Connie around the world - EARC 2019

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CAPFlyer
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Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by CAPFlyer »

I finished this trip a couple weeks ago, but I realized I didn't share any of my screenshots from it.

Bluegrass Airlines, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the England to Australia Air Race from London to Darwin, held a rally called EARC 2019. The race had several classes and routes, including one that replicated the route of the race winning Vickers Vimy. I flew that route in the Connie for my VA Westwind Airlines. 23 legs over approx. 3 weeks and just over 100 hours of flying in total, including the "work up" flight to set our performance for the rally scoring system and the Trans Atlantic trip from the US to the UK to start and the hop from Darwin to Brisbane at the end to put the plane in for its 100 hour inspections.

On with the show! I'll post this in 2 parts, one for the pre-race and in-race shots, and one for the post-race flights.

...But Chris, your title says "Connie Around the World," you've only made it half way. That's true. Westwind has an annual tradition called Christmas in Tahiti. Just after Thanksgiving, I will take the Connie from Brisbane to Tahiti (via Bora Bora probably) to participate in that event. From there, I will return after the new year to Australia for the Great Australian Air Race 2020 (held every February) and then finally in March or April bring the airplane back across the Pacific (from Australia to Hawaii and then to the US) and end up back at my starting point - Dallas.
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

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So, this trip started out August 10th, 2019, when we pulled our Connie out of the hangar at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The plane had been repositioned here from its normal Hangar at Westwind Airlines Headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, by another crew in preparation for our trip. Unfortunately, I forgot to get pics of that part. However, from there, we headed north to Canada, Mont Joli (CYYY) to be exact. We overnighted there and then made our first leg on the 11th from Mont Joli to Presque Isle (KPQI) to set a time for the rally. On landing in Presque Isle, I took this picture from the terminal conference room.

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We then set out from Presque Isle for Keflavik, Iceland, our first fuel stop.

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Unfortunately, after arriving in Keflavik, we encountered some pretty nasty weather, so I didn't get any more on our leg to Farnbrough, England.

Our first day of the race was Sept. 1, 2019. We left Farnbrough before dawn, knowing we had a long day ahead of us.

Our first stop was Lyon, France. The rally organizers had set up some sight seeing for us and then we ran into our first issue, a faulty inverter. Because of this, we we delayed in departing for nearly 2 weeks.

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After finally getting our replacement part, we headed towards Italy and then on to Greece and Egypt.

First, a couple of pics as we passed the coastal city of Genoa, Italy, on our way from Lyon.
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Next, we have our approach over the city of Pisa. It's always amazing to see how tightly packed the cities can be in the "Old World" around the airports that now serve them. It definitely makes you respect the pilots who fly into some of these places in the real world.
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And a pic as we depart Pisa, looking back at the city center.
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Next, we visited Crete. Here we are on the climb out over the eastern end of the island.
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We arrived in Cairo well after dusk from Crete. This gave us a beautiful view of the Pyramids as we executed the approach procedure into Cairo International.
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The next afternoon we headed from Cairo to Damascus, Syria. After a quick flight across the top of the Red Sea and then a jaunt North through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, we arrived at the Syrian capital. We didn't stay long, simply getting a bit of fuel and checking our oil levels before flying the relatively demanding departure procedure (due to nearby terrain) for our next leg to Baghdad.
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I didn't get any images of our stops in Bagdhad or Bandar Abbas because they were flown in the very (very) early morning due to the heat, being only able to fly a single leg a day due to the heat really drew out this part of the trip.

Let 11 saw us leaving Bandar Abbas around 5am local and arriving in Karachi around 7am, making for an excellent sunrise landing.

On descent with a lot of clouds around.
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On approach to 23L.
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Being unloaded at the gate.
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From Karachi, we continued the next day to Delhi, India, where we ran tnto some serious dust and fog during the whole trip, making that leg another "dark" one for images. However, after a good day's rest, we were finally able to start flying at a more "normal" time of the day and thus I was able to get more pictures.

Loading up in Dehli, India
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Departing Bangkok, Thailand the next morning
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Approaching Singapore that afternoon
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Departing Singapore the next morning
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Approaching Jakarta, Indonesia and then turning to head toward Surabaya
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Some of the mountainous terrain of Eastern Indonesia
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Approaching Surabaya
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The weather at Surabaya got a bit iffy the next morning and so I concentrated on flying. We hit several areas of weather and it was raining pretty good at Darwin, so all I got was a pic after we landed and the plane unloaded of all our guests (44 of them) luggage and our gear so we could take our own vacation after a month of pretty sustained and intense flying.
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Finally, here is a pic of the plane sitting in front of one of the QANTAS hangars at Brisbane, next to her modern replacement, ready to get some well deserved TLC.
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All-in-all, we completed the race on October 13, 2019 and arrived in Brisbane on October 20, 2019, just over 2 months from when we started the trip. Next update to this thread from me will be after Thanksgiving when we take the plane up to Tahiti.
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Eugene Kremlev
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by Eugene Kremlev »

Fine! I will also fly from Hawaii to Australia, then to New Zealand and again through AU to Papua.

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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by WB_FlashOver »

Looks like fun CAPFlyer. I've made it a couple of times around the world in the Connie so far. I did more of a "let's hit as many nations as possible" flight. Always looking for a 4+ hour flight did not always lend to this so I have some that still need to be visited. I also went for the capitols of each nation when possible. It was always nerve racking heading out across water knowing I will not be able to land quickly if an emergency arises.

