Hi All, FlightSim.com is "hosting" The Bendix Trophy Race.Very simply, "Fly from Van Nuys, California ( KVNY ) to Cleveland, Ohio ( KCLE ) as fast as you can, using any surplus WWII US military aircraft, ie planes that were in use during WWII by US forces and sold as surplus, or in a P-80 Shooting Star". Your choice of routing... legs...Here's a chance to brush off those cobwebs... good RTWR practice. I don't believe the P-51 "H" model is allowed.Direct Distance is approx. 1775nm. I flew last nite as one leg with the P-51D and completed in less than 5hrs.Race Info: http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?238249-Bendix-Trophy-Dash!!!!

Thanks for the info. Might be time to get my new rig setup for racing. Vicious

Hello all, hope everyone is well! I saw this and thought it was too good to miss, so I just had a go. No one seemed to be talking about flying the only eligible jet, the P-80 Shooting Star, so I thought I'd go for it. The freeware Alphasim model is one of their better ones and has a decent VC, it's not a bad FS aircraft. It doesn't have the range to make the distance non-stop so I made a refuelling stop at KHYS (Hays, Kansas). The winds didn't cooperate too well but I made it in a total flying time of just a couple of minutes over four hours. If I get time to try again I might try it non-stop in a P-51D. Quite a fun little challenge and good RTWR practice! CavalierDuck

Hey Nick , great to hear from you :) Yeah I`ve been following it and having a bit of a practise but can`t find a spare 4 hours + atm If by some miracle I can then I`ll have a crack in a P-47 M1 . All the best . Agree the Alpha P-80 is a sweet freeware

" An Exercise in Futility! " The WX was supposed to look like this. From that I tried a "Right Hook", fly south to catch the winds , follow them through Texas, then take the right hook up to Cleveland..... Did NOT work! I did not get the reported winds at all on the first leg, the second leg was OK. (used the same WX from the day before). A little late I guess, to do a "really good" flight, as the winds in the US are just plain haywire. Going to try the P-80 @ near the service ceiling to get range & the 51D running lean, both to do it in 1 hop... Then submit. Total Time = 5:57:34Total Distance Flown = 2303.3 NMTotal Direct = 1944.4 NMKVNY --> KCLE = 1775.8 NM YUCK! Roman

Hi guys, It was posted earlier today that this event has been extended over the weekend (new deadline is Mon 3 Oct 0000Z), if anyone else wants a go. I'll be firing up a P-51D for a non-stopper (I hope!) later. I found out I goofed with my jet flight, I didn't have the wing tip tanks enabled and actually took out fuel rather than adding it, oops! So I didn't need my refuelling stop after all.... Nick

Nick, Yesterday, did a non-stop in the P-80 without tip tanks and made it! Had 12.5 lbs of fuel at landing.. ( FL395, Good winds!) IIRC the max you can put into any tip/external tanks is 75 gals each once activated for the -80. I made the big mistake of overlooking the rules, I couldn't find them at first... Did the flight GPS direct w/ ILS.. A no-no.. Oh well, have the weekend to do a final run then submit it. Have a good flight! Roman

Hi Roman, Good luck for your second run with the P-80! I wish I'd known about enabling the wing tip tanks to do it in one hop, but I've already posted my original flight so no chance to do it again, but I might try it "just for fun" later. A good learning experience though. Last night I had a go in the P-51D with drop tanks, but I'm doing it in two legs as finding 5 hours to do it in one hop will be difficult. I'm using the same route as I used before, with a fuel stop at KHYS. The long range P-51D can do both legs under optimum altitude / speed conditions so it should give a fairly good time, winds permitting. I got to KHYS, just over half way, in 2:37 last night, with a light tailwind. I'll fly the second leg later today but it looks like strong crosswinds coming down across the Midwest. Nick

I just posted my flights in the long range P-51D: Slight tailwind for the first leg to KHYS gave me a pretty good time for that but winds varied from unhelpful to just plain brutal on the second leg, very strong crosswinds across Indiana and Ohio put paid to any chanes of a good time. Good experience though! Nick

Great flights gents. A 1st (**) , A second and 2 thirds! Come February.......Watch out! Roman