Melo965

Go JSMR! Best of luck! I just finished PT this morning, and lunch just now, time for another leg this afternoon.

I used to work as a contractor at an Air Force Base. One day the Commander was tasked with walking around and ordering all objectionable nose art to be removed. People got rid of the really racy ones, but were able to keep most of the nose art photos around.

To answer the questions from yesterday. I rarely use ATC in the sim. Flying to have fun and don't need that extra layer of complexity. I do always try to land on the correct runway based on wind direction. And lately in most cases I also look up the traffic pattern for the destination airport and follow published procedures for left or right traffic pattern, and correct pattern enrty. I rarely fly IFR anyway. Mostly fly Warbirds (translate: Spitfire, with few exceptions) or General Aviation aircraft, and almost always stick to VFR. I have flown jointly online only a few times. Like Kit, I prefer IVAO, but was much less competent using it than Kit was at the time. When we get it working right it was great fun though. We both flew Lockheed Constellations in formation once over Switzerland in honor of one of our friends who already had his last earthly landing in Switzerland. Regarding the sim versions, I flew FS98, FS9 and later FSX, but never tried P3D. I bought the FSX Steam version once when it was deeply discounted, but have never installed it. (stick with the stand alone FSX is my recommendation) Now I fly mostly FSX Acceleration and sometimes MSFS2020. My MSFS2020 works very well and I don't mind the download times. It is great for flying VFR and seeing realistic scenery. I was lucky that my 11 year old PC finally got replaced in the fall of 2019, so my rig has the specs to fly MSFS 2020 fairly well.

Awesome picture, thanks a bunch!

Caiguna(YCAG) to Forrest(YFRT) Engine started at Caiguna and ready to taxi. The wind is blowing right down the runway so I have to taxi to the other end before takeoff. For this leg I plan on a cruise speed of 115 kts at 4,000 ft. Skyvector predicts 1 hour and 31 minutes for the 161 mile flight. My Active Sky flightplan predicts 1 hour and 37 minutes. There are some headwinds again, but I decided to go with the Skyvector estimate. Predicted arrival = 1 hour and 31 minutes. Ready for takeoff. Climbing out on course, leaving Caiguna. One fourth of the way there. Leaving the ocean behind on the southern horizon. Some greenery below. But not much else of interest. Almost half way there, Still not much to see below. Three fourths of the way there. Is that desert on the northern horizon? An external view. Airport barely in view ahead. (Look above the red line) Three minutes to go on the timer. My plan was to land during the 1:31 minute exactly, but by the time the davtron ticked over to 1:31 there was not enough runway still ahead of me below to set down safely. So I did a quick right hand pattern and came back around for a proper safe landing on runway 09. To be honest, my downwind to base to final turns were more of a fighter break than a normal squared off traffic pattern. On final approach to runway 09. Touchdown. It was great to be landing on a paved runway this time. Came to a full stop on the center line. Landed two minutes later than estimate. Taxied over near the large hangar and shut down the engine. Forrest airport has a large aircraft parking hangar, and Avgas and Jet A1 fuel, but the Airport Manager asks that pilots call ahead if they need a lot of fuel to be available to refuel their aircraft. I was welcomed at the Terminal by the Airport Manager. He commented that there have been quite a few unusual aircraft types landing here recently. They all seem to be headed East when they takeoff. Nowhere else to go around here. So I rented one of the six available cottages for an overnight stay. Ended up staying two nights after all. The Airport Manager left me a treat on the counter while I was waiting for the cottage to be ready. Forrest airport was built by the Department of Civil Aviation in 1929 as a fuel stop for West Australian Airways which had won a government contract to carry mail between Adelaide and Perth using the de Havilland Hercules. It remains in use today as an important stopping place for refuelling short range planes, for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Australian Defence Force. The ADF is the Navy, Army, and Air Force, currently comprising about 89,000 personnel.

Here you go. Thanks!

Glad to hear you are making progress on the joystick repair. My joystick of choice is the Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS. Vey accurate and stable, also ambidextrous. I am left handed and prefer to fly that way. Although I did fly the Spitfire with the right hand as the throttle is on the left.

Still working on my Forrest flight report, but lunch was Great! Here is what I found. And the lunch was delicious too. And PP, not to leave you out, also found this book there by a local author. A great find.

I will post my flight report for Forrest (YFRT) later today. Taking a day off from flying the Rally to take my wife out to lunch at the Spruce Goose Cafe. (0S9) We enjoy the food there, and often get to see interesting aircraft as well.

