@fearlessfrog - How’s the weather? LOL. Looking like roughly a 4-hour flight…but I think I only have 2+30 left or so (415 nm left according to the Garmin 530). Been busing guesstimating my fuel burn for this leg:
Right now it looks like I’ll be 1+50 to the good side… 
Just shut down a few minutes ago - whew…what a haul today! Safely in Chiliwack at Upper Valley Aviation…
Rough trip details:
T/O w/ 1246 lbs. fuel @ 2115Z
LAND w/ 248 lbs. fuel @ 0144Z
4+29 minutes enroute - burned 998 lbs. of fuel.
Weather in Chiliwack was nice VFR… Now to grab a crew car and find a hotel.
BeachAV8R
Nice - I checked conditions using my window and it looks good, but darker 
PS I live in Canada but get paid in USD. I’ll send a limo.
That was…err…very kind of you…!
BeachAV8R
Even though I was pretty tired from the morning flight - I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and press on down to Chiliwack. This second leg would weigh in at around 683 nm, which is stretching the range on the Turbine Beaver. I got into the books and crunched some numbers and determined it was definitely doable…
Loaded the flight plan in the Garmin 530 and filled up the tanks at Shade Tree Lodge…
Thanks for the lunch at Shade Tree Lodge…and nice views of the glacier. Headed out the way I should have headed in!
This time we’d climb on up to 15,000’ to take advantage of a bit better fuel burn and TAS…
On my last leg I think I mis-managed my fuel - I actually think I might have vented a good bit overboard. For this leg, I dug into the STMA Beaver manual and learned (mostly) the proper fuel management technique. You have tip tanks, and a front and rear fuselage tank that must be pumped into the main tank to keep it filled. So it becomes a bit of a fuel management game where you continuously move fuel from the extremities to the tank running the engine. On my last leg, I think I inadvertently selected the rear tank early and since it was just overfilling the engine running tank, it just vents overboard. So I suffered more from fuel starvation rather than fuel exhaustion. If you don’t keep that main tank filled, having the fuel in the other tanks really doesn’t help you when the engine quits…
Though not a cutting edge cockpit with regards to graphics - I enjoy the STMA Beaver…
Enjoying nice enroute conditions…love the cloud shadows dotting the landscape below…
As the main tank gets lower, I start the process of transferring fuel. I select the front tank first…thinking that having an aft CG benefits TAS…and it does seem to give me a couple knots - so I ease back on the throttle to maintain the 121-ish area…fuel savings!
Overflying some of the airports in Tom’s Inside Passage scenery…
After about four hours (!) I’m making the turn eastbound near Vancouver. Tom’s Vancouver area scenery looks great!
I start a 600 fpm descent into Chiliwack and do the last of my fuel management, draining the last of aft tank into the main tank…
Chiliwack is just over the hills there on the south side of the Fraser River. Oh dear…just realized I’ve been spelling it wrong. It is TWO Ls - Chilliwack. Apologies!
Turning toward the airport…the weather has held up…
My butt is sore!
I taxi in to Upper Valley Aviation where I am to drop off the Beaver for some servicing…(it might be getting a glass panel so I hear…!)
Quite the haul…but I end up with 1+50 or so of fuel remaining… My fuel calculations worked out pretty much in line with what I expected. Nice!
BeachAV8R
With the Beaver delivery complete - I was ready to check out the main reason I had come to Chilliwack. I had been talking to one of my friends in the medevac community a few weeks earlier and he mentioned that their company had suffered a hard landing incident in a landing zone up near Lillooet Hospital. The helo was a Bell 407, and with the rest of the company already standardized on the EC135, they were interested in getting rid of it quickly rather than spending the money to repair the light damage. Thinking I might be able to put the 407 to good use up at my home field of King Ranch in various ways - I decided to take a look-see.
I paid an Uber driver a full day rate to drive me up to Lillooet - it took nearly three hours thanks to some RVs and a portion of road under construction where they were clearing a rockslide. I met with the insurance agent representative, and an airframe and power plant aviation technician (IA) who went over the damage with me. The hard landing was firm enough to warp the skids, but the rest of the aircraft looked to be in very good shape. We batted around some numbers (they were very eager to get it off their books) - and now I’m the owner of a Bell 407! The insurance agent recommended a good local hauler that could get my helo back down to Chilliwack and by late afternoon we were loaded up and heading back down twisty BC-12S.
