Route 66 Air Rally

[Melo965]

16 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

came down with a cold and not focusing very well.

And need to get healthy to fly the rest of the route.

 

Hope you feel well enough to fly soon.

 

[Bossspecops]

17 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Day 15, half way through the month.

THREE contestant's completed the route.

Check my math please, came down with a cold and not focusing very well.

And need to get healthy to fly the rest of the route.

jgf, I think on the next challenge you might consider a couple nuns to help with divine guidance along the way! 

I'd consider a nun or two, but I'd be well over gross weight.

 

I think my total V=3, not 2, actually. I was 3 minutes late on Leg 2.

[jgf]

21 hours ago, Sirrus said:

Some were painted all black and some had a hybrid scheme with just the bottom half painted black.

 

It was noted the solid black aircraft were too easily spotted from above, so from then on they got the half-and-half paint job.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

3 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

Hope you feel well enough to fly soon.

Thank you, lots of tea and chicken noodle soup.

Hope that does the trick.

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

I think my total V=3, not 2, actually. I was 3 minutes late on Leg 2.

I'll correct with next posting.

[Bossspecops]

3 hours ago, Sirrus said:

That's the Shuttleworth aircraft, looks good and sounds better.

 

I know one of the guys who flies it, Rob Millinship, and Melo met him when he was over here too. 

[Melo965]

8 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

I know one of the guys who flies it, Rob Millinship, and Melo met him when he was over here too. 

 

We had a great time when we visited the Shuttleworth Collection.

 

 

The Lysander was Magnificent!

 

 

And the other star of the show, in my opinion, was the Spitfire. 

 

 

[jgf]

14 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Thank you, lots of tea and chicken noodle soup.

Hope that does the trick.

 

That, plus orange juice and aspirin, got me through covid.   There's a reason old remedies are still used. 

Best wishes for recovery.

[PhrogPhlyer]

3 hours ago, jgf said:

Best wishes for recovery.

Thanks. And nice to know I'm not the only aspirin user left.

Remember the old adds:

"Rest in bed, Drink plenty of liquids, and take Bayer Aspirin."

Sound advice.

 

 

[Melo965]

Leg 4.  Claremore Regional OK (KGCM) to Cordell Municipal OK (F36)  180 miles.
Estimated time = 48 minutes.

 

Same setup as before, using FSX Acceleration, Active Sky 2016 for weather, and Little NavMap for navigation.  Flying with fuel only in fuselage tanks this time.  The wing leading edge tanks were just worked on at the 50 hour maintenance point, so I decided to fly with those tanks empty for this leg.  85 gallons should still be sufficient for this flight.

 

I should have flown this leg the other day when the weather was CAVU.  Pulled up the weather map today and this is how it looked.  Should still be able to get there Ok, but it will require some IFR flying.

 

Parked at Claremore Regional, starting the engine for another westward leg.  Forecast winds are between 30 to 35 knots blowing from the southwest almost all the way so it should be an interesting flight.

 

Holding short at Runway 17 waiting for ATC clearance to take the runway.

 

Climbing through 3,500 ft on the way to cruise altitude of 6,500 ft.  Already in the soup.

 

At cruise altitude, glad to be above the clouds.

 

Time to close the canopy and settle in for the flight to Cordell Municipal.

 

Not what you would ever want to see behind you during the war.  There were clouds below on all sides from horizon to horizon. 

 

Finally left that cloud layer behind, flying over Tulsa Oklahoma.

 

After less than 3 minutes flight time, another cloud layer ahead.

 

Passing Cushing Municipal on the right.

 

Half way there and 2 minutes ahead of schedule.  Passing between two small airfields in a minute.  Woodleaf Aero Estates on the left and Myrick on the right.

 

Passing Oklahoma City on the left.

 

Flying over Sundance airport.  Changing my flight track further to the south, hoping to avoid those clouds ahead.

 

Those pesky clouds are back again.

 

Flying over El Reno Municipal.

 

Noticed another aircraft converging.  It turned out to be a MD-80 but it was 18,000 feet above me, so no factor.

 

On a day like today during the war, the pilot might have to go to an alternate target to get any pictures worth bringing home.

