Around the world in a BA Super VC10

[jknight8907]

Yep, around the world in a British Airways Super VC10. Or at least that's what I'm trying to do, starting this afternoon. I'm starting from LaGuardia, heading north around the North Atlantic 'circle', stopping first at St. John's (CYYT), then going to Nuuk on Greenland. After that probably straight down to England, France, down the Med, and after that whatever.  

Oh and I found a way to get around the problem of ATC clearing you, say, to 9000, waiting till you level off, then giving you higher. Just set your altitude preselect on the autopilot about 300 feet higher than your assigned altitude, and then the plane won't have started leveling off when ATC finally gives you higher. Has worked pretty good so far.

Any suggestions on routing for this flight? I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking of staying in warm climates until I have to go up into Siberia to cross over to Alaska and come back down into the states.

[Nexus]

Can't the VC10 make it from eastern Canada direct to England? Or is the stop on Greenland mandatory because of refueling? Or is it just because of sightseeing purposes  ;D

I always though the VC10 was a long ranger with those 4 engines  :)

Sounds like lots of fun, with an awesome aircraft!  :)

[jknight8907]

Yeah it can make it. I was planning for Greenland to keep the legs short and see some stuff . But after I land in St John's I'll fire up flight planner and see how long it will be to go direct. The best thing about the VC10 is that right now I'm running at .89 Mach!! It's a fast little bugger.

I'd say it's my favorite jetliner to fly; it has a beautiful 2D cockpit, the only thing lacking is animated reverser buckets, but that's okay!

[jknight8907]

Here's a screenshot:

[Nav]

No big airports to speak of in Greenland, jknight - certainly not ones I'd care to land a full-size jet on.  Keflavik in Iceland is a much better bet.

Going on from London, maybe try Cairo and then on to India.  Plenty of choice of stops on that route - Sharjah, Muscat, Karachi, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi (even Baghdad if yiu like  :))?  Then maybe on to Singapore?

At that point you will face a choice - whether to go straight on across the Pacific to Manila, maybe Guam, Hawaii, and San Francisco; or 'north-about' via Hong Kong and Japan to Anchorage, Alaska.

I usually start my round-world trips from home, which is Melbourne; so I tend to favour the Pacific route (though I've done both).  Plenty of good airports for fuel stops if range is a problem, too - Johnston Island is fine.  

By contrast, from memory, there is only one Russian airport beween Japan and Alaska, and that is VFR only (and in a valley among mountains!).  If you go the northern route, and need an intermediate stop, Adak in the Aleutians is probably the better bet.

[Saratoga]

Well the quick route. La Guardia, Keflavik, London, Moscow, some far east Russian Airport, Anchorage, maybe Chicago if you can make it, La Guardia.

Scenic, from London, Madrid, Rome, Cairo, dash across various airports to Hong Kong  just to see Kai Tak, then south to Sydney, then the Pacific route make sure to stop in Honolulu, then I would say San Francisco, (I say throw in Las Vegas here too, that's a sexy city and you can perhaps check out the Grand Canyon), Seattle, Chicago, La Guardia. Lots of varied and beautiful scenery.

[jknight8907]

Here's a revised plan based on the input. I'm currently at St. Johns.

St. Johns - London
London - Rome
Rome - Ankara (Turkey)
Ankara - Kabul
Kabul - New Delhi
New Delhi - Bangkok
Bangkok - Port Moresby (PNG)
Port Moresby - Majuro (Marshall Isl.)
Marjuro - Honolulu
Honolulu - Los Angeles
Los Angeles - Topeka
Topeka - LaGuardia

Somewhat of a senic route, but why else would I be doing it?  ;D

[Nav]

Looks a pretty good route, jknight.

Best to arrive at Port Moresby in daylight.  The mountains are about 16,000 feet and as soon as you get past them you have to let down pretty quickly for the approach.   The prevailing wind will be from the east (always has been for me, anyway).

I'd go for San Francisco rather than Los Angeles though - much more scenic.

The other thing is, you might try going on to Cairns in Queensland - that's pretty scenic, too...

[jknight8907]

I flew the St Johns - Heathrow route today, have to say that that over-water part is pretty boring!! Good thing for 16x speeds!

Here's a shot of departing at dawn:

[logjam]

Nice to fly Great circle routes. St Johns to London will take you over Iceland, that's nice if you have Terrain mesh. Beautiful Glacial scenery. Use your mathematical skills to work out your great circle routes, don't rely on GPS. Use the flight planner and and adjust your route to the closest VOR.

[jknight8907]

I had a simulated 'incident' with my VC-10, so the company gave me a shiny old UPS MD-11 to fly into Kabul.

Now that is a trip! Due to the mountains the controllers want to hold you at 18000 until you're literally to the outer marker. Even with a 2500fpm descent I couldn't get it down. So, I made a right 270 followed by a left 270 (lopsided figure while descending, which got me low enough to make a perfect landing. Here's a pic:



Bet they saw us 200 miles out with all those lights!!!  :o