Official 8th Annual Mudspike Christmas Flight 2022 Discussion and AAR Thread

for our few next legs we jumped on a NASA job to test ‘low level, high speed navigation’. perfect job description for us would say.

c’mon guys, we can still walk

… check … check … check …

this is NASA mission after all, so one NASA-like pic cant hurt

VFR at its best - at 550kts

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There are aircraft I’d like to have in MSFS :+1:

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there is a strong chance … with MilViz / Blackbird Sims developing for MSFS platform

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Last time we met I had just arrived in Fiji.

After the last stop over in New Caledonia, I’m going to take it easy with the alcohol… and definitely no Kava.

I was nursing a beer at the bar contemplating my route and seriously considering heading to South America via Tahiti and Easter Island. So after consulting a map and realising that would be adding way too much time and distance I decided to continue with my original plan of making my next stop Hawaii.

This will be the longest leg so far, so if I want to be landing in daylight it will mean an early start. And it was.

But if the pros can do it…

Who am I to complain?

Not a lot to see on this leg.

If it wasn’t dark

It was either some stunning views of nothing but ocean, or cloud… mainly cloud. I’m getting close and I know Oahu has to be around here somewhere, I hope!

Lucky I had heaps of fuel this time, because after mutliple attempts, I finally got it down in one piece… and yep, you guessed it. Another landing with Betty bitching “long landing”.

Parked and I’m spent. Last time I was here the Hilton Village bar made a decent Mai Tai and right now I could really use one… time to hail a cab.

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Leg 36 CFB Fredericton Int’l Airport, Lincoln, New Brunswick, Canada (CYFC) TO Fiorello La Guardia International Airport, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, New York, USA (KLGA).

Well, we are in the home stretch.

After a week drinking with @Fridge at the Lunar Rogue where we sampled 499 kinds of scotch (we left one for next time), I climb, not without some help, back into the aircraft.

445NM along the eastern seaboard this time, and back to the States.

This time I decided to throw in a few VORs and stop slacking. The DC-3 had the capability, and I was excited to fly her a little more.

Especially in the beautiful early AA livery by jamespejam.

Without much ado, I run her up and takeoff into the early Canadian dawn.

A quick turn onto course and I’m on my way.

Almost immediately, I start picking up moderate icing

Which is the hard and fast way to figure out the DC-3’s deicing systems. :flushed:

But, soon enough, I climb above the cloud deck and begin to feel the warm sun on my face.

Which makes me wonder…

“Why am I feeling the warm sun on my face when my destination is southwest of me?” :thinking:

And so, enter our hero into a totally intentional turn to the right…

…I mean, it’s certainly not like he glanced over at the nav plan and initially set the leg distance instead of the leg course on his autopilot heading card. :innocent:

Ah, that’s better.

A thin broken layer restricts my view of the scenery a little. But a few landmarks are still visible down below, like Big Lake…

Big Lake?

I think John Cabot should have maybe dialed back on the Canadian Club (which, being delicious, one sympathizes) when he set about naming things 'round these here parts.:wink:

I’m still very much a padawan on the Gooney bird. For instance, notice that I have advanced my superchargers to high blower, by advancing the yellow knobbed handles on the right.

Which are located just to the right of the big red placard saying that the superchargers are set permanently to low blower and that I probably shouldn’t be just throwing handles about in the cockpit, willy nilly, if I’m not going to bother reading any applicable placards that might be installed nearby.

It doesn’t actually say all that. But, you know, it’s implied. :upside_down_face:

I also noticed that the fuel selectors don’t seem to actually select anything, based on the fact that my Aux tanks are draining right now, despite the selector being set to MAIN.

Actually, I don’t know that they don’t select anything, like you know, OFF because even I am not that stupid!

Anyway, that bit of learning dispensed with, I cross the border into the states and pass over Bangor, Maine. My naving here is off to a rough start. Figuring out how the NAV/COM instruments work in a new airplane is always a fun bit of inflight entertainment. But I think I’ve finally reached an accommodation with it.

