It's happened to you...

[Ralf Roggeveen]

They must have considered home safely in range and of course there was a 'spare' DC-7 available there; easier to go to it rather than land at, say, Heathrow and then have to fly it out to them. Also the Irish Sea was going to have to get back to EHAM at some stage for its repairs, so they might as well take passengers and aircraft all in one go. Obviously would have been a bit different if the engine had been burning...

Let's just watch the Neptunes going out:

A good view of the 1963 Valkenburg.

Protecting our polders, tulip fields, cheesemongers, cows, art galleries, windmills and, not forgetting the Red Light District of Amsterdam, from the Commies...

And here's a quiet corner of Rotterdam (EHRD):

A Swiss Convair on the ground and someone coming in from Le Breuil, France. Managed to contact EHAM Tower OK and they guided me in to RW 1, a bit more difficult than if it had been the more familiar 22:

You'll note that I've switched off #2 as well, making it controllable on the ground. Everyone on board must have felt an enormous sense of relief.

How frightful if the prizewinners had been killed on their way home!

At least this is KLM's home base and there are aircraft and fuel available to reschedule the flight:

Passing the Coral Sea. Let the passengers off...

...and the crew descend from the other side:

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

In reality the passengers from Irish Sea only had to wait a couple of hours before being transferred to Rode Zee (Red Sea), the DC7 'that brought us across the ocean five weeks previously', as Sarah Carter recalled. This reconstruction has taken more like five months, and I waited till Sunday morning (June 6th 2010) to make the long flight EHAM - CYUL. A lovely Dutch summer's day:

Decided to go in Caribbean Sea in the early '60s 'barber pole' livery which we have seen on some of the AI:

The aircraft had joined KLM in 1958, but would have still had the original scheme until 1962 (a google reveals that it was hijacked from Schiphol to Portugal on 16 April '62!). The engines splutter into life (let's hope they all four stay alive all the way this time):

Not many planespotters enjoying a Heineken on the terrace today. Despite the drizzle, let's take a last look round Schiphol. A nearby Czech:

Here's a quiet spot with one of the Martinair DC-3s in it. Lots & lots of long-forgotten DC-3 liveries coming up spotted by TT on this flight!

Scandinavian DC-6 enjoying a soaking on the main concourse in front of the terminal:

Note the radar towers which are part of Jaap's enhanced EHAM 1963:

How many KLM Connies/Superconnies can you count in this corner?

A Convair, 2 Viscounts, a DC-6 (I think) and not sure about the end one in this row (probably another Convair):

This is the Royal Dutch Air Force Dakota that sometimes brings military top brass to inspect the Fokker/Lockheed factory:

Not sure if it's a DC-3 or a C-47? Probably quite comfortable inside for those generals.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Despite the foul weather, it was a good day for Cubs to be out & about:

This guy was off to Westerland on Sylt at the northernmost end of the Friesian Island chain. A good L-749 shot including Jaap's platformbus which now comes as standard in the improved 1963 EHAM:

What a lovely summer's day.

There are also now ships on the airport's canals, including this oiler transferring aviation fuel to that storage tank:

Another Cub going out became a bit of a nuisance to me:

Normally the Tower doesn't let things like this happen!

Too close for comfort. In the end I simply stopped and waited for him to go away:

Doctors, I ask you. Let's hope this really is the last time the (virtual) Carters pass this way:

Up we go...

...and away over the North Sea, Great Britain and the even greater Atlantic Ocean.

 

[hawkeye52]

Has anyone else noticed that EVERY TIME those clandestine-unmarked-MercAir(?) Gooney Birds appear, THEY ARE FLYING WITH THEIR FLAPS DOWN, way down. Is this because the AI flight plan has allotted too much time to a too-short segment?

Or is there a more sinister reason? :violent:

- H52

 

[Willy]

I can neither confirm or deny

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Well, they've always been very polite to me. Thought maybe the flaps were down 'cos they were on the approach - a lot have been near their destination, just about to deliver vital medical aid, agricultural equipment, mule fodder, blankets, children's toys, etc. What a selfless bunch those Good Ol' Mercairmen are!

