Around the World Flight - In a Piper Aztec

[HighBypass 2,339]

My left fuel tanks are draining faster than my right tanks, and I don’t know why. That could get me into trouble on a longer leg …. Mmmm.

 

Don't know if this helps, but I saw it posted on another thread regarding fuel tank usage. Fire up FSX with the default Cessna and make sure the fuel tank selector is set to both. No idea if it helps with your particular aeroplane though.

[Mithras 87]

Thanks Mark, the Alabeo Aztec fuel system did work..I think I've done something to it ... read on:

 

Flying the length of Egypt is easy. Blue skies, no weather, no traffic, great visibility and a long river to follow as a landmark. I flew the length of Lake Nasser to over-fly Aswan.

 

 

The Russian or High Dam is in the foreground and the British or Low Dam is in the background. Luxor was quiet, although my let fuel tanks were still draining faster than my right tanks, and I don’t want to rely on the crossfeed should my left tank dry up completely. I will look into it at Cairo. Sheila Scott was plagued by electrical problems on multiple instruments on an earlier round the world flight (the Air Race), and on the Polar flight her autopilot failed before the arctic leg leaving her to fly the Aztec manually for 17 hours!

 

Closing in on Cairo the wind picked up a little from the west and visibility began to shrink dramatically, I guess this was ASN replicating dust and sand. At one point viz was down to around 5 miles, but soon lifted again as I swung out wide over Sakkara and its pyramids. In the foreground the Step Pyramid – the world’s oldest stone large stone structure, and behind in the Bent Pyramid of Snefru and (I think) the Red Pyramid. These are all FSX default, and the pyramids at Dashur further south are also included in FSX!

 

 

Touch down at Cairo was slightly ahead of sunset. I think my fuel problem might be down to the fuel selector I have in my home cockpit, it is a left tank/right tank selector used when I fly the A2A Cherokee and Skylane. Alabeo told me in an email that their tank selectors for the Aztec don’t respond to external FSUPC-style inputs but I’m wondering if they do. When I twist the lever I hear a ‘glug’ sound, but the VC fuel controls don’t move. And I’m sure I heard that ‘glug’ sound during a flight and I hadn’t touched the controls …. So, before the flight from Cairo to Benghazi, I will create an FSUIPC profile for the Cherokee and not have the selectors working on any aircraft by default. That should sort it

 

[Mithras 87]

My flight across the Libyan border to the small concrete airfield at Misheifa had its ups and downs! The wind was strong and southerly to begin with, blowing dust in to reduce visibility across Cairo airport significantly.

 

 

I abandoned a photo trip over the Giza pyramids and struck out for a VOR beacon on the coast, since pure dead reckoning across 300 nm of desert with a strong sidewind would have meant me missing the airfield – guaranteed. Passing the VOR sometime later, I flew the out ound radial that would take me to Misheifa. But the coast line didn’t look right or at least my angle to it, as it receded in the distance.

 

 

I rechecked my flight plan, I had dialled in the wrong radial, and was aiming for a completely different airfield. Change of radial, new course and after avoiding a bird strike (set Thermal Updrafts to natural to see eagles and vultures in the thermals) landed at Mishefa. Ultimate Traffic happily put a few planes in here, including a DC-3, very appropriate!

 

The leg to Benghazi was less eventful, except for severe turbulence at 10,000’ forcing me down to 9,000’. Fixed the fuel tank problem, not by unassigning my home cockpit fuel selector, but by bringing up the default 172 before loading the Aztec. The tanks are draining symmetrically now! Next leg … Over the water to Luqqa, Malta. Busy skies!

[HighBypass 2,339]

...but by bringing up the default 172 before loading the Aztec. The tanks are draining symmetrically now!...

 

Glad you found the solution! In a similar fashion, I sometimes have to bring up the stock 172 to make sure the fuel mixture is set to rich so that I can start the engines (jet) (CTRL-SHIFT-F4 is not sufficient sometimes). NOTE that this is on freeware aircraft in my "hangar"

 

Lovely shot of your plane above the condor/vulture/eagle/large bird!

