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PRB's Fortress Pacifica

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
About to start the return trip. I was inspired by, but not quite as brave as, Moses03. So, I'm brining back a Flying Fortress. Got a good deal on a slightly used F model. Had it painted by some local outfit over in Davao, Earl Jose-Delarosa Shives, for 200 pesos. I should have known better... It came back with many problems. So we went to the nearby Philippine Army base and borrowed some green OD paint. The paint's not quite dry, and there is still much to do, but time's a wasting. At least it doesn't have any dirt on it yet...
 
Dang, that was a white knuckle landing. The weather was lousy, the runway was short, and the trees were tall. Had to come in over the tree tops at ten knots over stall speed, then chop power, dive for the runway, pull back, then add power to keep from stalling. But not too much, lest we visit the trees at the other end... Besides that it was uneventful.

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Excellent Paul! - Yesterday was flying around in Milton's (& team) Harpoon and crashed there 2 times on the same approach.. Have branches in the teeth. It's rather funny how the tallest trees are always on final approach just short of the runway.
 
Thanks Roman! I think that Harpoon has a bit of a higher landing speed than the Fortress, and that helps. I could get this thing whoa'd up pretty good... :)
 
Lookin' great Paul!

Awesome aircraft choice ... adds to the mix well.

Plenty of bird for these lush landscapes and short runways ... er, uh driveways is a better description of some ... :encouragement:





Good Luck ... Enjoy yourself,
 
A couple kodaks of my flight across the Celebes Sea. Well, close to it anyway. Since we were flying right over Morotai, and this was a long leg, I used WAMR, which has an ADF station, as a waypoint. The landing at Sorong was fraught with the same perilous trees as the last landing. Funny, I didn't notice them so much when landing the Avenger!

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Made it to Biak! Fair Disclosure: Discriminating observers will note from the duenna track my turn to runway heading coincided suspiciously with the range at which the ILS localizer might have kicked in... That's because I couldn't resist trying out the ILS in my new B-17 at Biak, which is so equipped. It was cool! I'm trying to fly "by the numbers", more or less, on this trip and am thus on track for a last place finish anyway, even if I was eligible for prizes and free beer which, as a race organizer, I am not. It was the co-pilot's fault anyway. The radios are on his side. He dialed in the ILS frequency while I wasn't looking. I'll make sure he doesn't do it again on this trip.

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Made it to Hayfield! I used a couple of airports along "The Turkey's Back" to find my way, namely Vanimo (AYVN), because it has an NDB radio, and Aitape (TAD), because it's only fifty miles from the Haystack. Figured I could find that needle ok if it was only fifty miles out. I spied it about ten miles away, and while setting up for a ten knot crosswind approach to runway 17, my co-pilot noticed something shiny on the field. Turned out it was Moses03's new fancy pants B-29. They're all the rage, these days I hear. Got pressurized compartments so the flight crew can hang out in their shirt sleeves at 30,000 feet. Probably has AC in there too, and a CD player. We're going to camp out here for the night. Invite those boys in the Super Fortress over for a BBQ.

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If they have a CD player, you probably could make a sale on one of those Celine Dion Greatest Hits CDs. I hear they make great drink coasters....
 
Hey, no picking on my Celine Dion collection. You know she's my favorite singer! Getting ready to move on from the Haystack. My co-pilot found some light reading for the trip...

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Ok, co-pilot says you can borrow it when he's done. Off to Gusap (HFD-GSP)
 
Made it to Gusap. The weather was clear when we started, but the clouds slowly closed in along the way, to the point that I almost missed the airport entirely. There was a huge cloud right over the airport, on the deck, almost completely obscuring it from the air. At some point, when pretty close, and thinking "dang, we've got to be getting close..." I saw the end of the runway peeking out from under the cloud. Then it was chop power, hold the nose up, get to flap speed, dump flaps and wheels, get some air brake action going, then go for the runway. It was a most enjoyable and exciting experience, and can be viewed from the sequence of kodaks below. The last image is on final, just a mile or so out from the end of the runway!

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