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crashaz
February 21st, 2009, 08:07
Please keep this thread clean!

This thread will be used to post stories by pilots of the Sim-Outhouse team in regards to their race legs.

All posts by race pilots concerning the SOH race legs are encouraged.

Any team member flying baton,wingman, WX or airport reporting flights for a particular leg are asked to write a brief (50 words or more)account of their leg.

Also include pics!

Thanks to team members for participating. Our SOH members appreciate a look into the general feel of the race!

Good luck team!:wavey:

Moses03
February 21st, 2009, 15:01
While not part of the race proper, here are a few shots from this morning's Tasmanian wildlife rescue capturing the mood at Launceston. There was plenty of radio chatter as everyone was anxious to get things going.

Maybe we can get WWF to sponsor the race next year.

dcc
February 21st, 2009, 15:20
shot of my plane as MaddogK departed with the King Air full of critters

- dcc

crashaz
February 21st, 2009, 15:28
Well we finally got started on the official start of the race. While hauling roos was interesting.. it was nice to be back flying alone. Serene up there while flying a team flight to YSCB.

That was until the weather started getting interesting on the approach down. Ran into some weather but landed safely!

Tail end Charlie as usual!

Dangerousdave26
February 21st, 2009, 17:53
Problems started right off the bat when I first fired up the Engines.

Its been a long time since the Extra has been pulled out of the hanger and the Engine started smoking extensively.

The crack Mechanic Team got to work and cleared the problem and Off we go.

After closing in on Paul she started smoking again then I found the problem....

I had the smoke on. :monkies:

MaddogK
February 21st, 2009, 18:03
Not much to tell- Started the day off listening to the chatter of the other pilots shuttling in the critters from all over Tasmania while waiting on the ramp with the King Air warming up. Soon as the crates were loaded I asked for confirmation that all were aboard- about 5 times. I could tell the others were getting pissed as all I heard over the radio was broken jibberish like what my tape deck sounds like when it's eating one of my favorite tapes, but through it all I could barely make out "go go", so away I went. To make a long story short I got a pretty good tailwind as I could see my wingman falling behind. Made a perfect landing in Melbourne and posted the delivery notice, but realized I only had about 3 minutes to switch planes as I cut the delivery too close to the time limit, and was scheduled for the first 'official' hop of the race.

The Mooney was fueled and waiting as I poured out of the king-air but was looking forward to my beating. It took a couple minutes too long to locate the proper posting phrase, and to switch the duenna settings for the official wing hop, so as I was second on the runway most of my teammates went around me and took off. As soon as I could post departure, I hit the the button to start duenna, and gave the Mooney full throttle, then dropped the first notch of flaps. I still had not setup the plane for the flight but was glad to get her off the ground and retract the gear, followed by the flaps. It took me about 5 minutes to get the otto set for altitude and a couple more to get the destination set into the GPS while I watched my teammates drift into the horizon. I finally got a break some 15 minutes into the flight to snap a shot, and pull my shaking hands from the stick to light up a smoke.

Some 2 hours later having made up most of the ground lost on my departure I line up on final at YSCB about a mile behind the baton only to hear "Don't ask". Next thing I know I'm rolling to a stop on the runway and posting the successful arrival of the wing only later finding out I had become the baton carrier.

Helluva way to start the day, needing a break I order some Egg-Foo-Young from the local Chinese restaurant ( for delivery) and head for the shower to wash the stink from the Kangaroos off me. Only a few more days to go.

:ernae:

jkcook28
February 21st, 2009, 18:29
Relaxing on the ramp at YMLT after a 1hr run to YSMI on the Wombat run.

srgalahad
February 21st, 2009, 21:03
Beautiful downtown Mackay Qnsld... it IS beautiful, but there is a curse against Donald Douglas at the airport. 3 DC-3's eaten - two by an invisible hole on Rwy 32 and one by wet grass/tailwinds/brake failure/trees? and the curse.
A nice, but bumpy flight in the old Gooney with less than happy landings. At least, and at last we made it... grrrrr

jkcook28
February 21st, 2009, 21:47
Vimy to Hamilton Is. Are we there yet? :sleep: :d

Haitun
February 21st, 2009, 22:38
Yesterday (on my onboard clock) I took the echidnas into the baron - they were quiet and nice. I tried to land the plane gently, not to scare poor animals and suceeded. Wanted to make second run to St.Helen's but there were already 4 planes in the air, so I decided to help Maddogk to put the animals into king air. After dealing with siberian tigers in Harbin I'm not wery afraid of the Australian fauna.

