The Next Challenge...

[taoftedal]

29 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

My draft attempt for guidelines for the 2024 Greater Australian Aerial Gaggle (GAAG)

Trying to keep things simple and easy.

 

There will be an Official GAAG thread created by whomever will be the Officious GAAG Official (OGO).

 

1.       Official start date: Saturday January 13^th, 2024, GMT

2.       Unofficial start date: Any time before January 13th (please save your screenshots and adventures until the official start date).

3.       Official end date: Upon completion of selected route(s) by each entrant.

     a.       Should an entrant decide that they will not complete due to outside influences, please state so in the official GAAG thread.

4.       Entry Categories

     a.       Timed

          i.      Each route “leg” is timed from wheels/skid off the ground until wheels/skids touch down (or directly over waypoint airport if overflying that location)

          ii.      Legs are scored as minutes varied from planned.

               1.       Variances are cumulatively added for the total route.

               2.       Example: Leg 1=V-2, Leg 2=V+3. Leg 3=V+1 (-2 +3 +1 = +2)

       b.       Untimed

            i.      Self-explanatory

5.       Routes

     a.       Southern Route (per 1976 AUAOPA)

     b.       Eastern Route (per Airbasil’s routing)

     c.       Free flight (anywhere on the continent)

6.       Entrants may fly any or all the routes in whatever aircraft they desire.

     a.       For any timed route, the same aircraft must be used for the complete route.

     b.       Routes may be flown as often as one desires, however, only one “run” will be used for a timed entry.

7.       Post as much or little as you desire on the official GAAG thread.

     a.       Having FUN is the prime directive.

     b.       Sharing adventures with each other is the next priority.

     c.       The timed competition and winner of each route will be determined by the OGO.

 

I hope this is a simple and easy draft.

PLEASE amend as needed.

 

Upon group consensus and determination of who will be the OGO these will be finalized and the GAAG thread will be created.

 

 

Thanks for putting this together PP.  Starting to think that each may need a separate thread ... perhaps the untimed could be combined.  Best sleep with one eye open tonight ...

 

 

 

[Sirrus]

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

There will be an Official GAAG thread created by whomever will be the Officious GAAG Official (OGO).

 

1.       Official start date: Saturday January 13^th, 2024, GMT

2.       Unofficial start date: Any time before January 13th (please save your screenshots and adventures until the official start date).

3.       Official end date: Upon completion of selected route(s) by each entrant.

     a.       Should an entrant decide that they will not complete due to outside influences, please state so in the official GAAG thread.

4.       Entry Categories

     a.       Timed

          i.      Each route “leg” is timed from wheels/skid off the ground until wheels/skids touch down (or directly over waypoint airport if overflying that location)

          ii.      Legs are scored as minutes varied from planned.

               1.       Variances are cumulatively added for the total route.

               2.       Example: Leg 1=V-2, Leg 2=V+3. Leg 3=V+1 (-2 +3 +1 = +2)

       b.       Untimed

            i.      Self-explanatory

5.       Routes

     a.       Southern Route (per 1976 AUAOPA)

     b.       Eastern Route (per Airbasil’s routing)

     c.       Free flight (anywhere on the continent)

6.       Entrants may fly any or all the routes in whatever aircraft they desire.

     a.       For any timed route, the same aircraft must be used for the complete route.

     b.       Routes may be flown as often as one desires, however, only one “run” will be used for a timed entry.

7.       Post as much or little as you desire on the official GAAG thread.

     a.       Having FUN is the prime directive.

     b.       Sharing adventures with each other is the next priority.

     c.       The timed competition and winner of each route will be determined by the OGO.

 

I hope this is a simple and easy draft.

PLEASE amend as needed.

 

Upon group consensus and determination of who will be the OGO these will be finalized and the GAAG thread will be created.

Excellent.

Separate threads for each route, 5A and 5B, would keep things simpler, and those who want to be untimed on each route could be included in that routes' thread, and those opting for Group 5C, might also need a separate thread.

