The next destination was Port Vila in Vanuatu, only 285nm away. Just for a laugh I plugged it into FSBuild which gave me 110 nm to climb to cruise (FL410), 20 nm at cruise, then 144 nm of descent. Nah, I've got a better idea ...
We pick up the tour soon after leaving NWWW. No FMS, no ND, no autopilot, no wings, no visibilit- oops, what was that ? Uh oh, too late ... Let's have a look up this valley ... (this is exactly what I was thinking, I didn't even mean to do this flight !)
I had the Nav1 radio tuned to a VOR at the airport on a nearby island, and the valley went in roughly the right direction, so I head up it and hoped it veered right or I'd find a pass or something at the end of it. Close, I found another valley heading in the right direction.
The only problem was that the valley floor was rising, the clouds weren't, and I couldn't see the tops of the hills properly ... It was getting pretty grotty up there, and it was looking like I'd either be trimming the trees or turning around and trying the coastal route.
Wow, the press-on mentality gripped me, and this is only a sim - I *really* didn't want to turn back and do the coastal route. I probably should have !
Eventually though I saw the ocean again in the distance, and figured that if I could see it that meant I could fly to it without disappearing into any more clouds.
and sure enough it worked and just a very long few minutes later I was feet wet again on the way to the Loyalty Islands, an archipelago about 100km north of the main island.
About halfway across I ran out of claggy weather and got a horizon back, which helped a lot - I'd been flying at 1000' until then so as to keep some sort of reference.
There was still plenty of cloud around though,
and I certainly wasn't going to be landing any too soon
so I got it down first time within a few lengths of where I wanted (yay!!) and called it good, and headed out to see what Lifou (NWWL) had in the way of big verandahs to sit under with a drink watching the world go by.
The above post is in the public domain and is guaranteed by the manufacturer to contain no references to anything illegal or discussion of piracy, although this signature may contain traces of nuts.
by Chairman » Sat Jun 26, 2010 1:35 am 
That's one reason I could never really get into a VA (and the whole reason for trying something a bit different, I didn't even know where New Caledonia was until a couple of nights ago) - it would be nice having a reason to fly but the obligation to fly a specific route in a specific plane within a specific timeframe just isn't me.
Excllent Gary...thanks for the ride 
(sorry Adam)....but no.. 
