RTW Practice 4 Rules, Flight Proposals, etc

[Willy]

Practice 4 is currently scheduled to begin at 1700Z (UTC)/1200 US Eastern on the 3rd of February.

There will be two threads running. This one which will be reopened for the actual practice posts shortly before the practice and another which will be started 24hrs prior to start with the changes to the RTW 2005 rules and to be used for the Route Advisory Group.

Anyone wishing to fly practices in the meantime should feel free to and are encouraged to do so. We just don't want to have anyone reach the "burnout" point.

[Willy]

Just a reminder...

Starts Friday, and I'll post the twists on Thursday.

Yall will probably get them a bit earlier than I thought. I might have to make a day trip out of town Thursday, so expect them about 4-6 hours earlier.

Willy

[Willy]

Same rules at the RTW 2005 with the exception of:
start at Natal, Brazil (SBNT)

Corridors to remain the same

Jet jumps to remain the same

Bonuses:

Mountains
Appalachian Mts - Boone, North Carolina (NC14)
Cumberland Gap - Middlesboro, Kentucky (1A6)
Alps - Zell Am See, Austria (LOWZ),
Andes - Copacabana, Bolivia (SLCC)

Airmanship
Cabin Creek, Idaho (I08),
Shell Mera, Ecuador (SESM) (note 1)
Tombstone, Arizona, (P29)
Oneida, New York, (6NK8)
Carrier landing & takeoff using the default carrier off of San Francisco, (note 2)
Seaplane (note 3),
Rotorcraft (note 4)

Historic Airfields
Meigs Field - Chicago, Illinois (KCGX) (really dodgy in Golden Wings as it's not there. But still landable if you pick your spot)
Henderson Field - Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands (AGGH)
Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (KFFA)
Kai Tek, Hong Kong (VHHX/Rwy 13 Approach only)

Cities (items to pickup/deliver) Not all items have to be picked up!
Havana, Cuba (MUHA/cigars)
Panama City, Panama (MPMG/pic of Canal)
St Petersburg, Russia (ULLI/vodka) Rome, Italy (LIRF/Pizza)
Tokyo, Japan (RJTT/Sake)
Rio de Janero, (SBRJ/coffee)
New Orleans, Louisiana (KMSY/KNEW)
(Relief supplies/note 5)
Brisbane, Australia (YBBN/Beer)
Agra, India (VIAG/Pic of Taj Mahal)
Cairo, Egypt (HECA/Pic of Pyramids)
Beijing, China (ZBAA/Pic of Forbidden City)
London, England (EGLL/Pic of Tower Bridge. If the pilot is flying thru it in the pic, it will also count as airmanship bonus)

Note 1: Default mesh for that area for landing and takeoff to have the pit to fly in and out of,

Note 2: Can be used with carrier ops gauges, or other non-default carrier landing aids. (or just full flaps and brakes) The Duenna program has been tested there and will register a valid flight but with the seaplane water only strip of CA22 as ICAO code.

Note 3: Seaplane flights are to be landed and taken off from a water only default airfield. As most of the sea/floatplanes available are not overly fast, flights have a 1 hour minimum time both coming in and out of the selected waterstrip. In other words, the incoming flight (A) lands. The outgoing (B) must wait until at least one hour after the incomings takeoff. When landed at the next stop, the next pilot must wait until one hour after (B) took off from the water strip. If the carrier flight is undertaken, then CA22 can not be used as that's the water strip that the Duenna program uses to validate the carrier flight with.

Note 4: Rotarywing aircraft, Any helicopters or autogyros that are eligible under the 10 in operation rule. No fictious aircraft like "AirWolf" or the Bushman X Autogyros. Tilt-rotor aircraft are also not elligible. Seaplane flight time rules apply

Note 5: Flight to New Orleans is to deliver hurricane relief supplies and to be flown in large transport aircraft of ample cargo capacity, (IE: greater than a 35,000lb max take off weight.) Can be flown into either Armstrong Intl (KMSY) or Lakefront airport (KNEW).

