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The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO


TomPenDragon

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3 hours ago, JSMR said:

Ok, I'm going for it. To complete the race. This is what I've got left. 🫣 😱😬 🫡

 

YMMB-YSBK navlog.pdf 56.24 kB · 3 downloads

 

"Do Your Worst!"

 

 You got this! 🙂

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"I created the Little Black Book to keep myself from getting killed..." -- Captain Elrey Borge Jeppesen

AMD 1.9GB/8GB RAM/AMD VISION 1GB GPU/500 GB HDD/WIN 7 PRO 64/FS9 CFS CFS2

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I've started off in the trek up the Oz East Coast, and the scenery is amazing! I'm sure there'll LOTS of pics en route!

 

My first aircraft is the (in)famous Cutter's Goose that's been mentioned earlier, a Bill Lyons tour de force if ever there was one! Here she is sitting in the Sydney Harbour floatplane marina, in the pouring rain 😟 with the hatches open, just to show that they CAN open.

 

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The interior is as good as the exterior, maybe even better, it certainly looks old and worn, and despite the fact that FSX tells me a million times that the gauges won't work, they do! 

 

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They are difficult to read however so I updated the 2D panel so it does work, and I used that for proper instrument readings.

 

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Starting the engines was 'interesting', I can only assume those Wasp Juniors a LOT of oil had drained into the lower cylinders! 

 

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With the wind from the south I had to taxi right across Rose Bay and make a U turn while avoiding the shipping. That USN carrier was approaching again and I needed to get off before it crossed my take-off path.

 

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Having got airborne I made a 180 turn to port out over the headland to get on my flightplan to Coff's Harbour and saw a monument on the cliff top, but couldn't find any info about it anywhere. It must be pretty well known for Orbx to include it in their scenery though.

 

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Then I was leaving Sydney to the north, still totally AMAZED at how much water there is around these parts!

 

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The Goose performed pretty well, soon reaching my 5000 ft cruise height, but I was in IMC at that altitude and it was STILL raining!

 

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As part of the idea for the flight was to boggle at the scenery I came down to 2500 ft for the remainder of the trip, but even then ended up in the clouds for short periods. When they were visible the beaches here were incredible, they went for miles and miles and were very wide indeed.

 

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There were numerous towns, mostly located on the mouths of the equally numerous rivers up this coast. I can't remember which one this was, but it looked a great place.

 

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A few times on the Rally I've had a strange scenery glitch, and on this leg I got a number of them. The background vanishes over a particular area, leaving a pale blue section with the vegetation still visible!

 

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And it's not just flat areas either, it seems to follow the contours too. Anyone any ideas what causes it?

 

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Approaching Wallis Island's Forster Airport I took a pic and amazingly caught a lightning flash across the clouds at the same time! It's almost impossible to react fast enough to catch FSX lightning normally, but this time I did by chance. 🙂

 

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After about 1.5 hrs I was nearing Coff's Harbour and getting lined up for landing. I use Active Sky for real world weather, but it won't play unless you have a flightplan from airport to airport, and of course that's not possible with a floatplane, and it gave me THREE different wind directions, ranging from 43 deg to 230 deg, depending on how I asked for it. A ridiculous situation and I'm not happy about it. I decided to go with the 43 deg as that was the nearest to my flightpath, and was just starting to descend when FSX crashed to the desktop! 😬😪

 

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I re-started and got back to where I was approx. but my timing and fuel load were all toast of course. Landing a floatplane is a lot less stressful than doing it on land as I've said before and so I just lined up with the wind, made sure I wasn't going to hit any boats and sat down on the water, lovely job. 🙂

 

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One handy thing with and amphibian is that if you lower the gear while you're in the water you can just taxi right up on the beach. 🙂

 

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And from there through the trees to the edge of the airport. Very handy...........

 

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Tomorrow I'll be in another amphibian, but in the meanwhile I'm off to see what Coff's Harbour has to offer in the food and bed areas.

 

 

 

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Regards

Kit

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5 hours ago, Sirrus said:

Did you remember to shut the door on the last A320?

Maybe??

Always Aviate, then Navigate, then Communicate. And never be low on Fuel, Altitude, Airspeed, or Ideas.

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Laptop, Intel Core i7 CPU 1.80GHz 2.30 GHz, 8GB RAM, 64-bit, NVIDIA GeoForce MX 130, Extra large coffee-black.

