Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation - Rewind

[purpleivan]

A few days, weeks, months (ah., who remembers) ago, a certain person made the rash promise of a new tale of adventure along the coastline of Kerbin.

So, as promised, then forgotten, then remembered again, and forgotten again, but finally remembered (for realsies this time) here it is.

Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation - Rewind.

 

"What's a rewind" replied Bob, more than a little confused by Jeb's unexpected suggestion.

"You know... backwards, like when someone hits rewind on a tape player and..." answered Jeb before getting cut off by Bob.

"A tape player, what's that?" enquired Bob, who was very much a child of his era.

Jeb sighed, he was a little older than his two colleagues, but not that much older. "You know, you rewind it, it makes a funny noise like it's being played backwards real fast" he explained.

"Ahhh... gotcha" said Bob, a little unsure of what Jeb was talking about, but wanting to get to the meat of the conversation.

"Ok" Jeb began, before whipping out a map from behind his back. "You remember this right?"

Oh,hohoho.... no! No way, not a chance" cut in Val, suddenly realising that Jeb was referring to their "little trip" the three had taken, along with Bill a couple of years earlier.

"But Bob loved it, we all loved it. The exploration, the photos, the boat... you remember the boat right?" said Jeb excitedly.

"Oh I remember the boat, but I also remember 3 months of docked pay, because we spent that long off duty sailing around the entire coastline" Val answered, having only recently having gotten her finances straightened out after that little jaunt.

"But this time will be different, it'll be much faster I promise and there won't be a...." Jeb started, before getting cut across, this time by Bob.

"Will we be taking a rover?" the scientist enquired, growing curious about the possibility that he might once more be able to take on some of Kerbin's mightiest peaks.

"Er... well... no" answered Jeb.

"I'm out then" blurted Bob "3 months on a boat and no mountain climbing is not my idea of fun".

"But it won't be 3 months, it'll be way less than that." proffered Jeb as a solution to this lack of rover based entertainment.

Val turned away and started walking towards the Administration Building before shouting over her shoulder "Jeb, I've got a pile of paperwork that management wants me to file and I don't have time for your nonsense".

Jeb turned raised his head before blurting out "Did I mention the plane!"

Val stopped in her tracks, waited a moment before responding "a plane you say?"

Jeb smiled and walked over towards her, continuing with his description of what he had penciled in as being called the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation - Rewind.

"Yes, a jet" Jeb began, sensing that he might have Val on the hook "manoeuvrable, quick, decent range" he continued.

"How quick" Val asked.

"About 370m/s max throttle, so much faster than the Coastal Cruiser" Jeb replied.

"Who gets to fly it" Val enquired.

"Split it 50/50" replied Jeb.

"Hmmm... ok then" Val answered, thinking about that pile (more like a mountain really) of paperwork and wondering if she could claim this as some kind of test flight, so assign all that "fun" to an intern.

"But I get the first leg" Jeb announced with a big smile on his face.

 

Coming soon... Leg01a of the KSCR

Edited September 21, 2021 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Leg01a - Thrills, spills and chills.

 

WARNING: Outrageous number of images ahead... you have been warned!

A little after dawn 3 brave adventurers, err... I mean 3 kerbanauts skulking off work to fly a plane on a sightseeing tour of Kerbin's coastline, pulled out of the Spaceplane Hanger and headed for the runway.

Before leaving Jeb, Val and Bob had grabbed a few essentials for the journey and crammed the snack lockers with their personal favourites. Arrangements had been made (avoiding the attention of the higher ups at the KSC) with a select team of support personel who would help them with the one thing they couldn't carry enough with them.

Fuel.

That was going to require a covert effort to supply them at various point along their journey with the life blood of jet powered journeys.

Having filed a flight plan for a short shakedown flight of their trusty new aircraft, "Flashback", the intrepid trio climbed aboard, headed for the runway and took to the skies.

 

The Coastal Cruiser from the original Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation maxed out at around 70m/s and typically cruised at 50m/s to conserve fuel, something that was a necessity to avoid having more than the 62 stops for fuel that it required that time around.

This time refuelling would be needed, but fortunately nowhere near as often and Flashback can reach speeds of over 360m/s in level flight.

 

Up front, Jeb took care of the important business of travelling in the desired direction and avoiding high velocity contact with the ground. In the back Val and Bob discussed what sights they might see on their long journey.

"Hmmm... Jeb" Val said over the intercom. "I hate to tell you thing but I think Bill might have made a mistake in the positioning of these wings"

"What'daya mean" replied Jeb.

