TomPenDragon

The Sun is up in Perth The Race has begun!

To absent friends (raises glass)

The Rules Definitions (used throughout the Rules, described here for clarity) Route, Race: A pre-defined flight plan published by either ViperPilot2 or TomPenDragon, which is either: The 1976 Australian Air Rally: Runs from YPJT to YSBK. Eastern: Runs from YCFS to YBCS. Combined: Runs from YPJT to YBCS, including the 241.5-mile leg between YSBK and YCFS. Attached is the current SkyVector Navlog for the Combined route, which encompasses both the 1976 and the Eastern routes (posted above). Timing Modality: Members may fly either of the following modalities: Timed: Members who are flying one of the Routes described above, who have entered prior to 15 January, 2024, and who are timing and reporting their times in accordance with these Rules. Free Flight: Members who are flying at will, whether following a Route or choosing their own flight plans, and whose timings, if reported, are not reflected on the Leaderboard. Participant: The rules primarily cover Timed flying, thus Participant may be construed as someone who is flying a Timed route. Exceptions to this will be noted at the beginning of the appropriate section of the Rules. Flier: All Gaggle pilots, both Timed and Free Fliers. Day: A natural day beginning at 00:00:00 and ending at 23:59:59, participant’s local time. Flight Time: Wheels up to wheels down, as calculated by the Sim and displayed by various chronometers available as gauges in the flightsim.com library, for instance Pierre Fasseaux’s Davtron M803. Note: the use of a chronometer that reports Flight Time simplifies and automates timing and, while not obligatory, is highly encouraged. V: Variance between planned and actual flight time in minutes, may be positive or negative Cum.V: Cumulative Variance, the result of adding the V for the individual legs of a race route. PIREP: A flier’s free-form story (poetry/prose/pictures) of their experiences flying the Gaggle. Though not obligatory, as a courtesy to fellow racers, participants should consider including screenshots of their flight plans, and their actual results for each leg (cockpit shot showing Flight Time on the chronometer). PM: Personal Messages sent to TomPenDragon to report times as described in IV.3. inclusive. (See also the note regarding Confidentiality in the original Daily Update post) Organizing Committee: OGO: The Officious Gaggle Official. Responsible for organizing the Club and its events. ViperPilot2. TSO: The Timing and Scoring Official. Responsible for conducting events, recording times reported in the prescribed manner, and reporting times. TomPenDragon. Start and Finish The race will start on 15 January, 2024 Participants may start the race anytime after Sunrise, their local time. Participants may start the race on any date between 15 January, 2024 and 29 February, 2024. No penalty will be assessed for a late start besides the reduction in days available to complete the race. All fliers (Timed and Free Flight) who wish to start the event on 15 January must start from Perth Jandakot (YPJT). Those who wish to Free Fly and who start after 15 January may start from the airport of their choice. The race will end on 29 February, 2024 End time is 23:59:59, participant’s local time. Should a participant require more time, a penalty of 1 minute will be assessed against their final Cum.V. To be clear, this means a penalty of +1 minute if the participant’s Cum.V is 0 or positive and -1 if it is negative. Routes and Running Participants may choose to fly any of the routes described in I.1 above The declaration of a route for purposes of the Spotters’ Guide is considered an intention, not an obligation. A participant flying the Combined route may opt to curtail their timed flying once completing the 1976. A participant who completes the 1976 may opt to continue to fly the Combined (same aircraft) or the Eastern (optional change of aircraft, untimed YSBK-YCFS leg). A free flier who reaches YCFS may opt to run the Eastern route as a timed participant. A timed route must be flown in the same aircraft from start to finish. Except for refueling/fluid replenishment, repairs to a damaged aircraft, and minor cosmetic changes, a participating aircraft must not be modified during a Timed run. Should a participant wish to take a break from timed flying, they may free fly: From and to their last timed waypoint, with no limit to the number or location of stops during their free flight. In any aircraft they choose. Timed flying must be resumed from the participant’s last timed waypoint, in the aircraft they were using for their Timed run. The choice of aircraft is up to each participant. Those running the 1976 are encouraged to use aircraft type/models that flew in the actual 1976 Australian Air Race, but this is not obligatory (see also III.1.2). Dead reckoning, VOR/NDB navigation, and/or hand-flying are all encouraged, but are not obligatory. Each participant knows their own aircraft and abilities and should fly accordingly. Timing and Scoring Timing will be done on a Plan vs. Actual basis per leg: Each participant will complete a flight plan using their preferred tool (e.g. the sim’s planner, SkyVector, FSTramp) prior to departure. In the interest of transparency and courtesy, participants are encouraged to post their plans as PIREP’s prior to or shortly after takeoff. Actual time will be computed from wheels/skids up to wheels/skids down (in FS2004, from the moment Token Variable boolean AIRCRAFT_ON_GROUND flips from TRUE to FALSE, until it flips back to TRUE again, which is how Flight Time is computed on the chronometers). Variance (V) will be computed as the difference between plan and actual, in minutes, signed (e.g. Plan 1:24, Actual 1:25 = +1 V; Plan 1:24, Actual 1:23 = -1 V). Participants may report their results in either of the following two manners: Via PM to TomPenDragon, in the following format: Title: Timing Message: Leg Destination ICAO Code. V. (i.e. YKNG +1) If a flight covers multiple legs, these may either be reported as a comma-separated string, e.g. YKNG +1, YNSM -2, YCAG +1; or as a table, e.g. YKNG +1 YNSM -2 YCAG +1. Via a post to the FBO thread, in the format described in IV.3.1, inclusive. Requests for corrections and clarifications may either be made by PM or by a post to the FBO, the surest way of getting the TSO's attention is via the former. All waypoints must be reported, and must be reported in sequence. Scoring will be reported once a day via the Daily Update’s Leaderboard. Participants will be ranked via the following formulae: During a race, by Cum.V/Number of Legs Completed, e.g. Participants A and B both have a Cum.V of +2, however A has completed 2 legs and B has completed 1, thus A (CV/NL=1) will be shown ahead of B (CV/NL=2). Once a race is completed by all participants, results will be ranked by Cum.V (the Number of Legs Completed being equal for all), and where this produces a tie, by Completion Date, earliest to latest, e.g. A and B both complete the 1976 with Cum.V 0, but B finishes and reports (see IV.3.5) on 30 January and A finishes and reports on 31 January, thus B will be ranked ahead of A. Should multiple participants finish and report on the same date with the same Cum.V, it is a tie and will be reflected as such. All participants are assumed to be honorable people behaving honorably, thus timing reporting is on an honor system. Should a participant mis-key a result while reporting, they may correct the error via a PM on their Timing thread. Spirit Of The Race Award In addition to whatever rewards accompany the winning of a race, a Spirit of the Race Award will be given to the participant or entity that most embodies the amorphous concept known as, “Spirit of the Race”. This Award will be assigned via popular, timed vote once a race is completed.

