Spookster67 - Golden Age - Mew Gull E2H, G-AEXF

**Spookster67** · October 24th, 2009, 23:51

The Percival Mew Gull, G-AEXF, is ready to go. Panel all working, flight testing complete, time to leave Mildenhall.

**Spookster67** · October 24th, 2009, 23:52

Flight 1, leaving EGUN for LRBS (Bucharest).

**Spookster67** · October 25th, 2009, 05:22

Down safely at LRBS.

Quite cloudy over Germany, but some good tailwinds as well. Cleared over Czech, and had a nice view of the mountains crossing into Romania. Navigation worked nicely, although at one stage I was confused by there being two NDBs quite close together with the same frquency - ARD on 517.0, and another one quite close but in the wrong direction!

SWSucceed · October 25th, 2009, 07:21

Originally Posted by Spookster67

Down safely at LRBS.

Quite cloudy over Germany, but some good tailwinds as well. Cleared over Czech, and had a nice view of the mountains crossing into Romania. Navigation worked nicely, although at one stage I was confused by there being two NDBs quite close together with the same frquency - ARD on 517.0, and another one quite close but in the wrong direction!

Cool start Martin ... hope success stays with you

**Spookster67** · October 27th, 2009, 10:57

Flight 2, LRBS to ORBI (ORBS). Rain and localized thunder at Bucharest for an early morning start, fingers crossed. Estimating 5:05 to Baghdad.

**Spookster67** · October 27th, 2009, 12:43

Real life interuption - wife needed me to cook dinner, and her to check emails on the PC. Controlled flight into terrain!

Will have to re-fly tomorrow morning.

MM · October 25th, 2009, 07:19

Good to see a fellow Mew doing so well!

**Spookster67** · October 30th, 2009, 07:32

Flight 5. Continuing along the coast to Karachi, OPKC. Maybe 2 hours 25 ish.

**Spookster67** · October 30th, 2009, 10:06

And down at Karachi (OPKC). Had to try lots of different flight levels to avoid some fairly gentle headwinds. With the Karchi NDB popping up at 122nm out, navigation on this one was relatively easy. Just a little misty on arrival, otherwise weather quite nice.

Flight time 2:25:06 (oooh, just 6 seconds out...

Cumulative 17:05:10

**Spookster67** · November 3rd, 2009, 11:00

All set for the next hop, to Allahabad. OPKC to VIAL.

**Vicious** · November 3rd, 2009, 11:27

I was watching your flight on the race tracker. It looks like you're having to work pretty hard to find favorable winds. Keep up the good work!

**Spookster67** · November 3rd, 2009, 14:55

Originally Posted by Vicious

I was watching your flight on the race tracker. It looks like you're having to work pretty hard to find favorable winds. Keep up the good work!

Yes, I had thought that it would be a case of finding the right altitude, and then going with the flow, but in fact within 5 minutes of finding a tail wind I lost it and had to go searching again. In the end I think I ended up with slightly more headwind than tailwind.:isadizzy:

**Spookster67** · November 5th, 2009, 13:40

Safely down at Rangoon, VYYY. A nice flight, good weather the whole way, with a mixture of head and tail winds. I missed a couple of NDBs (too far off my track to receive them I guess), but my speed and heading calcs had me in about the right place most of the time. :mixedsmi:

Flight time: 4:33:02
Cumulative: 25:26:29

SWSucceed · November 6th, 2009, 01:18

Way to go Martin!! 3rd place thus far and the first outing in that airplane!! Is that a little bead of sweat on Mr Vicious's brow??

Well maybe not but the pressures on you now, may your wings be light!

**Spookster67** · November 6th, 2009, 02:26

Thanks Stuart. Vicious has set some very challenging times, no doubt. But I am hoping to be 40 minutes up on handicap at Singapore, and 60 up at Darwin, if I get good winds, good weather, I find the airports and avoid any crashes.

Still a long way to go to Melbourne, in fact I'm only just half way. Lots can happen...

**Vicious** · November 6th, 2009, 06:35

Yep, I watching Spookster very closely. If he can catch the right winds I think he has a good shot.

**Spookster67** · November 8th, 2009, 04:31

OK, time to head to Singapore. I'll be looking to find some tailwinds, and duck under any headwinds. A coastal route will help me keep low if I need to.

VYYY to WSSL, in a little under 5 hours.

**Spookster67** · November 8th, 2009, 09:35

Down at Singapore (WSSL). I never found the tail winds I hoped for, but at least I managed to avoid the headwinds, so the flight time was about what I aimed for. Plenty of NDBs, and a coastline, so no problems with navigation. Ran into a few thunderstorms off the east coast of Malaysia, but flew under them no problem.

Just 3 gallons of fuel left on arrival - my estimates are getting better, albeit more risky!

This little Mew Gull is purring long nicely. :mixedsmi:

Flight time: 4:55:39
Cumulative: 30:22:08

**Spookster67** · November 11th, 2009, 14:58

Down at WATT(WRKK). Sure enough, the tailwinds were good. Another fast flight, with plenty of turbulence to keep me watching. Not much to see, just lots of water, and occasional islands. One more hop to go to Oz. :mixedsmi:

Flight time 2:07:12
Cumulative 36:51:52

**Vicious** · November 11th, 2009, 16:47

If you keep catching those tail winds you're going to blow me away in the handicap. Excellent run so far!

Good Luck

**Spookster67** · November 11th, 2009, 23:53

Thanks, let's see what happens, and how we compare at Port Darwin.

Next hop coming up, WATT to YPDN. About 2:10 is the estimate.

**Spookster67** · November 12th, 2009, 02:21

Well I had a feeling my luck might change, and it did. The first half of the flight was great, lots more tailwind, and not too much turbulence. Then the winds swung round, but I dropped down to stay underneath the headwinds. The Darwin NDB popped up straight ahead with 75nm to run, but at about the same time the clear skies started to change to cloud. As I got closer to Darwin it was clear I was going to arrive during a storm.

I spent the next 10 minutes getting thrown around in thundery and blustery conditions, but pushed on. Lightning was flashing all around me. Visibility was now 3nm in rain, so I could just see the main runway 11/29 ok, but the winds were now out of the north, and although they were getting less as I descended, I think I still had a 16 knot crosswind on finals.

Of course I should have gone around and set up for the much shorter runway 36, where I would have had much less of a crosswind. Hmmm...

Anyway I tried to put the Mew Gull down on runway 11. One bounce, no problem, airspeed a little high but reducing, but the second contact with the tarmac was a little hard and I broke the undercarriage. Crash, Red Duenna.

So, it's a crash landing, 1 hour penalty, and my challenge for the handicap race may have been scuppered by the Ozzie weather.

Flight time: 2:04:40
Penalties: 1:00:00
Cumulative: 39:56:32

**teson1** · November 12th, 2009, 03:07

Never mind, Martin.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I guess it's all or nothing.
Cautious people come second place.

Looks like some nice cosy weather down there. :d

**Vicious** · November 12th, 2009, 06:31

What a bummer! I thought for sure you were going to take the top spot, although I'm not sure you're out of it yet. If you wait for ideal wind conditions you might be able to catch me over the last few legs, or at least get within 5 minutes, which would be a huge achievment with a 1 hour penalty.

Good Luck!