"How 'bout that, 'tards?" he cheerfully yells into the intercom.

He rolls he back "upright" and seems to be quite amused about my silence.

"How was that, newb?"
"I guess that's what you call arriving alive, sir?"
"That's fecking right, newb!"

Meanwhile, there has been a sign of life on the tower and some dude - he has obviously taken a nap - asks for our intentions.
I tell him that we're the most handsome Air-Force guys he'll find for the next fifty 500 miles and we'd like to land on his airfield!

With the unimpressed coolness of a guy in his early sixties he answers: "O'course, you're the ONLY Air Force guys within 500 miles!"
"But you're cleared to land anyway!"


I repeat and prepare for an uneventful ride in the frontseat while my IP flys the plane, yet he orders me to take the controls and land the jet.
"I wanna see if you're the average newb who happens to have his ffive minutes now and then or if your really got it!"

Ha, here comes my chance to show this old fart (he is in his late forties, btw) what I'm really made of!
We're in downwind and I lower flaps and gear, while turning in for final (base legs are for sissies!) and trying to look the hottest I can!

BAM! Touchdown!

"Not too bad...I'll give you an 8.5...
...on the Richter-Scale! I told you not to screw up and you're doing that! Looks like we'll have to do some touch-and-gos back in Laughlin! Nutcrack!"

That's it. I suceeded in impressing my IP - but the negative way...

Well, I can think about that later!

But first, we're invited to the town-fair that happens to be this weekend!
The guy on the tower is a real nice guy and offers to drive us down to the village on his pick-up.

First, we'll have to taxi to the apron and shut-down the jet.



We had a great time that weekend and I managed to get friends with my IP. How I realized?
Well, he didn't report my bad landing on monday morning, as we returned.
Maybe my landing at Laughlin showed him I could do better.


That's been ten years ago!
Today, I meet him with his wife (well, he obviously changed his mind and married later-on!) and kids regularyly!
And still today we keep on bragging about that insane weekend. For obvious reasons, we won't talk about every little detail in presence of our wives, though!

- "Oh, so you're a fighter-pilot??"
- "Yeah, I sure am!"

I like these. I will have to come up with a good one.

~S~

This was flown earlier in the year on the War Clouds server where the 79vRAF pilots carried out a raid on a airfield. It was unplanned, something we just did on the spur of the moment...


Forming up...


En-route...


Bomb release...


If he had looked up at this point, I wonder what he was thinking?!!!


Impacts...


WTF?!!!


What AAA?!!!


Being picked off...


Anyone for a BBQ?


Struggling back...


Clear the runway!

_79_Vortex

www.79vraf.com

It's been a while since I've posted a screenshot-story, so let's get up the next one...


It's 02:30 AM local time at Osaka's Marriott-Hotel, when my alarm-clock gets me up to operate today's early-morning flight to Sydney.
I go to the bathroom, take a shower, brush my teeth, shave and get into my clothes for today's work.
My uniform bears the proud wings of QANTAS, Australia's only remaining long-haul airline with connections throughout the world, including cities in Europe, such as London and Frankfurt.

It's time to go down to the hotel-lobby to check-out, have a brief breakfast at the hotel's restaurant and meet the rest of toady's crew.

I meet my crew at 03:15 in the lobby and we take the bus to Kansai Intl. Airport.
At this time, traffic is anything but dense - most of Japan is aslepp - rightfully, only a bunch of fools such as we, would get up at this time in order to work.
Work? Well, it's more than just a job for me. Getting up at odd times surely isn't exactly what I dream of every night, but the job itself is pretty satisfying - travel around, get to know quite a few people, fly every working-day, and get even payed for that!

We arrive at the terminal at 04:00.
Our cabin-crew consists of eight flight-attendants (I always preferred the word "stewardess"...) and there is a team of two in the cockpit.
I take John, my copilot, to the briefing area, where we gather weather-data, NOTAMs (Notice To AirMen) and all the important stuff for today's flight.
With all the data at our hands, we brief our cabin-crew. Weather is gonna be quite well today - only a few thunderstorms enroute to Guam (our first route-segment) - thats pretty much all.

We proceed to Gate 56, where VH-OGM, a Boeing 767-300ER, that's been baptised to the name of " Bundaberg" patiently awaits it's crew.

Wile I'm doing the "outside-check", John programs the FMS and hacks in today's flight-route.
Our routing is gonna lead us over Guam, Port Moresby and then inbound to Sydney.

At 05:15 we close the doors and push back from the gate.

We taxi to RWY 24 and immediately get cleared for take-off.
I advance the throttles to 50% N2 in order to stabilize RPM and then push the N1-command button in order to bring power up to our preset value. At a temperature of 30°C, and a grossweight of 405,700 lbs, we're pretty close to max power.

Alsmost effortless, the 767 lifts off and climbs towards our cleared altitude of 9,000ft.
Gear comes up, and I engage L NAV and V NAV for an FMS-controlled flight.
In stages, we retract the flaps and at 10,000ft, landing-lights and seatbelt-signs are being switched off.

