Hi everyone,                                                                          
 
Be prepared to experience a new concept in Virtual Flight.... You will return in time to the mid nineteen twenties when many brave pioneer pilots risked, and often gave of their lives, in the quest to make long distance delivery of the mail by air the fastest and the preferred way to deliver the mail.
 
In the early days the mail service was only flown by day which gave no real advantage over the railroads which traveled both by day and by night. It had to happen at some time of course, and brave attempts were made to make the delivery of the mail by air a twenty four hour service. It was acknowledged as the only way to effectively compete with the railroad, and also the only way to make delivery of the mail by air a viable proposition for the future.
 
The story of the Airmail is long and makes very absorbing reading. A visit to
http://www.airmailpioneers.org will set you on the way to understanding what we are introducing to you. Two further addresses within the same web site will reward you with a wealth of information regarding the Airmail and hopefully whet your appetite for what we have in store. Those addresses are :-
 http://www.airmailpioneers.org/flightinfo.html
 http://www.airmailpioneers.org/flightinfo/directions.htm
 
What is our quest! It is our attempt to give you the opportunity to fly the DC-3 under the same conditions experienced by those pioneer pilots of the twenties. We obviously cannot reproduce exactly the conditions under which the pilots flew but I am sure that you will acknowledge that we have come as close as it is possible to get.
 
Al Gay and Johan van Wyk have toiled for months developing the skills necessary to create these flights. The 'groundwork' has literally been done and we are offering this Trans Continental Route which contains 32 seperate legs to introduce you to a whole new way of flying.
 
OK, I will get to the point! Al and Johan have laid a network of light beacons and co-located NDB beacons (maximum range - two miles!) which you must use for navigating in the dead of night using nothing more than a flight description and the Mk 1 eyeball. To put it into the proper words, these are night flights flown in VFR conditions. You may use FSNavigator but only as a map. It is recommended that VOR's, NDBs and the aircraft symbol are switched off in FSNavigator to eliminate the temptation to use them.
 
How do we fly these new fangled flights? After take off you will follow a sequence of light beacons that have been laid along the required route at suitable distances. Because the flights are flown at night there is very little, if any visual contact with the ground, so you must fly the allotted course at no less than the Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA) shown on the flight descriptions to locate visually the next light beacon. If your flying is accurate you will hear the NDB ident when within two miles of the beacon. The ident you will hear is in Morse code and can be deciphered by referring to the relevant codes described in the flight description. After positively identifying the beacon (they are numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., as were the original beacons using flashing lights) you will over fly and then continue to the next beacon and repeat the exercise. When you arrive at the destination airfield there are no landing directions given. You must ascertain the local conditions and make your own arrangements for landing. As you will now see. These flights will demand your close attention. Boredom will not be a problem.
 
The beacons themselves when viewed at close quarters will be seen to consist of three rotating lights. Two are white and one is green. Experience will soon teach you how to spot these beacons. The beacon tower is a red and white painted structure and a close look again will reveal an accompanying shed close by which it can be assumed houses the NDB Transmitter. The radiation distance of two miles has been deliberately set to ensure that only accurate flying will allow you to confirm the Morse identification of the beacon.
 
This is the original New York to San Francisco Transcontinental Route across the US. There are a total of 32 legs if flown in both directions.
 
Numerous people have been involved with the preparation and testing of the Trial flights but the main thanks must go to Al Gay and Johan van Wyk for the unstinting and uncomplaining way they have accomplished this notable moment in the history of DC-3 Airways. Thank you to you both.
 
We anticipate that this will be the beginning of a whole new way of flying the old way. You will need to pay attention to drift angles when flying these routes, so dust off your E6-B calculators, virtual, digital, or real.

Unfortunately these Airmail Night Flights can only be flown using FS2004. There are plans to make a similar set that will be suitable for use with FS2002 as soon as possible.
 
Feedback in the form of Pireps, posts in the Forum or mail directly to any of the staff would be greatly appreciated. 
 
 
Norm Hancock
Sr VP DC-3 Airways.   


