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Post by connieguy on Apr 14, 2023 10:02:34 GMT -5
I didn't realise that LORAN had actually been finished. It's a matter of taste, I suppose. I would rather use the sextant and the weather stations than the gps any day. I love that sextant, and I love the night sky. Some people would say, why not get into the air and use 8xtime acceleration to cut out all the boredom? The answer is that it isn't boring at all, because you are, even in a very limited fashion, recreating the art and skills that those people practiced, a virtually lost art, and I don't think of it as boring even if I do it repeatedly, particularly when I am flying such a fine model. If I did I would join the stampede to MSFS and go for the pretty pictures.
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Post by connieguy on Jul 9, 2023 7:59:39 GMT -5
The crew would have had a decent night's sleep at Lajes, and been in need of it, but I have decided to leave at about 8am local time (UTC-1) the following morning for the approximately eight hour flight to Wheelus in Libya. This means a take-off at dawn and a landing, in the short winter's day, around sunset. I have created a flight plan with enough points for me to be able to derive a detailed weather report from FSGRW and it is immediately obvious that in that respect things will be much more straightforward. Out in the Atlantic yesterday's depression is still there, but as we fly towards the Portuguese coast the winds will be almost directly behind us and they will halve in strength. Once beyond it they will present little difficulty in terms of navigation. The flight plan: Dawn at Lajes, 29th December 1956. We have loaded 29,804 lbs of fuel for the flight of 1,979 nm. Tanks 1-4 are full, and Tank 5 38% full. Engines are running and a B-36 faces us. Lajes scenery by John Stinstrom backdated by Al von Pingel and myself. Exceptional AI traffic by Al. Just after take off from Runway 33 at 9:01 UTC and we have turned to the heading of 100 degrees magnetic which will take us to the coast of Portugal. Climb to FL190 takes 34 minutes. Once there I use economy cruise as described in the last post, but at a later stage switch to constant power at 1700 BHP. As we approach it we would at an earlier date have had the navigational assistance of the original Ocean Station Lima, but by 1956 this had been discontinued. In FS9 terms the best we can do is the NDB at Caparica, although in reality there were almost certainly beacons with a much longer range. Once beyond it we can use beacons which are not on the direct flight path but near enough to it to be useful. No matter, at 11:48 UTC, after flying for 2 hours 47 minutes the welcome sound of Morse and the rmi show Caparica more or less just where it should be and that the minor drift adjustments have done their job. It is a fine day and if it replicates the conditions of 1956 the passengers would have been able to admire the mountains of southern Spain before passing directly over Granada. As we reach North Africa the sun is already sinking in the late afternoon sky and after picking up the Range Station at Wheelus the first stars have appeared. Landing is straight in on Runway 11. We are not quite lined up here, but the runway lights are visible and the Libyan coast. Wheelus scenery by Al Von Pingel, Dan French and myself. Full flaps and trim and engine power set for landing. She should now drift in and the wheels will kiss the runway. Like that Parked outside the Wheelus Operations Building. Flight time 07:25. Fuel remaining 9,176 lbs.
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Post by nmlw on Jul 9, 2023 14:57:07 GMT -5
Good procedural descriptions and accompanying narrative of this flight. Fine shots of it as well.
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Post by Al on Jul 9, 2023 16:16:01 GMT -5
Nicely done ken. Enjoyed that a lot.
