I remember a few things from Rik's FOTM ten years ago:
1- I didn't know what I was doing
2- I was very new to FS2002
3- He recommended a lot of downloads which I had never done before
4A- I was never able to get the scenery add-ons to work
4B- The sim crashed (repeatedly)
4C- I had to reload everything
5- I just sort of made up my own route through the Alps, nothing too tough
6- I ended up in Nice at the end of everything.
Ten years on now and I'm still not sure that I know what I'm doing (hence the "Flounder" moniker.) But, I have a new sim (FSX) and have, in fact, added some add-on scenery; specifically a file for, "ski resorts in the Alps" or some-such-thing; I know that they are the add-ons because from map view when I mouse over the airport it lists the runway length as 0 feet.
Having ended up last month in Geneva I set in a zig-zag route southeast through the Alps setting in EIGHT airports for the month. My aircraft of choice this time is an EMB-120 which performed respectably well in a "Turboprop Challenge" I did in St. Bart's for FS.com last year.
Genève Aéroport (LSGG) to Megeve (LFHM):
Thursday May 2nd dawned bright and clear in Portland, Oregon; an ideal Spring day with highs between 75-85 for the next week! I set Portland weather for Geneva and spooled up the twin turboprop engines just after sun up. Ground clearance was able to find me a slot quickly and I departed to the southwest before turning left over downtown and the famous Lake Geneva Fountain, "Jet d'Eau". As I climbed to 10,000 feet for the short (<40 a="" alps="" and="" awe-inspired="" blessed="" by="" felt="" flight="" great="" have="" i="" miles="" mountain="" p="" range="" s="" scenery="" such="" the="" to="" towering="" very="" view="" virtual="" was="">Not knowing what I'd be facing at each of these airports I maintained 10,000 feet ASL and over-flew the area to get a good lay-of-the-land. Megeve is up a dead end valley, one-way in and the other way out. I turned to the west and descended, dropping in flaps and gear and retrimming for level flight at 125 knots. I followed the road(s) up into the valley and surprised myself with the smooth uphill landing! I didn't even need any reverse pitch to slow down before cresting the ridge and parking. What a lovely flight!
Megeve (LFHM) to Challes-Les-Eaux (LFLE):
After several minutes on the ground taking in the scenery at Megeve I used reverse pitch to get turned around and lined up. I locked the brakes and throttled up until the engines were whining. I released the brakes and lurched forward down the hill. Acceleration comes quickly on a downward-sloping runway and I easily cleared the trees off the end of the runway.Flying out of the first valley I turned west again and picked up my route to LFLE which had been Rik's original starting location.
Challes-Les-Eaux (LFLE) to Courcheval (LFLJ):
After a quick stop-over for breakfast and a "nature break" I was ready to head on to the most famous of this month's challenging airports, Courcheval. Luckily for me I did eventually learn how to install scenery and have been adding this airport to every sim I've had. I'm not much of a bush-flying pilot but I do try and duck into here a time or two each year just to keep up my skill set.
I am happy to report that I GREASED the landing and spent some time at the lodge celebrating with a Hot Swiss Cocoa drink.
Courcheval (LFLJ) to L'Alpe D'Huez (LFHU):
I'm even getting used to the cramped quarters departing Courcheval and it is fantastic to have an aircraft that can back itself up! Getting into position at the top of the ski jump I again locked the brakes, eased the throttle up and shot down the hill!
Safely away I turned left and proceded to climb back up to my cruise level, now increased to 13,000 feet. . Using the GPS I could tell when I was clear of the last high mountains and began slowing and descending as soon as it was safe. I saw the village first, off to my right, and made a wide sweeping approach over the valley below. This is utterly SPECTACULAR, one of my new favorite places in flightsim!
Hey guess what? Another uphill landing; That should have been the title this month! The little airport apron includes vacationers and one special passenger!
L'Alpe D'Huez (LFHU) to St. Crepin (LFNC):
Having now enjoyed lunch in the shadow of the Alps I was ready to continue my way south towards Nice where I ended my FOTM in 2003. I restarted the turboprops, taxied to the top of the ramp, locked the brakes, throttled up and shot down hill and out over the spectacular valley again. This is another scenic leg flown at 13,000 feet but the St. Crepin airport is low down in a valley so I spent most of this 40-mile flight either climbing or descending. I hope my pax. aren't feeling ill!
St. Crepin (LFNC) to Gap Tallard (LFNA):
After my brief stop to unload pax and top off the tanks I continued on.
Gap Tallard (LFNA) to St. Auban (LFMX):
Since it was just me now, alone in the E120, I dropped in the gear and flaps but went missed, passing over the runway at 100 feet AGL before climbing again and continuing on the Nice.
St. Auban (LFMX) to Nice (LFMN):
This was the longest leg of the month, over the southern French foothills and into Nice in time for dinner.
Nice (LFMN) to Zurich (LSZH):
The next morning after breakfast I took a taxi back to the Nice airport and put "As Real As It Gets" on the shelf. I borrowed an Italian Piaggio in Maseratti livery, set the season to January and the weather to "Winter Wonderland" and headed back to LFHU!
Super scenic flight (as they have been this month!) and tough approach through Alpine Valleys. I'm getting this challenging airport figured out!
I had another lunch at the cafe' and then went to check on Bill's friend Cindi; sure enough she was still there, shivering in the snow, so I offered her a ride.
With Cindi in the back, wrapped in warm blankets and sipping tea, we rocketed out of the mountains and headed direct to Zurich.
Rik: Now that I've gotten more of the flying thing figured out (and FSX) I really enjoyed this FOTM! One of the best I've had in a long time! Thank you so much for an adventure that, ten years later, is still awesome!
See you all in Kiwi-land for June!
05 June 2013
May 2013 - Alpine Skiing
April 2013 - Berlin Airlift
1 know, it was really called "Vittles" but we don't have those anymore and kids wouldn't know what we are talking about.
