From Empire State to Golden Gate

[Jagdflieger]

Chyenne to Rock Springs

Once you take off from Cheyenne, you'll cross the Medicne Bow Mountains just west of the capital city of Wyoming. Once over them (not too high, about 8,500' ASL) you can get a fix on Laramie (University of Wyoming-my old Alma Mater) at 7,000' ASL, then west to Rawlins. Watch out for Elk Mountain mid way between the two towns. It's the highest peak between the two at about 9,000' ASL. After that, it's a pretty easy flight into Rock Spirings.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Would have liked to have seen such scenery, but only had eyes for instruments in that mirkiness! So I'm glad to have waited till dawn for KRKS - KSLC:

This way we'll get to see mountains and the Great Salt Lake.

The sun came up quickly over the prairie around 07.30.

Some of those AI Trimotors were buzzing about nearby:

A lot of this land, though high above sea level, seems relatively flat, maybe 'rolling' is the word?

This airport was one of our waypoints, appropriately named Fort Bridger:

We're really over the Wild West where cowboys used to drive cattle and wagon trains once rolled.

Those Victorians were desperately working on the aeroplane, but they had to make do with horses, both flesh and iron varieties, during their 19th Century. Some nice 1930s GA AI below:

And we made it safely to Salt Lake City, though I had to do a steep approach and still overshot the runway.

Note full flaps! Luckily there weren't any trees beyond it for a long way, so there was time to get out of that Trimotor's way and turn round.

A rather grim default GW3 airport, but some fine scenery being revealed in the daylight.

 

[thunder100]

Hi

just one question

Where did you get those Stinson paints?

Roland

 

[Willy]

Just an advisory Ralf. Merc Air's Flight 19 landed to the south of you at UT17 last night in a bunch of long nose Focke Wulf 190s and one lone Messerschmitt 110. Next stop is undecided.

Edit: We headed on south to the Grand Canyon.

 

[Jagdflieger]

Flying over Utah

Before you take off on the next leg to SF, be sure to install the Bonnyville Salt Flat scenery by Per Kruuse so that you can overfly where many land speed records have been made. While flying over the salt flats, land at Wendover where the 509 Composite bomb crews trained before going on to Tinian to drop the atomic bombs in WWII. While there, you can also do a little gambling in Wendover, Nevada, right on the Utah-Nevada state line.

Link:

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=Per+Kruuse&categoryId=31

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Stinson Interlude

Two good suggestions from Der Alte Jagdflieger there: Stinsons & Bonneville Flats. Why not take a look at both before resuming the Mainliner flight?

I believe that the fs Stinson Reliant was first made by the immortal Bill & Lynn Lyons husband-&-wife team...

As well as the AI ones in GW3, you can get flyable versions in several liveries - some nice ones done by Dale De Luca. You can even get a floatplane version, seen here down in Florida:

The real aircraft, a four-seater was manufactured between 1933 and '43, including the AT-19 Trainer and a utility transport, the UC-81.

I like this red Air Express one, so took JF's advice, downloaded the scenery (just the one bmp) and flew over (rather slowly) from Salt Lake City to Wendover.

Not sure if'n it was snow or salt down there, and didn't fancy going down to taste it to find out... But they have some fantastic skies to fly in. Approaching Wendover:

And down there...

Of course one of the world's greatest bikes, the Triumph Bonneville, is named after those Salt Flats. The British seem to like the place because Sir Malcolm Campbell, who set several land and water speed records, used to go there with his Bluebird cars.

Thanks for the tip, JF! :salute:

We'll be passing there again in the DC-3 soon, as it's right on our westward route to next stop, Elko, Nevada.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Time to take the Mainliner from KSLC to KEKO, almost due west. I lined up nicely on Runway 34:

But they sent me to leave from the other end, One Six! That took a while, as it's long enough to land a Space Shuttle (if it had been invented yet). Eventually we were off and passing the Great Salt Lake to the north:

This kind of reminds me of a Tequila Sunrise - you know, with salt around the rim of the glass? - though I don't suppose the inhabitants of Utah's first City would approve of that particular thought.

We're lucky with the weather. Soon the Bonneville Flats appear below, with parallel railtracks visible, though we didn't spot any trains.

