Flight testing pre-tour:

 Due to other commitments, this 'leg' took place several months before the main tour kicked off.

 From Farnborough - home of the old Royal Aircraft Factory, Royal Aircraft Establishment (Fred Jones's work place) and the very first powered flight in the UK - The flight testing was carried out in FM by TT001. The trips were mostly in sun and during daylight. The testing took FM to Popham, White Waltham, Goodwood, Heathrow (night landing, surrounded by large jets - quite daunting), Oxford and Manchester. The soon to be 'Waco support' Pittnuma joined in for a hop or two. From Manchester, Scout and Simon joined for the final leg of flight testing up to Glasgow. Rudder problems were a concern and an emergency landing with no aileron and limited elevator/rudder control had to be made. This was corrected by installing FSUIPC - or so I thought, but more on that later...

 A long leg over water. Fuel was a concern when we say the weather front - head winds all the way. Puma joined us for the leg, but before we had reached the halfway point we realised that he may be short on fuel. Determined to do the leg he carried on. The conditions were reasonable, but headwinds concerned me, and even my fuel looked decidedly low. Timbo in G-AXBW said we should carry on - and after calculating wind speeds, I figured we could make it as long as the winds didn't change.

 Timbo is a driving force in this tour, and Simon just 'makes things happen'. I was going to do the whole thing off-line, but a few suggestions and inputs from Simon and Nick made me realise that an online tour would be a much better idea - and to be joined for the full tour by someone - well - that gives a bit more incentive to do a good job and keep going. If it wasn't for Nick at FS-GS, Simon, Timbo - my wing man, and the many other fliers - like Pitt and Puma, who join on for the legs - then this tour would be one lonely and potentially unfulfilled project.

 Well over our 'no return' point the winds changed and things did not look good. We were separated by a weather front and as some of the flight got ahead, Puma and I struggled and dropped behind. Continual calculations put me fuel dry 20 nautical miles short, and Puma 12 more on top of that. I headed for the clouds...found what I was looking for...turbulent air in my favour. I rose up through the clouds and shut throttle to gradually from to the base of the next one, then up again and so on. With land in sight I still seemed short on fuel, but at that point Puma called in with a dead stick.

 We had Farmer and Ciarán take up Search and Rescue (SaR) for Puma when we realised it was looking grim, so when he ditched within a few miles of the coast, he was 'picked up' straight away. We are trying to keep the whole tour 'plausible' - so if it could be done in reality, we can do it on the virtual trip. A few blind eyes are turned at some of the things we allow in the sim, for example - in real life you have peripheral vision, but in the sim the best you can do is take a very slight rearwards external view to expand what you can see - I do this for taxiing to avoid collisions if I know there are a lot of other aircraft around, but generally I stay in my virtual cockpit and lean out to taxi.

 On my approach, just after loosing Puma, I was almost on zero gas....I flew in low over the sea and lined up on finals. As I crossed the airfield threshold my engine died...and a glide onto the runway saw the end of our longest leg to date. Hats off to Puma, who carried on even though he knew his prospects of making the distance were next to nothing.

 Getting to Iceland was always a concern, especially after  the shorter Vagar flight had claimed Puma. we went low level all the way, under 200 ft for most myself. throttled right back and fighting a side wind. Calculations showed we would arrive on Iceland with almost zero fuel. The best anyone had was 1/2 a gallon remaining - sighs of relief all around!

 Flying across Iceland was going to be easy in comparison to the last two legs...until we found 40 to 50 knot headwinds, and no way to go below them due to the treacherous terrain. Extra stops had to be put in due to extreme head winds - had we been sane, we wouldn't have taken off - but we had time to catch up, and the weather ahead looked favourable...and that's where we were heading. A quick look at the map showed Siglufjord (BISI) to be the best bet for landing, as our original base was way out of fuel range from early on. The trip was blustery and hard work (I use a force feedback stick - so even in a straight line you have to work it). BISI was a welcome sight, until we found that it was a runway that had sea at one end and a shear vertical cliff at the other. Now the Tigermoth doesn't have any brakes, so this was going to be fun which ever way we approached it. Needless to say we got in, but only because the head wind was so strong - any less and we would have been wet.

