Route 66 Air Rally

[Melo965]

15 hours ago, taoftedal said:

Almost looks like you got into a dogfight on the way in ...

 

Way too low altitude for that.  And I had no ammunition on board.

 

[Bossspecops]

2 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

Best of luck with the route!   The San Gorgonio Pass is a good option.  You will have to route to the south of 29 palms instead of to the north like I did.  Here is a rough flight plan:  KEED - TNP - CIKUS - VPLBP - KSMO.

 

Just gotta help that other British aircraft get there safely! 

 

 

Thanks for that Melo, you know the area and I haven't got a CLUE! 

 

I'll give that south-about route a try I think.

[Melo965]

I was really unhappy with how awful my final Rally landing was at Santa Monica, so I re-flew the last portion, mainly for my own edification.

 

Here I am near VPMDR just about to turn right to fly toward KSMO and join the right downwind for runway 3.

 

Just going "feet dry" in military parlance on the way to runway 3.

 

A much better approach than the last time!

 

About to touch down near the numbers.

 

Stopped with plenty of runway left.  A good landing!

 

My flight path this time.  Much happier with it! 

 

I also collected some stats for my participation in the Route 66 Air Rally:

 

I flew 7 hours and 19 minutes on all of the legs.  Counting all the ground time from engine start to engine shutdown it was 10 hours and 20 minutes.  I will have to work on taxiing faster for future events.  The Spitfire tends to overheat if it is on the ground too long before takeoff.

 

My flight plan total distance was 1,648 miles.  I hand flew every minute and wandered around a bit at times so my total flight time (including ground taxi) was 2,012 miles.

 

I used 547.7 gallons of fuel during the Rally.  So my previous guess that I could fly the whole route in one go would not have worked.  I would have had to refuel at least twice.

[Melo965]

28 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

Thanks for that Melo, you know the area and I haven't got a CLUE! 

 

No worries, very glad to help!

 

I did read that there is often a headwind down low in that pass so you might need to add a few minutes to your ETA.

 

[TomPenDragon]

I used a similar routing, KEED-TNP-PDZ-SMO-KSMO, filed and flown comfortably at 6500' - fairly easy on the Lysander, I'd think.  Best of success!

[Rupert]

3 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

My RW record so far is Zero "Call the Tower" messages.  One thing I learned during my pilot training was that you as the pilot always have the option of saying "UNABLE" as an answer to ATC under circumstances where you are weighing the safety of the situation.

 

But in the simulator they have me on every watch list imaginable!

 

I was "Lucky," back when I was flying a lot they really qualified needed butts in seats to send to Vietnam.  So the powers that be were reluctant to do more than verbally beat you up. 

 

Calls to the tower or even early 02:00 or 03:00 morning butt busting from a base C.O. for breaking some silly rule really didn't carry the weight they otherwise would have.  I mean what could they threaten you with?  Getting sent to Vietnam to get shot at??  Their fear is they wouldn't be able to send you to Vietnam to get shot at.

[taoftedal]

8 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

I flew 7 hours and 19 minutes on all of the legs ... My flight plan total distance was 1,648 miles. ... I used 547.7 gallons of fuel during the Rally.

 

Well done melos ... interesting for sure ... and your M&M's per mile?  

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Day 34 standings, a couple more completions.

Six days to go!

[Bossspecops]

17 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

I used 547.7 gallons of fuel during the Rally.  So my previous guess that I could fly the whole route in one go would not have worked.  I would have had to refuel at least twice.

 

 

That wouldn't have been a problem, I could have sent the Lancaster tanker. 

 

Remember that? I still have the pic filed somewhere............. 

[Bossspecops]

17 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

I used a similar routing, KEED-TNP-PDZ-SMO-KSMO, filed and flown comfortably at 6500' - fairly easy on the Lysander, I'd think.  Best of success!

 

That's good news, thanks so much. The Lysander's OK up to around 10000 ft, but after that she gets a bit wheezy, and the engine only runs with maybe +3.5 boost. 

[Melo965]

16 hours ago, Rupert said:

I was "Lucky,"

 

Glad you made it back safely!!

[Melo965]

15 hours ago, taoftedal said:

and your M&M's per mile?  

 

None.  Only about 3 Milky Way bars in early November.

 

[JSMR]

23 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

I was really unhappy with how awful my final Rally landing was at Santa Monica, so I re-flew the last portion, mainly for my own edification.

 

I need to re-fly ALL of my legs then.

 

I wish there wasn’t the issue of building crashes in fs9, as is then turn on the aircraft damage option. Would make me more careful on landings.
 

I don’t know how to get around the possible invisible building crashes thing. Perhaps just racing around the whole airport first to see of there’s any? I never found out how it works. 

[PhrogPhlyer]

33 minutes ago, JSMR said:

I don’t know how to get around the possible invisible building crashes thing.

Maybe an invisible plane would fly though them?

Where's Wonder Woman when you need her?

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

That wouldn't have been a problem, I could have sent the Lancaster tanker. 

