11 Sofia to the Azore's or Iceland? ("Sorry" to all the Europeans and the South Americans out there...better luck next time aiy?)












Leg 20: Azore's to Halifax, NovaScotia in the MD-80? Might be kinda tight for gas.....











Leg 21: Now the long drive back to Palm Springs. Hummmmmmm? P-51 Mustang.....Halifax to Chicago Midway? Maybe Detroit, MI?











Leg 22: Chicago to Las Vegas in the F-86 Sabrejet.












Leg 23: Las Vegas to Palm Springs in the Twin Otter!

Scheduling: Luckily for those with Real Lives FS lets us pause and save flights anywhere so even if you have that three-day business meeting coming up you can still make an on-time arrival in Goma! But, you'll need to decide how long you want to stay in each place. Maybe you want to stay there as long as it takes you to get back to the sim but if I ended up in Sofia for three weeks in December..... I might get homesick. Maybe you want to do 4-6 hour layovers in each place with a 24 thrown in every 6th leg or something like that? The schedules are up to you. What I did on my first world tour was see what time I arrived and then decide. Argentina at 10:22 PM - I'll stay the night. Bursa, Turkey at 12:20 PM, grab lunch and leave 2 hours later. Whatever, it's YOUR game now, knock yourself out!

Conclusions: So, there you have a couple of ideas from "The Cub Flounder" about how to plan and fly "Round-the-World-Adventures". I have got to tell you, it really IS an adventure. If you've never ventured out that far, it's about time you do. If you are afraid of your skills or what might happen along the way, turn off your crash detection. If you don't have charts or waypoints, try to remember that you are not a real pilot. (If you ARE then buy your own charts!) Mostly, this is about learning something and having a whole planeload of fun along the way.Good Luck, and please, if you do this flight or make up your own. Send me a postcard!