Around the World From NZ to NZ.

[ardypilot]

I absoultely love the 2nd screebshot down in your latest post- the mountains on the horizon at sunrise look amazing, that mesh you mentioned was certainly worth downloading ay? And well done for discovering that Long Island place- very unique

[kiwibarguy]

Asaro Mudmen

Adzab (Papua New Guinea) > Goroka (Papua New Guinea)

Today we will be flying from Adzab (near Lae) west to the town of Goroka.

Not knowing exactly the altitude required for this leg i was up and away trying to gain as much possible height as possible for the range ahead in the distance.


I think i can, i think i can.


Made it clear and what a great view.


What i spend alot of my time looking at.


Making it over the ridge i scanned for Goroka.


What makes Goroka quite unique is the location of the Airport, it is in the centre of town.

Goroka is home to 25,000 people and is the Capital of the Eastern Highlands.


Smack bang in the middle. People complain about the noise yet commend its accessibility.


Goroka produces coffee crops, pineapples, has a few trout farms and is home to the Asaro Mudmen.

It is said that the Asaro tribe, losing a battle fled for there lives. They found a river and hid in the mud. When the thought the other tribe was gone they came out all covered in mud. Apparently the attacking tribe saw the mud men and ran off thinking they were spirits and ever since then this tribe has celebrated this by reenacting it once a year.

Mudman unmasked.


Bird of Paradise Hotel in the background. Owned by the Coral Seas Hotel Chain who own hotels all over the world.


OK time for a drink.
This is recipe and picture of my own version.

Mojito

45ml Light Rum
1/2 Lime
10-15 Mint leaves
2 teaspoons of Caster Sugar
Soda Water
Ice

• Cut 1 lime (1/2 for each drink) and squeeze juice into glass shaker
• Add 2 spoons of sugar
• Add 10-12 mint leaves, depending on size.
• Muddle till the liquid becomes green, usually takes about 20-30 seconds.
• Strain equally into 2 collins (high ball) glasses.
• Crush ice-2 glasses worth.
• Pour ½ glass of ice
• Add 45ml light rum to each glass
• Place in a layer of mint
• Top up with ice
• Top up with Soda waterPlace mint on top (including mint garnish), give a little stir.

My students have won 4 medals with my own version so try it out.

[kiwibarguy]

Going to Tari

Goroka AYGA Papua New Guinea > Tari AYTA Papua New Guinea

We wil be heading west to a small village known as Tari today. You will find Goroka on the top map and our destination Tari on the map above.


We have a long trip today heading all the way from Goroka to Tari. i thought i would get some more morning shots. I can't believe the luck with the weather so far. Real weather live updates and still sunny and blue, today even better with not even a whisp of cloud to be seen.



Quite a steep hillside next to the runway, but i am some how starting to get in touch with my Skyhawk better these days, and negotiated it quite well. Starting to feel what she is capable of doing.


Tari has a population just 8000 and is famous for the Huli wigmen who make their wigs out of human hair. So it's goodbye mud dudes and hello wigmen.


What can i say..... Beautiful!


I have already plotted the safest possible course to get to Tari in one piece.


After dodging big mountains to come to such a wide flat valley high up in the Range is pretty rare, and a great breather for me!


Fly on girl!


Interesting tabletop mountain, dont know the name.


Wind calm, clear skies. Papa Mike Hotel on course, on final way point and proceeding to Tari.


Hmmm does this lake actually exist???

This is our destination.


Here we are in the middle of nowhere. I would love to write an interesting essay on each leg but i don't really have much info on Tari. We are slowly making our way to Indonesia. I will be making my way up to the coast of Papua New Guinea to Vanimo. Thanks for checking this leg out. The reason i have been a bit slow of late is because i have been studying hard to get my navigation up to scratch.

[kiwibarguy]

Goodbye Papua New Guinea Hello Indonesia

Tari AYTA Papua New Guinea > Sentani WAJJ Indonesia

We are leaving from Tari today and heading along to the border of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and will then fly straight up it to Sentani.

Sentani is about a mirror image distant from the border as Vanimo is to Papua New Guinea.


Clear skies again for this long trip.


Lovely morning again, will be tracking through some Mountains so i took her up to 5000ft and made a north westerly heading to the border.


Ascending slowly towards the Central Range.


ooooh a full moon. I've never seen it so big.


Coming up to the Western highlands which are pretty much in the middle.


I saw the canyon and thought about whether i should fly through it, thinking now in real life, would i ?
Checking my maps i decided to but with caution.