The bravo flight was almost uneventful, although the landing was far from perfect - need to contact my lawyer and ask if the insurance covers broken nosewheel. There was no crash, but to my disappointment i forgot to turn my Duenna on.:bump::faint:

As for the piper flight today - the weather was find, and i opened the door to have some fresh air. The landing was almost perfect.

Sorry folks - no pics today - Easy Ed's forester kangaroo got it's paws on my camera. Perhaps next time it will be prepared and repaired.
:amen:

Moses03
February 21st, 2009, 23:52
Some assorted screenies from today's action.

-Goons and super Goons in action during second ill-fated team flight.

-JC greasing the stylish Vimy.

-Standing by in the Do 335, sweating like a pig in the cockpit under the tropic sun. (Note amount of fuel left in last screenie) :kilroy:

I'm too tired at the moment to write up a nice long pirep...

Haitun
February 22nd, 2009, 01:00
View of Corsair above New Guinea - that kangaroo almost destroyed the camera

Flyin Bull
February 22nd, 2009, 02:43
Do you fancy a nice morning flight in Tasmania they said, Would you mind picking up a nice furry critter for us? they asked. I said "no problem" which was fine until I reached Hobart and found the "furry critter" was a Tasmanian Devil! Now I need a new Beech.

Was glad to get down to some serious racing after the flight with the devil. Took the Hornet for a nice spin to Truk.

Steve

Kowalski65
February 22nd, 2009, 04:19
No pics as IrfanView didnt work,so have got a new prog But anyway, as a newbie, I was absolutely terrifed of setting off & making a prat of myself, so chose the shortest possible anial run,just in case I messed up then I had time to refly. Didnt need it though, managed to get down safely, to be handed a box of small snuffling things -I thought they said kittens, not echidnas! Got them back OK too, but forgot to post on takeoff:faint:Even had time to duplicate the kanagroo flight just in case but thankfully wasnt needed.
Then onto the main race itself, and after a real fight geting the mooney onto course, landed safely at Canberra in the team flight-4 good landings in a row-must be a record for me!

Flyin Bull
February 22nd, 2009, 06:05
Waiting at Saipan for my flight to Iwojima, with dave landing with the baton in an electrical storm.

Steve

Dangerousdave26
February 22nd, 2009, 08:09
Team Flight from YBRK to YBHM in the Gruman Goose

Flying with the gooney birds was short lived. I had to play catch up as I forgot to start Duenna before I launched.

//---------------------------------------------------

Waiting on Flying Bull to arrive in the dead of night. The Hornet is easy to fly until you run into a thunder storm that almost flips you upside down.

As luck would have it the weather cleared up on final but I was sweating it.

//---------------------------------------------------

Tokyo Run

They asked me not to come back under any uncertain terms.

I can't figure out why. ????

Moses03
February 22nd, 2009, 11:20
RJCN-UHPP

You never know how the winds aloft are going to be in this area but when the weather scouts reported excess tailwinds it eased the fear of a fuel challenged warbird.

-Gnoopey on final in the cabin cruiser while srgalahad and I look on.

-Screenie of gauges and stuff showing that wonderful tailwind (and the abuse we give these planes running at full map & rpm!).

-Decision height at UHPP.

Gnoopey
February 22nd, 2009, 14:39
... RJTC => RJCN ... "cabin cruising" in an OnMark Marksman B - pretty stylish ... until this 'stupid pilot' missed the runway ( @ RJCN) by a few feet in his 'race fever' ... fortunately all went well ...

Side note - doing the own 'first' leg in consecutive instances of the RTWR for this 'pilot', beginning in such a classy Douglas design (fictive livery done on purpose for last years RTW instance - not published ;))!

Gnoopey
February 22nd, 2009, 14:49
... UHPP => UHMA - cold war icons meet during this years RTWR - a bunch of SAC's finest Superfortresses were using old soviet air force bases in the Kamtchatka peninsula area ... (or yet even bigger aluminum "clouds" on another "Avanti hunting mission" :d) ....