Best of luck getting it sorted out. I have a spare back-up joystick here, but hopefully you can have a new one in place before mine got shipped over there. I ordered a new joystick in March 2020, right when MSFS 2020 came out, and during the pandemic to boot. It took 9 months to arrive on my doorstep!

Yes, that was an EPIC flight! Don't let them damage your rotors when they stuff the Helo into that beast!

THe juxtaposition of the aircraft in the tree and the "Learn to Fly Here" sign, priceless!

Norseman (YNSM) to Caiguna(YCAG) Engine started at Norseman and ready to taxi. For this leg I plan on a cruise speed of 115 kts at 4,000 ft. Skyvector predicts 1 hour and 43 minutes for the 190 mile flight. My Active Sky flightplan predicts 1 hour and 52 minutes. Seeing that there were some headwinds again, I predicted an arrival time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. For Active Sky I had to learn how to add the airport of Caiguna to the database before I could generate the flight plan. I also added an approach point SW of Caiguna to make for an easier approach to land on runway 04. Also completed my first aircraft repaint for this Rally. Really enjoying learning new stuff with this talented Gaggle. Ready to advance throttle and takeoff. Climbing out on course, leaving Norseman. One fourth of the way there. Some lakes in this region. Half way there, not much to see below. Arriving in about 15 minutes. Finally seeing some cultivated areas below. An external view. Flying over more cultivated areas. Spotted a small farm below. On final approach to runway 04. That derelict aircraft below is a cautionary reminder. I flew a more deliberate approach this time, landing on the first try. Much better than my performance at Norseman on the last leg. No wonder Charlie hopped out as quick as he could there. Touchdown. Landed two minutes later than estimate. No worries, happy to have a good approach and landing. Parked at Caiguna. Quite an assortment of aircraft also parked here. Thanks a lot PP for building the Caiguna airstrip for us. I was kind of dreading landing at the third dirt strip in a row, but was very pleasantly surprised at how easy the approach and landing was here. Great visibility compared to the underlying terrain! Made the short walk to the Roadhouse for a meal and a relaxing evening. And no, we are not in the middle of nowhere. Quite the contrary as it turns out! If you take a walk about (or walkabout) 1 hour and 15 minutes west on the Eyre Highway you will get to the Caiguna Blowhole. This is one of the breathing vents of the Nullarbor caves. The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi).

Kitanning (YKNG) to Norseman (YNSM) Just a note that up until now I have been flying all of my flights solo. I have set the weight of the back seat person to zero, but unlike in some other aircraft, the person is still displayed when viewed in external view. It was a short and pleasant walk from the Yellow Gum Bed & Breakfast over to the Cafe on Cornwall. I was there promply at 8:00 AM as Charlie and I had agreed the night before. I waited for a while but Charlie did not show up. We had not exchanged phone numbers so there was no way to reach him. Eventually I ordered a delicious breakfast. Not sure what it is called, but it tasted great! At 8:56 AM, just as I was finishing my meal, Charlie showed up at the Cafe. I mentioned that it was almost 9 AM and wondered why he was so late. Charlie got a panicked look on his face and said "What! It can't be almost 9. The Cessna Caravan is scheduled to leave at 9:05 AM." Charlie mentioned that he is not from around here, and it is confusing in Australia. Australia has multiple time zones. Some of them are half-hour and quarter-hour time zones. Not all states and territories use Daylight Saving Time (DST). We checked our watches and realized that Charlie's was set to 7:58 instead of the correct local time of 8:58 AM. We quickly left money for my breakfast and headed out the door to Charlie's car. He drove quite fast to the airport, but as we were getting close we saw the Cessna Caravan overhead climbing out. When we arrived at the airport, sure enough, a different aircraft was parked there. Charlie said that he was one of a group of music lovers who were headed to Melbourne for the St Kilda Music Festival on February 17th and 18th. There were over 375,000 people there last year, and they were hoping to set a new attendance record this year. Charlie mentioned that the next stop of the chartered flight was at Norseman. So, of course, I spoke up and offered to fly him to Norseman. If we were lucky we could get there in time to drop him off for the next leg of the Cessna Caravan journey. So after a quick weight and balance calculation, and my normal thorough pre-flight of the Chippie we were ready to go. Luckily I had a spare helmet on hand just in case there was a passenger. Engine started at Kitanning and ready to taxi. For this leg I plan on a cruise speed of 115 kts at 4,000 ft. Skyvector predicts 2 hours and 5 minutes for the 226 mile flight. My Active Sky flightplan predicts 2 hours and 23 minutes. Seeing that there were headwinds again, I predicted an arrival after 2 hours and 15 minutes. Performed a fast climb out, leaving Kitanning behind. Lots of lakes around here. Close to 1 hour so far, even more water below. Another half hour gone by, having animated conversations with Charlie. This is the smallest aircraft he has ever flown in. He is really enjoying the flight so far. Unusual sparse trees down below. Airport barely in sight ahead. I realize now that I am a bit ahead of schedule for my predicted landing time, but Charlie has been urging me on during the whole flight. He is happy to see the airport ahead. An external view. I was origionally lined up for a landing on runway 04, but had trouble spotting the runway as it really blended into the background terrain. So I turned further right and flew south and east to line up for the longer runway 1 instead. As I was very close and still too high, did a right hand circuit and came around again to land on runway 01. Right Crosswind for 01 over Norseman. Also realized that a left pattern over the water would have been better. Had to climb a bit in the pattern because of some small hills. On final approach for runway 01. Landed at 2 hours and 12 minutes. Three minutes earlier than predicted. Parked at Norseman. Charlie said "Thanks!" and waved Good Bye as he scrambled out of the aircraft. Even though I missed my scheduled time by a bit, did my good deed for the day. Charlie managed to board before the Cessna Caravan started engines to taxi out on the way to Melbourne. Back on my own again. The walk in to town this time is 2.8 km or just under 2 miles. I had a nice stroll into town. Got a room at the Norseman Hotel for the night. More adventures await tomorrow.