Meanwhile, in the legit, above board world of KLM and respectable folk like the Carters, we climb to get above the nasty weather, plenty of takeoff & landing activity keeping them busy behind us:

Up to 9000.

It's a bit nicer up here, though the drizzle seemed to cover England & Scotland as well. Old BEA friend (Hamburg - Heathrow) spotted above the gloom:

It's lovely when you break through, both in real and in flightsim flights, isn't it?

The great port of Rotterdam is still down there:

With this Richthofen wannabe flying about (interesting one: Munich to Londonderry, Northern Ireland):

It's about an hour for us to cross the North Sea and reach the English coast/Humber Estuary:

Getting back to near where we had the engine failure last time:

This'll be an opportunity to take a late '50s aviation look around the north of England/southern Scotland. To start with, a BKS DC-3 down at Leeds/Bradford Airport:

I think he's off to Guernsey in the Channel Islands, where the weather should be quite a bit pleasanter!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Small British operators: Prestwick - Schwechat Maritime Central...

...and Air Ferry going from Manston to ? (EGAA not in the Seldec book):

But, having trouble with the wet conditions, this is a BOAC Speedbird:

Did you spot the military in the background? Of course you did, and now those Yorks of Manchester Ringway really kick in:

We saw one or two of these en route when the Carters visited England, but this is the virtual paradise of late '50s RAF Transport Command!

You won't see any military aircraft at a British passenger airport today, but Manchester International (which I flew into only last year) hasn't changed that much. More civil stuff in this picture:

Yet another DC-3 livery, Starways (who had 3 Dakotas and 2 DC-4s in 1959) :

And one from the Welsh operator Cambrian, headquarters at Glamorgan Rhoose. They had a Dragon Rapide, a Heron and 3 of these:

The fields of Lancashire:

And a map showing our crossing of northern England:

Coming soon: Prestwick and Northern Ireland...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

I googled it and find that EGAA is Belfast International. (Must be in the Seldec book somewhere).

Not very good picture taken at reality Manchester:

Looks like the weather was a bit better than in fs9!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

This was a quick glimpse of Prestwick, certainly then the most important airport in Scotland and home of Scottish Aviation (the company, if not the very concept):

(That Swiss Twin Pioneer we went in earlier on would have been made there). It was good to spot this chap about to arrive from where we're going to, though there was still a lot of Ocean and a lot of his enormous country to cover:

A Silver City Dakota (they had 9 in '59, this one is City of Leeds):

Ambitious Cub going from the Isle of Man to Bryansk (UUBP) in the Soviet Union:

And here is that island. Politically it is part of the United Kingdom (not the Republic of Ireland), though it does have its own ancient local government, coins (and favourable offshore banking I believe). Famous for motorbikes, as it's the only place in Britain where road racing is legal:

And the inevitable Aer Lingus DC-3 to be found in this area:

This picture was labelled DOUGLAS and I was trying to remember if it was another Dakota, a DC-4 or even a DC-6. But of course it's the place, Douglas capital of the Isle of Man:

Anyway, there's a BEAline Pionair, Charles Sampson (which was leased to Cambrian in March 1959, if you're interested, later bought by them). An old BKS Ambi having a well-deserved rest:

They had three of those, an Airspeed Consul and 2 Daks, one of which appeared above. Another map to show the transit of Britain, there reaching the Irish coast with the IoM behind us:

And there's Ireland below now:

The weather was starting to get a bit better...

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

You're really getting the King's Tour of the UK - you are seeing a little of everything.

BTW, that Maritime Central DC-4 is actually Canadian so it is at least part of the Empire, if not British. It was heading over the pond to Vienna to pick up refugees that want to resettle in Canada (yes, there were still refugees in 1959).

