u/jtaylor418

Inspired by a post here a while back where someone flew the US perimeter in a 172 (79 legs!), I set out to do my own version, starting and ending at my home field, KLZU (Gwinnett County / Briscoe Field) outside Atlanta. I tried to trace the actual border or coastline as closely as possible instead of flying direct.

I used Claude the whole time, from creating flight plans to asking lots of questions about anything I didn't understand. It was quite a pleasant way to learn, IMO.

Happy to answer questions or share route strings if anyone wants to try it! Super fun and wanting to plan for Africa next. :D

High level

• Dates: Aug 28 – Oct 11, 2026
• Landings: 35
• Planned distance: 7,814 nm (actual flown was higher thanks to all the border/coast tracing)
• Aircraft: Cirrus Vision Jet G2 (legs 1–11), Citation Longitude (Tucson onward)
• Fuel logged: ~9,200 gal

Components involved

• MSFS 2024
• SimBrief
• Navigraph charts
• SayIntentions.AI for ATC
• Volanta for tracking
• AutoFPS
• All logging in a Google Sheet by Claude

What I wish I'd known at the start...

Route planning / import

• The MSFS world-map import of a SimBrief plan dropped airports used as en-route waypoints, so my routes collapsed into straight lines.
• VORs and named fixes imported cleanly every time. Switching to VOR-based routes fixed it.
• A single lat/lon coordinate mixed with navaids imported fine (great for points like Cape Hatteras). Long all-coordinate routes were where I had the most trouble.
• Lots of VORs have been decommissioned or turned into DME/TACAN-only. SimBrief usually still accepts them, but check that each one draws where you expect.
• Always check the world map (and the FMS flight plan) for the bends before pushback.

Performance

• One time my FPS tanked to ~9 mid-trip. Cause: VRAM overflowing into shared system memory. The culprit was **NVIDIA Instant Replay at 4K**. Turning it off plus a reboot took me from 9 fps back to 60–78.
• The dev mode overlay's GPUMem line (usage vs. budget) is the number to watch.
• AutoFPS works great, but change its managed settings (clouds, TLOD) between flights, not mid-flight, or it'll revert them.

SayIntentions ATC

• On flights where I spawned on the runway and/or filed all-coordinate routes, ATC got confused: early descents, vectors off the filed route. Gate starts with named waypoints behaved much better.

Fuel

• Leaving SimBrief block fuel on AUTO out of LaGuardia, I landed in Norfolk with 780 lb and the master caution on. NYC departure delays and low-altitude vectors eat fuel. I set block fuel manually after that.

Airports involved

Vision Jet G2

• KLZU → KSAV (Briscoe Field → Savannah)
• KSAV → KDAB (Savannah → Daytona Beach)
• KDAB → KEYW (Daytona Beach → Key West)
• KEYW → KSRQ (Key West → Sarasota)
• KSRQ → KECP (Sarasota → Panama City)
• KECP → KMSY (Panama City → New Orleans)
• KMSY → KGLS (New Orleans → Galveston)
• KGLS → KBRO (Galveston → Brownsville)
• KBRO → KDRT (Brownsville → Del Rio)
• KDRT → KELP (Del Rio → El Paso)
• KELP → KTUS (El Paso → Tucson)

Citation Longitude

• KTUS → KSAN (Tucson → San Diego)
• KSAN → KSBA (San Diego → Santa Barbara)
• KSBA → KMRY (Santa Barbara → Monterey)
• KMRY → KSFO (Monterey → San Francisco)
• KSFO → KACV (San Francisco → Arcata)
• KACV → KAST (Arcata → Astoria)
• KAST → KCLM (Astoria → Port Angeles)
• KCLM → KBLI (Port Angeles → Bellingham)
• KBLI → KGPI (Bellingham → Kalispell)
• KGPI → KMOT (Kalispell → Minot)
• KMOT → KINL (Minot → International Falls)
• KINL → KDLH (International Falls → Duluth)
• KDLH → KCMX (Duluth → Houghton)
• KCMX → KCIU (Houghton → Chippewa County)
• KCIU → KBUF (Chippewa County → Buffalo)
• KBUF → KPBG (Buffalo → Plattsburgh)
• KPBG → KCAR (Plattsburgh → Caribou)
• KCAR → KBHB (Caribou → Bar Harbor)
• KBHB → KACK (Bar Harbor → Nantucket)
• KACK → KLGA (Nantucket → LaGuardia)
• KLGA → KORF (LaGuardia → Norfolk)
• KORF → KCHS (Norfolk → Charleston)
• KCHS → KATL (Charleston → Atlanta)
• KATL → KLZU (Atlanta → Briscoe Field)

Again, happy to answer questions or share route strings if anyone wants to try it! :D