It was still March but I figured Germany had to be warmer than Alaska (I was wrong by the way) so I loaded up a DC-10 for an overnight flight from Anchorage to Hanover. 8AM and it was still dark but I arrived safely for a couple FOTMs in Europe.
After a few days' hangin' with Hans I was off to complete this historical FOTM. I loaded up a "Euro-Styled" P-51 Mustang and headed out from Hanover. I departed to the east and trimmed out at 900 feet AGL, keeping my speed around 160 I made at least a half-dozen low passes over Hans' neighborhood. I'm sure I woke some people up rudely! From there I continued south at 1,500 feet to the DLE VOR. Finally I turned back north and headed to Wundsdorf Airbase.
An hour later I had loaded up the Retro FLIGHT CLUB DC-4 (A new model but the same aircraft I had used ten years ago) with pallets of Skittles Candies and I was ready to go! Once cleared from "ground" I cranked the four engines and was directed to taxi to the west end of the airport for an east departure and immediate course correction to the NDB. Once over the Hannover NDB I tuned the HDG bug to the map heading toward the Berlin NDB and trimmed out for level flight. This part of Germany really is pretty darn flat.
Ten years ago I had to land from the east, keeping a tight left-hand pattern; this time my approach was Straight-In. I taxied to the terminal and shut down.
Ten years ..... a lot can happen in ten years. For example,ten years after Operation Vittles we had jet-powered aircraft, like the Handley-Page Vicker Bomber which I used to fly some low-level passes over Berlin.
From there I flew down to Geneva to get ready for the May Feature Flight.
February 2013 - Baffin Island
DAY ONE:
From Walla Walla, Washington I caught a private charter flight aboard a CV990; all the way across North America to CYFB, "Iqaluit." This is the nearest "Good-Sized" airport to Pangnirtung - the starting location for Peter's Arctic Adventure.
Early DAY TWO I hopped a Dash-8 up to Pangnirtung.
I cheated!
Okay, not really CHEATED but I've learned a lot over the past ten years! One of the things that I've learned is that I am NOT a fan of prolonged cruise flights. Climbing ... Hand-flown approaches ... RNPs ... Landings ... those are the reasons I sim not to slog along at 120 knots for hours on end. (Frankly, even an hour at 90 knots is TOOMUCHFS for me!) Therefore I have ditched many of my slower aircraft or as I've done this month, I have tweaked things to maximize my own flying pleasure. Allow me to introduce you to (if you don't already know) the Jet-Powered, Turbine "Supervan"! http://www.texasturbines.com/en/our-conversions/supervan-900.html Adding the Lear Jet sounds to the Default Caravan while tweaking the CFG for added boost/power I can STILL land at slow speeds and on short, unimproved runways but I can cruise (more) happily at a reasonable 210 knots! Perfect for this FOTM! (by the way, all you nay-sayers out there that talk about the "joy of the journey" ... this thing still flies very nicely at 100 knots as well.)
According to Peter's directions, I started up from Pangnirtung at 18:00Zulu (which is 14:00 local time in February) and used NDBs ONLY to fly up to Broughton Island. Enroute I began encountering some bumps and then building clouds and then ... lightning? While visibility wasn't horrible, the weather degraded until I landed with blowing wet snow. Shut-down was at 14:35.
I was on the ground 30 minutes and closed the doors to re-start at 15:05. Departure, climb and return to Pangnirtung remained stormy but with no lightning and fewer bumps. I shut down there at 15:52.
With daylight remaining I departed at 16:20 and returned all the way back to Iqaluit where I caught that chartered CV990 back to Portland, arriving late that night.
March 2013 - Alaska
February was certainly warmer than it might have been; and I didn't even mind that we'll be back in Hawaii in July! I spent the month doing inter-island hops in the EMB-195 and in July I will likely be flying a Supervan again so it will be a totally different experience. On March 1st I loaded a CV990 (painted from an old DC-8 livery I found on Aliners.net) and headed across the open North Pacific, to Yakutat, Alaska.
Upon my arrival in Alaska I saw that Tony was already there, parked in his dark-colored sedan, checking us in. I knew that this time around we'd have to be on our best behavior; certainly our reputation over the past ten years should be some indication of the kind of supervision we need!
I checked in at the office, filed my flight plan to Valdez and ordered up the aircraft I'd be using. With everything in order (so I thought) the little Office Assistant took my folder out to the sedan where Tony checked off on my work. With his "stamp-of-approval" I was off!
LEG ONE to Icy Bay:
First up is the Horizon Livery Q300. I had forgotten what a SCENIC FLIGHT this was, enhanced over last time by FSX!
Tony had stuck a Post-It Note on my flight folder indicating that I was pilot one this month (no shock there) so I knew that I wouldn't have to dodge gaping holes, busted nose gear or otherwise mangled aircraft along the way. (Besides that I knew that we were all much more experienced and seasoned pilots now and something like rough or unimproved runways really didn't phase us anymore.) I made a smooth, straight-in approach and landed and stopped easily.
LEG TWO to Cordova-Smith:
After landing, and parking, and unloading the Horizon Q300 I switched into a Flight Club Livery aircraft. Tony was just coming out with our livery and website back in 2003 but this is a new aircraft and paint job compatible with FSX. You all can't see the small print under the cockpit windows but this particular aircraft is named "MILDREANNA". Those who have been around for eleven years will know the significance of flying this aircraft in March!
LEG THREE to Valdez:
My wife went to High School with a guy who is now one of the owner/operators of LifeMed Alaska. They use Lear Jets in the real world but we are flying Q300s this month.
Another thing we have learned and developed in the past ten years is RNP Navigation - a very precise, GPS-form of navigation that is easy to simulate in the Flight Planner. This assures that we will avoid all terrain and allows us to fly very precise approaches ... ideal for places like Valdez.
