The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[Rupert]

1 minute ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

The most difficult part of being deployed "back in the day" was waiting for the next letter, which could be weeks or months. I stood in line for 8 hours at a pier in Buson Korea to use the ONE phone that was available. Difficult to way to find out one's father has ALS and not long to live. Today's generation can not conceive of such "delay" for information. When my Marine squadron was deployed aboard ship, I heard the phrase "There are no tears beyond the pier."  Today, it must be, 'how long will we have internet, beyond the pier?'

BEEN THERE DONE THAT!  EXCEPT IN VIETNAM THE ONE PHONE WAS A "MARS" CALL BEING OPERATED BY HAM RADIO OPERATORS.  When my step-father died my mother spent days finding my location and calling me on a HAM RADIO PATCH to notify me.  She had a heck of a time remembering to say OVER so the radio operators on each end knew when to switch from transmit to receive and vice-versa!

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

EP: “Hello and welcome to the Daily Update for the 15th of February, 2024. I’m Elias Pacheco, here in the left seat of the newly-reassembled Saratoga M992. Claus Ullrich is in the right seat, which is usually the Radio Chachapoya broadcast seat. She is occupying the right seat because she will likely sleep for most of our run from Jandakot to Bathurst. She and the Piglets pulled an all-nighter to get Sara ready to fly. Claus herself test-flew the M992 for four hours last night, likely to the annoyance of those who live around the airport. We’ve just passed Kalgoorlie and are now on a very long leg to Broken Hill, cruising at 15,5 at 155 knots indicated and 225 over ground. The Saratoga feels great – a little stiffer than she was before, and she was pretty solid when I picked her up at Lock Haven. What happened, Claus? What did you feel that caused you to want to tear the wings off this plane?”

 

CU: “We were on the Half Circle – that part of Australia’s coastline that isn’t part of either the 1976 or the Eastern Routes. We flew that part of our Australian circumnavigation at 22,000’ and 24,000’, so we were at our maximum true airspeed. I first felt it when we started to get knocked around by that thunderstorm line that made us turn back to Cairns the first time we tried the run to Darwin. It was one of those things in an airplane that, once you feel it, you keep feeling it until you’re down.

 

“I checked the plane over in Darwin and decided to push on to Perth. I felt the same thing when we hit turbulence a couple of times, but not to the point where I felt it necessary to abort the flight. Once in Jandakot, the team took the wings apart and found nothing abnormal. We ran some simulations, though, and discovered that, with the 41-gallon auxiliary bladders in the wings and full, the main spar was a little too flexible – it made for a more comfortable ride in turbulance with just the 51-gallon mains and even with the 21-gallon auxiliary bladders, but that extra 20 gallons toward the tips of the wings had them flapping like a bird’s when trying to punch through Charlie Bravos. We brought a carbon spinner from Pennsylvania, so we spun a denser, stiffer spar, put the wings back together and back on the airplane, and here we are. Thank God for flight simulators!”

 

EP: “Indeed. I don’t know where we’d be without them – probably unemployed in some madman’s mind. We haven’t hit any real turbulence yet, and the lumps we’ve hit so far, Sara’s taken them easily, although yeah, she’s stiffer than before so the lumps are less like low, gradual speed bumps and more like potholes.”

 

CU: “ She’s edgier now. We designed her to mimic the original, metal Saratoga’s ‘Flying Limousine” feel. Now she’s a lot closer to the feel of a 992 GT3 race car.”

 

EP: “I wouldn’t go that far. She’s still a sweet ride, quite easy to fly as long as you stay on top of the power and the speed. She’s too much of a cruiser to be a sportplane, though. That’s a good thing. You saw what I flew into Perth in. If I want to go fast, pull some G’s, make her dance in the air, there are Tomcats and Sabres, Lightnings, and Spitfires. When I want to fly far, reasonably fast, pack five more people in the airplane than I could in a single-seater, spend all day in something as comfortable as my favorite lounger in my living room, I’ll go for something like Sara here. The last thing the general aviation industry needs right now is another Doctor-in-a-Bonanza situation.”

