I wish good luck with the journey! Any estimates when you’ll get going? I’m looking forward to reading about it, but no rush (that kills the fun)…

+ Ari

While you could run it in autolean all the time, and should in cruise, if you are climbing etc you’ll over heat the engines even with the cowl flaps fully open.

I did contact JF about the issues (and others) I mentioned in the blog, and did receive a reply that they would look at it.

Fuel cooling is a major contributor when on the ground. There is little airflow etc.

Regarding mixture control, I can see the idea with the notches for different settings, but in practice I haven’t observed any effect (except for cutoff…) I’d definetely call it a bug. Maybe I should talk to Just Filght about this rather than ramble about it here (I already let them know about the ADF issue.)

I didn’t know the cooling effect of the fuel, nice to know!

I only hope I had time to get started and go on with a new journey. But I’m happy to read that you have plans for re-starting yours. Looking forward reading about it!

I’m begining to think that the AP bug is actually a FS bug. I’m flying the Carenado Cessna Caravan as you know, I’ve never known their aircraft to have major problems, but I did notice that the Pitch control was enabled when I just wanted heading control. But that was just for a few minutes, and I had a few bigger things to deal with at the time.
The Mixture lever is automatic compared to one on a C172. On a C172 goes from Full rich to Cut off. On a DC-3 (Catalina as well FYI ) it’s more of a semi automatic system. Max Rich for Takeoff, 1 notch back for climb (Auto Rich from memory), Auto Lean for Cruise and Off. The engine takes what it needs. I don’t fully understand it though, but it’s not a bug.

Remember that the engine uses Fuel for cooling as well as air, so if you are step climbing, you’ll need to set max rich before the climb. Do DC-3′s Step climb?

As to the fuel Consumption, yes 1700nm is average max range, but no DC-3 is the same. Some have had backup tanks (in the fuselage) and that’ll push the range out to 3000nm, but with no cargo. While the route is possible, in the RW, it would be madness. There is little fuel to take problems with navigation, weather etc into account. One slip up and you’re out of fuel over the Pacific.

The Caravan’s Range (with cargo pod) is 870nm. So that’s out. My intention is to take the northern route down the west coast of the America’s and back up the east, Iceland.. And so on.

As to a Westbound passage of the Pacific…. Remember the prevailing Winds are from west to east.. You might be stuck there for weeks waiting for zero wind.

Best of luck. Keep in touch!

I did use the stock DC-3 with FS2004 and now flying with the Just Flight one. There are some quirks with the JF one, e.g. ADF-1 frequency gauge is not that accurate. I saw you had a tip for autopilot pitch, I’ll need to test that one. Another thing I was wondering that does the mixture lever do anything in the plane? According to fuel consumption tests I made it had no effect on fuel effiency or power. Sounds like quite silly bugs.

Speaking of fuel consumption tests, I determined that the range of the DC-3 (without passengers!) should be somewhere around 1700 NM, making the southern Pacific route possible: it’s “only” 1573 NM from Isla San Felix (SCFX) by the coast of Chile to Easter Island (SCIP). Of course there’s not much room for error, and I wouldn’t try it the other way, as there are no rad nav beacons on SCFX.

What’s the range for your caravan? Any chance that would be a feasible option for you?

To be honest, you got me excited about doing a RTW again with a DC-3, so I might even try the southernly route across the Pacific (westbound), but we’ll see if I get sensible before that…

Thanks for the Comments. I’ve finally got my PC working the way I want it, My Flying club “CIX VFR Club” is doing a tour or the Bahamas in December as part of their annual Christmas celebrations, so I’ll probabally continue the tour in the next few weeks.

Unfortunatly I like to Role play a little, and as I have technical issues with the JF DC3, and this is mentioned in the narative I cannot see myself going back to it. At not least for the tour.

I’ll have to check out your sites. Did you fly the stock DC-3 in FS2004?

I’m still thinking about the southern route. Maybe stick floats on the caravan and get a ship to meet me in the middle of the Pacific? Imagine navigating to that. Yes, There is no need for GPS if ya plan the route correctly. It’s much more challenging and rewarding to to it properly.

I recently completed a fly-through across Africa, from Alexandria to Cape Town with the Hughes H-1 Racer (to read about that: http://www.piloting-across-africa.info). It was a blast! I then moved to Constellation and now I’m back to DC-3 (Just Flight version). As you can see, I’m fond of old airplanes I’ve never really got kicks out of flying the jets, as there’s not much to see and do so high up in the sky.

Now with a new plane (shame on you abandoning the DC-3 , are you going to stick with the decision of not using GPS? I really encourage to do so, as the navigational challenge of using only pilotage, dead reckoning, VOR’s and NDB’s is really something that keeps the journey interesting.

The choice of the route across the oceans is always difficult, as there aren’t that many options. I too was forced to choose the northernmost route over the Pacific, although you can easily go along the Aleutian islands (from Kamkatcha peninsula in Russia). Too bad that the southernmost route is not feasible.

All the best for the rest of the journey, keep us posted on how’s it going…