Team United - Golden Age - Boeing 247D

DHC120 said:
Ed G;
It's all your "fault"!!:jump: After we did the "Falls to Falls Maple Run", you "got me hooked" on Radio Range navigation (NDB's are sorta like RR but without the fancy tower arrays and the left/right tones).
Click to expand...

Austin is the one that got me hooked on radio range flying and so much that i bought a jeppesen e6b for the race... love it, that thing does everything...

I blame Austin :) hahahahaha:isadizzy:

:icon29:
 
Leg #7 to Agra (VIAG)... Crashed

The ORBS-VIAG flight was the flight from hell.. The map I used (FS Nav) shows hills/mountains to 10,000 in areas along the route.. the reality is, these "10,000'" foot mountains are over 13,000' tall AND often shrouded in thick clouds!.
Also, due to my own inexperience, this flight did not start-off well.. in fact, I "started" the flight three times.. all with the Duenna OFF! Wouldn't have been so bad if I noticed it on take-off, or shortly there after.. No, I had to fly for thirty minutes to an hour before I noticed this rather important fact!
I finally took off, at leasty a hour later than planned, with the Duenna on and headed to a correct airport..
I was at "The Point of No Return", a bit over nine hundred nautical miles into the nearly 1800nm flight, when I realized I was not going to make the primary airport (VIAG) before dark.. At a Town/Air Port/NDB called Quetta, I opted to divert Jodhpur (VIJO), a prepared refueling station.. it was some two hunded NM closer than VIAG. This decision was made at 1540 hrs, local (India) time. The sun was setting and by 1620 hrs, I was in total "black-out" conditions.
I got on TeamSpeak and saw "Danderous Dave" and "SrGalahad" (Rob), explained my problem (of being unable to find the airport in the dark) and was assisted with "GCA" like instructions.. The airport was so difficult to see that I was halfway down the runway, at about 1000'AMSL (400' AGL) before I recognized the runway lights.. I made two "Go Arounds", trying to get "lined up" with the very faint lights. When I made the commitment to land, I was "wide left" of the runway and my left wing caught a light standard, resulting in my crashing ON the airfield..
At that point, I was so exhausted, mentally and physically.. I thanked Rob & Dave for their help, shut-down the flight sim and fell asleep in my recliner.. (that's why I am so late in posting this)..
Herewith are the Duenna Files.
I do not know what the protocol is.. Rob (or Dave) thought the options were to Refly the route or "take the flight" but with a one hour penalty for crashing (first crash, second crashes rate a three hour penalty).
Given the length of the flight, I opt for the penalty.
Please advise if this is acceptable or not.
 
MM said:
Charles,

We can't tell from your post just what happened over Iraq. It sounds as though there were some sort of controller issue...or something else. Unless we hear otherwise, we'll put it down as a "computer glitch," note the event, and then ignore it for Race scoring.
Click to expand...

MM;
I wrote a reply, but I guess I didn't send it properly..
I began a flight from ORBS Baghdad to VIAL Allahabad. The Duenna was running. I was able to take off and made a ninety degree turn, but after that, I could not control nor maintain the direction of the aircraft. I thought I hit "Abort" on the Duenna, but I did not.. I simply "Xed" out FS9. When I came back to the forum to post about my incident, I read and heeded Red-Green's warning and, after correcting the "Sensitivities" settings in FS9, I selected the proper "Destination" airport of Agra (VIAG), India. I have posted a report and the Duenna files for that flight.
I can, if requested, post the Duenna for the "discontinued" flight. Please advise.
 
Charles,

  • No need to post anything more on the aborted flight.
  • Dave and Rob are correct about the leg to Jodhpur (VIJO). You can either re-fly the leg with a one hour crash penalty or accept a "crash-on-landing" that completes your leg at VIJO with a one hour crash penalty. (The one hour penalty is associated with the team's first crash.) Clearly, given the dramatic events, the best option is to accept the crash-on-landing option.
  • Great description of a challenging and exciting leg. Your writing has captured the spirit of the London-Melbourne event. Kudos.
 
MM said:
Charles,

  • Great description of a challenging and exciting leg. Your writing has captured the spirit of the London-Melbourne event. Kudos.
Click to expand...