LAST RULE: HAVE FUN!!!

[Gnoopey]

The Route:
This practice will begin and end at Augusto Severo International, Brazil (SBNT). From there, you can fly anywhere, but in order to win, each team must make at least one full-stop landing on the primary landmass of the following continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America), make at least one full-stop landing above 60* North latitude and below 45* South latitude, travel through all degrees of longitude, and fulfill any special requirements for the race.

Special Requirement for this practice:
At least one flight leg must be completed with each of the listed historical aircraft included with Flight Simulator 2004. They are the: Curtis Jenny, Vickers F.B.27A Vimy, Ryan NYP, Ford Tri-Motor, Lockheed Vega, de Havilland Comet, Piper J-3 Cub, and Douglas DC-3. For these flights, each aircraft must be in completely unmodified (default) form. The baton on these flights is not releasable until one hour after the flight commences.

Special Bonuses for this practice

1) Corridors.
Five special direct corridors are open, to be flown from either end, within 15 hours, and in as many legs as desired—that is, when flying these corridors you are not subject to normal leg time and distance regulations.

Aloha Airway. Wake Island-Honolulu-Seattle. (PWAK-PHNL-KSEA)
Cape Connection. Mount Pleasant, Falklands-Cape Town. (EGYP-FACT)
Siberia Solution. {Irkutsk or Yuzhno or Nakashibetsu}-Petropavlovsk-Anadyr ({UIII or USSS or RJCN}-UHPP-UHMA)
South Pacific Passage. Tahiti-Easter Island-Puerto Montt (NTAA-SCIP-SCTE)
Wombat's Way. Hobart-Queenstown (YMHB-NZQN)

To take advantage of these corridors, you must fly the full length of the corridor, from beginning to end, in one or multiple legs, not deviating from the main pathway except as required by geography. (For example, to use the Aloha Airway you must fly all the way from PAWK to KSEA, or from KSEA to PWAK, with optional baton handoffs at PMDY and/or PHNL You may not enter mid-route, say at PHNL, and thereafter apply the corridor provisions.)

A corridor is optional and may be used in addition to the wild card flight. Teams may fly as many corridors as they wish, but each corridor only once.

2) Seeing the World.
Pilots may choose to conduct a full stop landing at as many of the following airports as desired. The team will receive a bonus credit of five (5) hours for each stop, the credit to be subtracted from the team's total time in flying around the world. These landings are entirely optional.

SEE ABOVE in Willy's post!!!

3) Jump Jets.
Available for use are subsonic civil aviation jets (General Aviation and Air Transport) at the following remote airports:

Ayers Rock, Australia (YAYE)
Baku, Azerbaijan (UBBB)
Cape Town, South Africa (FACT)
Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean (FJDG)
Honolulu, Hawaii (PHNL)
Irkutsk, Russia (UIII)
Mount Pleasant, Falklands (EGYP)
Svalbard Longyear, Norway (ENSB)
Visby, Sweden (ESSV)

Each jump jet may be used for only one flight leg. For ordinary flights, the standard time limits, but not the distance restrictions, apply to the usage of these aircraft.

Optionally, a team may elect to use a wild card to fly a Jump Jet, in which case both the wild card time limits and the distance restrictions apply (that is, a maximum of 6 hours or 1500nm, whichever comes first).

Note that this year, BAe/Aerospatiale have made available a Concorde for use in flying the South Pacific Passage only (see above). At the team's option, it will be parked at either Tahiti's Faa'a (NTAA) or Puerto Montt's El Tepual (SCTE). Once reached, the Concorde may be flown for the length of the South Pacific Passage corridor for as many legs as needed. (As above, corridor rules apply.) Once the corridor is completed, the aircraft is no longer available to the team that used it.

Ample aircraft, including Concordes, are available for all three teams at all Jump Jet locations. That is, teams may fly Jump Jet flights from the same airport at the same time.

