Antartica flight plans from US, how?

[strykerpsg]

How might one go about finding the route US military takes from mainland US to Antartica? I've heard they use Christchurch as a stopover, which just means I will support the AUS economy with another fine Orbx purchase. Since I just got the Antarctica X from Aerosoft, want to give her a whirl this long 4 day weekend. Gotta love the military's love of federal holidays'.

Since I also bought Keflavik and Iceland, may have to run some B-52 runs into the Northern parts of Russia......and if the Tac Pack is released by then....mmmm harpoon loaded Super Forts looking for a target of opportunity.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Matt

[robertorizzo]

Sorry i can' t help you but let me say csb52 + csweapons are like bread + butter great choice have a nice WE

[Mark W]

Matt, the route is McChord-Hickam-Christchurch-McMurdo. The mission is usually RCH5E2 until Christchurch. The aircraft overnites at Hickam and Christchurch. It then goes to McMurdo as ICEXX... the XX being a 2 digit number ie ICE51. Mondays mission was ICE60.That is for a C17.

[Bone]

The mission is usually RCH5E2 until Christchurch.

RCH...call sign "Reach".

[strykerpsg]

Thanks all. Will put it together this weekend and give it a whirl. Would it be cheating the celebrate FSX day orbit buy the scenery sooner than later? :kilroy:

Matt

[Naki]

How might one go about finding the route US military takes from mainland US to Antartica? I've heard they use Christchurch as a stopover, which just means I will support the AUS economy with another fine Orbx purchase. Since I just got the Antarctica X from Aerosoft, want to give her a whirl this long 4 day weekend. Gotta love the military's love of federal holidays'.
Matt

You could support the NZ economy by buying VLC instead. If you do get Orbx NZSI there is a compatibility issues with Aerosoft Antarctica and NZSI - I believe there is a patch for this.

BTW a Christchurch Airport is been developed and will include the "Deep Freeze" USAF Antarctica base at the airport. I think there is a freeware one around too.

[Ian Warren]

I do have some very old flight maps and plans form Christchurch , i'll scan and post at Flightsim.com , it starts to get busy here now as the season closes and the N/westers Rwy 29/11 are the best for when the USAF fleets arrive here , some interesting flying over the city to as many have been down on the ice are returning , guess the USAF don't mind spending a little and showing the peoples how much the city changed ...... good thing is we get a great display :salute:

[scott967b]

Have a friend who was a Herc pilot back in the day when the USN had the mission (VXE-6). What I recall is they would fly out from NAS Pt Mugu to NAS Barbers Point, and then on to Christchurch. They were based out of Christchurch and would fly down to McMurdo, and from there around the outlaying fields then back to McMurdo and Christchurch. They had some special benies because NSF owned the aircraft so they didn't have to follow all the USN rules.

scott s.
.

[ThePlainsman]

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[strykerpsg]

You could support the NZ economy by buying VLC instead. If you do get Orbx NZSI there is a compatibility issues with Aerosoft Antarctica and NZSI - I believe there is a patch for this.

BTW a Christchurch Airport is been developed and will include the "Deep Freeze" USAF Antarctica base at the airport. I think there is a freeware one around too.

I've loosely followed the VLC vs Orbx comparison. One thing I don't like so much about Orbx is their desire to not put much energy into detailing military airfields. Does VLC do a better job representing the military airfields? I'm not seeking detail down to a gnats ass, but some better representation than stock FSX would be nice. Also, is VLC photoreal? If so, not a big fan of photoreal anymore. I'll check the website, but looking forward to more personal observations instead of just website descriptions.

Thanks for all the info. Will buy one or the other for my trek with my Virtavia C-17.

Matt

[Ian Warren]

OK , posted the maps and the flight plans based from historic flight charts 1998 /2005 only for the hardened simmer .. most kiddies today use GPS .. Yip last century they :icon_lol: are .. but if ya lost have a compass sure helps to get your way home , off the doglegged trail ... Chatham Islands directions for the Crayfisher-men amongst ya .. to my diving bro 'BUGS' :kilroy: he calls em ... personally think he should stick to hang-gliders , but they are really tasty :running: off for more YUMMY !

@ Matt .. Recommend NZSI .. VLC is great and a cheap alternate .. We are trying to work between both scenery,s .. NZSI : this only covers the South Island Current .

[pbearsailor]

Spent a couple of years in American Samoa about ten years ago and we would often see Hercs stopping at Pago Pago to refuel inbetween Hawaii and Christchurch.

Single engined Cessnas like 182's also stopped. Lots of water with one engine for those ferry pilots.

cheers,
steve :wavey:

[Naki]

I've loosely followed the VLC vs Orbx comparison. One thing I don't like so much about Orbx is their desire to not put much energy into detailing military airfields. Does VLC do a better job representing the military airfields? I'm not seeking detail down to a gnats ass, but some better representation than stock FSX would be nice. Also, is VLC photoreal? If so, not a big fan of photoreal anymore. I'll check the website, but looking forward to more personal observations instead of just website descriptions.
Matt

I dont have NZSI but I do have Orbx PNW and of course VLC so I can give some sort of comparison - Orbx looks great but on my system hard on frames (you probably know that anyway of you have other Orbx scenery). I have read that NZSI is not as accurate as VLC but these maybe minor details and if you don't live in the South Island you probably won't notice. VLC is very accurate, good on frames, cheaper and covers both Islands but isn't as pretty as Orbx and no it's not photoreal. In any case VLC is a massive improvement on the default desert.

VLC doent improve the airfields over deafault like Orbx but there is a lot freeware and payware airporgts available which are compatible. Some of Godzone (which includes the combined military/civil Woodbourne and the only military linked airfield in the SI) and FS Creation's airports have been made compatible with Orbx and I guess over time all of them will be. VLC is compatible with those airports out of the box. There are only two other military airports in NZ (ohakea and Whenuapai) and both are located in the NI. There are some freeware airports for these and they are compatible with VLC.

[Naki]

Put you wrong on the VLC airports. Tim Barnes of VLC is improving many airports (most of them NI at this stage IIRC). Some of these have been relased and more are coming.