Melo965

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!

I am at John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK). Next stop is Allegheny County Airport (KAGC). From there it is an easy flight to Meigs Field.

Looks great!

Halifax International (CYHZ) Canada to John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK) USA Pre-flight done, ready to start the engine. The aircraft marshallers helped me turn my Spitfire around before getting started so I would have an easier time taxiing out. In a cold mist and fog! Will wait a bit to open the canopy. Taxi hold to wait for the Cherokee 180 to pass by. The tower tells me that I am the only aircraft taking off after the Cherokee landed, so I may proceed at pilot's discretion. Lined up on runway 15. View is looking back toward the terminal but everything is shrouded in fog. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 15. Using pilot's discretion to get on course as quickly as possible. Saw some lights ahead in the fog and decided to investigate. "Tower, this is Ghostrider requesting a Flyby!" Tower view of my Spitfire. Luckily they can't read my tail number in this pea soup. Full throttle, getting out of Canada as quick as I can. Climbing through 9,300 ft and on course. Grateful to be clear of that fog and mist below. 30 minutes elapsed. Leaving Halifax, although you can't see it below. 1 hour of flight. Flying over the Bay of Fundy with solid overcast below. 1 hour and 20 minutes. Almost feet dry over the USA. 90 minutes of flight. 1 hour and 38 minutes elapsed. Finally able to clearly see some countryside below. 11 minutes shy of 2 hours flying time. 2 hours and 1 minute. Almost directly overhead LaGuardia Airport (KLGA). Staying above 10,000 ft to clear their class B airspace before descent. Down to 1,600 feet near New York City. Couldn't resist a 200 kt 100 foot flyby. Gear and flaps down and approaching John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK). My plan was to swing around and land on the longest runway 31L. At 2,200 feet. Tower just informed me that my downwind leg for 31L was just changed to a base leg for 22R due to a large jet that needs 31L. At this point I am way too high for a smooth approach to the new runway. Note to self, pick a smaller airport for the next leg. Curved approach, on short Final for 22R. Over the numbers. Full stop landing. Not my best landing, but down safe. Parked at John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK). All those big jets must be parked on the other side of the airport. Next stop is Allegheny County Airport (KAGC) near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. My old stomping grounds. Here is where I did my first real world landing (with an Instructor) in a Beechcraft Model 19 Musketeer Sport after 2.5 hours of flight instruction.

Excellent job, Kit! Well Done! Note that the second runway on the left at Bremerton with the X was closed before I moved here in 2019. It is currently used as a drag strip for cars. I have only flown aircraft here, in FSX, MS2020, and the Real World.

In this case, range means one way. So with a range of 1,360 miles, the PR Spitfire could go 680 miles to the photographic target and back again. With a 170 gallon slipper tank the published range is 2,301 miles, or 1,150 miles there and back again.

My longest recent flight was just over 800 miles. I can fairly easily fly the published range of 1,360 miles. Once (in my FS98 version of the PRXI) I managed to fly about 2,000 miles from an island off of Southern California to Hilo Hawaii without refuelling.

Gander International (CYQX) to Halifax International (CYHZ) I purposely waited a few days to do this flight. Gave the Gander snow storm plenty of time to move on. Pre-flight done, ready to start the engine. And the weather looks good! Advancing throttle for takeoff on Runway 13. Climbing out through 3,900 feet. Swung around after takeoff. Now on course and at altitude of 10,500 ft. 26 minutes elapsed. Leaving Newfoundland soon. 30 minutes so far. Approaching Cabot Strait. Cockpit view ahead. More clouds building up. 46 minutes, and half way there. 56 minutes. Almost feet dry over Halifax. 1 hour elapsed time. Steady at 11,000 feet. 5 minutes later. Spoke too soon. Lots of turbulence knocking my Spitfire about. She is normally a very stable camera platform, but not in these conditions. 75 minutes so far. Still lots of turbulence at this altitude. Hope that the worst of the weather is behind me. 1 hour and 20 minutes. At Top of Descent point. I descended to 5,000 ft but stayed above the clouds hoping for a convenient gap in the clouds to duck down through. No such luck so I tried a cautious careful descent. (at the red arrow) Got all the way down to 1,000 feet and still could see NOTHING so I climbed back up to about 3,000 feet for safety. My original plan was to land on runway 06 but the winds had shifted enroute so the current arrival runway is runway 15. At 3,300 feet. On downwind leg for runway 15. In clear conditions you would see runway 06 right off my right wingtip. No such luck today! There is method to my madness flying in this soup. Headed for Shubenacadie Grand Lake ahead so I can let down over water and get on base leg for runway 15. At least there I know what the altitude should be. My Base leg map. On Base leg at 140 feet altitude. Gear and flaps down right after this. 980 feet and on Final?? Still searching for runway 15. 860 feet. Found it! Short final. Very glad that they had the runway lights on. Over the numbers. Down safe! Whew! Parked at Halifax International. I was directed to park at one of the gates for a change. Parked near the big jets here. The weather map for this arrival is the worst I have seen so far. Tower view of my Spitfire. Next stop John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK) in New York. It will be a longer flight, but easy enough with my leading edge wing tanks topped off.

I'm sure they will be pleased with your Fly-By!