Middle O'Nowhere

This leg takes me to ...another place in Siberia! Imagine! FSX really just stopped trying with this airport. There's no town graphics, and there's nothing at all at the airport but the runway, the tower and the fuel box (see last photo.) According to Wikipedia, though, this airport sees two airliners a day or so, so it isn't off the grid or anything, plus it's designated as an emergency diversion airport for polar routes.

Here's the actual airport:



And it doea appear that there is an actual city there...



The flight was longer this time, 764.4nm, cruised at FL190 for fuel efficiency. The clinb up to FL190 happened over Lake Baikal, and there were some mountains- so this is not tundra in this area, nor steppe.

The destination, Chulman Airport, was built to service the area administered at Neryungri, which was founded in 1975 over a very large coal deposit. The airport and the towns around it all sit in a coal basin. It's as though if Siberians do anything, it's bleak. Bleak, Bleaker, Bleakest. If there were shellfis, you might say it was bleakest before the prawn.

Way to far to go for that joke.

Warming up at Irkutsk


Climbing Out


Over Baikal


On Approach to Chulman


Still Life with Fuel Pump and Aircraft