Around the world in 175 days.

[blanston12]

April 13, 1924: They could not leave on the 11th because of heavy rain. It rained, hailed and snowed on the 12th. The flyer were kept busy keeping trying to protect there aircraft that kept loosing there anchors, but on the 13th it was clear and calm so they took on extra fuel so they could reach 625 miles to Steward in case the weather was clear at their initial destination of Cordova. With Lt Wade in the lead they took off, the good weather did not last long and they flew in violent snow storms. Wade flew at 100 feet over the shore line with the others in formation behind as they tried to avoid the mountains that would loom up in their way…


June 24, 2017: Today I will by flying the de Havilland DH.82 Tiger moth. The tiger moth first flew in 1932 and was an evolution of the earlier DH.60 Moth. It was used as the primary trainer for the RAF and many other Air forces until the late 50’s and is still operated by many private individuals and flying clubs. Well over 8000 were built. Today I will be using the model built by Ant’s Airplanes and I like this model enough that it is setup as the default aircraft when I load flight sim.


There are many more capable aircraft from the early 30’s I could have used but I did not want to pass up the TM, but it does not have the range to make Steward so instead the destination will be Yakutat Alaska, 201 nm away. Conditions at Sitka were good for flying, light winds and about a 8k ceiling and started off happily around 4000 ft but soon had to drop to 1000 ft as the clouds got heavier and it started to rain. Lots of cool glaciers to see as we headed along the coast. The weather lighted up as we got close to Yakutat and the flight took 2.3 hours later. Here are a few pics from the flight.

Ready for takeoff.

On our way, good flying weather near Sitka.

Weather is closing in, our first Glacier along the way.

More glaciers.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Yakutat...

Weather is clearing up.

Scenery along the way.

On approach to Yakutat.

Secured.

 

[blanston12]

April 13, 1924: The planes continued on 10 feet above the breakers, "The beach was covered in snow and the air around us was filled with it", Nelson Wrote. Arnold wrote in his diary "I hope we never have to fly through such thick weather again". The weather broke into clear skies and unlimited visibility as they approached Cordova, so instead of landing there they continued on to Seward. Major Martin late sent a letter of apology to the Mayor of Cordova when he learned they had prepared a reception and dinner in there honor.


June 25, 2017: Today I planned to use the De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide. The DH.89 first flew in 1934 and went on to become perhapse the most successful British built short-haul commercial passenger aircraft of the 1930s. The model I will be using today id by Dave Garwood and the CBFS design team and is excellent.


Flying weather today was excellent, Clear, scattered clouds, easy flying until I got close to Montague island when the clouds started to thicken up. Knowing the island was in front of me I decided to go over the small cloud in front of me but then saw that the clouds extended for quite some distance beyond i headed for the nearest hole in the clouds to head back to low level., I had to drop to 600 feet to get below the clouds. The clouds broke about 15 minute later and I could climb back to 1500 ft and cruised along the coast until i reached the mouth of Resurrection Bay, then up the bay and a landed at Steward. I travelled the 297 nm from Yakutat to Seward in 3.1 hours.


Here are the pics:

Where did these guys come from, well there the passangers, looks like they are headed to a Grunge concert or something, hope they enjoy the flight.

Climbing out over Yakutat Bay.

Glamour shots.

Clouds starting to close in.

 

[blanston12]

Rapide to Seward continued...

Trying to get under them.

Clear skys again.

Resurrection Bay

The town of Seward Alaska.

Thanks for viewing, feel free to comment if you like, dislike or have any questions about this series.

 

[Portia911]

Another great aircraft choice, Joe. That Rapide is a lovely add on. I flew the float variant for a while - mostly because it came in Queen Charlotte Airlines livery - very proximate, eh!

You could dip back into the GAS hangar soon and try their Stinson Junior - one of which comes in McGee Airways livery (a 1930s Anchorage-based forebear of Alaska Airlines).

Oh and I think your destination there is Seward, rather than Steward - but either way, keep on keeping on!

 

[ryapad]

Your getting close to my home! Just wondering, do you have a map of all of the places you have stopped buy? you can make one here if you want:
https://www.zeemaps.com/
It's free too!

Keep on flying, no matter how slow these old planes are!

 

[blanston12]

Another great aircraft choice, Joe. That Rapide is a lovely add on. I flew the float variant for a while - mostly because it came in Queen Charlotte Airlines livery - very proximate, eh!

You could dip back into the GAS hangar soon and try their Stinson Junior - one of which comes in McGee Airways livery (a 1930s Anchorage-based forebear of Alaska Airlines).

