[Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

The "Queen of the Skies"
MatzeH84
Staff Sergeant
Posts: 393
Joined: 29 Mar 2013, 14:26
Location: EDLA, Germany

[Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by MatzeH84 »

Welcome to a rather big report. I published this on the IVAO forums, and the text is more or less written for this community, where magenta lines are the thing to have. As I don't like to rewrite all the stuff once more, I thought I'll share it with you here even though I'm talking about things most of you will know by heart- because it's an interesting flight, with a navigational challenge (for me), and a good story. This is part one of three, the rest may follow within one day. Have fun, thanks to A2A for providing such magnificent addons, and to the sim community for great tools like the Weathership Gauge or the Sextant Gauge.

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Welcome to yet another classic report! Even though the response to my last two reports featuring the DC-6 and the L-049 was rather unobstrusive, this one is a bit special, that's why I wanted to share it with you nevertheless.
I know classic aviation is an even smaller group of interest as VFR lovers here on IVAO, but maybe it will be interesting to you even though there are no big turbofan engines involved, no FMS and certainly no magenta lines.
What you are going to read is a report of a flight with a Lockheed L-049 Constellation, equipped with 4 Wright R3350 radial engines, and the finest navigation instruments of its time: RMI (for VOR and NDB navigation), course deviation indicator, ILS, and even a DME system. All of this won't help anything when we are crossing the big water between Canada and Scandinavia; then we will revert to celestial navigation. Hopefully the weatherships Able and Baker will be around in their positions too, so we can get the latest weather as well as some helpful bearings every quarter of an hour while we are in range.
On this flight I decided not to 'cheat', using the navigator's map tool or any software which can track the flight path real time, for example. I let the virtual F/E in charge of all his duties, so I was able to concetrate on navigation- calculating ground speed, drift and wind correction angle, and so on. This proved to be trickier than I though, especially as I used the sextant for the first time in flight, instead of training with in stationary on the ground. But that is a story for the next legs..


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The first leg of our route will lead us from Chicago Midway to Montreal, where we will have a scheduled stop to get mail on board. We will then continue to Goose Bay for refueling, before we go on the longest leg, over the pont, nonstop to our destination Stockholm.
The first leg will be around 650NM, which we expect to accomplish in 3:09.


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42 well-dressed passengers plus 2 children are leaving the waiting room and head out to our Lockheed L-049 Constellation, where our head stewardess Betty is already awaiting them. Beggage and mail are being loaded by the ground crew.
Due to the ambient temperature of 22°C it isn't necessary to pre-condition the cabin for boarding; on other times the (indeed simulated) passengers may get a bit unconfortable, and the pilot may not get a positive log entry..
The L049 was the original model of the Constellation, before it got modifications for increased gross weight, increased range, got enlarged to carry more passengers and got more powerful engines to be able to lift these. The most commonly know variant certainly is the L1049 Super Constellation with its Curtis R3350 Turbo Compound engines, wing tip tanks and longer fuselage. As the engines on our L049 are from earlier series, they don't have as much power, and are missing the Turbo Compound technology, that's why you also won't see any exhaust flames on this one. But in return, the original R3350 was a bit more reliable and less prone to spontaneous self-ignition during flight. It's also missing reversible props, which were also added on later models; however, due to its lower max gross weight of 90000lb, she handles very well on runways which are considerated short by today's standards.


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After the engines have been sufficiently warmed up, the last checks at the holding point are done; for the engines the prop governours, carb heat and magnetos are checked, flaps set to t/o, and we're awaiting ATC clearance for departure.


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Lined up the F/E is setting the throttles for takeoff power. In this case, this doesn't mean full power; as today, full power takeoffs are only done when needed, to reduce wear of the engines. In case of these radials, one big consideration is of course heat; on slow speeds during takeoff there is no sufficient cooling airflow to dissipate the massive heat, which can easily lead to engine failure. T/O power usually is limited to maximum 2 minutes, before METO (maximum except takeoff) power is set, which in turn is quickly reduced to the climb setting.


