Melo965

Where do you want me to put it down?

Meigs Field (KCGX) to Wittman Regional (KOSH) More popularly known as just Oshkosh. Walking out to my Spitfire after the very enjoyable FlyIn here at Meigs Field. Lots of great company, and maybe a drink or two too many last night. Hence my late start today. The ramp is pretty empty so I must be the last one to leave after the party! Pre-flight done, engine started and ready to taxi. There is one other aircraft here after all. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 18. Wind direction dictated a takeoff to the south. Climbing out on runway heading southbound. Swung back around to the North. One last view of Meigs Field behind me. Stayed out over Lake Michigan on purpose so I caould get a nice view of the Chicago skyline on the way past. 15 minutes of flight time. Already more than half way to Oshkosh. 20 minutes. At Top of Descent point. Descending through 6,500 feet. That is Fond Du Lac County Airport (KFLD) under my right wingtip. Cockpit view of Airport in sight ahead. Lined up for Runway 36. Over the numbers. Landed safely. 28 minutes flight time total. Quite a crowd here to cheer my safe arrival. Parked in the Warbird section at Oshkosh. Next to a huge neighbor. My next flight is to Foss Airport (KFSD) in South Dakota. Only 1,479 NM left to go to get home to Bremerton.

Thanks a lot. Looks like a good place to do some training.

I will definitely give that a try.

Great, thanks. After I make it home to Bremerton, will give helicopters a try in FSX.

It really was. That was the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced in FS. My Spitfire was literally being tossed about, climbing and dropping 3,000 feet or more in seconds. Lets go to the Victory Tap over on the South Loop. Good Italian food, and I sure could use a drink after that flight! Tomorrow, or the next day - Next leg is to Oshkosh!

Great explanation! So how does it work in the sim if I have a normal joystick (with throttle) and rudder pedals? Are you controlling the cyclic and collective with one device? For one of these upcoming events I want to fly a helicopter.

Allegheny County Airport (KAGC) to Meigs Field (KCGX) Pre-flight done, engine started and ready to taxi. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 13. Climbing out through 1,900 feet and headed for Chicago. On course and at altitude. Around 12,000 ft now. 15 minutes of flight. Being tossed about by nearby storms. 30 minutes elapsed. Still very turbulent. 4 minutes later. That lightning flash was way too close! 2 minutes later. Calmed down to just a driving rain. 1 hour of flight. Much better than half an hour ago, thank goodness! 7 minutes later. At Top of Descent. At 3,700 feet. Johnsons Strawberry Farm (9IN3) is below, and Hobart-Sky Ranch (3HO) is behind it. Can see Lake Michigan off my right wingtip. Gary/Chicago International (KGYY) is ahead. 1 hour and 14 minutes so far. Finally able to see Chicago in the distance. Airport in sight ahead. Long curving Spitfire final for runway 36. Over the numbers in a left to right crosswind. Landed after 1 hour and 18 minutes flying time. Parked at Meigs Field. I think I am the last one to finally land, but good to see some friends are still here.

Excellent! Thanks a lot!

I do have strong reservations about getting this serious with any "bad" behavior. To some degree the forum admins should step in before things ever got to this point. We are here to have fun and share our flying experiences.

I always run in windowed mode. Full screen leads to more problems and crashes, at least for me.

That is the way I did it. Skimmed the manual, then dove in and referred back to the manual when I was stuck on something.

I would suggest Airport Design Editor (ADE). It can be found here: https://www.scruffyducksoftware.com/airport-design-editor I was home from my job for about 5 weeks during the pandemic and learned how to use it then. I have built 4 airfields since then, the best one being Kit's EGDF. The manual for ADE is 390 pages long though. I learned how to use it bit by bit and it was not very difficult to use in the long run.

John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK) to Allegheny County Airport (KAGC) Pre-flight done, ready to start the engine. No aircraft nearby, just some baggage vehicles. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 22R. Climbing out and headed for Pennsylvania. I grew up near Pittsburgh. On course and at altitude. Around 12,000 ft now. 30 minutes elapsed. Nothing to see below but the solid overcast. 45 minutes of flight. Finally seeing some terrain below. Currently due south of Bellefonte Airport (N96) which was part of the first transcontinental Air Mail route from New York to San Francisco in 1920. 50 minutes so far. That is Raystown Lake below. You can barely see Altoona-Blair County Airport (KAOO) At Top of Descent at 53 minutes elapsed time. Throttle to idle and descending. Descending through 5,500 ft. Cockpit view of runway 28 ahead at Allegheny County. Final for runway 28. There is a small crosswind component now, but wanted to land on 28 again. This is the same runway I landed on with an instructor back in 1980. Over the numbers. Landed safely. 334 miles per hour average for this leg of the journey. Parked at Allegheny County next to some cool helicopters. Here is where I first took flight lessons after college in 1980. Had one of my most memorable flights here as well. Our flight instructor and three students were on a three leg cross country flight out of Allegheny County. Each student flew one leg of the triangle. I flew the last leg back to Allegheny County in the right seat. The instructor had done both landings at the first two airports, but on the approach to KAGC I still had the controls. He was telling me what to do and I flew the plane all the way to touchdown and even greased the landing. With 2.5 hours of flight instruction under my belt. After we landed I asked him why he did not take the controls. He said I was following his directions very well so he let me do the landing on my own! Here is the Beechcraft Model 19 Musketeer Sport that I landed. I think the depicted paint scheme was applied later after 1980 though. Next stop is Meigs Field (KCGX) in Chicago. I will post that flight report in the "[ Club Chachapoya ] Meigs Or Bust" thread.