 Going on from BISI was going to be tricky, as in early light we saw we were in a gully. With just Puma, Simon, Timbo and myself on this leg we were soon under way. Some chose to circle to gain altitude, but Simon and I decide to be brave and go for it...After eventually landing at Isafjordur (BIIS) Simon and I took a long hard look at our undercarriage....Some trees back at BISI were a few branches short after climbing out from that gully! BIIS was another great strip...pretty much rock wall at each end and the only approach from the sea was windy to say the least - I really need better info before choosing these fields!

 Greenland...I agree that it is land, but I will argue to my last breath that it was green when we were there! The trip from Iceland to Greenland was made possible by the use of a pre-fabricated runway base camp set up in advance by the SAS (Simon's Airfield Services). The Tigermoths could make the sea crossing, but didn't have the legs to get to a fixed airfield. What a superb job Simon had done - fuel was taken over from Iceland by Pilatus Porter flown by EFFC's Tiptop and was all ready set to receive the Tigers, unfortunately it was late, cloudy and dark when we got there...

 The approach was fine - so fine that we had Heli and Ciarán fly SaR while we all came in. Timbo warned me about a mountain, but being so dark I couldn't see the difference between land and sea....all I could see were the runway lights directly in front and below me...until they went out. I pulled back and gave the engine all she had.....I felt a slight 'fuzz' through the control stick and then the lights were there again. Due to the darkness and my curved approach, I had dropped so the mountain indeed popped up into my curved approach - the shock off feeling the very slight rumble in my stick made me realise that we need to check these strips out a bit better in the day time. The feeling I got through my stick was the same feeling you get if you use Microsoft's force  feedback 2 and try to go as low as possible over a runway without touching - or over water - just low enough to spin your wheels, but not put any weight down - All well and good when you are expecting it - but not after a 3 hour flight...

 From FILL we headed to Kulusuk (BGKK), and another hill blocked approach. Why, in all of this flat land, did they have to put airfields in the most inhospitable places?

 Kulusuk to FIL2 was yet another trip to an SAS base. Greenland has few airstrips, so the Tigers had to make do with the wonders of forward air support again. I carried out a daylight observational flight in a twin from the local flying club - now in daylight, just flying observation over FIL2 at 7500ft (with FIL2 only 100ft below) I realised that the Tigers might be a little asthmatic, and the altitude would mean higher revs and maybe landing speeds, but at least the area was ON a mountain top plateau, and not in a gully - this would be a little easier.

 The flight took off at near dusk, and within an hour the weather closed in. No problems though as we slowly made our way up to 11,000ft. The clouds below cleared and the flight was quite faultless, until my engine died. After much frantic searching I found the problem, and with the prop still spinning in my slight dive I restarted in next to no time. Slowly heading back to 11,000ft - at least - as we had peaks of over 9,600ft all around us. 5 minutes later the same thing happened again....and once more I corrected the error and restarted...but I had lost some altitude by now. Timbo came over the chat channel and asked how I was doing - 'Great...it's okay...don't worry...I'm running smooth and at 7,500ft clear.' I told him. His reply wasn't so good - I was slightly worried to find that during my descent I had gone into a mountain range with peaks, as previously noted, at 9,600ft - we had routed around these, but my problem saw me right in the middle of them - and by now it was dark...again.

 I saw stars all around me, and remembering the disappearing airfield approach from a few legs back, I decided that if I could see stars, then I wasn't seeing mountains. Armed with this warming knowledge I made my way cautiously back up to altitude - but the fun wasn't over.

TOP

 Pitt came over the comms with a new situation - he had lost all cockpit power - so no navigation or instrumentation was visible to him. The only thing to do was to talk him to the airstrip. Now this is where I allow another concession - At least one tourer has FSNav - as there were only three of us, and at that time I was set up, I went into a holding pattern. No worries, I thought, FIL2 is a flat level field - all I had to do was talk Pitt in.

