The 2024 Australia Rally...

[PhrogPhlyer]

45 minutes ago, MAD1 said:

PhrogPhlyer

The CH-46 has been called the "Phrog" for decades.

With its long front gear, it sort of looks like a sitting frog.

Not sure when the "Ph" started, but it had to be during Nam.

So at the squadron there are Phrog Phlyers (the pilots), Phrog Phixers (maintenance), even Phrog Physicians (flight doc).

The Dept. of State '46's were all ex-Marine.

I hated that we left several of them in Afghanistan when we abruptly departed.

 

 

 

[Sirrus]

As used by US Presidents...New York 2009...

 

 

Sorry about the snatched photo, but I was on the Statue of Liberty and it was time for me to catch the ferry.

[ViperPilot2]

3 hours ago, Sirrus said:

 "We" didn't. It was never a democratic decision. Just a discussion, where other ideas were proposed. Blame/congratulate ViperPilot2., it was his decision.

 

 

 

Yep, blame me. And for the Record... I proposed it, folks liked it, there was no objection, so I went with it. If there was an objection then someone should have said something.

5 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Please explain (I've looked at all the posts but don't see it):

1. Where and why did you guys choose the group name 'Club Chachapoya'?
2. Why did you as a collective choose the Aussie 1976 'Benson and Hedges' air race out of the world-wide many potential candidates?

 

It was Proposed early on in our Discussion and the majority of the Group had no objection. Someone else proposed the Eastern Route, and in the interest of Participation I 'combined' them.

 

The General Race Rules are on Page 1. If there's something you have a question or Issue about, don't be shy; just ask.

 

And... if you take some time to peruse the Posts from our earlier Threads, you will see that our discussions and decisions were built on consensus. Everyone posed their suggestions, talked it out, and the HPIC made the final Decision. It was about as 'democratic' as one could make the Process.

(HPIC - Head Person In Charge)

[ViperPilot2]

47 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

The CH-46 has been called the "Phrog" for decades.

With its long front gear, it sort of looks like a sitting frog.

Not sure when the "Ph" started, but it had to be during Nam.

So at the squadron there are Phrog Phlyers (the pilots), Phrog Phixers (maintenance), even Phrog Physicians (flight doc).

The Dept. of State '46's were all ex-Marine.

I hated that we left several of them in Afghanistan when we abruptly departed.

 

 

 

"Ph" is one of the nine paired Consonants in the Vietnamese language. "Ph" is pronounced and sounds like the Letter 'F'.

 

In the Comic Strip "Doonesbury", one of the Main Characters (BD) was captured in Vietnam by a VC Terrorist named" Phred", whom he later befriended after the War.

[PhrogPhlyer]

25 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

New York 2009

Nice! This was with HMX-1, and supported the Presidential mission.

Phrogs Phorever!

[PhrogPhlyer]

11 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

"Ph" is one of the nine paired Consonants in the Vietnamese language. "Ph" is pronounced and sounds like the Letter 'F'.

That could explain how this happened, and when. When the '46 was introduced in VN.

[jgf]

3 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

your Spitfire IX floatplane would blow the DOORS off the 760 bhp of the Sealand

 

But the Spit carries one person none too comfortably while the Sealand.....

[jgf]

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

So at the squadron there are Phrog Phlyers

 

Wondered where that came from.

[Melo965]

6 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

And Melo, I can't help thinking that with 1600 odd horsepower your Spitfire IX floatplane would blow the DOORS off the 760 bhp of the Sealand! 

 

Yes it would!  But for this Rally I am leaning more toward the Chipmunk.  Nowhere near a Spitfire in terms of performance!

 

Chipmunk Performance:

Maximum speed: 138 mph (222 km/h) at sea level
Cruise speed: 103 mph (166 km/h)
Range: 259 mi (417 km)
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft (4,800 m)
Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)

 

And I may have to rethink my strategy considering the range figure above.  YNSM to YFRT is 349 miles if there is no fuel available at YCAG.

 

Maybe I will have to follow one of the larger aircraft like yours who has enough spare cargo room to leave me a few cans of petrol at YCAG.

 

 

[ViperPilot2]

16 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

 

Yes it would!  But for this Rally I am leaning more toward the Chipmunk.  Nowhere near a Spitfire in terms of performance!

 

Chipmunk Performance:

Maximum speed: 138 mph (222 km/h) at sea level
Cruise speed: 103 mph (166 km/h)
Range: 259 mi (417 km)
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft (4,800 m)
Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)

 

And I may have to rethink my strategy considering the range figure above.  YNSM to YFRT is 349 miles if there is no fuel available at YCAG.

 

Maybe I will have to follow one of the larger aircraft like yours who has enough spare cargo room to leave me a few cans of petrol at YCAG.

 

 

 

For the purposes of our Rally, I'll hereby decree that YCAG CAN be used as a Fuel Stop if the Participant requires it.

 

Since we have no Mid Air Refueling capabilities, we'll just have to treat Caiguna as one.

 

Anybody have Issues about it?

