PRB C2C Southbound

Thanks Willy & Jeff! I like this Lockheed 12. That instrument panel cowling thing with all the rivets on it is cool. I can almost feel my hand grabing hold it when it gets bumpy! :)
 
Off to Milan, Italy. I was going to head for France, then I remembered I had no otto the trip out of Swiss air space, so went looking for something a little closer...
 
Dang it. Couldn't find my way out of the mountains. Well I did eventually. And why is it the weather closes in only around those airports that don't have ADF stations situated to allow nice radio guided approaches to them? Not complaining or anything. Just sayin. Oh, and if you look at my duenna log, you can easily see where I trimmed the ship for perfect level flight, then went back aft for a couple of minutes to take case of some urgent business, came back and found the ship spiraling down into a giant granite wall. That was fun, let me tell you. All's well that ends well.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=uci7cOjqQyNa5axsXvIHHbEJVXo

 
Thought this one was going to be a “milk run”, after all that hand flying through the tall scary rocky pointy Alps, but I was mistaken. I adjusted my new fancy pants Sperry auto pilot unit pitch setting for a gentle climb, as I knew I would be crossing the southern end of those nasty Alps. I knew I had plenty of time before I got there... Well, 30 minutes later, I'm approaching another Giant Geologic Wall, I'm at full power, auto-pilot off, climbing to maintain 125 MPH on the IAS gauge, and still seeing the pointy ends of Italian pine trees poking up above the shiny nose of my Lockheed 12. It was all very distressing. Austin's “Proper Planning Prevent Plunging Into Mountains” mantra kept running through my brain. Something like that anyway... We made it through to LFML with no further drama. Kodaks show 1) Takeoff from LIML. 2) Approaching The Wall a second time. 3) About to turn final to LFML.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=TwIxYHfPrCQd7EqGOYtMSACIj0

 
Thanks Robert!

Med crossing. Off to Es Senia (DAOO). I'm using the ADF station near Palma, on the island of Majorca, as a waypoint. Heck, Africa is pretty big, almost impossible to miss. What's the worst that could happen?
 
Took off from Marseille at dawn and headed across the Med. Of course I had a twenty knot crosswind, the strongest so far for this event. Adjusted my course three degrees to the north and settled in. Nailed the first checkpoint, the southwestern tip of the island of Majorca, then headed for Africa. There were thunderstorms and reasonably decent turbulence on this leg. Seen worse... All in all an uneventful leg. Some kodaks: 1) Dawn departure from Marseille. 2) The sun comes up over the empty Med. Don't your spirits rise when the sun comes up, after you've started on a long trip at “O-dark-thirty”? This is where I broke out the coffee and relaxed a bit. 3) Over Majorca. Half way there. 4) Welcome to Africa! 5) Final approach, Es Senia.

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=9SKjTTMnAQPL56G9A0keBViHMo
 
Things look well with this operation.

Starting to like the Lockheed ... you're getting some nice shots of it.





Down the west side, eh? ... well keep the salt off of her ... for the screenshots.


Good Luck!
 
Thanks! I like this plane. Fun to fly. Took a texture from one of the 1960s model and stuck it on the 1940s one, and it worked very nicely. Actually I'm taking the central Africa route. The track to DAOO followed the north coast for a bit. The next leg will be interesting. Bechar is 250 miles out into the desert wasteland, and has no ADF station, so in reality, the dead reconing part starts now... :)
 
Thanks Willy! I'm flying beteen two NDB stations to get a good read on ground speed before heading south. That way I'll know exactly when I'm lost! :icon_lol:
 
The first “dead reckoning” leg for this trip. I thought it would be ingenious to fly between the two ADF stations HMB and TLM, time it, and get an accurate read on my ground speed before turning, from TLM, to a heading of 195 for Bechar. The problem with that plan is that when I turn 30 degrees to the south, the relative wind does too. Oh well, I wasn't too far off, because about ten minutes before Bechar was supposed to be under my fuselage, I caught sight of a lake off to the east. I hadn't noticed it during flight planning (genius...) but when I spied it out the window I got out my National Geographic atlas of Africa, and there it was, Hassi El Morra, which, evidently, is not a lake, but some sort of spring, or something. The important point is that it's about twenty miles east of Bechar, and that's all I needed to know! At that point I just looked 30 degrees to the other side of the nose and I could see the city of Bechar. Love it when a plan comes together, or, even a blind chipmunk finds a squirrel, or something...

http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=rd6FQ5YglGCgIW0LRTCgPB1DRto

 
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