Rupert

Thanks to everyone who has responded with such caring sentiments!!! I didn't mean to say anything but explain why I'm not flying much. Molly has an excellent prognosis and we're lucking forward to her 80th birthday party next month. Michael

Nope, but thanks for thinking of me! Sadly RW things like my wife's unexpected illness has made me only an occasional observer of the event! I loved every one of these rallies that I was a part of, and it sounds like it's going great for you who are still flying, but that ain't me this time. I'm lucky when I find the time to peruse these pages, enjoy everyone's flights, and occasionally fly a leg in the Baron. But there's certainly nothing, other than cheering, that I can add to this event. Maybe next time.

Flying locally we did that every day. And that's exactly what we did with clear channel stations at night. But traveling across country during day time VFR rules, say from Baltimore to Santa Ana Ca. we didn't have nearly that much info about local daytime stations. We probably learned as much from the town names on water towers as any other nav-aid we used.

Long ago, back in the sixties and before that, it wasn't uncommon to fly long distances without usable navaids at low altitudes in various countries, including the US, during daytime hours. There were several "dead" areas for most common navaids which were transmitted on very high frequencies for straight line accuracy. So if you weren't flying high enough, your receiver/s wouldn't pick them up because their radio waves traveled in a very straight line and the earth's curvature blocked them from a low altitude aircraft's receiver. At night we could usually pick up "Clear Channel" AM commercial radio stations such as WLW, WHAS, etc. which transmitted at a low enough frequency rather than traveling just straight line, they wrapped around the earth's curvature and very high power, typically 50,000 watts. They worked fine for triangulating with other Clear Channel stations using the ADF at night. But during the daytime hours "Clear Channel" stations were required to transmit at much lower power so they didn't compete with or over power local AM stations. Therefore during the day you often flew in "dead spots," When flying "Ferry Delivery Hops" we were required to only fly using daytime VFR Flight Rules. So we almost never flew a ferry hop over a long distance without carrying a whole bunch of highway road maps covering the cross country highways from our trip's start to destination. I joined the American Automobile Association for that very reason. We who had to fly at low altitude had our own version of IFR. It was called "I Fly Roads." US 31E, Rt. 66, etc. were all easy to follow at our lower altitudes using road maps so they gave us an axis of our position. We often circled water towers to read what town we were near for another axis. Then used that info plus the road map we could do our plotting and ETA planning.

Good to know. Nothing against them.

You went to the Academy?? I remember knowing Lt Gen Walt, Krulak, and a few other really old guys who went to the Academy. But other than Rocky Garner who flew in Korea those guys never flew in combat that I can recall. They apparently served before the Vietnam war started and held desk jobs by then. Yes, they did fly their four hours per month to get their Flight Pay, But they didn't actually ever fly in combat that I recall. Though being PIC for a Bob Hope tour was certainly their norm. I was disabled and out without seeing any Academy guys my age ever showing up for combat. But I hope and assume some Academy guys did their duty later. Those like me, I went directly from University of Kentucky or tons of other universities into the Corps, then almost instantly into flight training was the norm. Back then the Corps wasn't nearly as picky, all they wanted was butts in the seats regardless of the aircraft. We even had a ton of NCOS flying as H2PS.

Great flight comments and screen shots! And yes while simming I've noticed several airport scenery layouts worldwide end up with hangers facing the wrong direction for easy aircraft access. Your sim weather conditions there look a whole lot better than RW here near KLOU. I'm estimating my RW local visibility at about 50 yards in fog right now. My current weather reminds me of the RW weather that sometimes showed up by the end night flying when I was flying H-34s or 46s out of MCAF Santa Ana California, When taking off around sunset visibility would often be 10-15 miles. Two hours later visibility might be down to100 yards or less.

This is what I'm talking about. Once I leave the navigated to area or cancel navigation, the screen usually looks normal again.

Your last shot reminds me of what sometimes happens when following a navigation course. As I approach the end destination a reddish haze will on occasion appear. Except it stretches all the way to the ground. The only way I've found to get the haze to go away was to cancel the navigation.

Hey Kit, I bet that pleasure boater on the river was getting a little nervous seeing you on final. I assume you missed him. We had a guy that used to land on the Ohio River very near a waterside restaurant. He always shot his final right over the outside dining area. That always scared diners if they hadn't seen him do it before. BTW: You're giving a very good travelogue as well.

Hey that's the way with a lot of people as well. If you'll spend the cash, they'll keep you happy. BTW: Wonderful picture of the radial recip!! Farmers' daughters are born every day but nice radials are getting sadly scarce!

Yes, Sadly P3D works the same. Though it is nice to regularly program a tail wind on whatever long flight you choose. It's also nice to have headwinds at landing locations with only a two way landing surface. That would have come in sooo handy in Vietnam!!

Yes, I've known several "Kens" over the years.

What a great link!! Thanks so much for including it!!!

+1!! And wobbie KEEP THAT ATTITUDE!! Michael

That shot certainly looks close to what I remember flying over RW! And I consider it a depressing sight.

It certainly looks the part! How's it fly?? I might be interested as well,.

+1! Spin the gauges so If the gauge needles line up, then you're normal. If not verify why the outlier doesn't! So you don't need to read all the gauges, just scan.

Nice shot. Does the rear stairway open?

I agree. I'm also taking screenies, especially like at KCAG station. Sadly, I can't find them yet. Once I do I'll post a bunch.

The temp part is story line. I'm still in Ky. But the time line is correct in Australia.

I'm now (1/16) at YNSM. Since the time here is about 12 hours off of what I'm used to, and KY is about 10*F, I'm still having problems with the sleep and heat issues during Australian Summer. Yesterday I ended up napping for a few hours at YKNJ. Then onward to YNSM. I'll make a flight to the YCAG marker today, since I find no airstrip in P3D it'll be a flyover only. Then probably head on to YFRT. I'm taking screenies but they're hiding someplace on the hard drive & I can't find so I haven't posted any yet,

Nope, I didn't make it that far. I made a loop to check out Perth then headed for YKNG. Got tired and landed on that little dirt strip and I'm ready to bunk out, Besides it's pretty stormy out, don't want to catch a lightning bolt. I've taken several screen shots but can't find them, ??? I've found shots that are years old but can't find any from today. If I figure out where they went I'll include them.

Man my body has not adapted well to this time change. The watch on my arm says it's about 11:40 on the 15th in Kentucky. But the clocks here at YPJT say it's about 00:40 on the 16th. But the 70F here beats the heck out of the 07F back home! Lots of rallye folks still around though some of them left yesterday (local time of the 15th). Since I can't sleep I guess I'll head out and get some night flying hours. I'll probably make it to YNSM before I'm ready for a nap.