 The wind picked up, clouds came in, and Pitt called in with a lack of fuel range. He had luckily gone to 13,000ft in his Waco to avoid any peaks, but at the cost of range. Whilst holding, I linked his position to my FSNav and talked him in - With the throttle back and a shallow dive, Pitt could reserve fuel for a while, at least down to 8,000ft whilst I planned his approach. By the time he was down to 8,000ft I had Pitt set up to circle around the strip and line up...and with fuel spare. He flew missed approach once - after coming out of low clouds only to find trees either side of him - went around and landed safely. Timbo followed in....only to report that the airfield was the worst yet....and that I should mind out for the side winds and turbulence - he flew missed approach then went in safely.

 I flew in...lined up...over shot at way over 80 knots and at 45 degrees to the strip....Timbo was being nice about this strip - it was far worse than he had said!

 Second time in and I landed with an approach of over 45 degrees to the strip...and off to one side ready to kick the rudder around and drift/touch down in the centre. My practice paid off as I pretty much pancaked to a dead stop on the runway threshold...quickly opening my throttle to avoid being blown away...and so ended another eventful trip.

 FIL2 to Sisimut (BGSS) was quite uneventful in comparison to the previous flights. We were joined by up to 9 other fliers in places - but I only record those that take off and fly, or fly and land with us - and only the 'full leggers' get the coveted TTXXX number! Wacos and Tigers flew some great formations on this leg - photos will be published!

 Five aircraft, one ocean, good weather......

 But not for long. We kept the five aircraft but lost the weather. When fog is this think it may as well be referred to as thin murky water...we couldn't see a thing. Only when we were directly above could we see down through the muck and see the lights....then it was a case of flying away, turning 180, and come in low enough to land as soon as we saw the runway at CYVM...It came in to site just as you needed to be on it already....or, once more you would roll off of the end into the sea. Well, we all made it down...and were surprised to see that the only other thing there was a light house - nothing else! What have I said about choosing better strips!

 At the end of that trip, the understated Timbo calls over the comms......'So...we crossed the Atlantic.' The man has a way with words...and those words were the best ones I've heard on this trip.....No more feet wet for hours on end until Alaska and the Russian peninsula.....

 I like the tricky flights, but now and then it's good to have a straight forward 'look at the scenery' flight, and leaving CYVM the skies ahead looked like they were going to offer such a flight. Light skies of blue with picturesque white clouds, rippling coastal waters that looked as ice cold as they would surely be - and wondrous mountains to fly between - Yes, this flight would be the 'sit back and enjoy the scenery' that we hadn't yet had.

 Pitt had problems with his PC control stick, Timbo had problems with his PC in general...I was waiting...happy and content with my PC...and G-ANFM was purring ready to go...

 I took off in FM, my controls lock, but free up - I cast my mind back to previous control problems I have had since using Flight Simulator 2004. I have been flying, only to loose movement in my aileron and elevator controls. Looking at the actual control surfaces it is possible to see slight movement, but no good for flying. Since fitting FSUIPC and tuning it up over several painstaking hours (it is very simple really...now I know what I know!), the problem had not returned until this flight. A few hours into the flight and the controls lock again - and it's not just the control stick...the keyboard and my spare game controller also fail to operate my ailerons and elevators...so I'm down to throttle and rudder...in mountains.

TOP

 I tried my best to aim towards CYXP, but the turbulence is picking up and rudder/throttle operation is being a pig. I see a plateau up ahead - with a peak behind it - Simon calls out that CYXP is suffering cross winds...so I have to make a choice...try for CYXP or try to land. If I mess up the landing, with no elevator control I will not clear the following peak, and with no ailerons there is little chance of getting around it. CYXP was a no hoper, so I chose to sit FM onto the Plateau - she was getting harder to keep straight as it was.

 A smooth mountain touch down, under go the chocks and I'm joined by Timbo, Pitt and Simon - this is a team tour, and these guys fly it that way - good mates the lot of them. We decide to 'cup of tea it' whilst I try to resolve the problem. I saved my position and closed the simulator to try a restart. Once restarted I loaded the saved position only to find the problem was still there.