Mike;
I can honestly say: My writing is a LOT better than my flying:icon_lol:
Thanks.
Charles.
 
Let's Go!!

Okay,,,,,,time for a little "Geritol" over here it seems.......


Let's take "Big Bird" over to Allahabad and see how how well the repairs were done.....:running:

salt_air flying for Team United in the 247D VIJO-VIAL to pick up the second Checkpoint enroute to Melbourne.

Tally Ho!

Note: Had to restart flight due to having the wrong aircraft,,,,,Hey!,,,it's dark out here...
 
salt_air said:
Okay,,,,,,time for a little "Geritol" over here it seems.......

Note: Had to restart flight due to having the wrong aircraft,,,,,Hey!,,,it's dark out here...
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... man comes home from party a bit under the influence, quietly climbs the stairs, tiptoes into the bedroom, undresses and slips gently into bed... jumps up, screaming: "Who are you and what did you do with my wife??!!!!" :isadizzy:

"Geritol, you say?? Just blow steadily into this tube, sir, and keep blowing until I tell you to stop."

Rob
 
Clean and green, but pretty mean

Team United is sitting in Allahabad (VIAL) safe and sound. Local time 07:33.......:applause:

Pitch dark as I left Jodhpur AB,,,,watched a nice sunrise as the cloud cover broke then the sim paused to load scenery and it was dark again,,,Time Zone ?

Flew the rest of the trip between 7500' and 9500' to maximize a light tailwind (less than 10kts) for the majority of the trip.

Gambled and won on taking an approach for RWY 12 as the winds at my back died out altogether at around 2000'.

Nice big fat building right in approach path, but with the clouds clearing during descent (7500') no trouble did I see. Gonna start changing thinking about touchdown from hitting the numbers dead center to having to make a second flare 100' or so after the numbers. These geezer birds have very low stall speeds and a mile of runway is plenty to set down a third of the way up or so and get stopped. That should take the MSFS trees and buildings at the threshold of the runway phenomenon out of play.

Caught a second or so of overspeed as this plane is very sensitive to 160 kts indicated,,,,,that's it or you're in trouble. No "Barber's Pole" on the airspeed gauge, but overspeed warnings during duenna recorded flights tend to ingrain certain conditions in your mind.

Next...........
 
Salt-Air;
Sounds like the "Shade-Trees at Jodhpur patched up the 247D okay.. I was a bit concerned when I saw the tools they were going to use to repair the left wing.. A carpenters hammer, a "Stilston" wrench and a ten pound sledge..
The only "upside" to my crash was the wing tanks had two or three gallons of fuel in each.. Had the wing tanks been more full, I might have been a "fireball", instead. (that would have lit-up that airport!!)
Glad you had a good flight..
Charles.
 
Thanks!

Thanks Buddy-Ro,

It's amazing just how far a hand full of "Jackson's" will go in a third world environment....:icon_lol: I had no trouble at all gettin' that crowd in gear.....

Anyway the ol' Gal is ready to rock whenever you or Red are ready to go.

This is the second required checkpoint. Singapore is next, we can either take a long hump to say Alor Setar (WMKA) and then to Singapore (WSSL), or take a short flight now, say out to the coast to Kolkata (VECC) or chop it up more half and half like down to Rangoon (VYYY) or Bangkok (VTDB).

The straighter the better at this point. Avoid Calcutta, it's to far off line. Most of the long flights at this point will be over water no need to shy away.

I'll check back tomorrow after you guys have a chance to fly some.

Good Luck!
 
My current leg count stands at four, while Charles has two, and Austin only has one. I'm going to hold off flying legs until the tally is a little more balanced.

Best of luck, gentlemen! :ernae:

By the way, don't forget the significant contribution that my Duct Tape made to the 247D's repairs. :D
 
Or, we can look at "Miles Flown".. (as shown by the Duenna)..
Red-Green-- 1223.8nm. Four Legs Flown.
DHC120----- 2840.2nm. Three Legs Flown. (One crash:isadizzy:)
Salt-Air----- 472.1nm. One Leg Flown. (not counting the Vega:jump:).

