The Polar Express

[Moses03]

5am local, looking out over the airfield. It has been snowing for days now and the howling wind never seems to let up. The high temperature today is not going to climb above 11F. I think I'm going to go back into the hangar for some lukewarm coffee.

There sitting quietly on the frigid ramp is a metal giant capable of turning out over 10,000 hp...

 

[speedy70]

Great.

Are you going to release the paint?

Cheers Chris

 

[Moses03]

Hey Chris,

This is not my doing. Manfred Jahn released a few C-121 paints for his Connie series some time ago which can be found at Flightsim.

Just giving the older model some appreciation before the new A2A L-049 pushes it to the boneyard.

 

[Willy]

Finally made it to Deadhorse about 5am and saw Moses's shiny Lockheed. I Got a little sidetracked with this Russian guy who made me a great deal on on an aircraft formerly used by the USSR's Polar Aviation division of Aeroflot. He said there's a few cases of vodka in the cargo hold that he'd throw in on the deal. Now to go install a coffee pot in the galley....

 

[Taco]

Arrived a little later than Moses and Willy.

 

[Moses03]

Well, we finally got underway today. Unfortunately the C-121 was out on assignment so I had to settle for another large beast parked on the ramp.

 

[Taco]

Oops, looks like I missed the start.

 

[Moses03]

Weather started to deteriorate over the Brooks Range. Bit of a white knuckle approach into Red Dog.

 

[Willy]

A few shots from tonight's flight

 

[Taco]

Hey there! Well, had some problems with this here computer for the last few weeks. Got it to work this "AM, sure as heck I don't know what I did to get the bloody thing working right, and so, decided to take off and catch up with Flight 19 at PARD, and don't ask me where it is had a heck of a time to fine the Airport. But, we made it.

 

[Willy]

We had a time trying to find it as well. The NDB frequency is in part of the range that a lot of ADF equipment doesn't have. Fortunately (for me) that old German ADF does. Especially since GPS wasn't part of the option package for it. Even with the ADF, it was just luck that I spotted the airfield in the low vis there.

 

[Moses03]

We pushed on to Bullen Point Air Force Station in Kaktovik (8AK7).

Had to watch out for wake turbulence from srgalahad's giant Globemaster on final. Interesting that he was putting out a contrail at such a low alt. Either than or one of the beer kegs had popped open and was foaming out the back.

 

[Willy]

Traded the Lockheed on this one. The guy at the Swap and Shop said it was a "DeSoto", but it looks suspiciously "Douglas" to me

 

[AussieMan]

Allows you to carry more "cargo" mate.

 

[Willy]

Allows you to carry more "cargo" mate.

I told Moses that I needed something with more legroom and a bigger trunk.

 

[Moses03]

Looks like we are grounded in Fort Yukon until the weather gets a little better.

Here is a photo from the other day when we departed Bullen Point in a blizzard. Maybe not the smartest decision.

 

[Taco]

Hey there! Well, we had some problems with the Douglas, but Dudley came thru again and found us this PAA C-87 to use.

 

[Willy]

Things got a bit interesting in the DC-7 last night when it unexpectedly ran out of oil and I had to take to the "lifeboat"....

 

[Willy]

There I was in the Pilot's Lounge needed to find something to fly quick and I got an offer to do some flying for some Dutch outfit out of the Netherlands Antilles. The Caribbean was sounding pretty good about now, so I told 'em I'd give it a whirl. What I didn't know was that they're contracted to fly cargo on the Dew Line stations. Well, at least it's a flying job until something better comes along.

 

[AussieMan]

​Was that the pilot's lounge that had the sign written in braille?