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TomPenDragon

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Everything posted by TomPenDragon

  1. TomPenDragon
    Congratulations for a couple of great stints, Kit! Now bring 'er home!!!
  2. TomPenDragon
    Absolutely!
  3. TomPenDragon
    Oh, no! How can we help?
  4. TomPenDragon
    I'm currently going through my hangar and creating Original versions of everything that I've modded. In the Spartan's case, I discovered that I had made the mods prior to my most recent FS9 installation, which was in 2015. I fly much differently now, I'm finding. Thanks for that! I know Paul's work and I'm pretty sure that I've got the original downloads on a backup somewhere, but I don't have any currently installed. I've got the old SIMTech Staggerwing, and Lynn & Bill Lyons' Reliant. The Reliant's stock, while the already-fast Staggerwing's been modded (what was I trying to do, break the sound barrier or something?) Thank you for the tip!
  5. TomPenDragon
    Been there; done that - Glenn's was the inspiration for Cline's in my story (those apple fritters?). I only wish they delivered to Mexico.
  6. TomPenDragon
    Wouldn't you know, she loves Spitfires and Mustangs (Tom's more a Thunderbolt and Lightning type of guy).
  7. TomPenDragon
    Wow, man, I had to look that one up! And I used to be a huge Star Trek fan, too. I'd suspect dementia's starting to set in, but I've been demented all my life. I raise a Heiny 0.0 to ya!
  8. TomPenDragon
    Jessica and I were blown away - not just from the Lysander's prodigious propwash, but by the news from the rental agency's A&P. Throughout the flight to 0E0, I had noticed that the oil pressure never got above the very bottom of the green arc, and that the the oil temperature seemed higher on approach than other uprated Spartans that I had flown. We asked them to check it, and they found that the pump was shot and the engine had already been damaged to the point of needing an overhaul. That Spartan wasn't going anywhere else, any time soon. The agency did have a Spartan Classic available, though. (it's the one in the middle) I lined up to take off across the ramp. "Are you serious?" Jessica and the tower said in unison. "Kit did it," I told her. "The Lysander's takeoff roll is only about three inches longer than PhrogPhlyer's S-51's," Jessica explained as if to a small child (apologies to small children). "At full power, the 11W we flew here'd only manage to raise the tail in time to hit the fuel pumps full-on. Who knows what the 7W'd do - do you remember the last time you flew the Classic? I don't." The tower's view of me being sensible... Departure from 26 was rather "interesting," since I was used to de-rated takeoffs at 45" MAP and 2550 RPM in the 11W. The Classic hit full power at 36" and 2300. When she did lift off, she was sloppy and all over the place - I'll have to remember to let her build more airspeed before flying her off and trying to climb. On the plus side, temperatures were never a problem. Since we weren't trying to catch up to Kit at that point, we decided to fly ALB-ZUN-GUP for better terrain clearance at an 8500' cruise. We'd be busting minimums passing Grants, but we'd make it. At 2000 RPM and 30" of boost, we were making 175 knots. In order to match the Lysander's 155-knot cruise, I throttled her back to 25" - at a 14GPH fuel burn. Passing Albuquirky... South of Route 66, with Grants in the distance... Power reductions and approach were a lot easier than with the uprated aircraft. Surprisingly, temps stayed reasonable... Down and taxiing in front of the 21 Motel. Cynthia Frees is New York with Rey so she's lending us her apartment, or else we'd have stayed there. Some Waco in a biplane followed us in... "Hey buttwipe!" I opened the door, stood on the wing, and shouted. "Not so close!" "The tower told me to park my radial over the oil spot," the Waco waved dismissively. "Shall I turn him into a newt?" Jessica smiled. "Nah. He'll get better."
  9. TomPenDragon
    I'm really sorry to hear this; I thought CalClassic and most other FS9 sceneries worked in FSX. From time to time, I've found myself FSX-curious, but this kills it for me (like a lot of things about which one might be curious, satisfying said curiosity only serves to make one's eyes water). Presumido, con algo que presumir (Show-off, with something to show). Not only a great flight with a great start, but my favorite write-up of yours so far! Our wallets thank you! "That's why the FS is a Tramp" - every time I see the name of your flight planner, I hear Frank! I also heard that line in your following paragraph, except that nothing I heard in place of, "Tramp," would ever make it past the moderators. I can commiserate; my FS9 blew up 4 times coming into KSMO until I finally stopped tuning the ATIS.
  10. TomPenDragon
    I deliberately tried to get that last shot from more or less the same angle as yours to illustrate that point as the basis for a literary concept. The scenery is either FS9 stock, or CalClassic's Southwestern USA or Stapleton/Rocky Mountain. Blew us away! No, literally, we were in your propwash and found ourselves on our butts in the grass. I hope you got pictures because, by the time we found our phones, you were just a dot, way, way up in the sky. And that was with the belly tank full? Please don't do that again; every time you fill up that Lysander, the price of avgas goes up a dollar. Megabummer! I had the FS9 Autosave package at one time but it's not a part of my current install. Let me go through my backups and see if it's there (may take a few days). Waaaaaaaaaaaay cool!!!!! And that's FS98, I'll bet (the sim I ran before 2003 - I skipped 2000 and 2002).