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Post by connieguy on Jul 12, 2023 5:12:57 GMT -5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you gentlemen. It is now time to simulate the flight which in reality ended in tragedy. We know (see earlier in the thread) that the crash occurred at about midnight on the night of 30th/31st December 1956. Dhahran was three hours ahead of UTC and Wheelus one hour ahead. As the distance from Wheelus was about 1955nm that would mean a flight of 7-8 hours and therefore departure from Wheelus apparently must have been c.13:00 UTC, which was 14:00 Local Time. This means that the aircraft took off in the early afternoon and much of the flight was in the dark. It could be that this was the schedule for this regular MATS flight because in summer when the days were much longer this timing allowed the use of astro navigation on the final stretch over a desert bereft of navigational aids. However, if it is true that two other C-121s flew with our aircraft it could be that there were other reasons for the departure time. Whether they knew that GCA at Dhahran was not operational we do not know, but in simulating this flight I do not consider myself bound to attempt a landing in very poor visibility. The commander of the aircraft, who died in the crash, had a choice on diverting to Basra, and I have that same choice. However, having said that I have researched what the weather conditions will be around the time for landing (using the real world weather file for December 2022) and visibility is forecast to be just over 6 miles with a westerly wind of 7-10 knots. These are (just) VFR conditions and as there are short range NDBs which allow lining up on the runways I consider that I would be unjustified in not attempting a landing if these are the conditions encountered. This will be a simulation not quite like any other.
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Post by Erik on Jul 14, 2023 15:24:27 GMT -5
This topic is truly another Connieguy Classic. Well researched, well documented, well written and illustrated. Thank you Ken, and looking forward to the next part!
Cheers, Erik
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Post by Al on Jul 15, 2023 13:59:03 GMT -5
Me to!
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Post by connieguy on Jul 23, 2023 10:31:05 GMT -5
So a wet summer's day in the UK has allowed me to devote the necessary 8-9 hours to this flight and here is the result. As usual I have created a flight plan with enough points to give decent weather forecasts for the route and they and the appropriate maps in Ventusky have shown that the winds will be light even at FL190; in the later stages they will also be tail winds. Ready for engine start up. Wheelus Air Base, Libya, c.14:00 local time, 30th December 1956. Wheelus scenery by Al Von Pingel, Dan French and myself. 32,520 lbs of fuel have been loaded to cover the possibility of diversion to Bahrain and this means that the centre tank, Tank 5, is full. The eagle-eyed will notice that the clock on the glareshield has been set to UTC and those on the panel to local time. They will have been advanced by two hours by the time we get to Dhahran. Although the weather file has been loaded the altimeter has yet to be adjusted to local pressure. Take off from Runway 29 at 13:15 UTC. Gear and flaps have been raised and a ship heads for Tripoli harbour just before we begin the 180 degree turn which will take us east. The turn completed. Climb to FL190 took 38 minutes. Once there the manifold pressure, rpm and mixture of the engines are set for Long Range Cruise, the cowl flaps closed and the crossfeeds arranged so that Tank 5 is fuelling engines 2 and 3 while 1 and 4 are served by their own tanks. Then there are long periods of little activity. In the real aircraft pilots using an auto-pilot would appear to have had a lot of leisure and their work rate compared with that of the flight engineer is sometimes satirised in period cartoons. It is not therefore surprising that one hears of occasionally long conversations with passengers invited to the flight deck. Perhaps they sometimes read. I spend part of this flight in a re-reading of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'. Others were less fortunate. The attention of the flight engineer can never have been allowed to stray far from the gauges which represented the state of the temperamental turbo compound engines, while cruise settings were almost certainly made by him, after consulting the manual which listed those appropriate to the aircraft's current weight. Unlike pilots of the B-29 Superfortress those of the Constellations were provided with throttle controls, but whether they or the flight engineer made more use of them I do not know and have never seen discussed.