 

CU: “I’ve rarely heard Doctor-in-a-Saratoga stories, Eli.”

 

EP: “JFK Jr., but that was spatial disorientation. About fifteen years ago, one crashed with a helicopter over the Hudson. That’s about it, though. And that’s what I’m talking about. A Saratoga is a plane for a responsible pilot who wants to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time for a piston single. It’s not for aerobatics, high-G maneuvers, or fools who’d try such things in a utility-category aircraft. I’m precisely that kind of fool, too. You’ve seen me pull some rather aggressive turns. I’ve barrel-rolled Sara, took her through an Immelmann, and haven’t broken her tail off yet. Given how she’s constructed, I don’t think it’s possible to break the airframe with anything you could do to her in the air. But she’s just as susceptible to accelerated stalls as the next airplane, and even if the cabin protective cell might allow a pilot to walk away from a crash, she’s every bit as dangerous to people on the ground as any other aircraft.”

 

CU: “She’s a high-performing flying living room for responsible pilots – that’s what you’re saying. That’s exactly what we designed her to be. This broadcast, however, is going in a direction that it was not designed to, so why don’t we take a brief look at the Leaderboard:”

 

 

EP: “Brief because it’s exactly the same as yesterday’s. Melo is in first, Bosss is in second with a 1 and 4 legs left to go, defaid, ScottishMike and ViperPilot2 are in third, fourth, and fifth respectively with 2’s, VP2 having six legs to go, and the PhrogPhlyers and JSMR are in sixth and seventh with 7’s, JSMR having nine legs to go and the PhrogPhlyers currently leading the Eastern Route with a -20.

 

“And jgf has reached Jandakot to complete his Australian circumnavigation – well done, jgf!

 

“After yesterday’s Update, the Aussie Correspondent over at our sister print publication got a little ahead of me by posting viewing instructions for the Bathurst 12H. Our listeners in every part of the world except Australia and New Zealand can indeed follow the race on YouTube, whether on the Repco Bathurst 12Hr Channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@B12HR ), on SRO’s GT World channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@GTWorld ), or on radiolemans.co . What is less clear is how our Australian audience can watch the race – it seems to be a combination of social media, Kayo Sports, Foxtel, and The Seven Network. I was waiting for clarification before announcing it, but with the practice sessions about to start, I do not believe that any is forthcoming.

 

“So what is the Mt. Panorama race course? To me, it’s like someone tossed the Nurburgring into the wash and it shrunk. Formula 1 driver Mark Webber has made a similar observation. Its straights are straight only in the horizontal sense; they rise and fall like the Döttiger Höhe. The Esses are legendary – drive as fast as you can, down a hill that in most parts of the world would be a cliffside, and turn on a track that’s barely wide enough for two bicycles, with no runoff, through a canyon of concrete barriers. And it’s also like Circuit de la Sarthe in the sense that a large portion of it’s public roads. In a nutshell, it’s insane – or simply Australian, take your pick.

 

“The primary, A class running this weekend is GT3, which while based on production models, are thoroughbred racers with sufficient performance to attract top-level professional drivers, yet able to be driven by talented amateurs. The class is broken into three subclasses: Pro, which are FIA Platinum and Gold-rated drivers, Pro-Am, which are Platinum, Gold, and Bronze, and Silver, which are Silver and Bronze. Class C is GT4, which I’ve heard best described as GT3 Light – less aero, less edgy, and a lot less expensive. And then there is the Invitational class, which is basically anything the organizers think will help to make an interesting race.

 

“I hope you can tune in, at least for a short time, so that you can you can see what modern sports car endurance racing is all about. And as Claus has fallen asleep, I’ll bring this edition of our Daily Update to a close. This is Elias Pacheco, for an angelic-looking Claus Ullrich and the Radio Chachapoya team, signing off. Have a great flying day everybody, and if that flying takes you to Bathurst, see you there.”