Jandakot (YPJT) to Kitanning (YKNG) Engine started at Jandakot. Officially starting the Race! I plan on a cruise speed of 110 kts at 4,000 ft. Skyvector predicts 1 hour and 17 minutes for the 133.2 mile flight. My Active Sky flightplan predicts 1 hour and 27 minutes for the flight. Since the weather report shows some direct headwinds, decided to split the difference and predict 1 hour and 22 minutes flight time. The Adventure begins! Ready for takeoff. Leaving the airport and Perth behind. Headed inland away from that beautiful blue ocean. Rivers and forests below. One quarter of the way there. Clear skies with more forests below. Cool shot of the moon on the horizon. Two thirds of the way there. Some clouds ahead, but hopefully not at my altitude. Clouds looking more ominous now. Nice camera view. Does not look so bad from this angle. I was flying along on autopilot at altitude and decreased the throttle a smidge, and the Chippie decided it wanted to stall out. See the red arrow where the stall started. Maybe the steady headwind suddenly dropped a lot or there was a problem with the fuel flow to the engine. I disengaged the autopilot, increased the throttle, and got control again. Flying by hand the rest of the way. I will see if there is a mechanic at Kitanning who can give my engine and fuel lines a once over. Over the town of Kitanning. This is when Skyvector predicted I should land. Landed a bit long. One minute early. Cool to see the moon again. Parked at Kitanning. Found a mechanic who will give the Chipmunk a once over. He said the aircraft should be ready by tomorrow morning. It is 10 km or about 6 miles to town. A bit far for a stroll. One of the Cessna Caravan passengers kindly offered me a lift into town. Stopped at the Liberty Roadhouse at the Cafe on Cornwall for a delicious dinner. I treated my driver to dinner as a thank you for the ride. We agreed to meet here in the morning at 8 AM for breakfast then the drive back to the airport. Then it was a short walk across town to the Yellow Gum Bed and Breakfast to stay the night. I had a cool drink out on the patio to celebrate a successful first leg of the race. In hindsight, I was really glad to have added the waypoint KNGEH to the flight plan. It helped immensely as I was approaching YKNG. The airport and dirt runway really blended into the FSX background terrain. Without KNGEH, I might have missed the airport entirely!

No worries, slow and steady but I knew I would make it.

With the slow speed of my Chipmunk, I might have never got here without the Cargomaster assist. Definitely picking something faster for the next event.

Keeping you both in our prayers!

Hopefully just in for questioning, NOT arrested!

