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Post by Allan Lowson on Feb 22, 2019 11:20:21 GMT
The purpose of this thread is to allow us to kick ideas round for the rally after this one without causing confusion in discussions for the curent GAAR, as it is going to be a bit different.
In outline we are thinking of an event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the London to Darwin Race of 1919. Only one aircraft completed that event in the allotted time, the Vickers Vimy. Another aircraft eventually completed the route and received a special award for doing so.
In passing, the Vickers Vimy also completed the first transatlantic crossing from the US to Europe, landing in Ireland, and the first flight to South Africa from the UK.
It will also be the 85th anniversary of the MacRobertson Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne.
So we are going to take a novel approach, for recent years, of permitting jets to participate alongside propeller driven planes in following the full Vimy route and stops from the UK to Darwin. There may be separate flight plans for the jet option.
An option being explored will be to have a separate set of shorter flights between selected airports along the Vimy route for a shorter total distance. So about 12 legs around 250 miles or so long at intervals along the route.
To contain the complexity of roster page size we may combine individual flights on the full length route into reporting stages, not unlike a couple of the flights in the GAAR.
This could lead to 2-3 rosters for different permutations of route/entry type. You would think we should know better by now.
Any of the above can and may well change in the coming months.
Entries for the same simulators as the GAAR will be catered for with flight situation setup files. Anyone flying other sims will be welcome, they will just need to do their best to set up equivalent flights as near to the descriptions as the simulators allow.
All flights will be set up for the default scenery and aircraft files of respective simulators. Typical individual flight lengths will be about a couple of hours for DC-3 types or jets for the full route.
Flight starts will be scheduled in September and October before the DCA World Rally in November. If need be we will make sure that flight reports will be accepted into December to avoid any overlap for those participating in both events.
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Post by Rob on Feb 23, 2019 3:16:39 GMT
Adding to Allan's post above,
The flight planning for this rally has been in progress for some months and is coming together nicely. The flight plan for each leg of the flights basically follows the GAAR type flight plan format with some variations. Some ports of call that the Vickers Vimy made are not available today, in this case we have chosen an airport near the original take-off and landing site. An example of this is the original departure point of the Vimy was Hounslow England, this airfield no longer exists so our rally will be starting from Farnborough as an alternative
Some more stuff,
The Aircraft, you may choose ANY aircraft that is available for your simulator, be it freeware or payware.
The Flight Plans, each leg of the journey has three flight plans, they have been developed so that you do not have to spend more than one or two hours flying each leg or sector unless you wish too. For simplicity at this stage I will list them as A, B and C. Some of the legs that the Vimy flew were around 4 to 500NM so this is where the three flight plans per leg comes in .
The variation between the GAAR type flight plans and the plans for this rally are,
No departure date or time is given. This is pilots choice. No take -off or landing runway is given, instead I have given all available runways at each port of call along with available Navaids, it is pilots choice which runway and navaid you wish to use. No weather or wind direction is given, again pilots choice. For flight plans A and B, en- route directions and normal type Navaids are given, same as a GAAR type flight plan.
Flight plan A, this is for those that wish to fly a slower or short range aircraft with non compulsory stop over airfields between your departure and arrival leg. You may skip a stop over airport if you wish to fly on or use the next one on the legs flight plan, your choice. Please remember to record just your flight time if you are breaking the journey then submit your Pirep when you complete the leg.
Flight plan B, is the same legs that the Vimy flew and suited to faster longer range aircraft, again using direction and normal en-route Navaids.
Flight plan C. This is a high level flight plan for fast aircraft equipped with an FMC using upper level waypoints and airways. You may use SID's, STAR's ILS or RNAV approaches if you wish. The just mentioned Navaids are not listed on the flight plan but available ILS frequencies and runway direction are listed, so there is a little bit of planning for your flight to do yourself. There is a vast ammount of information and charts available through the Internet regarding these matters.
Test Flight, again there are three, one for each of which ever flight plan that best suits your chosen aircraft, more on that at a later date. The rally flight plans will be released at the same time as the test flight information and registration for your perusal so you may choose your selected aircraft, this will become available during August. Which ever flight plan you choose A, B or C you must stay with that flight plan through the rally.
We hope that you will find this a fun and enjoyable rally, please tell your flight sim friends.
To help us with this rally please post your comments or question here.
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Paughco
Junior Member
Nice day for somethin'.
Posts: 98
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Post by Paughco on Feb 23, 2019 21:32:32 GMT
Thank you guys! I appreciate the flexibility that you are allowing for this rally, but I have a request. Please don't make it so complicated to run that you get completely turned off by the complexity of administering the rally. No matter what you do, we will fly the route - as they say, "any time, any where." There is no penalty for anything - you guys can't take away my virtual pilot's license and DC-3 Airways won't fire me, so I can take just about anything you throw out there and modify as necessary to make it flyable in my MJ C-47. I just want us all to have a good time, and that includes you, the designers, and ultimately the administrators, of this great series of rallies!
Meanwhile, this rally looks very intriguing!
Seeya ATB
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Post by Rob on Feb 23, 2019 23:39:35 GMT
Thanks for the comment,
Once the test flight and registrations are done the administration will not be much different then a GAAR, except for being a longer distance
We believe the three flight plans to choose from will give you people a great ammount of flexibility also with plenty of time to fly the legs and submit your Pireps.
Westwind VA may also help out, this will be up to Allan to confirm.
Hopefully we may get some great screenshots along the route and if Allan agrees have a little competition to select the very best screenshot to add to the Bluegrass home page. I have just thought of this idea which may add even more interest to the rally, what are your thoughts regarding this idea Allan ?
