December 2003 Newsletter
Bush Pilots Division
The Blueberry Pancake Fly-In has been
completed. Looking over the pireps, it looks like Capt. Bill Odell only
had to cook for 4 other pilots. Allan
Lowson bgam007 flew all the way from Ascension Island FHAW and logged 71.65
hours! (correction: Allan started his journey in Africa during October so he
logged more hours than I thought) John
Lawler bgad018 flew in from Hucknall, UK
EGMT taking 24.72 hours. Coleman
Green bgak011 flew in from Cambridge MD KCGE and had the shortest trip of 10.37
hours. Ron Jorgensen bgak030 flew the
route from DNMM to CYYQ using a DHC-3T Amphibian in 39.5 hours. Bill Odell bgak004 flew the route in October
with a DHC-2T while writing the adventure.
The First Annual Bush Pilots Toughman Challenge
will be the Bluegrass Feature of the Month. Capt. Bill Odell has finished
preparing the flights for this event. The Challenge is open to all from the
first day of winter until midnight Dec. 31st. – So you want to
be a Bush Pilot – come join us and see if you can survive what Capt. Bill Odell
has cooked up for this inaugural event.
The aircraft for this one is the DHC-3
Otter.
Brent Brazeel
is on leave for most of November and December, but Bill Von Sennet will keep
the roster updated in his absence.
Australian Division
Capt Rob Finn is still
busy working on the 2004 Great Aussie Air Rally! Yes, the format has been changed slightly. Instead of the winners being selected based
on speed, the winner will be the pilot who comes closest to matching a
pre-determined time. The times will not
be published, but they will be based on the cruise speed of the aircraft
type, plus allowances for extra time
used for taxi-climb-descent-taxi. The
parking positions will be established for all airports. Any aircraft may be flown as long as we can
verify its cruise speed, either in our books, or on the internet. The route has been changed, with new
destinations being added and some being removed from the route.
Feature of
the Month
The feature this
month will be the First Annual Toughman Challenge sponsored by the Bush Pilot
Division.
Southern Division
Welcome to new pilots Dean Johnson and Jack
Weimer.
Bluegrass Express Division
Trainz 2004 is about
to release Service Pak 1, which will enhance the steam dynamics and offer some
new keyboard shortcuts.
Check out the screenshots.
Air Mail and
Turbo Division
There has been a big increase in Turbo flights
lately. Allan Lawson, Bill Odell, Ron Jorgensen, Ed Burke and a few others have
been Turbo flying a lot!
I'm thinking of a Helo page if there is
enough interest in it, might want to run it by the pilots in the newsletter to see
if there is anybody who might be interested in it. Personally I love them and I
can fly them very well. Especially now that there are auto-pilots for them,
anybody can fly them! I have one already painted in BGA colors and I have a web
page started also just in case.
Not a whole lot to pass on except thanks to
all the pilots who are flying in the Turbo and Airmail Divisions and
anyone interested in Helos can contact me via email. airmaildiv@bluegrassairlines.com
Capt. Joe
Northern
Division
Welcome to new
pilots Alan Carmel, Carl Loar and Meryl Coon.
From the C.E.O.
Most of us remember “Golden Wings”. It was a modified FS98 that gave us a 1930’s-1940’s fleet of aircraft and scenery. Bill Lyon’s has just released “Classic Wings 4” for FS2004. The scenery textures are modified to give a more “classic” appearance. Also the AI traffic has been replaced by Cubs, Ryans, Lockheed 10’s, DC-3’s etc. Click the link below to read Bill’s announcement and the link to download the package. Please print out the installation instructions and follow them to the letter. There is a program included that lets you switch between the “classic” and the default FS2004. I understand you need to use the default for Multi-Player flying.
Golden Eagle
Squardron Forum - Classic Wings Message
Don’t forget to visit our forum and add your two cents.
In November, Bluegrass Pilots flew a total of
854.26 Hours
|
|
Nov 2003 |
|
Air Mail
Pilots |
9.23 |
|
Air Mail
Visitors |
35.72 |
|
Total
Air Mail Div. Flight Hours |
44.95 |
|
|
|
|
Alaska
Pilots |
298.85 |
|
Alaska
Visitors |
52.44 |
|
Total
Alaska Div Flight Hours |
351.29 |
|
|
|
|
Australian
Pilots |
191.89 |
|
Australian
Visitors |
10.13 |
|
Total
Australian Div Flight Hours |
202.02 |
|
|
|
|
Northern
Pilots |
76.61 |
|
Northern
Visitors |
177.38 |
|
Total Northern
Div Flight Hours |
253.99 |
|
|
|
|
Southern
Pilots |
277.68 |
|
Southern
Visitors |
177.13 |
|
Total
Southern Div Flight Hours |
454.81 |
|
|
|
|
Turbo
Visitors |
400.91 |
|
Total
Turbo Flight Hours |
400.91 |
There has been some discussion on the forum
regarding reporting time on the flight reports using minutes instead of
hours. So far it seems to be unanimous
to use minutes. If the vote doesn’t
change significantly, then we will switch to minutes on Jan 1st
2004. The rosters will still show your
total hours, the only change will be the entry you make on the flight report
form.
Don’t forget the “First Annual Toughman
Challenge”