[Bossspecops]

I just did a test flight into Caiguna in the updated Sealand to see just how crude it is.

 

The DC3, Piper Cub and Fairchild Peacemaker parked up there (with my scenery....) give you some kind of security that they do have SOME facilities, but the wrecked, engine-less DC9 right alongside the threshold is a bit of a shaker! 

 

Norsman seems to have even less facilities though, even though it has two dirt runways. The 'facilities' there consist of a caravan (trailer to you US guys....) a small tent, and a man a dog. That's all............

 

 

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

 

Since we have no Mid Air Refueling capabilities, we'll just have to treat Caiguna as one.

 

 

I used to fly an A330 tanker for Albion, under contract to the RAF, and I'm sure I could haul it out of retirement.  

 

But of course none of the competitors are likely yo have probes or refuelling points.  

[ViperPilot2]

I guess if it don't nave Facilities, then imagine Facilities are there. That's what I'm going to do.

[ViperPilot2]

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

4 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

with my scenery....

Here's V2 of YCAG for the FSX'rs.

I change the surrounding land to have more scrub brush, and added a fuel parking spot (yes this is fictional for this event). The 206 is at the fuel spot (can find with Go to Airport, then select fuel spot). Porta potties are behind the Cntl Twr trailer (yes I know, fictional for this event)

 

Also, I added a couple more parked AC. If you'd like to see those you will need this (It says FS2004 and works perfectly in FSX).

 

YCAG V2.zip

[MAD1]

I thought I saw a table of the airports including the legs and the distances, somebody posted here. Had a look through all 6 pages, can't see it. I don't mean the map in VP2's 1st post. (Maybe I'm thinking of something else?) Am just starting my investigation of the route.

[ViperPilot2]

1 minute ago, MAD1 said:

I thought I saw a table of the airports including the legs and the distances, somebody posted here. Had a look through all 6 pages, can't see it. I don't mean the map in VP2's 1st post. (Maybe I'm thinking of something else?) Am just starting my investigation of the route.

Here's my SkyVector log for all of the Legs combined. Bankstown (YSBK) is the Terminus of the B & H Route (Southern).

vp² AU Rally_225.pdf

[MAD1]

20 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Here's my SkyVector log for all of the Legs combined. Bankstown (YSBK) is the Terminus of the B & H Route (Southern).

Great, thanks VP2.

[MAD1]

If anyone wants RW info
https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm

and Wikipedia has good info, just search for the ID e.g. YNSM gives you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norseman_Airport and the page also has links to info about the locality separate to the airport.

[ViperPilot2]

50 minutes ago, MAD1 said:

Great, thanks VP2.

 

Hope it helps! 

[ScottishMike]

Inspecting the newly delivered Mooney, it's the Carenado M20-J, the closest I could get to the M20-E that was entered in the '76 race. Despite the Porsche lettering it's the standard engine.

Today I intend a test flight from Jandakot (YPJT) to Katanning (YKNG). There are lots of things to test: Cruising speeds and related temperatures and pressures, fuel consumption and basic handling characteristics. Also probably more important familiarising myself with Australian maps, local weather and getting “an eye” for spotting landing strips in the unfamiliar landscape.

Take-off time 10:11 local. Distance by my maps 156 nm. Various expected times of arrival depending on cruising speeds and winds encountered ( 1 hr. 6 mins. @140Kts cruise, 52 mins. @ 180Kts. Cruise) we shall see what transpires. I will cruise at 8000' heading 142 degrees. Fuel loaded 50%. Wind at Jandakot 157 at 7 to 10 Kts.

Ready to go! Climb out:

 

Turning onto 142 degree heading:

 

Trimmed out at 8000' I am attempting to NOT use autopilot or GPS. Let's see how that works out...

 

The land is cultivated but dry looking in this SW corner of Western Australia

 

30 minutes to go according to my dead reckoning and a murky hazy overcast is developing:

 

At 3000' and wind has swung round to 264degrees 12Kts., I will attempt a right circuit for Rwy 250, difficult as I have not yet spotted the airfield. This haze is a b****r.

On what I hope is the down wind leg. The airfield should be somewhere to my right, still can't spot it.

 

Turning onto what should be finals and suddenly spot the strip. Not the best approach but it'll do:

Safely down and stopped on the one patch of concrete, but am directed to parking on the packed hard earth:

Now to sit down and analize all the data collectd.

[Bossspecops]

Just in case the fuelling at Caiguna goes to pot, the Albion tanker's on a tanker track o'head. 

 

[defaid]

Happy New Year all!

 

***

 

Apologia pro sua:

 

I'd have been back earlier but Christmas redecoration collaborated with some serious FS9 fault to put this on the back burner. The fault took three days of frustration and increasing pessimism. The solution came as a simple epiphany. At some point during the messing with VOZ and FSRealWX, I'd unknowingly reinstated the large-address UNaware version of FS9. The OOMs and CTDs only happened with the C-130, and seemingly only with certain sceneries. Windows reported a fault with FE.dll. There was no excessive disk activity. Resource Monitor showed under 2 GB of memory in use. It turned out that the Captain Sim C-130 uses a ton of memory and with weather added to the mix, it was occasionally topping out just over whatever threshold Win 10 applies.

