21 July 2008

July 2008 - Amazon Adventure

After an all-night flight in the A-330 I arrived into ... I almost don't remember now where I was. Ah yes, I arrived into Trinidad and Tobago. Then there was a pre-dawn flight in an ATR-42 and I awoke in Boa Vista, Brazil. I was tired and jet-lagged and frankly feeling pretty out-of-sorts.
I staggered down to the lobby of the hotel Joao had arranged for us and asked for an internet connection. Between the fresh-baked little pastry-thing and the brutally strong Brazilian coffee I was able to find the following information:
"Boa Vista is the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima and is situated on the western bank of the River Branco - only 136 mi from Brazil's border with Venezuela. It is the only Brazilian capital located entirely above the Equator and an equatorial climate predominates. These hot and wet conditions are ideal for the growth of plants so the vegetation is both dense and varied."

"The name Boa Vista means Nice Sight or Nice View. It is also the most populous municipality in the state - Approximately one third of the people in the state live here. Its business is done mostly with Manaus, capital of the State of Amazonas, and with the city of Bonfim, in Guyana. These are the only two cities linked by road in this state so the airplane is the only way of transportation."

"This modern city is distinguished among the capitals in the North Region of Brazil as a planned city with a radial plan similar in fashion to that of Paris, France. The main avenues converge at the Civic Center Plaza, where the headquarters of three governmental branches reside (legislative, judiciary, and executive). Aside from the cultural attractions (theaters and palaces), there are hotels, banks, post offices, and cathedrals all worth seeing."

I spent several days just wandering the city like some sort of vagrant just trying to get hydrated and trying to orient myself to what I was doing here. I must be getting older because I used to just pop into these FOTMs with no difficulty! By Monday July 6th I was ready to roll ... I got up at 06:00 and just less than two hours later I had fired up the Flight Club's Twotter and was ready to head out on the first leg.

LEG 1: Boa Vista to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira via Maturaca At 170 knots this is a trip of just under three hours. Really, other than the "PICO DA NEBLINA" (which I thought would never show up) there was nothing to see but flat jungle down there. I mused as I cruised along that a couple of sim versions ago I had thought about an Amazon Flight. I had even gone so far as to fly from Belem to Iquitos but hadn't seen much back then but water and flat green. Now the sim was better and Joao actually knows something about the area! Finally I got to SBZ3 and made the turn to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira.
At this point a new PIC arrived - that being my seven-year old son. With our route already being pretty well in line with the runway he took over and finished the leg, stopping off responsibly at the fuel station.

The idea of flying something fast and sporty up to Iquitos quickly passed and I spent the rest of the day relaxing in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira as suggested.

LEG 2: Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira to Tapuruquara Mid-Day Tuesday I took the Flight Club's Cessna Caravan down to Tapuruquara,
following the river VFR (or was that VOR?)
LEG 3: Tapuruquara to Barcelos For this leg (24 hours later) I transferred into a more historic, "Hall Flying Boat" which really, is little more than an actual boat with wings. But we bounced and bopped along quite well, 'bout 95 knots all the way to Barcelos.
LEG 4: Barcelos to Moura Seems that this far up the Amazon, the only aircraft available to me are old timers. That's okay as the whole life here seems to move by very, very, v-e-r-y ..... slowly. Only 83 miles this time, actually not too bad in the old Rapite.
LEG 5: Moura to Manaus Later that same afternoon I climbed up into the pretty modern-looking King Air 350 and headed off to ... what most around here consider the center of civilization. Much faster but unremarkable flight.
LEG 6: Manaus to Cartagena Finally by week's end I was able to secure a Lear 45 flight to Colombia where I figured I could do more sight-seeing.

Joao, still pretty flat along the Nigro and Amazon Rivers, MSFS lacks the REALLY THICK jungles I'd like to see but it's far better than earlier versions and the rivers are pretty accurate according to the maps I've seen. Thank you for the chance to again tour your country - hummmm, I wonder if FS.com has any Amazon Add-ons?

Okay, so until next month my sim will be hanging out in Colombia - in real life I'll be finishing up flying the Seychelles.
Cub Flounder at pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 16:02

