The Commute: I’m not sure I need to go into all the details as to why I was in Vancouver, BC around the first of the month but my job now was, obviously, to get to Peru. I looked up a series of flights on http://www.flightlookup.com/ and set-up my plan accordingly. Pushing back from Vancouver at 8:45 AM I taxied the Alaska Airlines MD-80 out to the runway and received clearance a short time later. [Picture 001] I climbed initially to 11,000 ft, crossing the Victoria VOR before continuing the climb to 37,000 ft for cruise at Mach 0.77. My route followed the coast line all the way down into LAX with arrival 10 minutes late. The weather in LA that morning was less than desirable [pictures 002 and 003 ] but would clear out soon enough.
The next flight was set to depart for Lima at 2:45 PM and for that I loaded up the Douglas DC-8 and real-world weather again. [Pictures 004 and 005 ] Climb this time was to only 35,000 ft where I enjoyed the sunset off my right wing. Most of the flight to Lima was in the darkness but arrival into runway 15’s ILS was right on time.
At 6 AM the next morning is another regularly scheduled, non-stop flight Lima to Arequipa for which I loaded up the Evergreen Express Saab 340 (Brad, take note of one of your favorite planes) [Pictures 006 – 007 - 008 ]. Having arrived in Southern Peru safely I was ready to take on the challenges of another FOTM!
The Weather: Seems as though this is a pretty nice time of year down here but I did not feel that real-weather was giving me the challenges Brad had hoped for, so I self programmed in the following: Clear Skies, Visibility 40 miles up through 20,000 feet. Winds 0-10,000 = 217° at 8 gusting to 15 with Moderate Turbulence 10,000 – 20,000 = 180° at 12 gusting to 20 with Light Turbulence 20,000 – 30,000 = 100° at 20 gusting to 25 with Light Turbulence We’ll see if I live to regret that!
Arequipa to Juliaca: Since I was already in Arequipa I decided not to go down the hill and then back so I started from here, loading up one of the greatest little airlines I’ve ever “flown”, the EMB-170. I know, this really isn’t AZTEC territory but I wanted to check out this new download while I was doing the FOTM. If you’ve read my ILS tutorial you’ll see that I have made landings at Juliaca before so this was little more than a new plane – oh and some gusting winds, but I really didn’t notice that much. As directed, I departed westward, climbing briskly before turning left to 060°. [Picture 009] I was too high to see Brad’s house [Picture 010] but I did come to the right of the Misti Volcano. No GPS or flight plan here, it’s a short and somehow familiar flight. [Picture 011] I dialed up the JUL VOR and flew the same approach as I did in the ILS tutorial. I cut final a bit shorter this time, D/C the autopilot and used the HUD [Picture 012] to land safely – though you’ll see it was a bit long. [Picture 013] (Notice that the repainter forgot to finish the wheels! Say Tony, is there a single file or two within our Club EMB-170 which I could copy over to fix this?)
Juliaca to Mollendo: After some brunch and a short tour to the shores of Lake Titicaca I was ready to head to the beach. Back at Juliaca airport I loaded up a plane that I haven’t flown since I downloaded and tested it (too many planes in the hanger I guess) the Rockwell Commander. I can be a good pupil and as instructed I turned off auto-mixture. Logic would dictate that since there is less air here you need less fuel, which means you lean the mixture…start…cough, cough, sputter. Start…cough, cough, sputter. I added a little more fuel, cough, cough. A little more…sputter, cough. A little less, start, cough. A little less…ppttttthhhhhh. Less? Grind…grind. More? Cough. Less? Sputter. More, Cough, sputter. More, start, sputter, ptthhhhh. SCREW IT! Auto-mixture back on – Vroom, vroom!
