MM's Mission to Mindanao

Not wanting to get caught by the storm, I'm off for Rabaul's promised better weather.
MKO-AYTK
 
Great fun flying over New Britain and New Guinea on multiplayer. Lots of profound, and not-so-profound, conversations. (Jeff pointed to a set of historical photos of a family friend who flew in the 9th Fighter Squadron 49th Fighter Group USAAF in New Guinea. First in P-38s and then P-47s. For 14 pages of great shots, this is well worth the look!)

From Rabaul (AYTK), we flew to Jacquinot Bay (JCB) to land on a gravel field "enhanced" by the True Grit PNG scenery. All through the flight, we all encountered heavy clouds and thunderstorms. The snapshot shows one of the lightning bolts (non-Lockheed division) as Josh and I await our squadron mates.

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The long leg from JCB-GSP (Gusap) was largely uneventful for most of us. However, Ron found that his aircraft was short on oxygen and decided to drop to lower – and slower – altitudes. Ron was flying the entire route "by hand" so the challenge was all the greater. Happily, the heavy weather that enshrouded New Britain cleared (mostly) by the time we reached New Guinea. The navigation over the Finisterre Range and into the Ramu valley worked out well enough so that we found the field and were able to make a normal approach. That said, the sharp descent over the mountains and into the valley was a bit of a thrill ride.

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Roman, Jeff and Josh came in quickly (one rather quickly indeed) and we waited a couple of minutes for the air-breathing hand-flying airman. When Ron arrived in his Mustang, we were worried to see white smoke or steam coming out of his cockpit. All his systems checked out, so never understood what happened. No, contrary to appearances, Ron was not flying the "Steam Edition" version of the A2A Pony.

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After our arrival at Gusap, the five of us got together for an impromptu photo shoot. Sadly, DC was flying Steam which meant that we could not connect via FSX native multiplayer. So we just enjoyed the conversational banter together.

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At Gusap, from left to right, Ron, Mike, Josh, Roman and Jeff. DC is off stage.

Finally, we set off for Hayfield (HFD) which, as SWAC pilots know, is a bit difficult to find. The unimproved dirt field stands in the middle of relatively undistinctive landscape of trees and scrubland. (Due to wind drift, I missed the field by a few miles and had to turn south to search and find the strip. DC had a similar experience. A brief moment of concern and then … no worries mate.) We all landed well-enough and continued the gab fest.
 
Heading for Biak. HFD-WABB.
It was at Biak in July-August 1944 that the 475th hosted Charles Lindbergh.
 
The flight from Hayfield to Biak was simply electrifying.

With tailwinds and altitude, the Lockheed ship made good speed. And the topside view was stimulating as there were electrical storms all around. At first, they were more of an attractive sideshow as this shot of Jayapura (then Hollandia) illustrates.

SWPAC2_WABB_Hollandia.jpg


But, of course, the convective turbulence made itself felt in a wild ride with the Lightning being tossed about like a leaf in a storm. Being thrown left and right, navigation might have been a challenge without New Guinea's northern coastline easily visible through the clouds. At times, the roller-coaster entertainment value was more than completely fulfilled.

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SWPAC pilots will recognize this as "level flight"

The descent into Biak was fast enough. But a persistent cloud bank obscured all visual references once I got below 8,000 feet and made the timing of the approach more difficult. Once the clouds cleared, I discovered that I had misjudged the descent and had to power up and drag the big twin a dozen miles onto the field. The passing storm's thunder, lighting, rain and turbulence made for a modestly interesting landing.

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Happily, no direct lightning-to-Lightning connection
 
Mike, you're doing my head in! Every time I see one of your P38 screens I shoot over to Milviz and my mouse hovers over the 'Buy me fercrisakes!' button. So far I've managed to escape unscathed. :)
 
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