[Bossspecops]

I'm building a collection of different amphibians to fly the Eastern legs of the Oz rally, and I have a fair collection now, but I can't find one I'd really like. 

 

Yonks ago there was a TV series called 'Tales of the Brass Monkey' that was situated in the S Pacific somewhere and featured a Grumman Goose in a rather nice colour scheme. Somewhere in the flight sim world some genius did that Goose and its island base and a whole lot of operations to fly too, and I had all the files then, but I can't find them now. 

 

I've looked at all the FS sites I can think of with no success so does anyone else a) have any ideas where I could find them or b) actually have the files please?

 

[Later] Ah, it's 'Tales of the GOLD Monkey', no wonder I couldn't find it! There may not be a problem.......

[Sirrus]

On 2/14/2024 at 3:43 PM, taoftedal said:

Ooh ... now there's a future challenge to think about ... a x-country soaring event ... ?

I have one where you launch your glider - no towing or winches - from the top of Pikes Peak, in FSX  N38* 50' 26", W105* 02' 39" should find it. You have to use gravity to launch so getting your glider up there is going to be fun!

Launch and do a circle of Pike's Peak, it does not matter which way initially...

I used to do a circle where you would overfly the USAF Academy (KAFF), then Colorado Springs Muni (KCOS), Butts AAF -Fort Carson (KFCS) and then return overflying Colorado Springs Muni (KCOS), and landing at USAF Academy (KAFF).

However, after doing an anti-clockwise run around the top of Pike's Peak, I tried to get as far as possible from the peak. My first attempt was within a mile of Denver International (I would have made Stapleton, if it was still there.) Of course I will try again...it is one of my saved flights.

So something easy to hone your gliding skills with!

[TomPenDragon]

EP: "We have an update to the Update.  While I was trying to balance flying and talking, Bossspecops was busy setting a -1 into Narrandera.  This puts his CV at a perfect 0, which cements him in second place with just 3 more legs to go.  I hear he's planning to reach Bathurst by the start of the race, too.  Great stuff, Bosss!"

[taoftedal]

23 hours ago, Sirrus said:

I have one where you launch your glider - no towing or winches - from the top of Pikes Peak ...

 

Interesting ... may have to jump into some soaring ... and great to hear from you Sirrus!  Hope all is going well ... 

[ViperPilot2]

45 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

I'm building a collection of different amphibians to fly the Eastern legs of the Oz rally, and I have a fair collection now, but I can't find one I'd really like. 

 

Yonks ago there was a TV series called 'Tales of the Brass Monkey' that was situated in the S Pacific somewhere and featured a Grumman Goose in a rather nice colour scheme. Somewhere in the flight sim world some genius did that Goose and its island base and a whole lot of operations to fly too, and I had all the files then, but I can't find them now. 

 

I've looked at all the FS sites I can think of with no success so does anyone else a) have any ideas where I could find them or b) actually have the files please?

 

[Later] Ah, it's 'Tales of the GOLD Monkey', no wonder I couldn't find it! There may not be a problem.......

 

 

If you're a true Amphib-O-Phile this is an essential Add to the Collection...

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, Rupert said:

"MARS" CALL

I forgot about those! Made many a MARS call from Okinawa and Korea!

Thank you to all the HAM operators out there.

Such funny memories, always felt odd saying "I love you... Over."

[Melo965]

On 2/13/2024 at 3:22 PM, Bossspecops said:

she held the Vosper-Thornycroft Trophy for a year as the BEST Controller in the RAF.

 

Good Work!!!

 

[Melo965]

10 hours ago, jgf said:

FTR, the Beech is back in Jandikot;  717mi in 3hr 27min.

 

Well done.  Now I have to go all the way to Darwin to also complete my circuit of Australia. 

