A 40's style Journey Around the World in a DC-3

[salt_air]

In real time it's the 1st of August 2010,,,,, but soon it won't be either one.

Reality will give way to simulating the conditions and surroundings as well as sharing tales of lore while using a DC-3 to circumnavigate the Earth as rendered in FS9,,, and 2010 will give way to the 1940's.

Almost as soon as the "light came on" for me and I was finally able to find my way from place to place in the sim world by using the instruments in the aircraft I was flying, I wanted to try to go all the way around the planet. So has everyone of the rest of you at some point and quite a few actually have!. The earlier simulators didn't have much to offer in the way of scenery or graphical interest, so I could dream and then dismiss the idea.

Also since the early days of MSFS, I've looked for a descent DC-3 model to fly in the sim because it is one of my most favorite aircraft of all time and the rest of the world would describe it as iconic to say the least.

Well I have both of these items before me now and I am waiting on nothing except my own ambition and determination to see it through. The sim has evolved (even FS9) into an excellent representation of the whole world and there are no less than three fine examples of modeling the DC-3.

I may in fact use each of the DC-3 models instead of just one. The best one in my opinion is the one that is supplied in the Radio Range download. Another is the excellent payware package from MAAM-SIM and I actually have no complaints with the default DC-3.

Because this is mostly about navigation an pilotage, I'll get in the RR4 model. It has more period specific navigational equipment available right out of the box and it's a joy to fly.

This would normally be posted on another forum, but (1) there has been enough interest expressed here as well as a desire to follow. (2) This journey as well a past and future journeys that I take the time to document and post on this forum will be open events as well.

Open means just that,,,,I will be giving a heads up as to when I plan to fly and I'll either be on the FSMPA server or my own, depending on schedules, and anyone that wants to and has the time can feel free to join the "open" session. It will be titled for easy recognition on FSHost Spy if I'm on my server and except for any events we have, you'll know what's happening if you see me on ours. If I'm "journeying" you will know.

The internet has gotten a lot better over the years, but it still has demons from time to time and if it's having one of it's unexplained down times when I have time to fly, then I'll catch things up on the forum whenever the connection is restored. Not really seeing a big issue there except for the fact that it's about to be the peak of hurricane season in my part of the world. As part of my computer system, a 6 hour 1000 watt battery back-up, I incorporated for RTW's will allow me to finish anything I start, but I can't force an internet connection that's broken.

I don't know if a disclaimer is necessary for any of this and dammit if it is, but just in case I take no credit for any of the aircraft or equipment addons or scenery addons that I will be using, mentioning and highlighting with screen shots wordage during this Journey.



So with that let the "Journey Around the World" begin....

[salt_air]

Guidelines is a better word I suppose....

I intend to use only navigational aids that were in place up until the late 40's. there were some VOR's in use then and there had actually been an ILS system tested in the 30's, but for simplicity and not having to "chase rabbits" backing up discussion, I'll keep from using any VOR's at all.

Certainly no GPS and eventhough FSNav will be used almost exclusively for planning, it will be used only as a still or static chart during each flight.

During flights, everything in FSNav will be turned off except airports and their ID's and frequencies and NDB's with their ID's and frequencies.

There will nothing at all to indicate the orientation or location of the aircraft on the FSNav map. I will only be able to estimate position by my own calculations using NDB's and older nav-aids as well as hand written notes to optimize the charts that will be used.

I hope to incorporate the use of a sextant to the extent that I can find it useful, learning further about it's use as I go. I will also be soliciting help and learning the best ways to use compass readings and E6-B calculations as well as the use of a wind drift meter (not the gauge). Basically all of the bells and whistles available to pilots in the 40's and earlier.

The aircraft will be configured to have a minimal amount of cargo as provisions (500lbs) and just the weight of the pilot and co pilot (no passengers).

I will try also to plan fuel and only fuel at airports that offer it. I haven't researched (and won't be) what that may involve, so there may be emergency fuel "shipped in" on occasion. (not in flight).

