I
want to know where in the world we will meet Please
take a minute to complete this form
I
respond every message I get. I've discovered this form didn't work for many
days. If you sent your data before and never received
an answer, it is possible the info got lost. Please resend your data and
don't forget your email address.
This site reached 11,000 hits
in mid-November and is adding some 1000 hits a month. Obviously, I can not visit as
many airports as visits I get in this site but, sooner or later, I will arrive
in your nearest airport. Send your data and I will mention you when I get
there. Thank you again and come back soon.
Gustavo
Neer
Colors
The colors
of this front page will be those of the flag of the country we are
currently flying on. So, in the future, you will see some strange color
combinations here.
NOTAM: Which was
First? (Jan. 24th VD/Nov. 28th
RD)
FELLSMERE, Florida, USA: Is this
FS2K scenery realistic? As seen
in the photo, there is an antenna right at the end of the runway at Fellsmere
(4FL3, #1096). You have to land on rwy 09 and depart rwy 27. So I wonder: which was first, the airfield or the
antenna? If it was the antenna, nobody would have put a runway
oriented to it. But if the runway was first, what's the reason for
building an antenna at the end of it? Maybe an angry neighbor put it
there, annoyed by the noise of airplanes.
Virtual Meetings
#2 and #3 (Jan. 24th VD/Nov. 26th
RD) ORLANDO, Florida, USA: Today I
finally met Clas Holm at Titusville's Space Coast Regional
airport (KTIX, #1075). He was eagerly waiting for me, and days ago he
sent me another mail: "Welcome to TIX (Space Center Executive
airport). This is where many planes leave personnel for transfer to the
NASA area. My flight school -Gateway Aviation- is also placed here. As you
land here I'll be happy to buy you a Buffalo wing menu at 'Dogs are US'.
And I'll fill up your fuel before you continue your voyage. If there is
time we can visit NASA and Astronaut Hall of Fame in Cocoa Beach. Look out
for the Gators -they are all over the place". Many thanks for
the hospitality, Clas. We'll meet again at your three other favorite
airports in Canary Islands, Sweden and Finland.
About an hour and seven airports later, I met with Dan
in Orlando International airport (KMCO, #1082). He had said in an
e-mail: "I'm 18 years old. For flying habits, I am
currently a VA pilot Captain Class 3 with North American Executive
Airlines, and I am based out of KATL. I am currently certified VFR
and IFR on the Dash-8 Q300 and am working on a Check for the
727F as part of our cargo ops".
The Longest Strip (Jan. 24th VD/Nov. 26th RD) TITUSVILLE, Florida, USA: The base
for the Space Shuttle, NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility
(#1073, X68) is a 15,000-foot-long runway, the longest I found in my trip
and maybe the longest in the world.
Half a World Away (Jan.
24th VD/Oct. 17th RD) LEESBURG, Florida, USA:
Landing
in Tex Merritt Private Airstrip (51FD, #1053), I reached the mark
of 10,800 nautical miles. This is the equivalent of a flight between
the North and South Poles, or half the distance around the world.
However, I'm only 542 nm from Kitty Hawk, the starting point of the
expedition.
1,000 Airports
Visited! (Jan. 23rd VD/Oct. 11th RD) CHIEFLAND, Florida, USA: White
Farms (10J) is the 1,000th airport in my flight around the
world. It's an important landmark, but is less than 5% of the trip.
No Fuel (almost) (Jan. 23rd VD/Oct. 11th RD) CROSS
CITY, Florida, USA:
I was never as happy to be back on the ground as today. After passing
several small airfields with no fuel, I finally landed at Cross City
(KCTY, #995), with only enough on the tanks to taxi but, as you can see in
the picture the engine
stopped a few feet from the gas station and I had to push the plane to
refuel it.
Ken was the first who
signed the Guestbook, only a couple of days after I published the site. He said:
"I certainly hope you do
succeed with your efforts to visit every airport. I've always loved that
kind of idealism". He invited
me to visit his site, called "The Shire", loosely based on
J.R.R. Tolkien' Shire of "The Hobbit"and "The
Lord of the Rings". Then I commented on a crazy idea I
have: that someday, someone designs a scenery of the Middle Earth for FS. He
loved the idea, so we are waiting for someone willing to design "Rivendell
Valley Regional Airport" and others.
