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Post by Allan Lowson on Jun 11, 2019 16:49:29 GMT
Initial information for the Centenary event will be published here as we finalise the details.
Rob has set the route, and we think we have covered the necessary range of aircraft with alternative approaches to the 23 stages of the flight.
Rob's information sheet summarises it all nicely:
The rally that we are presenting is to celebrate the 100 year anniversary
of the first England to Australia Air RACE flown during 1919 from Hounslow
England to Darwin Australia.
The winner of the race was a pilot by the name of Ross Smith flying a
Vickers Vimy aircraft. Six aircraft started the race with the Vickers Vimy
being the only aircraft to finish within the allotted time period with one
other aircraft finishing late.
Many of the landing fields that were used in 1919 today no longer exist this
includes the departure point of Hounslow, others along the route have today
become International Airports / Military Bases or again do not exist today.
Our departure point for the rally will be Farnborough "EGLF" located outside
of London. For en-route ports of call that today are non existent we have
chosen a present day nearby airport as an alternate.
The rally consists of 23 legs.
THE RALLY
********* Will officially commence September 01 2019 until December 20 2019.
During this period PIREPS will be accepted for each leg flown.
Please submit you PIREP at the completion of each leg that you fly, this
will help greatly with keeping the roster updated
THE AIRCRAFT
************ You may select any Land-plane of your choice, be it default,
freeware or payware suited to your simulator.
TIMED TEST FLIGHT and FLIGHT PLANS
********************************** Flight plans and test flight information
for the rally shall be release during August 2019.
This will allow you to choose your aircraft, the flight plan you wish to
follow and the appropriate test flight along with your registration.
There are three rally flight plans "A","B" and "C" for each leg.
Once you choose the flight plan best suited to yourself and aircraft type
you must fly the entire rally using that flight plan category, therefore
no changing mid stream.
I will hopefully add some more information once I have arrived in sunny Vancouver Island in about 24 hours time.
Best regards,
Allan
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Post by Paughco on Jun 14, 2019 4:10:19 GMT
Please check registration dates on draft rules. OK, I guess "draft" is there for a reason.
Totally looking forward to this flight!
Thank you
ATB
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Post by Allan Lowson on Jun 14, 2019 5:16:09 GMT
Thanks for pointing that out, sometimes I struggle to get the r into draft, never mind anything more complicated. Just as well that Rob is there to keep the route sorted.
We will of course be accepting entries up to the end of August
Cheers,
Allan
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 6, 2019 19:58:19 GMT
Sadly I have to confirm that Rob passed away on July 25th. His contribution to Bluegrass and our rallies has been immense. We have passed our condolences to his family.
I have now updated the page for registration and test flights. Zip files with start points for FS9 and FSX Test Flights are available, others will follow.
To accommodate those who cannot manage the time to fly the whole route, there is a Flight D option which takes one Sector from each Leg of the A flights. this will halve the total distance to be covered.
The details of the individual legs, and the route permutations will be released in batches.
Allan
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Post by uhug on Aug 7, 2019 11:41:34 GMT
Hello Allan
Thank you for your work!
1 question:
I have decided on the flight plan "B" and loaded accordingly the test flight "B" in the FSX. But the plane is parked on a Canadian-outback-airfield-runway where Fox and Rabbit say goodnight. Just not in EGPE, should I use test flight "A"?
Am I doing something wrong?
2nd question:c
As a designer-freak, I designed the original airfields in a retro look from 1919. Can I use this airfields and the associated flight plans?
Thank you for your help!
Cheers Urs
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 7, 2019 19:26:42 GMT
Hello Urs,
The different test flights are based in different countries, so you should be in the land of Maple syrup for Test flight B! I will put the full details of each test flight under the NOTAMS for clarity.
The lgoic was along the lines that the A flights would suit pilots of slower aircraft, and then longer range aircraft would tend to opt for Flight B and jets for the high level Flight C. But that does not mean that anyone has to follow that logic. I'm not sure Concorde would suit the A flights, but freedom of choice is the first consideration.
For A and D, the test flight is in Scotland, B in Canada/USA,and C in Australia.
Feel free to use retro airfields, I hope you will have room for a plate camera and tripod to take screenshots with.
Cheers,
Allan
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Post by uhug on Aug 7, 2019 20:44:44 GMT
Salü Allan Now everything is clear! My camera is ready and my WD Elements 2TB also!  Tks and Cheers |
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Post by Paughco on Aug 8, 2019 2:35:11 GMT
OK, I think I've got it.
Flight A: Low altitude, best for non-pressurized aircraft, such as my MJ C-47 in DC-3 Airways livery.
Flight B: Medium altitude, best for pressurized aircraft, such as my A2A Connie.
Flight C: High altitude, best for high-performance serious boogie mobile aircraft, such as my A2A P-51D, or the Spitfire Mk II. The Spit is cool, but the civ 51 has a GPS and autopilot  .