JohnC did the best possible wingman job - once again I have to admit! Overtaking the lead A/C and motivating all the way to the finish line to another success! ThankXXX shipmate!

Moses03
February 22nd, 2009, 16:01
PAOM-PAMC

Switched to the "winterized" 335 for the 277nm mad dash from Nome, Alaska. My first panic moment as right after takeoff I noticed that the Dornier was not climbing as it should. The rear engine was not getting up to power for some reason so I had to abort and restart real fast. Meanwhile JC was sprinting out ahead in the Seafury as wingman. After a couple of minutes of frenzied mouse clicking I got started again and eventully overtook the Seafury. :woot:

Tako_Kichi
February 22nd, 2009, 17:38
PAMC-PANC my first leg as baton holder! :woot:

It was a late afternoon flight over the mountains in the Grumman Goose that started out with scattered low clouds and low winds...all that was to change during the course of the leg however. As we climbed so the wind increased and was virtually dead on the nose.

I am really glad that Dave and I scouted out the leg beforehand and decided on a safe altitude to fly at as we hit clouds over the mountains and a couple of times I popped out of the clouds to see mountain tops just 500ft below me. :eek:

The wind had also swung around to a tail wind of around 20 knots which was pushing us along at a fair lick and I was riding the edge of the yellow band on the ASI.

Once over the mountains we decided to head down but unfortunately Dave found some turbulence and the next thing we knew he had overstressed the Goose and it was game over for him. Within seconds of him announcing the problem I also bounced in the turbulent air and the ASI needle got very close to the red line. Only a fast hand on the throttle stopped me going into overspeed!

With Dave out it was now down to me with 40 miles to go and one more ridge to clear. I must admit to having a case of the old 'sweaty palms' for a few minutes but once the last ridge was cleared I could see it was fair weather and flat land all the way to the finish line. The airport appeared basking in glorious sunshine when I was about 15 miles out and then it was just a case of getting lined up and controlling the descent.

The landing was a 'greaser' if I say so myself and I let her roll to a stop under her own steam as the Goose is notorious for tipping on her nose as soon as you touch the brakes.

It was certainly an interesting flight for the first time as baton holder and a shame that Dave met problems with turbulence...better luck next flight Dave! :ernae:

whitehawk_2009
February 22nd, 2009, 21:11
Just got done with a nice night flight from CYQH to CYEG. We had a great baton pass that was assisted with multi-player and Teamspeak. A pretty uneventful flight, few clouds until I got closer to CYEG. Descending through 2000' AGL I encountered a very thick fog that limited visibility to about four miles. Good thing this was a lighted airport, otherwise I might not have made it.

WH

Haitun
February 23rd, 2009, 06:57
KOFK-KELD. The flight was pretty uneventful, till 100 nm from El Dorado - the power started to drop suddenly.

KELD-KMLU. Ince again in a Cub! It started with a rain - i like that "thud-thud" sound on the roof, when you are in a default FSX J-3. This flight was also uneventful and pretty nice.

Flyin Bull
February 23rd, 2009, 10:44
Must be a bit of a masochist, Had a baton run at night in the Vimmy with Gnoopey as wing the if that didn't seem like to much I volunteered to fly wing in the Jenny.

Haitun
February 23rd, 2009, 11:29
Speaking of masochism - has been cruising back and forth over the canal 6 or 8 times in a trike, while waiting for the baton.
The landing at 13 knots wind was hard - had to turn engine off to land - it won't decent otherise=). Could done it in R22, but I suppose the teammates would kill me for that.

MaddogK
February 23rd, 2009, 12:11
I stumbled into an early morning hop to KDIK in the Turbo Commander with Moses on my wing, and had left Moses miles behind by the time I made 20K feet, and settled in for a couple hours relaxation in the quiet night sky. About an hour into the flight pulled up the engine console because the engine sounds we a little off and noticed my port engine was losing power even with good oil pressure and temp. I watched in horror for the next 5 minutes as my RPM's dropped about 60, fuel consumption down 100 GPH but stabilizing. By the time I spotted the runway Moses had made up the 7+ mile lead I had on him, and beat me to the deck. I posted a safe baton landing 4 minutes behind my wing but still can't figure out how I smoked that port engine.

jkcook28
February 23rd, 2009, 12:48
The first jet leg. Flying Bull carried baton in A-7E and myself as wing in F-84F. Uneventful flight from Panama to Equador.
Screens are SRG (F-84) and taco (F-86) departing for SBUA.

