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Post by bhk on Jan 1, 2012 23:48:30 GMT -5
After almost 2 years of non-creation of anything for FS2004, I have been spurred into action to create yet another historic flight.......that of Pan American Airways' Boeing B-314 "Pacific Clipper" undertaken in 1941/1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbour. I have been reading the book written by Ed Dover (1999) following his interviews with surviving members of the crew, relations of the crew, fellow PAA employees and researching archival information. This is a fascinating story and I hope that it will make an equally interesting Flight for FSim. Stay tuned! Bruce
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Post by Dan on Jan 2, 2012 3:02:15 GMT -5
This sounds very interesting, Bruce!! Any hints on the route . . . Dan …it’s great being a kid again – without the glue! ;D
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Post by bhk on Jan 2, 2012 4:52:50 GMT -5
Dan, The aircraft was on a regular flight from Hawaii to New Zealand - 2 hours out from Auckland - when they received word of of the attack. They spent some weeks in Auckland awaiting orders from PAA in New York, which they eventually received and were instructed to make their way back to NY via a westward route......"the long way home" of the title.
Firstly they flew back to Noumea to pick up PAA staff at the depot there and then returned to NY via the following locations:-
Gladstone, Australia Darwin, Australia, Surabaya, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) Trincomalee, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Karachi, India (Pakistan) Bahrain Khartoum, Sudan Leopoldville, Congo Natal, Brazil Port-of-Spain, Trinidad New York, USA.
The first part of the regular flight was from San Francisco to Auckland via San Pedro (Los Angeles), Honolulu, Canton Island, Suva (Fiji) and Noumea.
Quite an adventure and under very risky conditions between Darwin and Leopoldville.
It's very easy for us to be wise with the experience of what we know today but they actually could have returned to Hawaii quite safely along the outbound route as the Japanese never operated that far into the Pacific.......but nobody knew just exactly the limit of their thrust in Dec 1941/Jan 1942. Even flying back to Noumea was an unknown risk.
An interesting story......and I'll be including a pdf with the core details as part of the package.
Cheers! Bruce
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Post by viperpilot on Jan 2, 2012 7:54:47 GMT -5
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Post by cptroyce on Jan 2, 2012 11:53:44 GMT -5
Bruce - Read that as well, several years ago. Fascinating flight and story. Without giving anything away, didn't they break down in the Belgian Congo for a period..or was that another flight I am confusing this with? Anyway, looking forward to this and any other flights you are once again spurred on to create.
I read about a flight by a French aviator in 1930 opening up the route from Paris Bourget to Tananarive Madagascar. About a month each way; through the Sahara, Fr. Sudan, across and down through B. Congo, to South Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar.
I created, in my own way I guess, the legs for each stop and I am flying it pretty much in real tiime. Down to Elizabethville at the moment..and I'm "exhausted"..even though I haven't left my den.. :>) Regards, Royce
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Post by bhk on Jan 2, 2012 18:23:54 GMT -5
.....didn't they break down in the Belgian Congo for a period..or was that another flight I am confusing this with? ... Yes Royce, they did have a problem at Leopoldville but fortunately that was an existing PAA staging-point and depot. The other flight that you might be thinking of was that involving an Imperial Airways C-Class that crash-landed in Africa in 1939. The following is the synopsis taken from Amazon........ In March 1939, the flying boat (aka seaplane) Corsair crashed in the Belgian Congo. The accident spawned an absurd rescue operation: teams of engineers were sent out to one of the remotest corners of Africa, roads were hacked through the jungle, and a salvage operation was launched. In Corsairville, Graham Coster sets out on a journey through Africa, Florida, Alaska and the Caribbean, seeking out this piece of vanished history and interviewing those who were involved in this operation. He also comes across many who still remember their journey on a flying boat as one of the most thrilling events of their lives. Just as much a history of the flying boat as a travel narrative, Coster cleverly juxtaposes people's memories with the sad tale of the brief flowering of a golden age.With regards to that flight you are doing at the moment, perhaps yopu should package it and upload to Avsim & Flightsim. Regards, Bruce
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Post by cptroyce on Jan 2, 2012 21:22:03 GMT -5
Bruce- Yes, Corsairville, was what I was thinking of..
Royce
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Post by Dan on Jan 5, 2012 2:17:38 GMT -5
Dan, The aircraft was on a regular flight from Hawaii to New Zealand - 2 hours out from Auckland - when they received word of of the attack. They spent some weeks in Auckland awaiting orders from PAA in New York, which they eventually received and were instructed to make their way back to NY via a westward route......"the long way home" of the title. An interesting story......and I'll be including a pdf with the core details as part of the package. Cheers! Bruce Sounds great, Bruce - looking forward to it!! Dan …it’s great being a kid again – without the glue! ;D
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Post by bhk on Jan 5, 2012 14:52:34 GMT -5
I'm going to finish the book first before starting the adventure.....not that it is a big book so shouldn't be too far off. I'm up to Ceylon now.......they flew over a surfacing Japanese sub when about an hour out of Trincomalee but the British commander didn't believe their report! "The Japs wouldn't be this close to the coast....it was most likely a native fishing boat that you saw, Captain Ford"! Then an engine cylinder blew up after they took off for Karachi two days later. Good stuff! Bruce
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Post by bhk on Jan 14, 2012 1:26:19 GMT -5
Well, we've nearly completed the trip.....have arrived in Khartoum and now there are only the stops at Leopoldville, Natal and Port-of-Spain to go before arrival at La Guardia.
I'll probably pop this up on Flightsim and Avsim this weekend, I'd say.
Bruce
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Post by Dan on Jan 14, 2012 3:31:58 GMT -5
Fantastic!! ;D ;D I'm going to have to find my Clipper - where oh where is it . . . Dan …it’s great being a kid again – without the glue! ;D
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Post by cptroyce on Jan 14, 2012 11:43:26 GMT -5
Bruce, Looking forward to this one!
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Post by bhk on Jan 15, 2012 0:37:52 GMT -5
The completed package has been uploaded to both Avsim and Flightsim. I expect that it should be available within 24 hours. Look for lngwayhm.zip. Here's the "cover photo" Bruce
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Post by railrunner130 on Jan 15, 2012 11:39:19 GMT -5
I've read both TLWH and "Escape of The Pacific Clipper" by George L. Flynn.
While Escape is more colorful and interesting (not to mention riddled with poor grammer and spelling errors), it's 99% fiction.
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Post by Dan on Jan 15, 2012 14:19:14 GMT -5
Got it, Bruce! ;D
Seems it's up at both Avsim and FlightSim. I found my Clipper and will probably install the flight sometime tonight/tomorrow. It sounds great - looking forward to the places it will fly to!
Thanks!!
Dan
…it’s great being a kid again – without the glue! ;D
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