The Further Misadventures of Bullethead and CuzDawg

OrigBullethead · January 9, 2021, 3:58am

Rather than bore everybody with us posting new threads every week or so, we figured we’d just have our own thread to make it easier for normal folks to ignore us. Just mash that ignore button below and lets get into this…

Me and @CuzDawg3 got drunk again and came up with some crazy ideas. To start with, we decided to replicate this video following some river in Croatia.

Unfortunately, the MSFS rivers are slovenly draped over the hillsides instead of the water being level.

And the twitchy roll response of the Extra in MSFS provided for some pucker factor

But we made it to the bridge at the end of the video. Once under was OK but looping over and back under somehow caused us to crash.

Next up was a tour of the Dardanelles and the Çanakkale area, starting from the island of Lesbos. Natives of that island are known as Lesbians, whether man or woman. So go figure. Anyway, it was a totally MVFR flight as is our traditon, at least to start with.

Passing Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula, scene of bitter fighting, we continued SE to the ruins of ancient Troy aka Ilium. However, instead off an archaeologically important UNESCO World Heritage Site, we found a modern town thanks to MSFS’s autogen AI

Then we flew up the Dardanelles to the Narrrows at Çanakkale.

At Çanakkale, we found none of the the expected landmarks . No memorial to fallen of the Gallipoli campaign, no full-scale replica of the minelayer Nusret which played the most decisive roll in the whole mess and thus world history, etc. But in this place, you can make an intercontinental trip of 2 minutes while remaining in the same country. The east side of the Dardanelles is Asia, the western shore is Europe, and they’re within spitting distance at the Narrows while both sides are within the boundaries of Turkey.

Then we went to Istanbul and found this weird building, probably really a relic part of the ancient fortifications that saved Western Civilization until the mid 1400s when it really didn’t matter anymore. Still, a zig-zag block of flats, 1-room wide, seems a bit of a stretch even for MSFS’s autogen

Hagia Sofia wasn’t very impressive, either. Sure, it’s a hand-made building but it looks mostly like a bastardized kludge of hand-made and autogen. And that nobody has tended the garden in a long time.

The Blue Mosque down the street seemed way better executed but again, alas, the surrounding garden was a mess.

Same applies to this hand-made building, whatever it once was. Nifty 3D model let down by ZERO surrounding landscaping.

There’s also this building that looks (if you weren’t inverted) like the Euro currency symbol. But again, it’s let down by the lack of gardeners.

Then it was off to PNG to fly desperately needed supplies from Port Moresbu (AYPY) to this 1800’ grass strip known as KIQ in the far side of the Owen-Stanleys. Naturally we flew Super King Air 350i’s

Things weren’t so bad to start with.

Yes, my flaps are down at cruise because I was drunk.

And like 2021 already, things got worse as we went along…

Still, it all worked OK in the end.

@CuzDawg3 will likely respond but he was using VR so his pics are cross-eyed like this. I admit to being drunk but I’m not yet this cross-eyed.

CuzDawg3 · January 20, 2021, 8:06pm

Just a few more to add since there a was an impromptu flight a few nights ago. . .
Bullethead and I couldn’t resist getting a set of Wackos to enjoy the 1930’s style brought up to 80’s-90’s technology. (I read that it’s “WAH-co” as opposed to “WAY-co” . . .like in Texas.) Man, these are some purdy airplanes!

BH has some good air to air shots. . .but for the most part I was under the hood. So here’s my boggly-eyed shots of the formation flight, and parked in front of BH’s house of work:

And since we were parked at that point, I could cah-tarl tab and get one last parked shot:

According to BH, there is NO grass on the apron, despite what Miss Fiss says.

I’ll figure out how to take screenies that aren’t in boggle eye view at some point. (Which is why the screens have slowed WAY down. . .because honestly, who wants to see that?)

OrigBullethead · January 21, 2021, 5:01am

Yup, it was great to slip in a “Quickie” (that’s a biplane of a sort, ain’t it?) outside our semi-regularly scheduled outings

And yeah, the pronunciation is strange to me, too. All my life until I actually met a guy who owned one, I thought the company name was “Waco”, named after the Texas city where I had the misfortune to reside for a half-dozen years or so. But nope, it’s actually an acronym “WACO” meaning “Weird Airplane COmpany” or some such and based in some benighted yankee place, I think Ohio, where they obviously don’t know phonics.

Anyway, my photography on this jaunt was perhaps worse than @CuzDawg3’s goggle-vision because I was so in the moment I didn’t realize I’d somehow turned on the “Objectives” window until looking at the pics later. So apologies for that. Also, I was WELL into my cups by the time we decided to do this so my reactions weren’t up to speed.

For example, here’s a pic intending to show CuzDawg3’s takeoff from 58LA. Only the frame of my windshield pretty much blocks it. Still, you can see that this airport is just a narrow gash in the surrounding jungle so, given the plane’s somewhat spirited take-off traits, be sure to lock the tailwheel and hold it on the ground until you’re in the air. I did it first then circled around for my pard’.

Soon we were formated and flying south over the wilds of East Feliciana Parish in the vicinity of Ethel.

