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#4053686 - 12/20/14 04:07 PM Christmas Flight  
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,509
Deacon211 Offline
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Deacon211  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,509
Louisville, KY
OK folks, it's that time again for the annual SimHQ Christmas Flight.

We had a few takers here last year. Would love to see even more.

The rules are simple:

1. Plane of your choice.

2. From the airfield nearest your home.

3. To the northernmost airfield available to you.

4. And back by Christmas,


As before, if you don't celebrate Christmas, then any other flight of significance to you. Disaster relief. Visit Mecca. Trip to Jerusalem. Angkor Wat. Tibet. All good. It's all for fun and if someone decides to bring Egg Nog to Pango Pango, it would be a nice change from all the snow us north bound pilots are likely to see.


Here's the thread from last year:

Christmas 2013 Flight

I'm gonna cross post this on the Outhouse just to see if anyone will join in our fun.

Hope to see you there!

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4053824 - 12/20/14 10:14 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
weeksy Offline
Member
weeksy  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
Maidstone, Kent
Good to see this happening for another year, thanks Deacon211 for getting the ball rolling.

I'm traveling quite a bit this Christmas, so might have to spread it out over a few days.

#4053828 - 12/20/14 10:24 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
BeachAV8R  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
KCLT
I'm in! Hmm..gotta puzzle over what I wanna fly this year.. smile

BeachAV8R



#4053836 - 12/20/14 10:53 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Weaponz248 Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Weaponz248  Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Statesboro GA USA
Sweet! Looks like I am taking a C-17, Just got one for X-Plane 10.

Awesome idea Deacon!


XBOX Live Tag/Steam/PSN: Weaponz248

#4053843 - 12/20/14 11:07 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
BeachAV8R  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
KCLT
I think I might fly this one to Alert this year - an old model for sure..but it still might fit the bill:



BeachAV8R



#4053897 - 12/21/14 02:56 AM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,509
Deacon211 Offline
Senior Member
Deacon211  Offline
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,509
Louisville, KY
Hey guys,

Glad to see you are in! I was seriously considering flying the A2A B-17 which I bought but haven't really flown much.

But, in the interest of time, I think I'm going to opt for the Captain Sim 707...love the classic liners!

#4054932 - 12/23/14 01:54 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
weeksy Offline
Member
weeksy  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
Maidstone, Kent
Due to family and travel over the next couple of days I'm going to do my outward journey this afternoon. London Gatwick to Tromso in Norway, flying the Tristar (picked one up cheap from the Government surplus, here's a link to a good article about the RAF's last refueling flight with Tristar link )

The weather looks a bit cloudy with winds from the west veering to the north over Norway.

#4054944 - 12/23/14 02:24 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 2,509
Deacon211 Offline
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Deacon211  Offline
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Posts: 2,509
Louisville, KY
Nice Weeksy!

I think you're the first! I'm flying Louisville to Sault Ste Marie (pretty sure I butchered the spelling on that one) tonight, and flying the rest of the way and back tomorrow.

Good luck!

Deacon

#4054980 - 12/23/14 03:42 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
weeksy Offline
Member
weeksy  Offline
Member

Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
Maidstone, Kent
Oh dear, things haven't started too well. Had trouble with the Tristar, firstly I couldn't get the FMC to load the flight plan so I tried the model with an inertial navigation system where I also couldn't input the coordinates. I suspect something is a bit wonky with my installation of this plane.

I'll try again latter, probably with my trusty old DC9 with a bit of VOR to VOR flying. Hope other people have better luck santa

#4055103 - 12/23/14 07:09 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
weeksy Offline
Member
weeksy  Offline
Member

Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 243
Maidstone, Kent
Not my year this year. Real life has gotten in the way and I've had to abandon about half way to Tronso. Loaded up the DC-9-30 with 100% fuel and enough cargo to reach about 105,000lbs (pretty close to the maximum take off weight) and left Gatwick.



Still pretty good climb ability given the load.



