The Windsor's Watering Hole

Made it to Brindisi (LIBR) without incident. There are thunderstorms across southern Italy, if anyone is headed that way.
 
Darn PRB, The Pope can't be mad at you, I think he is on your side, it seem you get all the good weather. Now me, I have had bad weather from the UK to Greece I knew I should have put more in the collection plate.

Taco
 
The start of the leg was what was planned for but the rest was just difficult.

The trip threw the Alps was turbulent at one point I had a 180 degree 18kts wind shift that launched me up almost 200'. Putting me closer to the altitude cap of 12,000 than I cared to be.

Visibility and winds starting about 400nm from LGAT were conspiring against me. First I could not go down to the lower altitudes because head winds were robbing me of speed. Up higher they were crosswinds but I had to contend with lower power settings because of drop in manifold pressure.

Later the winds below were more favorable but I could not go down because visibility was the standard 6.2nm. Again this forced me up higher and in the 20 to 30 kts head wind / cross wind.

The last three hours were more challenging because I could not get myself in a position to increase my speed but we made it.
 
Quite an adventure, Dave. Congratulations on getting through the thick stuff and getting the job done.
:icon29:
 
Well I managed to get my first leg in for the modern class.

Had my brand new Cirrus SR22 delivered yesterday sans Air Conditioning :(.
After I striped her of all the non-essentials, I loaded her up with fuel, stuck a nice keg of Guinness in the back and was set to go.

I got her up and going no problem, had nice 30 knot tailwinds over the English Channel (well 20ish nm north of it). Got her up to about 17,000 feet where i was nice and comfortable and turbulence was less, although it was still a bit bumpy.

My original plan was to land in Hungary however as i got closer to it, my engine instruments informed me that i would have about an hour of fuel remaining when landing in Hungary. As I got closer i tried to find another airfield i could get to, so I decided to push on to Romania. I then selected an airport in Romania and push on.

As I closed in on Romania my fabulous tailwinds turned into a headwind. My ETE between my current position and my destination was about 50 minutes at that point and my Fuel remaining was about 55 minutes. For fear of running out of fuel I leaned out the mixture a little more to get the fuel flow down to about 18GPH.

It was a fabulous flight, lots of fun. Flew on AVSIM MP and chatted with a few AVSIM folks.

Here are some screenies.

As you can see my fuel was extremely low.. :)
 
Dangerousdave26 said:
The start of the leg was what was planned for but the rest was just difficult.

The trip threw the Alps was turbulent at one point I had a 180 degree 18kts wind shift that launched me up almost 200'. Putting me closer to the altitude cap of 12,000 than I cared to be.

Visibility and winds starting about 400nm from LGAT were conspiring against me. First I could not go down to the lower altitudes because head winds were robbing me of speed. Up higher they were crosswinds but I had to contend with lower power settings because of drop in manifold pressure.

Later the winds below were more favorable but I could not go down because visibility was the standard 6.2nm. Again this forced me up higher and in the 20 to 30 kts head wind / cross wind.

The last three hours were more challenging because I could not get myself in a position to increase my speed but we made it.
Click to expand...


This gives us a whole new appreciation for C.J. Melrose's accomplishments.

Thanks for sharing the details Dave.
 
Yes the VC is very user friendly in this model. It loads up fine in FS Panel Studio. I added the Driftmeter and Dual RMI to the panel to keep from having my add on navigation panel from popped up all the time.

This is not really completely accurate as the Puss Moth had no electrical system so it could not have run any radios.

I had a crack crew install a simple wind driven generator and battery to run my radio system. :icon_lol: (not really it was already in the aircraft.cfg file)

For NDB navigation the Dual RMI and drift gauge are not optional. You must know where you are in relation to NDB's around you (preferably two of them one on each side) and you must know what direction you are going because of the effect wind will have on the aircraft.

It seems that flying never happens in a true straight line.

With all of this said...

Dang there is no way I would fly this plane from London to Melbourne with out Radios. That's just crazy talk. :isadizzy:
 
Thanks Dave. got my real wx online last nite. dont think I can make this race, but might some duennna tests for practice. You inspired me, but as Milton ahs pointed these sim flights amplify the feat of Melrose; how did he pull off these flights without radio nav? Using the original instruments I can barely get from scotland to ireland in a straight line. :p

