The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[Melo965]

RAAF Darwin International (YPDN) to Sutan Sjahrir Air Force Base (WIMG) formerly Tabing Airport.

 

Engine started at RAAF Darwin.  In the rain.

 

Ready for takeoff.  Raining pretty hard.  Lucky to be flying IFR.

 

Leaving Darwin behind.  It was a very enjoyable time in Australia.  Lots of fun flying and very good company too! 

 

Cruise altitude of 50,000 ft.  It took the Canberra 7 minutes to get up here.

 

There is a consistent 200 feet oscillation in pitch up here though.  I tried disengaging autopilot and adjusting elevator trim, but with marginal improvement.

 

Not much to see down below with all the cloud cover.

 

You can faintly see Australia behind us now.

Shortly after this point I made a huge blunder and completely trusted George to fly the aircraft.  Came back to check on the Canberra only to find her way off course and at about 12,000 ft altitude.  While I was away there was a problem with the fuel transfer switch - switching from an empty fuel tank to the next full one, and the left engine quit altogether!  Causing us to swerve off course pretty drastically and lose a bunch of altitude.

 

I very quickly got to work getting both engines running smoothly and made a gradual climb up to 20,000 ft.  Also adjusted my heading and got back on course.  (After TPD's excellent tutorial on extending range, at the beginning of the flight I made the rather rash decision to try to skip WIMG and make it all the way to OOMA in one go.)  My multiple in flight problems put that crazy idea firmly to bed.  I also adjusted the flight plan to more sensibly point toward WIMG.

 

Here is my flight track for this flight.  You can clearly see where the left engine cut out!

 

Recovered and stable again at 20,000 ft and on course for WIMG.

 

Passing Belitung Island just east of Sumatra.  Down to 27% fuel remaining after 3 hours of flight.

 

Veiw from the cockpit.

 

Three and a half hours of flight time so far.  Only 5% fuel remaining.  Because of the previous issues during this flight I was also coming to realize that my fuel state was getting critically low.  Eased back on the throttle to conserve more fuel.

 

1 percent fuel remaining.  Airport is ahead above the red arrow on the coast.  

 

Short final for runway 34.  Going to make it after all! 

 

Brakes definitely not strong enough.  The ONLY reason why I stopped before running out of runway is that the engines both quit from fuel starvation!

 

Calling for a tow over to the terminal.  Sigh . . .

 

Parked in the rain at Sutan Sjahrir Air Force Base (WIMG)

Next stop RAF Masirah (OOMA).  But before that I am going to stop here for a bit and get a mechanic to fix the fuel transfer pump and do a full inspection on those brakes!

 

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

Please expound on your preferred Altitude...

 

Flying general aviation I almost always stay below 12,500 ft, hence no need to worry about oxygen requirements.

 

Flying warbirds, I tend to fly up to about 30,000 ft, although my Spitfire Mk XI has been up above her usual service ceiling of 44,000 ft.

 

Flying Big Iron (which I rarely do) tend to fly between 30,000 (FL300) and 40,000 ft  (FL400).

 

I have also been known on occasion to be up over 70,000 ft in a U-2, SR-71, or something even more exotic!

 

In a very old Chuck Yeager simulator I did manage to get a X-15 up over 314,000 feet routinely!

 

[ViperPilot2]

Thanks Melo and jgf... in my neck of the woods the typical Class B Altitude for GA is 8,500-9,000' MSL and to get over the Rockies I'm usually at 12k, so I thought it might be time to start playing around in the middle Altitudes between 12-20k.

 

I figure a pressurized Single or Twin would be good for future "mini" Challenges where we're flying to a set Destination from our home Airports. Speaking of which... what if we made the 'home' Airport for Club Chachapoya the venerable Meigs Field? Centrally located, a Runway long enough for most of what we fly, and a Beacon of the FS World.

 

Just a thought... 

[Bossspecops]

Yeah Melo, the PR9's brakes REALLY do need looking at. I'll get on the case. 

[Bossspecops]

Meigs Field, eh?

 

Fond memories, and M$ took it away with FSX too, just to match the real world. I used to have an FSX copy as an add-on, I'll have to see if it's still in my archive. 

[ViperPilot2]

2 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

Meigs Field, eh?

 

Fond memories, and M$ took it away with FSX too, just to match the real world. I used to have an FSX copy as an add-on, I'll have to see if it's still in my archive. 

 

An omission to match the RW, but M$ gave you so much more with FSX; I still marvel at the difference in Graphics compared to 9.

