The first plane for MSFS from A2A, this one has great system depth and simulates even the engine down to individual cylinders. The Comanche is nimble, fast and great fun to fly.
St. Johann – Innsbruck
Innsbruck – Reutte
Reutte – Hohenems
Hohenems – Sondrio Caiolo
Starting in a southerly direction, I flew over Hohemems and Rankweil into Liechtenstein. Following the valley after Vaduz into Switzerland, I had to make a sharp right turn to avoid the Silvretta mountains in front of me. I overflew the ski resort of Davos and turned left towards Flüela pass. On the right the mountains rose sharply, Sentischhorn being the highest. I just made it over the pass (2383m) and as I cruised down again I passed Piz Linard on the left.
Flying westerly I followed the Inn river up to its source. St. Moritz came into view and I flew further down the Engadin valley into Italy. At Chiavenna I turned south, the towering mountains now behind me.
The final turn took me east along the Adda river. The last obstacle in my way was Dazio hill on my left. With just enough sunlight to spare I made it into the little airport at Caiolo (beautifully done by Asobo).
Finow – Leipzig
On this group flight, Chergo had chosen the Caravan, while Jörg and me went for the Comanche. These two planes are close enough in cruising speed (max cruise difference about 20kts) to not have any issues in cruise.
We took off from Finow towards Berlin and soon I could see the Berliner Fernsehturm. We turned left down the Spree river and overflew the soldier memorial Treptow and the Island of Youth.
Leaving Berlin in a westerly direction to Grunewald, we encountered the old Gatow airport, now a museum. Following the Havel river down south, we overflew Potsdam and once we had left the waters behind started to follow the A9 into the sunset.
Crossing over the Elbe river we were halfway there and the sun sunk ever deeper in the sky over Germany. When we finally reached Leipzig, light was nearly gone. We caught a glimpse of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal in the south of Leipzig before returning to Leipzig-Halle airport. Strong headwinds made the landing tricky, but we all got down in one piece and assembled for a final photo on the Lufthansa apron.
Leipzig – Niederstetten
Roughly following the bush trip for MSFS, we (Chergo and Jörg were on board) started up our mixed bunch of planes at the Lufthansa apron in Leipzig. Chergo showed off his brand new TBM850, Jörg opted for the Grand Caravan and I had chosen the trusty Comanche. Hence I was the slowest of the bunch and would dictate cruising speed.
We took off, turned South and followed the A9 down to Hermsdorf. Here we turned West to the A4 into Jena. We circled over there to find the Zeiss Planetarium, but were not quite able to make it out. Shortly after, Jörg had to quit due to technical difficulties.
We continued west for a short time and the terrain was coming up to us. Also the weather had substantially worsened and we tried to climb above the clouds. At 10.000 feet I was at ends with the Comanche, battling headwinds of up to 50 knots, rain and above all ice was starting to form on my wings. Inside, I relied on my instruments and continued on, busied with keeping the plane free from ice and following the charted path on the GPS. Outside nothing was to be seen, only rain and different shades of grey.
Meanwhile Chergo had a keen eye on his weather radar and was able to pick out a route out of the clouds. We sank back to 3500 feet and came clear near the military training area Hammelburg. From here we followed the Main river south to Würzburg. Continuing south over Ochsenfurt to Rothenburg we finally made our last sharp turn west into the ILS glideslope of Niederstetten. The weather was just clear enough to make it into the airport on visual conditions.