 

The redecoration is not finished. Priorities, right?

 

I believe the Arrow VI with t-tail and retractable gear was introduced two years after the '76 event. I did consider searching for an exact match with one or other of the PA-28s in the entrants' list but I much prefer the Carenado cockpit. I'm not ashamed to be using this plane and we won't win any prizes.

 

As far as a Delta regional jet in the Welsh capital is concerned, I have no idea. Was it real? I suspect some error in Flight1's schedule. It's the sort of quirk that amuses me so I've left it uncorrected.

 

If the lack of authenticity offends, well, please accept my apology.

 

***

 

A most intriguing invitation landed in the inbox a few weeks ago, very conveniently in the same bundle of messages as one advertising for sale a small single engined prop, one previous owner...

 

First job then was to get back to the UK and have a good look at what was on offer. We stopped briefly at Goose Bay for a quick face to face with our Air Hauler agent (cases of Les Subversifs maple gin, Park Distillery's maple rye, Kinsip maple whisky, Ironworks maple rum, various offerings from the Rosemont distillery in Montréal...) and then settled down for the long haul across the North Atlantic. I've brought the C-130 into Welshpool before now but the runway is a little too short to accomodate any unplanned event. We agreed to meet the vendor in Cardiff.

 

Toronto lights. Good weather - we're leaving.

 

Toronto to Goose Bay.

 

A winter's flight.

Goose Bay to Cardiff.

 

I was delighted to find such a clean GA cockpit. They're normally full of mouldy Cheetos bags, stickily flattened coffee cups and broken nav stationery. GA pilots can be quite revolting. I dislike ill-maintained or dirty aircraft, to the extent of having coffee and meals in the microscopic galley under the stairs when I'm in the C-130. The Arrow's previous owner, one H Blackman, appeared to share the opinion.

 

The state of this -- like new except for normal wear -- was as though someone had made every effort to erase all evidence of some major wrongdoing, possibly the modifications (T-tail and undercarriage upgrade amongst others) required to turn one Cherokee into another. The five of us spent a couple of hours going over every inch of the Arrow. The crew has a much better idea of such things than I do (just let me fly) and, Bob's muttering about serial numbers notwithstanding, we found nothing more sinister than a recent repaint in all white. It seemed as though one small patch had been missed though.

 

First view.

 

Gleaming cockpit.

 

Deal was done. We wandered over to the spray shop and did another before dispersing for the holiday.

 

Re-registering a newly purchased aircraft isn't like expediting a passport application but when you understand that this stuff isn't real, it's surprising what can be achieved. Between Boxing Day and New Year, paint and paperwork both materialised. We also rematerialised at EGFF for first sight of the new duds rolling out of the shop.

 

 

Sian and FB put in six hours hard graft replacing a load of outdated nav equipment and came up with a much more useful setup. A quick test flight in the winter sun to check the avionics and to see how fast and far I could go at each altitude, then the wings came off and the whole lot was bundled into the back of the lorry along with a ton of other equipment, silicone sealant and a lifetime's supply of assorted fluids.

 

Photoscenery winter.

How green was my valley?

 

New gauges for old.

 

dj'd worked through the holiday season, with some time off either side but I found something moderately festive to take the sting out of her unsociable schedule.

 

 

Export paperwork went as smoothly as the re-registration and between one party and the other we departed cold, dark and grey Wales for an almost instant change of season. I'd considered replumbing ferry tanks to do the trip in a single leg but the new smallfry takes up too much space so we stopped overnight in Mumbai.

 

An unexpected guest at Cardiff.

 

Heading for warmer climes.

 

Dusk over Germany.

 

From somewhere over the Arabian Sea the world below became increasingly bright, increasingly blue and increasingly warm. d j wondered why I spent a whole half hour of the cruise muttering "Up we go... up we go" in a poor imitation of Alan Bennett.

 

I gave her one "Hang spring cleaning" and a "Must go south" and left it at that.

 

Mumbai, overnight, was hazy with smoke (first time I'd seen "FU" in a metar) but wonderfully warm. We planned to arrive at Perth around noon on the 31st, which meant a 7 pm departure from Mumbai, giving some time to stretch legs, get some sleep and develop a smoggy cough.

 

Three minutes before noon, land appeared and 40 minutes later, having eyeballed a somewhat spartan Jandakot on the approach, we were parked up in good company at a row of Qantas jetways...

 

Fremantle harbour.

 

Arrived.

 

Tomorrow to fresh planes and airfields new.

[PhrogPhlyer]

9 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Here's my SkyVector log for all of the Legs combined. Bankstown (YSBK) is the Terminus of the B & H Route (Southern).

I had broken the NavLog into two parts.

For me it fits on the knee-board better.

 

B&H AAR navlog - 151.pdf B&H AAR navlog - 151.pdf

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 minute ago, defaid said:

Yummmmm.....