***Official SOH race story thread ONLY! ***

Had a great flight from Broome (YBRM) to Ayres Rock (YAYE) in a couple of Lightnings. Broome is an interesting place on account of it being an air base in WW-II from the earliest days of the war in the Pacific. It was there that the remnants of the air units from the Philippines gathered to count what was left, and start to re-group. Moses03 and I took off into an overcast sky, which turning into a bright and cloudless sky not far inland. We climbed to 25,000 feet, and immediately hit rather stiff headwinds. 650 miles is about as far as you want to go in a P-38 and stay under the 2-hour time limit. But with a 14-knot headwind, we were a tiny bit worried about making it on time. Then about half way there the head wind went up to 24 knots (*gulp*). Jkcook28 and Moparmike were scouting wind situations ahead and above us, but there was no help up high. From the stop watch on the P-38’s dash board, it looked like we had about four minutes to spare on the clock. Add the descent and slowing down to land, and well, I started to wish I had plotted out those optimum descent profiles that fliger747 had urged us to do… Lucky for us, dcc, president and chief-engineer and test pilot of Virtual-Lockheed, was on the radio, suggesting a descent profile that would conserve energy and get us in quickly. It was a fun approach, and we made it with two minutes to spare!

Couple kodaks: 1) Moses03 and I in our P-38s, getting ready to take off. 2) Dangerousdave26 pulled alongside in the Plywood Speedbug.
 
got to do a short hop down to YKSC to get the second South 35 airport

cheers to all my fellow SOH pilots and to all the other teams, 'twas fun sharing the virtual skies with you all again! :applause:

- dcc
 
We all decided to escort Fliger on the final leg of the race into YMEN

It's been a great event again guys and I would fly with you anytime.

Steve
 
The DC-3 flight was great!
Had to catch up with the team to bring Tom (Fliger) a freshly smuggled 24 cans of the finest Tsingtao.
Did a Melbourne tour on the approach (and No-No, I don't usually approach like that, even in a cub).
 
After a short nap it was time to unload the Pentax and see how many shots I botched this year. :)

First shot:
Sunset falls on the P-47M on the way to POrt Moresby. I was wingman for Moses...trying desparately to keep up with that German "Arrow" he was flying. Smooth flying in beautiful weather!

After a short hiatus from the race...including me missing the flights across my home state of North Dakota...
I stretched the legs of the jug again and flew wingman for Taco across the Gulf of Mexico headed for Cancun. I smoked the landing gear on touchdown so I thumbed a ride with JohnC as he did a short Helo Hop to Cozumel. Figured I could score a set of wings while the jug was in the shop.

In Coz, I made a quick run through the tourist traps for some souvenirs and a couple bottles of some evil looking mescal. It was labeled "reposado" but looked pretty green to me. Oh well, I needed something to distract the pilot as I snagged his keys and jumped in the A-26C "Spirit of Waco" and took SRG's wing for a cabin-class leg from Coz to San Andres Island off the coast of Columbia. I'm sure glad the Policía Nacional de Colombia wasn't waiting for me on the ramp when I arrived!

Next two shots:
Jumping off from Ecuador, I once again breached Columbian airspace in a borrowed A-6E Intruder for another quick wingman run for Srg into Brazil. There sure were some nasty looking thunderstorms down below, glad I wasn't down on the deckfor this flight!
 
#1:
After a little R'n'R in Brazil, it was off for a nice long flight across the south Atlantic. I carried the baton from Natal over to Freetown in Sierra Leone in the TB-50H. Wnd was somewhere behind me in a DC-7 and we had advance weather recon from the Gnoopster himself flying a WB-50 weather bird. CrashAZ was somewhere along the route providing top cover for the big birds with an F-18 Hornet.


#2:
With me on the ramp in Freetown, Fliger747 took the baton in a nice shiny A-26 with DCC on his wing. Here is Fliger going wheels-up as I wait for my wingman's tired old Douglas to arrive.


Not sure what happened to my camera bag...it got lost in the shuffle and it was too dark or too foggy to snap pics anyway.
I took a good nap after that nice long trans-atlantic trip but caught up with the baton somewhere in Spain. From Barcelona I got word that the support crew had repaired the landing gear in my P-47 so I flew wingman for Moses in his plywood speedbug into a very foggy Biggin Hill. By the time I arrived, the rest of the team was well into the London city tour...

In Pakistan, we started one of the McRobertson routes and I flew a De Havilland Comet as wingman for Fliger747 in his DC-2. It was dark, it was soupy, and no autopilot in Der Komet...so my eyes were glued to that ole P.8 compass the whole trip! What a ride!!!

From Bangladesh to a little strip outside of Bangkok I once again chased one of them little wooden speedbugs as I flew the P-47M as wingman for Flyin Bull. Was an uneventful trip listening to the radio chatter on Teamspeak as the Hornet steadily crept away from the old jug. Dang, what I wouldn't have given for another R-2800 strapped onto this thing!!!

Dropping down to the south end of Thailand, I once again grabbed Der Komet and with Gnoopey as my wingman I carried the baton down to Gong Kedak in Malaysia. They didn't send up any interceptors so I don't think the Royal Malaysian Air Force minded us using their field as a hand-off point.
 
Hey! Lookie what I found! My camera bag was held up in customs back in Sierra Leone and they finally tracked me down to return it.

#1:
I flew some weather recon for Moses and PRB as they fought headwinds all the way from the coast of Australia out to Ayers Rock. Don't ask where I got the old F-106 Delta Dart...I'm sure the Montana ANG didn't miss it from their Great Falls static display park for a few hours! ;)

#2-3:
Down at Port Lincoln, I caught up with DCC and flew a camera chase plane for his short hop over to Kingscote. Two P-38s in formation looked much nicer, so I left the P-47 on the ramp for this flight.
 
Invasion of the Gooney Birds!

The final leg!

As Fliger747 and Gnoopey did the official baton flights, we tagged along in a "gaggle of gooneys" along with a few fighters for cover........just in case the other teams were all drunk and rowdy at the finish line.


Like the choppers out of the sun in Apocalypse Now...cue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries...


The finish line is in sight...for this year anyway!
 
Wx recon above PRB and Moses inbound to Ayers Rock and sitting on ramp for their "expedited" arrival. (Moses is the black dot to the right of Paul just beyond 10mi)
High flyin Jug had a nice tailwind while the boys below sweated the headwind!
 
Well, alot of long hours and tired flying bring the '09 RTWR to a disappointing end. Too many of these and some technical difficulties took us out. But was still fun flying with you guys and like Cubs fans say, "wait 'til next year".
Cya on the boards boys.
John
 
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