Melo965

I just finished watching "Masters of the AIr", followed by the 1 hour documentary on the same channel. (Watch the Series first.) Highly recommended if you have not seen it yet.

I had no idea that Leadville was that high of an altitude. That must have been a great flight.

Very happy to provide an escort when you are close to my part of the world!

Centennial (KAPA) to Mountain Home Air Force Base (KMUO) Pre-flight done, reday to start the finely tuned Merlin 70. Glad to be flying again and on the way home. Holding short for Runway 17L. Beautiful scenery! Advancing throttle for take off on runway 17L. Climbing out through 9,300 ft on runway heading. 8 minutes flight time. At 11,000 ft altitude. Will have to keep an eye on the terrain ahead. Turned slightly left of direct course to stay in the canyon. At 11,700 ft altitude. Using Oxygen, decided to get back on course and climb over the hills. At 14,000 ft to clear the terrain. 15 minutes flight time. Back down to a more normal 11,400 ft altitude. 23 minutes of flight time so far. 30 minutes elapsed time. 1 hour of flight and almost exactly half way there. 15 minutes later. Still watching the terrain carefully. Flying over Logan Utah. Now over Twin Falls Idaho. Cockpit instrument view. Oil temperature and all other values are behaving as expected. Top of Descent point. Glenns Ferry is in the background off my right wing. Down to 3,600 ft altitude. Cockpit view. Can barely see the runway lights in the haze ahead. Runway in sight ahead. Coming in with a slightly banked approach so I can see the runway clearly. Landing on Runway 30 in about 1 minute. Over the numbers for runway 30. Landing a bit longer on purpose to avoid the arrestor cable laid across the runway. If this was a Seafire variant rathar than a standard Spitfire, I would give the arrestor cable a go. Landed after 2 hours and 1 minute flight time. Parked at Mountain Home AFB (KMUO). Next to the longest line of F-15's I have ever seen anywhere! Next stop Bremerton (KPWT). Home Sweet Home!

This was the original plan as my wife and I were going on vacation to visit her sister and husband in Carmel, California for most of the week. Unfortunately things did not go acording to plan. On one of the two RW flights to and from Monterey, CA we both ran afoul of C-19. Luckily our relatives were able to avoid it. I wish it had been this AVRO Anson C-19 we encountered, but alas it was a very nasty variety of a different C-19 instead. So in the RW I have been severly under the weather until now. In Centennial Colorado, Ray and his team have completed a full engine overhaul on the Merlin Mk 70 engine. Two of the pistons had to be re-bored. And one of the Intercooler parts had to be rebuilt from scratch. But Ray has given his seal of approval on the engine. His team flew back to Fort Collins with my thanks for a job well done! And a high point of my time in Centennial Colorado were the delicious meals with VP2. I will definitely be back to the Perfect Landing anytime I happen to be in the area. So I am ready to finish my journey to Bremerton Washington and finally get home. Next stop is Mountain Home Air Force Base (KMUO) in Idaho. I heard that there are a few F-15's parked there. And from there it is a relatively short hop home to Bremerton.

Sounds fine to me.

Kit, Here is the thread where they are: The 2024 Australia Rally...

I thought they were at the beginning of this thread, but they are not there!

This flight was one of the very few where I saved the flight enroute. When I reloaded the flight later on, the Spitfire engine was not started. There was quite a lot of exhaust smoke upon restart. Maybe I overstressed the engine with the in-air restart. (My PC was also on for a few days in a row so it might have been a resource issue)

Ellsworth Air Force Base (KRCA) to Centennial (KAPA) Pre-flight done, engine started at Ellsworth AFB. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 31. Climbing out on runway heading. At 6,200 feet and about to enter the clouds and be in IMC. On course and at altitude, around 12,500 ft. 20 minutes elapsed time. In a driving rain. Half way there at 26 minutes. Scottsbluff Nebraska is below. 30 minutes flight time. Pine Bluffs Municipal (82V) is behind me. A tower view from 11,000 feet below. 46 minutes in. Denver International (KDEN) is below. 4 minutes later. Buckley Air Force Base (KBKF) is below. 1 minute later. Destination airport ahead, but I am still at altitude. Time to get down quickly. 2 minutes later. Down to 7000 ft. Wind direction dictates a landing on Runway 28. Overshot line up for runway 28 slightly. Curving back around. Over the numbers. Finally a perfect centerline touchdown. Go figure that it was on a narrow shorter runway. 55 minutes flight time this leg. Parked at Centennial. Going to look for VP2 to have that meal together. Maybe a few meals actually, as the Spitfire Master Mechanic has arrived from Fort Collins, and he said the full engine overhaul may take as long as a week.

Foss Airport (KFSD) to Ellsworth Air Force Base Pre-flight done, engine started at Foss and ready to taxi. Advancing throttle for take off on runway 33. Climbing out on runway heading. At 3,400 feet and about to enter the clouds and be in IMC. On course and at altitude, around 12,000 ft. 30 minutes flight time. More than half way there. 7 minutes later. Finally able to see some terrain below. When I was approaching the Top of Descent point and throttled back to descend, realized that there was something really wrong. Glanced down into the cockpit at the RPM gauge only to discover that it was below 10 on the gauge. And I was quickly losing altitude. Pushing back up to full throttle had no effect. The airspeed kept dropping. I was still too far away from the Air Base to make it there safely. So I set the aircraft in a positive climb attitude, and stuck my head down into the cockpit to try to remedy the situation. In despiration I decided to shut off both magnetos and the Master and then try a restart. Luckily when the Master and both magnetos were on again, the engine came back to life and my airspeed started to increase. Whew! Here is the record of my altitude during the engine problems. The upper line is 10,000 feet. The line I dipped below was 5,000 feet. Climbing out at 5,600 feet after engine restart. Obviously I was too busy to take any pictures during the emergency, but here is a snapshot of the cockpit instruments just after the engine restart. The oil temperature is high, so the engine is going to need a careful inspection. Airport ahead on the Right. Turning right at Waypoint CURPI to get lined up for runway 31. Rapid City Regional (KRAP) is ahead on the left. I don't think I would have made it there either if the Merlin 70 had not restarted successfully. Cockpit view of long approach. Still high for Runway 31. Over the numbers. Landed safely with half of the 13,486 foot runway still in front of me. Tower view of my Spitfire parked at Ellsworth AFB. Next stop is Centennial (KAPA) in Colorado to meet VP2 for a meal. Despite the engine problems, I am going to take a chance and head to Colorado as the best Spitfire mechanic that I am aware of stateside is in Fort Collins Colorado. I will call ahead and make arrangements for him to meet me at Centennial.

I was at the Miramar California Air Show back in 2004. (Before FS9 was published). At the Air Show they had a booth with FS2004 (FS9) running. There was a mock up of the Wright Flyer where you could climb up on the wing and use the same controls that Orville used on that historic December day. While I was waiting in line I saw almost everyone pull up to quickly and then stall and crash. When my turn came I was very quick to level off in ground effect right after liftoff. Managed to gingerly swerve around a tree without crashing and finally landed on the beach well past the 852 foot marker. The woman running the booth was impressed with my flight!

This one is available still on Steam for the PC at least. My Son-In-Law bought it for me. I have dabbled with the program, but not given it a real college try yet.

I do plan to go there someday. Definitely on my bucket list.

Good flight and great pictures! You made better progress than me. I am still in South Dakota and headed west toward Washington state.