Kwitcherbitchin around the world - Complete!

[Roadburner426]

That isn't bad at all. I am definitely doing this over Christmas vacation then. Gives me a few weeks to sit down and scope out all the sight seeing I want to do along with the actual flight. With the maintenance yeah the air, oil, and fuel filters go yellow between 30-50 hours at which point I always change them. The generators go yellow around 50 something hours depending on abuse. My hyd pump went yellow around 200 hours, and I changed it when I noticed the pressure/volume just wasn't cutting it. Flaps and gear were real slow to extend and retract. Now at 334 hours my oil pump, and fuel pump are yellow. Fuel pressure is down to 17/18psi, and oil pressure is hanging around the lower red mark in cruise. I also went through a lot of brakes in the beginning, but as part of my flight planning thing I plan nice long approaches using the real world charts. So now I come in nice and smooth at the appropriate landing speeds and haven't had to change the brakes in over 150 hours.

[AviationAtWar]

I flew last night and this afternoon so this will be a double update.


Leaving Attu.






MAN, it's dark and lonely out here.






Down at PADU, Unalaska airport, after 2.4 in the air. 7.5 gallons of fuel left on shutdown this time and 4 gallons of oil burned.



Leaving Unalaska today.



Approaching Kodiak airport.



If you put a bridge near an airport sooner or later this is going to happen.






Parked at Kodiak, PADQ, after 1.8 hours.




I think I can finish the trip with four more flights.

[Roadburner426]

Nice pass under the bridge. The only time I have ever tried that was in Niagra Falls at the bridge that goes over the river gorge downstream from the falls. Is always fun to break the rules once in a blue moon. Won't be to much longer now before you are back at your home airport.

[AviationAtWar]

Two or three more flights and I think I'll be home. At least I'm back to where I can land whenever I need to with the airport density in the US. I did another 2.2 hours to CZMT in Masset, British Columbia last night but I guess I only did one screen shot when I landed.

[Roadburner426]

Looks like you caught the attention of Lewis. You made it to the A2A Facebook feed now even though you are almost home.

[AviationAtWar]

Hey, cool! Thanks Lewis!

[AviationAtWar]

1.4 to CBJ4 last night, Echo Valley in British Columbia.

[LZ-WIL]

Hi,

Nice late shots! I got goosebumps seeing some of your landings at night.
I've never yet flown my P-51 at night.

Cheerz,
Will

[AviationAtWar]

Thanks! You should fly yours at night!

Well, I was in North Dakota last night and just as the landing gear touched the runway I had a fatal FSX error and crash to desktop. I hadn't saved any progress during that leg so it's frustrating. I'm still hoping to be done this weekend though.

[Roadburner426]

So weird that you've gone the whole way without a FSX error till now. Sad that it happens sometimes. At least you are going to finish to the end! Come to far not to at this point, lol. Flying at night is good in the Civilian P-51. I did add strobes to my military P-51 just in case I fly past dusk, but since getting the Civilian I only fly it in the day time to do tricks and stuff.

[AviationAtWar]

On the ground at KABR in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

[AviationAtWar]

I had three crashes to desktop in less than three hours last night. It wasn't a problem until I returned to the US because of OpenLC North America. I have to download the new Orbx interface anyway and was planning to to so after finishing this trip; I've always questioned the way and location that scenery files were installed on my hard drive so I think I might take the next week and do a complete wipe and reinstall. I've backed off on weather, traffic and scenery sliders, I think my computer should be handling it better than this.

I finished my last leg last night nonetheless. I had saved the flight just after I finished my climb but I lost about an hour worth of progress when it crashed the first time, I lost some progress to a lesser extent the other times but in the end it took me over three hours to fly under 700 miles.

Lake Michigan coming into view.



Low pass over the runway.



I did a few rolls over the runway trying to get screenshots of that but didn't come up with any I liked, and I started to get the feeling I was going to end up crashing before getting the shot I wanted. I didn't want to end this with a crash so I gave it up.


My final landing.






The old girl finally able to get some rest. You'll note the fuel box in the background from my first post which is where I started my trip. I taxied by it on the way to my parking spot so I'm truly full circle!



So, the only real failure I had for the whole trip was that landing gear collapse that was most likely entirely my fault. I did mention replacing the fuel and oil filters a couple times and they've been yellow for the last several thousand miles. Once I got to Alaska then I stopped replacing filters and didn't repair the oil or hydraulic leaks I developed. I wanted a failure but never got one! The low compression and engine issues I attribute to running it at high power. Some of my climbs, mostly early on, were 50-55". For about the last half of the trip I started to use the normal 46" limit.



In total the trip took slightly over 73 hours of flight time and covered about 26,000 miles when you account for course corrections and indecisiveness.





I'd like to thank all of those who followed along, especially those who commented and especially Roadburner who most helped to keep the conversation going. This was my second time around the world in the Mustang and I've done it once in the 377 but the other two times I had taken more direct routes. I started to get a bit weary before getting to the Australia area and I don't think I would have finished if it weren't for this thread.

[alan CXA651]

Hi.
Well done on your round the world trip , i have been following it , was very impressed .
regards alan.

[AviationAtWar]

Thanks, Alan!

[Piper_EEWL]

Very nice trip. Congratulations on finishing! I also enjoyed that thread.

Happy flying