A little further down the road, I spy with my little eye, the horn of Cape Cod peeking out from beyond the clouds. Not very much further at this point.

Approaching the mainlaind coast of Long Island Sound (Lawn GUY-land as the locals would say).

That means that it’s about time to start down, based entirely on my (not exactly knocking it out of the park up to this point) intuition.

The Throgsneck and Bronx-Whitestone Bridges, gateway to the East River and the location I was told my body would be, um, “found” if I didn’t pay off those bar tabs.

Coming over the top of “La Garbage” as it is sometimes less politely called. The infamous Riker’s Island (no relation) in the middle of the bay.

The winds are stout from the NE, so I’ve elected to make up a poor man’s teardrop entry by extending out to the east at station passage, and hooking around to line up, ideally, with runway 31.

Here’s the turn outbound.

With a hook back in. Not bad for a SWAG.

A glamour shot on final with the city in the background. To the right in the foreground is Citi Field, Home of the Mets. To the left, the Unisphere, site of the 1964 World’s Fair.

The theme was “Peace Through Understanding”.

Let’s hope that pans out!

On final. A little high, which is not exactly what I was going for.

I don’t think I’d like to three point in this very much, so wheel landings for all my friends!

I tried taxiing to the oldest part of the field, but there isn’t much in the default scenery to show the old terminal. LGA has been undergoing a lot of renovation, so Old La Garbage may fade into the past.

Next, I’m going to gas her up and continue my way down south to DC.

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Sorry, @wheelsup_cavu I meant to write more than that.

Cheers to your grandad and to all the tough old birds in our lives.

He may have not demanded much, but when he did, he knew what he wanted!

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It has been a while, but the Mai Tai’s at the Hilton village are as good as I remember them. They even gave me the same room that I had last time I was here:

As much as I would like to hang around for some sightseeing, time is of the essence and I really should be pushing on. One last long(ish) ocean leg to go, so another early start, with a fair bit of cloud… just for a change :frowning: :

From here there are a few choices, and even though I have flown into and out of LAX more than a few times I have only ever been in transit and never had time to do the tourist thing, besides this guy at the bar last night said that for a LA experience he can guarantee I will never forget, I really need to go for a walk in Compton… Sounds like a deal, I mean what could possibly go wrong?

So, La La Land here I come:

Hmm, I appear to have picked up some hitchhikers!

Oh yeah, because time is of the essence and with really nothing in the way of scenery, this episode is brought to you by the Letters A, L, T and t.

Wow, that was quick, the coast came up in no time :wink:

Starting to get the hang of this FMS, finally…

And that was my best landing yet, a little bit hard and long, but I might just be getting the hang of this.

I don’t know where to from here, there are so many choices? There’s this place in Baltimore that does the best crab cakes I have ever eaten… Hmmm, crab cakes!

Until next time.

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This is a great idea. You guys are fun. Look forward to following everyone’s progress.

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I … I may have done this also. Maybe even on this trip … wondering why I was going ‘feet wet’ instead of seeing the sun :slight_smile:

You may have the check with your security people. They seem pretty happy and relaxed in there.

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I haven’t figured out how to take screenshots yet (yeah, not very useful) but I did fly an old F-104 from Leeuwarden Air Base (EHLW) in the north of the country to my home base of EHVB.

The good news is that the save/load feature seems to work with this aircraft.

The bad news is that I landed it… on the third try! :rofl:

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So here we are at EHVB just outside Leiden: a former Air Base (Vliegkamp) used by the naval aviation (Marine Luchtvaartdienst) until 2006, nowadays it is used as a musical theater.
We are sitting in a nicely preserved F-104G of 322 Squadron. You might recognize the Squadron’s mascot on the tail. A certain Italian certainly knows it as he painted a Mirage in their colors. But today we are flying the original, made by the company who bribed our royalty to get it selected instead of a Mirage.

The last time there was a jet fighter on this runway was actually in March 2014, when the F-16s stood here with engines running, saving fuel and ready to scramble to protect the nuclear conference in The Hague.

