'Round the World in the Connie - The Sub-Continent and the Far East

[mglan80]

Last left off here in the Maldives.  From here we travel through Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan and western China on this segment.

 

VRMM --> VCBI --> VOMM --> VQPR --> ZUUU

 

 

 

 

 

Left the beautiful Maldives in mid-morning headed to Sri Lanka.

Short hop over the bay and over the island.

 

From Sri Lanka up to Chennai.  Global looks pretty good here.

 

Left Chennai early in the morning to get up to Paro in decent light.  Landscape below was pleasant, but I had Paro's approach on my mind...

Oh, boy...

 

The weather did clear as I got up into the mountains, but no screenshots since I had my hands full!

 

Departed the next morning under a high overcast for Chengdu.  I'll be honest here, I didn't really plan this trip well and I was waaaay too heavy to take off from this short strip with this much fuel.  The default scenery's topography didn't help either (yes, that was the real issue, right?!) with a 60' hill just past the opposite threshold.  Anyway, after some weight reduction and a wise decision to not carry passengers on this leg, we made it off the strip and into the thin Himalayan air.

 

That displaced threshold gives me just enough length!

 

Winding through the canyons to gain altitude.

 

Finally up and out.

 

We ducked down into the Brahmaputra valley and closed in on the eastern Himalayas.

 

At about this point we lost pressurization.  Couldn't descend until another couple of hours.  Glad we had the oxygen and no paying customers!  Got as low as we could, but not much help here.

 

Finally got clear of the mountains and descended to below FL120.  From there we followed the mighty Yangtze for a bit.

 

Needed to take a pass over the airport to continue descent.

 

Finally down.  Took the crew out for some hot pot and some strong spirits after this leg.

 

Two more segments to go.  Next we swing through the Far East and then through Indonesia and the final stretch into Australia.

[paulb]

An impressive journey! I enjoyed the flight 

[Iain Emms]

Great post this.

cheers

Iain

[Jack Sawyer]

That was brilliant, what a real adventure this has been, I have been really loving this trip!

[lifejogger]

Great post and nice shots, got to see some parts of the world we rarely see around here.

[shermank]

Great shots and trip. What is the max altitude you are flying? I love the Connie and the DC3, not much interested in the tubeliners. 

 

Sherm

[Stillwater]

Amazing tour and report! Now imagine this with the magic of OpenLC Asia, meaning the impression getting even more realistic...

[mglan80]

5 hours ago, shermank said:

Great shots and trip. What is the max altitude you are flying? I love the Connie and the DC3, not much interested in the tubeliners. 

 

Sherm

 

On this flight I got it up to FL230.  That's as high as I've had her.  Even at that height, there was only maybe 2,000' between the aircraft and the peaks.  It's a lot of fun to fly.  I don't use the Sperry autopilot on these flights, but it's an interesting period feature.  Love the look and sound, too.

 

5 hours ago, Stillwater said:

Amazing tour and report! Now imagine this with the magic of OpenLC Asia, meaning the impression getting even more realistic...

 

I considered stopping at Dubai and waiting for openLC AS, but I have another little one coming in January, so long haul flights (or any flights!) will be out of the picture for at least a year or so.  Decided to push on and maybe fly it again with the new openLC when it comes out.  Maybe I'll go the other way round?

 

Thanks so much for the comments, gentlemen.  It feels good to get some responses when you share!

 

Jack, I'm flying the last leg now and closing in on Canberra.  Just about done and the weather's a peach!

[shermank]

congrats on the new arrival....

 

sherm

[VH-KDK]

A splendid series of images.

Some very enjoyable narration too, well done!