Oh and I think your destination there is Seward, rather than Steward - but either way, keep on keeping on!

Thanks for the comments. Portia! I will fix the Seward name issue (oops!). I had seriously considered the Stinson Junior when planning this flight, comparing it to what was in my mind a very similar Ryan B5, also by GAS. I finally ended up going with the Ryan mainly because I already had it and it was P3D compatible, but maybe if I can find the JR on sale somewhere I can fit it in.

 

[blanston12]

Your getting close to my home! Just wondering, do you have a map of all of the places you have stopped buy? you can make one here if you want:
https://www.zeemaps.com/
It's free too!

Keep on flying, no matter how slow these old planes are!

Thanks Ryan!, pretty cool site, I will definitely check that out and thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Portia911]

Thanks for the comments. Portia! I will fix the Seward name issue (oops!). I had seriously considered the Stinson Junior when planning this flight, comparing it to what was in my mind a very similar Ryan B5, also by GAS. I finally ended up going with the Ryan mainly because I already had it and it was P3D compatible, but maybe if I can find the JR on sale somewhere I can fit it in.

Sure, Joe - if it came down to choosing between the Brougham or the Stinson Jnr. I think you chose well!

 

[blanston12]

Your getting close to my home! Just wondering, do you have a map of all of the places you have stopped buy? you can make one here if you want:
https://www.zeemaps.com/
It's free too!

Keep on flying, no matter how slow these old planes are!

FSAirlines.net Just added a feature where you can export as a Google Earth KML file, information about the flights you have done on there site. They say its still beta but I used it to create this.

 

[blanston12]

April 15, 1924: By 11 am they were ready for the 425 mile flight to Chignik. Only Major Martin in Seattle had difficulty taking off and had to take three attempts to get in the air. For the next four hours, the flight was uneventful and enjoyable but stiff head winds slowed them down. Harding recalled “The clear deep blue water below, clear skies above, and snow covered peaks and glaciers on our right were beyond description in beauty and splendor” . The other crews noticed that Seattle had dropped down to lower altitude and was staying near the rear of the formation. All but Martin decided to go over a mountain while he tried to go around it. When they reached Cape Igvak Seattle could not be seen in the thick haze, but with the strong head winds they did not have the fuel to go back and search for them. After 6 hours 38 minutes of flying they landed in Anchorage Bay at Chignik they immediately rushed ashore to radio that there leader was missing and believed down on Portage Bay. The Navy immediately ordered the destroyers Corey and Hull to the area.


June 27, 2017: Today I will be flying the Douglas DC-2 for the 364nm flight from Seward to Chignik Alaska. Built in response to a TWA specification for an all metal tri-motor, the Douglas response was more radical with twin engines, retractable landing gear and two 690 hp Wright radial engines driving variable-pitch propellers. Although overshadowed by its ubiquitous successor, it was the DC-2 that first showed that passenger air travel could be comfortable, safe and reliable. It even came in second in the MacRobertson Air Race between London and Melbourne while carrying mails, making scheduled passenger stops.


The model I am flying today is by UIVER Team and is quite nice. Its nice but touchy to fly, if you lower the gear when your flying to fast the hydraulics will fail and the engines cut out on me once as I probably over-revved the engine. But the flight was uneventful for me, even if it was quite rainy when I left Seward and the scenery along the way was quite dramatic. I arrived after 2.3 hours of flying. Here are a few pics from

Ready as Seward, Active Sky said this was light rain.

Back out Resurrection Bay.

I did say there was 'light rain' didn't I.

Glaciers.

 

[blanston12]

Continuing to Chignik...

Not sure what this rock is but it is dramatic.

After flying through some fog the weather finally cleared up.

Approaching Chignik.

Secured.

 

[Willy]

The Uiver Team DC-2 is a long time favorite of mine. One of these days, I need to get the FSX native version as I'm still flying the ported FS9 one.

 

[blanston12]

The Uiver Team DC-2 is a long time favorite of mine. One of these days, I need to get the FSX native version as I'm still flying the ported FS9 one.

I used the FSX version for this post, and good news, it is forward compatible with version 3 and 4 of P3D. It's a very nice aircraft.

On a side note, I re-read the post I wrote at 11pm last night and wanted to make a couple minor edits but today I can't figure out how to do that. A few days ago I was able to go back and correct some misspellings, am I missing something or did something change.

 

[Ganter]

Well done for sticking it out.Following with great interest.