  11. TomPenDragon
    Thanks again, VP2! Over the past couple of decades, my simworld's become rather "speculative" - what if aircraft powerplant technology kept pace with automotive engine development in terms of reliability and displacement/horsepower, for instance? These Challenges that we've been running have kindled a new appreciation for "stock" specs - it's like having a whole new sim! It's a blast to be able to fly a Spartan at 21K and 175 KIAS. Let's see how she feels as a "mere mortal". No argument there! All of their aircraft are great - before discovering the Challenges, I had spent the summer in their AC685. The best of Freeware; better than a whole lot of Payware!
  12. TomPenDragon
    Thanks, VP2! I've got the aircraft.cfg modded for extra power and the .air file modified to handle the needed cylinder head and oil cooling - and I just discovered that I had done so without internally commenting the original values . You know how, in the other thread, there's a lot of talk about backups? Well since you asked, and since I'm normally such a backup freak, I decided to check, and yes, I've got the original installer! Break out the socket set and the hoist, it's time to do an engine change...
  13. TomPenDragon
    Jessica and I decided to split LA, join Kit and his Lysander in Moriarity, and accompany him to KSMO. Clover Air Rentals manages a huge variety of aircraft. We decided to go classic for this run, and went for a Shupe & Associates Spartan Executive. Runway 3 was the active this morning. One of the nice things about taking off from KSMO's 3 is that, if you fly out on the runway heading, the Hollywood sign is nearly on your nose. This Spartan's powerplant had been seriously upgraded - we climbed at 80% throttle and 40" of manifold pressure, at 188 MPH and nearly 2,000 FPM, almost all the way up to our cruising altitude of 21K'. The mountain pass between the Los Angeles basin and Palm Springs certainly looks different from this altitude than when Rey and I came into K-Schmoe in the Cherokee at 6500'. We cruised at 200MPH indicated and 230KIAS ground speed. The Spartan made quick work of the 630 NM flight plan. Before we knew it, we were over Albuquerque. If the Spartan has a weak point, it's engine cooling, so Jessica flew the descent gingerly, while I watched the CHT and oil temperatures like a hawk. Winds were 360° at 4, so Jessica opted for a straight-in to Runway 8. I usually touch down cautiously and one-hop the Spartan. Jessica set her down decisively and stuck the landing. We taxied to the ramp, shut down, and went to look for Kit. He was preparing to fly Leg 7 of the Challenge, and seemed surprised to see us. While we talked, we discovered that I had grossly overestimated his Lysander's performance. The Spartan is very good at flying fast, not so good flying slow. We're going to have to turn the Spartan in at Moriarity and pick something else if we want to join Kit for the rest of the race.
  14. TomPenDragon
    Thanks for the correction, Kit! I'll probably have to switch the Spartan for something a little slower, then, else I'll cook the engine. Have a great flight, and I'm looking forward to seeing that takeoff!
  15. TomPenDragon
    One of the ironies of being human - "common" sense seems rarer and rarer every day.
  16. TomPenDragon
    Anybody up for a quick-and-dirty fly-in? It seems we've been hanging out on the beach together working on our tans while Kit's been making his way across the US all on his lonesome. He's in Moriarity right now, which is a little more than 600nm from Santa Monica. Now, his Lysander won't outrun Melo's Spitfire, but she's no slouch, either - going back through his reports, she seems to want to cruise around 160 - 175 KIAS (correct me if I'm wrong, Kit). The rental agency at KSMO is extremely well-equipped with all manner of current and classic high-performance GA aircraft. The idea is to pick a GA aircraft (modded okay) that can match the Westland's performance, head over to 0E0, and keep Kit company as he makes his way to that perfect landing on the beach that we're waiting to see. I'm taking a modded Spartan (some poor shmuck with a Corsair's wondering where his engine went), pix and (I promise) minimal story coming later. This isn't entirely altruistic, either - as liberal as I am, even I can't take LA for too long!
  17. TomPenDragon
    I wish I could offer a solution rather than commiseration, but in 20 years with FS9, the only thing i've that works is to shut off collision detection and just try to fly as honestly as possible. I seem to recall it happening with some of the default airports in Mexico. It drove me bonkers with the CalClassic stuff and some of the Mexican add-on airports, particularly Huatulco (MMBT).
  18. TomPenDragon
    I used a similar routing, KEED-TNP-PDZ-SMO-KSMO, filed and flown comfortably at 6500' - fairly easy on the Lysander, I'd think. Best of success!
  19. TomPenDragon
    I agree with all of this. I'm only urging caution for the next month or so, so someone doesn't come in and blow the whole thing up, that's all. I think you're exactly right when you say that, "the idea is to expand interest," and I'd like to see as many participants as we can get interested in our particular brand of crazy. It might be worthwhile for everyone to state what their vision is for the group, to make sure we're all on the same page and to get an idea of how large and expansive that page actually is.
  20. TomPenDragon