 

And being as he did such a good job on the R66 Rally, I propose PhrogPhlyer as the Group 5A OGO. (He may hate me for suggesting him, but he's good at it and puts up with idiots like me).

 

[taoftedal]

7 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

Separate threads for each route, 5A and 5B, would keep things simpler, and those who want to be untimed on each route could be included in that routes' thread, and those opting for Group 5C, might also need a separate thread

 

... or the untimed combined as a separate thread?

[defaid]

The final connection is at 0800 local Wednesday morning. The previous two flights were done in the RtW timeframe so weren't made on the scheduled day. I slept Sunday and chilled in Ottawa for a couple of days, spending what I'd made from the last flight.

 

How many museums??

 

I dropped by the Canadian Tire Centre (a strange combination of languages) on Monday night to watch the Sens lose to the Panthers. Booked a table at Chesterfield's Diner for lunch the following day where I had the best non-British approximation of the artery-clogging fryup I've ever eaten.

 

All done by taxi -- the humvee's difficult to park. Well actually it's very easy to park but the insurance gets expensive.

 

***     ***

 

Wednesday dawns with brume and a dark grey roof almost low enough to touch.

 

BRIEFING

 

Beautiful day?

 

"Ottawa has winds 040@9, visibility 4 miles (compounded by gloomy dawn light) and an overcast ceiling at 300 feet. Runway 07 is in use.

 

"We are very light. We'll rotate at 105 kt and climb out at 127.  Stall speed with 20% flaps is 85 kt and we'll set 3.3° nose-up trim for the takeoff. Up to rotating we can stop on the runway. Once we're off the ground, any critical failure will involve a right turn onto right downwind runway 07. If we can't make the downwind leg then we'll try for 32.

 

"I've elected to follow ATC instructions on the departure as there's nowhere particular I want to visit so we'll take vectors, and cruise at 12000 feet. Our first en route waypoint is Campbellford VOR on 113.50

 

"CYTZ has 350@11G16 and an OVC007 with RA, well below MSA. That will be an ILS approach to runway 08. VREF will be 110 kt with 20% flap. Great. No sightseeing... We'll rebrief the arrival and approach just before the terminal area crossing.

 

"Centre should have us down to 11000 feet for the crossing near CYOO, and down to 7000 shortly thereafter where I will ask for the IAP. And runway 08 if necessary. I don't intend to fly a localiser-only approach with a tail wind. Not today.

 

"There shouldn't be any conflict with CYYZ traffic as their weather is 010@15 with -RA and OVC015 so they'll be using Rwy05 and Rwy06L and we'll be on parallel tracks.

 

"If CYTZ closes while we are on our way then we'll go for Pearson with its multitude of instrument approaches. If we suffer a critical instrument failure, we have around 800 nm of fuel in reserve so we'll let Centre or Approach know what has happened and we'll just ask for a suitable field with VMC. Currently, that looks like Elmira, the only field within 150 miles that doesn't have BR or RA or OVC00x in its metar."

 

DEPARTURE

 

We leave by runway 07 and make a long climbing turn with a snowy Ottawa glowing warm and festive through the pre-dawn murk. We burst through the silver lining into a beautiful azure world under a full moon.

 

Farewell to Ottawa 12 minutes early.

 

Up and out. Funny how things changed.

 

CRUISE

 

Again, the cruise is unremarkable; everything has gone swimmingly with RC's co-pilot driving.

 

I watch the stars fall asleep as the day wakes up.

 

Good morning from 12000 feet

 

ARRIVAL AND APPROACH

 

On crossing into the terminal area I take over again for the long, low curve round to the top of the down escalator. In nearasdammit zero vis, a flawless intercept and capture (thanks to taking the easy way out with hdg & alt hold ) and with a clearer head than I'd had a few days ago has me looking forward to an opportunity to boast about the approach when we hit the town with the whole gang.

 

Nasty arrival.

 

Thirty seconds later the rosy daydream is ejected by a bucket of ice-cold water:

 

The Oh sh*t! moment.

