Leg09 Juneau to Honolulu (PAJN - PHNL)
Add-ons for P3Dv4 on this leg:
VRS Superbug and TacPack
Orbx: all layers plus PAJN
Active Sky P3Dv4 and Cloud Art
Departure from PAJN screen captures.
When I departed Atlanta in the DA62, I thought that I had a pretty solid flight plan:
But, that was wishful thinking and as Christmas approached, I got a big slice of RL pie when we went to Chicago for the holidays. Now those massive gaming laptops that some of you commercial pilots lug around began to make sense 
I knew that I would be late, but I just didn’t want it to drag on more than a few days past our loosely defined NYD deadline. To that end, I decided to eighty-six 4 or 5 legs.
I hadn’t flown the VRS Superbug since the DCS Hornet entered early access, but sliding into the cockpit, it was a lot more familiar than the last time. In fact, other than a few differences like the glass UFCD and EFD, the Rhino cockpit feels right at home to a legacy driver.
The VRS Aircraft Configuration Manager (ACM) made configuring the Super Hornet for ferry a few clicks.
My route would be a simple one, fly direct to PHNL using a bit more magic than I had available in the Mossie. In my caveman way of thinking, I could put the HSI in Waypoint mode and designate PHNL as waypoint 1. I doubted this would work in the real world, but when the Waypoint pointer swung in the right direction and PHNL populated the Waypoint Data Block in the HSI, my confidence rose to acceptable levels.
There was this little issue of not having enough go juice to travel the 2441 nm, nevermind a 100+ kt wind slightly off my starboard nose for the duration. In typical Chipwich fashion, I would solve for this once underway. There would be plenty of time to tinker with Sporty’s excellent E6B phone app in calculating what I couldn’t glean from the FPAS page. The headwind and a couple of aerial refuelings turned my 6:33 flight time into a bit over 8:42. It was easily the longest leg of the trip so far and the most time I had spent in a Hornet in a single mission.
Summary
Departure from PAJN screen captures.
I decided to check in with a tanker not long after going feet wet, and via the magic of the VRS TackPack, a reasonably willing Air Force KC-130J appeared. In retrospect, I should have burned off a lot more fuel before making the call. But I was curious as to not only how the process worked, but how long the Rhino’s legs could be extended.
His reassuring presence filled my confidence mug further and without too much drama, I joined up and carried out a simulated refueling to the best of my limited TacPack familiarity. One of these days I need to find a good AI KC-10 to make it left less to the imagination.
No long after I topped off, he began a left turn to take up his reverse track. Thanks big fella. We would need your services again in about 1500 nm.
As you might expect, there was not a whole lot interesting to snap photos of for most the leg. I watched the sun catch us and roll overhead, watched a couple of bowl games, and generally marveled at the expanse of H2O.
When fuel got down to about 5500 lbs, I decided to get on the vine with our friendly Hercules crew and request fill up. They happily obliged.
This time it was us whom did the kiss-off and we took up our journey to warmer climes.
As the sun receded, likewise we began our long glide down to earth. In fading light the shores of Kahaluu emerged and I begin to sit a little taller in the saddle. The warmer air became expectedly choppy and the BVDs were really a bunched mess.
After cheating a little to the east, I popped over the mountains taking the shortest route to Daniel K. Some might ask why not land at Marine Corps Base Hawaii (Kaneohe Bay)? Because I don’t trust those Jarheads not to mess with, or requisition my ride while I get a short night of RnR. That’s why
While setting up for 4R, a commuter came out of the fog intent on the same runway.
So I slipped under his stern…
… came up on his port side and lined up on 4L.
As I shut her down, I reflected on how well the Hornet managed the trip, albeit at the cost of rigor mortis setting into legs and back. I thought about 2300 nm left and whether I should break it up into 2 legs. My cell phone rang.
“Chipwich, where the hell are you son? The last keg of good beer is about to kick!”
