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Going Places - African Tour Part 2 By Rodolfo Astrada In the last feature we started the African tour with the Frankfurt - Nairobi leg, leaving at the time of making landfall over Egypt, Sidi Barrani to be precise. The terrain below and up to the Qattara Depression was where the second battle of El Alamein was fought, 1942, when Rommel had to give up overwhelmed by Montgomery and Alexander. That defeat led later to the complete retreat of Axis forces from Africa. Then Churchill - always in the lookout for famous quotations - could proclaim before the House of Commons "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning". Our route takes us west far from Cairo and the Nile, so we have no chance to watch Giza slip below, while the historic river looks only a darker ribbon far on the horizon. Save for the Nile valley, Egypt is mostly barren desert, a sea of sand south and west for hundreds of miles, perhaps some wadi marking where a river briefly flows during the rainy season December to February. But don't count on many more than ten wet days any given year. Take a note about potential for photovoltaic energy production, more on this later. In 1937 Shorts introduced the Empire series of flying boats we mentioned in the last story. The big four engine ships were a familiar sight on these whereabouts we are flying, plying the routes from Southampton with stopovers at Marseille, Athens, Alexandria and onwards. Each Empire flying boat had its unique name, the Canopus (first prototype), Centaurus, Calpurnia, Cavalier, Calypso, Coriolanus and on for a total of 42 built and flown during the fleeting golden age of the flying boat. Imperial Airways gambled high by placing an order for 28 units of an aircraft that was not even designed by 1935, only a specification for 24 passengers and 170 MPH, maybe with a range up to 2000 miles in a special extended configuration if possible. Shorts had no experience in building such a big ship yet produced several innovations in terms of structural design and aerodynamics including novel Gouge flaps after team leader Arthur Gouge which reduced landing (splashing?) speed as much as 12% for the 18 ton ship. By 1937 the latest models could fly nonstop from England to Egypt, 2300 miles. A spinoff from the Empire product line, the Shorts Sunderland was a militarized version which earned quite a reputation in the later stages of WWII. Designed under specifications for a long range patrol plane, it specialized in chasing U-boats and rescuing survivors from sunken ships. Savvy U-boat captains knew all too well to dive hastily as soon as a "flying porcupine" was spotted loitering above. Though ponderous a plane, submarine speed was no match for a swooping Sunderland bristling with depth charges and the advantage of perspective; dozens of German submarines fell prey this way. Then again in what was the most improbable outcome for an air battle, a single Sunderland on patrol over the Bay of Biscay, June 1943, was chased by a flight of eight JU 88 fighter bombers. Twisting and turning viciously it managed to shoot down two attackers, a probable third, and mangled the remaining ones so bad they ended up disengaging. With dead and wounded crewmembers and a disabled engine, it nonetheless limped home. After the war, surplus Sunderlands readily found place in passenger carrying duty. We had for decades a flying boat service making the Montevideo - Buenos Aires run under Argentina or Uruguay flag, the deep grumble of the four Bristol Pegasus radials a familiar sound in the general area of Montevideo bay. In the previous issue early drafts I had the outline and some material for a section devoted to Pan Am's pioneering intercontinental flying boat services to Asia and Europe. Finding it should make the feature unduly heavy I pushed it to this issue, only to find again it takes much space. Leaning it is out of the question, should not properly honor the trailblazing feats conceived by Juan Trippe and its far reaching consequences for the airline industry. Hope next time this issue will be properly settled. We now meet the fringes of what gradually will turn into the African forest, past Khartoum, Sudan, where the Blue Nile joins forces with the White Nile. Now that I mention, back in 1858 without the benefit of satellite imagery, it took walking the forest to find the sources of the Nile, a matter then still not settled. That year an expedition financed by the Royal Geographic Society commissioned Capt. Richard Burton and Officer John Speke to find out. After various mishaps and health troubles, it was Speke who discovered and named Lake Victoria correctly identifying it as the source of the White Nile, and is the officially accepted discoverer despite subsequent heated debates out of our scope. One John Goddard set himself the goal to live an adventurous life, broken down in 127 particular goals to be more precise. Among them to climb the Popocatepetl, the Kilimanjaro, look for Noah's Ark atop Mount Ararat, kayak the Nile and write a book among others. Ah, he drove 46 different types of aircraft including the F111. Did I say kayak the Nile? Right, in 1951 he gathered a couple of French pals Jan La Porte and Andre Davy, hauled their frugal equipment to the sources of the Kagera River which is the largest affluent of Lake Victoria, to make sure, and started the adventure. Eight and 1/2 months and over 6000 km later they were paddling the salty waters of the Mediterranean after sorting all kind of near misses from the very start, be it dangerous hippos, dangerous waters or dangerous people along the banks. Once and again they got lost of each other, reunited again and pushed on to Rosetta, the town with the same name of the river branch which is part of the delta and where the famous stone enabled Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyph scripture. Later Goddard wrote a book which I highly recommend "Kayaks Down the Nile", telling it as it was. Went on to study anthropology, film underwater, became member of various explorer societies and in general spend a pretty adventurous life. Some good example of bad arse as they say, with due