Free Flight, Free Speech

I'll place here every previous leg invitation posts, so the record is maintained (and secured); Also for memories and for new USA Tour enthusiasts to review our past; Feel free to comment

IH-COL

Important Notification

Make sure to get installed the confirmed planes before hand, to avoid delays or yellow gliders

USA TOUR event | 39th Leg: Narrow Body Jet Airliners | SAT AUGUST 22ND 17:00-21:30 UTC

THIRTYNINTH TRIP
Departing Bllings Logan International Airport, (KBIL): Billings, Montana
Arriving Burlington International Airport, (KBTV): Burlington, Vermont


*************************************************************************************************************************
Leg Distance: 1500 nm
Competing Aircraft: Narrow Body Jet Aircraft
Expected Cruising Speed:0.82Ma
Expected Cruising Altitude:FL330 or more
Expected Duration (en route): 3h15min
**************************************************************************************************************************

Narrow Body Jet Airliners

Last USA Tour event, a large comboy arrived the State of Montana, flying a Regional Jet Airliners Fleet. This huge collection of smaller commercial jets of all generations and nationalities did show our USA Tour proud in the FG map, as we cruised making our compact line of aircrafts over the Midwest; overflying Milkawke, and passing south of Minneapolis, then heading westbound over the boundary of the Dakotas, to our arrival. Flying mostly J34 at around FL300

On the Leg 39, curiously enough, we will almost completely retrace our steps over the Midwest, flying the Airway J34 now on an Odd altitude FL310-FL330. We will overfly the same VORs and radials into Montana, but now out of Montana, all the way to Milwauke, in the VOR BADGER: which was just our North departure from Chicago.

From Milwauke, now the USA 39 Leg will continue heading North-east and will, overfly Canadian Territory once again (we flew over Canadian territory in our way to Guam, and in the Return from Anchorage, a few USA Tour events before). Finally, we will head moderately South again, in our descend to the largest City of the Northern State of Vermont: Burlington.

Another interesting Note: The USA Tour Leg 39 will be the first time in USA tour that we depart and arrive Northern border states


Aircrafts

This time, in our way to Vermont we will notch up the size of our selectable aircraft. From Regional Airliners we will migrate to the Single-aisle Jet Airliners, commonly known as single-aisle.

(at the end of the USA tour, D-07007 noted that single aisle may be a misnomer!)

But What is a Narrow Body Jet Aircraft?

Simply put, these are all the Jet Airliners whose fuselage size does not exceed 15 feet, and thus, regardless of the number of abreasts per seat row, only 1 aisle exists for passagers to walk thru.

Technically speaking all Regional Airliners are also Narrow body, but those with some Range or Pax limitations. But Note that to qualify for the Leg 39th an Aircraft has to comply with all of the following:

1. Be a Jet Airliner used by Commercial Passenger Airliners anywhere in the world/any time in history (also meaning that if a Freight version for any aircraft also exist in FG, only the PAX version qualifies)
2. Be a Narrow Body aircraft, with only 1 aisle, and a fuselage with not exceeding 15 ft
3. Have a Minimum capacity of 120 passengers in at least one of the flying classes configurations (excluding all of the qualified Regional Jets in leg
   38th!)

Wiki offers a rather incomplete list for reference (only jet-engines applies):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrow-body_aircraft

Flightgear offers many optionable Aircraft among the FGers favorites: These include (again, not a complete list!)

• Boeing 707, 717, 727, 737, 757
• DC8, DC9
• MD80-81
• Airbus A320-family (neo),
  [s]
• De Havilland Comet, Sud Aviation Caravelle (for Classical fans)[/s] Sorry ;( These are tiny
• Tupolev 154b, and 214
• Concorde (may be faster than required)
• Bombardier CSeries
• Probably several others

Test your bird, and report! So we can prepare by installing before
hand. Besides, I am really curious to know what you are planning to bring this
time!

The GCMAP


Route

SKYVECTOR


The Skyvector's NAV log

PROCEDURES

Ground Charts

• KBIL: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1508/pdf/00048AD.PDF
• KBTV: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1508/pdf/00070AD.PDF

SID:

• BILLINGS FOUR departure, MILES CITY Transition: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1508/00048BILLINGS.PDF

Communications

Communications will take place with mumble. Important messages can be relayed on FGChat.
Sincere thanks to Michat for offering the intercom room and channels. This will be located in the FG mumble server:



To install and prepare the mumble (any OS), see here:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

See ya all soon!!
IH-COL

Route 39th: Summary

• City_39: Burlington, Vermont
• Route: KBIL-KBTV
• Topic: Narrow Body Airliners
• Date: 08/22/2015
• Pilots _ 23: AFL940 (Tupolev tu154b), Ambro (Boeing 757-200), ClrCoda AVA28 (Boeing 737-300), Cain (Boeing 757-200), F-KATS (Boeing 707), F-36 (Boeing 757-200), FGAF_P3 (Boeing 757-200), IH--COL (dc8-63), Joe (Boeing 707), JWocky (Boeing 727-230), KB7 (Boeing 757-200 ), Lesbof (dc8-73), MD-DP (Boeing 717-200), Miguel (Boeing 707), N-SCOT (Boeing 707), OOKAMI (Boeing 757-200), PA76 (Boeing 707), Side (Boeing 707), Skyboat (Boeing 757-200), SM (dc8-63), YV-123B (A321-231), YV-187 (Tupolev tu154b), Legoboyvdlp YV-LEGO (Boeing 707)
• Company _ 19: ACA987 (Boeing 777-300ER), d-laser (UFO Obs), JJJ333 (CitationX), KABD_TW, KMKE_TW (OpenRadar), KAJ1337 (CitationX @ KBTV ), KB7 ( OpenRadar @ KBTV), KIWI34 (OpenRadar @KBTV ), Leo_Soa (Boeing 777-300ER ), MSA523 (Boeing 777-200LR arriving KBTV ), N2937R (Boeing 777-300ER), Falcon N3266G (Boeing 777-200ER ),NG (Boeing 777-200), NHSH77 (Citation X ), PH-ONOX (UFO@ KBIL. UFO @ KBTV), SM (OpenRadar @ KBTV), US-JPM (Airbus A330-200 @ KBTV ), VH777 (c172p @ KBTV ), Legoboyvdlp YV-LEGO (Boeing 727-230 arriving KBIL)

A Ranked Tabulation of Participants


Note: Tabulation above only account for pilots bringing participant planes, not company.

Presentations of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet


Important Notification

Make sure to get installed the confirmed planes before hand, to avoid delays or yellow gliders

USA TOUR event | 38th Leg: Regional Jets | SAT JULY 25TH 18:00-21:30 UTC

THIRTYEIGHTH TRIP
Departing Chicago O'Hare International Airport, (KORD): Chicago, Illinois
Arriving Billings Logan International Airport, (KBIL): Billings, Montana


*************************************************************************************************************************
Leg Distance: 920 nm
Competing Aircraft: Regional Jets
Expected Cruising Speed:0.77
Expected Cruising Altitude:FL300
Expected Duration (en route): 2h05min
**************************************************************************************************************************

Regional Jets

The Tour made its way to Chicago flying Advanced Jet Trainers. The aircraf look really neat, and the pilots did an amazing job handling the aircraft. Some of these came out of hybernation to participate in the tour, and they definitely are aircraft with a character.

The screenshots I will share soon (eventually) demostrate the point that the USA tour had gained popularity and it is a very fun FG pilot outlet to come and have fun around this great community.

This July, the 38th tour event will take us back to west looking for the largest city of the State of Montana: Billings.

Aircrafts

After two consecutive Military based legs, we will be flying toward the state of Montana in the Regional Jets. These are small jet propelled aircraft that connect the hub airports to destinations of smaller traffic, filling the gaps on the network of commercial air transportation.

