Kwitcherbitchin around the world - Complete!

[AviationAtWar]

Today I started another around the world trip in the Mustang and made a successful first leg. I've been fighting out of memory issues so I decided to try the trip without drop tanks and fly only on internal fuel, this is the third time I've attempted the trip and the first time I've done a successful first leg. Anyway, I expect this has been done many times over but I'll post some shots and information from my trip if anybody has interest.

I started from my home airport, KLAF.

All fueled up and ready to start.



Buzzing the field after takeoff.



Heading east out of town.



This is looking south as I passed along the south side of Lake Erie.



Rather than fly with a flight plan and to pre determined airports I'm just flying as far as I can on what fuel I have, or I'll fly as time allows. My first stop ended up being KOWK, Central Maine Regional.


Touching down a little fast and too far down the runway.



Ready for refueling at KOWK.



I'm flying at higher power than most people probably do, trying to cover more ground in less time rather than worrying about economy or longevity. I don't purposely beat it up but I'm not gentle either. I cruised at 27,000 feet at around 50" and 2,700 RPM. Flight time was 2.6 hours and I burned 241 gallons of fuel.

[r601020]

From Charleston, WV (KCRW), went the other direction. Enjoy the ride.

[Lewis - A2A]

Great job and good luck. I think doing shorter hops should help greatly if your experiencing OOM's in the sim. Another alternate though not ideal is that you disable some scenery for extra long legs.

cheers,
Lewis

[NeverMiss51]

I took mine from KBED (massachusetts) to Bermuda! It only took about 3 hours. It was my longest flight. Used about 1/2 of the internal tanks, almost all of the FUS tank.

Cruised at 27000' and 40/2400

I was getting about 297 KTS Ground Speed.

[Piper_EEWL]

Nice journey you have ahead there. I'll be interested to see how long the Merlin will last on those power settings

Happy flying

[AviationAtWar]

Thanks guys!

I had time for a quick flight after work tonight. .8 hours from KOWK to CYFC - Fredericton International Airport in New Brunswick, Canada. I'm officially out of the US.

Heading out.




Can anyone in Canada confirm that you have actual hills made of water?




Ready for fueling at Fredericton.

[AviationAtWar]

I flew another 2 hour leg tonight ending up at CCH4 which is Charlottetown, Newfoundland.

Heading out.




Sun starting to set.




I did get a screenshot on the ground at CCH4 but it came out too dark. Next stop Greenland!

[AviationAtWar]

Leaving Newfoundland this afternoon.




Approaching Greenland.




Approach to BGBW, Narsarsuaq Airport.




Low pass before the break.




And on the ground at BGBW. 2.2 hours for this leg.

[AviationAtWar]

Climbing out of Greenland.



Iceland starting to come into view.













On the ground at BIHN, Hornafjörður Airport in Höfn, Iceland.




This leg was 2.7 hours. My fuel and oil filters were showing yellow in the maintenance hangar so I cleaned them before the long flight over water.

On this leg I climbed up to 31,000 feet. Manifold pressure starts to drop off drastically in the high 20,000's and up so I was at about 38" manifold pressure. The gain in fuel economy from just 4,000 feet in extra altitude along with the lower manifold pressure was quite surprising - I flew nearly 1,000 miles plus a bit due to course corrections and only burned 186 gallons of fuel.

[Roadburner426]

You are a brave one my friend doing this in the WWII original variant. I have done the trans Atlantic flight quite a few times going back and forth between the US and Europe, but I do it with the creature comforts and upgrades of the P-51 Civilian. I am going to be watching this with interest as I have always wanted to do the full round the world in the Mustang myself, but always keep telling myself I'll get to it someday. For me your next leg is the hardest one to do as I always try to make that jump from Iceland to Shannon, Ireland. Depending on winds sometimes I make it and sometimes I wind up having to stop for fuel. That may be your one advantage using the WWII version of the P-51 as you have the option of using drop tanks. That is one of the things that unfortunately was taken away from the Civilized variant.

[AviationAtWar]

Thanks! Glad to see somebody is watching.

I actually made another short hop from Iceland to the Faroe Islands this afternoon. It was about an hour flight. I think I'm going to head to Scotland from there. I had plenty of fuel since it was a short flight so I was going to put on a little airshow before landing but it was very windy and turbulent so I decided to land before somebody got hurt.

Leaving Iceland.




On the ground at EKVG.

[Roadburner426]

Yeah I watched since you opened the thread. You really want to make it interesting check to see if AVGAS is really available at some of those airports and that really limits your options of where you can land. The furthest I went in my journeys was to Dubai at OMDB since I have the very excellent scenery from FlyTampa. The Middle East shouldn't be to bad this time of year though if you go that route at least. In the summertime my taxi times in the Mustang were pretty short if I had to sit around for any length of time.

It is always windy up there on that North Atlantic route it seems. I know there was one airport (can't remember the code) where the approach end was on the ocean and the end of the runway terminated in to a glacier wall. Was super short and I didn't have enough fuel to go around as I was basically running on fumes at that point. Almost crashed, damaged the landing gear legs from slamming it on the runway, and took a whole lot of life out of the brakes. Taking off from that was a pain too as the wind blew from the glacier, so taking off in to the wind had to do a steep climb out with all 3 tanks full. Was certainly an adventure. But yeah I'll be watching the ride as you go. Looks like you survived the most crucial part of the journey, so should all be fun and sight seeing from here.

[NeverMiss51]

Question. How are you navigating? Are you using the map on SHIFT-5?? I noticed you have the ADF and the course needle aligned. On the MIL Mustang, that's what I do...I use the SHIFT-5 map and I align the ADF with the course I loaded in FSX, or just aimed where I want to go.

Do you you the "autopilot" to hold altitude?

[bladerunner900]

Started my westerly around the word trip a month ago, in the Spitfire Mk IIb, from my local (EGFP) in South Wales (UK). Been stuck in 5J0 Grant Co Regl/Ogilvie for a while now, waiting for some free time. I am using Plan-G for this trip and set a plan for convenience, but I do go off script if I see something interesting.

[AviationAtWar]

Question. How are you navigating? Are you using the map on SHIFT-5?? I noticed you have the ADF and the course needle aligned. On the MIL Mustang, that's what I do...I use the SHIFT-5 map and I align the ADF with the course I loaded in FSX, or just aimed where I want to go.

Do you you the "autopilot" to hold altitude?

Yes to all questions. I'm just using the shift+5 map and making some course corrections along the way as necessary to keep it pointed in a general area and then pick a place to land when fuel gets low enough. I'm forcing autopilot with control H and Z when I need to get away from the computer and do other things for a bit.