I taxied out to runway 29 for departure, dialed up the VOR at Arequipa and throttled up. Man it takes a long time to get airborne around this place! [Picture 014]
Once I was safely cruising along I again disabled auto-mixture…cough! A little leaner, sputter. Leaner…cough, sputter. Leaner…pppttthhhhh – dead. Restart! Restart! Restart! “Where ever is Alastair when you need him?!?!?” Well, I made a very nice dead-stick landing out in the middle of the Altaplano!
So, we return to Juliaca airport after our little beach brunch and I load up a plane that I really haven’t flown before, the Rockwell Commander. With auto-mixture enabled I started the engines and taxied out to the end of runway 29. I have no idea what protocol is here but I added 2 notches of flaps, dialed up the Arequipa VOR and departed westbound climbing up to just 15,000 feet, skirting the high alpine plateaus. The plane seems sluggish but then again I have no idea what the maximum altitude is for this plane so we hang in there until the ground drops away toward Arequipa. I pass to the north of Misti this time [Picture 015] before tuning in the VOR at the bottom of the hill. With winds out of 217° I opt for a landing on runway 11 (It was about 6 hours later, at 2 AM that I realized that this is a 100° difference and I should have landed the other direction). Below 10,000 feet I had “moderate” turbulence programmed in and let me tell you, I was getting HAMMERED!
I made the base turn onto final, all configured for landing, upwind wing down, lots of right rudder, bounce, bounce, push, lean, bounce, lean, rudder, push, a very brief flash from the stall light on the panel, more throttle, bounce, push, lean, bounce, push, bounce, flare, lean, LEAN, push, Umph! [Picture 016] Landed! (Rattle, rattle, bounce, rattle, shake, rattle, rattle, bounce, rattle…). “WHEW!”
Mollendo to Cuzco: Apparently the tourists in Cuzco need a delivery of Llama milk or sea salt or something, so I load up the non-sporty Mitsubishi Mu-2.
This time I depart runway 29 but just 100 feet in the air the bottom drops out and I fall NEARLY back to the ground. “I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s got Cap’tn.” Gear up, flaps up, climbing? There is only one word to describe what was going on here: PUMMELING! I was trying to hand-fly (no way autopilot was going to hold this!), trying to keep climbing, trying to take screenshots, inside – outside – left – right – inside - climb…CRASH – AIRCRAFT OVERSTRESSED! “You’ve got to be kidding!” See folks, there is a reason I chose the title “Flounder.” [Picture 017]
Okay, so we forget screenshots and just fly this sucker! Departure from 29 goes better this time, I turn slightly leftward carrying myself out over the sea just a bit. Clean aeroplane, holding rate of climb at 2,000 fpm, I headed for the sky. My airspeed was dancing between 160 and 200 with the stall light flashing like a strobe in the night. (No horn though, we were between light and horn, only a near-stall not a full power-on stall). Once up through 10,000 feet I leveled off to a 1,000 fpm climb, brought throttles back to 85%, engaged autopilot and turned HDG to track the mid-way VOR. Even at 16,000 feet I had to keep adjusting my heading to avoid slamming into some mountain. [Pictures 018 and 019 ] Finally, some 90 miles from Cuzco I reached the point of no return, I’m still not sure if I had picked the wrong valleys to fly down or what but I could fly no more. Taking great sucking breaths of oxygen I climbed up to 17,500 to clear some ridges, then back down again. Finally I was over Cuzco! [Picture 020] I turned left and began to descend and configure for landing. At the end of the valley I made a SHARP right-hand turn setting up for a great, smooth landing on runway 10. With reverse thrust and braking I was ready to make the mid-field taxiway, or so I thought. (Slight wing scrape but no damage recorded!) [Picture 021] After that, I was ready to spend a couple days here relaxing with http://www.plr.org/ .