To qualify, the aircraft of choice is required to be or had been used by airlines (anywhere in the world), be a Regional Jet class, with a maximum capacity of 125 passengers (top). Aircraft with greater capacity (any seating class!) than this will be considered companionship, not a participant.

The cruising conditions are comfortable for most Regional Jets but they can be adjusted to fit an slower aircraft if this can be considered a participant.

This wiki article reffers to examples of this class, but cannot be considered complete:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_airliners#Regional_jets

Don't forget to report what participant aircraft you are considering bringing. This will allow me to update the confirmed aircraft list, and to allow everyone to be prepared day zero.

I am looking forward to share the skies again!

The GCMAP


Route



We will follow the RNAV route reported by ExpressJet 6008 on Tuesday July 7th2015
Flightaware

SKYVECTOR


PROCEDURES

Ground Charts

• KORD: http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1507/pdf/00166AD.PDF
• KBIL: http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1507/pdf/00048AD.PDF

SID and STAR not applicable. Follow RNAV route as described

Communications

Communications will take place with mumble. Important messages can be relayed on FGChat.
Sincere thanks to Michat for offering the intercom room and channels. This will be located in the FG mumble server:



To install and prepare the mumble (any OS), see here:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

See ya all soon!!
IH-COL

And the USA TOUR arrived to Montana

The USA Tour 38 connecting Chicago, IL to Billing, MT was flown over last weekend by an impressive crew of enthusiastic FG USA Tourists. 19 pilots among participant and companionship challenged our multiplayer servers. Participants agreed to fly the small class of Regional Jet Airliners, from which really fun aircrafts could be selected, including the CRJ700 family, the Tupolev 134, The Embraer 145, and the Sukhoi Super Jet. Impressively, a plane was born from scratch to be able to participate in this comboy: The long awaited BAe-146 Jumbolino was constructed by JWocky, in record time -- less than 3 weeks notice.

We met, as usual, about 2 hours before hour "zero" on Chicago and cleanly lined up in the vicinity of Terminal C in KORD -the only terminal modelled and available via terrasync on this aerodrome. While we rapidly started showing up in the multiplayer map, as an increasing number of pilots that captivated the attention of new USA Tour participants that popped in the event curious of whether they could join. Naturally, USA Tour is a welcome all event.

We greeted enthusiastically a new USA tour participant --but old friend: jomo; who showed up in the USA tour room some 30 minutes before we departed. And as we awaited for the signed up ATC -KIWI34- jomo doubted between flying or ATCing, and I was ok with jomo atcing us --but then he had no microphone. In any case, KIWI came up as schedules, but very on the departing time spot, and launched his UFO for videography purposes, while jomo very (very very very slowly) placed the aircraft in the air. Sometimes releasing them southbound, as opposed to norhtbound, and with a performance unheard of the good old name. Now it was clear this was a new Joerg. Well, there is not only one Joerg in the world. So we continued.

After holding at Badger (BAE) for a couple of patterns to congregate again, the comboy started its flight west, and approaching Montana, just as filed. Flight went very well for everyone. Curiously enough, the pilot that brought company in a 777Extra Range did not have enough fuel to make the trip (contradictory), and had to make a temporal refuel somewhere in the middle of the midwest. Once we arrived to montana, we began descending the grounds at destination. We dealt. while KIWI --with a microphone-- will tower us all to final. The micless new-jomo took the role of just monitoring our landings, and clearing them via text. One after another, a flock of Regional Jets touched down RWY 28R on Billings. Exception, IH-COL was instructed to divert to RWY 28L which is tiny. I decided to go for it, to give space to the landing train, and succesfully pulled a short landing.

