Route 66 Air Rally

[defaid]

Just dropped in to say hello, and to read the last page. 26 pages is as daunting a prospect as planning & flying the entire route solo (daughter's still not free). I'll have to sit down sometime with a tall glass and catch up.

 

Phrog, if your hands were occupied with cyclic & collective and your feet with the pedals, what were you using to operate that wobble pump?

 

Melo, tell me you didn't enjoy hand flying that weather.

[Melo965]

18 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Who cares about the first sentence, when the second says it all.

 

Thanks!  I enjoyed your last flight description a lot.  You leapfrogged past me to Moriarity in one flight.  Well done!  And good leg times too!

 

I will have to look that helicopter up.  I have not done much Helo flying in FSX so far.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

5 minutes ago, meloscanlon said:

I will have to look that helicopter up.  I have not done much Helo flying in FSX so far.

You can find it here on FlightSim.

Goooood..... Embrace the dark side of the force.

 

[Melo965]

23 hours ago, Rupert said:

the kind of plane that could turn even a dyed-in-the-wool airliner pilot into a General Aviation enthusiast

 

I tend to fly warbirds and general aviation aircraft almost exclusively.  Kit can tell you about an online flight in a DC-9 when he and the other pilots had to jump into helicopters and come rescue me.  My track record in airliners is pretty awful.

 

[Melo965]

6 hours ago, Buck Turgidson said:

I quite like this aircraft even though there are a few things that don't work.

 

Welcome aboard!  Is that a De havilland Caribou?  Looks like an interesting aircraft.

 

[Melo965]

2 hours ago, defaid said:

Melo, tell me you didn't enjoy hand flying that weather.

 

Yes I did enjoy it, all but that one minute of panic in the middle. 

 

I have been hand flying all the legs so far,  And enjoying the weather that adds variety to the flights.

[Melo965]

On 11/20/2023 at 1:55 PM, PhrogPhlyer said:

I don't buy scenery, aircraft, or vehicles

 

Are you aware that A2A Simulations released the P-40 Warhawk or Kittyhawk (depending on where you are from) for free during the pandemic.

 

 

Also Aeroplane Heaven's FSX aircraft are all available for free at Orbx.  This Globe Swift, for example, would be a good touring aircraft for this type of Rally.  There are a number of Aeroplane Heaven aircraft to choose from at Orbx.

 

 

I do have some payware aircraft too.  Can't resist a Spitfire, so I also have the A2A Spitfire

 

 

And another A2A aircraft is the Comanche 250 which would also be great fun for a Rally.

 

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

You can find it here on FlightSim.

Goooood..... Embrace the dark side of the force.

 

Thanks, got it.  I will check it out.

 

I did find the TIE fighter, the X-Wing, and the Millennium Falcon in the file library.  Which one should I pick???

 

 

[taoftedal]

23 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

Estimated time = 38 minutes.  Actual time = 38 minutes.  V0

 

You may well end up giving that Cherokee a run for her money.  Not sure how you do it but you're a far better navigator than I ... well done melos!  Keep doing whatever you're doing ...

[taoftedal]

17 minutes ago, meloscanlon said:

And another A2A aircraft is the Comanche 250 which would also be great fun for a Rally.

 

 

Don't I know it!  

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

33 minutes ago, meloscanlon said:

the Millennium Falcon

This is fun to fly.

Also, add the ISS, and fly around in space. Difficult with speeds and visual references.

[Buck Turgidson]

10 hours ago, Sirrus said:

Welcome to the rally, sir.  If you exceed the time set on your first leg, fly it again. Most of us have!

The rules allow you to choose your own weather, and the times are those spent airborne, not taxiing, landing runs or anything else where the wheels are touching the ground. Good luck 

Thanks! Full disclosure, I ran this a week ago and got almost the same time - one hour early!  How can that be!  Went back to make a paper log and my old flight calculator was doa.  Wiz wheel not available so a took a series of flights in other places both to get a feel for the aircraft and Skyvector.    Found a bit of really bad wx last weekend in NZ and ran several short IFR flights and one had two missed approaches  and on the third attempt I found a hole, dropped down to 500 over a lake and landed. 

 

So I ran the flight last night and got the same time - almost an hour early!  Well, someone has to be last.  Then I looked closely and saw I had entered an hour on the ground for fuel planning and it carried over to the log.  Yes, dumbaz mistake!  With the training flights I learned the 2020 gives an actual wheels up to wheels down time in the log which is what I will use for time.  This is about a minute different to the timer since I hit the button with a mouse before throttle and stop it when the roll out is nearly done.  Mouse usage for various tasks causes difficulties and is awkward at best but this is now under control.

 

So my new log as shown has the ground times removed.

[Buck Turgidson]

5 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

Welcome aboard!  Is that a De havilland Caribou?  Looks like an interesting aircraft.

 

Thanks and yes, it is a caribou.  What a wonderful aircraft.  The more I fly it the more I like it.  A few of the nav systems are offline but I can easily get one good VOR and one ADF to indicate effectively.  DME only seems to work via the gps.  While a big girl in stature, she is quite nimble in the 100 knot speed and will set down on a dime!

[Buck Turgidson]

OK, here is last nights flight, one minute early.  Real wx but adjusted for day flight.

 

 

Set bug on course and run DR until I hit the VOR.  Throttle back to 2500 once positive rate achieved and work MAP during the flight for speed.