Moses03
February 23rd, 2009, 17:49
Few pics from today:

-MaddogK on short final in the Turbo Commander as Fliger & Gnoopey look on waiting in Cessna 182s.

-srgalahad waiting for baton release in the Air Spray A-26.

-Ghostly RB-57F winging for WND over the pitch black Amazon jungle.

Haitun
February 23rd, 2009, 19:40
Well there was a long story about alphajet flight but I deleted it accidentially - and I'm to tired to write it once again - wil do it later probably.
Anyway - thanks for the team for the support!!!

Flyin Bull
February 24th, 2009, 09:20
Had a nice jet leg in S.America in the A7E (made up for the vimmy) and then onto Africa and and Europe in the Hornet and A26.

Firebar
February 24th, 2009, 10:50
Had a very pleasant (and short [where'd the similie with the sunnies go]) first baton leg from Biggin Hill to London City, due to a lost night map it was wierdly dark but it did make it easy to see the airport. Was flying a Hind Gunship incase any traffic go in my way...

Tako_Kichi
February 24th, 2009, 21:27
OIII to OIKM

An early morning wingman flight from Tehran to Bam.

The sun was just breaking the skyline as I sat at the end of 11R in the PC-12 waiting for the baton to arrive.

http://media6.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090224/b_220503.jpg

The flight was clear skies and sun but the view was a bit on the boring side, nothing but sand, sand and more sand wherever you looked.

http://media6.dropshots.com/photos/93830/20090224/b_220458.jpg

At least my recent paint job looked nice in the sunshine and gave me something to look at that wasn't in shades of brown!

I managed to get a green duenna on landing but a silly mistake on my part meant that I dumped the nose wheel down a bit hard after holding it off while I slowed. Thankfully that happened AFTER the duenna had recorded a safe landing....PHEW! :faint:

MaddogK
February 24th, 2009, 22:31
Just another milk run- winging for Gnoopey.
:)
the wait kinda suk'd, but at least I had a hula dancer to remind me of what awaits me when the race is over.

Gnoopey
February 24th, 2009, 22:43
from Bam's OIKM to Karachi's OPKC in the private Gnoopster's airline Marksman (just like this old style Swissair paintjobs very much).

With Maddog as my trusty wingman, it was a beautiful ride in full daylight until we came down to Karachi. The Airport was pretty much socked in (my WX station reported 0.6 NM / 998 m visibility when finally there).

But the superb SOH advance ground crew had already reported that early enough ... so that I could just play airline and shoot an almost picture perfect ILS approach into OPKC's rwy 25R.

ThankXXX shipmates & 'Gsundheit' :ernae:

Flyin Bull
February 25th, 2009, 10:37
Had a quick run through India in the Hornet and then the pucker factor flight in the Boeing 247 when the baton was transfered to me after Haitun over sped. Did not let the team know that I had never flown the Boeing before. Passed that bit of info on after I landed.

dcc
February 25th, 2009, 16:41
Finally got a chance to fly my P-38! Flew with Moses (in the Howard) across the Black Sea on a black night, in Lockheed's first blackbird. Images shows my wingman out ahead of me. I nearly caught up to him at the end!

- dcc

dcc
February 25th, 2009, 16:45
shot of me and wingman Fliger waiting for Gnoopey and moparmike to arrive before our on a cabin-class cruise to Niger,

shot of the flight across some very boring FS9 scenery. Love this paint job on the A-26.

- dcc

dcc
February 25th, 2009, 16:53
shot of some of the Mooney's just about to take off on a group flight

- dcc

MaddogK
February 25th, 2009, 18:01
First one to arrive at the last fighter leg of the race. Waiting for the lot, then I'm buying the first round at the pub when were done.

Moses03
February 25th, 2009, 19:28
Another round:

-A nice shot of the sun fading on the balsa bug on my run from Barcelona to the UK.

