So Ya Don't Wanna Blow Stuff Up.

[Tinkicker]

So I find myself on the GA ramp at Fort Lauderdale.  David ( the owner) disappointed that I turned down his offer of ferrying the CL 415 to Greece was still looking to find me respectable employment in return for those free plane tickets.  But no way was I going to hand fly the shockingly slow and ponderous 415 all the way across the Atlantic.  The 415, in common with most water bombers does not have a autopilot, they being designed for relatively short range work.

 

David has been in touch with the same aircraft broker client in Athens, who is looking for another aircraft ferrying over the Atlantic, as Dave ( and Pete) well knew.  Apparently they thought my reputation for being an idiot meant I would be offered the booby prize first.  The CL415.  No one wants to fly it.

This time, he comes up with a far better proposition.

 

Enter the Beechcraft Turbine Duke.  Delivery from Fort Lauderdale Florida to Athens Greece.  Problem is the broker in Greece says the new owner spent a fortune on a new interior and does not want it tearing out for the fitment of ferry tanks.  That makes taking the southern Azores route impossible.  It does not have the range.  

 

Turbine duke specs:

1400 miles range, a useful buffer if headwinds encountered flying the northern route.

300mph cruise speed.

Twin Pratt and Whitney PT6 engines, the most reliable turbines in the world.

Ceiling of 28,000ft in a pressurised cabin gets above 90% of the weather.

Rated for flying into known icing conditions.

Weather radar.  

Little brother of the king air 350 I flew many hours in, pre my DCS days, over 10 years ago.

 

Is it worth the time and financial investment?  The jury is out on that, first the question has been asked.  Designed for FS 2020, does it still work in FS 2024?  The devs say every addon in 2020 will work in 2024, yet there are many reports of unflyable aircraft.  

 

The Turbine Duke.  I like the cut of its jib.  It is like a halfway house between the Comanche and the military jets I am used to in DCS.

 

He accidently switched the battery off instead of switching the generator on during right engine start.  Watch the engine gauges.....

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

 

Ah there you are.  Skulking around in corners.  Trying to avoid me eh? 

On that you can bet James.  Been avoiding you all morning.

Tough.  I have a ticket here for a Icelandair flight to Reykjavik for a week hence.  The poor old Comanche you broke is now once again in tip top shape and ready to ferry to Florida.  For Gods sake do try not to break it again.

 

 

 

So here I am, sat in the aircraft that tried its best to kill me at Christmas.  I start her up and run through all her systems while waiting for the engine oil tamp gauge to show some satisfaction.  I look through the tech log:

 

Brand new engine with 0.76 hrs test running.

Brand new prop Ditto.

New gear doors.

New mid wing skin under panels.

New fuel bladders.

New portside tip tank.

 

Hmm, not bad, did a decent job of not destroying her.

 

She checks out just fine, after a long hard preflight, I resign myself to a long overwater crossing.

 

9000ft above some very cold water and around 600 miles to go to Narsarsuaq Greenland.

Edited April 18 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

The weather remained fairly benign and the crossing continued without incident.  Well almost..

 

I took the opportunity to cheat a little.  About an hour into the water crossing it appeared that the sim had partly crashed.  Did not notice on autopilot, it was only when taking manual control to avoid a nasty looking cloud that I realised that the sim was no longer recognising my controls.  Neither stick, throttles or rudder pedals would work.  The only thing to do was to restart the PC and the sim.

 

Sim back up and running, I took the opportunity to reappear around 100 miles from the Greenland coast saving myself 300 miles and a couple of hours of boring ocean crossing.  What a cheat.

 

Coasting in over Greenland.  Narsarsuaq is located at the end of a Fjord and it must have been quite a job for a 20 year old B17 Skipper and his 19 year old navigator to decide which fjord was the right one, using only paper maps.  Getting it wrong was certain death.  The only surety was a wrecked ship about 10 miles down the fjord, if they saw that, they could breathe a sigh of relief.

 

Approaching the fjord with modern nav gear is a breeze.

 

 

 

We descend to 1000ft to see if we can spot the freighter.  It must have disintegrated in the years after WW2.  We saw nothing.