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Rotating at 100kts she gracefully leaves the ground at Midway.


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View over the suburbs toward lake Michigan, as we turn to our first VOR, Chicago Heights.


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As it is noon, as soon as we're settled in the climb, the cabin crew starts preparing for lunch. In our aicraft this means freshly cooked meat and vegetables served on plates with silverware, not something in warmed up in a plastic box..


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View on our main office for the next hours. Not the standard six arrangement, but also much less cluttered than other panels these days. For navigation we have a dual RMI, which may display both VOR and NDB, a course deviation indicator, which is selectable to receive Nav 1 or 2, the artificial horizon and the heading gyro.
While the heading gyro is automatically adjusted by a flux gate, the autopilot gyro is NOT. This means, it has to be constantly checked and corrected to maintain the desired direction.
We're on our way from Chicago Heights to Goshen, and the autopilot is engaged in all 3 axis. They may be connected and disconnected individually as desired.
However all the old Sperry unit can do is to fly a heading and maintain a certain pitch angle. That's it- no fancy VOR tracking, and also no altitude hold.


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Passing Gary as we're climbing through the clouds.


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Getting on top of the clouds at 13000ft- first we planned for 15k, but due to the weather we decide to get up to 17k directly.


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It seems we left the worst weather behind for now, the skies are clearing up. Having lunch while in turbulences doesn't sound like fun, and the passengers certainly don't like it, too..


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Passing South Bend, view towards Bremen, Plymouth and La Paz.. we're turning towards Litchfield VOR.


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Quick check on the left upper engineer's panel- dual oil pressure gauges, one for the front oil pump, one for the rear, as well as fuel pressure for each engine. Oil temperature for oil coming out of the engine and one gauge for the temperature when coming out of the oil cooler. Everything looks fine, but checking back frequently to ensure engine health is important.


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Passing Flint


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In the meantime we climbed up to FL210 to avoid the rising cloudtops and their turbulences... looks like smooth weather ahead for now!


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Great view from the office, as we pass over Lake Huron and enter Canadian territory near Clinton.


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At the same time in the cabin, it's been a nice smooth flight so far!


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Around Peterborough the cloud tops are rising again, and this time we cannot go further up- 21000 feet is the maximum altitude the cabin supercharger system can cope with, resulting in a cabin altitude of 10000ft. So we just have to ride off some light chops.


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Inbound to Ottawa, we have reached our calculated top of descend. Knowing the groundspeed I calculated using the DME earlier, I determined the top of descend in such a way that we will have a smooth, 500fpm descend. Unlike jets, where you can cut power and dive down, these radials have to provide positive thrust at any time (except for a short time on landing, obviously). An engine running at low power, being turned by the propeller instead of combustion, is prone to leave some metal stuff in the oil afterwards. Plus, the engine must be kept warm- pulling power will freeze it quickly. All this results in rather low descend rates.


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Passing Ottawa


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Under the clouds the weather proved to be very good, so we decided for a visual approach on runway 06L. Turning on final over Lake St Louis.


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The PAPIs were NOTAMed out, no problem..


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Short final


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Taxiing to the apron after landing, still some puddles of water here and there from a recent shower


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..aaand parked up on the main apron. We're getting the mail on board, some refreshments for the passengers, as well as fuel and catering.


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Leaving for some ground work, but we'll soon continue to our next leg to Stockholm, with a fuel stop at Goose Bay.

Flight time so far: 2:41.
Kind regards, Matthias

Cool
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Cool »

Hi Matthias
Very nice story and the trip sounds very exiting :lol:
And I am so pleased to see that I am not the only one to fly the Connie on IVAO network :D :wink:
Waiting for the next leg report :mrgreen:
Pascal
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MatzeH84
Staff Sergeant
Posts: 393
Joined: 29 Mar 2013, 14:26
Location: EDLA, Germany

Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by MatzeH84 »

Thanks Pascal ;)
Since PMDG released the DC-6, some of these classics are flying around there, but the usual PMDG fanboy seems to have a hard time properly using such an aircraft.. :mrgreen:

So let's go for the next leg! Still not a difficult task, though I intended to fly the last two segments via dead reckoning and sextant in preparation for the journey across the Atlantic.