02 July 2008

June 2008 -Seychelles Shuttle



First things first this month! From Key West I made my way to Portland, Oregon as noted on the following videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiBqXK4pG20
Saturday May 31st we were sitting out on the front porch having dinner and I heard a "different" deep rumble coming from the sky. Not our usual fair of MD-90s or 737s or Dash-8s, this was BIGGER. Taking my son by the hand we strolled down the steps and looked up to the underbelly of a 747-300 cargo plane on downwind for 28L at KPDX. It occurred to me then that I hadn't flown the 747 in a really long time.
This realization came just hours before my June assignment in Seychelles which, if you look at longitudinal lines, is exactly half a world away from KPDX! I got the basic location for this FOTM at midnight-zero-eight on June 1st. By 07:35 I was taxiing a United airlines 747-400, in real-weather, out to 28L for departure, non-stop, to Hong Kong. This meant leaving the computer on all day!
Somewhere around lunch time I was descending over the hills and islands around Hong Kong, setting up my radios for the famous checkerboard approach into Kai Tak, this was actually about 11:35 AM June 2 local sim time. While this was certainly not my BEST checkerboard landing considering it's been a very long time since I've flown into here and that I can't remember when I last flew a 747, I was happy enough with the smooth (off-center) slight cross-wind landing.
Late afternoon on Monday June 2, I took Flight Club Virtual Airways Flight 176 Hong Kong to Mumbai, India, arriving at sunset.
One little aside note about this flight: For the April FOTM I tried to take a 737-400 2,500 miles but had to stop about 300 miles short of my destination for fuel. This flight was just under 2,500 miles and the 737-500 (with smaller fuselage) should be a bit more efficient ... so I tried. From about half-way along I knew it would be "too close" but I stretched it out starting descent at 100 fpm from about 500 miles out! I ran out of gas during rollout with the engines stopping in reverse mode ! I just rolled out to the threshold and called for a tug.
Having survived Kai Tak and the harrowing landing at Mumbai, I took the 10AM Flight Club Virtual Airways Flight 136 Mumbai to Male - this time in a 737-200 . I did not take Peter's offer for download as this was little more than a "scenic stop-over" for me.
I loaded the Air Maldives Twotter on floats and took a quick interisland tour . Later that afternoon I took a Kenya Airways DC-9 down to Victoria, Seychelles for the real FOTM .
With the scenery add-ons downloaded and installed I set about to pick some planes for this month's tour - my goal here was just that, to "tour" the area . Here's what I came up with:
Britton-Norman Islander: Seychelles > Bird Island > Denis Island > Praslin
Cessna 404: Fregate > Coetivy > NDB down south in the middle of nowhere > Platte > Eagle Island > Darros
Socata TB-21: Desroches > Marie-Louise > Alphonse > Farquhar > Andrakaka Navy on Madagascar
Shorts 360 "Swahili Air":
Assumption Island > Prince Said Ibrahim on Moroni Island > Comoros > Mafia Island > Zanzibar, Tanzania. Now for the "story": Just after my GPS turn over Mafia I lost all power to my panel. I'm not sure if I didn't start something correctly at Moroni or if it was one of those random failure things but I lost it all! No GPS, no radios, no lights, no flaps, no gear, no autopilot, no nothin' ... but I could see my backup altimeter and my centerpost compass so I hand flew (and timed) the last few hundred miles (that's just over an hour at 135 knots - which is what I WAS doing ...) into Zanzibar arriving after sunset. Descent was fine, weather was good, I found the runway and glided down very peacefully, GENTLY setting her down on her flat belly (the wheels do stick out just a bit!) about half-way down the runway - ON the centerline I might add! Killed the engines and let the sparks fly ... but no sparks or flames on replay so you'll have no real proof of this.
After the paperwork and investigation was completed (after about two days) I was able to catch an Air Tanzania 737-200 BACK to Seychelles for more shuttle work around the islands, opting for the Cessna 404 as my aircraft of choice for the month. Basically what I did, as time in the real-world allowed, was to take the "Titan" out for a short little hop around these scenic islands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1LNiH25LkY

All-too-soon the month was over and I wasn't done flying yet! As of this writing, I have been unable to get a video slide-show put together - so I will have to sit on several dozen photos, for the time being. Now the orders were coming in to head off to Brazil, so I loaded up a BRAND NEW A-330 and headed off into the setting sun ...

Cub Flounder

Posted by Flounder at 13:57

May 2008 - Florida Sea Planes



Did you expect me to stay on Malta? Really, what's there for me? Microsoft has given us a rather dull reproduction of this island, at least in FS9, so I had taken yet another flight back to "Ron's Digs - LGFC" for the last few days of April. After sailing around the entire island I returned to my cabin for a soak in the mineral hot tub. While checking in I saw the notice from Dick that the next FOTM would start out from Miami, FL.

Seeing no reason to arrive into Miami any sooner than I absolutely had to, I caught a CRJ200 up to Rome for some city tours and too much good food. While in Rome it occurred to me that I had yet to try out Tony's GORGEOUS new 747SP livery, so in the mid afternoon of 30-Apr-08 I loaded her up and headed across the pond.


The last time I was in Miami (for real I mean) we had just come from Brazil on our way home from Africa. First the over-hyped Atlantic was cold. Second there was a shooting at the motel where we were staying. Third at least I could drink the water and eat the food without concern about contracting some tropical illness. Fourth SeaWorld was fun. Basically, I was anxious to get to sleep so that the hours until the FOTM would pass quickly. I got a nicer hotel than we had last time and right on time the e-mail from Dick woke me up with photos that were simply beyond belief! I immediately dressed and dashed on foot from my hotel to the Northwest Corner of the airport where I got all the additional information for the month. I then set about to find some wings.


Mission One: Low-level recon. I loaded up the US Coast Guard PBY Catalina and set off at just 600 feet to hop-scotch down the keys, over the water bases all the way to Sugar Loaf (7FA1) where I landed (quite long actually) in the near-by bay. I was anxious to check out all the sights at very close range - but the lack of Palm Trees in the scenery was VERY DISCONCERTING!





Mission Two: Key West. Next up I loaded a very NorthWEST Turbo Beaver (Thanks Peter "Raven" Stark for that one) and took a low-level pass over all the sights at Key West. Bridges, Boats, Lighthouses, Docks, Airports and Naval Bases, (never did see the shipwreck however) finally landing up in the water near Chalk's (61FD). Time now to book a room, find some food, a cool drink and a quiet hammock!

Mission Three: Water Taxi to Margarita This was the leg I most looked forward to, making the water-taxi milk-run back up in the Twin Flotter. I set in a flightplan hitting all (ten or so) water docks plus a few airports along the way - I was certainly going to get my reps this time!




Videos of the float plane tours at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_HfVWUuXxU


Mission Four: Turbo Twin Commuter Finally, after the "meat" of this FOTM was done I wanted to see more. So I loaded up an EMB-120 which I prefer way more than any KingAir! Then I flew a bunch of criss-cross legs all the way down to Cuba and back.





Wow Dick! A great FOTM from US soil - and you did a fair-amount of work on the scenery for sure! This was great fun I have to admit, many thanks indeed.


Posted by Flounder at 12:57

April 2008 - Isle of Malta

The Birds!" "Those birds and their STUPID SCREECHING!" I just wanted them to SHUT-UP!
As I lay there under my pillow I could swear that one of them sounded like the "death aria" from Mozart's Magic Flute Opera ... "Damn Birds!"

