Tonight's Flight

Willy

Willy

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Staff member
I haven't flown the Boeing 307 Stratoliner in a while so I decided that a flight was in order. Took off in FS 1954 at Boeing Field (KBFI) just after dawn and flew south to Portland International (KPDX). Botched the landing at KPDX, so I reflew it after a few touch n goes at Boeing. All and all quite enjoyable and I need to fly the B307 more often.

So, where did you go?
 
Nice shots Willy...:medals: I'm not to familiar with that plane tho. Looks like a Curtiss Commando on steroids.

BB686:USA-flag:
 
The Boeing 307 Stratoliner was developed alongside the Model 299 which became the B-17 and shared wings, engines and tail surfaces with it's more famous cousin. Think B-17 with a pressurized cabin for 33 passengers.

Here's a bit more on the Stratoliner: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?71-HWS-Spotlight-Boeing-307-Stratoliner

I'm hoping other folks will chime in here with their flights as well. A brief description will do although screenshots are always welcome. I'll be flying the Stratoliner for a few nights here and will give updates.
 
Took a bit longer flight from Portland down to San Francisco. Took the Stratoliner to a cruise altitude of 15,500 (flying VFR as usual) and just motored along heading south. Still need to work on my landings a bit as I got to bouncing after I set it down and thought it was going to shake itself to pieces...
 
Well I took some time out of creating a scenery package for the Hop List server to actually do some flying. Oddly enough on the Hop list server. I started the Norweigan hop list with hopes of getting caught up to Tako_Kichi. I decided to start off the first hop with an oldie but a goody.

The venerable Ju52

In the Where Eagles Dare Paint scheme.

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I forgot how weird this plane flies when it is fully loaded so before we got to the airport everyone bailed out into the Fjord.

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For the next flight I thought I would pull out the old C47 Widow Maker which I rarely fly for some reason.

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But as soon as I loaded it in I remembered why. It is 2D Panel only and I have become a VC Whore (what has become of the world).

So I instead pulled out the SOH Tigercat from the hanger.

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And then I found a strange Norwegian thing. The next three airports have the gas pump right by the runway between the taxi ways. One end of the runway has a NDB station on it and the other end has that plane shredder whatever it is called. :icon_lol:

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Gas Pumps

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Cruising Argentina from SAST to SATK via SA0M (252nm) in Jens' Curtiss Condor AT-32 wearing Windrunner's Argentine Navy paint
 
Warning Thread HiJacker

Of course I am not always just flying around the world. Some times I break out another oldie but a goody...

Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed

I reinstalled it about a week ago and I am working my way through the Evolution Mode which I think is one of the coolest concepts when it comes to a racing Sim.

You start off with $11,000 in 1950 and you have your choice of new Porsche's to buy. Either a 1950 Cabriolet or Coupe. You then compete in racing Tournaments winning money buying and selling cars and moving on through the years.

This is an older game made in 2000 but runs really nice on this XP machine. I use my rudder pedals as the gas and the flight yoke is the steering wheel. I had to program the brake as a button because it will only recognize one axis on the pedal toe brakes.

Tonight's tournament was a repeat to bank a few more $ before I move on to the next Tournament.

Of course they always start me off in the back of the pack never the pole position unless you were the winner of the previous race in the tournament.

PORSCHE2011-07-2720-49-50-46.jpg


Thats OK I get the chance to show these AI drivers just what I am made of.

1950 356B model Porsche with the 1600 S engine. Pittsburgh Steelers Paint scheme and an almost James Bond number. They only allow 2 digits go figure.

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I bought all the upgrades and tweaked the suspension and brakes to make this baby fly <--- that is a figurative statement it can't really fly as in leave the ground.

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Some how I don't think this driver likes me drafting behind him.

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Thats OK because I ain't going to be there long.

Once I get the second tunnel they will be eating my dust

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and by the time I get to the Light House Curve this race is all mine.

PORSCHE2011-07-2720-52-36-60.jpg


They don't all stay that easy as you progress on the other drivers get a lot better and it becomes a much tighter race with each race possibly costing you more than you will make on it if you pile up the car too much.

PORSCHE2011-07-2721-01-25-84.jpg


The game ends when you complete all the Tournaments or go broke trying to run them.

Even though it is an old game I still really like it.

Sorry for Hijacking the thread Willy :icon_lol:
 
No problem Dave. I didn't fly tonite as I had my head stuck in the owners manual of the truck I bought today. More buttons and switches than Carter has liver pills.....
 
Took a Western DC-4 out of San Francisco to Las Vegas. Had to pick my way through the mountains and got a little bit higher than legally allowed a couple of times, but it worked out good.
 
Dave,

that track reminds my very much of the track in the old N64 racer Top Gear Rally, was a great driving game that got mostly overlooked due to inferior Playstation titles with 'real' cars in.

