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A challenge if you will.

P

padburgess

Charter Member
Hi All

Well not so much a challenge as an opportunity to display some of your skill and share an adventure.
I have just finished the first leg of a planned route and invite you all to share the experience. My flight was VFR, from Abbortsford to Prince George via the Fraser River valley/gorge.
I invite you all to fly the route as I did and then post some shots of it or just register your success or not as the case may be.
There are a couple of simple rules. The flight must be in the river valley, at no more than 600ft AGL, at no less than 350knots and you must not pop up above the surrounding terrain highest points (stay below radar coverage). You may cut corners where suitable (it is impossible to keep to the river valley implicitly as the turns in places are just too tight, so as long as you do not pop the surrounding terrain you can straight line them).
I used Alphasims TSR2 for my flight but you can use what ever aircraft you like, as long as it can sustain 350knots. Most of my flight was done at above 450knots with a max of 580knots, then a full throttle run (dry) over Prince George.
tsr2_trip-track.jpgtsr2_trip-Fraser_River_gorge1.jpgtsr2_trip-Fraser_River_gorge2.jpgtsr2_trip-Prince-George.jpgtsr2_trip-at gate-Prince+George.jpgroute2.jpg

The final shot is of the planned route.
Have fun and I hope some of you post shots.

Paul
 
I'm afraid I will be fired from the RAF after this one... A challenging route. I busted the altitude and speed limits a couple of times. This was actually my second run. The first time I lost the river and ended up in New Mexico. I think. So I made a detailed flight plan that followed the river and gave it another go. I found that for most of the run there's no water in the river, in my FSX install. No wonder I got lost! I managed not to bump into any trees or rocks, and Mr. Richardson's beautiful Meteor emerged without blemishes or dents... :)

 
Where do you start to turn north? Is it at Hope?

I tried my first run in the KBT P-3. Crashed into a mountain. I got disoriented. The weather was a little foggy, so that did not help. A lot of fun though. I'm ready for the next try.

ss1989.jpg
 
Yep. Hope is where the river turns north. Not the big lake to the west, which is where I turned north the first time. I thought of using a large airliner, but most of them can't do 350 knots on the deck without over-speeding, as it looks like you have discovered... :)
 
Well done PRB. Yes it is challenging. My first attempt also ended in a mountain. I'm using Orbyx PNW textures so I have very good scenery all the way.
James, turn North at hope and then do just that. I think you will find that large planes are just that. Too big. The valley gets very constricted in places.
Viper, you can do this in any sim. I just thought to post the idea and the challenge.

Screen shots are great guys.
 
Now in my head I knew a Vulcan just wouldn't be nimble enough, but I soooo wanted to be wrong... I wasn't...

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk
 
A pair from my 1st run...

fsscr004.jpg

fsscr005.jpg

The 2nd screenie shows me 300' or so high as I jinked over Terrain... this was just before Lilooet, where I got frazzled, thought I was lost, and pulled 40° nose up!

Great little 'test'; to keep 350 + kts. and down low it's gotta be small and fast; maybe a bizjet like the Phenom or Hondajet?

Kirk's Viper, with the Air Show Tour Panel...
 
Was doing quite well in an F-86 until a bridge jumped out in front of me... Have to transfer the Bucc out or the hangar, or maybe a harrier...

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk
 
Well I have to say that was quite a challenge. I started out three times. First, I selected my trusty L-39 just because I enjoy flying it so much but knowing I'd have a hard time maintaining the minimum speed. That proved to be absolutely true. I got well past the half-way mark and finally decided to bail because even on full throttle, it gave up too much speed with all the tight turns it was rarely above 350 knots.
fsx 2014-04-07 18-51-40-54.jpg

Next I decided to try something I knew would easily achieve the speed and had the necessary agility - a Eurofighter Typhoon. But alas, it also wanted to give up too much speed in the tight turns and required as much working of the throttle as the steering to maintain speed (which I dropped below several times before I started to get the hang of it) but not go too fast. I quickly grew frustrated with this aircraft and abandoned my second attempt maybe 60 miles into the course.

