The Official 4th Annual Mudspike Christmas Flight - 2018 Edition

As do I. However, the CS 707 is unfortunately not very detailed in that regard. I’ve been a bit disappointed with it. Which is another reason I’m thinking of going with another aircraft.

If I stay with the 707 I’ll try to use the real manual more…even if it really does not impact the sim…and add more of that to the AARs.

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Leg 04 Ft. Collins to Salt Lake (KFNL-KSLC)

I feel utterly shameful posting my pitiful leg report. While it’s not exactly hookers and Dom back there, the ease at which I am knocking out legs undermines the great effort that you folks are making, climbing out on a wing to fill oil reservoirs, knocking ice off of the stringers, and navigating by the stars. Well, I’ll will beg forgiveness and humbly submit some modern biz jet porn.

Departing WX was light blowing snow 500 broken, 3000 overcast, 9 knt right quartering crosswind.

Today’s flight plan, a modest proposal.

Let’s roll.

In at 3k…

Out at 16k. We climb to FL340 making 4000+ fpm at 190 IAS.

Much of the way our TAS is 400+ kts and about the same GS.

Before long we are at TOD and nose down. Screaming along we pass some beautiful vistas in Western Col.

I bet that Park City is about ready for some fluffy white stuff. Looking pretty dry over here.

Nice view of downtown Salt Lake.

Turning downwind for 34L, the Great Salt Lake spreads out to the horizon.

The pattern is empty, so we request a change to 34R.

Did I mention that the baby Embraer is such a joy to fly.

Thank you for your service Utah ANG.

I throw a long salute to the home team hanger. May you live long and prosper.

Time to go find the crew car and get to the Marriott. To this point we’ve followed the same route as last year. Going to switch it up a bit over the next few legs. Will probably skip Jackson Hole and check out some place new in Idaho.

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That Phenom looks mouth-wateringly good! We lack high-fidelity Embraers so badly in this sim.

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Nice report! I just missed a screenshot from the cockpit!

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Doh, good point. Don’t worry the JS4100 will definitely be back. I’m actually having a lot of fun hopping all over S. America with the free OrbX landclass update right now, it really is a hoot to fly.

I’m currently grounded for the next two weeks or so, my flying PC is in storage, so it’s very enjoyable reading everyone’s reports and progress.

The CFO is not pleased and reminds flight ops, “We are not a charity” :grin:

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Yes. That is one really nice thing about most of the X-Plane scenery…the topography and lakes and rivers do tend to make pilotage a skill worth keeping alive…!

Haha…until you hit something like that! I wonder if sometimes dry lakes show up in the X-Plane data as real lakes…

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Whilst exploring Vaernes (ENVA) I wandered over to the military side of the airfield, showed the gate guard my USN ID card and they let me in. Then they asked if I wanted to fly this baby on my next couple of legs.

Captain Sim C-130 sold through Just Flight. This started out as a FS2004 aircraft. CS redid the entire thing for FSX. It has been a favorite of mine for a while–nice VC, handles like one feels it should, and pretty good short field capabilities…which will be important as my next destination is Helgoland-Dune (EDXH).

I may get back to the TWA 707 for a few of the longer flights where a higher cruising speed will be needed.

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I heard that the Captain Sim C-130 actually comes with P3D V4.3 for free. How is it?

I’m a big fan of the C-130 myself… I always wanted one in DCS. Maybe I could also give this a try during my Christmas Flight.

I don’t have P3D so I don’t know about that.

Evidently there are 3 x CS C-130s floating about. There is Legendary C-130 (FS2004) and C-130 X-perience, and this one…and of course non are comparable with each other. :roll_eyes:

From a quick look online, the CS C-130 X-perience is probably as close as it gets to this model…plus it seems to include a few more liveries. (Evidently Just Flight no longer offers this C-130)

I like it because it is fairly systems intense without getting overly complex. For example: When going through the start up procedures, there is a switch that that lets external or Battery DC power go “backwards” to power the DC busses needed to start up. A little detail to be sure but it gives the aircraft that little bit more of emersion.

Handling is very nice. It is a heavy aircraft so doesn’t turn on a dime. However, I have taken an RAF version on the UK’s Mach Loop…you just need to think a few seconds before the aircraft…great fun down low with good scenery.

Which is why I decided to “change horses”. The next couple of legs will be over Europe, with ORBX’s Europe LC and specifically both North and South Germany. So a flight at 35,000 seemed a bit of a waste. :slightly_smiling_face:

Hampton to Pago Pago Leg 2 Continued - Trondheim, Vaernes to Helgoland-Dune:

Previously on Hangar200’s Xmas Flight:

As far as planes go, the 707 has been fun…still…

Whilst exploring Vaernes (ENVA) I wandered over to the military side of the airfield, showed the gate guard my USN ID card and they let me in. Then they asked if I wanted to fly this baby on my next couple of legs.

Just climbing back onto the flight deck of CS’s C-130 was like meeting an old friend. I took a quick survey of the 2D pop-up panels and went over the start up checklist. Rather than fly a FamFlight around the field I decided to just go for it.

Since I would be flying over Scandinavia (with ORBX Norway Scenery) and eventually into Germany (with N and S Germany scenery) I decided to keep it fairly low–8500 ft MSL over the Norwegian mountains, dropping down to 5500 ft over the North Sea and eventually lower as I approached Helgoland-Dune (EDXH).

Why Helgoland?

My choice of Helgoland may puzzle some. Two reasons: 1) ver short runways 2) Awesome Aerosoft scenery. The trip would be all VOR-toVOR (with and ADF thrown in for good measure). I would use other NAVAIDs as well as landmarks to cross-reference m position as we went along. That meant I’d need some decent aero charts. Fortunately I have a few FSWidgets apps on my iPad. The Europe TPC or ONC work well enough although they don’t cover north of 60ºN…no worries, I couldn’t go wrong by just heading south.

The “Hercy-bird” is not overly complicated to get started–GTC (Gas Turbine Compressor…in other words an APU) for power and starting air, Fuel pumps on, Condition levers to Flight and smack the Start button…actually there are some electrical busses you need to power up and the hydraulics need to be off line, to include Non Skid…and there a couple of other systems set to the correct state…actually it is a bit complicated. But after a few missteps I had everything up and running.

CS’s C-130 comes with a small app called ACE (Aircraft Configuration Editor) that lets you put on liveries and, more important, set the fuel and cargo load, telling you when you are over Max weight. It also lets you set your callsign (keep that in mind). When I used ACE to set up the plane I made sure I was below Max weight but was still carrying a lot of fuel. “But what about landing on that shore EDXH runway?” This C-130 comes with a fuel dump system. My plan was to fly to the last waypoint before EDXH and then dump down to a light weight (4500 lbs) that would give me 2-3 looks at the runway and enough for a 45 Nm divert (to an 8,000 ft runway with ILS).

The previous day, I had changed the aircraft’s callsign in FSX from “Husky” to “Norsman” which I thought sounded better. But when setting it up in ACE I saw the Husky callsign would replace Norsman and decided not to mess with it.

With the plane all set, I called for taxi to the active and was given directions for RWY 09. I noticed that they used the Norsman callsign. “That’s strange”, I thought but ignored it.

New Hangar200 rule:

Whenever you think, “That’s strange”, stop and check everything…it goes along with “You shouldn’t do that” from Leg 2)

The taxi was uneventful…


…definitely want to keep to the center line here…

…getting to the end and slowing so I don’t end up “in the drink”.

I taxied to 09, received TO clearance and pulled out onto the runway. The check list calls for standing on the brakes and moving to full power (throttles to the stops), watch the engine gages for everything to smooth out and then release the brakes. I did so.