LEG FOUR to Anchorage:
Finally, (this wasn't part of Tony's original but I knew I needed a connection to Hanover, Germany) I took a newer Flight Club repaint and headed to Anchorage for the conclusion of this March Feature Flight.
Tony, ten years later and it was still fun. THANK YOU for a short, scenic FOTM, it was great fun this time!!
January 2013 - Premier in Oregon
As I sit here staring at the computer screen I'm really not sure where to start.
Sure, I'll be starting out in Bergamo Italy where I left off last month but beyond that it occurs to me that it's been ten years and 120 Feature Flights. It is quite simply phenominal. You all are amazing!
Looking back to our first FOTM it occurs to me that I really had little clue as to what I was doing when I set up this flight the end of 2002. For one thing, I simply looked up, watched the Dash8-300s flying over downtown and gave some some navigation suggestions. I'm sure that we have all come far enough along that we are better able to flight plan our routes or even lay in more accurate, real-world routes. I also gave some manually-set weather from an early morning in late December whereas now, technology allows us to quickly and thoughtlessly download real-world weather. So it was that in late December I set out from Bergamo to head "back home" for the holidays. I took the train from Bergamo down the coast to Rome and reflected back on our last ten years together.
From Rome I found a right seat on an old DC-10 flying to Chicago. I then caught an EMB-190 to Portland. Come January 2nd I made a pre-dawn flight in a Dash8-200 down to Medford.
Horizon (now mainly Alaska) only uses the Q400 now, having phased out all the smaller Dash and Fokker turboprops. But since this is a look back, I'll be flying the -200 this AM. Alaska Airlines is likely the world's largest (certainly they were the first) user of RNPs - Required Navigation Procedures. A very specific, GPS-type of flightplan which does not rely on NDBs, VORs or even High-Alt Jetways. In the real world they can program in specific speeds and altitudes allowing aircraft to fly very precise routes. While FS Flightplanner does not allow me to program altitudes (as yet) I can lay in some very precise lateral navigation and then opt to use the autopilot or simply hand-fly the magenta line.
Having loaded in my RNP (set to intercept the ILS to Rwy 10R), my pax and topped off the fuel I was ready for a pre-dawn pushback. I set time to an hour before "dawn" and set-off to repeat our first FOTM.
Cruise was FL190 and I disconnected Otto at 25 miles south of Portland. I still struggle to hand-fly the glideslope when I cannot see outside landmarks, but I managed a safe and relatively smooth landing.
Two hours later I was back to real-weather and had laid in a new RNP into .... Walla Walla, WA. Why the change in location? Because this is where I was when I actually FORMULATED the vision that has become TOOMUCHFS.
December 2012 - El Euro-Loco
I have been blessed to be a part of this group for the past ten years. I have been blessed that health and jobs and schedules have allowed me to contribute some kind of report for each of the past 120 months. AMAZING! However ...
This is not to say that I have always made an accurate representation of the Feature Flights Presented. Sure, life crops up sometimes and just gets in the way but in this case I just did a poor job on the flights offered. This month I have the opportunity to correct my wrong.
Some of the flights that Salina mentioned for the April 2004 El Euro LoCo FOTM were scheduled to occur during hours of darkness. Since dark is never really good for screenshots I just sort of made up my own time schedule and flew whenever I felt like it. This time ... by the numbers!
There is another reason for choosing this FOTM; this year I have set about to fly mainly (if not exclusively) the EMB-190 and I wanted to end up near where I started out, in Bergamo, Italy (during the Ryanair flights from Marco Roth in December 2011). Salina's flights are quite similar to Marco's and occur in the same neighborhood so this should be a great final flight for 2012.
Flight Planning:
Salina suggested that on day one we start out from Frankfurt-Hahn and fly to Venice, Italy. ( Arriving to Frankfurt from Northern Germany was easy in a Dash-8! (pict1) ) The first problem to address is that many of these airlines (and most of the routes) no longer exist. Okay by me as I wanted to fly the Embraers anyway - but I'll still use Salina's timetable and real-world weather!
DAY1
"You will be leaving Hahn at 14:45 ... towards Venice in Italy ... If all goes well, you should be on the ground in that beautiful city by 15:45. ... where Ryanair FR797 awaits you for a departure at 17:25. ... expected to land in Stanstead at 18:30 local time and that concludes your flying for the day."
Okay, I arrived from northern Germany about 13:00 which gave me just over an hour to prep for departure in my Thomas Cook E190LR. Push-back was at 14:45, start-up, request IFR departure, taxi, await for AI traffic ... it was 14:53 when I rotated off the runway and turned southeast onto my heading for Venice. The flight was scenic and my arrival into this beautiful airport was not unlike in the 2004 flight with ATC winding my all over northern Italy. I arrived safely and shut down some 20 minutes late.
For the next flight I chose an Alitalia livery. If I thought these flights were dark in April, they are REALLY DARK in December! Arrival to a foggy Stanstead was early with shut-down at 18:22.
DAY2
"At 10.45 you are taking Air Berlin flight AB9292 to the Balearic Islands where you should be arriving at 2 pm. ... at 22.50 [you will] fly north, to Germany's number-one low cost airport Cologne-Bonn ... ending at 01.10 am there ..."
After an overnight and leisurely morning at Stanstead I loaded an Air Catalonia Ejet and pushed back at 10:45. The flight southeast across the whole of France seemed longer than I remembered and there was some notable wind and turbulance coming into La Palma but the landing was easy and I taxied directly to a conveniently-located gate, shutting down at ... 14:09. How the heck am I supposed to arrive on time?
For the next flight which is entirely dark, I flew a Retro Air Catalonia livery.
DAY3
"At 07.15 ... Berlin-Tegel ... for the scheduled service to Frankfurt (the real one) leaving at 16.55 and arriving there at 18.20."
