A flight I will never forget
Posted: 23 Oct 2017, 03:38
Good morning, My name is Joe I would like to share a recent experience with all of you and express my deep gratitude for such an amazing product. I am a member of http://macairvirtual.com/ One of our tours replicates flights from WWII done in the Pacific theater. The first leg of the tour is Departure Airport: Point Mugu Naval Air Station (Naval Base Ventura Co) (KNTD) Arrival Airport: Wheeler Army Airfield (PHHI). Est flight time was 12hrs at a distance just shy of 2200nm. There were 4 pilots in our group. 2 of us flying the A2A B17. The weather was not looking too favorable for our flight. We had a constant headwind from 10kts to 20kts. My B17 wingman and I both insured we took off with our fuel loads at max capacity. As we reached our cruising alt of FL250. We realized the winds were going to play havoc with our fuel endurance. My wingman and I estimated we had just enough fuel to make it but we knew it was going to be very close.
About 6 hours into the flight. We began to realize how " alive " these aircraft are. We did our best to follow the manual but as with any aircraft, problems do occur. The first major issue was experienced by my wingman. He began to have a high manifold pressure reading on Eng 2. This condition was worsening so he decided to shut down Eng 2. The observed fuel savings with maintaining cruising speed was enough to convince me to also shut down Eng 2. Well, my crew was not happy. It was then I realized the heater core uses Eng 2 exhaust. At FL250 it was very cold. So to keep them happy I attempted to relight Eng 2. This is when I ran into my first major issue. I was unable to restart Eng 2. After 20 min of troubleshooting, I finally got it running and all seemed well. I shut down Eng 3 to continue to save fuel.
10 hours into the flight we ran into another issue. Both of our aircraft were now low on o2. So we both were forced to descend leading us to another issue. The winds aloft we calculated was for FL250 not FL100. So despite our attempts to save fuel we still were cutting it very close.
At about 12 hours into the flight, we ran into another issue. We both had the bomb bay tanks on the aircraft. But we both failed to realize these tanks needed to be transferred into the main tanks with the pumps this does not happen automatically. So A2As level of detail bit us again. Because we were low on fuel and air was present in the transfer lines. Fuel was not able to be moved out of the Aux tanks. At this point 12+ hours of flying, we resorted to using the payload manager to move the fuel. Yes, we cheated but I'm sure you all understand why.
As my wingman and I approached the Hawaii coastline we were relieved but terrified at the same time. our fuel levels were at critical levels. He was worst off than I. On final he lost engine 1 ( engine 2 was already offline due to a mechanical issue ) With some great piloting he was able to land and on the rollout he lost engines 3 and 4. I was about 30 min behind him. I had all 4 engines online for the approach. But this was short lived as on final I lost engines 2 and 3. I was able to park with only about 100 gal left in the tanks for engines 1 and 4.
So what is the take away for all of this and why am I sharing this long story.
I wanted to document that this IS "living" aircraft and how grateful I am for A2A for making such an amazing product. Not only did two pilots take off and fly the same exact flight but we had two totally different experiences and challenges. As it turns our my wingman had a cylinder fail in engine 2 which caused the high manifold pressure. As for my engine problems, I believe I flooded the engine which prevented me from restarting it in flight. I had detonation damage when it was inspected after landing.
A2A, Thank you for the amazing experience, Below I will share a few photos of the flight. We have a few more long legs so looking forward to the challenge and will now be better prepared for them!
