So proud. sniff
Well done!
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Oh manâŚsomeone else that figured out the Doppler system. That makes two of youâŚ! 
Thatâs awesomeâŚreally nice report and a cool bird to fly. And DCS does a great job with winter textures and âfeelââŚmakes me want to pull down my âushankaâ and burrow downâŚ
BeachAV8R
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Time to get a move onâŚthat low pressure system over the Great Lakes is probably going to continue to swirl northeastward and things could get ugly up that wayâŚ
[s]Track my realtime progress here: http://xfsd.ansorg-web.de/fsdmap/[/s]
429nm leg
EDIT - Well, maybe not. Just got paged to go fly a real tripâŚLOLâŚ
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Before the overcast appeared:
To make the flight more interesting, I decided that some nasty weather hit the northern part of the Caucasus. Overcast from 2000 meters up to about 2600-2800
Some changes to the plan were made to make it more flyable with the strong wind still coming from the east (is that a metaphor?): I would fly to Maykop first, using the doppler nav and the NDB marker on the eastern outskirts of the city.
An added bonus is that Maykop gives me an opportunity to land and resume the flight later.
ARK-9 primary radio is set for the Maykop NDB, secondary for Soci-Adlerâs inner marker (thatâs my divert airfield).
I set the doppler for a heading of 337, all the other dials at zero: Iâm using EinsteinEPs âFrom methodâ again. I make a mental note: itâs 180 km to Maykop airfield.
The fog is dense, but the overcast is my real worry: right after takeoff (17:00 local time) I start climbing as fast as I can.
Going through the clouds is the scariest part, with zero visibility every passing puff of cloud completely confuses my sense of direction and velocity. TrackIR is very useful to focus solely on the instruments on the dash in front of me: keep the attitude indicator sort of level, keep the VVI in the positive and hold heading north. I was flying this manually, no time to trim the big chopper.
And then, after some wobbling through the soup:
We made it! Yes!
The sun is always shining above the clouds, but itâs still pretty cold up here. Luckily, we had manually turned on both engines anti-ice systems, as well as both pitot heats and the clock and battery heat, as well as the KO-50 cabin heater.
Now, itâs time to look at the Doppler nav system: less than 1 km off, great! The climb felt very rough, but apparently itâs my lucky day. Heading north, combined with the wind blowing me west gave more or less the right drift angle.
Flying over the mountains, or rather letting the autopilot fly, is very relaxing. While carefully watching the Doppler drift indicator and subtly tapping the rudder pedals now and then, I enjoy the view.
As the mountains vanish in the distance, I patiently wait for the Doppler to read 140 km travelledâŚ
⌠then drop through the clouds.
And thereâs the city.
I check my real-world time: one hour left to fly. Letâs go all the way to Krasnodar, Iâve got plenty of fuel and itâs only 100 km with a strong tailwind.
This is the second interesting part of my flight (@EinsteinEP, watch me!) as I have to reset the nav equipment on the fly. I aim for the Maykop NDB and let the autopilot do its thing.
Now, I turn off the Doppler radar and change the course: from the Maykop NDB to Krasnodar center, I have to fly heading 299 magnetic,(roughly minus 6 equals 293 true) for 103 km.
So, the new heading is set to 293 and I dial all the other numbers back to zero.
I still need the primary ARK-9 radio to keep on guiding me to the Maykop NDB at 682 kHz, but I can change the backup (left), which was set to Sochi, to receive Krasnodar Centers inner beacon at 303 kHz.
Everything is set up, now all I have to do is lose some altitude and fly exactly on top of the Maykop NDB while I turn the Doppler radar back on.
And off we go!
As I was flying the last part of my journey to Krasnodar, the sun set. Upon arrival at Krasnodar, visibility was limited and the darkness was only held back by the lights of the city.
Upon reaching the city, I stop following the Radar nav, and turn towards the inner marker beacon to arrive at downwind.
The landing is easy this time, with a firm headwind and virtually no cross-component, I donât even lose effective translational lift, even with zero ground speed.