respect. And as time and sand goes by, we enter Kenya airspace abeam Lake Turkana. That it is elongated more or less North - South is no coincidence, the lake fills the trough formed by the eastward drift of a chunk of eastern Africa, the East African Rift. Apart from geology, Lake Turkana got notoriety after the finding in 1972 of a very ancient skull attributed originally to Homo habilis. Further findings followed, with Maeve Leakey discovering in 1994 the Australopithecus anamensis fossil. Dated at roughly 4 million years, it ranks as one of the oldest known human ancestors and put on firm basis the thesis of Africa as birthplace for our species. Closing in on our destination by now. For a change here comes a more under the hood view as to how this arrival comes about. Disclaimer, I am not a professional pilot much less a jet airliner qualified pilot, what I do while simming is to play as close as I know. Lots of regular stuff is out of necessity left aside, like load and detailed performance calculations, weather, paperwork, whatever else it takes for a regular operation. That said, let's go for the fun. Nairobi sits at 5330' and has a single southwest - northeast (06/24) runaway. The vast majority of landings are by ILS 06 approach. Landing brief is: follow vectors to GV VOR, then turn (left in our case) on a heading of 105 until localizer intercept, crosscheck bearing of NV VOR on extended centerline past the airport. In case of missed approach, climb on runaway heading to 6000' or NV VOR whichever comes first, then right climbing turn to 9000', expect further instructions. MDA is 9600' in this northwest sector, target altitude at GV is 9100'. In the real world I should be directed to some of the northwest arrivals like TILUK or LADAN for our route, anyway all end up at the GV VOR (GG NDB) fix. As is usually the case FSX has other ideas about final approach vectoring and sends us to 8300', no problem if keeping a healthy situational awareness, Mt. Longonot at 9100' lays safely to the right, while the Ngong Hills ridge at 8070' will be outside the localizer intercept left turn. We are already at 250 kts and have the localizer alive 25 nm out. On turn to final we engage approach mode and select final approach speed. The MD11 does not like to go slow and a runway altitude of 5300' does not help either. 155 kts is a normal Vref (flaps 50) for average load and normal arrival fuel, I like to add at least 5 kts for margin. Double check gear: four green, flaps: 50, autobrake: set (min) as per landing checklist. Switch off A/P and A/T passing 1000' AGL, gently nudge throttle while making short but decisive stick inputs in order to keep GS/LOC in check yet not to overcontrol. Heavy aircraft like the MD11 are slow to get moving in any direction and slower yet to stop moving! DH is 5530' (200' AGL), continue. Some lines above I made a mention regarding photovoltaic energy in connection with the Egyptian dessert. Turns out I am tinkering with the idea of dipping into dangerous waters, more precisely in what can be speculated about future developments in aviation. What has to do photovoltaic energy with this? Next time we'll try to explore this and other topics as usual while we fly towards Johannesburg. See you! Rodolfo Astrada Read other articles in this series

Going Places - African Tour Part 1 By Rodolfo Astrada Turns out I noticed a trend - which seems somewhat universal - of weight gain as time goes by. Worried features may be turning ever longer to detriment of reader patience I will start breaking down in shorter segments, see what happens. As promised in the last chapter, we are taking faithful D-ALCM down south, this time final destination will be near the tip of Africa, Johannesburg. This is also a regular Lufthansa Cargo schedule with a stopover for refueling and perhaps some freight shuffling in Nairobi. Usually technology or relatively high value manufactured products from Europe and the Far East go all the way down while some special manufactures from South Africa, or flowers, hides and other products fill the hold on the way back. Again a small hours departure, the dazzling patchwork of glittering towns dotting federal states of Hessen, and Baden-Wurttemberg, speak lots about Europe population density. Down in Schwabisch Hall we fly abeam of the Adolf Wurth - Hessental airfield which was home to the 53 Combat Squadron by 1939, later to fighter squadron 51, and from where ME 262 - first operational jetfighters - flew combat missions after being assembled in a nearby disguised factory. More than 30 airfields may be found within a 50 km radius or so, like Niederstetten - night fighters, Hohentengen where its large concrete runway allowed training and prototype test for Dornier Do 217 and Do 335. Many were Luftwaffe airbases in wartime, home to Me 109 and FW 190 squadrons. For those caught in the maelstrom no matter side, there was no choice, do their best to survive and fight with the means at hand. German pilots used to tell how they climbed warily into their cockpits, the canopy closing like the lid of a coffin. Thrown up to try stemming the relentless tide of allied mass bombing formations. Bombers crewed by young boys with no practical chance to survive a full campaign, such were the odds. For quite some time I spent hours flying combat simulation, can remember several different games in a wide spectrum of sophistication and realism. There were the arcade type, a passing curious look and move on. The serious early ones were crude by today's standards, yet had the magic quality of being immersive. In the sense you had to work hard, juggle several fronts as flying the aircraft, maneuver strategically, manage weapons, keep situation awareness and so on, you really felt like being there. The first I met and mentioned in a previous feature was an F15 simulator running on a Sinclair Spectrum. AI (artificial intelligence) was decent in the sense you should be shot down every day if playing carelessly, but could outmaneuver the foe and get on its 6 after some serious training. It was only armed with gun that fired straight forward no matter flight dynamics, fair try for such a basic fixture. Then one named "Top Gun" comes to mind, not surprisingly released after the movie. You had to fly F16's, qualify for carrier operations on F14's and then fight a hypothetical scenario of USSR invasion of the West Coast where you had to scramble on F18's to meet a variety of threats and perform deep bombing missions in occupied California. This was a late 80's game running on EGA graphics so it was technically fair at best. In one of the first missions I remember scrambling to fight off MiGs going for a military transport with VIP passengers. Got a lock and released a Sidewinder, and to my astonishment saw the fighter pop three flares! Just three red pixels trailing but it was as close to the real thing as it could be. The last combat simulator I used to some length was IL2 Sturmovik, highly praised in its debut thanks to astonishing care for details, realism and performance. Gracefully swooping over that Betty bomber formation in the Pacific, adrenalin pumps high while spraying bullets, watching debris fly from your hits, some smoke with any luck, then dive jinking crazy, see tracers fly by, the frightening bang of ordnance hitting your plane, scan anxiously the instruments, level out, relief, reposition for the next strike. More frequently than I care to admit, when not outrightly shot out of the sky I could end up with a crippled fighter, be it damaged ailerons or elevators or a dying engine. Then if played judiciously could sometimes pull an emergency landing even at home base perhaps steering only with rudder or controlling altitude with power for lack of pitch authority. We are hunter warriors by nature, more or less hidden somewhere deep within our minds. Warfare lures in some intoxicating way, easily rationalized and on we go. By the way, I do not know of anybody having played combat flight simulation that never got killed. Food for thought if you are considering a combat pilot career and wish to do it for real. So much for cheap philosophy for the day. Corfu - or Kerkyra - ahead, this is a rather elongated island close to the Albanian coast, full of history as elsewhere in the Greece sphere of influence, cradle of occidental legacies like democracy. Again as elsewhere in Europe, Corfu history bears witness to recurring struggle for power and domination. First inhabitants came from Corinth, yet non-Corinthian settlers populated the fertile southern lands ending in direct confrontation with the former. Conquered and set free once and again by Persians, Athenians, Spartans, Romans, the Byzantine Empire, the Republic of Venice, repeatedly attempted to be taken by the Ottomans (without success), France, the British Empire, finally joining Greece in 1864 for good. We could go on with the tale of events associated with the wars and twentieth century struggles but should rather vote against. Why, there are other aspects worth digging out perhaps more cheerful, like for example famous Greek mythology, a matter on which Corfu relates strongly. My mother introduced Greek mythology when I was a child, something I took on and reissued with my own children albeit with varied success. A fascinating thing about Greek mythology is how humane Greek gods were depicted; truly behaved like mere mortals as to what passion and character relates. Tales recount Poseidon the sea god, fell in love with Korkyra, daughter of the river Asopos - major landmarks had their associated deity in Greek cosmology as in many others. As it was standard practice, Poseidon abducted Korkyra and brought her to this island which he named in her honor, bearing a child named Phaiakes purportedly giving origin to the nation of the Phaeacians. Greek mythology is full of these tales of cavorting gods and mortals intertwined in passionate sagas. The Iliad tells repeatedly how gods - divided among those patronizing Trojans and those favoring Greeks - resorted to wicked tricks among themselves to benefit their protegees. And then when some mortal hero in dire combat situation called for help, may be the whole divine gang was nowhere to be found, happened to be merrily partying elsewhere. Greek mythology does not stop with the Iliad and the Odyssey, it is a rather large collection of short stories; take for example the tale of Europe. Depending of the source, Europe was a beautiful woman of Phoenician origin, so beautiful that Zeus, the king of gods, set an eye on her and should not take no for an answer, cast himself into a bull and - yes you guessed - abducted her. From that union Minos was born (and two other sons) who gave origin to the Minoan civilization of Crete. Whatever, Corfu is nowadays as most of the Dalmatian Coast - the Adriatic Coast for that matter - a mecca for tourism thanks to a myriad of paradisiacal islands and coves where sun, blue water, glorious Greek cuisine heavy on olive, cheese, bread and wine leaves but anything to be desired. Our route now takes us skirting mainland Greece, stepping onto the large island of the Peloponnese with its three southward pointing fingers and straight into the Mediterranean, looking for the island of Crete and Africa on the far shore. In what seems just a few moments, we crossed the cradle of Occidental civilization, where democracy was invented and where philosophy, geometry and physics were if not born, given a big boost, not to mention theatre and literature. To be sure, it only took few more minutes over water to be handed over from Athens Center to Cairo Center, signaling the end of European airspace and the beginning of African airspace. As if any doubt could have been left about where western civilization began, the African shore is no less than home to Egypt and with it the forerunners, the land of the legends, of pharaohs and otherworldly megastructures not surprisingly making fertile grounds for tales of extraterrestrial ancestors. Muon echography has recently revealed tantalizing clues for yet undiscovered chambers within the great pyramids. Imperial Airways started services to the near and far East in 1927 with DH 66 Hercules aircraft, Cairo to Basra in what is now Iraq. Interestingly subsequent service to Karachi started in London by air to Basel in Switzerland from where a train leg to Genoa was required