@Kiwi: Yes, clearing pilots below ground level is usually bad bad bad practice, and can cost a few of flames and distorted steel. That's why we rejected your clearances to 3000 ft when AGL was as high as 3500. We like our approaches on final between 2000 and 3000 AGL depending on the length of such finals ;P

Every pilot came down succesfully, in one beautiful demostration of pilotage skill in our community. Well... there was the no gear lack of concentration, which happened to one of our first attendees who was mesmerized at the succesful event unfolding, and forgot the one single checklist of all landing

Checklist for landing

1. Gears down

Thanks everyone for accepting this invitation, and for making friendly, and welcoming FG skies to all users equally. The veteran and seasoned, and the new mavericks

Best --and looking forward to Leg 39th
IH-COL

(screenshots and summary will be posted below)

Route 38th: Summary

• City_38: Billings, Montana
• Route: KORD-KBIL
• Topic: Regional Jets
• Date: 07/25/2015
• Pilots _ 16: JWocky (BAe-146 Jumbolino), Skyboat (BAe-146 Jumbolino), Ainnuzzi AIC (Sukhoi SuperJet),IH-COL (Sukhoi SuperJet), Lastmin (Tu-134), Lester (ERJ145), Legoboy YV-LEGO (BAe-146 Jumbolino), Side (Sukhoi SuperJet), ClrCoda AVA0028 (CRJ700LR), D07007 (ERJ145), KL-666 (Sukhoi Superjet), Yesrev YV-187 (CRJ1000), F36 (BAe-146 Jumbolino 60% of route between Milwaukee and Sioux Falls), D-LASER (CRJ900 60% between Minneapolis and Arrival to KBIL), FGAF_P3 (B717-200), VladFlyer Delta 265 (B733)
• Company _ 17: MOUS0000 (Sukhoi Super Jet, departure at KORD),LN-GCG (777-200ER), UA653 (Citation X, departing KORD), [s]Jomo[/s] UK (OpenRadar: KORD_TWR), KIWI34 (UFO, OpenRadar: KBIL_TWR, KBIL_AP; atc_tower2 at KBIL), N301DP (c172p at Kenosha Airport in the vicinity of KORD at departure), Shirke1 (Rascal practicing some flight in the Vicinity of KMSP), AtlasBR (777-200 enroute), Billi (777-300ER departing KBIL on our arrival), PH-COR (AN-12BK arriving KBIL), Kati (Citation X arriving KBIL), nv-elf (Concorde, Arriving KBIL), Watchin (Open Radar Observer at KBIL), F-KATS (CRJ700 arriving KBIL), N777JC (c172p arriving KBIL), EC-CAT (follow me on KBIL), D-OHLE (A380 arriving KBIL)

Note: VladFlyer and FGAP_P3 are going to be allowed to rank their first USA Tour participation event --althought they both were in oversized aircraft (just slightly). FGAP_P3 sent me a PM indicating me that he thought of the option as valid because FG B717 is undersized respect to real life B717 and thus he considered that the number of pax were more limited in the virtual B717. Vlad did a lot of effort to find the sizeable Regional Jet he could fit in, with no success and attempted on the smallest jet he could fly. Both flew the complete leg KORD-KBIL. For a first leg, I will be lenient to both of you guys.

A Ranked Tabulation of Participants


Note: Tabulation above only account for pilots bringing participant planes, not company.

Important Notification

Make sure to get installed the confirmed planes before hand, to avoid delays or yellow gliders

USA TOUR event | 37th Leg: Advanced Jet Trainers | SAT JUNE 27TH 18:00-21:30 UTC

THIRTYSEVENTH TRIP
Departing Denver International Airport, (KDEN): Denver, Colorado
Arriving Chicago O'Hare International Airport, (KORD): Chicago, Illinois


*************************************************************************************************************************
Leg Distance: 800 nm
Competing Aircraft: Advanced Jet Trainer Aircraft
Expected Cruising Speed:0.9Ma or more
Expected Cruising Altitude:FL390 or more
Expected Duration (en route): 1h40min
**************************************************************************************************************************

Military Advanced Jet Trainers

The past leg of the USA Tour took us to the mile high city, Denver, Colorado. We flew an all USAF aerospace manufacture military power birds.