Beautiful Seton Lake…(uh…yeah)…
The road was pretty twisty…but the views were spectacular…it almost reminded me of Geneva…
In typical Pacific Northwest fashion…the weather soon closed in, making the roads a wet mess in the dim afternoon light…
The driver took a wrong turn at one point and I thought we might come across some zombies or an axe murderer on this stretch…
We pulled off in a truck stop and caught some sleep since we had both had a long day…at first light we resumed the slow grind down the mountains…
By mid morning, we were pulling in to Chilliwack and ready to turn the bird over to Upper Valley Aviation for some much needed TLC…
Within 48 hours - UVA had scrounged up some replacement parts, performed a full inspection, and checked out the rotor tracking using some sophisticated tuning gear. The IA told me that the insurance agent’s IA was way off the mark and nearly everything was within tolerances. He asked me what I had paid for it…when I told him he laughed and said I could probably flip it and pocket a few hundred grand given that he could scrub most of the damage squawks from the logs. I might indeed need to do that at some point, but for now I wanted to check out what this 406 could do. After performing a very, very thorough preflight, I had it fueled to about 50% capacity, and hooked the GPU up for the start.
After removing the tie downs and closing up all the doors and securing all the panels, we are ready to start. I slip the headphones off their holder and instantly the sounds get muffled (neat effect DreamFoil!)…
The first start attempt doesn’t go too well. The MGT gauge spikes, I don’t get a light off, and I have to go into the Helicopter Report health estimate and clear out any previous failures.
The second start attempt the engine spools up normally and rotors slowly start spinning up. The generator goes online and I remove the GPU…
I check things over…then do a hover check in the parking area to make sure all the controls are working properly…
Ready for a short test flight, I plug in Hope Airpark (CYHE) just up the river about 20 miles…
Off we go!
The 406 flies like a dream. I trim it out and we advance toward maximum speed. DreamFoil does a great job of emulating sounds while flying and there is a bit of a muffled whiffing sound as you get up near max speed…
Watch out for the powerlines spanning the Fraser River!
Coming up on Hope Airpark…
This looks like an EPOCH pilot’s kind of place - grass runways and a cozy place to gather…
I set down for a short break, climb out and do a quick walk around inspection to see if anything is amiss. All appears normal…
Heading back to Chilliwack…
I set her down in front of Upper Valley Aviation’s hangar, give the IA a thumbs up, and they push her back into the hangar and get to work. The FBO lets me borrow the crew car for the night and I head into town to see the sights and spend another night.
The next day - the guys at Upper Valley Aviation give me a call - the 406 is done. (Yeah, I know it never happens this quickly…but this is the Virtual World…). I get to the hangar just in time to see them roll it out. There are no words to describe how beautiful DarkAngel1010’s EPOCH repaint looks…fantastic! In addition to the paint, they’ve installed higher clearance skids, skids baskets, and a wire-cutting kit. What a beauty!
I climb all over the helo, checking for left over tape from the painting or any missing panels. They must have run a whole team last night to get it done! The paint shop manager cautions me that the paint isn’t cured yet…so take it easy on it and don’t fly it through any heavy rain…right…like that ever happens in the Pacific Northwest…
I fire it up and head out…
Heli-skiers and rescue victims will see the EPOCH callsign on the bottom…
I plug in the Vancouver heliport and head downriver for the short flight…
Heading across Pitt Meadows on the way…
The Vancouver area doesn’t suffer from ugly scenery…
Soon the downtown area is in view and I set up on the north side toward the helipads…
I settle in near Hudson’s combined helipad and seaplane base…
Now, I could fly the 406 all the way back up to King Ranch…but that would be an almost 1,200 nm journey at 110 knots - even more than this die-hard simmer wants to fly. Thus, I did some poking around down at the intermodal and was put in contact with a guy running the Fairmount Sherpa - an anchor tender that is preparing to depart for Cook Inlet to do some contract work for Shell Oil. They are “dead-heading” up with an empty deck, so I managed to purchase the deck space for them to ferry the 406 up through the Inside Passage.
