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I didn't have time today for the next leg of my Hawaiian Islands tour (Hilo to Lihue), so I took the Cessna 172 up for some sightseeing, flying to the Kilauea volcano and back, a 45-minute roundtrip.

Hilo Kilauwea.jpg

Over Kilauea

I flew in presumably live weather; clouds here and there added some interest.

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I had a spectacular late afternoon flight yesterday between Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The environment in this part of the world is truly incredible.

 

Mod2.jpg

 

Mod1.jpg

 

By the way, the modded DA40NG is such a great little plane; it's very easy to fly and fairly quick. Certianly, it's a great upgrade from a Skyhawk.

 

I never like the idea of a microchip deciding when to lean the mixture and what RPM setting to use. But I have to say, it does a great job at it.

Ryzen 5 3600X, 16 GB 3733 MTs RAM, Radeon RX5700 OC, 2560 x 1080 Ultrawide

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Hilo to Lihue, Kaua'i, in the Daher TBM; at an hour and 20 minutes and more than 300 miles, my longest nonstop yet. I "filed" a low-altitude IFR flight plan in the World map, with an ILS approach to RWY 35 at Lihue. Flew all the way on autopilot, save for the last few hundred feet off the runway at Lihue. Not much to do enroute, other than enjoy the scenery from 10,000 feet ASL as the TBM worked its way up the island chain toward O'ahu. I finally had some work to do after passing O'ahu: fiddling with the autopilot to reduce altitude, and with the throttle to shed airspeed. My goal: intercept the RWY 35 ILS glideslope at 3,000 ft., with my airspeed at around 85 kts -- the TBM's fully configured landing speed. (I looked it up.) That taken care of, I hit the approach button and monitored power to maintain my landing speed until I disengaging the AP at about 300 ft. ASL. After that, I finished the flight manually with a smooth flare out and touchdown. I really like the way this plane handles. Some screenshots from today's excursion:

 

Kauai departing Hilo.jpg

Climbing out of Hilo to 10,000 ft. Aloha, Big Island

 

Kauai HNL.jpg

Hello Honolulu. Daniel Inouye International Airport visible off the right wing tip

 

Kauai gear down.jpg

Gear down!

 

Kauai Lihue runway.jpg

I have the runway at Lihue in sight.

 

Kauai parked.jpg

Daher TBM parked at Lihue

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Greetings everyone!

 

A flight with the TBM from Inverness to Lands End. I will continue to explore around the UK and Ireland for the next few days!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]226357[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]226358[/ATTACH]

 

VR?

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By the way, the modded DA40NG is such a great little plane; it's very easy to fly and fairly quick. Certianly, it's a great upgrade from a Skyhawk.

 

I never like the idea of a microchip deciding when to lean the mixture and what RPM setting to use. But I have to say, it does a great job at it.

 

Is that function automatic, or do you have to turn it on, and if so, how?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Is that function automatic, or do you have to turn it on, and if so, how?

 

Completely automatic. Just one lever for the throttle. It takes a little getting used to; for example, when crossing the threshold and going to idle, you'd hear the prop speed increasing, despite reducing the power.

 

But once you get used to that and the fuel transfer system, it's fantastic.

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On day seven (I think) of my Hawaiian Islands tour, I took off in the Diamond DA40 from Lihu'e, where I'd arrived from the Big Island yesterday in the Daher TBM, for a counter-clockwise sightseeing tour of Kaua'i. I took some screenshots as I flew, below:

 

Kauai tour Hanalei.jpg

Hanalei Bay

Interpreters of "Puff the Magic Dragon" claim Puff lived here.

 

Kauai tour Napali Coast.jpg

Na Pali Coast

Pali means cliff in Hawai'ian. And this coast is all pali. It's only accessible by foot (very arduously), helicopter, or boat. Steven Spielberg used it as a location for "Jurassic Park," filming perhaps in this valley, or more likely the next one. We took a boat tour of this coast in 2007; as a bonus, we saw a humpback whale breaching.

 

Kauai tour Ni'ihau.jpg

Ni'ihau

From the Na Pali Coast, I flew a few miles southwest to Ni'ihau. This little island is privately owned, and off limits to visitors. We were supposed to go over there during our Na Pali Coast tour 14 years ago, to snorkel offshore with monk seals, we hoped. But the sea was too rough, and the boat captain canceled that part of the tour. We saw young monk seals happily basking in the sun at Poipu Beach, anway.

 

Tomorrow, I plan to visit the Hawaiian archipelago's farthest-flung island. Can you guess what it is?

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UTSA to UTAA. Here is on approach for UTAA.

Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan? How long?

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Nice job! The second screenshot looks great!

 

Tomorrow, I plan to visit the Hawaiian archipelago's farthest-flung island. Can you guess what it is?

 

Without google, no chance!

