Looks like everyone wants to join me in British Airways livery. Thanks guys

 

 

Looks like everyone wants to join me in British Airways livery. Thanks guys

 

Hahahahaha  :lol:

Some snaps from the race:

 

Waiting at the infamous St Paul Island - Eamonn on approach

 

 

Harv arriving with the baton

 

 

Enroute to Kodiak - looks cold down there.  Good thing the Hornet comes with survival gear...

 

 

Lined up to fly StoneC0ld's wing from Heber City to Stillwater, enjoying the sunset.

 

 

Just landed after participating in Roman and Rob's record-setting formation/team flight in the Sabre.  They landed so close together we thought we'd have to use the jaws of life to pull them apart again.

 

 

Flew a very nice formation flight with MM from Cape Verde to the African coast at GMMH.

 

Waiting for Rob and Bry to arrive in their B-2s.

 

 

Enroute - practically a "formation"

 

 

Arrived at GMMH, watching all the continental jets evacuate.  Was it something I said?  :biggrin:

 

Team Flight into Sochi.

 

Well, what a race.

 

Started out strong, was going to backup DC heading across India in 737's. We eagerly awaited Jeff's arrival however he banjaxed his landing. We finally got up and about half way across I got a BSOD and was out of the running as wingman, so I restarted and got setup at the origin airport awaiting DC's landing but prepared just in case. Well the worst happened and DC's computer failed on approach, so I took off and had to do the leg.

 

Awaiting Jeff at OPMI

 

Watching Mike and Rob come into WRBP in formation

 

Setup at UHPP ready to test the 777 (not an official flight, wanted to just follow along)

 

In the air heading to St. Paul and I tried to really max out this aircraft, got it close to Mach 1 before Flightsim's overspeed started to scream

 

Beautiful airplane

 

The standard RTWR dive, gear out, spoilers out, and head down. Dive bomb a 777, sure why not?

 

Nearly to St Paul and still am unable to see the runway.

 

Setup at Kodiak awaiting the baton, myself and Roman were taking it to Vancouver, at this point we started to think we'd overtake Flightsim since they went further north into Canada, it was a neck and neck race with them from here on out.

 

Hmm, new style airplane.

 

Look like the gangs all here. At this point, SOH was heading north for the north atlantic route (a route we thought about but decided south atlantic was the way to go).

 

@GVAC, thats Bry and Rob bringing in the baton in formation. Great flying chaps.

 

Setup for teamflight in continental jets across Africa, the baton is landing.

 

On our way up the coast of Africa with the team in tow. Somehow as a team flight participant I passed everyone.

 

African Sunset.

 

Landed in SOCHI with the whole team while really watching to see where flightsim was, they had more bonus than us but we got there first so the countdown was on.

The "GREAT CRASH OF 2014" ! (OPMI - VEPH) First Eamonn (wing) BSODd 1:20 into the flight then DC (lead) C2Dd ~30 minutes later around 40 nm from destination which nullified the flight using up nearly 2 hours. Eamonn took the baton and Rob took wing and successfully completed the flight.
 
On TS - "Eamonn,, There's a bunch of guys here about to turn blue, we're breathing again. Thanks alot." 
 
The gap to overcome -

 
 
Gingerly coming into Vancouver, Eamonn had already relinquished the baton so there was no hurry. Eamonn in the 747 had significantly higher speeds than I from PADQ. He took the ocean approach to 08L while I took the more direct rwy 12. There was only a 7 minute difference, not too bad. A "normal" day @ CYVR - rain.
 

 
 
 
After nightfall got the chance to do a "combo" formation/team flight from Stillwater, OK to Tallahassee, FL. The winds where incredible! Got ground speeds right around 580 kts! Rob was the wing while I lead for the formation part, StoneC0ld, Craig, Jeff, Buzz & Eamonn participated in the team portion. Rob and I had plenty of practice in the F-86 and we used the knowledge from practice to coordinate our descent and approach. Coming into KTLH I had about a 8nm lead over Rob, the plan was for me to do a "gentle" 3200 fpm descent while he dive bombed it aiming for "cupcake".  :lol:   Even the slow descent wasn't enough, had to hang everything out to slow to approach speeds during the descent and Rob caught up nicely. I requested Rob call "Brakes" as he had toe brakes and I only had the "trigger". Brakes was called on rollout and we ended up about 20 feet apart! Total flight time for the 2 of us was 1:20:41, net difference = ZERO! Perfect!
 
A beautiful night over Arkansas.
 



 

Over the Dominican Republic the other team's plan logic showed it's head. We had decided in Korea to go for the South Atlantic route and kept the north route in our back pocket. This shows Sim Outhouse doing the north while FlightSim and ourselves went south.

 

 

In Africa, waiting on the start of another team flight. I ended up overspeeding the FS9 737, it's been a long time! Switched over to the default after multiple attempts to get the PMDG 737 V1 setup. Something was quirky cuz after the crash I restarted FS and got the PMDG setup the first try.

 

"Just because you're stealth doesn't mean I cannot see you."

 

 

Waiting in UKFF for the final leg into Sochi - WX was zero/zero.

 

 

3 teams, going around the world in multiple types of aircraft. No airline could ever pull this off. Exciting to the very end!! The TS chatter was incredible.

 

 

This is what it's all about. Camaraderie! 33 NM to the end and prior to the team on multiplayer after the race having the runwayside after-race chat and "adrenalin reducing" therapy.

 

 

 

 

 

~ 361 days until RTWR `15 !! Will be there!

A few more screenshots and commentary,

 

En-route to Tangier with the Teamflight in the late afternoon.

 

Feb 15, 02:27 UTC,  Team AVSIM (Blue) still well behind the leaders, but chasing hard.

 

Feb 17, 20:07 UTC Team AVSIM and Flightsim fight for the lead enroute to Innsbruck, Sim Outhouse heading south to Tunisia using a different route

 

Feb 17, 23:12 UTC,  All Teams pushing hard to the finish in Sochi

 

Feb 18, 00:31 UTC,,  AVSIM finished at Sochi and nervously watching the clock and the approach of Flightsim and Sim Outhouse

 

Not paying attention to my Mustang on the team flight finish to Sochi, I forgot to switch tanks and went splash in the Black Sea, Reset back to UKFF with a Milviz Saber to try and catchup with the team.  The Milviz Saber was not approved for the race but I like the night lighting far better than the Section8.