At 11:00, Saturday, November 22, 2003 I got my plane ready, created the flight plan and took off towards the Antarctica. Most of the flight was over the ocean, and I was not sure if it was the Pacific or the Atlantic, as I was right on the border where the two meet. Doing this in real life would have been very scary. Flying 700 nm over the very cold ocean and worrying about what can go wrong... Doing this in the flight simulator however, was very exciting. This was one of the longest flights on my around the world trip, so I was very careful about choosing the altitude, and speed to get the best fuel efficiency. I had tail wind, which helped a lot, but even considering that, I did very well. I used only 56 gallons of fuel for this flight of 712 nm which translates into 12.7 nm/gal, and as they say, that ain't bad. During my flight I was calculating how much fuel I need at different altitudes and at different speeds based on the fuel flow and the ground speed (shown by my GPS unit). The real test though, will be tomorrow, as I will have to fly from Antarctica to Falkland Islands, and if the weather does not change I will have to fight head wind most of the way. In all of the pages so far, I have included the flags of countries I flew over or landed at, but now I was not sure what to do. Antarctica is a coutryless continent, and as such does not have a flag. Feeling sorry for the poor continent I've decided to do something about it and designed the Antarctican flag myself. It is the outline of the continent (white) on the blue background (which represents three oceans that surround it). I made it in GIMP by drawing the outline with the mouse and then filling it with white color and coloring the rest of the flag blue. OK, so it is not very creative I admit, but it is still better than nothing. I like it and that is all that matters. The approach and landing were uneventful (just as I like it), the weather was cooperating and I was able to get really nice screen shots. I found it funny though, that the ATC tower at base Marambio (in the simulator) is a trailer (see below).

Takoff from Rio Grande airport Leaving South America Half way between South America and Antarctica Ariving at Antarctica Final approach to Base Marambio Taxying to the parking

List of countries: Argentina Antarctica

Flight log: