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Hurricane Evacuation Flight: A Two-Post Series


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With Hurricane Ida bearing down on Louisiana and other Southern Gulf states, many people are evacuating to get out of the path of the storm. Most people evacuate by jumping in their vehicles and driving away, but not if you're rich. A wealthy businessman from New York has chartered a Citation Longitude from Elite Air (shout out to my favorite VA) to fly down to New Orleans, pick up eight members of their family and fly them back to the safety of Teterboro, New Jersey. This was a last minute mission request that would require an early Saturday morning departure, as well as a quick turn in New Orleans to complete it successfully. Let's go!

 

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We arrived at the airport around 6am to begin getting the plane ready for our VIP evacuees. By 6:45am we were starting up on the ramp and ready to head south

 

 

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It was a quick taxi to runway 6 and before we knew it we were rocketing off the runway and climbing into the gloomy early morning New York skies

 

 

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The skies looked pretty ominous on the climb out, likely a sign of things to come...

 

 

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This was an empty leg with just two pilots on board so we made it to FL430 in no time, set the autothrottle to .82 Mach and were on our way to New Orleans

 

 

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A little over two hours later we were beginning our descent into New Orleans. This was on Saturday so the hurricane was still a bit offshore, but the weather in the area had already taken a turn for the worse

 

 

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Flying the RYTHM4 arrival and getting ready to make the final turn to intercept the ILS for runway 11

 

 

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The heavy rain was really making it tough to see the runway. A go-around was not out of the question at this point

 

 

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Just shy of minimums the approach lights and then the runway came into view

 

 

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The rain started to lighten up as we pulled onto the busy FBO ramp and it provided an awesome view of the nice rainbow. For the passengers who were waiting for their ride to safety, this was probably quite a welcome sight!

 

 

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No sooner did the parking brake go on and the engines were already shutting down. Now we need to find our passengers, load on some fuel and get out of here as quick as we can...

 

Please see the second post for the continuation of our mission!

Ryzen 5 3600X | RTX 2060 | 32 GB 3200 G.Skill RAM | 1TB Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD
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Part Two

 

After landing in New Orleans it was time to complete my first actual quick turn using MSFS. In the rare event I have time to do two flights in one day I normally shut down the sim and reboot it, but I decided to try an actual quick turn and it worked out really well. On to our second part of the mission, the journey back to Teterboro!

 

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Our quick turn went very smoothly. The fuel truck took care of us very quickly, and there was even a brief break in the rain to allow the passengers to board. Now the engines are coming back to life and it's time to go!

 

 

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The heavy rain returned on the taxi out to the runway, so it was another wet and bumpy departure

 

 

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Breaking through the clouds gives us the first real look at how strong this storm is even 24 hours before it arrives

 

 

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Level at FL450 and on our way back to Teterboro

 

 

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The weather actually cleared up for a bit over North Carolina and gave us our first view of the ground since we took off

 

 

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The nicer weather didn't last long and by the time we neared the east coast the thick cloud deck returned

 

 

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Approaching Teterboro with the New York skyline in the background

 

 

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Short final...

 

 

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Mission accomplished!

 

Thanks for viewing!

Ryzen 5 3600X | RTX 2060 | 32 GB 3200 G.Skill RAM | 1TB Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD
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Hey Chris! I loved your shots and your plot line as well!! That's a truly worthwhile post!!

 

On occasion when I see a post with a single shot and no plot line I wonder why would the poster bother?

 

I look forward to viewing many more from you!!!

 

Thanks!

 

Michael

Being an old chopper guy I usually fly low and slow.
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Hey Chris! I loved your shots and your plot line as well!! That's a truly worthwhile post!!

 

On occasion when I see a post with a single shot and no plot line I wonder why would the poster bother?

 

I look forward to viewing many more from you!!!

 

Thanks!

 

Michael

 

Thanks, Michael! I enjoy everyone's posts, but before I started posting myself my favorite posts to read were the ones with narration and a story line, so that's what I try to duplicate. It of course takes a little longer to make a post like this, so I'm always glad to hear people enjoy it, it makes it worth the time.

 

Very nicely done!!

 

Thanks, James!

Ryzen 5 3600X | RTX 2060 | 32 GB 3200 G.Skill RAM | 1TB Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD
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