 

[Melo965]

4 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

But the good news was I was exactly a minute early, so I'm up with Melo on an aggregate of V=0 now.

 

Awesome!!  Great Work! 

 

[ViperPilot2]

6 hours ago, Rupert said:

Thanks so much for posting that song!  There's a lot in those lyrics that most of us from Vietnam can still relate to!  And in part thanks to flight sim, it's much easier for me to deal with those issues now than I ever thought it could be. 

 

I resupplied Khe Sanh several times during the siege there.  I found out many months later that my older brother John, a Marine GySgt in a motor transport company, was among those trapped there.  He died years ago from lung issues caused by all that time underground amid bombs, gas, and smoke. 

 

Today people freak out if they have to go whole minutes without updating their status and location on their phone.  Or worse yet, if their loved ones done post an update. 

 

During Vietnam both my brother and brother in law ( both Marine grunts) were deployed to Vietnam during my second tour.  But we never knew anything about each other's status or even where anyone else was.   Nor were we allowed to write home and tell anyone there either.  However I did recognize my brother in law as they off-loaded him on a stretcher from my plane at the Hue Med Evac. center.

 

Strangely enough.  One of the nurses at Hue whose face I often recognized during off-loads at Hue,,now lives a few doors down the street from me.  She has the worse case of PTSD of anyone that I knew or associated with who also served there.  I assume it was dealing with too many guys on stretchers for her to cope with.

 

It's not just the troops in combat who suffered and are still paying the price,  There are a lot of others who usually get little if any recognition for their sacrifices who are still suffering as well!!

 

In this high speed World of Instant Gratification that we live in now, it makes me wonder sometimes if simple skills we once had have now gone extinct, passé, or whatever you want to call it... like composing a Letter to someone. I always looked forward to receiving one from a friend when I was younger.

[Bossspecops]

12 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

 

 

If you're a true Amphib-O-Phile this is an essential Add to the Collection...

 

 

 

Magic stuff, many thanks for the links.  I looked for a Widgeon but didn't find one, and that's such a NEAT aeroplane. The Cutter's Goose model really doesn't sit on the water very well in FSX, but flies OK, so I'll have at it with the Contact Points and see if I can sort it.

[jgf]

There is a Widgeon for FS2004 from Joe Binka.

[PhrogPhlyer]

9 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

it makes me wonder sometimes if simple skills we once had have now gone extinct, passé, or whatever you want to call it... like composing a Letter to someone. I always looked forward to receiving one from a friend when I was younger.

There was a recent news story in the US where a 17 yr old left a hand written note in the pocket of a donated winter coat that was given to a 2nd grade child in need. The child sent a note back in thanks. The two notes were shown in the news article. The 17 yr old's printed scribble was no better the the 7 yr old's. Writing is becoming a lost art in many school districts, with a trend to not teach cursive writing. In another generation or so many Americans will not be able to read the actual US Constitution or Declaration of Independence. How quickly those may become passé and unimportant.

[JSMR]

I haven't forgotten the race. Busy week. Will fly some multiple legs to catch up. Or attempt to. 

Bankstown or Bust! (said by no one in Australia )

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

There is a Widgeon for FS2004 from Joe Binka.

 

That's the one that VP linked for me, and I've got it now. In FSX it tries to be a submarine, the entire rear fuselage is under water when 'floating', but 15 mins work on the 'Contact Points' got that sorted. 

 

I've tweaked the Contact Points on Cutter's Goose too and that floats a lot better and is more stable now as well. 

[Sirrus]

So what happened to me...

I have been suffering pain in my right hip for some time, so I see my doctor. She sends me for an x-ray, and the result shows some osteo-arthritis in the hip. I am asked how I'd like to deal with it and I go for some physio and painkillers.

Towards December of last year the painkillers don't seem to be doing as well as they used to. I see a specialist, who also sends me for an x-ray.

