The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[PhrogPhlyer]

A little motivation to hang in there!

You can take pride in showcasing the value of the legacy sims.

 

[ViperPilot2]

Outstanding montage, PP! 

[taoftedal]

2 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

A little motivation

 

Well done PP ... Thanks!  

[JSMR]

That looks great! 

[taoftedal]

On 2/1/2024 at 3:51 PM, JSMR said:

 

 

Have to admit that cantilevered high wing is a thing of beauty ... and I have often read that those Centurion's are known as 'go places' machines!  A favorite of Richard Collins ...  

 

 

[Melo965]

3 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

A little motivation

 

Awesome picture, thanks a bunch!

 

 

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

CU: “Hello everybody! I’m Claus Ullrich, for Elias Pacheco and the rest of the Radio Chachapoya family. It’s time for our Daily Update for February 4th, 2024. We’ll start with the Leaderboard:

 

 

“Melo965 leads the field with a perfect CV, at Forrest.

 

“defaid is in second place in Parafield, with a +2. dj is back, and he’s planning a run to Melbourne next.

 

“ViperPilot2 is in third, in Ceduna with a -2.

 

“ScottishMike’s now in fourth with a -4 in Adelaide.

 

“Bossspecops is now in fifth, in Warrnambool, with a -5. We’re flying there to keep him company and see if he needs anything. At least his sick Sealand’s near the water – that should cheer her up.

 

“The PhrogPhlyers’ +7 in Sydney has moved them up into sixth.

 

“MAD1 is still showing in Katanning. His -8 is good enough for seventh.

 

“JSMR made a run to Ceduna yesterday. His +7, added to his previous CV of +2, now gives him a +9. This has dropped him into eighth place for the moment.

 

“Adelaide was a nice, comfortable base to fly from. It was nice to spend a little time with some of the racers and free fliers as they passed through, too. We had a beautiful, big house, with enough privacy for both of us. The field is moving on, though, so we figured that it was time for us to do so as well.

 

“Eli is the PIC today. I’ve been monopolizing Sara while we’ve been here, so I figured it was time to let him have a turn.”

 

EP: “It wasn’t all bad. While you were up gallivanting around solo, I rented a nice J-model Lightning…”

 

CU: “...with some decidedly un-woke nose art…”

 

EP: “...which is period-authentic. This isn’t a new thing, folks; we’ve been arguing about it for a week...”

 

CU: “...in which you still haven’t explained why you couldn’t have rented a less offensive aircraft…”

 

EP: “...which I could have, certainly, but I felt like a Lightning, ‘Miss Virginia,’ was the only J available, and I never even noticed the nose art until you brought it up…”

 

CU: “...which calls into question your preflight practices…”

 

EP: “…in which nowhere on the checklist does it specify, ‘Verify that the aircraft carries no sexist imagery.’ Don’t ask me to apologize for a past I wasn’t responsible for. I’m old, but I was still born after the Second World War ended.”

 

CU: “Oh, I know you weren’t responsible for the original nose art. But aren’t you responsible for glorifying it by flying around with it?”

 

EP: “I just wanted to fly a plane. It wasn’t a political statement. The problem with, ‘woke,’ is that it doesn’t give people time to wake up. I didn’t notice the nose art when I rented the plane for a week. I’m sure I saw it, but it never registered as offensive. She’s wearing what would be a rather conservative bathing suit – she’s not naked.

 

“But since it’s offensive to you, I’ll be more careful in the future. I’ll walk the mile in your shoes. Walk a few steps in mine. I still remember being 28, although I’ve never been a Black woman. You’ve never been 70. I’m third-generation American; you’re second-generation – we’ve got that in common. But, you learned about the Moon landing in school; I watched it live on TV. You love Nina Simone. I saw her live. What you hear in covers and samples was the music I grew up with. Most of the military actions you’ve seen on the news are small, local conflicts. I learned to duck-and-cover as a kid, as if hiding under a wooden school desk could do anything in the event of an all-out nuclear war. You read about the Cold War; I lived it until the Berlin Wall came down. President Kennedy getting shot is ancient history to you. I remember classes suddenly being dismissed, going to a school assembly where the principal told us that the President of my country had been killed, and then going home to watch Walter Cronkite try to explain the unexplainable to us. You admire Dr. Martin Luther King. When I was nine, my parents loaded up the car and took us to Washington, D.C. for the March. I saw, ‘I Have a Dream,’ real time. I saw Nixon resign, and screamed when Ford pardoned him.

