Sure, being the head of an International Organization has some perks, like recognition and fame....but it also kind of sucks because you are always "in charge." So, while the rest of the gang has had a nice vacation in Greece, I had some "business" to attend to in South America. So I departed Greece early in a 757 bound for the Canary Islands. Then into "Flounder-One" for a trip into Valencia, Venezuela. A couple other South American stops to take care of and, come New Year's, I found myself in Santiago, Chile. Now here comes the January FOTM for which Bill has sent us off to Japan!So I catch a LanChile A340 from Santiago (Pict_01) into FS Headquarters at NZFC (Pict_02) . A couple of days at "the office" before I catch a JAL 777 ( Pict_03 & Pict_04 ) to Haneda airport which was actually suggested as stop number two. (www.dangerous-airports.com has a nice tight IFR approach into here that is really fun in a "Heavy") But this time ATC brings me straight-in to the ILS for 34R and I park up at 17:09 local time.Can you believe that they use 747s for flights under two hours in Japan!?!?! I thought about taking a 747SP, in fact, the first time I crossed the Pacific (In Real Life) it was on an SP. Back then I thought that meant "Small and Puny." Since then I've grown to kinda like the plane. Just because this is Bill Smith's flight I wanted to do something a bit "outside the box", after all, he didn't even really try to complete my September FOTM! After some thought I finally settled on my new IL-96, after all, it's not a plane you'll see or hear from every other day is it? Maybe Tony needs to find a way to get Club Colors onto this Russian beauty! Tony???So I downloaded Real-World Weather and set a course Haneda to Osaka (Itami). I followed Bills suggestion and called up Ground at 6:57 AM ready for push back in coordination with JAL flight 341 which is a 747 in the real world. (Pict_05) I departed from 34R again and made a left turn to the first waypoint (Pict_06) . Shortly after reaching cruise altitude I could see Mt Fuji showing above the Real-World weather (Pict_07) . It was a brief flight for such a big plane, kinda fun actually....except that ATC brought me down WAY late and rather than a 30° right turn to incorrect the ILS I had to make an exaggerated left turn to loose a bit more altitude (like 9,000 ft worth of altitude). At this point the real world called me away for about an hour and I had the flight paused. When I returned I had the panel but all the outside (window) view had gone into power save mode and I couldn't get it to wake up. So I hand-flew the ILS into 32L with a BLACK screen. Pict_08 shows my landing long and left of center but down smoothly at 08:12 local time, perfect for shutting down at the gate as scheduled by 08:15! Amazing!So, now what? I'll need to find the "Castle", fly over a "large body of water" and land in Nagoya. It was 20°F and howling wind outside with snow flurries when I awoke my wife at 2:52 AM to announce that I had decided to fly the Mitsubishi Zero! A little Japanese history this month. Well, after waking her up to tell her THAT there wasn't much point in staying in bed so I got up and flew the next leg. 
( Pict_09 , Pict_10 and Pict_11 ). Bill asked about the altitude of that "large body of water"....I'm getting about 123 feet.Now, I had thought that I'd fly this great IL-96 again for this leg but hey, why do that? I had a Nephew in the Air Force and for a year he was stationed at Yakota AFB just on the outskirts of Tokyo. So, I decided to fly with some old friends into Yakota (Pict_12) .Bill, commuter-hopping may not be the greatest challenge but hey, that's what I did LAST January so who can blame you for wanting to be like the Cub Flounder? It is always nice though to do some Real-World flights too (who knew that I could shut down "as scheduled"? - and I'd never flown into Nagoya so now I can check that one off my lifetime list. Thanks for a successful FOTM!
Ron Blehm
( Pict_09 , Pict_10 and Pict_11 ). Bill asked about the altitude of that "large body of water"....I'm getting about 123 feet.Now, I had thought that I'd fly this great IL-96 again for this leg but hey, why do that? I had a Nephew in the Air Force and for a year he was stationed at Yakota AFB just on the outskirts of Tokyo. So, I decided to fly with some old friends into Yakota (Pict_12) .Bill, commuter-hopping may not be the greatest challenge but hey, that's what I did LAST January so who can blame you for wanting to be like the Cub Flounder? It is always nice though to do some Real-World flights too (who knew that I could shut down "as scheduled"? - and I'd never flown into Nagoya so now I can check that one off my lifetime list. Thanks for a successful FOTM!Ron Blehm