Cuzco to Andahuaylas: A few days later I was ready for a 9 AM departure in the Global Air Cargo, Dash-7. I taxied out to runway 10 for a surprisingly uneventful take-off. I performed a climbing right turn passing back near the airport before picking up my GPS routing to AND. [Pictures 022 and 023 ] As instructed I tried to stay low along the valleys [Pictures 024 and 025 ] but at one point, nearly 21 miles from my GPS-direct routing I turned up a narrow canyon. [Picture 026] I had to climb to over 17,000 feet to clear the ridgeline before diving back down to 8,500. (Remember I had “moderate” turbulence below 10,000 ft?) Man, it was rough going. Finally I climbed up out of the valleys and made a westbound approach into Andahuaylas. This really is in a bowl isn’t it? My steep dive into the airport caused me to float a bit on final but landing was good. [Pictures 027 - 028 - 029 ]
Andahuaylas to Ayacucho: Departure was again uneventful but for the need to climb like a bat outta **** to clear the “Terrain! Terrain!” After two legs of getting bounced around and one dead-stick landing at some 12,000 ft I took the easy way out from here climbing to a moderate 16,000 feet I set sights on Ayacucho, again using GPS routing. [Pictures 030 - 31 - 32 ] My approach had me coming in at a 90° angle to the runway so I made a left pattern to land on runway 20. It was one of the roughest landings on this FOTM but it was on the pavement and did not register a crash, [Pictures 033 and 034 ] so I was able to taxi over to parking and shut down having successfully completed another fun and exciting FOTM. (The instant replay of the landing didn’t look as bad as it felt by the way!)
Brad, even though you stole my idea of High Altitude airports as a FOTM theme I’m glad I had the chance to “see” a little bit of southern. Thanks for the fun challenges. Now, if someone could please help me with my fuel mixtures I’ll be off to Africa.
ADDENDUM: Shortly after this FOTM was completed Brad suggested that we try the current, real-world schedule of departing Arequipa at 19:00 (after dark) in a 727, for the short flight to Juliaca. Well, after considering the Club’s 727 or Caravelle I actually settled on my Varig Brazil 737-200. Then I heard that Juliaca and Cuzco are NOT LIT in the sim as they are in real life (there’s a shock) so I loaded up the 732 at “dusk” [Picture 035] (that’s 17:40 currently) and made the run in low-light conditions, this time approaching into runway 11 – winds out of 033° this time (which was totally new for me). But despite all this it would appear that we all survived the trip. [ Picture 036 , which I had to significantly lighten]
Brad, again, a great little challenge! High altitudes, lot’s of scenery, plenty of variety, easier than the French Alps…WELL DONE!
The next flight was set to depart for Lima at 2:45 PM and for that I loaded up the Douglas DC-8 and real-world weather again. [Pictures 004 and 005 ] Climb this time was to only 35,000 ft where I enjoyed the sunset off my right wing. Most of the flight to Lima was in the darkness but arrival into runway 15’s ILS was right on time.
At 6 AM the next morning is another regularly scheduled, non-stop flight Lima to Arequipa for which I loaded up the Evergreen Express Saab 340 (Brad, take note of one of your favorite planes) [Pictures 006 – 007 - 008 ]. Having arrived in Southern Peru safely I was ready to take on the challenges of another FOTM!
The Weather: Seems as though this is a pretty nice time of year down here but I did not feel that real-weather was giving me the challenges Brad had hoped for, so I self programmed in the following: Clear Skies, Visibility 40 miles up through 20,000 feet. Winds 0-10,000 = 217° at 8 gusting to 15 with Moderate Turbulence 10,000 – 20,000 = 180° at 12 gusting to 20 with Light Turbulence 20,000 – 30,000 = 100° at 20 gusting to 25 with Light Turbulence We’ll see if I live to regret that!