For my third (and final, at least for tonight), I decided to go old school and try the F-104.
fsx 2014-04-07 19-57-05-43.jpg
This aircraft performed better than I expected! It was not one to give up speed in the turns, so I was pretty much able to set the throttle and concentrate on driving. Visibility was not the best:
fsx 2014-04-07 20-02-25-86.jpg
but I was doing well... until I got about half way to Prince George when a tree jumped up and grabbed my bird.
fsx 2014-04-07 20-18-54-25.jpg
Good challenge! I'm exhausted!
 
I realize at my first attempt in the P-3 I turned at Chilliwack airport, not Hope. I was doomed to fail. I was thinking of trying the S2 Bucaneer, but in testing that out around the Abbotsford area, I realized it makes a lot of audio calls. Plus I am not that familiar with it. I think it would do a great job though.

I thought about the A-6, but both I have are older and just don't seem up to the task. I wonder if the A-10 can do it?

Does anyone make a good CF-100?

Jim
 
James1967A1 said:
I realize at my first attempt in the P-3 I turned at Chilliwack airport, not Hope. I was doomed to fail. I was thinking of trying the S2 Bucaneer, but in testing that out around the Abbotsford area, I realized it makes a lot of audio calls. Plus I am not that familiar with it. I think it would do a great job though.

I thought about the A-6, but both I have are older and just don't seem up to the task. I wonder if the A-10 can do it?

Does anyone make a good CF-100?

Jim
Click to expand...

Jim,

Take your pick... I'm up for my 2nd try. I'll try the Intruder, you try the 'Hog.

:D
 
Neat. At first, while I was reading the original post, I was thinking 'Hey, I've flown that route in FSX before!'. Then I was thinking, 'Oh, I've flown it in the valley before, what's the big dea...' and that's when I saw the 350+ knots speed limitation. That sir, I have not done! Looks like a fun challenge though!
 
I'll give the A-10 a try :untroubled:

The Buccaneer also looks promising from my tests around Abbotsford. I'm just not familiar enough with the aircraft yet.

Jim
 
You guys realise that at least in peace time both civil and military aircraft are legally limited to no more than 250 knots IAS below 10,000'?

Anyway, I am not going to be a spoiled sport - what a fun challenge in such a scenic area! Think I will try it in something light, small and agile like the the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and report back.
 
Well done gents.

This was the most challenging of these flights I have done for a while. My passion in flight sim is valley runs. Pick some terrain, a small powerful bird and go visit at low level. Not always successful but I'm getting better. This flight is the culmination of about 18mths practice. If you look at my original post and the last pick of the planned route, you will see that even though this leg is a major challenge, the true challenge is going to be the upper reaches of the Columbia river gorge.

I test the route by going over it in Google maps with the tilt option on so I get an idea of the terrain and where it is going to be necessary to short cut some of the more challenging turns. even the short cuts can be a challenge as to stop popping the terrain if I need to cut a corner over a ridge line I generally do them as inverted rolls. You can do this as long as you stay below the dominant heights. If you do this entirely in the river valley, then total kudos to you sir. You have my absolute respect.

To all of you who have tried this, congratulations. To those who have yet to succeed, persevere and remember that the beauty of flight sim is that we get to go back and repeat our unsuccessful attempts.

In selecting a bird for this I chose the TSR2 because it is extremely agile for a larger bird and is as happy at 350knots as it is at 1500knots. It had lots of high lift devices and a ton of power with a wicked roll response. So wicked that in one of my first tries at this I rolled myself into a cliff. The throttle and speed brakes do get a fairly good workout though. It takes a fair degree of confidence in your aircraft to deliberately pitch it into a steep turn under speed brakes without knowing fully what waits on the other side. Sometimes you win, others not so much.
 
The Vulcan may not have managed it, but she looked pretty as hell! ;)

2014-4-7_23-20-45-774.jpg
 
The good people of Yale are gonna be picking bits of Buccaneer out of their back yards for some time I fear... Took a few attempts to find a good line through that corner. Made it about halfway before calling it a night.

I'm finding I'm staying too low and really having trouble on the tighter bends, have to force myself to stop dipping my toes in the river! ;) I suppose that's what I get for flying a naval aircraft! ;) The (UKMIL) Bucc does handle it brilliantly though, I was hitting 450-600 knots a lot of the time and the massive speedbrake really slows you down FAST when you need it! The constant "dont sink" is a bit distracting though....
 
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