[Melo965]

23 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

Yeah Melo, the PR9's brakes REALLY do need looking at. I'll get on the case.

 

Hello Kit, thanks but I just got it sorted out.  Did a quick brake upgrade, then a test flight and landed and stopped before the taxiway turnoff.  All set now. 

 

[TomPenDragon]

Fly with Eli

04 March, 2024.  Anchorage - Red Lake - Lock Haven.

 

This is it!  I woke up with a burr in my saddle, called Claudine (woke her up)  and told her I'd be in Lock Haven by tonight, The Piper team and their Howard had even a faster return than I did, arriving back at William T. Piper Memorial yesterday.  I got ready, gave Sara a thorough preflight, and fired her up.

 

The one bad thing about having the prevailing winds at your back is having all the active runways opposite of where you want to fly.  It makes for a rather pretty tour of Anchorage before dawn, though.  Passing back over Merrill.

 

Moonrise.

 

No, I'm not a Mooney, just like pretty pictures.

 

The sunrise is rather nice, too, but the visors aren't doing Squitts with it so near to the horizon.

 

A little town about to wake up.

 

I forget which waypoint this was.

 

I barely made it through high school.  It wasn't because the material was tough - quite the opposite.  But I started high school in 1968, and was far more interested in what was going on outside the classroom than I was in what was being taught.  My parents nagged me constantly about keeping my grades good enough to get into college - not so that I could get a good job, but so that I could get a draft deferment.  The aircraft maintenance business that my grandfather started and my father and mother expanded was doing great business and kept them busy enough to let me slip out to protest marches and sit-ins, and too tired once they got home to nag very hard.  My brother, four years older than me, was about to graduate Cornell close to the top of his class and had his pick of Masters' programs to keep him out of the military.

 

But I'm not my brother.  I was at least smart enough to know that I stood to inherit the family business, which did a lot of business with the government, so I kept a low profile and avoided getting arrested so that all those lucrative contracts wouldn't go bye-bye.  I got a job at a local newspaper as an office boy and saved every penny I earned.

 

As soon as I got my driver's license, I spent every penny I had earned on a FIAT 850 coupe with only one year on it.  A year later, it was sitting off of the end of the driveway, the entire front end undertray having dissolved into a pool of rust chips.  Once I realized that putting any more money into the car was a fool's errand, I bought a 2-stroke Chrysler station wagon for a hundred bucks.  I honestly and naively believed that it had stopped burning oil when the oil light stopped turning on halfway through a tank of gas.  Driving up the Taconic one evening, it shot a piston through the cylinder head and out the top of the hood.  In addition to needing a new engine and hood, the oil light bulb was burned out.  Besides that, it was cherry.

 

My mom insisted that I use her Ford Country Squire station wagon.  It was the antithesis of cool wheels, but it beat walking or riding a bicycle.  I even picked up a little extra money from time to time by hauling equipment for bands that only had sedans.  I was promoted from office boy to printing press assistant.  After high school, I had planned to take some time before looking at colleges, but when my mom offered me the title of the car in exchange for enrolling in a few courses at SUNY, I took it.  I was working nights on the presses, so it kind of fit my schedule.  And I kept saving.

 

A year later, I traded the mom-mobile and all my cash (once again) in for a brand new MGB. I couldn't hack working all night and staying awake in school during the days, so I dropped out.  This didn't sit very well at home.  The nagging was unceasing and took on a decidedly non-parental tone.  So, I started to drive whenever I wasn't working or sleeping.  A lot of times, I slept in the car until it was time for work.  Weekends, I'd pick north, south, or west and hit the highways until it was time to turn around and head back.

 

It was on the long drives when I discovered a phenomenon I call, "Road Stoned."  After several hours driving, home, work, and pretty much everything else in your existence fades away.  The only thing left is keeping the car on the road and reasonably close to the speed limit.  No past, no future, just mile after mile of now.  I didn't even listen to the radio all that much, preferring to pay attention to the sound of the engine.  Time took on a completely different meaning, measured not by a clock but by a gas gauge.

 

I'm talking about all of this because I have that same feeling now.  I'm "Air Stoned"?  Or would it be just, "High?"  I couldn't tell you when the sun went from in my face to lighting my panel.  But I do know that I should set down at Red Lake; I don't have the fuel to hit Thunder Bay.  So, mixture to stoich, start the timer, throttle back 2.5" MP, bye-bye FL250.

 

Down below the clouds, it's snowing!  I don't often see snow down in Mexico, and I miss it.