"I mean that there's not much of a view from back here... well, a fine view of the interior edge of the wing, but not much besides that".

 

"Oh... well... there's a great view from up here" replied Jeb, sounding more than a little bit smug.

 

Jeb could almost feel Val's stare in the back of his head, so after basking in the glow of his superior viewing position for a few seconds he shouted out "hey, if ya want I can give ya a better view." and with that rolled the Flashback hard to the left.

 

For a moment, all Val and Bob could see was, well... the sea.

Once Jeb eased back on the roll, they had a much better view.

"If you look out of the left of the aircraft, you'll see the mighty mountain range of the Kimalyas." informed Jeb in a fine, clear, almost professional voice.

"Thank you Jeb" replied Bob, fully aware of the large slab of rock to the left of the plane being the famous montain range. "Huh... Kimalyas" he muttered "I could come up with something better than..."

"Don't!" shouted Val, "you know they they'll find out... they have their ways."

"But, I... hmmph" said Bob dejectedly, reminded of his favourite hobby of naming things (mainly large geographical features) and the requirement not to do that again."

 

The Flashback soared along the coastline to the North East of the KSC at an altitude of around 2000m, or as Jeb like to call "2k too many". With that thought in mind Jeb pushed forward on the stick and put the plane into a steep dive, leveling out just a couple of hundred metres from the ocean waves.

"If you look out of the left of the aircraft, you'll see the fine golden beaches this region has to offer." announced Jeb, doing his best to sound like a seasoned airline pilot, complety with droopy moustache.

"We can't see anything back here Jeb... remember." shouted Val, sounding a little annoyed.

"Ok, I'll fix that" replied Jeb.

 

After the sudden lurch in his stomach ended Bob looked out of the window before  saying "Nope, all I can see is the sea... looks real smooth though. Shame I can't say the same about my intestines."

 

Jeb did have a fine view indeed.

 

Just a little rotationally challenged.

 

Onward the Flashback sped, but a dark foreboding presence formed in the Easter sky.

Yes... it's that old and reasonably frequent friend, the solar eclipse.

 

With the eclipse reminding him of how things get in the way of things that you like (hey... who doesn't like sunshine) Jeb took a look at the fuel gauge and was happy to see that it was reading about 75% full.

How long will the current fuel load last, well that's anyone's guess, but no doubt enough to get them a significant way into their journey.

 

Approaching a long finger of land, pointing out into the ocean, Jeb's first thought was to fly right over it, but then was mindful that this was a coastal trip, not some dash across land, and swung the plane hard to the right.

 

With further legitimate coastal flying done, the Flashback approached what looked like a large bay, stretching off far into the interior of the mainland.

Jeb swung the plane to the left, spilling Bob's recently poured glass of fortified prune juice all over the now rather soggy scientist.

Jeb knew exactly where they were. He'd been a bit shaky on that until a few moments ago, but now he had no doubt.

 

They had entered the basin of the might Kamazon river.

 

"If you look out of the left of the aircraft you'll see the banks of the mighty Kamazon river" announced Jeb, although aware that there was a view of it to the right as well.

 

"We can't see..." the pair in the back shouted in unison, so Jeb dipped the left wing to give a better view.

 

"Flying at over 360m/s along this twisty is no joke" Jeb thought to himself.

The Flashback was maneuverable, but for this challenge he upped the authority that the control surface provided. 

 

"Hey!" Jeb shouted. "I can see the sandbanks that stopped the boat headin' up river".

Below the Flashback the piles of sand that had indeed prevented the Coastal Cruiser from reaching the source of the Kamazon, rolled past as simply as stepping over a small rug.

 

Ah yes... the majesty of the mighty Kamazon river.

Somewhere down there is the Flashback.

 

Jeb could see the mountains of the Eastern Kimalayas, that seemed to get larger every few seconds. They must be nearing the source of the Kamazon.

 

The Flashback swung round to the left, rounding the last of the major bends in the river, to give Jeb a fine view fo the mountains and potentially the source of the river.

 

Surely this must be it, the cavernous canyon that stretched out ahead of the aircraft towards the base of the mountains did indeed come to an end, just as the river began.

 

By the book Jeb should have been pulling up by now.

But where's the fun in that.

 

At almost the last moment (Jeb's crazy, but not crazy enough not to leave a little margin for error) he pulled back on the stick and red lined the engines, to pull up out of the steep sided canyon.

 

The sudden lurch and the sight of a massive wall of rock thundering by on either side of the plane had the pair in the back a little concerned.

"Everything ok up there Jeb." Val enquired. "You need a hand?"

"No... no problem, just gotta... oh yeah!" replied Jeb in a slightly worrying way.