Load up the presents, Santa!
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Well done! Little tricky switching nav references in flight, sounds like it went well for you! Congrats!
So my doomed plan progress so far. Take the Wright Flyer to the North Pole from the nearest inhabited airfield. I have some problems to overcome, namely:
-
I need to go over 500 nm, and the Flyer is good for about 120 feet.
-
There is no way to navigate other than the sun, and my sextant is going to get caught on my cashmere jacket.
-
I have fuel for about 35 minutes, and Iâll need about 67 hours worth.
-
Itâs pitch black outside and I have no lights.
So, first off for (1) I use some Elf Pixie dust to hit my seasonal target diet weight of 0kg. That should make me look good in a sweater.
For (2) and the navigation, Iâll use a âtop downâ view in FSX that at least orientates to true north (in theory). For (3) I can either cheat or get a higher start, Iâm not sure yet. For the dark, Iâve got a pass from @BeachAV8R to change it to summer.
Letâs have a look at that top-down view:
Sort of works. Letâs see if she can take off:
Ah, going down againâŚ
You can do it 12hp engine! (Plus this thing is keeping me warm)
Using my weight-loss regime Iâm up!
Ok, head North then, by going up on the top-down view. There are no fancy luxuries like ailerons on the ol Flyer, so I âtwistâ the box frame to turn. And yes, thatâs the elevators at the front.
After about an hour I start to fall out of the sky once moreâŚ
Iâm never going to get to Santa at this rate. Time for a uplift boost with a Plan B.
I set a tail wind of 80 knots from the South, and up my altitude a little (squint and imagine Reindeer pulling me up here, with a ho ho ho in the background)
Ok, I canât breath here at 40,000 ft. Plus I donât think the engines like it. (Engineering qualified readers may now notice the lack of propellers spinning, which Iâm assuming is sub-optimal)
FSX comes up with a handy flying tip âTo start engines press CTRL+Eâ. Thanks manâŚ
Ok, hurtling back to Earth now. Things breaking up.
Iâm falling at 800 ft/s surrounding by canvas, wood and sharp wireâŚ
Everything is freezing - going solid ice. Canât be good.
Hmm, I think I may have broke FSX rather than that being an ice effect:
âFSX has stoppped workingâ.
Oh well, I think I need a plan C. Hereâs my progress so far:
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Thatâs some Mudspike-ingenuity right there! Keep us posted, @fearlessfrog! Weâre all rooting for you!
(Psst, @BeachAV8R. If frog doesnât make it back, can I get his office?)
Iâve calculated my quasiprobability odds, and it says here â2³²-1â. It certainly feels like Iâm in a Fock state right now.
We just couldnât handle all the cold up in Canadia, so we decided to make Christmas happen early so we can get the heck home.
Congrats, Mudspike! Itâs your very own Concorde!
The paint job needs a few tweaks, but we figured we could do that someplace where our margaritas wonât freeze in our hands.
Despite the amazing new paintjob, Concorde is still a handful to get started. I have another INS alignment issue which delays pushback 10 minutes. That time was all that was necessary for the weather to deteriorate - a light snow starts falling on the airfield.
Iâve filed IFR, but that doesnât mean Iâm going to fly in ANY weather. A quick check of the current conditions tells me I should be fine once I get up in the air.
Is there some rule of thumb about not being able to see the other end of the runway? Good thing I donât know it.
And, vroom! Weâre outta there!
Just like the flight up, my hands are busy during the very quick ascent, trying to maintain center of gravity with the fuel system, but weâre on top and cruising at M 0.95 pretty quickly.
âThis is the worst inflight movie EVER.â
âNo, they could have played Bio-Domeâ.
âAh, good point.â
âLadies and gentlemen, weâve just crossed the US Canadian border into the United States. Please feel free to take out any weapons you may have carried on, and your sense of entitlement.â
The weather looks ucky out the cockpit window, but the weather at KTUS looks good. Just have to keep trucking.