 

“You like, ‘Saturday Night Live?’ You never saw it with the original cast. You’re the Internet Generation. You watched it grow into what it is today, but you still remember when it was primitive and used telephone modems. I’m the Television Generation. In New York – the largest media market in the world – we only had 7 channels, out of a possible 11. The signals were broadcast through the air, like radio, and we had antennas to pick them up. I was a teenager before our TV had more than two colors – Black and White. There was no such thing as a remote.”

 

CU: “But there is such thing as a top-of-descent. We missed it. We’re right on top of the airport. That town ahead is Warrnambool.”

 

EP: “Oh, shioot. We’re still broadcasting, aren’t we? All that went out over the air? Well, let me shut up and land the plane. This is Elias Pacheco…”

 

CU: “...and Claus Ullrich, for Radio Chachapoya…”

 

EP: “...although the views expressed here were entirely our own, not those of the station…”

 

CU: “...signing off. Bye, bye.”

 

EP: “Have a great flying day, folks!”

 

 

[Melo965]

To answer the questions from yesterday.

 

I rarely use ATC in the sim.  Flying to have fun and don't need that extra layer of complexity.  I do always try to land on the correct runway based on wind direction.  And lately in most cases I also look up the traffic pattern for the destination airport and follow published procedures for left or right traffic pattern, and correct pattern enrty. 

 

I rarely fly IFR anyway.  Mostly fly Warbirds (translate: Spitfire, with few exceptions) or General Aviation aircraft, and almost always stick to VFR.

 

I have flown jointly online only a few times.  Like Kit, I prefer IVAO, but was much less competent using it than Kit was at the time.  When we get it working right it was great fun though.  We both flew Lockheed Constellations in formation once over Switzerland in honor of one of our friends who already had his last earthly landing in Switzerland.

 

Regarding the sim versions, I flew FS98, FS9 and later FSX, but never tried P3D.  I bought the FSX Steam version once when it was deeply discounted, but have never installed it. (stick with the stand alone FSX is my recommendation)  Now I fly mostly FSX Acceleration and sometimes MSFS2020.

 

My MSFS2020 works very well and I don't mind the download times.  It is great for flying VFR and seeing realistic scenery.  I was lucky that my 11 year old PC finally got replaced in the fall of 2019, so my rig has the specs to fly MSFS 2020 fairly well.

 

[defaid]

4 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

 

Love it!

[Melo965]

17 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

nose art…

 

I used to work as a contractor at an Air Force Base.  One day the Commander was tasked with walking around and ordering all objectionable nose art to be removed.  People got rid of the really racy ones, but were able to keep most of the nose art photos around.

 

[defaid]

Long distance driving can get fairly monotonous done solo so having put up in Glenelg I hung around in Adelaide for the week, waiting for my nav to return.

 

She appeared on the 26th so that evening when the fireworks started we wandered out of the hotel, which had a glorious view of a construction site, and down to Glenelg Pier to see who was celebrating what.

 

On the street at the hotel.

 

Up the front a little way from Glenelg Pier.

 

By seven am the following day we were back at our passive-agressive parking spot and ready to head over to Melbourne.

 

The usual weird interaction between monitor & camera...

Killing time waiting for d j to arrive.

Thought I'd start without her. The bottle, that is.

 

Passive aggression.

 

"Piper GOTRG, cleared for takeoff runway 8L, east departure approved."

 

"Runway's empty."

 

"Clear right."

 

Off the ground at 2208Z

 

What are Dunnings?

 

Departing runway 08L sent us over Dunnings and thirty miles of hill country before the terrain degenerated back to the flat and featureless. d j was on the mark and had us over Renmark and its lakes with just under a minute to spare. Sorting the screenshots, I see we forgot to photograph Renmark as we turned overhead.

 

Despite the tabletop terrain, I have to say I really like the look of this landclass, especially under such an empty summer sky.

 

It's really pretty terrain.

 

We'd had the wind on the starboard bow for the first leg and now, flying 179° to Naracoorte, we'd turned the other cheek. The horizon was a knife-cut all around. Who said the Earth isn't flat?

 

"You're a little off."

 

"I showered. Anyway, you didn't tell me the wind would pick up."