07:15 is just before dawn at this latitude in December but I had a nice moon view. Arrival to Berlin was 08:15.
For Salina's last flight we return to Frankfurt. I used an Augsberg livery for this one. My arrival to the gate at Frankfurt was 18:17 - just about on time at last!
Thanking Salina for the memories - it was fun, again!
DAY4
Finally we are ready to wrap up this FOTM, the year and the decade by returning to Bergamo where Marco Roth had us end in December 2011. There are no direct flights that I could find but being the Club President I can charter anything I want! So I took an updated F.S Flight Club International, EMB-190 and made my own schedule - departing after breakfast and arriving into northern Italy about an hour later.
I am awe-struck by all that has happened the past ten years - I feel that I would be lost without all of you, my Flight Simming Friends from around the world. "THANK YOU" to each and every one.
Here's to looking at ten more years of virtual flight adventures.
November 2012 - Western Europe
I don't know why Hans and Joao do this, I've never asked them to but each time before they fly they let me know that the FOTM is done and posted and ready to go. So it was that the call came on my Flight Club Phone that Hans' November FOTM was posted (with screenshots) and ready to go. I've long-since given up asking about DETAILS but I do like to know which direction to head. Hans suggested that I head to Amsterdam.
Really? Western Europe from the middle of the South Pacific? That's 163* of Longitude! Frankly I wasn't looking too farward to another long, multi-leg commute in the EMB-190 - maybe I could just hop a DC-10 for this one flight? No, I've made the committment to do this and if Hans has us in Europe already there will be no commute in December because I've already picked out a flight there. So, this was one last hop across the planet in the Embraer (next year I'll commute in something a little bigger). Anyway, having come from the Mediterranean last month I figured I could just fly the same commute backwards.
THE COMMUTE:
Wasn't I shocked to arrive to the airport late on the 31st only to discover that the recommended shorter route was EAST?! Across North America and the Atlantic? Wow, the Pacific really is bigger than any of us can imagine!
So departed before dawn on Thursday November 1st flying the PLR.org livery up to Kiribati. I had never, ever been here before but add this place to the real-world Bucket List; it looks very intriguing!
Later on the first I flew a Hawaiian Airlines livery EMB-195 up to Hilo, HI.
Friday the 2nd I set out on a long leg across open water to Santa Ana, CA (John Wayne Airport). I was having continuous vibration problems in the #2 engine and 450 miles out I had to disassociate my throttles and pull #2 back to 35%. I then returned to Hilo. For final approach I set #2 at idle and used #1 as my primary speed control throttle; we landed safely using autobrakes but no reverse thrust. This is the first time all year I've had engine problems! After repairs I completed the flight, arriving at sunset.
Taking Saturday off, I departed for Chicago/Midway and then St. John's, NF on Sunday the 4th.
Across the pond via Azore's on Monday the 5th arriving into Amsterdam Monday night.
THE FOTM:
From Schiphol I took a Dash-8 up to Borkum (pict12) and then used my Mooney Acclaim Type-S Turbo for the FOTM legs.
From Sylt-Westerland I took the Dash-8 again to Frankfurt/Hahn where I will start my December Feature Flight.
Hans, I had never heard of this place before! Great VFR tour - thank you so much for sharing your wealth of information with us. This was a fantastic 119th flight; I think it's awesome that we are still coming up with such fantastic and NEW features! Great Job!
October 2012 - Cook Islands
After my C-46 flight up the Nile I had been hiding out in Cairo awaiting our next flight adventure. As expected, Peter is sending us someplace remote but at least this time it's not impossible to get to!
The first order of business was to check out the download package he had prepared for us. It failed to initiate on three seperate attempts. "Oh well, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out" I said to myself.
Earlier this year (for Tony's May FOTM) I had downloaded a scenery package for some airport enhancements throughout the South Pacific. Until this point I have never wanted to spend time and money on any complex aircraft or scenery because I've liked to fly EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE. Why would I use up Gigs of precious memory for just one or two flights/visits? So, as usual, having some pretty simple, basic enhancements for larger areas works well for me.
The bigger issue was that I have used only the EMB-190LR for my commuter this year and with a range of around 2,000 miles I was looking at several legs just to get to Roratonga! I figured two flights per day of 3-4 hours apiece would keep me in daylight and under the 10-hours max-allowed time in the cockpit.
Commute One:
In the middle of the night (Monday October 1st) I reported to Cairo International and began my clearances and flight planning to Southern Iran. My aircraft for this leg was a Babylonian E190LR. I departed in darkness - saw dawn over the Arabian desert (this thing needs ETOPS for flying here) - and landed around 9 AM.
Commute Two:
My next leg would be from Kish to Kathmandu aboard a Nepalese E190LR. After an hour on the ground in Iran I continued onward, landing southbound in Kathmandu in the mid afternoon of Tuesday October 2nd. I stayed overnight here in Nepal's capital.
Commute Three:
Wednesday October 3rd I waited until there was enough daylight to do an engine out departure before continuing on to Hong Kong. (pict6) I landed at Chap Lop Kek amid a thundershower!
Commute Four:
After lunch in Hong Kong I headed for Guam. For this leg I picked a retro Army/Airforce paint scheme which remainds me of an old C-47. There were still some light showers and bumps climbing out of Hong Kong but the rest of the flight was peaceful and I landed just after sunset.
Commute Five:
I departed Guam on Thursday before dawn. For the May FOTM I used an Asia-Pacific Livery so for the next leg I switched into a Cebu/Pacifica Combo paint scheme and headed across the vast South Pacific to Majuro.
Commute Six:
I arrived into an abandoned Majuro at 10 AM. I quickly switched into a Coral Sea Livery and continued on to Pago Pago where I arrived at 15:00 in the afternoon local time.
