139th leg: Wednesday, September 07, 2005
ZBAA to ZYTL, Beijing to Dalian, China
Airport: Zhoushuizi
2.7 hours

At least there was one other plane at the airport today.


Instead of flying straight to Dalian, I flew north and then northwest past a few lakes. Based on the map below, I should have been able to see the Great Wall of China around here somewhere, but I don't think I saw it, unless it was one of the things that just looked like roads from the air. When I gave up around the lakes and headed towards Dalian, I should have crossed over the wall too.



I saw these rows of trees along the sides of something that looked like a road. Maybe that was it.



Landing at Dalian. Oh, and this wasn't the real weather here. It was nice in Beijing but once I hit lower ground it switched to 3/4 mile visibility. That would have been somewhat disappointing but I would have stuck with it except the sim wasn't drawing anything, like it did once before. I tried several times but gave up and just left it set for clear weather. 

 140th leg: Thursday, September 08, 2005
ZYTL to RKTH, Dalian, China to Pohang, South Korea
Airport: Pohang Aero
3.6 hours

Another view of Dalian, early morning. Foggy. What else is new?


More Dalian. Looks like some convenience stores down there.


 



 


The area around Pohang Aero.
141st leg: Friday, September 09, 2005
RKTH to RJNN, Pohang, South Korea to Nagoya, Japan
Airport: Nagoya
3.3 hours

Leaving Pohang


Over Japan


 

 
I'm pretty sure that this is the city of Gifu.


Nagoya airport

Link about Nagoya
142nd leg: Saturday, September 10, 2005
RJNN to RJTT, Nagoya to Tokyo, Japan
Airport: Tokyo (Haneda) Intl
1.8 hours

Nice weather leaving Nagoya airport! I changed my plans and decided to go to Tokyo next. I was checking the flight planner and found that my plane can't handle one of my future legs. I'd need at least six gallons of gas more than what it holds. And I couldn't find any other options that would work. So I was back to the dilemma of either cheating with unlimited fuel (which I didn't end up having to do to get across the Atlantic) or switching to another plane. I decided I didn't want to cheat with the fuel but I also really like my plane and want to finish up my trip in it, so I decided to go to Tokyo, have my plane shipped to Alaska and lease a different plane to fly for the next bit. Luckily I am virtually fabulously rich and can do things like this.


The city of Nagoya


 

Mount Fuji!  Cool! 

 




Link about Mount Fuji


There appear to be docks nearby (the orange things are cranes) for shipping my plane so I think this airport was a good choice.


 

So with my plane now on a ship to Alaska, I tried out a Mooney Bravo and did some sightseeing over Tokyo.

 
It's fast and nimble, so it was fun to fly but not too comfortable since it's unfamiliar. Plus it has retractable gear that I would have to remember to put up and down. Instead I think I'll go with a different Cessna with bigger tanks like the one I tried before. Check out that airliner in the background. I thought that looked cool. I landed on a taxiway (gear down) when I went back to the airport because the runway I had chosen had planes taking off on it.