The Route: vp² AU Rally (C) 295 GS.pdf jgf's ICAO Code-Airport Name Correlation YPJT - Jandacot YKNG - Katanning YNSM - Norseman YCAG - Caiguna YFRT - Forrest YCDU - Ceduna YPAG - Port Augusta YPPF - Parafield YREN - Renmark YNRC - Naracoorte YWBL - Warrnambool YMMB - Moorabbin YMNG - Mangalore YTOC - Tocumwal YNAR - Narrandera YPKS - Parkes YBTH - Bathurst YSBK - Bankstown YCFS (YSCH) - Coff's Harbor YBNA - Ballina YBCG - Coolangatta YBBN - Brisbane YBRK - Rockhampton YBMK - Mackay YBTL - Townsville YBCS - Cairns

The Daily Update (Cue The Cult’s, “She Sells Sanctuary”) TPD: “Hello and welcome to a brief Daily Update. Tom PenDragon here. Elias is resting his voice for tomorrow’s start of the Great Australian Air Gaggle. Today, I would like to cover the new Forum structure for the rally. “All Forums for the event begin with, ‘The 2024 Australian Air Rally -’. https://www.flightsim.com/forums/topic/59482-the-2024-australian-air-rally-the-fbo/?do=findComment&comment=310667 “The FBOis the most important and familiar thread. It is where all content that is not a long-form Story goes. It is basically the same as the single threads that we have been using for our events, minus the Stories. All comments about the Stories will go here as well. https://www.flightsim.com/forums/topic/59483-the-2024-australian-air-rally-the-stories/?do=findComment&comment=310665 “The Stories are the Storytellers’ space. ‘Story,’ refers to any long-form narrative, whether told in pictures, in prose, in poetry, any combination of these three, or any other format that the Storytellers amongst us come up with, whether Free-Flying or Timed. As I stated above, all comments on the Stories go in the FBO – let’s leave this one just for the Stories so that they can be read like a novel once we’re done, please. https://www.flightsim.com/forums/topic/59484-the-2024-australian-air-rally-official/?do=findComment&comment=310664 “Official is the Organizing Committee’s thread. The routes, the rules, and key clarifications will be posted here, only by members of the Organizing Committee. Questions regarding the rules, exceptions, et cetera will all be handled in the FBO. The Organizing Committee will post answers of general interest here. Hopefully, the Official thread will never grow beyond one page. “In addition to these, should any Storyteller desire their own thread, exclusively for their Story of the race, please set one up with the title, ‘The 2024 Australian Air Rally - ‘ and the title of your work, so that others know that it is a part of the Rally. “It’s now just past Midnight in Perth – Race Day is upon us!! I would like to close by congratulating all of you who have made this event happen – whether by coming up with such great organizing ideas and asking such excellent questions that, for instance, they had me pulling apart Pierre Fasseaux’s chronometer to see how it works and digging through the SDK to find out why, for a couple of hours yesterday, or helping our fellow fliers with some first-class CFI work or with several cans of paint, or regaling us with their adventures flying far more miles to get to the Gaggle than they will on the course. And a very special shout-out to Radio Chachapoya’s sister-in-print, the Chachapoya Chronicle – sorry, Aussie Correspondent, almost put the, ‘s,’ on it again – for introducing us to his beloved homeland in such an informative and entertaining way. “This is Tom PenDragon for Radio Chachapoya, wishing all of you safe, satisfying, and successful flying. Bye for now.”