 

Edit: I just did a little research and found this post on a PPrune thread regarding the shipwreck:

I know some of the facts about the wreck, and somewhere I have a book which, as far as I remember, have the rest of the facts (I just can't find it right now!).

The freighter was hauling cryolite from the mine at Ivigtut (about 70 NM west of Narssarssuaq) to the USA. As I remember it, it was heading for Narssarssuaq to join a convoy when it hit one of the two submerged rocks next to the mountain called "the Iron" (for ironing clothes). This happened during the war in either 1942 or 1943. It just happened to sit solidly enough that it could be emptied of its cargo, which was needed in USA for the manufacturing of aluminium, and to stay there until some years ago. When it disappeared, I do not know, but when I was there in '95, it had gone.

I was on the wreck itself in '71 or '72.

If and when I find the book, I'll relay the missing facts, unless somebody beats me to it.

How are things at the 7 islands?

Regards
LIN

 

The end of the Fjord is still frozen but we commence our approach to Narsarsuaq in a stiff crosswind.  I am actually heading straight for the runway, crabbing crazily to counter the crosswind.  I will kick off the crab with a good boot of left rudder just before the wheels touch tarmac.  The format of the pic is different because it is taken from the right eye of my headset, I could not let off the controls for a second.

 

And safely down at Narsarsuaq.  Time for a Good Friday beer.  Next leg is across the Labrador Sea to Newfoundlland.

Edited April 18 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Welcome back! 

The anticipation is most enjoyable, cheers. 

[Tinkicker]

Bit chilly out here, especially after doing a thorough pre flight inspection with a 35kt wind blowing.  Otherwise a lovely sunny day.

 

 

 

Time to get ready to start the engine and get out of here.

 

Engine running and waiting for the oil temp to rise, I input my route into the nav system.  CBB4 Davis Inlet, Newfoundland is where I make landfall, then head south to CYYR Goose Bay Airport to hole up for the night.

 

Davis Inlet, a distance of 585nm and Goose a further 150 miles or so.  OK, I have plenty of fuel to make the trip.

 

I pull up the METAR for Goose on my tablet:  Looking good.  I should expect to land on runway 24 on arrival. Time to leave.

 

I have a bit of a choice to make.  Most takeoffs from Narsarsuaq are west towards the Fjord as high mountains surround the airfield to the East, North and South.  However with the 35kt headwind blowing straight down the runway from the East means that my ground speed at takeoff will be around 30mph and my angle of climb very steep, almost like riding an elevator.

I elect to takeoff towards the mountains, I should have climbed to a safe level and be able to turn on course, well before I reach the end of the runway.

 

No drama at all during the takeoff, indeed it was a very fast climb and well before the runway end, I was at 2000ft and able to make my turn with plenty of room.

 

Leaving Greenland behind, 580 miles to run to next landfall.

 

50 miles further and the clouds started building, I plunged through one and immediately the icing started on the windshield.  The Comanche cannot carry enough ice to fill a shot glass, so I had to descend from 8000ft to 4000ft before I encountered warmer air than the -10C at 8000ft.

 

The ice gradually melted and we proceed westwards.

 

Edited April 19 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

A couple of hundred miles in and the cloud became a serious concern.  Severe airframe icing forced me right down to 500ft above the ocean, where I languished in heavy sleet showers and turbulence.  Ice dropped my airspeed down to 130kts and I was seriously getting ready for sending out a mayday call, hoping that a nearby airliner might pick it up.  Far out of range of land based stations.

As I was pondering my next move, wondering if I should turn back or continue, the cloud started to break up.

 

I found myself in broken cloud and scattered banks of freezing fog.  I found if I stayed below 2500ft, the ice from the fog when flying through one of the banks had time to melt before I hit the next bank.

 

I am now just past the halfway point, no land for 300 miles in any direction and well out of range of search and rescue helicopters.  If anything untowards happens at this point, the adventure will end abruptly.

 

I just switched over from the tip tanks to the mains and we continue on.  It feels very lonely out here...

 

Nothing but freezing fog and water for 300 miles.

