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Post by brianc on Jul 20, 2016 5:32:30 GMT -5
Hi Guys, There is no doubt that the Lockheed Constellation sealed the future for Qantas. These new (in 1947) aircraft enabled Qantas crews to complete the entire flight to London instead of the exchange with BOAC crews that had been happening in Singapore previously. It is quite a history and well worth looking up. FSX - ORBX Australia - Fly Tampa YSSY. ASN, REX and much more! CalClassics Connie L-1049G. It is a big flight in the "Connie" so I won't bore you with hundreds of screenies. Melbourne - Sydney - Darwin - Jakarta Sadly I forgot to take some pics in Melbourne. So we start with VH-EAO at Sydney with the city skyline in the background. We had pushed back and about to start the engines. Darwin airport and engine startup. Not far from Jakarta and passing into a thunderstorm with heavy rain. That's all for now. Next stop Bangkok. Keep the blue side up!
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Post by Allan_Lowson on Jul 20, 2016 17:12:39 GMT -5
Nice shots of a classic plane.
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Post by brianc on Jul 23, 2016 5:30:38 GMT -5
Hi Guys, Here's the next couple of legs. Jakarta - Bangkok - Karachi The Jakarta to Bangkok leg was uneventful and everything went by the book. I can't say the same about the Bangkok to Karachi leg though! At the gate of the old Jakarta airport (in keeping with the aircraft). A view of the flight deck. You can just make out the Thailand coast through the windows. A wet landing in Bangkok after tackling wind shear and turbulance on approach. A dawn departure from Bangkok. I finally had a gate big enough to use the GSX crew. Left is clear, right is clear. Okay to start engines! The weather has been bad all the way as we depart Bangkok. At about FL140 it was time to put the turbo's into high gear. After this I lost no.4 engine. Engine failures are not an uncommon thing with the Connie. I was able to restart it about 10 minutes later. Just after that I had another problem... This hasn't happened to me before but all of a sudden all 4 engines went out and restarted several times. I was shocked to see what was happening outside! Everything settled down after I made some adjustments on the Flight Engineer's panel. Here we are at cruise at FL180. At about 10 miles out and at FL30 getting everything settled down for a good approach/landing at Karachi. Even though I was at the correct speed I lost hydraulics after lowering the landing gear! This meant no flaps for the landing. I managed to get the speed to an acceptable level for the landing and touched down at -80fpm. Even with the props in reverse it took the whole runway to stop! Passengers were a little shaken but okay. Time to get a tow to the maintenance hanger to check it out before the next leg to Athens. This aircraft is a great challenge compared to the computerised Jets.
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Post by brianc on Jul 25, 2016 7:21:14 GMT -5
Hi Guys, Here is the final sequence - we made it to London! Karachi - Athens - Rome - London. Karachi airport, taxiing to the runway on an overcast and damp morning. Passing over Cyprus with moon rise on the way to Athens. Touchdown at Athens. Athens airport. He told me I could start the engines, so I did! Passing over a cruise ship docked in Athens. On final runway 34L Rome. Rome dawn departure from runway 07. This departure takes us over the city before heading north. A look at the Colosseum as we head off on the final leg to London. The route to London takes us over the Alps. Passing by the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Millennium Wheel on approach to Heathrow. Heathrow! Time to spend a few days sight seeing around London before heading back to Oz. Well, that's it. These last few legs went without a hitch. The maintenance crew at Karachi did a great job. I hope you enjoyed the series on the Kangaroo Route.
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Post by robau707 on Jul 25, 2016 17:47:52 GMT -5
Brian, A really nice series of screen shots and comments and you are correct with the engine failures, the Connie was known in aviation circles in there day as the best 3 engine airliner ever built.
You must have a great computer to be running all the addons with good frame rates, would you mind posting the spec' on the forum.
Cheers Rob
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Ed Burke
Member
Healthy living is fine, but it's having fun that keeps us going!
Posts: 433
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Post by Ed Burke on Jul 27, 2016 5:06:58 GMT -5
As Rob says, a great display of screenies and interesting comments, well done.
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Post by bareace on Aug 3, 2016 11:54:33 GMT -5
Excellent photos Brian. Ya gotta love those Connies.
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