What a wonderful way to kick off the Stories thread - Thank you, my friend!

The Organizing Committee's thread. A (hopefully) short thread to serve as a quick reference for the routes and the rules, so folks do not have to search the FBO for them. Post your questions and comments to the FBO; we will answer them there and re-post key items here.

This is the place for long-form stories, like what the people who have been flying to Jandakot have been telling. "Story" refers to tales told in any way - whether through pictures, in prose, and even in poetry. Let me ask you to not post comments on the stories here - post them in The FBO. Let's leave this space purely for the stories, so that we can read this as a novel, with interleaved and intertwined plot lines, as we go and when we're done. Should any Storyteller wish to have a thread dedicated exclusively to their work about the Rally, feel free to do so. Please call your thread, "The 2024 Australian Air Rally - (your title)" for consistency. Since the Bendix, I have been impressed by the quality of the stories being told by our members here, and equally so about the variety of techniques being employed. With the Route 66, I've been astounded by the sheer volume of content that we have been producing. Storytellers, here is your space, Let's see how far we can take this!

Our usual "Thread about everything." Post here when in doubt.

Can you hold that thought for a month and a half, Tao? At the end of the event, we're going to have a Post-Race Tech thread to discuss what went well and what can be improved, prior to planning the next events. The event Fly-In seems to have worked very well indeed, I agree. I have a more immediate question: Many of you have posted superb stories here. Would any of you Storytellers like your own Story thread for the race, so that people can see your work as a continuous piece instead of having other people's stories popping up in between?

I'm here (good morning!) Are you asking about Cumulative V (I'm not a big fan of the abbreviation of the first word, but if I had to spell it out every time I used it in the Rules, I'd still be typing)?

I'm glad that came through. One of the reasons I like the Pierre Fasseaux gauge is that it is in .cab format, so I can go into the .xml and see what it is doing. A quick note on your flight plan (hope I catch you before you take off): If you are doing recon, it's fine, big if it's for the race, you're missing YKNG.