My TO speed from the chart was 120 kts. From 0 to 60 kts the procedure s to keep the yoke slightly down to allow for NWS; above 60 kts, yoke to neutral until Vr, then a light back pressure to achieve an initial 10º nose up. (You can easily over rotate and drag the tail).

At 120 knots I did as proscribed…nothing…130 knots…nothing…”Hmmm…this TO run sure is taking a long time”…140 kts…ehhh…145-ish knots the nose came reluctantly up…I barely got airborne with the 27 end coming on fast…something was definitely amiss.

When at the correct weight with correct flaps settings, a C-130 can make combat takeoffs, something like 30ºnose up and awesome FPM (the VSI goes to 5k FPM). Today was evidently not one of those days. I was flying and had managed not to hit the trees beyond the end of the runway, however I was headed into a valley–terrain to both sides and a mountain straight ahead. Time to do some of that pilot stuff Mav.

The first waypoint the VNA VORDME was behind and to my right (SW of me). I had planned a right climbing turn. However the terrain to the north was lower, so I started a left climbing turn as I cleaned up the aircraft. That meant I’d be heading back “over” the flight path into the active, not always a good idea.


Sure enough, an SAS flight is on final…“Norsman 953 has the traffic.”

To go behind the SAS plane I had to extend a bit which put me off course for my first waypoint. I got near enough to it and since I was receiving my second WP’s VOR signal, so as soon as I crossed the initial fix, I turned on the planned course.

AP on (you also have to turn on the 3 servo motors…just like real thing) and engaged, set Track and initially left it in HDG since it matched pretty well. I climbed at about 1500 FPM and was at 8500 ft in no time. Soon enough the mountains were in view.


The view out a C-130’s flight deck windows is excellent.

The Situation: (No not the guy fro the Jersey Shore reality show) I must be heavy…why? Taking a look at my fuel gauges, every tank was full! So the ACE save hadn’t changed anything and FSX had used the default load–100% fuel. 135,000 lbs is about max TO weight (145,000 max overload…think combat)…a little rough mental mat told me I was probably in the 145,000 pls category, depending on my cargo weight…I had a situation on my hands.

No problem, that’s why they invented the fuel dump! I set up to dump fuel from the external and auxiliary tanks.

More on the C130 Fuel System:

EDIT: I finally found the fuel management section in the manual and discovered that my memory was off some - the corrected version follows:

The C-130 uses a fuel manifold system where any pump/tank can pressurize the manifold. Likewise, any tank can be shut off from the system. The fuel system s all in the wings. There is a valve (crossed separation valve) between the left and right sides/wings of the system. So there are multiple ways to set up the fueling system. Obviously, being a military aircraft, this is so you can rout fuel around battle damage.

Takeoff: Each engine pump on / engine tanks closed from the manifold / cross feed separation valve closed.

Cruise: it depends: For shorter flights, External tanks connected and pumps on; Aux tanks disconnect, pump off; Engine tanks connected and initially pumps off (allows for faster drain of the external tanks but need to watch external tanks level and turn engine tank pumps when external tanks get below 1,000 lbs); cross feed separation valve closed. This will empty the external tanks sooner so they will be empty on landing (desired). When externals are empty: external pumps off / manifold valve closed; Auk tanks pump on / manifold valves open. For Longer flights, reverse the process. The Aux tanks only have one pump (the externals have 2) so if you lose an Aux pump you still have external fuel.

Fuel balancing is pretty strait forward using the cross feed separation valve. You basically use the pumps (on/off) and manifold valves to move fuel around. As far as I can tell, the fuel doesn’t fill another tank, but engine(s) tank connected to the manifold / pump off, will draw fuel from the manifold vice the engine tank. So yo watch levels in whatever tanks that are feeding the manifold - when it/they match the light side, light side pumps back on, cross feed separation valve closed. When engine tanks are at 6000 lbs, (Aux and externals empty) then all engine tanks manifold valves are closed.

