Jumping into Flight today I had an afternoon to kill so I thought I would do a long distance charter job of 230miles. I managed to get into the air despite a strong crosswind doing it`s best to blow me off the runway and settled in for a nice long, relaxing flight. I had the weather set as `among the giants' so there was quite a strong headwind to fly into but this never bothered me too much, it just meant having to keep an eye on my heading so as not to drift too far off course. All was hokey cokey - until 10miles from the destination I ran out of fuel! Aaargh!! All that time wasted . I thought I had enough fuel on board to manage but obviously flying into the headwind used up more than I expected.

It was fun listening to the whining , sobbing passengers though as I headed into the drink.!

So rather than start afresh ( I never had enough time now anyway) I looked around for another job and came across a rare clandestine one of 60 miles distance. So I loaded up - making sure I had enough fuel this time! - and took off. I thought I was doing great, skimming the treetops .But this time ,20milies from the end, I got a bit too clever with the low flying and clipped a tree! Crash!

So I had another go. This time I thought I would go the long way around , sticking to the coast and keeping away from trees . It seemed to go on and on and on , until I got impatient and turned inland to shorten the journey. Keeping low over the trees - you guessed it - I clipped one and crashed again!

So I thought, third time lucky. This time I went in the opposite driection , still keeping to the coast as much as possible. Yet again my impatience got the better of me again and again I switched inland - and clipped ANOTHER tree and crashed AGAIN!

The problem this time though was that I was not the only thing to crash . Flight crashed on me as well! So that was the end of that clandestine mission. I just gave up this time and went for a cup of tea, hoping not to drop the cup and smash it of course! I suspect that the laptop might have overheated because of the constant low flying which must put more strain on the graphics, although I can`t be certain.

So all in all, not one of my most successful days. My biggest disappointment was not completing the clandestine mission as they don`t pop up very often any more.

 

Sorry for my rambling. Maybe I`ll have better luck next time eh?

Great debrief! Thx for sharing ;-)

You might not want to drive anywhere today... :shok:

Well at least I don`t have a flying car to get to work in!

Just a small hint: you don'`t need to fly just above the trees in clandestine missions. ;)

I thought I had enough fuel on board to manage but obviously flying into the headwind used up more than I expected.

 

Now that was a bad day at the office indeed!

Re: fuel - When I start a job, I normally set my fuel for a range of around 40-50 extra nm over the distance of the job.

Also you probably already are, but be sure to lean the mixture out once you are cruising - you can use the checklist to get a good idea of how much to lean it and adjust the prop rpm, I normally end up flying the Maule with the prop rpm around 2300,, and the mixture app 42-44%.

 

Hang in there!

I always make sure I have at least 75-100 miles extra fuel, and lean off the mixture and prop speed to about 75% for cruising. Maybe I could have leaned off the fuel a bit more than I did though.

 

Heimi, I know you don`t have to skim the tree tops but I just get such a kick out of it I just can`t help myself ! I`m always reminded of those low level hit and run raids across the Channel during WWII keeping under the radar so as not to be detected. Awesome! If I don`t skim the treetops then I will skim the wavetops instead! Such a challenge and so much fun. Better than just pointing the aircraft in the right direction and waiting until you get there.

 

Cutting the daisies! -

 

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Lav2IOsjE[/media]

You people in the states are lucky, I have to convert miles into kilometres before the amount of fuel required can be calculated.

I know this topic has come up before but it is time it was fixed. I think that as all flying is done in the US we should all use miles and gallons.

I think aircraft here use it anyway.

Now, this is a bad day at the office........... :Clown:

 

 

I love that video. Thank you, Alain, for sharing that again. It makes me feel quite sane again. :Hypnotized:

 

 

You people in the states are lucky, I have to convert miles into kilometres before the amount of fuel required can be calculated.

@ Alrhodes: see post 26 in this thread: http://forum.avsim.n...l units__st__25 You can have both on your system. Have the correct units in FLIGHT and your system

 

jake

Now, this is a bad day at the office........... :Clown:

 

Yeesh, looks like sombody needs some anger management therapy. :LMAO: