A great flight indeed. and some stunning pictures there, Peter
I took the opportunity to use this flight as a benchmark for how well the DA-20 model of Aerosoft (KatanaX) models the performance of "my" plane (Aquila A210). I made a performance planning (time / distance / altitude / fuel burn) based on the actual POH of my own airplane, which is rather similar to the DA-20. Airspeeds for the DA-20 should be 5 - 10% lower with the same power settings, so I expected to take a little longer than planned. But much to my surprise, When I started my descend after 01:17 of flight, and tried my best to stay on the planned descend rate, I seemed to exactly touch ground at LSZR. It's that I thought I had to slow down at reporting point S, to go fly 80 KIAS with flaps 1, so it eventually took me 4 minutes longer than planned. I also used up only 25 liters of fuel, where I had planned 29 liters. Maybe the DA-20 was running a bit lean? But then I would not get an engine failure from carb icing at 5000 ft (7 °C AOT), since leaning too much makes the engine run hotter... Ah, well, I don't know. What I do know is that the performance figures were actually pretty accurate, and I am happy with that. The flight characteristics are reasonably similar (a touch less responsive to control inputs), so the KatanaX is a good FSX alternative for as long as there is no sophisticated Aquila model available yet, for practicing circuits, cross-wind landings, and now also navigation exercises