 

Remember that? I still have the pic filed somewhere............. 

 

Yes I do remember that.  That was for the Cserve Flight Rally 35 to Reykjavik, Iceland.  We both flew copies of PL965 that day.  Me from the west and you from the east.  My Lancaster refuelling over the Atlantic was much appreciated. 

  

[Melo965]

44 minutes ago, JSMR said:

 

I don’t know how to get around the possible invisible building crashes thing.

 

I also have the same issue in FSX at some airports.  

[PhrogPhlyer]

Just now, meloscanlon said:

I also have the same issue in FSX at some airports. 

I've not had this issue, are there any airports in particular I might use to test this?

[defaid]

A quick scan around the interweb leads me to believe that 3d objects created in everything from GMax to Blender have 3 fundamental parts: the bit you see, the bit that casts a shadow and the bit that breaks your plane. I guess that model makers ensure the shape of the shadow box matches that of the mesh which supports the texture. After all, the shadow has to have the correct shape.

 

But... I suspect the collision box is very often a planned afterthought and sometimes ends up being nothing more than a cube that encloses the texturable mesh. Even the smallest cube will have sections that protrude beyond what you can see, and "badly" made objects will just have an approximately-sized big collision cube.

 

I guess we're a bit stuck when it comes to an old sim but I have seen a few scattered forum posts in which people say they have contacted the mod developer, who has acknowledged and then corrected the fault.

[Melo965]

11 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

are there any airports in particular I might use to test this?

 

The main one where I have trouble is my current home airport of Bremerton Washington (KPWT).  But I also have an add on scenery loaded there to make it look more realistic.  The fault is probably in that add-on scenery which was created by someone else.
 

[TomPenDragon]

1 hour ago, JSMR said:

I don’t know how to get around the possible invisible building crashes thing. Perhaps just racing around the whole airport first to see of there’s any? I never found out how it works. 

 

I wish I could offer a solution rather than commiseration, but in 20 years with FS9, the only thing i've that works is to shut off collision detection and just try to fly as honestly as possible.

32 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I've not had this issue, are there any airports in particular I might use to test this?

I seem to recall it happening with some of the default airports in Mexico.  It drove me bonkers with the CalClassic stuff and some of the Mexican add-on airports, particularly Huatulco (MMBT).

[TomPenDragon]

Anybody up for a quick-and-dirty fly-in?

 

It seems we've been hanging out on the beach together working on our tans while Kit's been making his way across the US all on his lonesome.  He's in Moriarity right now, which is a little more than 600nm from Santa Monica.  Now, his Lysander won't outrun Melo's Spitfire, but she's no slouch, either - going back through his reports, she seems to want to cruise around 160 - 175 KIAS (correct me if I'm wrong, Kit).

 

The rental agency at KSMO is extremely well-equipped with all manner of current and classic high-performance GA aircraft.  The idea is to pick a GA aircraft (modded okay) that can match the Westland's performance, head over to 0E0, and keep Kit company as he makes his way to that perfect landing on the beach that we're waiting to see.  I'm taking a modded Spartan (some poor shmuck with a Corsair's wondering where his engine went), pix and (I promise) minimal story coming later.

 

This isn't entirely altruistic, either - as liberal as I am, even I can't take LA for too long!

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

as liberal as I am, even I can't take LA for too long!

I lived in SoCal for 9 years, seeing "Welcome to California" in my rearview mirror was a wonderful sight.

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, TomPenDragon said:

Anybody up for a quick-and-dirty fly-in?

 

It seems we've been hanging out on the beach together working on our tans while Kit's been making his way across the US all on his lonesome.  He's in Moriarity right now, which is a little more than 600nm from Santa Monica.  Now, his Lysander won't outrun Melo's Spitfire, but she's no slouch, either - going back through his reports, she seems to want to cruise around 160 - 175 KIAS (correct me if I'm wrong, Kit).

 

The rental agency at KSMO is extremely well-equipped with all manner of current and classic high-performance GA aircraft.  The idea is to pick a GA aircraft (modded okay) that can match the Westland's performance, head over to 0E0, and keep Kit company as he makes his way to that perfect landing on the beach that we're waiting to see.  I'm taking a modded Spartan (some poor shmuck with a Corsair's wondering where his engine went), pix and (I promise) minimal story coming later.

 

This isn't entirely altruistic, either - as liberal as I am, even I can't take LA for too long!

 

175?  I didn't go that fast even on the descent into Moriarty, and I was a full throttle. My  usual cruise is around 145 kts, IAS, and slower over the ground with the persistent westerly headwinds sadly.

 

I'm going to try Leg 7 this evening, and to take-off across the ramp too, I think I'll JUST make it! 

[Melo965]

35 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

and to take-off across the ramp too, I think I'll JUST make it! 

 

Looking forward to that report!

 

[Melo965]

2 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

I'm taking a modded Spartan (some poor shmuck with a Corsair's wondering where his engine went)

 

Is that the Milton Shupe version?  His aircraft models are all excellent!