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After departure from Montreal we'll join the 070 radial outbound YUL VOR to Québec, then on via Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles to Goose Bay- the planned EETs for these waypoints are included.
Trip time is planned with 3:13 for the roundabout 700NM.
On the map you can see several additional waypoints and markings.
Legend on this: Orange is the planned track; blue the actually flown track. Green are lines of position taken with the sextant, red lines too (later more on that). All other colours are bearings, assumed position and tracks. Google Earth is a great planning tool when flying with dead reckoning and celestial navigation, but you also have to know one or two limitations.. which caught me on the way over the Atlantic later. But that's for part 3.


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Back from the planning desk to our aircraft, still sitting at the ramp. She has been fueled and loaded up, and the last passengers are getting back on board after some taxfree shopping (don't know if this already was a thing back then..).


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While Betty prepares the cabin and holds her pax briefing, the flight crew is busy starting her up. The Connie doesn't have direct cranking starters like the DC-6 for example, but is equipped with inertia starters. So first an inertia wheel is sped up; once it has reached full speed, prime, couple the wheel to the engine, count 12 blades, set mags to both and wait for ignition. Sometimes you have to prime a bit more.. or a bit less.. before the wheel has lost all its momentum, of course. If you can't get the engine to catch within time, you have to uncouple the wheel again and spin it back up, repeating the process. Care must be taken not to overprime (flood) the engine. Once started, bring in the mixture and shut off the primer. 1000-1200RPM are a good RPM to warm the engines up- less, and the spark plugs could foul. This would show during the runup and the mag-check. If they can't be burnt free again with lean mixture and increased power, one would have to go back to the ramp again, shut down and have all 32 spark plugs pulled and inspected. This is what you would call a bad day at the office.
Sequence is 3-4-2-1, and as you can see number 1 is the next in line, all others are already running. The GPU is supporting the battery here; an APU was not installed on the 049.


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Oil pressure is in the green.. still a bit high though. Cold oil is thicker, so more pressure is generated. As the oil warms up, the oil pressure will drop. More fun, if it's really freezing outside though.. you can decide if you want to redline the oil pressure, or idle rediculously low. In such weather it's a good idea to preheat the engines or fill in heated oil at least. Another option is to dilute the oil with fuel before shutdown.. however this also lead to engine failures if not done properly.


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The F/O's task is to charge the brake accumulator, once the engines are running. Losing hydraulics with no accumulator charge, and you would have nothing left to brake with..


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Once again at the holding point, engine run-ups have been satifactory, we're ready for departure at runway 28.


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Until next time, Montreal!


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Gracefully she spreads her wings- truly the most elegant design of the propliner era!


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Settled on course toward Québec VOR. This time we will climb straight up to FL210, in good hope that we will barely leave the cloud tops beneath us.


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Through the weather..


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Passing around 13k feet, depending on the density altitude, the engines are at their critical altitude. For climb power you now have the throttle fully open. To gain enough power to climb higher, the superchargers now have to be switched from low to high gear, which gives approximately another 10" boost on the manifold pressure. However, the high gear also requires more power to operate, so the fuel consumption will increase a bit.
F/E calls out for throttle reduction- throttles are retarded to ~22 inches, the superchargers are put to high gear, and you will end up with 32 inches for climb power again. In the shot you can see #3 already in high gear, #2 is in transition, and #1 and #4 are still on low blower.


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For now, the flight is smooth. Around Goose Bay this should change a bit, according to the weather reports.. as you can see, the moon is visible, so we will have two fixes to play with with the sextant.


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Cloud surfing just below 17k feet.


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Time for our first sextant shot. While you wouldn't need the specific data for the gauge to work, it certainly makes the whole process more realistic. So what are we going to do, and why, and how does this work?
First I have to know, when I will do my observation. As you can see, I will take a shot at 1500Z.
The next thing is to determine the assumed position. This may be any point within maybe 100NM from the position you assume you will be at at 1500Z. I took YBC VOR at N49°10.0"W68°13.0. I will certainly not be there at 1500Z, but this isn't important.
Once we've entered the data, we get the almanac data for the specific date, time and position. In the sim, only the coloumn Hc and Zn are important. Hc is the elevation, or in other words, the height of the object above the horizon. Zn is the azimuth, or direction, in relation to true north.
As it is daytime, the stars are obviously invisible (which is why I cut nearly all of the table). But the sun is out, and the moon is also there. For the first two shots, we will only use the sun.
The sun, when seen at the position of YBC VOR at 1500Z on Aug 13, 2017, will be 22°42.9' above the horizon in direction 93,9°.


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Ok, now we have to feed that information into our gauge sheet. In the assumed position we enter- you name it- the assumed position, YBC. Then we fill in the star position, in this case azimuth and elevation of the sun. Then we are ready to take a shot.
During daytime, the star in the optic will be green, simulating a green filter in front of the mirror so you wouldn't burn your eyes out as you look into the sun. The white bubble is your 'gunsight'. you now have to adjust the elevation so that the star is centered in relation to the bubble- while taking the shot, bubble and star are jumping up and down, as you would expect it with a handheld sextant from a airplane.. once finished, we can read the measured elevation from the position we are currently at, and also get a distance value spit out (not yet seen on the sheet, as the shot was still ongoing).
It should have been around -105NM..
So what are we doing with this distance value??


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We pull up our planning chart, in this case Google Earth. We could also use the chart on the left side of the gauge, but it isn't very precise to say the best.
As our distance value is negative, we have to go away from the star. As the sun is roughly in direction 94°, we draw a line from YBC with a heading of 274°, which is 105NM long. This is our anchoring point. From here we can establish a new line, which is perpendicular to the one we just drew, and may be as long as desired. This is our line of position. Which means, we were somewhere along this line, when we made the shot at 15Z. You can see this line painted in green on the left side.
Or, another explanation, from YBC we go 105NM into direction 274° and install a VOR station there. Our line of position is the 184 radial (274-90=184). We know we are on the radial using our cockpit instruments, but as the station doesn't have DME, we don't know where along the line. Just, that we are on it.
So what's the use? In the picture above you can see another, rather small green line short of YBC VOR in the upper right corner. This was another sun shot exactly half an hour later. Measuring the distance between the lines along the track we flew, we see that we must have travelled 156NM in these 30 minutes. So our groundspeed must be 312kt.
Knowing you groundspeed is very important for later shots, that's why you first have to determine that.
After all, sextant shots are not that precise. +/-10NM is already on the good side..


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Checking our engine instruments.. 2200RPM, MP adjusted for 140BMEP.. resulting in 700 pounds, or 117 gallons.. or 443 liters.. per hour- per engine.


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Smooth ride over the thick stratus overcast


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Short of Baie-Comeau some cloud tops are towering in front of us.. seatbelt signs on, and prepare for some chop.


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We get a quick glance at said community through the clouds..


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Another 30 Minutes later, time for another shot. This time, as we have our groundspeed calculated, we shoot the sun, as well as the moon. As the moon is somewhere in direction 230, the resulting lines of position cross each other. The actual position is, of course, the point where both lines cross.
Important is, that the second (third, etc) shot is corrected back to the time when the first shot was taken. Let's say we took the sun at 1600, and shot the moon at 1603. 312kt/60*3=15,6NM. We travelled 15,6NM between the two shots. So the second line of position must be corrected back along the flown track.
Usually one would take 3 shots at different objects, however during daylight this is usually difficult.


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In the picture above you can see the first green lines crossing from the shot I took at 1600, the next pair is 1630, and then 1700. Keep in mind the blue line is the actually flown track, so the sextand shots were pretty spot on. The red lines are the original LOPs which were shot some minutes later, the corresponding parallel green lines are corrected for time/GS.


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Over Canada's wilderness..


