Sherman Kaplan
Posts posted by Sherman Kaplan
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DC3 AIRWAYS ANNOUNCES ITS 2021 WORLD RALLY
The DCA World Rally begins on Saturday October 16, 2021. It is open to all flight sim enthusiasts. DC3 Airways membership is NOT a requirement.
Unfortunately, because MSFS2020 does not yet have a flyable DC3 or C-47 aircraft in its hangar, sim pilots will not be able to use that platform. However, flight descriptions and start up files are included for the other major sims including P3D, X-Plane and FSX.
The schedule consists of ten flights from around the world, to be flown in a DC3/C-47. The rally will be spread over thirty days giving pilots a three day time frame in which to complete each flight and file their pirep. More details on when each flight may be flown are given in the World Rally Rules section, which can be found at https://dc3airways.net/wr. The vast majority of navigation is via NDB and VOR navaids, but there is also a considerable amount of navigation by dead reckoning. The goal is to have fun flying a DC3/C-47.
But to add more challenge, each flight has a calculated flight time that can be reached using the correct average climb, cruise, descent and approach speed. Some flights are more challenging by the inclusion of specific weather settings.
Adverse winds and weather are an ever present danger of this form of navigation, but help is at hand thanks to the venerable E6-B calculator. Professional pilots are well aware of this wonderful tool and how best to use it. If you don't already possess an E6-B, a freeware electronic version is available on the internet and DCA is providing a link to this valuable utility. If you are serious about navigation, take time to learn how to use this tool and your navigational accuracy will be extremely rewarding.
All flight descriptions are prepared in both MS Word and PDF format. Useful jpg images will also be provided to assist pilots with their pre-flight planning. Pilots may of course use the flight descriptions as a guide to create your own flight plan, if desired. If you do not have MS Word, Libre Office Open Source software is an excellent free substitute.
The DCA website Welcome Page presents self-explanatory buttons which will link you to the various pages of the World Rally 2021 web site. The first area you are advised to visit is the Rules page. If you are willing to abide by the few simple rules and wish to join us for the World Rally your next action is to register and enjoy!
If after the rally you feel that you have enjoyed yourself, learned something new, or refreshed a few long forgotten skills, our aim will have amply been achieved. And, if you like the experience, please feel free to sign on as a pilot for DC3 Airways at dc3airways.net.
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Thanks Joe, we have gotten some outside interest from simmers and this looks as if it will be a successful event. As always, we at DCA appreciate your support...and, while I have your attention, I will send a personal invitation for you to take part...
Best wishes and hope you are staying safe.
Sherm
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DC3 AIRWAYS PLANS HISTORIC WORLD WAR TWO REENACTMENT OF OPERATION VARSITY
CREATED AND DIRECTED BY
GLEN BROOME, VP OPERATIONS
www.dc3airways.net
DC3 Airways will be re-enacting the airborne component of the Rhine river assault of March 1945, the last natural barrier between the western allies and Germany.
The event will be staged over two sessions, Saturday 20th and Tuesday 23rd March, both at 19:00z.
All flight simulation pilots are invited to participate. There are packages with full effect files, flight plans, instructions and more for the 4 major platforms. XPlane, FSX/P3Dv3, P3dv4.5 and P3Dv5.1. Unfortunately MSFS 2020 is not included because there are no C47 aircraft available for that sim.
Please note that membership in DCA is NOT REQUIRED.
The documentation includes a brief history of Operation Varsity plus links to You Tube videos and historic websites. These will give all fliers a better understanding of what Varsity was about and what transpired on 24th March 1945.
DC3 AIRWAYS regularly flies four Multi Player events each week. We have experienced personnel to help get acquainted with procedures including details assistance on installing the various effect files to achieve an accurate simulated flight environment.
Details of the servers we will be using to fly on and for communications are included within the documentation.
Come and join us with the Multiplayer group - come and FLY HISTORY!
Glen Broome
DCA996
VP Flight OperationsSherman Kaplan
Director Public Relations
www.dc3airways.net
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While there has not been much information about what improvements this patch provides, one thing has become clear to me. If you like to use Little Nav Map with MSFS, you may have noticed the two together caused stuttering, if not a full slide show effect, making the sim unusable.
Now, the patch seems to have installed a new simconnect which makes LNM and MSFS work together.
Sherm
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Hi all,
Thanks for your interest in the DCA rally. Here is the latest information
The flight-plans and flight descriptions will be made available at September 26th. You can start your flights then and file PIREPS, but the results will be posted after the flight period is closed (for the first flight after October the 8th). There is more information posted now at the website to give you a feel of what to expect.
