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CavalierDuck's RTW80


CavalierDuck

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This looks way too much fun to miss, so here is my entry.  My biggest challenge will most likely be to find enough real world time to fly, so I'll be using jets (mostly - more later).  However, I will be sticking to the pre-1970 class - even though it was very tempting to take the PMDG T7, I decided that would be taking the easy way out!  One of the next things on my flightsim "to do list" was to learn to fly the Canberra, and I realised this would be an excellent choice of aircraft for a fast run around the world.  After a crash (not literally) course in flying it over the last few days, I'm just about to the point where I can undertake a long distance flight with some confidence.  A couple of other aircraft in a similar vein might well make an appearance - I've heard about a Vulcan and a Lightning that may be available along the way as well. Oh, and a Bell 47, but that's for another part of the story...

 

Mr Fogg's journey started at the Reform Club in Central London, so my journey will begin and end at the closest recognised landing point: Battersea (London) Heliport.  Which means I'm going to need a pre-1970 helicopter, and this is where the Bell 47 comes in (about the only thing I've got that works in P3D and meets the pre-1970 category!).  From Battersea it's a short hop to Biggin Hill Airport where the Canberra will be waiting for me.  My proposed route looks like this:

 

London Heliport

Biggin Hill

Brindisi (Casale AB)

Port Said, Suez

Aden

Bombay

Calcutta

Hong Kong

Shanghai

Yokohama (Tokyo Haneda)

Adak Island

San Francisco

Omaha

New York

Gander

Northolt AB

London Heliport

 

The intermediate stops may or may not be used, depending on time available, or they might change a little depending on such factors as weather.  The Canberra doesn't have the legs for the Pacific crossing, so there will have to be a refueling stop.  It turns out that Adak Island in the Aleutians adds only about 16 miles to the great circle route, so that will do nicely. Just a little nervous about about the weather for that one.... good runways but no ILS or anything to help.

 

I will be flying in P3D v4 with Active Sky real world weather.

 

Good luck everyone, and thank you to Aerosoft for setting this up!

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... and we're off!

 

Departed from the Reform Club in Pall Mall for a 40 minute taxi ride to the heliport on the south bank of the Thames at Battersea.  Into the Bell 47...

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and off:

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A rather gloomy overcast morning in south London

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but no trouble finding Biggin Hill

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where I looked a little out of place among the smart private jets.

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First flight completed!

 

 

 

 

 

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Straight on to the next flight: Biggin Hill EGKB to Port Said, Egypt HEPS.  I did have an idea about a half-way stop at Brindisi but I don't think I'll need it.  Into the Canberra and get ready to take off on rwy 21:

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Aircraft is cleaned up and turning on to course:

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Climbing out over Kent:

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Approaching cruise...

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Passing over the Alps, by which time the clouds had cleared:

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Over the Croatian coast:

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My view, approaching Athens. I experimented a little with altitudes, I went up to FL450 initially but it didn't seem too comfortable up there, plus it was a bit bumpy, so I dropped down to FL370 for most of the flight.  As weight reduced though, I was able to go back up to FL450 to cross the Med.

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On approach intro Port Said:

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Touched down quite gently...

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... and parked up till next flight.

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Having completed the first long distance flight in the Canberra, I'm very pleased with my choice of aircraft.  With the fuel planning and management needed during the flight, if keeps you thinking and on your toes. Looking forward to a lot more miles in this....

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Slight change of plan, going to Dubai next.  Departed from Port Said in rain (yes, really!). 

Passing the Suez Canal...

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and Gaza....

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North end of the Gulf of Aqaba in the distance...

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It looks as though I've taken the scenic route though...

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... it's like a desert out there....

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Getting creative, in the absence of scenery...

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Civiliisation at last!  Wonder what Mr Fogg would have made of the Burg Khalifa.  I might have to go and take a closer look at that before I depart. If I do I'll take my camera...

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I more often get this view from the front window of a 777, looks a bit different from a 1950's bomber...

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Past the modern terminal...

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and park up in the area used for the Dubai Air Show.

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On to Bombay next.

 

 

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Next flight, Dubai to Bombay (Mumbai).  Did a little sightseeing on the way out...

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A nice easy smooth flight... until I got closer to Bombay and found all this waiting for me.  Descent was not fun at all, it was hard work flying in all that.

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But I did find the airport (and the runway at second attempt!) and made it down safe.