Coming up on the pier…
Loaded up and ready for the trip. The captain hopes for a two-week transit, but it could be three depending on weather and sea conditions… I’ll see you up in Alaska! Now, I gotta find a ride home!
BeachAV8R
Hey, that’s a photo I took:
Compare and contrast my profile pic! Spooky!
CSI: Vancouver. The excellent red arrow shows the same hill…
I believe you are correct! It stands to reason…I’m using AlpilotX’s HD Scenery Mesh for the entire area from North Cal all the way up to Alaska…
Cool. Now you’ll have to stop in at Upper Valley Aviation and compliment them on the fantastic paint job they virtually did…they will scratch their heads over that one!
BeachAV8R
Great stuff, Beach! That 406 looks great! Xplane, right? How’s the helo dynamics?
Helo dynamics are quite good. Translational lift and rotor RPM are well modeled. There is just a fluidness (is that a word) to X-Plane flight dynamics (rotor and fixed wing) that translates the dynamic feel of flight quite well. I’ve definitely experienced settling with power/VRS - but it is probably a bit more understated than what you find in Arma 3 and DCS. I really like the interaction between airframes and the ground in X-Plane - something FSX has always felt slippery with. When your skids touch down and the weight shifts from the rotor disc to the ground, it feels like you are actually unloading it onto the skids. It really beats the (typically) generic feeling of FSX helos - and is probably at least as good as DCS in terms of feel.
BeachAV8R
---- Post removed ---- Just tidying up…
With the Bell 406 safely on the way via ship to Alaska, I headed over to Boundary Bay (CZBB) to pick up another airplane that needs to be ferried up to the EPOCH AO. Of course, it might stick around the Inside Passage now that EPOCH is expanding into a fantastic new area with EPOCH Passage Aviation:
Employee Memo: Announcement
A great steed for both Alaska and the Inside Passage AOs is, of course, the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. There are a few great choices of Beavers for X-Plane - among the best of the crop is the SoulMadeSim DHC-2, which was just recently updated with a pure float version. Today, I’m picking up an amphibious Beaver (it has floats with integrated landing gear) to ferry up the Inside Passage.
Our flight today is a short hop across the Strait of Georgia to CYYJ - Victoria International where we are scheduled to visit Victoria Avionics to have an antiquated KLN-90B installed. While the SoulMadeSim DHC-2 is well equipped with VOR radios and an ADF receiver - which is sufficient for most EPOCH operations, the safety, efficiency gains, and peace of mind that even a minimal GPS receiver affords is worth a couple hundred dollars.
After familiarizing myself with the cockpit - I hop in, check the fuel levels, and head out of Boundary Bay.
The SoulMadeSim Beaver is just drop dead gorgeous to look at. And the sounds are throaty and bounce the coffee mug off your desk…
I’m not super familiar with the normal operating procedures on the Beaver, so I pull the MP back into the green and likewise bring the prop back into the green arc. My assumption is that you always run the Beaver “over square” by a good bit. Beautiful worn textures in the cockpit…
I tune in the Victoria NDB (200) and put the needle on the nose across the Strait of Georgia…
Passing by the ferry terminals near Point Roberts…
After a short flight, Victoria comes into sight and winds are favoring a landing on runway 9 so we set up for the left downwind…
The Beaver handles like a dream in the pattern (don’t forget to lower your gear!)…
We pull up to Aerocentre / Shell where we’ll turn the aircraft over to the avionics shop…
Prior to writing this - Pete was in the process of integrating the KLN-90B into the Beaver package, but has run into some technical difficulties, so we’ll wait a few days to see if we can get the install hammered out, but if not we can continue our journey and have the unit shipped to us.
I look forward to a nice journey in the SoulMadeSim Beaver up the coast…
BeachAV8R
pls splain for us non high-performance pilots?