Will find out the name of this place if possible.

Finally clearing the canyon i proceeded onto the border. I am sometimes surprised at the default scenery of fsx like in this shot, some other days i am not. Sahara shots....


I am heading north here , right on the border.


To the left is Indonesia, to the right Papua New Guinea. Well it has been an experience flying through Papua. I saw the big volcanoes like Tarvurvur, i crossed the massive Central Range, i flew through Canyons and i experienced the mudmen and those crazy wig guys.


Here is my first stop in Indonesia. Sentani. oooh my bum is sore!!!!


Touch down to nowheresville.


Here is a photo of Sentani. Note the Airport to the left.

[kiwibarguy]

1000+ views!! Thanks guys!!

[Alex]

Congrats, shows how much we love following your trip eh?

Alex

[Naki]

mmm your Mojito cocktail sounds yummy!

I love your perseverance in flying the 172 some fairly big distances.

Also liking the geography and history lessons!

[Mattnz]

Awesome, I haven't checked in on this thread for a while, so a bit of catching up to do.

Sure looks like a great adventure

[kiwibarguy]

Sentani to Wamena

Sentani WAJJ Indonesia > Wamena WAJW

Hard to find a map. My journey today takes us from Jayapura south west down to Wamena.

Today we will be flying from the Northern Coast of Sentani heading South West back into the middle of Irian Jaya. Flying over one of the biggest areas in the world yet to be discovered.


Taking off the weather yet again perfect. Today's flight is 242km. Here we go into the unknown.


Leaving Sentani we pass by Lake Sentani.


Cloud dodging


More cloud dodging. Well there isn't much else to do out here in default land.


See what i mean....


now around here is suppose to be the most bio-diverse land in the world. I think it looks ready for sheep


Some of the most isolated and undiscovered land in the world. Thick vegetation set in deep fog prevent NASA from every having a clear opportunity to photograph it........yep.


Approaching Wamena.


Not such a long flight today and pretty uneventful. Wamena is home to their football team who play in the Indonesian Premier league, but who doesn't know that...


Finals into Wamena.

Wamena ATC

At first i was afraid that he had mistaken my flying bird for dinner then blew a sigh of relief when i realised this is how they removed birds from the runway.

[Alex]

Hehehehe, wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of that bow eh...

Nice shots though barguy, you're really clocking up the miles there.

Alex

[kiwibarguy]

Wamena to Nabire

Wamena WAJW Indonesia > Nabire WABI Indonesia

Weather Conditions: Clear skies, Temp 15 degrees, Calm. Distance 350km

We are today flying to the west coast of Irian Jaya.


I had to work my way out of this high basin which took a little bit of time. But my girl made her way slowly out.


Can't see this lake on google so i'm not sure what the name is.


I never knew that Indonesia and Papua New Guinea could be so flat. i thought it was all mountainous jungle.


oooooh yeah!!! The coast is in sight. Playing in real time you really start to get a bit of an understanding of how the pioneers must have felt when they saw land, except i'm seeing sea.


Here we are in Nabire. Nabire has had its share of earthquakes.

Nabire earthquakes of 2004

At 11:25am on the 27th of November a huge quake recorded at 7.2 at the epicentre and 6.4 locally killing 75 people and destroying over 150 houses. Sadly this was the second big earthquake for them. In February they had a 6.9 killing 31 and injuring over 212 people.

Infrastructure such as the Airport at which i am landing at was damaged so that only twin otters could land making the rescue difficult.

The port also destroyed really must have taken its toll on these people. One month later on the 26th of December 100 miles west of Sumatra 280,000 people lost their lives from the 2004 tsunami. What happened here in Nabire may have been the 9.2 giant waking from its sleep.

[Timmo]

QUOTE (kiwibarguy @ Dec 23 2007, 10:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wamena to Nabire

Infrastructure such as the Airport at which i am landing at was damaged so that only twin otters could land making the rescue difficult.

Only Twin Otters could land, but space rockets could take off still apparently? (look in the back ground!)

[G-HEVN]

Nah mate, that's International Rescue come to sort out the mess...

[kiwibarguy]

Happy new years everyone!! Gone Fishing !!

[tomohawk46]

Awesome trip so far!!! looking forward to the coming months of sightseeing, Don't give up!! ........... I wonder has anyone ever done a real time round the world trip in FS in a GA aircraft????