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To be honest, I forgot to check the weather in Bombay before I left.  I might have delayed the flight had I known how rough it was going to be.  Lesson learned - ALWAYS check your weather!

 

 

 

 

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Now I have to post the next flight from Bombay to Calcutta ahead of schedule, as I will be away IRL for the next 10 days. So off we go, leaving Bombay in rather better weather than I arrived:

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Nice view over the city climbing out...

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The flight across India was trouble-free, although visibility was reduced on landing in Calcutta:

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Parked up for a couple of weeks now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

After a nearly three week hiatus, it's time to get moving again, and see if I can remember how to fly the Canberra.  Departing from Calcutta:

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Over Myanmar (or Burma as Mr Fogg knows it)

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A nice one in cruise:

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For old times' sake, I elected to go for the "checkerboard" approach into Kai Tak rather than land at the modern airport.  Fortunately Kai Tak's runway is intact in P3D v4 (as long as you're happy to ignore the big yellow crosses someone has decided to paint on each end for some reason :P); IRL, the site has been redeveloped now and is barely recognisable.  On my way in:

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Coming up to the turn:

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Don't hit the apartment blocks!

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Hong Kong skyline:

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Looking ahead to the upcoming flights, some exciting news has reached me recently: the refueling capability of the English Electric Lightning has been reinstated! The Lightning wouldn't be a naturally high choice for a RTW tourer, but the ability to get a top-up from a passing tanker brings up some intriguing possibilities.  I plan to make a stop at Shanghai on the way to Yokohama, so these next two flights would be an excellent time to test it out.  Watch this space!

 

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Will look forward to some stats for the Electric Lightning legs.  Max altitude and time to climb should be interesting.  You may need to hit that tanker a few times though:)

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Next stop Shanghai, and I'm going to try it in the Lightning.  It was built as a short-range interceptor, so let's see how it works out for long distance point-to-point flying.

 

So, starting from Hong Kong Kai Tak, leaving the Canberra behind:

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The next bit passed very, er, quickly and photos weren't really an option.  The plan was a 400kt climb to 34,000ft, refuel, then continue.  According to the Duenna tracker, I was at FL340 two minutes into the flight.  Having topped up my tanks, I then set about finding a comfortable cruise.  By the book, the best range in a Lightning could be achieved at an altitude of 36,000ft at M0.87.  I found this would easily

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give me enough range for the rest of the trip so went into supercruise at M1.05 for the majority of the flight.

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The Lightning is quite happy to make a fast descent so I started this about 60nm out from ZSSS.

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On the ground at ZSSS:

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The Lightning has surprised me how good it actually is for this kind of flight.  The autopilot is fairly sophisticated for its time, and the facility to refuel mitigates the short range - and I only needed to refuel once for this flight anyway.  So I will happily fly on in it, at least until I get to the long transoceanic legs for which the Canberra will I think be better suited.

 

My Duenna logs below.  An error was returned (red border) because I refueled.

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http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?flight=qiqEOFhkKCiIZUVVrGzdOUln4

 

 

 

 

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Moving on to Yokohama, or Tokyo Haneda as it will be for me.

 

Having done a "sensible" run in the Lightning, it's time to unleash this beast.  Plan is takeoff, 400kt climb to FL340, refuel, then hit the throttles for a bit of Mach 2.0. After that... well, let's see if I can find a nice compromise between speed and fuel consumption!

 

Unfortunately I've had to take down my P3D PC for the week immediately after the flight and I didn't remember to grab the pics before I took it down so the nice photos of the Lightning at full afterburner will have to wait until the weekend, sorry!

 

I can however present my duenna verification image and link.  Error/red border due to refuelling, as expected.

 

 http://fs-duenna.com/flights/ShowFlight.php?flight=fDfJvOuotq3ASU06PPA3f9VlI

 

Duenna graphic for Flight from ZSSS on 2017-11-12 17:59:13 in a Lightning_F6_XS901

 

The story: well, I established that even if you refuel immediately before, a M2.0 run at FL340 doesn't last long!  10 minutes if you're lucky, while you watch the fuel gauge wind down.  I had good a tailwind but it was rather turbulent, it would have been a very uncomfortable ride.  Refueled again, then tried to find a better compromise.  It looks as though around M1.4-1.5 will give you about 40-45 minutes on a full tank, not bad and will certainly get you where you're going quickly! To get out of the turbulence I finished up the cruise at FL410 before refueling for the third and last time then headed down into Tokyo Haneda.