Followed the runway heading (279) briefly before turning nearly 180 degrees and heading for the Detling VOR. I find the DC9 a handful, no auto throttle and a fairly primitive autopilot, coupled with trying to tune the radios for the VORs meant I heard both the over speed warning and the stall horn in fairly quick succession!



Nice weather over the South East with broken cloud.

Nearing the Detling VOR I turned north towards the Lambourne VOR and then out over the North Sea. I climbed slowly to FL250, battling a 99 knot cross wind until I lost the VOR signal over the sea. I used a bit of dead reckoning until I was in range of the first Norwegian VORs.



The sun was starting to go down and time was running out.






Somewhere south-east of Bergen I had to call it a day and return to the real world. I would have liked to have carried on - it was going to be a close call with fuel and I would have liked to have seen it through but, hay its Christmas and family come first.

It was fun and I hope everyone has a good trip and more importantly a great Christmas. All the best, Steve

#4055219 - 12/24/14 12:02 AM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
BeachAV8R  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
KCLT
Well, I *might* be out of this year's Christmas flight too. Sounds like dispatch is getting ready to send me up to Calgary on a real life polar flight <g>...

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N205CM

So we'll see...

BeachAV8R



#4055317 - 12/24/14 07:57 AM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Weaponz248 Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Weaponz248  Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Statesboro GA USA
So the planing phase is complete. Looks like four legs. The plane I am flying will be a C-17.

First leg is KTBR(Statesboro GA) to KDOV(Dover AFB)

The route will be as follows:

CAE RDU RIC PXT SBY

Cruise ALT will be FL300



The second leg is KDOV(Dover AFB) to CYQX(Gander Newfoundland)

The route will be as follows:

SIE ACK YQI YHZ YQY

Cruise ALT will be FL350



The third leg is CYQX(Gander Newfoundland) to BGTL(Thule Air Base)

The route will be as follows:

KU MA HB

Cruise ALT will be FL400




The fourth and final leg wil be BGTL(Thule Air Base) to CYTL(Alert)

The route will be direct

Cruise ALT will be FL250



KTBR to KDOV will be minimal fuel with no cargo, Due to runway concerns out of KTBR, Main concern being length.
KDOV will get about a 1/3 cargo and fill up on fuel, Full load of fuel due to concerns about availability Thule and Alert.
CYQX will get another 1/3 cargo bring cargo to about 2/3 and fill up on fuel.
BGTL plane will fill cargo hold up.

Last edited by Weaponz248; 12/24/14 07:58 AM.

XBOX Live Tag/Steam/PSN: Weaponz248

#4055344 - 12/24/14 10:56 AM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Weaponz248 Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Weaponz248  Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Statesboro GA USA
Leg one done!

Landing was a bit rough, Forgot my throttle was FWD when I took AP off. But still landed it.

Leg one was 1.7 hours and about 528 miles. Take-off was at 0332 EST and landing was at 0459 EST.


Lined up for take-off



Climb, cruise, and decent





Landing




On final,hard to see but the runway is right in front of me


On the cargo pad, waiting for fuel and cargo.



Leg 2 is about to go up....


XBOX Live Tag/Steam/PSN: Weaponz248

#4055357 - 12/24/14 11:42 AM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Weaponz248 Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Weaponz248  Offline
Hail To The King Baby!!
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,764
Statesboro GA USA
So leg 2 is on hold, Bird strike on take-off. Killed the #2 engine.



Made it back to KDOV, Will tied again after the maintenance crew gets it fixed......



XBOX Live Tag/Steam/PSN: Weaponz248

#4055369 - 12/24/14 12:22 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 783
Fudge93 Offline
Member
Fudge93  Offline
Member

Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 783
England
I'm cutting it a bit fine, but this is my intended route.



Will be flying Carenado PA28RT there, estimates 4 hours there, but added some airports to land and refuel, so closer to 5 hours there. Will likely take something a bit quicker back, maybe a harrier. I'll be flying on Prepar3D using FSCloud and Active Sky.

