The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[PhrogPhlyer]

9 hours ago, JSMR said:

Along with some bottles...with big openings.

You might want to add this to your paperwork.

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

My scenery re-install went OK, and I'll resume my flight from y'day later on today.

Glad the re-install worked without a hitch.

 

2 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

we're all out of apple juice

Don't accidentally grab one of JMSR's big-mouth bottles! 

[PhrogPhlyer]

9 hours ago, MAD1 said:

Send me a pic with "MAD1" positioned in flight similarly positioned as the seaplanes in the poster (go high for all blue background) and I'll update the poster. Floats and boats together.

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

EP: “Hello and welcome to a brief Daily Update for the 25th of February, 2024. I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, and we are at the last Sunday of the Gaggle. Including today, there are only five more days left. Let’s look at the Leaderboard:

 

 

“ViperPilot2 ran a couple more legs in The Lady, arriving a minute late on the long run to Rockhampton, then setting a 0 into Mackay. He is now leading the Eastern Route with a CV of 1 and 2 legs left to run. In the Combined, his +1 to Coff’s Harbour after a perfect ‘76 run now leaves him with a +2. The Leaderboard shows him in second place.

 

“The fact that only he and PhrogPhlyer have recorded times past the 17-leg mark – in other words, past Bankstown – begs the question: How many participants intend to set times for the Combined Route, in the same aircraft as they ran the ‘76, or the Eastern Route, in a different plane, in the next five days? The Timing and Scoring staff have been asking this so that they can clean up the Leaderboard. State your intentions, racers.

 

“Melo965 and JSMR have been catching up on their PIREPs from the ‘76, which have made for interesting reading. Speaking of which, the Aussie Correspondent is back, this time with a description of Australia’s east coast that has me checking real estate prices and residency requirements. Cairns does remind me an awful lot of home.

 

“MAD1 did our literary Stig the favor of taking him up in a Cessna Caravan floatplane around Ballina and Cape Byron, ending up in Coolangatta. From the gaggle of gorgeous pictures that he posted to the FBO, it certainly looked like great fun!

 

“The Bosss, our other pilot with a salamander streak, has been having less fun, with issues with the amphibian that he’s planning on flying for the long run to Rockhampton. He now has the problem narrowed down to a lack of apple juice, and should be back in the air shortly. In the meantime, he can enjoy PhrogPhlyer’s 2024 Australian Air Race collage, amphibious edition, which certainly puts the Splash in Splash Screen.

 

“Meanwhile, over on the other side of the continent, Sara and I have set out on the ‘76 one last time. I flew yesterday’s run to Jandakot at a high altitude; today I’m doing some sightseeing at 5,500’. A good deal of that choice has to do with a severe icing zone from FL140 to FL250 that extends just east of Katanning to east of Caiguna. I’m coming up on Norseman now and have just spent a half-hour in clouds and heavy rain. I’ve got a full thermos of coffee, an empty wide-mouthed bottle of juice, and all the leftover munchies from Claus’ and my stay in Sydney, including most of a case of Tim Tams bought in a big-box store – those things are soooo good! Let’s see how far I can make it today.

 

“And this concludes our Daily Update. I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, signing off with a final reminder: Please make your nominations for Spirit of the Race as soon as possible, so that we can vote. We have one nominee so far: Bossspecops. Also, please state your intentions for the Eastern and the Combined. Well, I guess that’s two final reminders. Have a great flying day, everybody!”

[Macroburst]

13 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

She sees several sassy seaplanes at the sunny sea shore...

 

Very nice Phrog.

Do I hear whirly birds assembling for a montage for the trifecta??   

[ScottishMike]

SATURDAY 24^th. February 2024

 

Last day! Last two legs. Doing all pre flight procedures. Mackay is a nice well equipped airport, friendly to general aviation as well as commercial. The hotels and food were good.

 

We have been waiting behind this Baron for a good 5 minutes then it does it's AI trick of just disappearing, maybe it has something to do with the laser pulverizers I had fitted

 

Finally up and away. The weather is not too bad, some cloud and haze and 7 kts. wind.

 

Over the town of Mackay and it's harbour. It looks like a nice place to live. The weather has turned a bit murkier.

 

Hamilton island, part of the Cumberland islands. A part of the coast I may come back to visit in detail, an amphibian would be just the ticket.

 

The coast line is spectacular in the Conway National Park:

 

Expecting to be cleared for rwy 010 in Townsville so heading west to get lined up:

 

If this cloud persists landing may be a bit more challenging than I was expecting. (YBTL) Townsville does have an ILS on rwy 010 and a VOR so that will help.

