The official 3rd Annual Mudspike Christmas Flight - 2017 Edition

[Freak]

From Schiphol Airport, my first hop would be a tiny but complete flight to Prague (LKPR), following SIDs and STARs and even airways.

Departing EHAM.

An absolutely charming cockpit, climbing through the murk…

At EDUPO we start following the UZ738 airway, however (as we save and reload the situation) the FMS flight plan is lost and the decision is made to go direct towards the LOMKI5S STAR.

I spot a river in a hole between the clouds, probably the Obere Saale

And we’re out of the clouds at the end of the descent, now to try and tune in to ILS24.
A lot of fiddling about with radios and autopilot/flight director modes followed, resulting in me overflying the runway at ~1000 ft AGL.
So I turned and flew a circuit by hand (still a bit too high)

Almost lost visual on the bright white PAPI lights when a cloud/mist moved between me and the runway

Next stop will be either in Turkey, the Middle East or the Caucasus.

[NEVO]

@Freak you heading to Turkey (maybe), me leaving Turkey.

My plan is from LTAP Merzifon Turkey via OSPR Palmyra in Syria to (or ‘back to’) Baghdad.
Wanted to do some sightseeing

My next ride not in size but in speed is the small nimble RV-7A

Again low failures caused my speedometer not to show anything. Strange, I thought it will be more low probability of failures and less low failure every flight

Crossing the Turkey mountains to the South. Desert is more present down below

Last big peaks of Turkey are behind me and also last Turkish airports (LTCN Kharamanmaras in background), Syria in sight

If I wished sand before, than in Syria they have full stock of it

The flight from Palmyra to Baghdad was uneventful. The bad thing was that also without anything to sightsee. Palmyra was just autogen and Baghdad the same. I was vainly looking around to spot the great Victory Arch aka The Arc of Triumph aka Swords of Qādisīyah aka Hands of Victory… nothing…

But anyway looking forward to my next flight(s). I am finished with the small GAs now, next rides are Malibu Mirage, Twin Star and Seneca V. I dont know yet in which order. I am so looking forward to fly the Twin Star that I might store it for the final leg(s)

[lab54]

Wow, looks amazing! Good Luck!

[Fsjoe]

3rd leg with my DC-6 from LOWS (Salzburg) to LHBP (Budapest)…

I’m by far not progressing in they way I planned it. However there is still some time left to fly down to Christmas Island.

For the flight I had to prepare for icing. Not a big deal with the DC-6. For an airplane of this age, it however is pretty impressive how much technology was already built in: pretty much anything that is required for a proper airliner I would say. In regards to anti-icing this means:

• Windshield anti-icing with hot air or alcohol
• Carburetor de-icing with alcohol
• Electric propeller de-icing
• Airfoil thermal anti-icing system for the leading edges of the wing and tail using three combustion heaters
• Heaters for pitots, scoops, etc.

Most of the DC-6 anti-icing equipment is good at preventing icing but not necessarily at removing it. Therefore they must be turned on early in order to anticipate any ice accumulation. As all those systems are properly simulated in the DC-6 and thus are of course a critical component of the takeoff preparation while I taxiing to the runway.

The departure and climb went well and I established cruise speed above the cloud layer. Somewhere close to the border between Austria and Hungary the cloud layer dissolved and the four big radials did as always a wonderful job.

After now having done more than half of the trip a quick check on the fuel gages confirms that we have plenty of fuel left. I decided to switch to the alternate tanks.

In case the DC-6 systems are interesting to you guys let me know and I will try to explain one or the other in my following flights. Yes, the fuel system is also properly simulated and with 8 tanks, 4 tank selector and two cross-feed selector levers, there is lots of manual work required, especially on longer flights (and there is even more in case of emergencies!).

Before my last turn before arrival, I switch back to the main tanks, check the engine gauges. Note the low carb air temperature. It’s fine if its cold, however is only acceptable when there is not humidity. When we flew through potential icing, such a low carb temperature would have been a little problem and you would have had to play with the carb heat levers or even the carb anti icing system.

