Quickmarch 488 Posted August 18, 2014 Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 Howdy Boys (and Girls), My new, New Zealand, air hauler is getting going. QuikAire is doing fine up in Canada, so time to set up a winter (summer in NZ) business so all those valuable Canadian pilots won't have to suffer the BC winter. Started by selling the C-172, then immediately went into debt to get a C-182 and did the due diligence thing until I got far enough down the road to hire out an AI pilot. Soon as that happened, I leased a DC-3 to boost the kitty and gave it to the AI pilot to go out and make some money while I slogged around with a 3100# MTOW. Then I sold the C-182 and leased a C-46. Now we're cooking with gas! I modded the C-46 to give it a 1000 NM range and picked up a whack of carrying capacity. After all, I'm flying in NZ. How far do you think I can go? Much better to carry cargo than gas. MTOW is 44000, with an 8136# capacity for the AI pilot (full fuel = 950USG). So here it is: The first flight of the Commando! Just around the beanpatch, with no cargo onboard. A checkride with the local check pilot. I'm now rated on the beast and my AI pilot made Captain today so she'll be able to fly it as well. Radials turning - ready to rock. Slight right turn out. Bit of a breeze off the ocean. Coming back on the throttles. This puppy is flying! Cleaned up and on the outbound climb TOC and on the downwind Gear coming down. On Base, letting down and setting up for final. My first Final in this beast. One notch, slowing. I think I'm going to need two notches. Getting a touch low!!! Can you feel the sweaty palms? Cheated death and won again! Put her on the numbers and here's the rollout. Ground - Papa Juliet Mike clear of the active. Full stop. Looks like we're gonna have to jump! That's it - down and rated! Let's go make some money. What's the rampie doing scratching his head? 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Corsaire31 419 Posted August 18, 2014 Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 Good luck to the new company... I will keep on flying in BC / Alaska next winter, landscapes are beautiful at that time when the WX allows flying. But I also plan to discover NZ fabulous landscapes sometimes once I have installed ORBX NZ ( could be a good idea for a Xmas present... ) Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted August 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 The screenshots, above, are ORBX North Island. Subject for another post: I'm going to need some guidance to improve the quality of my screenshots - I'll see if I can get that going today. Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted August 18, 2014 Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 Looks like a perfect AH upgrade plane. With it's stats (faster, hauls more), I wonder why the DC-3/C-47 outshone it? Did the C-46 have reliability problems? Good luck on the new company! Link to post Share on other sites
Quickmarch 488 Posted August 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 Evidently more expensive to fly (gas/petrol/benzin - pick your poison). Great big twin row radials versus the two single row radials on the DC-3. The difference in capacity was not enough to justify the extra cost. Note: the numbers, below reflect MY adjusted figures for both aircraft. The C-46 has fuel capacity has been drastically reduced in favour of AH-AI cargo capacity. A/C - MTOW-EW-FUEL=CAP (ignore oil and crew) C-46 - 44000-30164-5700=8136 Lb. Fuel burn is 167GPH DC-3 - 26200-16145-3624=6431 Lb. Fuel burn is 65GPH The C-46 simulation "feels" a lot less nimble than the DC-3. Without RW time on either type, I can't comment on how accurate the simulations are. Link to post Share on other sites
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