 

 

 

[Tinkicker]

And we are over Newfoundland.  I have been flying across it for a good half hour (80 miles or so) and have yet to see a single house or even a road.  Huge and empty place.

 

[Tinkicker]

And on the ramp at Goose Bay.  I made it across the Atlantic.  There were many times when I expected to die, but just got away with it.  If the icing conditions went right to sea level, that would have been a sudden end to the story and no one would know why.

 

I don't know whether single engine ferry pilots crossing the Atlantic are brave or exceedingly stupid.  Three per year die in the attempt.

 

Heading south now, the weather will be getting steadily warmer.

 

Time for a much needed beer after 6 hours in the air.

[Tinkicker]

Well here I am, sat warming up the aircraft at Goose Bay.  I am going through my options.

 

First destination.  St Johns International, Newfoundland, some 460 nm away.  I get the latest METAR.

 

Socked in.  Not going to get in there.  Low overcast, 400ft, dewpoint 6C, temp 6C.  The chance of flash forming fog is very high.  With no close diversion airfields nearby, out of the question.

 

Next is Montreal.  Just shy of 800 miles away.  It is one thing spending six hours flying with crap weather outside, but spending another six or seven hours flying on a sunny Easter Sunday afternoon will see the missus sneaking up behind me and cracking me round the back of the head with a frying pan.

 

So Montreal is out.

 

Talking of fog, we have had a light dusting of snow overnight at Goose Bay and have a fog layer from ground level to 2000ft.  There have been reports of clear air icing also, so that means it is a no go today.

 

I am going to find a bar in downtown Happy Valley, the local town (Pop 8100 souls) and pass the day sampling the local beers.  I hear Molson on draught is very presentable.

 

Have a postcard.

 

Edited April 20 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

I open a bleary eye.  Where am I, have I left Iceland yet?  10 seconds or so and I conclude I am in Goose Bay., Newfoundland.  Phew.

 

I am never going to touch a drop of Molson ever again.  It appears I have slept the clock around and I still feel crap.

 

Out with the tablet from the bedside cabinet where it is charging.  I drop it, pick it up from the floor and fearfully examine the the charge lead and port. Has it damaged it?  Nope it looks fine.

 

I get up the weather for St Johns.  Garbage, visibility less than 6000ft in light snow and mist.  No go.

 

I get the weather for Montreal.

 

 

Far more promising.  I will get the general enroute weather after breakfast.  Not looking forward to a 800 mile flight though.

 

Enroute weather not good.  Overcast with light snow showers. Ceiling 2500ft. Temp 1.6C, so that means below freezing above 2000ft.

If I can get above the clouds it may be doable.  I will give it a try, staying close to Goose Bay till I reach the tops.

 

If not, back to Goose.

Edited April 21 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Out to the aircraft, swept off the light dusting of snow and set up the nav for Montreal.  Off we jolly well go then.  As reported, low cloud at 2500ft with rain and sleet showers.  Looking up I can see they a re broken and can catch an occasional glimpse of blue sky.  So up I go through the cloud.

 

We immediately start picking up ice.  Not too concerned as long as we can maintain a decent climb rate.  I watch the instruments closely.  I see the airspeed dropping off rapidly to zero, yet the climb speed and pitch angle are constant.  Something is wrong..

I look around the cabin and see the pitot heat circuit breaker is popped.  OK, reset it and and wait for the dial to come alive again.  In the meantime I have the GPS groundspeed as a fairly reliable guide.  As long as it maintains 130 kts I am good.

 

We pop out the top of the clouds at 5500ft and I elect to continue.  The ice we picked up should slowly sublime as we continue and the all important speed over ground should increase as it clears.

 

We pop out the tops with a clear ice coating on the airframe and cockpit windows and a slowly recovering ASI.  Everything is looking good.

 

20 mins later, all trace of the ice has vanished, even though it is minus 15C outside.

 

 

Edited April 21 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

It is now 7am local time and I have the hunger pangs.  I paw through my flight bag looking for my in flight breakfast.  Sorted.  A bag of Quavers, a bag of minstrels and all washed down with a swig or two of Fanta Orange.  Food of the gods (and impoverished ferry pilots).