Landing: Same as takeoff unless AUX are dry. If so they will be disconnected and pumps off.

For a fuel dump, the way it is supposed to work is that you pressurize the system, open the dump valves for the tanks to be dumped, then open the overboard valves.

I clicked the dump overboard valves on and…WTF…all the tanks’ dump valves went to open…OK, I can deal with this, except it nothing seems to be dumping…scanning the gauges…double take on Tank 1, it is going below 4000 lbs in a hurry. :open_mouth:


(This is a “sim-ism” - to get the fuel manifold to work, they had to add some virtual tanks. I remembering this working fine in FS2004 but evidently something ”broke” when updated to FSX).

OK, technically I could dump down to an acceptable level, but the aircraft would be way out of L-R balance. I needed to stop to rectify things. Fortunately Oslo- Gardermoen (ENGM) was not too far off my track so I turned towards Oslo in the vicinity of Drammen…cool bridges.


I might as well do some sightseeing along the way. Downtown Oslo with the Royal Palace. My wife went to kindergarten on the palace grounds…“Hey honey! I can see your house from here!”

During the way I lowered my altitude and throttled up–might as burn up as much as I can.

Both 1L (12K ft) and 1R (10K ft) were active. I knew there was a military terminal/parking area…I seem to recall it was off the western side of 1R so I requested that runway. If I was still overweight for landing, I doubted !R’s 2,000 extra ft would be all that help.
I made a norm landing…


…and was directed to parking (which I ignored) and taxied to where I thought the military apron was…only to discover I was mistaken…

… but there was a big SAS maintenance facility where I could park…maybe those guys could help me out.

Parking brake ON; GTC ON; power to the AC bus, Engine Generators OFF, Condition lever to Feather…and open the big Cargo deck does just for fun; a smattering of other housekeeping switch throws…just about to finish…


GTC off…, and finally Battery Off.

As I did my post flight walk around I noticed that the Fuel Dump had really messed up the L-R balance…it had pulled a bit to the right on landing.

Conclusions:
I logged a 2.6 hr flight and was busy pretty much all of the time…although I don’t endorse forgetting to check fuel level before takeoff as a valid reason to keep one busy during a flight. My Aerosoft Mega Airport scenery for ENGM had not been high enough in the scenery stack…but the ORBX is pretty good.

Time for an FSX restart, put Aerosoft’s ENGM to the top of the scenery stack (and make sure EDXH is up there too), figure out where the Mil Parking is (oh look, by the eastern end of 1R…@#$%!), reset the aircraft (virtually towed), and reset the fuel…then I should be ready to go.

Stay Tuned…

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Been eyeing that scenery for a year now…mmm…

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The next AAR has several pics for you to enjoy…perhaps a sneak preview?

Hegoland Island:

The northwestern rocky cliffs:

Dune Island (the airfield island):

I will say that the scenery is better explored with a helicopter or Cessna, than a C-130. :sunglasses:

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Hampton to Pago Pago Leg 2 Continued - Trondheim, Vaernes to Helgoland-Dune (Part Deux):

The SAS guys were nice enough to tow the Hercy Bird over to the Military Ramp (and plaster a few SAS promotional stickers in the cargo deck).

Fuel: Since I didn’t want to deal with the dump system, I took and educated rough estimate–about 4,000 lbs each engine tank; and around 1,000 each in external tanks and the Aux tanks. The idea was to drain External and Aux tanks early, then burn down the engine tanks so that I’d have 2000 lbs per engine tank when I was overhead EDXH. That should give me a couple shots at landing with fuel to spare for the nearest divert.

With the Aerosoft Scenery, Gardermoen is a much more populated…

…and busy airport.

With a light fuel load,Vr was 90 kts - I took it to 100 kts and rotated smoothly.

Passing by the famous Holmenkollbakken Ski Jump facility…

…and then saying good by to Oslo as I head down Oslo Fjord.

The fuel gremlins strike again! As I am setting up to stop pulling from the external tanks, I miss a step and this is the result.