 

Jeb had seen one of those "thread the needle" type of opportunities and wasn't about to miss it.

Although he'd like to miss the rock on either side of that gap.

 

The Flashback shot through the opening in the wall of rock adjacent to the canyon and Jeb lost no time in swinging the plane round to his next target, the peak of the tallest available mountain.

 

The plane shot over the top by barely 50m, before clearing the edge of it, rushing into the air at the top of the 2km drop down the cliff face that stretched from the top to the bottom.

 

By the book, Jeb would have taken a long curving route down to the foothills where he planned to make a landing, possibly swinging out over the Kamazon river along the way.

But Jeb doesn't write books (doesn't like to read them much either).

He pushed the nose hard down, cut the engine (well... we've got a long way to go on this tip, so better save some fuel) and deplyed the landing gear.

 

In the back, 2 unlucky passengers with a limited view began to doubt their reasoning in coming along on this trip.

Jeb however had seen from the top of the moutain, a particularly smooth patch of sand in the grassy foothills that he'd decided was the perfect landing site.

 

Just where the green of the grass changed to a soft sandy brown, the Flashback lowered to within a few metres of the ground, and was about to make its first landing.

 

It was a smooth, textbook affair, with no last minute heriocs at the stick required to make it.

With the plane finally at a standstill, Jeb made a quick status check of the aircraft (wings, 2... check), Jeb raised the landing gear, something thate was a necessity if they wanted to get back inside after heading out for some fresh air.

The three clambered out of the hatch and stepped out on to their landing site.

"I name this pla..." Bob began.

"No... don't do it!" Val and Jeb both screamed.

"Argghhh!" Bob yelled "why did I sign that."

Val looked the Flashback up and down, taking in it's clean lines, clean paint and well riveted... rivets and she broke into a broad smile.

"Hey Val, what you so happy about" Jeb enquired.

Val gave a short chuckle and nodded her head back and forth gently a few times.

"Because next time, I'm in the pilot seat."

Edited August 15, 2021 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Leg01b - A question of speed.

After using up a little over half their fuel, Jeb, Val and Bob parked the Flashback in the foothills of the Kimalyan mountains and settled in for an overnigt stay. This way they would prevent being forced to land due to poor light, before they ran low on fuel.

 

Jeb sat in the cockpit, looking out at his route to the skies, not remembering quite so many trees here when he landed. Well... things grow fast here on Kerbin.

Jeb I here you say, I thought it was Val's turn in the driving seat.

Well, to while away the evening hours, the three had a little game of "Blind Kerbal's North". That fun little game in which the player jams on their helmet, the others wrap a cloth round it, then spin the player around and have them guess which direction North is.

To make things interesting, the pilot's seat for the next day's flying was wagered on the game.

Jeb as it turned out, had the unwavering ability to point North time after time, no matter how many times or how fast he was spun around. Even turning Jeb upside down, with Val and Bob holding one leg apiece, didn't change Jeb's spooky North pointing powers.

His defeated crewmates just put it down to hima having swallowed something metallic in one of his many death defying accidents and somehow it got stuck in his brain (Bob maybe a scientist but his anatomy is pretty shaky). The truth was that Jeb, the ever prepared pilot, has a compass glues inside his helmet at all times, in case of instrument failure.

 

Weaving through the trees Jeb tore along the ground before pulling back on the stick at about 60m/s and quickly zipped upward to 1500m.

 

Within a minute the Flashback was back over the river, giving Jeb the excuse for some tight turns at full thrust.

 

Eventually the twisting river gave way to the large bay it spilled out into and with some straight line flying ahead for a little while, as they headed to the sea, Jeb decided to chalk up some flight test time for the Flashback.

Since taking off from the KSC, until it's landing approach, the plane had been flown at max throttle and for the first test Jeb dropped to 2/3. At around 1500m, this gave a max speed of 321m/s.

 

Ramming the throttle controls to maximum gave a max speed of 368m/s.

So slower seems to be better, at least in range terms, but no surprise there though.

 

After this came some altitude tests at 2/3 throttle, first at about 1000m  which gave a speed of 325m/s

 

Climbing to over 2300m saw the speed drop to 317m/s, so even at this unspectacular altitude, that engine really seemed to want a bit more air.

So for ultimate range, lower and slower is looking like the best bet for maximising the length of these legs.

 

With that bit of testing done and the throttles set at 2/3, the Flashback cruised North along some fine looking beach coastline.

 

Jeb loves islands, well... islands very close to the coast, as that gives a nice small object to tear around.

