The Mighty Howard

Left Beruit behind and headed east across the desert to Baghdad. Next stop is one I've never visited in FS before.

Pics are scrambled up again...
 
Crossed the desert and mountains to Tehran. Nice flight and interesting airport (OIII). Although they had me land on 29L and I had to hold short at 29R for several landings and takeoffs before I could continue taxiing. If it wasn't for the Iran Air DC-6 behind me waiting, I might have thought the ATC was forgetting about me on purpose.

Pics are scrambled yet again....
 
Took a longish flight from Tehran to Zahadan in southern Iran. Not much to see enroute, so I just kicked back with the 8 track running. Karachi is looking good for a next stop.
 
Got tired of sitting around in Iran and decided to fly on to Karachi, Pakistan. Found this carrier off the Pakistani coast and had to set up in the pattern and come in on approach. Didn't try to land though just had 'em thinking I was going to. It did make me wish I was in the F7F though. I'd have had to land with it.

Made it in to Karachi just fine.
 
The Dash across India...

I knew the Howard is a hoss, but this flight shows just how much of one. I left Karachi heading east towards Calcutta. As I believe in the only time you can have too much fuel is if you're on fire, I made a fuel stop in Agra. The Howard probably could have made it nonstop, but running out of fuel can also be a bit embarassing so I stopped, gassed up, stretched my legs, then took off again. O'course one can't go to Agra without swinging by the Taj Mahal so I swung by it before beginning my climb out of Agra.

From Agra it was straight to Calcutta. Real Weather was giving me it's usual over India issues, so I switched to fair weather for the flight and watched the countryside go by. Once I landed in Calcutta, the Men In Black were waiting on the ramp. Not sure what that's all about, but it can't be good. Ended up going Karachi to Calcutta all the way across India in under 4 hours including the time spent on the ramp in Agra.

Flight 19 starts our new operation tomorrow, so I don't know when I'll be able to pick this back up. But I don't intend on just letting it go either. I still want to at least see Oz in the Howard.
 
After loading up with a bunch of tourists, I left Calcutta for Cox's Bazar in East Pakistan. Nice touristy type place mostly famous for it's beaches. Although it is a bit small and not well known. Passed a Merc Air Connie just before I went into the pattern at Cox's Bazar and was rather surprised to find out that it was going there too.

It met up with a BOAC Cargo DC-7 on the ground. Probably some kind of nefarious black market "bidness" going on.
 
Decided to head on south to Rangoon. Real Wx was over it's India crazyness (clear with 2 mi vis for example), so I went back to using it. Although that headwind all the way to Rangoon sure did get next to me. Not a bad flight really. Although it sure looks like the Hari Krishnas have taken over the airport at Rangoon.
 
Ah... they reminded me of the Hare Krishnas who used to hang out in US airports looking for converts.
 
Left Rangoon heading east to Vientiane Laos. Other than the headwind it was good weather. Think I'm going to keep heading east for a bit. Got a place in mind to visit.
 
Found out last night that when I did my vintage AI set up for some reason Laos got left out (except for one lone Howard 500 flight). And I've got Air Laos DC-3 and B307 Stratoliner AIs, so I did a quick and dirty AI traffic for Laos late last night. Somehow the place just looks better with some traffic.

Left Vientiane for Hanoi. Real weather was acting crazy again, so I went to fair weather. Besides, it's better for sightseeing. Going to head a bit to the northeast from here.
 
Stayed an extra day in Hanoi and decided that this was a good day to fly to Hong Kong. As usual, the Howard performed flawlessly. Any screw ups were entirely my own doing. Not that I'm admitting to anything. Turned the recorder on for the infamous Kai Tak runway 13 approach and got a few shots of that. Probably one my favoritest approaches in FS and I hate to miss a chance to fly it.
 
Here's the last couple of Kai Tak pics.

I'm kind of undecided on where to go from here. I could either head north to Japan and North America, or head back south and see some more countryside. Decisions... Decisions....

Edited to add the latest map...
 
Hi,

Well, Ralf has taken care of Africa (although there are a lot of neat airports he didn't visit), and Mike's Asia Pacific scenery isn't out yet. So it looks like either Tokyo and then North America, or down to Australia would be in order. :)

Tom
 
I was just looking at the pics from the Recorder. They don't show the flaps being full or any of the AI.

I forgot to mention last night that I was having radio problems again and couldn't raise the tower. So I just came on in anyway. When I finished that Runway 13 turn and lined up with the runway there a DC-something barreling down it in my direction, so I landed on the grass between the runway and the taxiway. Apparently Runway 31 was the one in use, not 13.

The coin has been flipped on which way to go next and it was tails. :d
 
I am currently flying a CV-240 to Sao Paulo in Brazil from Mokpo, South Korea hoping to get there in time for the next F1 race this weekend. (Of course being away from my FS PC for this week has made a mess out of that plan. Right now the Convair is parked in Abu Simble after stops in Kolkatta, Venetiane and Hail.
Maybe you can swing by there and pick up my passengers....so at least they will get to Brazil in time for Quali on Saturday :ernae:

Stefan
 
It's going to be a while before I get anywhere near Brazil. I'm pretty sure they'd miss the race.

In accordance with the coin toss, I doubled back to Da Nang in South Vietnam. It was raining like heck in Hong Kong when I left and my radio was cutting out again, so I snuck out behind a BOAC Avro York. I was somewhat surprised that I didn't have the tower squawking at me, but maybe they couldn't see me in the rain. Once I got above the cloud cover, the radio was back to working fine so I contacted Hong Kong departure and was out of there heading west.

Passed real close to Hainan Island on the way to Da Nang and I was sure scanning for Chinese fighters. They've been known to shoot down civil aircraft in this area. I did make sure I stayed over the water and a couple of miles out to sea.

It was raining in Da Nang when I landed and I lost sight of the runway for a bit there on final, but managed to find it again just before I was about ready to go around for another try.

Thinking on where to go next as there's few other places in SE Asia that I want to stop at.....
 
Departed south out of DaNang to Saigon. Nice pretty weather for flying and we made pretty good time getting there. Going to see if I can scare up some passengers that are going my way.
 
Got tired of Vietnam so I took a 25 minute flight west to Phnom Penn Cambodia from Saigon. Thinking about getting back on the "beaten track" from here.
 
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