 

Superstitiously, I think "Naming calls" but really I'm grateful to Whoever prompted me to think it through during the briefing. Full throttle and tweak the yoke back a little. Gear up and flaps 10 as we gain a little height and speed on a steady 071°, and having made a right turn onto 177° and 2000 feet, ostensibly to intercept YYZ radial 130 even though I can't on account of losing half my electrics -- I try to let Approach know what's happened.

 

We are in what's best called a deteriorating situation.

This is something I've been thinking of for some time. I've never bothered with alternates: this being a game, they'd be planned in advance so seem pointless. I used to do the odd missed approach but eventually became impatient and enabled the nose cannon. But an instrument failure, well, there's a huge challenge in itself...

 

How many of you did years ago, as I did, the easy thing and left all failures disabled? It's not once been mentioned here so I'll bet we all have.

 

Consider a night flight to CYTZ, an ILS approach in overcast at 500 feet with rain and a gusty wind and with tall ships anchored on short final and that huge tower just beyond, when your attitude indicator, radio compass, CDI and ILS needles all go tango uniform. What do you do? Did you plan for it? I didn't. This is the first time in years that I've even thought of alternates or declaring a pan. It took me a while just to remember that the C-130 has a backup AI on the other supply and a magnetic compass.

 

After some real-world thought, I know that the S-word is a bit of a trigger so my next action after aborting the approach would have been something like "XV300 going around on a runway heading. Please standby" because nobody likes admitting to an emergency. I'm in trouble so I'm expecting help and not instructions. Or complaints. That one transmission lets Approach know I'm no longer following instructions and it should be enough to prime them of the impending disaster and to keep other traffic out of my way.

 

RC doesn't do pan calls but it does have a limited interaction for emergencies. I'll confess this was entirely premeditated, and effected simply by cutting one half of the a. c. power. Having never declared an emergency before, I'd wanted to see how RC handled it so set this up in order to make the call whereas ordinarily a missed approach and request for vectors to the alternate would suffice.

 

I found the entire dialogue -- where RC, unprompted, also made some of my responses for me -- most interesting. When I finally had time to get a word of my own onto the radio and when RC finally shut up its barrage of criticism:

 

           "Conatct tower... I said contact tower... are you listening? I said contact tower"

 

           "You don't appear to have your gear down. You really need to keep an eye on those checklists"

 

           "Someone's going to have to submit a report to FSDO concerning your conduct"

 

... and gave me the option of declaring an emergency (at the bottom of the last page of the dialogue box), I chose electrical failure. The next few wavs brought me some hope for the evening to come.

 

Toronto'd better brace itself.

 

"Approach, XV300 would like to declare an emergency..."

 

So far, so good.

 

But-- "We have a passenger onboard who's had too much to drink and is getting out of hand". What did he do? Pee on the wiring?

 

From that point, I closed RC, turned the electrics back on, flew back around to KENDI and landed with nobody's permission. RC had suppressed the native ATC dialogue and didn't reinstate things on closing so I couldn't even talk to them.

 

Where's the rum??

 

Is there any strong drink brewed from maple syrup?

How much can I load into the back?
 

[ViperPilot2]

Couple of things...

 

If you would, please peruse the contents of this Thread starting with the middle of Pg. 5 (that's where the Australia flight first gets mentioned), just in case something you thought of was mentioned earlier.

 

Attached are the FS9 .pin Files I compiled using Plan-G and the SkyVector Navlogs for both Routes. The Eastern Route was compiled using Airbasil's Post from Friday, 12/8/2023. (near the bottom of Pg. 13). DISREGARD THE TOC/TOD & FLIGHT TIME FIGURES.

 

PLEASE NOTE: On the Eastern Route (Airbasil's) The ICAO Identifier for Coffs Harbour Airport in FS9 is YSCH. In November 2007 the ICAO Identifier was changed to YCBS. 

 

Please Review these Files and if there's any issues please let me know.

 

vp² 

 

P.S. As famed Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force (IJNAF) Ace Tomio "Tommy" Harachi once said,

 

"Ahhh, what the Heaven..." Why we just join both Routes Together? Fly from Bankstown to Hobart and Continue cracking on... 

