Sunday 21-November-21 B-17 patrol over Australia

[Paughco]

It's been awhile since we've flown our B-17s. How about a patrol over the sea coast of Northern Australia? We take off from Darwin International Airport (YPDN), and fly north to Bathurst Island Field (YBTI), then up to Garden Point (YGPT), then East to Snake Bay (SkyVector: YSNK; Little Nav Map: YSNB). We make a right turn to head East towards Smith Point (not shown on SkyVector, but marked as a waypoint at 110deg 80.03min S, 132deg 09.60 East; Little Nav Map with YSMP), then continue on to Croker Island (YCKI). We'll need to keep an eye out for submarines while on patrol, but after passing over Croker Island we should start joining up into an echelon formation so we can look sharp when we arrive at our destination, South Goulburn Island (YGBI). We should do an overhead approach and then land.



Here's the plan in SkyVector: https://skyvector.com/?ll=-11.135434464 ... CKI%20YGBI.

Let's use historical weather, set for takeoff time of 0900 20-Nov-21, minus however many minutes from that time when you start Active Sky.

Meet at: 1830z for a 1900z departure. We should plan on takeoff at 0900 on 20-Nov-21. .

Meet on: Digital Theme Park on JoinFS.

Comms through A2A MP Flying Chat 1.

I'll post the LNV flight plan on Discord. Hey - what's the worst that can happen?

Seeya
ATB (Paughco).

[Gypsy Baron]

Skyvector shows an ETE of 2hrs 48 Min at a speed of 110 mph(kts ?) This, is not even close to what
the actual mission time will be. The B-17 stall speed is around 100 mph and I can't see flying the
mission at 110 mph, slightly faster tan a J-3 Cub!

I suggest that we add YELD as the final destination, which will give us a time of about 2 hr 26 Min
with an average ground speed of 180 mph.

I flew this yesterday climbing and descending to get the best winds on each leg. I use 2200 rpm and
a MP of 35-36" at cruise. With over 2000 hours on my B-17 engines I know that those settings are good.
Fuel burn avg should be around 340 GPH total. Add about 15% for a safety margin and go with 1000 Gal, or
250 gal/engine.


YELD would provide an almost straight in approach to Rwy 10 which would be ideal for a formation
break to landing, flying a left had circuit with 20 seconds between aircraft breaks.

-=GB=-