Operation Vittles - The Berlin Airlift ... Tuesday, November 26, 2013 @ 7 PM EST

[HMHS Brittanic]

THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT ALTERING THE FLIGHT PLAN AMONG A FEW OF US, BUT FOR MY OWN SAKE OF SIMPLICITY AND NOT GETTING CONFUSED WE ARE GOING TO STICK THE FLIGHT PLAN I HAVE POSTED HERE (I UNDERSTAND ITS NOT 100% HISTORICALLY ACCURATE BUT I NEVER CLAIMED FOR THIS FLIGHT TO BE AS SUCH)

Summary:
After WWII Germany was left in ruins. Germany was split between the 4 allied powers: Soviets got East Germany and West Germany was split between the Americans, French, and British. East Germany (Russians) blockaded the city of Berlin and the only way to get the necessary supplies, like coal & food, was by air. So a day and night operation began to fly in EVERYTHING, at one point a plane landed every 90 seconds in Berlin. The reason the Soviets put up the blockade was because they felt insecure about their national security and the reason the other 3 countries didn't just tear it down was because they didn't want to start another war.

Fun Facts:
Of the 692 aircraft involved over a 100 were operated by civilians.
Pilots made little tiny parachutes and dropped items like candy bars it was known as Operation Little Vittles.

Flight Plan:
EDDV (Hannover)
EDBG *(Gatow)
EDDI** (Tempelhof)
ETHS (Fassberg)
EDDV (Hannover)
*EDBG was known as Gastow during Operation Vittles but you'll find it to be Burg
**EDDI was closed in 2008

Aircraft: just a list of what was historically used; C-130 and Storm's boxcar are great too! Don't care so long as its a prop and can maintain about 180 GS (legs are really rather short) SHORTEST RUNWAY IS 1640 FT. @ ETHS BE ADVISED
-Avro Lancaster
-Avro Lincoln
-Avro York
-Avro Tudor
-Avro Lancastrian
-Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter
-Bristol Type 170 Freighter
-Consolidated B-24 Liberator
-Consolidated PBY Catalina
-Douglas C-54 Skymaster and Douglas DC-4
-Douglas C-74 Globemaster
-Douglas C-47 Skytrain and Douglas DC-3 (UK: Dakota)
-Fairchild C-82 Packet
-Handley Page Hastings
-Handley Page Halifax Halton
-Junkers Ju 52/3m (operated briefly by France)
-Lockheed C-121A Constellation
-Short Sunderland
-Vickers VC.1 Viking

[Storm]

Since the Boxcar only entered service a few months after the airlift, I'll try and get a C-82 Packet ready for this flight instead by using a modified Boxcar panel and a new (to me) exterior model. The model has more "peculiarities" than the Boxcar, it's a bit noisy, and I'll not have time to check the detailed flight dynamics. But the cockpit will at least be familiar for Boxcar pilots, and it'll be an authentic plane to fly for the airlift. It has no problem, by the way, with ETHS or with a 180 kt cruise. Anyone interested, please check my Skydrive in the afternoon before the flight.

[Coast]

Here is a graphic showing an overview of how the "Big Lift" worked.

-Coast

[HMHS Brittanic]

Thanks a bunch Coast and Storm. I really appreciate what you've done with the C-82, the Boxcar "overlay" should work perfectly seeing how it was the C-82 successor, and now its one of Storm's aircraft. And Coast looking at your map was really reassuring, I was afraid that I'd lost the authenticity of the flight but I would have never guessed that Fassberg was part of the airlift, and now I have a rough estimate for altitudes. Thanks again to the both of you and I hope to see you there!

[Coast]

I did some research, and put together a fllght plan somewhat close to the [ FASSBERG ** GATOW ] circuit. Its in the GROUP FLIGHT channel in Teamspeak.

-Coast

PS:
Out: FASSBERG via DANNENBERG to GATOW
Back: GATOW via BRUNSWICK then DEDELSDORF (now GIFHORN) ending in FASSBERG

[HMHS Brittanic]

I'm looking in Teamspeak but don't see anything there? Also I already did a test run of the original flight plan, and though I very much appreciate what you've done I'd like to just do a quick test flight of your flight plan.

[Storm]

The C-82 Packet (details above) is now uploaded to my Skydrive. Free to download for the Berlin Airlift group flight.

[Storm]

If you choose to fly the Packet, please be aware that, at the moment, it's an early draft release and not very realistic. For example, it takes off too easily because its empty weight is less than 40% of a real aircraft, it shimmies at the end of the landing roll because the braking is more than 4x normal, and it sometimes judders on the ground because - and this is a hoot - someone fitted it with an invisible water rudder! Nevertheless, it's still fun to fly, although it'll be a very different aircraft when I start tweaking it.