I configure the airplane for the landing, capture the localizer and follow the glide slope. The crosswind significant but constant and allows a smooth approach and landing.

Here we are at Budapest…

Now I need to go back and read all the exiting stories in this forumI failed to follow during the last days…

[chipwich]

@Sine_Nomine

Speaking of Ortho4XP, I think I detect it there, too. Great screenies!

Thanks CP. It’s an ortho photo overlay, but I used the prebuilt US Orthophotos from this link:

US Orthophotos

[keets]

LIPZ → LDSP (Split Airport)

A dirty rainstorm was present over Venice, not something I’d expected. Takeoff had a slight crosswind to add to the excitement.

Up into the rain

The weather report showed the cloud was likely to be up beyond 10,000ft. Climbing slowly through the murk, we eventually pop out into the evening sunshine at 13,000ft.

Autopilot engaged, we headed down the Dalmation coast towards Pula. A small break in the cloud showed I was slightly off track as we crossed just north of the runway.

Pula down below

Sun setting below the clouds

As the sun began to set, the cloud began to thin and the weather below improved.

XPlane really does night well.

As we arrived at Split, it was pretty much full dark. I crossed over the airfield around 5,000ft and flew a nice timed right hand circuit. Turning in slightly late, I was just off the centreline.

I let the speed get too high and had a flap overspeed warning come up.

Slightly off

I touched down around 1/4 of the way along the runway, but the landing speed is so slow we’re at taxying speed before we reach halway.

I couldn’t spot any taxi ways in the dark, even with the lights on, so pulled off the runway and shut everything down.

Shutdown

A relatively short hop today. This is the first time I’ve flown the release version of XP11 in the dark and its a big improvement over darkness in the beta. This is likely to be my last for a while unless I can get another leg in this week. I knew it was likely I’d be getting to Christmas Island beyond the deadline, but had hoped to be in India by now.

I’ll stick with the DC-3 still, but may have to charter something faster otherwise I could still be going at Easter.

[Fsjoe]

@keets you seem to have the same issue as I have: time… With my short flights I will hardly make it on time…let’s see there are still some weeks left and the SR-71 could always help up in the last minute to make a big step forward.

[Cib]

Disaster has struck U571.
The crew got blind drunk and then started fighting amongst themselves over the girls. I knew it was a mistake sailing on a Friday with women on board. The fighting broke out in the engineering department and spread throughout the ship. By the time it had quietened down, we had run hard aground on a sandbank off the coast of Northumberland.

Luckily I was in the boy scouts and was always prepared. I rushed to my cabin and quickly dressed in the uniform of a British flyer I had kept for just such an eventuality. Wading ashore with the Enigma machine tucked under my arm I bumped into a couple of Home Guardsmen, a wizened pair who reeked of rum. I managed to persuade them I was a British pilot and had been shot down, they gave me a slug of rum ushered me to an old truck and we set off for RAF Newcastle apparently the nearest place they knew of to return me.
The effects of the rum had me dozing in the front seat of the truck and through some rift in the time/space continuum I awoke in 2017. Still dressed the same as I was when I fell asleep but sitting in the back of a taxi with a large gentleman looking back at me from the front seat demanding his fare. A quick check of the old pockets produced some loose change and a crisp note with £20 written on it. That’ll do he snarled plucking the said note quickly from my fingers.

I exited the taxi is a state of bewilderment, confused alone and unable to mentally comprehend the massive changes I could see all around me. Great roars of sound came from behind the building to my front, a huge glass edifice filled with more people than I had ever seen in one place before in my life. I, amongst all this throng of humanity was wearing a heavy blue uniform which had started to itch. The majority where wearing a sort of pair of pyjamas with the ankles and wrists bloused and emblazoned on them such words as Nike and Puma. They where all wearing similar brilliant white shoes which looked as if they had all just been bought especially for this gathering. I asked the nearest person to me what was happening and he replied they where all off to Spain for the winter as it was cheaper than having to heat there homes. None the wiser I walked into the glass building trying to take in all the strange sights and sounds.