Rules:
1) Pilot Requirements.
You may fly for whichever forum you like, but you may only fly for one forum. You must choose a team and stay with that team for the duration of the race. You may not fly two legs in succession.

2) Aircraft Requirements.
Aircraft eligible for flight in the race are production aircraft of which at least 10 flying examples have been produced and placed in service, with realistic .air files, and which fit at least one of the following criteria:

A) Piston-powered fixed-wing aircraft.
B) Turboprop-powered, fixed-wing aircraft of two engines or fewer.
C) Rotorcraft.

Additionally, the Flight Simulator aircraft files used must be conspicuous in their description and must be widely available to the general public, either as payware or freeware, at least one week before the race commences. The aircraft may not be equipped with non-certified ferrying tanks or engine tweaks. (Aircraft with drop tanks, properly modeled and certified by the appropriate governing agency, are eligible.) The only modifications you may make to your aircraft are to its avionics and repaints. If there is any question as to whether or not an aircraft is to be considered eligible, please contact the Rules and Administration Committee (see below).

3) Leg requirements.

a) Each flight must begin and end at an airport included in the Flight Simulator database of airports. This rule refers to the airport's location, not its scenery file.
b) A leg is defined as a takeoff, enroute flight, and full-stop landing at a different airport. Pilots must relinquish the baton after making this full stop landing – that is, they may not make more than one full-stop landing on the same leg.
b) There is a 2 hour time-limit for each flight. The 2 hours begins when the pilot makes the "I have the baton" post and ends when the pilot releases the baton by posting that it “is free.” Flights over the two-hour limit incur a time penalty equal to three times the length of time over the limit, to be assessed immediately following the flight. For example, if a pilot takes the baton for 2 hours and 14 minutes, the next pilot cannot depart until 42 minutes after the post releasing the baton. Though the baton may be claimed immediately following the post releasing the baton, the two-hour clock for the next flight does not start until the pilot is eligible to depart.
c) There is an absolute limit of three hours or 1000 miles, whichever comes first, for a flight. Flights that exceed these limits will be declared invalid.
d) Each forum one wild-card flight of up to 1500 miles and six hours, whichever comes first, that is not subject to parts b and c of this rule.

4) Procedural Requirements.
At the end of a flight, a pilot must post onto the race thread that the baton “is free” and allow another pilot to take it. Full authentication of any flight is accomplished by posting a screenshot of the Flight Simulator Flight Analysis window showing your flight or an image authenticating your flight generated by the RTW-Duenna onto the race thread and must be completed by the time the baton is free at the end of the next flight. Flights not authenticated on time will be declared invalid. Note also that the only method of declaring the baton free and claiming the baton is through the forum. A pilot may not claim it through a multiplayer chat or any means of communication except the forum.

5) Crashes.
If you crash your aircraft for any reason, you must create a post so stating. The next person to pick up the baton begins from the airport you began at. If your computer crashes, you may either declare the baton to be free or restart from the airport you originally departed from. Note that the two-hour time limit counts for the total time you have the baton (including time used before your computer crash).

6) Flight Simulator Requirements.

a) You must fly in real-time. In other words, your flight simulator clock, when you are flying in your home time zone, must be set to read the same as your desktop clock. Dealing with darkness is part of the race.
b)You must fly using Flight Simulator 2004’s Real-World Weather feature, either with or without 15-minute updates. You should be sure that the "Download winds aloft..." box is checked and the "Disable turbulence effect on aircraft" box is unchecked. (See Options|Settings|Weather.)
c) You must fly with the MSFS "unlimited fuel" box in realistic mode (that is, unchecked), crash detection enabled, the General and Crash Tolerance sliders set to the most realistic position (full right), and Aircraft Stress Causes Damage enabled. (See Aircraft|Realism) En-route fueling is not allowed. Fuel management and survivable landings are parts of the race.
d) No time acceleration whatsoever is allowed. Any instances of unrealistic flight times will be investigated and if it is determined that time acceleration was used, the flight or flights in question will be declared invalid.
e) Flying online is strongly encouraged, but not required, except as provided in Rule 7.