Arequipa to Juliaca: Since I was already in Arequipa I decided not to go down the hill and then back so I started from here, loading up one of the greatest little airlines I’ve ever “flown”, the EMB-170. I know, this really isn’t AZTEC territory but I wanted to check out this new download while I was doing the FOTM. If you’ve read my ILS tutorial you’ll see that I have made landings at Juliaca before so this was little more than a new plane – oh and some gusting winds, but I really didn’t notice that much. As directed, I departed westward, climbing briskly before turning left to 060°. [Picture 009] I was too high to see Brad’s house [Picture 010] but I did come to the right of the Misti Volcano. No GPS or flight plan here, it’s a short and somehow familiar flight. [Picture 011] I dialed up the JUL VOR and flew the same approach as I did in the ILS tutorial. I cut final a bit shorter this time, D/C the autopilot and used the HUD [Picture 012] to land safely – though you’ll see it was a bit long. [Picture 013] (Notice that the repainter forgot to finish the wheels! Say Tony, is there a single file or two within our Club EMB-170 which I could copy over to fix this?)
Juliaca to Mollendo: After some brunch and a short tour to the shores of Lake Titicaca I was ready to head to the beach. Back at Juliaca airport I loaded up a plane that I haven’t flown since I downloaded and tested it (too many planes in the hanger I guess) the Rockwell Commander. I can be a good pupil and as instructed I turned off auto-mixture. Logic would dictate that since there is less air here you need less fuel, which means you lean the mixture…start…cough, cough, sputter. Start…cough, cough, sputter. I added a little more fuel, cough, cough. A little more…sputter, cough. A little less, start, cough. A little less…ppttttthhhhhh. Less? Grind…grind. More? Cough. Less? Sputter. More, Cough, sputter. More, start, sputter, ptthhhhh. SCREW IT! Auto-mixture back on – Vroom, vroom!
I taxied out to runway 29 for departure, dialed up the VOR at Arequipa and throttled up. Man it takes a long time to get airborne around this place! [Picture 014]
Once I was safely cruising along I again disabled auto-mixture…cough! A little leaner, sputter. Leaner…cough, sputter. Leaner…pppttthhhhh – dead. Restart! Restart! Restart! “Where ever is Alastair when you need him?!?!?” Well, I made a very nice dead-stick landing out in the middle of the Altaplano!
So, we return to Juliaca airport after our little beach brunch and I load up a plane that I really haven’t flown before, the Rockwell Commander. With auto-mixture enabled I started the engines and taxied out to the end of runway 29. I have no idea what protocol is here but I added 2 notches of flaps, dialed up the Arequipa VOR and departed westbound climbing up to just 15,000 feet, skirting the high alpine plateaus. The plane seems sluggish but then again I have no idea what the maximum altitude is for this plane so we hang in there until the ground drops away toward Arequipa. I pass to the north of Misti this time [Picture 015] before tuning in the VOR at the bottom of the hill. With winds out of 217° I opt for a landing on runway 11 (It was about 6 hours later, at 2 AM that I realized that this is a 100° difference and I should have landed the other direction). Below 10,000 feet I had “moderate” turbulence programmed in and let me tell you, I was getting HAMMERED!
I made the base turn onto final, all configured for landing, upwind wing down, lots of right rudder, bounce, bounce, push, lean, bounce, lean, rudder, push, a very brief flash from the stall light on the panel, more throttle, bounce, push, lean, bounce, push, bounce, flare, lean, LEAN, push, Umph! [Picture 016] Landed! (Rattle, rattle, bounce, rattle, shake, rattle, rattle, bounce, rattle…). “WHEW!”
Mollendo to Cuzco: Apparently the tourists in Cuzco need a delivery of Llama milk or sea salt or something, so I load up the non-sporty Mitsubishi Mu-2.