before boarding a Shorts S8 to Alexandria, another train to Cairo where another DH 66 was waiting to pick the hardy souls for the long and final leg to Pakistan. Later that same year the route was extended to Delhi. First flown in 1926 and with a wingspan of over 24 m the three engine DH 66 was a big airplane for its time, capable of carrying seven passengers. Just five years later Imperial had extended the eastern route as far as Brisbane while opening the southern route by successive steps all the way to Cape Town also with DH 66 equipment. But this story, we will pick up next time, talk about the fledging air routes to the near and far East and the intercontinental routes Pan Am opened across the Pacific and the Atlantic, just in the eve of WWII. While we sail across the Egyptian sea of sand following the west margin of the Nile to Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya to our first stop at Nairobi. See you soon! Rodolfo Astrada Read other articles in this series

Going Places - Back North By Rodolfo Astrada Time to get moving again. In the last feature we had landed in Montevideo following the trail of a regular Lufthansa Cargo MD11's schedule. After a brief stop in Carrasco we launch to Buenos Aires where in the real world most of the cargo hauled from Germany and probably some picked up in Brazil gets usually offloaded. Goods coming this way from Europe and the Far East by air are mostly technology or pharmaceuticals, return flights are for the better part repositioning since we are not major exporters of high value to weight goods suitable for air freight. Fact is I have seen sometimes Lufthansa Cargo MD11's skip Dakar in the return trip, go direct to Frankfurt and that is what we are going to do next. The jump from Montevideo to Buenos Aires is among the shortest scheduled commercial jetliner flights, being only 90 nm, less than half an hour including terminal ingress and egress procedures. After topping tanks we make an early afternoon heavy departure from Ezeiza which takes the better part of runway 11 to become airborne. No matter, our trusty D-ALCM is a seasoned veteran in these courts, delivers without missing a beat. FSX calculated 6245 nm for this flight - just shy of max range - so taking a mean groundspeed of 470 kts we will be aloft for over 13 hours and see a full sunset and sunrise before getting to Frankfurt, plenty of time to digress. By the way, I never speed up simulation time, always actual flying time. As some of you may know, Uruguay is a small and young country. In fact most South American countries are young for that matter, having attained independence only during the 19th century. Uruguay in particular established its Constitution in 1830, meaning we are less than 200 years old. During these same 200 years Europe endured an almost perpetual state of warfare wreaking havoc on national economies and bearing hard on its population, which in significant numbers looked to the Americas for a better future. Uruguay and Argentina did receive large numbers of immigrants mostly from Spain and Italy, but also in lesser extents from elsewhere in Europe, sharing the urge to escape grim prospects at home. This is why the majority of Uruguayans are of obvious European ascendance if judged by looks and family names, fact being that the aboriginal inhabitants previous to the Spanish conquest were few and mostly wiped out during the civil wars leading to independence. A dark fact in our history we are not proud of. With the dawn of the 20th century, political stability and a modern, politically open minded government consolidated advanced social goals. Public education is free even at the university level - I got my engineering degree paying no fees whatsoever - quality public health is available for free; Uruguay got the most advanced labor legislation of its time being an early adopter of the 8 hour work day, prohibited child labor, and established universal social security retirement provisions. Being distant from Europe and its wars, and being producers of much needed foodstuff, we sailed World War I and II in comparative bonanza. This is still a nice place to live. Uruguay sits on a geologically stable region with smoothly rolling plains almost 100% usable for agriculture. Weather in Uruguay is mild, winter temperatures never fall below freezing except for a few continuous hours at worst so we know no ice or snow, while summer temperatures may reach briefly over 35°C at worse. And as for "mountain ranges", one of our highest hills is "Pan de Azucar" (not to be confused with its namesake in Rio) about 1500 feet high at best, located close to the Piriapolis beach resort. During WWII Germans tried to man a watch post at its top, reason being from that vantage most of Rio de la Plata marine traffic could easily be spotted, making for valuable intelligence. Allied diplomacy cut short the attempt but the concrete foundations and layout of the planned facility can still be found in the summit. Only the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939 exposed bare what war looks like up close, when German pocket battleship Graf Spee was cornered by the Ajax, Achilles and Exeter British squad. Limped to Montevideo loaded with wounded and dead crewmembers, ended deliberately scuttled just beyond Montevideo harbor where it rests up to this day. Captain Langsdorff took his life after securing safe internment in Argentina for the warship's survivors. Because of WWII, Uruguay was host to world class artists the caliper of Arthur Rubinstein or Erich Kleiber fleeing their natural venues in Europe, something my parents used to fondly remember, the luxury of having them and others performing within hand's reach, something we cannot afford nowadays due to our small market size. The war years and the postwar periods were times of high demand for our primary products - meat, hides, wool, cereals - bringing a windfall which was to last over a decade beyond. This bonanza and the scarcity of goods from Europe as a consequence of war, spurred in time growth of a replacement industry for manufactured goods and to a general state of welfare. Banks flourished and a new, affluent middle class, found itself able not only to save but to access durable goods like housing, cars, even a beachfront on the "Costa de Oro", the 100 km waterfront spanning from Montevideo to Punta del Este. Things turned sour in the late 60's and 70's when the Cold War staged regionally in the form of insurrection and military regimes lasting well into the 80's. Hours roll by and we find ourselves over the state of Bahia, after having overflown Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, have still Pernambuco and Ceara to go before getting wet feet over the Atlantic. Brazil is a very big country, yet only developed along the Atlantic coast, at least in any significant way. And the Amazonia is still the biggest world reservoir of rainforest and who knows how many yet undiscovered fauna and flora, perhaps with significant potential impact on pharmaceuticals to be discovered among so many potential riches. When Boeing launched model 707 and started the jet age for good, domestic USA carriers approached the company with their own ideas about a jetliner. Model 707 had been developed and launched in close collaboration with Pan Am to fit its expansive intercontinental routes, much as it happened later with the 747. Conversely, a smaller and shorter legged airframe was thought a better fit for domestic use taking into account projected demand and operating costs. From Eastern to United to American, each airline pulled and pushed for some characteristic or performance specification until Boeing could finally settle by 1959 on a final design, the "3 holer" powered by P&W JT8D turbofans. But before jumping into the 727 saga, a detour in search of its lineage is on order. In a previous feature I mentioned in passing both the DH Comet IV and Sud Aviation Caravelle, which with the 707 were the first jetliners to provide commercial service. The Caravelle is probably not very well known yet it was a remarkable machine featuring several pioneering design highlights. Though by a licensing arrangement with De Havilland Sud Aviation reused Comet IV cockpit and fuselage design, the Caravelle was otherwise a completely different beast. It was the first - in its later versions - to use early turbofan engines, first to mount engines in the tail section, making for a very clean wing design, even had a functional autolanding system, another first, as well as an APU. Only 282 were built among 11 variants which may seem ludicrous nowadays, but it must be remembered this took place at the very dawn of both mass air travel and jetliners. Caravelle started with RR Avon engines and a capacity for 80 passengers, but eventually grew to over 100 fares and P&W JT8D engines. At some time it even had thrust reversers, another first. It was a safe and reliable plane of which there was still at least one flying for Air Gabon until not long ago as can be found in YouTube. As a final note, Douglas considered for a time building a short / medium haul plane to complement the four engine DC8 but decided instead to sign a contract with Sud Aviation for marketing the Caravelle in America. Lack of interest from domestic customers killed the deal, which led to development of the highly successful DC9 using the same rear mounted engine planform. As for the 727, ideally two engines should have been the economy choice, but with the thrust afforded by existing powerplants it was not able to carry the targeted 150+ passengers over 2700 nm, much less from Denver. Then again for four engines there was the 707, so three engines was the only choice left in between. Ended to be some of a pain, for the center mounted #2 engine fed by a "S" duct proved tricky to tune properly to avoid compressor surge / stall because of the contorted airflow. Practical as always, Boeing choose to reuse most of the 707 fuselage design albeit shortened to fit. Model 727 proved a smashing success with over 1800 units built and flown to the four corners of the world from 1962 to 1984, only model 737 able to outsell it later. After many hours droning along, we are at last across, have just flown over Cape Verde Islands and head to the Canaries which show as a cluster of beacons on the HSI. The very first, very special airliner and one of a kind, the Dornier DO X flying boat flew around here decades ago. Among its firsts, the DO X crossed the Atlantic, June 1931 via this same Cape Verde islands to Natal in Brazil. The DO X was an amazing machine perhaps worth a full feature sometime in the future. To whet appetite, it had 12x 650 HP tandem engines mounted on six over wing pylons, a wing that was thick enough to let mechanics walk along its length for monitoring and servicing, could carry 150 passengers - as many as a B727 we should note - made it to New York on a sales tour but only one was ever built, ended at the Dornier company museum where it was destroyed by an allied air raid, 1943. The Island of Madeira reminds again how the Portuguese got to establish a worldwide maritime empire, Brazil being one particularly notorious heritage, a remarkable feat if we take into account the relatively small size of the country compared with other European counterparts. Credit that to their ability to develop a skilled seamanship tradition, nurtured by Prince Henry the Navigator who had the vision to put together a first rate team of navigators, astronomers and cartographers based in Sagres, 15th century. Being blessed with a temperate climate in a large measure due to the Gulf Current, Madeira lives today mostly off tourism enjoying world class waterfronts. Surf fans discovered near perfect waves only in the early 70's turning Funchal into a hotspot for this sport. It should be no surprise, Madeira like the other Atlantic islands off Europe and Africa jut all the way from the deep ocean bottom, which means there are thousands of kilometers of open ocean in almost any direction for waves to pick up strength. Yet, Madeira has also made a name in the liquor industry despite its small size - 57 km in it longest direction - by way of the namesake wine of world fame, to be appreciated pure or as cornerstone for famous preparations like "sangria". Now that I mentioned the DO X, there was a brief time before the