-
Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
**The OFFICIAL All Sims Air Tour Thread**
- Thread starter ViperPilot2
- Start date
bosspecops
Members +
I'm on an FS roll here, heading in toward the end of the Tour. 
My aircraft choice for Leg 26 is another British cargo hauler with a high wing and a pod & boom fuselage, but at the totally opposite end of the size scale to the Beverley. It's the Miles Aerovan, a tiny aeroplane, one third the size of the Bev, TWENTY SIX times lighter, and with 38 times less power! Melo will remember this particular one, G-AGOZ, as it's the same aeroplane that I flew in a Compuserve Flight Rally a long time ago. The Rally was to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and I flew it from where I actually was at the time, in Ireland. The flight took me over two weeks!
This FSX model is a much better one than the one I flew back then, which was in FS4 or 5 I think, and the current version is very nicely done, complete with an opening rear cargo door, and front cockpit door.
Even better, the Aerovan even has cargo loaded aboard, and you can see that the internal door from the cockpit to the hold opens as well.
The 'Van has quite good ground handling, but with only 300 bhp in total it takes a while to get going and it took me a while to taxi all the way down to the Pittsburgh threshold. With 50% flaps lowered I started my take-off run, and eventually lifted off at around 65 - 70 kits, but I needed a lot of runway. The 'Van climbs very slowly, only some 650 fpm and at around a steady 65 kts the whole way. As the cloudbase was quite low I kept to a 2500 ft cruise altitude, and finally managed to speed up to 110 kts as I left Pittsburgh astern.
The panel is rather neat, and quite fully equipped, both in 3D and 2D form, but for some reason neither fuel gauge actually works, reading OVER 100% the entire time!
Heading just south of west to start with, I flew south of Pittsburgh city itself, but it was surely visible over to my right. I had a good set of radio aids to use and was able to home on various VORs and NDBs too, which was good as the Aerovan was buffeted about by the gusty wind quite a bit. Being such a small aeroplane sometimes had disadvantages, I doubt he Bev would even have noticed!
Heading towards Ohio, for a very short while I was flying over an arm of West Virginia which stretches north between Pennsylvania and Ohio, all very odd, but soon I crossed the Ohio River itself and into Ohio itself. Oddly I crossed the river just south of a seaplane base, Wellsburg Base, WV46. Not something I expected to see this far inland.
Heading out into the west the land flattened out somewhat and became very forested indeed, trees EVRYwhere. I passed over one nice little field, Harrison Co. 8G6, right on the edge of those trees.
From that point on I turned a little further to the south and headed directly toward Columbus, the state capital, but it was a long, flat stretch before the city hove over the horizon. I realised I was getting closer to civilisation as more and more freeways started to appear below me.
After that it was straight track all the way onto the runway at Dayton, and was able to throttle back and slide gently down toward I19.
The Aerovan was very pitch sensitive to its flap setting, and with full flap I was coming down like a turbo-charged elevator, and ended up far too low, and had to grab more throttle rather quickly.
I did just skate over the field boundary and plonked Oscar Zulu somewhere on the runway, just not on the centre line, nor on the numbers either, and taxied to parking. I19 is another of those totally building-less fields that seem to pepper FSX, such a pity.
Not the fastest flight I've made, but a very enjoyable one, just keeping the 'Van airborne some of the time. My average speed was 87 kts and I only burnt 11 galls of fuel! Couldn't be more different to the Bev if I tried.
My aircraft choice for Leg 26 is another British cargo hauler with a high wing and a pod & boom fuselage, but at the totally opposite end of the size scale to the Beverley. It's the Miles Aerovan, a tiny aeroplane, one third the size of the Bev, TWENTY SIX times lighter, and with 38 times less power! Melo will remember this particular one, G-AGOZ, as it's the same aeroplane that I flew in a Compuserve Flight Rally a long time ago. The Rally was to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and I flew it from where I actually was at the time, in Ireland. The flight took me over two weeks!
This FSX model is a much better one than the one I flew back then, which was in FS4 or 5 I think, and the current version is very nicely done, complete with an opening rear cargo door, and front cockpit door.
Even better, the Aerovan even has cargo loaded aboard, and you can see that the internal door from the cockpit to the hold opens as well.
The 'Van has quite good ground handling, but with only 300 bhp in total it takes a while to get going and it took me a while to taxi all the way down to the Pittsburgh threshold. With 50% flaps lowered I started my take-off run, and eventually lifted off at around 65 - 70 kits, but I needed a lot of runway. The 'Van climbs very slowly, only some 650 fpm and at around a steady 65 kts the whole way. As the cloudbase was quite low I kept to a 2500 ft cruise altitude, and finally managed to speed up to 110 kts as I left Pittsburgh astern.