[Mithras 87]

Thanks for the tip Mark, I think I can continue to save my flight now with no more ill effects, your advice was great!

[Mithras 87]

As an update: we are having very nice weather in Yorkshire at the moment, which cuts my flying hours (I'm outside rather than indoors). But I've reached Paris after easy non-challenging flying across France. Next, Le Tourquet then Heathrow. 

[ArthurSLima 0]

Really informative discussion. It's really appreciated.

[Mithras 87]

Flying up through France and Britain has been relaxing, non-challenging flying. I took the time to try out a new navigation system for my cockpit setup, it is a mini-iPad pretending to be a Garmin GPS (with the Garmin logo as the screensaver/wallpaper!) the software I run is iNavigator. A cheap and fabulous little app. I don't intend to use it for the rest of this trip, NDBs and VORs are fine with me for now. 

 

Leaving Orly, I flew over the centre of Paris to arrive at Heathrow amongst the big jets.

 

 

 

After tracking up the East Coast of England and Scotland I flew out from Wick (the North Atlantic ferry pilot's usual haunt) and out above the overcast to Norway and Bergen. Luckily there were a few gaps in the cloud layer that opened up as I reached the coast and I made a spiral descent down from 13,000' to 4,000 ready for the approach to Bergen. It was a busy airport, with plenty of regional jets parked up, and I followed a 737 down onto the runway. After a couple of flights to Spitsbegren, I will be making 'the BIG ONE'. 

 

 

I find reading Scott's biography that I don't think I would have liked to meet her. I had the same feeling ready Amy Johnson's biography. Scott had a flighty youth, with lots of affairs and a failed marriage of convenience. She eventually got into heroine taking in the 1950s. She was and wanted to remain part of the 1950s jet-set. Flying seems to have replaced the drugs, and is probably typical of these long distance record breakers, she only felt happy and 'free' in the clouds, away from people and reality. But her new drug cost alot more than heroine, and so she battled with little enthusiasm to fund her flying, and was always (reputedly) ungrateful and difficult to work with, short, acerbic and a bit of a social steamroller. She upset a lot of people, and resentment built up against her especially amongst air racers. One of the ways she was to try and fund this Aztec flight was selling movie film of the polar crossing, but at London her dingy little flat had been burgled and the camera was stolen.  It meant that after the equator-equator flight, she was heavily in debt and struggling to pay Piper for the Aztec. 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Nice screenies!

[Mithras 87]

Tracking up Norway has been enjoyable, with very cloudy weather and rain squalls. At last I arrived at Tromso for the over-water flight to Svalbard island. I’m ready for the take-off here.  The airports were busy with 737s and Dash 8s, I was quite surprised.

 

 

The flight out saw patchy cumulus up to 12,000’ and I had to pick my way through carefully, but there was a lot of think cloud I had to pass through and power dropped repeatedly as ice built up in the carburettor. Engine heat sorted the problem out on these occasions, though at one point I left the cabin for a drink and put the Aztec on autopilot. When I returned the plane was on the edge of a stall, and I was able to add carb heat and restore control at the last minute. Sheila Scott never had that problem!! I was stunned to find icebergs in the Arctic Ocean as snow-covered Svalbard came into sight after several hours flight:

 

 

The island was bleak and rugged, snow-covered in places, other areas were glacier smoothed mountains and dramatic valleys.

 

 

The cloud came lower and I found myself zipping down stunning dry valleys as I approached my most northerly stop: Longyear.

 

 

Next – the trip over the Pole to Alert in Canada!

[n4gix 4,947]

Great narrative, and an enjoyable "ride along."

[NatGeo 2]

It is pretty hard to believe that Max Conrad was in his 60's and 70's when he was doing those flights for Piper.

Struck in the head by a propeller after failing to save a female student, he was unable to fly or speak for almost a full year. It is amazing that he was able to get back into aviation. Apparently, he did not forget too much about aviation. He had short-term memory loss though, so he had to come up with creative ways to remember his last conversations with controllers.