The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[Melo965]

Foss Airport (KFSD) to Ellsworth Air Force Base

 

Pre-flight done, engine started at Foss and ready to taxi.

 

Advancing throttle for take off on runway 33.

 

Climbing out on runway heading.  At 3,400 feet and about to enter the clouds and be in IMC.

 

On course and at altitude, around 12,000 ft.

 

30 minutes flight time.  More than half way there.

 

7 minutes later.  Finally able to see some terrain below.

 

When I was approaching the Top of Descent point and throttled back to descend, realized that there was something really wrong.  Glanced down into the cockpit at the RPM gauge only to discover that it was below 10 on the gauge.  And I was quickly losing altitude.  Pushing back up to full throttle had no effect.  The airspeed kept dropping.  I was still too far away from the Air Base to make it there safely.

 

So I set the aircraft in a positive climb attitude, and stuck my head down into the cockpit to try to remedy the situation.  In despiration I decided to shut off both magnetos and the Master and then try a restart.  Luckily when the Master and both magnetos were on again, the engine came back to life and my airspeed started to increase.  Whew!

 

Here is the record of my altitude during the engine problems.  The upper line is 10,000 feet.  The line I dipped below was 5,000 feet.

 

Climbing out at 5,600 feet after engine restart.

 

Obviously I was too busy to take any pictures during the emergency, but here is a snapshot of the cockpit instruments just after the engine restart.  The oil temperature is high, so the engine is going to need a careful inspection.

 

Airport ahead on the Right.

 

Turning right at Waypoint CURPI to get lined up for runway 31.  Rapid City Regional (KRAP) is ahead on the left.  I don't think I would have made it there either if the Merlin 70 had not restarted successfully.

 

Cockpit view of long approach.

 

Still high for Runway 31.

 

Over the numbers.

 

Landed safely with half of the 13,486 foot runway still in front of me.

 

Tower view of my Spitfire parked at Ellsworth AFB.

Next stop is Centennial (KAPA) in Colorado to meet VP2 for a meal.

 

Despite the engine problems, I am going to take a chance and head to Colorado as the best Spitfire mechanic that I am aware of stateside is in Fort Collins Colorado.  I will call ahead and make arrangements for him to meet me at Centennial.

 

[Bossspecops]

Now that's interesting Melo. I had almost exactly the same problem flying the Sealand on a couple of legs of my homeward flight in the engines started to lose power, and no amount of throttle, prop or mixture tweaking would solve it.

 

I must admit I used the 'tactical nuke' approach to solve it by re-loading the aircraft from the main menu, my FSX Sealand panel doesn't have the full compliment of mag switch gear that you have on PL965.

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

gawpers on the island.

Referred to as "vultures row."

[Bossspecops]

I'm trying to gather all the hours, miles and fuel I used for flying the Oz Rally. and while I have the Rally legs themselves fully logged, and my return ferry flight home I can't find any sign of my outward ferry flight, and I KNOW I reported it here.

 

Does anyone else know where I posted the PIREPs please?

[PhrogPhlyer]

24 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

When I was approaching the Top of Descent point and throttled back to descend, realized that there was something really wrong.  Glanced down into the cockpit at the RPM gauge only to discover that it was below 10 on the gauge.  And I was quickly losing altitude.  Pushing back up to full throttle had no effect.  The airspeed kept dropping.  I was still too far away from the Air Base to make it there safely.

 

So I set the aircraft in a positive climb attitude, and stuck my head down into the cockpit to try to remedy the situation.  In despiration I decided to shut off both magnetos and the Master and then try a restart.  Luckily when the Master and both magnetos were on again, the engine came back to life and my airspeed started to increase.  Whew!

 

Here is the record of my altitude during the engine problems.  The upper line is 10,000 feet.  The line I dipped below was 5,000 feet.

Nicely done.

[Melo965]

Ellsworth Air Force Base (KRCA) to Centennial (KAPA)

 

Pre-flight done, engine started at Ellsworth AFB.

 

Advancing throttle for take off on runway 31.

 

Climbing out on runway heading.  At 6,200 feet and about to enter the clouds and be in IMC.

 

On course and at altitude, around 12,500 ft.

 

20 minutes elapsed time.  In a driving rain.

 

Half way there at 26 minutes.  Scottsbluff Nebraska is below.

 

30 minutes flight time.

