P3Dv4 Around the world in 175 days part 29: France! Strasbourg and Paris!

[joefremont 98]

June 14, 1924:  The rooms of the Imperial hotel had 20 foot ceilings and beds so soft when you were in then you sank out of sight.  For breakfast they were served bowls of raspberries and cream so delicious Arnold said “it was almost worth flying around the world to eat them”.  Despite the luxuries they all wanted the holiday in Paris Smith promised them if they could get there ahead of schedule, so before 7am they left the Ancient city of Vienna for Strasbourg France.  It was raining heavily when they left, which kept them low over the Danube river as they followed it into Germany,   They emerged into bright sunshine as the crossed over the Black Forest and landed in Strasbourg after 6 hours of flying, where despite the festivities planed for them, they hurriedly had lunch and got there planes ready for there next leg.

September 19, 2017:  For the next leg I will be using the Cessna 195.  The 195 was one of Cessna’s first post war aircraft, there last with a radial engine and there first one that was all aluminum.  Because of the big radial engine it was larger than other Cessna models and more expensive to buy and operate so was marketed as more of a Business aircraft.  First flying in 1945, about 1180 were built before production ended in 1954.  The model I am using today was made by FlySimWare and is nice.

Weather for the flight from Vienna started off good, 11 knot winds with a few clouds at 1300 feet and a temperature of 12C/53F, quite a change from the 31C/88F five days ago.  It was a bit cloudy so stayed between 2000-3000 feet while I found the Danube and followed it west to hear the city of Linz and then west into Germany.  Ran into a fierce thunder storm over Munich but soon emerged from that as I approached the Black Forest, we crossed over the river Rhine and descended into Strasbourg, the  358nm flight had taken 2.4 hours.

Here are the pics:

Ready to go.

Staying low, where is that river.

Following the Danube.

Lightning is very close.

Clear weather again.

Over the Rhine river and into France!

Our destination.

Secured.

July 14, 1924: Although elaborate arrangements had been made to entertain them, they stayed in Strasbourg only long enough to refuel the aircraft and get a quick lunch before being back in the air bound for Paris. A hundred miles from Paris a flight of planes from the French joined them to escort them to the city.  Fifty miles out they could see the Eiffel Tower and the great buildings of the city, as they got nearer they could see thousands of people in the streets celebrating Bastille day, with there French escorts in tow they flew past the Eiffel tower, made a circle around the Arc de Triomphe to pay tribute to the French tomb of the French Unknown Soldier and proceed to Le Bourget Airport where more than five thousand Parisians were crowding the airport.  They landed and were quickly mobbed by the throng while diplomats and French officials tried to shake there hands, it took an hour before they could get there aircraft into the hanger to do there post flight servicing.  After they were taken to there hotels they accepted an invitation to the famous “Folies Bergere”, as the lights went down for the show they promptly fell asleep. 

September 19, 2017: The North American F-86 Sabre, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept wing fighter that could counter the Soviet MiG-15 and was considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in the Korean war. Although it first flew in 1947 and was outdated by the end of the '50s, the Sabre proved versatile and adaptable. The last was retired by the Bolivian Air Force in 1994.  Over 9800 were built in the US, Canada, Japan and Italy. 

I tried to use the very nice Milviz model but it proved a bit beyond my skills.  I started the flight but part way to Paris noticed the gauges had stopped, I fiddled with the power switches and got them back but then the engine was running at 100% and I could not get it to power back.  Fiddling with the switches some more the engine stopped and I could not get it restarted, finally aborting before it crashed into a field. So instead I tried with the Virtavia model, which does not look as nice, especially the VC but it is much easier to fly. Started the flight with light rain, 7 knot winds, a few clouds at 700 feet, overcast at 6000 and a temperature of 10C/50F.  I headed northwest toward Paris, at about 5000 feet to get over the first bank of hills and then dropped to about 2300 to stay below the clouds. It cleared up a bit as I approached Paris but I did not see the Eiffel tower as far away as Lt. Smith and the boys did . I finally spotted it and did a few passes by the tower and the Arc de Triomphe before landing at Le Bourget.  The F-86 just ate up the 207nm flight in just 35 minutes, often cruising at over 540 knots.

Here are the pics:

Ready to go.

Climbing out of Strasbourg.

Try to stay between the clouds and the hills.

Its clear and I am good on fuel, drop the tanks.

There is the Eiffel Tower

Never sean so few cars around the Arc

Another pass by the tower.

Landed.

Thanks for reading
ATB.

[woodhick 504]

Once again no tall screenies are loading.  I unnerstan many are having the same problem.  Too bad, the few shots I saw looked good.  Seems to be a problem at Avsim.

[HLJames 2,568]

Great to see the flyers in western Europe!

HLJAMES

[joefremont 98]

46 minutes ago, woodhick said:

Once again no tall screenies are loading.  I unnerstan many are having the same problem.  Too bad, the few shots I saw looked good.  Seems to be a problem at Avsim.

I was getting that problem last night when I was posting but after a few edits was seeing all of them, don't know what's wrong. I followed the same process as before. 

[joefremont 98]

I checked my other posts and posts by others and they are all having the same issue. It's not consistent which ones they show,  earlier the second to last photo did not show, now it does.   All I can say now is check back when AVSIM has this resolved. They all showed at one time. 

[joefremont 98]

Looks the admins fixed the problem with the images on the forum, should all be visible now.

 

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Finally in Western Europe, I was in Paris in late May, went up the Eiffel tower and took some great pictures.  Great screenshots!

John