PRB's Fortress Pacifica
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    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    PRB's Fortress Pacifica

    About to start the return trip. I was inspired by, but not quite as brave as, Moses03. So, I'm brining back a Flying Fortress. Got a good deal on a slightly used F model. Had it painted by some local outfit over in Davao, Earl Jose-Delarosa Shives, for 200 pesos. I should have known better... It came back with many problems. So we went to the nearby Philippine Army base and borrowed some green OD paint. The paint's not quite dry, and there is still much to do, but time's a wasting. At least it doesn't have any dirt on it yet...
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    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    Thanks Robert!

    Heading out. RP17 - WAMH, FSRealWX.
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    Dang, that was a white knuckle landing. The weather was lousy, the runway was short, and the trees were tall. Had to come in over the tree tops at ten knots over stall speed, then chop power, dive for the runway, pull back, then add power to keep from stalling. But not too much, lest we visit the trees at the other end... Besides that it was uneventful.



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  5. #5
    Excellent Paul! - Yesterday was flying around in Milton's (& team) Harpoon and crashed there 2 times on the same approach.. Have branches in the teeth. It's rather funny how the tallest trees are always on final approach just short of the runway.
    Roman

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    Thanks Roman! I think that Harpoon has a bit of a higher landing speed than the Fortress, and that helps. I could get this thing whoa'd up pretty good...
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    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    Headed for WA1A. FSRealWX.
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  8. #8
    Lookin' great Paul!

    Awesome aircraft choice ... adds to the mix well.

    Plenty of bird for these lush landscapes and short runways ... er, uh driveways is a better description of some ...





    Good Luck ... Enjoy yourself,
    salt_air

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    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    Thanks Austin!

    Made it to WA1A.
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    A couple kodaks of my flight across the Celebes Sea. Well, close to it anyway. Since we were flying right over Morotai, and this was a long leg, I used WAMR, which has an ADF station, as a waypoint. The landing at Sorong was fraught with the same perilous trees as the last landing. Funny, I didn't notice them so much when landing the Avenger!





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    Quote Originally Posted by robert41 View Post
    That is a very nice looking VC.
    I agree. Aeroplane Heaven did a nice job on this one.

    Headed for Biak (WABB).
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    Made it to Biak! Fair Disclosure: Discriminating observers will note from the duenna track my turn to runway heading coincided suspiciously with the range at which the ILS localizer might have kicked in... That's because I couldn't resist trying out the ILS in my new B-17 at Biak, which is so equipped. It was cool! I'm trying to fly "by the numbers", more or less, on this trip and am thus on track for a last place finish anyway, even if I was eligible for prizes and free beer which, as a race organizer, I am not. It was the co-pilot's fault anyway. The radios are on his side. He dialed in the ILS frequency while I wasn't looking. I'll make sure he doesn't do it again on this trip.



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    Back to the Hayfield. WABB - HFD.
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    Made it to Hayfield! I used a couple of airports along "The Turkey's Back" to find my way, namely Vanimo (AYVN), because it has an NDB radio, and Aitape (TAD), because it's only fifty miles from the Haystack. Figured I could find that needle ok if it was only fifty miles out. I spied it about ten miles away, and while setting up for a ten knot crosswind approach to runway 17, my co-pilot noticed something shiny on the field. Turned out it was Moses03's new fancy pants B-29. They're all the rage, these days I hear. Got pressurized compartments so the flight crew can hang out in their shirt sleeves at 30,000 feet. Probably has AC in there too, and a CD player. We're going to camp out here for the night. Invite those boys in the Super Fortress over for a BBQ.

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    If they have a CD player, you probably could make a sale on one of those Celine Dion Greatest Hits CDs. I hear they make great drink coasters....
    Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right.

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    Hey, no picking on my Celine Dion collection. You know she's my favorite singer! Getting ready to move on from the Haystack. My co-pilot found some light reading for the trip...

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    Dibs on that book after you are through.

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    Ok, co-pilot says you can borrow it when he's done. Off to Gusap (HFD-GSP)
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    Made it to Gusap. The weather was clear when we started, but the clouds slowly closed in along the way, to the point that I almost missed the airport entirely. There was a huge cloud right over the airport, on the deck, almost completely obscuring it from the air. At some point, when pretty close, and thinking "dang, we've got to be getting close..." I saw the end of the runway peeking out from under the cloud. Then it was chop power, hold the nose up, get to flap speed, dump flaps and wheels, get some air brake action going, then go for the runway. It was a most enjoyable and exciting experience, and can be viewed from the sequence of kodaks below. The last image is on final, just a mile or so out from the end of the runway!







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    Next flight, GSP - JCB.
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    Made it. How about a landing at Jacquinot Bay in a 20 knot cross wind? And I don't mean 45 degrees off the nose, it was 90, directly from the left. It was 21 knots just before touchdown, the last time I had a chance to peek at it. Got Live Action Video. Stay tuned. News at 11:00. It wasn't pretty. We're going to need new tires and my co-pilot isn't speaking to me...

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    Somewhere around the turn to base leg on the approach to runway 16 at Jacquinot Bay we noticed the crosswind we were about to encounter. At that point we turned on FSRecorder, thinking it might be useful to the NTSB, if it was recovered... I remember thinking "I'm going to kick rudder and straighten her out just before touchdown, just like on those YouTube videos of landings at the old Hong Kong airport!" But just before touchdown we were already sliding off the right edge of the runway. Had I straightened her out at that point we would have ended up in the jungle, so I just prayed the main gear would hold... After we stopped I looked over at my co-pilot. He was white as a sheet, muttering something about sleeping during the lesson on cross wind landings as he stalked off the flight deck. Hope he comes back, the tape deck is on his side of the cockpit!

    Inside View:
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  24. #24
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    The view from the Action News Channel 11 helicopter...
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  25. #25
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    Great videos Paul! I'm gonna have to figure out how to do that. (Although what would have been left of the Seafire wouldn't have needed to be run through a crusher after that)
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