Melo965

I also have the same issue in FSX at some airports.

Yes I do remember that. That was for the Cserve Flight Rally 35 to Reykjavik, Iceland. We both flew copies of PL965 that day. Me from the west and you from the east. My Lancaster refuelling over the Atlantic was much appreciated.

None. Only about 3 Milky Way bars in early November.

Glad you made it back safely!!

No worries, very glad to help! I did read that there is often a headwind down low in that pass so you might need to add a few minutes to your ETA.

I was really unhappy with how awful my final Rally landing was at Santa Monica, so I re-flew the last portion, mainly for my own edification. Here I am near VPMDR just about to turn right to fly toward KSMO and join the right downwind for runway 3. Just going "feet dry" in military parlance on the way to runway 3. A much better approach than the last time! About to touch down near the numbers. Stopped with plenty of runway left. A good landing! My flight path this time. Much happier with it! I also collected some stats for my participation in the Route 66 Air Rally: I flew 7 hours and 19 minutes on all of the legs. Counting all the ground time from engine start to engine shutdown it was 10 hours and 20 minutes. I will have to work on taxiing faster for future events. The Spitfire tends to overheat if it is on the ground too long before takeoff. My flight plan total distance was 1,648 miles. I hand flew every minute and wandered around a bit at times so my total flight time (including ground taxi) was 2,012 miles. I used 547.7 gallons of fuel during the Rally. So my previous guess that I could fly the whole route in one go would not have worked. I would have had to refuel at least twice.

Way too low altitude for that. And I had no ammunition on board.

The year after Kit hosted me in the UK for the Spitfire Tour, he extended a business trip over here and came to visit me in LA. I think the highlight of his trip was getting on to Edwards Air Force Base. I worked at the Los Angeles AFB at the time and had just enough connections to get us both on to Edwards to the flight museum about a mile inside the gate. Ages ago on Compuserve we flew a monthly Rally to Catalina island. When Kit came here to visit, we rented a Cessna 172 and an Instructor out of Whiteman airport (KWHP). We flew to Catalina and back each one of us flying left seat half the time. We flew directly over LAX both ways without talking to ATC at all! Los Angeles Special Flight Rules Area. (SFRA) This route is flown on the SMO 132-degree radial and crosses LAX at 3,500 feet when proceeding southeast and 4,500 feet when flying northeast. An ATC clearance is not required to fly this route - but all airplanes flying this route must switch their transponders to 1201 when they are within the LAX Class Bravo airspace. Pilots must provide their own traffic avoidance by maintaining the correct altitude and by making position announcements on 128.55. A typical announcement might sound like this: "Los Angeles special flight rules area traffic, Cessna 37UK, over LAX at 4,500 feet." This is one of the five low altitude VFR transition routes across the western part of the L.A. Basin.

I checked on Amazon and you can buy a 3.5 inch usb diskette reader. I have a 3.5 inch one around here somewhere. I was surprised to see that you can even still buy a 5.25 inch version.

Best of luck with the route! The San Gorgonio Pass is a good option. You will have to route to the south of 29 palms instead of to the north like I did. Here is a rough flight plan: KEED - TNP - CIKUS - VPLBP - KSMO. Just gotta help that other British aircraft get there safely!

My RW record so far is Zero "Call the Tower" messages. One thing I learned during my pilot training was that you as the pilot always have the option of saying "UNABLE" as an answer to ATC under circumstances where you are weighing the safety of the situation. But in the simulator they have me on every watch list imaginable!

I can't take credit for the repaint, but it sure looks beautiful, I agree! Not sure what your first comment is referring to?

TomPenDragon edged me out with his superb flying skills. He gets the Gold at V7, and I am in Silver metal position with V8 (Sorry taoftedal)

My flight simulation hobby is important so I save stuff related to it. I did almost loose that data in a backup hard drive crash a few years ago, but was able to recover it.

