Around the world in 175 days.

[blanston12]

June 1, 1924. The base at Lake Kasumigaura was a major supply point for the trip and the site where they planned to overhaul there aircraft and get them ready for flying in the tropics, Including replacing the engines and installing larger radiators. The Japanese had planned two weeks of events, but the Lt Smith, concerned that they were at least 30 days behind schedule asked for the celebrations to be compressed to 48 hours. A Japanese admiral hosted them to a traditional Japanese dinner, the flyers were very impressed by the geisha girls who served the meal. After ten days of mechanics and diplomacy they were ready to leave at 5:30 am on June 1 for Kushimoto, 305 miles away in ideal weather, As they passed Iro point they plunged into a severe rain storm that became a mild typhoon, that became more severe as they landed at Kushimoto, where USS Pope was waiting for them. A welcome party tried to come out to the ship to greet them but the weather was too rough and the flyers retired for the night on board the destroyer.


Still wanting to fly a Japanese aircraft over Japan I decided to fly the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero. The A6M first flew in 1939 and at the time it was introduced it was considered the most capable carrier based fighter in the world with excellent maneuverability and long range, over 10,000 were built. The model I am using today was made by Aeroplane Heaven for JustFlight and I think it is the best FSX/P3D compatible Japanese aircraft model from that era available.


It was pretty overcast when I took off, I had to stay under 1500 feet for most of the flight to stay below the clouds. I decided to fly to Nanki-Shirahama airport which is the closest airport I could find to Kushimoto. I followed the coast for a while, climbed over one large peninsula, then weaved around the various islands as I headed toward my destination. Then at some point I zoomed out on the GPS to see how far I had to go and realized I had made a fairly serious navigational error. At some point in my planning process I had recorded the code for the destination airport at RJDB where I should have used RJBD and I was at this point about 140nm off course. I could continue on to Kanoya which is the destination for the next leg, which is almost as far as going back to Kushimoto but instead headed for the closest airport which was at Matsuyama. I had flown 405 nm in 2.6 hours, at least 100nm further than I planned.


Here are a few pics from the flight:

Ready for takeoff.

Yes, we are ready.

Fireworks over Tokyo. They must be celebrating our trip.

Mount Fuji showed itself.

 

[blanston12]

Flying over Japan continued...

Brief period of good weather.

Glamour Shots.

Just before I realised I was headed in the wrong direction.

Secure at Matsuyama

 

[blanston12]

June 2, 1924: By morning the storm had subsided and they went ashore to meet with the leaders of the town. They were presented with souvenirs and decorations “enough to start an Oriental museum” according to Arnold. Some of the decorations were only given to the pilots but Lt Smith asked that they be given to all six of them since “We were simply six American airmen flying around the world together” and the Japanese agreed. By noon they were off into a stiff head wind for the 360 mile flight to Kagoshima, the southern most city in Japan. Along the way they flew over may steamers, junks and fishing boats. They also flew over the destroyers Perry and Steward that were patrolling the route for them. While flying along the coast of Kyushu island Boston’s engine began overheating so Wade landed the plane in a well protected harbor, while the other two plane circled overhead Ogden filled the radiator with salt water and the three planes continued Kagoshima where the repair ship USS Black Hawk was waiting for them. A large crowd with at least 2000 school children were waiting for them on the beach, many waving home made flags, The flyers went ashore briefly where a few short speeches were made and souvenirs handed out.


July 29, 2017: For the next flight I will continue to use the JustFlight A6M2 Zero. Because of my navigational error on the previous flight I was now in Matsuyama instead of Kushimoto and only 175 nm from Kagoshima. Weather was better today, 12 kn winds with scattered clouds at 3000 feet. The flight was pretty easy, I flew down the east coast of Kyushu island at about 3000 feet. As I got closer to the haze started to build up. I turned inland near Miyazaki where there were some heavier patches of fog to fly over/through but as I got to Kagoshima the weather cleared up and I was able to make a safe landing at Kagoshima airport despite touching down a little short of the runway. In the fast A6M2 the flight time was only 57 minutes.