 

[blanston12]

April 15, 1924: After 4 hours of flying Sargent Harvey yelled to Major Martin that the oil pressure gauge had dropped to zero and they immediately looked for a place to land, spotting a sheltered cove in Portage bay. As soon as they had slowed sufficiently Harvey leaped onto the pontoon to check the engine and found a three inch hole in the crank case. Martin and Harvey slept in the cockpits of the airplane, so sure assistance would arrive soon they did want to swim ashore, and at 5am the next morning the destroyers Corey and Hull arrived after steaming 312 miles to reach them. They were towed 10 miles to the village of Kanatak to await fuel, oil and a new engine being brought to them by the Coast Guard Cutter Algonquin.


April 19, 1924: At the same time Algonquin was heading to the disabled Seattle, Martin ordered Smith to proceed with the other aircraft to Dutch Harbor, where they had better facilities for taking care of the planes. A stiff wind was blowing as they untied there aircraft, along there flight to UnAlaska they flew around, over, under and through snow squalls, experienced the fierce Williwaw winds, flew over rocky islands, volcanoes and looked up at ice-capped mountains. After flying 390 miles in 7 hours and 26 minutes they landed in Dutch Harbor where the Coast Guard cutter Haida was waiting for them.


July 8, 2017: Today I got ready to fly the Heinkel He-51. The He-51 was a German single seat biplane figher that first flew in 1935 that was used by both the Luftwaffe and Spanish served as a fighter, seaplane, ground attack and trainer until 1952. Over 700 were built. The aircraft I am using today was by Craig Richardson and will be using a civilian repaint by Bernhard Lechner. The aircraft is very nice but it does tend to nose over if you apply the brakes to hard.


I decided to break this leg into two parts in the interest storytelling and using a couple smaller aircraft before the long oversea routes. My destination for this flight is Cold Bay, 161 nm away. The weather in Chignik for the start of the flight was great, 5 kn winds and clear. I climbed up over the low mountains and headed down the Alaskan peninsula at about 4000 ft. The weather got cloudier and windier as we flew on, eventually having to drop down to 1500 ft to stay below the clouds. I also became quite concerned about my fuel usage, the aircraft is supposed to have a range of 300 nm but when I reach 50% fuel I estimate I will get to my destination with very little fuel to spare. As I reach Cold Bay the winds have climbed to 31 kn and I had difficulty getting the biplane to settle on the runway especially since I was being very careful with the brakes not wanting it to nose over. Fortunately, Cold Bay airport has a very long runway and was able to make a safe stop with only 5% fuel remaining. Here are a few screen shots from the flight.

Ready for takeoff at Chignik.

Heading out over the mountians.

Beautiful flying weather, so far...

Flying down the Alaskan Peninsula.

 

[blanston12]

Sorry it took so long from the last flight, I out of town for the Holiday weekend and could not get much flying in until the next weekend. Here are a few more.

But the good weather did not last.

Flying low to stay under the clouds.

Cold Bay airport in sight.

Landed in Cold Bay.

 

[Portia911]

Seems unfriendly weather dogged your real-world counterparts on every leg - very interesting to read the history instalments, as well as your aircraft desctpriptions.
Don't know how your virtual pilot can cope with the swapping from an enclosed cabin (even heated in the DC-2 I think!) and then back to an open cockpit biplane. I know it's summer up there, but even so . . .

 

[Bomber_12th]

I just wanted to add that I have been enjoying following your posts, Joe. These posts also have commonly inspired me to dust off some of these classics and take them out of the virtual hangar and go and 'fly' them again.

 

[blanston12]

Seems unfriendly weather dogged your real-world counterparts on every leg - very interesting to read the history instalments, as well as your aircraft desctpriptions.
Don't know how your virtual pilot can cope with the swapping from an enclosed cabin (even heated in the DC-2 I think!) and then back to an open cockpit biplane. I know it's summer up there, but even so . . .

Thanks Portia, At least my virtual pilot is doing it in June/July. I can't imagine doing it in an open cockpit in April which is when the original flyers did it. But I think I have only one more open cockpit on the road map and I am reconsidering that one after the fuel issues on the He-51 since that leg will be over water at close to its maximum range.

I just wanted to add that I have been enjoying following your posts, Joe. These posts also have commonly inspired me to dust off some of these classics and take them out of the virtual hangar and go and 'fly' them again.

Thanks Bomber! I was hoping a few pilots would be inspired to get out some of these classic aircraft!

Well I think i'm ready for the next leg, stay tuned!