 

One of the rules of this trip is no coastline cutting. Here Jeb is seen pushing that particualar envelope, by skirting really close to the shore in a tight turna around a headland.

 

Turning the East Jeb checked the map and realised that a large detour on their trip to the North lay ahead, in the shape of a very large bay.

 

Onward tore the Flashback, deeper into the bay.

 

Ok... time to make a very rapid 180 degree turn.

At this point Val and Bob, who'd been pretty quiet until this point, made some complaints.

 

Still turning.

 

Made it.

Now for some progress West.

 

Now time to swing it round to the North. Looks like some more mountain scenery ahead.

 

Mountains indeed.

Jeb dipped the wing to the left to give the passengers in the back a better view.

"A fine mountain" Val opinined.

"Oh yes... Mount Tree stu..." Bob began before Val dog piled on top of him. Ok, a single person pile doesn't make much of a pile, but it was the best Val could muster at short notiec.

"Don't" she yelled "you were warned" she continued.

"But... Mount D26b is so boring" Bob moaned, referring to the Kerbin Office of Placenames official designation for this particular lump of rock.

"Well, unless you want to spend another two years living on lentils and bargain brand hotdogs, then D26b is what it's going to be" advised Val.

Bob look at down at the floor of the cabin. It had indeed been a tough couple of years for him since the KOP had "politely" warned him not to infringe on their sole and extremely official role as the naming authority on any geographical feature over 1km in size in any direction.

 

The two sat in silence as Mount D26b slipped into the distance.

 

Up front Jeb was looking once more towards the inner part of a bay that was going to require some tight turns. Something else for him to think about was that the fuel gaugehad dropped below 50 units, the level at which it had been agreed that it was time to decide on a landing site.

 

He saw this inviting long strip of fairly level terrain on the Northern side of the bay. Once he'd made the turn to head back towards the ocean, that's where he intended to put the Flashback down.

 

Tight turn here we come.

 

All three were pinned to their seats, until Jeb rounded out the turn, then began looking for their landing site.

 

But having reached the point at which he should decide and cut speed, in order to make a landing, Jeb instead just cut speed.

Pulling the throttles back to 1/3 thrust still gave them a respectable 230m/s when flying with near empty tanks. When the plane flew past their intended landing spot, there was still 35 units of fuel in the tanks, enough for a few more minutes of flight along the coast.

Once the gauge was down to 15 units, even Jeb realised that he couldn't keep flying forever and that he needed to pick a landing site.

 

Looking at the map Jeb found that there should be a deep section of beach at the end of a small bay, that looked an inviting site to make a landing.

Just around that rocky outcrop ahead.

 

Turning into the bay a welcoming stretch of sand lay ahead with some smooth looking grassland beyond it.

Jeb cut the engines and glided in, crossing the waves breaking on the beach at about 50m/s

 

She's down and a very smooth landing thanks to that expanse of sand.

 

Jeb tickled the throttle to push the jet round so it pointed downhill, allowing the Flashback to trundle back down to the beach.

 

This should make a nice spot to stay overnight and wait for fuel to arrive.

[purpleivan]

Sorry for the delay in getting the next installment of the rewind done. In the middle of working on a Day 1 patch for the the day job, which is taking up a lot of time.

Ah well... more time for the crew to sit on that beach I guess.

[purpleivan]

Long, long days of lying on a beach (hey... I said they had time for that), time to soak in the sun and wonder where on Kerbin your fuel supply had disappeared to. Finally the crew of the Flashback could put away their deck chairs and start readying the plane for a big slug of the good stuff.

Kerfel now!

With the management of the KSC distracted by monthly reports time, Kerfel "Careful" Kerman, quietly slipped out of the spaceplane hanger, at controls of the Super Juicer. A fine design from the drawing board of none other than Bill Kerman, who promised to help out the crew with whatever fine creations (or possibly slung together pile of whatever's lying around) he could come up with, to help out the crew of the Flashback on their long journey.

It ain't fast and it any pretty, but it does carry a decent amount of fuel and fly reasonably well and is a fitting replacement for the retired Juice Goose.

 

Fully ladden it carries 5520 unit of fuel, a small chunk of which is needed to power those afterburners on takeoff.

 

But once up to cruising altitude Kerfel cut the afterburners and settled in for the trip North. Unlike the Flashback her trip is going to be much more direct, passing over the great green expanse of equatorial Kerbin along the way.

 

Kerfel, who has a reputation for "by the book" flying and no hijinks whatsoever, guided the Super Juicer through these steep valleys

 

Passing over dense forest (well as dense as the settings allow).

 

Before finally picking up the transponder of the Flashback.

