JSMR

We’ll, I’m gearing up for the race start. Two tests are enough for me. I think it’s time.

Since it’s a fun event, and we aren’t racing for $25,000 USD (although admittedly that would be a reasonable race win earnings that ViperPilot2 might consider for next time. ), I’m going for it. 
 

A few things to take care of, and then I’m launching.

I like the update table idea of who’s done what and how long.

10 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

 

Chime in, everyone! I'd like to hear your thoughts...

 

I'm ready! No idea how and why I'll fly it how I'll fly it...but since its fun....I'll test as I go and the result will be the result I get. 

3 hours ago, taoftedal said:

Still worried about that Spitfire.  Seems a professional crew and a private bar may be an unfair advantage.  Keep testing Team Scotland ... the more engine time you put on that clock (and wear) the better (at least for the rest of us)!   I've lost track of the P-51D?  Any updates?

The P-51 driver has had car problems, a visit to the doctor for the wife for a checkup, and also had to drop the kids off at school.
 

Which was strange AND a huge waste of time because I don’t even HAVE kids. 
“What…the…hell are you kids doing in my car? Get out ya little snots!”

Anyway, that aside, I’ve been reading with excitement the progress everyone is making while I’m sitting in the doctors waiting room with my Mustang gathering dust. Arrghh. 
 

But I’m pretty satisfied with the 2 tests I’ve done. She hand flies like a dream. My VOR Nav is pretty accurate. The fuel burn is good. The speed is fantastic at my test altitude at Max Cont. power setting. 

High vs low altitude is my biggest conundrum. High altitude, high TAS, longer time to climb. Lower altitude, lower TAS, but less time wasted climbing. But also higher fuel burn. More fuel needed. More weight. Lose a few MPH in speed. 
 

Decisions!
 

Yeah, I want to win.

39 minutes ago, taoftedal said:

Third leg complete.  Wheels up at 9:00am (CDT), Touchdown at 10:11am (CDT).  Total Time 1:11.  Average Speed 399nm/1.183hr = 337kts.  Climbed out at 40 inHg/2,400 rpm (normal climb setting) at 2,500 fpm to a cruise altitude of 17,500.  17,500 gave me a KIAS of 286kts but a GS of 362kts.  (It appears the additional altitude coupled with the shorter distance may have actually cost me a minute or two).

Nice! Some good times. Run it as hard as you can!

Since I found some real charts for mine, I just wanted to see how accurate it was. And compare it the real thing. 

56 minutes ago, ScottishMike said:

We decided to enter the race. Probably the only Scottish entry.

Not an easy decision, so many problems to overcome; would the aircraft be ready?

Would the pilot, John “ash face” Johnson be capable? (His loss of colour relates to a sorry tale of unrequited love, too long and sad to tell here).

Would our chief mechanic, the beautiful “spanner eyes” Suzanne agree to come to the USA and support us in this crazy venture? She had had a bad experience in the past that gave rise to her nickname. An American visitor to Scotland met her at Aberdeen airport were she worked; he was visiting a golf course he claimed to own, the man swore that on looking in her eyes his nuts tightened.

Unfortunately his internal torque wrench was faulty and his nuts stripped.

But enough of the background, Spanner Eyes and Ash Face are both here in Santa Monica and the beast has been rolled out of the hanger for its' first check over:

 

 

 

Haha love it! That’s gold.

What a beast! My heart sinks further knowing I’m up against some tough competition. I might be bringing up the rear.

More time bonding with brandy and cigars! 

On 9/25/2023 at 12:17 PM, taoftedal said:

  Did a little digging and found that 40 inHg/2,400 rpm is pretty close to the max continuous and as such I think I still have an engine. 

 

 

nah....run it wide open and see what she can do.  

7 hours ago, defaid said:

 

Time for a brandy and a cigar. I suppose we could have got there a little earlier but there's always such a temptation to play.

 

 

Stats:

 

Wheels up 1855Z

Touch down 2031Z

Flight time 1 hour 36 minutes

Navigator's estimated time 1 hour 31 minutes

Nice! Hope your Navigator also got to enjoy the brandy and cigar? 

We have some competition here! My P-51 time is looking shaky! Although I did run some pretty conservative settings. 
Another test was done at Military Power (same as max-take off power) which can be held for 15 mins. Then tested at Max Continuous.
The model I'm using is VERY realistic as far as speeds, cimb rates etc. So I was excited by the test run at the race settings I will use. 

I'm getting edgy. The rum has come out to calm some nerves.  

On 9/25/2023 at 12:17 PM, taoftedal said:

Second leg is in the books.  Again, wheels up at 8:00am (MDT), Touchdown at 10:17am (CDT).  Total Time 1:19.  Average Speed 453nm/1.317hr = 344kts.  Did a little digging and found that 40 inHg/2,400 rpm is pretty close to the max continuous and as such I think I still have an engine.  At altitude (15,000) it gave me a KIAS of 292kts and GS of 355kts.  No problem with lack of fuel on this leg.  (Also, revised my climb and descent profiles on this leg that I think helped the averages). 

 

Again, great scenery along the route, until I hit eastern Colorado.  (Here's my attempt at a screen shot before leaving KCEZ).  Next stop ... Iowa.