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On 2/19/2024 at 4:36 PM, jgf said:

 

I wouldn't be surprised.  In reading about my Beech I found that several owners, frequently needing longer range, would remove the rear seats and mount a fifty gallon tank back there.  This gave the plane about 1600 mile range ... eight to nine flight hours.

Yes,

 

I've seen that done more than once.  I'm not sure I'd be real comfortable flying that way, but it happens.

Being an old chopper guy I usually fly low and slow.
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Got some screens to upload. Forgot to upload my Parafied to Renmark. 

V-3
45min planned 

42min actual. 

A good run.

The big bore single ready for another leg. 

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Finally I remembered to start the timer. 

Bye bye Adelaide. We will miss you. 
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Just kidding. Glad to leave. LOL

We're light. And blasting on out of here. 
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5500ft cruise altitude. 160-165 KTAS cruise is the goal.  

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Sweet looking bird.
Descenet started : I need to keep the speed up. But she's slippery to slow down. 
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Drop the gear early. Slower her down. Careful to reduce power TOO quick to avoid shock cooling the engine. I'm getting good at it. 

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42:26. Lets call it...42. 😛

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2 hours ago, Rupert said:

I've seen that done more than once. 

If one uses the Turtle Pac, you don't have to remove any seats.

I used this on the 206 here for the B&H legs.

https://www.turtlepac.com/photo-gallery/aircraft-ferry-tanks/

 

Always Aviate, then Navigate, then Communicate. And never be low on Fuel, Altitude, Airspeed, or Ideas.

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Laptop, Intel Core i7 CPU 1.80GHz 2.30 GHz, 8GB RAM, 64-bit, NVIDIA GeoForce MX 130, Extra large coffee-black.

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12 minutes ago, JSMR said:

42:26. Lets call it...42

Works for me!

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Always Aviate, then Navigate, then Communicate. And never be low on Fuel, Altitude, Airspeed, or Ideas.

phrog x 2.jpg

Laptop, Intel Core i7 CPU 1.80GHz 2.30 GHz, 8GB RAM, 64-bit, NVIDIA GeoForce MX 130, Extra large coffee-black.

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Wednesday 21st. Feb.

 

We decided to press on today, after enjoying the local beaches and food.

Leaving at 10:00, planning to have lunch at Ballina then on to Coolangata and the Gold Coast.

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The vegetation has turned much richer, a reminder we are heading north into tropical climes.

Cleared for take off:

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Back tracking up to rwy 03, turning and on our way:

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Up to 3000' and the weather is changing, we are cruising at 232 kts, the 128 degree wind at 10 kts is helping. But landing at Ballina will not be easy if the visibility is bad, it has no nav aids.

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Dropping to 2000' hoping visibility will be better. Planning for Rwy 06 at Ballina.

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Weather still low cloud but wind now 209 at 7kts. Switching course for rwy 240.

Ballina is ahead on the GPS but still not visible.

Rwy 240 lights finally visible in the murky conditions, descending to 1000' and reducing speed.

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On final and the visibility is not too bad. The surface wind has veered to 238 at 4 kts so rwy 240 was a good choice.

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Safely down:

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What a delightful small airport! Could happily stay longer than just lunch.

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Power up checklists and make a mental note to return.

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Up and away again.

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Turning onto a north heading

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Only 30+ nm. to Coolangata and the Gold Coast. We are cleared right traffic rwy 140 a pattern that has us dodging between hills. I climbed back up to 3000' pronto (the power of the aerostar is helpful in getting us out of trouble), then amongst the hills AMD flashed up a warning about the graphics driver not being compatible with something or other. I thought FS9 had closed down, but it had just been minimised to the bottom bar. I managed to recover and get back on an even keel.

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Turning onto a ragged base leg. Remind me to swear at someone in Microsoft, I thought I had turned off auto updates, yet Win10 still decided to download and install the latest AMD driver (which I had already tested and rolled back to the previous version because the latest was giving some unwanted effects).

