RTWR PIREPS #1

[spokes2112 179]

It's supposed to be a TU95KM just didn't have so aliased to the 114 on the bros. long flight.RomanFS9, AMD 1800+, ECS K7S5a, 1 gig, 100 & 60 Gig 7200rpm HD, ASUS/NVidia 64mb AGP on 21", NVidia FX5500 vivo 256mb on 18", Savage4 32mb on 15"http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185173.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185174.jpg

[Guest 2002cbr600f4i]

Ok, my first hop of the 2008 race. I'm set up to fly wing with epwatson. Now, mind you I've had a heck of a day already. Earlier in the week I came home from work to find my PC displaying a series of "Delayed Write Failure on Drive H:" messages (H: is my FSX drive!) I had run some drive checks after rebooting and everythign seemed ok. While setting up for the Hamburger run though, I was getting MASSIVE graphics glitches. I decided it was time for a full reinstall of FSX and all my add-on. UGH...6 hours later I had formatted the drive, installed FSX, Acceleration, ASX, FS Genesis, Cloud9 Landclass, all my aircraft, a new version of Flight Deck 5, CoPilot Professional (big mistake, it's still a POS!). Had some problems with getting FSUIPC to install, so I had to go through a repair process on both FSX and Accel (basically installing them all over again!) At this point, I'm tired, I'm frustrated, and I just want to fly...Ok, epwatson and I get set up to go... While waiting for the baton to arrive we find out that the baton holder had a computer crash and the baton is now with the wingman, flying a MUCH slower aircraft. Sigh... Wait wait wait.... Wait out the 30 minute penalty as well.Time to go!!!! Woohoo! epwatson and I both do our posts, he starts rolling, I click the Duenna on (I don't use the autograb option) and I'm off, right on his tail.... This is going to be a long hop. 787nm air bridge. We're going to be pushing the limits of the Pony's endurance here.About halfway to our destination we check the tracker to find that it has ME listed as the baton holder (apparently I clicked the button before epwatson's duenna auto-picked it up...) Oh well...We continue on... about 200 nm out I start getting nervous about the fuel. It's going to be real close. Bad winds could really screw us. Luckily we catch a nice tail wind getting us up to 454+ kts GS. I'm cruising along, about 15 nm behind the baton holder when suddenly the engine loses all power, the airspeed indicator goes to 0. I can hear the engine running, but I'm getting no pull from it. I start panicing. Pitot heat - nope. I have fuel, etc. I start flipping every switch in the cockpit, finally finding the Carb heat switch which fixes it. I had almost reached stall speed as the AP was trying to maintain altitude. Finally I'm back on track, heart attack avoided!At 20nm out I chop the throttle, and begin a steep dive for the airport. Weather is crap. Light snow, broken clouds at 10K, and gusting 23+ kt cross winds. Well THIS should be fun. I figure epwatson is already down as I start lining up my approach. WHAT?!?!!? You're not down yet? you had a 15nm lead!!! I do some heavy crabbing and make it down nice and safe, epwatson apparently right behind me because he calls out that he's down just as end my flight on the Duenna. 8% fuel remaining.Whew! 2am. I needed sleep BAD! I forgot how much FUN this is!!!!!

[cbtaylor 15]

Sorry, no snaps this time. I was in a hurry to launch so I left the camera in the bag. It was nice to see the sunrise over the ocean on the way, and heartening to see everyone waiting at the field when I arrived. Thanks guys! I'm really starting to love the Corsair, especially landing it. No bunny hops. :D Go Avsim!Craig

[DarkCharizma 10]

Flew my first part of the race after the start event, the "mini" team flight (with only three people except the baton carrier) in the Jenny to pick up the last bonus hours. The first thing I noticed was that the Jenny really could use some elevator trim ;) and that impression lasted for the whole one hour flight. It was a pretty uneventful flight, I was following Stonecold from about 0.2 nm behind him the whole time. On approach I still had a 100% landing success rate (though I only had made one landing in it, just one hour earlier), and was hoping to have my success rate stay the same. Luckily, the Jenny isn't that hard to land, and though I veered off the runway a bit, I think it was a pretty nice landing :)Took a screenshot of me and Stonecold (though I'm not sure he knew if I was there ;)):http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185199.jpgKlasse

[StoneC0ld 5]

I knew you guys were behind me, didn't know where... Too busy flying the airplane to look.... :(

[Guest sfoofficer]

Always nice to have a great first baton run. WPEC-WAMM definitely qualified.T'was Bry and I in our Avantis, racing across the Pacific at FL280. Well, almost racing; Bry had some initial problems with speed (he says it was a Anti-Ice issue, the rest of us surmised he had unauthorized passengers). In the end though, he solved his pace problem and we were both 400+ on the speed.And it on this leg that I learned about the inflight-reverse pitch capabilities of the Avanti's engines. As long as I've owned this sleek machine, I had no clue that it had this capability. It demanded a hands on test run, even in this official leg of the race.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185236.jpgDropping down to the field from FL280 only 22 nm out, and well in time to level out for a nice 10 nm final... Who says you can't have fun at one o'clock in the morning!

