P3Dv4 Around the world in 175 days part 36: New York, Aberdeen Maryland

[joefremont 98]

On the 7th they were up at 4am to spend the day the exchange of pontoons for wheels, refueling and checking the planes for the next leg to Mitchell field on Long Island New York. A large crowd gathered but were kept away by solders and police.  They were off at noon on a exceptionally clear day, they flew over New London Connecticut, Arnold's home town, and after passing Bridgeport they were joined by an escort of ten DH-4's carrying General Patrick, Senator Wadsworth of New York and Lt Nelsons Brother Gunnar.  They flew over Manhattan, over the Statue of Liberty and then east to Mitchell field.  A large crowd had gathered, the General and Senator landed first and the mob surged forward thinking they were the cruisers.  The flyers had to circle overhead as solders cleared the field so they could land, as they taxied to a stop the crowd again broke through, it took great effort to prevent the souvenir hunters from cutting up the planes fabric.  The Prince of Wales was escorted through the crowd and congratulated each flyer with a hand shake and said “Shall we settle our bets, Gentlemen”.

October 8, 2017:  For the next leg I will be using the Fokker F-27 Friendship.  The F-27 is a twin engine turboprop airliner made by the Dutch Fokker company.  586 were built between 1955 and 1987 and it was one of the most successful european airliners of the era.  The model I am using is by JustFlight and is nice.  The weather for my flight was cloudy, 7 knot winds with a temperature of 23C/73F and a cloud level of 2004 feet.  The cloud level kept dropping on me and I ended up flying at around 800-1500 feet along the coast of Connecticut and up Long Island Sound.  I flew over Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and turned left toward Long Island.  Mitchell field is long gone so the closest airport so I instead landed at Republic Airport, Farmingdale, 9 miles east, my 146mn nm flight took just over 1 hour.

Here are the pics: 

Ready for takeoff.

Heading out of Boston

Fall colors.

Long Island Sound.

The Big Apple.

Statue of Liberty flyby.

Looking back at the city as we head down Long Island.

Landed.

September 9, 1924:  The three cruisers and there ten escorts left Mitchell at 9:30 am headed for Washington DC, and immediately ran into stiff head winds that slowed there ground speed to 35mph.  They flew over Philadelphia and stopped at Aberdeen Maryland.  As the short range DH-4’s refueled they were met by General Billy Mitchell, assistant chief of the air service.

October 9, 2017:  For the next leg I will be using the Lockheed L-188 Electra.  The L-188 was the first large American turboprop airliner, with its large flaps and high power to weight ratio it had short field performance unmatched by jet transports even today.  Only 170 were built between 1957 and 1961 and was later developed into the even more successful P-3 Orion.  I remember when I was small, PSA in California used Electra’s to fly into the Lake Tahoe airport in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Even though the airline had converted all its other routes to jets the Electra could better operate in the hight aititude and confinded spaces between the mountains and the airport.  The model I am using was made by Team FS KBT and is excellent.  The PSA repaint was by Fabio Cabral.

The weather started off foggy, 1.8 visibility with clouds extending to 6600 feet, 6 knot winds and a temperature of 22C/72F.  To get over the clouds I tried to climb to 7000 feet and then 8000 feet as I made a direct course to the Aberdeen proving grounds. Eventually the clouds cleared a bit and I could descend to 4000 feet as I flew over Philadelphia.  As descended down to 2000 feet as I got closer to the airport I got hit by fog again and had to go down to 800 feet so I could see anything.  I finally came around and landed but it was far from pretty, but at least I was down safe.  The 148 nm flight took 39 minutes.  

Here are the pics:

Ready for takeoff.

Climbing out of Farmington.

Up above the clouds.

Starting to clear up.

Philli.

Following the Delaware.

Back into the fog.

Landed.

Thanks for reading.
ATB.

[HLJames 2,568]

Billy Mitchell the advocate of air power...a key figure in all this!

HLJAMES

[John_Cillis 2,406]

First aircraft I ever flew on was a PSA Electra in 1966!  Nice screenshots!

John

[woodhick 504]

Wonderful tour indeed.