We light the afterburner, start rotating at 115 and are off the runway shortly after. A quick look back at Wassenaar, the dunes, the Vlietland and Valkenburg lakes and Leiden in the distance between them and the journey is started.

I was too lazy to do any fuel calculations and too scared of the North Sea to not bring tip tanks so my supersonic flight was limited to Mach ~1.5

England comes into view very soon and before you know it I’m doing a low level recce run on the Oxford area:


I think this is Bicester


And this is Witney


Again, this time waving at it from Brize-Norton final.

Landing was uneventful. It feels really weird not to lift the nose significantly and to just fly straight into the runway at 200 knots but it works :person_shrugging:


Taxiing by the tanking facilities at Brize-Norton before I head off to the B&B.

Sorry for the low-res VR screens but with the stick mounted well below and a bit in front of my desk, flying on a monitor feels like squinting at a distant window.

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I actually called them maybe some 10ish years ago and asked whether I could come in a P28A beause I was planning to visit a friend in Leiden.

Reply: No

:rofl:

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Yeah, about that… So, it turns out those ‘hitchhikers’ work for US Homeland Security. Apparently the guy that gave me the G-IV… well it wasn’t his to give away and the US Government wants their aircraft back.

Fortunately, I know a guy, who knows a guy and I managed to get things smoothed out… Which coincidentally is exactly what this bloke I was talking to who was in ‘holding’ with me said - “he knows a guy, who knows a guy” who was looking for someone to fly him to Las Vegas and if I could get to Van Nuys tomorrow he might have a little job for me.

“Why not?” I say. What could possibly go wrong?

Arrriving at the airport, I’m met by ‘this guy’ who asks if I can fly him to Vegas, like right now and if I do he will “comp” me when we get there. I’m wondering if it is anything like Compton? …I never did get to check that out, Oh well maybe next time… but what the heck “Sure” I say.

And at least I have flown one of these before.

One quick flight plan later…

This looks OK

And programmed

And we’re away

Heading over the Rockies, Hmmm I might have to gain a bit of altitude, I would feel more comfortable with some more air between me and the ground. Glad I made sure that O2 bottle was full before we left.

For ‘Rocky’ mountains, they look awfully green?

Over safely and down to 5000ft but damn it, more cloud…

At least the clouds have cleared and I was able to VFR around the high ground as I approached my waypoint, but The avionics in this thing almost make it too easy and the map function of the GTN 750 would have let me know that the terrain was above my altitude.

On finals

and parked

Apparently a Limo is on the way. ‘This guy’ said that as promised, he’d comp me and apparently organised a suite at the The Wynn Hotel and Casino.

This is awesome, I get to fly someone else’s planes and get rewarded for doing it. If only there was some way to do this for a living… Wait a second!

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Wonderful report of the flying and the story!
I love the way you present the flights, @Harry_Bumcrack
Makes me think of some of the weird stuff I came up with on previous years’ Christmas flights, but better.

I am being lazy this year, glad you are entertaining the crowd!

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That’s a great story!
Although I regret to inform you that 2006 is a lot more than 10 years ago. Or did you call after it had closed down as an airbase?

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It was really around 2012 so the Airbase must have been gone by that time. I had an impression that they were running a glider club on that field. But I may have been terribly wrong :slight_smile:

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Fantastic stuff @Freak and @Harry_Bumcrack and all the rest!

Leg 37 Fiorello La Guardia International Airport, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, New York, USA (KLGA) TO Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington, Virginia, USA (KDCA).

A quick gas and go from LGA and I’m on my way to Washington DC. I could have gone farther, but there was something about the combination of the DC-3 and LGA that had me feelin’ a bit nostalgic for the Golden Age of Air Travel.

So, here’s this to get you, “In the Mood”:

Glenn Miller - In The Mood [HQ] - YouTube

188NM from The Big Apple to the Big, well, I’ll be kind here. :wink:

Actually, DC is a lovely place to live. It may have been the place that I’ve lived the longest, come to think of it. :thinking:

Taking off to the southwest, Samscene3D NYC in the background.

The weather all along the eastern seaboard is Severe Clear. No complaints here!