 A total system shut down and restart didn't solve the problem either. Removing FSUIPC didn't fix it, and neither did removing the fs9.cfg file (which holds all the settings - if that had messed up, then it was possible that my settings may have become corrupted). Keyboard, Stick and Game Pad failed to operate my control surfaces - I tried the connectors in all the ports (even though they all worked outside of the actual flight).

 We set up an MSN Messenger chat to talk the problem over, where we were joined (read as - I dragged in) Nick of FS-GS and the video ace Chaders. Not a hope in hell - we tried it all, so it looked like a re-install was going to have to take place before the flight could go on - even though this problem had occurred off and on in various other fs9 installations.

 Pittnuma. Pitt is Tiger Support in his Bill Lyon's Waco, so it will come as no surprise that as support, he managed to fix the problem. I hang my head in shame at the solution, but first my excuse...I don't use auto pilot in the tour, and didn't even realise that there was a default auto pilot, so I didn't know to check if I had inadvertently activated the auto pilot that I didn't know existed. No forum, no trouble shooter, no expert could solve the problem - but Pitt did. No manual will tell you that it IS a problem, because what had happened is an actual function in the simulator. Pitt just came out with - after a good hour of hard and fast brain storming and confusion -

"Have you tried pressing 'Z'....?"

 'Z' turns on the fs9 autopilot, which is set to a default 'wing and flight leveller' setting. That is to say, if it is activated, the aircraft will fly straight and level on a pre-mapped route - such as the FSNav tour map we are using. So yes, as many simmers will have done, and will continue to do, I had hit a key during a chat text without first opening the chat window. I've done it before - typed a message, hit return and gone to type more - but forgetting to click the 'open chat' again. This has caused various mid-flight slews for many fliers when hitting 'Y' outside of chat (which is why I reconfigured so the SLEW is now called up using 'CTRL Y'). Several times I have turned off lights, put my smoke on, dropped my undercarriage....all easily fixable, because they are functions I was aware of!

 Back on the darkening plateau the tour fliers start their engines - FM leaps into the air and flies like the devil - and has one happy, but rather embarrassed pilot (who has decided to tell his tale, in case others have been suffering similar 'failures'). CYXP comes into sight and I take FM around in a series of rolls, loops and inverted flypasts before lining up to land....and over shooting with zero throttle setting....So around I go and realise my throttle is stuck at 70%.....During the resetting of the stick and such like I had upset the throttle settings!

 I bought FM around, lined up and shut down for a dead stick landing. Once on the ground I re-mapped my controls back to how I prefer them (operating as they should!).

TOP

 Nick joined us for the remainder of the leg from CYXP to CYFB, but as we had all taken on fuel, I called that this was to be defined as a new leg, and so Nick became TT012 due to the letter 'Z'. Nick deserved his tail number on the landing alone, as seeing the runway was not really an option until we were on it!.

 Tour luck was with us again - on hearing the happy shouts of 'Land Ho!' the Weather Gods decided to wake up, get a glass of water, turn the lights off and go back to bed. That left us with fog - no, not fog, more like 'nothing'. I though my graphics had failed as there was nothing at all...no sky, no ground, no stars...you get the picture - 'nothing'.  We all crept along....lower and lower....trying to spot the ground, and the best I saw in the last 45 minutes of the flight was a ghostly tree....about 100 feet below me. I gained altitude, headed to sea and came around low in to the coast. Suddenly the largest mass of tarmac we have yet had the pleasure to land on appears before me - it was so foggy and dark we had to be almost on the strip before it became visible. I couldn't see anyone else around, so I put FM down....only to hear Timbo shoot by! I had cut in on his approach - heck - I didn't even realise I was on an approach until the runway appeared under my wheels! (Sorry Wingman chum buddy mate!).

 Well, the next few legs proved to be eye openers. From CYFB to CYHA the going was smooth and clear, with some great scenery and some awesome clouds. Take-off was fun and games when Timbo went right over my head from behind and almost left tyre marks on my top wing - I'd get him back later. During the flight FM wouldn't trim out properly - the lasting ripples of trying to do everything apart from pressing 'z' on the early problem. Two new chaps joined the tour, and the flight went very well indeed - ending with a low level fly past by BW and FM at CYHA.

