Flight 19 European Vacation

[srgalahad]

Did a test run down to the BFI.
Departed with 22,000# of fuel for the Rolls Royce Conways, 9500# of screaming, whining cargo and had no problem getting out of CYZT in the VC-10

Decided that "high and straight" was no fun in such gorgeous country so I detoured down the Inside Passage, over Comox and Nanaimo and then slipped by Whidbey Island NAS into Boeing Field. Altitude was 3000 ft with the odd pop to 4000 but the latter was unnecessary if you have visibility ( there were patches of fog, but mostly good viz.)

Fuel used -- about 15000# at a nice, scenic 280KIAS (00:51 total time)

FSN and FS2004 flightplans (with intermediate waypoints) attached in a zip file

Attachment 50806 Attachment 50807
Attachment 50808 Attachment 50809

[Moses03]

Who can resist the charms of the wooden wonder? Will be switching to the AH MKIV (default GBG paint), if you have that package.


Suitable AI here. Not an exact match but pretty close.

http://www.mediafire.com/?y53dgwhbkwh2yyy

[Willy]

Well in the area at least....

[Willy]

Great wrapup of the steam jet flights with a low and "slow" flight from Port Hardy to Boeing Field in Seattle. The F9F sure burns through a lot of fuel down low.

Don't have a clue which direction we'll be going from here, but it should be interesting...

[Taco]

:salute:Low and slow! for the last leg of this junket using the jet tubes. Now, the hard part trying to figure out what prop fighter to fly, Ah.....so many great planes to choose from!

[MM]

Beautiful late afternoon finale to the Steamjet Excursion. First a bit of low level valley twisting on Vancouver Island and then up over the Inland Passage into Seattle. Great fun.

[MM]

Grumman F7F. Focke Wulf 190D9. Gadzooks. So much for "low and slow."

Visited the local Stop & Swap and tested a Spitfire Mk XIX. This is PS888, last flown out of Hong Kong's Kai Tak on photo reconnaissance duties.

This aircraft is the Real Air Simulations Spitfire Mk XIV, painted to match the Mk XIX by Grant MacLean (and modified by Ephram Matheson, 11-5-08). The title is "Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIX PS888"--a replacement for the Ephram Matheson title.

For RAS owners, the MacLean-Matheson repaint is available at AVSIM here:
http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...or=&CatID=root

As an AI, we'll use A.F. Scrub's version of the same aircraft. It is available at FlightSim.com as file "spitmkxix.zip". If you prefer, a less demanding DXT3 "AI" version is available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?53741sg2i6tsf99

[Moses03]

We headed east to Idaho for a tater 'n onion special at the McCall Diner.

[Willy]

We headed in a easterly direction to McCall Idaho (KMYL). Nice flight that we just cruised along in no particular hurry. I found it interesting that I had scenery installed for there that I didn't know about.

Anyway, great flight!

[MM]

Lots of very interesting aircraft on the flightline today. Moses Mossie, Willy Tigercat, Taco Dora, SrG Whirlwind, MM Spit, MD Hellcat, and Peacemaker Hornet. Low flying out of Seattle over dry and rugged eastern Washington into Idaho.

[MaddogK]

Wow, nice pics there Mike. As I didn't get the memo's until today all I saw was Hellcats.

[Willy]

We headed north over the border to Cranbrook Canada, via the Columbia river valley and Nelson. Great flight and great fun.

Pics are in reverse order..

[srgalahad]

Just one shot before we got into the low-level twisty bits...
Passing over Sandpoint, ID

Attachment 51007

Proposed next few hops, bouncing back adn forth across the border eastbound..

[Willy]

More twisty bits through the mountains to Missoula Montana. Along with hopping a ridge or two.

The pics got a bit scrambled up.

[MM]

A few more shots of our startling Montana cattle on the way into Missoula.

[Moses03]

Tremendous flight into Yellowstone. Big sky indeed.

[Willy]

We left Missoula and flew low level to Jellystone. No visual on Yogi or Mr Ranger, but there were reports of moose and squirrel. (not counting the pissed off squirrel I picked out of an oil cooler)

[Taco]

Hi all,

A two day hiatus waiting for the crew to get up to where we landed the damaged FW, but again Old Dudley came thru. Not only bringing the repair crew from our hidden base, which shall remain nameless, bringing them all the way up to the airport where I managed to maneuver the 190D in for an emergency landing, but he also brought up another aircraft a Mosquito! A side not, You know Dudley wouldn't hardly talk to me as we checked out the 190 all he would do was grumble towards me. I guess he just might be a little upset that I screwed up the FW. Oh, by the way, he did say something to me as we started to borad the Mosquito: "Hey buddy, you screw this bird up you are dead!" Sure nice to be back on his good side, I think!


The following pictures are of Dudley and myself flying over to Yellowstone (KCOD) to catch up with Flight 19. The close up of the front of the Mosquito, you will note, that it looks like Dudley is still giving heck about the FW. Your right, he is giving heck, first he wouldn't talk to me, now he won't shut up! hehe-

On the poopie list! Taco

[Willy]

Decided to make it an all RAF show and switched to a Spitfire XIX. Anyway, we left Yellowstone and flew north to Frontier in Canada (CJM5). Nice low level flight and I buzzed the Lewiston MT airport on the way.

Pics are in reverse order...

[srgalahad]

Borin' Border Borin'

[Willy]

Nice flight along the border from Frontier Canada to Minot North Dakota. Admittedly though there wasn't much to see.

Pics are in reverse order

[Moses03]

Need to check with the travel agent, Red Lake does not have a 5 star hotel. Hrumpf!

[Willy]

We headed back north of the border to Red Lake. There's rumors of gold mines in the area... I'm trying to figure out how many free samples the Spitfire can fly away with...

[Willy]

We headed back south of the border to Rhineland, Wisconsin. Bad turbulence over Lake Superior spun me around 180* a couple of times and I had to shut otto off and hand fly it the rest of the way in.

We decided that as the next stop is Willow Run, to switch to B-24s (PB4Y-2 for me).

[Taco]

Hey, a very nice flight from CYRL to KPHI. Sure seen a lot of lakes along the way, and even the big one Lake Superior. Sadly, no bikini clad female types along the beaches. Darn travel agent fibed to me again. Anyway, only got one picture of the group before departure (got lazy). Aircraft update: we will be flying the WOP B-24D, Hail Columbia (texture) for the flight into Willow Run.