This time, in the second consecutive military USA Tour leg, we will be heading from one of the most renowed USA airports to another one that does not trail far behing: the also infamous Chicago O'Hare. The Third USA busiest, sixth in the world by commercial passenger traffic was actually built on the heat of WW-II as one of the most important Air defenses of the country, in the Heart of the -those days- very violent city of Chicago. The O'hare Air Reserve Station remained a joint military/civilian airport until 1999.

Also, noteworthy, both airports on this USA Tour leg are developed for flightgear, so in addition to some fun air-stunts, we are expecting to see nice developed airports, and aerodromes.

Aircrafts

In our way to the Thirty-seventh state, Illinois, the USA Tour participants will pilot advanced jet trainer aircraft.

Any aircraft that has been used for training purposes will apply. But we expect the aircraft to be fast and agile, since we will be doing at least 0.8Ma/FL390.

Test your bird, and report! So we can prepare by installing before hand. Besides, I am really curious to know what you are planning to bring this time!

Wiki offers a rather incomplete list for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_train ... t_trainers

choose any of these, or other, and be prepared to pull off some evidence that the aircraft chosen is a trainer, or has been used on that service.

The GCMAP


Route

We will follow the PLAINS SEVENS departure, HAYES transition as charted, then Lincoln, Omaha, to the BRADFORD FIVE arrival, KIRKSVILLE transition as charted.
SKYVECTOR


PROCEDURES

Ground Charts

• KDEN: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1506/09077AD.PDF
• KORD: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1506/00166AD.PDF

SID:

• PLAINS SEVEN departure, HAYES Transition: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1506/09077PLAINS.PDF

STAR

• BRADFORD FIVE arrival, KIRKSVILLE Transitioh: http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/1506/00166BRADFORD.PDF

Communications

Communications will take place with mumble. Important messages can be relayed on FGChat.
Sincere thanks to Michat for offering the intercom room and channels. This will be located in the FG mumble server:



To install and prepare the mumble (any OS), see here:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

See ya all soon!!
IH-COL

Route 37th: Summary

• City_37: Chicago, Illinois
• Route: KDEN-KORD
• Topic: Advanced Jet Trainers
• Date: 06/27/2015
• Pilots: JWocky (Tornado-J Trainer), Skyboat (Tornado-J Trainer), Ambro (mb339), F-36 (mb339), Michat (mb339), aiannuz - AIC (l39), IH-COL (l39), Legoboyvdlp, YV-LEGO (l39), MV-DP (l39), Side (l39), KB7 (T-2C), Joe454 (T-2C), cain (fouga magister)
• Company: Thunder(c130), ClrCoda AVA0028 (l39. Same route, 2 hours after event ended)

A Ranked Tabulation of Participants


Note: Tabulation above only account for pilots bringing participant planes, not company.

Important Notification

Make sure to get installed the confirmed planes before hand, to avoid delays or yellow gliders . [This list will be available soon]

USA TOUR event | 36th Leg: USAF Aerospace Industry | SAT JUNE 6TH 17:00-24:00 UTC

THIRTYSIXTH TRIP
Departing New Castle Airport, (KILG): Wilmington - Delaware
Arriving Denver International Airport, (KDEN): Denver - Colorado

*************************************************************************************************************************
Leg Distance: D:1400 nm; E: 2400 nm; F: Unlimited
Competing Aircraft: Military Aircraft manufactured by the USAF aerospace industry: details below
Expected Cruising Speed:D: 280KTS; E: 0.82-0.85 Ma: F: unlimited
Expected Cruising Altitude:D: FL320; E: FL320; F: unlimited
Expected Duration (en route): 4h50min. Regardless of D, E, F mission
**************************************************************************************************************************

U.S. Aerospace Industry :: Military event

Our last arrival in the USA tour to the state of Delaware was accomplished with low-level bush flying over the appalacchian mountains. Tiny but very capable and all terrain adapter little/fun aircraft cruised a rainy and misty day. Altitudes were maintained below ceiling, but rain and poor visibility prevailed most of the day. But we managed to maintain a comboy of pilots in our way east.