LOL…sorry. Over square refers to running a manifold pressure that is higher than the prop RPM. For things like normally aspirated pistons such as the Bonanza…you generally don’t run “over square” much to prevent cumulative wear on the engine. So you might run 22" of MP and 2200 or 2300 RPM. Some engines like to be run over square…at 25 or 26" MP and 2200 RPM or something like that. Rules of thumb are great…but the POH is the bible for operating the engine within design parameters. I haven’t read the Beaver manual…so I’m not sure what the proper engine settings are yet…
BeachAV8R
Just an update on the 407 - tough sea conditions along the Inside Passage for now…plus there is a storm brewing in the Gulf of Alaska. Thus, the Fairmount Sherpa has had to put in at Hoonah Marina to wait it out.
Hopefully conditions improve and the Fairmount Sherpa can get underway again soon…
BeachAV8R
After spending a couple days in Victoria, it’s time to move on. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, we weren’t able to get the KLN-90B installed, but it will catch up to us later. Our plan for today is a short flight over to Bamfield seaplane base (CAE9) and then up through Barkley Sound toward Port Alberni and over to Sproat Lake seaplane base (CAA9).
At the FBO in Victoria in the early afternoon…engine running and ready to go…
Off we go…
The SoulMadeSim DHC-2 has a nice basic STEC-50 autopilot that is super-simple to use and fits in with the utilitarian nature of the aircraft. With the low clouds, we are only able to climb up to around 2,500’ initially while we head out to the west.
The plan is to catch the 250° radial from Victoria VOR (113.7)
Fuel management is always an important flight when flying the Beaver. Here we are going to run the rear tank dry prior to switching to the center tank. You don’t want the engine to suddenly quit while over high terrain, so it needs frequent monitoring.
In order to clear the mountains that run up to 4,000’ we climb slightly while trying to maintain VFR…
With the clouds preventing further climbing, I alter course toward the coast so I can descend and elect to fly up the coast toward Bamfield.
Approaching Bamfield I turn up the inlet…
The seaplane base comes into view and I loop around to the west to land in the protected water of Bamfield Inlet…
After landing, I wander around a bit until I find the cable that lowers the water rudders…
Approaching the seaplane base…
The SoulMadeSim Beaver has a nice options menu that includes Aircraft Docking - which stabilizes your airplane to simulate tying up to a location. Nice!
After a brief stop for a sandwich, it is time to head out toward Port Alberni and Sproat Lake…
Check out the detail on the SoulMadeSim Beaver - look at those ripples and contours of the skin and floats. Fantastic!
Approaching Port Alberni we’ll take a left turn toward the west to Sproat Lake…
Lining up for the landing on Sproat Lake toward CAA9…
Approaching the Coulson Flying Tankers base at Sproat Lake - these Martin Mars water bombers are awesome! I put my gear down to see if I can climb the ramp to park for the night.
It takes a burst of power, but we successfully transition from seaplane to landplane!
Just enough fuel for the trip. I tie up and take a tour of the base…
For those that don’t know what the Martin Mars is…it is just an enormous flying boat…awesome!
Our trip for today is done…we’ll continue tomorrow!
BeachAV8R
No time to dawdle here at Sproat Lake. Dawn cracks and I get full tanks of fuel and start out for a long day of flying. Well, I didn’t plan for it to be long…but it turns out that we put some miles under our wings and floats…
We depart Sproat Lake and head west across Great Central Lake toward our first stop - a seaplane base nestled high in the mountains at Milla Lake.
The weather is good, but the mountains ahead reach up to 5,000’, so some of the peaks and passes are obscured - we’ll have to choose our route carefully…
After winding around some of the higher peaks, I come across Milla Lake SPB (Sea Plane Base) nestled high in a challenging hanging lake. You could really get into trouble here with a bad approach since a go around late in the game might not be possible depending on aircraft performance.
I circle back around to the west to approach the lake through the “hanging” end of the lake where the glacial pond dumps further into the valley.
The base is beautiful and features a nice dock system, fuel, and some cool cabins and a helipad…
I help myself to some offered coffee, buy a few postcards, and soon I’m off for our next destination…
Pointing eastbound we descend out of the higher mountains toward the plains near Courtenay intending to land at CAH3, a small airpark on the water.
