Leg 5; Aleppo to Baghdad.
Well east of Suez now:
Leaving Aleppo, having been directed to the downwind runway, and then having to wait while that well-known Air New Zealand service to Aleppo landed in the opposite direction. Great sim, but boy do they need to work on the A.I.
Lake Assad in the distance - the bugger even had a lake named after him:
The first course change ahead at the city of Deir ez-Zur, and the DRZ VOR. The river is the Euphrates, and I'll be seeing a bit more of it during this leg:
Crossing from Syria into Iraq at Albu Ghars:
Over western Iraq, outbound on the DRZ 115 radial. The signal from the DRZ VOR eventually lasted until I was 190 nm away, far exceeding its stated range of 130:
Converging once again with the meandering Euphrates, and its fertile banks. If I remember my history lessons properly, that resembles strip farming down there - small plots of land allotted to one farmer or family:
Getting close to Baghdad - that's Lake Habbaniyah, the Euphrates again, and an area named Saqlawia on this side of the river. Fallujah is just out of sight to the left:
I've been using real world weather on this leg, and it's given me a very authentic sand storm at Baghdad. That's the main airport in the murk, but I won't be landing there:
Time to buzz the city, and catch sight of some sites. The main feature in the foreground is the Unknown Warrior Memorial, with the Iraqi flag spiralling upwards. Behind that, the famous crossed scimitars of the Victory Arch (I didn't know there are two of them - one at each entrance to the Festivities Area). The tapering structure with the ball on top is the Baghdad clock tower, and on the horizon you can see the television tower. At right, the huge Al-Rahman Mosque, which was started by Saddam Hussein - it is still surrounded by cranes and was never completed.
Circling round the city on my way in to land, I pass the famous Al-Shaheed monument, originally dedicated to those killed in the Iran-Iraq war, but now looked on as a memorial to all martyrs. One of the nicer memorials, I think.
On finals for Rasheed airport RW33, in the south of the city. It was built by Britain as RAF Hinaidi in 1922. I can't find out exactly where G-ACSR and the other MacRobertson contestants landed in Baghdad, but the modern international airport didn't exist back then, so I reckon RAF Hinaidi is a safe bet:
Parked up with the big boys:
Persian Gulf next - oh joy.
By the way, Baghdad POIs courtesy of
https://flightsim.to/file/28177/baghdad-city