0800, a few clouds but generally a nice morning. I set off in my Fokker Spinne near the Slovenian coast. I planned a flight down to Trieste for lunch. All was well for a while, a quick check on my pocket compass put me on an approximate course. I would rely on landmarks and map reading as the flight went on. Then the weather started closing in. Visibility was poor, and I soon became disoriented and completely lost. I came across a river and followed it for a while before realising I was travelling in a totally wrong direction. I consulted my compass again, hoping to get a bearing, but this was of little use as I was now unaware of my actual location. Of course, with no instruments I had no idea of my airspeed or altitude.
I reversed direction, following the course of the river in the hope that it would take me to the coast. However the weather then worsened further. It started to rain, and visibility was getting close to zero. I knew that my engine was unreliable, and was worried that an engine failure would put me in real trouble. I had no choice. I was forced to find somewhere to land. I was fortunate. I found a fairly level field near the banks of the river. I did skim the surrounding trees on the way down but got down safely. I faced a long walk in the rain to the nearest village. This new sport of flying is not everything it is cracked up to be!If this type of experience appeals to you, my ‘Pioneers of Flight’ mission pack is available for download below. Essentially they present pleasure flights for the following aircraft:
Bleriot XI
Fokker Spinne
Santos-Dumont Demoiselle
Goliescu Avioplan
Eastbourne Monoplane
The pack provides one flight per plane, using maps which you probably do not use often, but look great and importantly have well-defined geographical features. After all, this is at the very start of flight – you have no instruments except a pocket compass which you can glance at occasionally. You must navigate primarily by following features on the ground. Additionally, engine unreliability is simulated (by random selection of fuel load). I assure you that you fly very differently when you have no idea of your speed, altitude, or whether your engine might pack in on you at any moment! You will need to keep a constant lookout for potential landing areas as you fly.
There are no objectives or waypoints set in the missions – these are pleasure flights – set your own objective. Of course you are free to fly around the map at random, but personally I find a simple objective adds focus to the flight. ‘Today I will fly from A to B and land near C’ is typically quite enough. Now will you achieve that before your engine fails?
The weather conditions at mission start are generally quite good – the pioneers did not, indeed - could not, fly these aircraft in adverse conditions. The C&C ‘dynamic weather’ object is used in all missions, so conditions may well change as you fly. Mission duration is intended to be c.40 minutes or so, but again this depends entirely upon you (and how long your engine may last).
Download link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/yld7pqyr4mu4vrz/Pioneers_of_Flight_Mission_Pack.7z/fileI hope you enjoy the missions for a real change of pace.
Yours,
Clive
Author
Topic: Pioneers of Flight Mission Pack (Read 4378 times)