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On our descend towards Goose Bay we are entering some bad weather with moderate to heavy turbulence, rain and icing. We are thrown around quite nicely..


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Ground can be seen here and there, but only a short time, before we are fully IMC again.


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Through the gap we can spot the airport of Goose Bay ahead. We are inbound to the VOR, which is east of the field, and then come around on the 15NM DME arc procedure for ILS Z 08.


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Crossing the station, turning 180° outbound..


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..to intercept the 15 DME arc at 2800ft.


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Losing speed as we proceed along the arc in preparation for approach.. the sight towards the airfield is blocked.


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Turning onto final 08


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Inbound to land


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Smooth touchdown in Canada's foggy east, after an actual flight time of 2:52.


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Taxiing to the terminal. The passengers will again be served with refreshments, while the aircraft is inspected by maintenance before the long flight home. And of course we will also fuel up.


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The pax are in the warm and cozy terminal, the aircraft is awaiting inspection.. to be continued!
Kind regards, Matthias

MatzeH84
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by MatzeH84 »

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Allright, here we are for the last leg, from Goose Bay, weathership Baker, passing just south of Greenland, weathership Able, then via Iceland, across Norway to Stockholm.
Planned for this flight are 10:22h, which is not on the edge of what the Connie may do with sufficient reserves, but it's also not too far away from it.


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With everyone back on board, the thoroughly checked engines are started up once again.


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Taking a look at our loadsheed- fully packed up with 44 passengers and full fuel tanks, only 200lb below our max gross weight. I decided to fill up some gallons of fuel extra, just in case.


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Taxiing to the holding point of runway 34. After departure we'll perform a long left turn back to YYR VOR again, and then heading out towards Rigolet NDB.


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At full gross weight, with gusty winds and a wet runway, this time we throttle the engines up to full takeoff power, stabilize, and then release the brakes for takeoff; Vr=110kt.


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Rotation, then keeping the climb shallow to gain speed for engine cooling while bringing gear and flaps up.


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After a long 270° lefthand circle we're flying over Goose Bay city towards the VOR station, before we fade away into the clouds.


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Icing, rain, clouds and turbulence once again team up for an interesting climb.


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The dark grey turns white, then some blueish colour may be seen here and there, before we get on top..


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This cloudgap near Rigolet is the last land we'll see from Canada on this flight. We're climbing to 15k first, with later steps to FL210, if the weather dictates such a high cruising level.


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The weather god still isn't finished with us. Until we reached the Atlantic it was a quite bumpy departure..


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Besides taking sunshots every half an hour since we left the coast (the moon has gone under the horizon), there is yet another navigation tool: Weatherships. There were a good number on the Atlantic and the Pacific, providing weather reports and radio beacon for aircraft crossing the sea. Their position could vary within a 200 square mile area (which is simulated in the gauge, so the position isn't fix), and they would only send for five minutes, every five minutes past the quarter hour. The radio beacon is working like an NDB, however the receiver here isn't the known ADF.. it's more like a MDF. Or, in correct terminology, a loop antenna. Once the correct frequency is set, the current heading is dialed in. Then the antenna is turned until the signal strengh is at its maximum. Now you can read the QDM and use it for the navigation.
This is where I made a significant mistake within Google Earth, plotting the bearings. Of course the heading you dial in, is derived from your compass, so it's referring to magnetic north. However, GE is referenced to true north. And in this area of the world the variation is significant: 24.7W! Which I didn't take into consideration.. lesson learned, next time I'll be more vigilant. The result was puzzeling bearings, compared to what I expected, and I drifted off course. Not too significant, 20-25Nm is acceptable for crossing the Atlantic, but still: It could have been better.


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Finally the cloud tops lowered, and we can enjoy a smooth ride for the next hours.


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Here you can see the combined efforts: Inbound toward Weathership Baker, which is bearing 12 o'clock; the sextant is telling me that I still have 45NM to reach the ship.