 

Pine Bluffs Municipal (82V) is behind me.

 

A tower view from 11,000 feet below.

 

46 minutes in.  Denver International (KDEN) is below.

 

4 minutes later.  Buckley Air Force Base (KBKF) is below.

 

1 minute later.  Destination airport ahead, but I am still at altitude.  Time to get down quickly.

 

2 minutes later.  Down to 7000 ft.  Wind direction dictates a landing on Runway 28.

 

Overshot line up for runway 28 slightly.  Curving back around.

 

Over the numbers.

 

Finally a perfect centerline touchdown.  Go figure that it was on a narrow shorter runway.  55 minutes flight time this leg.

 

Parked at Centennial.  Going to look for VP2 to have that meal together.

 

Maybe a few meals actually, as the Spitfire Master Mechanic has arrived from Fort Collins, and he said the full engine overhaul may take as long as a week.

 

[Melo965]

4 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

Now that's interesting Melo. I had almost exactly the same problem flying the Sealand on a couple of legs of my homeward flight in the engines started to lose power, and no amount of throttle, prop or mixture tweaking would solve it.

 

I must admit I used the 'tactical nuke' approach to solve it by re-loading the aircraft from the main menu, my FSX Sealand panel doesn't have the full compliment of mag switch gear that you have on PL965.

 

This flight was one of the very few where I saved the flight enroute.  When I reloaded the flight later on, the Spitfire engine was not started.  There was quite a lot of exhaust smoke upon restart.  Maybe I overstressed the engine with the in-air restart.  (My PC was also on for a few days in a row so it might have been a resource issue)

[ViperPilot2]

3 hours ago, Melo965 said:

Ellsworth Air Force Base (KRCA) to Centennial (KAPA)

 

Pre-flight done, engine started at Ellsworth AFB.

 

Advancing throttle for take off on runway 31.

 

Climbing out on runway heading.  At 6,200 feet and about to enter the clouds and be in IMC.

 

On course and at altitude, around 12,500 ft.

 

20 minutes elapsed time.  In a driving rain.

 

Half way there at 26 minutes.  Scottsbluff Nebraska is below.

 

30 minutes flight time.

 

Pine Bluffs Municipal (82V) is behind me.

 

A tower view from 11,000 feet below.

 

46 minutes in.  Denver International (KDEN) is below.

 

4 minutes later.  Buckley Air Force Base (KBKF) is below.

 

1 minute later.  Destination airport ahead, but I am still at altitude.  Time to get down quickly.

 

2 minutes later.  Down to 7000 ft.  Wind direction dictates a landing on Runway 28.

 

Overshot line up for runway 28 slightly.  Curving back around.

 

Over the numbers.

 

Finally a perfect centerline touchdown.  Go figure that it was on a narrow shorter runway.  55 minutes flight time this leg.

 

Parked at Centennial.  Going to look for VP2 to have that meal together.

 

Maybe a few meals actually, as the Spitfire Master Mechanic has arrived from Fort Collins, and he said the full engine overhaul may take as long as a week.

 

 

Welcome to Denver! Since you're going to have Techs swarming over your Spit for the next few days that'll work out okay 'cause the Wx is gonna turn tomorrow. Increasing winds and Precip moving in for the next week with afternoon T showers.

 

Fire away if you have any questions!  C U at the Perfect Landing!

[Melo965]

16 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

Does anyone else know where I posted the PIREPs please?

 

I thought they were at the beginning of this thread, but they are not there!

 

[Melo965]

Kit,

 

Here is the thread where they are:

 

The 2024 Australia Rally... 

 

[Bossspecops]

49 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

Kit,

 

Here is the thread where they are:

 

The 2024 Australia Rally... 

 

 

Ah, OK Melo, thanks. I thought that was where we are here, but apparently not.......... 

[ViperPilot2]

To prevent further confusion, perhaps for future Events we should keep things to one single Thread for the entire Event.

[Bossspecops]

It's OK, I'd just forgotten that we had a couple of them for the Oz Rally, and didn't know how to find another one anyway. 

[Bossspecops]

Onwards, ever onwards. 

 

My next leg got me back to Europe, but only just. I flew from Lajes to Gibraltar from which you can SEE Africa on the other side of the Straights. I've done it a few times in the RW too, and it's a sobering occasion knowing that you're the SOUTHERNmost person in Europe!