Here are a few pics from the flight.

Ready for takeoff.

Climbing out from Matsuyama airport.

Glamour shots.

Kyushu island

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Kagoshima...

Getting hazy.

Kagoshima

On final, yes I am a little low.

Secured.

 

[Bjoern]

Don't be discouraged by the lack of replies; for my part I'm still following this.

 

[blanston12]

Don't be discouraged by the lack of replies; for my part I'm still following this.

Thanks Bjoern, hope your enjoying it. I done times wonder if I am boring everyone with this so your encouragement is greatly appreciated

 

[jmbiii]

You better keep posting your progress. I am following you both figuratively and virtually (albeit in a single aircraft - PC-12).

 

[cavaricooper]

Joe-

I check often- thank-you for your efforts.

Best- C

 

[blanston12]

June 4, 1924: They stayed aboard Black Hawk the next day while they waited for the Navy ships to get into position at Shanghai. On the 4th they awoke to excellent weather, the water was so calm and the winds so light that there heavy aircraft had great difficulty getting airborne. Lt Smith was not able to get Chicago in the air, he waved the other aircraft on toward China. He taxied back to the mooring and spent the rest of the of the day swimming under there plane repairing a strip of metal that had torn away from one of the pontoons. The next morning Black Hawk sent two motor boats to kick up the water so Chicago could get airborne and follow the other two aircraft toward China.


Boston and New Orleans continued in the best weather they had experienced since they left Seattle, As they approached the Yangtze river they could see thousands of junks, sampans, river boats and large steam ships all trying to avoid each other. Several miles of water front had been cleared for there landing space, Once they landed and battled the rapid river currents to tie their craft up to the buoy’s, an excursion boat containing hundreds of Americans and Europeans came to welcome them and give the flyers a historic reception, a huge crowd of people were on shore clamoring to meet them. After they flyers finished their work on the planes they were taken to the luxurious Hotel Astor in downtown Shanghai. Smith arrived the next day to the same reception.


July 30, 2017: For the next couple legs I will be flying the Douglas DC-3. The DC-3 started life as an enlarged 14 bed sleeper version of the DC-2 but it revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s, it could carry more passengers in greater comfort than ever before, over 600 were built before world war 2 and more than 16,000 were built during the war, about 2000 are still in service around the world today. The model I am using today is version 3 of the C-47 made by Manfred Jahn and team and is one of my favorite aircraft. My flight from Kagoshima to Shanghai started off with low clouds and 4 mile visibility, Flying at 3000 feet over the hills to the west and out over the East China Sea. The overcast changed to scattered clouds and the rest of the flight was pretty easy as we cruised at 5000 ft into Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. The 459 nm flight had taken 2.9 hours to complete.


Here are a few pic of the flight.

Ready at Kagoshima.

Take off.

Heading out over the hills.

Clear weather.

 

[blanston12]

on to China!

Glamour Shots.

First sight of China!

On Final.

Parked, Pudong International Airport

 

[blanston12]

June 7, 1924: The original plan was to fly to 600 miles to Amoy (Xiamen) but not wanting to try to take off with a heavy load of fuel in the crowded harbor Lt Smith worked out with the destroyer captains that they would take off with only five hours of fuel and fly 350 miles to Tchinkoen bay where one of the destroyers would be positioned for refueling, they would then continue Amoy. On the morning of the 7th the harbor master was not able to clear a path. All three planes had to abort there first takeoff attempts to avoid colliding with a unheeding sampans Smith and Wade finally saw an opening and took off, but when Nelson in New Orleans tried again he had to swerve right to avoid a Junk, then plunging up river at high speed had to pull up hard to avoid a large sampan, missing it by inches. Flying along the coast they arrived at the destroyer off the china coast after four and a half hours of flying.


