Route 66 Air Rally

[Bossspecops]

Got into Flagstaff OK after a bit of a barney with the Tower Crew at Gallup.............

 

Flight plan reckoned an hour for the 150 nms to Flagstaff, and with the upper winds still westerly at around 20 kts I added an extra 5 mins as before.

 

Fuel state before take off, belly tank full, was 225 galls, more than enough to get to Santa Monica \OK.

 

 

 

The Gallup ramp was HUGE compared to the one at Moriarty, so I went for the ramp take-off again, why not? The Tower Crew were less than enthusiastic, to say the least, and as I turned into wind, the conversation went something like this....

 

 

Tower :- 'Papa 1684, you intend taking-off on the RAMP?'

Me :- 'Roger, normal procedure for a Lysander'

Tower :- 'YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!!' (apologies to John McEnroe...)

Me :- Affirmative, the ramp's easily long enough for us'

Tower :- 'You do NOT have permission to.......'

 

By this time I was rolling and.....

 

 

....was airborne.

 

Tower :- 'Papa 1684, we have evidence of your impossible take-off and you'll be reported to the FAA!'

Me :- 'That's OK then, if it was impossible I'm not airborne, am I?'

 

So leaving Gallup Tower in a huff I headed off westward again.

 

 

I was airborne at 0951 so my ETA was 1051 at Flagstaff, and was soon lined up on the Winslow VOR as usual.

 

 

Equally as usual there was good 'ole Route 66 pointing the way from me, even if the VORs had all died overnight!

 

At this point the VOR gave up indicating and I carried on by dead reckoning while I tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Maybe the VORs HAD all died overnight? But no, it was finger trouble on my part, I'd nudged the NAV 1 radio off frequency by 0.5 Mhz and it wasn't looking at Winslow anyway. That was soon sorted, but by then I'd drifted off south a ways, and adjusted my heading to get back.

 

FSTramp seemed to think there were a mass of rivers and water around here....

 

 

....but as usual I was darned if I could see them. My Nav software must have some sort of enhanced scenery bgls I guess.

 

 

That's Winslow itself in the above screenie, a neat looking city with an impressive airport for a place that size. Almost EVERywhere in the US seems to have its own airfield, amazing!

 

 

Winslow's another one of those airfields named after Lindberg, there seems to be LOADS of them! Amazingly I was ahead of schedule here, so I backed off the throttle down to +1 boost and slowed to around 134 kts.

 

My weather report said the wind at Flagstaff was almost directly down the 22 runway, which was good, and I was soon descending for landing.

 

The scenery in the distance looked VERY forbidding, and I'm glad I had a Plan B for flying around it on Leg 9.

 

 

I thought I'd try for an ILS approach at Flagstaff, I'd not had occasion to use that facility so far on this Rally, but it didn't really work all that well. I was never really locked onto the localiser, and was above the glide path pretty well all the way. The Lysander just didn't want to descend fast enough to get down there. 

 

 

You can see from this I'm waaaay to high, although nicely on the centre line.

 

Touch down was a long way down the runway as a result, but pretty much on the centre, thank goodness.

 

 

Time was 1053, so that's a V2 for me this Leg. I slowed up too much on that last sector I reckon.

 

Fuel state was 181 galls so the burn was 44 galls, about par for the course, and plenty left for the next legs.

 

 

So I'm parked up at Flagstaff, with that impressive tower and the mountains behind me. And an even LONGER ramp than at Gallup. 

 

I'll have some lunch here and then get off for Needles later on.

 

 

 

 

[defaid]

That forbidding scenery. Beautiful!

[Bossspecops]

After a quick burger and a coffee, I was ready for the penultimate leg out to Needles, wherever that is.

 

The flightplan reckoned it was 150 nms, and a time of 55 mins, but the upper winds were as constant as before and so I added my 5 min safety period for an ETD of an hour dead. Fuel state before startup was 181 galls, and the guys at Flagstaff were only too happy for me to use their VAST ramp for take-off. They'd heard about me before on the ATC grapevine and WANTED to see it! 

 

 

 

See what I mean? Plenty of room, specially after that diagonal take-off at Moriarty!

 

 

So I was wheels up at 1154, which gave me an ETA of 1254 of course.

 

 

So that's a goodbye to Flagstaff hoped you liked the STOL take-off. 

 

 

The scenery changed radically for a bit, with LOTS of forestation, but it soon returned to the all-over desert look as before.

 

 

Checking the flight plan frequently to ensure I was on time, I noticed an airfield just north of my track called the 'Ford Arizona Proving Ground' field. I wondered why Ford didn't have their proving ground in Dearborn, it'd be a LOT closer to the plant, and determined to take a look at the place as I'd spent the first nine years of my working life spending a lot of time at just such a place in the UK.

