teson1 - Golden Age - Bee Gee Model Z Sportster

**teson1** · October 20th, 2009, 14:52

EGUN Mildenhall - LFPB Paris Le Bourget

Yippee! Let's get rolling...

**teson1** · October 20th, 2009, 15:16

Overheat!

Almost lost the engine! Have to watch that temp!
Phew... just saw it in time. But engine is damaged. Have to thropttle back, but will go on. Just getting onto the channel. Hope the engine will make it.

Love it! :d

**teson1** · October 20th, 2009, 16:22

Down in one, no, wait, there's the wheel, two pieces at Paris, LFPB.
Cool flight, IFR (follow roads). Great weather, just enough mishap to keep it interesting. Love the treetop flying. Pure tourism.

Praise to the organisers!

Amen.

Can't wait for more! :mixedsmi:

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...PskOBWLB1PePfw

MM · October 20th, 2009, 18:55

Wow. That GeeBee is not for the calm quiet types. It sort of ANNOUNCES its arrival!

Great choice, Gunter.

**teson1** · October 21st, 2009, 01:33

Great paint by Garry J. Smith!
http://www.gjsmith.net/

**teson1** · October 21st, 2009, 13:53

Going for the 2nd leg.
Paris Le Bourget LFPB - Lyon Bron LFLY.

**teson1** · October 21st, 2009, 16:30

Down in Lyon Bron.
Headed straight for the next bistro.
Un p'tit rouge s'il vous plait.

Gloub. Another one. Gloub. Needed that!

Quite interesting flight.

First part was no problem. Although there were some low clouds, visibility was good, and getting from Le Bourget to Auxerre by DR and on along the A6 motorway was straightforward.
Behind Semur-en-Auxois however, fog set in so I had to go down to few 100ft to keep the motorway in view. Followed every bend and twist.
Orientation got better after reaching Beaune (one of the well-known burgundy wine growing places) and later following the Saone river from Chalon on. Left the Saone at Macon and followed the railway almost till Bron for a straight in landing.
Did I say, that I grilled the engine again? Yep. Had to continue on reduced power after the first 15 minutes again. But I'm getting used to that. And I'll find out how to avoid that (maybe... reduce power? :d).

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...aSgtUAd8GVcmkU

**teson1** · October 25th, 2009, 14:20

Going from Lyon Bron to Roma Ciampino.

Ah... the alps. And good weather. Looking forward to this flight...

***Dangerousdave26*** · October 25th, 2009, 14:31

Originally Posted by MM

Wow. That GeeBee is not for the calm quiet types. It sort of ANNOUNCES its arrival!

Great choice, Gunter.

Not for those with out the touch for Landing her either.

**MaddogK** · October 25th, 2009, 14:56

Lucky you, I ruled this bird out because of a rumor that a contestant required a crewman, then the official rules came out easing the restriction.

Wanna fix that toasty engine ?? comment out the last 2 gauges in the panel.cfg. The instructions are in the docs for the plane, and I rather like having the 'possibility' of a cooked motor but everyone here is running with an 'angle', might as well get yours. Also watch your approach speed, below 90 kts gets rough and you're begging to stall, luckily it recovers quickly.

Good luck to you,

**teson1** · October 25th, 2009, 15:47

Wohoo, what a great flight through the alps.
Ecrins massif with Meige, Monte Viso...
Just over the mediterranean, cutting from Albenga to the Piombino. Corsica's off to the right. :d

I'm doing my thing, out of competition. No way I'll have a good placement. But this is fun...
Love the failure gauges...Spent the whole flight with fearful glances at the temp. After the two failures on the last flights, tried to keep them below 40 °C... LOL

Dang, just crossed Capraia island - drifted off course as I forgot to reset the gyro... Lckily there's no cloud.

**teson1** · October 25th, 2009, 15:55

Originally Posted by Dangerousdave26

Not for those with out the touch for Landing her either.

:d I've done some nice bounces! But luckily the runways are long so it's possible to ease her in.

**teson1** · October 25th, 2009, 16:45

Down safe in LIRA.

Great flight!
Off to the photographer to develop the Kodachromes.

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...FAIcgRknwgb3zU

**teson1** · October 27th, 2009, 14:17

Going from Roma Ciampino LIRA to Brindisi LIBR.

**teson1** · October 27th, 2009, 16:22

Dottore!:isadizzy:
Arrived in Brindisi LIBR alright ... but may stay a little longer. Need someone to look after me, and I don't even want to think about the plane.

Crashed on landing.

The flight through the southern part of Italy was nice, calm and quiet though.

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...pVEV7BATyhzidU

**bpfowler** · October 27th, 2009, 16:33

man that's a BIG looking engine. does this plane need the wings? :-)
thanks for bringing her into the race!