cheerio
brady
 
Flew from Brindisi (LIBR), in southern Italy, to Athens, Greece (LGAT). The weather on this leg was a bit more “dynamic” than it has been so far. That, and the Pindos Mountains of Greece combined to make quite an interesting flight. They go almost up to about 9000 feet you know. Almost. I know that because that’s how high I was and I almost bumped into a fine example of Greece’s geology. There couldn’t have been much more than 500 feet of “radio altimeter” between the bottom of the Lockheed and the trees on top of the hill. But the real fun began when I arrived in the airspace around Athens. I hadn’t been paying full and complete attention to my navigation duties for some time, you see, but I had set ADF1 to a long-range station nearby LGAT, and ADF2 to the 22 NM station even closer to LGAT. Well, time just kind of flew by, if you know what I mean, and by the time I turned my attention back out the window, I could see a huge airport directly ahead. I knew I was looking for a large airport with parallel runways, and this one fit that “general description.” I was about to start down when I remembered landing at the wrong airport at Singapore one time long ago… So I got the binoculars out and put the L9 into a steep turn. I focused the glasses down over the left wing at the end of the runway 9000 feet below, fully expecting to see “33” painted on one end and “15” on the other. What I saw instead was “21” and “3”. What the… I put the Orion’s wings back level, and looked around frantically for another airport. Nothing. I punched the autopilot button, and opened the chart box, looking for the one with Greece on it. Not grease, mind you, but Greece. They all have grease on them, after all. After tossing several useless charts around the cockpit I found the right one. Ha! This giant airport was LGAV! LGAT is south, and behind me (doh!) I stabbed the auto-pilot button again, nudged the power up and stood the little Lockheed on her right wing. There! On the coast! Surely that is LGAT! I chopped the power and began my descent. I decided to fly over the field and visually confirm the numbers here too. As I got closer, I noticed there were no numbers on any of the runways, but there were big “X”s painted on both ends… Closed? Huh? This can’t be LGAT either! But I turned and flew parallel to the runways and looked at the compass – 150. This had to be it! Well, closed or not, I snuck in and landed. It was indeed LGAT, and it’s closed. I parked the L9 inside a deserted hanger for the night and went to find a bar to hang out in.

Kodaks: 1) The geology of Greece. 2) Hells bells, what airport is this? 3) LGAT or bust and hide the Lockheed!
 
Well arrived at Gwadar Intl and a welcome relief to go for a paddle in the sea , not seen the coast since crossing the channel a long time ago . Has been a pleasant journey so far . Had a little argument in Bucharest when the ground Marshalls bought me to a stop well short of our parking location !! The signaller crossed his arms above his head informing me to stop , which I duly did , and on exiting the plane and discussing the event in somewhat broken english , it appears it wasn`t time to stop , he was merely covering his eyes from the horrific, blinding glare from the "Citrus" paintwork :) no problems since then , reasonable winds and generally good viz at the airports
 
Bry, is that a drift meter you've got screwed to the instrument panel of your brightly painted Savoia? That's cool! Where did you find it?
 
I wish it was Paul , but it doesn`t move and is only fitted to the Torpedo version , so I guess it is a static "Range finder" for targetting the enemy :(
 
Mediterranean crossing: 1) Arriving over Nikos Kazantzakis airport (LGIR), Crete. 2) Akrotiri Air Base, Cyprus (LCRA). Actually, you can’t see the airport in that shot, but it’s on that peninsula sticking out to the south. 3) In the soup! Heavy duty haze over the eastern Mediterranean. 4) Final approach to Beirut (OLBA).
 
Three flights between the Baghdad and Allahabad checkpoints. Some Kodacks.

  • Haze covered Iraq as I left Baghdad, making for a nerve-racking day. There were no live NDBs going southward and ended up having to go visual through Basra and the coast. Decided to abort to Bushehr, discretion being the better part of valor. And the promise of better cuisine than Jask.
  • Dawn departure the next morning in the cozy Mew cockpit.
  • Strange smokestacks on the outer edge of Bushehr. The authorities the night before said it would be better if a Britisher kept his eyes and ears closed and his mouth shut. New chemical plant?
  • The sun rises over the Iranian mountains ahead. The Mew does not like altitudes, so need to keep at 7,000 wherever possible.
  • Many peaks at just above the critical altitude, many obscured with the little white puffy clouds. Made for some anxious moments.
  • Some dark granite-filled clouds ahead--had to quickly bank to the left to avoid some solid parts of the darkness.
  • Eventually, the terrain dropped below critical altitude and one could admire the swirling formations above.
  • Happy to see clear weather in Karachi--not the usual state.
  • Over Rajasthan and crossing the Aravalli Range. You can see Mount Abu in the distance. The Gura Shikhar peak hosts both a Hindu shrine and a scientific observatory. Modern India!
 
The first leg in the Twin Beech is done. Mildenhall to Marseilles bypassing Paris and Lyon. On to Italy! (tomorrow)
 
The hills of Southern Iran...

Gorgeous morning flight over Iran, 12knot tailwind most of the leg into Jask. Few clouds, less turbulence and steady tailwind....

I'll take this for the whole race, Thank You....

ss_3_01.jpg
 
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