Amelia Earhart Tour...Half Way There

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All,

Just completed leg 15 of the 31 leg Earhart ATW Tour. Tried to use the L10E exclusively but even after making the necessary config changes to simulate the extra tanks that had been installed on the L10. I decided that low, slow and and a multitude of 6 to 11 or 12 hour segments on an around the world excursion wasn't working for this old man. This ATW challange is, I believe, my 11th or 12th trip around the planet. I know it may sound a bit strange or even unnecessary, but as long as I've been at this hobby I've always felt it was a pilots' responsibility to be in the cockpit or at least within earshot of my virtual copilots voice. For this reason and a few others, I try to keep my hops between 1 to 3 hours.

I am determined to complete this historic route but I will be utilizing the FlySimWare's excellent FA50 Falcon for the long legs and The Iris C27J Battlefield Airlifter which was adapted from the original C27 Spartan for short to medium flights. This won't cut any miles or stops, but it should effectively cut the time in half or maybe better. When we throw the chocks under the tires in Oakland I'll return to my Bush and General Aviation type flying and check out all of the wonderful ORBX, Tongass and RTMM sceneries and check out more of our Special Ops offerings.

My hats off to our pilots that have already completed or plan to fly the whole trip as set up.

Have a Happy and Safe Holiday,


Richard (Smitty) Smith

The Earhart Tour is now history for this captain.....not too bad 37 days for 31 legs. Flew a "modern" version, first third in the L10E mod, last two thirds primarily in the C27J Spartan and FA50X Falcon. total hour approximately 93.

Smitty SPA711

TX John,

Now I can concentrate on completing my Tongass Fjords install and try to figure out RTMM. I'm actually thinking of flying the flying either one of the 48 states tours or maybe the Mississippi because of the short hops in a WACO, Super Cub or even a helicopter to practice up for some of the RTMM challenges.

BTW, how do you add an avatar, other than the offerings already shown, on the Forum and/or Pilot's page?

Smitty

Congrats Richard on completing the Amelia Earhart Tour. Your Amelia Earhart award is in your hub page.