A short but challenging flight in New Zealand

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Nels_Anderson said:

Sorry, I didn't fly a fixed wing plane...

Never apologize for being a rotor head, those that aren't are so so envious of us!

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Nels_Anderson said:

Deja vu all over again. One of the best scenic locations of the route. Well done.

[Rupert]

On 5/13/2024 at 5:00 PM, Bossspecops said:

Noting that this flight was recommended to be flown with a higher power aircraft with good STOL characteristics I thought 'I have JUST the thing in my hangar!

 

 

Yes, the Westland Lysander that I  flew on the Route 66 rally. I've updated her a bit since the early Route 66 stages and she now carries a hefty belly tank and a ladder to persuade the pax to leave the warmth of the cabin when we reach our destination, wherever that may be.

 

Downloading the FSX scenery file for Milford Sound was a matter of moments, but I couldn't find an upgrade for Queenstown, but that didn't really matter as the default FSX scenery there is pretty good.

 

Locating the good 'ole Lysander at Queenstown went fine, and I powered up my Active Sky software for real weather, drew up an IFS flightplan as the cloudbase was quite low and I anticipated being IMC for at least some of the flight. 

 

BIG mistake, but see later.

 

Here I am on the ramp at Queenstown, no local traffic, just me, so I started up and hit the 'Shift-P' button so I could turn around and head for the threshold.

 

 

To my utter amazement one of the little push-back tractors over by the tower started up and raced over toward me to aid in the push-back! NOT a good idea with a single engined prop powered aeroplane as the tractor driver was likely to get his head cut off by the prop!

 

 

However both my Bristol Mercury engine and the tractor driver seemed to survive and I got out onto that looooooong runway and headed off to the west.

 

 

My FSTramp produced a rather strange SID for that Queenstown runway which involved a 270 degree turn to port, passing directly o'head the airport before setting course for Milford Sound, but who was I, a mere Brit, to argue such things, eh?

 

 

Having got airborne in a minute fraction of the Queenstown runway the Lysander was climbing as only a Lysander can, and I was on my way.

 

 

After a short while I passed over the field and headed off to the south for a short distance, still climbing to the safety height, noted as 8500 ft by FST.

 

 

But all the while I was being tossed about by horrendous wind gusts and the aircraft was climbing and diving almost at random, nothing that I could do with the stick seemed to have much effect, and pretty soon I was in the cloud.

 

 

And that was pretty much that. I didn't have a single glimpse of the apparently awesome scenery of the South Island and all the time I was being battered and bashed by the weather. There was a single major turn on the flightplan, and that was fairly close to Milford Sound and just before my planed start of descent, but I was till IMC at that time.

 

 

Descending over all those mountains was a mind numbing procedure and I was wondering if I should open the canopy in case I needed a quick exit after a crash landing! As it happened I popped out of the bottom of the cloud almost directly o'head Milford Sound field, but I was way too high and headed past the field by then.

 

 

I tried making some spiral descending turns but they left me well west of the field and heading AWAY from the runway, which wasn't too clever. Seeing that hefty rock ahead, I planned on passing it to the north and making a 180 deg turn around it to come around the west side of it and nicely lined up.

 

WRONG!

 

 

But the rock was just the pointed end of a hefty chain, and there was no gap west of it so I headed up the canyon in the pic until I found airspace wide enough to carry out a 180, which wasn't easy. Luckily the Lysander is a pretty nimble beast and made the turn ok, and I was headed back to my destination, but at a very low level.

 

 

Lining up was not easy and the gusts we re still bashing me about, even deep in the canyon here, and my first attempt was a total failure, I was WELL over to one side of the runway, so I opened up and went round again.

 

And I did that THREE times before I could plonk her down. And at last I landed, but waaaaaay down the runway.

 

 

Taxi-ing in was a slight problem as the Lysander wanted to weather-cock into the wind and only some hefty differential braking turned me off the runway and onto the ramp. I was VERY glad to shut down, I can tell you!

 

 

Of course the main problem was using real world weather, in the Real World I'd have never attempted a flight with the wind gusting like that and the cloud that low, so I may try it again but with some customised weather, bright sun, light breezes and either no clouds at all or a little cirrus at around 35000 ft. 

GREAT POST!  I'm glad you enjoyed it!  And yes, I always try to use RW weather as well.  However with time zone differences from the EDT at present here, I do often set my local time rather than using RW time at the location I am flying.

 

Having said that, if you fly the It's Hot Here flight I detailed about flying from Munich to Austria in winter,  I suggest you use winter settings and fly at night time there.