Rather than continue the travel from Cody.WY to Key West, FL there will be a fresh start from Weeksville, NC, I'll announce destination and direction for the first leg in the next post.

Besides FS9 you will need to download and install rr40.zip and aship_j.zip.


Tally Ho!

[DHC120]

Salt;
FS Library has "No Record" of "asihp_j.zip".. Where did you find this? And, What is it?
Lastly, on your "lead time" for a flight, is twenty-four hours too much to ask?? (post an EDT or Zulu start time-- the "post times" bear no relavance to "real time" for me).. I ask because, often, when someone says they are going to flying in a certain area, and I check back later in the day only to find the flight is nearly or is over..
Charles

[salt_air]

Salt;
FS Library has "No Record" of "asihp_j.zip".. Where did you find this? And, What is it?
Lastly, on your "lead time" for a flight, is twenty-four hours too much to ask?? (post an EDT or Zulu start time-- the "post times" bear no relavance to "real time" for me).. I ask because, often, when someone says they are going to flying in a certain area, and I check back later in the day only to find the flight is nearly or is over..
Charles

Can't spell....it's should be aship_j.zip

I changed it in the other post.

I will be on FSHostservers as much as I can. That way you or anybody would be able to find exactly where I am.

Grab FSHostSpy if you don't have it already.

http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshostspy/download.html

I'll be on the FlightSim server or salt_air's server unless I make a special post saying I'm on a different one.

I'll try to give a heads up as to what day and maybe the time of day.

If it was just up to me I would post a schedule and fly the thing in about two or three weeks, but I have "chores" to do as well.

Also forgot to mention that the majority of the flight won't be navigated with RR stations because they're mainly available in the US and Canada only.

That will leave FSX as an option for most of the Journey,,, might have to knock some of the cob-webs out of that program before I'm finished.

Thanks!,

[DHC120]

Salt;
Naval Air Stations?? And Blimps, at that?? Just for scenery? Or what?
On Transoceanic flights (having been on two in the fifies, Tokyo to Honolulu in Oct '53 and Honolulu to San Francisco [or Oakland] in Aug '58), there were "Weather Ships" that broadcast a beacon that was used like an NDB.. one flew a compass heading to and from to guide their flight. Your "Navigator" had better be super sharp or you might be swimming.
On the Tokyo/Honolulu flight, some time after PNR we lost an engine and had to put down on Wake.. The wingtips of the plane stuck-out over the water.. THAT'S how narrow that runway was!! AND how good the navigator had to be to locate that speck in the western half of the Pacific!
Charles.

[salt_air]

Salt;
Naval Air Stations?? And Blimps, at that?? Just for scenery? Or what?
On Transoceanic flights (having been on two in the fifies, Tokyo to Honolulu in Oct '53 and Honolulu to San Francisco [or Oakland] in Aug '58), there were "Weather Ships" that broadcast a beacon that was used like an NDB.. one flew a compass heading to and from to guide their flight. Your "Navigator" had better be super sharp or you might be swimming.
On the Tokyo/Honolulu flight, some time after PNR we lost an engine and had to put down on Wake.. The wingtips of the plane stuck-out over the water.. THAT'S how narrow that runway was!! AND how good the navigator had to be to locate that speck in the western half of the Pacific!
Charles.


Thanks for the heads up!

Still preparing the plane and running the process of elimination as far as the flight plan goes.

None of it will be written in stone so to speak, but I should have a good idea of the whole thing in a few days.

I really want to make the hops through the islands in the Pacific, but right now the rim route is looking very accommodating and makes more sense especially if weather throws it's usual curve ball at the visibility factor.

Also looking at the northern crossing of the Atlantic instead of the jump across from Recife, Brazil (SBRF) to Ascension island (FHAW) and then to somewhere along the Africa coast??

Anytime we (the community) run long range events like this where you're limited to NDB's and use real weather, you run into the situations that have gaps of coverage between signals and you're are making an educated guess as to heading. Even when there was little wind I have been off by some degree every time I've tried to estimate the heading to account for the wind no matter which method I employed.

BTW: There's a first class navigator on board ,,, And yeah, the scenery file is for scenery....;).