* Another crew member always likely to be busy was the navigator, although life was much easier for them when they were over land and pilots could follow radio beacons. The lives of all on board sometimes depended upon them, as they did on the flight engineer, but it was the pilot in command who took vital decisions such as whether to attempt a landing in poor visibility and who was ultimately held responsible if anything went wrong. Navigation on this flight is not too difficult. I initially track out on the Wheelus Range Station (FS9 NDB) and after that there are a number of places along the North African coast, such as Benghazi and Alexandria, which today have VORs that in the mid 1950s may well have been long range NDBs. Although I do not normally utilise VORs outside the US (where they were employed earlier than elsewhere) I therefore consider it legitimate to use them in this case. By the time we pass over Alexandria night has fallen. Navigation becomes rather more pressing when we reach the NDB at Aqaba in Jordan (FS9 range 75 miles). There are now VORs in the desert to the east but I am not going to tune them because of doubts whether they were there in 1956; the next radio aids are therefore at Dhahran itself. However, it is dark and stars are shining in a clear sky. There was a burst of carburettor icing just after Alexandria and while clearing it I switched to 1700 BHP Constant Power Cruise. As I pass Aqaba the aircraft is doing 260 KTAS with an estimated tail wind of 20 knots, while Fix 9 is 280nm away. I therefore set a timer running and sixty minutes later take a starshot on Orion to the east and the Pole Star off the starboard wing. Fix 9 is N29 5 57, E 40 27 36, and the sextant reading N 29 5, E 40 14. In other words I am close to the precise Latitude and just short of the Longitude. 40 minutes later I take another shot on Fix 11 after another 217nm. The result is shown below. Fix 11 is at N28 2 09, E44 23 31, while the sextant returns N 28 15, E 44 48. I am slightly north of the fix and a little way to the east of it; and it is 19:55 UTC, 22:55 Local Time in Dhahran It is then a matter of waiting to pick up the long range NDB at Dhahran, which happens at 20:21 UTC. Shortly after that ATIS states that landing will be on R25 in a visibility of 8 miles and I tune the short range NDB off the end of R07 which will allow lining up on 25. Plenty of time is allowed for descent, utilising a wide circuit to allow plenty of time too for lining up. In the absence of DME one can get a fair estimate of the proximity of a beacon from the rapidity or otherwise with which the needle moves. Visibilty is actually very good as we approach the runway. Almost there. Decision height (250 feet) has just been called and the throttle advanced to temporarily halt the descent so that when it is resumed I land about a third of the way down the runway. Touchdown. Approaching the terminal. Dhahran scenery by Al Von Pingel, Dan French and myself. Available at CalClassic. Landing 21:18 UTC, 00:18 Local Time. Flight time 8:03. Fuel remaining 10,162 lbs. * In the course of preparing this account I read (not for the first time - it contains much of interest) the official report on the crash of a BOAC Stratocruiser at Prestwick on Christmas Day 1954 with heavy loss of life. Like our C-121 it crashed short of the runway in poor visibility but GCA was operating and the cause of the crash was attributed to pilot error in descending too steeply and flaring too late. The testimony of the flight engineer was clear that he was manipulating the engine controls using settings transmitted verbally by the pilot. It may well be that this was near to standard practice in allowing the pilot to concentrate all his attention on what he could see through the windscreen. Captain Stewart, one of BOAC's most distinguished pilots, lost an appeal against the verdict and never flew for them again. www.baaa-acro.com/sites/default/files/import/uploads/2017/05/G-ALSA.pdfSee also: www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/342003-crash-boac-stratocruiser-g-alsa-25-12-54-prestwick.html
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Post by Erik on Jul 23, 2023 17:05:31 GMT -5
Lovely as always Ken, and rather unspectacular if I may say so, compared to what could have been (and was, during that faithful night). I thoroughly enjoyed this one again, many thanks.
Erik
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Post by nmlw on Jul 23, 2023 18:00:45 GMT -5
Great shots and I especially liked the narrative. Very nicely done all around.
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Post by connieguy on Jul 24, 2023 7:51:56 GMT -5
Thank you very much gentlemen. I do these things partly because I enjoy writing, but knowing that they are appreciated makes a considerable difference and of course encourages me to do more. As there was fortunately no disaster in Dhahran I may take up the evidence that the aircraft was subsequently intended to assist in transporting to the USA refugees from the consequences of the 1956 Hungarian rising. That will involve crossing the Atlantic and allow me to make serious use of Loran for the first time. However, it may be best in a new thread.
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Post by Al on Jul 24, 2023 8:40:42 GMT -5
What was great about this story is made use of many of sceneries we have built together over the years. It has been a long time since I revisited Charleston AB, one of our earliest. Maybe another good adventure or two in the future using our sceneries via the northern routes as there would be so many choices. Keep up the good reads though the do seem quite an investment of time and effort but well worth it on our end.
Al
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