The Daily Update (Cue The Cult’s, “She Sells Sanctuary”) “Hello and welcome to a special edition of today’s Daily Update. Tom PenDragon here, broadcasting from Cuernavaca, Morelos in Mexico, on the other side of the planet from Australia. This is the Rules Edition of the Update. Let’s get right into them, then:” The Rules Definitions (used throughout the Rules, described here for clarity) Route, Race: A pre-defined flight plan published by either ViperPilot2 or TomPenDragon, which is either: The 1976 Australian Air Rally: Runs from YPJT to YSBK. Eastern: Runs from YCFS to YBCS. Combined: Runs from YPJT to YBCS, including the 241.5-mile leg between YSBK and YCFS. Attached is the current SkyVector Navlog for the Combined route, which encompasses both the 1976 and the Eastern routes: vp² AU Rally (C) 295 GS.pdf Timing Modality: Members may fly either of the following modalities: Timed: Members who are flying one of the Routes described above, who have entered prior to 15 January, 2024, and who are timing and reporting their times in accordance with these Rules. Free Flight: Members who are flying at will, whether following a Route or choosing their own flight plans, and whose timings, if reported, are not reflected on the Leaderboard. Participant: The rules primarily cover Timed flying, thus Participant may be construed as someone who is flying a Timed route. Exceptions to this will be noted at the beginning of the appropriate section of the Rules. Flier: All Gaggle pilots, both Timed and Free Fliers. Day: A natural day beginning at 00:00:00 and ending at 23:59:59, participant’s local time. Flight Time: Wheels up to wheels down, as calculated by the Sim and displayed by various chronometers available as gauges in the flightsim.com library, for instance Pierre Fasseaux’s Davtron M803. Note: the use of a chronometer that reports Flight Time simplifies and automates timing and, while not obligatory, is highly encouraged. V: Variance between planned and actual flight time in minutes, may be positive or negative Cum.V: Cumulative Variance, the result of adding the V for the individual legs of a race route. PIREP: A flier’s free-form story (poetry/prose/pictures) of their experiences flying the Gaggle. Though not obligatory, as a courtesy to fellow racers, participants should consider including screenshots of their flight plans, and their actual results for each leg (cockpit shot showing Flight Time on the chronometer). PM: Personal Messages sent to TomPenDragon to report times as described in IV.3. inclusive. See the Note regarding Confidentiality in PM’s at the end of the Rules. Organizing Committee: OGO: The Officious Gaggle Official. Responsible for organizing the Club and its events. ViperPilot2. TSO: The Timing and Scoring Official. Responsible for conducting events, recording times reported in the prescribed manner, and reporting times. TomPenDragon. Start and Finish The race will start on 15 January, 2024 Participants may start the race anytime after Sunrise, their local time. Participants may start the race on any date between 15 January, 2024 and 29 February, 2024. No penalty will be assessed for a late start besides the reduction in days available to complete the race. All fliers (Timed and Free Flight) who wish to start the event on 15 January must start from Perth Jandakot (YPJT). Those who wish to Free Fly and who start after 15 January may start from the airport of their choice. The race will end on 29 February, 2024 End time is 23:59:59, participant’s local time. Should a participant require more time, a penalty of 1 minute will be assessed against their final Cum.V. To be clear, this means a penalty of +1 minute if the participant’s Cum.V is 0 or positive and -1 if it is negative. Routes and Running Participants may choose to fly any of the routes described in I.1 above The declaration of a route for purposes of the Spotters’ Guide is considered an intention, not an obligation. A participant flying the Combined route may opt to curtail their timed flying once completing the 1976. A participant who completes the 1976 may opt to continue to fly the Combined (same aircraft) or the Eastern (optional change of aircraft, untimed YSBK-YCFS leg). A free flier who reaches YCFS may opt to run the Eastern route as a timed participant. A timed route must be flown in the same aircraft from start to finish. Except for refueling/fluid replenishment, repairs to a damaged aircraft, and minor cosmetic changes, a participating aircraft must not be modified during a Timed run. Should a participant wish to take a break from timed flying, they may free fly: From and to their last timed waypoint, with no limit to the number or location of stops during their free flight. In any aircraft they choose. Timed flying must be resumed from the participant’s last timed waypoint, in the aircraft they were using for their Timed run. The choice of aircraft is up to each participant. Those