Where did you fly today ?

[tiger1962]

Starry, Starry Night! Great shots Plainsman.

My latest flight was from EGNM Leeds Bradford (payware) to LIRP Pisa (freeware, including landmarks) in the Longitude with the Dakfly FDE mod v1.75 and the Mugz Co-Pilot mod, Live traffic and Live Weather. Superb!

[plainsman]

Thanks Tim!!

[Aptosflier]

I haven't flown anywhere today, yet. But yesterday, I flew from Watsonville, Calif. (near where we actually live) down along the coast of Monterey Bay to the Monterey Regional Airport (KMRY) several times in a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron--several times, because my first two attempts to land at Monterey were less than successful, to put it mildly.

 

Yesterday marked the first time I had "flown" the Beech Baron. (I'd been a passenger in an actual Beech Baron a couple of times, decades ago.) I'd previously flown a couple of virtual landing-patterns at Watsonville in a Beech Bonanza, and had a lot of trouble trimming the plane at cruise altitude in the downwind leg and controlling airspeed on base and final. I had better luck with the Baron, pulling off a couple of successful touchdowns at Watsonville, and decided I was ready for a short, flight-planned, GPS cruise to nearby Monterey Regional Airport, landing there on runway 28L.

 

This being our neighborhood, of course I knew the way to Monterey (just as I know the way to San Jose). So I didn't really need GPS to find the airport, but I stuck to the red line on the Baron's instrument display--the whatchamacallit with the horizon indicator. It didn't take me where I thought it would. KMRY is a couple miles inland of the coast. The simplest final approach to R28L or R28R at Monterey would be straight in over Pacific Grove (PG) on the Monterey Peninsula. I use the sim's assisted-landing function, wherein you fly through a bracketed "highway in the sky" from downwind, to base, to final, to the runway. I figured the brackets would appear somewhere over PG. But no, instead, they showed up inland and east of the GPS flight path, instead of a bit southwest where I thought they would. So I had to bank left and fly southeast and then turn west again to enter the landing pattern. (I didn't record the exact headings.) As per usual for me, initially all the brackets were red, meaning my airspeed was too high. I used flaps to slow the plane, throttled up to stay within the brackets, trimmed down to keep from flying over them, throttled up again, yada, yada, yada, and managed to negotiate the damn things all the way to final. But then I got confused, forgot I was supposed to land on R28L and aimed at R28R, which was closer. "Oh wait," I thought, "the brackets are over there!" I desperately banked left, straightened out, and, well, I crashed.

 

Back to the "drawing board." On my second attempt, I anticipated the starting location of the landing pattern and set up for it sooner. I threaded all the brackets reasonably well and landed on 28L, flaring and stalling at just the right time. But when I tried to taxi off the runway, the Baron went nowhere. I revved the engines; nothing. KMRY tower: "Please clear the runway." Nothing. Tower: "Clear the runway when you can." I switched to the external camera view. The Baron was on its belly. I'd failed to lower the landing gear. I control landing gear with the central toggle-switch on my Logitech throttle quadrant. I'd toggled it on final, and thought I'd lowered the gear. But I'd toggled it the wrong way. I returned to Watsonville to restart the flight with a few mouse clicks. My third landing attempt at Monterey was the charm.

 

For my next excursion in the Beech Baron, I'll follow they way I already know from Watsonville to San Jose, over the Santa Cruz Mountains, and up the Santa Clara Valley to R30L at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. (Or KSJC for short.)

[neilends]

For my next excursion in the Beech Baron, I'll follow they way I already know from Watsonville to San Jose, over the Santa Cruz Mountains, and up the Santa Clara Valley to R30L at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. (Or KSJC for short.)

 

I am enjoying the sim in a similar way to you. Part of its appeal to me is its ability, for those who want it, to begin to learn very basic aviation concepts. Though I've been a simmer for many years, I'd never really bothered to learn about landing patterns, but this version has inspired me to do so.