 

I downloaded some much better scenery for Lajes, which included the USAF-USN buildings at the north end of the field, and with a fuel tanker like that in front of me it could only be a US base!

 

 

The south end of the field was also much improved, and I wish I'd done that upgrade before flying in there.

 

 

But from then on it looked like this pretty much the whole way.

 

 

The Spanish are pretty bloody minded about Gib being part of Britain and do all sorts to make life difficult for us, including generating all many restricted areas to the west of the Straights  leaving a very narrow gap for me to fly through.

 

 

But it gets worse further to the east! But having said that it was very nice seeing both Europe and Africa loom up on my horizon, both at the same time!

 

 

I said it gets worse, didn't I? The 'approved approach' to Gib's 09 runway involves flying south of the Algeciras peninsular, which is part of Spain, making a sharp turn to due north flying up through Algeciras Bay, and then making a very finely judged descending right turn onto the runway. I've done this 3-4 times before in my life, as pax rather than crew, although the first time I was sort of a crew member as I'd pinched a ride aboard an RAF Beverley back in the 50s. It took a LONG time to get there and the sight of that massive rock was very welcome!

 

 

That's the rock arrowed in the pic below, taken as I passed through the Straights and just before the sharp left hand turn.

 

 

And the runway runs across the land just north of the rock, and sticks out into the sea at both ends! The approach is somewhat similar to that involved in landing at the old Hong Kong airport at Kai Tak, but without the 'Chequerboard Mountain' ahead of you!

 

 

It was quite late by the time I arrived and produced a spectacular sunset over the Spanish coast.

 

 

After making the requisite turns etc I was rewarded with this view, and very welcome it was too.

 

 

One even more bizarre thing about Gibraltar is that the main road to the town runs directly ACROSS the runway, and in the RW there's some traffic lights on either side to stop road traffic when there are flight ops taking place. Not so in FSX, the road traffic keeps on coming!

 

 

Dodging the suicidal cars and stuff I taxied off to the RAF hardstanding on the south side of the runway, which is opposite the civilian terminal on the other side. I parked up on exactly the same spot as I did aboard the Beverley way back when. 

 

 

And that was me back in Europe, if only just. That evening I could hear English spoken as it should be again, eat English style food, and I could have drunk English beer if I was a drinking man, but I'm not so I stuck to my usual apple juice.

 

Tomorrow should be the last leg back to the UK, and I'll be both pleased and sad. It's been great flying all around the world, but as Frank Sinatra sang 'It's oh, so nice to go trav'ling, But it's so much nicer, Yes, it's so much nicer to come home.' 

[Bossspecops]

And I FINALLY made it home!  And no apologies for this leg being pic heavy...........

 

Starting off the MilOps side if the Gib runway required taxying all the way back down to the west end before turning for take-off.

 

 

Naturally there was one suicidal car driver who dashed across the road right ahead of me! 

 

 

Sitting there at the 09 threshold makes you realise just how BIG that lump of rock is!

 

 

But I was soon up and away, and it was bye-bye Gib.

 

 

Because of the Spanish air space restrictions I had to fly up the coast quite a way before I could turn in on a more direct path home.

 

 

But as soon as I made that turn off the coast the true nature of mid-Spain became apparent. It's a very rough and bleak looking country, and hardly farmed at all, at least not that I could see any farming from up there.

 

 

Toward the centre of the country, and passing west of Madrid, the capital, I came across this hefty river, and it turned out it was called the Aulencia River.

 

 

Heading on further north and approaching the northern Spanish coast at Santander, I came across this inviting looking lake, called Embalis del Ebro apparently, but I was eager to be home and didn't do a 'splash and go' there.

 

 

And shortly afterward I reached the coast at Santander, a major ferry port for sailings from the UK and Ireland. I went there once en route to see my youngest brother who lives in the South of France, and it's a much shorter drive from Santander than it is from Le Havre or Caen!

 

 

From there it was a straight north flight across the Bay of Biscay, well known for its rough weather, which I luckily missed

on this occasion.

 

 

And the coast of France loomed up after 2 hrs or so of Flying. That's the southern coast of West Brittany there, and very welcome it was too.

 

 

It took a very short time to cross that narrow bit of France and soon it was 'Next Stop England' time as France receded into the distance.

 

 

And before long I was back over my home country! That's Portland Bill down below me, and a very welcome sight it was too.