 

That was a lot of fun but I think I'll be taking the Canberra across the Pacific!  

 

 

 

 

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Your Lightning will consume far less fuel if you removed the missiles and opted for a clean model? Still I agree the Canberra is a much better choice for tackling the Atlantic. Godspeed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/14/2017 at 8:29 PM, kalizzi said:

Your Lightning will consume far less fuel if you removed the missiles and opted for a clean model?

 

An excellent point kalizzi, however I don't believe the model comes in a clean configuration, I looked for that before I started. 

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Some photos from the "Mach 2" Shanghai to Yokohama leg.

 

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Proof that I made it to Mach 2.0 ...

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... followed shortly by a refuelling session!

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A bit more afterburner action:

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It clouded over as I descended into Tokyo Haneda:

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Down safe.

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Next up is the trans-Pacific section of the journey.  While some have opted for the longer but sunnier Hawaiian route, I have stuck as close to the geat circle route to San Francisco as possible, which takes you much further north.  The maximum range of the Canberra is around 3300nm, so I will need a stop.  Adak Island in the Aleutians has an airport with a 7000ft runway and adds a mere 16 miles to the 4000nm+ great circle route, so this was my destination.  In late November though, the weather can be "challenging" is this area of the world, so I had to make sure the forecast for the ETA at Adak was at least good enough. The modern airport has an ILS but this isn't in P3D, so in case of bad weather my nearest alternate would be Eareckson air base on Shemya Island, some 350+ miles away so I would need to keep some fuel in reserve just in case I needed to divert there.

 

Almost this entire leg will be over ocean so it won't be a particularly scenic flight!  My last sight of land, not long after departure from Haneda:

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Some from cruise.  I was nicely in the jetstream at FL360, had a 150kt tail wind component for the first hour or more.  I was expecting a GS of around 400kts for the flight, but was closer to 600kts for much of it, which made for a much shorter flight time.

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Land is sighted! One of the Aleutian chain below.

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I was in cloud for most of my approach, and was relieved to drop below the bottom of the clouds around 500ft and see the runway lights ahead.

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Someone in the tower got this photo just before landing.  I now understand the colour scheme of this aircraft!  If it wasn't for the lights and landing gear, there wouldn't be much to see.

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Next up will be the 2400nm flight to San Francisco, the longest in my whole plan.  Will have to pick my opportunity for this one, I will be watching for favourable winds!

 

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Just arrived at the Tonga Room in the Fairmont in San Francisco, where apparently the drinks are on MM!

 

So, the story of the flight from Adak.  This one is the longest in my plan, 2408nm, and fuel will have to be carefully conserved and watched.  Fortunately I was able to fly on a day when winds were favourable, making it a little more comfortable.

 

"Make sure those tanks are full to the top!"

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Departure

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The offset cockpit of the Canberra PR9

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Hmm, not sure I'm going to get there in daylight...

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That's a familiar-looking bridge down there....

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On approach into KSFO: shall I take 28L or 28R?

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I landed with around 40 minutes fuel reserve.

 

Next stop Omaha on the way to New York, I'm thinking of taking the Lightning for the two cross-country flights.

 

 

 

 

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You'll get to New York before you know it. (Too bad the time zones work against you...otherwise you would get there before you leave.)

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I decided to do the flight from San Francisco to New York in one go, in the Lightning.

 

A very nice morning in California: looking south, just after takeoff

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Did I just come from there?  A nice one of the Bay from ca. 20,000ft

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There's snow in the mountains....

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I passed just to the south of Lake Tahoe

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I was going for a compromise between speed and air-to-air refuelling breaks; I ended up going for M1.3-1.4 and refuelling about every 30 minutes.

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If you're quick you can catch yourself going through M1.0.  Somewhere over the Midwest I think.

 

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Saw this nice one with the moon

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Landed at La Guardia, flight time approximately 3 hours 20 minutes.

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That might well be the last I'll see of the Lightning on this trip, as I've just heard of a Vickers VC-10 that might be available which would be a perfect choice for the transatlantic flight.

 

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On 12/7/2017 at 6:18 PM, MM said:

You'll get to New York before you know it. (Too bad the time zones work against you...otherwise you would get there before you leave.)

 

Almost!  You'd need to shave about 20 mins off the flight time, which might be tricky as the winds will generally be against you going from right to left.  An interesting challenge for another day though!

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