running the 1976 are encouraged to use aircraft type/models that flew in the actual 1976 Australian Air Race, but this is not obligatory (see also III.1.2). Dead reckoning, VOR/NDB navigation, and/or hand-flying are all encouraged, but are not obligatory. Each participant knows their own aircraft and abilities and should fly accordingly. Timing and Scoring Timing will be done on a Plan vs. Actual basis per leg: Each participant will complete a flight plan using their preferred tool (e.g. the sim’s planner, SkyVector, FSTramp) prior to departure. In the interest of transparency and courtesy, participants are encouraged to post their plans as PIREP’s prior to or shortly after takeoff. Actual time will be computed from wheels/skids up to wheels/skids down (in FS2004, from the moment Token Variable boolean AIRCRAFT_ON_GROUND flips from TRUE to FALSE, until it flips back to TRUE again, which is how Flight Time is computed on the chronometers). Variance (V) will be computed as the difference between plan and actual, in minutes, signed (e.g. Plan 1:24, Actual 1:25 = +1 V; Plan 1:24, Actual 1:23 = -1 V). Participants will report their results in the following manner: Via PM to TomPenDragon, in the following format: Title: Timing Message: Leg ICAO Code. V. (i.e. YKNG +1) If a flight covers multiple legs, these may either be reported as a comma-separated string, e.g. YKNG +1, YNSM -2, YCAG +1; or as a table, e.g. YKNG +1 YNSM -2 YCAG +1. Using a single thread for all of a participant’s results serves as an easy to follow audit trail in case clarification/correction is needed. Specific questions concerning the reporting of results should be posted to the participant’s Timing thread. If the TSO has made a mistake, the participant can expect a correction and an apology in the following Daily Update. Upon completion of a route, the date of the Timing thread post will be considered the Completion Date of that race. Participants should keep their Timing threads as clean as possible. Salutations and sign-offs are unnecessary. Interviews, other co-writing efforts, or any other subject should be addressed in another PM thread, not Timing. Any result not reported in the above-detailed manner will not be scored or listed on the Leaderboard. Scoring will be reported once a day via the Daily Update’s Leaderboard. Participants will be ranked via the following formulae: During a race, by Cum.V/Number of Legs Completed, e.g. Participants A and B both have a Cum.V of +2, however A has completed 2 legs and B has completed 1, thus A (CV/NL=1) will be shown ahead of B (CV/NL=2). Once a race is completed by all participants, results will be ranked by Cum.V (the Number of Legs Completed being equal for all), and where this produces a tie, by Completion Date, earliest to latest, e.g. A and B both complete the 1976 with Cum.V 0, but B finishes and reports (see IV.3.5) on 30 January and A finishes and reports on 31 January, thus B will be ranked ahead of A. Should multiple participants finish and report on the same date with the same Cum.V, it is a tie and will be reflected as such. All participants are assumed to be honorable people behaving honorably, thus timing reporting is on an honor system. Should a participant mis-key a result while reporting, they may correct the error via a PM on their Timing thread. Spirit Of The Race Award In addition to whatever rewards accompany the winning of a race, a Spirit of the Race Award will be given to the participant or entity that most embodies the amorphous concept known as, “Spirit of the Race”. This Award will be assigned via popular, timed vote once a race is completed. Note: The real me now, not a character. I am a retired certified professional Coach/Mentor/Facilitator. I live by an ethic of Absolute Confidentiality. Anything said to me in a PM or other one-on-one correspondence will be held in the strictest confidence – it does not exist beyond the space between me and whoever is corresponding with me, unless specifically requested by me and agreed to by you, and vice-versa. This said, the portion of the PM that reports legs completed and V’s must be considered by you and me to be non-confidential and subject to public reporting on the Leaderboard – in other words, by reporting your times to me, you give me blanket authorization to report them to the rest of the fliers. Nothing else that you include in your PM’s to me will ever be communicated to anyone else unless I ask you and you affirmatively agree. For instance, should you participate in an interview via PM, I will ask you at the end if you agree to publish the interview, and will not publish until I read your explicit OK. Anything else communicated between you and me in your timing reports or any other PM stays between you and me. Whether you consider a confidence to be a sacred trust, an interpersonal obligation, just a nice thing to do, or do not think about it at all, I insist on the same.

The hats I can afford. Buying Bonanzas and Barons takes a chunk out of the ol' wallet, though. Glad I'm in the Saratoga!

My mistake, sorry. Glad to have a newspaper here.

The Daily Update (Cue The Cult’s, “She Sells Sanctuary”) Elias Pacheco: “Hello and welcome to our Daily Update for the 12th of January, 2024. Race Day is fast approaching. We are down to our last weekend to prepare, and teams are working furiously to get their aircraft and pilots ready for a long and grueling run to Sydney for the ‘76, and then to Cairns if they opt to fly the Combined route. “Let us take a look at our world travelers, to whom half a circumnavigation is just another friendly fly-in. As of last report, jgf is at his last stop in Russia, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. An auto racer with decades of experience on the track, his use of power and mixture settings to wring the last iota of efficiency from his Staggerwing has increased its range to nearly a thousand miles. Most impressive, sir! “Bossspecops is nearly to Perth. He had a frightening incident coming into Derby, when Air Traffic Control cleared him to land and at the same time sent a Saab 340 down the runway for takeoff. Does AI no longer stand for, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ and instead means, ‘Absolute Idiocy’ now? A little professionalism, please! We could’ve lost Kit, and how many souls aboard the Saab almost virtually perished? “He is now in Meekatharra for fuel, and is hoping to make Perth by this evening. Being a Friday night, I wonder if the racers will take a break from their preparations to throw him a warm Australian welcome? “Melo965, as far as we can tell, is still waiting for the paint to dry on his Chippie. I’ve made a couple of stopovers in Darwin in my time and, while it’s a nice town, just waiting to get his aircraft into the air again and heading toward Perth seems as dull as, um, watching paint dry. I don’t envy you, Melo. “If you hear the drone of an engine through my microphone, that’s because I’m reporting from 16,500 feet up, heading west, having just touched down in Bankstown to complete my scouting tour of the 1976 route. I’m not taking the route home – instead, I’m following the rather sparse VOR’s, for a planned distance of 1,775 miles. Inspired by jgf, I’m using high mileage techniques to try to make it without stopping. “I’m going to take a moment of personal privilege and tell you a little about this aircraft. I live in the same airport community as does Mr. Thomas PenDragon. We’re friends. My dogs love him more than they do me – at least that was how they acted when they heard his Cherokee coming in before dawn, fresh from his and Reymundo Harrison’s win in the Route 66 Rally. I was giving the dogs their early-morning walk at the time. “After the dogs finished mobbing him and his wife, Jessica, we went to the airport’s Astral Dome FBO for a spot of breakfast. He told me about the rally, and how the club that organized the race, Club Chachapoya, could use some proper media coverage. One thing that Jessica, Tom, and I share is a love of endurance racing, and the idea came about of modeling the effort after that sport’s premier broadcaster, Radio LeMans. I believed then, and am more convinced of it now, that they asked me to head their, “Radio Chachapoya,” because I’m retired and have the time. It certainly wasn’t because of my extensive experience in media; I have none. “I thought it was just talk, so I accepted. A couple of weeks later, I find Tom in the Astral Dome again during the morning walk, and he tells me Club Chachapoya’s next event is going to be in January, in Australia of all places. And he told me that Tao Taoftedal, whose expertise at procurement I did not know at the time, had convinced Piper to give us a brand-new M-Class as a prize for winning the last event in a Cherokee. The plane would go to Radio Chachapoya – me – if I would fly it to the event. How could I say no? “So, at dawn on January 1st, 2024, I left my perrhijos in the loving arms of Jessica and Tom, and took his rather hot Seneca to Lock Haven to pick up the aircraft. That is such an impressive airplane: uprated engines, high-thrust props, turbonormalized into the 20’s… I was half tempted to skip the stop at Piper and take it all the way to Perth. “The poor Piper people were none too pleased to see me, seeing as they got dragged into work on New Year’s Day by some Marketing muckety-muck who was sitting warm and cozy in front of his fireplace. I’m fortunate to hold an Omni license, which lets me fly anything from two-seat trainers to military-spec jets. They send me up for a checkride in an M600 turboprop first. What a magnificent machine! The latest in glass cockpit technology. We take her up to her service ceiling, 30K. A little lower and she trues out above 270 knots. Amazing! “And on the way to Pennsylvania, I had worked out a flight plan to Perth that was more than 13,000 miles. And I never liked the sound of a turboprop, especially a single. On the long descent, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it for that long a flight. So I ask the good people of Piper if they’ve got a good-performing piston single. We take an M350 up. Lower and slower, but with a G1000NXI suite optioned out with synthetic vision, shirtsleeves pressurization up to her 25,000-foot service ceiling, FIKI, and an engine note that’d make the gods smile. She’s a spectacular aircraft. Just not for me. “So I give Tom a call to ask him if I could just use his Seneca. He tells me that the plane’s a prototype and is awaiting an engine upgrade, so it wouldn’t be available in time for me to make it to Perth by the 15th. He hangs up and calls Tao, who calls Bill The Fourth, who heads development at the family firm, who calls Tim Conrad, head of Piper’s Performance Planes – Piper’s skunkworks. “Within a half-hour, the factory’s lot’s half-full with cars. Mr. Conrad called in every one of the Piglets, which is what the performance team members call themselves. Tim even brings his team’s mascot, a sweet Shepherd named BenPuppy. “Tim and I sit down and talk, in marked contrast to the suits from Marketing who simply shoved me into the left seat of the 600 as soon as I stepped off the wing of the Seneca. “He asks me what has been my favorite GA aircraft to fly and I answer without even having to think about it: a Piper Saratoga. “This starts the suits snickering, and with good reason. The Saratoga was a chimera of an airplane. The fuselage was adapted from the Seneca, which was adapted from the Cherokee Six/Lance. Whoever designed the wing must have been looking at a Warrior’s wings while playing with a Stretch Armstrong. And the flaps are manual, taken right off a Cherokee. It takes a lot of up-trim to get it off the ground, and is sloppy as heck once it finally unsticks. Landing it’s like landing a warbird – you’ve got a long nose that doesn’t let you see the airfield, let the airspeed drop below 80 and it sinks like a stone, wants to be flown onto the runway… “But a Saratoga was the first plane that I bought new. I still remember the smell. I bought and sold many an aircraft over the years, but always kept her. She was the plane I moved to Mexico in. I cried the day I traded her in for a Lancair Audi. “And Tim and the Piglets smile, and he says, ‘We’ve got one.’ And they lead me to the factory floor, back to the corner with the giant A.A. Milne character painted on the wall. And as we’re walking, Tim explains that they were trying to develop a low-cost alternative to the M-Series, using blueprints from a Saratoga so they wouldn’t spend money on design. Instead of using metals, they 3-D printed the spars and skins and all else in spun carbon – carbon fiber’s much lighter, much tougher younger brother. Instead of shaving weight, they beefed up all the parts until she weighed as much as an aluminum Saratoga – so the plane’s nearly indestructible. ‘The plane’ll break you long before you break the plane,’ one of the Piglets – sorry, I’ve forgotten your name – said. “The Piglets of Piper’s Performance Planes are nothing if not competitive. They were not satisfied with producing a low-cost, cabin-class, six-seat single, they wanted the folks on the M350 team to eat their contrails. So, to overcome the Saratoga’s greater drag than her descendant, they replaced the Lycoming with a PFM400 – the twin-turbocharged, 400-horse monster from Porsche that powers the new Porsche Mooneys. “The M350 is ultra-modern. The Piglets painted their Saratoga in a 2+2 striped 70’s retro scheme. The office is retro as well: Digital analog gauges, with the reliability and service life of digital but the look of the old analog instruments they replace. Primary avionics are matched Silver Crown navcoms, a KR87 ADF with standby, and a KFC225 AFCS. These are rounded out by an ARC 400 DME – knowing this lot, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone in a Cessna wondering where the hole in their panel came from – and two modern additions from Garmin, a GPS500 in the right side of the stack, and a GI275 EIS on the far left of the panel. Below this is a Garmin GTX320 transponder. “The color of her interior can be said to be a very light tan or a dirty cream, depending on your eyes and the time of day. But it’s glove-soft leather. Like most Pipers, the seats are short, with shoulder rests instead of headrests. But they manage to balance sporty stiffness with armchair cushiness better than any other Piper I’ve flown. “She could easily be mistaken for a mid-80’s Saratoga, up to the point you push the mixture forward, turn on the fuel pump, and turn the key all the way clockwise. Be sure to have the handbrake on when you do. There’s none of the quiet purr of the M350 or the hum of the old Lycoming. The engine is an aero-adapted version of the 992 GT3’s powerplant, and save for a silky smooth idle, sounds like a race car, with a full-throated roar. If you take heart medication, make sure you haven’t forgotten or don’t be anywhere near this Saratoga when she fires up. If you’re in the left seat, wait a minute and your pulse will synchronize with the plane’s. “The Piglets’ Saratoga taxis easily. She has a Saratoga’s main, 51-gallon tankage, plus 21-gallon auxiliary tanks, for 144 gallons of fuel. This peculiar plane from the Piglets had only 14 hours on the Hobbs, despite having been completed in 2022. She had worked perfectly from the day of her first flight test, but everyone at Piper was afraid to fly her. Tim Conrad was in the right seat. He told me that, like all PFM engines, this one had been bench run-in, so there was no need to fly her any differently at 14 hours than I would at 50. “He assured me that the motor, like the airframe, was bulletproof, but advised me to throttle back to 30” as soon as the turbos kicked in. She was every bit a Saratoga on takeoff – if your Saratoga’s equipped with JATO. Whatever I said when I throttled her up for the first time cannot be repeated on radio. The sloppiness on liftoff felt like home. Above 120, she stiffened into the sweetest ride in Piper’s fleet short of an Aerostar. At 140, she felt like a Cadillac CTS and climbed at 1,500 feet per minute. Pressurization and climate are fully automated and controlled by a phone app or an Etrex, so there’s nothing on the panel. Should anything happen to the system or the pressure hull, an alarm will alert you. “Performance is very much in line with the M350, except for endurance. With the extra fuel and the PFM400’s frugality of thirst, she’ll spend seven hours in the air before you’ll need to come down again. Landing is very much like landing an original Saratoga, except that power settings are much more sensitive. “To paraphrase The Beatles, ‘Do you believe in love at first flight?’ I didn’t before. I do now. This is not an aircraft for a novice pilot, or one who is not willing to learn her idiosyncrasies. You cannot dominate this plane. You must partner with her. If you do, she’ll reward you with the best flight hours you’ve ever had. “I thought that with Tim sitting next to me during our checkride. Now, about to turn 100 hours on the Hobbs, I feel it even more strongly. “My old Saratoga was registered as XB-AFM. When we ran a check, we saw that she was still registered. Neil Young’s ‘Long May You Run’ came to mind. This new bird is XB-AFN. If you want this one, you’re going to have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands, which will likely still be wrapped around the yoke. “It has been a halfway-round-the-world, real world flight test. Hopefully, Piper will decide to make this aircraft. She doesn’t have a name yet – that’s up to the folks in Marketing, not the Piglets. How about, ‘Saratoga M992’? “This just in: jgf has made it to RJKB, and is heading for the Philippines. And I will be seeing the Bosss when I land; he has arrived in Perth. “And one last note: Be sure to check out our Aussie Correspondent’s new installment of, ‘Chachapoya Chronicles,’ wherever fine books and periodicals are sold, or online if you wish to save some trees. “This is Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, with a belated, extended edition of the Daily Update, signing off. Have a great evening!”