Off to the southwest on a late winter’s afternoon, romantic images of flying Bogey, Becall, and Bergman (or any other non B named '40s era movie star) off to their destination.

The scenery is beautiful. The weather perfect. So, instead of looking for words to punctuate my pictures, I’m just going to offer you a slideshow on the silver screen and let you enjoy the beauty of Douglas, NYC, and MSFS.

And offer you this to pass the time.

The Best Of Benny Goodman | The King Of Swing | Sing Sing Sing And All The Hits - YouTube

Alright, back to it, Mac.

As we leave New York behind us, we pass to the west of Sandy Hook; the little bit of Jersey that sticks out into New York Harbor. I used to go to the beach (or “shore” as we called it) there as a kid.

There’s also an old Nike-Ajax SAM installation out on the point, long ago abandoned. But you can still see the missile platforms buried in the dunes.

I pick up the New Jersey Turnpike heading south. And, before you ask, Exit 9.

…That’s an old Jersey joke that the easiest way for Jerseyians to tell each other where they live is to answer the question, “What exit?”…

This will eventually join with I-95 and could lead me all the way to DC, and beyond to Florida, were I so inclined.

Down the road apiece, I pass Philadelphia for the second time this trip. I guess that officially makes this the point where I’ve gone around the world.

It’s time to start thinking about how I’m going to get in to DCA. There’s an ILS landing to the north on runway 01, but the buildings and restricted airspace to the north of the field means that it’s “Ix-nay on the LSI-ay” if you get my folksy, 1940s-era pig latin.

There is an LDA to the south and, with a little searching, I’ve found the data for it. It actually lines you up for runway 15, if you want to get technical about it, but the intent is to circle to land on Runway 19.

Really, the DC-3 could easily land on 15. I’m just more familiar with 19.

Plus, it’s more fun!

Of course, I do have the option of landing via the River Visual approach.

And it is clear.

I can’t remember if they give it to you at night, however.

Well, I won’t tell if you don’t. :shushing_face:

Besides, as the sun sags low over Baltimore, it’s a tossup as to whether this will being a day landing, or night.

BAL VORTAC, the last NAVAID to bring me around for a southerly flow into DC. The station is located on the field.

So, I’ll take this as a win!

I have to. It’s the only time I’ve actually passed over the VORTAC in 20,000+ miles of flying! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

The Potomac River and Washington DC (Courtesy of Drzewiecki Design).

I’m looking to intercept the river outside of the American Legion Memorial Bridge.

I don’t want to drag it in over the city.

“They” don’t take kindly to it. :flushed:

Alright, over the river with the LDA loaded in as backup.

At the approach speed of the DC-3, following the river isn’t particularly difficult. It can be hard to judge the angles, however. So remaining studiously over the center is important.

One more big turn over Rosslyn, to the right of the river, and I’m set up for the final approach turn over the Rochambeau Memorial Bridge.

(Spoiler: In DC,“Paper” beats Everything! :laughing:)

A lovely view of the National Mall…which I’m far too busy to admire.

There’s the final two bridges. You can see that I’m high on the PAPI. IRL there should be two PAPIs, one canted off like in Vágar to account for the approach angle.

But I don’t think that’s the long pole in this particular tent. :grin:

The final turn over the bridge is never boring.

Plane spotters like to hang out in that parking lot just there under the nose. You can hear the “whoop” of the wingtip vortices as the planes pass over.

Landed a little long, but this is not an issue in the DC-3.

After a brief taxi, I shut her down in front of the old terminal. No Men in Black waiting for me at the gate, so I must have done something right!

Sorry for the picture explosion, but what a beautiful evening to fly.

As little as two legs left and this trip is in the can!

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@Deacon211 According to the wife, MSFS sure is purty. Great choice of music… Had Glen Miller playing while reading and next thing you know she is watching over my shoulder (she is a huge Miller/swing fan).

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And. I have stayed at that Holiday Inn on two separate visits to DC, watching arrivals into Reagan from the bar :slight_smile:

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There’s no better place to watch them! :beers:

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