Around the world in 175 days.

[Vc Ten]

Keep it up Joe I'm thoroughly enjoying your trip
Atb
Dale

[blanston12]

Keep it up Joe I'm thoroughly enjoying your trip
Atb
Dale

Thanks Dale. I appreciate the compliments.

BTW, I will be out of town this weekend and not flying, so it will probably be at least a week before we find out what happened to Major Martin.

[Paul K]

...I worry I am just boring everyone to death, ...

Not at all, Joe. I'm finding it very interesting, what with the route you are flying and the variety of aircraft. Most people do it using one type of aircraft, so this is a bit different. Keep it up.

[blanston12]

...I worry I am just boring everyone to death, ...

Not at all, Joe. I'm finding it very interesting, what with the route you are flying and the variety of aircraft. Most people do it using one type of aircraft, so this is a bit different. Keep it up.

Thanks Paul, I'm realizing the challenge I set for myself. Last time I flew around the world was last year using the JF DC-6B. Maybe 12 stops, fl200, autopilots, no screenshots to edit no report to write, no research to do. I do say I find doing this more engaging

[blanston12]

April 15, 1924: After 4 hours of flying Sargent Harvey yelled to Major Martin that the oil pressure gauge had dropped to zero and they immediately looked for a place to land, spotting a sheltered cove in Portage bay. As soon as they had slowed sufficiently Harvey leaped onto the pontoon to check the engine and found a three inch hole in the crank case. Martin and Harvey slept in the cockpits of the airplane, so sure assistance would arrive soon they did want to swim ashore, and at 5am the next morning the destroyers Corey and Hull arrived after steaming 312 miles to reach them. They were towed 10 miles to the village of Kanatak to await fuel, oil and a new engine being brought to them by the Coast Guard Cutter Algonquin.

April 19, 1924: At the same time Algonquin was heading to the disabled Seattle, Martin ordered Smith to proceed with the other aircraft to Dutch Harbor, where they had better facilities for taking care of the planes. A stiff wind was blowing as they untied there aircraft, along there flight to UnAlaska they flew around, over, under and through snow squalls, experienced the fierce Williwaw winds, flew over rocky islands, volcanoes and looked up at ice-capped mountains. After flying 390 miles in 7 hours and 26 minutes they landed in Dutch Harbor where the Coast Guard cutter Haida was waiting for them.

July 8, 2017: Today I got ready to fly the Heinkel He-51. The He-51 was a German single seat biplane figher that first flew in 1935 that was used by both the Luftwaffe and Spanish served as a fighter, seaplane, ground attack and trainer until 1952. Over 700 were built. The aircraft I am using today was by Craig Richardson and will be using a civilian repaint by Bernhard Lechner. The aircraft is very nice but it does tend to nose over if you apply the brakes to hard.

I decided to break this leg into two parts in the interest storytelling and using a couple smaller aircraft before the long oversea routes. My destination for this flight is Cold Bay, 161 nm away. The weather in Chignik for the start of the flight was great, 5 kn winds and clear. I climbed up over the low mountains and headed down the Alaskan peninsula at about 4000 ft. The weather got cloudier and windier as we flew on, eventually having to drop down to 1500 ft to stay below the clouds. I also became quite concerned about my fuel usage, the aircraft is supposed to have a range of 300 nm but when I reach 50% fuel I estimate I will get to my destination with very little fuel to spare. As I reach Cold Bay the winds have climbed to 31 kn and I had difficulty getting the biplane to settle on the runway especially since I was being very careful with the brakes not wanting it to nose over. Fortunately, Cold Bay airport has a very long runway and was able to make a safe stop with only 5% fuel remaining. Here are a few screen shots from the flight.


Ready for takeoff at Chignik.


Heading out over the mountians.


Beautiful flying weather, so far...


Flying down the Alaskan Peninsula.


But the good weather did not last.


Flying low to stay under the clouds.


Cold Bay airport in sight.


Landed in Cold Bay.

Sorry it took so long from the last flight, I out of town for the Holiday weekend and could not get much flying in until the next weekend.