Finally I realized that it was not a bird, but was Geert calling on my cell phone. (Duuh~) I reached out through the mosquito netting and retrieved the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey Flounder, Geert here ... from The Netherlands?"
"Yes Geert. You are the only Geert I know. What's up?"
"The FOTM boss ... you always want to know early where it will be ..."
"And .........?"
"You can head to Oslo or Amsterdam or Hamburg!"
"That's great Geert. What day is it anyway?"
"Sunday Boss. March 23rd."
"Geert, do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Sure Boss, it's 7 AM here - but I know how you like to plan ahead and all ..."
"Thank you Geert." I said, "I'll meet you in Hamburg in about a week."

My head was reeling. Okay, 7 AM in Holland means it must be about .... 8 o'clock here in Rwanda. The birds have been peeping and chirping and squawking and SCREECHING for about 4 hours!
"Aaaargghhhh!" The air is warm and heavy, kinda smells like wet dirt ... with a hint of sweet flowers and ... is that ... maybe ... rotting bananas? If I really listened I could also hear the buzzing of the flies and mosquitos in my room. The two friendly Geckos on the wall had done little, it seems, to decrease the insect population! Yet even so, despite this verbal picture, this area(Rwanda, Eastern Congo, SW Uganda, Burundi) has to be one of my favorite, most "natural" places on earth.

Those who actually follow these stories and keep track will wonder how I ended up here, outside Kigali, when I last left off in Beirut. Well, that's a story unto itself but suffice it to say that an acquaintance of mine who works for an undisclosed international aide organization invited me to pay a visit (and help out) so, here I am. On the up side, even here in the middle of Africa I can tune into http://www.plr.org/.

I had planned on leaving Kigali on Sunday March 30th but by Saturday afternoon I was ill - some tropical something had gotten the better of me. Saturday night was a miserable night of fever and .... ummmm, ... well, "voiding my system of toxins!" Sunday I was pretty wiped out so I didn't leave. I spent Monday stressing about getting to Hamburg and by the middle of the afternoon I figured I may as well just wait out the official FOTM information.

On schedule, Tuesday, we learned that, "Malta is more than just sunshine." This sounded really good because Tuesday afternoon we were having one of those big, fierce, tropical thunderstorms which left everything soppy, muddy and wet. The rain and lightning was amazing as my Air Malta 737 departed on it's nearly 2,500-mile flight from Kigali to Malta International. Yes, it's a VERY LONG flight but I figured with few passengers and really full fuel tanks I could make it.

Enroute, I began planning this month's adventure. Nothing against Geert or his suggestions of six possible flights but he makes it sound like once we arrive in Malta and maybe take a general tour of the area we'll be done - I like more. Some say I like TooMuchMore but I opted to make this more like one of Dick's past FOTM in the Philippines where I could spend the month flying commuter hops out of Malta. Fly more ... fly less, we'll see how things come about.

As usual, I was anxious to begin! I've flown into Malta a time or two before but the scenery always seemed to be lacking ... something. I hoped that a month-full of adventures based from here would be something exciting. (I believe there is at least one Virtual Airline out there based from Malta) I figured I'd start out looking to the four compass posts: NORTH; SOUTH; EAST and WEST, then we'll see how I was feeling. As we cruised along high over the North African deserts I did some additional reading - who knew that Malta was "The Land of Honey"? Cool. (I also found the quotes Geert had taken from Wikipedia.) As the sun set I concluded that I would indeed be SHORT on the fuel so I had to make a quick "Gas-and-Go" in Hamada Nc-8 (HLNM).


After arriving I made arrangements to see the island(s) from a "Tucano" Military plane which I had learned about from Joao Mario and found thanks to "The Collector." This would be my first real introduction to Malta before starting my regional flights for the month.

Flight One = North to Zurich: I flew an Avro RJ in old Swiss livery up
and a Dash-8 in Swiss livery back to Malta. To quote Dick, "nominal flight."

Flight Two = South to Libya:
I flew into the FOTM from the south and really, there isn't a whole lot to see down that way. (Granted, I arrived after dark but trust me, there's not much there) So I took a Do328 turboprop on a little tour into Libya finally landing for lunch and fuel at Tripoli before heading back to Malta. (The Biblical Apostle Paul is famous 'round here - in fact, he was shipwrecked on Malta at one point)
Flight Three = East to LGFC: Another excuse to fly back to "Ron's Digs" for the weekend! I took an Avro RJ in Lebanon Express livery to Greece and a JS-31 in "LGFC" livery back.
Flight Four = West to Alicante, Spain: A pre-dawn flight over Tunisia and Algeria using an Air Catalonia ATR-72 going and an Air Catalonia Do328jet returning after lunch.
Geert, you were right, warm and hazy. Never being one to complain about flights along the Mediterranean I had a really good time this month. In fact, I had such a good time that for the remainder of the month I flew an Avro RJ in Thomas Cook livery on some additional hops around the western Mediterranean (pict32). In fact, I have some landing videos at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwISnJsjACk

THANKS MUCH!
pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 11:28

March 2008 - Northern Pakistan

Arriving to the FOTM - B787 PIA:
After four GLORIOUS days on my rented boat in Melbourne (pict1) I was ready to head to our next FOTM feature. Early on Sunday March 2nd I departed in a brand new Boeing 787 in PIA livery for Islamabad. (pict2) I headed diagonally across the continent passing north of Adelaide (pict3)and leaving the land of Oz near Broome. My route closely followed the legs I had flown down in the Electra - only this time I was twice as high and doing nearly 500 mph ground speed! I passed over Bali ... then switched airways over Changi Singapore. (pict4) Continuing up the coast I passed over an overcast Kuala Lumpur and was streaking at 494 mph nearly 9 miles over Phuket, (pict5) Thailand.

