Flight Simulation:Floundering around with Ron Blehm

Background: Back in 2003 I started a virtual flying club - it always seemed to me that the title "President and Founder was too pretentious for my skill level, so I made a dyslexic play on the words and became known as the "Cub Flounder." In this new column I host a feature flight for you all to try on your own time. Many of these flights have been featured in our "Flight of the Month Club" but this time is an exception. See, one just never knows what we'll come across while we are "Floundering Around." This time I have a short feature for you but depending on what you fly, it may take some time to get done. I'd encourage you to use any add-ons FlightSim.Com has to offer but I didn't find much beyond the default - and considering where we're flying this time, that should be all you need. I'd be happy to hear back of your experiences.

Feature: For the first time, FS2004 includes some facilities in Antarctica - 'course it also includes some classic old birds to fly and that is exactly what we are doing this time around.

I'm inviting you to take the Ford Trimotor or DC-3 or Vickers Vimy (or anything you feel is appropriate for the occasion) on a little exploration of this, the world's largest continent.

Routing: For my little introduction to the area, I calculated a flight from Palmer Station (NZ08) to Petrel (NZ0A). The total distance is less than 400 miles even with the detours noted. I set out at dawn (photo, right) and headed about 027° for Isla Rey Jorge (SCRM) which has a VOR at 113.30 and an NDB at 360 kHz. For my navigation, I used a National Geographic Map and flew under the cloud layers for the 200 or so miles. Man, I thought for sure I was getting lost but I just kept watching the clock and trusting my heading (photo, left). At IRJ I turned to 141° and headed for SAWB where the VOR (MBI) is on 117.90 and the NDB is 330 kHz. This leg is just under 140 miles and took me just over an hour in the TriMotor. After nearly four hours on the sim I was ready for a break.

Once I finally departed again, I turned back to 002° and headed for Petrel where there is only an NDB on 330 kHz. This leg is less then 50 miles but there is only a trailer at the landing site so there is not much there to catch your eye (photo above, left). I flew right to the trailer/NDB but then I had to make four passes (photo above, right) in order to try and see the runway and get lined up - it really shouldn't have mattered because everything is just a giant block of ice/snow, but I wanted to do it right so four passes it took (photos below)! (NZ08 > IRJ > MBI > NZ0A)