Flounder's FlightSim Pilot Reports: August 2008

How it all comes together:

At first I was tempted to just fly this FOTM in real-world (August) weather ... but that's like what Bill would do and what's the fun of that? I think I have a Coast Guard repaint of a Gulfstream-V which is one of Tony's favorite planes ... There are a bunch of repaints for the default Lear-45 ... I had just about decided to use the Flight Club Exec Lear-35 when the phone rang.

There I was at my nearly messy desk (the WORKING desk on the 9th floor as opposed to the big, intimidating, shiny wooden desk just below the penthouse floor) in "Flounder Tower" at KOFC taking care of the Business side of running this Flight Club when the phone rang. Assuming it was Tony calling back to ask if his FOTM submission met my approval (he's so needy!!) I took my time answering. "Yep?"

The voice on the other end was heavily accented, French. "Mr. Flounder?" "Yes, sir, how may I help you?" "Pardon, I am Francois DeLaland Metereaux Bordeaux ... something, something, something ..." Basically he was noting that I had used the Dash-8 on a recently uploaded video on http://www.youtube.com/pretendpilot called "Goma to M'bala." I had also used the Dash-8 last March in Pakistan. I had also used the Dash-8 last year in Colombia as well as flying between Sydney and Melbourne. I had also featured the Dash-8 in our very first FOTM way back in January of 2003. Besides that, he pointed out, I was the one .....

"Fine, fine! Okay, I get it. How may I help you Mr. Bordeaux?" "The European Union is looking to learn more about this aircraft for military, Police or Fire Service in various EU countries ... and thought that Flight Club International at http://www.toomuchfs.com/ may be of help." For crying out loud, I was thinking to myself. The plane is Canadian! Don't the French know what's going on in Canada?

Right on schedule, August 3rd, the German Air Force A-310 arrived at KOFC. (you can see the video from my office window here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpc4nDSrOMg ) There were no less than ten Executive and Government Officials here to see what the Flight of the Month Club could do with a Dash-8 Q400 and Tony's FOTM was the perfect job! I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that the other club execs would be able to use appropriate jet-powered aircraft or helicopters to make the actual rescue and evacuations so I would be flying these "Officials" mearly for "observational purposes." (A perk of being The Boss is that, really, despite the FOTM, I can choose my own assignment!) So, I arranged for a Firefighting version of the Dash-8 (Quickly painted - not a great job) to be standing by at Kodiak. Then after hosting them at "Mario Quiring's" (a South American Dinner Cafe' located at KOFC) I asked our guests to join my family and I as we watched the latest episodes of "Deadliest Catch - The Ophelias" before turning into bed. The next morning we had breakfast at "The Grumpy Wallaby" (the Australian Diner) before setting out, with the authorities on board, in their A-310 for Kodiak (pict1) and Tony's wild FOTM feature. (pict2)

With Tony's weather and flightplan loaded I started the engines on the Dash-8 and turned up the cabin heat. "Who on earth would fly in this?" Oh yeah, the US Coast Guard, that's who! The flight itself doesn't seem too hard, fly a heading north-northwest, turn 90* and fly a heading west. But the weather is crazy especially if I'm going to be scudding along at 100-200 feet above the waves! I tuned in to http://www.plr.org/ to get into the right ZEN frame of mind for this little demonstration.

Within ten minutes we had all of the European Executives loaded and my cabin attendant "Victoria" had everyone secured. (Who is Victoria? I have no idea but she used to do some modeling with aircraft (pict3) and she wasn't intimidated by the prospects of this flight.) I announced our plan for taxi and departure, double checked the ATIS ( -6 degress Celcius with wind! Tony must be insane!!! ) and headed out to runway 32 for departure. (pict4) Sure, runway 32 just about matched my course but I wanted to get up above the weather and into faster flying to get to our distress call quickly - so I performed a climbing 360-degree turn to the right. (pict5)

Soon enough I was happily at 12,000 feet with a ground speed of 325 knots! (pict6) The Dash-8 Q400 has a range comparable to Europe's ATR-72 but it's faster, does much better on short fields (because it's Canadian) and with those WIDE WHEELS is much more stable when landing in .... crosswinds for example. If these Execs were looking for a versitile, fast, stable Turbo-prop, this had to be their plane! While I flew the route Tony had planned out I'm sure Victoria was telling them about the comforts of the "roomy" cabin. (Okay, perhaps not but ...)
As we approached the GPS waypoint given I dropped back down to 300 feet and began searching the sea for our capsized ship. (pict7). With flaps down I was able to settle into a nice, comfortable 120 knots loitering speed - this allowed any turn I needed to make without fear of stalling out! (pict8). It appeared to me that the weather front was right at the waypoint so the question was whether the stranded vessle was ahead of the storm or in it. At just 32 minutes after departure from Kodiak we spotted the vessle and one survivor in the water. (pict9) I guess I was lucky to be able to find the ship on my second pass through the area - I had burned just under 15% of my gas.

I climbed up to 700 feet and set up some loitering circles over the vessle while the Coast Guard performed the actual rescue. (pict10) I circled the sky over the stranded ship for 47 minutes ... (pict11) Roughly 100 minutes after leaving Kodiak we turned to St. Paul Island (pict12) where we were again greeted by a not-too-intimidating storm front. (pict13) The weather actually made it more fun than it would have been otherwise!

(pict14) The weather cleared again just at the threshold and I got some good bumps of wind - which the Dash-8 is made for. (pict15) Check out the windsock in the background. As we shut down we had used just under 83% of our gas in a bit over 2 hours flight time. I think the Executives were impressed? During the little break I checked in with Victoria ... only three of them had lost their breakfast over the shipwreck!

Two hours later the storm had officially moved in and we headed out, to Dutch Harbor.

(pict16) (pict17) This time we cruised very nicely at 19,000 feet - I think the Euros were impressed. (pict18) This is what we looked like coming into a clear and windy Dutch Harbor ... (pict19) where we landed a bit long but very smoothly. We put the European Security Experts up in the finest little cottage we could find.

I pieced together a video of the departure, the rescue and the Dutch Harbor landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaQeheb80k4

Early the next morning we set out back to Kodiak. (pict20) Weather was calm. (pict21) The flight was scenic. (pict22) We even passed right over top of a past FOTM - Cold Bay. (pict23)
Reports from Kodiak were not good! Winds were 20, gusting to 37! Temps were -15*F, heavy snow and limited visibility. I headed in ... (pict24) Tony wanted runway 11 and, well, the first time by I missed. (pict25) The second time into runway 11 was no better! (pict26) Maybe it's cheating (take note Bill) but in order to see I minimized the panel. It really wasn't much help! Notice the white streaks in the view? Those are waves! You'll see that I could see waves but no runway ... so I went missed again. (pict27)

At this point Victoria, in her calm reassuring voice, called up to the cockpit to inform me that virtually every one of the Executives was either airsick or scared-sick and they were all demanding that I land immediately! I suggested that she take a poll, "Land now or ... land on a runway?" As they were discussing, I headed out over the water and tuned radios for an ILS into 25. (pict28) By the way, Plan C was heading back to Cold Bay and I had plenty of fuel for that!
With the Official Observers calmed down in back and the ILS needles moving into position in front I was set up for landing WITH a strong quartering tailwind.