RAAF Base Pearce (YPEA) to Jandakot (YPJT) Glanced at the weather, but it is only a 28 mile flight, what could possibly go wrong? Ready to start engine at RAAF Pearce. Won't use autopilot at all for this short hop. On course and leaving the Base behind. Looks pretty hazy ahead, maybe I should have checked the weather more carefully! Approaching Perth International (YPPH) at 1,900 ft. Got overfly permission, but only above 3,500 ft. Above Perth International at 3,700 ft. The black arrow is pointing toward the main runways that can just barely be seen below. Started descending early. Finally broke out of the overcast at 1400 ft. Runway in sight on the right. On final for Runway 24R. Touched down after 14 minutes in the air. Parked at Jandakot (YPJT) Here is how the weather looked just after I landed. I was originally going to fly the first Rally leg today, but considering the local weather, will hope for better conditions tomorrow. My flight to get here was from Bremerton, Washington (KPWT) to Williams Lake Canada (CYWL) in the Chipmunk. Then I got a ferry flight from the USAF in a C-133B Cargomaster from CYWL to Midway Island (PMDY) to Darwin International (YPDN). From there I hopped back in my aircraft and flew down the western side of Australia in either the DHC1-B-2 or the DHC-1B Chippie. Total distance flown = 8,521 miles. C-133B Cargomaster ferry distance flown = 6,697 miles. Chipmunk distance flown = 1,824 miles. Here is my flight path in the Chippie in Australia. 1,541 miles. Glad to be here finally. Just going to do a little math, send a PM to Tom, and get going as soon as the weather clears.

Mount Magnet (YMOG) to RAAF Base Pearce (YPEA) Here is the weather for this leg of the journey. Ready to start the engine on the first clear day in Australia. On course and leaving Mount Magnet behind. Spotted a Cherokee 180 in flight behind me. 1 hour into the flight, still a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight. Getting close to the destination, some interesting hills below. Perfectly lined up with the ILS for Runway 18L at Pearce. Can't yet spot the airport ahead in the haze. Airport in sight finally. Staying high on final approach until I clear those trees. Easy Peasy landing. Parked and engine shut down at RAAF Base Pearce. (YPEA) On the way to find the No. 2 Flight Training Squadron and show them my Chipmunk. The 2FTS guys and gals really appreciated my Chippie paint scheme. They are hoping that the RAAF will order the aircraft. No. 2 Flying Training School (No. 2 FTS) is the main flying training school of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Formed under its present name in 1969, it is located at RAAF Base Pearce, Western Australia. No. 2 FTS traces its origins to the post-war re-establishment of the Air Force's original cadet training unit, No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS), at RAAF Point Cook near Melbourne. Pearce is the busiest RAAF base in Australia, with the highest air traffic including civil flights at the Joint User bases. Although its primary role is pilot training, it remains the only permanent RAAF base on the west coast, and thus has a significant logistics role. The base also serves as an anti-hijacking training aid for Special Air Service Regiment counter-terrorism squadron, also known as Tactical Assault Group (West). It is used to practise airliner entry and hostage rescue drills. The base is home to a mockup of a Boeing 747 used for this counter-terrorism training. Next flight is a really short hop of 27 miles to Jandakot Airport (YPJT). About to start the race finally!

Good luck getting it working. On the last Rally Active Sky would not connect a few times. After a full reboot of the computer it connected Ok again.

Meekatharra (YMEK) to Mount Magnet (YMOG) Here is the weather for this leg of the journey. Ready to start engine on this cloudy day. On course and leaving Meekatharra behind. Flying over some huge lakes less than 15 minutes into the flight. More lakes and clouds. Really glad to be under that cloud deck. Mount Magnet airport in sight. On final approach. Landed safely. Parked at Mount Magnet. Next flight is a longer leg to RAAF Base Pearce. (YPEA) When I get there, will advise the RAAF to only order this DHC-1B version, at least until the bubble canopy Chippie fuel issues can be properly remedied.

Ready to start engine in the rain at Newman. Flying the Chipmunk DHC-1B. Here is the weather for this leg of the journey. On course and leaving Newman behind. One hour into the flight. With the bubble canopy version I had to manually transfer fuel from the right wing tank to the left wing tank periodically. I was thrilled to see that this Chipmunk version, the DHC-1B does not have that problem. When I checked the fuel tanks to move fuel, discovered that fuel is being used equally from both wing tanks automatically. My In-Flight workload is getting much easier! I know my way around an aircraft.cfg file pretty well, but was unable to fix the fuel tank issue in the Bubble Canopy DHC1-B-2. Airport in sight ahead. Town of Meekatharra in front of my nose on the left. Meekatharra was a gold rush town originally. Now there are less than 800 people living there. On final approach. Touchdown close to the numbers. Parked in the rain. Next stop Mount Magnet (YMOG) I wonder if my compass will still work there.