My musings where quickly interrupted by a shrill woman shouting at me and asking where I had been ? had I no sense of time ? of shame ?
It seems she thinks I am a pilot come to take part in a flyby of a new school opening and I am running late. A sense of panic rises and threatens to overwhelm then a calmness seeps in to my soul and I see the hatching of a plan develop, really how hard can it be to fly a plane, it can’t be harder than driving a submarine…right???

Well the sun is shining the birds are singing lets take this opportunity to try to escape this madness and return to my old life in 1942. These are my thoughts as I follow the shrill woman through a set of doors and out of the other side where the roar I heard earlier is given form. The biggest aeroplane I have ever seen is sat in front of me with strange engines on the wings with no visible propellers. My stomach lurched when I imagined trying to fly something as big as this, fortunately the woman had continued walking past the behemoth and pointed at a more reasonably sized plane and one which I recognised from our recognition charts. A DC3 sitting with engines started and door open waiting for its pilot.
“We had her started to save time” she announced “I hope thats ok with you”. I gave her a smile and walked trying to look as suave and debonair as my shaking legs would allow and climbed the ladder to meet my fate.

[Cib]

And so I am off. This all seams a piece of cake, and it does not smell of cabbage and sweaty socks like the submarine did

My first thought is to follow the coastline south and so I turn to cross the river Tyne at Newcastle

Whilst I concentrated on keeping level and on course a small funny looking chap walked into the cockpit and hopped into the other seat. “Hello, I am Google McBing an IT Leprechaun and I was sleeping in the back of this plane” The day just gets more weird by the minute!!
It turns out that Google McBing is a knowledgeable fellow and soon helps me with autopilot instructions and a grasp of using the maps.
I am sure without his help we would not have made it quite this far but we spot and identify London City Airport and indeed London City too.

Leaving London behind us we head off towards the South Coast and onwards to France

Using our recently acquired knowledge Google and I decide that Caen will be a good place to land as I had been here before in a UH-1h and a Spitfire in yet another layer of time known to all as DCS

I contacted the tower and they started me off in various directions and various hights depending on their whim I suppose. after 20 minutes of vectoring 030, 070,210 I took matters into my own hands and went on in.

The man in the tower threw a fit and hit me with a splashscreen warning just on touchdown but I apologised and parked up for the night.

My new friend Google is keen to accompany me to Christmas Island I believe he thinks Father Christmas lives there. Proof if needed that google can be wrong sometimes.

TBC

FYI Next leg

[NEVO]

Looking in my stable whats left, I decided for the PA46 Malibu Mirage, so I will make a complete use of single engine aircrafts before moving to multiengine.

I actually dont know much about the great looking PA46, but I have quite a distance in front of me so I will learn on the go. You know time constrains

I lazily climbed out of the Baghdad and planed to turn waypoint over Strait of Hormuz (quite popular destination I would say ) and finish in Pakistan, Masroor AB. Dist: 1318nm

PA46 looks really agile and also the Dovetail graphics team did a great job on her

Stunning from every angle…

…inside out (on the right side can be seen blue waters of Persian Gulf)

I climbed to the cruising alt, around FL019, and played with the mixture control as the engine was loosing power.
In the hurry and without any useful docs I set the mixture based on the only gauge which possessed at least minimal will to move when I moved the mixture control.

So actualy what I did I set the mixture to the position where that gauge needle pointed to its maximum value without closely checking.
As I later discovered, it was Fuel Flow gauge!

