Burke's Ravings

[Allen Peterson]

Well, I'm setting here in the KBFI lounge having a cup of coffee. I have Tom's Beech 58P fueled and ready for the hop to S44 and then on to S47 (KTMK). So who would I expect to visit at the stops on the route? I looked on the member's list but didn't find much info on locations.
Ed, would you like to see a report of flight times, etc.? Is there a start time or do we just fly when ready. I'll probably fly in Fair Weather 'cuz I like to watch the scenery.

[Ed Burke]

Forget the formality Allen, this is just a wander at whatever pace you feel up to. It might take many days, or many weeks or even months. Depends on the hospitality I guess !! And I intend to do a bit of sightseeing along the way.

At S44 we have "billybob" who lives at Lakewood, some 7 miles NNW of the field. Most of the info comes from the forum members list plus a few I remember from yesteryear.

At Tillamook there is a guy who's name escapes me, we did some adventure flights from his place out east through the mountains He has not been around for a long time and as the old forum info has gone, it's not possible to look for details and names. I fancy his name might have been Jerry but don't put any money on it.

I have not yet kicked the tires of the 421, Fun is the word, have some. Ed

[Tom Goodrick]

Looks like a very interesting route, Ed. I will dust off my Cessna 414 and fly that route. (If anyone is interested in my 414, I think it is still available from Avsim. It does not have an operating door but has most everything else people like in planes these days. Don't remember if I finished the Virtual Cockpit but I know it has good inside-out views.)

I am going to need some help getting this flight plan loaded. I tried copying it into a blank Notepad file and then re-naming it. That gave nothing. Then I vaguely remembered there is a hidden header on the .pln files so I loaded a working .pl n file, erased the body and copied in your body. That worked except that it los all the waypoiints. It showed KBFI and MMMY and nothing in between.

What is the secret? In the past I have just emailed flight plan files to anyone who asked for one.

OK I figured out what works - maybe. I made a new flight plan just from BFI to MMMY with no waypoints. Then I copied in the waypoints from Ed's file starting with the second and ending with his MMMY waypoint. It worked. I saw his complete route.

There is both a hidden (non-ascii) header and trailer that are lost if you just copy the text you see in a listing of the .pln file.

Why go back up to Anchorage and then back down? I'd start at Anchorage and go to Seattle and the KCOE.... I made those edits in the corrected file. Not sure I can fly the Cessna 414 on all the longer legs. I'll check it out. The 414 is the same as the 421 except the engines are direct drive on the 414 - no gearing to the props.

[Ed Burke]

Good on you Tom. The reason for starting at BFI is that is where we finished up when you asked about doing something else. I'll stick to that 'cos in my olden sim days I used to fly everywhere. I NEVER teleported. If I was in Dubbo and someone got something going in Reykjavik then I would fly there to join in. I have all my old log sheets somewhere and when I am looking for a change I will plot them all on a world map, Google Earth or something and plaster the walls with large scale prints.

Anchorage is to drop in on Jim Bertleson of late great BGA fame.

Vancouver, Whitefish and Norfolk Mass, are calls on my personal fiends er friends, and they know sfa about flight sim although the Norfolk guy has several thousand hours instructing in sailplanes at my old club. They are all pretty well behaved despite having had Oz exposure and all comers will be welcomed.

Who remembers the Tillamook man It is difficult to find locations for most members and if you think of someone I have left off, then put your hand up.

And if you need fuel just grab some somewhere, this is a jolly not a competition. Maybe the world wide members???mmmmm!! cheers, Ed

[Tom Goodrick]

I see your point but had I known you wanted to go through Anchorage, I would have used Anchorage for a gas stop on the route from Nome to Seattle rather than Juno. I liked Jim Bertleson. He did some very good work in figuring out some details about the gauge design that Microsoft did not tell us about. I was corresponding with him outside this Forum when he suddenly disappeared. In my view someone here threatened his life. (He was an OBGYN and chief of Gynacology at the main hospital in Anchorage. I would certainly agree with a stop there in his honor although he would probably hide from us. It just seems like a bad way to start a tour by going north 675 nm and then coming back about the same amount. My own memories of long flights in piston twins are not as rosy as yours. I was glad when they ended. That's why I like to fly jets today whenever possible on such long flights.

Jerry is the guy who lives in Tillamook. He still writes on this Forum now and then. When he moved to Tillamook, we all found a very interesting place to fly into and out of.

In Real Life I flew into Norfolk MA a few times. That's a nice place and a good place to practice short landings (about 2600 ft as I remember - no problem for a Cessna 150!). MIT based their soaring club there and they came over my house once in a while when I lived in Bellingham (west and upwind from Norfolk). They would get a ride to a position near my house and then fly back to Norfolk. I also had a friend who based his own Cessna 150 there. Flew with him one evening to Martha's Vineyard and back. I think he wanted some company for the over-water leg.

I still can't get your flight plan to stick in my system. I copy it in and then go to look at it. Only once did I see the entire path. Usually all the waypoints disappear. Guess i'll have to construct the path from scratch.

