The Great RTW Air Race is on again

[Codge]

In just over 6 weeks time the annual Round the World (RTW) is on again.
It is flown in prop aircraft between Avsim, Flightsim.com and Sim Outhouse. While you can fly any prop plane the WOP P51 and the freeware P38 Lightning's are the prefered choice for their speed and handling and endurance. Each pilot flies a leg as a pilot or wingman and each leg is as close to but less than two hours per leg.
We help each other with weather reports and scouting for best approaches and terrain considerations and the like. Teamspeak is pretty much a must.
It is very well organised and you can follow the race and see real time progress between the teams on a map.
There are all sorts of rules to make it interesting like altitude restrictions and having to use all 11 of the prescribed aircraft in FS9, which include the Vega and Jenny and some poor b*gger has to fly the Spirit of St Louis! and a Helo leg.
I've never had so much fun in my sim, strange airfields at night in 20kt cross winds with rain and high ground on approach is called fun OK.
Please reply to this thread if you are keen to take part in any capacity.
We are team Flightsim.com, a smaller team than Avsim(alot of their pilots didn't even get a flight last year) while our pilots were somewhat busy! We want at least 16 good pilots this time. Don't know why this is, I suppose like Trolly said that getting files and such from Avsim is slightly easier so people automatically want to join that team, I didn't and I'm glad to be with our team, it has got alot of expertise in alot of FS things and I wouldn't want to change.Crashing is not the end of the world but it makes you lose time and does not help.
It is a fun event and that is the emphasise, but it is a race and we want to win.
I'd say it's the FS event of the year,it took 5 days last year and people are taking time off work to take part, many book their holidays well in advance to give their bosses notice.
It starts the 1st Sunday after Valintines Day, someone has thought that through, to keep the other half happy first so they can sim for 5 days. (you don't have to commit to 5 days, we all come and go, eat sleep (a wee bit) and there's people who don't take time off work.
It would be good to tell our team we have some help from NZFF
Regards Stephen

[ardypilot]

I'd love to join in- what team are you from exacty Codge?

Is the BSMP Saab 2000 an acceptable aircraft to fly- is there an official website anywhere?

[Dreamweaver]

Talking of Races the Annual GAAR event is taking place again thanks to the guys at Bluegrass Virtual Airlines.

http://www.bluegrassairlines.com/gaar_2007

Going overseas in February so wont be able to take part in either event, shame really the GAAR event gets pretty interesting on West Coast ATC multiplayer

[Codge]

I fly for Flightsim.com, reread my 1st post. The SAAB would be perfectly legal.
Closer to the time a list of banned aircraft is released as a NOTAM. These are planes that have totally unrealistic Airfiles and CFG's and give an unfair advantage.
Personally I love the David Copley P38 Lightning. It is not the fastest but is competitive. I am comfortable in it. IF you crash on approach you have wasted 2 hours so landing is paramount! This cannot be stressed enough!!! Better to have a slower plane if you are actually going to make it than a fast one that you crash enroute.
I'm posting a bit early as it hasn't officially been made public that is is happening.
I got somewhat caught out last year by finding out at the last minute and having to really rush to get with the program.
The first practise will be around mid January like last time I imagine.
Last year it seemed that people were scarce but the old hands all showed up right on time. As I pointed out in my 1st post alot of guys are taking time off work and lead otherwise very busy lives. They are a very talented bunch of guys that have good carreers, just like at NZFF and time is a precious thing.
I don't know if Sim Outhouse will put a team together this year, I sure hope so. It was their 1st year last year and were rather inexperienced compared to us and Avsim.

http://johannesmueller.com/fsforum/inde ... de9c397ab0

Cut and past this addy into your browser and have a look around. The posts will just carry on here from last time where we left off.
When not flying there are still lots of things need doing like scouting ahead to give terrain considerations and weather etc...and to find airfields.
Journalists for writing up reports at the end and tell the story, a talent you have Trolly!
Your new copy of FSNav will be invaluable so spend time familiarising with it.
Guys like you and Alex for example would be a real asset for us with your knowledge and abilities and your professional attitudes!
Seriously I have never enjoyed FS so much and can't wait, you will not regret taking part.
Last time we started with a simulated Berlin airlft in DC3's. The weather was atrocious and dark and I was in totally unfamiliar surroundings! You were either transporting coal (by air? weird) clothes or chocolate! Those that had the MAAM DC3 used that and the rest were able to use the default DC3 with a updated modernized panel!
It was through this race that I met so many great guys and learned about the Swiss server to fly on amongst heaps of other stuff.
Don't worry about only having dial up it's not a big deal, OK broadband is preferable like everywhere but certainly still take part with dial up. You have the RAM as you need to be able to run FS and what addons you'll need, like FSNav, Teamspeak, the FS.com forum page, real weather etc..
You change your main CFG in pause on lost focus from a 1 to a 0 so your plane keeps going while you make your post to say you have the batton etc..
All this sort of thing is what I had no time to learn about last time, it was truly a frantic time untill I got a grasp of things! Anyone that wants to take part from this forum will have me to tell you what I found out the hard way!
There is a small program to download called the Duenna and this is used to validate your flights.
There are always changes to the rules each year, just like formula 1! the rules don't come out untill fairly close to departure so that nobody has much time to study them and make plans, there is still plenty of time though. Just imagine if they were already out and we knew exactly which route we were taking and such, it would not be as exciting!
I'll keep posting here as I find out more, but I don't think it'll be long before the announcment is made on Avsim and FS.com (Flightsim.com) Not one to miss and if you only want to spectate you can do that too. I did when the Global Flyer was doing it's thing piloted by Steve Fossett.
Stephen

[Codge]

Here is where the talk is at the mo on the Multiplayer thread at Flightsim.com

http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard. ... 3654&page=

Have a look here and get a sense of how we feel about it!

Kind Regards Stephen (Codge)

[ardypilot]

Thanks for the big update Codge- I look forward to it.

The SAAB is a perfect plane for me, being a turboprop with the speed capabiltys of a jetliner, a nifty paintjob and full autopilot cruise and landing sytsems! Even though she's a pretty big aircraft, I can still land her fine visually so I look forward to joining in!

Oh and by the way- I have broadband now

[Codge]

That's great news, really glad to have you with us, your talents will be much utilized.
I'll just keep telling you what I know, BTW now you have those forum addies you know what I do as far as that goes.
Certain things are PM material, and at our RTW you'll need to get a password set up not only to post but to even allowed to see the forum! No rush with that though it's early days, you could always try but don't panic if there's no reply for a while.
If that SAAB is your plane of choice that's fine, start practising in all weather and at night to places you've never been. Step right outside your comfort Zone!
A bit closer to race day alot of us, including me will configure our sims for the race.
Not only the legal requirements but also only having what you need for the race. I will change the name of my sim so the PC will accept another install of FS. I will then only put on the addons necessary for the race. This is to avoid and minimize problem such as lock ups and stutters or anything else that might slow down loadup times or put extra strain on the PC. I had my PC crash on me at a rather inconvenient time last year, and so did others.
It's good to know if your sim can handle all those aplications open at the same time and sustain it for two hours or more. This really is the acid test, things may seem fine when you start but are they still fine after two hours, in other words right on final approach!
When it's your turn to fly a leg you reboot your PC to give a nice clean cache for FS to work with. I think your system will be fine, some guys had their PC's on for 13 hours or more with no problems. That was Reggie who is our main co-ordinator and he put in a solid 13 hours or more otherwise he would have done the wise thing and rebooted. He is great at what he does for the team, you'll see how fortunate we are to have him. He's a systems analyst in his real job for the company that owns KFC and all these other food chains I've never heard of, so computers are his thing, that is one person with some good tips. And there's lot's of others.
Having two monitors is a real good thing too I found so if you don't have that then see if your graphics card will accept two inputs and you can get a 17inch monitor for $40 from trade me or where ever.
Personally I'm trying to get my friend to come and set up my network in time. I told him months ago I didn't mind how long he took to get around to it as long as it was done in time for the RTW race. And I want some time to get used to it too!
I'm also getting a sort of cockpit together. (A new thread for the forum in the making) I have these plastic 44 gallon drums and some bread crates to get a shape. They are great because they are strong and light and drill and accept bolts or screws well and I suspect I can even sort of plastic weld with my soldering iron if I need to! I visualize that it will look absolutley ridiculous from the outside but once I squeeze into it, it will look and feel like the bees knees!
I've been pondering for months as to which plane to base my sim on and I have now decided it will be the P38 and the P51. Not alot of detail one way or the other, it is the cockpit size, single pilot thin fuselage set up as a base to start with. So that makes these plastic barrels ideal as a starting point.
Well I'd better go and put these words into action!