A very classy aircraft.

You aren't going to fly all the way around the world to attend like Kit and I are in the progress of doing.

I forgot to answer this in my above responses. I think we don't really need a home base airport for this group. It is kind of cool that participants are from all over the world. It would be hard to pick one location that everyone was happy with considering how spread out around the globe people are so far.

Here is my stab at the answer. 2 white 2 red is (usually) a 3 degree glide slope. That is generally recommended. But the PAPI (precision approach path indicator) is just an aid to help you determine how your flight path compares to the optimal glide slope as you approach the runway. When I was landing Cessnas I would check the PAPI and sometimes make some height adjustments further out, but the closer I got to the actual runway the less I looked at the PAPI. Once I was sure to make the runway my focus was on the runway and the round out and flare process and not the PAPI at all. Commercial pilots might stay perfectly on the glide slope all the way to touchdown, but in my Cessna that was rarely the case.

Very well done! My Spitfre burns roughly 50 to 60 gallons/hour.

Now that is a beautiful picture!

Very Impressive. I looked up the takeoff and landing distances for a 737-100 and neither one was as low as 3,900 ft.

Here are my responses: How can the Club best serve you? As a (sim) pilot? I am enjoying seeing the different aircraft and helicopters, etc. in use. Quite a good variety of machines in use. Fun to watch other peoples methods and learn to be more realistic in my flying from them. I am very much a seat of the pants flyer usually, so it would be good to learn more about SIDS, STARS etc. for example. Learning more correct routings and procedures would be a plus. I am already using Real Weather much more than I used to, so that is good progress so far. As a creator (writer)? It is cool to see the various creative stories that others produce. My style is pretty simple and will probably remain that way, mostly telling my flight stories with pictures. As a person? I am really enjoying the interaction with old and new friends. And club members from all over the world makes it more fun and interesting. Also learning new skills, did my first ever aircraft repaint for the Australia Challenge. Events: Majors: General parameters (length, scoring, reporting, participation by routemakers)? Both the Route 66 and the Australia event were enjoyable. But the Australia event was a quite larger time commitment. In future shorter or simpler events would be preferrred. The more exacting scoring for the route 66 event was a fun challenge, but I much preferred the Australia event scoring system. That, or something similar would be my preference. The reporting by participants for both events was very good. Enjoyed reading the creative and informative posts. For future events I would prefer if the route makers also participated as fliers. The main purpose here is to fly, and it would be a shame if someone was too busy with other related duties to fly. Still fine if someone wants to fly near the route and not exactly on it (the free flight category). How many per year? 3 Majors per year would be good for me. More than 4 Majors per year would be too much! Timing? Whatever works best for the majority is fine. I will try to participate. When I can't, I will let you know. Minors: General parameters? This Meigs Mini worked out fine for me (assuming I can get there by tomorrow) because I was already fairly close. Fine to plan more "mini's", but other activities in my life will sometimes prevent my participation. Frequency? One or two Mini's between each Major at the most in my opinion. Branding and Publicity: [Club Chachapoya] as visual tag in all Club thread titles. This works. And a seperate thread for each event also works well. How can we increase our popularity and membership roll? We already are the largest group posting on single threads here on the site. Hopefully we will naturally attract more participants over time. Beyond Kit and Alan, the FS guys I am still in touch with are few. How can we leverage our strengths to get flightsim.com to make accommodations for us? Not sure, I had a simple request for the Admins once and it took a while to get the result I requested. Club Bylaws, Duties, and Staff: A basic rules/conflict resolution/disciplinary process set? The more small and simple the rules are, the better. Hoping that conflict resolution (if any) could be handled individually by the primary people concerned privately. We are here to have fun together! What needs to be done? Discuss as we are now and reach a consensus. Who's going to do it throughout 2024 (primaries and alternates)? PP, VP2, and Tom have done very well so far, I applaud all of their efforts. I don't have the bandwidth to take a major role at least for now.

Great job. Weather does look a bit dicey though at times.

Very impressive! Great choice of flying machine!

Great pictures and an excellent write up!