    FS Real WX

    TomPenDragon replied to defaid's topic in FS2004

    V3's payware, with a trial period. During the trial, I recall it being a little more stable than V2. After the trial was over, I went back to V2. Yeah, I checked the link; it's dead. I came across a "Manuel" PDF for V3, read through it, and found so little of value I didn't even bother posting the file. Let me know if you'd like it anyway, and I'll post it. Otherwise, why not post specific questions here and I'll try to answer them as best I can. One tip: If the weather doesn't load or doesn't look correct when FSRealWX V2 finishes loading it into FS9 (usually when loading 100+ stations), in the Sim go to Modules -> FSUIPC -> About+Register, press "Clear All Weather" and "Weather settings off", then in FSRealWX press "Set all WX". This seems to resolve some crashes of FSRealWX, or sometimes when it stops loading the weather into the sim without crashing.
  21. TomPenDragon
    I don't think this is necessary if we leave the choice of equipment up to each pilot. For example, for a Bathurst (Sydney) fly-in, if I'm heading from Mexico I'll probably use a Citation X (if yours is the Eaglesoft, I've got the same plane) or a B-58 if I'm in a hurry, while someone in Australia who wants to make it challenging might use a Tiger Moth or a Stearman.
  22. TomPenDragon
    I'd suggest that we keep it small while we're organizing and maybe through the first event of the year. Before bringing in new members, it would be a good idea to have the format already locked in and tested.
  23. TomPenDragon
    Sorry, I was just trying to make a joke, and realize now that it was in bad taste. PhrogPhlyer's phlu was bad enough that I think I caught it from him, so my brain's been pretty phoggy the past few days - please chalk it up to that. I was pretty sure about this, but again was trying for a bit of a joke. My apologies.
  24. TomPenDragon
    Second Amendment?
  25. TomPenDragon
    I really like this - more a Fly-In format than a race.

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