[kiwibarguy]

Watch this space

Hello there everyone! I am back from my 4 week holiday and ready to hop into my light blue skyhawk ( i think i will have to give her a name). I promised a friend of mine i would make my way to his home in Singapore. I do spend quite a bit of time preparing for each flight, reading up on lonely planet, perusing through Wiki and so on. When doing a long trip such as this i sometimes have the urge to go up to a twin prop or speed up the time but i am still trying to train myself in the art of patience by not doing so. Looking forward to spending a great year with you all flying.

P.s I thought this trip would be done within a year's time but with all the planning, real time flying, blog work, plus 3 boys to father it can be quite time consuming. Stick with me on this, let me know of any places you would like me to visit.

[kiwibarguy]

Nabire to Babo

Nabire NBX Indonesia > Babo BXB Indonesia

Today we will be flying west from Nabire to Babo.

Hi there everyone. I hope you had a great chrissy and new years. We are taking off from Nabire today, great weather, yesterday the weather was thunderstorms which i wish i had flown in but i had other commitments. COD4


Today we will be flying around 260km nww to a very small place called Babo. Light clouds with crosswinds expected.


Half of the trip was flown over Cenderawasih Bay which was recently surveyed by some American biologists. They found over 50 new marine species.


One of the discoveries was this Epaulette Shark that doesn't swim but 'walks' on its fins.


Since using 'ntune' and getting the service pack ( i was a bit slow ) i have been able to take the graphic settings up to 'high' and 'ultra high'


Cederawasih bay was formely known as Geelvink Bay named after a ship and of the dutch family who explored this region known as the geelvincks.


I can't believe i have made it all the way here and haven't encountered a drop of rain! I have had it set on 15 minute weather updates since i left Whangarei.


I am very happy about my default water for fsx.


There are no fancy photoreal landscapes out here in the whopwhops.


Coimg into Babo, i give my position to the tower and prepare for landing.


Coming in for final approach.


No village, no tower, no signs of life.


Might as well park on the runway for the night. Looks like i will be spending the night in the plane. See you again next time when i will be making my way up to Sorong. An oil and logging district with a population of 130,000. The biggest city on my journey yet.

[towerguy]

I know what you mean about it taking a long time - I'm still only about 2/3 rds around and thats using a twin! The research and the story writing really takes up the time. But it's fun otherwise why would we do it?

keep going
cheers

[kiwibarguy]

Babo to Jefman

Babo, Indonesia > Jefman, Indonesia

Thanks to everyone who took the time to help me out. I will fly my 172 at times throughout this trip and definitely wont be casting her aside.

ROC Fairchild C119G

O.K Here we go

Now it was all good landing here on this tiny airstrip in my 172 but leaving in this beauty is madness. A tiny strip surrounded in native bush was probably not the best choice but if if my calculations are correct i can clear her.

The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (Navy designation R4Q) was an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment, and to drop cargo and troops by parachute. It looks like P-38 meets Thunder bird 2!

I narrowly made it out not having enough time to even press 'v' for a photo. Brought up the GPS and headed for Jefman Airport also known as Sorong Aiport. The sounds files used are DC3, especially that distinctive flap sound.

Weather conditions are Wind calm, Clear skies (again), Temp 15 degrees and dew point 12 degrees. As the sun rises the beauty of this boxcar begins to unfold.

A lovely metallic shine with dawn drew me to look at her from all angles for shots.

A pleasure to fly and my thirst for this adventure is quenched again. 2000ft up in the clouds and enjoying the views.

The distance flown today is 313.5km with and est time en route of 1:46

The first C-119 made its initial flight in November 1947, and by the time production ceased in 1955, more than 1,100 C-119s had been built. Its cargo hauling ability earned it the nickname "Flying Boxcar".

Flying along the coast crusing at around 180kts, that's a little bit faster than my 172 i'd say. but not disrespecting my little lady aight.

O.K no spoilers CHECK, no reverse thrust CHECK, small island with little strip CHECK, seatbelt tightened to extreme CHECK, twig and berries o.k CHECK! It looks like i'm about to land on a miniture New Zealand.

Bring her around, let's see what she is made of! FINALS!

Go girl! GO!

Smokin!!!

'Ladies and gentlemen, we are all good in the hood'

Wow! Another human, i've been a long time gone. This version flown was a Taiwanese peacekeeper that can be found here. www.simviation.com/fsxprops15.htm

Thanks for checkin my flight out , see you again soon.

[ardypilot]

For an aircraft with such a bleak nickname, that Boxcar sure does look elegant in those sunrise shots. Keep up the good work