Commute Seven:
Friday, October 5th. I departed Pago Pago at dawn in the "Positive Life Radio" Embraer and headed the final few hours into Roratonga. This is the perfect opportunity to remind everyone that you can Live-Stream http://www.plr.org anywhere in the world. Once I arrived I was tired of travel and well-and-truely jet-lagged so I simply collapsed into my beachfront hut at the resort and spent the weekend lounging and ordering room service. (Good thing Brad had paid the Flight Club's Fee up front!)
FOTM:
In one of Peter's screenshots he showed a JS-31 and I thought this seemed like a mighty fine option for flights to ALL of the Cook Islands' land airports (surely there are some docks for water landings?) Monday October 8th I set about to thoroughly tour the Cook Islands including some of Peter and Jenny's favorite hang-out spots.
Peter: It's always a pleasure to fly in the warm tropics. Thank you for sharing your "second honeymoon" with all of us. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you and Jenny! (I think it would be appropriate to print up all of our PIREPs for her to read on your long flight back to the islands.)
September 2012 - Ethiopia
Having arrived safely into Addis again (we've been here before you know) I had to get aclimated to the food and altitude - lucky for me I had Daniel and his family to help out. Next, I needed to find an "Ethiopian Queen" to take me to Debra Tabor and back.
The flights this month are pretty straight-forward although I know the runway at Debra Tabor isn't too improved. I'm not about to abandon my goal of flying Embrears for a year at this point! Daniel doesn't even know that this plane exists so if this doesn't get him to surface I don't know what will?! (Ethiopian EMB-120) that I used for this flight.
The flight up was pretty uneventful - I used Debra Marcos as a mid-way waypoint. (pict3) Once over Debra Tabor I flew over the airport and then set up for approach and landing. I had everything trimmed and smooth; it was very nearly a hands-off landing (a bit long however).
After an hour on the ground we were ready to return to Addis for our next leg up to Cairo.
We had a 90-minute layover to flightplan and get back into an EMB-190 for the 1,330-mile flight up north (no stopover in Asmara needed)
The flight up to Cairo in real weather was windy and bumpy and turbulent! I tried higher and lower altitudes but it was just a very miserable flight - haven't had one of those in some time. I'm sure that cabin services would have been minimal due to the fact that even the FAs would want to be belted into their seats!
Despite the in-flight weather we arrived safely and then had a long taxi to the gates.
The next day I returned to Addis in the EMB-190. Next I opted to slow things down a bit so I took a C-46 Commando on the same route, this time with the stop-over in .... as I was flight-planning I got my "A"s confused and made a stop-over in Aswan as opposed to Asmara. The full-plane take-off from 7,500 feet ASL took FOR-EVER and the climb out wasn't much better but once I was able to settle in at 12,500 feet it was a happy (but painfully slow) ride. After lunch in Aswan I flew basically VFR up the nile all the way to Cairo - that was pretty fun!
Daniel, if you get to a computer again soon you may read this: THANKS FOR SENDING US BACK TO ETHIOPIA and for the brief history lesson too!
04 June 2013
August 2012 - Switzerland
After ten years, the middle-of-the-night routine has become habitual.
There are two quick raps on my door.
"Mr. President" the Concierge calls out, "Your package has arrived."
This is followed by the sound of an envelope being slid under my door.
This time I am at the Grand Case Beach Club in St. Maarten's.
Sometimes I bolt out of bed and quickly snatch up the envelope containing the details of our latest feature flight.
Sometimes I stagger to the door like some sort of drunkard.
Occassionally I remain contentedly asleep until morning.
Today I really WANT to get up but I physically can't - the bed just feels too good.
Finally I doze off again for an hour or so before finally making my way to the manila envelope and Bill's instructions.
SWITZERLAND. Again ....
I actually don't mind at all, flying to the same area where we have been before - even two or three times. (We were last here in April 2010 on some Military Flights) Usually the challenges are new or the aircraft are new or the sim is new so either way it's like a whole new experience.
Job one was to get to Zurich: I called my contact at Embraer (by now we are on a first-name basis) and arranged to hop onto a delivery flight which was passing through TODAY! We were looking at a long, cross-Atlantic cruise to Cape Verde where we landed with just under 5,000 pounds of fuel remaining.
Next I boarded a scheduled BINTER flight up to Casablanca.
Finally, on Thursday August 2nd, I took a flight up to Zurich.
After some "longer" legs in the E190LR I had had some time to think about my aircraft for this FOTM. We tend to collect the kinds of planes that we like to fly and therefore I don't have a vast array of Business or GA aircraft in my FS hangar. In fact, while it's a good plane and I've used it before (Peter's Rogaine for August 2009 for example), I don't even own a PC-12 currently! Bill had mentioned taking some models into St. Moritz and I thought that flying a Piaggio with Lambourghini registration was the way to go. I can't remember if I have ever flown an "Avanti" for a FOTM before but it is fast and very "Italian."
However, I was not real comfortable with the thought of slamming the Twin Piaggio around through moutain passes or shoe-horning it onto 1,600-foot airstrips. I think I'd rather use a Do-328 or EMB-120 but both of those seemed like overkill for this challenge! (Although, I did take the Do-328 in and out of St. Barts!)
Finally it occurred to me that I owed Bill a good and legal flight. Last year for our June 2011 "Race Around Rio" I flew a Mooney Acclaim-S Turbo and was disqualified from the race on the grounds that the instructions were for non-turbos.(It's the only Mooney I have!) This time Bill is ASKING for something Turbo and it seemed appropriate to bring this plane back and "fly it right". Sure, Bill had mentioned five swimsuit models and I knew that if I used the Acclaim that only three would be able to come along - surely that's enough don't you think?