 

Just over 500 miles and a tad over 2.5 hours to run, we are at 10,500ft and the cloud remains broken and steadily improving towards scattered.  We have also picked up a very useful 30mph tailwind which makes our SOG close to 200mph.  Far better than expected.

 

 

 

And 30 odd minutes later we are crossing Quebec and are skirting the northern side of the mighty St Lawrence River.  We are finally seeing civilisation.  I believe the city below may be Clarke City.

 

Edited April 21 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Less than 100 miles left to run and the weather has cleared up nicely, the wilderness has given way to farmland and I am still following the St Lawrence.  Just started picking up ATC transmissions from Montreal.

Hungry again, I look in my flight bag.  Hmm tin of cold baked beans or tin of cold rice pudding?

 

Since the chances of dropping both down the front of my white uniform shirt are very great, I elect to wait until I get to my hotel.

 

Sunshine and farmland.  Lovely day to fly.

[Tinkicker]

And coming in over downtown Montreal.  Dunno what that structure is but it looked very odd.  Guessing it is some sort of sports stadium.  Winter Olympics maybe?

 

In the pattern at Montreal Trudeau international.

 

And down finally at Trudeau International GA ramp.  Time flown 4 hours 10 minutes thanks to a very strong tailwind.

 

Edited April 21 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

 

A quick throwaway muse:  One may wonder just how accurate cities ect are depicted in the sim..   A quick flight over Leeds and Elland Road.

 

 

Real Life pic of fans walking towards Elland road:

 

Same area in the sim from 1600ft.  Same path through the park.  Same houses to the left, same structures and football pitches to the right.  Same horse painted on the stadium.

 

Clickonit.

 

Edited April 21 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Those are incredible SIM overlays. 

Nice to see you having good flights. 

Considering those cockpits are quite small, I'd just go with rice pudding. 

Edited April 21 by Simon Davey

[Tinkicker]

And we are in USA.  A fairly short hop of some 300 odd miles from Montreal to Stewart International Airport, Orange County NY.

 

Not much adventure this trip.

 

Crossing the Appalachian Mountains into Massachusetts.

 

Getting in the groove for Stewart International.  Stewart was once owned by National Express........ cue the divine comedy song... 

Take the National Express when your life's in a mess
It'll make you smile
All human life is here
From the feeble old dear to the screaming child
From the student who knows that to have one of those
Would be suicide
To the family man
Manhandling the pram with paternal pride.

 

 

And down among the big boys.  Welcome to  upstate New York.

 

 

 

[Tinkicker]

I wake up to sunshine and looking out the window I spy people walking around in shirtsleeves.  Uh what!  Shirtsleeves?  I get dressed and mosy on down to the hotel breakfast room for some over crispy bacon and rubbery scrambled eggs.  At least the coffee was OK.

Bag packed and head outside.  Lovely warm sunshine and 22C according to the weather channel on TV.  Bloody marvelous after the brass monkey weather I endured so far.  I suppose I am now as far south as Paris now, so that probably explains it.

 

I climb into the cockpit and get her started.  I set up the nav for JFK to get some sightseeing in over New York city.  Lets see if I can get shot down by air National Guard F16s as I buzz the famous monuments.

 

First up is Manhattan with Central Park just starting to go under under my port wing.

 

OK, Time to really buzz the place.

Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and Pan Am Building to starboard.  Shocking pic. Dunno what happened to it.

 

Next up is the big green madam.  I had the tourists running for cover when I buzzed her..

 

Time to leave before Buzz Lightyear arrives and shoots me down.  I head out over Ellis Island and Brooklyn, headed for Philadelphia.

 

New Jersey to left over the other side of the Delaware and Downtown Philly ahead in the distance.

 

Philly airport is a very busy place, I am going to use the GA runway.  We come in with the twin stadiums of the Phillies baseball team and the Philadelphia Eagles football team.  I think the complex is called the Wells Fargo Centre.