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It is about 375 miles by the flight plan, about 345 direct. Just over an hour flight.
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Prior to completing the final leg of my tour around the Hawaiian Islands by flying from Lihu'e to Honolulu (where my tour began), I went to the farthest-flung island of the Hawaiian chain, which is (wait for it) Midway Island. It's actually an atoll whose fate points to the ultimate destinies of its sister volcanic islands to the southeast -- many millions of years from now when they will all have subsides into the ocean from which they so violently erupted. I didn't fly to Midway from Kaua'i (my next-to-last stop). At more than 1,300 miles from Honolulu, that trip would've taken far too long for me, even in a jet. So I cheated and set up an arrival in the World map for PMDY's Henderson Field. I took the Diamond DA40 for the panoramic view out of its wraparound windscreen. I landed and immediately took off again to fly a landing pattern and snap the screen shot, below:

 

Midway.jpg

 

As you can see, there's not a whole lot to it, real-estate wise. But there is a lot to it historically. The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's decision in 1942 to invade and occupy Midway set the stage for a showdown between the Japanese and American navies northwest of Midway that sent four Japanese aircraft carriers to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and, according to many historians, turned the tide of WWII in the Pacific. I highly recommend this book if you're interested in learning more beyond Google about the Battle of Midway, based on accounts from both sides.

 

I went to Midway yesterday. Both yesterday and today, I flew the final leg of my island tour from Lihu'e to Honolulu in the Daher TBM 930, and both days, my autopilot went rogue on me, suddenly turning the plane around to the right and heading it back to Kaua'i, when it should've banked left to line up with the ILS approach to RWY 8L at PHNL. The first time, I thought it was my bad for canceling IFR and reducing the altitude in the AP. I had to hand fly the Daher back to the magenta course line and land without ILS assistance. It wasn't my best landing, and having canceled IFR, I got a slap on the virtual wrist from ATC for landing without clearance. Today, I repeated the trip to see if the autopilot would betray me once again, and even though I was still flying on IFR, darned if it didn't--at the same point in the flight. Once again, I got the Dahmer back on course, adjusting altitude as best I could per the approach plate while shedding speed for landing. Upon more or less reaching the first waypoint on final approach, I engaged the autopilot again to see if I could activate the ILS approach procedure, which I'd loaded into the AP before taking off. But no dice. The Daher didn't commence a descent and started to veer off course. I promptly canceled the AP again and flew the rest of the way in myself. No reprimand this time, as I was still flying IFR and had clearance to land.

 

HNL parked.jpg

Conclusion of my Hawaiian Islands tour at PHNL. I probably shoulda parked somewhere else...

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I flew the first leg of a trip up the West Coast from the U.S./Mexican border to Seattle. Taking off from San Diego in the Daher TBM, I flew to Santa Monica on a course that took me out over the Pacific, then inland over Long Beach and Compton before looping around Century City for an RNAV-guided final approach to RWY 21 at SMO; flight time, 42 minutes. The flight was uneventful, except for a stall warning over the water. While on autopilot, I'd turned my attention from the Daher's cockpit to the Cubs/Giants game on our TV and lost track of my airspeed. Immediately throttling up took care of that.

 

Despite ATC clearing me to land at Santa Monica, once I touched down "she" told me I was not cleared to land. This wasn't the first time. What's up with that?

 

Since I started this border-to-border trip at an airport named after a saint (San Diego de Alcala de Henares, I googled it) and landed at similarly named field (Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine), I think I will try to land at as many saintly airports as I can as I head north. Next stop: Santa Barbara.

Edited by Aptosflier
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Day 2, leg 2 of my border to border West Coast trip, flew the Daher TBM from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara--a placid, 35-minute flight on autopilot with an ILS approach to RWY 7 at Santa Barbara.

 

KSMO to KSBA.jpg

Enroute to KSBA at 7,000 feet

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Continuing my border-to-border trip up the West Coast, and my plan to touch down at as many "saintly" airports as possible along the way, I flew the Daher TBM from Santa Barbara (where I last parked it) to San Luis Obispo this afternoon. Father Junipero Serra, founder of California's many missions built on the backs of native-American labor, named the place after a 13th century Franciscan saint: Louis, Bishop of Toulouse. "Bishop" in Spanish is "obispo," hence, San Luis Obispo--known to us Californians as "SLO." I followed a low-altitude IFR RNAV flight plan with a final approach to RWY 29 at San Luis; clear "live" weather, zero clouds, lovely virtual scenery.

 

ksba to Ksbp.jpg

Crossing the Santa Ynez Mountains after leaving Santa Barbara

 

KSBA to KSBP Highway 101.jpg

Highway 101 (El Camino Real) off to the left. I've driven this road many times.

 

KSBA to KSBP final.jpg

On final at KSBP

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Another day, another "sainted" airport visit in my aerial peregrination up the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle in the Daher TBM. Today I flew from San Luis Obispo (named for Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse) to San Carlos, Calif., which may have been named for the San Carlos, the first ship to sail into the San Francisco Bay; or for King Charles III of Spain (he was a saint of a king?); or to mark the "discovery" of San Francisco Bay by Gaspar de Portola on the feast day of St. Charles in 1769. (Of course the native Ohlone people found the SF Bay long before Portola did.) Whatever, one way or another, the place takes its name from a saint.

