Team United - Golden Age - Boeing 247D

[RedGreen]

My current leg count stands at four, while Charles has two, and Austin only has one. I'm going to hold off flying legs until the tally is a little more balanced.

Best of luck, gentlemen! :ernae:

By the way, don't forget the significant contribution that my Duct Tape made to the 247D's repairs.

[DHC120]

Or, we can look at "Miles Flown".. (as shown by the Duenna)..
Red-Green-- 1223.8nm. Four Legs Flown.
DHC120----- 2840.2nm. Three Legs Flown. (One crash:isadizzy
Salt-Air----- 472.1nm. One Leg Flown. (not counting the Vega).

At any rate, Team United has flown 4536.1nm. Salt said the race was about 10,000nm.. so we are almost at half-way.

[DHC120]

This is the second required checkpoint. Singapore is next, we can either take a long hump to say Alor Setar (WMKA) and then to Singapore (WSSL), or take a short flight now, say out to the coast to Kolkata (VECC) or chop it up more half and half like down to Rangoon (VYYY) or Bangkok (VTDB).

The straighter the better at this point. Avoid Calcutta, it's to far off line. Most of the long flights at this point will be over water no need to shy away.

I'll check back tomorrow after you guys have a chance to fly some.

Good Luck!

Salt;
I opt for less legs that are longer.. just not as long as I attempted on my ill-fated OTBS-VIAG/divert to VIJO flight (1954nm).
What about VIAL-VYYY/Rangoon (962nm) then a VYYY-WSSL/Singapore leg (1132nm). That will put a stop at an Intermediate (two star) airport while hitting a "Compulsory Checkpoint Control Stop" in two legs. And, by my Rand/McNally world map, it's "almost" a straight line towards Darwin. Thoughts?
I won't be able to fly, again, 'til near mid-week.
Salt, you want to take the VIAL-VYYY leg? And I'll take the longer VYYY-WSSL leg and, with luck, maybe I can bust another "speed run" and get my "penalty hour" back ..

[salt_air]

A shorty over to Kolkata to set up a nice long ride into checkpoint Charlie.

salt_air Team United 247D VIAL-VECC

I'll run this in all daylight since no one else is flying today....

[salt_air]

Safe and green at VECC

Nice tailwind component for the majority of the trip made for GS's at 185 kts. maximum....sweet!

Then of course for the last half hour of the flight, the good ol' Jepp weather takes over the show, reverses the wind component and eliminates any visibilty until descending below 2000'....Yeah!

I decided on 19L, longer of the two and it had NDB's at each end of the final approach path. Came in very handy as the vis stayed poor (less than a mile) all the way to the ground.

Dual ADF's once again saved the day, one to keep a base heading with and one to tell me when to turn to final. Exciting because I hadn't flown into VECC ahead of time and had to also watch for buildings and trees. Whew!

This will qualify as the team's required intermediate stop between checkpoints 2 and 3 and allow a flight straight to into Singapore....

Which way to the fuel stand?...

[salt_air]

salt_air 247D VECC-WSSL.......

[salt_air]

Team United has a green duenna at WSSL,,,,checkpoint 3 complete!

A demanding excursion across The Bay of Bengal and the Southern tip of Thailand into Malaysia.

No where near as much free time as I thought I would have. Never really found a sweet spot for winds. Tried as low as 1500' AGL nearly on the deck, but when the threat of clouds came up as well as known terrain issues I decided to climb back up and settled on 11500'. After a long day of switching between chasing of winds between 3500' and 7500' and manging to add up over 16 seconds of Overspeed, I took the lesser of two evils and opted to fly over any terrain with a slight tailwind instead of getting greedy and using up all the free time in overspeed or misjudging distances around terrain with poor vis.

At 11500' the 247D doesn't breathe very well and that kept manifold pressure down (bad news) as well as fuel comsumption (good news). I could have gotten by with a lot less fuel. Still had almost a ton when I landed.

Done for today, I'll check the weather when I get up in the morning.

Whew!,,,long day!

[salt_air]

Let's set a course for Kupang on Timor enroute to Port Darwin.

"The Land Down Under" should be insight from there...

salt_air Team United 247D WSSL-WRKK

[MM]

Some great legs by Team United!

[salt_air]

Green duenna at Kupang (WRKK)., Team United is in Timor and in one piece!

Another long leg and that much closer to Australia. Wind games all the way. Took the high road again as there was too much at stake constantly chasing light winds in of and on poor vis and some of these islands down through here have some atrocious mountains right in your path,,,,you know like the clear day that has one cloud right at the end of the runway...

I'm done for a while. Headed over to run in DC3 Airways World Rally 2009.

http://dc3airways.com/special_events...09/welcome.htm

Worth giving a look, open to all and very well laid out. It's more of a rally in the true sense than a race of any kind. Lots-o-fun!