Thanks,

 

[Ferry_vO]

Going slightly off-topic and back to Schiphol for a bit; inside the Aviodrome museum at Lelystad aiport is a very large diorama which depicts Schiphol oin the late '50s IIRC. It was hand-made by one man and it probalby took him longer to complete than it did Ralf to complete this story!

You will notice even that Tu-104 is present! The Fokker F.VII looks out of place though, as does the KLM 'Twin pin' which was used only in the East-indies.

Still, a great piece of work!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Beautiful! (but no platformbus) And I agree about the out-of-placers, nice though they are. Guess Harry, Jaap & Wolfgang will have seen this model?

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

We overfly Aldergrove:

This, near Lough Neagh, was important in the 1970s as a military/political (politicians flying in and out) airport during 'the Troubles'. Imagine it's now Belfast International (EGAA), not sure. In 1959 there was also the civil Nutts Corner, an old RAF Costal Command Liberator base. This is the last view of Europe the Carters will ever have:

For a long time the only aircraft on TT Explorer was this Hunting Clan DC-6A going from Prestwick to Gander:

The weather had cleared sufficiently for me to get quite excited when we spotted the occasional cloud...

...all those thoughts about the endless, lonely ocean...

...and more fascinating clouds!

I passed the time by (reading a very long book and) finding new angles to make screenies of Caribbean Sea:

This may the shortest Great Circle route chosen by the computer, but it's still a very, very long way.

The only longer stretch I ever did in flightsim was when the Comet 4 went from Tokyo to Hawaii in its 1960 Round the World a couple of years ago (admitted at the time that it was beyond the real range of a Comet; they had to use 707s in reality).

That started in drizzle as well I remember. Good old reliable Canada finally pops up on the map:

Quite pleased with my own navigational skills, we started on a heading of 290, but constant adjustments were needed; 280 above (due West of course), down to around 250 for the final approach into Montreal. But there's still a long way to go across NE Canada!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Eventually we see the Canadian coast, it's Labrador north of the island of Newfoundland:

This place is incredibly remote and unpopulated, hardly a settlement for hundreds and hundreds of miles:

They call this the Broken Lands and there's still snow in June:

I bitterly regret not having installed the DEW (Defence Early Warning) scenery which is available from Cal Classics and would definitely have provided the one big '50s manmade landmark to look out for here! But I did spot a few remote airstrips:

This is the landscape for you Bush Pilots. I spot a mysterious Ryan ST-2 abandoned somewhere up there:

Start to make up a tale about the 1938 De Lancey/Rowe Expedition when dizzy New York socialite Evelyn De Lancey hired grizzled aviator Chuck Rowe to fly her to a party thrown by Nancy Cunard in St John's, Newfoundland - and they simply vanished from the face of the earth...

...21 years later, long after World War 2, a passing KLM crew spotted something glinting in the sunlight at a remote, forgotten airstrip in Labrador. It was Evelyn's perfectly-preserved Ryan. The Ryan was retrieved and flown back to New York City where it was presented to Evelyn's fiance, Arthur Gaylord Richmann III, who had never married. Apart from the plane, all that was ever found of her was one tube of lipstick and a pair of high-heeled party shoes in the cockpit... (now on display, with the aircraft, at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington).

We hit the mouth of the mighty St Lawrence:

Harvre-St-Pierre with its small airport on the north bank:

And a Cessna flying from Eastern Slopes Regional, USA to Goose Bay, Canada:

This is Port Menier on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence:

(I defy anybody to fly by here without thinking of antipasti).

All we have to do now is go down (or rather, up) the St Lawrence, past Quebec and into Montreal for refuelling and the Carters' final flight down to Houston.

 

[Sunny9850]

As usual an excellent read Ralf. The longest continuous flight I did in FS was during the development of our L-1649A when I wanted to make sure that she could indeed make the historic flights the real airplane covered.
And while there is a bit more to do on one of these old R-3350 powered classics than on a modern day tube from Seattle or Tulouse I did manage to read a few books and watch a couple of "in flight movies"

Aside from the sceneries and AI files mentioned on Tom's CC site do you have a list of other sceneries you have used on this epic flight ???