My first contact with Ali was back in 2000 after this ( http://www.toomuchfs.com/2mfs/showtext.php?dsn=379 ) piece appeared on FS.com. We have been in regular contact since that time, he was included on the very first e-mail invitation launching the notion of a Flight of the Month Club and has, in the past, submitted a flight for us: Karachi to Cairo on a 742. I was anxious to get to Ali's (pict6)(depite the political situation there) for some of his mom's home-cooked curry and to try these flight adventures!

From Thailand my route in the 787 took me over The Indian Ocean and I made landfall at Bhubaneshwar(south of Calcutta/Kolkata) (pict7). We then tracked across India, over Delhi (pict8) and into Islamabad from the south. (pict9) We landed at 10:44 (pict10) and were off the plane by 11 AM.

We drove staight-away to Ali's home (pict11), not too far from the airport for lunch and an afternoon of catching up. That evening we went up to the roof to enjoy the views and the sunset (pict12) (pict13) (pict14) (pict15). At that moment, noticing the chronic haze (this is consistent with real-weather downloads from our Flight Club International Airways hub in Mumbai as well) I opted to use some of my three-dozen weather themes for the FOTM features.

Islamabad to Peshawar via Tarbela Dam - Jetstream-31 PIA: Departure 8:30 AM
I loaded up the little Jetstream-31 (pict16) and taxied out under VATSIM's direction for a northbound departure. Shockingly (he says with sarcasm) there was no one else flying in the area and ATC was covering India so he cleared me "per pilot's discression" and left me alone. I took an extra 360* turn over the city whilst climbing above 8,000 feet before crossing the mountains. (pict17) About 10 miles out from Tarbela Dam I dropped back down to 4,000 feet, in the haze, and had a quiet and uneventful flight west - roughly along the path of the Kabul River (pict18), landing to the north. (pict19)

Peshawar to Islamabad - Dash-8 Q200 Flight Club: Evening Departure
After a virtual day in the frontier I set the sim clock to 1 minute before "dusk" and loaded a direct route back to Islamabad. Again, VATSIM said, "cleared per pilot's discression" leaving me to taxi and take-off (pict20) on my own. Shortly after departure I heard a 777 landing in Islamabad (pict21)- the bloke sounded British but he was long gone before I arrived nearly 30 minutes later. (pict22) (pict23) Again, landing to the north - then back to Ali's house for a few days rest.

Islamabad to Gilgit via MF NDB - Do-328 Pakistani: Noon Departure
(pict24)Call it Friday that I headed north into the mountains, (pict25) over the MF NDB (pict26)(is this the highest NDB in flightsimdom?) (pict27) (pict28) and on in to Gilgit. (pict29) While default ATC had me all twisted around (pict30) on finals first directing me to expect runway 25 and then clearing me to runway 7, (pict31) the landing itself was fine ... long but fine, I popped up the spoilers early (pict32) and settled down smoothly. My question is, "We have this nice pleasant valley, why put the runway ACROSS it as opposed to length-wise?"

Gilgit to Islamabad - Beechcraft 1900 Mountain Air Express: Late Morning Departure
After spending the entire weekend here in the warm hopitality of the mountains, I headed back to Islamabad in a turbo twin that is not on my favorites list (pict33) - but it looks good and flies okay. Somehow it seemed less scenic than my flight up had been (pict34) and just for kicks I landed (on purpose) on the southeast-heading taxiway at Islamabad (pict35). Now speaking of odd layouts in Gilgit, why would they give us this nice, long, straight taxiway with NO ACCESS to the runway? So, just to raise cane I landed there - and it favored the winds too!

Islamabad to Skardu via MF NDB - Saab 340 in Horizon Livery: 6:00 AM Departure
The next Friday I left Islamabad (pict36) and again headed north for the MF NDB. (pict37) Still pretty scenic but this time we took a slightly eastern turn at the NDB (pict38) and I got to see a whole new set of scenery from the FS world! (pict39) I can't wait to see the FSX screenshots! (pict40) While breezy, the visibility in Skardu was good (and having flown into here before) I descended into a high, narrow mountain valley (pict41) and followed the river round the bend into the more sprawling Skardu Valley. (pict42) This approach was wide and straight and easier than any approach to Skardu I've yet done. (pict43) My very first flight into here in 2000 was in a Saab and it was nearly dark and I couldn't slow down and the landing was rough and not quite on the runway......today was oh so nice! (pict44)

Skardu to Islamabad - Do-328jet Il Divo: Afternoon Departure
(Okay, this one not a Turbo but still fun to fly!) (pict45) After another weekend in "the high country", in this place reminiscent of Shangri La, (pict46) I headed back into the smog and haze of the big city. I suppose the jet engines helped but this flight just seemed too quick and before long I was 39 miles out from the Islamabad DME and throwing out the spoilers and flaps and diving for the deck! (pict47)

Islamabad to Karachi - Dash-8 Q400 Flight Club: Early AM departure
After the last evenings in Islamabad, and my last home-cooked meal by Ali's Mother, I was back out to the airport and loading into our Flight Club's Q400 for the 655-mile flight over the Pakistani Flat-lands to the coast. Fog had again limited our visibility but weather was calm and departure was smooth. (pict48) We climbed up to 21,000 feet and spent about 3 hours cruising south over the rivers and low-lying hill country. (pict49) Finally ATC cleared me to descend (late as usual) and we approached from the east (after a 270* left turn to loose more altitude). This time I got a bit of a "kick" when AP was disengaged (pict50)but the landing on 25L was smooth as glass (pict51) and we parked up right next to my departing flight.

