Top Secret - The Great Air Race

Registration opens : Friday, December 2nd, 1400 GMTRegistration closes: Sunday, December 4th, 2200 GMTPreflight Meeting : Friday, December 9th, 2100 GMTEvent Start : Friday, December 9th, 2130 GMTLocation: Teamspeak 3, ts3.digitalthemepark.com

Meet in the Flight Division/Pilots Lounge

BackgroundYou, and your band of five intrepid aviators have just been given a mission that will enrich each of you beyond all imagination – if you can just beat out “the other gang” of unscrupulous, evil, despicable flying rabble - who will stoop to any length to thwart this mission. Somehow, they have found your flight plan; they know where you are and when you are leaving; they will try to beat you to the fueling point so that they will learn the secret of the GPS coordinates, and the final destination of your mission.Your job will be to get the information contained at those coordinates and fly to your final destination, while delaying and obfuscating their attempts to win over you. Get to the fueling point first, with your engine running on fumes, take on fresh fuel, get airborne, get the info - and reach the destination airport as fast as possible, and by doing so - outsmart these bad guys, and win for yourselves international recognition as true warriors of the skies! Use all legal means……(or, of course any other means you think fits the purpose....)General Guide

1. Each pilot will fly the same aircraft. For this event, Rick Piper’s free deHavilland Chipmunk v3.0. for FSX, from Rick’s site: Pilot’s Notes, dds textures, an Australian Chippie livery, plus the missing gauges PLUS a completely new airfile by FD expert Bernt Stolle, are recommended and available upon registration.

1. Twelve (or more) pilots will be assigned into two or three teams, and, as the Chippie was (predominantly) an RAF trainer – the teams will be known as “Red Squadron”, “Blue Squadron” and “Green Squadron”, each Squadron having it’s own private Crew Room. Flying buddies may choose to stick together as they enroll.

1. Each squadron will choose a unique livery from about 14 liveries in order for easy identification at some point prior to the mission date.

1. The contest will opened for volunteers one week ahead of flight time at the “Great Air Race/Briefing Room” TeamSpeak channel, with aircraft being “issued”, allowing time for some good aircraft familiarization.
2. Each Squadron will pick one member to act as “Squadron Leader”.

1. The first part - the fuel stop and fuel load - of the three-part mission will be given out to the Squadron Leaders by fifteen minutes from take-off time. This info will then to be disseminated to the squadron’s pilots. Precaution: there will be barely enough fuel to reach the fuel stop, thus run out of fuel and …. game over.

1. Similarly the final destination point and GPS coordinate of some “needed information” will be given out to the (landed) Squadron Leaders at that time. Note:The fuel stop area will also have a number unique identifiers that should be noted, such as runway used, or length, as each pilot will be ‘debriefed’ at the destination field for extra points..

1. The leaders may designate any or all of the Squadron to reconnoiter the GPS coordinates after the take-off from the fuel stop in order to get that “needed information”.

Other Mission Orders:

1. “Crashes” must be turned on, with each pilot being allowed one crash & restart only.

1. All pilots use the same starting airfield, with staggered take-off and landing times noted by Ground Crew as you land.

1. Each Squadron will fly to the same destination airfield.

1. The same starting fuel - just enough to reach the fuel stop - for each aircraft, with only one fuel stop. There will be barely enough fuel to reach that fuel stop, so this will require good aircraft management.....

1. Communication on separate voice channels, with no communication between the Squadrons until the mission is completed.

1. Accelerating, changing fuel or slewing the flight will be considered cause for disqualification.

1. METAR conditions will be clear, with zero wind and daytime. This may change.

Winning ConditionsPoints will be awarded for the shortest overall combined time, plus extra points being earned by each member displaying his memory of the flight, fuel stop area, the GPS coordinates, along with his general knowledge of the Chipmunk aircraft itself at the end of the flight.Notes:

1. The first five aircraft landing at both the Fuel Stop and at the Destination will each receive one extra point.
2. The flight times will be tallied up and an extra eight points added to the score of the squadron with the lowest overall flight time.
3. 2, 3 or 4 points will be given for the correct answer to a number of questions about the flight, privately after each pilot has landed.

A few debriefing samples:

1. What runway(s) were available at the fuel stop?
2. How long was the runway at the Fuel Stop?
3. What was the name of the FBO at the fuel stop?
4. How many cars did you see in the car park?
5. What is the total fuel capacity of the Chipmunk?
6. Which way did the Chipmunk pull on take-off?
7. What is the wingspan of the Chipmunk?
8. What is its’ Maximum Permissible Speed? i.e. Vne?
9. When flying solo - in which seat should the Pilot sit?
10. Where is the Fuel Cock in the Chipmunk?
11. What is the meaning of Life?
12. How long was the destination runway?
13. In which hand does the Lady Liberty hold the Torch?
14. What color is the starboard Nav light?
15. What did you find at the GPS location?
16. What was the ICAO identifier of the fuel stop?
17. Did the fuel stop have an ILS system?
18. Did the destination airport have an ILS system?
19. Did the destination have a DME system?
20. What runway did you depart from?

Adventurous Aviators, feel free to connect to TeamSpeak early for questions, registration or more details. We look for to your enthusiastic participation!###For those not yet in-the-know, DigitalThemePark is a multi-gaming community of virtual citizens. It provides organization and congregation of gamers through the use Voice-over IP (TeamSpeak 3), while promoting the interests of gaming, software, and hardware.We have staff members monitoring the TeamSpeak 24/7, and we are here to greet you for your first time connect. After we assign your "citizenship", you are free to roam around the various channels and chat/play with other citizens. For this group, the Flight Division / Pilot's Lounge is where it all happens.DigitalThemePark Flight Division uses dedicated servers "in-the-cloud" for TeamSpeak, FSHost Multiplayer and FSX Multiplayer.For a calendar of events visit: https://www.google.com/calendar/[email protected]&ctz=Etc/PT

Paul, I am ready for another one of your races. This was a kick and all the guys just tickled. I think Blue squadron is ready for a rematch anyway.

Yeah, we'll work on another, Zoo - first or second week of the new year, perhaps. Maybe an IFR race..I have to tell you - that flight we did a couple of days ago - from Lynden - 38W - touching at Israel's Farm, over Concrete - and then into the mountains to land at 6S9 - Stehekin State - WOW!! The last portion - turning left and climbing that tight valley, up the southern side of Le Conte Mountain, finding a frozen lake with a wall at its far end, forcing a hard turn to the right - and then coming across an almost impossible-to-climb-over glacier right in front of one!!! In fact for Jim, this was impossible to climb over... poos guy.. I shall miss him.. one of the best..This was an amazing segment, and one of the very best I have flown with the DTP group! If anyone reading this thinks they are bush flyers - try this plan. It will make you sweat!

Glad you looked it. That leg is one of my favorites. After we did that one I got online with Mater and Loyd and flew Piper Cubs with skis to land on those glaciers. The best part is that we found a ridge line to pseudo land on, and ski off the back side. Seeing a 1000 foot drop off that backside as you build speed was very impressive.