 

 

 

Hot damn that Sea Fury looks like a beast. The one to beat!

Ok sounds good!

Should be fun. 

Also I had to use VOR nav. Not sure how everyone else did it. I don’t have a GPS in the plane. And the VOR has no DME. 

NOT AN EXCUSE. Lol. 
 

Trying to find the right height is difficult. Time is wasted climbing but the TAS is higher. In the beast I’m flying, in reality looking at the charts, at Max Continuous, the best TAS is at 30,000ft. 

Anyway, fun times. 
 

When do we begin our real race? Do we add the times together for each leg at the end? 
Also will we give the whole route a practise run through so we know where the airports are? Or just go for it when ready?
Maybe a few more might join us? I’m sure some at SOH would gladly join in. 
 

Just completed flight. Didn't note the exact time of dep/arr as I couldn't find the clock. Discovered its smack bang in the middle of the panel right in my field of vision. lol

From sim time I remember setting, dep was around 8:00am. Arr 10:50 (after finding the clock). 
Stopwatch on my phone was 1:51. 

Cruise alt : 25,000

Power settings :

Clb : 46 / 2700 

Crz : 36 / 2400

Departed with 201 gallons. Landed with 83. 
Still have some power in reserve if I want to try and beat the Sea Fury!

1 hour ago, taoftedal said:

15,000 @ max power.  Pretty sure I'd be out the race already waiting for a new engine.  My numbers just seem a little too good to believe. 

haha hey all good. Just a fun event.

Being a race, I’m guessing they weren’t TOO conservative. 

Nice! I hope to do the same maybe today if I can. 

I was working out what power settings to use in my P-51D to be reasonably realistic. The checklist with the download says this :

Take-off 40" Hg 3000 RPM Auto Rich
Climb 35" Hg 2600 RPM Auto Rich
Cruise 26"-28" Hg 2300-2400 RPM Auto Rich
 

That's very conservative though. Probably what somebody would use now to preserve the engine. 

A real manual I downloaded matched the placard inside the cockpit as well. It has this : 

Take-off 61" Hg 3000 RPM Auto Rich
Max Continuous 46" Hg 2700 RPM Auto Rich
Cruise 34" Hg 2400 RPM Auto Rich

Flying at 20,000ft - 25000ft at cruise power setting should yield a TAS of around 320kts or so. Well away from the average speed of the 1946-1948 winner in his P-51 and off the pace of the Sea Fury!
So I'm guessing with some pretty reasonably fresh engines (plenty in surplus too I imagine) used at the time, a Max Continuous power setting was probably used. So....I'll find out what speeds I get with it...in the race. 

Likewise!! 

 

Arrghhh wrong one.

Ok. here she is :

That's all for now.... 

Getting her checked over before the race. 

13 hours ago, ViperPilot2 said:

 

That 'long name' .bgl deal is also spooking me somewhat. I don't have any Payware Airports installed so I'm gonna have to investigate further.

 

 

Dont be put off by it. Even some freeware sceneries have them. I think they're only the ground photo scenery files some designers use around airports. An airport might have a dozen or more of these bgl and agn files.

The point being that if you changed the current texture folder name as a backup to save it, and added in the original texture folder and overwrite those with these 'orbx' textures, any airport that uses them (long name bgls etc) wont load. It will be a ctd. 

So I usually just copy the folders ( texture-copy) as a backup  and then overwrite the main texture folder that is being used . Any issues then I can go back the copied one. 

Not much can go wrong. Just copy these :
1. scenery/world/texture

2. fs2004 texture 

They're the ones mostly likely to be used with updated textures. 

So it will look like this 

FS2004 main folder:

texture-copy < what you've been using

texture < overwrite with any new textures you want to try

scenery/world:

texture-copy < what you've been using

texture < overwrite with any new textures you want to try

Back up all anyway to some other place. 

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

 

"Phototexture" bgl's? Never heard of those. Could you please elaborate further? 

Yeah the airport photo long name bgl thingies. 
000333301122221 < super long names like that. 
Some add-on airports have them. 

Oh no. So sorry to hear that. 

Must be a bad HDD failure then? 

Backup!! Alway backup. 

I rename the scenery / world / texture to something else, drop in the original tecture folder then overwrite with the new textures. 
Also those phototexture bgl thingies if you have any - the long name ones- have to be copied in as well otherwise you'll get a ctd if loading at one of those airports. 

I also rename the main texture folder - or any other folder when trying new files - and do the same. Or copying it then overwriting. You can see what is better or worse etc. 

44 minutes ago, ViperPilot2 said:

I would like to know what this "Global Texture" will do to the Sim in general, aside from the "Download it and find out" sort of answer... Thanks! 

Makes it look great! Textures sharper. Different cloud options. Sky. Grass. Airport textiles etc. 
 

There’s several packages out there. I use a combo of them both. In my several different FS9 versions I use a combination of those, Voz, Aime Leclercq. One or two others. Depends what I want to see and the landclass I guess. 
 

1 hour ago, taoftedal said:

Would the Hawker Sea Fury qualify or is it just a little too late?

If it’s faster then my P-51 , then it’s no good. 

Come on...where is everyone?!!