Melo965

No it was not the rabbit's fault, all on my piloting skills, or lack thereof.

Yes, a very cool story! I eagerly watch anything I can find about Photo Reconnaissance Spitfires. An older book these days, but "Spitfire in Blue" by Hugh Smallwood is an excellent history of PL965 in particular. Snatch that up if you ever spot it in a used book store.

I do plan to land at every airfield along the route. Hope to see you when I get there.

It looks to be about that wide in my sim too. Most of my flight simulator flights are either in a Cessna 172 or in a Spitfire, so I have had a lot of practice. Thanks! I did land a Cessna 172 on a 25 ft wide runway in Port Orchard Washington in the real world once.

Yes, it is a Mk IX, but I am pretending it is a Mk XI as I love the PR Spitfires the most, and especially PL965. And yes it was an easy landing to walk away from.

Not my best landing regarding the runway centerline. To be honest, I was watching the clock more than the runway ahead at that moment.

Leg 1. Lansing Municipal IL (KIGQ) to Zelmer Memorial IL (5K1) - 170 miles. I am using Active Sky 2016 for weather in FSX Deluxe, using default scenery. My Spitfire PR XI is the excellent Mk IX model from RealAir Simulations - with a repaint to represent PL965 (by Dave Quincey). I added the modification of the fuel quantity to match the 218 gallons of the Mk XI aircraft. Flying with both leading edge wing tanks at 50% capacity for this flight. Also using Little NavMap on a second screen for navigation. It was fun to be back in the air again in Spitfire PR XI PL965. This flight (and Rally) should be much more relaxing than the 40 operational missions back in 1945. No one will be hunting us this time. On the way from KIGQ to 5K1. Flight level close to 4,500 ft. It is great to hear the original wartime Merlin 70 engine growling steadily and smoothly up front. I swerved a bit over Bloomington to see if I could get some overhead pictures with my underbelly cameras, but the speed was too high and the altitude too low to get a very good pictures. PR Spitfires usually take the pictures from over 30,000 ft. And I almost blew it as Abraham Lincoln Capital (KSPI) came into view. I lowered gear and added flaps and then checked my Little NavMap and realized that it was the wrong airport. I am afraid I busted the 250 knot (288 MPH) limit trying to hurry and get to 5K1 on time. As a result, I did not enter the pattern as I should have. Just did a typical fast curved approach onto final as is typical for Spitfires with the big engine in front blocking the forward view. I used 66 gallons of fuel during this flight. Landed safely at Zelmer Memorial IL (5K1) Took off at 9:40 AM ETA 10:26 Actual 10:26 (Beginners Luck!) Variation 0 minutes.

I can see how it looked like a Miles Mohawk at first glance. The tail shape is similar, but I am glad to have the retractable landing gear and the more streamlined canopy. I am also much happier with the 422 MPH top speed instead of the 190 MPH for the Miles Mohawk.

Hope you don't mind a late entry for the flight Rally. Hope I am not stretching the rules too much by flying my favorite aircraft in FSX. Supermarine Spitfire Mk XI PL965. The most advanced Photo Reconnaissance version of the aircraft while still using the Merlin engine. Some later Spitfires of all types used the more powerful Griffon engine. The Spitfire originally flew in 1936, and this particular aircraft was built in mid 1944. Here are a few pictures of PL965 on the ramp at Lansing Municipal IL (KIGQ). Best regards, Melo

Thanks for letting me know. Your pictures looked Great! Of course, I really love the Spitfire!

Looks great! How do you get both Spitfires in the picture? Do you have a program for formation flight? Best regards, Melo

"Send me a list and I will place these files into your account" I found my uploaded files. Do I just reply here, or is there a way to send a private message? Best regards, Melo

I have FSX Deluxe and Acceleration. I was updating my SDK files and accidentally did a repair on the FSX Deluxe Disk. After that FSX would start to load and then quit after a few seconds. I then went to the SDK files and loaded the FSX, FSX SP1, and FSX Acceleration SDKs so that component was up to date the way I wanted it. After that FSX still was not working, and I really did not want to start from scrath and reload everything. So I tried just doing a repair on FSX Acceleration only. That worked like a charm and I am back flying again with all of my scenery and aircraft intact. Hope this helps. Best regards, Melo