 

I few GPS with an RNAV approach to RWY 30 at San Carlos, which has a locator but no ILS. I expected ATC to give me reasonably detailed descent instructions as I -- or rather, the AP -- turned onto final near San Jose, but no such advice was forthcoming. Left to my own devices, I followed the approach plate as best I could, using the AP to reduce my altitude and keep me inline with the runway. But that wasn't getting me down fast enough, so I disengaged the autopilot and few the rest of the way in on my own. There didn't seem to be much if any crosswind, fortunately, and all ended well.

 

Flight time was 1:12:02, cruising at 10,000 ft. With nothing much to do on autopilot other than monitor my airpeed, I looked out the window a lot.

 

KSBP to KSQL Lake Nacimiento.jpg

Lake Nacimiento. This locally financed reservoir west of the Salinas Valley provides groundwater for valley farmers.

 

KSBP to KSQL Santa Cruz.jpg

Santa Cruz

 

KSBP to KSQL Bay Area ho!.jpg

SF Bay Area ahead. We (the AP & I) took a left turn toward San Carlos after clearing the Santa Cruz Mountains, immediately ahead.

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Flew from KMDW to KLAS in the Working Title CJ4 as I chased the sun (it won). Greeted with the lights of Sin City! Love this plane. First time flying with live traffic too, man, the skies were hopping, especially around Chicago!

 

sm_peekingsun.jpg

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Flew from KMDW to KLAS in the Working Title CJ4 as I chased the sun (it won). Greeted with the lights of Sin City! Love this plane. First time flying with live traffic too, man, the skies were hopping, especially around Chicago!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]226449[/ATTACH]

Whoa! Quite a picture. Did you crop or just zoom in? I have not tried to fly one of those little jets yet. I've gotten fairly comfortable with the Daher TBM, done okay with the Beech Baron, but I've stayed away from the Citation, etc. How much more difficult is it? And do you pretty much rely on AP?

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Whoa! Quite a picture. Did you crop or just zoom in? I have not tried to fly one of those little jets yet. I've gotten fairly comfortable with the Daher TBM, done okay with the Beech Baron, but I've stayed away from the Citation, etc. How much more difficult is it? And do you pretty much rely on AP?

 

Zoomed in, although I really want to learn how to use the drone as that can take seriously good pictures.

 

The jet is a dream to fly once you get a handle on it. The Working Title guys put out a great and exhaustive guide on how to fly it. That’s basically required reading. There’s also videos, of course, but for an A to Z tutorial, you’ll want the 2-hour version made by Filbert Flies. The majority of learning is the FMC and autopilot, but the video and guide do a good job of explaining things that you don’t feel in over your head.

 

The plane benefits greatly from FADEC engines, essentially doing all the work for you and all you have to worry about is the throttle. Also, as far as I know, it’s the only plane in the sim right now that has functional VNAV, and it’s quite impressive. Compared to the other planes, this one is a hot rod and will take off like one. Its power takes some getting used to and you’ll likely overspeed a few times. Heck, I still do now and then. Yes, I fully rely on autopilot with this plane. Trying to do it manually would take a LOT of time and attention. Landing takes a bit of practice as the CJ4 is wont to float a bit.

 

I think once you learn and fly it a few times, you may find yourself surprised how easy of a plane it really is.

 

It’s an awesome plane and I often go to it as it has the best range of all the small planes, is smooth and fast, and fully featured thanks to Working Title.

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The jet is a dream to fly once you get a handle on it. The Working Title guys put out a great and exhaustive guide on how to fly it. That’s basically required reading. There’s also videos, of course, but for an A to Z tutorial, you’ll want the 2-hour version made by Filbert Flies. The majority of learning is the FMC and autopilot, but the video and guide do a good job of explaining things that you don’t feel in over your head.

 

 

It’s an awesome plane and I often go to it as it has the best range of all the small planes, is smooth and fast, and fully featured thanks to Working Title.

(1) How difficult is it to fly the CJ4 without the Working Title mod?

(2) How did Working Title's mod improve your experience with this plane?

(3) Does Working Title sell their mod in the MSFS marketplace?

(4) I'm nervous about add-ons.

I had a lot of trouble with CTDs and worse several months back and had to uninstall/reinstall MSFS more than once, not to mention using my recovery disk to restore Windows 10 at one point. It may just have been pure coincidence, but it seemed that my CTD woes exploded after I bought and installed an ultralight (from the marketplace). I've been gunshy about addons ever since, though I did purchase and add the Asobo ultralight to my hangar with no problems.

(5) If I get the Working Title CJ4 mod, does it download to the "community" folder? (FYI: I have the Steam Edition.)

HP Omen 25L Desktop, Intel i7-1070 CPU, 32 GB DDR RAM, Nvidia 3070 GPU, 1 TB SSD, Logitech flight yoke, throttle quadrant, rudder pedals, multi-panel, radio panel, TrackIR 5
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