The Daily Update (Cue The Cult’s, “She Sells Sanctuary”) Elias Pacheco: “Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Daily Update. We will be turning today’s episode over to our brand-new Aussie Correspondent, who will take us on a tour of his beautiful homeland. Before that, here is the Spotters’ Guide: “This will be the last time the Spotters’ Guide will be published in the Daily Update before the start of the race. For the next few days, we will be bringing you some special features, hopefully some interviews, a recap of the rules… And what better way to kick us off than to have our Aussie Correspondent tell us what we’re going to be seeing during the first part of our journey toward Sydney, or Cairns for those who will be flying up the East Coast: “This is Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, on behalf of our Aussie Correspondent, signing off. Have a wonderful flying day!”

I think MAD1 has shifted the paradigm on us. Radio Chachapoya has always been intended as a co-writing project for the group - I only started it; I don't own it. "Elias Pacheco" and the Daily Update format are my tribute and thank-you to the Radio LeMans team. Originally, I had intended it to have its separate thread. As I have been writing it, I felt it could fit quite well in the single, linear thread that we have been working with. But with MAD1 coming in with an absolutely stunning post, written as part of, "Radio Chachapoya," let me propose the following thread structure: The FBO: The thread for everything that doesn't go in the other threads - pretty much what this thread is now, except for: The Stories: Radio Chachapoya's Daily Updates, Special Segments, and all other long-form story posts. One detractor from the excellent storytelling that's going on here is the lack of continuity - Someone posts a beautiful chapter, and by the time that we get to see the next chapter, there are 7 pages of organizing stuff, plane talk, nunsense, etc. The organizing stuff, plane talk, and nunsense is who we are, and should not be curtailed in any way. The stories are, too, though. I'd like to see them have a place of their own, a thread that can be read like a novel. Official: A lot of the organizing stuff gets buried as well, and that causes a lot of confusion. This needs to be a small reference and clarification thread, posts kept strictly on topic. Thoughts? Counter-proposals? I'd like to include the final structure in the Rules summary.

It makes sense, though. Should people still wish to run the Eastern Route after getting to YSBK can do so, but the '76 should be handled as a separate entity, with separate prizes. (Sorry for taking the picture out - Beautiful bird, Mike!) One of the Daily Updates between now and the start of the race will be dedicated to the rules, so that they are all in one place, and this will include the PM format, which VP2 correctly describes as, "Participant, Segment, V +/-. PM to TPD."

Timing&Scoring is already set up to handle this. I'm scouting out the route and only made it as far as YPAG yesterday, at 3,500' and 160 TAS, not timing it or stopping, with the aux. tanks enabled. The Australians and anyone else who's spent sone time there knows this already; I only fly there once a year for the Bathurst 12H, usually in something supersonic, so I did not: Australia is BIG! The 1976 alone is 2,400 miles and has 1 1/2 times the number of stops as Route 66 had. While I will chase all of you all around Australia trying to get interviews and will report T&S for everyone who wants to run the Combined, closing out the race portion of the event in Sydney is fine with me.

(from page 127 of the Rules, heading, "Prizes," section, "Monetary Awards," paragraph 3, "First Place: $25,000.00*") * - All prize monies shall be donated to the Aerial Rally Correspondents' Retirement Fund, in the name of the winner. Please note that this is not a tax-deductible donation and the winner will be liable for any and all taxes that incur as a result of winning said prize. Thanks, mate!

Well now, there's the rub (and rubbin's racin'). A 1-minute penalty will be assessed for each day after 29 February that a competitor finishes. Should there be a tie in V-score at the end of the race, the earliest finisher wins.

Just a little. The Route 66 finished with 994 posts. We've already hit 500 here and the race hasn't even started yet. Changing the subject: What about the rules/guidelines/suggestions is unclear to each of you? The current single-thread structure presents some difficulties. What would an ideal thread structure be to you? I hate to pressure you, but could we have your answers before end-of-day (18:00 your time) 11 January to give us time to put this all together?

What guidelines are those? Should the Organizing Committee put out a clarification (might be a good idea in any case, since they are all several pages back by now)?