 

Previously, just flying up to an airport from the sky and barreling down to shove the plane on the runway come hell or highwater seemed to work just fine, so that was my MO. :D

 

The accurate simulation of wind effects on a small plane is pretty amazing, so may as well take advantage of it. That's what makes the software addictive.

[Aptosflier]

Though I've been a simmer for many years, I'd never really bothered to learn about landing patterns, but this version has inspired me to do so.

 

Previously, just flying up to an airport from the sky and barreling down to shove the plane on the runway come hell or highwater seemed to work just fine, so that was my MO. :D

Agreed. I never spent much time studying flying basics when I last played around with MSFS in the mid- to late-'90s. (Of course, I was working back then and had less time to spend.) This time around, I prep by watching, rewatching, and absorbing flying tips from tutorials I find on YouTube. One video I've found especially helpful with trimming an aircraft for climbing, cruising, and landing, and for landing techniques is

, by a young woman who's a flight instructor and has been a pilot for Canadian regional airline. I've watched this one multiple times and keep going back to it to further ingrain her instruction so I remember it "in flight." (You can quickly skip past the opening YouTube ad and her additional promotion for her own sponsor.)

[neilends]

I've been flying around Hawaii the last few days. Took off from Hana on Maui Island today, and took this snapshot from the island's high point, Haleakalā. Pretty cool to see the hiking trails and park buildings depicted (not shown in photo here). To do this one needs to climb from sea level up to about 11,000 feet to fly over the volcano, then back down to sea level to land. I landed at PHJH-Kapalua, but it took me 4 miserable go-around attempts to do so properly. And even then it was a crappy, amateurish landing that would have had any passengers in the plane vomiting and telling each other to make sure my tip was zero. Part of the reason for this failure was my using a different plane (I selected the Caravan by accident and was too lazy to go back).

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by neilends

[neilends]

I flew to the location of the glacier collapse at Joshimath India. I started out at the airport Neilends mentioned last week, which MSFS calls Rudraprayag India, but which is actually in a town called Gauchar (30°17'6.29"N 79° 9'34.84"E). There is something secretive and mysterious about the airport at Gauchar, it is listed as being fully functional, but "not open to domestic flights". Joshimath is about 27 miles NE of the Gaucher airport on a heading of about 52°.

 

I have not found the location stated anywhere for where that exact canyon is; once you get to the Joshimath area you encounter several candidates. But you can't explore those canyons very easily in an airplane because they are so narrow; so once I got to the area around Joshimath I deployed the drone, which opened up a whole new world. With the drone you can get down low and operate in those narrow canyons and the landscape detail blossoms. Also, if you bump into a canyon wall with the drone it's no big deal, with a plane you'd be back to the main menu.

 

I think I found the power plant that was washed away, but I can't be sure. It's easy to imagine the awesome power from that wall of rock and water roaring down the narrow canyon.

 

With a couple more weeks of MSFS experience, I re-attempted landing at the mysterious Rudraprayag Airport that is not really in Rudraprayag. It's in Gauchar, and is listed in India's airport databases as such. Who knows how MSFS got it mixed up with Rudraprayag (which is a well-known holy destination btw).

 

The landing was much smoother with my additional landing experience, not to mention the joystick I'm now using (I used a keyboard last time). It also helped to properly plan and map out my route ahead of time, so I wasn't wildly flailing left and right through a narrow canyon. There was a significant crosswind and I have not learned how to properly land in crosswinds. The landing was good enough but the wind pushed me off the runway once I was on the ground.

 

I recorded the landing on video if anyone wants to see it:

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by neilends

[Aptosflier]

I've been flying around Hawaii the last few days. Took off from Hana on Maui Island today, and took this snapshot from the island's high point, Haleakalā.

