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Alright, I know there are a few people on here that are into GA flying and bush flying, so I think I've got an event to appeal to you guys. Every year, before the Iditarod, all of the supplies are flown to the checkpoints along the race route by a volunteer fleet of bush planes, known as the Iditarod Air Force. Pilots bring their own aircraft and help out with flying straw, course markers, dog food, people food, med supplies, clothes, and lots of other things that the race needs to be able to take place. If we got our own little FSW fleet together with a couple of guys to hand out assignments, then we could have ourselves a nice bush flying event.
The real 2009 IAF schedule starts the load out on the 22nd and continues through that week, but since most of us have school and work to deal with, I figure we can do the event on the 21st and 22nd; we'll have to figure out a timeframe for both days, real world is 9AM to 5PM local time (GMT-10).
Plan/schedule:
On the first day, the fleet will fly out of Willow Airfield in Anchorage to take supplies to the Yenta, Skwenta, Finger Lake, and McGrath checkpoints. McGrath is about halfway along the route, and the fleet will spend the night there.
On day 2, the IAF will fly out of McGrath to distribute supplies along the second half of the Iditarod route; Kaltag, Shaktoolik, Elim, and White Mountain checkpoints.
Here's a map to give you an idea of where we'll be headed:
Image from http://www.iditarod.com
Execution
This is just a rough draft, so include any comments and ideas you have.
Participants can logon anytime during the event and ask to be dispatched a flight. One of the dispatchers (see below if you'd like to be one) will then give the plane a destination and cargo load. The pilot will make the flight, then call up again to see where they're headed next. You, as the pilot, can let the dispatcher know where you've gone so the dispatcher can try to vary it up a bit for you.
Note that flights will range from 20nm to over 200, and although I know most of you guys like your shorter flights, please try to do some longer flights as well. No one can make you do the longer flights, but our goal is to get the supplies to where they need to go, including some of the further off checkpoints, so we'd like any help we can to accomplchat goal.
Aircraft
Aircraft is the pilots' choice, but be aware that this is real bush flying; 1000ft landing strips with 50ft tall trees on either end of the strip isn't uncommon, so choose an aircraft that you would expect at a strip with those kinds of accomodations. Also, it's winter in Alaska, so it would be wise to choose an aircraft that you're familiar with, especially for you guys using real world weather.
A few of the checkpoints are, in the real world, frozen over lakes. But, lakes don't freeze in FS, so those would be a good opportunity for you floatplane pilots to break out your amphibians (McGrath and Anchorage are both on land, so you need tires). Guys with no floats can still land at those checkpoints, just try to make it on the beach.
Scenery
There are several scenery enhancements to make the event more enjoyable, but six of them are required to install the checkpoint scenery. The checkpoint scenery is from 2004, so it's not of amazing quality but it gets the job done.
Required files:
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44511
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44607
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44637
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44379
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44381
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=44383
FS Freeware has also made some 38m mesh for FS9, covering all of Alaska. This isn't required, but it can definitely spice up your flight.
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=53009
http://library.avsim...D...&DLID=53017
Signup
Pilots interested, please make a post here to let me know you're going to fly. It won't be required, but knowing the aircraft involved and how many will help me setup everything. Please include:
Name (to be used online):
Aircraft:
Dispatching
Anyone interested in dispatching the flights, PM me. Duties will be fairly simple: we have over 150,000lbs of goods to ship out to all of the checkpoints, and the dispatchers' jobs will be to decide where supplies need to go. You, as dispatcher, will tell the pilots where they need to go and how much stuff they're taking with them, as well as keeping track of how many supplies are at each checkpoint and how many supplies each checkpoint needs, so you can decide where to send flights. You can do this while you're flying or just sit on the ground and do it, I don't really care, but it would be nice to get a few guys doing it throughout the day so one person doesn't have to sit and dispatch for the entire event.
During the Race
The IAF also deals with transporting Iditarod officials along the race route as well as injured dogs (dropped dogs) and mushers back to Anchorage. We could do this as well if there's enough interest, possibly the 7th or 8th of March. Basically how that works is there's a group of planes that flies ahead of the race and a group that hangs back. If there's an injured dog, the musher will load it onto one of the planes that's ahead of the race, then the pilot will fly it to the base where the planes following the race are at, and one of those pilots will take the dog to Anchorage. I don't know if there would be much interest in it, it would be more like a group flight than anything with a few guys going backwards every once in awhile, but if you guys are interested let me know.
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I just sort of threw this whole thing together, so there may be some stuff I missed. If you've got comments/suggestions let me know. I'd like to set this up and get a good showing, because if we got a good turn-out it would be a real fun event. After some thinking I decided it would be best to hold it on the FSW server, and all of you that are VATSIM-only or IVAO-only fliers (like me), please still try to show up; the more the merrier.
Thanks guys, hope we can make this work.
Edited by Flying_Pie, 10 February 2009 - 06:57 PM.
