Download the DC-3 and DC-4 Routes here.

Ralph Lewis, author of By Dead Reckoning, was a radio operator and navigator for United Airlines. He flew these
WW II Pacific Routes in DC-3's and DC-4's, and now you can, too! ... We also invite you to submit routes. See below.

Who could be surprised that Dave Bitzer proposed a 1940s route structure of Pacific Ocean flights? After all, he developed the Drift Meter, and with Mark Beaumont, the Bubble Sextant Gauge (both included in the download file). With these WW II era navigation instruments one can again experience the emotion of long over-water flights.

If you use the sextant at intervals during the flight to accurately fix your position and monitor your course with the drift meter you'll be on the right track to safely arrive at your destination. However, one must also properly manage fuel consumption. So here are Auto-mixture gauges (FS9 default or FS9 MAAM) to optimize your DC-3 fuel consumption, just like the real aircraft. They already exist on the DC-4 panel.

The Drift Meter, Sextant, and Auto-Mixture gauges are fs9 only, but FS2002 versions are on the way.

The map above shows the initial thirty-one routes. They range in length from 233 NM to 2090 NM. Fly any route with the DC-4, but restrict the DC-3 flights to under 1200 NM, which is within its fuel range.

In many of the flights you'll face the need to trade-off payload for fuel. Payload, of course, is what the flights are all about, though. Use Dave Bitzer's Flight Notes and his Navigation Techniques of the 1940s tutorial to learn how to maximize your payload. Both are included in the download.

The DC-3 range calculations were based on actual DC-3 data. You can fly your default, fs9 DC-3 "to the numbers," also, if you install this new aircraft.cfg file files/dc3_bb3.zip. Dave Bitzer and Mark Beaumont modified it to better match the actual DC-3 specifications. The DC-4 is in good compliance with the specifications.

The Pacific Ocean is immense and more flights would be very appropriate. We encourage the submission of additional routes similar to what is posted. It doesn't take much time to work up a flight or two. Email the flight details to talkto.dca@ntlworld.com and put "Pacific Routes" in the subject line. Thank you!

You'll thoroughly enjoy these flights. There's a lot of satisfaction in properly planning, navigating, and flying a long, over-water route. What better reward than safely touching down at your destination?

Many people to thank:

• Dave Bitzer, DC3-910, for his research, planning, documents, and files for these Pacific Routes. He also contributed the first 19 of these routes.
  
  
• Again to Dave Bitzer plus Mark Beaumont for the gauges already mentioned that enabled the concept of WW II era over-water routes.
  
  
• To Senior VP Norman Hancock for his work on the DC-4 Auto-Mixture controls.
  
  
• To Mark Thomas, DC3-338, for the Route format and spreadsheet detail concept.
  
  
• And to Ralph Lewis for his great 1994 book, By Dead Reckoning. (Available soon in paperback).
  

A good job by all.