Hey all, thought I'd kick off a PIREP thread for this years race.The kickoff event was fun.. Landed in Santa Barbara no problem, picked up my hollywood star and ATP Pilot and set course for Van Nuys.. However on descent into Van Nuys, there was a catastrophic failure of the airframe. Airplane flew itself apart on approach.. Another one bites the dust..My 1st leg of the race (as wingman) was on the way into KEGE.. Here's Harv and myself waiting for a flock of Vin Fiz's before departing.. It was fun to mow them down on the runway before departure..Later on in the Race, as we were in Europe and for some unknown reason I was still awake.. However it was asked for someone to take wing for Roman.. Since we were both in bearcats we decided to make it a formation flight.. OMG, great flight considering the crazy winds we experienced the entire way.. Landed within 8 seconds of eachother.. :) Woohooo...

Well this is interesting.. Flightsim is at it again.. :)

A beautiful cold night over Greenland, flying wing with Highmike on a BGBW to BGKK run. Winds were superb! The light show was so nice I had to open the canopy to get an unobstructed view, had the aurora the whole way! BRRR! The defogger knob was turned to 11 for heat. ( 11 is 1 better than 10 LOL! )I had my second race run ever w/ an average GS of over 400 kts in a piston. In of all things, a Bearcat! Sweet!http://forum.avsim.net/topic/363025-2012-around-the-world-race-official-thread/page__view__findpost__p__2264598Roman

So, how many cardinal rules did I break on VIBN - VEMN? Let's see...flew as baton carrier in my first race leg in about four years, in a plane/flight model I'd never flown before, into an airport I'd never flown into, at night. Sorry, no pics. I destroyed the film evidence just before I kissed the tarmac after landing. :wink:After some turns to eat up airspeed and altitude, I found myself turning final approach less than three miles from the airport but about 40 degrees off the localizer. After some tight turns using full rudder deflection to get lined up, I suddently noticed the high-voltage line pylons strung out just outside the fence. Jeez, I thought, I sure hope those are just eye candy. :( Still, I kept it high and a litte fast just to be safe. I touched down with a loud 'whoof' of relief and immediately stood on the brakes while frantically pushing F1 hoping the prop reversers would kick in. A couple of bounces later I came to a stop with about 200' of runway left.Man, I had forgotten how much fun this is! Thanks goes out to the rest of the team for the confidence that I could do it.

Just your average day in Serong...

DC had a nice group shot (in mine everyone else looked like a Cessna).Sweating it out in the hot tropical sun.On the way!WAPL in the distance...

Early morning over Australia

Eamonn coming on for landing after our long wildcard.We stayed well clear of the runway to avoid getting crushed like last time...

During the Burma Boomarang I took off early and solo for Kai Tak before the un-offical Team Flight of 747's. Got my best snaps of the race. Because I was wing out of VHHX I missed the fun of all the Jumbo landings.

My final leg of the race.. Dangerous Airport landing in SKMZ

Some Kodaks from the last few days.

• Songbird over LA looking for Sky King's pilot.
• Wandering along in the Vin Fiz team flight...after disabling autopilot. :(
• The Aurora Borealis illuminates the flight between Greenland and Iceland as a wing for Eamonn.
• Wingman for Craig in the "Norelco Flight" (Avantis) over the Indian night sky. Before Sonar Descent.
• Gorgeous Pacific Sunset along with Roman en route to NTAR.
• Along with Jeff and Rob on the Penultimate Flight over Mexico's Sierra Madres.

Here a quick video of Rob and Bry executing the KaiTak IGS13 approach, and doing it pretty well i must add.Sorry about the quality (I left the menu bar on) but this is my first attempt at this.

10 minutes from Kai Tak flying the 744 for fun a call came over the radio,, "WE NEED SOMEONE NOW FOR A WINGMAN, a fast civilian to RPUH.. No one answered right away. I kinda mulled it over and decided to go for it. Only a few hours earlier had I tried the very nice Noriega Avanti. Really didn't want to risk it in an official leg as there where constant chatter about overspeeding this bird. Got FSX all setup with about 2 minutes to spare, good flight with just a bit of o-speed.. http://forum.avsim.n...ost__p__2265440A shot of myself and Nick in close proximity..Flying lead with Mike over the South Pacific, .NCRG to NTAR. Not nearly getting the winds he was at all! At one time, I was over 15 miles behind. Went for an alternate descend procedure, stay at altitude until the very last second then straight down.. It has dive brakes right? LOL! Ended up getting there first. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/363177-2012-around-the-world-race-official-thread-3/page__view__findpost__p__2266579A nice evening.A nice morning doing some aeroplane watching in Rio, drinking go-go juice (High Octane Coffee) , reading the newspaper & catching up on the previous evenings events.. Oh no! a computer crash, bummer. :Frustrated:Bry coming into Rio doing the infamous "fence" approach with baton in hand.Trying to get into SWUY before sundown, it'll be close, no lights in the middle of the Amazon... Once again my wingman, Harv, had much better winds than I.. He got there before I, but needed a "go-around"???? (hmmm) . This screeny was taken during a replay to see how close I was to hitting the trees.. (Close enough!) Made it just in time to see the airport and a gorgeous sunset.http://forum.avsim.net/topic/363269-2012-around-the-world-race-official-thread-4/page__view__findpost__p__2267367Once again another great race. Congrats to Sim-Outhouse, what a maneuver! Be back for oh'13 hungry,,,,,,,, very hungry..Roman

Excellent pics you all have posted...Here's a few more... in a "slideshow" format.http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq82/Great_Ozzie/AVSIM%202012%20RTRW/?albumview=slideshow