Hi.
Today i decided to do an endurance flight , at max speed and on auto rich fuel , to see just how long i could fly for on full tanks.
I was using spit 2b , at start of flight i had all fluids full and hangar check showed aircraft was in good fettle , with 1.1hrs on the clock.
The weather at kbfi , was rain and heavy overcast low clouds , took off no probs , had twitch recording flight , flew from kbfi towards kpae , then followed the channel to the open sea , then returned by same route , i climbed above the clouds outbound , on return by same rout , i saw a gap in the clouds while in the channel , and decided to decend below the clouds on the return as i knew it was bad at kbfi , the vis was so bad and canopy fogging did not help , that i opened the canopy , at one stage i had to decend to 500ft , managed to get back to kbfi , did not see runway lights till last second , good job it does not take long , for gear/flaps to extend , did a nice landing , retracted flaps , then i got a fatal fsx crash .
on checking i found twitch had done 3 recordings of the flight , which means either twitch had played up , or my internet had been playing up, on further checks it appears its my broadband provider who have a line fault in my area , and the fatal crash of fsx was because the internet fault caused a corruption of asn , which in turn crashed fsx , on firing up fsx and putting spit 2b back on tarmac at kbfi , i was hoping the fluids and stat of aircraft had not been corrupted , going by the results it looks like i could fly this aircraft on auto rich and full throttle for just over 2 hrs on full tanks , so flight not fully wasted , would have been nice , if i could have taxiied in and shut down correctly , in order to get a better idea of endurance .
How long it will take them to fully fix the broadband in my area is anyones guess , while they mess around my broadband could fail at any time , so flying today could be very frustrating.
regards alan.
wasted flight
- Lewis - A2A
- A2A Lieutenant Colonel
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Re: wasted flight
Ahh Alan that must suck! And recording 3 times over could have helped the crash either, but kudos on your system for being strong for so long in such circumstances! Give that computer a pat on the case hehe
cheers,
Lewis
cheers,
Lewis
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- Senior Master Sergeant
- Posts: 2439
- Joined: 15 Mar 2016, 08:23
Re: wasted flight
Hi Lewis.
Second test in the spit 2b was a success , well partly , vis was so bad i came close to slamming into the ground on return to KBFI , could not afford to get atis for landing , as i had canopy open for max vis , straining to find the runway , when i had landed , in low vis and rain , and taxiied to stand and shut down the engine , i decided to see what the wind was , just out of curiosity , only to find from takeoff to landing , wind had swung 180 deg at KBFI , and i had done a tail wind landing , which explained why it had a long landing run.
You just have to see the vid to see how bad the weather was.
At least i have confirmed with two runs , that used the same amount of fuel , that this aircraft at full throttle , and autorich fuel setting can fly for about 2 hrs on full tanks.
https://www.twitch.tv/cxa651/v/96065553
regards alan.
Second test in the spit 2b was a success , well partly , vis was so bad i came close to slamming into the ground on return to KBFI , could not afford to get atis for landing , as i had canopy open for max vis , straining to find the runway , when i had landed , in low vis and rain , and taxiied to stand and shut down the engine , i decided to see what the wind was , just out of curiosity , only to find from takeoff to landing , wind had swung 180 deg at KBFI , and i had done a tail wind landing , which explained why it had a long landing run.
You just have to see the vid to see how bad the weather was.
At least i have confirmed with two runs , that used the same amount of fuel , that this aircraft at full throttle , and autorich fuel setting can fly for about 2 hrs on full tanks.
https://www.twitch.tv/cxa651/v/96065553
regards alan.
- bladerunner900
- Senior Master Sergeant
- Posts: 1991
- Joined: 17 Aug 2008, 14:59
- Location: South Wales
Re: wasted flight
Hi Alan.
I've been watching your flights with great interest. Fascinating. Been replicating some of them myself, out of curiosity. Your right about the atrocious weather around KBFI. About that, I'm not sure if your aware of it in the Spitfire, but opening the cockpit ventilaton can help combat internal fogging. It's not much help when it's solid fog I'm afraid, but it certainly helps on cold rainy days here in the UK.
All the best mate.
Steve.
I've been watching your flights with great interest. Fascinating. Been replicating some of them myself, out of curiosity. Your right about the atrocious weather around KBFI. About that, I'm not sure if your aware of it in the Spitfire, but opening the cockpit ventilaton can help combat internal fogging. It's not much help when it's solid fog I'm afraid, but it certainly helps on cold rainy days here in the UK.
All the best mate.
Steve.
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- Senior Master Sergeant
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- Joined: 15 Mar 2016, 08:23
Re: wasted flight
Hi.
Thanks for showing the pic of cockpit vent , as far as i was aware , it was open , as i have a switch assigned for it , but now i know where to look for confirmation of it been open , i think the reason for fogging on that run , was rapid change in alt from cold high alt , to low alt , but until you showed that pic , i did not know how to check it was active , as its not shown in shift+3 window like the oxy.
regards alan.
Thanks for showing the pic of cockpit vent , as far as i was aware , it was open , as i have a switch assigned for it , but now i know where to look for confirmation of it been open , i think the reason for fogging on that run , was rapid change in alt from cold high alt , to low alt , but until you showed that pic , i did not know how to check it was active , as its not shown in shift+3 window like the oxy.
regards alan.
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- Senior Master Sergeant
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- Joined: 15 Mar 2016, 08:23
Re: wasted flight
Hi.
Just done anther spit run , weather a lot better than yesterday , so kept her below 10000ft , did not use oxy, yet when i had landed , and shut everything down , i found the oxy needed topping up , also twitch shutdown and reconnected near to when i would have shut it down , this means my internet must have momentary switched off then on , as twitch is very sensative to internet dropout .
All fluids where full before flight , so oxy use was a mystery , unless i have a stowaway onboard , being at low level and lean mixture saved 7 gal over yesterdays run , thats a bonus , as i was expecting about same result , due flying in heavier density air , at a slightly higher throttle setting , but lean mixture , over yesterdays highlevel flight at high throttle on autorich settings , but lower density air , which i thought might even up the results somewhat .
https://www.twitch.tv/cxa651/v/96233783
regards alan.
Just done anther spit run , weather a lot better than yesterday , so kept her below 10000ft , did not use oxy, yet when i had landed , and shut everything down , i found the oxy needed topping up , also twitch shutdown and reconnected near to when i would have shut it down , this means my internet must have momentary switched off then on , as twitch is very sensative to internet dropout .
All fluids where full before flight , so oxy use was a mystery , unless i have a stowaway onboard , being at low level and lean mixture saved 7 gal over yesterdays run , thats a bonus , as i was expecting about same result , due flying in heavier density air , at a slightly higher throttle setting , but lean mixture , over yesterdays highlevel flight at high throttle on autorich settings , but lower density air , which i thought might even up the results somewhat .
https://www.twitch.tv/cxa651/v/96233783
regards alan.
- Killratio
- A2A Spitfire Crew Chief
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Re: wasted flight
Just remember that weak mixture can not be used above 2 and 3/4 lb per sq in of boost or damage will occur.
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