 

 

Naturally, this being England I'm flying over, after a very short while it started to cloud over and soon I was out of sight of the surface yet again.

 

 

And pretty soon after that I was out of sight of EVERYthing, total IMC conditions!

 

 

Carefully letting down, I cleared the cloud base right over Chew Valley Lake, a reservoir built in the 50s to feed Bristol's water supply and has since become a wild life centre as well.

 

 

Travelling further north west, and just to the west of Bristol itself I crossed the M5 motorway on its massive bridge across the River Avon (That's NOT Shakespeare's Avon, there's 4 of 5 of them in the UK....) before heading out into the Bristol Channel. The FSX bridge is nowhere near as impressive as the real thing sadly. 

 

 

By now I was down to less than 100 ft above sea level and as I turned up-river I came down even lower, to 50 ft or less,  to do my usual 'Bridge Pass Flight' on suitable occasions. 

 

Here I'm just going under the New Severn Bridge, an architectural monstrosity to my mind........

 

 

An then turning a little to the north east toward the older and much better looking Old Severn Bridge.

 

 

This one too was treated to an 'under fly' before I turned onto the approach for Dean Forest Regional. One plus point about doing such bridge passes in an amphibian is that it doesn't matter quite so much if I get a little TOO low. 

 

 

And here it is, my 'home field', and a very welcome sight it was too. My house is just about under the red arrow there.

 

 

Naturally I plonked 'Austral Rose' pretty well right on the numbers, as so I should after all the practice I've had there!

 

 

The Tower View shows just how much the two Bridges dominate the scenery around here.

 

 

Before long I was on the Scanman Airmotive ramp and shutting down at long last.

 

 

And the very first thing we had on our list of stuff to do was get that socking great over-load tank out of the cabin, and maybe we can do some proper air taxi flights again! 

 

 

It's been a long, weary but very rewarding series of flights, a) getting out there, b) meeting all you guys again and competing in the Oz Rally, and then c) getting back home again the long way by completing a total round-the-world flight, the first time I've ever done it in FS., or in any other way, come to that. 

[Macroburst]

Kit,

When you settle down with a mug of hot tea in your favorite chair, exhale, and realize there's no yoke in front of you, what's next???  

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Bossspecops said:

completing a total round-the-world flight

Absolutely have enjoyed sharing the adventure with you.

[Bossspecops]

11 hours ago, Macroburst said:

Kit,

When you settle down with a mug of hot tea in your favorite chair, exhale, and realize there's no yoke in front of you, what's next???  

 

It'd be coffee in my case, I drank my last cup of tea on Sept 3rd 1965, at b'fast at my parent's house the day I got married (the first time.......) 

 

Whatever I fly I want it to be something larger, with more engines, more space, a higher moment of inertia, and a GOOD autopilot. I'm tempted by the Aerosoft Boeing 314, which I have filed away somewhere on my archive drive. A very complex model, but very satisfying when you master its complexities. 

[TomPenDragon]

On 4/18/2024 at 2:32 PM, Bossspecops said:

It's been a long, weary but very rewarding series of flights, a) getting out there, b) meeting all you guys again and competing in the Oz Rally, and then c) getting back home again the long way by completing a total round-the-world flight, the first time I've ever done it in FS., or in any other way, come to that. 

Re: A,B): +1!

Re: C): Congratulations, Kit!  How did it feel, shutting down for the last time after your first circumnavigation? 

[Bossspecops]

8 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

Re: A,B): +1!

Re: C): Congratulations, Kit!  How did it feel, shutting down for the last time after your first circumnavigation? 

 

At first it was a relief at not having to arrange yet ANOTHER flightplan around predicted weather and restriction zones, and then a big ego boost because I'd DONE it! Something I never thought I would do, or even  need to. But having taken the decision to fly out to Oz in the first place, it would have been silly to come back the same way.

 

But thanks to Melo and my/our contacts in the USN I made it.  

 

'Austral Rose' is surely due a D Check now though, maybe an E, F, G, H, I, J & K check too! 

[taoftedal]

On 4/18/2024 at 3:32 PM, Bossspecops said:

back home again the long way by completing a total round-the-world flight

 

Well done Bosss ... I've decided that Sealand is a keeper!  At certain angles that wing is truly a thing of beauty.  Thanks for sharing her with us.