 

 

Intercept VOR and do my best to run the numbers in very big up and down drafts.

 

 

About half way to SPI there is a big wind farm.  Hard to see here but entertaining fo the few minutes til I passed.  Taking that shot cost me 500 feet of altitude and 10 deg off course!

 

 

Clouds drop as I cross SPI and I drop to 2500.

 

 

Cross the threshold down wind, count off 30 sec and turn for landing.

 

 

Only carrying half tank of gas and three 100 kilo pallets so not much strip is needed.

 

 

Filler up with regular, Ethyl!  The amount of facilities populated into some FBO's is humorous.

[taoftedal]

I’ve been starting my days at Glenn’s Bakery & Breakfast in Gallup and taking a few day trips.  Santa Fe, Taos, Durango, and the Four Corners all got to see the Comanche and of course, I left each FBO a package of ‘Shell’ stickers.  We’re talking ‘density altitude’ at these elevations, and the thought kept my brain working a little overtime.

 

Was only able to spend a couple nights at the Historic El Rancho Hotel, but dinner in the dining room, with TomP and Rey the first evening was a delight (thank you gentlemen).  The rest of my stay was spent down the road at the Marriott.

 

 

Time for ‘California Here I Come’ and the Golden State.  Snow still on the ground as I left Gallup and it remained below until beyond Flagstaff (I’ll stop in Sedona on the way home).  As you approach the Hualapai Range (beautiful) you know something is about to change ... and it does.

 

 

 

Once through, the Coastal Range(s) starts to unfold, and as one begins the descent into the San Fernando Valley, the air traffic builds big time, so keep your eyes and ears open.  Once down I received a nice welcome from the folks at Atlantic Aviation, and discover all the Air Rally participants in town were down at the beach.  That figures ... 

 

 

 

KGUP>KFLG>KEED>KSOM; Leg 8 V = 1; Leg 9 V = 1; Leg 10 V = 3.

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, taoftedal said:

Not sure how you do it but you're a far better navigator than I ... well done melos!

 

Thanks, but I am not sure how I do it sometimes too.  For the previous two legs before the Tradewind destination, I was about 3/4 of the way there and behind schedule, and had to speed up to try to make it close to on time.

 

For the Tradewind leg, I purposely flew a bit faster throughout.  That landing was much more relaxed because it was not rushed.

 

One thing that really helps is how familiar I am with this aircraft.  I am in the process of recreating the Silver Spitfire flight around the world that was completed in 2019.  I have 37 legs of that flight completed and documented for time, distance, fuel burn, and altitude.  So I had a lot of test flight data already compiled to use to estimate for this Rally.

 

Or maybe it is just the Luck of the Irish from my grandparents.

 

 

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, Buck Turgidson said:

Only carrying half tank of gas and three 100 kilo pallets so not much strip is needed.

 

Good job!  The aircraft and the scenery look great. 

[Melo965]

31 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

KGUP>KFLG>KEED>KSOM; Leg 8 V = 1; Leg 9 V = 1; Leg 10 V = 3.

 

Good work!  More people are finishing.  I am only half way there, so better get some flights in.

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

This is fun to fly.

Also, add the ISS, and fly around in space.

 

The Falcon it is!

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Day 22 Standings.

We have a MSFS2020 pilot amongst us. Four sims represented now.

And five contestants completed!

 

[Bossspecops]

8 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

You can find it here on FlightSim.

Goooood..... Embrace the dark side of the force.

 

 

Cor, a Dragonfly, the first helicopter I ever flew in, sometime in 1959 or 60 when I was a Cadet and still at school. I downloaded it and I'll maybe repaint it as the one I flew in.

 

 

That's me ringed in red in  front of the door.

[Bossspecops]

8 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

I tend to fly warbirds and general aviation aircraft almost exclusively.  Kit can tell you about an online flight in a DC-9 when he and the other pilots had to jump into helicopters and come rescue me.  My track record in airliners is pretty awful.

 

 

Hah! What a day THAT was! Melo was trying to join me and my Albion Air Cargo buddies at an airfield somewhere deep in a valley, and his DC 9 didn't manage to find the glide slope. It was the aircraft's fault of course, not Melo's. 

 

He had to make a forced landing out in the boondocks, and I scrambled a posse of heavy lift choppers to fly and rescue him and his pax. All done very realistically of course, as we always did in Albion. 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

I'll maybe repaint it as the one I flew in.

Please do! I look forward to a copy of the repaint???

Great pic, those were the days.

[Buck Turgidson]

3 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

Good job!  The aircraft and the scenery look great. 

Sorry, I lied! 3 pallets of 200KG each.  Still not much of a load.  Says its humanitarian supplies for some nunnery.  Probably the kind that can lift the Ducati!

[Buck Turgidson]

Leg two.  Have great wx and need to put it to use!  Much less bouncing around on this one but got behind after crossing FTZ.  5 minutes late.

 

 

 

Climbing out of 5K1 to intercept VOR.

 

 

Crossing Mississippi.

 

 

Crossing FTZ.

 

 

Crossing VIH and definitely behind schedule.  Push up to max cruise.

 

 Interesting feature carved by the river.

 

 

I'm in a hurry so mid field cross, pitch up, drop gear, one flap.  Turn in at 95K and line up.

 

 

Easy day!