During our climbout, we cross the field - the apron seems almost empty at this time of the day!
We continue soutwest-bound over Wakayama.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bremspropeller,

"Sakura, sakura" - cherryblosssoms are fragrant in the morning-sun.

We're leaving Japan close to Shione Cape, the southernmost point of Japan's largest main-island, Honshu.

About two and a half hours into the flight, we pass the first signs of the announced thunderstorms.
Those clouds may be towering to 40,000ft and beyond!
Bad news for us, as we're cruising at FL340.

Therefore, we're working hard to make our way around those obstacles of water, ice, turbulence and lightning.

"Bundaberg" emerges a tight wall of clouds.

A couple of minutes later, we're crossing Agana, the largest town on Guam.

Three hours later, after crossing the Equator we overfly Papua New Guinea's northern coast.
The island is almost fully covered by jungle and we can only speculate about the wild nature below the tree-line.

We're leaving the island via it's gateway to the "civilized" world, Port Moresby.

Crossing the Coral Sea and the world-famous "Great Barrier Reef", I start thinking about the human nature, compared to this "largest colony of animals" down below.

We're going "feet dry" on the fifth continent close to Hamilton Island.

We've just passed Brisbane to our left and after nine-a-half hours it's time to initiate our descent into Sydney.

Our approach to RWY 16L offers our passengers on the left-hand side a nice view onto Downtown Sydney, with the Harbour Bridge, the Opera-House and Darling Harbour.

Final approach into RWY 16L.

Coming in over Qantas's maintenance-area.

The last few seconds...don't screw up now!
We've already transitioned from ILS to a visual approach.
Weather-conditions today are almost not leaving anything left to want...

Touchdown.
Bundaberg's tyres screech over the asphalt.
Our GND spoilers automaticly deploy, autobrake snaps in and I select reverse-power.
RWY 16L is Sydney's shortest, but that ain't a problem for a 767!

Our touch-down from another point of view.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Sydney! Please remain seated until our aircraft has reached it's final parking-position..."

We taxi to the gate, where we shut down the engines and let our passengers get off the plane.
John and I go through flight-debrief and afterwards leave Bundaberg to another crew that's gonna take her to a different place on Earth.

I stay at Qantas' briefing-center for a short while to have a chat or two with some people I had the chance to meet on one of my earlier trips. Nice thing, such an airline...

I leave late, go to the parking-lot, only to have trouble finding my Mini.
30 minutes later, I'm home, shutting the door behind me, getting a cold beer from the fridge and waiting for wife and kids to come home...

On a bright sunny day somewhere in the Bay of Biscay, somewhere in 1943, our crew was tasked with a maritime patrol. Our trustworthy Do-24 was filled up with gas and we also took a brace of 500kg bombs under each wing for targets of opportunity.

We took off from French coast and roared up into the sky. Of course our non existent high command didn't assign us any escorts and let all the fighters go dogfighting with the Brits.



We climbed to the cloud level and stayed just below it, so we could still search for ships. In case Tommy fighters would show up, we'd hide in the clouds.



It wasn't long before Tommys spotted us.
A rear gunner roared:"Alarm! Alarm! Tommies!"



A beaufighter and a mossquito attacked us simultaneously. That was 8 hispano cannons and 8 machineguns, all firing on us.



Our lovely Do was hit, but all vital parts held together. I ditched the bombs, and started evasive maneouvers. I knew they can't shoot backwards, so it's best to get behind them. That was the plan at least...



As soon as I managed to get on the tail of one, my nose gunner started with his deadly trade.



I saw the mosquito leaving the scene for no aparent reason, so I continued to chase the beaufighter.



DANG!! Another Beaufighter surprises us!





I had to break off an attack on the first beaufighter in order to dodge the second one!



In a vertical stall a Beaufighter was diving on us. All of his guns blazing - what a scary sight, my gunner shooting back with his single barrel.



After we pass, de does not pull up!



Straight into a drink!! My gunner must have disabled his controls or hit the pilot!

Anyways, there was no time to celebrate yet, we had another beaufighter to deal with!



Turning and twisting in a death dance.





My gunner is throwing everything he has got into a Beaufighter!

Will he recover?!?





Splash!! Woohoo!! Time to go home I guess.



The Do managed to bring us back to France although one of her engines was almost dead. Shaken, but ok we go for champaigne and a massage. I need to pay my nose gunner a drink or two today.

(happened as depicted weak or so ago online on UKD-2 server)

Holy flirking schnit Brems, those screenies are insane!

Great screens, TT!


Thx Aimial!

Over the target on a low-level Recce mission.
We're pre-Camp David and therefore Egypt and israel's relations are still cold - or hot, depends on the way you wanna put it.

We're taking photos of an airfiled in the Nile-delta.

SAMs and AAA force us to jnk aggressively.
Not quite easy at the edge of M1 and very close ground proximity!

The photos are taken - now let's get out of here!
I unload and exceed M1.
There's gonna be lots of shattered glass!
But I don't care - send the bill to our Squadron...they'd rather see us coming home than writing off another aircraft!


We're off!
Chaff and flares keep on popping out automaticly, as several Radar-sites are trying to get a tracking-solution on us for a SAM-launch.

Another 30 minutes and we'll be landing back at Hatzerim!