This time, I am sat down and he shows me the x-rays. He tells me that there should be a significant gap between where the ball is in the hip joint, and where the socket is. On my x-ray there is no gap.

"This means Mr Cirrus, that there is no cartilage between two  bones so you are experiencing a great deal of pain." He pauses, "Therefore I would suggest you have a total hip replacement, and that will be..." he scans a laptop and hmmms, "February 10th. Any questions?" We chat for a while and I slowly walk back to my flat.

 

Roll on into the New Year and I am preparing for the 2024 Australian Rally, aircraft are hired so I can survey the route, and I drive some of it in a (hired) Ford F-150 Ute. Finally I decide on an aircraft for the Rally.

A low-time 1971 Cessna 310Q, for which I paid (I think) under market price.

With the aircraft re-registered, and a quick look at her systems, she was ferried down to Jandakot and hangared.

I believe I can complete the B+H course before the surgeon cuts me up.

Then, back in Amsterdam, the phone goes and, the surgeon has a cancellation...February 10 has just become January 17!!!

I have enough time to tidy up the office, talk to my offspring, quickly go over the will - the odds against dieing "on the table" is 100,000 to one, but it does happen - and I'm off to a nice private hospital to get my undercarriage reset. Along the way I will find that I have Nordic ancestors, but that, as they say, is another story.

 

Which leaves me with a nice 310, parked in a hangar in Perth I can't use until mid-March - 6 weeks minimum before I can drive or fly - and hangar fees pilling up by the day. Hmmmm!

[PhrogPhlyer]

28 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

Then, back in Amsterdam, the phone goes and, the surgeon has a cancellation...February 10 has just become January 17!!!

I have enough time to tidy up the office, talk to my offspring, quickly go over the will - the odds against dieing "on the table" is 100,000 to one, but it does happen - and I'm off to a nice private hospital to get my undercarriage reset.

Thoughts and prayers for a successful overhaul and recovery.

My best friend just had a titanium hip replacement and is back in the left seat pushing a Lear-60 for a charter company.

See you back here and in the air again soon.

 

. 

[jgf]

Good luck Sirrus.  That is a fairly common operation nowdays, hope all goes well. 

[PhrogPhlyer]

44 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

but 15 mins work on the 'Contact Points' got that sorted. 

 

I've tweaked the Contact Points on Cutter's Goose too and that floats a lot better and is more stable now as well. 

Have you considered uploading the changed cfg?

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

EP: “Hello and welcome to a brief Update for the 16th of February, 2024. I am Elias Pacheco, for Claus Ullrich and the Radio Chachapoya team, and first off, I need to make an urgent correction for the Bathurst Fly-In Challenge that I issued two days ago. Now that I’m here, I realize that the time that I had listed for the start of the race was my local time back in Mexico. The actual start of the race is at 05:45 AEDT on Sunday, the 18th. My apologies for this misunderstanding.

 

CU: “Hi, everybody! If you were here yesterday afternoon, or if you decided to check out one of the YouTube channels we mentioned in yesterday’s Update, you would have seen some fabulous driving. The GT3’s, GT4’s, and the rest of the field for the 12-Hour lit up the track in several practice sessions, approaching the two-minute mark for the lap at the front end of the field. Perhaps even better were the support races. I’m a Mustang fan, and the new Australian MARC II in the Duggans Family Hotels Combined Sedans race is not only absolutely gorgeous, it won the first race.

 

“If you like classic cars, the other support race is Group S. The first race was won by Geoff Morgan in a Porsche Carrera, who snatched victory from Terry Lawlor’s Shelby 350 on the last lap. Both started on the fifth row of the grid. It was a standing start, too, which is rare these days. Don’t tell me that a bunch of hobbyists in old equipment can’t put on a good race. If you’d like to see it, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xGmOdQhNzA .”