Leg 10. Needles CA (KEED) to Hector VOR to Santa Monica Municipal CA (KSMO) 200 miles. Estimated time = 55 minutes. This last leg was the most challenging for a few reasons. One natural and one man made. Same setup as before, using FSX Acceleration, Active Sky 2016 for weather, and Little NavMap for navigation. Flying with leading edge wing tanks at 50% and fuselage tanks full for this leg. My SkyVector check does not look too bad. My flight routing is through the Hector VOR to avoid the restricted areas over the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, also known as 29 Palms. This is the largest United States Marine Corps base. The weather for this last leg might be challenging. It looks a little better once I get into the Los Angeles basin though. I will be glad to NOT be looking at one of these weather maps for a while after this. My trusty Merlin is up and running, ready to taxi out. Holding short waiting for ATC permission to cross runway 2. Holding short at runway 11. Taking off to the South East. Adding throttle to take off on the last leg of the Route 66 Air Rally. Climbing out through 5,400 ft. Flying just above 8,000 ft altitude. Half way to Hector VOR. Down slightly under 8,000 ft to stay below the clouds. Overhead Hector VOR at about 9,000 ft. Made the left turn to 232 degrees. On course for Santa Monica. Glad those mountains are not right in front of me. This is the busiest airspace of the Route 66 Air Rally. Speaking of aircraft, there is a 737-800 straight ahead. That is Victorville on the right in the distance. Passing over Spring Valley lake, Mojave Narrows Regional Park, and Victorville. Weather ahead is starting to look worse. Flying at about 8,000 ft. Weather is definitely worse and the terrain ahead is climbing. Here we go again. This is one disadvantage of completing the Rally on the last day of the month. The flight needed to be today whether the weather cooperated or not. I initiated a climb through the murk because I knew there were some solid objects ahead at my current altitude. Climbing through 8,300 ft. Climbing through 8,800 ft. Climbing through 10,300 ft. Climbing through 11,000 ft. Finally levelling off at 12,500 ft. Still at 12,500 ft. Those mountains over there could have been a nasty surprise if I had not got on top of the cloud layer. Finally seeing the Los Angeles basin ahead from almost 15,000 ft altitude. Really glad to leave those mountains behind me. Back down under 10,000 ft and headed for the coast. There is downtown Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium. LAX is ahead on the left and Santa Monica is on the right. One more view of the mountains that surround the Los Angeles basin. Headed for Santa Monica. Note the Hollywood sign in front of my nose. And that is Burbank Airport over the hills in the next valley. Burbank Airport was my flight simulator home airport for almost 30 years when I lived in Glendale CA. Destination in sight straight ahead! At this point is when the second big challenge of the flight manifested. The wind direction indicated that I needed to land on runway 3 which was the end of the runway closest to the ocean. And the traffic pattern for runway 3 is a right hand traffic pattern as the next picture shows. My dilemma at this point was that I was lined up correctly for a Right hand traffic pattern for runway 21, not runway 3! Still blissfully unaware of my mistake, made an excellent camera run over the airport. It was right about here (red arrow) that I realized my mistake and knew that my perfect approach was about to go way out of whack! I did manage to put the Spitfire down safely as you can see from my flight path. But it barely qualified as a landing in anyone's estimation. As a result of my inattention to detail after almost 1,650 miles of travel, missed the V0 on this leg by one minute. Landed 1 minute early so V1 for my final leg. My leg 10 route with other air traffic displayed. My leg 10 route without other air traffic. Used 60 gallons of fuel this leg. Parked at Santa Monica Municipal CA (KSMO). Time from engine start to engine shutdown = 1 hour 34 minutes. Mission Accomplished! Leg 10. Needles CA (KEED) to Hector VOR to Santa Monica Municipal CA (KSMO) 200 miles. Estimated time = 55 minutes. Actual time = 54 minutes. V1 (Wheels up to Wheels down.) After I landed - got a call from the control tower wondering what the heck I was doing on final approach. Told them that I got a call on Unicom from some world renowned pilots down on the beach who asked me do do some aerobatics in the Spitfire for them. The control tower replied: "If you do that again without authorization from us, your landing priveleges here will be revoked!" I apologized and hung up the phone. Happy that I would not need to paint over the tail number of my Spitfire. Drinking a toast to you all! Thanks for the very fun and at times challenging Route 66 Air Rally!