May well mix it up and fly something in X-Plane back.


combtpilot.co.uk
#4055427 - 12/24/14 02:11 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
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Posts: 2,509
Deacon211 Offline
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Deacon211  Offline
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Louisville, KY
Well, things didn't go too well this year.

I started with the best of intentions trying to get a leg in on Sunday. Perhaps as far as Sault Ste Marie.




It'd be a nice evening flight and would knock off a few miles.




Off we went.




Beautiful evening for flying!




It was shortly after sundown when I had my first crash to desktop. I sometimes get this weird problem where the sim seems to crash at dusk or dawn. It was too late to start again, so I waited until today.


This time I was up at the crack of dawn.





Unfortunately, I began having repeated crashes before I reached the great lakes.

I managed to get to sun up over Hudson Bay before, after about ten crashes I concluded that I was feeling decidedly uncharitable towards FSX and Captain Sim and figured that I might try again next year.






Well, my flight didn't turn out the way I had hoped, but I'm glad that others had better luck. I'd love to see more peoples' adventures and I wish you great success!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Deacon

#4055460 - 12/24/14 02:59 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
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Posts: 783
Fudge93 Offline
Member
Fudge93  Offline
Member

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Posts: 783
England
Sorry to hear about your issues there Deacon.

Just landed at Newcastle, few pictures so far. Already going dark unfortunately, however I don't have any scenery for Scotland, so might not be a huge loss smile. Plane has been bouncing all over the place so far, but at least its not snowing. Will grab a brew then time to venture even further North.















Apparently a perfect landing. More images on my steam page if you want them. http://steamcommunity.com/id/Fudge/screenshots/?


combtpilot.co.uk
#4055478 - 12/24/14 03:33 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 25,138
RSColonel_131st Offline
Lifer
RSColonel_131st  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 25,138
Vienna, 2nd rock left.
I'm enjoying this smile

#4055517 - 12/24/14 04:55 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 783
Fudge93 Offline
Member
Fudge93  Offline
Member

Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 783
England
Got delayed, but did managed to re-enable tileproxy for my sim. Hit Scotland and with it the bangs of a storm. Seems the Scots want to keep me out. Detore to Edinburgh to reduce time over open water, takes some time but better safe than sorry. Even longer as I am trying to avoid the clouds.

Can see the lightning occasionally, would perfered snow for Chriatmas.

Screenshots are being uploads to me steam page, will pick and choose the SimHQ ones when I am on the ground, hopefully either Inverness or final destination Kirkwall.


combtpilot.co.uk
#4055560 - 12/24/14 06:36 PM Re: Christmas Flight [Re: Deacon211]  
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Posts: 796
Staniol Offline
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Staniol  Offline
Member

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 796
Hungary
Hi Guys!

I hope I am not too late into the show, but just read the initial post, and made me excited, since I planned to do something similar.
I never participated things like this, also stayed away from serious civil aviations so far, but why not start with something brave?

The facts and decisions bellow ensure, that my flight will be exciting, but most probably I am facing a total failure, well, that what makes it worth a try! smile

1, I just bought FSX on steam (played fs2004 years ago), so you can call me unexperienced. I obviously will do some practise rounds before I hit the road, just to check how different FSX is from FS9.

2, Being a Buddhist myself, I decided to do a different approach, trying to do a round flight touching the following spots:
- LHBP, Budapest, Hungary, my home
- LLHA. Haifa, Israel. Closest significant airport to the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem.(I wont simulate the 2 hour bus trip if you don't mind...)
- OE49, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Muhammad
- VNBW, Bhairahawa, Nepal, closest to the birthplace of Buddha Gautama.

3, I will fly an Ilyushin IL-14P, using a traditional MALEV livery, in the memory of the decommissioned Hungarian Airlines. (Visited this plane in the local aero museum with my daughter recently).

I understand that my approach is more close to Indiana Jones than a real Pilot, but I am sure I will enjoy this as long as it lasts...
Will keep you updated...:)




Freedom of speech is our birth right, but the privilege of being heard needs to be gained.
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