 

 

AU Rally.zip

[defaid]

9 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

This might add more confusion to the question of what plane to fly, but is there anything saying that the route can't be run multiple times in different aircraft?  I'd say that any scored run has to use the same plane for the whole route, but if PhrogPhlyer wants to tear up the airfields in his Vampire for a couple days and then spend a leisurely three weeks touring the route in a DH-60, I've got no problem with that.  What do y'all think?

 

Name your comp plane before the challenge starts.

 

Fly and report anything else you want but comp times ought to be for the named comp plane.

 

I think we should maintain some semblance of following the original suggestion: a competiton along the south coast, with an emphasis on sightseeing and story-telling. I don't believe that racing and having fun are mutually exclusive.

 

I'll be choosing my plane from the original list of entrants and trying to match with what I have in the Aircraft folder. I'm ready for a race: just flying around doesn't really do it for me, and the regularity, though it's infinitely fairer, requires too much planning and test flying. It becomes more like a job of work. For regularity I'd want to choose a plane with which I'm already familiar else my estimated times will be hours off the mark and that wouldn't be authentic.

 

I'm happy to race myself but if anyone else wants an informal on the side, I'm your man. Just pick from the original list.

[ViperPilot2]

21 minutes ago, defaid said:

 

Name your comp plane before the challenge starts.

 

Fly and report anything else you want but comp times ought to be for the named comp plane.

 

I think we should maintain some semblance of following the original suggestion: a competiton along the south coast, with an emphasis on sightseeing and story-telling. I don't believe that racing and having fun are mutually exclusive.

 

I'll be choosing my plane from the original list of entrants and trying to match with what I have in the Aircraft folder. I'm ready for a race: just flying around doesn't really do it for me, and the regularity, though it's infinitely fairer, requires too much planning and test flying. It becomes more like a job of work. For regularity I'd want to choose a plane with which I'm already familiar else my estimated times will be hours off the mark and they wouldn't be authentic.

 

I'm happy to race myself but if anyone else wants an informal on the side, I'm your man. Just pick from the original list.

 

There are lots to choose from, and the cool thing is most of them are in the File Library! 

 

I'm about  far away from committing to the A/C I'm gonna use...

[taoftedal]

30 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Please Review these Files and if there's any issues please let me know.

 

South route checks with what I have given the alternates developed by defaid due to the missing fields in FS9 ... 

[PhrogPhlyer]

15 hours ago, Sirrus said:

I propose PhrogPhlyer as the Group 5A OGO. (He may hate me for suggesting him, but he's good at it and puts up with idiots like me).

As much as I appreciate the thought, it really did take a lot of time that 'd like to put towards some other endeavors. 

Sirrus, I'd never call you an idiot, I had other choice phrases. 

And Viper!!! You're going along with the suggestion!?!?! Shame on you... 

I really think this is a "fun and memorable" honor that others should be allowed to experience.

This one I'm going to stick to the cockpit, screenshots, and war stories.

Maybe in a couple of month I "might" consider the Official seat.

I'm not going to time ANYTHING, just rake havoc wherever the Vamp takes me.

[jgf]

15 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

a "fun and memorable" honor that others should be allowed to experience

 

like a prostate exam?

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

On 12/18/2023 at 5:46 PM, Sirrus said:

Lov'n the paint scheme!

[PhrogPhlyer]

Just now, jgf said:

like a prostate exam?

 

[ViperPilot2]

• What? What did I agree to?   

[jgf]

This is getting rather chaotic.  So many flights, so many aircraft;  I've lost track of what's going on.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

This is getting rather chaotic.  So many flights, so many aircraft;  I've lost track of what's going on.

Nods, I just codified what was in the threads, trying to appease everyone, timed vs non-timed, different routes, etc.

It's why I'm just touring the continent however I feel... Unless someone wants to grab the reigns and pull us all towards the same direction.

