In my previous post, as I'd replicated the longest ~ (18-19) hours (RW) flight of my life, to date...🙂..., I had alluded to the Black Sea. It was because, not only in that ultra-haul (virtual) flight, from my hometown airport (Chicago O'Hare), flying eastward to (far off) Asia (to the city of New Delhi, India), I'd overflown the southern edges of Black Sea (see that post, if you wish); but also I had mentioned there that, from my past such (RW) long-haul flights (either eastward or westward), I would clearly recall overflying the Black Sea. It would be sometimes in the night time and in total darkness; cruising high at 35,000 to 40,000 ft altitudes, as I would be (gingerly) looking at the moving Map display of our flight path in the overhanging Cabin TV (the seatback personal display and entertainment screens were yet to arrive in the economy class); and wondering, with mixed emotions of awe, amazement, and fear...🙂.. about the Black Sea below, passing by underneath our airplane; a vast, large inland body of water, deserving the name "Sea", located between Europe and Asia, bordered by six countries.

Today I learned that there is an easy way to remember the "six" countries that surround the Black Sea, with a simple mnemonic: How about e.g., "Turkish BURGER" [Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Romania; skipping the letter "E"...🙂...]? Anyway, since my past RW overflights of the Black Sea, and also my (last) virtual overflight of it; I have been meaning to explore the Black Sea, at the lower levels i.e., a bit up close.

So, today, in this flight, I fly around the Black Sea (See my MSFS EFB Maps, below), departing from the Istanbul Airport located at its southwestern corner; then fully circling the Black Sea in the CCW direction, and finally returning back to the (same) Istanbul Airport. To make things a bit more interesting, I've occasionally diverted from the shorelines, especially in the eastern parts of it, that are dominated by spectacular (snow-covered) mountain rages (see pictures), notably the Pontic and the Caucasus, that often precipitously drop right down to the coastlines of Black Sea, offering dramatic views (I did fly over much of these parts today in this flight, at low altitudes, and you might even see some evidence of it in my images below).

Also, notably, numerous major rivers (up to 25 in number) flow into the Black Sea, but there are three that I was particularly curious to catch sight of, from my flight, Danube, Dnieper, and Dniester. I flew over all these 3 rivers at low altitude. Two of the three (Dnieper, and Dniester) discharge into the Black Sea near the highly historic city of Odesa in Ukraine (also spelled "Odessa"; Odesa is the official, Ukrainian transliteration, while Odessa is the traditional English spelling derived from the Russian name). You can spot the Dnieper and Dniester rivers in 3 of my images below (shot #s 12-14). You will also notice my fly-over of "ODA" (ODESA) VOR near Odesa, in shot #15 below, edged by the coastline of Black Sea, on which the city is directly located.

The Black Sea coastlines feature one of the world's most diverse geography; transitioning from the low-lying river (delta) dominated flat landscapes on its west, to the steep and high mountains (reaching nearly 20,000 ft elevations) on its east, punctuated by Mediterranean-like zones in between; indeed, a most fascinating region on the earth. Today's (virtual) flight (finally) satisfied, at least, to some degree...🙂..., my (long-held) curiosity from RW travels of the yesteryears, and overflights of the Black Sea, in the comfort of the (long-haul) airliners such as the B747/B777/B748 and A330/A340 etc.

At my discretion, I've opted, here, to fly this (iniBuilds) A321neo in the livery of Aegean Airlines, the (current) flag carrier of Greece. You might recall that the original Olympic Airways (later Olympic Airlines) was Greece's historic national carrier and flag carrier for over 50 years (1957-2009). That iconic airline (symbolized by the six interlinked Olympic rings) was founded by Aristotle Onassis, to whom Jacqueline Kennedy, the First Lady of the United States (1961-1963) had married, in 1968...🙂...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images from my (customized) Black Sea tour today, as I lift off Runway 17L/LTFM/Istanbul Airport and land back on the same Runway 17L (guided by the inbuilt MSFS EFB (ILS) Chart...🙂...helpfully complementing the FMC data, see shots below), after been nearly 1,000 miles in the air...

Thanks for viewing.

Those river shots are fascinating...especially #12.

Hmmm..."Turkey BURGER." Maybe now I'll stop confusing the Black Sea with the Caspian (regarding their relative locations on the globe). 🙂

 

48 minutes ago, John F said:

Those river shots are fascinating...especially #12.

Hmmm..."Turkey BURGER." Maybe now I'll stop confusing the Black Sea with the Caspian (regarding their relative locations on the globe). 🙂

 

...🙂...Thank you, John.

Regarding the river shots above of Dnieper and Dniester, near the Black Sea; I found it curious to observe massive bodies of water.

Indeed, now I'm reading, "There are large, significant estuaries (called limans) at the mouths of both the Dnieper and Dniester rivers where they meet the Black Sea, notably the Dnieper-Boh Estuary and the Dniester Liman, which are extensive brackish lagoons separated from the sea by sand spits."

We can see one of these estuaries in shot #13, with its brackish (greenish-brown colored) water, compared to the (cleaner) bluish water, seen in shot #14, further upstream.

And you made an interesting reference to the Caspian Sea. Due to some reason, I recall overflights of Black Sea more clearly...maybe because of its name...🙂...BTW, observe the FlightAware (direct) route below for (Chicago-New Delhi) from Air India this week, that I'd replicated. Notice how the route touches Black Sea but misses Caspian Sea.

I also looked at the reverse (New Delhi-Chicago) route but could not find a (non-stop) direct flight. So, instead, I picked up the FlightAware route for a Lufthansa flight between (New Delhi-Frankfurt); one I've flown a few times...🙂...In this one, you can see the route cutting right across Caspian Sea and also passing over Black Sea.

Cheers...!

Nice shots, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

pmplayer and badaboom:

Thanks for the responses.

 

3 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Nice shots, thanks for sharing !

cheers 😉

Glad you liked. This A321 is not same as the highly detailed one from Fenix, but it does the job for me…🙂…

Cheers…!