PP Ferry Challenge discussion topic

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

This topic is to discuss anything that comes to mind about the new PP Challeng to ferry a C172 accross the Ocean, westbound 

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

Hello E-J, sounds a nice event, how will the fuel   section work, will there be a spacial model that all have to use, or can you use the EHM model or a paid for one ?, the fuel usage could vary with different  downloads, I have a B757 paid for, and the fuel rate is less than the EHM B757,  ie. bought is 9617 LB/HR, EHM  10500 LB/HR  averaged over 10 flight of over 2hr duration, have not flown the EHM C172 for many years so do not have any data, Best Regards Bruce EHM-2131

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Hi Bruce,

the PIREP filed eventually by FL contains more data than you, as regular user, can see. Among others, I can see which aircraft you have actually flown (or if it is a mix of different aircraft types; same type with different reg is seen as one), and of course the amount of fuel burnt. You can use any SEP plane, but I will want to see a C172 for the entire route if you are to be in the running for the "fuel prize".

Yes, there are differences in fuel burn rate between different models, but if I see a major discrepancy between the mileage flown, the time that took, and the fuel burnt, then I will start to doubt whether that result was obtained "legally" (there are of course parameters in FS you can tweak; which would lead to obvious discrepancies). On such a long flight, any deviations of more than, say, 10% immediately make a huge difference.
In other words: it's a personal checking (by me) of each PIREP kind of thing. By no means water tight (and prone to bribery ), but I thought it would be a nice incentive to take the flight planning bit a touch more seriously.

I, for one, will be flying an Aquila A210, as I do in real life. So I will be excluded from the fuel prize.
But if you take a payware C172 (I know A2A Simulations have an awesome one), you might indeed be off more realistically than the standard EHM one. Not sure if that is a positive or a negative thing, as I don't know the actual fuel burn of the A2A one.
I guess we'll find out at the end of it all

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

Hello E-J, thanks for the clarification, looking forward to the planning stage,should be interesting considering the range of a C172, l may be a bit slow this morning but what is a SEP plane?, thanks again Best Regards Bruce EHM-2131

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Sorry, that's my PPL training kicking in 
SEP = Single Engine Piston.

So no turbines, only one piston engine allowed. Which usually means one propeller too.

[EHM-2589 David]

Very exciting leg-legs tour, thanks E-J. My first proposition legs with C172 (14 legs):
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=EHLE-EGPK-EKVG-birk-bgkk-bggh-cyxp-cyzg-cysk-cykq-cysb-ksky-kipj-kjzi-x21&DU=mi&SG=140&SU=kts
See you soon

[EHM-2758 Peter]

Signed up without any hesitation. Great idea. Something else than "just" fly from A to B.  I guess signing up means not only flying the route, but especially do a lot of preparation. That's what piloting is all about. I only wonder how we're arranging this event flying online together? I , for instance, will try to get all the awards on this one   So anyone who has signed up is a rival. So I certainly plan a shorter route than David suggested and I will study the metars and tafs along the route carefully to get the best circumstances. No passengers .. no luggage .... i'll strip my A2a C172r to get her as light as possible.

Quite a challenge, guys.

Still, meet you on Mumble soon,

Peter

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

And I guess that's the way to "fly together", Peter: "Doodle" a time, and meet on Mumble. Wherever you are in the world.
Chances are that most will visit Iceland, Greenland, and Canada, so you might accidentally come across one of your fellow EHM pilots there...

[EHM-2589 David]

Signed up without any hesitation. Great idea. Something else than "just" fly from A to B.  I guess signing up means not only flying the route, but especially do a lot of preparation. That's what piloting is all about. I only wonder how we're arranging this event flying online together? I , for instance, will try to get all the awards on this one   So anyone who has signed up is a rival. So I certainly plan a shorter route than David suggested and I will study the metars and tafs along the route carefully to get the best circumstances. No passengers .. no luggage .... i'll strip my A2a C172r to get her as light as possible.

Quite a challenge, guys.

Still, meet you on Mumble soon,

Peter

Hope to fly together maybe if I've to fly 80 legs See you on Mumble and by IVAO of course

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Oh, and guys: Remember that 9 weeks to fly some 4000 miles in 10 legs (approximately; depending on your chosen route) is not too much time.
Especially when weather conditions might be unfavourable...

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

One more thing: If FL decides you crashed, you can start your flight again, of course. But if you start again, you start again from EHLE...
It's best to save your FL and FS situation after each leg under a different name. That way, you can start over from, sys, Iceland again, instead of starting the whole journey all over again

Another one to remember: the FL files (extension *.ehf) are checksum protected, so try to modify the file, and it won't work anymore 

Best of luck to all of you!