 

Kerfel hadn't seen and water since a couple minutes after takeoff, but now had a fine view of the Northern seas ahead.

 

The plan had been to put the plane down as close to the shore as possible, as stopping this much mass takes sometime and Kerfel didn't want to ruin a perfect flying record, by dropping her aircraft in the small lake in the distance. But distracted by trying to get a good look at the Flashback (it's just below the left wing) on her way in, she came in too high.

 

With some weaving to make best use of the limited space there was to land on, Kerfel brought the plane to a halt before dunking it in the drink. Then came the long haul back to the beach.

 

As neither aircraft has the benefit of reverse thrust, gravity would need to be relied on to get the plane separated after refuelling was completed. That meant that Kerfel had to park the Super Juicer on a slight upward slope, then Jeb fired up the single engine of the Flashback and edge forward towards to meet it.

 

Getting the front winglets of the Flashback past the nose of the Super Juicer took a bit of work, but in fairly short time the two plane were hooked up.

 

Now it was time to glug, glug, glug a load of that lovely liquid fuel.

But what's this... oxidizer, what's that doing on board the tanker plane. Bill claimed it was ballast, or coolant, or something else requiring years of engineering experience to understand. But the truth is he just forgot to have those tanks emptied before takeoff.

 

Finally the refuelling was complete, with the Flashback knocking back 1100 units of stuff before it was filled to the brim.

It's task completed (for now at least), the brakes of the Super Juicer were released allowing the aircraft to gently roll back down the slope, clearing the way for the Flashback.

Jeb did some back of an envelope maths on the amount of fuel it took for the Super Juicer to get here from the KSC, it's reduced weight and the likely use of fuel crossing the Great North Sea to their next rendezvous point and thinks that their much welcome provider should have a couple more refuellings in it, before it has to head off to a refuelling of its own at Woomerang. That would be cutting it fine though, so the last refuelling of the Flashback, might need to be a bit of a short fill.

 

As it was by then early afternoon, Val decided (as she would be at the controls for the next leg) to leave takeoff until first light, to maximise the short day in the North.

So it was time to break out those deckchairs again, if only for a little while and watch the sun sink behind the nearby hills.

Edited September 20, 2021 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

 

Leg02a - Close Call

After a night together on the beach it was time for the two planes to part company. The Flashback would head on along the coast, while the Super Juicer would remain on the ground, until Flashback needed a top up. At dawn Val, who at last found herself at the controls, taxied away from the beach into the greenery inland, then swung around and hit the throttles, causing the Flashback to shoot down towards the water's edge.

Val planned on making a low pass over the Kerfel in the tanker after takeoff, but the ground was a little bumpy, making the takeoff angle a little less than straight and level and took all her skills to prevent the fully laden plane from dropping into the  sea.

 

Once stable the plane climbed rapidly away from the Super Juicer and turned North to progress along the coast.

 

The thing with hugging the coastline in a plane is there's lots and lots of turns to make and Val took them there she likes best.

Back in the passenger cabin Bob and Jeb had to stuggle to keep their breakfast down for the first few minutes, given how twisty the coastline is around here.

 

But not long into the flight a great white (well... looks kinda grey from here) mass came into view on the horizon.

The Arctic ice cap.

 

The ice has a more gently curved coastline than the rocky outcrops that preceded it, so the pair in the back had less trouble scoffing down (and keeping down) their mid morning snack.

Val took a look at the fuel gauge and could see that it was just being sipped by the Flashback, which she was reluctantly flying at 2/3 throttle to conserve supplies.

 

Out towards the horizon to the East the great North wall of ice stretched and with little bob here and a little weave there, Val skirted along the edge of it.

 

Wow there's a lot of ice here Val thought (and not much else). It's like one great big runway, as far as the eye can see. She considered taking the plane down so they could all take a stroll on it, but decided against it, as that would waste precious daylight.

 

The sun was high in the sky, but that's not saying much up here.

 

As the plane flew on, a thing other than ice (a real big thing) came into view.

"Hey guys, do you remember seeing this when we sailed through " Val hollered through the cabin doorway.

Bob abd Jeb looked at each other and gave a shrug before Jeb yelled back "if it's below the horizon we can't see", a response came a moment later when the plane slew round to the left, giving them a better view and empty Bob's coffee on the floor.

Bob's left eyebrow twitched. His naming nerve was quivering.

"It should be called Th..." he began, before Val shouted back "hey there Bob, I just can't quite make out what you said, sounds like..." followed by her fumbling around desperately for the Kerbin Office of Placenames, Big Book of Places.