 

 

Somewhere, I wasn't paying attention, the FS9 scrub became more civilised again, giving us a tapestry of fields and woodland. Topography aside, it put us both in mind of the rare hot and dry summers at home. As it was for much of the Bendix, we had nothing by which to correct errors and navigation was once more reduced to a heading and a time. A long time. I wished we'd been able to bring the Mosquito.

 

Naracoorte town with the airfield beyond, in the trees dead ahead.

 

We were still in Adelaide's weather: 120@6 and 18°C. The sparsity of airports means a dearth of weather stations, which makes planning simpler. On the other hand, it gave my daughter little to do but refill her glass. This is limestone country. What's on the surface is around 400 million years old, a mere tenth of the age of much of the stuff we'd flown over on the way from Perth. I understand the climate to be more or less Mediterranean -- central Italy or the better parts of California -- and that means that as well as the usual livestock and corn this is wine country.

 

Wales might be good for coal but my home town is an absolute desert when it comes to wine. The closest match I could find with this leg was from just outside Adelaide. Don't knock the glass - I'd use a bucket if I had one.

 

All the way from somewhere between Adelaide and Renmark.

 

FS9's Naracoorte airport was easy to find, being in woodland on the edge of a relatively visible town. For convenience, I was happy simply to overfly. No disturbing the neighbours' hangovers and no trimming the trees on short final but it would have been nice to stop for a drink...

 

Overhead.

 

A slight weather change a few minutes later brought us back to rumpled ground and as the Southern Ocean came into view so the Grampians drifted by on our left. They're mostly Devonian sandstone, the same age as the old red that outcrops along the edges of the South Welsh coalfields. Although Welsh coal is mostly anthracite while the south eastern Australian is lignite, it's funny to find the same mix and age of rocks so far from home, and within a few days of departing some of the world's oldest.

 

I reset the chrono (remember my top of descent at the end of the previous flight?) at the change of weather so needed to add 6m 55s to the time in my Warrnambool screenie:

 

Leg time 45 m 53s + 6m 55s = 52m 48s or 53 m. V = -1

 

Warrnambool appeared with a most seductive offer of a straight in approach to runway 13 but we weren't finished yet. A left turn onto 082° for the last 130 miles to our destination took us over Lake Corangamite, another saline lake and although this one doesn't dry out to a pan, it is shrinking. VOZ take well deserved credit for the colour of the water. Like a lot of Welsh hills, it apparently has WW2 aircraft embedded in it.

 

Lake Corangamite.

 

We spotted the aquatic chemical storage tanks at the well-landscaped Shell refinery at Corio, passing a moment later just south of Avalon Airport, whose weather we'd been enjoying since somewhere the other side of Warrnambool, and crossed the shore of Port Philip. With 25 miles to go, that was the last of anything before top of descent.

 

Shell Corio.

 

d j tuned Moorabbin atis and suggested "Just a touch left of that headland please. You can descend whenever it seems appropriate." Generous, I thought. I stayed put at 2000' just in case something nasty happened.

 

Something nasty happened.

 

Weather.

 

Just when I thought we were home and dry, we found that Melbourne had weather. At least it wasn't down to the ground. Somewhere between the water and the tarmac, "Piper GOTRG, Moorabbin tower. Cleared to land runway 31L. Caution the Piper Cherokee..." so happily nothing new on account of getting atis & clearance before the final weather change.

 

"Who the hell is that?" The Cherokee.

 

Full stop 0211Z, 11.11 am local.

 

Walking around after shutting down we found that at some point our race number had come off. At least we were in a place full of people, one of whom might be able to supply a replacement.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

My apologies to TPD, here's the missing Saratoga.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

16 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

stick with the stand alone FSX is my recommendation

Concur!

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 minutes ago, defaid said:

at some point our race number had come off

Talk about paint blistering speed!!!

[defaid]

11 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Talk about paint blistering speed!!!

 

For the Arrow, it was. We'd been messing around sightseeing (and the wine didn't help) so we were about 5 minutes late. As it happens, we ended the entire stage with V -4 so the delay would have been useful.

 

Clearly it's not a good idea to drink and fly...

[PhrogPhlyer]

Just now, defaid said:

Clearly it's not a good idea to drink and fly...

