After negotiating with the crew manning the Alert (CYLT) base, I managed to get my tanks filled back up with 100LL, and, after packing up the tent and all my supplies, and a pre-flight, I fired up the engines and performed the run-up. Luckily the winds favored runway 9, so I didn't have to taxi. I pulled onto the active, waved the crew good-bye, then announced my intentions on UNICOM and took off. As usual, my cruise altitude was 14,000, so I hand-flew it to altitude, getting Flight Following services from FS ATC climbing through about 3000-4000. Still with Montreal Center for some reason (Greenland Center doesn't seem to exsist in FS' world). After leveling off and handing control to the A/P, I lowered the mixture to as lean as possible and prop RPM to 2300. This is the longest leg I've flown so far, so fuel consumption was important. I was getting about 8.8 GPH on each engine throughout cruise, allowing for very long range. Sitting back for the flight, I suddenly noticed a strange cloud formation above me. It looked like a mass of colored, wispy-ish cloud, but it was constantly switching through the colors. In a few seconds it faded away totally. I realized I must have been seeing the Northern Lights, so I continued to watch, finger near the screen shot key. Next time they came back, I switched to spot view and got the picture of this phenomina that you see below. They came on several more times during the flight, but as soon as I got further south (or possibly different weather, time of day, etc, etc), they stopped appearing. The rest of the flight was fairly boring, just cruise over the dark mass of Greenland. It's really too bad I'm flying this in the winter (and at night), because I'm sure the scenery would be great during the summer (this being the far north, the sun doesn't shine much in the winter). As it was, I could only see hints of the mountains, valleys, lakes, and fjords spread out below, and the screen shots that I took dont even register them (FS screen shots seem overly dark to me). Anyway, after I got an NDB signal from BGKK's local NDB, I took over the controls and hand-flew the pattern (standard left downwind). This time FS luckily didn't move any mountains to the approach course, so I performed a normal landing and taxied to the cluster of buildings. MicroGas was back (and after my experiance up at CYLT, this may be a good thing =), so I parked and shut down the plane. It looked like there was at least a waiting ramp and possibly an FBO here, and there was even a road! Civilization again! Although there were still no AI aircraft on the ground, that will most likely change with the next leg. I'm flying to Iceland's biggest and most important airport, which I believe may even be in Class B airspace (I'll have to check for sure). I am planning on re-stocking on food and fuel for my stove there (both are starting to become a little short). Also there should be a hotel to sleep in instead of folding down the seats in the cabin or tenting! I can't wait!