 

 

I adjusted my track a bit to pass o'head the Proving Ground and tweaked the throttle up a tad to ensure I was back on time at KEED, but neglected to check on the terrain before I got to the Proving Ground......

 

 

This ridge was JUST low enough for me to pass without scraping the tyres, but it was a close run thing. The terrain around these parts was really rough, lots of rocky outcrops and stuff, and NOT a nice place to have a forced landing.

 

 

Managing not to hit any of the rocky outcrops I passed o'head Ford's place, and it looked very much like the MIRA Proving Ground that I knew too, but that used to be an RAF airfield in its time anyway.

 

 

Soon after that I made a turn to the south to get a good line-up on the Needles runway, and passed over a large lake.

 

 

Presumably the lake was the reason for the small area of rich vegetation immediately to the south of it, which looked a bit out of place in the mostly desert surroundings.

 

 

I was feeling pretty pleased with my timing up to now, the throttle tweak I used to divert over the Ford place proved to be right on the money, and I was soon on the approach for Needles.

 

 

It was pretty difficult to see out there in the desert, but I was reasonably well lined up, but going much too fast. You can see the flaps and slats haven't deployed in that screenie!

 

 

But I got it down OK, somewhat off the centre line, but on the numbers, just.

 

But DEAD on time at 1254!  A V0! 

 

It's a long taxi to the ramp at Needles and my fuel state was 139 galls on arrival, giving a burn of 42 galls, about the same as most of the other legs.

 

So I'm ready for the last Leg to Santa Monica, and the Pacific Ocean tomorrow, great stuff.

 

 

 

[Melo965]

9 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

The scenery in the distance looked VERY forbidding, and I'm glad I had a Plan B for flying around it on Leg 9.

 

 

Do you want me to meet you at Needles and swap out your Bristol Mercury XX 9-cylinder radial engine for a Merlin?  The three extra cylinders could help you get over those mountains!

 

[Melo965]

7 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

 

But I got it down OK, somewhat off the centre line, but on the numbers, just.

 

But DEAD on time at 1254!  A V0! 

 

Great landing picture!  And a V0 is Awesome!  Great work! 

 

[TomPenDragon]

Congratulations for a couple of great stints, Kit!  Now bring 'er home!!!

[Bossspecops]

6 hours ago, meloscanlon said:

 

Do you want me to meet you at Needles and swap out your Bristol Mercury XX 9-cylinder radial engine for a Merlin?  The three extra cylinders could help you get over those mountains!

 

 

I was thinking more like hanging an RB211 underneath in place of the belly tank. 

 

I'm going via your recommended dodge to the south, in between those two mil space areas, and I can do that at 7500 ft I reckon.

[Sirrus]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

I was thinking more like hanging an RB211 underneath in place of the belly tank. 

 

A guy called Jarrod Lindemann has a 1930's Waco biplane with a General Electric CJ610 (J85) jet engine with 3,000 lbs. of thrust attached to it. 

It looks, and sounds, awesome.

[PhrogPhlyer]

Day 39 Standings (yeah I know it says 40).

Great end game for Kit,

Bring it home now!

[TomPenDragon]

56 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

A guy called Jarrod Lindemann has a 1930's Waco biplane with a General Electric CJ610 (J85) jet engine with 3,000 lbs. of thrust attached to it. 

Okay, now I don't feel so bad about throwing a couple of extra HP's, thrust, and turbochargers on everything.

[PhrogPhlyer]

31 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

Okay, now I don't feel so bad about throwing a couple of extra HP's, thrust, and turbochargers on everything.

A little extra power never hurt anyone...

[Bossspecops]

7 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

A little extra power never hurt anyone...

 

 

That good old American phrase 'There ain't no substitute for cubic inches' 

 

I'm about half way to Santa Monica now BTW. 

[PhrogPhlyer]

'There ain't no substitute for cubic inches' 

CCs never give me the sense of power that Cubic Inches did. 

[TomPenDragon]

20 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

I'm about half way to Santa Monica now BTW. 

Kit! Kit! Kit! Kit! Kit!

[TomPenDragon]

12 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

CCs never give me the sense of power that Cubic Inches did. 

If you'd ever had the chance to test-ride an early-'70's Kawasaki Z1 900 (two-stroke), perhaps you'd feel a little differently, but there simply is no substitute for truly testicular torque.

[Bossspecops]

OK, I'm down at KMSO! 

 

Full report in a while, but after a quick coffee I'll be off again with a VFR flightplan for the beach!  

[TomPenDragon]

25 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

OK, I'm down at KMSO! 

 

Full report in a while, but after a quick coffee I'll be off again with a VFR flightplan for the beach!  

Let the party begin!!!  Although some of us have begun partying a little early.  And I'm not singling out anyone, but some of us may have over-indulged while we've been on the beach, too (the cops who stopped by earlier mentioned that Mötley Crüe called to complain...).

[ViperPilot2]

Congratulations, Boss!

