#flightfactor

I can only fly routes used by real airlines

I need to fly the airplane type used on that route

I can only fly to each airport once

I just landed on the 31st of 49 flights. I have found so much fun planning this in the first place, and flying it the past couple days, that I wanted to share the journey here, via Google Earth screenshots. This journey was what gave me the idea for a tool I am now working on as my required senior project for my Computer Science major.

But firstly, if any of you have a suggestion for a place to fly, let me know! I enjoy planning how to add new destinations about as much as I do actually flying.

I decided to start and end in Harrisburg, PA in the United States, as it is the most recently airport I was at in real life, and it was one of the suggested destinations. The other suggested destinations were all over the sea from here, so I had to figure out how to best get to Europe with the airplanes I have available, so I took an American Airlines Airbus A320 to Charlotte and on to Boston.

At the time of starting the trip, I had only narrow-body airplanes in my sim-fleet, which meant that there were very few options for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. There are only a few airlines that operate narrow-body airplanes across the Atlantic, so I chose my favorite (that I have admittedly never flown on myself), Icelandair, so my journey taking their Boeing 757 from Boston to Stockholm Arlanda included a stopover in Keflavik, Iceland. From Stockholm I finally reached the first suggested destination, Malmö, Sweden in a Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A320. From there I had a quick hop down to Warsaw, Poland in a Wizz Air A320, before taking a Brussels Airlines Airbus A320 to my second suggested destination, Brussels, Belgium. After Brussels I took an Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 to the first difficult approach of the journey, in Samos, Greece with a stopover in Vienna. I absolutely love Austrian’s A320, although nothing special, the red looks very nice, and I had one of my favorite flights of my life on one. From Samos I took an Edelweiss Airbus A320 to the next difficult approach, in Madeira, Portugal. I then flew an EasyJet A320 back to the mainland, to land in Lisbon, Portugal.Before crossing south into Africa aboard a Royal Air Maroc Boeing 737-800, to Casablanca.

I always forget how big Africa is until I sim-fly over it. From Casablanca, I flew to the next suggested destination, N’Djamena, Chad. The suggestion only requested that I land in the country of Chad, so while researching airports in Chad, I came across “Dildo Airport”, in Dildo, Chad, which I found funny as an English speaker. From there on I continued east, flying an Ethiopian 737-800 to Addis Abbaba, ethiopia and on to Muscat, Oman. I then took the short hop to Karachi, Pakistan, the next suggested destination.

The next two destinations don’t have very many flight connections, so figuring out this part of the journey was tricky, as I didn’t want to fly too far off the path. To get to Baku, Azerbaijan, I flew a Gulf Air A320 with a stop in Bahrain International Airport. To get to the relatively nearby Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, I had to make a large detour and fly an Air Astana Boeing 757-200 to Almaty, Kazakhstan, before mostly backtracking in a Turkmenistan Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Ashgabat. From there I continued in the Turkmenistan 737 to New Delhi, India, from where I continued to Kathmandu, Nepal in an IndiGo A320. My next two flights are technically fictional, since I flew a Druk Air A320 to the next difficult approach in Paro, Bhutan, and form there to Bankgok, Thailand. This is fictional because Druk Air only operate the shortened version of the A320, the Airbus A319, and I didn’t want to spend the $69 to buy an A319. From Bangkok I flew an HK Express Airbus A320 to Hong Kong.

From Hong Kong I flew another Hong Kong-based airline to the next requested destination, Wuhan, China, with a Cathay Dragon A320. I then continued on to Beijin, China with a China Southern Boeing 737-800. After this I had to break my rules, as the only route I can simulate to the requested destination Pyongyang, North Korea, was Air China’s Boeing 737-700 route between between Beijing-Capital Airport and Pyongyang. My most recent flight was in a MIAT Mongolian Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Ulaanbaatar, Mongola. I plan to fly east to Tokyo tomorrow, I don’t have enough time today, as the flight from Ulaanbaatar to Tokyo is deceptively long.