DHC120's Excellent Misadventures

D

DHC120

Charter Member
The First Flight from "somewhere of our choosing" AYBK Buka is, officially in the books.. It should be, officially or otherwise, in the trash..
I planned a "simple" 110nm/36minute flight to get to the "Starting" airport.. An hour and three minutes later, I finally touched-down at Buka.. I had to do two "Missed Approaches" that I can only blame on buffeting winds that kept me from lining-up on the runway.. Of course, landings aren't my strong suite, so take that with however much salt it requires (a grain ain't gonna get it! ;-}
Bottom Line.. Lousy Flying, Green Duenna!
One down, fifteen to go.. this is gonna be a long month! ;-}
Charles
Forgot to add, I'm flying the A2A AccuSim B-17G.. Short runways are fun.... Uh-Huh..
 
This looks like a perfect match ... DHC120 and the B-17.

Have fun Charles, best of luck!



:ernae:
 
You know what they say ... any landing from which you can walk away with agreen duenna is a good one, even if you have a green flight engineer to go with it! Good luck with the Fort!
 
Buka to Munda

Another flight in the tropical paridise of... where in the hell are we?? Oh well.. took off some little island in the opposite direction I wanted to go, the reason? Simple, I had open water in front of me.. If I took off on the southwest track, I would not have had enough airspeed to clear the trees.. B-17's aren't exactly fast climbing planes!
No NDB's in this neck of the wilderness.... err, waterworld, so a "Compass Heading" flight with a bit of "Ded Reckoning" (Read: Does that island over there look like this one on the map? Or this other one?).
At thirty-five miles from AGGM Airport (grass strip), I turned onto my approach heading, still trying to find the airport.. at ten miles I picked out the strip of grass from the surrounding grass.. Not an easy feat.. My approach was rather smooth, straight in, was over the threshold at 90 per, glide slope looked good then my co-pilot said "Were Stalling".. I was 140 feet above the 9'AMSL runway.. Poured-on the power, but I really did not want to increase speed.. and I didn't.. I didn't "pancake" into the runway, in as much as it was a "Steep Glide Slope"... like a carrier landing, just without the catch wire!.. Blew a tire, waist gunner said ammo boxes jarred loose, Green Duenna.. So, the "Official First Flight" of the event is in the books! (can the Gov't dock my pay for tearing up landing gears?? At thirty bucks a month for 2nd Lt. pay, I'll never retire!)
 
Charles, to turn your weather indication to green on your duenna, go to your weather settings, and check the "download winds aloft" checkbox. Not a huge deal, especially since the weather has been pretty mild over The Slot during the entire event so far. Looking good with the Big Boeing!
 
Flight #3 AGGM to AYTY

After ten days without an Internet Connection (due to t-storms taking out a tower), I can finally re-start flying the South Pacific Legs.
I had flown up to Flight Ten, but without Internet, I could not fly with "Real Weather".. so, I get to do it all again..
Oh, our local forecast is for Thunderstorms with possible damaging High Winds and Hail..
Can we say "DeJa Vu All Over Again?"

Okay.. After a brief power outage (that did NOT kill my Internet his time), I will post the Duenna Log for AGGM/Munda to AYTK/Tokua

View attachment 37595
 
Flight #11 FIN to GSP

Flown May 12, 2011.
FIN/Finschhafen to GSP/Gusap.

In looking over the terrain between these two airfields, I opted to go around the mountains instead of over them.. the reason being I can maintain a faster speed at a lower level than if I had to climb over 10,000 feet (possibly to 15K).
So, I set off with FIN in my rear-view mirror on a compass heading of 256 to Lae. I picked-up the LAE NDB almost immediately FIN to LAE is a short seventeen minute hop with a quick turn towards AYNZ and the NZ NDB.
After crossing over AYNZ, (see screenshot) I kept the "Bearing to Station" needle at 180 degrees (while tuned to NZ), this gave me a near straight-in heading towards Gusap.
Although my ETA was all but dead-on, I failed to slow down enough approaching Gusap, resulting in a go-around.
The landing was one of my better ones.. only one "bounce" ;-}
 
Flight #12GSP to AYWK

Flown May 12, 2011.
GSP/Gusap to AYWK/Boram (Wewak).

Took off from Gusap on a rough compass heading of 313. Approx thirty minutes into this leg, I picked-up the "WK" NDB, set "Bearing to Station" needle slightly to the right of course in order to give me some "approach" room.. It's aggravating to "happen upon" an airport too close to slow to landing speed, much less let down from cruising altitude ;-}
Basically an uneventful flight. Only "complaint" is FSX thinks the rivers that are blue on a map should be a "green/brown" that is almost the same shade as the ground cover.. Makes "Ded Reckoning" a bit challenging!
Picked out airport PAPI Lights. Airport altitude is claimed to be 279'ASL, yet at an altitude around 500'ASL, the trees obscure the lights (Who hides these air strips, anyway??)
Landing was totally Uneventful.. and the first time the air crew didn't complain or make comments that I need to practice some Touch & Go's ;-}
 
PRB said:
Hey Charles. Looks like the duenna text fiel loaded here is a duplicate from the previous leg.
Click to expand...


Whoops.. Flew the right flight, posted the wrong Duenna.. Correct Duenna posted.
Thanks for catching that.. Sorry for messing up.. ;-}
 
Flight #13 AYWK to WAJJ

Flown May 18, 2011.
AYWK/Boram (Wewak) to WAJJ/ Sentani.

The weather could not have been more beautiful. Winds calm, air timp (ground) a cool 59 degrees.
The flight was uneventful, up to the point that I realized I'd better start preparing for the approach.. Then it was Panic City (try dropping a B-17 from 8500'AMSL to 1000'AMSL while strumming along at 198kts without overspeeding!)... Managed the descent and hauled the speed down below 147mph to drop the flaps and gear..
Then my rudders decided to start acting up.. the more right rudder I gave, the farther left the plane turned (I've had this "issue" forever, just never this bad!).
Two to go!:running:
Got the Bomber on the runway, with plenty of comments from the waist guns back (do I have to drag these guys along??) and all the wheels still attached!
 
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