First, good on you putting the accent on the right syllable in Haleakala. Second, we've been to Hana. Some years back, we drove the Hana Highway (otherwise known as the two-lane road from hell). Had a wonderful lunch at the inn there and drove back. It was a vacation/research trip for an historical novel I was writing about Kamehameha (the Great), who united the Hawaiian Islands to create the Kingdom of Hawaii. (I'd be glad to share a link in a PM with anybody who's interested in the book.) Hana is a historic site and I needed to see it for myself. Third, we drove to the top of Haleakala a couple or three years ago on our last trip to the Islands. We were able to see Mauna Kea on the Big Island from there. We've been to the 14,000 ft. summit there too. We've been to Kauai and Oahu as well as Maui, but the Big Island is our favorite, and I'm missing it. I may have to fly into Kona soon.

[neilends]

First, good on you putting the accent on the right syllable in Haleakala. Second, we've been to Hana. Some years back, we drove the Hana Highway (otherwise known as the two-lane road from hell). Had a wonderful lunch at the inn there and drove back. It was a vacation/research trip for an historical novel I was writing about Kamehameha (the Great), who united the Hawaiian Islands to create the Kingdom of Hawaii. (I'd be glad to share a link in a PM with anybody who's interested in the book.) Hana is a historic site and I needed to see it for myself. Third, we drove to the top of Haleakala a couple or three years ago on our last trip to the Islands. We were able to see Mauna Kea on the Big Island from there. We've been to the 14,000 ft. summit there too. We've been to Kauai and Oahu as well as Maui, but the Big Island is our favorite, and I'm missing it. I may have to fly into Kona soon.

 

Please do post the link to the book.

 

I've also been to Hana. The drive by car is much more vomit-inducing I assume. I also have an interest in Native Hawaiian history. When our family was in Oahu for vacation, I forced the wife and kid to surrender a day at the beach so we could properly tour and appreciate the Royal Palace, of Hawaii's last royal family, in downtown Honolulu. It was sad but very fascinating.

 

We have also been as a family to Maui and Kauai. I keep threatening the wife to take the Hawaii bar exam, settle us all down in a small town on Kauai, and spend the rest of my legal career prosecuting tourists for the various acts of DUI, vehicular murder, sexual assaults and the like I assume they all commit on the island to keep local DA's busy. That is my dream!

[daspinall]

Edinburgh/London I'm over the Lake District in this clip.... TBM 930 I found some scenery anomalies along the way....

 

[terrylawdinn]

Managed a complete IFR positioning flight from EGNT to EICK in the CJ4 - except the weather at Cork was way below minimums so had to divert to EINN. Apart from ATC abandoning me at "BAL" VOR when I diverted it went very well. So I'm currently sitting on the ground at Shannon waiting for an improvement so we (got a lady copilot!) can reposition to Cork and pick up my first passengers to go to Paris.

[Aptosflier]

Please do post the link to the book.

 

I've also been to Hana. The drive by car is much more vomit-inducing I assume.

 

Mahalo for your interest in my novel. I don't think the site admin would appreciate me promoting the book here. I'll send you a link in a private message (and to anyone else who asks for one).

 

If you've been to Hana but "assume" the drive by car is more vomit inducing, then I assume you flew to the small airstrip there. Was that vomit inducing?

 

The Hana Highway is famous for its many waterfalls and infamous for its one-lane bridges. Tourist guides recommend that you start the drive down early in the morning to avoid oncoming traffic, which we did. But there was a lot of construction ongoing at the time and more than once we encountered big trucks coming the opposite direction at those one-lane passages. There was nothing we could do but give way, even if we had reached the bridge first. We encountered a lot of late-starters heading down to Hana on our way back, which made negotiating those bridges even more challenging.

 

We've been to Maui three times. The first was in 1995 for a brief honeymoon (we're both on second marriages). That time, we stayed at Kahana, between Ka'anapali and Napili. As I recall, we were close enough to walk to both. The second time, about 12-13 years later, I bit on a Westin come-on deal and stayed at Ka'anapali--and regretted it. (The place strike me as a tourist ghetto.) The third time, we stayed at a condo place at the east end of Lahaina. We could walk to the central district from there, but were out of its tourist bustle. On that trip we spent more time in "up country" Maui--the Haleakala side--which is truly charming, and where we'd go if we ever return to the island. But as I mentioned, our favorite is the Big Island. We like to stay at an older hotel on the south edge of Kona. It's good jumping off in any direction for day trips by car, and in the evening for access to lots of restaurants in town.

[neilends]

Thanks for the PM! My assumption about Hana was actually the opposite direction: I have driven to Hana and got pretty close to car sick, as a lot of tourists do on that drive. Not having flown there, I assume flying is much nicer.

 

My wife and I are also both on our second marriages, and we did our honeymoon in Kauai. The Hawaii depicted in MSFS world is pretty nice in my opinion, because it benefits from the US World Update. I have not been to the Big Island yet and am hopping around in my Cessna with the intention to get there eventually.

[Aptosflier]

So yesterday, I practiced landings at our local aerodrome, Watsonville Municipal, again. First in a Beech Baron (hairy and scary) and then in a Cessna 172 (not much better) with live weather turned on. There's another thread in this forum, buried by now, started by somebody who complained that MSFS 2020 clouds look like clouds in the Simpson's logo. They do not. And yesterday's live weather at virtual Watsonville was proof of that. A real storm was moving in here yesterday afternoon. When I fired up my PC and launched MSFS, the real-life ceiling above our house was maybe a couple thousand feet and barely broken. Ditto at virtual Watsonville Municipal. My final landing of the afternoon--in the Cessna--was too interesting by half. I managed to get myself lined up with the runway but as I descended through 400 feet or so, I temporarily lost sight of it as a very low fog bank or mist drifted in front of me. I could barely see the runway lights through it. Not wanting to pull up this time--I'd already gone around several times after coming in too high as I often do--I focused on the runway lights that I could barely see and manhandled the Cessna onto the tarmac. If a good landing is any landing from which you walk away, and an even better one is when you still have a plane you can taxi to a ramp, then this last one was most excellent--as were those true-to-life clouds. Kudos to Asobo. Edited February 12, 2021 by Aptosflier

[neilends]

Aptosflier, just FYI, I've tried responding to your PM a bunch of times but the website seems to be disappearing them somehow. Let me know if you don't see anything from me.

 

This afternoon, knowing I'd have a bunch of work calls, I picked out a long route for the Cessna 172. Having wandered around the country of Samoa, I set course for NFTV-Vava'u, in the Kingdom of Tonga. Live weather. Cruising altitude about 10,000. Samoa to Tonga basically stretches the fuel capacity of the C172 to its max limit, with some room to spare, which turned out necessary because I had a headwind or crosswind most of the flight. Weather was mostly clear with a few lightning strikes here and there, but no sprinkles or significant clouds.

 

NFTV is non-towered. Landing was smooth. Vava'u looks like a very pretty island, mostly realistic in MSFS land compared to youtube videos of the real place. Total flight time was 2 hours and 55 minutes, covering a distance of about 363 nm. Now in Tonga, there are a bunch of islands much closer by that I will hop around on over the next few days.

[Aptosflier]

Aptosflier, just FYI, I've tried responding to your PM a bunch of times but the website seems to be disappearing them somehow. Let me know if you don't see anything from me.

Your messages disappeared from you, but eventually I will get a notification of the message from the site, Pai'ea Press. It just takes some time. However, I will sign on as the admin and see if I can find them. (Pai'ea, by the way, means hard-shelled crab in Hawaiian. Pai'ea was Kamehameha's nickname.)

[neilends]

VR continues to blow my mind, despite some annoyances.