[DHC120]

BTW: There's a first class navigator on board ,,, And yeah, the scenery file is for scenery....;).

Oh? Who did you get to fly with you?? ;-}
I know there are "instructions" so one can add the Radio Range instruments, etc. into "other than DC-3" planes, but I'll be dipped if I can find it.. Do you know where this info is detailed out?
I've checked the RR4 folder in FS9, but no "Readme" or any info on how (a dummy) can do this.. Would appreciate a "heading" in the right direction..
Thanks.
Charles.

[salt_air]

Oh? Who did you get to fly with you?? ;-}
I know there are "instructions" so one can add the Radio Range instruments, etc. into "other than DC-3" planes, but I'll be dipped if I can find it.. Do you know where this info is detailed out?
I've checked the RR4 folder in FS9, but no "Readme" or any info on how (a dummy) can do this.. Would appreciate a "heading" in the right direction..
Thanks.
Charles.

The guy's name is Noonan,,,,I think?....8-/

I don't remember seeing any specific instructions other than what came with panel mods for some other than DC-3 planes in the library.

Type Radio Range in the search box at FlightSim and scroll through several. One of the most interesting ones is for the Boeing 307. Some others I remember were the DC-5, Vultee, and the MAAM-SIM DC-3.

While you're in there you might want to grab up the downloads for AM Radio Nav and another one for all the TACAN's over in the Middle East,,,,just save um for later.

I got some ideas on how to do it from reading and following the instructions on those mods....I've done them all at some point.

I would really love to have a simple way to use the RR cab file in the Gauges folder and make a descent sub-panel with everything you would need in it's own window.

Too busy now, I could mess around with that a little later.

If you find anything please post.

Happy Trails,

[salt_air]

First Draft of the intended Flight Plan has so many way points it won't even save in FSNav...

Remember I'm only using what displays as NDB's and they have a relatively short range, some as short as 22 NM. I need to find an ADF receiver that will tune to high frequencies well above 1200 mhz in order to make use of the miltary's Tactical Air Navigation System or TACAN's: (tacanfs9.zip) that run through the Middle East and Europe. I need to also install the AM Radio Navigation: (amradio2.zip) equipment for the southern cross (west to east) in Australia as well as the hike up from bottom to top in New Zealand.

Haven't tried it out yet, but I found a zip that promises a sample of "Old Time Radio" short wave style that should run for about thirty minutes and sound like a radio broadcast fro 1937.

Should be interesting, but thirty minutes of that will be enough I'm sure...:cool:.(sw1937_x.zip)

The draft has me running just over 38 thousand NM and estimated it would take 234 hours (flight time) and use up just about 19000 lbs of fuel. That's about 4 fill ups in the 4 tank configuration I plan to use.

Doesn't seem like enough, but I usually beat the fuel estimates unless the winds are horrendous or get REAL lost for a few hours...;)....that will happen.

The plan has slighted South America and Africa. I'll hit on each, but very shallow, especially
Africa with a stop only in Cairo.

Basically out of NAS Weeksville (KWKS) need earlier mentioned scenery file to see it or just south and east of KECG...on to pick up the Range station at Richmond, VA then follow the Civil Airways per charts up the NE corridor of the US and Canada and on to Greenland ...Iceland....down through Europe, just touching Africa and across the Middle East ...Indonesia....Australia and New Zealand as described...then if I've learned enough to have gained the confidence I need ...I will shoot out across the Pacific (A.Earhart) style up through the islands to the Aleutians ....that's what I really want to do, but if not or there's going to be bad weather...it will be back up through the Solomons to the Philippines ...Taiwan...mainland China (remember it's the forty's) ..sneak through Korea and then up through Kamchatka and on to the Aleutians from there....not there yet!...the RR stations start back up again there and I can follow them all the way down through AK...Canada....the West Coast to about LA...then over (still on the range) to Fort Worth where I'll turn south run through the rest of TX and into Mexico City ,,,Belize....Costa Rica....Panama and then jump to the Northern coast of Columbia and Venezuela ...over to Trinidad....then up through the Antilles and across Puerto Rico ....Haiti....Cuba ...then hit Key West and come up the East Coast ....and back to Weeksville.