More photos of all my Pakistan flights at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyYu2F3XCZI

One of the most scenic features we've had - made better in that it comes from a good flight simming friend, a brother in spirit! Thanks for the outline Ali, stay safe!


pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 10:57

February 2008 - Lockheed Legands






LOCKHEED LEGENDS by: Cub Flounder
You’ll hear no arguments from me that the Lockheed Constellation or “Connie” was one of the greatest aircraft in aviation history (pict1)– marking, arguably, the start of intercontinental and even trans-global air travel. I also found the link Bill provided from YouTube to be quite fascinating and informative. However, this stellar history which includes many records (such as the longest (time) passenger flight in history at over 23 hours in the air) do not change the fact that I, personally, am not at all a fan of the “Connie.” Okay, stone me or call me names if you like but I just do not find the Constellation to be very aesthetically pleasing (and I’d think an Architect would know that!). (pict2) To my eye (and this is purely subjective) it looks like Lockheed stole some spare B-29 parts for the too-big main wheels. (pict3) Then, they made the fuselage about ½ normal size and kind of bent it to fit the wings (pict4) (which were designed from the great P-38 Lightning by the way). This odd “porpoise-shaped” body means that the 9-foot tall nose gear had to be taken off a Vought Cutlass! (pict5) Lockheed could have gotten by with just one tail had they not made it 3x too small for the size of the plane … and my gripes could go on and on.
So rather than ranting and ragging on the Connie, I’ve decided to just fly another Lockheed Legend for this FOTM: The L-188 Electra – which actually looks like a real aircraft (pict6) and, so far as I can tell, saw service with more airlines from more countries for a longer period than the Connie! (pict7) In fact, Airliners.net shows an Electra still in service in December 2007 – some 60 years after the Qantas Connie made it’s hop-scotching, 4-day trip to the UK! (pict8) Sure the Electra is a bit smaller and for that reason can’t haul as much but it is faster and can fly higher thanks to TURBINE engines. The Electra marked the first turbine engines seen by many airlines around the world and has, over its career, hauled more stuff into more places than the Constellation. (pict9) For these reasons among others, it too was (or IS) a legendary aircraft.
Some Notes:
Connie hauled 62-95 passengers ... 99-127 for the Electra
Connie was 116.2 ft long ... Electra was 104 feet
Connie was 126.2 ft wide ... Electra was 99 ft wide
Connie was only <25>
Connie cruised at 354 mph versus 405 mph cruise for Electra
Connie has a 25,000 ft ceiling ... Electra had a 28,000+ ft ceiling
Connie hauled 65,300 lb but Electra only hauled 22,825 lbs
Max T.O. weight was 137,500 lb for Connie, 116,000 lbs for Electra
Connie boasted a range >4,700 miles, only about 2,000 miles for Electra
I’ve been holding out on about 10-12 Electra repaints for just such an occasion as this – and congratulations to Bill for being the first one to propose a FOTM feature that really covers a vast territory! So, there I was enroute back to the Mumbai VA hub from ... somewhere, when I learned of Bill’s plan to “celebrate” the Connie and Qantas’ “Long-Hopper” service. Knowing full well that I would NOT be taking the Connie from Sydney to London I began thinking of where to fly the Electra. Here is a problem with getting FOTM hints ahead of time: Geert had indicated that the April FOTM would be in “Sunny Europe” so flying west from Mumbai seemed like overkill since I'd be heading that way in April – although the Mediterranean was calling at me.
March's FOTM will call for a "wide-body" flight into Islamabad so I wanted to end this month somewhere from where I could connect to for March. Considering the Electra’s 2,000-mile range I began to scheme a plan to make about 5 legs from Mumbai to Sydney. I also hoped that I could do some more flying from past FOTMs in either New Guinea or SW Oz.
Watch the full slideshow of my FOTM at: http://media.putfile.com/Lockheed-Electra
LEG ONE: After catching two full days of good rest on the beach in Mumbai I headed out, (pict10) eastward, across country, in my Bombay Air livery (the predecessor of the Air Mumbai liveries seen last month). (pict11) I've flown some shorter flights in the Electra FS model but never really enough to know what the real fuel range would be. Planning on roughly 2,000 miles I headed for Calcutta, figuring I'd then turn SE to Rangoon for my first pit-stop. I departed behind an MD-83 just before 06:00 local time and by the time I reached Rangoon I still had 71% fuel left (pict12)... waaaay off. So I changed the fuel burn ratio in the CFG file from 1.000 to 2.500. (With range like that I could just head to Perth or Papua NG from here!) As I cruised towards my next waypoint at Chumphon, Thailand I decided to land south of there at Songkhla. (pict13) Landing was near-perfect at 12:53 local time and as I started doing a little calculating (2 PM now, leave by 3:30, fly another fours makes it......dark!) I figured this was as good a spot as any to spend the night. (pict14) I know the Long-Hopper service had two nights on the ground and two in the air but it was only the 1st of February and as Bill pointed out, if you're going to feel like you are seeing some of the world you may as well stop over and SEE it!
LEG TWO: The next day (as it turns out) was Saturday, so, not too early Sunday morning (9AM)I boarded an East Asia Air (pict15) liveried Electra and continued on (pict16) toward Singapore spotting downtown and Changi as I passed overhead at 21,000 feet. I wondered where Salina was as my last several attempts at contact have been dead ends. (For those who don't know, this was not one of my torid affairs, Salina used to be a member of this club) Ultimately my destination was Bali in Peshawar, Indonesia. Arriving there 'round 14:00. The flight over all of the Indonesian Islands was increadibly scenic (pict17) and many of the tall volcanic mountains reminded me of Dick's FOTM in the Philippines! (pict18) There were a couple of them there hills that looked near 18,000 feet! Just amazing! So anyway, I was in Bali and found myself asking, "Who wouldn't want to spend the night here?"
LEG THREE: It was about 10 AM Monday that I loaded up the South Pacific Air Electra at set course, (pict19) almost due east, for Papua, New Guinea. There was a LOT of water on this flight, a few islands but mainly Ocean. (pict20) (pict21) I thought back to the 1940's and even '50s and what it must have been like to lose an engine out here. I passed the hours looking for alternates on my GPS ..... Arrival into Port Moresby was just before dusk at around 17:00. (pict22) Man, this crate is hard to slow down on finals!!
DETOUR: I spent the next week flying a Grumman Goose all around the island and into some of the places we had been on a FOTM a couple of years ago. I heard that a company in Florida is making a turbo Goose - can't wait!!! (pict23) (pict24) (pict25) (pict26) (pict27) (pict28) (pict29)
LEG FOUR: Finally I was ready head down the east coast of Oz, over the Gold Coast (pict30)(it's summertime so should be fun!!) to Syndey. Since it's hot and steamy in Australia I chose a Firefighting livery for this leg. Actually, having left Port Moresby pretty early (pict31) I took a quick 4-hour stop in Brisbane for some breakfast and a dip in the sea, then continued on into Sydney. (pict32) (pict33) (pict34)
LEG FIVE: After an additional ten days relaxing and seeing the sights in Sydney (pict35) I took a Mobile Hospital Livery Electra along another former FOTM (pict36) track to Melbourne. (pict37)These last two legs were flown at a slightly lower altitude than the prior legs' 21,000 feet. (pict38) (pict39)
Bill, great historic flights, I love these - even if I don't love the Connie! (pict40) It was also great to get to see some of the sights from past FOTMs again and what a treat to land in some places I've never been to before (like Songkhla, Thailand). Thanks again for the great adventures!
pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 10:50

