salt_air - Golden Age - Lockheed Vega 5B

[salt_air]

Singin' a tune,,,,safe in Rangoon.....

Climbed out to 8000' and the gloom of no vis all the way across to the coast of Burma, then a little clearing, then as I picked up the last NDB it got clear as a bell.

Where to next?

[salt_air]

Leaving the locals arguing at the airfiled bar, I've had the beer that Bry left for me and "one or two" more, thinkin' that I'll be gettin' outta town for the night.

Let's see what Microsoft has done to Malaysia......:mixedsmi:

Lockheed Vega VYYY-WMKA ....Rangoon, Burma to Alor Setar, Malaysia

Get my "Island Hop" on.

[salt_air]

Down safe at WMKA,,,,wild ride,,,, weather seems to be changing, must be a storm brewin'.

Thunder and occasional lightning even though it was sunny and partly cloudy,,,,,lots-o-turbulence right down to the ground. Had to come in a little hot wound up with a slight overrun to get stopped, but a happy duenna is all that matters.

Think I'll take a break for a while.

[salt_air]

Bad weather on the horizon,,,,heading to Singapore.

Lockheed Vega WMKA-WSSL.......:mixedsmi:

[salt_air]

Down safe at WSSL,,,,checkpoint #3

Clouds and thunder until I got to 8000' then partly cloudy slight wind (tail) and occasional turblence,,,,,nice ride altogether.

Gonna check in with the offcials, grab a snack and hopefully get back in the air.

[salt_air]

Had to get some chores done yesterday,,,,monkey off the back now,,,,let's see what's this?

"Free food and drinks for any MacRobertson Race pilots and crews at the Rambang Diner",,,,Am I reading this right?

"Load up the plane Tinkerbell (Navigator), we're off to Lombok for lunch."

Lockheed Vega WSSL-WRRA............

"Bring along to charts for Port Darwin as well".....

[salt_air]

Down safe at Selaparang after a scenic romp through the islands of Indonesia.

Now for lunch.....

Real cute MOUNTAIN not on the map right in my flight path,,,,good thing I'm always off course.....

Flying at 8000' I had to look up at it as I passed by. Could have been bad news at night or real cloudy.

[salt_air]

Gonna try to make the Northern Territory before dark.

Rambang, Lombok to Darwin, Australia....

Lockheed Vega (WRRA-YPDN).

Had to restart flight during takeoff because the simulator time wasn't set correctly.

[Willy]

You probably won't have to worry about mountains on the way to Darwin .

Good Luck!

[salt_air]

You probably won't have to worry about mountains on the way to Darwin .

Good Luck!

Probably right there,,,,,still keep checkin' though.

[salt_air]

Down safe at YPDN,,,,,lots a water.

Had to fly at 4000' to get the wind behind me. Partly cloudy all the way.

Only strayed off course about ten degrees, not too bad for 900+ NM

Long day, glad to be in Australia....gonna go find a room.

[salt_air]

Pack a lunch we're headed to Charleville...

Lockheed Vega YPDN-YBCV

Lots of sand, hope the winds are favorable.

[salt_air]

Welp,,,,after some runway aerobatics I don't want to ever do again with the duenna running,,,,,I'm here safe and "green" at Charleville...

Absolutely miserable 1200+ NM flight across the Northern Territory and most of Queensland.

Was clear on approach thankfully enough, but poor to no visiblity for 90% of the rest of the flight and constantly chasing winds for the sweet spot.

Hard to find favorable winds and when you did they would not last more than 20 mins or so and then right back in the hunt again.

Altitudes ranged from 11500' down to 2000'. That's too low for any kind of comfort regardless of the terrain being relatively flat when the vis is next to nothing.

What a battle........

[salt_air]

Ready to go to Melbourne out of Charleville.....

Lockheed Vega YBCV-YMEN


[NOTE]: Precision Challenge Time Estimate......

Charleville to Melbourne is: 4 hrs 7 minutes.

[salt_air]

Down safe at YMEN......:ernae:....... or should I say AMEN!

Finally tailwinds and clear skies.......untill around twenty miles out then 0 vis right down to the ground.

Used up all of the runway and then some, still on airport property and couldn't even see any buildings.

Now I'll go check on Red, help him out a little and take a turn at Milton's new creation with team Melrose.

Very appreciative to be part of really well done and thought out event. Thanks to all of the Committee members and all of you that helped with testing and all that participated.

Cheers,

[Vicious]

Congrats Salt! It looks like you had an exciting end to your race.

[MM]

Superb job of flying the ole Vega, Austin. Both a pleasure to see the great bird in the air and behaving so nicely. But also a real contender in the handicap race.

Cheers...

[Willy]

:ernae: Austin!

[Great Ozzie]

Hey hey! Congratulations Salt! Nicely Done! :ernae:

[EdGeneer]

Good Job, there Austin.... and great job on the estimate for the precision deal... whos gunna beat that time estimate!!!! Wow...

Nice...
:ernae:

[teson1]

Congratulations. Great job there .

[RedGreen]

Well done, Austin! A fine journey in a fine airplane. It was a pleasure to follow along.

Now, hope you're ready to get some more miles in with the 247D.

[Moses03]

Congrats Austin on getting the Vega home. Well done! :ernae:

[n3306tx]

Great job Austin.

Mike

[bpfowler]

way to go, Austin! it was really nice to see the vega shots, and what a good race you ran!

root beers for all!
brady