On Friday I arranged for my aircraft and "cargo" and headed over to St. Moritz with a stop-over-for-lunch in Bad Ragaz (LSZE). After lunch we flew along at 500-1,000 feet AGL, 1500 ft/lbs of torque (about 60%) and 240 knots through the valleys, following the river to St. Moritz.
I stayed in St Moritz through the weekend before continuing on to the following stop-overs:
LSMI - Interlaken on Sunday August 5th:
LSZO - Luzern on Monday August 6th: There was wind, there was rain, there were clouds. I knew I should turn back but Bill really wanted to see if we could do it, "For safety sake, you won’t be carrying any passengers on this flight. I just want to see if you can find this tiny 1600ft long grass runway, land and pull up without overrunning the strip." With full flaps and "hanging on the prop" I was trying to keep my final approach speed at something under 130 knots but with the windshear ... I was fighting back and forth with the wind and the stall horn and finally I got slammed down into the trees just at the edge of the runway.
I hope you are happy.
I guess I won't be seeing these locations this month:
LSZB - Bern
LSMC - Ulrichen
LSPM - Ambri
LSZC - Buochs
LSGG - Geneva
After my recovery I loaded an EMB-190 from Geneva and headed on a two-leg flight to Addis, Ethiopia for our September FOTM
July 2012 - Mexico
Last month I flew a Sopwith Camel over Mexico City before heading south to Oaxaca. Now Joao invites us to fly to Mexico City and Acapulco! I bet I can hit more places than that this month.
Let me put in a little pitch here for our EXTRA FLIGHTS Tab. There is feature there called "My Mexico" which is also worthy of a look - may be a nice compliment to this feature flight. (In fact, his flight is how I ended up in Oaxaca!)
Wanting to avoid the heat and smog of Mexico City, I departed Oaxaca at dawn I flew the short leg west to Acapulco on Sunday July 1st.
Sunday July 8th I flew north to the resorts at Mazatlan.
Sunday July 15th I flew northwest to La Paz.
Sunday July 22nd I flew east to Mexico City.
Wednesday July 25th I flew east to Cancun.
All legs flown in EMB-190 repaints.
All legs flown = 2,320 miles.
Joao, Thank you so much for taking us to a new and scenic country, it was a pleasure to fly for you.
POST SCRIPT: On July 29th I flew 1,400 miles in a FOTM-livery to St. Maarten where I will be hanging out at Maho Beach until August.
June 2012 - S. American History
This month Alejandro has invited us to commemorate some Latin American Aviation History. To start my historical lesson today I take you back to my January 2012 PIREP. Paragraph two: "In December I had the opportunity to test and tweak and fly and repaint some EMB-190s. I have really fallen in love with the little plane and wanted to use that as my commuter in 2012."
As humans became more adept at building and flying machines, they took their technology around the globe and by the early 1920's, most Latin American Countries had at least been exposed to "AVIATION." Almost right away, at least by the 1930's, the Brazilian government made several investments in aviation and began formally looking into building their own aircraft during the 1940s and '50s. It was not until 1969 that Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer) was created as a government-owned corporation. Not even 50 years ago, but an interesting piece of aviation history none-the-less
The first, "best-known" Embrear was the EMB-110 which received it's airworthiness certificate at the end of 1972. Production on the 110 was halted in 1990 as it's popularity had been superseded by the EMB-120. "Probably the closest to a modern replacement for the DC-3" (with double the speed), the Brasilia (launched in 1979) and attracted immediate interest from many regional airlines, particularly in the USA. After introduction into the "Commuter Jet" or "Regional Jet" genre' in the mid 1980's (EMB-135/145) the EMB-170 was introducted in 2001. After a positive response from the airline community, Embraer delivered the first E170 aircraft to LOT Polish Airlines in March 2004. The E190 model is a larger stretch of the E170 fitted with a new, larger wing, larger horizontal stabilizer and a new engine, (the GE CF34-10E, rated at 18,500 lb). These aircraft compete with the Bombardier CRJ series but have made Embrear the third-largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world! Not simply a "commuter", since the E190 is of mainline aircraft size, many airlines could operate them as front-line aircraft. For example, Air Canada operates 45 E190 aircraft fitted with 9 business-class and 88 economy-class seats as part of its primary fleet.
I ended last month in Davao, Philippines having flown a Philippine Airline E190 in from Indonesia. At dawn on June 3rd, I loaded an E190 and headed east, back across the vast Pacific Ocean at 33,000 feet and MACH 0.75:
Leg One:Davao to Buka, PNG = 1900 miles
Leg Two:Buka to Faleolo, Samoa = 2000+ miles
(June 3rd again)Leg Three:Faleolo to Hao, Polynesia = 1800+ miles
Leg Four:Hao to Isla Pascua, Chile = 1800+ miles
(June 4th)Leg Five:Isla Pascua to Galapagos, Ecuador = 1900+ miles
Leg Six:Galapagos to Valencia = 1500+ miles
For the actual FOTM part I loaded the smaller EMB-170 (June 6th) and departed from Valencia flying at low altitude over some airports "famous" in Venezuelan aviation history :
SVBS
SVEP
At this point I loaded up the 1909 Blériot (from the April 2011 FOTM by Hans) and took a few laps over the city.
Then, back into the EMB-170 I continued to SVCS
SVMP
The Cabo Codera VOR
SVMI
And returned to SVVA
On June 19th I loaded up an AEROVIAS DC-4 and flew just under 2,000 miles up to Mexico City where it was smoggy, warm, humid and just plane miserable. Alejandro talked about the 100th anniversary of aviation in Venezuela and I was thinking that World War I only started two years later in 1914; I loaded up a Sopwith Camel and took a couple laps over (and through) Mexico City as well. Who knew these things could fly from over 7,000 feet ASL?
The open cockpit did provide me some breeze but the humidity and smog were still stifling, I had to get out of here, but to where?