The flight was not fun. Was incredibly fun! The pilots brought their good sense of humor and great comradery to the Tour, and thus, we are preparing our next flight looking forward to share the skies with all the friendly FGers.

This time we head to the infamous Denver International. We will land the runways, and will not look deep underground:: Guarantee!.



Aircrafts

The USA Tour 36th leg is an all military leg, flown with the USAF aerospace industry manufactured military jet equipment.

The USAF aerospace includes a vast array of companies, and thus of aircrafts. Any aircraft manufactured by any of these companies, and that has been (or will be) used for military purposes; in any category applies (Transport, escort, fighters, air-ground attack, air-air attack, etc --you name it!)

The aircraft of choice needs to be able to sustain a minimun speed of 280KTS at FL320. There is no cap for maximum speed!

I attempted a complete manufacturer's list, but feel free to raise me a note if I unintendedly forget someone

• Boeing
• McDonell-Douglas (or McDonell, or Douglas)
• Northrop-Grumman (or Northrop, or Grumman)
• North-American Aviation
• Rockwell International
• Lockheed Martin (or Lockheed, or Martin Marietta)
• General Dynamics (Thanks Falcon for the reminder)

The GCMAP


Routes

This time we will follow 3 different Routes! WOW
Participant aircraft will be separated in three classes depending on the Cruise speed specificiation the aircraft can maintain.

• Aircraft whose cruise speed is comfortable at/or around 280 KTS airspeed take the Delta (D for direct) route.
• Aircraft capable of having a comfortable cruise at 0.85 Mach/FL 320 will take the Echo (E for extra long) route.
• Aircraft capable of supersonic flight (Mach 1.2 or above) will take the Foxtrot (F for free flying) route.

You will be indicated before hand which group you belong too, based on the aircraft of choice!. Expect delivery indicating it, as an example: "You are clear to Denver International via USAF-Echo as planned!"

USAF-Delta
SKYVECTOR



USAF-Echo
SKYVECTOR



USAF-Foxtrot
Departs: KILG, Arrives KDEN.

The objective of Foxtrot is to escort both Echo and delta aviation simultaneously.

USA airspace is fully open to Foxtrot without altitude or speed restrictions!

A group leader will be assigned, and on his/her command, the whole supersonic fleet will take a free route to intersect either the Delta or the Echo fleet, for escorting, until the leader calls "escort change!", at which point the whole fleet will rush at free route/free speed to intersect the other group.

Sim-rate is not allowed. Arriving to the target group has to be done with the equipment capabilities only.

Military escort exercise duration: 4h40min.

PROCEDURES

Ground Charts

• KILG: http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1504/pdf/00458AD.PDF
• KDEN: http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1505/pdf/09077AD.PDF

STAR: Route Echo

• ANCHR3: http://airnav.com/depart?http://155.178 ... 7ANCHR.PDF

Communications

Communications will take place with mumble. Important messages can be relayed on FGChat.
Sincere thanks to Michat for offering the intercom room and channels. This will be located in the FG mumble server:



To install and prepare the mumble (any OS), see here:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

Your friend,
IH-COL

And the USA Tour made it to Denver, Colorado


The 36th flight of the USA tour was a very complex flight plan, wonderfully accomplished by a large group of USA Tourist. It definitely deserves a narrative, so here we go:

We met several minutes before take off, while the aircraft keep showing up Wilmington, Delaware. The FAA granted us clear airspace, by executing a NOTAM fully restricted airspace except for us, or emergency flights if some come around. 1 hour before departure jstem2000 took a Lineage1000 from Wilmington to Delaware. and then we kept waiting for the time and the crew to be right.