 

Stadiums to left and the Philadelphia Navy Yard passing under the nose.  I am just about to turn 90 degrees to starboard onto my final descent into Philly International.

 

And down at the GA ramp in Philly.  Time to head into town to sample a Philly Cheesesteak if my arteries will take it.

Edited April 25 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Those "tourist" parts of the flight must be incredible in VR.

[Tinkicker]

28 minutes ago, Simon Davey said:

Those "tourist" parts of the flight must be incredible in VR.

 

 

They are, it all is.  I just wish you could see it as I see it.  All the incredible detail ect.  Unfortunately by the time the pics arrive here, they have changed format and been compressed several times.  90% of the detail is lost.  Plus I see everything in real world size, not a tiny picture.

[Simon Davey]

3 hours ago, Tinkicker said:

Plus I see everything in real world size, not a tiny picture.

 

Now that, I hadn't thought of, wow!

[Tinkicker]

I found the Philly Cheesesteak a little rich for my liking.   My intestines protest mightily.  Not a great start to the day.

 

I was going to head down to north carolina, but I fear my guts will not allow it, so a shorter trip to Norfolk, Virginia is in order.

 

We take off from Philadelphia, cross the Delaware river over Delaware Bay and from the state of New Jersey into the state of Delaware.  For the first time on the trip, it is boiling hot in the cockpit and I have to turn off the cabin heat and open the cabin fresh air vents to keep cool.

 

Delaware Bay, a mighty river.

 

Then we come to Chesapeake Bay, another mighty waterway, more like a sea than a bay.  It is difficult to grasp just how huge the US is.    At the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay lies Norfolk and the state of Virginia.

 

 

I tune the radio into a local station and whaddayaknow.

 

 

We circle over the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base as we line up for the active runway at Norfolk 

 

And down on the GA ramp at Norfolk Regional airport.

 

 

 

Route.  Just shy of 200 miles.

 

 

[Tinkicker]

Feeling much better today, so decided to press on a little more.  Kicked her tyres and lit the fires and its time to go.

 

Set up the Nav for Savannah (KSAV) direct as waypoint one and Jacksonville (KJAX) as the destination.  So time for a suitable tune on the radio.  Hmm Flying across the southern states... Charlie Daniels Band?  

Hmm I got a better idea.

Plug in my phone to the intercom and..

 

 

So we set sail for parts of a southern nature.  We cross from  Virginia into North Carolina.  What a huge country.  Really makes you realise how short changed we are living on this ever more overcrowded rock.  Same picture in the UK and you would see several cities and towns in the pic.  

Roughly abeam Raleigh NC.

 

 

We come to the Lumber River marking the boundary between North and South Carolina.  Apart from that, the only way to tell in the air is that private airstrips suddenly appear with different prefixes and suffixes on the nav system, so 60NC would become SC60.

 

And we have the Savannah River coming up, the boundary with Georgia.

 

 

Although River is a bit of a misnomer.  It is part of a vast swamp that stretches from South Carolina, through Georgia and down the east coast of Florida.  And yes SD.  That wing really does look 18ft long in VR and the ground really does look like it is 3000ft below.

 

We head down the top of the panandle towards Florida and we are basically following the line of the I95 Interstate down to Jacksonville.  The Florida State Line is just to the north of Jacksonville.

 

 

On the ground in Jacksonville.  Its Florida Baby Yeah!

 

 

Route.  Around 500 miles and four hours flying into a stiff headwind.  I take of my headset and find the weather outside is a darn sight better than when I put it on.  Good thing about VR is you can escape the garbage UK weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 16:45 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

The tune was hilarious, brought back memories from a very long time ago. 

 

I understand what you mean about how vast the states are, I always imagined it to be pretty bare, for the most part. 

Gotta beat flying in Europe though. 

[Tinkicker]

7 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

The tune was hilarious, brought back memories from a very long time ago. 

 

I understand what you mean about how vast the states are, I always imagined it to be pretty bare, for the most part. 

Gotta beat flying in Europe though. 

 

 

Europe is also pretty sparsely populated compared to the UK.   In fact very sparsely populated.  

Edited Monday at 00:02 by Tinkicker