This time I depart runway 29 but just 100 feet in the air the bottom drops out and I fall NEARLY back to the ground. “I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s got Cap’tn.” Gear up, flaps up, climbing? There is only one word to describe what was going on here: PUMMELING! I was trying to hand-fly (no way autopilot was going to hold this!), trying to keep climbing, trying to take screenshots, inside – outside – left – right – inside - climb…CRASH – AIRCRAFT OVERSTRESSED! “You’ve got to be kidding!” See folks, there is a reason I chose the title “Flounder.” [Picture 017]Okay, so we forget screenshots and just fly this sucker! Departure from 29 goes better this time, I turn slightly leftward carrying myself out over the sea just a bit. Clean aeroplane, holding rate of climb at 2,000 fpm, I headed for the sky. My airspeed was dancing between 160 and 200 with the stall light flashing like a strobe in the night. (No horn though, we were between light and horn, only a near-stall not a full power-on stall). Once up through 10,000 feet I leveled off to a 1,000 fpm climb, brought throttles back to 85%, engaged autopilot and turned HDG to track the mid-way VOR. Even at 16,000 feet I had to keep adjusting my heading to avoid slamming into some mountain. [Pictures 018 and 019 ] Finally, some 90 miles from Cuzco I reached the point of no return, I’m still not sure if I had picked the wrong valleys to fly down or what but I could fly no more. Taking great sucking breaths of oxygen I climbed up to 17,500 to clear some ridges, then back down again. Finally I was over Cuzco! [Picture 020] I turned left and began to descend and configure for landing. At the end of the valley I made a SHARP right-hand turn setting up for a great, smooth landing on runway 10. With reverse thrust and braking I was ready to make the mid-field taxiway, or so I thought. (Slight wing scrape but no damage recorded!) [Picture 021] After that, I was ready to spend a couple days here relaxing with http://www.plr.org/ .
Cuzco to Andahuaylas: A few days later I was ready for a 9 AM departure in the Global Air Cargo, Dash-7. I taxied out to runway 10 for a surprisingly uneventful take-off. I performed a climbing right turn passing back near the airport before picking up my GPS routing to AND. [Pictures 022 and 023 ] As instructed I tried to stay low along the valleys [Pictures 024 and 025 ] but at one point, nearly 21 miles from my GPS-direct routing I turned up a narrow canyon. [Picture 026] I had to climb to over 17,000 feet to clear the ridgeline before diving back down to 8,500. (Remember I had “moderate” turbulence below 10,000 ft?) Man, it was rough going. Finally I climbed up out of the valleys and made a westbound approach into Andahuaylas. This really is in a bowl isn’t it? My steep dive into the airport caused me to float a bit on final but landing was good. [Pictures 027 - 028 - 029 ]
Andahuaylas to Ayacucho: Departure was again uneventful but for the need to climb like a bat outta **** to clear the “Terrain! Terrain!” After two legs of getting bounced around and one dead-stick landing at some 12,000 ft I took the easy way out from here climbing to a moderate 16,000 feet I set sights on Ayacucho, again using GPS routing. [Pictures 030 - 31 - 32 ] My approach had me coming in at a 90° angle to the runway so I made a left pattern to land on runway 20. It was one of the roughest landings on this FOTM but it was on the pavement and did not register a crash, [Pictures 033 and 034 ] so I was able to taxi over to parking and shut down having successfully completed another fun and exciting FOTM. (The instant replay of the landing didn’t look as bad as it felt by the way!)
Brad, even though you stole my idea of High Altitude airports as a FOTM theme I’m glad I had the chance to “see” a little bit of southern. Thanks for the fun challenges. Now, if someone could please help me with my fuel mixtures I’ll be off to Africa.
ADDENDUM: Shortly after this FOTM was completed Brad suggested that we try the current, real-world schedule of departing Arequipa at 19:00 (after dark) in a 727, for the short flight to Juliaca. Well, after considering the Club’s 727 or Caravelle I actually settled on my Varig Brazil 737-200. Then I heard that Juliaca and Cuzco are NOT LIT in the sim as they are in real life (there’s a shock) so I loaded up the 732 at “dusk” [Picture 035] (that’s 17:40 currently) and made the run in low-light conditions, this time approaching into runway 11 – winds out of 033° this time (which was totally new for me). But despite all this it would appear that we all survived the trip. [ Picture 036 , which I had to significantly lighten]
Brad, again, a great little challenge! High altitudes, lot’s of scenery, plenty of variety, easier than the French Alps…WELL DONE!