The panel is rather neat, and quite fully equipped, both in 3D and 2D form, but for some reason neither fuel gauge actually works, reading OVER 100% the entire time!
Heading just south of west to start with, I flew south of Pittsburgh city itself, but it was surely visible over to my right. I had a good set of radio aids to use and was able to home on various VORs and NDBs too, which was good as the Aerovan was buffeted about by the gusty wind quite a bit. Being such a small aeroplane sometimes had disadvantages, I doubt he Bev would even have noticed!
Heading towards Ohio, for a very short while I was flying over an arm of West Virginia which stretches north between Pennsylvania and Ohio, all very odd, but soon I crossed the Ohio River itself and into Ohio itself. Oddly I crossed the river just south of a seaplane base, Wellsburg Base, WV46. Not something I expected to see this far inland.
Heading out into the west the land flattened out somewhat and became very forested indeed, trees EVRYwhere. I passed over one nice little field, Harrison Co. 8G6, right on the edge of those trees.
From that point on I turned a little further to the south and headed directly toward Columbus, the state capital, but it was a long, flat stretch before the city hove over the horizon. I realised I was getting closer to civilisation as more and more freeways started to appear below me.
After that it was straight track all the way onto the runway at Dayton, and was able to throttle back and slide gently down toward I19.
The Aerovan was very pitch sensitive to its flap setting, and with full flap I was coming down like a turbo-charged elevator, and ended up far too low, and had to grab more throttle rather quickly.
I did just skate over the field boundary and plonked Oscar Zulu somewhere on the runway, just not on the centre line, nor on the numbers either, and taxied to parking. I19 is another of those totally building-less fields that seem to pepper FSX, such a pity.
Not the fastest flight I've made, but a very enjoyable one, just keeping the 'Van airborne some of the time. My average speed was 87 kts and I only burnt 11 galls of fuel! Couldn't be more different to the Bev if I tried.
lucb
SOH-CM-2026
I love this little Aerovan. I have the David Molyneaux FS2004 version and have flew it in a previous adventure but where to find this FSX?I'm on an FS roll here, heading in toward the end of the Tour.
My aircraft choice for Leg 26 is another British cargo hauler with a high wing and a pod & boom fuselage, but at the totally opposite end of the size scale to the Beverley. It's the Miles Aerovan, a tiny aeroplane, one third the size of the Bev, TWENTY SIX times lighter, and with 38 times less power! Melo will remember this particular one, G-AGOZ, as it's the same aeroplane that I flew in a Compuserve Flight Rally a long time ago. The Rally was to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and I flew it from where I actually was at the time, in Ireland. The flight took me over two weeks!
This FSX model is a much better one than the one I flew back then, which was in FS4 or 5 I think, and the current version is very nicely done, complete with an opening rear cargo door, and front cockpit door.
There's something about the Aerovan. Not particulary attractive, certainly not fast, quite utilitarian, like a pickup truck. There were times I've had a Porsche in the driveway but found myself driving my old Ford pickup most of the time.
And of course I had to make a wide screen panel for it. Found no suitable photos so redid the default using detail from photos.
And of course I had to make a wide screen panel for it. Found no suitable photos so redid the default using detail from photos.
bosspecops
Members +
I zipped my install, including panel and liveries, and uploaded for some folks on flightsim, you may have that.
Next leg - W03 to KMQI, ostensibly 127 miles, in a Davis D-1-W of 135hp. Around fifty of these were made in 1929-1930, with engines from 65hp-145hp, at least one was made with an enclosed cockpit (it won the 1934 Miami air race, averaging over 133mph, with Art Davis as pilot) . They were quite popular with "sporting" pilots through the thirties; Art Chester flew a D-1-85 to victory in the 1930 National Air Race. About a dozen are still on the US registry as "airworthy", with about half of those in excellent condition and still flying regularly.
Warming up at W03
And I'm off (general consensus)
Cruising along 96kt at 3600ft, to my eyes a sharp looking plane from any angle
Egad! (If I were in an enclosed cockpit it would be 90deg outside)
Lake Phelps, the second largest natural lake in North Carolina, at 16,600 acres (67sq km); a popular recreation and fishing area, it was protected as a state park on 1929, and some areas are restricted as archeological sites (artifacts dating back 8000 years have been discovered).