Here is the "almost" complete list of the Compuserve Rally flights: Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL) London Heathrow International Airport (EGLL) San Francisco International Airport (KSFO) Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport (KCGX) Closed 2003 San José Mineta International Airport (KSJC) Westchester County, White Plains NY (KHPN) Orlando International Airport (KMCO) Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (PHNL) also known as Honolulu International Airport Kai Tak Airport (VHHH) Closed 1998 Faa'a International Airport (Tahiti International Airport) (NTAA) Melbourne Australia - Melbourne Intl. Airport (YMML) Santa Maria Airport - Azores (LPAZ) Berlin Tempelhof Airport (EDDI) Ensenada, Mexico - Ensenada Intl (MMES) Grand Bahama International Airport (freeport Int'l) (MYGF) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Rio de Janeiro Intl. Galeao (SBGL) MAUI Kahului Airport (PHOG) Mores Island, The Bahamas (MYAO) Salt Lake City, Utah - Salt Lake City Intl (KSLC) Anchorage, Alaska - Anchorage Intl. (PANC) Monterrey, Mexico - General Mariano Escobedo Intl. (MMMY) New Haven, Connecticut - Tweed-New Haven (KHVN) Tokyo, Japan - New Tokyo Intl. Narita (RJAA) Jackass Aeropark, Amargosa Valley, Nevada (U75) Lake Placid, New York (KLKP) Catalina CA (KAVX) Innsbruck Austria (LOWI) Rome, Italy Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (LIRF) Timbukto (GATB) San Diego Intl-Lindbergh (KSAN) Cairo Intl (HECA) Reykjavik (BIRK) Toronto/Pearson Intl (CYYZ) Bangor Intl (KBGR) Johannesburg Intl (FAJS) Reno/Tahoe Intl (KRNO) Christmas Island (YPXM) Edinburgh International Airport, Scotland, UK (EGPH) Detroit Metro Wayne Co (KDTW) Lic Benito Juarez International Airport (MMMX) Mexico City Kimpo International airport, Seoul, Korea (RKSS) Key West Intl., Key West, Florida, USA (KEYW) Moscow-Sheremetyevo International Airport, Russia (UUEE) Johnston Atoll Airport (PJON) Johnston Island, Oceania Atoll Pituffik - Thule Air Base (BGTL) Geneva International Airport (LSGG) New York - John F Kennedy International Airport, New York USA (KJFK) I looked through my notes and some people flew from their home airport, others flew from last month's Rally location. But it did not really matter - fly from wherever you want.

Great takeoff! Best STOL aircraft in the Rally by FAR! Great landing as usual. I am really lucky we were not scoring landings for this Rally, yours are much better than mine!

On Compuserve it definitely was a Fly-In format.

The way it was on the Compuserve forum was one destination, and a specific arrive by time on a particular day. No constraints about how much time before the day the pilots could use to get there on time. It was fun to see how each person decided to get to the destination. But, if people want to fly more than one destination, I see no issue with that.

Hop length depended on what you were flying. One guy always flew a 747, and I almost always flew a Photo Reconnaissance Mk XI Spitfire with 218 gallons fuel so decent range. Just landed at any airport along the way with fuel and continued on. My first Compuserve Rally was to Atlanta in a Spitfire Mk V with regular fuel tanks. Flew from Burbank to Phoenix to Little Rock to Atlanta refuelling at each stop. There was not a restriction that you had to use the same aircraft for all hops so fuel was not usually an issue. For example on my Burbank CA to Moscow USSR trip I flew a Spitfire from Burbank to Edwards AFB then hopped in a SR-71 and flew to the UK, then flew a F-117A to Norway, and then a Mosquito on to Russia. Some were over water flights. For those I would fly USA to Canada to Gander to Iceland for example. The basic rule was fly to the destination sometime in the month before the due date using whatever aircraft you wanted, then tell your story in the online chat on the destination day at the appointed time. Now we would just tell our individual story as we go in a thread. It was just a different destination somewhere in the world each month. Some people (rarely) would meet up and fly together, and some would fly on their own. I always flew from my home airport, but some of the guys flew from wherever they were parked at the time and told their story accordingly. I can dig up a list of most of the destinations we used if you are interested by tomorrow.

Good deal! Look forward to the report.

