Floundering Around Part 5: "BAe 146"

By Ron Blehm (12 July 2006)

Background: I'm no ATP...sometimes I just seem to Flounder Around, but back in 2003 a group of us launched a virtual flying club (and virtual airline). The single goal of this group was to share our love of flightsimming. We have had such great fun sharing our monthly features with each other that I wanted to spread the cheer by sharing some flights for you all to try out.

We all approach our simming from different angles and learning from each other is one way we all grow to become better simmers - and citizens. Since starting our little club, we have grown into a real community which includes a web site and our own liveries, many of which you have been seeing in these features.

Features: There are two distinct flights this time around and you can fly either or both as you see fit. The New Zealand flight was originally submitted for our "Flight of the Month Club" (www.toomuchfs.com) in June 2003 by Bill Smith from Western Australia. The Canary Islands portion was partially adapted from a feature flight I submitted for March 2005. Our focus this month is the BAe-146 known by some as the RJ-85.

New Zealand: I know there is some mesh for FS2002 because I used it in that earlier version. You can also find this smaller file for Queenstown (NZQN_AGN.ZIP). You'll depart from Christchurch, NZ at 07:55 AM (picture, left) and after being handed off to departure or center you'll turn to 224° and the RY VOR (112.5). This is a very scenic flight over New Zealand's south island (picture, right).

After crossing the VOR you'll turn to 207° and dial in the Slope Hill VOR on 113.60. Queenstown has a notoriously tough VOR/DME non-precision approach from the north which we'll be using this morning. There is an NDB at the airport to help guide you in (362 kHz). Please read the following information which was written for FS2002 by Bill Smith:

On the day that you fly this route, if the winds at Queenstown are from the south, you can expect the following: At 43 nm from the "Kaldi" waypoint (78 nm from Slope Hill), air traffic control will instruct you to descend to 18,000 feet. Then, at a position 56 nm from SH you will be directed to descend to 10,000 feet. A little later, at 46 DME from SH, you may be directed to adjust your heading slightly to 220°. At 29 DME you will be instructed to descend to 7000 feet and at 19 DME you will be handed over to Queenstown Approach. They will direct you to turn to a heading of 200°. You'll be flying low over mountainous terrain now. I strongly suggest that you no longer rely on ATC from this point on. (They will want to hold you at around 6000 feet until you're almost over the airport.)

If visibility is good and there are no huge cloud banks below you (picture above, left), cancel your IFR flight plan and contact Queenstown Tower to request landing clearance. Then SLOW SLOW SLOW to 160 knots and descend gradually (800 feet/minute) to an altitude of not less than 4500 feet (picture above, right). You will be flying south-southwest down a valley with a road and a river below you.

Keep a lookout ahead and to the right, and in a few minutes the airport will come into view. When you have the runway in sight, turn right - you'll need to commence a zigzag descent onto the runway (pictures, right). There is a possibility that the wind at Queenstown will blowing in from the north. In this case, instead of directing you to turn to 200° at 19 DME, ATC will direct you to continue in a southwesterly direction until you are over Lake Wakatipu.

If visibility is good, I recommend that you cancel your IFR flight plan and make a wide descending left turn between the steep sides of the lake (minimum height 2500 feet). Follow the curve of the lake around to the southeast until your Nav 1 is aligned with the 050 radial of the Slope Hill VOR, at which point you should be visual with runway 5. Again, if visibility is poor, climb out of there and divert to Invercargill.

I flew this back in June of 2003 with the following paragraphs: "China Southern five-two-niner, turn right heading two-six-zero. Descend and maintain flight level one-two-thousand, expect visuals to runway 5." Now the plate I have suggests that for runway 5 we set-up on the 037° radial inbound at 30 miles, descending from 6000 feet. Problem one is that after ATC hands us off about 15 times, they vector us in from only about 16 miles out. Problem two is that ATIS is reporting Queenstown is "socked in." Suddenly ATC reports, "China Southern, airport is directly to your 9 o'clock position, turn left, cleared for runway 5."

"Oh No! I can't see ANYTHING out there." I turn left but hold the 2100 feet ATC left me at..."China Southern, turn right heading 180° and climb to niner-thousand feet. Contact New Zealand Center." I guess that means I missed the airport (picture, left)?

With that, I cancel IFR and fly 210° about 32 miles out, then I follow my own plate in on the 037° radial to 19.4 DME before turning to 048°. I have the MAP as 1700 feet at 5.2 miles DME. At that point we are still in the thick cloud so I go ahead and drop to 1500 feet. At 2 miles DME I figure it is a lost cause to try and land this morning. I go missed for the second time and as I climb out of the cloud I dial up the FCI VOR at NZFC (an add-on airport for the Flight Club www.toomuchfs.com).

For this feature, I repeated the flight, with real weather, in the BAe 146 ('cause this feature is about the BAe 146) and had an outstanding flight, nice approach and smooth landing - see what a little practice will get you?

Canary Islands: Now for our next flight. You'll find the following files at www.flightsim.com:

• LAPALM05.ZIP
• CANARIES.ZIP
• CAN1SRTM.ZIP
• CANARY04.ZIP

I set up just one leg for this feature, departing in the mid-afternoon from Lanzarote (GCRR) and heading to Los Rodeos (GCXO). The Canary Islands are part of Spain, a great sunny vacation spot and from the videos and real weather I've seen it can be windy (see the sock, picture below, left?). Much like the Greek Isles or Hawaii there are many fun sights and some challenging FS airports all within easy reach - you should check out all the Canaries' airports sometime! (I'd also put a plug in for some Canary Islands FS videos I shot, which are shown at: www.putfile.com/pretendpilot)

From departure you'll turn to 250° (picture above, right) and head first for the VOR on 112.90. Once up to cruise, I was able to enjoy the views of the blue Atlantic waters below. Remember I mentioned the wind? Well, although it looks nice, today's flight was really bumpy! At the VOR turn north to 310° and dial in NAV2 to the airport VOR on 112.5. Los Rodeos includes an ILS system as follows:

Runway 12 = NAV1 on 108.70 - Hdg 118° with NDB at 420 kHz
Runway 30 = NAV1 on 110.30 - Hdg 298° with NDB at 410 kHz (picture below, left)

I was able to make a straight in approach although winds were quartering and gusting from the north. You'll see on the above screen shot that I had to hold 303-305 just to stay lined up on the runway (which is on a heading of 298). Unlike in Queenstown, I maintained autopilot all the way to the runway this time, just for fun (picture above, right). (For further info on this autopilot/ILS technique, please see this How To article.)

Good luck and happy landings.

Ron Blehm
pretendpilot@yahoo.com