**teson1** · October 27th, 2009, 16:45

Originally Posted by bpfowler

...does this plane need the wings?

Hope she doesn't... the way she looks just now. :d

**bpfowler** · October 27th, 2009, 21:56

sorry Teson, I was so impressed with your snaps I didnt read your post closely :-\
my bad, dude.

Hope you and the plane are feeling better?

**teson1** · October 31st, 2009, 13:29

After some serious quality time with my toolbox she's almost as good as new.
On we go...
Brindisi LIBR - Athens LGAT

**teson1** · October 31st, 2009, 15:18

Down in Athens LGAT.
In one piece this time. Damaged the engine of course; but I'm getting used to throw in a new one ... Have arranged for a spare engine at each airport. That'll take 10 minutes to change, and I'm off again. :d

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...pdMGut9K13bGhY

On to Cyprus LCRA.

1. Leaving Italy.
2. Reaching the bay of Corinth
3. Approaching Athens
4. LGAT

**teson1** · October 31st, 2009, 19:02

Down in Akrotiri Air Base LCRA, Cyprus.

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...wksRySlhsGNEoE

**teson1** · November 3rd, 2009, 16:32

Did two flights while SOH was down.

Akrotiri LCRA - Beirut OLBA

No problems this one.
Some haze/low clouds on the flight, drifted 5 nm off course, but landed in Beirut without problem.

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowF...E67AzgIcExD1IM

**salt_air** · November 3rd, 2009, 17:42

Go teson1!

Looking good Gunter....

**teson1** · November 4th, 2009, 07:14

Beirut OLBA - Baghdad ORBS

Wow, that was an entirely different story than the last leg. :isadizzy:

Now, I have to say that I have (had?) this plan to get to Melbourne by map, compass and watch only. And this worked out pretty smooth... till now.

LOL. I may have to revise my plan. :d

I was aware that the leg Beirut - Baghdad would not be easy, with nothing but desert and little reliable landmarks, but I made a complete cock-up out of it!

Got interesting right after take-off. The low clouds that were just a nuisance on the landing of last leg, were quite a different challenge getting over the lebanon mountains. Man, these go up and up... Visibility was barely good enough to avoid a spectacular end to the flight, but lost track of where I was, wiggling through valleys and ridges. Looks like a nice region though.
By chance crossed Rayak airport OLRA on the east side, which gave a fix to get back on track. There the clouds also parted.

I had planned to follow roads through the desert to Baghdad, which looked quite feasible and pretty evident on the map. However, on the terrain there were many more roads, crisscrossing, looking alike, so it was kind of tough to follow.
What are people _doing_ here? Bleak, featureless, flat plains, furthermore with snowpatches lying. Anybody read Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab about an SAS patrol gone awry? These people were going down with hypothermia right down there. I swear I could feel the icy wind howling across the plains.

Took a wrong turn at some point, but luckily that lead to OS0L, so another position fix to get back onto the right road and track.
However, position became so doubtful some time later again that I decided to switch to

Plan B: head NE till hitting the Euphrates river. Then just follow it south till Falujah, and on to Baghdad.

Now, how much easier can it get?! That Euphrates is a big river, no? Would have to be a fool to miss it, no?

Ok, so here as I'm cruising along, shortly before estimated arrival at the Euphrates, dense fog comes up, visibility down to maybe 2-3 nm, but no problem. Just have to hug the ground to keep the shiny side up.
Alright, after 53 min, as planned, there's BIG water visible on the left, pat on the back. Cross a tributary, and on to the river... But no river there?? Go on and on... Mummy! Where am I? Did I get too far south? Where's the river? Is the river correctly represented in FS? Did I pass, is it still ahead? Only fog around. Mummy!!

Fearful glances at the fuel level, luckily I've throttled back and leaned mixture during the flight and have plenty to spare. Still 1/4 full.

Some time later I hit a big streak of water - is that the big (salt) lake N of Baghdad, well beyond the Euphrates? Follow the shore south, still in the fog. Phew, the shore has the right shape. Finally know where I am. From there it's easy to get to Falujah on the Euphrates by DR, where the fog lifts, and on to ORBS.

Get off the plane and kiss the ground.

Btw - of course the "tributary" I crossed actually was the Euphrates... I just hit it at the Haditha dam, so the lake behind looked as big as I expected the Euphrates to be, not small like this tributary... Next time have a better look at the map...

http://www.fsrtwrace.com/track/ShowFlight.php?detail=flight&value=MetzEMptaoTO3oG AJiz7Dr1P4

**teson1** · November 4th, 2009, 10:54

Some pics.
1. Into the Lebanon mountains
2. Backside
3. That's the road to follow ... I think ...
4. Euphrates on the left with "tributary"
5. Where am I???

(Why does visibility always look so much better on the pics, later, than at 200 kts???

)