 

And Congratulations to everyone who took part, and to PhrogPhlyer for running an awesome Challenge!

 

Have a great time at the Festivities, get some rest, pay your A & P's well and give 'em some well deserved Props too!

 

Have a thought (or two) about what comes next, and post them over at "The Next Challenge" Thread.

 

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

 

vp² 

[TomPenDragon]

 

Oh, now that's just compensating for something...

[Bossspecops]

Having been forewarned about he mountains west of KEED, I planned a route which doglegged down between the two Mil Ops Areas, turning over the 29 Palms VOR and then west on toward LA. As the upper winds remained pretty constant (which I just did NOT believe, so I'll have to to dig into Active Sky and ensure it's working properly...) and the low altitude winds were quite low I stayed with  the FST ETD of  1 hr and 25 mins.

 

 

 

Parked up at Needles before the off, I was very pleased to see an enormous ramp to my right, and it was a loooong way to the runway, so who needs runways, eh? I made a right turn and used all that concrete, well some of it anyway, for a MUCH better purpose. 

 

 

Climbing away from Needles en route on my last Leg of the Rally. I was off at 1007, so my ETA was 1132.

 

 

That's one HECK of a long, and wide ramp they have there......

 

Heading almost due west and north of the larger Mil Ops Area toward my first turning point went fine, and soon I was making that turn into The Gap between the two Mil Ops Areas.

 

 

Coming out of the southern end of The Gap I turned over the 29 Palms VOR and was amazed at the number of small airfields in the area!

I could see four of them without even looking very hard.

 

 

Heading on westward the terrain in front was notably higher than around those parts, and I wondered if I should have cruised at 10000 ft rather than the 7500 ft I'd put in my plan. 

 

 

The crucial ridge was only JUST below my wheels, I'm pleased to say!

 

 

 

All of a sudden I was over civilisation, the first well established city I'd seen in some time, and further on came even more of a surprise!

 

 

It turned out that was March AFB, with a 13500 ft runway, for crying out loud! I reckon that ramp is so wide I could land ACROSs it, let alone along its length!

 

 

Getting into the West LA area now and the sheer size of the place is MIND boggling.  I've been there for real once when I visited Melo, but you only get a true impression of its size when you see it from above.

 

 

After a short dog-leg back north to get to the same latitude as KMSO I turned left o'head the Pomona VOR. I guess that's the same place as the famed Pomona Dragstrip which I remember from my time running a VERY small drag race car in the UK in the 60s.

 

 

And I guess this is downtown LA!

 

 

And Melo? This shot should show your old place at Glendale according to my map. Fond memories of my trip to come and see you. We went to a different aviation museum every day I think! 

 

Up till Pomona I had been keeping pretty good time, but maybe the lower altitude headwinds were stronger than Active Sky reckoned as I was quite a bit late on schedule by the time Santa Monica came into view, so I took a radical decision and decided to go for a downwind landing as time was of the essence. The Tower didn't like it too much, but they figured I was hardly likely to go off the end of the runway with a 35 kt stalling speed!

 

 

Yes, the Lysander IS in that pic, but the camo works very well even over a city! I was a bit low, and a bit slow as well, and wasn't going to make the runway itself, but KSMO is seemingly just one GIANT slab of concrete so I landed on the bit that was handy.....

 

#

 

Touch down was at 1133 so I was a minute late! A good thing I didn't make my planned turns out over the Pacific or I'd have been waaaaay off! So V1 again. 

 

Fuel state on landing was 85 galls and the burn was 54, just about right, and leaving me plenty to get to the beach!

 

 

Parked up at the tower in time to grab a coffee before heading off to the beach...... See you guys there in a short while. 

 

[taoftedal]

2 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

 

Parked up at the tower in time to grab a coffee before heading off to the beach...... See you guys there in a short while. 

 

Welcome to Santa Monica Bosss ... well done!  My first Lysander adventure ... Thanks!

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

OK, I'm down at KMSO! 

 

Mission Accomplished!

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

The crucial ridge was only JUST below my wheels, I'm pleased to say!

 

 

Really glad you took the southern route.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

Parked up at the tower in time to grab a coffee before heading off to the beach...... See you guys there in a short while. 

 

A cold "whatever you want" is waiting for you. Bravo Zulu

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

And Melo? This shot should show your old place at Glendale according to my map. Fond memories of my trip to come and see you. We went to a different aviation museum every day I think! 

 

Yep that was my old neighborhood.  Yes, it was great when you came to visit!  We flew to Catalina and back in the RW.  Palm Springs Air Museum was one of the highlights too.  Every airplane there is flyable.  And Kit's accent and distance travelled to get there got us into the pilot and co-pilot seat on the B-17 Flying Fortress, which was normally forbidden.  We quietly snuck off when the other staff started yelling at the docent because someone was spotted in the cockpit windows.