In the EXTRA Flights tab at http://www.toomuchfs.com there is a flight called "My Mexico" by Javier Hernandez who lives in Oaxaca. The last leg of his flight is from Mexico City to Oaxaca and he has invited us to visit his home, "only 15 miles from the airport." I loaded up an "Aztec" E190 and headed south!
May 2012 - Amelia Earhart
Okay, I'm a bit surprised that we haven't taken this on before (Although Monk and Salina have had us fly around the South Pacific). While I certainly can appreciate Tony's sentiment of flying "appropriate" twins and the navigational challenge even intrigues me a bit, I have made a committment this year to fly only EMBs. In passing I have wondered about what I would do if I were asked to cross the vast Pacific (no ETOPs rating and all) and I guess now I will find out!
First, I would like to point out that I am already in Santa Barbara, CA and so starting in Lae and then flying BACK to Oakland .... I'm not doing that.
Second, the range listed for the E190LR is 2,250 miles. I've played around with this thing enough that I know (weather permitting) I can load in two crew and their food (400 pounds) and full fuel tanks and manage to eek out 2,400 miles with no gas for a go-around.
Third, I don't know about you lot but 5+ hours crammed into 2x2 seating with 90 of your closest strangers does not sound like a good time to me. Just because a plane CAN fly a certain distance doesn't mean that it SHOULD fly that distance. Therefore, I've been planning all my flights for under 2,000 miles.
With the RNP flight planner opened I plotted a track from Santa Barbara to Honolulu = 2,150. I could conceivably make that.
Honolulu to Kwajalain = 2,150. I could make that too.
Kwajalain to Lae = 1,575. Yep.
It was all set then. The Air Astana FA and I would ..... I mean, I would, solo as in alone, fly the E190LR across the Pacific to PNG!
I waited 2+ hours before switching into a retro Pan American livery. I loaded the same 250 pounds with 100% fuel (longer taxi) and headed back to 26R for departure.
I arrived to runway 09 at 13:20 local time. I spent nearly 24 hours touring the historic island before switching into an "Asia Pacific" livery for the final leg into northern PNG.
The weather was nice and clear though a bit on the cool side. I arrived into Lae at 15:30 local time. During my descent into northern PNG I noted several nice-looking spots along the way, some places in Indonesia and the Bismarck Islands that seemed worth checking out (pict6)so near the end of the month I flew on to the following locations:
Tokua
Momote
Wewak
Biak
Manado
Davao
April 2012 - Pacific Coast Highway
From Utah, I headed to Paso Robles, CA to get a little warmer (Ignore the previous reports of a multi-legged commute to Babylon). How convenient that I'd be hanging out here when Alastair sends us to ... CALIFORNIA. (Notice the "California Yin/Yang flight in the EXTRA Flights tab)
Well, this is actually pretty slick because I've just been playing around (in my mind) with doing flights hubbed out of Santa Barbara (not too far from where I went to High School). I could pretty much fly wherever I wanted to in either an EMB-190 or an EMB-120. P-E-R-F-E-C-T!
So I flew down to SB and then switched into an "exclusive" West Coast Livery for this FOTM.
My mind really isn't coming up with any fanciful tales this month so I'll simply report that I flew the EMB-120 to:
Van Nuys
Palm Springs
San Diego
Then into the EMB-190 to Lake Tahoe, Vegas and North Bend before returning to SB.
It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned http://www.plr.org in a long time. (PLR EMB) Here is their new EMB-190, only lacking the "Positive Life Radio" wording.
March 2012 - Babylonian
In 2008 while TooMuchFS was flying around the Bering Sea and the plains of southern Canada (I was flying Dash-8s by the way) I was thinking about flying regional turboprops (like a Dash-8 or Do-328) around the mountains of the "Stans". I was making some preliminary stops in northern Afghanistan and began wondering, "If it weren't for the United States' 'War on Global Terror' what would air operations look like in this region?" I was contemplating a feature FOTM in the area but other than towering mountains and some main airports there really wasn't a lot to be seen in FS2004.
Note: Thankfully Brad had us fly THE STANS in May 2011.
In 2009 while TooMuchFS was flying around Turkey the thought of an Iraqi air service kept teasing me. At that point I began working up a vision for restoring regularly scheduled flights from Baghdad; generally reconnecting Iraq with the rest of the aviation world. Thus was born our March 2012 FOTM – 3 years ago!
I decided that regional turboprop flights weren't going to initially be viable, so after some investigation and market research I came up with the 757 flight detailed in the FOTM. Over the last three years, with access to my untold billions, I have been able to build on that one 757 flight to Milan. Join me now for a brief look at Babylonian Air Service 2012:
We have kept our first, vital flight to Milan but have took a page from FedEx and upgraded a former Bimen DC-10. This flight is four times per week. We also offer DC-10 service to Paris twice weekly. Le Bourget closed to International traffic back in 1977 but the runways are certainly long enough for the DC-10! It's not always easy working with the French but if you wave enough money around ...
We still have our 757 in service, flying to Islamabad, Karachi, Istanbul, Cairo, Bangkok and Kunming.
We use our 707 as a flight-ready backup for any of these 757 or DC-10 flights as well as for Charter, Contract or Government flights as needed. Recently our 707 has been seen in Kigali, London and Hong Kong.
As our global reach has expanded and our Babylonian history is becoming known and respected, we have purchased an IL-76 Cargo aircraft used, among other things, to ferry museum pieces around the globe – this also has expanded our marketing reach. "This Los Angeles exhibit of Babylonian Art brought to you (literally) by Babylonian Air Service."
One of the most profound changes we have started in the past year is regional service throughout the Middle East with EMB-170 and Dash-8 aircraft sharing flights to as many as twelve cities from Lebanon and Syria to Iran, the Caspian and Persian Gulf Resorts.