Now you tell me! Oops

[jgf]

3 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

you still remember when it was primitive

 

 

and that was in high school

[jgf]

3 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

There was no such thing as a remote

 

My parents had one on their TV in the early sixties - telling me to "go put it on channel 12", "go turn up the sound".

[PhrogPhlyer]

58 minutes ago, jgf said:

telling me to "go put it on channel 12", "go turn up the sound"

That's what kids were for, parents not having to get up while watching TV.

For a while we had a "color TV" which was a sheet of translucent plastic with three horizontal bands of color.

Green at bottom and blue at top.

Almost worked for outdoor scenes.

[JSMR]

From hero to zero! 
I've gone from basically winning the event to being dead last.

 

 

 

 

[jgf]

Starting the east route.

 

Race placards removed, she's ready to head north.

 

Off to YBTH

 

Short trip, let her run, cruising at 202kt GS

 

YBTH in 27 minutes

 

And off to YSBK

 

A break from the flat landscape

 

 

Bankston

 

A less than auspicious crosswind landing, 29 minutes from Bathurst

 

Leaving YSBK;  takeoff was in a crosswind also, I was too busy to get a photo

 

Along the way to Coff's Harbor

 

YSCH in 1hr 20min, 280mi

 

A somewhat better crosswind landing

 

And another crosswind takeoff

 

Climbing out from Coff's

 

and just follow the coast to Ballina

 

YBNA, 113mi in 35min

 

59 gallons of fuel remaining, and YBCG is only 40 mi away, but RL interrupts.

 

 

[ScottishMike]

THURSDAY 1st Feb.

Craig helped me with the flight plan. It hadn't been difficult to persuade him to accompany me to Melbourne. He had said it would take him some time to go through recordings and transcripts of Dream Myths recounted by Elders in Pitjantjatjara, the most spoken Aboriginal language in South Australia and see if he came up with anything that referenced the cairns.

“Why don't I leave you to it and you could tell me about your results as we fly down to Melbourne tomorrow? I'll arrange an evening out with Andrew.”

“So long as I don't have to go up in any of Andrew's or his student's contraptions.”.

YPPF to YREN 108 nm. heading 70 degrees time @140 kts = 47 minutes + 4 for take off = 51 minutes

YREN to YNRC 168 nm. heading 180 degrees @140 kts = 1 hr 12 minutes

YNRC to YWBL 114 nm. heading 130 degrees @140 kts = 49 minutes

YWBL to YMMB 128 nm. heading 75 degrees @140 kts = 55 minutes + 4 for landing = 59 minutes

 

“Well Craig, total time in the air 3 hours and 51 minutes for 518 nautical miles. You OK with that?”

“Seems like a bit of a roundabout way to get from Adelaide to Melbourne.”

“That's the beauty of a time trial, we all follow a crazy route, the journey is way more important than arriving.”

“We will arrive though?” a note of concern in his voice.

As we were both toilet prepped I checked the Mooney and stowed our luggage.

“Don't put that bag in the very back, it's got all the notes and photos I need to tell you about.”

I looked at Craig questioningly, the bag was heavier than his overnight bag.

“Well you've been busy since yesterday.”

“Up half the night, actually.” he replied.

“OK let's get her up in the air and on our way.”

A wave and a thanks to Bruce for his bucket and sponge:

 

Cleared for take off (I even remembered landing lights on, taxi lights off):

Up, up and away 09:39 (GMT 00:39)

Goodbye Adelaide, turning onto 70 deg. heading, climbing at 900'/min Throttling back to keep on 140 Kts, leaning as we climb to 7500':

 

More cultivated land around Adelaide:

 

The wind although only 7kts should not have been ignored. I now have to make a 20 degree correction to head for Renmark.

Weather:

Above YREN Renmark ATA 10:20 ten minutes early! MUST NOT RELY on KIAS, but only way to check GS is by using my GPS.

Steep turn onto heading 180 for YNRC Naracoorte 168 nm. away and the first chance to relax and talk to Dr. Allardyce.

I glanced at Craig: “You OK?”

“Yes enjoying the flight so far, somewhat different from the small transports we use for remote field trips.”.

“Yes, this Mooney is a thoroughbred.”

Craig dragged his bag from the back seat unzipping it to reveal a sheaf of notes and some photos.