 

Clouds and hills, not happy bedfellows on an approach but I will use the ILS for the first time on the Aerostar:

 

Despite our worries visibility on final was good and the ILS made it easy, despite the 737 ahead of us:

 

Townsville is another spectacular location between hills, river and sea:

 

And we are smoothly down:

 

Parked up and ready to go to lunch:

 

Powering up for the final leg to Cairns:

 

Holding rwy 010 behind 737:

 

737 is cleared for take off:

 

Our turn and goodbye Townsville:

 

Palm Island, another area worth a return visit.

 

Suzanne and I decide to see if any of the Great Barrier Reef is visible from the air, so after overflying the island we head out to where the Reef should be. We even descend to 1000' to see whatever might be visible. Unfortunately only sea:

 

Returning to the coast. After our detour to not see the reef we are not too far from Cairns:

 

The coast south of Cairns is very picturesque:

 

Cairns airport just visible off to the left. We are expecting rwy 150 and are soon cleared rwy 150 left traffic.

 

Down wind (YBCS) Cairns and not rushing things; doing an easy and large circuit:

 

Turning onto base leg:

 

Then final:

 

Gently down in Cairns:

 

And the end of a great adventure. Must remember to thank everyone that has made it possible.

 

I wonder what sea/amphibian plane we could hire and go back and explore some of that great coastline we scooted past?

 

[Bossspecops]

Having re-installed the Orbx and Ozx scenery, and having saved my Leg 05 flight when the scenery all went to pot, I was little apprehensive about what I would see on the re-start today, but thankfully it worked just fine, so here's my Flight Report as if it had all happened in one go. 

 

I said today's aeroplane would be markedly different from those I'd flown before, and as it's a jet it certainly is! Here's my Albion SpecOps Beriev Be 200 amphibian, bought by Albion when Russia was a place that had a certain level of trust, unlike today. It's certainly unconventional looking, but makes sense for what it has to do. Note the hefty cargo door on the starboard side, and it has three more pax size doors fore and aft too.

 

 

The FS model has a very nice 3D panel, but for some reason it becomes invisible when you do repaints on the model , it's happened twice to me, so it's not an accident. It has a 2D panel too which is Airbus based, and loses nothing from that, it's all very logical and well laid out.

 

 

As the Be 200 is pretty heavy it didn't seem a good idea to leave it parked on the grass o'night so it spent its time on the main ramp at Brisbane Airport, and I had to taxi it to the water's edge. The aircraft has a neat gadget that stops you over-speeding during the taxi, produced by hitting Shift-6, and you can see it here.

 

 

Having reached the water I had to hang about for a bit while a couple of GA aircraft and a 737 took-off directly to port of me, and then ATC cleared me for take-off, so that was 'Gooday Brisbane, see you again soon'.

 

 

There was a large island sitting offshore, Moreton Island, and I took a look at it before heading for Rockhampton, and my waypoint was directly o'head the small airfield on the island.

 

 

It took only 6 minutes to reach my 5000 ft cruise altitude and I was climbing at 250 kts! Quite a bit different to all my previous aircraft on this Eastern Leg. The next section was almost totally over the Pacific for quite some distance and I spotted yet another of those Nimitz Class carriers down below. There must be a 'Carrier Rally' going on in these waters somewhere!

 

 

On making landfall again the scenery was pretty much as before, LARGE rivers with nice looking towns at their mouths, almost all of which had airports too. This one's Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast.

 

 

A little further north I spotted a collection of lakes, ideal for some more 'splash and goes', but which one to chose? I went for the largest one, and it was the furthest away which gave me more time to descend safely. It turned out to be Lake Cootharaba, north of Noosa.

 

 

Accordingly I throttled back, popped the spoilers for a short while to get slow enough to lower some flap and did another 'splash and go', but this time with jet power! 

 

 

Unfortunately no sooner had I started my climb out when the entire block of scenery in front of me went that pale blue colour with the trees and shrubs 'growing' through it! I flew a few more miles but there was no sign of it improving so I saved the flight there and shut down After the re-install and re-start all was OK again, and I carried on.

 

The next place of any import was Maryborough, which had TWO rivers and an airport too! 

 

 

The seemingly endless stream of rivers continued, this one being of considerable size and stretching both sides of my flight path to the sea.

 

 

 

The last town/city before landing was Gladstone, a pretty large place and right on the mouth of another river, needless to say, this time the Calliope River. But immediately north of Gladstone was a VERY weird place on the banks of the inland lake that's Gladstone Harbour. I have no idea what it is, but it's called Fishermans Landing.

 

 

Before long it was time to descend for Rockhampton, but there's no waterway all that close to the airport itself so I planned to drop onto the Fitzroy River there, which has a nice straight section leading up to the three main bridges. You can just see the airport in the distance, and my intended landing zone is marked by the red dashes.

 

 

The Fitzroy is pretty wide and landing wasn't a real problem, but slowing down was! The Be 200 doesn't seem to have any water brakes, so I was using the spoilers, full flap and even  put the gear down early to try and stop before running into the southern-most bridge! 