war, when flying boats ruled the skies and formed the backbone of intercontinental air travel. Just a brief note, further in depth exploration for some future installment; Pan Am developed the Pacific routes to China with pioneering Martin M130 four engine "clippers", and just into the eve of WWII had a regular Atlantic service with Boeing 413 ships. Great Britain had its counterpart riding on the Shorts seaplanes, the Empire series plying the Imperial Airways routes to South Africa, India and the Far East. Those pioneering efforts established foundations in rules and procedures on which the modern air travel industry was built, being it logistics, planning, training, passenger service and so on. In fact just after the war, flying boats were still considered the way to go in terms of large commercial airliner design, because of the mostly unlimited availability of long, always into the wind runaways in any decent bay. Hughes built the all wood Spruce Goose, flew it once in 1947, decided to shelf it for undisclosed reasons (probably because he felt it could not go above ground effect, or was simply scared, who knows). Saunders-Roe of Great Britain built the Princess, a six turboprop prototype test flown 1952 but never made to mass production. In the end the need of an appropriate water surface turned to be more a liability than an asset, concrete runaways were in the end not that expensive or hard to build and could be located anywhere they were required with no major constraints. And to make matters worse, the jet powerplant was still less inclined to make friends with water than piston engines so the matter settled by itself to what we now know. We are now headed to the northwestern corner of Spain, will clip it over Santiago de Compostela while climbing up as we get lighter on fuel. Now that I mention, I am not very confident on the rather basic FMS in this MD11 model, keep interested attention on expected fuel at destination while eying fuel flow, current wind and groundspeed. Not very comfortable with an arrival estimate of 11000 lb, but I can divert to any closer airport readily at hand while over France, should current tailwind revert or other tabs turn foul. Embarrassingly, dawn surprises us over the Bay of Biscay with the sun rising almost dead ahead at a bearing of ... 55 deg? ... at 45 deg north of latitude? ... in August?? ... OK let's quietly ignore and go on. Looking from our 21st century vantage, B727 performance specifications may leave us unimpressed. Yet course this is not fair, think what happened with the computer industry. I was there while the drama unfolded; take for example word processing, a specific niche. Before the mid 70's personal correspondence was mostly handwritten and at best the well positioned were able to afford a typewriter, business correspondence was machine churned out by armies of typists. Intel launched the first microprocessor in 1971 but not until 1974 with the 8080 processor did a microcomputer become practical and with it, among other possibilities, the dedicated word processing machine. Amazing, now you could compose and correct (on a green on black text only screen), save templates (on 8" floppy disks, 128 kb) and print perfect copies as much as needed. Perhaps the first turbojet powered airliners like the B707, Comet 4 and Caravelle where as much revolutionary with respect to piston powered planes as the word processor was to the typewriter. Equally higher in cost, equally narrow in market reach. Then came the microcomputer revolution of the early and mid 80's when general purpose machines based on standard hardware stormed the office (and home in the end) being capable of word processing and much more at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated word processor. Likewise, the 727 was the first to adopt higher efficiency turbofan engines with attendant lower per seat operating costs compared to first generation turbojets. Among other aviation firsts at least in mass production, the 727 featured an APU which made possible operation on smaller and lesser equipped airports it could fly from because of its shorter runaway requirements. If the 707 and colleagues revolutionized air travel with jets, the 727 telescoped this revolution to an order of magnitude larger access for passenger and destinations to jet powered planes. A typical first generation jetliner, it asked for a crew of three and attentive care to numbers and procedures for smooth operation, yet earned fond appreciation from almost all who had a chance to drive one. Late Len Morgan - with decades of Flying Magazine feature writing - elaborated from the perspective of a seasoned WWII military transport and later Braniff captain, a famous "Flying the Three-Holer" feature in a 1977 issue, later reprinted in February 2000 (vol 127 issue 2). The good, the bad, the quirks, all can be found from the styled pen of someone with the authority to tell it as it was. And this is how our tale for today coasts to an end. Back to Frankfurt, ready for the next installment in which we'll head south for the Nairobi Johannesburg rotation. Air-Clips.com features a series of videos in YouTube very well shot and edited. Among them is a series of four chapters where Captain Fokko and First Officer Johannes take us in this rotation across Africa. Captain Fokko in his spare time weights in on a Lufthansa Cargo employee organization - cargohumancare.de - which gathers resources in support of those in need of help particularly in Nairobi where the NGO built a center for assistance to the young. Fokko is one of those good examples of people you get to respect for more than one reason. Rodolfo Astrada Read other articles in this series