 

EP: “I totally agree, even though the race wasn’t kind to my MGB’s. It started raining toward the end, which favored the Porsche over the Shelby and also showed that the MG’s still have their original Lucas electrics. Really nice to see them out there running around Mount Panorama, though. So, let’s quickly run down the news:

 

 

“The Leaderboard’s unchanged in terms of positions. Bossspecops had a sweet run to Narrandera, scoring a -1 to give him a perfect CV. JSMR, who’s been rather quiet on the course lately, is planning a multi-leg run to try to eat into his +7. And Sirrus is back, although not flying as he’s recovering from a hip replacement. It’s great to hear from you, mate!

 

“And we’ve got a busy day ahead of us, so we’ll bring this edition of the Daily Update to a close.”

 

CU: “I’m Claus Ullrich, for Piper’s Performance Planes, especially the crew on the ground here who tore the Saratoga down and put her back together in record time…”

 

EP: “And I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, signing off. Have a great flying day, everybody! Catch some of the ground racing action if you can.”

[ScottishMike]

The darkness was Sydney noisy. Stars and constellations above, traffic and lights below. Both reflected in the bay.

“Enjoy your jaunt back to the seventies?”

She had a way of being sincere and mocking at the same time.

I ignored the mocking: “Yes, in lots of different ways.” latching onto the sincere.

I wondered how often people asked questions not wanting replies.

Not in this case: “Solo piloting can be lonely.” she added, looking at me for a reply to what was not a question, but was.

“Not wanting to be alone got me into a whole heap of trouble.”

“How so?”

I explained the whole messy saga and almost getting charged with murder.

“So where is this Giorgio now?”

“I don't know, the police haven't updated me, I guess I'm not considered a victim. Dead in the outback, hiding on an Indonesian island, watching us from behind that bush. Who knows? The police probably don't know. The prof's death was considered accidental, so if the police recovered the 4x4 all the Wombat could be charged with is dumping a hire car; not a major crime.”

We watched as a ferry wake disturbed the dark waters of the bay.

“So you're in Sydney with Bristobell, nice coincidence.”

Bristobell; a major helicopter operator for oil companies operating in the North Sea, ferrying supplies and personnel from my home town of Aberdeen to the rigs.

“Yep, for my sins, with our CFO and Sales Director, looking at companies we can partner with or maybe purchase. Australia is a major opportunity for us. What about you?”

“The timed re-creation is finished, but there is a free flight up to Cairns, I've hired an Aerostar to celebrate getting my twin rating and just have some fun flying up the coast.”

“Solo flying again?” Suzanne's question sounded casual almost off-hand.

“Rather alone than with murderous companions.”

We strolled along the bay.

“When do you pick up the Aerostar?”

“Tomorrow at Bankstown. I have a familiarisation flight with the company's Aerostar pilot. If I don't wreck the plane it is mine till the end of the month. Have you ever flown the PA60?” I asked her.

Suzanne is a much more experienced pilot than me with maintenance qualifications as well. We flew the 66 together and she was my team engineer on the Bendix recreation.

“No, never” she replied.

“If you're not busy why don't you tag along.”
“What, like a spare piece of baggage?”

“No. You know I didn't mean it like that. It would be great to have your company and expertise.”

“In that case I accept. I thought you'd never ask. I can't stay long tonight; I do have reports to finish this evening. But I'll see you tomorrow. Where? And when?”

“Two hangers down from the Flying Doctors. They've promised pilot and plane will be ready for 9am tomorrow morning.”

“See you tomorrow.”

She hailed a taxi and was gone.

Tomorrow was going to be even more fun than I had imagined.

 

[Melo965]

So I made it back to Bathurst (YBTH).  Full throttle all the way!  Landed in 34 minutes instead of the 37 minutes it took to get from YBTH to YSBK.

 

Tower view of my Chippie parked between two other aircraft on the ramp.

 

Closed the canopy back up in the rain.

 

[ScottishMike]

The Golden Monkey at the secret volcano island.

Somewhere off the Solomon islands.

Find it if you can...