Many thanks to the Rally organizers and pilots

[Goblin 51]

Well, I just finished the fifth and final leg of my first Virtual Air Rally, Mutley's Easter Bunny Air Rally (MEBAR).

X-Plane was my chosen simulator and I had a new bird in the hanger, an Aerobask Pipistrel Panthera, and figured this would be a great way to gain proficiency of the aircraft performance and navigation systems.

Before starting the 2017 MEBAR, I may have had about an hour's worth of familiarization in the Panthera.  After landing in Santiago I had added 10.75 hours to my log book.

After this time, I am most definitely more proficient at flying the Panthera and I've got a good understanding of the navigation systems.  I tried to do my navigating without

relying on the GPS.  The first flight was pretty good in that I was able to use NAVAIDS, dead reckoning and pilotage with minimal peaks at the GPS. 

The weather in the second flight was pretty bad for landing in mountain valleys.  For one of those landings I had to rely on the GPS and Terrain avoidance system pretty heavily.

I felt I could have planned much better for that flight and didn't feel that I was navigating very well.

For the remainder of the flights, my navigation planning and execution was much better.  Not only am I new to the Panthera, but I've only been flying XPlane for a couple of months,

so I learned a few things about XPlane as well; but I think I still have plenty to learn.

I had intended to fly two airplanes in this rally.  I think it was a blessing in disguise that my PC-12 had an engine fire during the Rally test flight.  I just barely had time to plan and fly

the one airplane let alone two!  Maybe when I'm retired and my kids are both in college...

I intend to go ahead and continue flying the Panthera north to get my new bird to southern California where I'll probably hanger it and fly a C172 on PilotEdge.  The first flight of that

journey is going to test just how long her legs are.  Theoretically, it's supposed to be able to carry four passengers up to 1,000 nm.

 

Finally, I say to the event organizers: thank you, very, very much!  Also, thank you to the other pilots for sharing their experiences.  I had a blast with the MEBAR and it was a terrific learning experience.  I'll be back for the next one and think I will be looking for a 'round the world flight to join.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

6 hours ago, Goblin said:

Finally, I say to the event organizers: thank you, very, very much!  Also, thank you to the other pilots for sharing their experiences.  I had a blast with the MEBAR and it was a terrific learning experience.  I'll be back for the next one and think I will be looking for a 'round the world flight to join.

 

 

I second that, very much appreciated and hope to be able to enjoy this yearly event for many years to come.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I third this sentiment as well. This was my second MEBAR, the first challenged me to learn the VOR and ADF systems on my aircraft, this one re-honed those skills where the course requested or permitted them and proved to me they work sans GPS (I actually fished around a bit on the last leg getting the adf direction and VOR radials in agreement with Andrew's instructions...and down low and behold there was the confluence of two major rivers...voila...Radio Magic!

 

 

This year's rally provided some challenging and stunning terrains to navigate through, and distracted me from my throttlle control often...a good thing. I flew all but the first leg blind, distrusted my "nailed it" time, and then typically rushed too fast through most legs. I randomly nearly nailed one of those, but I believe that is thanks to Random Probability more than pilot skills. I found myself enjoying external views perhaps too often. I believe I will still score a proficiency rating above 90%...I'm calling it a win win for me.

 

Cheers, looking forward to next year.

Matt.

[brett 2,283]

90% is a good score considering most airlines would be thrilled with even 80%.

[edbee 1]

Thanks Andrew and the rest of the team for putting on yet another enjoyable rally.

I'm looking forward to Easter '18,  Cheers,  Ed

[OzWookiee 151]

Whilst I wasn't able to participate in the Rally this year I am using it as a fun and learning experience. I am brand new(ish) to (serious) Flight Simming and I've dallied with all of the major flight sims out there but really love how modern and gosh darn pretty X-Plane is. I'm flying the gorgeous LET L-410 http://x-plane.hu/L-410/ and am working on some Nature Air liveries for her as well (google them, amazing!)

 

I just finished my first leg and have really enjoyed learning the different aspects of the plane and the scenario. Those winds were mostrous and some times I found it nigh impossible to loose altitude.

 

Anyway, hopefully Demon doesn't mind me going too off topic but like you mate, first timer so want to say hey and yay!!

 

 

Is anyone else using Ortho4XP?  Thanks again to the organisers. I look forward to participating in the next event.

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Bee Jay, welcome to our forums. 

 

Looking forward to seeing more of you and keep us up to date with your experiences with the MEBAR.

 

 

[OzWookiee 151]

WOW. OK just finished my unofficial MEBAR 201. Much thanks for organising this guys! Looking forward to participating officially next year! I'll make a separate post to cover my experience tomorrow. 0100 now, time for bed!

 

But this sure looked nice: