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The Duck's RAT Beaver


Rodger Pettichord

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Hi all. Two friends and I have been writing a novel series featuring an outfit named The Rubber Ducks. The first two volumes take place in WWII, and center on covert Mitchell B-25 missions from war's beginning to war's end. The third book enters the east-west secret conflict after the war. I flew all the missions in the first two books using ORBX scenery and the MAAM B-25 specially repainted as Rubber Ducky for us by TeD "TuFun" Wolfgang. The ORBX scenery really brought the writing process alive. Book III features a variety of planes and places, so we picked one plane -- the DeHavilland Beaver -- as our cover girl. Again, TeD was kind enough to do a paint for us. Again, I flew the missions in ORBX, this time all over the world, in the various planes. In this post, I want to show off TeD's wonderful repaint. Hope you enjoy.

 

ORBX Global/Vector/NA LC/Valdez. REX real weather/MilViz Dhc2 Beaver/repaint by TeD "TuFun" Wolfgang

 

After the war, the Rubber Ducks become a covert civilian outfit (think Air America) named ROORD Air Transport. Soon after the naming, it is realized that the new acronym is RAT. So now we have Ducks flying as RATs in a Beaver. TeD thoughtfully put a flying rat logo on our tail here. The Rubber Duck symbol is the little circle just off the cowling. We are parked at Dead Horse on Alaska's North Slope.

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The Dead Horse terminal. ORBX has done a nice job with this isolated facility.

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Coming up from Dead Horse. Nothing but marshes and tundra and mosquitoes for many miles around.

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The Dead Horse complex. The marshy scenery is typical and extensive. ORBX has given it detail so that we get a real sense of it.

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The refinery near Prudhoe Bay. Oil and stir-crazy oilmen.

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Turning east. If we go down, TeD has given us colors that will be seen. Please come looking!

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Down to Valdez now For a change of scenery -- actually for any scenery at all after the endless flat marshes of the North Slope.

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The Valdez terminal. The pilots of these small Dash 8 regionals must really earn their money over a year's flying challenges. Lots of "interesting" weather there.

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Taxiing out to the runway. TeD's Beaver (MilViz) is very satisfying.

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Take-off from Valdez.

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Climb-out from Valdez.

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Passing the tank farm on the way out.

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On the way. Aiming for ORBX  headquarters in Australian, but I'm not sure TeD's beautiful Duck RAT Beaver has the legs. Gotta try, though, eh, Cobbers?

vA6hhfy.jpg

 

 

Thanks for coming along!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unreal Rodger.  What a story and awesome livery.  I love the scenery but kept laughing out loud at the name of the airport.  How in the world was it named, of all things, Deadhorse?  Was there a dead horse there?  Did they have to stop there because their horse died so they named the place in honor of their now deceased equine? :wacko:

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39 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Unreal Rodger.  What a story and awesome livery.  I love the scenery but kept laughing out loud at the name of the airport.  How in the world was it named, of all things, Deadhorse?  Was there a dead horse there?  Did they have to stop there because their horse died so they named the place in honor of their now deceased equine? :wacko:

Deadhorse, by the way, apparently got its name from a local business of the 1970s called the Dead Horse Haulers trucking company. How the company got that name is another matter. One version has it that it had a summer contract to haul away dead horses in Fairbanks.Aug 20, 2015

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2 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Unreal Rodger.  What a story and awesome livery.  I love the scenery but kept laughing out loud at the name of the airport.  How in the world was it named, of all things, Deadhorse?  Was there a dead horse there?  Did they have to stop there because their horse died so they named the place in honor of their now deceased equine? :wacko:

 Given the nature of the name, we may not want to know. :o

 

2 hours ago, olderndirt said:

Deadhorse, by the way, apparently got its name from a local business of the 1970s called the Dead Horse Haulers trucking company. How the company got that name is another matter. One version has it that it had a summer contract to haul away dead horses in Fairbanks.Aug 20, 2015

Thanks, OND. Good research on your part.

 

2 hours ago, olderndirt said:

Your images disappeared.

They came up when I opened the thread at 8:00 p.m. Hope they stayed open for others.

 

37 minutes ago, flyingleaf said:

Great story Roger. Please  re post your picture.

I think they are up again, flyingleaf. At least they came up when I opened the thread just now.

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