We make sure to extend our landing gear and make an uneventful landing - too uneventful though since the field looks…err…well, not really lively. I don’t bother turning the engine off and instead whip around to depart for the next leg of the trip…
Climbing out we once again point eastbound to fly across the Strait of Georgia to visit the curiously named Blubber Bay SPB (CXBB)…
An overflight shows the fish farm pens, some factory buildings, a trawler, and another Beaver tied up to the pier…
After touching down in the bay, I taxi over to the pier. I doubt a real seaplane pilot would tie up in a manner like this…it would seem that a wave would maybe cause the wing to ding the pier…not good for a wing I’m sure!
Blubber Bay was apparently a flensing station (great Scrabble word!) where whale carcasses were cut up…now the main business appears to be farm raised fish…
After a short visit (I picked up a whalebone carved keychain) - it’s once again time to fly off into the blue yonder…
Next stop was originally going to be my destination for the evening - Big Bay SPB (CYIG)…but upon arrival my plan changed. Here we are descending into Big Bay…
It was another commercial fishery outfit…so I elected to stay out of everyone’s way and beached my Beaver to eat a sandwich and enjoy the scenery. I considered running across the strait to spend the night at Sonora Resort, but I couldn’t afford the $600/night rooms!
So with a revised plan in hand, I elected to continue northwest up the Inside Passage toward Alert Bay (CBC3)…
The weather started to dip a bit with some scattered showers and lower ceilings, but it remained solidly VFR throughout the trip…
Coming up on Alert Bay, I couldn’t seem to locate a seaplane base…so I just flew right on past and hoped for something better down the line.
I set my goal past Port McNeill and Port Hardy out to Bull Harbor (CYBH)…
The entry to Bull Harbor is a really cool little throat that you fly through to reach the protected anchorage…
This looks like my kind of place!
So I’ll put my feet up in a room at the 3 Points Game Lodge tonight…
Scenery is all part of Tom Curtis’s Inside Passage scenery package…
A nice day’s flying through some fantastic locations…
BeachAV8R
This morning we continue with our Beaver ferry flight through the Inside Passage. We left off last night parking at Bull Harbor (CYBH) to grab some sleep. This morning - we are hitting the skies at dawn in an attempt to wrap up this ferry flight.
It’s a cool and misty morning at Bull Harbor as we head out to the dock. The tanks have been filled and we are ready to go…
After leaving Bull Harbor we head north up Queen Charlotte Sound to the east of Calvert Island and Hecate Island. The weather clears up immediately and the sun is coming up into clear skies as we head north.
Approaching the Sound - the clouds pick up once again. Originally I had planned to stop off at Namu SPB, but I elect to continue north up the Sound toward Ocean Falls SPB instead…
As the sun starts peeking over the mountains to the east, the clouds and terrain cast beautiful shadows. I have to admit that SkyMaxx Pro 2 looks great. Version 3 was released yesterday and I’m going to start using that for the next flight.
I perform a quick fly-by of Ocean Falls, remain airborne, and circle back around to head west over the Hecate Strait - a distance I slightly misjudge and am surprised at how long it takes to transit. After 20 minutes or so of flying, Burnaby and Lyell Islands come into view.
Constant monitoring of the fuel is necessary to make the tank switching on time. I’ve pretty much exhausted my rear and middle tanks, so I let the last few gallons burn out of the middle before switching to the forward tank.
When looking at the map for this flight, the Hibben Inlet SPB stuck out at me as someplace I’d like to check out. Approaching from the east, you can slide down the valley and land toward the northwest if you like the added scenery…
I touch down on the south end of the lake and snake my way up to the dock. The location is beautiful and it looks like a great retreat.
I have a cup of coffee, but don’t hit them up for any gas since my calculations show I’ll have enough for the remainder of the trip. After a short break, we are off once again.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, I’m descending into Masset Inlet to visit the Yakoun Inlet SPB - a really cool location with a waterwheel…
As I’m approaching the dock to tie-up…disaster! I strike a submerged object and tear a hole in my right pontoon - the consequences are immediate…
Fortunately, the owner of the lodge has a hangar, tools, and is quite the repairman. He hands me a fishing pole, tells me not to worry, and gets to work on repairing the damage.