Thank you, Ken. You are next in the list of people I will virtually meet
in my global flight.
Gerald E.
Small Sr., Gastonia (KAKH), N. Carolina, USA
Days
ago I received a message from Gerald, who lives in Dallas, North
Carolina, and whose closest airport is Gastonia Municipal, a few
miles West of Charlotte. Unfortunately, I've already been there
and Gerald arrived late for our meeting. Maybe we could meet in my
second flight around the world.
THE
GOAL
The
idea is very simple. To fly around the world in the Flight Simulator, visiting
every single airport appearing on FS and on freeware sceneries you can
get on the Web. It will be no easy task. It could take months or years,
but I'm not hurried.
The
trip began in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where nearly a century ago, on
december 1903, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first powered
controlled-flight on a heavier-than-air machine. This website, mixing reality
and fantasy, will be the chronicle of this journey.
Planned
Route
Of
course I haven't planned the entire route around the world yet, but
the course for the next states -and countries- is already defined.
After
completing North Carolina,
I will continue to South Carolina, Bermuda, Georgia,
Florida, the Northern
Caribbean and Cuba
and then back to the USA
to Alabama, Mississippi
and the rest of the Southern states to California.
From
there, I will go South to Mexico
and Central America,
then the Southern Caribbean
and South America.
The crossing of the Pacific
will be via Juan Fernández, Easter
and Henderson Islands
to Tahiti.
About
dates used in this site
Two
kinds of dates are used in this site: real dates (RD) and virtual dates
(VD). Real date is the actual date in which a flight is made. The
virtual
date is a consecutive count of the days of the expedition. At the beginning,
both dates are the same (Jan. 3rd., 2000). If I end a flying session
at, say, 11 am, virtual time, when I resume flying the next day or
the next week, I will reset the clock of the plane to that same virtual
time and date.
Following
in the list of people I will meet:
James McGuire,
Marina, California, USA
Marina (KOAR)
Jon
Richey, Los Ángeles, California, USA
Los
Angeles Intl. (KLAX)
Víctor
Levy, La Paz, Baja California, México
La
Paz Intl. (MLAP)
Gerardo
Alatorre, México D.F., México
México
Intl. (MMMX)
Alejandro,
México D.F., México
México
Intl. (MMMX)
Roberto
Cáceres, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
La Mesa
(MHLM)
Enrique Colmenares
Leith, San José, Costa Rica
Tobías
Bolaños Intl. (MRPV)
Diego
Montoya, Armenia, Colombia
El
Edén (SKAR)
Christian
Castillo, Maracaibo, Venezuela
La
Chinita (SVMC)
Eduardo Alibert,
Caracas, Venezuela
Simón
Bolivar Intl. (SVMI)
Yuric
Ramos, Quito Ecuador
Mariscal
Sucre Intl. (SEQU)
NEWS
HIGHLIGHTS
Tour Around the World
began Today (Nov 4th.
1999 VD/RD) KITTY HAWK, North Carolina, USA:
This
expedition was first started on November 4th. 1999, when the Wright Flyer
(photo) made a symbolic recreation of its historic flight of Dec. 17th.,
1903 in Kitty Hawk. Then the flight was officially inaugurated and I departed
in the Pilatus PC-12. About 100 airports were visited,
but then FS2000 was released in Buenos Aires and I found it has 200 new
airports only in North Carolina. So I decided it was better to incorporate
all the new airports to the flightplan and start the expedition again.
The new, definitive flight (I hope) was started on Jan. 3rd., 2000. Now
I've got more than 21,000 airports to go, worth at least a couple of years
but, as I said elsewhere, I'm not hurried.
(Nov. 9th.
1999 RD) SOMEWHERE ON CYBERSPACE:I
know the idea of this flight is really crazy. Many people told me that.
Fortunately, there are certain folks who took it a bit more seriously and
believed it was worth to report it at one of the major flight-sim sites.
Minutes before takeoff, I granted this interview to Evan H from simFlight.com.
Thank
you, Evan!