PART 2: The Chase (photos THE CHASE 1 to 5 in my album)
Having found out what type of aircraft the AI police use, and knowing the flight characteristics of the VAN RV-6, there is only one plane that can outfly the VAN and still run clandestine missions, YEP the C-46 Commando!!. I decided to fight the Law in my next clandestine mission.
It took awhile, but I finally found a mission from a depart airport that the C-46 could safely takeoff from it. The mission was from Hana airport to Pepeekeo airstrip. I had no intention of landing at that airport, this was a fact finding encounter. I took off and climbed to 3,500 feet and headed for the destination. At 25 miles out from Pepeekeo the AI police made its appearance and then vanished again. I made no attempt to evade and continued on course.
Having had optimized the C-46 for the best cruising flight (except i left the throttle at 100%), I was doing a speed of 196 knots, when the law made its second showing. I still continued on course without any change in speed or altitude. The closest the AI aircraft got to me was 0.7 of a miles then the gap began to widen again.
When the distance had reach 3 miles, I decided to mess with the AI police by setting the fuel mixture and props to 100% and throttled back to 80%. This slowed my C-46 down so that the gap began to close again. When the AI aircraft was just 0.2 of a mile away I again optimized the Commando then dove for a lower altitude which opened the distance again to 3 miles.
Having proven that escape is possible, the next thing I wanted to learn was whether the AI police would give up the chase at altitude above 100 feet. I circled around the AI aircraft and headed back towards Hana airport. When the distance reached 8 miles and the AI police continued on the chase, I decided to land at Upolu airport with its lighted runway (which makes it easy to line up with it to land).
Once I landed, I exited the C-46 and climbed the slope of the mountain south of the runway to await the arrived of the AI aircraft which continued after me. When it finally approached it began to circle not the Commando but ME! in its attempt to arrest me. It crashed instead, and I took the photos CHASE 4 and 5 and then exited the mission.
Lessons learned:
1) The AI police will continue to chase you until you fly at an altitude below 20 feet for a period of time.
2) You can outfly the police VAN when your destination airport can handle the C-46 Commando's landing distance of 1600 feet.
Having found out what type of aircraft the AI police use, and knowing the flight characteristics of the VAN RV-6, there is only one plane that can outfly the VAN and still run clandestine missions, YEP the C-46 Commando!!. I decided to fight the Law in my next clandestine mission.
It took awhile, but I finally found a mission from a depart airport that the C-46 could safely takeoff from it. The mission was from Hana airport to Pepeekeo airstrip. I had no intention of landing at that airport, this was a fact finding encounter. I took off and climbed to 3,500 feet and headed for the destination. At 25 miles out from Pepeekeo the AI police made its appearance and then vanished again. I made no attempt to evade and continued on course.
Having had optimized the C-46 for the best cruising flight (except i left the throttle at 100%), I was doing a speed of 196 knots, when the law made its second showing. I still continued on course without any change in speed or altitude. The closest the AI aircraft got to me was 0.7 of a miles then the gap began to widen again.
When the distance had reach 3 miles, I decided to mess with the AI police by setting the fuel mixture and props to 100% and throttled back to 80%. This slowed my C-46 down so that the gap began to close again. When the AI aircraft was just 0.2 of a mile away I again optimized the Commando then dove for a lower altitude which opened the distance again to 3 miles.
Having proven that escape is possible, the next thing I wanted to learn was whether the AI police would give up the chase at altitude above 100 feet. I circled around the AI aircraft and headed back towards Hana airport. When the distance reached 8 miles and the AI police continued on the chase, I decided to land at Upolu airport with its lighted runway (which makes it easy to line up with it to land).
Once I landed, I exited the C-46 and climbed the slope of the mountain south of the runway to await the arrived of the AI aircraft which continued after me. When it finally approached it began to circle not the Commando but ME! in its attempt to arrest me. It crashed instead, and I took the photos CHASE 4 and 5 and then exited the mission.
Lessons learned:
1) The AI police will continue to chase you until you fly at an altitude below 20 feet for a period of time.
2) You can outfly the police VAN when your destination airport can handle the C-46 Commando's landing distance of 1600 feet.
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