[ardypilot]

If that SAAB is your plane of choice that's fine, start practising in all weather and at night to places you've never been. Step right outside your comfort Zone!

Sure thing- do we get to know our assigned two hour route in advance? That way I could practise flying it offline by myself to know what to expect!

I have a spare 17 monitor which I will hook up to my PC closer to race day, this all sounds very exciting. If there is a limit of 16 pilots per team, is it defiantly possible to get a place on the AVsim team? I would expect there would be a huge rush for places Maybe we should create a NZFF team to compete- I recon we have enough talent to challenge the American boys lol

Last time we started with a simulated Berlin airlft in DC3's. The weather was atrocious and dark and I was in totally unfamiliar surroundings! You were either transporting coal (by air? weird) clothes or chocolate! Those that had the MAAM DC3 used that and the rest were able to use the default DC3 with a updated modernized panel!

God that sounds like fun! I really fancey recreating that

[Codge]

Please read more carefully,we want at least 16 not limited to, there is no limit. last time I would say Avsim had too many as many of their pilots complained about not getting a flight at all, which does sound kinda weird!
It'll all work out fine.
Last year I didn't even have a graphics card to begin with and half way through I got an old Gforce which was OK,it had two inputs so I was able to set up two monitors. Then I had joystick probs with the Dick Smith one so I went out and got the Saitek. All of this going on and I'm a newbie so I opted to scout and only fly Wingman. This year though I'm totally up to speed and I intend to burn alot of fuel in this race.
You will be fine because you have heaps of time to prepare. It won't be long untill the website is open for pilots to say that they're available and when and for how long, you just tick the boxes on a big chart.
Us being in NZ and people like Sandman who's in Perth are good to have because of our time zone.
Everyone will post like this Codge +13 UTC as we are 13 hours ahead of the Zulu clock. The team last year was mainly Canadians, yanks, Poms, Aussies a Kiwi (Me) and a Swiss. I remember thinking it was the Allies just like in WW2!
Codge

[FlyingKiwi]

What was your name when you flew for Flightsim.com team? I didn't fly on the team but I did keep track of the progress.

[Codge]

Codge

[FlyingKiwi]

Codge

Ah ok, I don't specifically remember but then again I wasn't paying much attention half the time...

[Codge]

Don't blame you flying kiwi, I had a heap of trouble with my PC and whole system and pretty much just ended up being support and flying wingman for others. It was OK as there is heaps you can do for the team as a non-flying member, but it's no suprise you don't recall 'codge'!
Still I had a great time and learned heaps and looked foward to the next one, which is on in 6 weeks or so. I am ready this time! believe me, my fustration last time has caused me to spend a bundle on new graphics card, new yoke pedals and throttles, headset, got broadband for the Google Earth side of things, used for checking terrain elevations mainly, and studied FS and practised hard all year!
I am a way better FS pilot than I was then and I'm ready for RTW 2007!
It'll be the freeware P38 Mustang by David Copley for me this time all the way. It is such a lovely fast predictable plane. Last time it was the Beech Starship that alot of us used and I was not used to it, and it was not modelled very well. It will probably be illegal this time and that's fine with me.
It is fun to be on teamspeak with a bunch of simpilots knowing that we are all scattered throughout the world sitting at our PC's talking and flying together!
Although I am used to this modern technology, I am still amazed by it and in awe of it all! I grew up as a kid without it, it was all science fiction then but it sure is real now. I think we simmers are a lucky bunch because we get to use alot of what it has to offer, where as most only use the net to send and recieve e-mail!
Fligh simulation is the ultimate thing to do on a PC, which is why we experience such low frame rates compared to other games.
The makers of FSX sure are foward thinkers, where the computers need to catch up to the game(I do mean Simulation, FS is no game) This is fine with me, I'm just going to wait untill I can go and buy a PC that will let me max out the sliders on FSX and have it all like the makers intended. Untill then I'm studying projectors because I think having it all in full size will be a bigger step up in realism that upgrading to FSX at this point in time. It is good to note that this years RTW will be FS9. When that changes to FSX then I'll have to change with it.
Regards Stephen (Codge)

[Codge]