I would recommend using Norfolk as an operational test for any aircraft you want to fly. I am still planning on using the 414 but might consider the Mustang Jet.

[Tom Goodrick]

I tried the 414 at Norfolk (flying from my old home base of 1B6 (Hopedale) and over ran Runway 36. My sim shows Norfolk fairly well but the trees are farther north of the runway than in reality. I tried the Cessna Mustang with the same result. (Its official length is 2700 ft which does not include the over run area at the south end of 18.

The ideal aircraft for me seems to be the Piper Meridian single turboprop. I'm not sure where it can be downloaded from. The original was on avsim but I had to modify that considerably to get it to fly according to specs.

[Tom Goodrick]

You forgot KNVD (Joe's place at Nevada, MO) and KIRK (upper central MO) where Flaming and his clan reside.

[Allen Peterson]

Good idea about the Piper Meridian Tom, maybe I'll switch to it. Have you lost your files that you used to have on your download area? Back when you first mentioned that you might lose your site I downloaded the whole thing. I'll see if I can find it.
I tried doing a flight plan from KBFI to MMMY and then dragging the red line to all of the stops. I got as far as Anchorage and then I accidentally hit CLEAR. So now I'm just going to make a flight plan from KBFI to CYVR then drag in the stops between. Then I'll make a plan from CYVR to ...
More work maybe, but easier to find the stops.
I'll add in KNVD and KIRK.

[Ed Burke]

I had KIRK on my list but overlooked it, sorry Flaming. I'll add Joe, thanks Tom

[Tom Goodrick]

Thanks Allen, but I have my original files. I just cannot tell others where to go if they want it. I have most of my old files available but on an old and unreliable computer.

When you guys leave Norfolk, MA, you might want to jog 10 miles west and do a touch and go at Hopedale (1B6) where I learned to fly. My FS9 is set for a lot of junk in the scenery and it has a lot more buildings there than used to be there. In the AOPA Airport Directory the only thing listed at Hopedale other than the hangar is a pool hall. But if you substitute trees for the buildings on the north end of 36 you get the effect I had to fly over. I did touch and goes in my training but when my kids flew there 10 years later, T&G's were banned and you had to do full stops. They got fewer landings in an hour.

[Allan_Lowson]

I also have Tom's 414 files. I can email them to any interested parties. If you have any favourite colour schemes on the Cessna 414 from www.premaircraft.com/AC_MENU/index.html it is not too complicated a job to fit Tom's flight dynamics round the contact points to upgrade that model. I have also done the same modification with some AI aircraft that I wanted to make flyable. (i.e. take Tom's FDs etc.)

Nosing round the backup drive made me remember Tom's Aero Commander 680 which has a fair level of performance, and his Mooney Ovation is a permanent fixture on my system. The perfect bolide for the brave single-engined flyer in a hurry. It does tend to get through brake pads though!

I had thought that Tom had breathed on the FDs for the Veneaviones AC690. As soon as I loaded it back the hop on load up showed that the contact points are out. I then remembered that they put blood curdling threats in their readmes against anyone daring to fiddle with their products. Their loss, and now they seem to be out of business. Anyway it is quite a nice plane with picture windows to watch the world go by.

If you are passing through the mid-Atlantic states in June you may notice a couple of vargant furriners lurking in the woodlands. It is only in the last few months that we have figured out what and where the mid-Atlantic states are, but we have now hoovered up enough guide books to Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia to use up our cabin baggage allowance. So we will be relying on native guides when we get to Pennsylvania. They are very friendly.

[Tom Goodrick]

Allan, that is a very scenic section of the US. I am sure you will enjoy your trip. When my sons went off to college, I lived in Massachusetts and they each chose schools in Alabama (for warmth and adventure). That meant I had to make several trips by car. I would head west to Scranton, PA where I picked up I-81 and would follow that to Knoxville, TN where I split off depending on which school I was heading for. That stretch from ScrantonThere are many points where you can depart I-81 for local excursions. The scenery over by Bill's neck of the woods is pretty neat too.

[Ed Burke]

March 16 and the C421C lifted off from a busy Boeing Field, with me on board I might add, into a beautiful 'fair weather' sky for the short run to S44 at 2000'. A total contrast to BFI, there is sweet nothing here bar for the tall trees that make the shortish strip even shorter and raised my anxiety level somewhat. The result was a hard landing that really tried out the retractable bits. "billybob" lives in Lakewood. I'll be here for a short spell while I attend to some chainsaw work on my home patch. Hey, there is some great mountain scenery hereabouts, Ed

[flaminghotsauce]

this looks like a nice tour. It could take me weeks at the rate I get in my flying time. I may get in ONE leg per week. I'm going to have to fly a single, as I have lost the ability to use two throttles with my Saitek quadrants. Ink spill, 6 year old, etc.

I might have to look into the Mooney. High speed single that I don't put much time in.

[flaminghotsauce]

I went to Google Maps and input each airport identifier to get a clue about the routing. I put KNVD and KIRK after KMSP.