The flight route for my morning…
I’m forced to wait all day…but the fishing is good. I try not to bother the mechanic while he fashions up a repair. Turns out he is quite a good metal worker and he gets a nice patch in place. Of course, he doesn’t have the paint to match, but Prince Rupert is an EPOCH base, so I’m sure they will have some of the correct colors for the job. By late afternoon, the Beaver is all ready. I offer to write a check for the repair work…but the guy shrugs me off and mentions that if me or any of the other EPOCH pilots get through the area in the future, they sure do enjoy fresh donuts! What a deal…!
I head out and tune in Prince Rupert NDB, put the needle on the nose, and once more cross the Strait…
The patch does the job just fine - and fortunately none of the structural components of the pontoon were damaged - just some skin work…
The sun sets behind us as we wing over the Strait toward Prince Rupert…
Soon we spot the lights of Prince Rupert on the horizon. A big event must be going on since the town has some spotlights rigged up and they arc across the sky. The northern lights make an appearance as well…what an evening!
I head past the Prince Rupert airport and elect to do a flyby of the downtown area since it looks so cool in the fading light…
After running up the inlet, I turn back around to head for the airport…
Don’t forget to lower the landing gear!
Squeaking down to a safe touchdown after a fantastic three-day journey from Vancouver…
The warm glow from the terminal is inviting. It’s hard to describe how nice it is to see a lit up place in all the darkness at night - it is a feeling I’ve gotten many times as a professional pilot, and might be a feeling hard to describe. But when it’s 3AM or some ridiculous hour, and you are tired, it can be really nice to see some sign of life out there…
The second portion of our flight…
I park the Beaver in front of one of the G/A hangars, leave the keys in it, and the brake off in case someone needs to move it. The Beaver ferry flight is complete…! Now to get a ride to town and catch up on some sleep…
SoulMadeSim DHC-2 Beaver - HERE!
Tom Curtis’s Inside Passage Scenery - HERE!
SkyMaxx Pro* - HERE * version 2.0 is in these screens - version 3.0 will be in screens from this point forward!
BeachAV8R
Thanks for the links, @BeachAV8R! Now if only I had Xplane … 
Love those screenies, as always, but man, what an adventure you’re having! Thanks for sharing!
Apologies in advance for the long AAR - this was three days worth of flying, compressed into one virtual day…
So with the Beaver dropped off in Prince Rupert, my following day was going to be a busy one! I caught the first flight out of Prince Rupert on an Air Canada Jazz Q400 by FlyJSim. This is a great airplane for regional ops…
After climbing aboard, I settled in for the short drone up to Vancouver, about an hour away. I’d basically be flying back the way I’d come in the Beaver, but far more directly…and at a much higher altitude!
This was also my first flight with the newly revamped and updated SkyMaxx Pro v3.0, and I have to say I was quite impressed. Both the visual depiction of clouds of multiple types, and the performance were agreeable.
The lens flare and “God’s rays” effects are really cool and add a bit of dramatic appeal to the flights…
The flight up the Inside Passage was characterized by a high overcast layer and multiple scattered low cumulus layers, but overall good weather…
Within an hour we were on the final descent into Vancouver…
Turning final…I can’t say again how impressed I am with Tom’s Inside Passage Scenery package…
After touching down, we taxi in to the commuter terminal…
I spend the rest of the day munching on overpriced airport food. I buy a pass to the Plaza Premium Lounge to kick back and relax - money well spent. After spending the day, I make my way over to the South Terminal to pick up a Twin Otter for the EPOCH InsomniPilot™ flight. For this night, the call to arms is to bring in some supplies to assist in the expansion project of EPOCH Passage Aviation. We’ll be heading down to 39P (Cinebar, WA) to pick up some items to bring back. We had a good showing with four or five pilots participating and some drive-by appearances on the TeamSpeak channel as well.
I fire up my Twin Otter at the South Terminal and go through the preflight checks and load the flightplan in the GPS…
On the way out to the departure runway - I notice the pavement markings don’t match up with the hold short signage (the pavement is right, the sign is wrong!)…
Once all the other Night Flyers have checked in and are ready for departure, we stagger our takeoffs to provide deconfliction. We also communicate DME from the various waypoints enroute to assure we don’t all occupy the same piece of sky…
The first leg is a very short 35nm hop over to Bellingham (KBLI) to clear customs.