Sorry Trolly I forgot to reply to your post properly! It would be great to have a NZFF team but you'll see what goes into it and be glad to be on the Flightsim.com team!
Alot of them and the organizers work so hard to bring it all together, you'll understand it's not just a bunch of simmers plodding there way around the world!
Well of course it is, but it is more than that! We want at least 16 pilots and support if we can, and I can't see NZFF putting 16 together for 5 days.
Once you spend a race in another team, such as ours, you can see what it's all about and then next time consider that. Think if you were going to challenge for the America's Cup. Alinghi was a new syndicate but they had a ton of experience that knew the ropes and how it was done.
There's so much to consider, the rules 1st, then which way?, which airport?, what's the weather doing? Can we get a tail wind if we go this way? Last year there was an altitude restriction of 8000ft for the whole of the Eastern hemisphere, which meant finding a way through the Himalayas and other places without going over!
There's checking the other teams posts for errors and possible cheating! There's finding out and advising your team on terrain considerations, approahes to take and things to avoid. It may be night, but you will have a scout fly your leg ahead in daytime (scouts don't have to fly real time real weather) If you're lucky you'll have some hours notice of when you'll fly a leg and will be able to practise it yourself, this is the preferable way to do it, and a well organized team gets to do this alot. But sometimes there will only be a few of you on the server and you can't fly double legs so you might have to alternate between only a few of you,so the pilots not flying will scout for you if possible, and you are frantically waiting for more of your team to appear on teamspeak to help out! It is very exciting in so many different ways it's hard to list them all! This is an idea of why we want 16 commited, competent pilots, at least! And me with my crap system last year, I was too much of a liability to our team with framerates of 6 or 7 on final approach to really help with the flying! But not this time!
Please at least get some good practise in the David Copley P38 Trolly, I'm not the boss, it's a team thing but planes that go slower than 300 knots just won't be competitive. You'll still be able to fly your SAAB when you want for scouting and even when you fly wingman, but if you are also comfortable in the P38 you will be more of an asset to the team than if you are only competent in sub 300kt aircraft.
A leg must be done in 11 of the default aircraft too,I got the Piper Cub last year, and crashed it too, gee I was mad, it was at that point I had another Graphics card couriered to me off trade me! Gforce4 or something but it had 2 monitor capability and I was able to use that, but by the time I got it all up and running the race was nearly over, and I had a Dick Smith joystick that was playing up too so I was really unprepared. Gee I see the thread for most embarrassing FS moment, well I had more than one, we lost to Avsim by about 6 hours I think, I was personally responsible for an hour and a half of that! If we had lost by my bit or less I don't know if I'd show my face(IP addy) there again! but since I only contributed to the loss I have sorted my issues out and am rearing to go, I can't wait to actually use my yoke and pedals for real. With ordanary multiplayer it's just you and if you crash so what? With this your whole team is counting on you and believe me you can feel the pressure on final approach, and it's foggy and at night and where's the runway and there's a hill somewhwere around here somewhere! and you've got all these voices in your headset or speakers telling you just take it easy, go around if you have to, how are you going, and they are all as nervous as you,even more, untill you finally say the magic words, down and stopped! Everyone starts breathing again, you make your post to free the baton, and the next guy then is off, saying he's rolling, airbone and climbing, gear up, heading speed and altitude, wingman does the same and so on.
If the pilot does crash he can pass the baton to the wingman who then has the chance to make a safe landing. The team will only be penalized half an hour for using the wingman instead of having to repeat the whole flight which may be up to 2 hours.You can only have one wingman, a bit like tennis, double fault and that's it!
So yes you do often know what your leg will be in advance, and being new noone will put pressure on you that you are not happy with,
This is turned into rather a long post, but it's been fun to write and brought back some memories! Who knows what it'll be this time to start the race off! last year the Berlin airlift, this year, well we all guess on the forums as to what it'll be!
I can promise you that you will love it and will put it on your schedule for as long as you are a flightsimmer!

[Codge]

After a very close race indeed we at Flightsim.com beat Avsim by a mere 49 minutes! Sim Outhouse were not far behind that. The standard of flying and planning was the best yet and the most exciting race ever.
A huge thanks to Avsim and Sim Outhoise for being such worthy competitors.
Here's a link to the Virtual Tornado Trophy

http://forums.flightsim.com/dc/dcboard. ... 4675&page=