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

Hello All, Yesterday l finished leg 2 of the event, and l have a question about logging the flight, on leg 1 l saved flogger and FSX , the next  day  l loaded FSX and did my flight planning, then loaded  Flogger the data was still the same as l had left it the day before , with the status   Parked/on ground in magenta, l started to taxi and flogger started to record after 1 hour l checked the acars to get my fuel consumption, and noticed it was a fresh acars data list , my question is should l have used the saved  file from leg one, and will the leg 2 have to be flown again, also how can you tell if the flights are recorded correctly, do not want to go any farther until i know the correct way,  thanks in advance Regard Bruce EHM-2131

[EHM-2684 Andrew]

Hi
I was fight EHLE - EGPF. After landing on EGPF, I save flight of "Flight Loger" (Push -> Flight -> Save)
I also save situation in Flight Simulator (FSX).
Now I start FSX and load flight, and Start "Flight Loger" and load too. (Push -> Flight -> Open)
Take off from the airport and fly the route EGPF - EKVG. In "Flight Logger" is the screen. Is everything alright?

http://i.imgur.com/piQBjzB.jpg

Thanks.
EHM-2684

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

This is what my Flogger shows after leg 2 I am waiting for clarification on this from a member of the MT team, Regards Bruce EHM-2131

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Not sure which clarification you need, Bruce. Things look OK to me. You landed somewhere, not being X21. So you are on the ground, parked, and not at your destination. The thing to do is:
1) Save the flightlogger file (top button, File, Save As, give a name)
2) Save the Flight Simulator situation (press semicolon, give a name and optionele description)
3) grab a beer and come back to flying whenever you want (open the saves files - in reverse order, preferably)

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

Sorry, Bruce. I only read your first post after answering you last post

The thing is: you can continue as you are doing now. You are actually automatically appending to your original ehf file (filename is date and time of creation), thuis continuing your flight. Which is OK, but it bears a risk: you can only continue on, and if you experience a crash (either your plane, FS, or your PC), you risk looking the ehf file, and need to start all over. Plus, you cannot start a new assigned flight, and continue you ferry afterwards. For thàt to work, you need to have an intermediately saves file as described above.

@Andrew: it does not seem to be recording correctly... It should indicate a status in the middle box (like "parked", "cruise", etc.)

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

Hello E_J, thanks for the info Think l have it OK now, will  save each leg along with FSX   Regards Bruce EHM2131

[EHM-2387 Eric-Jan]

@Andrew: your picture shows a filename with square brackets, which is not the way FL saves files (not even with "Save As"). So I'm thinking you renamed the file afterwards, with File Explorer (Assuming Windows). That would probably mess up the CRC check inside the verification by FL, because the date/time of the file has changed.
I am afraid you'll have to start over from the last correctly saved FL file (or from EHLE...)

@Bruce: correct. Preferably "Save As" with a different name after each leg, so you can revert to any intermediate leg, should sh#$%t hit the fan

[EHM-2097 Andrei]

And a few more clarifications:

There is no "Save As..." function (OK, I forgot about this myself), FL4 automatically saves using the same filename.

However, it is safe to rename the file in Windows as the above mentioned checksum only concerns the file content, not the name or date.

As of the means to be sure FL4 is appending to the existing file, here are a few hints.

1) There is no need to save the EXACT configuration in FSX. FL4 has a reasonable tolerance radius when it comes to position. As long as you save the EHF file after landing, parking and shutting down the engine, you may reload the file when parked with the engine off at a different stand on the same aiport.

2) Start FL4 (which will attempt to load and reuse the previously saved flight) after setting the proper configuration in FSX (location, aircraft status etc). OR, after you set the proper configuration in FSX, reload the EHF file.

3) Do not be afraid of the worrysome magenta display! When resuming the flight at a different airport (than origin / destination) it is normal to see "on ground" in magenta

4) You know that the flight is resumed at an intermediary airport when:
- The FSX maeeage appears "Recording flight from... to ..." (the overall origin and destination are shown)
- In the flight details screen, you see details changing (like time, airspeed if there is wind, or fuel burnt)
- When leaving the stand, the FSX message appears "Taxi" (if the ground speed > 5kt)
- The status changes from "on ground" to "taxi" and "climb", as appropriate

5) Also, in the flight details page there is a "Debug" tab that shows a piece of information particularly useful for this kind of flight, the "current leg index". This should read "1" during the first leg, "2" after first intermediate landing and so on.

Hope this helps

Andrei

[EHM-2131 Bruce]

Hello Andrei, A very good post, answered a lot of questions, and a look into the workings of FL4 too, very interesting article, Regards Bruce EHM-2131