-Finally got a chance to fly the Howard 500. Was wingman for dcc on a dark and spooky flight
over the Black Sea to Turkey. The Lockheed twins are similiar in performance. I got the jump on
dcc in his P-38M, settling in just above crit alt at 17800'. Was about 10-14 miles out ahead by
the time the P-38 made it to the thin air. The spacing stayed that way until descent when dcc
made up the difference in a hurry while I had to keep an eye on 308KIAS; the Howard 500 barber
pole. In the end I bested dcc by just a minute or two. Fun race within a race.

-Flying wingman to PRB on a P-38 run over the outback. (VOZ purists please don't wrinkle your
noses. I could never get it to install correctly)
We had a moderate headwind to fight the whole way and just squeaked in under the wire.

Edit: PRB's account in the next post is much more informative. :trophy:

PRB
February 25th, 2009, 19:35
Had a great flight from Broome (YBRM) to Ayres Rock (YAYE) in a couple of Lightnings. Broome is an interesting place on account of it being an air base in WW-II from the earliest days of the war in the Pacific. It was there that the remnants of the air units from the Philippines gathered to count what was left, and start to re-group. Moses03 and I took off into an overcast sky, which turning into a bright and cloudless sky not far inland. We climbed to 25,000 feet, and immediately hit rather stiff headwinds. 650 miles is about as far as you want to go in a P-38 and stay under the 2-hour time limit. But with a 14-knot headwind, we were a tiny bit worried about making it on time. Then about half way there the head wind went up to 24 knots (*gulp*). Jkcook28 and Moparmike were scouting wind situations ahead and above us, but there was no help up high. From the stop watch on the P-38’s dash board, it looked like we had about four minutes to spare on the clock. Add the descent and slowing down to land, and well, I started to wish I had plotted out those optimum descent profiles that fliger747 had urged us to do… Lucky for us, dcc, president and chief-engineer and test pilot of Virtual-Lockheed, was on the radio, suggesting a descent profile that would conserve energy and get us in quickly. It was a fun approach, and we made it with two minutes to spare!

Couple kodaks: 1) Moses03 and I in our P-38s, getting ready to take off. 2) Dangerousdave26 pulled alongside in the Plywood Speedbug.

dcc
February 25th, 2009, 21:14
got to do a short hop down to YKSC to get the second South 35 airport

cheers to all my fellow SOH pilots and to all the other teams, 'twas fun sharing the virtual skies with you all again! :applause:

- dcc

Flyin Bull
February 25th, 2009, 23:36
We all decided to escort Fliger on the final leg of the race into YMEN

It's been a great event again guys and I would fly with you anytime.

Steve

Haitun
February 25th, 2009, 23:38
The DC-3 flight was great!
Had to catch up with the team to bring Tom (Fliger) a freshly smuggled 24 cans of the finest Tsingtao.
Did a Melbourne tour on the approach (and No-No, I don't usually approach like that, even in a cub).

Moparmike
February 26th, 2009, 08:24
After a short nap it was time to unload the Pentax and see how many shots I botched this year. :)

First shot:
Sunset falls on the P-47M on the way to POrt Moresby. I was wingman for Moses...trying desparately to keep up with that German "Arrow" he was flying. Smooth flying in beautiful weather!

After a short hiatus from the race...including me missing the flights across my home state of North Dakota...
I stretched the legs of the jug again and flew wingman for Taco across the Gulf of Mexico headed for Cancun. I smoked the landing gear on touchdown so I thumbed a ride with JohnC as he did a short Helo Hop to Cozumel. Figured I could score a set of wings while the jug was in the shop.

In Coz, I made a quick run through the tourist traps for some souvenirs and a couple bottles of some evil looking mescal. It was labeled "reposado" but looked pretty green to me. Oh well, I needed something to distract the pilot as I snagged his keys and jumped in the A-26C "Spirit of Waco" and took SRG's wing for a cabin-class leg from Coz to San Andres Island off the coast of Columbia. I'm sure glad the Policía Nacional de Colombia wasn't waiting for me on the ramp when I arrived!

