Melo965

My USAF pals did a great job ferrying my Chipmunk to Australia from Midway Island. Dawn takeoff from Midway with the Chipmunk on board. Yes, we did clear those trees, the notch of flaps helped. Used 7% of our fuel getting to a cruise altitude of 30,000 ft. Australia in sight. 13% fuel remaining. Used much leaner engine settings on this ferry flight compared to the flight to Midway. Sun is setting! Good thing we took off from Midway at dawn. Autopilot off. Runway at Darwin in sight ahead. About to touch down. Much better landing than the one at Midway. Plenty of runway in front of us when we stopped rolling and turned for the taxiway. That Pacifica Airlines plane is not used to seeing a military transport parked next to it. My Air Force friends unloaded the Chipmunk for me. Going to rest until tomorrow after flying 4,471 miles. Was very happy with the engine settings. Had 9% fuel left on landing instead of the 1% at Midway. Took more time though, 15 hours and 17 minutes. Still 1,763 miles to go to get to the start of the race. My plan is to fly this route in the Chippie: YPDN - YPKU - YCIN - YPPD - YPLM - YGEL - YPEA - YPJT. It will give me a chance to do some timing and calibration flights. It is also very important for me to stop in at RAAF Base Pearce (YPEA) before arriving at YPJT for the race.

I am using Little NavMap for navigation. Unfortunately it does not link autopilot to the flight plan like Kit's FSTramp. But what I do first is configure the fuel and payload for the flight. Pretty important because my current ferry flight was 3,884 miles. Then I take off, sometimes with a notch of flaps, and climb to a reasonable cruise altitude on the right heading. Then I engage autopilot with altitude hold, and if it is fairly stable in cruise just check about every hour or so to make sure the aircaft is maintaining the proper heading. Yesterday through Today's ferry flight was 3,884 miles. I started the flight about 4:30 PM local time and checked it periodically through the evening. At bedtime did the calculation and it was due to land at about 3:30 AM, so paused the flight until morning. As it turned out I was up for a few minutes at 3:30 AM and the aircraft was stable on course, so I unpaused and went back to sleep, relying on George to fly the plane. When I got up around 7 AM the aircraft was still on course just fine. Eventual landing in Australia at 12:15 PM my local time. Total flight time was 15 hours and 17 minutes.

I use Little Navmap for navigation and Active Sky 2016 for Weather. (in FSX) Also occasionally check SkyVector as well because high elevation spots show up more easily than in Little Navmap.

TPD - For your Spotters Guide: Here is the original aircraft picture: Hope to have an updated and repainted picture completed before race day. Sim Version: Microsoft Flight Simulator X Acceleration Entrant: Melo965 Team name: Warbird Pilots Association Preferred entry number: 439 Sponsor: RAAF Pilot: Melo Crew: None Passengers: None Aircraft year: 1956 Manufacturer: de Havilland Canada Model no: DHC1-B-2 Model name: Chipmunk Aircraft type: 2 seat Trainer Original Tail No: RCAF 18035 Original Civil Registration: C-FPOW Repainted Tail No: A85-439 Repainted Civil Registration: VH-FTS Mods: Replaced both wing fuel tanks with larger fuel tanks. Repaint to authentic RAAF livery in progress. Timing: Timed Route: Combined Now on the way from Midway to Darwin in the C-133B Cargomaster.

My progress toward Pert is going well. Took off from CYWL in the C-133B Cargomaster with the Chippie inside. Flew to Midway Island in the Pacific. 2828 miles in 8 hours and 12 minutes. Started with 14478 gallons of fuel and landed with 216 gallons left. (about 1% of fuel capacity, don't tell on me) Used a nifty Autopilot for most of the flight. Cruising at 34,000 ft most of the way. About the second time I have used Autopilot in FS. On the approach to Midway we were lined up perfectly but for the shorter runway. (3% fuel) So went around to land on the longer 12,000 ft runway. My normal Spitfire type approach did not work so well! (2% fuel) Finally landed fine on the runway and got stopped Ok. (1% fuel) Taking a day off to rest - A 3869 mile flight to Darwin scheduled for tomorrow.

Waiting for the Chippie to be loaded on board. Out over the trees. No worries, Easy Peasy!

I guess I am spoiled flying the fast Spitfire most of the time. The Chipmunk is really slow. It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to fly the 283 miles from Bremerton (KPWT) to Williams Lake (CYWL) in Canada for the first leg of the journey to Perth. Still 10,086 miles to go! So plan B to get to Perth is in progress. I called in a favor from my US Air Force pals. They flew out a C-133B Cargomaster and loaded the Chipmunk inside with wings removed. They are going to fly me to Darwin. During the transit, me and my team will repaint the Chipmunk in more authentic RAAF colors for the Rally. They assured me that they can make it over the trees on takeoff down that 7000 ft runway with such a light load!

Those airplanes all look Great! But the main thing is Hope all goes well with the surgery and that you have a quick and full recovery!!

Not a bit. I just finished plotting the flight plan and it is only 10,369 miles.

I am also crazy! After a discussion with Kit, I have also decided to try to fly to Perth from my home airport of Bremerton Washington (KPWT) in the DHC1-B-2 Chipmunk. Just finished retrofitting larger fuel tanks in both wings. Tried to add a center tank instead, but the aircraft would not see it. Also hope to have the aircraft repainted in more authentic RAAF colors. Going to try the Alaska to Russia route to get there. Hope to see you all on time by the 15th.

None from me. Getting my Chipmunk sorted out. Will send in the official entry form a bit later when I get the repaint done to a more authentic livery for flight in Australia.

Looking good. That looks like a pretty steep climb out!

Yes it would! But for this Rally I am leaning more toward the Chipmunk. Nowhere near a Spitfire in terms of performance! Chipmunk Performance: Maximum speed: 138 mph (222 km/h) at sea level Cruise speed: 103 mph (166 km/h) Range: 259 mi (417 km) Service ceiling: 15,800 ft (4,800 m) Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s) And I may have to rethink my strategy considering the range figure above. YNSM to YFRT is 349 miles if there is no fuel available at YCAG. Maybe I will have to follow one of the larger aircraft like yours who has enough spare cargo room to leave me a few cans of petrol at YCAG.

Looks Great! If you need an escort on the eastern coast of Australia, I have just the ticket.

Mellow Melo, that's me.

I would be happy to accept the Gold medal right now!

Looking Great!

I was doing a trivia contest with my brother and sister a while back, and I scored highest in the geography catagory, after having flown almost everywhere in flight simulator. Looks great so far!

I even painted it yellow to be easier to spot. Promise not to sneak up on you in the base to final turn.

I will hope to stay dry during this Rally. Does look like a lot of pretty scenery up the east coast though.

I have checked out all the airfields in MSFS 2020, and they are all present and correct to match the flight plan. Early on in the route, there are two very basic airfields. YNSM has fuel and pavement but is otherwise pretty sparse. YCAG is even more bare, with no pavement. And no fuel available either if you are trying to fly the route as realistically as possible.

Excellent presentation! Thanks! Really looking forward to participating. Just hope I can have the aircraft repainted properly in time.

We are getting our new furnace and heat pump installed today. Hence no aircraft under the tree.

Great picture! Merry Christmas to All!

Here is what Berlin Tempelhof (EDDI) looks like in MSFS 2020 so far. Must still be a work in progress.