https://ibb.co/kMKVy6
https://ibb.co/dcL2Vm
https://ibb.co/bBvrO6
https://ibb.co/ie2ubR
https://ibb.co/m0QEbR
https://ibb.co/gkq2Vm
https://ibb.co/cmU7wR
https://ibb.co/m3pki6
https://ibb.co/hxfEbR
https://ibb.co/hTJNVm
https://ibb.co/mOQrO6
https://ibb.co/cMcuQm
https://ibb.co/nrqsBR
https://ibb.co/cfUVy6
https://ibb.co/mvGXBR
https://ibb.co/c26okm
https://ibb.co/gPfEQm
https://ibb.co/jafrO6
https://ibb.co/mdvw5m
https://ibb.co/hqDSvm
https://ibb.co/du7nvm
https://ibb.co/ktSAGR
https://ibb.co/kaG8J6
https://ibb.co/mUhhd6
https://ibb.co/hAH4rR
https://ibb.co/nhtNd6
https://ibb.co/iVmay6
https://ibb.co/fEmKQm
https://ibb.co/mr2yJ6
https://ibb.co/iuL7BR
https://ibb.co/hiFfGR
https://ibb.co/kfwWO6
https://ibb.co/c6EJ36
About 6 hours into the flight. We began to realize how " alive " these aircraft are. We did our best to follow the manual but as with any aircraft, problems do occur. The first major issue was experienced by my wingman. He began to have a high manifold pressure reading on Eng 2. This condition was worsening so he decided to shut down Eng 2. The observed fuel savings with maintaining cruising speed was enough to convince me to also shut down Eng 2. Well, my crew was not happy. It was then I realized the heater core uses Eng 2 exhaust. At FL250 it was very cold. So to keep them happy I attempted to relight Eng 2. This is when I ran into my first major issue. I was unable to restart Eng 2. After 20 min of troubleshooting, I finally got it running and all seemed well. I shut down Eng 3 to continue to save fuel.
10 hours into the flight we ran into another issue. Both of our aircraft were now low on o2. So we both were forced to descend leading us to another issue. The winds aloft we calculated was for FL250 not FL100. So despite our attempts to save fuel we still were cutting it very close.
At about 12 hours into the flight, we ran into another issue. We both had the bomb bay tanks on the aircraft. But we both failed to realize these tanks needed to be transferred into the main tanks with the pumps this does not happen automatically. So A2As level of detail bit us again. Because we were low on fuel and air was present in the transfer lines. Fuel was not able to be moved out of the Aux tanks. At this point 12+ hours of flying, we resorted to using the payload manager to move the fuel. Yes, we cheated but I'm sure you all understand why.
As my wingman and I approached the Hawaii coastline we were relieved but terrified at the same time. our fuel levels were at critical levels. He was worst off than I. On final he lost engine 1 ( engine 2 was already offline due to a mechanical issue ) With some great piloting he was able to land and on the rollout he lost engines 3 and 4. I was about 30 min behind him. I had all 4 engines online for the approach. But this was short lived as on final I lost engines 2 and 3. I was able to park with only about 100 gal left in the tanks for engines 1 and 4.
So what is the take away for all of this and why am I sharing this long story.
I wanted to document that this IS "living" aircraft and how grateful I am for A2A for making such an amazing product. Not only did two pilots take off and fly the same exact flight but we had two totally different experiences and challenges. As it turns our my wingman had a cylinder fail in engine 2 which caused the high manifold pressure. As for my engine problems, I believe I flooded the engine which prevented me from restarting it in flight. I had detonation damage when it was inspected after landing.
A2A, Thank you for the amazing experience, Below I will share a few photos of the flight. We have a few more long legs so looking forward to the challenge and will now be better prepared for them!
https://ibb.co/kMKVy6
https://ibb.co/dcL2Vm
https://ibb.co/bBvrO6
https://ibb.co/ie2ubR
https://ibb.co/m0QEbR
https://ibb.co/gkq2Vm
https://ibb.co/cmU7wR
https://ibb.co/m3pki6
https://ibb.co/hxfEbR
https://ibb.co/hTJNVm
https://ibb.co/mOQrO6
https://ibb.co/cMcuQm
https://ibb.co/nrqsBR
https://ibb.co/cfUVy6
https://ibb.co/mvGXBR
https://ibb.co/c26okm
https://ibb.co/gPfEQm
https://ibb.co/jafrO6
https://ibb.co/mdvw5m
https://ibb.co/hqDSvm
https://ibb.co/du7nvm
https://ibb.co/ktSAGR
https://ibb.co/kaG8J6
https://ibb.co/mUhhd6
https://ibb.co/hAH4rR
https://ibb.co/nhtNd6
https://ibb.co/iVmay6
https://ibb.co/fEmKQm
https://ibb.co/mr2yJ6
https://ibb.co/iuL7BR
https://ibb.co/hiFfGR
https://ibb.co/kfwWO6
https://ibb.co/c6EJ36