Ages ago on the Compuserve Flight Simulation forum, Kit and I participated in about 50 monthly Rallies with just that idea. Fly whatever you want from your home field (In my case it was Burbank CA) to arrive at the specified destination by the appointed time. My shortest Rally flight was to Catalina island. (Flew a Spitfire) And if I remember correctly my longest flight was to Moscow in Russia. (Flew a Spitfire, then a SR-71, then a F117A, then a DeHavilland Mosquito) Something like this could be fun.

Leg 9. Flagstaff Pulliam AZ (KFLG) to Needles CA (KEED) 147 miles. Estimated time = 40 minutes. Same setup as before, using FSX Acceleration, Active Sky 2016 for weather, and Little NavMap for navigation. Flying with leading edge wing tanks at 50% and fuselage tanks full for this leg. Flew between the mountains and the clouds but there was room enough to get through this time. My SkyVector check shows that there is one mountain range about three fourths of the way there, but otherwise should be good. The weather on the other hand looks interesting. Might be a challenge on this flight. That charter aircraft is still parked over there. Maybe they decided not to fly west after all. All pre-flight checks are done, and the Merlin is started and sounding smooth. Ready to go. Headed over to Runway 21 for a take off to the South West. Holding short at 21 for ATC clearance to take the runway. Adding power to take off into that cloudy sky ahead. Leaving Flagstaff Pulliam behind and climbing out. Canopy closed and locked, all squared away for the flight ahead. The view ahead. Cruising at 10,500 ft. Hope I can stay at this altitude. Maintaining altitude so far. Beautiful scenery off to my left. And the weather ahead looks pretty good. Maybe I spoke too soon. Gradually descending to stay under the cloud layer. Flying at 9,500 ft now. Down to 9,100 ft now. Still enough room, but the terrain ahead looks pretty high. Able to climb back up to 9,300 ft so far. Aiming for that open spot straight ahead, fingers crossed. Finally through the worst of it. Clearer skies ahead! Some more canyons on the left. Flying at about 9,300 ft altitude. Flying at just under 9,000 ft altitude. Just have this one last ridge line to cross to be in the clear. Really glad to leave those mountains behind me. There was one more ridge line after all. But the weather is better now so no factor. Cruising at 9,500 ft altitude. Flying at 7,500 feet now and finally in the clear. That is the Chrysler Motor Company Automotive Proving Ground Airstrip on the right. (It is permanently closed now) Really glad to leave all those mountains behind me finally. Cruising at 6,500 ft now. Getting close to the destination. Flying over the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. That is the town of Needles off to the right. Destination in sight straight ahead! And my timer is predicting a good arrival time. Overflying the airport and setting up for a right hand traffic pattern to land on runway 11. The landing end of runway 11 is on the right just under my wing in this picture. Diagram of my approach and landing path. Crossed over close to mid field and then did a left teardrop entry to the right downwind for runway 11. Did not snap a picture on downwind or base leg as I was too focused on flying the pattern carefully as the timer looked hopeful. Snapped this picture seconds before touchdown. I did have one small bounce but landed safely on the runway. And right on time so a V0 Safely down and stopped before the taxiway. Another leg sucessfully completed, only one more to go. My leg 9 route. Used 40.8 gallons of fuel this leg. Parked and shut down at Needles CA (KEED). Time from engine start to engine shutdown = 62 minutes. Only one more flight to get to the final destination. Leg 9. Flagstaff Pulliam AZ (KFLG) to Needles CA (KEED) 147 miles. Estimated time = 40 minutes. Actual time = 40 minutes. V0 (Wheels up to Wheels down.) As I was approaching Needles and saw the runway layout, I assumed that the traffic pattern for runway 11 was a right hand traffic pattern so as to not interfere with runway 02-20. While doing the write up I discovered that all four runway headings use a left hand traffic pattern. There is no control tower here, so after the landing got on the CTAF/UNICOM frequency at 123.0 and apologized to the locals. They said no worries as long as I let them have a closer look at my Spitfire, so it all worked out Ok in the end. And I want to give a special shout out to PhrogPhlyer for using his crystal ball and predicting ahead of time that I would get a V0 for this leg. My wing and your prayer made it happen!

About 20 years ago now, I visited Kit in the UK and we did a Spitfire Tour. We were very fortunate to see 5 Spitfires fly, and 4 of them did Airshows right overhead.

The beautiful background scenery also helped PL965 shine.