Another early Christmas present was I bought myself Orbxâs FTX Global to get some better views in between airports. Hereâs another shot of the Grand Canyon. Compare it to the shot earlier in this post. The final pic isnât really all that great, but itâs worldâs better than the default.
During descent, I somehow let the fuel panel get away from me, and I spend most of the descent switching valves off and on and then off again. What a mess! Iâm able to avoid a serious CG excursion but that was way too much stress. I gotta stick to supersonic flights from here on out!
It may take an expert eye to see it, but this panel says âDanger, Will Robinson! Danger!â
One moment Iâm looking at the fuel panel, the next moment itâs completely dark in the cockpit. Wuuuut?
Must have just flown into a large cloud - weather still looks good at KTUS.
Once I get out of the clouds, the weather is great, if a little bumpy.
Visibility for miles! 10+, to be exact.
Configured for landingâŚ
Touchdown and reversers!
Home sweet home!
So there it is, the Mudspike Concorde is now officially home! You guys are all welcome to borrow it the next time youâre in Tucson. Except, @BeachAV8R: no tundra tires, ok? 
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YeahâŚbut you have to pay the fumigation costsâŚ
Right on! Thatâs what Iâm talking about. Can you mount triple ejector racks on it??
MeâŚI had one of those nights in the real airplane where you are just happy to get it back in the hangar. Driving around at turbulent air penetration speed and hoping you donât poke your nose into the wrong thing. Always a great thing when Atlanta departure says: âTwo-ten Charlie MikeâŚjust to let you knowâŚwe had two aircraft report lighting strikes in the past twenty minutes just south of your locationâŚâ BzzztâŚflashâŚbzztâŚflashâŚoârly??
Tâwas all worth it though. Patient got delivered, and I had a fine blackened grouper at the Downwind. 10/10 would do againâŚ
BeachAV8R
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So Iâm looking for something that I can glide to the North Pole. In the spirit of the challenge, I donât want to put a big engine on something and cheat.
There must be something with a similar glide ratio to the Wright Flyer?
Hmm.
Ok, now to get to a polar orbit and run the numbers to hit that grotto right onâŚ
Link for anyone that wants to try too:
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AlrightyâŚIâm gonna try againâŚthat weather is definitely moving inâŚ
If you pass over a brown piece of canvas, wood and sharp wire about 10 miles north of the field then please wave. 
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Should I drop a survival kit?
And yeahâŚthe weather is definitely not improvingâŚLOLâŚgonna be an interesting couple of daysâŚ
Itâs ok, Iâve got a tweed hat.
Only âheavy snow, Blowing snowâ, so thatâs pretty much Canadian Spring up there. 
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METAR Report for Igloolik (CYGT), Igloolik, Canada looks pretty goodâŚexcept for the fact that itâs over 7 hours oldâŚuhâŚwell, weâll take a look and see what we see. We have enough fuel to miss the approach and head elsewhereâŚ
CYGT 232100Z 29011KT 15SM FEW040 M33/M37 A2974 RMK SC1 -27.7/-35.6/0.0/29/ TR LOOSE LAST STFD OBS NEXT 24 1000Z SLP081 DENSITY ALT MISG
Arrived safely in Igloolik - the weather must not have caught up to here yetâŚbecause it was pretty niceâŚ!
Next up is Clyde River (CYCY) on the edge of the Davis Strait separating Canada from GreenlandâŚ283 nm on this next legâŚ
BeachAV8R
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ArrivedâŚnot so safely at Clyde River (CYCY). The airport there has a bit of a drop off at the beginning of the runwayâŚand if you donât time your flare to hit the slope on the riseâŚwellâŚyou can damage your aircraft. Which I did⌠LOL⌠So Iâll put the plane in the hangar tonight at CYCY and see if I canât get the damaged engine fixed upâŚ
Just a hop away from Greenland now!
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I love you guys, a years worth of reading in 1 thread. I cant do any flying while so much real life stuff remains to be done. For now I give you my Christmas HIP flight with presents
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