July 2010 - The Baltic

The last weekend in June I had no idea what Geert had in store for us but, knowing that I like to commute between FOTMs (and knowing that I have a hard time waiting for anything) Geert kindly invited me to make my way to Amsterdam.

I left Mangalore right after breakfast and flew a little 6-seat Piper up to Mumbai, (pict1) spending the entire flight trying to figure out the new Garmin-1000 glass cockpit - I didn't have much luck.

I arrived and got parked with just enough time to run through the terminal and customs checks and aboard an Air India DC-10. (Geert also likes these aircraft). (pict2) We departed from runway 9 and climbed through 5,000 feet before making a big, sweeping left turn (pict3)and turning on the autoflight which tracked our route up the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to Kuwait. We took a left at Kuwait and flew the Saudi/Iraq boarder to Gaza before turning slightly north and tracking over western Turkey and then Central Europe. (pict4) We arrived safely into Schiphol as the sun was getting low over the North Atlantic. (pict5) (pict6)

The next day (July 1st) I learned of our assignment: Short-haul commercial flights up and around the Baltic. "Short-Haul Commercial" EXCELLENT!

It took me a couple of days to get all of the aircraft researved for this feature but by Sunday July 4th I was ready to roll. I had several legs worked out, each in a different aircraft. The plan was to fly to each city and spend a full 24-hours there before moving on to the next city. Here's how it worked out:

Sunday July 4th
From: Amsterdam (pict7) Heading 069* x 510 miles
To: G'dansk (pict8)
B-732 (pict9)

Monday July 5th
From: G'dansk Heading 081* x 235 miles
To: Vilnius (pict10)
Do-328jet (pict11)

Tuesday July 6th
From: Vilnius (pict12) Heading 335* x 142 miles (pict13)
To: Riga (pict14)
F-100
It was so beautiful here by the river I stayed over a couple of extra days.

Thursday July 8th
From: Riga (pict15) Heading 003* x 153 miles (pict16)
To: Tallinn (pict17)
EMB-170 (pict18)

Friday July 9th
From: Tallinn (pict19) Heading 072* x 170 miles
To: St. Peters' (pict20)
An-148 (pict21)
I don't fly on Saturday so I spent the weekend here in this amazing city. (pict22)

Monday July 12th
From: St. Peters' Heading 274* x 165 miles
To: Helsinki
SUD Caravelle (pict23)
As has happened way too often with FSX, my older aircraft's tires don't appear. Guess the Caravelle is another one heading to Mojave! So, I flew the leg in a brand new FSX plane, the EMB-190. (pict24) (pict25) (pict26)

Tuesday July 13th
From: Helsinki Heading 254* x 215 miles (pict27)
To Stockholm (pict28)
B-735 (pict29)

Thursday July 15th
From Stockhold Heading 186* and then 252* x 352 miles total (pict30)
To: Copenhagen (pict31)
A-318 (pict32)

Monday July 19th
From: Copenhagen (pict33) (pict34) West-Southwest
to San Bernardino, California (pict35) (pict36)
B-789 (pict37) (pict38)