Coolangata is much bigger than I expected:

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After a messy circuit the final is not too bad:

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It would have been nice if ATC had mentioned I was no2 to final. They obviously wanted to keep the Piper Cub 1.4 nm. ahead of me a secret. So I am no2 to the slowest aircraft in FS9 and I am one of the fastest:

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I guess the sensible thing to do would have been to declare a go around, but for reasons best known to the Cub he decided to do a very high approach. I had reduced my approach speed to the slowest I considered safe; just under 100 kts. But am still slipping below but overtaking the Cub. At this point doing a go-around could be dangerous as I would be climbing as the Piper was descending, so carried on with the approach:

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I landed and ATC had an issy fit. Asking me to clear the runway and closing down ATC communication. Not that they had been any help anyway. As is the way with FS9 ATC, the ground controller was still friendly and directed me to my parking space. WELCOME to Coolangata!

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Renmark to Naracoorte. 
Planned 1:03

Actual 1:01 V-1

 

Engines started and read to to leave Renmark. Sad to leave this beautiful, stunning little town. 

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Power down, clock started, and sad to be leaving. If only I could stay longer in Renmark. 

 

Just kidding. Blasting out of this place as possible! Please keep running engine. I don't want to have to return!!
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Cruise altitude. 7500ft. 75% power. Need to make up some time. 

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170 TAS. Pretty good for this height. Halfway . 

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De-sent (sic)time. And gear down to slow her up. 
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Series of pics to show the arrival onto rwy 20 I think it is. Dirt.  A few crop dusters operate here I think. Trying to slow her down. Flaps out. Trying to get her on the ground under 1:03. Screenshot124428.thumb.jpg.c16715fc2c589983e732ad3b2a4e1acc.jpgScreenshot125554.thumb.jpg.e35480a221bf0f3b360e3d438b874d77.jpgScreenshot125866.thumb.jpg.b3b53a541cf701d3495206fd5517dd2e.jpgScreenshot126474.thumb.jpg.3a19555dab3f72310c2ec60f6f284f19.jpgScreenshot129644.thumb.jpg.c6369c1a1d2c5b6499a218b24ebf5817.jpgScreenshot130363.thumb.jpg.0b804faf65ccf2c780981147e90efd20.jpgScreenshot132376.thumb.jpg.8c79e7301b8e12d9de54857819da79b0.jpgScreenshot133217.thumb.jpg.2418efc74ed9dbea229773ed7c4873a5.jpg

 

1:02 and a minute under. Also admiring my ADE handiwork. 😛

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8 hours ago, JSMR said:

I love that Aerostar.

 

Sorry SMike ... I think JSMR and myself have come down with a bad case of Aerostar fever ... (or is it just envy) ... I just had to pull my old Mike Stone model out the hanger and take her up!  👍

 

Aerostar.jpg.7b3da3d421297788c2c6870efda53fac.jpg

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33 minutes ago, JSMR said:

Well, not the place , but purchased both the FSD Aerostar and Piper Navajo and both say it cant be installed. LOL. 

 

Are you running the installers as admin?

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On 2/20/2024 at 5:54 AM, Bossspecops said:

I climbed a bit steeper to clear the ridge and then resumed my 5000 ft cruise altitude.

 

I also had issues with hills on my last two legs into Bankstown.

 

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On 2/20/2024 at 5:54 AM, Bossspecops said:

making the approach a bit more 'Spitfire like', something that Melo and I both know about quite well. 🙂

 

It is always more fun that way!  🙂  When I was first taking lessons in a Cessna 172 in the pattern, a few times I did a 45 degree bank just like in the Spitfire.  My instructor cautioned me and had me shallow the bank angle.

 

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On 2/20/2024 at 9:47 AM, Bossspecops said:

Melo knows just how much I love doing under-bridge passes...........

 

Of course, I have already flown a Spitfire under that bridge a few years ago.  🙂

  

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15 minutes ago, JSMR said:

Yeah I am. Still can’t find fa9. I guess because I I don’t have it in the x86 folder.

Seems most old installers are only coded to search that location unfortunately.

 

If the installers do not make registry entries you might get them to install to a dummy FS9 folder then copy everything over.

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16 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

 

It is always more fun that way!  🙂  When I was first taking lessons in a Cessna 172 in the pattern, a few times I did a 45 degree bank just like in the Spitfire.  My instructor cautioned me and had me shallow the bank angle.

 

 

Sort of like the "Royal Flush" did in Ep. 5 of Masters Of The Air!

"I created the Little Black Book to keep myself from getting killed..." -- Captain Elrey Borge Jeppesen

AMD 1.9GB/8GB RAM/AMD VISION 1GB GPU/500 GB HDD/WIN 7 PRO 64/FS9 CFS CFS2

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