Finally, just in 2012, we have started providing local flights within Iraq. Even with the blank scenery provided in FSX, we have been using two Jetstream-31s and the Dash-8 for these flights along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; occasionally venturing North into Turkey and South into the Persian Gulf. These flights are not scheduled as are our other flights but are on a fee-for-service basis; When we have enough folks wanting to fly in a certain direction, we'll fly there, often having to make many stop-offs along the way. Wait times for these flights have just been around 12-14 hours on average.
February 2012 - Utah!
In 2011 I commuted between FOTMs exclusively in F.S Flight Club liveries. My last leg in December, 2011 was flown in the Flight Club EMB-190. I really liked the plane and once I arrived to Portland after the January FOTM I looked up several YouTube Videos about the plane and cockpit - its really a nice piece of work! At that point I decided to fly EMB-190s in 2012. So, after a full month in Portland I flew an Alaska EMB-190 back up to Juneau so that I could start off "properly" for Brad's Feature Flight. All I could get out of him was that we'd be "Heading for some mountains." That really wasn't helpful but I tried to be an adult and wait patiently for the mail to arrive. With the EMB-190 safely hunkered down at the airport I headed into town and the suite I had waiting. While sipping my hot drink by the fire I reviewed the cockpit that I'd be seeing a lot of in the coming year.
Right on time the mail arrived with instructions to start out in Las Vegas, NV. "Been there, done that, got the shirt" as they say; so I headed directly to Salt Lake City, UT. I returned to the airport and readied the plane for a 5 AM departure. Despite some wind, departure and climb were pretty stress-free and 90 minutes later, 33,000 feet somewhere over BC I enjoyed the February 1st sunrise.
ATC gave me a straight-in approach off of the Great Salt Lake and I landed on the marks! Shut down was at 09:30 local time.
Now, staying with the EMB-theme that I've taken on for 2012, I switched to the EMB-120; I figured if it could win the Turbo Challenge out of St. Barts and could handle places like Jompur Nepal that Utah would be no problem! I loaded up a cool-looking Aussie theme and departed 45 minutes later at 10:15.
As I had been loading up Brad's flightplan I noted that he was talking about Utah Mountains; and while there are mountains about, the airports weren't exactly IN the mountains. Anxious for a challenge and interested to put the little "Brasilia" to the challenge I hit many of Brad's recommendations while throwing in a couple of my own too. My first stop-over was at a place called Salina (44U) where I landed at 10:45 AM.
After an hour on the ground I headed up and over the mountains to Beaver (U52).
From Parowan I headed to the southernmost airport for this FOTM, an area I've been to before: Bryce/Woodland (UT26). I took a couple of passes over some of the best Rock Climbing in North America before landing at the little airport. I stayed here overnight before heading back toward Salt Lake.
Just after sunup and breakfast I headed for Panguitch (UT17). I was on the ground there from 07:40 until 08:38.
The next stop-over was in South Jordan (U13) from 08:50 to 09:50.
Next we headed up over the mountains to Wayne - Wonderland (38U) which is over 7,000 feet ASL.
Our last stop was in Mount Pleasant (43U) from noon to 13:00.
From there it was back to Salt Lake for a nearly 26-hour layover. I was anxious to lose the long-johns (I've been wearing them since November) and had an invitation to visit Paso Robles, CA ...
(Story to be continued in April)
Brad, thank you for the scenic challenges in Utah! I had a good three days there.
January 2012 - Alaska
Seattle to Juneau ...
It's not like I haven't flown this route before.
I actually did this route back when Ken and I were working up our RNP article for FS.com
( www.flightsim.com/main/feature/nav201.htm ) I'd never claim to be as practiced or well-rehearsed at the limited visibility flying (as Ken is) but I was able to safely make it through the channel with Otto flying the plane. I think I may have also flown Kodiak's 737 route into Juneau.
In December I had the opportunity to test and tweak and fly and repaint some EMB-190s. I have really fallen in love with the little plane and wanted to use that as my commuter in 2012.
I arried into Seattle the afternoon of New Year's Day and stayed near the airport overnight and reported the next morning to catch my Alaska Airlines Q400 flight to Ketchikan and Juneau - about 570 miles all told. As one might have expected it was cold and rainy in Seattle but we got everyone loaded and the doors closed, we fired up the engines and taxied out. I noticed that one of the AI A321s was taxiing with his cargo doors still open, I tried to signal him but he only waved back at me.
I departed southbound but was able to turn back onto the route and head over some of the most beautiful scenery FSX has to offer - of course I couldn't see much because of the cloud cover! Almost an hour later I was descending into a foggy Ketchikan but wasn't too worried:
1- It's a straight-in approach
2- I could see the runway lights
Just after my screenshot the world closed in and I was looking at the inside of a ping pong ball. At this point I should post up a link to http://www.plr.org A good pilot would have gone missed, climbed back to 5,000 feet and started the descent and timed approach again with more precision; I did no such thing! I descended to a mear 300 feet and skimmed the treetops looking for lights. Suddenly I saw them off to my right and made the quick corrections to land - long but safely.
An hour later the fog had not cleared but we departed on our continued northward journey into the State Capital and the RNP approach. Real-Weather downloads changed from fog to snow showers but visibility was over 3 miles and having the Autopilot fly the RNP was actually very easy and stress-free. I disconnected the AP as we rolled out of the final turn and landed smoothly, stopping by mid-field.
Ken, it was a pleasure working with you and I hope we can do another online session soon!
I didn't stay but 4 hours in Juneau before taking another Alaska Airlines flight back down to Portland where I'd spend the rest of January resting up at home.
As I sat in Portland for the rest of the month (and watched some YouTube videos featuring EMB-190s) I decided that this would be my flight for the next year. 2012 will feature (so far as possible) the EMB-190; we'll see how long that lasts. Anyway, January 31st I returned to Juneau ready for the next feature flight.