 

It does make it a little hard to find CYRL, though.

 

Down safely, thanks in part to a strong and cooperative headwind.  If I was flying the biplane that Claus and I flew in Australia, I could've backed it onto the runway.  Of course, I'd have been really, really cold and would have been asking myself what in the world possessed me to take a WACO up on a snowy day.

 

Lock Haven's 900 miles ahead, so I just fill the mains.

 

Watch out for icing, little Cessna.  Sara's FIKI-rated; I doubt you are.

 

Climbing to FL210, out of the clouds and the snow now.

 

A hundred miles northwest of Sault Sainte Marie as the sun sets.  Lock Haven's now visible on the GPS, which when I realize this hits me like a 6-pack of Red Bull.

 

Just as I'm starting to feel fatigued, the lights of Toronto have a similar effect.  Eli, you watch out for gethomeitis now, you hear?  Sara's a good ship; she'll get there when she gets there.

 

Top of a 1,000 fpm descent.  I called Claus a half hour ago to tell her I was almost there.

 

The town of Lock Haven ahead.

 

Coming around to downwind.

 

Just before flare.

 

Over the years, some folks have told me that I do my best work in front of an audience.  They might be right; I grease her onto the  numbers, right down the centerline, as the airfield is lit by camera flashes.  I leave the flaps down and let her aerobrake until the ASI dips below 40.  Tap the brakes a few times to slow her enough to make the turnoff, then a little bit of throttle to taxi her to the sales office in front of the factory.  The Piper people give me space to shut down, then rush over just after I snap the picture.

 

Just one more picture to take.  When I last left here, the Hobbs read 15 hours.  What's 282.97-15, anyway?  I can't do math in my head right now.  It's a ton of hours.  A ton of memories.  And it still hasn't dawned on me fully that I've just flown around the world, no matter how much the Piper folks scream it at me.

[Melo965]

31 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

And it still hasn't dawned on me fully that I've just flown around the world,

 

AWESOME!  Congratulations! 

 

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

venerable Meigs Field

 

The Meigs Field file here in the library with over 3,000 downloads looks pretty good in FSX.  Only issue is if you ask to start on the active runway, you start on the taxiway beside the runway instead.

 

[TomPenDragon]

3 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

For you blokes flying pressurized Light Singles or Twins... What's your 'favorite' Altitude?

I might not be the best guy to ask, "How high do you like to get?"

 

When flying, though, it really depends on the aircraft.  When I started working on the Saratoga, I had in mind something that would slightly outperform an M350, so she's happy in the low to mid 20's.  My Porsche Mooney, on the other hand, with very similar engine specs, is much happier in the mid teens.

 

That's just for distance flights, though - most of the time, I keep to a prudent height above ground level.  Although in much of Mexico, that ends up being in the teens.

[jgf]

What's wrong with this picture?

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

48 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

And it still hasn't dawned on me fully that I've just flown around the world, no matter how much the Piper folks scream it at me.

Absolutely amazing! Well done, Bravo Zulu.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

Meigs Field

I just hope that the current mayor doesn't decide to do something crazy like, I don't know, have city bulldozers carve big X's into the runway in the middle of the night, because he promised his wife he'd close the airport and make a park named after her. And then say he saved the city court fees and also made the city safer post 9-11by removing an airport near the city center. That would never happen, stranding dozens of corporate jets and other aircraft. Only in the minds of fiction writers... right?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs_Field

 

 

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

27 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

The Meigs Field file here in the library with over 3,000 downloads looks pretty good in FSX.

Which one? There are a few with 3k plus downloads. Thx.

[ViperPilot2]

44 minutes ago, TomPenDragon said:

I might not be the best guy to ask, "How high do you like to get?"

 

When flying, though, it really depends on the aircraft.  When I started working on the Saratoga, I had in mind something that would slightly outperform an M350, so she's happy in the low to mid 20's.  My Porsche Mooney, on the other hand, with very similar engine specs, is much happier in the mid teens.

 

That's just for distance flights, though - most of the time, I keep to a prudent height above ground level.  Although in much of Mexico, that ends up being in the teens.

 

Thanks, Tom!

 

I've got a couple different airplanes that fit the bill, but the Pilot hasn't much experience up in those regimes. Always learning new things.

 

In response to your first question, well... just enough to take the edge off, nothing more.

[TomPenDragon]

39 minutes ago, jgf said:

What's wrong with this picture?

 

I can't get a good sense of the camera angle, but it seems to be a non-standard attitude for re-entry.