“Firstly your cairns”, he dragged out two photos. “Impossible to tell if they are ancient or modern without a field trip. Here is a cairn on Fowlers Bay only a couple of miles from Segfield's ill fated dig. Ancient or modern? Surfers, beach combers, tourists are all in the habit of adding a stone or two as they pass. Maybe the cairn was ancient, is it still?

“Here is another from further along the coast at Scott Bay:

same questions apply.”

“What about Myths or songs do any reference or mention the cairns?” I asked a bit crestfallen.

Craig rummaged through his holdall. That's when I interrupted him:

“Sorry Craig, we are going to have to go through this when we get to Melbourne; the wind has changed I need to concentrate on the flying.”

Where exactly was I? How far towards Naracoorte where we? There were no good landmarks to be seen on the ground:

No sooner had I thought that than a town appeared ahead:

What town was it? I glanced at the map. Just to prove me wrong this time it was obvious. It had a navaid: Bordertown:

Way closer to YNRC than I was expecting. I slowed to 130 KIAS and switched the GPS on. To get close to a GS of 130Kts I had to slow to 112 Kts KIAS. The wind was increasing and swinging round. Above Naracoorte 11:31 One minute early:

 

Turning onto heading 130 for Warnambool, predicted time 49 minutes so ETA of 12:20:

The wind had swung round to 305 degrees at 25Kts a few degrees off a perfect tailwind. This time I was determined to monitor speed to keep the GS as close to 140 Kts as possible. The only way was to keep the GPS on for GS readings. Slight vegetation change as we head towards the Bass Strait:

Having a real struggle to keep GS to 140 Kts. Maybe someone can explain how a 20 to 30 Kts tailwind can cause a 37 Kt differential between GS and KIAS. At one point I slowed to a KIAS of 97 yet my GS was 137 Kts. Having a battle with the throttle to keep to plan.

Time flies by when you're enjoying yourself. Almost above Warrnambool:

 

Above YWBL Now 12:20 PERFECT TIMING first time on this rally. Variation 0 !

Course change to 75 degrees. Melbourne here we come! Planned time 59 minutes so ETA 13:19

I realized I had ignored my passenger:”Sorry Craig I've been concentrating on flying. You may not realise it but you've just witnessed a momentous event.” He looked perplexed.

“Perfect timing for the last leg. And sorry there's no conversation the wind is quite tricky to deal with.”

Low cloud developing ahead. Landing at Moorabbin will be great fun with a 30Kt wind and low cloud!

20

Port Bay and Melbourne urban sprawl ahead, the cloud has dissipated and with a descent to 3000' the wind has eased to 5 Kts

Moorabbin ahead, we are cleared to land Rwy 350L. A busy airfield from the radio chatter. A Cessna doing circuits and bumps on 350R another Mooney cleared behind us. I am maybe a bit high (I mean in altitude), but not a problem. First stage flaps down, undercarriage following:

Short final and down on the numbers 13:24 Five minutes late V+5:

Busy place, parking tight. Everything off. Ready for a beer.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, ScottishMike said:

Busy place, parking tight. Everything off. Ready for a beer.

Nicely done.

In addition to the narration, I'm really enjoying seeing some good add-on buildings.

Shows FS2004 at its best.

Which scenery libraries are you using? (If you already said, sorry I missed it).

I might give them a try in FSX.

[defaid]

1 hour ago, ScottishMike said:

Maybe someone can explain how a 20 to 30 Kts tailwind can cause a 37 Kt differential between GS and KIAS.

 

Nice flying. And nice screenshots too. Your short final picture just reminded me of the fun we had trying to decide which grey line was the runway.

 

I don't know if your question was serious but in case...

 

Your ground speed is your true air speed plus the tailwind component of the weather.

 

True airspeed varies from indicated airspeed by around 2% per 1000 feet of altitude. It is also influenced by air temp, pressure, humidity, gusts, turbulence, what I did in the summer holidays but mainly altitude is to blame.

 

You were at 7500'. Your IAS of 97 kt translates into a TAS of:

 

97 + (7.5 × 0.02 × 97) = 111.6 kt

 

Add a 25 kt tailwind and your ground speed is around 111.6 + 25 = 136.6 knots.

 

D

[PhrogPhlyer]

26 minutes ago, defaid said:

True airspeed varies from indicated airspeed by around 2% per 1000 feet of altitude.

Another great tidbit to log in the brain housing group.