Radio Range flight
WW2 CBI Theater

The first big airlift wasn’t the Berlin Airlift of 1948, but it was to support the Flying Tigers by executing the India to China airlift in 1942. For 7 months it supplied the Flying Tigers in China with fuel, ammo, and spare parts, and after that it supplied the Allied Army protecting China from Japan during WW2. I have created the flight described below to use as an example flight with Version 4 of the Radio Range System. The first "hump" supply flight is documented in the Hump Pilots Association website to support the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. To better understand this Charter flight, let's start by examining the need for an airlift in the first place. Some maps will help show the history and geography. .
The map above shows the big picture of CBI geography

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The map above shows the location of the LEDO and BURMA roads. These roads were the main supply route to the Allied forces in China fighting the Japanese aggression in 1939-1942. It also shows the general location of the "HUMP AIRLIFT" flights

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The Map above shows, among other things, the Jap advances in Burma in 1942. They closed the Burma road, making the hump flights necessary.

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The map above shows the mountain range that give the flights their (hump) name, and make the flights so treacherous.

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The map above enlarges the details of the road, the Jap army occupied area (shaded), and more detail of a typical hump flight path.

Since the boundary of Burma is not very clear in the maps above, this is a better look at how Burma sits between India and China. Burma is shown as the lighter shade of tan.

Burma

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The map above shows that there were 5 US Army Air Transport Command airfields in India that supported the Hump Flights. The large double circles are the airfields.

The maps above were found on the internet and attribution is difficult. None are my originals, and the Library at the University of Texas was a helpful source for some of the maps.

The Charter flight described in detail below uses Version 4 of the Radio Range System. It uses the 1945 panel with the included DC3-RR4 aircraft. The FS9 flight name is CBI1.FLT. It is included in this package. I used Tom Easterday’s research on hump Route ‘Easy’ as described in his Charter “Flying the China-Burma-India Hump (1066-01-02). The Charter flight route below is the eastbound link from Dibrugarh India (VEMN) to Kunming China (ZPPP). It requires that Version 4 of the Radio Range system be installed in FS9. The Radio Range system is available from AVSIM.com or Flightsim.com. It is not included in this package.

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The map above shows the actual route flown. On this flight, ATC directed, when the plane was 80 nm from the destination airport, to offset to the south and make a straight in approach to the runway. For navigation, it uses Radio Range Stations included as part of the Version 4 Radio Range system. More specifically, it uses the 1945 panel version of the DC3-RR4 in saved real weather. It starts at the parking area at VEMN, at Chabua, which was the headquarters for the US Hump flights. It has Pamti, Burma as a way point, an emergency alternate airport, and a radio homing beacon (NDB), to support the Radio Range stations near VEMN and ZPPP. The date is 29 July, 1944, and the mission is to fly over the Himalayas (the Hump) to resupply the Armies in China whose supply line (the Burma Road) had been severed by the Japanese. The Radio Range stations were very recent additions to the CBI theater at that time, as was the ILS landing system at ZPPP. Also, ATC was only available in 'line of sight' range of the airports.

INSTALLATION:

Given that you have the Radio Range Version 4 installed,

1. Copy 'cbi1.FLT', 'cbi1.WX', 'cbi1.htm' and 'IFR Dibrugarh to Wujiaba.PLN' to 'C:\Documents and Settings\[Your name]\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files'.

2. Double click on 'cbi1.FLT'. If this opens FSX, then find the cbi1.FLT file, right click on it and click on the 'Open with ..." tab. Use the browse button to find your FS9.exe file (probably in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9'), and click on that.

NOTES:
I have included a 'Pilots Briefing Notes' page that can be brought up on the kneeboard, as shown below.

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Note that it gives a quick summary of the things the pilot might write down at the pre-flight briefing and have available on his kneeboard during the flight.
The flight should start with the clock ticking. (It is a mechanical wind-up clock that doesn't need the battery to run). You have about 10 minutes to complete your checklists and get underway to be on time. You will need the master battery switch on to get the engines started. You will need the radio switch on to get the radio and instruments to work. Don't turn on the radio switch until both engines are running. Although the plane is forgiving or gives warning for most problems, you only have a few minutes to get an engine started if you are using your battery, or the battery will be too weak to start the engines. Proceeding to the prestart checklist immediately is a good idea. It takes about 4 minutes to warm the engines to the required minimums for taxi. Don't overlook turning on the toggle switch on the "toilet seat" ILS display if you want sound when the plane crosses the "markers". The CBI Radio Range map is available from the kneeboard. To pull up the map, open the kneeboard, go to the reference page, and click on 'Specific Radio Range DC3 Instructions' and then click on 'WW2 CBI Range Station Map'.

Departure is scheduled for 0830 Local Time. The plane is at its maximum gross weight for the trip. The Microsoft flight (attached) includes the IFR flight plan and saved real weather. The weather map is also shown below.

The flight plan is shown below.

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The snap below shows the aircraft at the parking area at Dibrugarh.

