The Silver Spitfire Live Flight Tracker

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600 mile overnight - to us Brits anyway - dash to Evensk.

Member for

18 years 10 months

Posts: 4,796

Website hasn't been updated for 11 days...

Now... did they catch up a day by crossing the date line? ;)

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 376

They've advanced further into Russia. Here are some screen grabs from the Live Tracker link. The last one shows a closeup after the Spitfire was on the ground at the airfield. Note that the data box for that final point is displayed at lower left, with a time stamp. (I clicked on the final location symbol to open up the box.)

[EDIT: This was the flight mentioned earlier by Hooligan. Sorry, Hooligan, I missed that you'd posted of this flight. The name of the airfield is Evensk something...with Russian characters in the second word. I have added another screen grab, below, showing this name. From maps.google.com.]

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,566

The name of the airfield is Evensk something...with Russian characters in the second word.

Звеснк is Russian for Evensk....

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 376

THANK YOU, Bob. Or, according to an online translator, благодарю вас. [EDIT: And it seems so obvious that the top name (Evensk) seen on the Live Flight Tracker and maps.google.com, with no Russian characters, was in English and the one below, with Russian characters, was, um, the Russian place name...]

But for all I know, I just insulted you, or I put myself down. Hopefully neither. I'm reminded of the story (alleged) of a guy who chose the tattoo of three Chinese characters he thought translated to "DUTY, COURAGE, SACRIFICE", but which really meant "THIS CLOWN IS A TWIT".

Member for

18 years 10 months

Posts: 4,796

Those Russian chaps sure know how to build rather impressive airports in the middle of nowhere...& then abandon them

49°44'27.16"N 142°52'1.81"E

In other news, today's flight plan looks a bit odd. Appears they cut inland bound for Sokol, then had to go back to the coast, fly further South & take another run at it.

... and yet I guess they have the space not to need to build on them - in this country we seem to like to close our airfields and build houses on them even when the number of movements dictates remaining open. Fairoaks, Redhill and Dunsfold all under threat which, if they all close, will only leave Kenley as an active airfield in Surrey. I remember driving up through Florida 35 years ago, seemed to be a biggish airfield every few miles even if it just had a couple of Cessnas tied down.

Our silver friend has got to Magadan, only around 300 miles further, from Twitter it sounds like weather has thwarted their goal for the day as its around 7pm I think.

Member for

14 years

Posts: 1,788

Website hasn't been updated for 11 days...

Still not updated: anything post-Canada showing 'TBC'. Luckily the maps seems to work, but if you were hoping to see the aircraft (or at least give a rough day or two guess on location) you'd be piddling in the wind.

Member for

18 years 10 months

Posts: 4,796

Our silver friend has got to Magadan, only around 300 miles further, from Twitter it sounds like weather has thwarted their goal for the day as its around 7pm I think.

Straight line, but they were probably closer to 500 by the time they landed given the detour.

Indeed.

Good progress overnight to Nikolayevsk-on-Amur via Okhotsk. Given good weather today they could make it down the length of Sakhalin Island and on to Sapporo on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, roughly 750 miles with a stop or two. This would get them back on schedule, if they are more or less following the original plan.

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18 years 10 months

Posts: 4,796

Assuming they don't end up in North Korea or China... Does anyone have a copy of the original schedule?

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 376

The map of the proposed flight path (https://www.silverspitfire.com/about/route-map/) differs in some ways from the list of destinations found at the bottom of the same page.

According to the map, the plan called for this route: Russia - Japan - South Korea - China - Vietnam - Laos - Myanmar, etc. (I attached a screen grab, as the graphic was painting up, showing a segment of the map as far as Laos.)

According to the list, the tentative route was planned to be Russia - Japan - Taiwan - Hong Kong - Vietnam - Thailand, etc., but there is a note at the end of this list explaining, "An alternative route which is TBC and subject to change would include: Seoul 27-29 Oct, and China (various locations), 30 Oct – 12 Nov."

This same list also appears at the bottom of the Live Flight Tracker page, at https://www.silverspitfire.com/about/flight-tracker/ .

At the top of both of the links above, the following note is added:

Please see a detailed route map and plan below of The Longest Flight expedition. It’s important to note that this route and timings may change without warning due to factors outside of our control including weather, engineering issues, and international border regulations. Please follow us on social media for all the latest information about destinations which will be published the day before arrival.

Some of the inconsistencies are due to the fact that this is a constantly evolving project. No surprise there, to me, both in terms of weather and international politics. I'd guess, however, that it's pretty much a given that the Silver Spitfire was never going to be routed to North Korea! China, not just Hong Kong, may happen, but not North Korea!

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By my reckoning it's about 8 in the evening, so rest/maintenance?

Original plan I copied... bit of dwell-time in Japan, arriving in Hong Kong in 10 days time and a couple of weeks stopped there.

border: 1 cellpadding: 0 cellspacing: 0 width: 684
[TR]
[TD]Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport[/TD]
[TD]RUSSIA[/TD]
[TD]17/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sapporo Okadama[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]18/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sendai[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]19/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ryugasaki[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]20/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nagoya[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]25/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kagoshima[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]25/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Okinawa[/TD]
[TD]JAPAN[/TD]
[TD]26/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Taipei[/TD]
[TD]TAIWAN[/TD]
[TD]27/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kaohsiung[/TD]
[TD]TAIWAN[/TD]
[TD]28/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Hong Kong[/TD]
[TD]HONGKONG[/TD]
[TD]29/09/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Danang[/TD]
[TD]VIETNAM[/TD]
[TD]13/10/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ubon Ratchathani[/TD]
[TD]THAILAND[/TD]
[TD]14/10/2019[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Bangkok / Don Mueang[/TD]
[TD]THAILAND[/TD]
[TD]16/10/2019[/TD]
[/TR]

Just arriving at Sapporo now, via Sakhalin - coincidental with the Australia-Fiji Rugby World Cup match.

G-IRTY has left Sapporo for Ryugasaki near Tokyo as a typhoon is forecast to pass through the area in the next 24 hours or so. Weather diversion en-route into Hanamki.

Member for

18 years 10 months

Posts: 4,796

I'm guessing they will island hop along the shima/jima's to get to Taiwan.

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 376

Posted on the project's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/thesilverspitfire) -- it says the Spitfire will be in Hanamaki, Japan for "a few weeks". Resting up and performing maintenance before the second half of the journey continues.
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