I must be crazy!

Okay back to the panel shop for a few more tweaks and then a lot of reading,,,ala,,,sextant, wind drift gauge and E6-B manuals.

I'll keep the Wikipedia site up on a browser so I can add a little color to the posts per geographic area.

Should be ready in the next few days.

Cheers,

[EdGeneer]

This sounds cool, I will have to join you on a few of these here legs.... as for an ndb list exclusively prior to 1940, is there a file that can be swapped to only install those ndb's available then?

sounds like fun austin... having done the macrobertson race in a dc-3 last year, i know what your up against... at least your not rounding the globe in the puss moth!!!!!!

it should be fun, the dc-3 is such an under-rated a/c... there is a patina or character to some of those tried and tru a/c of yesterday, and flying them in the sim is no loss for adventure. its perhaps one of the reasons i liked the rr events so much... and regretted missing the last one...

fun fun fun....

but i think it would be (if i can put in a plug for) great if you flew it on the multiplayer server and we somehow tracked you, and or participants, for multiplayer adventure purposes on the main server... good PR, and easy for folks to find you... jsut my 2 cents... but with inflation, taxes, and gratuity, it tends to come out alot more weighty....

[salt_air]

This sounds cool, I will have to join you on a few of these here legs.... as for an ndb list exclusively prior to 1940, is there a file that can be swapped to only install those ndb's available then?

sounds like fun austin... having done the macrobertson race in a dc-3 last year, i know what your up against... at least your not rounding the globe in the puss moth!!!!!!

it should be fun, the dc-3 is such an under-rated a/c... there is a patina or character to some of those tried and tru a/c of yesterday, and flying them in the sim is no loss for adventure. its perhaps one of the reasons i liked the rr events so much... and regretted missing the last one...

fun fun fun....

but i think it would be (if i can put in a plug for) great if you flew it on the multiplayer server and we somehow tracked you, and or participants, for multiplayer adventure purposes on the main server... good PR, and easy for folks to find you... jsut my 2 cents... but with inflation, taxes, and gratuity, it tends to come out alot more weighty....

Thanks Ed,

No way to render the sim's functional navaids back to a specific period short of editing each individual airport in the simulator. That's not going to happen in this lifetime. It will take away from the realism a little, but I'll take the advantage that provides and call it even for not having a co-pilot or navigator. The dumb blonde stewardess is a whole 'nother story..;).

You can trim down FSNav (which I will do) to only display airports and what the simulator recognizes as NDB's. Both Google Earth and Plan-G have had adjustments or addons contributed by appollosmith and 350BC_Doug to display Radio Range stations only. teson1 made an overlay for Google Earth that will show the Civil Airways.

The DC-3 is an icon of aircraft for that time period, very under rated and under celebrated. That along with it being one of my all time favorites is the reason I chose to use it for the trip. Using the Puss Moth (a fantastic model from Milton Shupe and friends) is a little bit ambitious even for me. I have to tell ya though that I did look for a long time at the Trimotors from Ford, Fokker, and Stinson. There are actually a lot of other worthy aircraft from the period as well.

I will be making every effort to fly on our server and each flight will carry an open invitation to any and all that would care to join me for as little and as long as they can manage. If I don't use our server then the address will be posted in the forum here to any other server I may use. I might be making some "Guest" appearances on other server's during the trip as a gesture of Good Will and Community Spirit.

I will announce in the "Maiden Voyage", (which by the way will pass right over KGFL hopefully as early as next Monday), post that I will be running the cockpit sharing program that's found here: http://www.gates.to/ for anyone that would like to take a position in the right-seat for a while. The MAAM-SIM has a 2D cockpit that will show both positions and should work well for this. There is at least one other panel download for the default model that shows the whole panel too. I'm basically down to making the last of the panel tweaks before leaving.

That's a payware program, but at six bucks US, I don't think it will send anyone into chapter 7 that would like to give it a try....:cool:. Might be nice for a few of us to have that for use on other events or impromptu sessions.