 

First of all, I discovered the joys of the non-autopiloted Robin Cap10C, which I understand to be a French-manufactured aerobatic plane. Second, I decided to fly in live weather from the Nepali capital of Kathmandu to the closest airport I could find. This meant flying to Langtang, elevation 12,557 feet. Kathmandu is elevation 4,400 feet.

 

Per my navigation mapping, I would encounter Himalayan peaks of almost 15,000 feet en route. But the MSFS "brochure" for the Robin Cap10C claims that it can fly up to 16,000 feet. Sooo, what's the problem? I put on my portable oxygen mask and took off.

 

As I climbed up toward some very scary-looking mountains trying to get to 16,000, I learned the hard way that science--even MSFS's version of aviation science--is way more complicated than brochure data. Around 12,000 feet my plane wildly spun out of control and began tearing toward the ground. It is hard to describe this sensation when wearing a VR headset. I hope never to be in a plane when it stalls or flails wildly like this. But this is about as close as I can get to understanding the terror. I actually had to close my eyes for a second because the rotation spin was too much.

 

I recovered, but spun out two more times before accepting that for whatever reasons the actual ceiling for my plane was about 12,000 feet, not 16,000 feet. So now what do I do?

 

Maps told me that there was a river/canyon route all the way to Langtang. That was my only answer, so away I went. The views were breathtaking as I followed this path. I headed west folowing the Trishuli Khola river, then followed it as it turned north. At some point it intersected with another river, the Langtang Khola. I followed this new river east and was making excellent progress, getting to about 6.5 nm from the Langtang airport. Unfortunately, my luck ran out somewhere near the village of Thangsyap. Here, flying at about 11,000 or so but only 1,000 feet above the ground, the plane surrendered completely. It spun wildly out of control for reasons I don't understand, and I could not recover. Boom. Crash. Dead.

 

Oh well.

[neilends]

Re-attempted my route in the last post using a Cessna 208. Successful. However, the runway is only 1,396 feet long. I slightly overran it in the 208 and could have probably avoided that with an absolutely perfect landing. It's just grass on the other side so no crashing.

 

This is a short and extremely challenging flight, that I highly recommend for anyone. The scenery is great (there are some MSFS Salvador Dali graphic glitches). The tactics needed to navigate and land will challenge any non-experts. On one hand you need a plane that can comfortably reach altitudes of 16,000 to 20,000 feet. On the other hand, that plane needs to be able to turn around inside a canyon without crashing into the mountainside (see my route below, depicting the turn-around). I know now that the 208 can accomplish this. I doubt a Cessna 172 could tackle the climbing needs.

 

Departure airport: VNKT (Kathmandu)

Arrival: VNLT (Langtang)

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by neilends

[Aptosflier]

First I flew the Cessna 172 (non-global) IFR from Watsonville to San Jose in live weather. Climbed to around 4,000 feet before descending on final to Rwy 31L and was in clouds pretty much all the way. There were quite a few other simmers around, though they could've been flying in clear weather for all I know. I focused on the horizon indicator while monitoring my air and vertical speeds (trying to keep in mind a cautionary note I read years ago about not chasing your VS).

 

I finally figured out how to communicate with ATC: Click on the microphone in the toolbar to open the ATC window, wherein you can click various options to communicate with it/them. At one point ATC directed me to climb and maintain 12,000 feet, which I didn't want to do because I would've had to lose altitude at a pretty radical clip to make the runway. So I requested clearance to reduce that by 8,000 ft. to 4,000 ft. where I was more comfortable, even if I couldn't see damn thing beyond my wing struts. I also saw an option to request the next waypoint. I tried that and tried to follow ATC's directions ("turn to 75," or something on that order; I probably misunderstood it). Being unable to see where I was going other than by the heading indicator, I pulled up the VFR GPS map and saw I was heading away from and to the east of the airport to some out-of-the-way-point. So I banked left to get back on the right track, which sent the Cessna into some serious VS gyrations. I concentrated on the horizon indicator and made various throttle and trim adjustments and got the plane flying level again, and more or or less at the altitude I wanted, which I held until I intersected the localizer's glide slope, when I commenced a 500 ft./minute descent. I still wasn't lined up with the runway centerline, which was offset to the right, so I banked gently in that direction, straightened out, banked again, and straightened out until the two axes crossed on the localizer display. From thereon out, I followed my instruments down through the clouds/soup until I had the runway in sight and landed pretty much in the middle--and respectably short--with some last low-altitude adjustments. All in all, a challenging 28 minutes.