January 2008 - Over the Hump

From December to January I had left off, after an engine failure on my DC-8, in Gran Canaria for the Christmas Holiday. Shortly after my arrival I heard that I should start doing some research on http://www.flyingthehump.net/ and http://www.palletmastersworkshop.com/hump.html This World War 2 theatre was based out of the Assam Valley in far northeastern India and kept supply routes open between the Chinese and the Allies after Japan captured and controlled the Burma Road.


So it was that I set out on the morning of 26-Dec-07 for Athens aboard a shiny new Binter Canarias A-310. Very early the next morning I took an Air Mumbai 757 to Mumbai and on the 28th flew a final leg aboard an Air Mumbai 737-800 in to Dhakuakhana in the heart of the scenic Assam Valley (famous for it's tea plantations). (You can see the video of my commute from the Canaries at:
Then I had two days to fully explore this area before setting out on the assignment for the month.

Some History before I fly: One of our founding members, Tony, belonged to a virtual flying club before joining us - just a year or so before this group started in 2003 "The Flying Rogue Brothers" had disbanded. Named for the Rogue River in central/southern Oregon the group had flow together and hosted the famous "Friday Night Flights" for some time. Tony had done work on their logo and designs, repainting many aircraft from back in the FS98 - FS2k days. To think back now (from FSX) to FS98 is much like thinking back from 2008 to 1942 when the last shipments were made over the Burma Road. There aren't too many pilots or aircraft from that day...and there aren't many who remember Rogue Air in FS98. As Alastair has taken us back in real history, I'd like to take us back in virtual history for one of the last flights we may ever see of an old Rogue Air FS model, the CV580. (Hey Tony, any Rogue Air DC-6s out there?)


The FOTM Feature: Having loaded Alastair's FS9 flightplan into my handheld GPS I found myself wondering why "The Hump" was flown in this great northern arc when simply heading out about ... 110* for 440 miles would do the same thing? Well, we'll have to see. I fired up the motors on the old CV580, downloaded read-world weather and tuned in the local VOR, setting the OBS to 009* and putting the little GPS device back into my insulated coat pocket. With research papers stowed and my co-pilot Benjamin strapped in we headed out on runway 5. We used up every last meter of runway getting into the air and I then flew a great climbing arch to the south since visibility was less than 10 miles - I wanted to get up out of the soup and give Benjamin a quick VOR lesson before letting him take over. Once through about 6,000 feet we were above the haze and my co-pilot took over with directions to 1- not hit any mountains and 2- do whatever you want "just so long as the middle of the arrow stays within three dots of the center." We settled in at about 12,000 feet until Ben wanted to check out a river valley below, then we were off to see this hill or that mountain. "Hey! Where's all the snow?"

As Benjamin cruised us along I read from several sources where pilots talked about heading eastward from the Assam Valley and flying some 550-600 miles. So, it appears SOME of them did take a more direct route! "Flying eastward out of the valley, we'd first top over the Patkai Range, then we passed over the upper Chindwin River valley, bounded on the east by a 14,000-foot range, the Kumon Mountains. From there we were over 'no-man's land' a series of 14-16,000-foot high ridges seperated by the valleys of the West Irrawaddy, East Irrawaddy, Salween and Mekong Rivers. 'The Hump' referanced specifically the Santsung Range which is between the Salween and Mekong Rivers."

"Dada? What happens when the arrow goes away?" I looked from my reading to the panel, there was no VOR to be seen! I pulled out my GPS and found that we had flown some 50 miles past the first waypoint. I retuned the VOR, turned the OBS and headed us roughly 110*. Ben now had us around 18,500 feet - no wonder I was feeling whoozy!



"The success of the Hump operation specifically was shown on 01-August-45 when on that one day planes flew 1,118 round trips over the mountains - that's 5,327 tons! A plane crossed The Hump every minute and twelve seconds; a ton of material was landed at China bases four times a minute and there was not one single incident or accident. Just the month before, in July, aircrews had delivered 71,000 tons of cargo." VOR now insight and we were back on course! "In all, nearly 1,000 men and over 700 planes were lost during the course of flying operations in this region. Yet, this was the first time an air-transport wing was fully utilized and the value of air-transport became apparent to all. the lessons learned in flying The Hump were later successfully implemented during The Berlin Airlift." (A past FOTM from April 2003!)


Finally we were setting up for landing into Kunming - a bit low-and-slow on approach due to the high altitude here but no worries and a smooooooth landing. Three hours later we were ready to head back into India, this time via the more direct route!