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Here you can see the misery: The red rectangles are positions I derived from the (uncorrected) bearings (red lines) of the weathership and the sun shots (green lines). If I had accounted for the variation, it would have been pretty spot on, as you can see on the yellow line. This one is the red line for the Calc Pos 18:36, corrected for the variation; where it crosses the sun shot line, the actually flown track (blue) is nearly directly underneath.
If you pay attention to the direction of the sun LOPs you will see them turning right over the time, as the earth turns and the sun 'goes west'.


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Checking the fluids: Oil consumption is better than good (those radials like to eat up oil gallon-wise from time to time; someone wrote, radial engines are considered highly powered oil pumps. Hehe.
Well, and the fuel level is also as expected. The fuel in the outer tanks is used first, until 80 gallons are left (white dot) and all tanks are eqal, then they are switched to tank-to-engine operation.


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Some harmless Cumuli are left behind..


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Performing the sun shot I talked about earlier, which resulted in the wrongly calculated position 18:36.


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Greenland in sight! Using the Prins Christianssand NDB and visual reference, I was able to establish a firm position again.


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Passing along the southern coastline


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Heading towards Weathership Able


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Able ahead, appears we drifted up north a bit again..


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The office at FL210: Front seats..


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..and back seats!


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Able passing on our right side.


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Next up: Keflavik VOR


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Slowly it's getting darker, and the stars are coming out. Good chance to get a nice position update!


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Towards Iceland the cloud coverage increases again, but the air stays smooth..


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We picked up the VOR station, corrected our course and are heading for southern Iceland.


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Checking fuel, oil and engine parameters once again, while our passengers are enjoying their luxurious dinner.. well, we are also getting served, so don't want to nag about them.


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Landfall at Keflavik; this is a nice refueling spot when flying eastbound.


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As we now know our position, let's shoot some stars and see how accurate this is in flight!


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Here is an example of what a complete table looks like. You usually would shoot 3 stars, idealy 120° apart in the azimuth, so their LOPs would form a perfect triangle. For the star shot over Keflavik I chose Vega, Alpherat and Resalhag.


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Here is what I did: First I shot Vega at 21:30, resulting in the green line going through KFV VOR. Then I shot Alpherat at 21:33, resulting in the rightmost green line. And last Resalhag at 21:35, which resulted in the upper green line crossing through Garour.
Then I took my groundspeed I calculated earlier inbound to KFV and corrected the Alpherat line , which is the blueish green line. The Resalhag LOP didn't need to be corrected, as it is nearly oriented in the direction of my track, so it wouldn't change by a significant amount. The star position is now in the middle of the triangle, at 21:30. Which is nearly spot on, as I crossed KFV at 21:28.


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Passing the massive Katla volcano


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Somewhere, up, up north of the Faroe Islands


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Finally we get Vigra VOR in Norway in range. But we are on a much different radial as we expected. What happened?


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It took me a while to figure it out, but after all, it was a dumb mistake, and I didn't re-check my values.
Here is what happened: Out of Iceland, I followed the radial of ING outbound as long as I could. However, nearly out of range, the wind shifted, and I over-corrected for it- then I lost the signal. I turned back a bit, but uncertain of the the strenght of the wind I decided to continue. I then took a star shot at 22:30, which was pretty accurate and already showed that I drifted north. I wanted to wait 30 minutes, take another shot, and correct with the appropriate angle. However I confused the negative distances (negative: move away from the star) and the positive distance and my star position ended up on the wrong side of my assumed position, far more south, even south of my planned track. So I corrected further to the north. Only half an hour later with the next shot I realized my mistake, but then I already got in range of Vigra. Again, lesson learned.. but somehow, learning is still the fun part of such a journey, isn't it?


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Fuel and oil consumption are still better than expected, despite my little detour. And.. we're still ahead of the schedule!


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Landfall in Norway overhead Ǻlesund


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Interestingly, the number 3 engine is starting to run a tiny bit hotter then the others. I'll have to keep an eye on it on the next flights.. on the Stratocruiser I once had such a case, and after getting worse on the next 3 flights, the engine failed on the 4th.


