Nanaimo to Tipella in a Beech Bonanza A36 Float Plane

This is a flight taken in the A36 Float Plane from DreamFleet. It's not a real plane in RL but DreamFleet packaged it with their A36 plane just for fun. I like the plane but the low wing floater makes it hard to get next to a dock. Scenery is all ORBX.

 

(Click pictures to enlarge them)

 

Here's the A36 next to the dock at Nanaimo. You can't see the wing radar pod from this angle but the plane is fitted with weather radar.

 

 

Rear seats folded forwarded to load my bags. I am meeting my friend Sam at Tipella for a weekend of fishing.

 

 

Getting into the cockpit for a quick pre-flight check. I did a full check before moving the plane to the dock. Doing a pre-flight check on a float plane bobbing in the water while in a raft can be an interesting challenge.

 

 

The engine is turbocharged to handle the extra weight due to the floats. This plane has plenty of power and can cruise pretty fast.

 

 

I asked one of the men standing next to this girl if he would make sure my right wing cleared that locker at the end of the dock as I pulled out. A low wing floater has it's problem.

 

 

A direct flight path to Tipella was entered into the GPS.

 

 

Engine started. The co-pilot from the other float plane stands ready to watch my right wing as I exit the dock.

 

 

I managed to clear the dock locker without his help. Thanks for being there just in case.

 

 

Lot of boat traffic in the channel so I headed out to open water.

 

 

Throttles advanced for takeoff.

 

 

Leaving Nanaimo.

 

 

A little hazy but a great day for a flight.

 

 

 

Rest of flight in next post.

Here's the rest of the flight.

 

(Click pictures to enlarge them)

 

 

That's Vancouver off to the right. They are keeping an "eye" on me as I fly thorough their airspace.

 

 

The channel off to the left leads to Squamish.

 

 

Leveling off at my cruise altitude. Nice view of Vancouver in the distance.

 

 

This area is beautiful but very rough terrain. Wonder if that's new snow on the mountains this time of year.

 

 

Lots of mountains, valleys, lakes, and rivers. Wonderful area.

 

 

Time to disengage the AP, stop Vancouver's Flight Follow, switch to Tipella's frequency, reduce power, and lose some altitude. I am going to drop into the valley just off to the left.

 

 

Tippela is off to the right. You can just see the dirt runway back there between lots of trees. Since I don't have wheels I need to use the water.

 

 

There was no traffic in the area so I took some liberty where I landed.

 

 

Heading over to the float plane area.

 

 

The boat and float plane repair shop is on the left. The township of Tipella is buried behind trees on the right.

 

 

Plane shut down and anchored. Sam used the motorized raft over there to get me ashore.

 

 

Here's a bird's eye view of Tipella.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the flight.

Great flight!!! Enjoyed the screenshots and the scenery excellent.

Nice flight, well presented!

Great looking floatplane shots!

John, Klee, and Pugilist thanks for the comments. Jim

Wow, this one has everything Jim! A nice aircraft, interesting flight, good looking scenery, informative narrative and excellent shots. Can't do better than that, :cool: :cool: :D

Larry, thanks for the comments. Glad you enjoyed the post. Jim

Now that brings back a lot of memories from my FS9 days. :) The DreamFleet A36 was my favorite plane back then, I forgot all about the float version until now, thanks for these great shots Jim!! :)

Thanks for the comments Adam. The DreamFleet Bonanza A36 was one of my favorite planes in FS9 too. Jim

Great post, enjoyed all pics!! :cool::cool::cool:

Appreciate the comments Jan. Thanks for stopping in. Jim

Nice flight Jim, those pictures are great, and nice weather on top of it.:pilot:

Bernardo.

Bernardo, thank you for the comments. Jim

The Dreamfleet Bonanza was a truly awesome model - I miss it so much. The pictures are so nice!!!

How on earth did you get it to operate within the FSX simulator? I cannot get my Archer III and Dakota 236 models to load, so I've never tried the Bonanza. I lost the use of the when I made the move to Windows7 64bit... and of course Windows10 64bit was the same story. ~Glenn

Hi Glenn. Thanks for the nice comments. I have both the DreamFleet Baron 58 and Bonanza A36 ported over to FSX (I use Windows 7 - Professional). I did the port over many years ago but remember both were a major pain. I recall both planes would load into FSX but none of the gauges would work; exception was the RA. So, I bit the bullet and replaced all gauges with "equivalent" ones from payware or freeware FSX planes. Some gauges needed adjustment to match DreamFleet variables. The A36 Float Plane was my latest port over I did several years ago. This specific model only has a VC but uses eight 2D pop-up panels to make flying it very easy. Here's a picture showing all eight 2D pop-up panels. The plane may look dated as the textures are not high quality but it flies GREAT. I normally fly with 3 monitors now and in heavy scenery areas this plane (as well as my other port overs) is easy on frame rates and has little impact on VAS. Jim