Going Places - Across The Pond To South America By Rodolfo Astrada It is 3 o'clock in the morning when we start our imaginary taxi for an early departure across the Atlantic expecting to make landfall at dawn over Brazil. Make that 3 o'clock virtual too. Our mount, D-ALCM, flies regularly this Dakar - Campinhas leg for real under the Lufthansa Cargo livery. Dependable with 16 years under the wings, she earns her keep day in and day out no matter where - Hong Kong, Memphis, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Mexico, Novosibirsk, Buenos Aires, Chicago, whatever it takes. A few figures to get some perspective, this exercise never fails to amaze me, no matter how much taken for granted the result may be in the end. Assume conservatively 15 daily hours flying to allow for turnarounds and a conservative 400 kt mean speed. Also assume 25 days a month to allow for scheduled maintenance spread throughout a year. This translates to a ballpark of 1,800,000 nm or 3,240,000 km depending on how about the mark my assumptions fall. Now, the mean Earth - Moon distance is about 385,000 km, then any given year our MD11 makes the equivalent of over four round trips to our natural satellite. This may sound naive or we have grown so used that it does not make a point, yet I never fail to be impressed. Getting to this is the result not only of technology matured over decades, but also of a business operation engineered in a way that makes this flying self sustaining and profitable, which is doubly remarkable in the end. But we have the Atlantic to cross now, and it will take about 3000 km to reach South America. Which is almost exactly what Alcock and Brown had to fly in their modified Vickers Vimy WWI bomber on June 14-15, 1919. While we effortlessly cruise in shirtsleeves leaving to automation the task of flying, Alcock and Brown fought for 15 hours the whole gamut from snowstorm to freezing, to rain, to mechanical failures, only getting some help from coffee and reportedly some "volatile" additive smuggled in ... No matter the flight was cut short when what looked like a nice grassy filed to land on ended up being a swamp, they were the first to jump the pond in a single go, airwise. /i Talking about Atlantic crossings, several years ago I was particularly attached to that legendary workhorse, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and was looking for a good photoreal, functional panel for FS98. What this has to do with the Atlantic you will see shortly. Not satisfied with what was available at least as freeware, I took to build my own C-130 panel. By then - early 1998 - I was developing some serious software for a customer in C and had acquired Microsoft C/C++ Visual Studio. This, and the publicly available FS98 SDK, made for a nice chance to experiment. Armed with a demo but functional version of Photofinish that shipped with a handheld scanner, some looking around and experimenting with actual cockpit shots plus lots of patience, I built my own version. For that I borrowed a hodgepodge of gauges more or less good looking no matter how close to the real thing, but what I could not find at least to satisfaction was the center stack of engine gauges, so those were the ones I designed and built from scratch, from dial templates to needles to dynamic library modules. That panel I uploaded to FlightSim.Com, in May 1998 (rac130p0.zip), making briefly into the top 10 downloads, got a little over 8000 by now, and had then some nice feedback from users all over the world. Whatever, the idea was to have a reasonably functional panel for the Herk and go places with it which I did with enthusiasm. Crisscrossed America and went down to Antartica, found and installed a base in my scenery and built another in King George Island with the tools available for FS98 featured here in FlightSim.Com. King George Island is where the Uruguay Antartic Base is located adjacent to the Chilean base which operates the runaway. When the Uruguay base was first deployed in December 1984, supplies and personnel were flown in with a tired Fokker F27 specially fitted with internal auxiliary bladder tank to extend range. There were two F27s and two identical Farichilds in our Air Force, one of the Fairchilds fell in the Andes, you know the story of the rugby team of whom a score of survivors were eventually rescued after two young players walked their way out of the mountain to find help. It will be permanently etched in my retina the diamond formation of the four planes I once saw, well before that tragedy. None is flying any more now. Back to the antarctic base resupply, the hop from Punta Arenas had to be decided on a brink when weather just looked good and hopefully acceptable for the return trip. Drill being basically cross fingers, be ready to turn around immediately less risk being stranded. In more than one occasion the resupply trip had to abort midway because of deteriorating weather or higher than forecast winds or whatever nature happened to throw at on those unwelcoming high latitudes. It was only later that the trusty Fokker was relieved by four newly acquired (second hand) C130's, taking supply duty in a much more relaxed manner with speed, endurance and altitude capabilities at their favor. Then of course I had to make the Atlantic crossing which is why I digressed, only my idea was by the southerly, longer route which meant I needed a stepping stone, Ascension Island ideally located for the role. Problem was Ascension Island was nowhere to be found, neither in the FS98 scenery nor in any other scenery collection as far as I was able to check then. But what the heck! It is 1998 and Internet times and there are tools and information out there waiting to be recruited for the occasion, so go do some research and build it from scratch! For the location and layout I found a good map in the Web, and Ascension being a small island, just traced the contour by hand. For the mountains - Ascension is a volcanic island tipping out from the mid Atlantic ridge - I found a scenery shapes tool for that purpose on FlightSim.Com; sorry I do not remember which one. With those tools and the elevation profiles included in said map, I assembled the scenery package complete with the Royal Air Force airstrip located true to reality which was the purpose of the whole exercise. Then after some test flying around, I set to make the crossing in my C130 with GPS as only tool to navigate up there. In order to complete the intended objectives of both crossing the Atlantic and making into Africa, a natural place for the Hercules to serve duty. The Hercules remains today an iconic workhorse for rough and difficult missions particularly