Free Flight, Free Speech

Important Notification

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

USA TOUR event | 41st Leg: Wide Body Jet Airliners II : Did you ever see an elephant fly? | SAT OCT 24TH 17:00-21:30 UTC

FORTYFIRST TRIP
Departing Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, (KPHX): Phoenix, Arizona
Arriving Charlotte Douglas International Airport, (KCLT): Charlotte, North Carolina

*************************************************************************************************************************
Leg Distance: 1550 nm
Competing Aircraft: Wide Body Jet Aircraft with a MTOW larger than 785.000 Lbs
Expected Cruising Speed:0.82Ma
Expected Cruising Altitude:FL370
Expected Duration (en route): 3h20min
**************************************************************************************************************************

Wide Body Jet Airliners II : Did you ever see an Elephant Fly?


Video from 'Walt Disney's Dumbo' :copyright: All Rights Reserved Walt Disney, 1941

Recently, The USA tour group made an impressive arrival to the Skyharbor descending from the elevated plains northern to the city of Phoenix; the USA tour leg 40 counted with a record participation, and a very kind acceptance from the Flightgear community -- up to 26 wide body aircraft jetliner completed the epic flight from the town of Burlington, Vermont.

We were honored by the collaboration of KIWI and Omega on the OpenRadar towers, in a way that graciously facilitated the operations of the considerably large group of simulation pilots. Along the way we met new and old timers, we chat friendly, and even sang songs of the area -- with a very well tuned a capella group

The large comboy was escorted in some segments by a group of enthusiastic f14 aircrafts that enjoyed waving accross the seemingly busy airspaces. The USA Tour leg 40 was a third consecutive Jet Airliners leg, that began using smaller Regional Jets, bump up to Narrow body aircraft, and continued notching the aircraft size to the common Wide Body Airliners; The big of the family -- those that airlines use, tipically on popular hubs, and to accomodate larger amounts of traffic with efficiency.

Aircrafts

USA Tour Leg 41st will be the fourth consecutive Jet Airliners Leg, and as you may already expect, we are ramping the aircraft size, once again. This time we will fly the largest of the series. Participant aircrafts will include those massive airships that are wide body, and have a unbelievable ability to become airborn while carrying more than 785OOO Lbs of weight (MTOW). These enormous winged beasts, can even include an additional PAX level to increase occupancy capacity even more. And more surprisingly, frequently these count among the longest ranges in the aviation world. Did you ever see an elephant fly?

To be considered a participant, the aircraft of choice must have a MTOW of at least 785.000 Lbs

This figure summarizes possible aircraft. These might or might not be available in FGFS.


(The AN225, a freight only variant of the AN124 will be acceptable on replacement of the undeveloped AN124 for FG. HerbyW version of the AN225 is a highly recommended aircraft!.

The Galaxy C5, a freight only military aircraft capable of lifting on a superb 840OOO Lbs will also be accepted participant for this leg!)

Clarification: Data as reported by Wikipedia, or other specs documentation will/can be considered, regardless of FG aircraft performance or adherence to published specs.

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

In our way to the state of North Carolina, we will depart The Phoenix Skyharbor following Maxxo 3 Corona (CNX) Transition, eastbound, and we will follow J74 J46 airways accross the Continental USA at FL370, to Volunteer (VXV). The Standard Arrival Shine 6 will guide our fleet to Charlotte. We will fly south of Alburqueque, NM; Overfly Oklahoma City (IRW) and Tulsa (TUL), OK; and finally we will turns towards Charlotte as we overfly Nashville, TN (BNA) in our path. [I guess this is plenty of heads up for the "USA TOUR [i]a capella[i] group"



SKYVECTOR


The Skyvector's NAV log

PROCEDURES

Ground Charts

• KPHX: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1510/pdf/00322AD.PDF
• KCLT: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1510/pdf/00078AD.PDF

SID:

• MAXXO THREE Departure CORONA transition: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1510/pdf/00322MAXXO.PDF

STAR:

• SHINE SIX Arrival VOLUNTEER transition: https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1510/pdf/00078SHINE.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

Forum

Follow us in the Free Flight Free Speech Flightgear Forum at
http://www.thejabberwocky.net

See ya all soon!!
IH-COL

I had not made my mind yet.

There are not many options to choose from, but the few alternatives are very calling --
On my way to Guam (KABQ-PGUM), I once flew the A380 for the USA Tour -- awesome aircraft, that I will not include in my options.

Then, 4 Aircraft that I will be testing are

1) The Boeing 748i by Tikibar, and 2) The Boeing 748i VIP derivative by JWocky



3) Andino's Airbus A340-600HGW



Or 4) HerbyW's Antonov-225 Mrija



Keep tuned! I 'll report after testing

IH-COL

Well! Hmmm...so, its either the Airbus 340-6 or the 747-8i.
Bye Boeing -- off to visit Airbus!

340-600HGW for me, sir

I will use the A340 later in the Tour, so for me it's 747-8VVIP if it counts, otherwise, it's Tikibar's 747-8i. There is only one question: If the An225 qualifies (since there is no passenger version of it), what about the C-5?

If I am still here I be in the 747-8i

jwocky wrote:I will use the A340 later in the Tour, so for me it's 747-8VVIP if it counts, otherwise, it's Tikibar's 747-8i. There is only one question: If the An225 qualifies (since there is no passenger version of it), what about the C-5?

Yeah! The VIP version of the 748i on Porcupine livery qualifies.

Yeah! I accept C5's too --even thou it is a Freighter only/Military only babe. There are not many aircraft capable of leaving ground with so much belly-weight, so any aircraft that is proven capable of a MTOW of at least 785OOO Lbs will qualify. Basically

I've just edited the first post to reflect that.

T-URBO wrote:If I am still here I be in the 747-8i

Eh?! Canadians have a tendency to be morbid?!!?

Of Course, T-URBO you will still be here, so see you then on the 748i.

Last time work call me @ 12 PM to get in a plane at 5PM the same day to the arctic, so I never know when I leave.

After testing and looking around for the options, IH-COL will fly the 747-8i VIP; I will create the SiegerFlieger Livery for myself

I thought that the C-5A Calaxy also has an passenger cabin above the freight compartment, because I've seen the Aircrash Investigation about the C-5A Calaxy which crashed during operation Babylift in Vietnam, In the footage is the passenger cabin to see.

The C-5 can be also equipped with seats in the lower deck for troop transport. But since IAHM-COL decided the C-5 qualifies with or without seats, this is not the problem anymore. The problem is

a.) on a technical level
The only C-5 we had in FG was never able to fly and for sure not with load (you couldn't even put weight in it at all), the AP was whale tailing and then crashing the plane in the ground if you took the fingers of the stick and of course, there wasn't even a HUD and at the same time no instruments, so there wasn't even a way to figure altitude or speed.
I started to play around with her yesterday, so this is all pretty new (and despite my earlier claims, I wouldn't do it ) but she has a working aP now, the engines are on latest RERP level (the engine upgrades for C-5A/B to CF6 with 51250 lbs thrust per unit as decided in 2008 is obsolete because the actual CF6 variant fitting the C-5s now produced has almost 62000 lbs and still uses less fuel). There is also a HUD again now. But still no flightdeck, she has still balance problems and the fuel system ... lets say, there is no system at all at the moment.

b.) on the personal side
I so would have liked to fly a SiegerFlieger too but there is no way, I get this livery on a Galaxy ... decisions, decisions!

J.