Nifty 50s Jet Pilot Lounge

we've got the RJCJ ground crew pulling an all nighter,
so we can get rolling at the crack of black for PAED.
it's going to be an incredibly long flight,
but, as I see it, that's what the Strat was built for.
in the mean time, we've been invited over
for a little dinner party by the locals.
must remember not to drink to much
of that home made sangria they're talking about.
 
I always enjoy taking off at dusk. Yes, it ensures that it will be nighttime when I reach my destination, (as it was when I arrived at Saigon from Jakarta), but it also provides an awesome opportunity for pictures as well.

As for my approach into Saigon....it wasn't the smoothest. I made my base turn much, much too late and badly overshot the airport to the northwest. Thankfully, the Stratolifter was more than willing to cooperate after that stupid mistake and I managed to get it down onto Runway 25R safely on the first try.

Well....close to Runway 25R anyway....

Let me put it this way, come tomorrow morning the ARVNs are going to be wondering why there are a couple of huge divots to the left of the runway...
 
After treating the South Vietnamese to some more smog on my way to the ocean, the flight was a simple case of "Point in the right direction (compensating for a 35-40 knot crosswind) and wait for the VOR to pick up." Clouds were in abundance and it was foggy on the ground when I arrived at Hong Kong. (Come to think of it, it's always foggy when I fly to Hong Kong....)

While I missed the thrill of Runway 13, Runway 31 proved to be the safer and wiser choice. Was high at first, and then overcompensated and was lower than I wanted to be. However, I was just right when showtime came, and made a beauty of a landing.
 
It was once again murky in Hong Kong when I left, so I wasn't able to enjoy much of the splendor of the city at night. After the long haul flights I've been doing, this one seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye. My approach into Taipei was very foggy at first, but it cleared up quite nicely in the final five miles or so. My landing here wasn't as nice as what I accomplished at Kai Tak, but still more than acceptable.
 
Now that I've made it down to Edwards, I turned the Pulqui back over to the Argentinians and caught a ride over to Pancho Barnes' "Happy Bottom Riding Club" to pick up my Twin Beech and hang out there for everyone to finish the race. I think Moses was there before I was as I found my Beech in the swimming pool!. Oh well, off to the bar to figure out how to get it out of there....
 
Sightseeing over the Aleutians while crossing the Pacific.

  • Leaving Kamchatka.
  • Barren Atu below the clouds and Eareckson Air Station ahead.
  • Typical Aleutian clouds obscure Cold Bay.
  • Majestic volcanic peaks of the Alaska Peninsula.
 
Some snaps of the Alaskan coast.

  • Climbing into the sun out of Elmendorf.
  • Cold ice, snow, and mountains ring the coastline.
  • Glacier country inspires awe.
  • Odd looking bush plane looking for AVGAS at Sitka.
 
A few last shots.

  • Climb out of Victoria.
  • Mount Ranier sits majestically over the PNW.
  • Shasta in the distance.
  • Finals into Edwards, looking forward to joining the gang.
 
I just got my Octa rebuilt after a two month ordeal that involved RMA'ing 3 Motherboards, 1 Video Card, 1 Raid Array Adapter and one 1200w PCP&C psu... for a person that normally puts in a couple hours a day FSX'ing, this has been quite traumatic.

So... I've been horsing around with different legs of the PacRim Routing for this race using the SectionF8 F-86 testing system stability and such. I would have entered the past day or two but just noticed the MS Wx Engine is required to be used... no fun there to dump ASE (c'mon guys!), so my interest to enter is a bit quenched (I know... it's a personal problem).

Well, I decided a short while ago to run my 2nd planned leg WADA to WIHH at 20.000'. All my prior testing has been Clear Skies Theme At or Above 30.000' In other words, I have no idea what performance to expect... ok let me rephrase that... no "precise" idea what to expect. :p: Took off with external tanks but then decided to drop them at altitude (it's only 565nm so I should get "close").

I'm doing sysop'ing chores at Playchess.com (read: booting users with clone chess engines) when about 100nm out from WADA I hear the engine do its "unwinding whistle"... I look "outside" to hopefully catch a glimpse of a REIL or Tower. It's dark enough (0430 lcl time) but the Scattered layer below makes things hard. Ok I've been Nav'ing using VORs / NDBs but this is an emergency and I have no desire to paint the landscape silver. So I turn on the GPS after I establish "Best Glide +/- 50kts" and see I'm just 10nm from an airport: WICD / Penggung. WICD has No Nav Aids & No Runway Lights but so what, it's Flat! and what the heck! as don't have them either! Well in a moment I won't have the GPS as all electrical items will shut off. And besides, night landings on Runways w/o lights are the proverbial walk-in-the-park especially compared to having to do them IRL.

Now my only other concern is how to get the gear down as I do a slow 180 back to the field. That's really no problem... I just bellow out a "Ben! Get in here!" and my son flies into my office like Mercury. Another bellowing of a "What's the Emergency Gear Release Key!" "Look it up!!! There it is!! "Do it! Do it! Do it!" and like magic my gear starts lowering as I start rolling out onto final.

Ok am a bit fast... 175kts or so on short final... flaps are inop and the speedbrake... forget that. But I can touch down within the first third of the Runway.

Now... there are two occasions where pilots need to use brakes:

1) Never (ok... almost never) and
2) When over-running a runway appears to be imminent.

My case definitely fits the 2nd Category, so I am standing on mine until fully stopped. And I get stopped in a hurry skidding ever so slightly off the runway grounds proper.

It's really so much fun when everything works out all right for these "Emergencies"! :bump:

(pic "lightened" a tad with MS Office Picture Manager)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top