August 1, 2017: I will again be flying Manfred Jahn’s C-47. Best I could figure Tchinkoen is actually Yueqing Bay, and the closest airport is at Wenzhou, about 25 miles away. Even then P3D did not have that airport but I found a simple scenery file on Flightsim.com created by Kevin Wynn that would meet my needs. The weather started out nice, 18kn winds a few clouds at 2400 feet. Temperature read at 93F/34C. Took off from Shanghai and headed south along the coast at 5000 feet. The clouds built up as I approached Wenzhou and I dropped to about 1500 feet in the rain to stay below the weather before dropping into the Wenzhou airport for a safe landing. The 201 mile flight took 1.7 hours.


Here are a few pics.

Ready for a dawn takeoff.

Climbing out of Shanghai.

Heading out over the coast islands.

Glamour Shots.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing down the Chinese coast.

More islands.

Weather ahead.

Our destination.

Secoure.

 

[blanston12]

June 7, 1924: By 2:45 they were refueled and back in the air. Flying down the coast they could see hundreds of villages along the shore and thousands of sampans filled with families and animals. The weather was excellent and there planes were responding perfectly. At Amoy the destroyer USS Preble was waiting. They had great difficulty keeping the many small boats away from the planes. Only after an officer in a motor launch, capsized a few sampans running straight at the boats only to swerve at the last minute to swam the boats did they keep there distance.


For the next couple legs I plan on using the Vickers Wellington. The Wellington was a British twin engine medium bomber that first flew in 1936. It was mostly used as a night bomber but also for anti-submarine patrols. Over 11,000 were built and was the only British bomber to be produced for the duration of the war. The model I am using today is made by First Class Simulations. I will be using the Coastal command Mark X version. I chose this version because it was the only one in the package painted for daylight operations.


The flight was pretty easy. A few clouds at 3000 feet, I spent most of the flight at between 5000 and 2500 feet dodging clouds, flying along the coast to Xiamen. The Wellington made short work of the flight, doing the 250 nm flight in only 1.3 hours. Here are a few screen shots.

Ready for takeoff.

Heading down the coast.

Dodging clouds.

Coastal Islands

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Xiamen...

Glamour Shots

First view of Xiamen!

Our destination.

Landed, but for some reason there are cars running through the airport, think I will park somewhere else.

 

[blanston12]

June 8, 1924: The flyers wanted to get off early the next morning but curious locals again crowded there boats around the planes, again the navy came to there assistance but it was not until 10:30 in the morning that they were able to get off. They were warned they would run into a typhoon on the 310 mile flight to Hong Kong but they took off into darkening skys, They flew into winds and lightning, at one point they were hit by 100 mph tail winds but it did not last long and they emerged out over a calm sea, fog forced them down so they were flying just over the tops of the hundreds of boats of all descriptions in the waterways. The number of boats increased as they got to the crown colony of Hong Kong, as they few over they bay they could see a vast number of boats and anchored in the middle was a navy destroyer. They could not see there yellow buoy’s but were signaled to go to the other side of the bay, where the Standard Oil Company dock was located in a small cove. The landed there and with the help of there machine shop they spent the rest of the day working on there aircraft.


August 4, 2017: Again I am using the First Class Simulations Vickers Wellington. I actually did this flight twice. I wanted to fly into the old Kai Tak airport so yesterday I did the flight and landed at Kai Tak but ended up crashing into an invisible building while taxing to parking and I aborted the FSAirlines client before it recorded the flight so it would not save it as a crash. I restarted the flight today, compared with the scattered clouds of the day before today it was clear and I flew at 5000 feet along the coast. Clouds started to appear as I got closer to Hong Kong, after yesterdays ‘accident’ at Kai Tak I proceeded to the new Chek Lap Kok International Airport and made a safe landing. Most of the pictures are actually from the previous days attempt as the weather is a little more dramatic, but the last few are from today’s. Here are the pics.

Ready for takeoff, the airport manager really needs to do something about these AI cars running all over the place.

I managed to avoid hitting a car or truck on takeoff.

Heading out over the bay.

On our way.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Hong Kong.

City of Hong Kong!

Fog ahead, better get lower.

Our destination.

Landed and secured.

