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PBY Range?


Luke42_02

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Let me appologize from the start by saying that I know almost nothing about FSX. I saw a freind using it the other day and saw the PBY. I've always had an interest in PBY's and I had visions of buying FSX and the Catalina, learning to fly it, and trying to recreate the flights from the west coast to Hawaii that these planes used to routinely make make. I tried to make a route like this using the free flight button on his machine, but it seemed to say that I could carry nowhere near enough fuel to complete that flight (again, I have no idea what I am doing). So, I'm just wanting to ask one of you if such a flight is possible with this aircraft model. Thanks in advance.

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Hi,

I suggest you do some proper pre-flight planning with the weather you're going to be flying in and decide on an abort point. Usually the average wind along your route is what is used to determine things like this.

Seeing as you seem to be new to this, here is a worked example (if you plan on a lot of long-distance trips, this is a must if you're flying with any wind at all):

If you departed from Almeda Point NAS (other side of the river from San Francisco), and you had an average wind speed of 40 kts from 260:

You're flying approx. 247°, so headwind would be approx. cos(260-247) = cos(13) = 0.97

0.97 x 40 = 39 kts average headwind (rounded up).

If IAS is 107 kts at max endurance, at 10,000 ft that is approx. 128 kts ground speed.

128-39 = 89 kts ground speed with the wind factored in.

Assuming 21 hours endurance, 89 x 21 = 1869 nm range. You need 2300 nm. You can not make it, however this computation does not allow for the fact you will be lighter as time goes by and climbing to higher altitudes where you'll burn less fuel.

IAS figures taken from the manual. Max endurance computed from max range vs. long range cruise speed.

Best regards,

Robin.

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Just to add to what Vulcan said, the Catalina routinely carried out the flights, as you say, but ONLY when the weather was favourable and with the aircraft set up specifically for the trip. The longest routine trip flown by Cats was the Qantas service from Perth to Koggala Lake in Ceylon across the Indian Ocean, a flight of around 3,100 nautical miles! But that range meant three passengers, no guns or ammo and just 140lbs of cargo and took between 28 and 32 hours depending on the weather... and it was only flown by the flying boat not the amphibian.

Many different factors come into consideration with the Catalina (and with all piston-prop aircraft in FS to a lesser extent). You have the capability to lean the mixture to reduce fuel burn, change the load onboard to alter fuel, crew/passenger and weapon levels so what you see as the computed range is a `spot computation` taking into consideration the averages at that time. As the flight goes on and the aircraft gets lighter, and higher, it is possible to reduce power and with it fuel consumption, but it's not an automatic thing, it takes pilot (and navigator, and engineer) skill.

You can achieve this in FSX as `simulation` not a `game`, but there is always the option to turn off the fuel consumption and fly any distance you want, so you can also fly it as a `game` rather than a simulation.

In fact, for ultimate realism there are addons available for FSX that permit you to navigate to the Islands without the use of the GPS if you truly wish, but you'd need to set aside about 24 hours for the flight if you don't use the time escalation... and that's a long time in front of the computer!

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Thanks for your help. I read recently that the PBY's started carrying drop tanks once they upgraded to the amphibious models. The addition of landing gear decreased the range enough to prevent the trip. After realizing the reduced range, the first squadron to fly these new Catalinas was able to make the trip by scrounging drop tanks that were designed for another aircraft. Its kind of funny to think of an era where things such as this weren't thought of during the design of the plane. Apparently they just left it up to a bunch of 20-30 year olds to figure it out. I should have also mentioned that I am not a pilot either. I think I'll buy FSX and start messing around with it. This seems very interesting. Thanks for all your help.

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`Welcome, once you have the sim and the Cat, come back and ask for advice.

But a piece of advice just to get you started is to get used to the sim with the Learning Center before switching to the more sophisticated models like the Aerosoft Cat. Don't go straight to the tricky stuff or else it's a recipe for frustration! You can learn a lot from the default amphibian Grumman Goose that is directly transposable to the Catalina.

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