It was another scenic flight, I actually enjoyed this one more with the scenic river valleys below - we were pretty comfortable at 14,000 feet although we did have to pop up to 16,000 a couple of times just to assure clearance over the ridgelines. The Assam Valley was still shrouded in haze but the 20-mile visibility was more than double what it had been that morning.

After successfully completing the flight in the Rogue Air CV580, I loaded up a Bristol Britannia (my own BOAC repaint) and set in some monsoon-like wet and humid weather themes over my (direct) route and flew the full round trip again. Alastair, another challenging and VERY EDUCATIONAL Feature this month - as always, "Thank You So Very Much" for the adventures.

Having completed the flight challenge, twice, and feeling pretty confident in my abilities to fly it blind (so long as I have two reliable engines and 16,000 feet) I took the Air Mumbai 738 back to Mumbai and spent the rest of the month flying some business for our Virtual Airline, Flight Club International Airways.

pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 10:24

December 2007 - Santa Goes To Norway


I'm sure you have all heard the famous story that starts with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night ..." Well, I was thinking of that as I flew the DeHavilland Turbo Beaver "Raven" from Fort Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska. Sure, it was only 124 miles but at "Oh Dark Thirty" AM it was only about 11* F and the wind chill put us near zero degrees. "It was a dark and cold morning as I set out toward the December FOTM."

Day One: I took the Turbo Beaver "Raven" to Fairbanks. Ninty minutes later (still dark) I took a Horizon MD-90 to Portland, Oregon. I watched the day break during cruise and landed with gusty wind, 34* F and snow/rain mix. Hum ... real weather download seems to be working! Next, Northwest Airlines has announced that in early 2008 it will be flying non-stops from KPDX to Schiphol.

Day Two: So, to celebrate that "Flight Club Connection" I took a retro-painted NWA A330 on an overnight flight into Amsterdam where I landed in the fog. (Real weather appears to still be working.) At this point I spent the day planning my FOTM, arranging my aircraft and getting all my Christmas packages (and those of the other pilots) in order.

Day Three: I didn't think it was THAT early but I left Schiphol in the dark (just to prove that I can fly in the dark) planning on landing near dawn but even by 07:30 it was still dark in Oslo. (This is our Flight Club Cargo A330) Now, for those who have been reading our PIREPS you'll note that since the very beginning I've tried to advertise for http://www.plr.org/ , my Brother-in-Law is the Manager there and I was mowing his lawn when this whole FOTM/Website occurred to me. Finally, years later, we have a PLR.org airplane! I set in eight or nine airports between Oslo and Tromso - anxious to get started on another fun FOTM feature. This is too great!

So now, having proved again that I could fly in the dark (and proving once again that photos and videos don't work well in the dark) I decided to only fly during daylight hours, which as we know from the high northern latitudes, will only be a few hours each day. With Real Weather downloads every 15 minutes I closed the doors and set out from Oslo at 09:00 AM.

Leg One: My first stop was less than 100 miles away on the south coast, Torp. Winds were calm as I followed a Dash-8 out for southbound departure . The weather update enroute showed clear skies and cold with wind out of the north. As I looped around for landing onto runway 36 another weather update took the wind away so landing was pretty easy. I had a long taxi to the cargo area and shut down just about 10 AM.

Leg Two:The next leg is a bit shorter, just 83 miles, setting out from Torp at noon I headed west toward Kjevik. Enroute the visibility dropped notably as did the wind. I landed to the east at what appears to be a pretty small airport . I admit that I had to get ever so slightly off into the dirt in order to get turned around but I taxied over to one of the out-buildings and shut down at only 12:34 PM.

Leg Three: I was ready to roll again just before 14:00 so took off to the east (because I didn't have to drive in the dirt again that way) and then headed northwest towards Flesland, 152 miles away . The flight was pleasant and scenic and I landed before dark (That's before 15:00 local time). After unloading my list of Christmas deliveries I secured the plane and headed off into town to find a room for the night.

Day Four: Leg Four: I set out in the rain, at "dawn" which is about 09:20 AM, bound for Vigra, some 137 miles north. During climbout from Flesland we were treated to some very nice "lights" in the northern skies . Arrival was foggy at 10 AM - those trees were pretty close! (See top frame)



Leg Five: Our next stop was 120 miles away at Orland AB and I was ready to depart by 11:30 AM. This approach to runway 15 requires you to fly over the VOR some 12 miles distant and then hope to find the runway ... we landed safely parking up at 12:10 PM. (Nice trees - looks like home)

Leg Six: Our next stop was to be Vaernes AB in Trondheim, just 43 miles east. I departed at 14:00 ready to hand-fly the ILS into runway 9. My usual practice is to use the Autopilot making small adjustments to heading and rate-of-decent to follow the ILS (no autoland) but this time was all BY HAND. For this approach you fly to the NDB, then pick up the ILS - clear skies meant no worries, although my flight track was a bit serpentine! I shut down for the day at 14:38.

Day Five: Leg Seven: At 09:45 the next AM I was ready to roll. Our next stop was to be Bodo, just over 240 miles away.

Leg Eight:We arrived about 11 AM and were ready to depart on another short leg to Andoya AB (via Skagen) shortly before 14:00.

Leg Nine:Rain and darkness met me enroute! My landing, in the dark, was at 14:36 - my worst landing on this FOTM!

Day Six: Leg Ten: I waited until "day" to depart on the last leg to Tromso. This means that I was hanging out in the snow until 11 AM. I landed northbound and shut down just before noon.

What a great FOTM Geert, thank you!

Day Eight: Now I needed to be warm, so I took a DC-8 Cargo down to the Canary Islands to hang out for the New Year.