Fortunately a C-130 can actually cruise on 2 engines so killing 3 was not a huge deal. I feathered it, ran through the simple air start procedure and was back in business in no time. Lesson Learned: Ensure the Engine fuel pump is ON / operating before disconnecting from the fuel manifold.

Leaving Norway and heading out over the North Sea.

As I got closer to the Denmark coast, I began descending from 5500 ft to 3500 ft. I was at 3500 ft when making landfall.

Details

This shows the AP pop up panel. It is pretty simple. First power on. Next, turn on the three servo motors. Then Engage. I have the heading input as ILS/NAV1 and turned on Track to hold that course. I have also turned on Altitude Hold at 3500 ft. In the Lower left is the mini-panel to activate the 2D pop-up windows.

Then the weather got a bit more cloudy. I dropped another 1000 feet to 2500ft MSL. That put me nicely between the clouds…but what would the lower altitude do to my fuel plan? (such as it is…it’s really a fuel guess)

OK, External and Aux Tanks are dry. At this point I was shooting to start burning into that 4000 lbs per engine tank…Tanks 3 and 4 are about right…4 is a little light…1 and 2??!!

How did they get so low? Had to be my fuel set up. Regardless, I’ve got a pretty significant fuel imbalance that I need to take care of…and I’ll probably be more like 1500 lbs per tank overhead EDXH, 2000 lbs total under what I had planned.

I began rebalancing the fuel. That was just finishing up as I hit the last WP, SLT NDB, before EDXH. It is 44 Nm SLT to EDXH. The divert route to Westerland Sylt (EDXW) (beyond my right wing) is 48 Nm.

In a few minutes, Helgoland is sighted…and my fuel is rebalanced.

Actually there are two islands. Helgoland (right of aircraft) is hilly and evidently where everybody lives. Dune (left of aircraft) is where the airfield and beaches are located.

Checking in with the tower, RWY 15 is the active. That is not good news. The short final to RWY 15 is over sand dunes, about 30 ft elevation, that end a couple yards / meters from the pavement. I know I can’t land that way but decide to try a touch-and-go aiming to hit the runway about half way down. So I turn to final. From this altitude about 1/8 of the runway is hidden behind the dunes.

I don’t get the touch-and-go as I realize I’ve got a pretty good cross wind…

…so I just go around, and see if RWY 33 is doable. It isn’t. Again it is the cross wind. I wave off early.

One more half-hearted try at RWY 33. Without knowing what the winds are (no ATIS and the tower wasn’t any help) I am really having a hard time adjusting…that and the runway width is only 98 ft (30 m). As I sail by the right hand edge, almost at the threshold, I throw away the approach and set Go Around power. As I wave off I have a nice, low level view of Helgoland.

I climb back to 2500 ft, turn to the SLT NDB which will let me line up with EDXS’s RWY 32 ILS. As I approach SLT, a slide a bit to the east, to ease my turn to final. Even if I do run out of gas and splash, the water looks shallow enough that I could walk to shore.

I check my fuel before turning to final. It is 4,000 lbs total - about 1,000 per engine. This is lower by a few hundred pounds from what I wanted but I should have at least one GA still left in the tanks (and at least its balanced).

On final…a little high but looking good.

After landing I taxi to the ramp and shut down. I seem to have drawn a few interested folks out on the apron.

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Seventh entry for the Christmas Challenge.

So there we are in the 757, loading up 100 passengers and cargo to from Mexico to Panama.

Click to reveal AAR

Welcome aboard!

Local time is 14:00. We will most likely land at night since we’ve got a 4-hour flight ahead of us.

We started pushback 30 minutes late (plugging in the flight plan in the FMC was much longer than I anticipated)

Taxiing to Runway 5R

The Rolls-Royce engines roar


Good-bye, Mexico!

