Makin' A Run For It

I stayed overnight on Ascension, and then got out as fast as I could- closely persued by Virtual Police... or not.

Anyway, on to Luanda, Angola, Africa. The flight from Wide Awake to 4th of February International Airport is 1640NM, which I did at FL290, cruising at 295KIAS (.74 Mach) 447kts groud speed. (Most of the way. For the last 200 or so NM, I had a tailwind, and was doing 454kts groundspeed.) Radios went from Tower to Atlantico Center, Dakar Center, Accra Center, Luanda Center, to tower. Got some nice photos during the daylight flight, and I discovered that Wikipedia has a WikiMapia, which has much better aerial photos than MS's Live Search does. I'll be putting up a few new photos of other places I've visited.

On the Tarmac, warming up

Climbing out

A Clean Getaway

Descending into Luanda

Nearing the runway

Dead on the stripe (!)

Parked at the terminal

Aerial View from WikiMapia

Mappage Again Pues

"The Story of the Film so Far..."

Here's the overall map of the South American portion of the trip- the side trip to Antarctica is in green. And, the blue line from Recife to Ascansion is too long. My bad.

An Illegal Landing...

On from Recife to Ascension Island
Pushed back from the terminal at Recife at 2:10PM, cleared the plan with ground, and set off on a 1225NM segment to Ascension. Cruised at FL330, 280KIAS (.77 Mach (not that anybody cares...)) After takeoff, first climb was up to 7,000; then subsequent climbs to FL190, FL310, then cruise altitude. The radio went from ground to Recife Tower, departure, Recife Center, then Atlantico center all the way to Ascension Tower. In the terminal area, I got vectors to visual, runway 14. Wideawake doesn't have ILS in FS world, which I find kind of hard to believe, since it's basically a dual use military/commercial airfield.

Anyway, I got one of those wierd series of vectors that Flight Simulator comes up with- first, I got vectored south of the flight plan, then back north. Honestly, sometimes the AI makes no sense at all.

Here's the illegal part- in order to visit Ascension, you need to have written permission from the governor of the island, as well as permission to land, which I didn't have. Luckily, through a system of virtual bribes, I was able to land and refuel on the sly, and will be taking off before the (unbribable) authorities are any the wiser...

If there's any interest, here's links to the island web cam, although it looks like the camera's been stuck since February) the newspaper, and the official gov't site.

On the ground at Recife

Taxiing to the active

Climbing out

En route

Nearing Ascension

Lining up for landing

Taxiing to park

Parked at Sunset

A view towards the volcano

Wide Awake Airfield from the air

Leg the 16th - Recife

On To Recife, Guararapes International Airport
From Rio to Recife is a flight of 1003 NM. I cruised at FL310, 270KIAS. I pushed back from the terminal at 7am, just after sunrise in Rio. Weather was still not the best in Rio, with a briken ceiling and scattered showers, one of which I flew through just after takeoff.

Clearance delivery had me climbing to 13,000 after takeoff. Ground had me taxi to the active, runway 15 for departure, and there werer no other aircraft arpound, so I got cleared for immediate takeoff. Tower passed to Rio departure, the to Brasilia center. Once I got to 13,000, I was cleared up to FL230, then to cruising altitude. Eventually, Brasilia handed off to Recife center. The active at Recife was 18, soi the call to decend came lat, as I was approaching from the south. At 103 NM from the airport, I got the instruction to descend to FL190. Vectored to final through 11,000, then 2,800, then hit the beam at 2,000. I put it down right on the centerline, but kinda blew the flare, and hit a little hard. Ewps.

Rio Terminal


Taxiing To The Active

Climbing Out in the Rain-with an example of the cheesy was FS handles low level haze in the background

Turning to Course

En Route

Descending into Recife

On The Beam

On Final

Touchdown

The Airport at Recife

Buzzing Around the Beach

I 'borrowed' a Skyhawk to do a little VFR around Rio while I was here. I took off and landed from Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport, having both one of the longest names of any airport so far, and definitely the longest taxi time. The airport is laid out with the runway and terminal formina a sort of U shape around a hill, so there's no shortcut from parking to the end of runway 28. I buzzed around for a bit, north & south over Ipanema & Copacabana, did a touch and go at Santos Dumont, which used to be the international airport, then headed back to land. Coming in, I got cleared to land in front of a 737, so it was a case of get down & get the heck off the runway. Managed to make it without either of us having to go around.

Taxiing ... taxiing ...

Near Pão de Açúcar

Near Pão de Açúcar with Copacabana in the background

Heading around for another angle

Off to Rio

This flight was 1077 NM from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janiero. Cruised at FL330 at 275KIAS- very nice weather the whole way, except for on takeoff (it was kinda hazy), so more photos this flight.

Radio calls went from Ground to tower, to Ezeiza Center, to Montevideo Center, Curitiba Center, Brasilia Center, Santa Cruz Approach, then Galeao Tower. There was actually some traffic around Rio, but nothing that effected the flight.

Interestingly, the big International Airport (Galeao) is on an island in the bay behind all those famous photos- you can see the surrounding mountains when on approach and final.

Pushing Back in Buenos Aires

Climbing Out

En Route

Another En Route w/Moon in Background

Descending off the Coast, in vectors to approach

In the terminal area, Ipanema in the background

On the beam

Landing

Parked at Rio

Sat photo of the airport

On To Buenos Aires

Uneventful Night Flight from Comodoro Rivadavia to Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Intl. Ministro Pistarin, overall 762NM. Good weather the whole way, cruised at FL350, 270kias.

Sorry I don't a have a good image editor on this PC- so the photos came out real dark.

Taxiing to take off

Climbing out

On Approach

On The Ground at Buenos Aires

Aerial View- airport in lower left

Lucky Leg the 13th, Pues

Leaving The South Polar Region
I decided to head to Comodoro Rivadavia next, and see where the center I'd been communicating with was located. Comodoro is the biggest little city south of Buenos Aires except for Punta Arenas, or something. Which seems snarky, and probably is. Comodor is about 545 NM from Ushuaia, so I took off with the center tank empty. Cruised at FL360, 270KIAS. Took about 2 hours. Winds were strong during approach- strongest I've encountered so far, so biggest crab angle yet.

The Wiki entry for Comodoro is here. Naturally, in FS, there's no city there...

Warming up at Ushuaia


Waiting for clearance to take off


Climbing out of Ushuaia


On descent into Gen. Enrique Mosconi International


On final into the sunset


Pushing up to the terminal