Emergency Landing: I'm not sure just when this happened because I had the flight cruising along happily on Autopilot while I did some Christmas prep around the house. My track took me over the UK, then over Spain/Portugal and all was good. Fuel burn looked good, everything all set etc. I set off over open ocean heading for the VOR at Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. I returned to check on the PC about 300 miles out and saw that my random failures had again jumped up to grab me, I had red lights and failures on Engine one! I pulled the fire levers and shut it down, then set to work to find a place to land. Lanzarote's runway is just under 8,000 feet long but Gran Canaria has a runway just over 10,000 feet long and I had just enough gas to make it to the bigger airport. I dialed up the new VOR, turned to the new heading and started a slow (200 fpm) descent. So far we were okay but as I got closer and dialed up the ATIS I learned that winds were out of the SW at 18 gusting to 26 knots! I got set-up as best I could with the autopilot and then I tried to put her down by hand. Because of "extenuating circumstances" I did not have my control devices with me so I was hand-flying, on three engines, in the blowing wind, WITH THE ARROW KEYS! This really sucked - I was reminded of this video from Flightlevel350.com: http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_Various_Aircraft-Airline_Various_Airlines_Aviation_Video-9689.html .


I landed very nicely, beside the runway (because making quick corrections for wind with the keypad is near impossible and I did not have an ILS beam to follow down!). You can watch the actual video of my actual landing at: http://media.putfile.com/Gran-Canary-Bad-DC8


So anyway, here I am on Gran Canaria for the Christmas Holiday.

Posted by Flounder at 10:02

November 2007 - West Coast USA

Colombia to California: Alejandro and I had enjoyed some time in Valencia, along the beaches and dining out - great kids you have there AIr, and tell Mildred "Thanks" for cooking. Of course, one cannot hang out with "The Collector" without learning of new things out there, and we had just recently discovered that the Starbucks Coffee@ A-330 would be flying from Bogota to San Bernardino. Problem one was that I wasn't in Bogota ... Problem two was that San Bernardino was nearly 100 miles from Santa Barbara But I didn't care, this was a plane I wanted to fly! So I got back into the Goodhew Ambulance Metroliner and returned to Bogota where I caught the morning flight aboard The Coffee Cargo Airbus - "Delivering the world's coffee to the world." (See the "Coffee" video on: http://www.putfile.com/pretendpilot

Channel Islands FOTM: Once I had arrived safely into San Bernardino International (Formerly Norton AFB), I looked for appropriate wings to take me to Santa Barbara via Christy Strip. I quickly settled on the California Department of Forestry OV-10 Bronco - maybe a little bigger than I needed but "Oh Well..." Just a stones throw from KSBD is the incorporated city of Loma Linda, home of Loma Linda University where I received my professional training. Prior to that, as most of you probably know, I was a Firefighter/EMT in Riverside County which is also nearby. RCoFD shares service with CDF so this CDF repaint is, obviously, close to my heart.

Speaking of the California Department of Forestry, I found some videos on youtube:
Some Base Camp Operations:

Caught in a Burnover:

Great Footage:

Wildland Firefighting:

The CDF OV-10 Bronco Taxiing:


I decided to try flying VFR along the famous California freeway system: Ontario/Pomona, Burbank/Glendale, North Hollywood/Van Nuys, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, over Camarillo and Oxnard and out over the Pacific to the Channel Islands. I lost the freeway somewhere after Pomona however so had to dial up the Van Nuys VOR for accuracy. After ducking through the hills, skirting Burbank and over-flying Van Nuys I turned to 250* and quickly picked up the 101 feeway again. I took a quick turn over my old High School before heading south toward "Old Boney Mountain Park" a 3,100-foot hill between here and Malibu. Once I could see Pt Mugu NAS off to my right I headed through a saddle in the hills, over Oxnard and across the Channel. After touring the islands (which I've also toured by boat, in the real world), I headed north into Santa Barbara.



Santa B to Boeing Field: There are CRJ-700 flights between Santa Barbara and Portland (I think) but instead, I took an old DC-9 up to Seattle's Boeing Field.

The Mount Rainier FOTM: The next morning was cloudy and rainy as I transferred into the Flight Club's GA-8 Airvan for the flight to and around Mt. Rainier. Once through the clouds I had a very scenic flight - though it was a bit longer than planned and my Starbucks Coffee started nagging on the bladder. As you can see in the bottom photo, Mt St Helens looked so close and inviting .... but I HAD to stop soon. So went ahead and dived into Packwood ~ FUN!!! Once relieved, I headed off, over and around Mt. St Helens before landing in Portland where I spent the night at home.


Portland to Deadhorse, AK: Early, very early the next morning I took the Bob's Red Mill 727 out from the Cargo area of PDX and set out on the 1,600-mile + flight to Deadhorse Alaska in anticipation of the final leg of this FOTM. Weather was generally nice, the flight went off without a hitch. I was treated to a nice Aurora light show and I landed long but safely in the low light and driving snow.

The brutal northern part of this FOTM: The next "morning" (if you can call it that) I fired up an oddly camoflauged DeHavilland Caribou for the flight to Fort Yukon. (He did say we were taking wounded soldiers didn't he?) The weather had called for some building storms from the southeast so I took extra coats and blankets at set out about 9:30 AM. I had to climb to 7,000 feet to eventually cross the mountain range but this seemed to pass quickly enough and I dropped back down to just 4,000 feet. The building storms never materialized but it was really windy. I kept getting an OVERSPEED alarm at anything over 200 knots IAS but my ground-speed was just 175! About 90 minutes later I was approaching Fort Yukon ... and wouldn't you know it, the wind was blasting directly ACROSS the runway. At first I was wishing that I had set up a video but as I discovered that this beast doesn't really land at anything over 70 knots I was glad to not have video of me going missed. The second time around I had in less flap, a flatter approach, and I still used up half of the gravel trying to get the thing to settle and stay down.


Finally I was able to taxi over to the buildings and park-up, concluding another fun, scenic and educational FOTM(s).

Thank you so much to all three of our hosts this month for sharing your flights with the rest of us!

Cub Flounder
pretendpilot@yahoo.com

Posted by Flounder at 09:41
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