Pretty cloudy

Contrailing

I reach 30,000 ft near PBC (Puebla). I’ll climb up some more to 36,000 ft

36,000 ft. Time to sit down and relax.

Getting pretty cloudy up here

Cloud surfing

Over Ixetepec Airport

I crossed Tapachula without having seen anything below the cloud cover. Tapachula is Mexico’s southernmost airport, right before entering Guatemala.

Guatemala. I’ve often dreamed of visiting the ancient Maya ruins. It’s sad how little we know about pre-columbian civilizations.

Approaching San Jose, Guatemala (SJO)

Still cruising

Approaching MSLP (El Salvador)

Santa Ana Volcano and Lago Coatepeque

I hear it’s a great place for hiking!

Jiquilisco Bay

Gulf of Fonseca, which is directly on the borders of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua

We’re getting there, slowly but surely

Running into some high altitude Cirrus

Managua and Lago Xolotlán, Nicaragua

Chiltepe Volcano

We still need to fly over the Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) before crossing Costa Rica

There it is

Volcanoes Concepcion and Maderas

Halfway through the flight, my center tanks are empty. I check the fuel gauges on the overhead panel, then turn off center pumps.


Unfortunately, I don’t get to see much of Costa Rica

So far so good… approaching the Top of Descent BITOR, which is the last waypont before the Top of Descent at the BOGAL transition towards the BUSUN1 STAR.



As I try to tune on the ATIS frequency, I realize that the Tocumen airport in X-Plane isn’t equipped with it. No worries though, I’m using real weather so I can just take the METAR straight from Tocumen.

I adjust my altimeter to 1006 hPa and begin my descent.

Steady as she goes

Visibility gets worse…

And worse…

And even worse still…

On the Pacific Coast of Panama

Swinging by runway 03

On Final


Very humid down there

Runway in sight. The localizer doesn’t seem to be working, so I go for a manual landing. AP Off, Auto-Throttle Off.

Here we go


Landing went well. Barely grazed the runway.

Welcome to Panama.

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Oh jeez, the legs have gotten shorter so I’m going to begin condensing my updates a bit. It’s been a wicked journey so far, travelling to places I’d love to go to in real life. Last update we crossed into Russia, still tagging along with V35’s, we continued on south!

I absolutely love the look of this plane, can’t beat the head on!

It’s a fast climb up to cruise altitude, to our next stop of UHSS before we head to Japan. On the way to UHSS I spotted a US Carrier doing it’s business. DCS, hello? Is that you?

But alas, there’s no time to bug the carrier. Besides, I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate that. Back to the flight at hand, we’ve reached TOD in a remarkable amount of time. Fortunately, things are far better weather wise this time around.

I took the visual and came in relatively calm, nothing exciting happened this time around which if I’m honest is a nice change from the IMC stuff.

I’ve ended up parked beside some sort of high performance tail dragger. Can anyone identify?

Imgur

There’s no time to waste, we’re planning a return trip as well and I’m aiming to do this all by the original deadline. It’s off to RJCW! Japan, here we come!

I’m here with a goal, I want to do some drifting, see some cool cars and fly around some cool places.

An interesting bit about this airport, RJCW is that they have circling guidance lights. Something I had never heard of before. It actually seems to be more common here in Japan, as compared to say Canada. Though I can’t be certain of that as I’m very limited in my scope of airports I fly to in Canada as well as the US for that matter.

A nice little turn to final and we’re in to the field. I’m aiming to do more visual approaches in this segment, weather permitting. One of the things I’m struggling to grasp in real flying is the whole pitch for speed, power for descent rate. So I’ve been working to get that lodged into my memory and it seems to be working quite well. The joys of a simulator to help cement real world practices!

As it turns out, I haven’t done an inspection on the aircraft since I’ve started this journey. Considering the inclement and rapidly changing weather situations, this obviously isn’t ideal in the slightest. So up she goes!