[blanston12]

April 23, 1924: On the 19th Algonquin arrived at Kanatak with the new engine for Seattle. In blowing snow they managed to install by the morning of the 22nd. On the morning of the 23rd the men of the village helped Martin and Harvey break up the ice that was forming around the floats and tow the Seattle from the pond they had been working, down the stream to the bay where it was now calm enough to take off. Visibility was too bad to fly a direct compass heading to Chignik and at one point the weather became so bad they landed in a protected cove until the weather cleared. After waiting an hour and a half the storm eased and they then few the remaining distance to Anchorage bay and the village of Chignik.

July 9, 2017: Today I got ready the Grumman Gulfhawk II ready for flight. The Gulfhawk was a custom civilian conversion of the F3F-1 fighter. The F3F was the US Navy’s last biplane fighter, with retractable landing gear, and enclosed cockpit and a 1,000 hp Wright Cyclone engine. It first flew in 1935, only 147 were built and it was retired from front line squadrons before world war 2 started but it eventually evolved into the much more successful F4F Wildcat. The model I’m using today was made for JustFlight by Airplane Heaven and is remarkably similar to the AH F3F-2. It’s nice to fly, lot of torque on takeoff but it takes off so fast it does not matter much.

My flight today from Cold Bay to Dutch harbor was uneventful, cloudy with a 3000 foot ceiling and 6 kn winds. This is probably the fastest aircraft I have flown so far and it made short work of the 155 nm flight. I landed after 51 minutes of flying.


Ready for takeoff.


Flying over the Alaska Peninsula, canopy open.


Scenery here is not as dramatic as other parts of Alaska.


At least now we can close the canopy when the weather gets bad.


Weaving around the islands while staying below the clouds.


Finally figured how to turn the navigation lights off.


On approach into Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.


Secured.

[blanston12]

May 3, 1924: Major Martin waited in Chignik until he finally received favorable weather reports from Dutch Harbor on April 30, when and Harvey finally departed, but they never arrived. A search was started using ships from the Navy and Coast guard, boats from local canneries and even dog teams from Chignik. On May 2 General Patrick, Chief of the Army Air Service designated Lt Smith leader and told them “Do not delay longer waiting for Major Martin” and “Proceed to Japan at earliest possible Moment”. On the morning of May 3, the crews got there aircraft ready for flight and proceeded to Nazan on Atka island, 365 miles away. Although they flew through rain and snow showers it proved to be an easy flight and they arrived after 4 hours 19 minutes of flying.

July 9, 2017: This afternoon I got ready the Spartan 7W Executive for flight. The Spartan first flew in 1936 and was designed as a fast comfortable aircraft for rich executes. Only 34 were built but had some notable owners including Howard Hughes, J. Paul Getty and King Ghazi of Iraq. The model I am flying today was made by Milton Shupe and was recently updated by him to be FSX Native. It’s a very nice aircraft to fly and I highly recommend it.

My flight from Unalaska to Atka was uneventful. Out over the mountains to the west of the town and out over the sea. I stayed mostly under the clouds sometimes staying as low as 800 feet to stay under the weather. Since the route is mostly over water at one point I climbed to 10,000 feet to try to get above the clouds for a while but did not stay up there for long. Approaching Atka, staying low to keep below the clouds, the town and airport are pretty small and I did not spot them until I was almost on top of the airport, I ended up coming in fairly fast and my landing was a bit rough but got on the grounds safe.

Here are a few pics of the flight.


Ready for takeoff


Over the mountains west of Dutch Harbor.


Heading out from Amaknak Island


Weather is getting pretty bad, better climb over it for a bit.


Looks like its calmed down enough to head back down.


Atka Island.


I almost missed the airport.


Landed!

[blanston12]

May 9, 1924. Wade asked an old trapper when the seasons changed, he replied “We have only two seasons here, winter and next winder”. Having no word on what happened to Martin and Harvey, the flyer waited in Atka for fuel and for weather to ease, by the 9th weather was better and they started for Attu at 9am. Winds from a williwaw hit just as they were taking off and almost caused Nelson to crash but they were soon all in the air. The 555 mile flight was long and cold with occasional snow squalls, the only life they saw along the way were birds and whales, They arrived in Attu after 7 hours 52 minutes of flying.