"So Bob, I hear you got repainted your kitchen" Val enquired while   She quickly flipped through to the "North" section of the book.

Bob, a little confused looking replied "Err... well, I painted the back door and cleaned out the cupboards."

"Oh REEAAALLY" Val answered "Home decor is just the best isn't it" desparately holding down the urge to vomit at having said something so sickly.

"Got it" Val exclaimed with much relief, "It's called Coldus Pondus Maxiumus" she continued, reading the name of the large arctic lake from the book.

 

After that close brush with disaster for Bob at the hands of the KOP, Val was glad to see the view was now just more unending featureless ice.

 

This "little" feature had taken some time to sail around in the Coastal Cruiser, but the Flashback made short work of it.

 

"Hmmm... that's an odd looking feature on the ice" Val thought. "I wonder if it's lemon flavoured?"

 

On the arctic ice stretched, on and on... and on.

At least there was an island to make the view a little less monotonous.

 

Ah... finally, something that's not ice, sea or sky to look at, which can mean only one thing.

The Flashback has reached the far side of the Arctic coast.

 

Val dipped the wing to give the pair in the rear a better view, but really they needed to be in her seat to appreciate the view.

 

With the icy coast giving way to the a grass covered one once again, Val rolled the plane to the right to head South.

Only about 20% of the fuel reserves used so far and the Flashback has already made it to the other side of the Great North Sea.

 

Within a few minutes somethin large and familar loomed over the horizon.

 

It looked big, it was big, in fact it it doesn't get bigger than this.

It's Mt Keverest.

Val couldn't resist taking a closer look, so she swun round to the East and headed for the great mass of  snow covered rock.

 

Back when the trip around the coastline was a little more sedate, Bob and Val had taken the Coastal Cruiser's rover up to the top to check the height of the summit, which was 6768m.

 

Val headed for the summit a little faster than the pair had done in that little six wheeler.

3.8km above sea level, only about 3km to go... straight up.

 

With the increasing altitude the engines of the Flashback started to lose a little power, so Val pushed the throttles to the max and aimed at the summit.

 

In the back Bob and Jeb looked out at the pretty aurora that filled the sky, the view below them obscured by the wings.

The view ahead, had they been able to see it through the cockpit, might have troubled them a bit.

 

Val leveled out just before passing over the summit. She knew it was going to be close... but not this close.

 

The Flashback shot over the top of the mountain, leaving a trail of disturbed snow and ice in its wake. Once the top of the mountain was cleared, Val throttled back to 2/3 power and swung round to the right.

 

Then dove down the near vertical cliffs on the South side of the mountain.

 

"Ok, that ground... well I think it's ground, well whatever it is  down there, it's pretty dark, no telling how far down it is. Better level out" Val thought to herself, then pulled back on the stick to level out.

 

The Flashback headed back out to its intended playground, the air over the sea. But the sun was low, really low, which provided precious little light to make a landing in.

 

Landing was the plan and Val wanted to stick to that plan (difficult to fly along a coastline if you can't see it), so it was time to find a safe spot to do just that.

Down came the gear and back went the throttles, to provide just a trickle of power.

 

Val was thankful that when about 50m from the ground, she could see the pool of light ahead from the gear lights.

 

Finally the plane was down, and not as widely strewn collection of debris for the recovery team to sift through.

Val brought the Flashback to a halt, then killed the engines, from the rear of the plane came the sound of two friends playing cards; apparently they'd missed the whole thing.

Ah well, time to settle in for the night and enjoy the spectacle of the Northern lights.

Edited September 21, 2021 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

 

Leg02b - Splashdown

After a long cold night in the foothills of Mt. Keverest, the sun broke free of the horizon and crawled it's way skyward. It's chilly up here in the Northern reaches of Kerbin, so Val wasted no time in preping the Flashback for takeoff.

 

Plenty of fuel onboard - check.

Brakes on - check.

Slam throttles to max - double check!

 

Once the brakes were released, the plane shot across the dew covered grass and was in the air in no time heading West for the nearby coastline, where it would rejoin its intended route.

 

Within a few minutes Keverest began to sink below the horizon.

 

Time for one of Val's favourite manoeuvres... the neck breaking turn.

 

This was followed up with some zipping between the coastland and a large island.

 

After about 15 minutes Val glimpsed something unusual about the horizon. As the plane tore on, the "unusual" in the distance took on the definate shape of something kerbalmade, which was a surprise out here in the sticks.

She'd here something about some plan to dig and blow up (construction's no fun without explosives) a massive canal linking two parts of the single massive ocean that covered a large part of Kerbin's surface. Apparently it was to aid shipping, but Val's only interest in it was the large lighthouse that marked its Western end.

