The Fourth Annual Holkham Bay for the Holidays Dash

[RedGreen]

It's that exciting time of the year again. It's not just because of the food you consumed during Thanksgiving, or the presents you'll be getting (if you've been good...) at Christmas. One of Flight Simulation's greatest traditions is coming up. Soon February will be here, and the 2012 Flight Simulator Around the World Race will be upon us.

Now, flightsimmers have another tradition to look forward to during the year. One inspired by the infamous Cannonball Run road races that took place in the 1970s, capturing the outlaw spirit of those races and applying them to aircraft.

And so, I'd like to announce....

The Fourth Annual Holkham Bay for the Holidays Dash

This is an individual event. All pilots who have an interest in participating in the 2012 RTW Race are invited to compete in this event. This race will begin at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota (KMSP); and conclude at Flightsim.com Multi-Player Adventures World Headquarters in Holkham Bay, Alaska (PAHB), a distance of 1668 nautical miles. Competitors will run their legs at their convenience anytime between 12:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) Friday, December 9th, 2011 and 12:00 AM Sunday, January 15th, 2012.

As usual, the RTW Duenna will be our tracking and scoring system. It's avaliable at:

http://johannesmueller.com/fs/web/duenna/

The Holkham Bay scenery is avaliable here at Flightsim.com as "pahb_v1.zip". Glacier Bay scenery and Runway 12 objects are also required for the scenery (and also avaliable here at Flightsim.) Team Flightsim members will receive our usual luxurious accomodations, while there will be plenty of cots on the porch for members of other teams.

All settings used for the RTW (Crash Detection, Weather, Realism, etc.) must be used for this event, except that the FS time settings may be altered so your legs can be flown in daylight. Only the time spent in flight on the Duenna will count towards the competitor's overall time. If a competitor crashes on takeoff or en-route, the leg must be reflown. If the competitor crashes on landing, a 1 hour penalty will be assessed and the competitor may continue from his intended destination airport.

This year, there will be two classes of aircraft run, a normal RTW Race Aircraft class and a Four-Engine Prop class. Pilots may participate in both classes.

All aircraft used for the RTW Race Aircraft Class must meet normal RTW Regulations.

1) Must be Piston Fixed Wing, Two Engine or Less Turboprop Fixed Wing, or a Rotorcraft type.
2) Must have had at least 10 real-world examples produced.
3) Must have realistic performance.

All aircraft in the Four-Engine Prop Class must meet the latter two requirements listed above. This class is intended for classic four (or possibly more) engined airliners and military aircraft. The only requirement is that your plane have at least four engines, and they all be piston-powered. (Turboprops like the Lockheed C-130 or the Tupolev Tu-95 are not legal for this race.) All four-engined props that are legal in the RTW are legal in this race. (Note that the RTW allows an older, faster flight model of the CalClassic DC-7 series to be used. This will also be the case in this race.)

The same aircraft must be used for the entire race from Minneapolis to Holkham Bay.

And of course, you are heavily encouraged to write some reports on your progress and provide screenshots of your adventure.

Those are the rules, in their entirety. There are no other rules. Competitors may fly to Holkham Bay using any route, in as many or as few legs as they wish, at any altitude they desire. Competitors may stop at any and all airports along the way, and fly any amount of distance on a single leg. The Pilot who arrives at Holkham Bay with least amount of time spent in flight from Minneapolis will be declared the winner. The bar at Holkham will be well stocked, and the atmosphere will be festive for the Christmas and New Years Holidays, so make your travel arrangements now!

[mrcwilly]

Merc Air's Flight 19 accepts the challenge again this year. Plans are afoot!

[mickj300]

Ah yes, I was waiting for this one. Can someone clarify the position with eligible 4-engined a/c - I seem to recall there's a couple of Connies that are banned from the RTW because of unrealistic performance?

[salt_air]

Running a few tests on a "new" Trimotor ... thinking about flying it in the "Why-Not?" class for you know whats and giggles.

Planning to follow Civil Airways and when needed to cut corners, I can make use of the sextant and e6-b .... wind drift meter onboard as well.

A few other bells and whistles to keep me awake .... should take about 17 hours in this rig.







All installed ... now just to see if it all works ...











Entry in the Propliner Class for sure with model and manufacturer TBA

Not too sure about running with all the Mustangs ... prolly do this instead.

Fingers crossed .... Hope all this stuff works!






Cheers,

[RedGreen]

Ah yes, I was waiting for this one. Can someone clarify the position with eligible 4-engined a/c - I seem to recall there's a couple of Connies that are banned from the RTW because of unrealistic performance?

I checked the RTW NOTAM archives and found this from the 2009 race.

"Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation – there are several models of the Connie available, however all versions have flight dynamics issues. The only Flight Dynamic for the Connie authorized for the RTW is the Wolfram Beckert airfile (and the Hansjoerg Naegele-Jan Visser panel). Look for vcon20.zip and follow the instructions carefully. A complete package of Mike Stone’s model, airfile, panel and sound is available at FlightSim.com. Look for Luis da Costa Pereira as the compiler of the packages for the L-1049G and EC-121."

Of course, since then we've been blessed by the Constellations of Manfred Jahn. I don't have much experience with them, but I understand they exhibit realistic flight performance. There shouldn't be any issues with the old FSDZigns Constellations either. I would say both of the planes listed above should be perfectly legal.

[salt_air]

Merc Air's Flight 19 accepts the challenge again this year. Plans are afoot!

The "Good Times Gang" extends a welcome banner to Merc Air's Flight 19.

Make yourselves at home.

Enjoy .... and Good Luck along the way!

[mrcwilly]

Thanks Salt! We're looking forward to it with an eye to the unusual.

[salt_air]

Thanks Salt! We're looking forward to it with an eye to the unusual.

10 - roger ...

Can't wait to see what that might be ...

[tvieno]

Count me in. I'll be in the deHavilland DH.114 Heron.

[TX_3306]

Of course, since then we've been blessed by the Constellations of Manfred Jahn. I don't have much experience with them, but I understand they exhibit realistic flight performance. There shouldn't be any issues with the old FSDZigns Constellations either. I would say both of the planes listed above should be perfectly legal.

Just to be sure, are you saying this aircraft located at http://www.calclassic.com/connie.htm is eligible as long as the model update, flight dynamics update and FSX supercharger fix are applied, correct?