23 miles to go and I'm beset with snow again
If I had a floatplane I'd return to the lake and wait
15 miles to go; when I made this panel I'd found no photos of a Davis cockpit (the creator of this FS aircraft admitted he hadn't either), so I imagined what a well heeled sporting pilot of the era may have ordered (fuel gauges on the wing are accurate however)
The real cockpit
Warming up at W03
And I'm off (general consensus)
Cruising along 96kt at 3600ft, to my eyes a sharp looking plane from any angle
Egad! (If I were in an enclosed cockpit it would be 90deg outside)
Lake Phelps, the second largest natural lake in North Carolina, at 16,600 acres (67sq km); a popular recreation and fishing area, it was protected as a state park on 1929, and some areas are restricted as archeological sites (artifacts dating back 8000 years have been discovered).
23 miles to go and I'm beset with snow again
If I had a floatplane I'd return to the lake and wait
15 miles to go; when I made this panel I'd found no photos of a Davis cockpit (the creator of this FS aircraft admitted he hadn't either), so I imagined what a well heeled sporting pilot of the era may have ordered (fuel gauges on the wing are accurate however)
The real cockpit
Descending to KMQI, ten miles out
Turning to final
Destination ahead
No screenshots of the landing, a treacherous crosswind had me at 45deg to the runway while flying straight along it; aborted the landing on runway 5 and looped around to runway 19, where it was a nice headwind for landing.
135 miles in 72 min; add on ten miles and fifteen minutes for the go around
Turning to final
Destination ahead
No screenshots of the landing, a treacherous crosswind had me at 45deg to the runway while flying straight along it; aborted the landing on runway 5 and looped around to runway 19, where it was a nice headwind for landing.
135 miles in 72 min; add on ten miles and fifteen minutes for the go around
And now for something completely different...
What to take from KMQI to KFFA? In this case a Wright Model B of 1910, one of the first commercially produced aircraft, used by the US Army and Navy; many early pilots made a living touring the country and charging people for their first glimpse of a flying machine, being a two seater it also gave many their first ride in an aircraft (though how is a mystery, it's sluggish enough getting airborne with just a pilot). Two attempts to get the engine running, four attempts at taking off (amidst foul comments from my ground crew, headed by a Mr Slew, of having to turn the thing around 180 degrees at the end of the runway so I could try again).
But eventually on my way, at a blistering 35kt ...don't try to climb, at 30kt it will stall with no chance of recovery
Runway sighted, plane had climbed to a dizzying 280ft on its own (that's about 150ft in 5 miles)
On final (let's hope the trip doesn't take that term literally) ...notice I'm overspeed at 50kt, but throttle back and the engine is likely to stop
Throttle to "idle", about halfway, and glide on down; thank providence there were no crosswinds
10 miles in 18 minutes
What to take from KMQI to KFFA? In this case a Wright Model B of 1910, one of the first commercially produced aircraft, used by the US Army and Navy; many early pilots made a living touring the country and charging people for their first glimpse of a flying machine, being a two seater it also gave many their first ride in an aircraft (though how is a mystery, it's sluggish enough getting airborne with just a pilot). Two attempts to get the engine running, four attempts at taking off (amidst foul comments from my ground crew, headed by a Mr Slew, of having to turn the thing around 180 degrees at the end of the runway so I could try again).
But eventually on my way, at a blistering 35kt ...don't try to climb, at 30kt it will stall with no chance of recovery
Runway sighted, plane had climbed to a dizzying 280ft on its own (that's about 150ft in 5 miles)
On final (let's hope the trip doesn't take that term literally) ...notice I'm overspeed at 50kt, but throttle back and the engine is likely to stop
Throttle to "idle", about halfway, and glide on down; thank providence there were no crosswinds
10 miles in 18 minutes
bosspecops
Members +
bosspecops
Members +
I mentioned my long flight in an Aerovan earlier here, and amazingly Melo still had my original flight report on file, together with all the pics that I took during the flight! That was back in 2001, and we flew using FS98 then, really very basic compared even to FSX, let alone MSFS these days. That report would make a good kick-off as a novel, re-reading it after all this time too.
Here's my FS98 version of G-AGOZ back then.
Here's my FS98 version of G-AGOZ back then.
Oh dear oh dear, you take your focus off the gaggle for a short time and they go nuts! (Have been busy with RW stuff. Lots of lovely reading for me to do tomorrow, my Sunday). Glad someone, jgf, finally decided to take a Wright Flyer to KFFA. A proper tribute!