[TomPenDragon]

8 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Nods, I just codified what was in the threads, trying to appease everyone, timed vs non-timed, different routes, etc.

It's why I'm just touring the continent however I feel... Unless someone wants to grab the reigns and pull us all towards the same direction.

I think you nailed it.  I still think the thread/subthread structure could use some tweaking, but this is an iterative process, so let's see what happens and improve everything for the next one.  As far as OGO, you did a stand-up job with Route 66, and had trouble finding time to fly the route because of it.  This one's going to be double the work, since we'll have two leaderboards to maintain.  Would there be a way to create a commonly-editable document so that each participant could enter their own results?

[PhrogPhlyer]

4 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

Would there be a way to create a commonly-editable document so that each participant could enter their own results?

Yes, but I'd venture to say we'd have trouble coming to agreement on the format, MS Word, Excel, etc. I actually did the last one in paint.com.

[TomPenDragon]

14 hours ago, defaid said:

I'm happy to race myself but if anyone else wants an informal on the side, I'm your man. Just pick from the original list.

Would you race a Seneca II?  I know it's not on the original list, but it's from the era and slots in between the Aztec and the Navajo.

[TomPenDragon]

2 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I actually did the last one in paint.com.

Ouch!!

[TomPenDragon]

3 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Yes, but I'd venture to say we'd have trouble coming to agreement on the format, MS Word, Excel, etc

Should we give it a shot for 24 hours?  Excel would seem to be the logical choice - something basic; we can pretty it up at the end.  I use OpenOffice, which handles .xls with little problem.  Is there anybody here who can't edit .xls?

[taoftedal]

16 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

I think you nailed it.  I still think the thread/subthread structure could use some tweaking, but this is an iterative process, so let's see what happens ...

 

So ... you're thinking one thread three OMO's or three threads three OMO's or what?  (My head is starting to spin also).

[TomPenDragon]

36 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

So ... you're thinking one thread three OMO's or three threads three OMO's or what?

 

16 hours ago, taoftedal said:

Starting to think that each may need a separate thread ... perhaps the untimed could be combined.

 

No, I'm thinking of using the thread structure you suggested in your response to PhrogPhlyer's rules proposal, seeing what happens, and tweaking it for the next one.  The free (untimed) flights don't  need an OMO.  I'm concerned that a single OMO will end up having to spend all of their time poring through threads, extracting times, and updating leaderboards, and will have no time to fly.  Having one OMO per timed route (2 OMO's) would cut this burden in half.  I'm currently looking for a way to avoid burdening anyone with OMO duties, if we can figure out a way to do this.  So:

• A single OMO?
• One OMO per route (2 OMO's)?
• No OMO (everyone updates ther own times in a common document per route, if we can find a format that all can edit)?

I understand the thread structure that you're suggesting to be:

• GAAG
  • AUAOPA
  • East Coast
  • Free Flights

Do I understand you correctly?  Is this possible with the Forum software?

[PhrogPhlyer]

12 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

One OMO per route (2 poor bastards OMO's?

 

12 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

thread structure that you're suggesting to be:

• GAAG
  • AUAOPA
  • East Coast
  • Free Flights

I think there needs to be someone monitoring the timed routes.

So two OMO's (Southern, Eastern), and three threads (Southern, Eastern, Free Flights).

I think the OMOs should manage the daily/bi-daily status sheets for consistency.

Timed participants just list the leg(s) and V (+/-).

Entrants can participate in as many, or as few of the three options as they desire.

GAAG does end with Gaggle!

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, TomPenDragon said:

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

did the last one in paint.com.

Ouch!!

Painful, but colorful.

[PhrogPhlyer]

On 12/10/2023 at 1:22 PM, ViperPilot2 said:

Today is December 10th, 2023. On this day back in 1941, the Crew of NC18602 were in Auckland, NZ awaiting Orders from Pan Am about what to do next and how to proceed. I wonder what they were thinking about, and what they were doing to pass the hours...

Sorry missed this one,

I would not have been in their shoes.

The whole story is quite an amazing adventure.