At any rate, Team United has flown 4536.1nm. Salt said the race was about 10,000nm.. so we are almost at half-way.
 
salt_air said:
This is the second required checkpoint. Singapore is next, we can either take a long hump to say Alor Setar (WMKA) and then to Singapore (WSSL), or take a short flight now, say out to the coast to Kolkata (VECC) or chop it up more half and half like down to Rangoon (VYYY) or Bangkok (VTDB).

The straighter the better at this point. Avoid Calcutta, it's to far off line. Most of the long flights at this point will be over water no need to shy away.

I'll check back tomorrow after you guys have a chance to fly some.

Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Salt;
I opt for less legs that are longer.. just not as long as I attempted on my ill-fated OTBS-VIAG/divert to VIJO flight (1954nm).
What about VIAL-VYYY/Rangoon (962nm) then a VYYY-WSSL/Singapore leg (1132nm). That will put a stop at an Intermediate (two star) airport while hitting a "Compulsory Checkpoint Control Stop" in two legs. And, by my Rand/McNally world map, it's "almost" a straight line towards Darwin. Thoughts?
I won't be able to fly, again, 'til near mid-week.
Salt, you want to take the VIAL-VYYY leg? And I'll take the longer VYYY-WSSL leg and, with luck, maybe I can bust another "speed run" and get my "penalty hour" back :running:..
 
Leg 9...Melbourne or Bust!

A shorty over to Kolkata to set up a nice long ride into checkpoint Charlie.

salt_air Team United 247D VIAL-VECC

I'll run this in all daylight since no one else is flying today....
 
Leg Complete

Safe and green at VECC

Nice tailwind component for the majority of the trip made for GS's at 185 kts. maximum....sweet!

Then of course for the last half hour of the flight, the good ol' Jepp weather takes over the show, reverses the wind component and eliminates any visibilty until descending below 2000'....Yeah!

I decided on 19L, longer of the two and it had NDB's at each end of the final approach path. Came in very handy as the vis stayed poor (less than a mile) all the way to the ground.

Dual ADF's once again saved the day, one to keep a base heading with and one to tell me when to turn to final. Exciting because I hadn't flown into VECC ahead of time and had to also watch for buildings and trees. Whew!

This will qualify as the team's required intermediate stop between checkpoints 2 and 3 and allow a flight straight to into Singapore....

Which way to the fuel stand?...:wiggle:
 
Down and safe in Singapore

Team United has a green duenna at WSSL,,,,checkpoint 3 complete! :wavey:

A demanding excursion across The Bay of Bengal and the Southern tip of Thailand into Malaysia.

No where near as much free time as I thought I would have. Never really found a sweet spot for winds. Tried as low as 1500' AGL nearly on the deck, but when the threat of clouds came up as well as known terrain issues I decided to climb back up and settled on 11500'. After a long day of switching between chasing of winds between 3500' and 7500' and manging to add up over 16 seconds of Overspeed, I took the lesser of two evils and opted to fly over any terrain with a slight tailwind instead of getting greedy and using up all the free time in overspeed or misjudging distances around terrain with poor vis.

At 11500' the 247D doesn't breathe very well and that kept manifold pressure down (bad news) as well as fuel comsumption (good news). I could have gotten by with a lot less fuel. Still had almost a ton when I landed.

Done for today, I'll check the weather when I get up in the morning.

Whew!,,,long day!
 
Leg 11 Where to Cap'n?

Let's set a course for Kupang on Timor enroute to Port Darwin.

"The Land Down Under" should be insight from there...:bump:

salt_air Team United 247D WSSL-WRKK
 
Safe and Sound

Green duenna at Kupang (WRKK)., Team United is in Timor and in one piece!:applause:

Another long leg and that much closer to Australia. Wind games all the way. Took the high road again as there was too much at stake constantly chasing light winds in of and on poor vis and some of these islands down through here have some atrocious mountains right in your path,,,,you know like the clear day that has one cloud right at the end of the runway...:icon_lol:

I'm done for a while. Headed over to run in DC3 Airways World Rally 2009.

http://dc3airways.com/special_events/wr_2009/welcome.htm

Worth giving a look, open to all and very well laid out. It's more of a rally in the true sense than a race of any kind. Lots-o-fun!

Red, Charles, if you blokes are still messin' when I'm done over there, then I'll jump back in and fly some mo'.

Happy Trails!....:guinness:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top