Jamie
 
KHIO to KTMK

View attachment 44726
We spent the afternoon reading the factory manual, the pilot's notes. Fascinating log books from before and during the second world war. It was all
here. The last of the FIAT G.18V's. How this amazing old aircraft had been rescued by a team of adventurers, pilots, and engineers.....names like
Villa, Meneghini, Festari, Biagi, Daskalakis, and the mysterious FSAviator..... it's all too complex to re-tell here. Suffice to say, it was a tale of
sacrifice, ambition, and pure human creativity that allowed us the privilege to command this proud and beautiful flying machine today.
View attachment 44727
The copilot and I carefully ran down the preflight check lists. Starting the engines drew some attention outside. The Fiat A80 engines smoke heavily, even after the ground crew carefully pulled the props through as per intsruction. Exotic and fragile, these are eighteen cylinder mills of one thousand horsepower each. But what a sound! Pure music.
View attachment 44728
The tower clears us for takeoff from Portland-Hillsboro. Pilot, co-pilot, and six friends, eager volunteer/enthuisiasts. They sit at strategic
positions throughout the passenger compartment, watching the engines, the exhausts, observant for any problems inflight. She's an old lady, this
aircraft. It is important to maintain her health with active flight, and important to understand that she's old, ancient, and system failure can be
unpredictable.
View attachment 44729
Watch for smoke, boys. Watch for fire. Watch for fluid leaks...hydraulic, fuel....enjoy the flight.
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We fly straight out to the west, avoiding the traffic from Portland International, enjoying a relaxed cruise climb. Eventually, it's a gentle turn to
the north, and we intersect the beautiful Comumbia River.
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The throttles are pulled back a bit and we level out at an easy five thousand feet. Can we say that the engines thunder softly...? Thunder gently...? There eighteen cylinders of thunder on each side of you.....throttled back with consideration. Perhaps, distant thunder.
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The copilot and I lift a wing tip, pull back the yokes, bend a little air. How does she handle? We enquire, she responds with manners, with relative
ease. Our fuel tanks are brimming, but we carry little else. A deep chord, high lift wing with little payload, she is responsive, she just wants to
fly.
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Look down, there's Astoria. It's a beautiful town, so full of historic old buildings, you'd think it was a movie set, or a time machine. Like this
grand old G.18V. Even from five thousand, the day is so clear, we can easily see the aircraft parked below. Astoria airport is busy today. So many
rivers coming together, so many bridges.
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A turn to the south, we fly over the ocean, just along the coastline. The air is smooth, we enjoy an easy ride. The boys in the back have come forward with sandwiches, coffee. Everybody smiles, all eyes are glassy. It's a once in a lifetime event to ride in this machine. I can't believe after so long, she still leaves the ground and soars through the blue.
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So many have come and gone...and still....she perseveres.....with style.
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And who is that? Who is that beautiful face...? Was she a movie star? Perhaps famous in the Italian cinema? I think the engineer, Villa, may have
pinned her up on the panel. Do you think that she may actually have traveled on this plane when it was new, when it earned a real living as a
commercial carrier..? Where is she now...? What has become of her...?
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We sit quietly now on the flight deck, scanning gauges, scanning the sky for traffic, listening in the headphones for traffic, listening to the
thunder outside the headphones....eighteen cylinders on each side...still sounding sweet....
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There, to the east, the little town of Garibaldi...see the towering smoke stack to the south? Once a giant mill-works, now the great chimney is all that is left.
Curious to find a town here on the American west coast, named after a hero of the Italian unification....while flying-by in a rare old aircraft,
designed, built, and flown....in Italy.
 
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Our destination, Tillamook. Home of the Naval Air Station, the giant hangar, now an air museum. Our FIAT shall be a star visitor. We reduce manifold
pressure slowly, to avoid over cooling our powerful but delicate engines. Gradually, smoothly, we let down, cruising into the south reaches of
Tillamook bay, intersecting the left pattern that is created for light planes and courier jets.
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A westerly wind, make seven knots with light gusts. The copilot holds the chart detailing the approach for runway thirty one.
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The observers come forward to watch the show. We fly south, right into a wall of mountains. Not for the faint of heart, we turn in the later moment. slowing gracefully in the effort. They say the old Kai Tak approach was difficult. Trust me, is has nothing on a north entry to pattern on Tillamook's runway thirty one.
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Our starlet holds on tight. Our riders return aft to strap in.
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The co-pilot calls the flap and gear movement as I firmly guide this old girl to align herself with the numbers.
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The FIAT settles so gently, so gently. My god, she has such beautiful manners. Truly, they do not craft them like this any more.
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It is late at the Air Station, the Tillamook Air Museum....I think the public have all gone home. It looks so quiet....except for our thunder.
Look, there are a few standing in the hanger door, curious. We sound unlike anything around. Like a Ducatti, an Alpha, a Ferrari. It sounds different, it looks different, it is different. Here they come...so curious, so surprised, so pleased...
 
View attachment 44748
And so are we, pleased. As usual, there are other guests. We'll park next to this rare old thing, even older than we are. Another aircraft built by a
group who's name is more associated with the construction of automobiles...
Hmmm....the FIAT and the Ford can sit next to each other all night and converse. Imagine the stories they can trade...!!
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It's been a perfect day, a perfect flight, in a perfect plane. We are tired. Checklists, shutdown, switches to flip, and valves to turn. Locks and
chocks to set....and we walk away to the towering hangar, it too filled with old stars...beauties from another time.
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Truly....there never is enough time. It all goes so fast...... And....we can be so lucky because of it.
 
Great flight Magoo!

I forgot to start snapper, so no pics of tonight's fiasco.

Took off from Las Vegas in a Western DC-3 (default) heading east to Valle, Arizona (40G). Nice flight over Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. When I started getting close to Valle, I got into some rough turbulence. On short final following a United Boeing 247 in, as I was about 100 foot above the ground, it was like the right wing fell off. The DC-3 just rolled to the right and went down and wasn't much I could do about it as I was too low to the ground at that point. But the crash effects were pretty spectacular.....
 
Great narrative Magoo! :applause:

Question - which scenery are you running for KTMK?

And if I remember correctly, the lovely face pinned to most of Manuele's panels is actually his grandmother.
 
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