But it was not at this point. Strait of Hormuz, ‘Wish I had the time to stop for a while to check closely’ went through my mind

It was at this point where I overflown the waypoint and was fiddling with GPS and HDG to set my next course.
My eyes hovered for a while over two gauges which needles pointed straight to the cockpit floor… Fuel Tank Indicators

…switched to SkyVector looking for some nearby airport. There we go, right on the peninsula… but without nav aids…
GNS530… nearby airports screen… OOKB Khasab (didnt know that the North part is Oman)… Direct To…

Fought a battle with the AP to set the descent to aproximately 1000fpm. The best I achieved was cca 500fpm. Disconected the AP and went with manualy controled descent.
The guess was quite right, descent went smooth (notice the fuel gauges, only two needles pointing sadly down)

As I am cruising not at my gaming PC, but via TeamViewer from my laptop, I had to save the flight (and the day) right when the airport popped up from the dirt. Gray-ish airport on the cream-ish surface

I did good decision. Because without the proper controls (joystick and throttle) using the laptop keyboard I would just jink right, jink left and crashed on the approach. Morning is always wiser than the evening.

Next day with calm head I overflown the treshold and did 270 turn around the small hill (treshold right below me)

And made it in one piece (of cake not so much)

With full fuel tanks I made around 850nm instead of the planned 1300nm. What to say…

Welcome to the club!

[PaulRix]

Nice to see another DC3 on this trek… that’s three of us now by my count.

[PaulRix]

Chubu (RJGG) to Tanegashima (RJFG).

This flight takes us just beyond the most Southern point of mainland Japan.

Departing Chubu airport turn to the West over Ise Bay.

On the other side of that ridge line we should be able to see Osaka.

The stock scenery in this area looks great to me.

The city of Osaka, looking Southwest along the Yodo River and the Osaka Bay.

Something makes me think we are directly over the Osaka International airport. Looks like World Traffic 3 is doing it’s thing too.

When I first saw the scenery around the Osaka port area and here, looking towards the Kobe airport, I thought it was pretty shoddy work, and not at all natural. Well, after looking at the area in Google Earth, it really isn’t natural at all, but instead, reclaimed land…

Leaving Kobe and Osaka behind us, we continue Southwest.

Crossing Awaji Island, the cloud layer started to thicken up and get lower. I descended to stay visual with the ground.

With high terrain looming ahead, it was inevitable that I would have to climb up into the murk.

Once I climbed up, it turned out to not be so bad, with the cloud layer starting to break up a little.

With the high terrain behind us, we soon come across the Kochi airport.

The city of Kochi and just to the South of the city, Urado Bay.

Some time later, we have crossed the Bungo Channel and turned South. Looking behind us, we can see the city of Miyazaki, with it’s airport runway sticking out into the sea.

Coasting out. Looking to the right, we can see the mouth of Shibushi Bay.

While ahead we get our first glimpse of Tanegashima Island.

As we get a little closer, the island seems relatively flat with no significant mountainous terrain.

About half way down the length of the island, the airport comes into view. The winds were pretty much calm, so I turned onto final from a left base for an uneventful landing.

My next stop will be Okinawa, hopefully this weekend.

[Chuck_Owl]

@Sine_Nomine Oh my, that’s quite the adventure! What’s the name of that game, out of curiosity?

@PaulRix I think your AARs have to be among my favourite. I like how you point out all these landmarks, really makes it a fascinating read. The Japan stock scenery looks pretty darn good in X-Plane, eh? I can’t say the same for the Montreal area, unfortunately. They made it look like a huge forested island… while in reality it’s one of the most urbanized areas in North America.

[TheAlmightySnark]

It’s good to be back in my trusty work horse. Now what direction is Australia again?!

[keets]

Lol - Fantastic @Sine_Nomine.

[Tankerwade]

I think it’s time to move the post of the year badge…

Seconded?

[Chuck_Owl]

Aye, seconded.

[chipwich]

Sorry, we could not calculate directions from “Kanton Island, Kiribati” to “Christmas Island, 6798”

[fearlessfrog]

@Tankerwade

I think it’s time to move the post of the year badge…

Badge allocated - the coconut morph gif swung it for me.

[Tankerwade]

It’s a cool honor and we’ll deserved, but be careful. For some reason they made it out of the biggest rock in Beach’s backyard. That badge is heavy with expectation…