Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 6, 2020 3:24:19 GMT
Here we are on Leg 04. Actually, it's 04a and 04b. Chicago Midway to Iowa City Municipal, then on to Millard Municipal in Nebraska. The scenery was very nice. You can fly over the whole thing at 2,500 ft and not worry. We had a pretty serious head wind, but that was not a big deal.
Here we are, getting out of Chicago:
We landed at Iowa City Municipal, killed No. 1 and swapped mail bags with some guys:
Here we are, blasting through the sky. Nancy did a pretty good job polishing this thing. She must have had help.
This was the most dramatic scenery on the whole flight:
Here we are on our approach into KMLE:
Got her down in one piece. Off-loaded the precious mail bags. Secured the airplane. The limo showed up on time for our ride into town. Ernie and I are keeping a watching out for Nancy, to make sure that she doesn't get too crazy.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 6, 2020 2:53:55 GMT
I learned about flying (flight sim test flights) from that (copied and pasted from my post on DC-3 Airways forum:
"Doggone! I didn't think of the possibility that my computer time over a flight might actually be longer than my external stopwatch time! Next time I'll use the FTime and pause technique.
Ok, let's try an example. Say we have a test flight of 100 nautical miles between start point and finish point. My C-47 has a cruise speed of 163 knots. That should take 36.81 minutes. That should be the exact time I read on my in-cockpit FTime device. But, because my computer has taken a lot of time to catch up to scenery loading, etc., my iPhone stopwatch says my flight took 41.83 minutes (lots of scenery loading in this example!). I turn in 41.83 minutes for my test flight. My average speed gets listed in the official roster as 143.44 knots. That's 12% slower than my actual cruise speed. They estimate that it should take me 97.79 minutes to complete the first flight leg. I actually took 88.99 minutes when I flew the leg. That was 9% less time than the allotted time, which appears to validate this theory. Oh yeah - I'm flying with Active Sky real weather, which, if I recall, gave us a slight headwind on leg 1, which could account for the missing 3%.
Very interesting! I hope writing this all down will help me remember to use the FTime clock to record test flight times in the future!"
By the way, have you ever heard the song "Teterboro Tower?" No? Well, here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x37f-_XrMJ0.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Aug 23, 2020 2:35:46 GMT
I really need to work on my patience. My wife says that I do. It didn't help that Ernie kept on my case about when were we gonna start flying that TACR2020 anyway? I was waiting for some work to be done on my DC-3 Airways airplane, but it was still in the shop. Nancy said she knew of another airplane that we could use for the flight. Said it was "government surplus." Right. So, we went and checked it out. It was an old Air America bird, in pretty good shape. Ernie said, "Let's Go!" I replied, "Why Not?" And off we went. Leg 01.
Here we are flying through New York airspace:
Here's a nice shot of Bravo 829 thundering through the air at 5,500 MSL:
OK, time to get back on the ground:
Here we are, safe on the ground. The Mail has been delivered. Nobody died.
The mail has been unloaded and is on it's way. More is coming tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, Ernie and I are going into town to keep an eye on Nancy. That woman really knows how to party.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Oct 13, 2019 16:25:46 GMT
Flight 15B: We are now fully in Asia, with no signs of desert. We took off from Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International at dawn. Had to file IFR in order to leave, but cancelled once at cruising altitude of 8,000 feet and maintained VFR for the rest of the flight to Yangon International in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon Burma). We got a few photos:
Just after IFR takeoff at dawn, during turn onto course:
We climbed out of the gloom at about 4,500 feet:
Here we are, flying across the Meghna River delta and into the Bay of Bengal
We reviewed customs of Myanmar during the flight, just so we wouldn't piss off the locals. Some handy tips were:
Avoid loud voices and argumentative behavior - never lose your temper in public. Best to keep smiling, as much as you can. Watch what's gonna be in the frame before you take a picture. Don't take pictures of women or meditating monks, for example. Take your shoes off before entering a house or office. Don't touch people's heads, and never point at stuff with your feet. Here's a biggie: Don't disrespect the Buddha - this is serious stuff; you can go to jail. Word is, one guy thought it would be cool to take a selfie with a Buddha statue after putting his headphones on the statue. This guy got two years in prison!
Based on all of the above, we kept a pretty low profile. We got a ride in a tuk-tuk to the Sky Ace Motel on Tabinshhwehti Road, in the northeast part of Yangon. The place is rated 4 stars, and how could we not, given the cool name? We walked around and found some pretty good food for dinner. Sorry, but I couldn't figure out the name of the place.
Looking forward to the next flight and the next destination.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Oct 12, 2019 2:51:14 GMT
Flight 14B, Allahabad, India (VIAL) to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose In (VECC), both in India. VECC is in Calcutta, so we're gonna get loose tonight! Better watch out for Nancy, however, because she can get pretty wild.
Got a few photos:
Nice shot of the airplane at cruise:
Put your faith in God and...