Keep up the flights and have fun Sir.

Roger
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MkIV Hvd
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by MkIV Hvd »

That's a marathon in progress for sure! Nice travelogue and pictures and I love the livery! :wink:
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by CAPFlyer »

Thanks for the replies guys. I really like how the livery came out. I actually ended up getting it on accident. I was using an older version of GIMP and it didn't read all the BETA paint kit I had correctly leaving the TWA "shadow" under my Westwind paint (thanks again to A2A for letting me use it in the first place). That worked out in the best way possible though since it let me have a plausible cause for the paint looking how it does.

I immortalized it in the description of the paint -
In the infancy of Westwind Airlines, the company purchased several of Trans World Airline's L-049 Constellations and pressed them into service alongside the DC-3s they acquired from several operators. In their time of need, Westwind was unable to spend weeks properly stripping, prepping, painting, and re-polishing the Constellations, and so they were pressed into service after the original TWA lettering had been removed and the stripes simply painted over, leaving shadows of the former paint scheme extant on the aircraft. A2A Connie repaint by Chris Trott with permission from A2A Simulations to use their TWA base textures.
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MkIV Hvd
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by MkIV Hvd »

Well done Chris, that's awesome!
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AKar
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by AKar »

Some great screens there, I really like sim stories!

-Esa

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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by DCAPilot »

Great screen shots. I did the EARC but in a DC-3. I just got the Connie shortly before the rally and did not feel comfortable enough with it to fly it. I'm working on remedying that now!

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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Love the shots of the trip, flying over the Pyramids one is pretty neat! 8) 8)

cheers,
Lewis
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by CAPFlyer »

Welp, I flew Sunday afternoon (AU time) from Brisbane to Tonga in the L-049. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics, especially of some of the beautiful tropical buildups I had to dodge (towering well above me, even though I was at FL230) so nothing in this post. I will remember to take pics of the next leg, hopefully to be flown later this week, from Tonga to Tahiti. On the plus side, I had a nice 40 knot tailwind the whole way, even though it ended up still being a 7 hour flight.
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by WB_FlashOver »

I absolutely love flying the South Pacific. Enjoy the flight Sir.
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by Lewis - A2A »

CAPFlyer wrote: 09 Dec 2019, 09:17 Welp, I flew Sunday afternoon (AU time) from Brisbane to Tonga in the L-049. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics, especially of some of the beautiful tropical buildups I had to dodge (towering well above me, even though I was at FL230) so nothing in this post. I will remember to take pics of the next leg, hopefully to be flown later this week, from Tonga to Tahiti. On the plus side, I had a nice 40 knot tailwind the whole way, even though it ended up still being a 7 hour flight.
Well nothing for it then, you'll just have to re-fly the short quick hop 7 hour flight and take shots second time around :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

cheers,
Lewis
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by CAPFlyer »

If it's not one thing, then it's another... :(

Flew the Tongo - Tahiti leg today and on landing in Tahiti with several pics, including flying the ILS Z 04 into Tahiti in very poor weather (picked up the approach lights at 300' AGL), but my screenshot program decided today (after months of flawless service) to suddenly take pics of my second monitor (the one that is usually taken up by Navigraph Charts) instead of the one with P3D on it. Guess now I have to check that piece of software before starting a flight now (adding to the 6 pieces I have to check already...).

Anyway, I did manage to get a pic of the plane sitting at the gate -

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We're here in Tahiti through Christmas. I plan on heading back to Australia around the 2nd week of January to prepare for GAAR 2020, so next update then! Right now, I'm thinking I'll try (if time permits) to make my first leg back Westbound to New Zealand and then on to Australia, but it also depends on where the rally is starting this year. Time will tell!
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Re: Connie around the world - EARC 2019

Post by CAPFlyer »

The trek back to Australia for GAAR 2020 began this morning (local time). We drug ourselves away from Ken's Place and back out to the airport to greet our girl, which had been pulled up to one of the gates for us and the families heading back to Australia to board. (BTW, that's the gate's awning at the bottom of the pic)

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Shortly after takeoff, we turned westbound, heading towards our day's destination - Raratonga. More on that in a second. First, here's a great shot as we climbed past Moorea on the departure.

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Cruising along at FL240, we started seeing some build ups, typical as the South Pacific summer begins.

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Before we knew it (and after a quick lunch before starting descent) it was time to land at Raratonga. Here we are turning base and descending through the mid-morning clouds.

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Visibility was excellent on approach, but shortly after landing, an afternoon rainshower moved over the airport, so our Flight Attendant quickly got the passengers off the airplane and into the terminal before closing the door and so we could finish shutting down while waiting for the shower to pass over.

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The decision was made to fly across to Raratonga today and spend the day here for two reasons. First, the winds near New Zealand are ferocious and thus we needed to make a fuel stop. Second, also becuase of the winds, the time enroute to Wellington meant we'd either need to have a relief crewmember aboard or simply do a quick crew clock reset by spending the day at Raratonga (which our passengers can enjoy themselves) and then we depart this evening (around 8pm local) and fly overnight into New Zealand, arriving at Wellington around mid-morning.

As such, my crew and I are off to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep before trying to take in a few sights before coming back to the airport tonight!
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