 

[blanston12]

June 10, 1924: It was extremely hot as the flyers got there planes ready for the flight to Hai Phong, there route would take them over the Lanzhou peninsula that separated the South China Sea with the gulf of Tonkin, it was the shortest distance but it was covered by jungle that contained more tigers and leopards than any other place in China. Also for a sea plane any mechanical problem would result in a crash in the Jungle. They traveled down the coast and over the peninsula. They flew at around 500 feet and could see the locals scattering in all directions as they passed over. Wade wrote of the flight, remembering all the tiny islands that “rival our thousand islands if not surpassing them in beauty”. They landed near the mouth of the Red River at sundown. A group of french men and women came out to welcome them, one particular Frenchman tried several times to come aboard Chicago to give a welcoming speech, but Smith not done working on the engine pushed the boat away each time. When the crews were done servicing there aircraft they finally came ashore and that Frenchman was still waiting for them, turns out it was the French Governor General who wanted to invite them to a formal reception. Smith apologized for any unintentional discourtesy and accepted.


August 5, 2017: For the next couple legs I will be flying the Grumman G-21 Goose. The Goose first flew in 1937 and was intended as an eight passenger commuter aircraft for businessmen in the Long Island area and Grumman's first aircraft to be used in airline service. It was used in world war 2 by the United States and many other nations as an effective light transport. About 345 were built and at least 30 are still airworthy. The model I am using for this flight is the one that comes default with FSX. I know many of us discount the default aircraft but this one I has always been one of my favorites and I think it as good as many payware aircraft out there.


My flight to Hai Phong was uneventful. Weather was warm, few clouds at 2000 feet with 10 kn winds, and those clouds cleared half way into the flight. I followed the coast till I reached the Lanzhou peninsula and crossing over to the gulf of Tonkin proceeded down the coast to Hai Phong. The default airport there was just the runway and the tower so I taxied off into the grass and stopped, it probably would have been more fun to landed in river that was close by. Here are a few pics from the flight.

Ready for takeoff.

Heading out over Zhujiang River Estuary

Glamour shots.

Lots of pretty islands.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Vietnam!

More islands.

Not sure if this is supposed to be river sediment or polution.

City of Hai Phong and my destination.

Secured.

 

[blanston12]

June 11, 1924: The next day they all had trouble getting airborne in the calm waters of Hai Phong's river, they zigzagged down the river trying to avoid all the Junks and sampans that kept trying to get in there way, they all got off but it took wade 12 miles at full throttle before the pontoons would break loose. The 410 mile flight to Tourane French Indochina (Later Da Nang, Vietnam) was looking like it would be an easy one as they flew over the rice fields, jungles and out over the Gulf on Tonkin, but 30 miles off the coast Chicago's engine started to overheat, Smith quickly found a quiet lagoon where they could land and add water to the radiator. They were off again but 30 minutes later there engine started to pound ominously, again they searched for a safe place to land and found another lagoon 3 miles inland. This time they found a broken connecting rod sticking out the side of the crank case. After seeing Smith signal that the engine could not be repaired both Wade and Nelson landed to give what help they could, they gave them all the food and water they could and promised to get a new engine to them as soon as they could, so New Orleans and Boston took off and proceed to Tourane to get help, leaving Smith and Arnold stranded on this small lake, far from any visible habitation.


August 6, 2017: Continuing in the Grumman Goose, my flight from Hai Phong to Da Nang was much lest eventful than Smiths. The weather was good, a few clouds at 1800, 4kn wind, warm with temperature of 31C. Staying along the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin, I cruised at about 2400 feet until the city of Da Nang was in sight. Rather than landing at the airport, I decided to put this sea plane to good use and landed in the River in the center of the city. The river was only 2 miles from the airport and the FSAirlines client would record this as landing at that airport. The 299 nm flight took me 2.4 hours.


Here are a few pics from the flight:

Ready to go at Hai Phong.

Climbing out of Hai Phong.

Selfie!

Rear view.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Da Nang!

View of the coast.

Front view.

My destination, lets land in the river instead of the airport.

Landed at Da Nang.


For some reason I did not take any interior shots, sorry about that, good thing I did so on the last flight.