 

Fort Cobb Reservoir below me. Curving south for a straight in approach to Runway 35.

 

My leg 4 route.  You might notice that after I passed Fort Cobb Reservoir that my flight track was a bit erratic.  I converged with another aircraft that was also a few thousand feet above me.  I messed up the external camera views to the extent that it took some time to get the aircraft back in a proper attitude and trimmed.  Learned my lesson about trying to take pictures instead of just aviating.  These shenanigans put me a bit behind schedule unfortunately.

 

Destination in sight ahead.

 

No flaps yet, might make it on time after all.  Spitfire flaps have two settings: 0 degrees or 87 degrees.

 

A slightly hot approach, as our Lysander Rally pilot can confirm is sometimes my style.  I am flying a warbird after all.

 

I did manage to touch down on the runway and finally got her stopped just in time.  It required a light touch on the brakes so I did not nose over.  My mechanic would be very upset if I damaged his prop!

As you can see no luck on the centerline this time.  Touched down one minute late.

 

Here is the weather map at the end of the flight.  This was the most challenging leg so far.  I was fortunate that the destination was clear of clouds down to ground level.  

 

Engine off and parked at Cordell Municipal.  Ready to get some well earned rest.  Used 71 gallons of fuel this leg.  14 gallons left.  Won't cut it that close on future legs.  Time from engine start to engine shutdown = 62 minutes.

 

Maybe there is some wisdom to flying with someone else so they can share the workload, even a nun would have helped on this leg of the journey.  Just no room for her in this cramped cockpit.  My shoulders are almost touching the sides on both sides.

 

Leg 4.  Claremore Regional OK (KGCM) to Cordell Municipal OK (F36)  180 miles.
Estimated time = 48 minutes.  Actual time = 49 minutes.  V1
(Wheels up to Wheels down.)

 

[Melo965]

On 11/16/2023 at 6:55 AM, ScottishMike said:

“How about we visit the Grand Canyon? We have the rest of the day.

 

Your Grand Canyon Excursion was fun!  I have yet to be there in real life.  Have already broken some regs there in the simulator though.

[PhrogPhlyer]

Day 17 Standings, All in all this is turning out to be quite a month!

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

16 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

85 gallons should still be sufficient for this flight.

 

16 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

Used 71 gallons of fuel this leg.  14 gallons left.  Won't cut it that close on future legs.

Prudent for all of us. I personally have tried to carry as much fuel as I can, since we have no idea how much we actually needed until the flight is over.

 

Only once in my life I allowed the flight lead (my  Commanding Officer) to sway my decision on fuel. We left the ship with a flight of 6 CH-46's (I was #4). I only had 20 minutes of fuel (that was the minimum we planned to have when we LANDED). Since only a10 mile flight to NAS North Island he said to stay with the flight and refuel when we landed (actually he said "Stay with us!!!!"). We flew past Point Loma, the submarine piers, almost to the Coronado Bridge. This is where the helo pads were, As I was on short final, my #2 engine failed, and 10 seconds after I touched down the #1 engine also dies of fuel starvation. All I could do now was sit and wait to ne towed, and glad I was  on the ground. I learned something important that day, I had signed for this aircraft, and only I would make these decisions going forward. 

[jgf]

9 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Prudent for all of us. I personally have tried to carry as much fuel as I can, since we have no idea how much we actually needed until the flight is over.

 

Probably affected my times, certainly takeoffs at 7000ft.  My Bonanza only carries 40 gallons so I went with full tanks each leg, though the longest leg only took about half that. 

[jgf]

9 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

my #2 engine failed, and 10 seconds after I touched down the #1 engine also dies of fuel starvation. I learned something important that day

 

Ten year old screenshots, lest I forget....

 

[AlyMac]

Just came across this - a little late. Im on XP11 now sadly

[TomPenDragon]

33 minutes ago, AlyMac said:

Just came across this - a little late. Im on XP11 now sadly

 

There's still plenty of time to run the Rally - it doesn't end until the end of November.  It would be really interesting to see what the route looks like in X-Plane.

[PhrogPhlyer]

19 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

There's still plenty of time to run the Rally - it doesn't end until the end of November.  It would be really interesting to see what the route looks like in X-Plane.