It starts cold and dark, and requires starting, warm-up, radio contact with the Dibrugarh tower to invoke the ILS flight, etc. The flight plan calls for climbing directly to 17,000 ft and remaining there, on oxygen, for the entire trip. The first leg is to ‘VG’, The Chabua Radio Range Station. Since it is close to the airport, do not try to intercept an in-bound beam, but tune ADF1 to 400 Kc before take-off, and use ADF1 to point to and guide you to 'VG'. ATC will be supportive for this leg, regardless of which runway is used for take-off. Over 'VG', do not wait for ATC to vector you toward 'MK' but make the change in direction at the occurance of the "cone of silence"at "VG". Outbound from ‘VG’ if you are hearing a repeated Morse code “N” you are to the right of the beam, or if you hear an “A” you are to the left of the beam pointing toward 'MK'. Follow the right edge of that beam until you lose the signal. It has about 100 NM range. Pay attention to the heading needed to maintain your flight path on the beam. In the absence of better "winds aloft" information, you will need to maintain that established "crab" as you ded-reckon on toward 'MK' once you lose the "beam". Tune ADF2 to the NDB 'MK' on 275 Kc. When the signal is acquired, steer to overfly 'MK' which is your second waypoint. 'MK' is not a Radio range station, and has a range of only about 35 NM. Do not venture on without firmly establishing your position over 'MK', or a VFR observation of the Pamti Airport.

At 'MK', change course to 93 degrees Magnetic as prescribed in the flight plan. It is important to use your ADF2 display to track outbound on this course to quickly establish the cross wind vector (crab) needed at 17,000 ft on this leg, before losing the 'MK' signal. You will have to ded-reckon about 40 minutes ( if there is no headwind) on this heading. Tune ADF1 to 215 Kc to pick up the 'RQ' Radio Range signal which will mark your third way point when you come into range. The range of 'RQ' is also about 100 NM.

The final leg is toward ‘RQ’, the Kunming Radio Range Station. I say toward, because if the wind at Kunming is from the east, ATC will vector the plane "straight in" to the airport. Kunming has an ILS system so the aircraft uses the “toilet seat” display for descent and landing. ATC will assign the runway depending on the wind. ATC may also try to take you to 19,000 ft, but you should request ATC to assign you to 17,000 ft. The ‘no wind’ flight time estimate is 3 hours, 12 minutes. The P&W engines can’t maintain 30 inches MP at that altitude, so you should fly with wide open throttles (27 inches MP) and 2300 RPM to maintain 650 HP at that altitude. Keep a careful eye on the CHT, and if you exceed 232 degrees C, you must put the Cowl Flaps in trail temporarily to cool the engines down a bit. You will no doubt enjoy the Lear Autopilot’s ability, like with the Sperry, to maintain a set pitch attitude, which indirectly controls the altitude. Even better is the Lear’s ability to make turns at various rates of turn, so you can maintain gentle climbing turns and course changes more gracefully than with the Sperry AP. ATC will advise you if you stray too far off the course, or stray from your assigned altitude. For realism, you may want to cancel ATC (Terminate the IFR plan) when out of range of ‘VG’ , and restart it when you are in range of ‘RQ’, since only the main airports had ATC at that time.

The snap below shows the flight crossing the Himalayas.

When ‘RQ’ comes in range, if you are off the beam, and hear an Morse code “A”, you are to the south of the beam, or if you hear an ‘N’ you are north of the beam. When you hear the code, start your descent to 10,000 ft.

Correct your course to find the beam and fly its right edge, rather than just flying in using the ADF1 display. This is important for air traffic congestion control near Kunming. If you cancelled your IFR flight plan, re-establish it now to get ATC assistance.

ATC at Kunming will provide vectors, depending on the wind direction, to the proper runway. The snap below shows an enlargement of the end track for the example approach. At about 80 miles out on my example flight, ATC directed the observed offset to the south, and the further bubble to the south before the turn to final was to avoid traffic ahead of the aircraft.

The image below shows the view from the cockpit at 1110 local time.

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Note the plane is turning left in response to ATC direction on final. The altitude is 8800 ft, and ATC has just directed a descent to 7000 ft. Note the toilet seat gauge is active and has the beam, and the plane is below and to the right of center. You need to dial in the runway heading as with any ILS display. All cockpit views may be enlarged to see the panel more clearly by opening the file directly using the MSPAINT, or a similar program.

The image below shows the aircraft about 5 minutes later.

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The snap above shows the aircraft is pointed north, turning left to correct the horizontal alignment of the "toilet seat". At 7000 ft, the plane is below the glideslope, and the plan is to hold 7000 ft until the height bar comes down on the ILS display. The red light on the toilet seat display is indication the plane is over the outer marker. Even though you are at over 7000 ft, you should go to auto-rich mixture for landing.

Below is the cockpit view over the middle marker.

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The red light on the toilet seat gauge is again blinking, indicating that the plane is over the middle marker. The alignment is good, the radio compass (yellow) is pointing to the Radio Range on the far side of the airport, The toilet seat shows both vertical and horizontal alignment, and the local time is 1123. The airport is just becoming visible ahead. The arrival at the gate is at 1130 local time. Fuel consumed on the flight was 272 gallons.

This completes the Charter flight. Claim your hours using flight number 910-02 on the PiREP.

Using the CBI Radio Range map available from the kneeboard, you may create other interesting Radio Range flights from other airports in the CBI theater.

The following reference material may be of help in planning other flights. The information is from the internet, google on "CBI".
CBI Mileage Chart
CBI Planning Chart
1942 CBI Transportation System
Dave Bitzer DCA-910
July 2007