Flight 19 European Vacation

Nice flight along the border from Frontier Canada to Minot North Dakota. Admittedly though there wasn't much to see.

Pics are in reverse order
 
We headed back north of the border to Red Lake. There's rumors of gold mines in the area... I'm trying to figure out how many free samples the Spitfire can fly away with...
 
We headed back south of the border to Rhineland, Wisconsin. Bad turbulence over Lake Superior spun me around 180* a couple of times and I had to shut otto off and hand fly it the rest of the way in.

We decided that as the next stop is Willow Run, to switch to B-24s (PB4Y-2 for me).
 
:running: Hey, a very nice flight from CYRL to KPHI. Sure seen a lot of lakes along the way, and even the big one Lake Superior. Sadly, no bikini clad female types along the beaches. Darn travel agent fibed to me again. Anyway, only got one picture of the group before departure (got lazy). Aircraft update: we will be flying the WOP B-24D, Hail Columbia (texture) for the flight into Willow Run.
 
Left Rhinelander for the B-24 factory at Willow Run in Detroit. It got dark on us and the closer we got, the worse the weather got. Could'nt see the runyway until we were about 1.5 miles out. I wasn't properly lined up but did set down on the runway, but then went off of it and hit something that I never saw. Hope there's some PB4Y-2 parts here...
 
Left Detroit behind and headed on east to Toronto. Nice flight but watching the weather deteriorate more and more the closer we got was a bit disturbing. Discovered that if you get on the Privateer's brakes hard, it goes into a crash. I was planning on switching to a DC-4 for the trip on into Boston anyway.
 
:icon_lol: A few snaps of the last nights flight. Man, sure tired of landing or trying to land in the fog. Had a break last night the fog lifted just enough in order to get lined up on the runway at CYTZ.
 
Well that was an interesting flight in the DC-4, especially the last few minutes. The flight to Johnstown PA (KJST) went well enough although I was tail end charlie and a bit behind the others. After having given the passengers the "Get right with God" announcement, I was setting up into the approach to Runway 23, I heard over the radio about a telephone pole on the threshold so I figured to come in a bit high. That went well enough, but once I touched down it was like the brakes had been greased. I just wasn't losing near enough speed to keep from going off the end of the runway, so I went full throttle and barely cleared the trees at the end of the runway.

Figuring that 23 wasn't going to work, I swung out a bit and made a "Spitfire approach" onto 33 setting down close to the numbers. Standing on the brakes, I ran off the other end of the runway but that time I was going slow enough to make a 180* turn onto the taxiway to come to a stop.

Got to find me a good brakes mechanic before someone gets hurt....

Pics are scrambled
 
Ah yes... another NOTAM someone failed to issue. "70ft high wooden pole 75 ft from threshhold Rwy 23, 10 ft from centerline".

Mostly nice flight in-and-out of cloud and rain, IFR @ 7000'.

View attachment 51660

Good ceiling and vis so we elected a visual Rwy 23.

View attachment 51661 ... as I started to reduce power near the threshold (remembering the lousy brakes) I saw a 'line/shadow' that quickly became a dark pole. Quick push on the throttles, a wiggle and corrected to land about 1/3 down the runway. F/O is shrieking into the radio to warn the rest of the group (didn't know he could hit those high notes so well...) and we taxied to the ramp and the dry-cleaners. In replay our right wing cleared the pole by (maybe) 10 feet and the #4 prop by less.

View attachment 51662 here you can see Willy trying to err on the side (up) of caution.... and here's the view later View attachment 51663
 
Great flight out of snowy Johnstown to Binghamton. A collection of short haul Convairs, along with an odd Douglas and Lockheed. Welcome back P!
 
:wavey: Welcome back PRB! A few photos of the last flight from Johnstown, where it was snowing, to Binghamton where the weather was a little better. Nice flight. Wow! the pictures are in order!
 
Thanks all! It's good to be flying again, yay! Got bit by the Convair bug going around, evidently. Fun flight into New York. Looks like we're headed north a bit more.
 
We left Binghamton and headed north to Montreal, landing at Dorval airport. Other than a minor foo fighter problem at Dorval, it was a nice flight.

Pics are a bit scrambled up.
 
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