 

For my second trip of the afternoon, I flew, in live weather again, from Watsonville to Monterey, landing on RWY 10L. I held my altitude throughout the flight to around 3,000 feet, in low clouds, and relied on the VFR GPS map window to set myself up for final approach, as by the time I got down to Monterey, I had no other points of reference. I relied on the localizer beacon to follow the glidescope. I don't think the runway centerline axis indicator is of much use at Monterey since both 28L and 28R use the same frequency. Anyway, it was off to the right the entire way in, so maybe it's really only good for 28R? I'll have to try landing on that one next time.

 

With these two most recent trips, plus a brief sort of test-flight go-around at Watsonville this afternoon in a Cessna Caravan, I'm up to 33-plus hours of flight time. What happens when I hit 50 hours? Balloons?

[Aptosflier]

Re-attempted my route in the last post using a Cessna 208.

So, how do you like this plane? I flew it in a go-around at Watsonville today, taking off on RWY 27 and landing on RWY 20. I didn't take my usual time setting up for landing, but I still got it down with a couple hundred yards of runway to spare, making the last exit ramp with a very hard left turn. Anyway it seems like a relatively forgiving aircraft. But I remain stumped by the new-fangled instrument display screens, in this and other planes, and especially with regard to using them with localizer beacons. Is there anything resembling the vertical and horizontal axes of a conventional localizer display, and where the heck is it? I simply don't know what to look for amid all pretty graphics.

[neilends]

So, how do you like this plane? I flew it in a go-around at Watsonville today, taking off on RWY 27 and landing on RWY 20. I didn't take my usual time setting up for landing, but I still got it down with a couple hundred yards of runway to spare, making the last exit ramp with a very hard left turn. Anyway it seems like a relatively forgiving aircraft. But I remain stumped by the new-fangled instrument display screens, in this and other planes, and especially with regard to using them with localizer beacons. Is there anything resembling the vertical and horizontal axes of a conventional localizer display, and where the heck is it? I simply don't know what to look for amid all pretty graphics.

 

I’m a Cessna 172 loyalist because it forces me to learn a lot of aviation concepts. But I needed more muscle for Nepal, so I picked the 208. I’ve had the same issue as you and figured that sticking with a Cessna would mean at least some elements of the dashboard would seem familiar. That’s mostly worked. I did read in a non-sim article somewhere that Cessna or Garmin deliberately did not use the nifty graphical 3D modeling screen we are used to in the high-end 172 model (with a G1000). Real world pilots apparently don’t need it, as I recall. (Edit: I’m wrong. I’m thinking of the CJ4).

 

This Youtuber (who is also a real pilot) gives really good training videos for all kinds of MSFS stuff. Here’s his clip about the 208 that you might find helpful:

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by neilends

[sfojimbo]

Flying the 208 empty is no fair, you have to load it up; it's a cargo plane after all.

[neilends]

Flying the 208 empty is no fair, you have to load it up; it's a cargo plane after all.

 

Unless it was a rescue mission to pick up some stranded tourists IN Langtang. ;)

[Aptosflier]

This Youtuber (who is also a real pilot) gives really good training videos for all kinds of MSFS stuff. Here’s his clip about the 208 that you might find helpful:

 

 

I watched it. He shares good information about the 208's dynamics.

[djfierce]

CYYZ to KBFI in the TBM.