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PRB
June 13th, 2009, 05:05
Well, not quite... First I have to mow the grass, darn it...

PRB
June 13th, 2009, 11:46
Off to Noumea (NWWW).

TOW=122581
Cargo=28700

Dangerousdave26
June 13th, 2009, 13:15
Well, not quite... First I have to mow the grass, darn it...

Hold it Paul!

One of our guys will be right over to mow the Grass...

Now which Dancing Girl is it too long on. :icon_lol:

PRB
June 13th, 2009, 13:33
Well I'm off to a good start. Lost fuel pressure on engines 2 and 3 about half way out. Breaking out the life boats. Ok, I'm sorry I made fun of McHales Navy, err, I mean Air Line! Can you guys send a PT boat over??

srgalahad
June 13th, 2009, 16:56
We've passed the message to "Ole Leadbottom" Binghampton (Commander in Chief of his vision of the Pacific Empire) as we are have no "boats" available. Sorry Paul but he was muttering something about "bonds" and "rescue fees" so we're not quite sure when he'll get around to it. If we can we'll try to get one of the Black Cat Cansos over to fish you out after dark. Hope you have shark repellant.

Btw, if you feather the dead engines (see manual) it flies not to bad (if slowly) on the other two... but I don't know for how long. One of our Ferry Command buddies made it from Green Bay WI to Ottawa , Ont on Two -fuel consumption unknown. Get used to it.. a lot of Connie legs ended with less-than-four-turning.

Lt. Elroy Carpenter
Communications Manager
McHale's

Moses03
June 13th, 2009, 17:26
He is fighting the good fight:

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=DeYRorycYcL2F5bzU9YJqi0eASE

PRB
June 13th, 2009, 17:48
Well, that's where I went down with all hands. I don't know why it was showing me doing a zig-zag course though. I thought I was going in a more or less straight line. More or less.

Willy
June 13th, 2009, 18:31
I guess having a couple of engines go out on you is one way to save fuel... ;)

PRB
June 14th, 2009, 11:35
Ok, getting ready to start again. Qantas Airlines was kind enough to give me a new airplane (what the heck are they thinking??), but only after I sat through thier class callled Fuel Management for Dummies, I mean Fighter Pilots. Ok, I made that last part up. They don't have such a class at Qantas. They did make me read the flight engineer's instruction book, however...

PRB
June 14th, 2009, 13:11
Taking off for Noumea (NWWW)

TOW: 116,270
Payload: 20,000
Fuel: 16,363

PRB
June 14th, 2009, 16:21
Made it to Noumea! Yay!

Dangerousdave26
June 14th, 2009, 17:08
Anybody looking for hints and tricks on navigating via dead reckoning and ADF...

Don't go to Paul for help :icon_lol:


http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=6oRy74JwGgL0YPQ4zdm4qYG6Sgk

That track is all over the place...

Of course if you think that is bad you should see my test flight earlier.

PRB
June 14th, 2009, 18:06
Hey, I resemble that remark!

Actually, I was worried about the “great circle effect”, meaning the course indicated by SFP is not the course you want to follow the whole flight, and since there are no NDB stations out in the middle of the Coral Sea, I figured I’d make a 3 degree course correction to the north about half way out (there’s a GPS fix which helped me decide that.) Then the dang wind kept picking up and I thought it was pushing me further south. Then I though, hey, I need to be heading for the NDB station north of the airport, since that will line me up with runway 11… So I was sort of all over the place. That said, I know I wasn’t zig-zagging that bad!

PRB
June 16th, 2009, 14:24
Off to Fiji (NFFN) with a load of tourists and grapefruits.

Payload: 22600 LBS
TOW: 116,140 LBS

PRB
June 16th, 2009, 15:23
Made it to cruising altitude of 18,000 feet. Awesome tail wind, just like on the first leg. Solid cloud deck below. The oil temp on all four engines was creeping out of the green zone at the end of the climb, but all the engine gauges are happy right now! That's what the flight engineer was telling me anyhoo. Those FEs always complaining that I'm abusing his engines!

PRB
June 16th, 2009, 15:43
Experiencing a bizarre visual phenomenon. There appears to be an enormous ring surrounding the planet, at about the orbit of the Moon. If fact, I think it is the Moon… I shall continue with the flight in the hopes that it does not hinder my landing attempt at Fiji. I’ve shot some photos of the object and will post after the flight…

PRB
June 16th, 2009, 17:12
Down safe at Nadi Intl. (NFFN.) Wooo.

PRB
June 18th, 2009, 15:02
Going on a short flight from one end of the island to the other, since the airport on the other side of the island is where I'm supposed to be... But hey, now I can carry more stuff, and bump up my average!

NFFN -> NFNA

TOW: 111,064
P/L: 29,000

PRB
June 18th, 2009, 15:31
Ok, that was scary (NFNA)

PRB
June 19th, 2009, 17:20
Off to Pago Pago (NFNA -> NSTU)

P/L = 23000
TOW = 115,603 (more or less)

PRB
June 19th, 2009, 18:03
Made it up to 18,000 feet. Oil temp going back to the green part of the gauge. Weather over the Pacific is a bit nasty today, with heavy cloud cover all around. Pago Pago has a 112 mile NDB station. Doesn't get much better than that.

PRB
June 19th, 2009, 20:08
Down safe at Pago Pago (NSTU) A fun approach and landing too. Visibility was pretty crappy, but I'll net not nearly as bad as you blokes flying around in Northern Europe..!

On a semi related note, I'm selfishly happy to see that the Google Maps people have the same problem drawing a line between two points on the globe when they are on opposite sides of the international date line! That problem kicked my butt for some time, but I did solve it... Hehe.

PRB
June 25th, 2009, 05:29
Ok, time to fly. Off to Rarotonga (NCRG.) Using the "Highmike Navigation Method", I should alter course by 1 degree to the north half way there.

TOW = 115,555 LBS
FUEL = 15,048 LBS
P/L = 20,600 LBS

PRB
June 25th, 2009, 06:29
We're bucking fierce headwinds now.

Well, ok, so it's a 6 knot headwind. But it is a headwind, and I've had strong tail winds up to now!

PRB
June 25th, 2009, 08:47
Made it to NCRG.

PRB
June 25th, 2009, 12:46
Onwards, to NTAA.

P/L = 22,600
TOW = 115,654
FUEL = 13,167

PRB
June 25th, 2009, 15:22
Down safe at NTAA.

PRB
June 26th, 2009, 12:39
NTAA -> NTTO

Fuel = 11,286
P/L = 22,600
TOW = 113,793

PRB
June 26th, 2009, 14:59
Down safe, NTTO.

PRB
July 1st, 2009, 14:41
NTTO --> NTGJ

Fuel = 11,286
P/L = 22,600
TOW = 113,793

PRB
July 1st, 2009, 16:46
Down safe @ NTGJ. I wonder what this would be like in a B-17... Next leg will be a long one!