7) The Final Leg.
The final leg of the flight will be flown online, using either a Flight Simulator Multiplayer Session, VATSIM, IVAO, a private server, or some other means of connecting Flight Simulator clients. This is so that all who have participated can share in the experience of finishing the race together. Once a team has landed at the start/finish airport, they have completed the race.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I don't know for sure what we are going to do when we get to Europe. But I suspect the rest of this practice could look something like - Option 1.

However as I indicated yesterday I actually think Option 2 - the dang power went out and my computer posted before I was done - wierd! - is much better even though we might have an hour penalty on the second leg.

Also I was thinking - Is there any reason not to have two practices going at the same time? More opportunity to fly and less waiting around. Anybody up for it?

Note Option 1 is almost 7000 miles longer than Option 2.

Will post below with the pics.

-Ed-

[fliger747]

I think a couple of us are czeched out in the Concorde now!

Tom...

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

As indicated here are the pics.

-Ed-

[Gnoopey]

... hmmmm Ed,

your option #2 is IMNSHO obsolete - cannot see the benefit to discuss it now?!?

Anyway - here's some more food for thoughts:

// to be used with The Great Circle mapper ==> http://gc.kls2.com/ -

ongoing practice - current progress - already done:

SBNT-SNCP-SMJP-SVPR-SVMG-MTPP-MUHA-KMSY-1A6-NC14-KGSO-KFFA-9W7-KNGU-6NK8-CYWK-BGGH-BGSF-BIKF-EGPL-EGLC-EGLL-LOWZ-LIRF-LGAT = 10,238 NM - ten (10) bonus fields (in bold)

gcmap compatible naming:
SBNT-SNCP-SMJP-SVPR-SVMG-MTPP-MUHA-KMSY-1A6-NC14-KGSO-KFFA-KONX-KNGU-6NK8-CYWK-BGGH-BGSF-BIKF-EGPL-EGLC-EGLL-LOWZ-LIRF-LGAV

//---- further routing proposals

Option calculations to include ULLI bonus and UBBB jump jet:

HECA-VIAG = 2,442 NM = 327 min
HECA-UBBB-VIAG = 2,695 = 171 (prop) + 197 (jet) min = 368 min
HECA-ULLI-UBBB-VIAG = 4,552 NM = 720 min - 300 min (bonus) = 420 min (+1 bonus @ ULLI)==> LGAT-HECA-VIAG !!!

// ----
HECA-OESK-OERF-ORMM-OISS-OIKK-OIZH-OPRK-VIJP-VIAG = 2,486 NM - two (2) bonus fields

India towards the end:

option 1a) - SOPAC

VIAG-VHHX-ZBAA-RJTT-RJTH-RJAW-PGSN-PTKK-AYKY-AGGH-AGGB-YHBA-YBBN-NWWW-NFFN-NIUE-NCAI-NTAA-SCIP-SCTE-SAVC-SBRJ-SBNT = 19,338 NM - seven (7) bonus fields (in bold) & 45° S

gcmap compatible naming:
VIAG-HKG-ZBAA-RJTT-RJTH-RJAW-PGSN-PTKK-LNV-AGGH-AGGB-YHBA-YBBN-NWWW-NFFN-NIUE-NCAI-NTAA-SCIP-SCTE-SAVC-SBRJ-SBNT

option 1b) - SOPAC

gcmap compatible naming:
VIAG-HKG-YBBN-AGGH-NTAA-SCIP-SCTE-SAVC-SBRJ-SBNT = 17,397 NM - five (5) bonus fields (in bold) & 45° S

option 2) - MIDPAC
gcmap compatible naming:
VIAG-YAYE-YBBN-NZDN-AGGH-PWAK-PHNL-KSEA-P29-I08-KCGX-SESM-SBNT = 23,658 NM - seven (7) bonus fields (in bold) & 45° S

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Tom I agree with your option 1A now.