Interstate 5 snakes up toward KBLI, making it easy to spot. We used real time and real weather for the flight and conditions were perfect with unlimited visibility and cloudless skies (this is Seattle right??)…
After touching down at KBLI, the gaggle of us clears customs (no body cavity search this time…darn!) and we are soon heading back out. The northern lights are dipping down all the way to Washington tonight…
Paine Field is the next waypoint, but this time we just have to overfly it and not stop in…
SEATAC is next up - can’t miss it out there with the triple parallel runways…
As we head further south, the lights give way to darkness, and soon there is just a sprinkling of ground reference as we get into the vicinity of Morton, WA and our destination Strom (39P). There is a lot of discussion among the flight as we ponder the best way to make the approach into 39P. High terrain pens in the strip in most quadrants, with mountains up to around 5,000’ to the east. The lighted airfield sits at 941’ MSL with a mere 1,800’ of runway to work with.
I elect to come down the road through the valley from Carson and enter directly into a right base to runway 25 - a plan that seems legit on paper and in my mind. The near complete lack of lights and the black hole that the airfield sits in quickly scuttle my plan as I err to the high side because I can feel the terrain hemming me in as I descend into the valley heading south toward the field. By the time I see the runway, I’m impossibly high and make the no-brainer decision to go-around…
Later analysis, after I run the time forward to show me the terrain, shows the danger of my approach. This is the actual 3D track I flew - it starts out well enough in the valley, but you can see I drift too far east and almost descent down into the hills to the northeast of the field. That Spidey sense was the self preservation neurons firing at max volume! You can see my descent toward the field and then I break off into a close in left circuit hoping to come back around - but that tight maneuvering in the inky blackness is completely nerve jangling. I once again find myself in no position to land, go around, and head off to the southwest and the relative safe terrain near Riffe Lake…
Here is another angle (entry into the area is from the left side of the shot, then you see the track exit the right side - that is where I head to the lake and come in for the successful approach from the southwest…
Keep in mind, this was all flown in pitch black skies. I can honestly say it was one of the most sweat inducing sim moments I’ve had in a long time. The fact that we lost one pilot on the ridgeline (no fatalities, he walked the rest of the way!)…didn’t help…
The overhead view of the track…
The final (successful) approach I somehow managed to avoid the terrain and get it down and stopped. Thankfully the Twin Otter is a really nice short field performer…
One of our other pilots (Joel / -bc-) made it in with a nice and similarly adventurous approach, and we dropped another due to connectivity / X-Plane stability issues. After that approach, I emerged from my Twin Otter with my knees shaking a bit. The return to Vancouver was scheduled for our convenience the following day (DAYLIGHT!!), so I grabbed some sleep.
The next day, I had a bit of a plan already in the works. I rented a Tomahawk from the local FBO, along with an instructor pilot (they don’t let you just take their planes without a checkout…regardless of how many thousands of hours you have), and we headed out for a short flight to the south - destination: Hood River / Jernstedt (4S2). In the daylight, the terrain was revealed and the horror of the previous night’s approaches understood…
The Alabeo PA-38 Tomahawk II is a fantastic little trainer with a gorgeous 3D and virtual cockpit…just superb! I tuned in the Klickitat VOR down near the Columbia Gorge to keep track of our position…
Heading out, the terrain around 39P was pretty impressive. Night flying - not recommended…!
Turning on course to the southeast, we climb out of the Strom Valley of Death…
The SkyMaxx glare is pretty well done and adds a lot to the atmospheric effects of XP10…
The instructor takes us on a short detour to check out Mt. St. Helens, which is just south of our flight path…
Soon we are into Carson where we’ll pick up the Columbia River Gorge and fly it eastbound…
After about six or seven miles of following the river, the wide plain south of Hood River opens up and I spot 4S2 airport…
We land and taxi in…
My instructor is going to join me on the next part of the flight - and the reason we came down to Hood River…
EPOCH Passage Aviation just purchased a Bell 412 for operations along the Inside Passage! Yes!! While our helo is in a hangar at Calgary International getting some work done and a new paint scheme…I’ve come down to Hood River to get some recurrent training in a similar Bell 412. There she is - the awesome X-Trident Bell 412… You might remember we covered the Bell 412 in one of our first Mudspike reviews: HERE!