Absolutely! AlyMac,

We're hoping this rally becomes a template for future challenges, showcase and appreciate what ALL sim platforms have to offer.

If you feel like entering the challenge, please do so, 14 days left!

If you decide to do so, post a a pic of the aircraft and 'll put you on the board.

[Bossspecops]

I tried a few test flights with the hefty 150 gall tank hooked up to the Lysander's belly, and it's a bit of a handful at low speeds, maybe because of the extra mass, maybe because it increases the aircraft's moment of inertia, but it certainly pays to hold her down and build up speed a bit before letting those flaps and slats do their thing and hurl her into the air! 

 

So for Leg 3 I intended to fly with 100% fuel, including the big tank, and not refuel until further along the Rally and see how the performance changes as the fuel burns off. Here's the FSTramp flight plan, planned duration 1 hr 12 minutes.

 

 

I also noted that I'd been flying the previous two legs with the season set at July, which was crazy as it's now November, so I switched to the real date and tried for real time here in UK, but by then it was almost dark at KLBO so I time warped back an hour, which allowed me to actually see to start up! Oddly an AI aircraft appeared right alongside me, started up and taxied out, first time I'd seen that happen too.

 

 

The wind was from almost due north by then so I taxied off to the nearby threshold and got airborne. This sounds simpler than it was as I totally forgot my own discoveries about the extra tank and had a horrendous time keeping control as she staggered into the air!  Not to mention having to do an almost 180 degree turn to get onto course right after take-off, but I managed it, just.......

 

 

The November textures for my FSX install look decidedly barren and unforgiving, and I think I'll warp back to July for further Legs of the Rally. The airfields look weird too, they're much sandier than the surrounding countryside, as you can see below. Most un-realistic to my mind, or they really like that in the US?

 

 

 

With a bit of two-handed dexterity I got my finger over the 'Print Screen' button at the same time as I was turning onto the second sector of the flight, and got this pic which nicely shows the Lysander's decidedly strange wing planform, but it works very well nonetheless.

 

 

 

Then came the second weirdness of these textures. These odd sandy tracks were all over southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, and I thought they must have been roads, but very shortly I came across this....

 

 

......which certainly looks like a freeway, but is it? One of them could be a railroad, the grey one most likely, but in my time on the UK railroads they didn't look like that! All very strange.

 

 

As I approached the Arkansas stale line I could see this MASSIVE volume of water, and the flight plan said I'd be flying over it for some time, and so it proved. Quite which River or Lake it is I couldn't figure out, but it was most impressive.

 

 

To add further confusion to my thoughts over the sandy and grey trackways, the sandy ones seemed to dive UNDER the water at a few points! 

 

I was making good time by now, keeping within a fighting chance of making an on-time arrival, but I had to juggle the throttle a bit as I turned onto the last westerly sector, and had to keep my eye on the ASI and the Boost Gauge to ensure I didn't jog the over-loose throttle of my Logitech joystick.

 

 

I passed close to the south of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (KXNA) only to see all its lights powered up! That didn't improve my prospects of making a daylight landing at Claremore Regional one bit, but I pressed on regardless.

 

 

The sun was definitely going down fast by now and I was sure I was going to be glad of my very  powerful landing lights.

 

 

 

I didn't make the mistake of turning too early this time, not after the almost disaster of my Leg 2 flight, and waited till I was sure I had visual on KGCM, and there was its beacon!  Waiting until a much more sensible time to turn, I got the Lysander slowed down nicely until the flaps and slats deployed, and once again I had a devil of a time keeping her under control. So much so I daren't show pics of the actual landing, it was THAT bad! Nowhere near the centre line and waaaaay down the runway, not to mention a hefty rate of descent too, but as with all landings, 'Anyone one you can walk away from.....' etc. 

 

A bit more practice is called for I think.............

 

 

So here I am parked up in the gloom of Claremore Regional, having burnt 48 gallons of fuel en route but arrived ONE minute late on my prediction, total duration 1 hr 13 mins, V=1. 

 

My next Leg will be back in July, I found that scenery to be almost depressing.