Of course, you can’t have a 300hp biplane without doing some mild-ish aerobatics. We both did barrels rolls around each other. Here’s Cuzdawg3 doing it. And the blur in the last pic is courtesy of TrackIR as I snapped my head around and took the pic while my head was still moving. I thought that was pretty cool.

Not too long afterwards (it was a short trip and the WACO is about 20% faster than a C172), we passed over the boomtown of Zachary, named for Mexican War general and later president Zachary Taylor, who was a native off these parts.

And we managed to land safely at KBTR and park in front of Hangar 7 on the south ramp, in spots normally reserved for bizjets. Yup, this is my place of employment and I must say, the buildings are a bit off but close enough for autogen work, I guess. Except the tower is totally wrong. We parked in the bizjet spots because I was flying instead of marshalling for once, so ignored the marshalling of my coworkers just to prank them

But yeah, the ramp shouldn’t be grass. And even though this is in the heart of Lousy Anna’s humid armpit, there isn’t even that much mold or mildew on this ramp although naturally, given the place, you’d expect at least a little. But no fungi grow on a busy ramp regularly scoured by jet exhaust

I sincerely hope you do because you always take way better pics than me.

And now a very quick review of the Carenado WACO…

Looks and sounds amazing.
Once in the air, trims out well enough to use time warp without an autopilot.
Very fun to fly.
Ground handling is fine except for the interval of 30-40 knots, accelerating or decelerating. Then things get squirrelly. Best practice is to lock the tailwheel and keep it on the ground through that regime. Otherwise, not a big problem.

OrigBullethead · February 20, 2021, 2:48am

Last week, @Cuzdawg3 dragged me out into wastes of eastern Siberia to look at this big hole in the ground. Which is conveniently right next to an airport, UERR I think.

We did get down below the lip but as we were flying TBMs, of course we didn’t try to land. Now, had we been flying X-Cubs with the SUPERSTOL performance they now have after the latest patch and its borking of flaps, you bet we’d have landed in there. AND taken off ;). Enjoy the broken X-Cub while you can, folks

Then off we went across the frozen wastes to a grass strip called UENS I think. Landing was not that hard but would have been better if the reverse thrust threw up clouds of snow…

This week, we went to SE Wyoming to check out potential homestead locations. Cuzdawg3 had various technical issues to start with while I experimented with the very FUN way the latest patch broke the X-Cub, doing touch-and-goes on the roof of this building at speeds below where the ASI works.

This is me realizing that my Bing ground textures setting somehow had been off. This is those textures popping in as squares at random across my view. The dark squares are the Bing stuff, the lighter are the non-Bing.

This place is a buffalo ranch, slaughterhouse, and restaurant serving bison instead of beef. Yummy!

One of those horrible freeway exists where not only are their roundabouts on both ends, but you drive on the left side over the bridge between. This is between the buffalo ranch and Cheyenne on I-25. Apparently the locals can’t figure it out so get stuck in the roundabouts

The Cheyenne South High School

Eventually we landed at a grass field named Sloan which has NO facilities at all and is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Might be one of those planes-in-the-garage things, or it might just be a trap

Anyway, some fun flying. Thanks Cuzdawg3!

CuzDawg3 · February 20, 2021, 5:45am

Always a blast, @OrigBullethead !

If we can manage to snag 37 acres, I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting a STOL capable vehicle to land and park in my garage! But. . .if MSFS is accurate with the rolling hills, I might be SOL.

Me trying to convince bullethead that VR is the the wave of the future!. . .seriously! You can STICK YOUR HEAD OUT THE WINDOW while looking at your struts!

Mmmmm bison ribs FTW!

Off of I-25, just across the CO-WY border. Go give 'em some business, if you want the most amazing meat you’ll ever have in your ENTIRE LIFE!

VR off. . .and at that little grass strip that didn’t have a windsock. Not sure it wasn’t private no less.

I think some dude came running out with a shotgun and was ready to force us to leave. . .until I offered to grill up a 5 lb bison rib-eye. Then we were all good.

wcoesel · February 20, 2021, 8:28am

seems you are having fun yay.

OrigBullethead · March 6, 2021, 5:07pm

So last week, for whatever reason, me and @CuzDawg3 went to Madagascar. I can’t remember why, other than it was raining on the daylight side of the world. Neither of us had ever been there and were pleasantly surprised by the interesting scenery. Of course, we were flying big planes from small, mud bush strips because alcohol was involved

Then this week, we did a bunch of crazy landing challenges. First, we were on some tiny island NE of Borneo where there’s a grass strip surrounded by jungle and mountains, and flew Blériots around the pattern. Which was difficult due to the plane’s marginal climb rate. There was also a pretty good crosswind, which you really don’t want in this plane The Gnome version could handle it OK but the Anzani RIP version was a nightmare.

Then we went up to Washington state and flew the Aerolite 103 along some frozen river valley in the late evening. Yup, you CAN actually land on frozen rivers now. However, the Aerolite 103 has an LOD issue where the livery reverts to the default at any distance away. @CuzDawg3 was actually flying the camo version, not the red/orange one, but you could only tell close up.

