padburgess
Charter Member
Hi
Pictured is what has been my "Office" for the last 3 weeks. I set myself the task of doing, in real time, what I called a "Coastal Patrol" of the Axis Mediterranean area. My rules were simple, apart from intercontinental and inter-island hops, at no time be more than 1km off shore and fly into every bay, and around every island you could not see both coasts of from the cruising altitude of 300m.
I've just finished this, what has become epic, flight. It was both challenging and easy, exciting and "incredibly boring". I did at one point actually fall asleep at the keyboard. Well not actually asleep, just a long blink. As shown by the general route map below I didn't actually circumnavigate the Med, just flew those coasts that were nominally under Axis control at some point. My aircraft was the GroundCrewDesign Bf110G4 done up as a G2 in 9-ZG26 colours. The cockpit gauges are my own selection from my gauge files and approximate a G4 setup.
The flight track shown is indicative only. I flew into every bay and around every peninsular and island. I had one "incident on take off from one strip when the torque reaction got the better of me and I strayed too far left and hit a runway light at low-ish speed. I deemed it a minor accident and waited until the next day to continue after repairs to the undercarriage. My landings have got quite good and I have become adept at putting her down off a curved approach. The best parts were the Greek Islands and Croatian coast, the not best was the coast of Libya (Truly boring).
So would I do this again. ABSOLUTELY. This was flying at its best really. Taking time to actually get there and getting an appreciation of what pilots of the era actually did. OK, I know that no one pilot or unit covered the whole area in one go, but this whole area was patrolled, by both sides. And those patrols would have been, at times, very mundane and boring, and at other times thrilling and potentially and actually fatal. Just to cover the distance in real time gave me a sense of perspective about it. No GPS, minimal naviads and line of sight only with visibility of less than 50km at all times. Unfortunately because of the limitations of my rig I have to fly in benign weather at all times. But hey, it was the sunny Med right.
Total distance, in excess of 10,300km.
Cheers
Paul
Pictured is what has been my "Office" for the last 3 weeks. I set myself the task of doing, in real time, what I called a "Coastal Patrol" of the Axis Mediterranean area. My rules were simple, apart from intercontinental and inter-island hops, at no time be more than 1km off shore and fly into every bay, and around every island you could not see both coasts of from the cruising altitude of 300m.
I've just finished this, what has become epic, flight. It was both challenging and easy, exciting and "incredibly boring". I did at one point actually fall asleep at the keyboard. Well not actually asleep, just a long blink. As shown by the general route map below I didn't actually circumnavigate the Med, just flew those coasts that were nominally under Axis control at some point. My aircraft was the GroundCrewDesign Bf110G4 done up as a G2 in 9-ZG26 colours. The cockpit gauges are my own selection from my gauge files and approximate a G4 setup.
The flight track shown is indicative only. I flew into every bay and around every peninsular and island. I had one "incident on take off from one strip when the torque reaction got the better of me and I strayed too far left and hit a runway light at low-ish speed. I deemed it a minor accident and waited until the next day to continue after repairs to the undercarriage. My landings have got quite good and I have become adept at putting her down off a curved approach. The best parts were the Greek Islands and Croatian coast, the not best was the coast of Libya (Truly boring).
So would I do this again. ABSOLUTELY. This was flying at its best really. Taking time to actually get there and getting an appreciation of what pilots of the era actually did. OK, I know that no one pilot or unit covered the whole area in one go, but this whole area was patrolled, by both sides. And those patrols would have been, at times, very mundane and boring, and at other times thrilling and potentially and actually fatal. Just to cover the distance in real time gave me a sense of perspective about it. No GPS, minimal naviads and line of sight only with visibility of less than 50km at all times. Unfortunately because of the limitations of my rig I have to fly in benign weather at all times. But hey, it was the sunny Med right.
Total distance, in excess of 10,300km.
Cheers
Paul