Red, Charles, if you blokes are still messin' when I'm done over there, then I'll jump back in and fly some mo'.

Happy Trails!....

[EdGeneer]

You're putting some miles down, there, Austin!!!

[DHC120]

Ready to depart WRKK Kupang, Timor for YPDN Port Darwin
Racing for Team United in the Boeing 247D,
With E6B and Instructions in hand!
Charles (DHC120)

[DHC120]

Landed safely at YPDN Port Darwin.
Departed WRKK at 0554 Local Time. Conditions: Clear. Wind 189@2.
Gently climbed out of the bowl that surrounds the airport until I reached 2500'ASL and got out over the ocean. Slowly climbed to 8000'ASL, encountered 20Kt headwinds beginning about 3500'. After reaching 8000', I decided to drop back down to 3500' and smooth air. Was running 150 to 153Kts Indicated (171-181Kts GS).
An hour into the flight, Hdg 103 degrees , 155Kts IAS (183GS) at 3300' and a nice 20Kt tailwind.
At 0702 Local, I noticed heavy cloud-to-cloud lightening, turned Hdg 060 for about a minute to go around the thunderstorm. Back on heading 103, encountered whipping winds. Dropped to 3300' to get under the clouds. Winds started slapping me around and threw plane into Overspeed. IAS was 143Kts (136Kts GS).
0725 I was at 2960'ASL with thick clouds above and thick clouds below.. Both were "Strato-Rumbulus" ;-}
0735 I encountered turbulence and wind shear.. VSI was going +/- 500FPM.
Climbed to 6500'ASL and found smoother air.. it just wasn't real smooth. Speed down to 136IAS/134GS at full throttle..
At 7000'ASL the turbulence was gone. Winds 099@21. Speed 145IAS/143GS.
Ran into near zero visibility 7000'-7300', decided to drop back down to 3500'. Found open skies. Hdg 105, winds 095@20. Speed 154Kts IAS/GS.
0819 Picked-up NDB "DN" Darwin. (approx 75nm out).
Continued decent to 3500'.
0822 Accquired NDB "BGT" (approx 22nm out). My track was "dead-on".
0840 Sighted Airport.
0847. Wheels Stop.
445.1nm in 2hrs 55min 48sec and a Green Duenna!!
Charles (DHC120)

[Bry Rosier]

SOUND LIKE A nice flight Charles. Congratulation Guys on reaching Australia :ernae:

[salt_air]

SOUND LIKE A nice flight Charles. Congratulation Guys on reaching Australia :ernae:

Thanks Bry,,,,good of ya to stop by and give us a wave!

Best of luck with the SR22!! Keepin' an eye peeled on ya

Beer's on us when you get to Melbourne...

[salt_air]

Landed safely at YPDN Port Darwin.
445.1nm in 2hrs 55min 48sec and a Green Duenna!!
Charles (DHC120)

Nice One here mate,,,,way to go!

Felt good dinnit?....

Cheers,

[DHC120]

SOUND LIKE A nice flight Charles. Congratulation Guys on reaching Australia :ernae:

Bry;
Thank You for the kind words.. Flight wasn't so nice, but the landing was a perfect "three pointer".. No doubt the best landing I've ever made.. no smoke came off the wheels. At first, I wasn't sure I had it on the runway ;-} Good to be "Down Under", finally..

[DHC120]

Nice One here mate,,,,way to go!

Felt good dinnit?....

Cheers,

Salt;
Yup! I didn't smack into a light pole :isadizzy:..
Going to try to get in another flight in the morning.. see how it goes.

[RedGreen]

Great job Austin and Charles! It's clear I made the right choice when I put together this team effort!

[salt_air]

We have 2 more checkpoints with 1 as the finish in Melbourne (YMEN).

Attaching txt file with Stats to Date for Team United. Most of it may help with a guess at flight time for the precision leg into YMEN. Some of it is just for curiosity. No fancy Excel Spreadsheets, just open with notebook and maximize or it won't read right.

Individual stats are only for the purpose of that pilot to figure his avg time for an "educated" guess as to what the time from Charleville (YBCV) to Melbourne (YMEN) might be.

Wind has been the biggest factor of the race for everyone, so be governed accordingly. That with the susceptibility for the 247D to overspeed make it prudent to NOT figure on being able to speed up the flight if it looks like you're running behind. Add some "cushion" to your figures that don't exceed the 5% tolerance allowed by the rules. Preset a couple (at least) of time checks along the way to monitor your progress. This is a precision leg and accuracy is more important than speed this late in the race.

There are no bad terrain issues except for certain runways at YMEN being hampered by buildings. Red will remember going in during the last RTW I'm sure. I would shoot a couple of approaches and even take a screenie or two to have hanging up in the cockpit just in case the vis goes to zero when you arrive. The runways aren't all that long, but long enough for a close to stall speed final and holding out for a last flare until after you can see the numbers at the end of the runway. You'll need to use the best one for winds, but also make the choice as per time left on the clock if you can.