A satisfactory paint job was a consideration, but got to be too time consuming and not headed to a resolve, so I'll just use bare metal (N541SA) textures included in Mark Beaumont's (dc3paint.zip). They are BTW excellent "canvases" for the guys who can do paint jobs,,,,two bare metal options and two with white tops. You should have a look.

I'll make mention of a model that I had considered based off of the MAAM-SIM and that was a kit with full instruction to convert the aircraft into a Douglas Sleeper Transport....(dst14988.zip). Basically they ran Wright Cyclone engines instead of the Pratts and had sleeper berths in place of seats.....party time!!, eh? You have to edit both the air file and the config file to simulate the differences in the way the engines performed and there are several sound files available for the Cyclones. Not for the novice, but a lot of fun to build. You have to have the MAAM-SIM installed already. American Airlines operated them in commercial service out of Newark and Midway back in the 1936.

The flight plan has allowed for fly-bys or full stop landings at every known hometown of the "Good Times Gang", both past and present, whenever possible, even though some are out of the way. It's NOT a race, but a milestone event at least for me and will be mostly considered as scenic.

fun fun fun....is right,

[apollosmith]

Wow! What an adventure! Be sure to post your schedule here ahead of time, if you can, so we can come fly along, and maybe learn about some of the navigation tools you're using.

There are a few RR stations in Southern Asia that might be of use - Karachi, Pakistan and Gaya and Calcutta, India should be roughly along your flight path.

[salt_air]

Wow! What an adventure! Be sure to post your schedule here ahead of time, if you can, so we can come fly along, and maybe learn about some of the navigation tools you're using.

There are a few RR stations in Southern Asia that might be of use - Karachi, Pakistan and Gaya and Calcutta, India should be roughly along your flight path.

Yeah Smitty,,,,I'll be trying to accommodate anyone that might want to tag along and you are dead on the money with the way points you listed.....that's exactly where the plan is taking me for reasons of the available navaids as well as the terrain issues in that part of the world.

Not all that far north of where we're talking is Nepal and I'm trying to keep a service ceilibng of 11000' with a hard ceiling for very short bursts (15 minutes or so) of 15000'.

When the flight is complete the path that will be left behind will make little sense....even less than some of our RTW trails, but there are factors to consider that are particular to the DC-3 and some side line trips like to as many of you guys hometown airports as I can fit in, plus there is some real good default scenery that I will try to celebrate with screenshots and (if I have time) I hope to set up a FTP site from which the movie makers in this crowd can download the huge files that Fraps (I'll be running that too) generates for editing and production.

Schedule will be as time allows, but I will post as soon as possible each leg's plan. I also will be on the our server as much as I can and.... don't tell anybody, but I'm now considering doing the whole flight under duenna conditions one, to keep me on the "straight and narrow" and two, so that I can send the flights to Google Earth for viewing.

Although the using duenna in events of any kind tends to add to the drama a little, it does make you think ahead and keep you in attention of your surroundings. There is time to get up and go to the back of the plane, but only the real gamblers will stay away for very long from the controls.

Now that I'm on the duenna thing,,,,it does an excellent job of record keeping and as I found in the last SOH MacRobertson Race, monitoring it's output dynamically will afford much more accurate data upon which to make judgments for planning time and fuel as you go.

BTW: this is not a competetion in anyway other than with myself.....a crash is a crash and will be taken into some sort of consideration as far as delay, but there won't be any distance penalty. Unless I have to ditch in the ocean some where, I'll just pick up where I crashed and carry on from the nearest airport with my face red. An ocean crash will invoke a longer time down before the next flight and would be reset to the nearest point of civilization that would have been envolved in any real life recovery....but let's get off of that subject!

May not be exactly correct for the period, but I'll be making use of TACAN's available from a scenery download and scenery that is correct, AM Radio Navigation siganals (those by means of a scenery download under the same name) just because I haven't used them before and don't normally fly (for some stupid reason....mostly a lazy imagination) in these areas where they are located. So now's the time.