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

What's wrong with this picture?

 

 

38 kts? 

[ViperPilot2]

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I just hope that the current mayor doesn't decide to do something crazy like, I don't know, have city bulldozers carve big X's into the runway in the middle of the night, because he promised his wife he'd close the airport and make a park named after her. And then say he saved the city court fees and also made the city safer post 9-11by removing an airport near the city center. That would never happen, stranding dozens of corporate jets and other aircraft. Only in the minds of fiction writers... right?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs_Field

 

 

 

 

 

Well, first off someone would have to create a .bgl for the Runway with the X's, then an Exclude to hide the Existing Runway, right? Remember, I know nothing about Scenery Design... 

 

23 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

 

38 kts? 

 

That, and the beginning of an inverted Departure with increasing Left Roll.

 

I was noticing the 19.9 fps with a Lock @ 20... just like mine, except I have a Lock @ 30. 

[jgf]

1 hour ago, TomPenDragon said:

I can't get a good sense of the camera angle, but it seems to be a non-standard attitude for re-entry.

 

57 minutes ago, Bossspecops said:

38 kts? 

 

29 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

That, and the beginning of an inverted Departure with increasing Left Roll.

 

I was noticing the 19.9 fps with a Lock @ 20... just like mine, except I have a Lock @ 30. 

 

 

LOL, no one noticed a P-39 at over 99000ft.  A couple of seconds later the engine died  and I had to glide down to below 35k ft to get it restarted. (No slew was involved in this odd flight.)  The 20fps lock shows this was on my old Vista system, at least a dozen years ago.

[Melo965]

2 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Which one? There are a few with 3k plus downloads.

 

FSX Scenery-- Meigs Field
June 11, 2013
filename = KMGS_JD.ZIP

 

[Melo965]

43 minutes ago, jgf said:

no one noticed a P-39 at over 99000ft.

 

I did notice as soon as I looked, been busy flying.  Pretty impressive to get that high.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

first off someone would have to create a .bgl for the Runway with the X's, then an Exclude to hide the Existing Runway,

Soooo tempting...

 

[Bossspecops]

A somewhat delayed PIREP on the first leg of my flight home with 'Austral Rose'. It was delayed for some days because of non-working Orbx scenery, and their Tech Support came up with a solution to sort it before I set off, but.........

 

Sitting in the little marina south of Rose Bay with 100% fuel for the 1112 nm flight to Alice Springs.#

 

 

The wind was from the south so I had to water-taxi right across the Bay to the north side as I hadn't much idea how long the take-off run would be with that fuel load, and FSX said I was 177 lbs over max. weight. That's not one human being's worth really, so I just got ton with it. 

 

The take-off did take a while and I had to get her up to almost 80 kts before she lifted off, and the climb rate was rather limited, to say the least!
 

The FST generated SID for the Rose Bay runway wasn't what I'd call 'safe' as it took me THROUGH the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney!

 

 

But soon I was headed north west, and it was goodbye Sydney. I enjoyed my time in an around the city, and it'd be good to get back there before too long.

 

 

My fears about the Orbx scenery proved only too true, as after a while climbing out over the lush trees and vegetation of eastern New South Wales it all went to pot and the western desert areas looked like this!

 

 

Anything less 'desert like' would be difficult to imagine, so I paused and saved the flight and de and re-installed Orbx Aus2 from scratch, which took a while but proved OK. As it turned out I'd paused the flight directly at the 'Three State Point' where Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territories meet. 

 

 

But when I went back to normal flying and viewing it looked a LOT better.

 

 

After 6 hrs or so of pretty boring flying I started the descent into Alice to the east of the airport and turned over the south edge of the town itself, and almost over the famous Heavitree Gap, which is the southern entrance to the town, and which was clearly visible as I turned onto the approach.

 

 

Luckily the wind was almost directly along the main 12 runway, so I had no real difficulty in lining up.

 

 

Before long I was down, not on the numbers, and right of the centre line too, but after that long a flight I wasn't too fussed really. Taxi-ing in and parking near the Tower before reporting to Flight Control was a matter of moments, and then I was ready for a meal and a LONG sleep!

 

 

Next stop Darwin, and then away off to the Orient etc. 

[Melo965]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

The FST generated SID for the Rose Bay runway wasn't what I'd call 'safe' as it took me THROUGH the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney!

 

I used to take off in a Cessna from Meigs field, and if I timed it just right - flew between the two radio towers on top of the Sears tower in Chicago.