 

 

They had arranged a nice spot for me to clamber out of the water, and a bit of full throttle helped a bit too, and that was that, my only jet flight on the Rally. 

 

 

You may have noticed that most pics are from the starboard side of the aircraft, and that's because I forgot to reverse the 'Albion' script on the port side of the fin!  I promise I'll get onto that soon, I can't have the good name of Albion being held up to ridicule, can I?

 

Tomorrow it will be back to something a little less modern though, and with props too!

[taoftedal]

3 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

... including most of a case of Tim Tams bought in a big-box store ...

 

Ooh ... I have competition for the coveted Tim Tam award ... rats!  

 

 

[TomPenDragon]

13 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

Ooh ... I have competition for the coveted Tim Tam award ... rats!  

I've just got the original chocolate ones; they were all out of the rats...

[ViperPilot2]

Had to keep the Tim Tams in the esky most of the time or else they'd get all gooey from the hot Temps. They were good with a cup of Coffee after Supper, in the evening by the light of the Campfire.

[Sirrus]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

I can't have the good name of Albion being held up to ridicule, can I?

In that case, you should alter where the aircraft's registration letters are.  They should appear on the top right wing - being readable from the rear - and the bottom left wing - being readable from the front.

Otherwise, you may have the Campaign Against Aviation (CAA) looking for you!

[PhrogPhlyer]

4 hours ago, Macroburst said:

whirly birds assembling for a montage for the trifecta??

Will it never end !?!?! LOL

On it!

[Bossspecops]

40 minutes ago, Sirrus said:

In that case, you should alter where the aircraft's registration letters are.  They should appear on the top right wing - being readable from the rear - and the bottom left wing - being readable from the front.

Otherwise, you may have the Campaign Against Aviation (CAA) looking for you!

 

Oh hell, it was all done in a bit of a rush, working from a very blurred of 'Tagan Rose' taxi-ing down the ramp at Taganrok on delivery.

 

I'll get on it right away, thanks for the reminder. 

[taoftedal]

30 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Will it never end!

 

LOL ... no rest for the wicked PP ... 

[PhrogPhlyer]

4 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

the wicked

Guilty as charged...

[PhrogPhlyer]

5 hours ago, Macroburst said:

whirly birds

It just dawned on me that only two helicopters flew during this event. 

So will have to add more, and I don't want anyone saying... 'But that wasn't in the race!"

[jgf]

2 hours ago, Sirrus said:

In that case, you should alter where the aircraft's registration letters are.  They should appear on the top right wing

 

Unfortunately the texture mapping on some FS aircraft will not allow that;  put registration on the upper right wing and it will be mirrored on the upper left (even encountered this on some payware aircraft).

[jgf]

38 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

'But that wasn't in the race!"

 

Currently working on a truly unlimited event.  Two unique airports some distance apart (though the distance is less than my US caps tour), both on coastlines.   Start from either and fly to the other, use any aircraft you like - prop, jet, commercial, military, GA, water based or land based, even airships (if you have the patience), and any route that works for you.  Only restriction is you must make at least three stops along the way, anywhere you like;  for water based aircraft the stops must be somewhere you would expect to find fuel and lodging.

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Enjoying the natural wonders of Australia's beaches.

[Sirrus]

24 minutes ago, jgf said:

Unfortunately the texture mapping on some FS aircraft will not allow that;  put registration on the upper right wing and it will be mirrored on the upper left (even encountered this on some payware aircraft).

Yes, very  true, the default DC-3 in FSX is a case in point. 

 

I note the US registered aircraft do not have to display their tail numbers/registrations on their wings.

[MAD1]

Thanks PhrogPhlyer re "Send me a pic with "MAD1" positioned in flight similarly positioned as the seaplanes in the poster (go high for all blue background) and I'll update the poster.". I was thinking to ask you if you could sneak me in somewhere, but thought that might be a bit presumptuous. Am working (RW stuff, darn!) so will get the pic to you (my) tonight, maybe about 12 hours away.

[MAD1]

PhrogPhlyer, don't add random heli's, you could ask us, the Gaggle, to choose one and give you a pic. (I can't fly one, but could give it a go, whatever, we could simply get the pic via a static positioning in the air etc. There is one in the FS2002 fleet, so I'd use that.) And yes, poor overworked PhrogPhlyer, your artwork is so popular that it will never end ...

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

 

Unfortunately the texture mapping on some FS aircraft will not allow that;  put registration on the upper right wing and it will be mirrored on the upper left (even encountered this on some payware aircraft).

 

Luckily the Be 200 will work properly and I've fixed it. But getting the port side 'Albion' text correct is a MAJOR job, but I'm on the case. 

[jgf]

5 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

getting the port side 'Albion' text correct is a MAJOR job, but I'm on the case. 

 

All the more satisfying when you're done.

[Melo965]

58 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Enjoying the natural wonders of Australia's beaches.

 

Beautiful!