I hop in - and have to spend a good amount of time familiarizing myself with the cold and dark start process. I watch a couple helpful video tutorials and follow along in the checklist. It takes me about fifteen minutes, but soon I have everything up and initialized. X-Trident has been doing awesome constant upgrades to the Bell 412 and now they’ve added the Garmin 530 capability as well as custom SAR winch and sling loading capabilities.
I spend a few minutes plugging in our training route for the recurrent flight. Thanks to the guys at Hover Control - we have a really nice scenery package that takes us up into the high country to a string of helipads along the west side of Mount Adams and Rainier.
We head out of Hood River for our first LZ at CRG0…
The first waypoint is a cakewalk approach to a grass strip - great to shake the rust off…!
After a brief stop and go, we head for CRG1…
The custom helicopter scenery is really nice and gives something a bit different to practice helo ops with…
We continue working our way up the chain of waypoints. Some of the bases are smaller than others, with a bit tighter parameters. As the altitude climbs, performance drops off, but the 412 is extremely powerful…so it has no problem with a relatively light load.
Enroute to one of our stops, I notice a high ITT warning, and don’t even know how long I’ve been flying on basically one engine (check out the #1 torque indicator!)…
The views out the right side of the aircraft are awesome!
We work our way up the valley on one engine toward the next LZ where we have a mechanic with the training provider ready to take a look at our problem…
A single engine approach to a tight LZ is no joke…but the 412 has plenty of juice even on one engine…
I flip the fuel off to the #1 engine and consult the XP10 failures menu. I did not have random failures turned on, but somehow I got some mechanical issues anyway! Clearing the blocked fuel tank vents cleared my problem and I was able to restart #1 with no more problems…
With the crew agreed that we were OK to continue, we headed up for the next LZ…
I didn’t have my TrackIR hooked up…but it would have been much, much better with it working. Landing in tight areas without TrackIR can be tough…
As we tick of the LZs (there are ten of them) brings us higher and higher until eventually we are running across the lower slopes of Mount Rainier…
I keep a close eye on the fuel. We started with around 1450 lbs. and we are down to around 380 - just enough to make it to our last stop…
I marvel at the views of Rainier. I flew this flight entirely with real weather selected on, so clouds, visibility, turbulence, and precip were all real values - and I was surprised to have such good flying weather!
Clouding up a little bit on the approach to LZ #10 (CRG9)…
A few of the approaches dump you out on top of the LZ coming in from crossing a ridge or a higher altitude transition - a perfect recipe for vortex ring state. I got into a fully developed VRS on one approach at around 35 knots and low power…you could feel the aircraft shudder a bit. I used the traditional VRS escape of pushing forward on the cyclic and easing off a bit on the cyclic, which works fine if you have the altitude to spare. I got a nibble of VRS on another approach, but recognized it earlier and eased out of it before it fully developed.
At the last LZ, we did some brief sling loading practice - feeling the strain on the helo and keeping control of the load. The plug-in is well developed by X-Trident and adds a lot of fun and practicality to this add-on. I’ll be the EPOCH pilots are going to have a ton of stuff to long-line around the Inside Passage!
280 lbs. of fuel remaining at our last LZ. I shook the tension out of my shoulders, and unstrapped from the command pilot’s seat to climb into the back while refueling. Another pilot undergoing recurrent training would take us back to Hood River via the same LZs we hit on the way up. Now I could sit back and enjoy the scenery…
Our track through the LZs…nice job by the scenery designers and route. We sure could use more type of similar scenery and challenges for X-Plane!
Our return to Hood River and Cinebar went without incident. I let the instructor fly me back to Strom Field while I snapped pictures of the scenery going by. Tomorrow I’ll load up the Twin Otter with the supplies to run them back to Vancouver. Then I probably need to get my butt back up to Alaska to earn some money for EPOCH!
BeachAV8R