Sherm
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Thanks, joe...
Glen Broome pointed out that I left out some key links for historical information about Market Gardens. So, for everyone's dining and dancing pleasure :-)
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_arnhem.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F437QdxfHE&t=1500s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EejtTsIeLHU&feature=youtu.be
Sherm
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Greetings Fellow Pilots
As Public Relations Manager for DC3 Airways (www.dc3airways.net) I am pleased to invite your participation in the upcoming recreation of the World War II Allied Mission over Europe, Operation Market Gardens. Pilots need not be a DCA member to participate, although your joining our pilot roster is always welcome and encouraged. We hope to see you in our Virtual Skies.
Sherman Kaplan (shermank)
Operation Market Garden 2020
1st flight - Saturday Feb 1st 2020 19:00z
2nd flight - Saturday Feb 29th 2020 19:00z
A Brief History
Operation Market Garden, conducted 17-25 September 1944, was an Allied military operation that was fought in the Netherlands and Germany towards the end of World War 2. Led by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, it was generally considered a failed operation, although the "Market" phase was the largest airborne operation conducted up to that point in the war. There is a vast amount of information regarding the operation available, including a study by LTC Jennifer B. Fox dated 8 April 1994 of the operation conducted as a thesis for her course work as student at the Air War College, Department of the Air Force.
DC-3 Airways Recreation
This will be perhaps the 4th Market Garden event, the first having been staged with 2 other organisations back in October 2002 with 31 participants covering all 3 airborne divisions in their drop zones near Arnhem, Nijmegen and Eindhoven.
September 2019 saw the 75th anniversary of the operation and many events were held across the Netherlands to commemorate the event, with mass paratroop drops, moving commemorations and parades and various historical convoys, one of which I was privileged to be a part of thanks to Piet DCA2480 in his WW2 Dodge weapons carrier.
In the packages offered, we have provided the historical routes, waypoints and drop zones. Included also are short range NDB's to simulate the Eureka beacons that were used in September 1944 to indicate waypoints. Flak effects have also been placed accurately based on 1944 maps of flak concentrations and the eye witness accounts of aircrew, so the location and desity of the flak is as accurate as we could make it.
The drop zones have the coloured smoke markers placed by the pathfinders that arrived some 10 to 15 minutes before the main paratroop serials arrived.
Our event in 2020 focuses on just the 82nd airborne and just 2 of the airfields that they used. We will be using RAF Balderton and RAF Cottesmore to deposit our airborne troops on drop zones 'O' and 'N', located to the south and south west of Nijmegen.
All we ask of participants is to fly in formation with their assigned flight leader, maintain the airspeed and altitude assigned for the mission and try to drop their paratroopers on the correct DZ. Therefore we request that participants try to utilise a C47 with a military livery and have the necessary package installed and tested to include the effects for the paratroopers and the necessary changes to their aircraft.cfg within the smoke section, details of which will be included in the installation instructions.
There is a re-worked C47 package from Aeroworx for X-Plane since we last did a WW2 event.
The best C47 available for P3D is of course the MJ C47 v3.1.6 and there are several military textures available at Flightsim.com. I would recommend 'Whiskey 7' or 'Drag em Oot' or 'Argonia' or 'Thats all brother'.
Recommended Aircraft
For FSX and P3D, we suggest Manfred Jahn's C-47, any version. Whiskey 7 is highly recommended.
For X-Plane, we highly recommend downloading Aeroworx' C-47, which is freeware or the V-Sky Labs C-47 (payware). Both are excellent aircraft.
Recommended/required Add-ons
The package is of a small size and includes small scenery, effects and sound files to be installed and activated within your software program.
For FSX users there are additional FSRecorder files if requested that will add fomations of Ai traffic and effects that will hugely add to the immersion factor.
Should anyone have any difficulties in installing or activating the package, a couple of sessions will be held in early January to assist and test things out.
The following are very useful sites to get a better understanding of the sequence of events of this operation.
Operation Market Garden
Battle of Arnhem - Both sides of the lines - Market Garden 1944
Operation Market Garden, 17-27 September 1944
Lessons Learned from Operation Market Garden
Glen Broome
DCA996
VP Flight OPS
DC3 Airways
DC3 Question
in Commercial Airliners
Posted
Hi Lucy,
Please join us at www.dc3airways.net for everything you want to know about the DC3 and its variations. We are a full service virtual airline with cooperative pilots able to help you every step of the way. Hope to see you soon!
Sherm
Sherman Kaplan
Director PR
DC3 AIRWAYS