 CYHA to CYLU was a different matter. 10 fliers at one point, although 6 completed. Reasonable weather...until those damned Weather Gods decided to play up again - but not too badly. Chaders got his TT number, and a great shot of him has made it's way from Pitt into the gallery. This leg followed directly on from the previous leg - so a 19:00hrs start went through to 01:20hrs - Good landings by all at even this late hour after such a long flight only goes to show how talented some of these guys are - and that non of us get out as much as we should!

 Disaster strikes CYLU to CYCA in the form of PC problems all round. The last few legs were pretty trouble free - but now we had to pay the price. Timbo had graphics issues so dropped out after 30 minutes, so we waited - even Hawk, a Tiger Cub on his first leg waited - and waited. We eventually hopped into the Pilatus Porters and put them through some paces before restarting the leg from scratch with Timbo. One main rule is that as Timbo and I will be doing the whole tour, then no leg can be flown without both Timbo and myself flying it. This was a very hard choice tonight though, as after Timbo came back online and we took of for CYDP, Pitt started to have problems with connection to the server. I also suffered, and had to restart fs9 and rejoin direct at the point I had left at (same fuel remaining etc). After several 'kick-outs' by the server, it got too much for Pitt, and he said 'one more try....', which unfortunately occurred. So we lost Pitt, but carried on. He's been superb support, and really wants to do the trip, but the tour is Two Tigers - and anyone can join us - but a leg only restarts if the Two Tigers can't complete it (It would take forever otherwise). Like I said, not a nice decision, but one I had to make.

TOP

 Landing was relatively easy for once - although I managed to pay Timbo back for his earlier antics. As he sped down the runway whilst landing, I had positioned myself and flown straight down and head on at him from the other end approach....inches above HIS top wing and directly over him -  now HE needs a repaint!

 CYDP to CYCA was a quiet trip. Long distance so a harsh leaning off of mixture was required. Timbo suffered as his engine gave up 30 miles out. Luckily there was a good stretch of open land, so he put down and sorted out the problem. On to CYCA and landing just as dusk turned to night. Taxiing around at night is not fun - and I almost ended up in the sea. I hit a slope and needed to swing around quick and open the throttle up as I rolled towards the gentle splashing of water on the shore! Other than this, it was a peaceful flight.

 CYCA to CYD3 was a dark morning take off into cloud - A full 263.2nm planned in one leg - the longest yet. As we had landed almost zero fuel on a 253nm leg it was always going to be a stretch that would test our balance of mixture settings/speed/altitudes. I write this as we fly - the sun is just rising, in-fact to quote Timbo - 'I see the sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!' The landing, at least, will be in daylight.

 The next few legs have been pretty quiet, with no major problems. A few new fully fledged fliers and some new cubs have joined the ranks - and we've started to use TeamSpeak for vocal communications.

 Trying to get from Sydney to Liverpool turned into trouble, as the server we were flying on failed. We managed to limp to Halifax International and end the leg. Lessons learnt here include the need for the Tigers to be able to host our own sessions if the need arises - and to be able to deal with this event and cross over smoothly. I must admit, for the troubles we encountered on the Sydney/Liverpool trip, the fliers on the leg stayed as a team and worked though the issues very well. There was no panic and everything ran smoothly, even through the adversity of a server failure - It may only be a 'game', but we kept it together. Well done guys.

 The last full Canada leg (South bound) took place after the short hop to finalise the leg that was disrupted by main server problems. It was a pleasant trip, good weather and such. My own PC was used as a server (after trying Timbo's - but he disconnected and the server automatically handed over to me). Pitt had trouble getting on the main server, but found connecting to Timbo's or my server trouble problem free.

 Flying to Maine over the sea we all kept low and fast - a good 80 knots! A little formation flying and some banter over TeamSpeak makes a water leg go so much quicker. I'll be the first to admit that the tour isn't always really exciting, but it's a balance. We seem to get the odd 'slow' moment, but plenty of entertainment the rest of the time which out weighs the 'less eventful' moments.