P3Dv4 Around the world in 175 days Part 45: Mission Complete

[joefremont 98]

September 28, 1924:  The flyers were getting nervous about making the last 240 miles.  They left Eugene mid morning heading north for Seattle.  As they approached the Columbia river Boston II started having problems with its oil pump so they landed at the Vancouver Barracks to see if they could repair it.

October 28, 2017:  For this penultimate leg I will be using the American Champion Scout.  First produced by Bellanca in 1974 the Scout is a two seat general aviation aircraft with good STOL capability.  American Champion acquired the design in 1984 and is still in production with over 500 in service.  The model I am using was made by RealAir and is one of my favorites.  It’s a great tragedy that RealAir closed.  Conditions started out very foggy in Eugene and I ended up waiting two hours for it to clear up. By the time I departed it was partly cloudy with 8 mile visibility, a temperature of 13C/55F and clouds starting at 600 feet. I stayed below 1000 feet to stay out of the clouds until after 30 minutes of flying the clouds lifted and I had great weather flying over Portland Oregon and into Pearson Field in Vancouver Washington, the 93 nm flight had taken 55 minutes.

Here are the pics:

Ready to go.

Climbing out of Eugene, Oregon.

Over the Oregon country side.

Finally cleared up.

Lovely fall colors.

Portland Oregon.

On final into Pearson Field.

Landed.

September 28, 1924:  The problem with Boston II’s oil pump was quickly fixed and the three planes took off in a V formation for the final leg of there great adventure.  As they approached Sand Point Field they expected a crowd to welcome them but they were surprised by the size of it.  An estimated 50,000 people crowded the small airport to welcome them.  As they got ready to land Lt Smith had the planes form a line abreast formation so that all three would land at the same time.  As they taxied to a stop at the reviewing stand where the welcoming committee waited the crowd swarmed around them and a battery of French 75’s from the 148th field artillery regiment fired a 21 gun salute.  Each of the flyers was handed a telegram from President Coolidge congratulating them and apologizing for not having the legal authority to reward them the way he would like to, the first of many telegrams and letters that poured in. The celebrations would go on for several days.  At one point a reporter asked Smith if he would he do it again, he replied “Not for a million dollars.  Unless I was ordered to.”

The statisticians quickly went work, from Seattle to Seattle they had flown 26,345 miles, logging 363 hours of flight time with an average speed of 72.5 mph.  They had used 15 engines, 14 sets of pontoons, 42 sets of wheels, nearly 27,000 gallons of gas and 2,900 gallons of oil.  

October 28, 2017: Wanting something more dramatic for the last leg from Pearson Field (Originally the Vancouver Barracks field) to Renton Municipal Airport I will be flying the Eurofighter Typhoon. Introduced in 2003 the Eurofigher is used by the Air Forces of Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and several other countries, so far at least 599 have been built.  The model I am using is by Dino Cattaneo and is very nice.  I had nice clear weather for the last leg. I did a pass over Mount St Helens and then into Seattle.  I did a pass over downtown before finally returning to Renton Airport.  My first approach was going badly so I went around and tried again, this time landing safely.  The 116 nm flight had take only 25 minutes.

For my flights I used 79 different aircraft types over 90 legs.  Flight hours were 149.1 over 27,397 nm with an average speed of 183 knots.  I did it in 139 days, (156 if you include the initial flights from Santa Monica to Seattle) so 36 fewer days than they did, but I never had to spend time maintaining the aircraft or waiting for better weather.

Here are the pics:

Ready to go.

Climbing out of Pearson Field.

Turning north.

Flying over Mount St. Helen.

Debris field from the eruption.

Mount Rainier

Puget Sound ahead.

SeaTac airport with Renton in the distance.

Downtown Seattle.

Celebratory Lap over downtown.

Renton Airport.

Landed.

I wanted to give credit to the source of most my information which is the book “Around the world in 175 days” by Carroll Glines which I have quoted from (and at times possibly plagiarized) quite liberally, if you want to learn more about their adventure I would recommend reading it.

Of all the historic flights from the past it seemed as if history was overlooking this one, we all would probably recognize the names of Charles Lindbergh, Kingsford Smith or Amelia Earhart but how many would know the names of Lowell Smith or Erik Nelson.  I hope I have done a little to bring this chapter of history to a wider audience. I have started writing an Epilogue but I think I have too much material for a forum post so will probably create a website, blog or wiki somewhere where I can post all this material. 

Thanks to everyone who has read and commented on these posts and I hope you have enjoyed it.  It’s been a real adventure and more work than I thought it would be, especially all the writing, but I have enjoyed it.  I would really like to hear what you have thought about these posts, good or bad, so please comment.  

So again, Thanks for reading
Mission Complete.
ATB.
 

[Ted Striker 338]

It was great Joe! I have not had access to my sim computer for most of the summer so following your adventure has helped fill the void. Thanks for sharing it and introducing to me some addons I did not know existed.

Ted

[vp49p3 216]

A hearty congratulations to you, sir !!

[HLJames 2,568]

Appreciate very much the historical account and enjoyed all the screenshots!

HLJAMES

[Tokitaumelie 164]

Thanks for having us on board. 

Keep well and kind regards

[woodhick 504]

YOU DID IT!!   Congratulations on your magnificent effort.  Fabulous achievement, even in the flight sim world.

[HaraldG 559]

Congratulations from me, too! Great that you did it - a little pity that the story is over. I hope that you find another interesting aviation story to fly after and to share with us. Many thanks for that!

[joefremont 98]

Thanks for all the Congratulations.  I should also have thanked my wife Kelli who while being very supportive will be very happy to not have me on the computer so much.