May 10, 1924 Martin and Harvey walked out of the wilderness near the Port Moller Cannery. On the 3rd they had been climbing in thick fog trying to get to Dutch Harbor. Martin was thinking he should turn back but thought he saw water ahead so he pressed on, a moment later they crashed into a gentle slope on the side of a mountain and crunched to rest in the snow. They were unhurt but the plane was a total wreck. They knew they in trouble as the area they were in was mostly uninhabited and for food all they had were two sandwiches made for them by Mrs Osborne in Chignik and two thermos bottles of condensed food they had bought in Los Angeles. They wandered though the wilderness for several days until they found a campers cabin on the 7th that looked like it had been recently vacated. They rested there for three days, eating what food was in the cabin and then followed the beach until they saw the Cannery at Port Moller. Martin sent a cable to General Patrick that they were safe and they stayed there till the 14th when they were given transport on the company steamer back to Bellingham Washington.

July 13, 2017. Today we will be flying the Lockheed L-10 Electra. The Electra was a twin engine all metal airliner that first flew in 1934. It was built to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The Electra was the type of aircraft used by Amelia Earhart on her ill-fated flight around the world. The aircraft I will be using today was made by Just Flight and can now be found as a default aircraft in Prepar3D Version 4.

The weather for my flight was overcast with a 2000 foot ceiling and winds around 12 kn. I saw few of the scattered islands as I was heading in and out of the low clouds continually adjusting the Sperry autopilot to keep my altitude between the clouds and the sea but since there was not much to see I was mostly in the clouds over open ocean. Those Islands I did see were were not much to look at (I have now left the land of ORBX). I arrived at Attu after 2.8 hours of flying. Here are a few pics from the flight.



Ready for takeoff.


Heading out from Akta Island.


Most of the time it looked like this.


Flying in and out of clouds.


Islands along the way, definatly not the land of ORBX.


The occasinal clear weather, time for a glamour shot.


Our destination.


Secured.

[blanston12]

May 15, 1924. The original plan was to fly 870 miles directly to Paramushiru, Japan, a flight that under normal conditions would take 10 hours. But there was concern as very rough weather was expected so the flyers decided to fly to the Russian island of Komandorski instead. The Russians had denied the Americans permission to fly through their territory but it was felt that the risk of being arrested by the Soviets was better than flying through the storm. Bureau of Fisheries boat Eider proceeded to Komandorski to wait for the flyers off shore. They were ready on the 12th but high winds, snow and fog prevented there leaving. Finally on the 15th Eider signaled that conditions at Komandorski were favorable and the flyers departed. “For three hours we flew out of sight of land, wondering all the time what the Russians would think when they saw three giant planes swoop down out of the sky in this remote region where even ships come about once a year”. They arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon. Eider had secretly placed buoys for them out of sight of land. As they landed a small boat came out with five people, two in uniform with rifles as soon but there was no hostility. The Russians informed them they would have to stay on the ship and could not come ashore and offered them a flagon of Vodka. The flyers settled in on the Eider for the night.

July 15, 2017: Originally I wanted to use Polikarpov Po-2 by Swingman which is a very nice plane and I thought it would be good to fly into Russian territory in a Russian aircraft, but became concerned that the flight from Attu to Komandorski was just at the limit of the Po-2’s range, then discovered that neither FSX or P3D had the Komandorski island airport. I created a seaplane airport with a water runway and a USCG cutter to mark it using Airport Design Editor by ScruffyDuck software. Since I don’t have a float plane version of the Po-2 its out.

Instead we will be using the Beechcraft Model 18. Beech built over 9000 model 18’s between 1937 and 1969 and they were used worldwide in many different roles, many are still in use today. I will be using an amphibious version of the D18s created by and recently updated to FSX native by Milton Shupe.

Weather was not the best, 300 foot ceiling with fog that kept moving in and out. I waited till I could see the end of the runway and took off and was almost immediately in the clouds. I tried to fly straight out at a consistent climb and heading until I was sure it was safe to turn west. Once up at 8000 feet we navigated to Komandorski. As the island came into view we descended through a break in the clouds and proceeded up the coast until we found the cutter, safely landing next to it after 1.8 hours of flying.

Here are a few pics from the flight.


Ready to go at Attu, but the weather is not.


Now we are ready.


Climbing out through the clouds.


Finally above the clouds.


Glamour shots.


Komandorski in sight!


Our destination.


Landed.

[hobby]

Very entertaining. Please keep going. Hope weather improves.