Stefan

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Hi Stefan, I'm planning a credits list right at the end (not long now!), and hope to acknowledge everyone. A few more nice ones coming up in the final stretch Montreal - Houston which takes a different route from when we came up, so TT should pick up some pretty 1950s US airports.

Here's another shot of Port Menier airstrip:

We cross the mouth of the St Lawrence and fly down the left/southern bank:

Unregistered Gooneybird doing Nantucket Memorial - Wabush. (I doubt if the radio station in Nantucket is called KACK):

Local Quebecairs:

They were still operating DC-3s into the 1970s, though sadly not as late as '81 when I was there. Looks like the Heights of Abraham which General Wolfe captured in 1759 on the far side:

This is the Isle of Orleans. The French Canadians seem to have been real supporters of the old French monarchy, even retaining their royal Fleur de Lys badge. They must have got a shock when the real French executed and got rid of them!

Quebec, 1790, the Seperatists' Secret HQ:
Any news from the old country, Pierre?'
'Mais, oui, they just chopped the King and Queen's heads off!'
'Merde. Looks like we're stuck with the British now.'

Trans-Canada Viscount...

Here's Quebec Louis Seize Airport:

Nice Boeing Stearman Kaydet for GA down there:

And we're getting pretty close now:

That's Harrison County (KASL) - Quebec above, possibly the Stearman.

 

[Sunny9850]

Thanks in Advance Ralf... I am looking forward to the credits list. After following your exploits I have finally decided to build a back-dated FS install.

I always felt the French Canadians were more french than their cousins in Europe when ever business takes me up that way :ernae:

Stefan

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

They hang onto their frenchness!

After a long quiet time in TT Explorer, the North American AI starts to kick in:

One from Wheeler Airlines:

And Nordair, HQ at Dorval, they still operated five DC-3s as late as '73 (and a DC-4 for that matter), flying up into the Arctic Circle, including DEWline support, and down to the Caribbean with tourists:

CYUB is St Hubert in the background AI there, but CNN8 must be a military base not listed in the Seldec book (Tom will have to enlighten us about that one). One of your CP Britannia Empresses waiting for her passengers there:

An early glance over CYUL:

Montreal itself:

This downtown, one or two landmark buildings and the bridges came with the not bad default scenery (better than poor old Istanbul!):

I did add some scenery by Leon Louis which puts in ships, docks and a funfair on that island with a highly visible big wheel:

On the whole it may be best not to enhance cities too much in Half a Century of Flight, because the most prominent buildings (skyscrapers) have usually been built since 1960. But I have filled in a certain amount of scenery for the US Midwest which we'll soon be flying down.

Dorval popped up sooner than expected and I had to circle round to reduce altitude, so was a little fast on the approach, but got down OK using ALL the flaps:

 

[Willy]

Ralf, don't forget that on the big Douglasses, the landing gear was used as speed brakes!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Must admit I'm quite capable of that trick, though it has its risks. I did notice that the AIs tend to have their gear deployed a lot earlier on approach than I do, possibly because they'd already managed to throttle down more effectively.

So here we are back at Dorval:

Nice easy parking again:

Let the passengers out first:

That's Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial (KBDR) that DC-3's off to in the background. Approaching from Idlewild and from the impedning Jet Age:

The French Caravelles didn't have the range, so they had to use 707s transatlantic. And a fine livery from Eastern passing by:

Of course it was winter when the Carters got here in December 1959. Sarah Elizabeth is vague about dates, but they first left Houston on October 8 and she does mention that five weeks had elapsed by the time they were going home. The simulation started in December last year and now it's getting on for July, so it's been more than six months! Now for the crew steps:

When they got to Canada the weather was OK, but she mentions that it wasn't so pleasant on final arrival back in Texas.

He's off to CYYZ = Lester B. Pearson International.

Dorval isn't quite so depressing in the sunshine after flying down (up?) the historic St Lawrence. Oh yes, here's the Canadian !