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160NM out of Stockholm we started our descend. The cabin is tidied up, and passing 10000ft the flightdeck floodlights are switched off.. only the green glow of the instruments are left.


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Intercepting the 15NM DME arc over Uppsala towards the ILS19R. With less and less radio navigation aids, especially in Europe, one has to adopt some own procedures to get down safely.


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Short final


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And once again, smoooth touchdown.. albeight landing a bit long.


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Finally at the gate, with the flighttime being only 9:29 for the 2450NM. Slowly the plane empties, and after the door is shut Betty come up: 'Phew, what a flight. Tomorrow I will stay in bed aaall day long. See you guys!'


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And here is the complete trip: 3750NM, air time: 15:02h. It was fun. And I will certainly do it again.

I hope you had fun reading this report!
Kind regards, Matthias

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Medtner
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Medtner »

This is amazing and inspiring! Great pics and narration. And the fact that you do the navigation properly makes it even more interesting.

I hope you'll do more of this! Let us know how your #3 turns out (or indeed stops turning). :)
Erik Haugan Aasland,

Arendal, Norway
(Homebase: Kristiansand Lufthavn, Kjevik (ENCN)

All the Accusim-planes are in my hangar, but they aren't sitting long enough for their engines to cool much before next flight!

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CAPFlyer
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by CAPFlyer »

Excellent report! And just to reaffirm your statements - such navigation errors were not uncommon back then, so don't beat yourself to hard over getting off course. The important thing was being on time and with the least fuel burn practicable.
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Medtner
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Medtner »

CAPFlyer wrote:Excellent report! And just to reaffirm your statements - such navigation errors were not uncommon back then, so don't beat yourself to hard over getting off course. The important thing was being on time and with the least fuel burn practicable.
The question is "Did the captain tell the passengers about this?" :P
Erik Haugan Aasland,

Arendal, Norway
(Homebase: Kristiansand Lufthavn, Kjevik (ENCN)

All the Accusim-planes are in my hangar, but they aren't sitting long enough for their engines to cool much before next flight!

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Jacques
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[Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Jacques »

Hey Matthias, that is such an inspiring narrative! I've kind of lost my way for the past year- strayed away from the 377, and pretty much flight sim in general, if I'm to be honest. Reading this starts to rebuild the fire of enthusiam within me. I used to really enjoy using the sextant for all my Stratocruiser flights-- so, thanks for kickstarting my enthusiasm again. You should do more flight adventure stories-- you might help de-mystify the use of the sextant...and your writing style is perfect!

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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by AviatorMoser »

Great report!

I did a similar flight last weekend from New York to London, and even thought about writing it up. I'm glad I didn't because yours is more thorough. I pretty much followed your techniques, including celestial navigation, but without the weather ship addon.

I really ought to install that! I have installed it in the 377.

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Lewis - A2A
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Great report, and woah those are some damn fine screenshots WOW! 8) 8) 8)

cheers and thanks for sharing the report was an awesome bonus on top of already amazing shots,
Lewis
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Mantock
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Mantock »

Just researching this and MY GOODNESS do you guys fly hardcore. Gonna take me a while before I can even understand how this all works.

-Mantock
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Ian Fisher »

I’ve done Gander-Shannon using the weather ship. 40 miles out nearing Irish coast but very correctable. I now read the weather ship gage has land based HF with a longer range than VOR. Must try it again using this to see if I can improve the accuracy.
C172, C182, PA24, PA28, T-6, P-40, P-51,Spitfire, Bonanza, Constellation

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Alan_A
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Alan_A »

I'm finding inspiration in this revived thread but I've got a question - does the bubble sextant gauge work in P3D4? I know the weathership gauge has been updated, but not sure about the sextant.
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by MatzeH84 »

It does, I did this flight shortly after switching to v4.

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Kind regards, Matthias

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Alan_A
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Re: [Report] Over the Pont: Chicago-Montreal-Stockholm

Post by Alan_A »

Ah, fantastic - thought that was the case, just wanted to confirm. Thanks!
"Ah, Paula, they are firing at me!" -- Saint-Exupery

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