As it got dark, however, everything started getting outlined with white. The mountains, the trees, even our own planes. We figured this was St. Elmo’s Fire

By the time we got to our destination, it was fully dark. This bush field is out in the boonies so there were no lights on the ground and, of course, the Aerolite has no lghts. However, we found it possible to use our flashlights as landing lights because the plane can fly so slowly

Then we noticed a starred POI in Thailand called “Wat Pho”. We thought it was a temple devoted to noodles and also that the name begged us to land next to it. Turns out it’s in the middle of Bangkok so required us to land on the streets. Many of the streets around it are blocked by inappropriate buildings but we finally managed to land a block away on the E-W street to the NW of the place, then taxi up to it. And no noodles . This would have been easier before the recent hotfix, because before the X-Cub could land on a dime Oh, and the takeoff airfield was only about 300’ long

Then we went up to Nepal and tried landing at Lukla. It was overrun with other drunks doing stupid plane tricks, too. CuzDawg managed to time it right and got in between them but every time I was just reaching the threshold, I got a 747 or Airbus in the face, which, broke my concentration.

Finally, we flew the WACO to Bali, Indonesia. This was a rather uneventful but pleasant trip and we noted some water masking. The WACO has recently been updated so is easier to control during takeoff, but doesn’t trim out as well as she used to. Also, the plane nosed over on me for no reason when I landed. Alcohol might have been a factor

All in all, another great evening! See ya next time, @CuzDawg3 !!

OrigBullethead · March 18, 2021, 3:50am

So last week, me and @CuzDawg3 went to Greenland, only neither of us have had the spare time latelyk to report it. We flew from the very important trans-Atlantic airport of BGBW Narsarsuaq which, amazingly, is NOT in MSFS, so we had to get the homemade version by thedude at flightsim.to. Here’s the link:

It looked pretty good and was appropriately covered in ice. We also liked the new stock retro Caravan skins.

Shortly after take-off, we spotted a cruise ship trapped in the sea ice…

… so of course we had to further exploit the new ability to land on ice to see the thing close-up. Also, maybe give some folks a lift or make a beer run for them.

Turns out this cruise ship had been quarantined here just after the last thaw nearly a year ago, and then had been forgotten as the rest of the world became immersed in its own problems and there’s like nobody living in the area. So the few survivors aboard had gone all Lord of the Flies crazy cannibal Covid mutant. Me and Cuzdawg3 barely escaped with our lives and called in an airstrike. “Nuke the site from orbit–it’s the only way to be sure.”

There are actually a few tiny hamlets about the Narsarsuaq airport, scattered for many miles up different fjords. The airport mod includes about 6 of them and lists their populations, most of which are in the low 2 or even single digits. Perhaps this is due to the marauding Covid mutants from the cruise ship? I think the place pictured below has a population of 8.

And then, we found some low ice fog to fly through, which was not really a problem for the Caravan’s anti-ice system.

Unfortuantely, Mrs. Cuzdawg3 made demands upon Mr. Cuzdawg3 at this point, so we had to call it quits. Still, a fun evening! Thanks, bro!

TEShaw · May 6, 2021, 12:54pm

Yes, it is disappointing that Troy is not better represented here.

In Bing maps one can see a bright polygonal pavilion that (I guess) covers a dig site.

If you fly west from the autogen town, along that straight road, you’ll arrive at the archeological site which shows that pavilion [flat] along with some squiggles one can imagine as ruins.

Why was I there? I’m doing flights in the path of Ulysses.

What plane was I flying? Ikon, of course!

OrigBullethead · May 6, 2021, 11:51pm

Wow! Using that plane will take almost as long as it did the ancient hero Does it even have the range for some of the longer legs?

Anyway, I hope you don’t crash as many times as the hero

OrigBullethead · June 26, 2021, 3:54pm

After quite a few real life issues, me and @CuzDawg3 finally were able to fly together again. By this point, we’d both bought the PMDG DC-6 so decided to give that a try. And where else by from Miami, emulating our heroes of “Corrosion Corner”. For a good read on that time and place, consider this book, although it could have used an editing/proofreading pass or 3.

Anyway, it was good to see a random pilot with the same ideas there at KMIA. We really rattled the terminal windows with the glorious sounds of big radials

But before we could take off, we started having all sorts of problems, especially with engines quitting for no reason. And then we’d CTD. At first we thought this was just normal for “Corrosion Corner”, but ultimately we discovered there was an update for the plane. Getting that solved the problems.

So eventually we were on our way down to Cuba with maximum loads of vintage auto parts. Unfortunately, @CuzDawg3 hadn’t RTFMd so had trouble getting the thing pointed the right way and I had to leave him behind.

After a pleasant flight, I arrived safely at an undisclosed location. As I did so, I lost multiplayer connectivity so the ramp was largely deserted. Oh well, fewer witnesses. No telling what they put on the plane for the return trip.

As always it was great fun flying with @CuzDawg3. It’s also fun flying the DC-6, so I recommend getting that mod. It looks, sounds, and flies great, and you don’t have any of that wonky glass stuff the jet airliners are always complaining about