Maybe only aircraft could get through? The tracks seem damaged and partially snowed-in down there. Then we were overflying Wendover, recently visited in the Stinson:

Leaving the Flatlands behind us now...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

...and we get mountains ahead again!

From the map I believe this is the Ruby Range with Elko just the other side.

I was worried, as we had already begun our descent from 14000ft, with the land already at least 5000 above sea level here. Reassured by the sight of that Stinson ahead at 9000, obviously managing to clear the mountains.

Safely over and following him down towards Elko.

Another nice long runway and easy enough landing. Taxyed back to park and found this Braniff (that new airline!) just backing out:

Would you believe that he actually backed INTO me?! I was trying to park on the far side of him. Luckily the damage was only slight. I blame Elko Ground Control (such as it was), but this was pretty silly when there were only about three planes at the whole airport!

Stupid Artificial Intelligence .

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

KEKO - KRNO

This stretch is entirely flown over one state, Nevada.

It didn't take long to repair the slight damage, so we left a quite busy Elko at about 10.00.

Still plenty of snow round here. Mountains ahead which, looking a the map, I identify as the Stilwater Range. The Sierra Nevada itself is yet to come.

As for the other traffic, it's all DC-3s today. Another Braniff one:

...and one of those anonymous Gooneybirds which ply their mysterious trade all over the flightsim planet, working for a mythic & notorious (or legendary & heroic, depending on your point of view) organisation called Mercair:

We are looking out for Pyramid Lake where there's a heading change to fly less directly west and more SSW, but this isn't it yet:

 

[Sunny9850]

Very nice story line as usual Ralf,

attached is a pic of my friend Joe's SR-7B from Airliners.net
I have been lucky enough to be deemed worthy of a short flight in this beauty once. She is a gem. And considering the size of the aircraft a fast one at that.

The SR-7B was a comfortable 5 seater...and the emphasis is on comfortable. Think luxury car interior.

Cheers
Stefan

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

What a beauty - and nearly 80 years old if Lawrence & Pollinger are right in saying that it 'was first produced as a four-seater in 1933 [and] continued in production in various forms until 1943.' You must go back and take photos of Joe's 7B, Stefan. She looks like the basis of the fs9/GW3 version - would love to see the interior.

After about an hour we did spot that Pyramid Lake slightly to the north:

Then it's not long till you see Reno, our destination in this Nevada leg of the journey:

Approaching from the north they gave me RW 16L, an easy landing apart from the icy conditions which have followed us ever since we left the Atlantic seaboard. It's got to be nicer in California - they never have cold weather there! (so Tom Gibson tells me).

Went and parked by ANOTHER Braniff DC-3 and a strange default terminal. We'll soon see some nicer 1920s/30s airports in the Golden State, as well as better weather.

This Electra, picked up on Traffic Tools Explorer, is actually to the southEAST where the snow has gone...

...he seems to have forgotten to raise his undercarriage - probably more used to flying with fixed gear, like most pilots in this era.

 

[Sunny9850]

I'll be sure to bring my new camera to his hangar next time I see him.
I need some better personal pictures of her anyways...and while I personally love his C-195 a tad more he is for good reason very proud of the Stinson.

Stefan

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

The Cessna would be nice to see too...he's got quite a stable! :salute:

Reno used to be famous as the quickie divorce capital of the world, but it's now probably about the same as anywhere else for couples who've got fed up with each other. People like Britney Spears are always getting hitched to some tattooed lout for a few days, then realising that they didn't really want to spend eternity together and having the "marriage" annulled. (This is nice for lawyers, the people who seem to run the USA for their own benefit). Anyway, you had to go to Reno (Britney), back in the old days.

Let's get away from the place...

We soon pass the major natural feature of Lake Tahoe:

And at last, just beyond the Sierra Nevada, the snows melt away:

We start seeing Californians going round in their cool private aircraft:

The land also becomes very flat.

Had to climb to 14000ft to get over the Sierra, but they brought us right down to 2000 for the final approach into KSAC.

There it is with nice 1930s scenery. They gave me 'South Runway' which is round about One Six in modern aviation terms. I could live without one of those trees, but still.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Managed not to hit the wretched tree and came in safely. Knew there was someone close behind as I'd heard them telling him to 'follow the DC-3 on final', so it seemed best to get off the runway as quickly as possible.

