Having fun in the (midnight) sun.

[BobSeaman]

OK, I was struggling on where to post this thread. If the mods want to move it, no problem. :)

 

I fly weekly B-52 flights in FS2002 and this time out I wanted to check out some midnight sun action in Alaska so I loaded a flight plan for the IR-952 low level training route and took off from Fairchild AFB (Spokane, Wa) just a little after midnight (local time).

IR-952 starts on the central Alaska eastern border and wanders around a bit until it winds up near Eielson AFB (Fairbanks). From Fairbanks my route turned south to Middleton Island (MDO) then followed the coastline down to Tatoosh, Wa (TOU) before turning east and back to Spokane. No big deal, I hit my timing marks as planned but then I noticed something so goofy that it turned out to be a great trip. I expected the sun to rise very early. What I didn't expect was seeing three sun rises and two sunsets during a 9 hour flight. :D

 

Try it out if you're looking for something different. You just need to fly far enough north to get into the "midnight sun" region then turn south to south west. True air speed should be in the 400-500 knots area, so you'll need something with jet engines (also having long legs in terms of fuel is handy). I also flew the high altitude legs between FL265 and FL305.

 

Then I got wondering, three sun rises and two sunsets in less than 6 hours was fun but how many sun rises could you see on a similar trip while keeping the flight practical? You don't need hyper speed but I may have made this flight a week or two too early or too late. :confused:

[gwillmot]

That's very interesting ..... especially with the upcoming solar eclipse around the corner. Would you be able to see multiple eclipses as the sun rose and set?