Top-Siders

[MM 422]

Top-Siders

(KTEB-KACK. Saturday September 19, 2020)

In the last days of summer, we are taking a few well-resourced individuals out to visit to their summer places and yacht clubs around Long Island and Cape Cod. Starting at Teterboro [KTEB], we shall pick up our patrons who will be coming from Manhattan, from the suburbs, and arriving in corporate jets from around the country. After departure, we shall first enjoy Manhattan's skyline while flying down the Hudson toward the Statue of Liberty, and then head east over Brooklyn and suburban Nassau County.


After passing over the racetrack at Belmont Park, we come upon the revered Bethpage Black, the truly great public course by A. W. Tillinghast. (His other masterpiece, the massive Winged Foot of Mamaroneck, NY, has six times hosted the US Open. Even as we fly, the 2020 US Open is being played at Winged Foot on September 17-20.) We turn to land at historic Republic Airport [KFRG]. After hosting Fairchild and Grumman during the 1930s, the airport became the home  of Republic Aviation. The company built a number key aircraft here: the P-47 Thunderbolt, the F-84 Thunderjet/Thunderstreak, and the F-105 Thunderchief. Since 1969 Republic has been a major public GA airport with more than 500 operations a day. (Republic was also the "finish line" for the legendary 2013 Transcontinental Air Race whose flying finish was decided by 12 seconds!)

Then east into Suffolk county to Brookhaven Airport [KHWV]. This is also a busy GA field with 370 operations per day. Just a mile north of the field lies the significant Brookhaven National Laboratory – dedicated first to nuclear energy and now branching into other highly advanced scientific and engineering fields. (The Lab is not in the simulator.) Combining the activity at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Labs, this region's economic engine is driven by advanced scientific research.

Just further least lie The Hamptons. We land at East Hampton [KHTO] on the eastern end of Long Island. For more than a century, The Hamptons have been a playground for the rich and famous. "The town offers a wide range of fine restaurants, boutiques, art galleries and theater. Sporting activities are enjoyed with world class country clubs, beautiful beaches, excellent sailing, fishing and riding stables." About half the homes are owned as seasonal summer residences, the prices of which can run in the tens of millions. The artists' colony, started by Jackson Pollack in the 1940s, remains strong. One the remarkable traditions is the charity "Artists and Writers Softball Game." Past players have included John Irving, Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Clinton, and Paul Simon.

We stop at Block Island [KBID], a popular low-key summertime tourist attraction famous for its hiking and biking opportunities. Almost half the island is protected by the Nature Conservancy. And on to Newport [KUUU], the old trading port which is now most famous for its historic mansions and rich yacht racing traditions. At the turn into the twentieth century, this was the desirable summer home for families such as the Vanderbilts, Astors , and the Wideners. Their summer "cottages" were grand gilded mansions with relatively few bedrooms – guests of a proper social status were expected to have their own summer places at Newport.

For a twist, we head east over to Cape Cod and Provincetown [KPVC]. At the northern tip of the Cape, the small year-round population swells to 60,000 at peak summertime. (The number of housing units exceeds the town's population.) Provincetown Municipal is mainly GA but it does host regular scheduled service by via Cape Air. Traveling south along the handsome Cape Cod National Seashore, we drop in at the charming Chatham Municipal Airport [KCQX].

Finally, we end our afternoon at Nantucket [KACK]. The island is a tourist destination and, more powerfully, a summer colony.  (The average sale price for a single family home was $2.3 million in 2018.) Up until the mid-nineteenth century, Nantucket was a premier whaling port. Herman Melville in Moby Dick describes the Nantucketer as owning the sea. After whaling left for New Bedford, the once proud island fell into a depression until the mid-1960s when it transformed into a summer destination for wealthy mainlanders. If we have time and enough daylight, we might circle over the main harbor and over parts of the island to entertain our clients: they will want to look for their yacht club and for their own summer homes. Nantucket Memorial Airport is one of the busiest in Massachusetts with both General Aviation and scheduled commercial transport flights. On a summer day it often logs more takeoffs and landings than Boston's Logan Airport.

Route and Practical Details

Route: The Route is available here.

Scenery: You will want Orbx North America Landclass. And Orbx Vector if you care about accurate coastlines. You will also want the Orbx Global Freeware "Neil Hill" Airports for North America. (These are newly available for P3Dv5. Check your elevations to be sure that they work properly.)

For extra eye-candy, you might enjoy the Orbx payware airports for Block Island (KBID), and Nantucket (KACK). In addition, if you have them, you might use the Drzewiecki Design sceneries for New York City v2 and for New York Airports v2 (KFJK, KLGA, KTEB). (The latter includes Teterboro, but the default is fine if you don't already own the DD package.) Finally, you might like Eric McCleod's Farmingdale Republic KFRG. (For installation help plus an interesting addon, look at your email inbox.) None of these extra packages are necessary at all.

Caution. For the first two legs we shall be flying over densely populated areas, so you want to manage your simulator settings (for example, autogen density and view distances) appropriately.

Aircraft: The route is 267nm. To cruise at about 150ish kts, a fast single or a twin would be appropriate. Say a Beech Bonanza or Piper Comanche or a Cessna Caravan; twins such as a Cessna 310, a Cessna 421, a Beech Baron or a Beech Duke would work well. While our clients have the means to travel by other more luxurious transport, they are fans of personal aviation and prefer to fly alongside our pilots in smaller General Aviation aircraft.

Time and Weather: Suggested Simulator Departure Time is 3pm local. Live weather is preferred. Alternate Simulation Weather Suggestion: Tuesday, September 15, 2020. 3pm local, 1900 UTC.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: September, 2020. 1800 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. Latest version is here. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D)

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

[CavalierDuck 106]

Just a reminder that there are also free demos for both the Drzewiecki New York Airports and City packages, for FSX and P3Dv1-4, in the AVSIM library.  These are lower-resolution versions of their full payware products and give a nice improvement to KTEB Teterboro.  The City demo package depicts some buildings better than P3D default but omits others entirely, so it's debatable whether you'd consider it an improvement or not for our purposes.

[spokes2112 179]

Mike, thanks so much for the flight!
Couldn't of asked for a better sim day with all the colors. ( except for the winds, but we're pros - right? 😎 )
Called up some engineers from Polaroid still living in the area and asked them if they could re-open the plant in Norwood, MA. They obliged.. A short flight later to KOWD I ended up with these... 

For reference, here are my subs for the V35's:
Mike - N275BM (Tan, White, Dk. Brown Stripe)
Nick - N830T (White, Red, Grey Stripe)
Ron - IBMBN (Orange, White, Black Stripe)
Jeff - N3712D (Maroon, White, Gold Stripes)
Josh - N1873L (White, Blue & Silver Stripes)

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Oh dear! I would never be seen in Orange, White and Black stripes...evah!

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

Sorry, I stuck my head out of the window getting this shot.

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Ron Attwood
Forgot the picture

[spokes2112 179]

6 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Oh dear! I would never be seen in Orange, White and Black stripes...evah!

Tried to get you Ron, not one turned out! 😞

 

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

3 minutes ago, spokes2112 said:

Tried to get you Ron, not one turned out! 😞

 

Don't worry about it Roman, I know you had your keyboard/lap full. 🤠