My option 2 is pretty much irrelevant now as we took off the wrong way to start. Reasons were lack of rules and lack of time to really contemplate our options. Before the RRTW we should have adequate time.

My option 2 does illustrate my main point however - good strategy probably won't win the race for SOH - good flying will. That said bad strategy will lose the race for us as in this practice we gave our opponents a roughly 7000 nm headstart assuming they headed for Africa right out of the gate. IMO we flunked the strategy test this time.

The main use for option 2 now is do we want to fly it as a simultaneous practice thus becoming familiar with different parts of the world.

The other point is we may want to simply stretch out this practice and do an seaplane landing and/or carrier just for practice by going mid-pacific

-Ed-

[Gnoopey]

Hey All,

snipped ...

My option 2 does illustrate my main point however - good strategy probably won't win the race for SOH - good flying will. That said bad strategy will lose the race for us as in this practice we gave our opponents a roughly 7000 nm headstart assuming they headed for Africa right out of the gate. IMO we flunked the strategy test this time.

Ed,

you haven't seen my replies over at the temporary forums, haven't you?
==> http://www.sohforums.net/showthread.php?t=89

The main use for option 2 now is do we want to fly it as a simultaneous practice thus becoming familiar with different parts of the world.

Don't think that we could handle two simultaneous practice rounds now. I think we would stress our resources too much that short before the 'real' race ?!?

The other point is we may want to simply stretch out this practice and do an seaplane landing and/or carrier just for practice by going mid-pacific

-Ed-

Fine to stretch - I'm not the flying 'boat' expert but I'd assume, that we would find also one or two seaplane bases on the SOPAC route, wouldn't we?

'Drawback' of the SOPAC routing as of now is still the Concorde 'issue' IMO.

[Willy]

Default seaplane bases are pretty much all in North America. Mostly the US and Canada.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Tom thanks for the link to the temporary forums! I had not bookmarked them and as a result when the main SOH site was back online couldn't get back to them.

I've no doubt we are on the same page. The one wildcard jet flight of 1500 nm is what we should have used immediately rather than going behind 10 odd legs right away. That would have been followed by a 15 to 25 mins over two hours flight to get to Africa - well worth it. I would just hate to see us err like that two weeks from now. If I sound upset I'm really not it is practice.

As for landing in the dark. We really don't have to - going to Africa from Ascension - as there is a well lit airfield available only adding about 5-7 mins additional flying time. While everyone has been flying the route we are I've been looking at the alternate as the route we are flying is pretty well known to us while flying over western Africa and the heart of the USSR isn't near as well known. Also I believe we need to keep that mid-atlantic crossing firmly in mind as the time penalty assuming a jet flight can be done is no problem with our aircraft.

The other thing I've noticed in planning this alternate is that when planning the route one has to be very careful to not let your eyes decieve you because if you are using a mercator projection for planning the route that looks shorter may in fact be longer in the real world.

-Ed-

[Gnoopey]

Am I missing something here?? I remember reading in earlier posts about the bonus airfields on the U.S. west coast including a carrier landing in SFO.

The present route seems to be taking us across the South Pacific to South America thereby missing these bonuses. But I have been offline for a few days so things may have changed.

I realise we must hit the 45 degree parralel as well as the 65 but is it worth missing the bonuses??

Pat

Pat,

missing bonus fields during practice is IMO not a problem. To know that we 'missed' how many bonus fields and why is essential on the other hand!

As long as we don't race against another team, bonus fields are just an 'academic plague' for planners.

Prior to the 'real race' and during the 'race' as well, we'll have to find the best possible compromise between shortest route and 'enough' bonus fields. We won't know how many boni the competitor teams will collect but we have data from experience from the previous races.

Was this good / 'confusing' enough?

[AussieMan]

Thanks Tom .... Question answered.