[svenks 4]

Well, Kai Tak is closed in the real world, but thanks to 2Dragons, it lives yet again.I specifically wanted to do this leg, since this have always been one of my favorite airports.So Harvey and I took off from RPLC for the 560 nm leg to VHHX. Harvey took the Avanti (of course), but I selected the P-38 since the P-51 might have too big impact on the FPS. Also, the only problem with this scenery is that fact that the crash zone around the buildings are way too big - even if you are not near then, they might still pull you out of the sky. By taking the P-38, I hoped to be able to keep it a little high, then dive for the runway. Well, that strategy succeeded, but choosing the P-38 almost cost us penalty time due to headwinds. The baton was released at 1:56...I promised some screenies and here they are. Unfortunately they are not very good due to night and low vis, but anyway...BrgdsSven Sorensen, EKCHhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185238.jpgAfter the landing - phewhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185239.jpgThe famous checkerboard http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185240.jpgYou can see the 47 dgr offset runway

[MM 422]

Whew. Long flight through the dark in the Bearcat. Flew low, as one does with the Kitty, and thus dodged terrible winds further aloft.Had an incident with the Duenna. Green on takeoff and green on climb out. But on leveling off it showed green/red as though it were still on the ground. The tracking software indicated everything fine and there was always the FA screenie... Then, all of the sudden, a second Duenna GUI popped up. Now all green with all the data, pickup and timing, absolutely correct. So that was both perplexing and promising.On landing, the "flightlog.txt" did not pop up but was available on the Windows Vista toolbar below. Opened it up and all was perfect. Whew!Now to track down this stuff.Mikehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185244.jpg

[Bryan Rosier 31]

I was watching from Kai Tak Sven at the checkerboard :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185251.jpgHarvey at the checkerboard :/http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185253.jpgBoth down safe following IGS 13 approach . A job well donehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185254.jpg

[Bryan Rosier 31]

A thoroughly enjoyable , if long day ,Started with a nice flight as wingman for Alex in Avanti`s from WPEC to WAMM . Forgot to switch on the eng ice vanes which slowed me down for a bit . Then took the baton with Rob (Ozzie) from RPVM-RPLC . Got good speed out of the hornet and landed safely with Rob at Clark Intl . Dawn lights for photographic purpose only ;)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185255.jpgThen after some photo`s of Sven and Harv landing at KaiTak , I took off as wingman , in the Hornet, with DarkCharisma in the p-38L Lightning . I arrived at ZHHH just before DC and watched him execute a perfect landing .Then came some proper fun . I set up as wingman for Harvey .We were both in the P-51H . The leg from ZMUB-UNAA . A direct flight of 680 miles , 690 with the approach to RWY 2R . We decided (correctly) to take the Avanti as the Baton flight , as the P-51 was right on its limits of fuel range , courtesy of headwinds , Harvey was using FSX so as I was on FS9 I jumped into the Avanti and took the Baton . Climbed to 35000 and met brutal headwinds , Harvey was fairing little better lower down in the P-51 but was getting faster groundspeed . I tried to climb in search of more favourable winds but the old girl just did not want to push beyond FL35 . So we just battled on , the pressure raised as the clock was running down so I was pushing as hard as I dare to save time . Then came the wonderful news that the airport weather had just socked in real bad (pea soup) and visibility vanished in the mist :( . This put the pressure on as I was well aware of ,A= the time and B= go-around not really an option with the risk of exceeding 700 miles :( . descended in to the clouds and received news that Harvey had dropped out as wingman :( More pressure :) Switched off autopilot and turned onto finals with zero visability heading for the runway . 2 miles out I saw what looked like the faint warm glow of the teams headers but nothing else , finally over the threshold I saw the runway and put her down safely . Job done . For me this is what makes this event such an experience . Its not all about winning , but the way the team bonds when things get tough , the adrenaline that flows when the pressure is on . Love it No screenies sorry

[buzzbee 51]

Can't wait to get online.

[Guest sfoofficer]

Trusty JT and CBR cruising at FL250. I started off riding shotgun with them in my F-14, then STONE took over 2/3's of the way to the destination in his own 'Cat'.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185265.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185264.jpg

[Guest sfoofficer]

It was a day that proves that sometimes, it

[Great Ozzie 101]

Departing Yeundum... What a lovely red soil!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185289.jpgEnroute to Kununurra... There is water in The Bush?!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185291.jpgBaton Free! GO GO GO!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185292.jpg

[Great Ozzie 101]

Over the Celebes Seahttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185293.jpgOn Your Wing Sven!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185294.jpgI'll Scout Ahead...http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185295.jpg