After four days we've covered seven of sixteen World Cup host cities, enough to complete the Volanta challenge and earn the badge. But why stop there? We still have nine cities we can cover before the July 20 deadline. So where to next? Let's find out! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

Forgot to post yesterday, but today we're on day 4 of the Volanta "World Cup Challenge." So far we've visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City, Monterrey, and Boston. So what's next? Come find out! Now boarding! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

Yesterday we got the Volanta "World Cup Challenge" started with a flight first to LAX, followed by a short hop from there up the coast to SFO. Where to next? Let's find out! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

And to make things a little more interesting, I'm going to randomize it. Before each flight, I'm going to spin a wheel. Whatever it lands on is where we'll be flying to. So where will we be flying today? Join in to find out! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

Okay, I've had three days off, now back to Flight Simulator. And for the next few flights, I'll be doing Volanta's World Cup Challenge in the C700. The goal: land at at least six of the World Cup host cities inside of ten days.

Now that we're back to home base after the Earhart round-the-world flight, we've got a little time to kill before the next adventure. So I'm digging back in my Steam library and revisiting one of the more mind-bending games I've played: Superliminal. twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

All that's left now is to bring the Starship back to home base. After that... who knows what our next adventure will be. But that's a concern for some other time. For now... let's bring it on back. Now boarding! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

And after 46 days, we're done. Every stop was day-for-day, with the sole exception of our diversion to Tarawa. (The data point for Howland Island isn't quite where it should be since in the absence of a present airfield there, I had to use Canton Island as the closest available.)

Our flight from Honolulu to Oakland will be a long one; in fact, the longest of the entire journey after our diversion to Tarawa on the Lae-Howland leg. But at least this time the winds will be in our favor. It's time to finish this. Now boarding! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

But there would be no victorious return, no ticker-tape celebration of a feat well-accomplished... only a lingering mystery that has yet to be solved, 89 years later. As much as Earhart had accomplished in her 40 years, this is what would define her legacy.

July 4, 1937. This was the date that Amelia Earhart had hoped to arrive in Oakland, California to complete her round-the-world journey, the date that she would have been reunited with her husband, a date perfectly suited for the triumph of an American aviation pioneer.

So today we'll be trying again to reach Howland Island, and now there should be no reason for us not to succeed. Well... except for the fact that the airfield built there for Earhart no longer exists. Just a minor issue there. Now boarding! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

On our last flight we ourselves tried to reach Howland Island, but like Earhart we also ran into a fuel crisis as we approached the area. Persistent headwinds eroded precious range, eventually forcing a diversion to Tarawa, Kiribati... an option Earhart had not had in 1937.

Over the next seventeen days, the Itasca would be joined by six other U.S. government vessels, including the carrier CV-2 Lexington and the battleship Colorado, and together they scoured over a quarter-million square miles of ocean searching for the missing aircraft.

Meanwhile the Itasca continued to listen, picking up spurious signals on the frequency Earhart had been using, but on further investigation these would prove to be red herrings... as would over a hundred documented reports from people claiming to have heard distress calls.

After several hours of trying to contact the missing aviators, the Itasca set out in search of them. Meanwhile, the Chief of Naval Operations directed Admiral Orin Murfin to use all practical assets to assist.

July 3, 1937. Nothing more has been heard from Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan following their failure to arrive at Howland Island. The USCGC Itasca, stationed there to support them, had heard their calls, but it seemed clear that Earhart had never heard their responses.

After several more tries at contacting the Itasca, Earhart sent a final position report: "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat message. We will repeat this on 6210 Kilocycles. Wait." Nothing more was heard.

Earhart made several attempts in the coming hours to ask the Itasca for a bearing, but her signal was too unreliable for the operator to get a proper fix, and she would not have been able to receive the reply regardless.

For the next seven hours Earhart stayed in contact with the radio operators at Lae, providing regular position updates along the way. From this point a radio station at Nauru picked up her signal, which they monitored for another five hours before losing contact.

This would be the last time they were ever seen.

With an eager telegram to President Franklin Roosevelt, Earhart had helped to expedite the project, and by the time she set off from Lae the airfield was fully constructed and ready to welcome her, and the Coast Guard ship USCGC Itasca was in support position nearby.

As Earhart was planning her round-the-world journey, the residents of Howland, with the help of WPA funding, were constructing three runways to serve as a possible emergency and refueling station for transpacific flights, a set of airstrips they would call Kamakaiwi Field.

Howland Island itself was nearly uninhabited, an oblong coral island discovered and claimed by the US in 1857 and mined for guano until about 1890 when the industry faded. By 1937 only a few researchers remained there, along with a beacon and a handful of small buildings.

Only three flights remained before their return to Oakland, but these were to be the most daunting of them all as they crossed the Pacific Ocean, a body of water so vast that from a certain angle it can be seen to cover almost an entire hemisphere.

July 2, 1937. 43 days after leaving Oakland, California, having flown 32 flights covering a distance of over 21,000 miles, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan wake up in Lae, New Guinea to make their final preparations for the longest leg of their round-the-world journey.

Looks like I'm going to be taking a break from this site for a while. I have no interest in handing over my PII to a third-party site I've never heard of, and I'm not going to jump on a VPN every time I want to post here. Fuck age verification, and fuck Texas politicians.

Like usual, we'll be flying significantly higher today than Earhart, which means we'll be well above any of the mild, low-level clouds along the way. Expect pleasant skies and a picturesque arrival at Lae. Now boarding! twitch.tv/SkylarDarkfox

Eventually, the clouds thinned and they descended to the eastern shore of New Guinea, which they then followed until they found the city of Lae and finally set down after seven hours and forty-three minutes over sea and jungle.

Eventually they crossed the southern shore of New Guinea, the mountains of which forced them to climb to stay over the rising cloud deck. But even in doing so, they found themselves weaving through towers of cumulus, "a fairy-story sky country" as she put it.