Thought: how many 'person-hours' has been 'invested' (aka 'wasted') in this Adventure. Answer: heaps! What a wonderful fraternity, where we all can feel part of a group, but independently do our own thing, our own flights, then share with the gaggle via screenshots and stories. Great stuff guys! Keep on keeping on! ('Et ardua ad astra'!)
Thought: how many 'person-hours' has been 'invested' (aka 'wasted') in this Adventure. Answer: heaps! What a wonderful fraternity, where we all can feel part of a group, but independently do our own thing, our own flights, then share with the gaggle via screenshots and stories. Great stuff guys! Keep on keeping on! ('Et ardua ad astra'!)
bosspecops
Members +
And at last I've made it all the way round the Tour.
I did say one of my last three types would be a jet, but it's a rather special one, albeit rather small. I chose the CMC Leopard, a very small, 4 seat, twin jet aircraft built in the UK in 1988, but the project never got any further sadly, but the two Leopards built still exist and I see one of them quite often at the Midlands Air Museum in Coventry.
I found this superb FSX example a few years ago, and adopted it, after a suitable repaint as my own 'taxi', G-KITS, while flying with the Albion Air Cargo VA, and it's a delight to fly, but having rather short legs as downloaded as its fuel thirst is considerable!
Here I'm parked up at Dayton I19, ready to take off for Willow Run KYIP. The Leopard has astonishing ground handling as it'll turn on a sixpence (5 cents to you guys in the west....) with its automatic differential brakes. Both the fin and tailplanes are all moving, and the tailplanes work differentially for roll control too, very innovative. Almost the entire wing trailing edge is a flap surface, and the Leopard has no ailerons at all.
The interior of the FSX model is magnificent, with only a 3D panel, but a very well equipped one, and all four seats and interior trim are modelled too, and I could have posted half a dozen pics of it, but I'd have run out of image space.
I had no surface wind at all at Dayton so took off heading as near directly toward Willow Run as I could, and that track took me directly over Wright Patterson AFB KFFO. For some reason FSX shows this major UASF site with NO buildings at all, and try as I might I couldn't find any scenery for the place, no matter where I looked. I think that's just awful.
Climbing to my cruise altitude of 10000 ft , in an attempt to minimise the fuel burn rate, I was following a Low Altitude Routing and managed 250 kts quite nicely. The real Leopard could manage well over 450 kts, but I've yet to tweak the flight model to get it to do that.
While I didn't notice her alongside me in the cockpit, it seemed I'd inherited a quite attractive female co-pilot somehow........
Heading on across Ohio, approximately toward Toledo, I passed over quite a good looking small field at Lima Allen County KAOH which had what seemed to be a nice lake just north of it, but it turns out the lake was actually the Ferguson Reservoir. Rather oddly the diagonal runway at KAOH no longer exists in the RW, but you can just see traces of it on Google Earth.
Onward, ever onward I went, and was soon within sight of Lake Erie and Toledo itself, with the Maumee River leading into the Lake from mid-Ohio. Just as I passed Toledo I started my descent toward Willow Run, and had to throttle back markedly as the little jet was trying hard to reach 300 kts!
As the local surface wind was reported to be from the southwest I had to fly way past Willow Run to the north before turning on my base leg for the approach., and I got a good view of my last Tour landing point as I passed by.
Turning base, G-KITS was still doing over 200 kts, and I used the Leopard's very effective air brake, which folds out from the belly as you can see below. I also noticed a considerable amount of traffic in the area too, but most of it was operating in and out of Detroit Metro KDTW.
Just because I could, as the aircraft was suitably fitted, I tried for a full Cat III auto-landing, never having tried it with something this small before, and while the Leopard hooked up on the ILS glidepath very nicely, and tracked straight as a die down the slope, it didn't go to plan as the system put me down on the grass maybe 50 ft to the east of the threshold!
I mentioned the terrible scenery miss-match I found at Willow Run on my very first leg of this Tour, and that may have been the cause of that problem, but I'll try and sort that later.
Taxi-ing across vast areas of pure white finally got me somewhere near where I started from flying Dad's Audax all those weeks ago, but try as I might I could not find the exact same spot. Never mind, I got here OK, and I've finished the Tour.
The last leg was 174 nms long and I averaged 241 kts, but burnt over 70 galls of JetA1!!! The Leopard may well be more economical at higher altitudes, but will need some serious tweaking as it's meant to have a range of over 1700 nms!
