May 17, 1924:  The pilots awoke at 4:30 am and prepared for takeoff.  It was an ideal spring morning, there plan was to fly west toward the Kamchatka peninsula then south along the coast, 585 miles to Paramushiru.  The weather started off ideal, but occasional fog and snow squals built up and they had  to fly lower and lower until they were just skimming the water. Eventually they were flying through fog and heavy snow which became heavy rain and high winds by the time they approached Paramushiru.

The American Destroyers John D. Ford and Pope had been waiting for the flyers in for some time.  They expected them two weeks after they left Seattle, it was now almost 6 weeks.  The Japanese were not very cooperative, not allowing the americans to go ashore or take photographs.  In addition to requiring a Japanese officer to remain on board, they were escorted by Japanese warships at all time. The destroyers had been taking turns waiting at waiting at Paramushiru, returning to Hakodate to refuel and supply. They battled fog, show, icy winds and rip times that kept the ship the ships swaying continuously like a pendulum.  At one point in a storm Pope had collieded with the Japanese destroyer Tokitsukaze but fortunalty there was not serious damage.  On a gray afternoon May 17, Ford was in Kashiwabara bay with the Japanese destroyer Tokitsukaze and Amatsukaze when the three aircraft arrived, they circled the ships several times before landing.  They had difficulty mooring to the buoys Ford had placed because of the strong currents, riptides and fierce winds.  Cold and wet they were welcomed aboard the Destroyer by Lt Commander Frost its Captain, representatives from the Japanese Navy and Army. They soon received Congratulatory messages from General Patrick, Secretary of War Meeks and the General Ugaki, the Japanese Minister of War.  They were the first aviators to fly across the Pacific ocean.

July 16, 2017:  Now that we have reached Asia and the aircraft have reached the late 30’s I am going to start using aircraft for than one leg at a time rather than changing every time.  So we will be using Milton Schup’s Beach D18S again.  There is no airport at Paramushiru in either FSX, P3D or real life as far as I can tell, so I will create another simple seaplane port using Airport Design Editor.  The island of Paramushiru was taken over by the Soviet Union after World War 2, now part of Russia and is called Petropavlovsk.

It was raining when we departed Komandorski with a 2000 foot ceiling.  We climbed up to 8000 feet to get above the clouds and it was an easy cruise, over the Kamchatka peninsula and into the bay where the Coast guard cutter was waiting for me.  Here are a few pictures from the flight.

Ready for takeoff.

Up above the clouds.

Glamour Shots.

Lots of clouds.

Hey, thats Asia!

That bay between the two islands is our destination.

There is the cutter!

Landed.

Sorry the descriptions have gotten a bit long but there was a lot happening back then and I want to make sure I told there story.  They should get shorter again.

May 19, 1924:  In there narrow bunks the flyers did not get much sleep that night as 45 mph winds rocked USS Ford roughly side to side that night, the same winds kept them from refueling and servicing there aircraft the next day.  They did get badly needed haircuts and were treated to dinner with ‘strong libations’ on one of the Japanese destroyers.  The following morning they were off at 7:30 am for the 595 mile flight to Hitokappu bay on Yetorofu Island.  This proved to be one of the coldest days flying since they left Seattle, Wade recalled often having to “stamp his feet just to see if they were still with us”.. They started in biting wind and fog, plunged in and out of snow squalls as they passed over one Japanese island after another.  After more than seven hours of flying the arrived at Hitokappu bay where the destroyers Tokitsukaze and USS Pope were waiting to great them.

July 19, 2017: For the next flight we will be using the Consolidated PBY Catalina.  The legionary Cat was one of the most widely used seaplanes and amphibians of world war 2, It first flew in 1935 and over 3300 were built and was used by every branch of the US Armed forces and at least 27 other nations in many different roles until 1980.  Many are still in service with civilian operators.  The model I am using today was created by Aerosoft and is very nice.  The USN 5A I am using today came equipped with a Sperry autopilot that is much more realistic than I am used to and took some practice before I was ready to use it on a real flight. I found the rudder control on it a bit useless, instead just using the bank control to turn with and control direction.

The weather today was better than I had seen in some time, 12 kn winds with scattered low clouds.  Like many islands in this area, at the end of world war 2, Soviet forces took possession of Yetorofu Island and it is now controlled by the Russian Federation and is called Iturup island. The flight was uneventful and I landed at Iturup island after 4 hours of flying. 

Here are a few pictures of the trip.

Getting ready to depart at Dawn.

Head into the wind before takeoff.

Heading out.

Glamour shots.

Small island along the way.

Cruising.

There the cutter marking our destination, get ready to land.

Landed.

Again very nice! Can't wait for more...

Harald

The panel in that Lockheed sure looks (to my eyes) exactly like the one in a  freeware Beech 18 I flew back in the FS-9 days.  Continuing a great story and photo essay.

5 hours ago, woodhick said:

freeware Beech 18

In FS9 we also use Milton Shupe's model; probably it's essentially the same. A good occassion for me to try it again...

1 hour ago, HaraldG said:

In FS9 we also use Milton Shupe's model; probably it's essentially the same. A good occassion for me to try it again...

The aircraft is Milton Shupe's model.  He recently updated it to FSX Native and thats the one I am using.  I don't know if the amphibian has been uploaded to avsim yet but it can probably be found at flightsim.com or sim-outhouse