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1: The journey home in a Cessna 152 Aerobat


So... not that long ago I purchased an aircraft ( in FSEconomy ).

I had finally saved up enough money and was looking for aircraft online one night. I found the cheapest C152 in existence.. On paper it looked good. Located in Iran and with minimal usage for its age. Probably a barn find that got restored and now the owner got bored with it. The aircraft looked clean and the Lycoming 0235-N2C had very low hours and had also recently been overhauled by its current owner Carlos Juego Sucio who apparently was a renowned aircraft mechanic. Obviously a foreigner making a good living in Iran.

My experience with flying was minimal. I had just about got the GA license and had no experience with international aviation but was willing to head straight for the deep end of the pool. I have great experience with traveling in obscure countries as a tourist after all. This was a late night impulse purchase and and the aircraft was seemingly located at Sari international airport in Iran or somewhere in that area. The ferry flight home to ENJB Jarlsberg in Norway would be long but interesting enough to be worth such a trip. This trip would be a great baptize in to my hobby of flying and the late night online purchase was meant to become my three week holiday treat and a smooth way of getting a cheap aircraft imported to Norway. Oh how mistaken I was... Turns out I had not purchased an aircraft in Northern Iran but in Cataratas International Airport in Argentina (SARI)! Damn these late nights with too much beer and too easy access to the Internet! This changed everything. Money was spent. And the previous owner never returned my calls or emails. After a while I got really impatient. My vacation was coming up fast so I bought a ticket to Cataratas International Airport, Argentina to straighten this fella up and get my money back.

Once at the airport I thought to myself 'why not see what I have purchased while I am here'. And there she was..

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N5310OH - a 1982 model Cessna 152 Aerobat.
I decided to take her for a ride and I fell in love instantly. For what she lacks in navigation aid and commodities she gave back thousand fold in charm and personality. She runs like a dream when given a top up of MIL-L-22851 Aviation Grade Ashless Dispersant Oil now and then. She's a slow but trustworthy work horse.

On my first flight I crossed the border to Brazil and before I reached my first destination; Guaira, I had already decided to keep her. A trip home with my newly found love was more tempting than spending my vacation looking for some Argentinian mechanic. Who obviously had taken very good care of this baby. So I quit my day-job and gave my bird a new painjob fitting for the country I fell in love with her in. With the new paint I gave her a new pet name 'Lulu' (Flight attendants name on the way to Argentina) and I am not sure how registrations of Aircraft work but this is Brazil... I got the aircraft registration LN-OOB and started my legs home with a mixture of range anxiety and a feeling of freedom I have never had before. I had no plan. I basically aimlessly traveled north. It had not yet dawned on me that I had to cross a huge body of water to get home. I had seen YouTube videos of people crossing from Canada to Greenland, from there to Icelandand ending up in England. But this was so far from my mind, here where I was flying over beautiful landscapes and picking up some small cargo and interesting people along the way to cover my travel expenses.

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My love got a new repaint

This is my world now. On my third leg I picked up 289kg of chickens. I have no idea how they managed to press them in the back of Lulu, but needless to say this trip was horrible. While being able flyers, chickens have apparently never encountered turbulence. The noise and the stench was unbearable. When I landed I had to hose down the whole aircraft and I found a couple of Wunderbaums in a nearby shop to help. Too bad they were different scents and the smell is just weird now. I need to do a complete overhaul when I get to a larger facility.

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I had to divert east when I arrived in Fazenda Ribeirão (leg 4) becasue it was rumored that there was a conflict ongoing in the North and thus little cargo that could safely be brought further north and to the west. So to go north I had to get closer to Brasilia. Apparently there where packeges coming from the west that had to go this route to get to the northern parts of Brazil too. They payed well but never wanted to talk about the content. I didn't ask. I needed the money for fuel and coffe and these guys were not exactly of the talking kind. Lovely coffee in Brazil by the way. Largest cargo was on my 6th and 7th leg with 289kg of eggs. Something strange about the cargo area of this little bird. It seems to be a lot larger than on first glance. Some sort of minor twilight zone area behind the two seats..

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Some stranger joined me on this flight in his own C152. Looked suspiciously like an English chap but I could never read the registration.

Leg 8 was a risk. I am still learning how to calculate fuel properly and investigate the airports I go to and this trip was at its limit. I had just installed a AC/DC converter so I could use my laptop on the flights which helps a lot on longer trips. On this particular flight I had 3 gallons left when I landed with some pretty heavy load on board. A fat tourist named Phill Collins was with me on this ride. No, not the famous one, yet this Phill could sing too. A great break from chickens and silent farmers visiting family. What I did not know, and came to realize as I taxied to the apron, was that this airport had no fuel! Nearest airport wasn't far but with only 3 gallons in the tanks it was a risk. A risk I took after I had dumped the cargo and told the passenger to take a cab to the new destination. Where he never showed up..

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I arrived at the next airport with no fuel. The engines cut off on the flare and I sailed to the ground windmilling the propeller. Was a glorious landing, really. I rolled off to the parking area and I noticed: no pumps.. This was litterally just a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere. I was hopelessly devestated and was wondering how the hell I should get my baby home when I noticed a rusty bike and a path going over the golden landscape. After an hour or so the path led me through some large farmlands to a village where I got told by the locals that the only fuel available was 50NM away.. An 8 hour taxi ride and another chunk of my savings later I had 50 liters of 100LL fuel in a rented C182 that I planned to just ditch after I had used it to save my baby. Needless to say I was exhausted.

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So here I am. After several legs and crossing some really beautiful sceneries I am now in Maraba after my 16th leg. Soon to enter the Amazonas and probably hit the coastline to continue North. Since the 12th leg I have had George on board. An accountant from Michigan who has spent the past 6 months just aimlessly traveling around South America. He is paying me 5000USD to bring him to Guyana. He has a mysterious package with him that he tries to hide under the seat all the time. I have seen him opening it once but never deared to ask what it is. I'll probably never know. He sleeps in the room next to me and I can hear him snore loudly at night. Will be good to get rid of this weirdo soon.

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Disclaimer: this is obviously not real - this is a flight I am doing in FSEconomy and MSFS2020.  😃

If you want - please join me in MSFS for a flyalong!

Through my travels someone mentioned to me that I probably should make a Cherity event out of this. And I might. I am not sure for what yet but I have been fortunate enough and Threshold might give at least 200USD and add 10% on top of what ever money we will get on this charity flight. The journey is still young, so we'll figure out what we'll do along the way. I started streaming the flights. If you want to follow along you can visit my Twitch:

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