A quick check of the aircraft determines that overall the plane is in good shape, there are things wearing such as the nose gear which is to be expected. But nothing that warrants concern at this time fortunately. What’s the warranty like on this plane I wonder? Maybe there is no warranty? Questions that plague my mind at 10PM.

The next day it’s back to the airport, which had loaned me a car the previous day to get around in. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping ( See Toyota Mark II) and instead I got a BMW. Luxury is nice too I suppose.

We’re moving on to Hakodate (RJCH), diving further into the country! Shortly after takeoff, a weather donut began to form below me. Odd. Is this a bug in 11.30?

The weather going on began to deteriorate slightly, down to scattered at 2000 and broken around 4000. With mountains in the area, the GPWS was keeping me aware of the current situation when I was in the soup.

After landing at Hakodate, it was time to plan for a hop to RJTT, better known as Tokyo Haneda Intl. It was also the first time I got to see the new British Airways submarine service in Japan, utilizing the 737-300 as it’s startup craft. (If anyone knows where to find a v35.OBJ let me know lol)

Imgur

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A very interesting flight. I noticed that when the center tanks went dry the gauge still read 50 lbs…I assume unusable fuel. I think that is pretty cool that they do that, as FSX usually lets you go down to 0. The C-130 I’m flying has a usable fuel table but I haven’t checked it to see if it really is enabled in the sim.

Yep…it looks like I’m going to Make the Leap to X-Plane…in fact I’ve started a thread (more of a support group…“Hi, Im Hangar200 and I still use FSX.”…type of thing.)

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Genius. :blush:

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Finally decided to give it a whirl. Will be doing the trip with FSX:SE, stock scenery, an old version of REX I had laying around for real time weather generation, and a few payware A/C that have been collecting dust in my hanger.

After a few cups of coffee and playing around with Sky Vector this is the rough route I came up with.

First leg ARR

So the first half of my route will take me west from Lincoln, NE to San Diego, CA. I’ve decided to break this first half into a number of small flights.

So with the route planned out I now needed a plane. Hopping into my truck I drive to the east side of KLNK to start digging threw my hanger to see what I have available. Upon arriving at my hanger, I open the door, revealing its contents which have not seen the light of day for several years. I start moving the dusty aircraft out of the hanger one by one, none of which catch my eye, until only a single small aircraft remains, tucked away in a corner. “Bingo”. I hook up the tow bar and drag it out of the hanger, giving it a good once over before towing it over to my works FBO for fuel.

Climbing into the cockpit, I notice it still has that “new plane smell”, and begin pre-flighting my A2A Civilian P-51’s cockpit.

After checking out all the Mustangs systems, I decide that there’s “no time like the present”, and run home to grab my bag and file my flight plan to Denver.

After returning to the plane I load up and begin the process of trying to bring the Mustang to life in 23 degree F temps. After about 15 minutes and multiple trips to my hanger for new batteries and new starter, She LIVES!

Unfortunately, as the day has progressed, the weather has gotten progressively worse, with light snow slowly getting heavier, and vis dropping to just a couple miles. However taxi and takeoff, amazingly, are uneventful, and soon I’m cruising just over the cloud tops at angels 12.

Not much to see en route since the sun has set and the clouds remain thick all the way to Denver.

Luckily A2A provides some nice tools to help manage the plane, if your someone who doesn’t fly it often, like me. The GPS and auto pilot help as well. :grin:

Almost there.

So the weather in Denver turned out to be about the same as Lincoln, which made for a sporty approach in to an unfamiliar airfield, in a plane I haven’t flown in years, and never really mastered to begin with. No pressure.

Somehow managed to land on the runway, and in one piece, two feats I’m shocked I pulled off.

After taxing to the GA ramp and prepping the plane for a cold weather start, I shut down and grabbed a big flat head screw driver from my tool bag and proceeded to pry the seat cushion from my rear. Once that was accomplished and the seat cushion reinstalled, I made my way to the hotel, hoping the weather for the next leg would be much more pleasant.

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