 

It was an opportunity to buzz the tower.

 

Oh yes, fun indeed for Val, but even Jeb looked a little disturbed in the passenger cabin.

 

With good reason too. Val had misjudged her pull out of the turn and ploughed into the sea.

After a tense few seconds spent making sure that all the parts the plane had before smashing into the water were still attached, it was realised that the Flashback had made it through this ordeal unscathed.

 

Apparently this particular plane takes to the sea like a duck to water.

 

 

After a little jet power pushed the Flashback to the shore and up onto the beach, Val double checked that everything was still in one piece.

The only damage from the unplanned ditching in the sea, seemed to be to Val's ego.

 

Ahah... up in the air once more, where this thing is supposed to be.

Try keeping it there Val!

 

On it flew, skirting coastland, zipping past islands.

 

Val missed no opportunity to make a sudden neck breaker...

 

... or a large large bays to zip into...

 

... she even took the plane down for a low level blast over the ocean.

 

As usual Bob maintained his composure.

 

As the plane flew South, the terrain became less rugged and many sand beaches lined the coast.

 

The sun had a more equatorial look to it too, as it climbed high in the sky, rather than crawling along the Southern horizon.

 

Although the plan was to follow the route the Coastal Cruiser had taken, so never crossing land, except when for landing and takeoff, Val could resist zipping through this little shortcut.

 

A check of the fuel guage showed that there was 200 units remaining in the tanks, but at 1/2 throttle that's good for a fair few kilometres more.

 

Ooo... now what is this.

Val spied a large feature along the coastline ahead. Finally it would be here torn to make a river run.

 

Precision flying at high speed with steep river banks on either side. What could be better.

 

Bob and Jeb's view from the windows took on a less blue colour that it had been for almost the entirety of the journey so far.

 

Val was in her element here. An seemingly endless supply of tight turns to negotiate.

 

After a few minutes the Flashback reached the point that had been the end of the "road" for the Coastal Cruiser, in its travels up the river.

 

Ahead of the plan lay the remainder to the river that had remained unreachable by boat, but by plane it was another matter.

 

Then again, that's some river!

Unless the plan was to burn a lot of fuel while making no progress along the coast, it was time to put this little joyride into reverse.

 

Val yanked back hard on the stick and the view from the Flashback's cockpit changed from the steep sided river to  deep blue sky above.

 

She swung the plane around and headed back over the spot where the Coastal Cruise had made its landing at.

 

In the back Jeb and Bob once more have a fine view of cliffs flying by the plane's windows.

 

Before completing their river cruise, Val couldn't resist taking the plane down for a low pass over the water.

 

Bob caught a glance of this large mountain out of the window and was about to give it name, then realised that he'd already done that before on the boat cruise.

He also remembered that the KOP was highly litigious when it came to such things.

 

A little further down the coast Jeb enquired if Val had taken a look at the fuel guage recently. He'd been doing some back of a snack wrapper calculations and was getting worried.

Good thing too, as the fuel level was down to just 50 units, so a landing soon would be required.

 

But before then Val wanted to make the most of what flight time they had left, to make it as far round a very large bay as fuel allowed.

They cruised South along the Eastern side before making a sharp right turn and headed West.

 

With fuel dwindling, Val planned to make it through the gaps between these island on the Western side of the bay, then look for a somewhere to put down.

 

Jeb's calculations had him worried. Was Val planning on running the tanks dry and ditching!

He wandered up to the cockpit and gave a (somewhat) polite thump on the back of Val's seat to remind her to get the thing (safely) on the ground.

 

Val scanned the land around her, looking for a suitable spot. Out of the starboard window she saw something that ticked looked like a good site for them to land and later the Super Juice. That thing needed a lot space to come to a stop, so coming to a stop on a short stretch of beach wasn't an option.

 

Yes... this would make a fine spot to wait for Kerful.

 

Good progress made too, as the Flashback had made it almost to the equator, although there was a large Northerly detour to fly around ahead, before they would make it into the Southern oceans.

Edited October 3, 2021 by purpleivan

[Wizard Kerbal]

On 10/3/2021 at 11:22 AM, purpleivan said:

 

Phew that was a lot of deleting just to say, “I recognize that spot, I had to ditch there once when a rover-deployer ran out of fuel.

You made a much better landing though - solely on the fact that it would fly again.

[purpleivan]

Leg03a - No... your other left

"Kerfel, you there... Kerfel... Kerfel." called Val over the radio, but no reply was to be heard.