No taxying instructions at the historic airport, so I made my own decision to wait patiently while he came in...

...and there he goes, a Waco.

Went and parked up near one of those American Electras.

We seem to have finally shaken off the Braniffs who dominated the Midwest! Lots of traffic round here at midday:

This aerial shot shows the relative size of a Lockheed 10 and a DC-3. Even the Lockheed 14 Super Electra only took 12 passengers, so you can see the way things were going:

Nearly at the end of our 1936 Transamerica now! We should see the Pacific next time the Mainliner takes to the air...

 

[Jagdflieger]

Glad you're out of Reno. I spent a long few hours in the middle of the night in the early 80s on a DC-9 there once. They couldn't take off until some FAA mandated cabin lights were fixed. In the end, they couldn't fix the newly required floor lights and the pilot said to heck with it and we took off anyway. Haven't been back there since.

 

[Sunny9850]

Reno...The biggest Little City or something like that. I think i have spent a week there one night as well.

Funny you should run into a Waco...yeah Joe has one of those as well in his hangar, but if I remember correctly his oldest son actually owns that one.
Then there is a pristine J3 Cub and the AC550 Shrike Commander.

Stefan

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Nobody likes Reno!

Time to do our final stretch, KSAC - KFSO:

Hope this will post OK, never mind about old aeroplanes, the old computer has been playing up a lot recently

They sometimes used to stop at Concord (KCCR), but it's so close we might as well go straight to San Francisco.

We spot Travis AFB:

And there's the Bay ahead:

I think the river is the unmemorable Mokelumne. The bridge that links Oakland to San Francisco:

A fine view of the realistically smoggy Bay:

The island between the bridge and us is Treasure Island - man-made and not yet there in '36. Now you can see the Golden Gate Bridge (recently finished then) and Alcatraz to the left:

They send you out over the ocean and you turn round to approach KSFO from the east. A carrier down there:

They'll be busy in a few years' time...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Seems to have posted OK, so we might as well fill in the last bit of this flight...

KSFO - I mean Mills Field - was, of course, already a busy airport, though they could do with a few more buildings. Trimotors everywhere!

There's one:

Quite far west for an Eastern, I thought. Was careful about crossing back over the runway since it was so busy.

Those letters 'SA' are missing both sides of that roof. They must have recently repaired it. Here's a picture from the same airport after WW2 and after the full Cal Classic treatment:

Went and parked and let the passengers out in 1936:

It can indeed be done in 24 hours with those stops, though I chickened out of night flying and had waited till dawn, so we arrived around 13.00 the day after we'd left New York (a bit late) in the Mainliner.

Here's a picture of what they looked like inside, showing exciting passengers of the time, including lucky rich kids:

I'm sorry Madam, you may not fly with us without a hat...


A fun way to enjoy Golden Wings 3 and the MAAM Sim DC-3!

 

[Jagdflieger]

San Francisco & Moffet Field

I attended a military course many years ago (early 70s) in San Francisco. One of my fellow students was an aviator and he needed to get some flight time in to keep his flight pay active. We drove down to Moffet Field on the south end of SF Bay and checked out an Army (maybe National Guard) U-6 Beaver for a few hours. We flew completely around SF Bay and parts of the surrounding areas. When we had about burned up the fuel, we returned to the old blimp base and turned the plane in after filling out the various maintenance forms on the plane.

There is FS 9 scenery by John Stinstrom available to put the old blimp hangars in place at Moffet Field as well as AI blimps. Static aircraft might not match up with what you are doing though as they are the more modern P-3 Orian and what look like the C-27 Spartan.

Look for: knuq_v13

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Wow, that was quite a flight you made - would be nice to reconstruct in fs9.

I may have some of the hangars in my late '50s scenery where huge buildings do sometimes mysteriously appear below round San Francisco. There are a lot of blimps and even USN airships in GW3, but they seemed to be hiding on this trip. Had to show that Akron over Chicago from an earlier Cessna flight there.

We still have the R100/R101 hangars here in England, at Cardington near Bedford. Stopped off there once when driving nearby and took a few photos. Also once wrote to the local Bedfordshire Council to request them not to pull the historic hangars down - they have survived so far. The terminal building was even weirder, 'Gateway to the Empire' boarded up in the middle of a field...