IFR approach was needed. Here we are, just coming out of the gloom:
Down in one piece, ready for flight 15B:
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Oct 6, 2019 1:54:37 GMT
I have to say, I really do like the format of this rally. No extra files for weather and such. I’m not complaining, but for previous rallies, I had to load each one, and substitute my personal aircraft (MJ C-47, natch), move it off the main runway, and finally tweak it from all the defaults to "my" settings, then save it. Now, at the end of a flight, I just get my next_flight.pln into my Nav log (and GPS), and fill the tanks (full mains, 50% aux tanks) and she’s ready to go. Right about then the Town Car rolls up, and I do a final walk around the aircraft, then jump in there with Ernie and Nancy and off we go. Don’t worry - my guys, all retired snake eaters, are watching the airplane. Stop by and they'll give you some of that Famous Grouse Scotch!
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Oct 4, 2019 7:15:03 GMT
Flight 11B: Bandar Abbass International in Iran to Jinnah International in Pakistan. Glad we are flying an airplane with Canadian registry! So far everything has been going fine. The sky was kind of murky when we got started, and we ended up having to get an IFR clearance to take off from Bad Ass Bandar Abbass. Things cleared up pretty well once we got up to our cruising altitude of 8,000 feet.
Here we are going feet dry after crossing the Strait of Hormuz:
Here we are on final approach to Jinnah:
Here's the airplane, all prepped for flight 12B. We're exploring the town, trying to keep Nancy out of trouble.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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NOTAMS
Sept 25, 2019 22:45:25 GMT
Post by Paughco on Sept 25, 2019 22:45:25 GMT
Thank you, Allan!
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 23, 2019 3:15:43 GMT
Flight 08B. Not too bad, so long as we can stay out of trouble. Hey, we're flying out of Syria and into Iraq. What's the worst that can happen? Needless to say, we are trying to maintain a low profile - just a harmless C-47, motoring across the friendly skies. We are not the folks you're looking for...
Here we are, about a half hour out of Damascus. Looks like we're flying over Tatooine...
Here we are, just crossing the border from Syria into Iraq. This somewhat reminds me of riding a motorcycle out of Idaho and into Montana. Check out the differences in the road on either side of the border:
Here we are, with the aircraft secured at Baghdad International, ready for flight 9B:
Now Ernie and I are going to take Nancy into town to show her a good time. We will be trying to keep her to maintain an even strain, due to the social conventions and so on. Wish us luck.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 21, 2019 5:25:46 GMT
Here we are on Flight 07B, just crossing from Israel into Syria. No F-16s! No MiGs! Awright!
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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NOTAMS
Sept 15, 2019 22:17:28 GMT
Post by Paughco on Sept 15, 2019 22:17:28 GMT
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 15, 2019 4:39:12 GMT
Flight 5B went well. The weather has been cooperating magnificently. We took off at noon from Casale Mil, in the heel of the boot of Italy, and flew down the west coast of Greece to Ioannis Dasklogia. Nice. Now we have to show Nancy a good time without letting her get out of control. Here are a couple shots we got from the outside of the airplane, from the Predator drone we had along for the flight:
Here we are heading out over the Med:
Here we on the downwind for Ioannis Daskalogia:
On the ground. Airplane secured, ready for flight 06. Ernie and I have taken Nancy into town. She gets pretty crazy once she gets loose.
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 8, 2019 3:15:21 GMT
Here's the basic debrief from flight 2B: "Flight 2B EARC 2019. Saint Exupery, France to San Giusto, Italy. I'm pretty sure it's Italy, anyway. We are enjoying this flight - so far. Gotta go. Ernie and I are going to show Nancy a good time tonight."
Here are some photos:
We flew over some mountains:
We flew over some ocean:
They gave us a right base on to 22R:
Done. Parked. The aircraft is secured (trust me, it's really secured - best stay away unless you see us near the aircraft).
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Sept 3, 2019 16:29:11 GMT
Ernie, Nancy, and I completed Leg B1 yesterday. We hauled mostly cargo plus a few good friends, from Farnborough (EGLF) down to Saint Exupery (LFLL), hitting all the waypoints on the way down. Here we are leaving England, just going "feet wet:"
Here we are passing over what I believe is Palace of Versailles. My wife and I trudged all over that place back in 2012. I like this view MUCH more!
Hey Ernie! What's happenin'?
Seeya ATB
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Aug 31, 2019 3:05:41 GMT
Here's a dated pic of my bird, but it still looks like this, so here you go - Our ex-TWA L-049 put into service with Westwind Airlines. When I realized that the original classic scheme for this airplane was basically a "paintover" of the TWA livery, I thought it'd be cool to leave evidence of this on the repaint since it would actually be more accurate than most people realize with the way paint can etch metal and what would happen if a 2nd hand airline didn't want to spend the money on fully buffing out the old livery before painting the new one. You will be ridin' in style! I'd fly my A2A Connie, but for the PIREP rules on DC-3 Airways.
Happy Landings! ATB
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