Well, it looks like the challenge is moving on. The following map contains the legs (not the actual routes, just arrivals/departures) that have been done until now.
23 legs in total, covering about 3800 nm and crossing 6 countries (Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt). Well, 7 if we count UK, as I landed in Gibraltar.
So far, the experience is being nice. If I have to choose my favorite leg until now, I would say leg 7, Fez to Oran, flying above the clouds to surround part of the atlas and arriving to the desert for the first time. Obviously, the emergency landing on my first time in Gibraltar was a great moment too. And the most recent leg 20, flying around the Nile delta, was quite nice considering the historical importance of the region.
I have to admit that from Tunis to Alexandria it was not boring but difficult to handle, since the flatness and homogeneity of the desert makes the time run slower. However, I took advantage of those long legs to read a lot about Tunisia and, specially, Libya, a country about which I didn't know too much before.
Now my plan is to cross Saudi Arabia towards UAE, obviously landing at some point in Dubai. Maybe I'll pass before by Bahrain, since I have good memories from the old times with FSX, when the ATC asked me to do a circuit since the ground was collapsed. Only if X-plane would have that ATC... Then I might cross the Gulf of Oman towards Iran and Pakistan. Once in India, the route will be obvious, all along the Himalaya.
I started generating the orthos with Ortho4XP at ZL 17, from google maps, but later I discovered that Bing photos are of far better quality, to the point that I can even use ZL 16, saving a lot of space and processing time. The only problem I see are the overlays, placing American/European houses everywhere, which clearly spoils the environment in the countries I'm visiting. But it's better to have 3D elements than removing them completely, so by now I'll keep them on.
Regarding the weather, I noticed some discrepancies with real weather on the first legs, till Algeria. There were simply too many clouds compared with the METAR, that showed FEW or SCT at those levels. After activating the XP NOAA Weather plug-in, the behavior became more realistic, with gaps between the clouds and better visibility. Anyway, After Tunisia I have enjoyed the clear skies, that I expect to keep at least till India. I don't like to miss the ortho scenery, so I prioritize VFR over IFR, even when the conditions are not officially VFR. I will also add few night legs but only when the orthos will not be worthy to see, like in the middle of the ocean, or when flying over a region that I will see again (let's say arriving at night and departing on daylight over the same terrain).
The combination of SimCoders REP with FSEconomy is also something I'm enjoying a lot. It gives another dimension to the challenge, having to take care of the money and maintenance. So far, it's being a really positive point. And the activation of failures is spicing up the whole adventure, not only forcing me to handle properly the engines and flying structures, but also keeping me on alert to try to overcome an incident, as it has happened already before (stuck landing gear, engines failure, GPS burnout, NAV1 broken...). So I'll keep on using the failure system to have troubles from time to time during flights.
And that's all for now. Let's move on!
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