I'm particularly proud of a panel I've assembled from exsisting gauges and goodies already made and available to all of us for free. No credit for design or manufacture at all, just the time to put it all under one roof.

There is no other way around having to use 2 panels for the trip. One is a strict RR 1940 panel for navigating areas that have those signals available and no "piece of cake" radio compass. With the only other navigational options on that being dead reckoning...(not all the way around the world thank you) I'll need the other which is the pride and joy I just mentioned .....the default DC-3 panel outfitted with every (freeware) early or vintage navigational device that has been made available to Flight Simulator in order to make use of what ever is availble for place outside of the RR signals including the stars if that's all there is at any point in time....:cool:...Yeah, I know that the 1945 and NH panels have all the bells and whistles, but RR navigation looses it flavor when the radio compass on the panel is pointing right at the RR station you're tuned into and there will be no VOR's considered. The Lear autopilot was an improvement over the Sperry, but I like the Sperry better right now and comfort is a huge consideration as long as it doesn't make things non-productive.

Except for paint, which may be either olive drab, or bare metal, and some thought given to a default scheme for online visibility to anyone, like World Travel Airways, the aircraft is ready to go. Looks right now like (I'll make the official post Sunday) the whole thing will kick-off Monday afternoon Eastern Daylight Time.

The plane was constructed from the RR4 DC-3 and MSFS default panel with addons.The RR4 DC-3 cfg and air files have the most friendly handling characteristics and for the length of this endeavor I'll need those. I like "horsein' around" with the default DC-3, but it takes way too long to stop even at near stall speed landing roll out.

The RR4 also affords the 4 tank setup. This has to be accomodated on the default panel or eventhough you can load that fuel out it won't draw on one of the tanks. So I had to refit (easy to do) the tank gauge and selector to a 4 tank and also have to swap out throttle quadrants in order to actaully make the 4 tank usage selection (not available default). Leave the default panel that includes the flaps and hyd gauges that way I don't have all those annoying voices rememniding me of CHT temps and questioning my choice of cowl flap settings...."yeah damit, I do want them partially open in the summer during the most heat generating time at wide open throttle and max prop settings,,,,shut up!"...;).

Alright then,,, called up through simicons the have been added and some substitutions for the GPS, map, ATC and the kneeboard functions I won't need are simicons for a sextant with the addon chart, e6-b front and back, drift meter, and AM radio volume switch.

All of these modifications were done by copying and pasting the MSFS default panel folder to the RR4 DC3 aircraft folder and editing the panel cfg file with notepad. You have to make sure that along with "by the book" installations of the Radio Range and AM Radio scenery files, you have copied and pasted the cab files for the default DC3 in to the main gauge folder in the FS9 root folder. I also had to copy and paste the RR_nh_gauges folder from the NH panel folder. There is a bmp file I used to clean up the rusty paint across the top of the default panel.

I have to give "propers" to all of the contributions that have been made to the Flight Simulator community by the long list of individuals at DC-3 Airways. There never ending, right on the money input, both technical and historical has and will continue to feed my unabashed enthusiasm for the DC-3.

Regards,

[TX_3306]

...There is no other way around having to use 2 panels for the trip. One is a strict RR 1940 panel for navigating areas that have those signals available and no "piece of cake" radio compass. ...RR navigation looses it flavor when the radio compass on the panel is pointing right at the RR station you're tuned into and there will be no VOR's considered...

Hey Salt_Air,

Looks like the project is coming together great!. I'm hoping to be able to fly some legs with you sometime during your trip. My DC-3 had also been set up with a custom panel with the bells and whistles and I added a couple of things you mentioned based on previous posts in this thread. (Still no GPS however) I have my panel set up to where I can "cover up" the radio compass on the panel when flying strictly RR as that would be (as you said) no fun or challenge with a needle pointing you where to go. Below are a couple of screenshots to show the difference. The radio compass is in the upper left of the main panel and I just toggle it on and off. Just remove the radio compass gauge from the main panel and put it in a separate undocked window that you can toggle back and forth.

TX_3306