Flight D: The half-marathon option, where you get the 13.1 bumper sticker.
Man, it would be so cool to run three entries, A, B, and C, as described above. Not sure if I can get away with that. I have to ask myself, what would E. K. Gann do? I think Ernie would go for the C-47.
I'll run test flight A this weekend.
WAIT! While working on my flight plan for test flight A in P3D v4.5, I notice the complete non-existence of the starting and the end points for test flight A. There is no Kinloss VOR, but there is a Kinloss Air Base. Also, there is no Duncansby Head NDB, but there is a Duncansby Head Light House, and it just happens to be about 61 miles away from the Kinloss AB. Should I use these for the test flight? Or should I wait for further instructions?
Seeya ATB |
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Post by dca pilot 2315 on Aug 9, 2019 19:21:55 GMT
Hello Alan,
The rally consists of 23 legs. This means an average of 435 NM per leg. Is it possible to give the distance of the longest leg. I am considering type B flight plans, but I want to be sure that the range of my aircraft is sufficient for this longest leg. The more so, because you cannot change your flight plan type during the rally. I intend to fly the race with the default FSX DC3.
Kind regards, Luuk
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 9, 2019 20:55:42 GMT
Luuk,
The longest legs/sectors are:
A/D - 297 nm
B - 634 nm
C - 599 nm
The DC-3 should have a range in excess of 1,000 nm. However Rob and I wanted to keep legs within the capacity of virtual pilots as well as their choice of aircraft.
In addition I have a suggested programme that will leave November free for participation in the DCA World Rally. I will put it in a NOTAM shortly.
Regards,
Allan
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Post by dca pilot 2315 on Aug 10, 2019 10:30:25 GMT
Hi Allan,
Thxs for your quick answer :-).
I am currently learning to lean the engines manually and do not yet know how low I can get the fuel flow. Upto now I always calculated with 750 lbs/hr for a rough calculation. The default DC3 has a fuel capacity of 3624 lbs and with my rough estimate this would mean a range of around 700 NM @ 145 KN. If necessary I will increase the capacity of the center tank and lower the payload, as suggested by you. There is still enough time to work things out.
While preparing the testflight, I read that the altitude for the type B testflight is between 10.000 and 19.000 ft. Normally I would not fly the DC3 above 9.000 ft. I normally use the DC3 to fly "low and slow". Does the type B rally contain legs where the aircraft must fly at a higher altitude than, let's say, 10.000 or 11.000 ft. For instance because one of the legs directly crosses the Alps in stead of flying around it.
I installed the timer and will probably fly my first testflight this afternoon.
Kind regards, Luuk
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 10, 2019 11:36:02 GMT
The suggested altitude for the B test flight came from discussing using the likes of the Lockheed constellation for B flights. From memory we skirt over the edge of the Alps and then cross the central spine of Italy. So there should not be any particular need to fly much higher than you usually do. Back in 1919 aircraft flew lower!
You might be able to set automixture for the DC-3 in the sim settings. Think of it as your co-pilot earning their keep.
Also apologies for the missing beacons from P3D. I will put a P3D flight up with a plan showing the locations as waypoints. While I have been translating Rob's plans from P3D back to FS9 and FSX I sometimes forget that his updated nav info included beacons that are missing from P3D. The beacons are close to the locations that you have identified, the distance is 61.3nm from memory.
Cheers,
Allan
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 10, 2019 14:30:13 GMT
Just checked flight 02 and it takes over the Alps, with a flightplan suggesting a cruising altitude of 11,000 ft. So much for skirting and my memory! In my defence there are a total of 97 legs/sector combinations.
Cheers,
Allan
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Post by Paughco on Aug 11, 2019 21:03:22 GMT
Allan: First, thank you for your work in preparing this rally. I plan to fly a C-47 on this flight, mainly so I can add to my hours with DC-3 Airways, but also because I enjoy flying with Ernie and Nancy. I started out thinking that I should fly route A, but now I'm thinking maybe I can do route B, as we do have oxygen on board the aircraft. I've looked all over but have not found the waypoints for test flights B and C. Also, as discussed earlier, the waypoints for route A don't show up on P3D. Please let me know if the waypoints for test flights B and C are available somewhere and overlooked them. Meanwhile, I'll hold off on making my test flight until I can see the test flights and actual routes for A and B.
Thank you ATB |
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Post by Allan Lowson on Aug 11, 2019 21:36:29 GMT
Apologies, I will load up flightplans with waypoints in place of the wayward beacons tonight. As some pilots have submitted testflight times I will not change the test flights to void causing any more chaos than I already have! I have been double checking the first 8 legs for A to D over FS9, FSX, and P3D default installs and all known glitches between the sims seem to be under control. For now.......
Cheers,
Allan
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