6th Leg: LGSA to LGRD

This Leg is focused on the Aegean Sea: I fly from Crete moving North, East and South to land at Rhodes. The islands of Greece are wonderful to see, however many of them are not well covered by the imagery service that TileProxy uses: I didn't take many pictures therefore, because in many places the quality (resolution) was really low. A pity!

The good thing is that I have a couple of third pary FSX scenarios covering a couple of islands: Santorini and Rhodes. Those scenarios have a good resolution (comparable to the best imagery from TileProxy and have the advantage of super-imposing 3D objects on top, generated by the AutoGen system of FSX.

By the way, I am going to make a change in the 'Failures' rules: I wil soften the things by not allowing failures to the control surfaces of the aircraft. The reason is simple: with those kind of failures, depending on the situation, there is absolutely no way to recover the aircraft.

I faced an 'Elevator failure' and the elevator got stuck when the aircraft was diving: so I was unable to pull the aircraft out of the dive, no matter what I tried: trim, engines, whatever... It was pretty scaring not being able to do anything and just wait for the final crash!

So I removed that failure. It defies the purposes of facing failures during the flight, because there is no way to 'face' that event. Other kind of failures to control surfaces (e.g. flaps) could be managed, but that one is really catastrophic.

So, about time to start. Take-off from Diagoras [LGSA] in the morning, moving East following the North coast of Crete:

Overflying Pantanassa, approaching Heraklion:

The city of Heraklion and its port, now it is time to leave Crete and fly almost straight North:

Over Santorini Island. As you can see, there appears to be two ships in the water, but one is a "real" 3D ship part of the Santorini scenery, whereas the other is a ship captured by the satellite, it is part of the imagery. At this relatively low altitude (4500') it is easy to distinguish the true from the false, but at higher altitude it wouldn't be that easy:

Another view of Santorini, moving North-West toward Milos:

The weather is getting cloudy:

This is Kea, another island. It is a waypoint of my trip since there is a VOR (KEA):

That's the VOR station on the ground, I am turning toward another waypoint. The position of the VOR in FSX is slightly wrong (it happens often): the VOR object should be inside the little white circle on the left:

Half-way through, NAV1 fails again. I begin to think I will be plagued by this particular failure for the rest of my trip:

Samos:

Still Samos, this is the city of Phytagorion and Samos Marina:

The landscape is diffent. I am not overflying Greece anymore, but I am on the coast of Turkey. This is Didim Gürçamlar:

Approaching Milas-Bodrum [LTFE]:

And Tuzia lake:

The town of Boğaziçi:

And Bodrum:

I wonder what those circles are:

Bodrum again, from another perspective:

And Akyarlar. Now I'll leave Turkish airspace and re-enter into Greece for the last part of the Leg:

Knidos is in view:

As you can see from the picture, there is a bay below the aircraft and another one in front, the latter populated by boats. I understand that the first bay is the ancient port, whereas the other is the new one:

I liked a lot this place and its cobalt sea:

And finally, Rhodes. This is a Power Plant:

A close-up pictures of Diagoras [LGRP] airport, quite busy:

And my final destination, the airport of Maritsa [LGRD]: I am supposed to land on RWY26 so I am now downwind in the landing pattern:

And that's the end for today!

5th Leg: LIBG to LGSA

20.06.10 Grottaglie Airport, Italy, 8:30 Local Time

Early start: from Italy toward the coasts of Albania and Greece to reach the hearth of the Mediterranean Sea, the island of Crete.

Shortly after take-off, overflying Puglia going SE:

Leverano:

Lecce:

Near Masseria Vittorio. For some odd reasons, this highway (SP367) wasn't completed... At least it was so in this satellite picture from 2005. Maybe now it is fine.

Near Otranto. Leaving Puglia now and entering in the Adriatic Sea.

The weather is pretty bad. There's a thunderstorm and a 35 knots wind.

Coast-in. That's Aghios Georgios:

And Paleokastritsa:

The port of Corfu:

South-Eastern tip of Corfu Island:

Ormos Odyssea:

The airport of Kefalonia:

Shortly afte Kefalonia, NAV1 fails again... Third time!

Kalamata:

Approaching the North-West tip of Kythera, Crete is not so far away now.

Crete and the aiport of Daskalogiannis

Finished! Aside from the NAV1 issue and the crummy weather over the Adriatic Sea, everything was fine. Next Leg will be around Greece and then Cipro.

4th Leg: LICT to LIBG

13.06.10 Trapani Airport, Italy 09:30 Local Time

After fixing rhe problems on the aircraft and having it refueled, the next mornng I leave Trapani for the next leg. I will fly across Sicily, then crossing the Messina Strait, overflying Calabria, the Mar Ionio (Ionio Sea), then approach Puglia and finally land at Grottaglie [LIBG] airport.

Shortly after take-off, heading North-East:

Flying over Scopello, the city in the bottom-left corner is Castellamare di Stabia:

The other side of the bay, with the airport of Palermo/Punta Raisi [LICJ]

This is the North coast of Sicily, near the town of Capaci. The road running parallel to the coast is the A29 highway (Palermo-Mazara del Vallo):

This is the small military airport of Boccadifalco [LICP], due West of Palermo. I am flying north roughly South-East toward the hearth of Sicily:

Nearby Sant'Onofrio (not 100% sure):

Caccamo - Lago Rosamarina:

Near Scillato. The Etna Volcano is visible. The mountain area should be the Parco Regionale della Madonie (a park):

The town of Agira, with the Lago Pozzillo (lake) behind:

After that, I diverted from the original flight plan and decided to overfly directly the Etna. A few pictures:

Between Sicily and Calabria, approaching the Messina Strait:

Just passed Reggio Calabria [LICR] airport:

And the port of Gioia Tauro on the West Coast of Calabria. If you are wondering about the strange shape, this port is artificial and has been built with a specific purpose, as a logistic approach for the industrial complex of Taranto (Italsider) in Puglia:

The town of Rosarno, close to Gioia Tauro:

Near Pizzo Calabro on the coast.

Turning over the airport of Lamezia Terme [LICA]:

Near Pontegrande (isn't Google Earth wonderful?), overflying the Nicola Ceravolo Stadio (sport complex). the nose of the Twin Star is pointing at the town of Siano.

Very close to Crotone Airport [LIBC], this is the Lago Sant'Anna, about to turn North to fly across the Mar Ionio (Ionio Sea):

Over the Mar Ionio:

Coast-In. This is Puglia, near Gallipoli:

Passing close to Lecce Airport [LIBN]:

If you are thinking "What's this?", it is the Nardo racetrack circuit:

Final on Grottaglie [LIBG]:

Reaching the parking area... At least there is some other aircraft nearby...

Finished! I had no failures during the flight. This ends more or less the first "chunk" of my RTW. I had a general idea of flying from Switzerland to Italy and now I have to plan the next flights. Most probably, I'll cross the Adriatic Sea to reach Albania and then proceed South-East toward Greece and the center of the Mediterranea Sea.