in humanitarian and disaster relief duty after a very long career. A very long career like that of the Boeing 727 which can be found still now performing cargo duty, will be with this airliner shortly. And after hours of mesmerizing cruise suspended high over the ocean, warm and cozy in the darkness, as if hurtling at more than 800 km/h inside an alumininum tube 10 km high in the stratosphere were a rather unsubstantial piece of information than something with a real meaning, we make to Brazil. Recife is a frequent stopover for Lufthansa cargo only less so than Campinhas which is the cargo hub for Sao Paulo, Brazil's commercial and industrial center of gravity. Not surprisingly, Recife was one of the first settlements the Portuguese established in South America, being right in the easternmost corner of the continent. In its origins, fishing and later sugar cane trade were the main economic activites from its foundation in 1537 onwards. Trade, technology, health services and tourism are now powerful levers for a regional economy which affords one of the best places to live in Brazil in terms of quality of life. Down the road among the stream of coastal waypoints before digging inland is Salvador. Salvador de Bahia is one of those places one cannot afford to miss given the slightest chance as is also the case for Rio, only be prepared to face some security issues, nothing that cannot be coped with basic commonsense. It was the first capital of Brazil until the role passed to Rio de Janeiro in 1763. Like Recife, Salvador's main export during the colonial period was sugar, being for some time the largest exporter worldwide. One of the most widely known attractions in Salvador is the historical center which became known as "pelourinho", a reference to the central court where mostly slaves were punished. Recall the widespread sugar cane plantations were insatiable consumers of slave labor and Brazil inherits today a strong presence of descendants from those shadowy times. Whatever, the historical center has been subject to careful restoration under the designation of cultural heritage by UNESCO. Of course Brazil's thousands of miles of Atlantic coastline are represented here by year round balmy wheather, sun, sand and blue and white surf to enjoy from all corners of the world through world class facilities and services. Talking about sun, sand and surf, in Uruguay we used to boast not only of Punta del Este, but of our Atlantic coastline notwithstanding it being less than 200 km, good for just about four months in the year if you are looking for summertime. Yet it is surprising how much Brazilians flock to our tiny beaches considering their own gorgeous Atlantic coastlines. One frequently told reason is Uruguay features that kind of tranquility not often found in Brazil where security or just harrasement from street merchants play against otherwise paradisiacal locations as much as is the case for renowned international sun and sea resorts elsewhere. I was flying (virtually) around here last year in the FSX Maule. How come? It was late 2015 and I was looking for something different after having completed three round the world trips with the Level-D 767 along different routes. Just for a change I selected the Maule and placed it in a random little field in Alaska. Shame I did not take notes, do not remember precisely which one, could not find it later. Whatever, after some frolicking around, decided to head south to some other airfield within less than 100 nm, and then another. Then I just let myself drift south, cross the coastal ranges near Valdez, kept jumping airport to airport never more than a couple of hundred miles away. After over a year flying low and slow I completed the trip to Montevideo, bad I did not keep a log, could have made for a good story, I remember well Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Mexico DF, Oaxaca, Panama, Maracaibo, Isla Margarita, Paramaribo, Macapa and so on. No matter, I will sprinkle anecdotes as I can recall from that adventure in upcoming features. So that's it, landed in Campinhas, made a quick turnover and launched again for Montevideo at last! This leg is only 850 miles long and takes us down from the Brazilian planalto to the state of Rio Grande and finally to my home Uruguay. The flight path goes over Curitiba which not by chance is also a regular stopover for our MD11. Curitiba is a major economic hub for Brazil, and home for one of the most innovative public transportation systems integrating a network of buses of different capacities and speeds which served as inspiration for similar systems elewhere. While comparatively close to the coast, Curitiba sits on the Altiplano Paranaense, mean altitude about 3000 ft. so winter temperatures are lower than expected at this latitude while the ocean proximity damps otherwise expected large temperature excursions. While he was born in Rio, not Curitiba, there is a museum dedicated to Oscar Niemeyer, the long-lived architect responsible for the design from scratch of Brazil's capital, Brasilia, iconic in its urbanistic boldness. Miles slip by underneath and we fly into Rio Grande do Sul, leave Porto Alegre abeam and finally cross into Uruguay airspace. Will leave for another occasion a more thorough introduction and rather race to a quick arrival, it's been a long trip from Dakar and the risk of being boring creeps up dangerously, so enough for the time being. Here we are at last! In front is the new terminal opened to public December 2009, the older terminal which lays out of sight to the right being repurposed for cargo. Sometimes I fear of running out of ideas for writing this series, but then start to remember this or that experience, or things learned, which seem to be never-ending. That I have been around for some time by now no doubt helps in this department, so if you can bear me along, we'll be sharing more in future installments. To meet exotic far away places, talk about many airplanes that left a mark in history, talk - why not - about inmersive experiences with fighter flight simulators, but then about great inspiring aviation writers like late Gordon Baxter or Len Morgan and much more. Rodolfo Astrada