Kerfel is a stickler for the rules and the rules say that the working day for a member of the KSC's pilot corp is 02:00 precisely and Val was calling at 01:58... that just won't do.

At exactly 2:30 Kerfel grabbed the mike to respond to Val's inappropriately early request for assistance, in the form of a big slug of fuel.

 

With the preflight checks made, all loose items stowed and the crossword puzzle (the hard one) in the Daily Kerbin done, Kerfel took to the skies.

 

The Super Juicer headed South East towards the location of the Flashback, down near the equator.

 

A journey that took the plane and it's pilot (good thing she wasn't left behind) across great expanses of green lowlands.

 

The route also took them over an extensive mountain range.

 

Yes this fuel trip had it all, including skipping across an area strewn with lakes.

 

Then finally out over the ocean, the big blue, the great wet one, the... er... other things that one might call the sea.

 

After much cruising at about 500m above the surface of the sea, with nothing much to look at, a group of islands appeared on the horizon, drifted towards the Super Juicer, then passed beneath it, as it scampered on towards the Flashback.

 

 

Talking of which, there it is!

Kerfel cut back the thrust and decided to bring her plane in over land, rather than comng in directly over the beach near the flashback, so jinked a bit to the right, aiming at an inlet and valley beyond it.

 

The sun was passing below the horizon and light in increasingly short supply. Hopefully there will be some left for the landing.

 

That would be a no. By the time the plane made it through the valley and had the location of the Flashback in sight, the ground ahead was dark.

Just hope that that altimeter reading is right.

 

Indeed it was.

One good thing about having all the wing on the Super Juicer is that the landing speed can be really low. By the time the wheels made contact with the ground, the speed was down to about 30m/s.

Kerfel wasted no time in flipping on the landing lights (hey... should have thought about that earlier when landing) and making her way over to the Flashback.

 

Refuelling of the little plane had to wait until morning.

 

With it's tank brimmed with 1100 units of "get up an go" the Flashback took to the skies.

 

Off the plane went flying South, as that's the direction we're headed for right... Southern Hemisphere, fly South... simple.

Er... no.

After flying about half a minute in that direction Val realised that they needed to be flying North to get around the big headland she'd landed the plane at the previous day. Never mind, one swift turn and they were back on track again.

 

That's better, round this headland and it's time to head South again.

 

Val never wastes an opportunity to go down near the waves t make a quick pass through narrow gaps between islands and the mainland.

 

Some impressive mountains over there. See you another time perhaps.

 

Something tells me Val and her crewmates will be seeing them sooner than later, as another big turn later, to round a long thin headland and the Flashback was headed back towards them.

 

Val followed the coastline of the headland back towards the mountains.

 

But what's this... looks like a river.

 

Looks like an excuse for Val to get all aerobatic.

 

Yes... Val again was happy to zip along between the steep banks of the river.

That bank of rock across the river is the point at which the Coastal Cruiser had to stop it's travels up this particualar waterway.

 

In the back, Jeb and Bob didn't have quite the same qualit of view that Val had.

The experience they were having was more like that of a package on a cargo flight... just with more stomach churning turns.

 

Val left it until just about the last moment before pulling back on the stick to climb out of the lake at the end of the river, over the cliffs that surrounded it.

 

Then she pulled the plane sharply to the right...

 

... and aimed at the nearby mountain peak.

Up the Flashback climbed. Compared with cruising along at 500m, the engine felt like it was puffing and wheezing a bit.

 

As the plane neared the summit, Val had a nice view out over the river they'd followed on the way inland.

 

Make it over the top the Flashback did, but not leaving much of a margin (just how Val likes it).

 

Then all of a sudden the land fell away as the plane headed over the steep cliffs on the seaward side of the mountain.

 

Well... that's that bit of excitement over with.

Back to cruising along the coastline.

 

A little way along the coast, more mountains appeared, but Val did the sensible thing and did not waste fuel, buzzing massive pieces of rock.

 

So onward the Flashback went, here seen passing between a large island and the mainland.

 

As another neck breaking Val turn took place, Jeb put a bit post it note on the window next to his seat.

"My turn to fly next!"

 

By this time it wasn't getting really late, but the shadows were getting to a decent length, so Val decided that it was time to put down for the night.

 

This she did on a nice, near flat expanse of grass, near the beach.

 

Yep... those shadows are getting long now, so it seems like this had been a good time to land.

But where did the Flashback land.

 

Here's where.

It's hard to see through all that cloud, but the Antarctic ice isn't far away.

Edited October 15, 2021 by purpleivan

[BekfastDerp13]

This is amazing! I can't wait for the next part!