Around departing time, COL called in Skyboat, on the RA-5 and offered him the position of Foxtrot-General. He accepted. Then he became the man in command of the Fighters, or USAF-Foxtrot, and were granted full accession to USA airspace. Their objective. Keep the comboys safe. among the USAF-Foxtrot we had Colonel F36 , Colonel Falcon and later in flight Colonel PH-ONOX.

Then, IH-COL called Side, and Offered him position Delta-General. He also accepted, becoming the man in command of the Delta crew; Delta flying a straight great-circle route to denver --the shortest possible "line" between to points on earth --which actually follows a curve!
(in real planet, the closest line between two points is not a line, but a curve!)
For this reason, one of the biggest challenges of the Delta route was keep it slow. Pilots needed to identify the lowest speed that will keep them in the air, and they finally commited to 220 KTS. It was a route of flying fighting with lack of lift. Maybe keeping some flaps down on cruise flying.
General Side flew the AF1 707 and transported Mr. President Kennedy. And commanded Colonel Ava Ray, Colonel Michat, Colonel Lesbof, and later in flight Colonel KL-666, and Colonel D-07007.

Finally, IH-COL called JWocky for a Echo-General position. JWocky was on stand-guard over Wilmington overnigh. Not fun. Tired! he declined. So IH-COL stepped in for Echo General position, and commander the extra long route VOR-2VOR to Denver. I placed myself in charge of Colonel JWocky, Colonel Lego flying the 707 AF with Mr. President Reagan, and for the first part of the flight Colonel KL-666 with 707-320 AF1 with Mr. President Nixon.

Departure: Delta roll the RWY 01 first, and made immediate turn at 270 to look for their first waypoing. Followed by Foxtrot escort, which went to an immediate service to delta. And ended with the last echo group departure who leaned over the first way point and rapidly waiving south direction Washington DC, climbing initially at 600 then FL320. In no time, the two groups separated considerably. JWocky take off was wild, as he described in his post above. That stand out took a heavy toll on him, and we were glad he was not GAF ranked.

Group Foxtrot separated Delta and looked for Echo after the first hour of flight. The interception took about 15 minutes, max speed (about 1.5Ma), and then F36 and Skyboat started attempting the historical first time ever (virtual or RL) that the Pegasus performed AAR. Unfortunately it did not happen, and today we are still uncertain if the pegasus is really AAR ready. In any case, Both F36 and Skyboat lost full fuel in the attempt and performed emergency landings in neighboorhod fields, where they refueled on ground and took off again.

Echo heading north. The groups intercepted in the vicinity of Indianapolis -- as expected. At this point KL-666 departed with Delta, and JWocky and IH-COL maintained Echo, now southbound for a last time. PH-ONOX joined the escort, which separated in 3 groups. Skyboat escorting Echo, PH-ONOX escorting Delta, and Falcon escorting Mr. President Kennedy flown by General Side. The most complex flying setup of the USA Tour to date. But every pilot clearly on its position, and everything maintained the order --rather nicely done!

Finally after flying the states of Kansas (echo) and Nebraska (delta) the groups faced a direct towards Denver; Where Phil accepted the very complicated position of towering the group to safe ground -- and as always did a perfect job at that matter. About 15 pilots all coming in different directions were vectored in. A very complicated situation. Weather was frantic in Denver. Wind coming in bursts in all directions and changing by the minute. And thunderstorms opened by the last few minutes on the Arrival path. Finally, just to keep us away of the western sierras, Phil gave us all clearance to look for Rwy 35L / 34R where we landed a rather feisty wind with success. ==you can read Lesbof notes above on how unpredictible landing Denver could be those days! --yet every pilot made it with a succesful landing.
We aren't USAF Colonel for no reason!

And, sure, Skyboat's curiosity caused him to peak sneak whatever is going underground there!

It was an incredible amount of fun, flying in company of a very skilled group of FG pilots, and great comrades!
I am looking forward to our next flight --

Best
IH-COL