Return of the Mac.

[FlyTexas]

No stutters and on the ground in Australia! Woo hoo! You'll be buzzing Mike's (Airspeed) house in Victoria before you know it.

Brian

[fs10inator]

Thank you very much. Funny you should mention the trees - I've just installed a mod that reduces them to a more realistic height, so I should be able to avoid getting caught up in them.

BRUH
I was making a FS2000 King Schools reference as a joke, and never thought that it would come to fruition
Good luck with the trees, though

[dfarrow]

Paul , thank you very much for the geography , travelogue , and history imputs . They bring your journey alive , and although I've flown over much of this route in the later part of my working life . Anything east of 'Chaos Korner' [ Aleppo ] was always at night ; thus I've not seen any of the geography .

Good to mention Speedbird Ian , I managed to meet up with him before he passed . Thanks to this forum and his talk of Anchorage Scenery including the ABC [ Alaskan Bush Company ].... 'wot happened there stayed there . We worked out he'd been my Purser on an ANC. trip when Ioads of 'Nigels' were laid off and working as junior stewards . I'd not seen him for 30 years , so a lot of catching up was required ; and managed to get him aloft over his favorite local patch .
Enjoy the short hop across the 'GAFFA' , I'm looking forward to it .

rgds dave f.

[Paul K]

Thanks, Dave.

It's nice to look up these places as I fly over them. I'm reading Jean Batten's account of her flight from Britain to Australia, and she talks of flying over Naples, the Corinth canal, Athens, and the irrigated banks of the Euphrates to Baghdad - just as I have. It's well worth the reading - what a lady she was:

https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholar ... atMyL.html

There's a real feeling of following the aviation pioneers on this trip, such as Jean, Kingsford Smith, and the MacRobertson competitors.

Ah, Ian (Speedbird) - what a fine fellow he was. I remember him talking of the time he looked out of the windows and there were MiGs on each wing. He certainly had some tales to tell. Still missed by all of us.

You'll have to enlighten me about GAFFA - though knowing the emptiness of the Outback, I think I might know what the FA stands for.

[Paul K]

Leg 20; Darwin to Newcastle Waters.







It was going to be a hot day, so I thought I'd get set up before dawn. Not cold, but definitely dark, so the MSFS torch came in handy ( that's the proper name for a 'flashlight', colonials )







Taxying out to runway 11:







Departing Darwin, and setting a course of 143 from the Darwin VOR (DN ). Looking out at the pre-dawn sky and the lights on the ground, it was one of those 'I'm really there' moments:







Sunrise over the Northern Territory - another 'moment':







One of the many mines in this part of Australia - the Union Reefs gold mine, once owned by Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. Maybe a rich relative.







RAAF Tindal, my first and only turning point. It was originally built by the Americans to launch B-24 raids against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea, but the war had shifted by the time it became operational. In 1946, the airfield was renamed in honour of Wing Commander Archibald Tindal, the first RAAF serviceman killed in action on the Australian mainland during World War II; he died while manning a machine gun against Japanese raiders bombing Darwin on 19 February 1942. Note to those following behind me - the DME doesn't work!







In the foreground is the railway line linking Darwin on Australia's north coast to Adelaide on the south coast. It carries The Ghan, one of the world's greatest railway journeys. This particular section, between Darwin and Alice Springs, was completed in 2004:







Some of the dirt airstrips I'd seen coming south were almost indistinguishable from their surroundings, so with the DME at RAAF Tindal inoperative, I used the Arrow's stopwatch to time my progress along the 158 radial from Tindal's VOR (TN). I needn't have bothered; nearby Lake Woods provides an easy visual reference point for spotting the runway at Newcastle Waters:







Finals into Newcastle Waters. I'm not sure how many of the MacRobertson racers needed to come here - probably only the shorter-ranged aircraft. The others, such as the two remaining DH.88s and the DC-2, would likely have cracked on direct to Cloncurry or even Charleville:







Coming to a halt at Newcastle Waters. Remarkably, this little airfield was once part of the Imperial Airways/Qantas route in the 20s and 30s:

[TSR2]

Love the sunrise shot Paul, and thanks for the heads up on the DME. I made it to Darwin last night in Echo, so might try this leg tonight

[Paul K]

Love the sunrise shot Paul, and thanks for the heads up on the DME. I made it to Darwin last night in Echo, so might try this leg tonight

Hi Ben - if you're using Little Nav Map, you'll see the DME and VOR as two separate symbols at Tindal, both with the same frequency (112.3 MHz). I've never come across that before, and no doubt it's linked to the DME being inop.

[FlyTexas]

MSFS has a torch/flashlight?? Cool! Viewing the pictures of your travels, Paul, I keep hearing a Jimmy Buffett song...'On the Far Side of the World'.
https://youtu.be/6QChQYpDJzs

Brian

[Paul K]

MSFS has a torch/flashlight?? Cool! Viewing the pictures of your travels, Paul, I keep hearing a Jimmy Buffett song...'On the Far Side of the World'.
https://youtu.be/6QChQYpDJzs

Brian

That's a good video and song. Yep, there's a torch in MSFS. If you're in an aircraft with no power, it illuminates automatically, though you can also bind it to a key for manual ON/OFF. It shines wherever you are looking. When the aircraft's battery is turned on, the torch goes out, so it's best to have the cabin dome light switch in the ON position first.

[dfarrow]

Paul , Is the Tindal VOR a TACAN ? A TACAN is for Mil a/c. only , and is same frequency spectrum as VORs/ILSs.
One like Yeovilton VLN 111.0 ...is not received by real Civi a/c VORs . However the DME part of it sometimes is . But Flt Sim doesn't seem to know it's a TACAN and it operates as a VOR.
In the real a/c it's easier and more reliable to use the DME associated with Yeoviltons ILS 111.3 I-YEO .
Additionally some VORs and DMEs are not co-located , due to siting difficulties . Traditionally Stornoway's VOR and DME were about 7 nm apart , VOR [ if memory serves ] was on a hill to the East . and DME on the field . Thus the VOR approach was only a cloudbreak , and if using the opposite Rwy to the Localiser , it was an NDB/DME approach .

Parrotheads rool ok ! Didn't know there were Parrotheads on this forum , great to sail to . Not been able to fly to Jimmy B yet .

Thx again for the travelogue

rgds dave f .
PS. must be dislexic Great Australian FA .