All in all, I had a great time on the Tour, flying all sorts of weird (Some VERY weird!) aircraft and seeing parts of the US that I'd never been anywhere near before, and with a great bunch of people too. It was nice to have been here, thanks so much.
I did say one of my last three types would be a jet, but it's a rather special one, albeit rather small. I chose the CMC Leopard, a very small, 4 seat, twin jet aircraft built in the UK in 1988, but the project never got any further sadly, but the two Leopards built still exist and I see one of them quite often at the Midlands Air Museum in Coventry.
I found this superb FSX example a few years ago, and adopted it, after a suitable repaint as my own 'taxi', G-KITS, while flying with the Albion Air Cargo VA, and it's a delight to fly, but having rather short legs as downloaded as its fuel thirst is considerable!
Here I'm parked up at Dayton I19, ready to take off for Willow Run KYIP. The Leopard has astonishing ground handling as it'll turn on a sixpence (5 cents to you guys in the west....
) with its automatic differential brakes. Both the fin and tailplanes are all moving, and the tailplanes work differentially for roll control too, very innovative. Almost the entire wing trailing edge is a flap surface, and the Leopard has no ailerons at all.The interior of the FSX model is magnificent, with only a 3D panel, but a very well equipped one, and all four seats and interior trim are modelled too, and I could have posted half a dozen pics of it, but I'd have run out of image space.
I had no surface wind at all at Dayton so took off heading as near directly toward Willow Run as I could, and that track took me directly over Wright Patterson AFB KFFO. For some reason FSX shows this major UASF site with NO buildings at all, and try as I might I couldn't find any scenery for the place, no matter where I looked. I think that's just awful.
Climbing to my cruise altitude of 10000 ft , in an attempt to minimise the fuel burn rate, I was following a Low Altitude Routing and managed 250 kts quite nicely. The real Leopard could manage well over 450 kts, but I've yet to tweak the flight model to get it to do that.
While I didn't notice her alongside me in the cockpit, it seemed I'd inherited a quite attractive female co-pilot somehow........
Heading on across Ohio, approximately toward Toledo, I passed over quite a good looking small field at Lima Allen County KAOH which had what seemed to be a nice lake just north of it, but it turns out the lake was actually the Ferguson Reservoir. Rather oddly the diagonal runway at KAOH no longer exists in the RW, but you can just see traces of it on Google Earth.
Onward, ever onward I went, and was soon within sight of Lake Erie and Toledo itself, with the Maumee River leading into the Lake from mid-Ohio. Just as I passed Toledo I started my descent toward Willow Run, and had to throttle back markedly as the little jet was trying hard to reach 300 kts!
As the local surface wind was reported to be from the southwest I had to fly way past Willow Run to the north before turning on my base leg for the approach., and I got a good view of my last Tour landing point as I passed by.
Turning base, G-KITS was still doing over 200 kts, and I used the Leopard's very effective air brake, which folds out from the belly as you can see below. I also noticed a considerable amount of traffic in the area too, but most of it was operating in and out of Detroit Metro KDTW.
Just because I could, as the aircraft was suitably fitted, I tried for a full Cat III auto-landing, never having tried it with something this small before, and while the Leopard hooked up on the ILS glidepath very nicely, and tracked straight as a die down the slope, it didn't go to plan as the system put me down on the grass maybe 50 ft to the east of the threshold!
I mentioned the terrible scenery miss-match I found at Willow Run on my very first leg of this Tour, and that may have been the cause of that problem, but I'll try and sort that later.
Taxi-ing across vast areas of pure white
finally got me somewhere near where I started from flying Dad's Audax all those weeks ago, but try as I might I could not find the exact same spot. Never mind, I got here OK, and I've finished the Tour. The last leg was 174 nms long and I averaged 241 kts, but burnt over 70 galls of JetA1!!! The Leopard may well be more economical at higher altitudes, but will need some serious tweaking as it's meant to have a range of over 1700 nms!
All in all, I had a great time on the Tour, flying all sorts of weird (Some VERY weird!) aircraft and seeing parts of the US that I'd never been anywhere near before, and with a great bunch of people too. It was nice to have been here, thanks so much.
Nice to see a Leopard in the air again! 
Melo965
Members +
We are grateful for the warm welcome here.This site welcomes your arrival too!
bosspecops
Members +
I'm working on improving its range and speed Melo.
It really does need to have a more realistic RW performance, and so far I can get it up to around 25000 ft and 300 kts, but even with the correct size fuel tanks its range is lamentably short. A more realistic fuel burn rate is needed.