Next two shots:
Jumping off from Ecuador, I once again breached Columbian airspace in a borrowed A-6E Intruder for another quick wingman run for Srg into Brazil. There sure were some nasty looking thunderstorms down below, glad I wasn't down on the deckfor this flight!

Moparmike
February 26th, 2009, 08:25
#1:
After a little R'n'R in Brazil, it was off for a nice long flight across the south Atlantic. I carried the baton from Natal over to Freetown in Sierra Leone in the TB-50H. Wnd was somewhere behind me in a DC-7 and we had advance weather recon from the Gnoopster himself flying a WB-50 weather bird. CrashAZ was somewhere along the route providing top cover for the big birds with an F-18 Hornet.


#2:
With me on the ramp in Freetown, Fliger747 took the baton in a nice shiny A-26 with DCC on his wing. Here is Fliger going wheels-up as I wait for my wingman's tired old Douglas to arrive.


Not sure what happened to my camera bag...it got lost in the shuffle and it was too dark or too foggy to snap pics anyway.
I took a good nap after that nice long trans-atlantic trip but caught up with the baton somewhere in Spain. From Barcelona I got word that the support crew had repaired the landing gear in my P-47 so I flew wingman for Moses in his plywood speedbug into a very foggy Biggin Hill. By the time I arrived, the rest of the team was well into the London city tour...

In Pakistan, we started one of the McRobertson routes and I flew a De Havilland Comet as wingman for Fliger747 in his DC-2. It was dark, it was soupy, and no autopilot in Der Komet...so my eyes were glued to that ole P.8 compass the whole trip! What a ride!!!

From Bangladesh to a little strip outside of Bangkok I once again chased one of them little wooden speedbugs as I flew the P-47M as wingman for Flyin Bull. Was an uneventful trip listening to the radio chatter on Teamspeak as the Hornet steadily crept away from the old jug. Dang, what I wouldn't have given for another R-2800 strapped onto this thing!!!

Dropping down to the south end of Thailand, I once again grabbed Der Komet and with Gnoopey as my wingman I carried the baton down to Gong Kedak in Malaysia. They didn't send up any interceptors so I don't think the Royal Malaysian Air Force minded us using their field as a hand-off point.

Moparmike
February 26th, 2009, 08:25
Hey! Lookie what I found! My camera bag was held up in customs back in Sierra Leone and they finally tracked me down to return it.

#1:
I flew some weather recon for Moses and PRB as they fought headwinds all the way from the coast of Australia out to Ayers Rock. Don't ask where I got the old F-106 Delta Dart...I'm sure the Montana ANG didn't miss it from their Great Falls static display park for a few hours! ;)

#2-3:
Down at Port Lincoln, I caught up with DCC and flew a camera chase plane for his short hop over to Kingscote. Two P-38s in formation looked much nicer, so I left the P-47 on the ramp for this flight.

Moparmike
February 26th, 2009, 08:25
The final leg!

As Fliger747 and Gnoopey did the official baton flights, we tagged along in a "gaggle of gooneys" along with a few fighters for cover........just in case the other teams were all drunk and rowdy at the finish line.


Like the choppers out of the sun in Apocalypse Now...cue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries...


The finish line is in sight...for this year anyway!

jkcook28
February 26th, 2009, 10:14
Wx recon above PRB and Moses inbound to Ayers Rock and sitting on ramp for their "expedited" arrival. (Moses is the black dot to the right of Paul just beyond 10mi)
High flyin Jug had a nice tailwind while the boys below sweated the headwind!

jkcook28
February 26th, 2009, 10:19
Pre-launch pow-wow with baton flight for wx recon/top cover for Lightning leg to YKSC.

jkcook28
February 26th, 2009, 10:23
Gathering for the final leg.
(odd looking DC-2 Tom!:d)

jkcook28
February 26th, 2009, 10:27
Random shots during the race to use as you please crashaz.

jkcook28
February 26th, 2009, 10:37
Well, alot of long hours and tired flying bring the '09 RTWR to a disappointing end. Too many of these and some technical difficulties took us out. But was still fun flying with you guys and like Cubs fans say, "wait 'til next year".
Cya on the boards boys.
John

Moparmike
February 28th, 2009, 19:24
Some pics from the post-race BBQ party back at YMLT in this thread...
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=12088