 

 

 

[AlyMac]

Alastair McLeod - DCA 2550 Charter Captain

X Plane 11 - vanilla ie no add on scenery. AWX DC-3 by Johan van Wyk

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

So for Leg 3 I intended to fly with 100% fuel, including the big tank, and not refuel until further along the Rally and see how the performance changes as the fuel burns off.

Many of us are  paying a lot of attention to various performance parameters based upon weight. altitude, etc.

One of the great thing about these different challenges.

I'll definitely be watching to see who rotary-wing performance changes as I get further west.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, AlyMac said:

Alastair McLeod - DCA 2550 Charter Captain

Excellent, welcome aboard.

Always good to see a DC-3.

The coveted Suc-A-Lux Trophy could be in your future! 

[ScottishMike]

Climbing out of the Colorado river valley, clear of Needles and once again heading west.

Time 10:01 Pacific (GMT 18:01). We had decide 4500' cruise would be safe till we reached the San Gabriel Mountains.

 

Droning over the Mojave I was surprised to find snow as we approached the southern tip of the McCullough Mountains. We also increased altitude to 5,500', in theory 4,500' would clear it but it felt safer having an extra 1,000' margin.

 

Suzanne broke the silence: “How is Valerie?”

“Fine last time I spoke to her.”

Suzanne had met Valerie at an event in Aberdeen. We were still together then. Suzanne also knew we had since split up but not divorced.

Was this the Elephant in the cockpit? I couldn't help glancing at the back seats. I tried not to laugh but the image of an elephant curled up behind us was funny.

“What's so funny?” She asked, sounding hurt.

I realized I had been insensitive, laughing at the priest during confession.

I tried to explain about the image of an Elephant in the cockpit. She chose to ignore the humour.

The Lycoming droned on and the snow covered San Gabriels came to the rescue:

 

Then the weather threw us a curved ball. Visibility dropped to 3Km just as we prepared to cross the last mountain challenge:

 

We were at 5,500' but suddenly out of the mist, fog, cloud or whatever it was, a mountain ridge appeared. We had already deviated from the flight plan to avoid Mount San Antonio and it's rocky fingers. Obviously by not enough. Full power required and the engine obliged, up to 6,500' :

 

As we picked our way west through the mountains visibility improved:

 

Finally we cleared the last ridge, L.A. basin in the distance:

 

From natural hazards to heavy air traffic and the notorious Los Angeles air traffic control. Despite the previous hazards we are a few minutes ahead of plan so are hoping any odd routing can't make us too late. Down town traffic and the Pacific in the distant haze:

 

ATC allowing us to proceed as planned so far:

 

Then a routing for Santa Monica: Right Traffic Rwy 3. John McEnroe's famous phrase comes to mind: “You cannot be serious!” This will take us within yards of the stream of heavy traffic coming into LAX on Rwys 060L and 060R. A bit like threading the Airdale through the eye of an ATC needle. I thought I could hear the controller chuckling before he signed off.

 

Precision flying required.

LAX and it's stream of heavies to the left, SMO on the right:

 

A proper circuit is just not possible without entering LAX approach so I turn onto heading 250. This is going to make a decent base leg impossible. What is the rest of the saying? “A good approach....”

 

It ends up a curved approach and I am too low:

 

Luckily the Airdale is very forgiving, a touch of full power during the curve and I am not too badly aligned for final:

 

We are down! Safely. Time 12:06

 

LEG 10 (KEED) Needles ---> (KSMO) Santa Monica

Planned time 2hrs. 8min. Actual time 2hrs. 5min.

VARIATION: 3min

 

Checking all is OK and unloading all our junk, for the last time:

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, AlyMac said:

Alastair McLeod - DCA 2550 Charter Captain

X Plane 11 - vanilla ie no add on scenery. AWX DC-3 by Johan van Wyk

 

Oooh, that Dak looks VERY nice indeed. 

[PhrogPhlyer]

25 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

He tells me that his route wasn't straight but used passes over the mountains that "presented themselves" and that he never got over 6000 feet. He did use half the fuel load he had  and had to concentrate, as he hand flew it all the way.

Oh thanks, not my idea of how to motivate.

I am comforted in the fact that I know my helo will not have a problem with the altitude, it will be the higher fuel burn that I will have to watch.