Thanks again and we welcome your comments and questions
Cheers for now Rob
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donh
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by donh on Feb 28, 2019 1:29:03 GMT
This sounds like a good time. I'm in. Don't know what I'll fly, but there's plenty of time to figure that out.
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Post by Rob on Feb 28, 2019 3:10:43 GMT
We're hoping it will be a good fun rally, it's a long way from England to Australia and we allowing plenty of time to fly it and submit your Pireps and leg times.
We are hopeful that many will fly this rally and see a great variety of aircraft and great screen shots.
If anyone out there has connections, friends or whatever with flight simulation please inform them of the upcoming event, the more that know of rally the better, all help is appreciated.
Thanks and cheers Rob
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Post by capflyer on Mar 6, 2019 15:08:01 GMT
Definitely going to be part of this. At this point, I think the A2A L-049 is gonna be my steed for it as I think it's appropriate since BOAC flew the L-049 on a similar route from the UK to Australia, including Darwin, taking over from the Lancastrians in late 1947/early 1948. Their route was London - Tripoli - Cairo - Basra - Karachi - Calcutta - Singapore - Darwin. If that's an option, that's probably what I'll fly, but if not, then I'll fly whatever you guys have come up with. It'll definitely be a great sightseeing flight!
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Post by Rob on Mar 6, 2019 23:43:31 GMT
The L-049 sounds a good choice, as said previously open to all aircraft types.
The route does vary from the BOAC route as we are following the 1919 route of the Vickers Vimy.
At this stage probably flight plan B would best suit your aircraft but the choice is yours.
Thanks for your post and looking forward to your participation.
Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 18, 2019 12:16:39 GMT
Guys, I would like some input regarding this:
For those that may be interested in flying the England To Australia air race there will be around 27 legs to this event so I would like to ask would you prefer to fly all the legs this year or should we fly approximately half the legs this year and the other half next year.
Allan will have the final say regarding this but I would like to hear your thought also.
Thanks Rob
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Post by idaho2flyer on Mar 18, 2019 17:09:05 GMT
Rob, I plan to fly the England to Australia air race, probably a Douglas A-26 Executive or an A560 on plan B. Does the air race end in Darwin or Sydney? My flight plan to Darwin estimates about 50 hours of flying time, 18 legs. Moat legs are about 500 nm except Basra to Karachi, about 1100. If we fly Sept. Oct. and Dec. that would be about 4 hours per week minimum. If it ends in Sydney that would take more hours per week. Slower planes, like the Vimey, would take way longer. So maybe fly Sept. Oct, Dec, and then Jan. Feb. March?? It would be nice to get an idea of how many guys will be flying plan C. Allen
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Post by Allan Lowson on Mar 18, 2019 21:18:48 GMT
We will definitely be ending in Darwin as that matches the destination of the original Air Rally of 1919. How we get there and whether we split it over a couple of rallies is still up for grabs.
A Constellation would certainly be a good choice. My mother flew home from Calcutta to Scotland before I was born in a QANTAS Connie, complete with losing an engine between Calcutta and Karachi. I then returned with her by KLM Connie and CV-240 to Calcutta.
In terms of dates we will aim to leave November to the DCA World Rally as that is their preferred month.
Cheers, Allan
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Post by Rob on Mar 18, 2019 23:00:01 GMT
Allan,
The Connie in the aviation industry was well known as the best 3 engine piston aircraft ever made, perfectly normal Ops for your mothers flight.
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Post by dnunes on Mar 18, 2019 23:46:04 GMT
The Connie in the aviation industry was well known as the best 3 engine piston aircraft ever made, perfectly normal Ops for your mothers flight. Right! He in Portugal we also had the Connie flying for TAP, and she was known as the best 3-engine aircraft crossing the oceans! Regards, Domingos
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Post by Rob on Mar 18, 2019 23:54:04 GMT
Idaho2 flyer Thanks for your comment. I am hoping that news of the rally will spread across many Virtual Airlines and flightsim fans. I myself recently posted on the Avsim forum about the rally.
When not flight planning these rallies I fly the PMDG B737-800 on short range flights and the B787-8 and -9 on long haul in real time as per the airline schedule, my last being the Air Canada flight from Brisbane Australia to Vancourver Canada, 13hrs 3 min, the early morning sunrise and descent into Vancourver was visually magnificent . Yes, I do go for my nights sleep once in cruise.
Anyway, back to the subject, I am not on facebook but for some that are a little advertising on same may help to spread the rally news and maybe even contact Matt Davies or Froogles facebook page.
I do hope that we see many new faces for this rally and many choose to fly flight plan C, also this will be very good for Bluegrass Airlines as there are probably many out there that have never heard of us.
Allan will most likely need help compiling this rally so anyone that can help out please contact him no matter how small your contribution may be.
Keep your thoughts and suggestions rolling in guys, it all helps.
Rob
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GUNK
New Member
Posts: 19
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Post by GUNK on Mar 19, 2019 15:06:38 GMT
I expect to fly the rally... Is the original route available for early review? To enhance the challenge I expect to use "real world weather" which should add some complexity and identify departure/arrival runway selection. Also, during my planning phase, alternate/midway airports could be defined to reduce flight times per leg and thus require the pilot to keep track of split times for each leg. Of course this is up to the pilot but does resemble what we have in the current GAAR 2019 leg information. Screenshots (if any) could be used to indicate (any/or all of) the details used by the pilot for the leg. An alterative would be to add this information in the comment section of the PIREP at the pilot's description.
I don't want these comments to add anything negative to the upcoming rally, just some thoughts which might help to decide what to fly and when.
Gunk
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