There have been no flights flown, so far, the length of the flight straight from Charleville (YBCV) to Melbourne (YMEN). We need to divide or multiply the stats from shorter or longer flights. Not very accurate. May be best to bust up the flight to Charleville (YBCV) out of Darwin (YPDN) even though it's longer overall, just to get some better stats for this. We can also bust up the flight from Charleville (YBCV) to Melbourne (YMEN) and make use of some existing stats, whatever.

Not gonna win any Speed Races and the penalty will keep us out of the Handicap Race, no worries,,,but we can absolutely "nail" the Precision Leg.

Bust up the YPDN-YBCV leg for matters of record or bust up the leg from YBCV to YMEN to use what figures we have already OR,,,take the figures at hand a go with a "gut" guess that isn't too ambitious.

Wow that sure was alot of writing, I may need to think about decafe..

We could be done in 2 legs or as many as 4.

What do you guys think?

[DHC120]

Salt & Red;
My plan is to fly the YPDN-YTNK leg today (in a few minutes) and possibly try to squeeze in the YTNK-YBCV on Friday.
This would leave "open" a "single run" from Charlieville to Melborne (YBCV-YMEN) for our "Best" pilot (in other words, not me)..
Personally, I feel it would be better (time wise) to fly the YBCV-YMEN as a single leg.. You lose time & speed taking off and landing.
Or, am I misunderstanding and ALL pilots are required to fly the Precision Leg??

[srgalahad]

*I* think you've got the idea... now to make it work

Remember that the Precision Event gets some pretty close scutiny from the Committee and the punters hanging around the bar in the Windsor. (someone was muttering about the need for post-competition drug tests ).

Fly well guys!

Edit: No Charles, a pliot/team only gets one try at the YBCV-YMEN leg so all the glory/blame falls on one pair of shoulders... anyone else is just a "passenger".

[DHC120]

Ready to depart Port Darwin (YPDN) for Tennant Creek (YTNK)
Racing for Team United in the Boeing 247D,

[DHC120]

YPDN-YTNK Is In The Books!!
Departed Port Darwin 0741hrs Local. WX called for Light Clouds, wind 000/00 and 10mi Vis. I turned to heading 152 degrees and began a slow (300FPM) climb to 8500'.
That lasted a whole four minutes when at 0753 I got into a low ceiling and heavy clouds. I leveled off at 2600'AMSL to stay under the clouds.
I adjusted my heading to 149 degrees to compensate for the 11Kt winds at 085.
I fought near zero viz and quartering headwinds the entire distance of the flight.
I did "hunt around" for better "air", climbing as high as 9100' and "mowing grass" on the deck (well, as low as I dared in the thick clouds)..
About two hours into the flight, at around 5890', the wind abruptly changed from a 22Kt full-on headwind to an "up-the-tailpipes" tailwind.. I firewalled the throttles and enjoyed the 142Kts IAS and 179Kt Ground Speed . I was still flying in the "soup", tho..
As all good things come to an end, so did my tailwind after only fourteen minutes. This is when I climbed to 9000' to "look for it" again.
I played with the E6B and it believed the airport should be close (I was 2hrs40min into a 472nm flight).. I had not heard an NDB since I "lost" Port Darwin's (DN), so I began a slow decent, taking great pains NOT to hit Overspead.. So much for plans.. My speed was 156Kts IAS/163GS, running into a 20Kt headwind then "BLAM".. Overspeed warning lights up.. I pull the throttles, kill the Sperry and pull up on the yoke. Got 39sec of Overspeed!!
I got the bird smoothed out and running a nice and I'll be dipped if the Overspeed Warning didn't light-up again!! This time I KNOW wasn't exceeding 160Kts IAS.. My "speedometer" was showing 153Kts IAS/148GS
Go figure)..
At 1023hrs I acquired the NDB "TNK" (about 75nm out from Tennant Creek), the ADF Needle swung to "Straight Ahead"..
Tennant Creek is not a "straight-in approach", so I knew I'd have to deviate from the 152 degree heading to fly west of the airport then "turn in" to pick-up Rwy 7 (070 degrees). Between a couple of sheets of paper, pen and the E6B, I "figured" when I would need to turn to Hdg 180 (about 40nm out), then watched the ADF Needle come abeam 90 degrees to my left. I then turned to Hdg 070.. I wasn't "dead nuts" on.. but I wasn't off so far that I couldn't find the airport.. In fact, for a near zero visibility flight (I say 2000' max!), I did okay.. I landed long.. and I mean looooong.. I ran out of runway! I was really worried that MSFS would have a ditch or something to tear-off my landing gear.. but it didn't! But I got a Green Duenna!!

[RedGreen]

I'm going to have to work this weekend, so if you boys want to finish this thing up, go right ahead. Best of luck!