Well I am really glad that there are no PC keyboards in real life aircraft cockpits 
Switches ftw
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Well - I guess the FAA got wind of my little fuel exhaustion caper, so they are sending a team down from the Fairbanks FSDO to collect some facts. Uh-oh!
The route for the short hop: V480 ENN V436 TKA…
DDenn’s awesome Challenger 300…
Fuel load of only 4000 lbs. will get us there with no problems…
The beautiful (well…it does say Federal Aviation Administration on it though…) FAA skin by AI.…
Joining the Victor airway…(not going high enough for the J-route system)…
VOR is coming in…holding 250 up to 10,000…
The -300 has a bit of a starship flight deck…
Starting to hit the mountains southwest of Fairbanks…again, using real weather and surprised by the great flying conditions in Alaska for the entire week!
As we come down V436 at the MEA of 10,000, we can see the Moose’s Tooth just off in the distance to the west…
Crossing over Talkeetna - electing to perform the full VOR/DME 36, so we’ll cross TKA, drop to 4,000 to proceed outbound for the procedure turn…
Slowed up and with approach flaps in, turning to 217 to commence the procedure turn. Keeping within 10 miles as prescribed on the plate…
Procedure turn inbound - at the final approach fix - swing the gear…landing flaps…
The VOR/DME 36 is a slightly offset approach, so you come in at a slight angle…
The 3,500’ long runway in a jet requires thrust reversers, speedbrakes, and a healthy dose of wheel braking…but the 300 manages to stop with a third of the runway remaining…nice performer!
The planview of the full approach…
They take a look at the helicopter…ascertain there has been no damage. They interview me. Why’d I run out of fuel? Could they see my flight planning? Pilot certificate and medical please…which they took photographs of. I spoke vaguely of Russian instruments, liters, and fuel flows…trying to weave a prettier picture of my incompetence. We all got along so we borrowed a crew car and we went to lunch together at the Mountain High Pizza Pie restaurant in downtown Talkeetna.
In the end…they were fairly well satisfied that it was an honest mistake, but didn’t let on as to whether I’d be seeing an enforcement action. They told me in parting…“you might hear from us again…or maybe not…” That can be the way the FAA makes you sweat sometimes. You might never hear from them again…or three months later a letter might show up in your mailbox. You just never know…
BeachAV8R
Man, is it wrong that I wanted the fed fuel investigation plane to run out of fuel as well! 
That cockpit looks amazing - plus that procedural turn in the plan view ended up very pretty, cool!
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Yeah, cuz pilots never hit the wrong switch or button in flight, do they, @BeachAV8R? 
Another data point on how pizza and beer helps ease punitive decisions!
Well hopefully they wouldn’t put something important like prop reverse next to something like air conditioning in a real cockpit.
Mh, maybe the Italians would…
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With the FAA interview over, it’s time to get back to Skwentna. The owners of the Mi-8 would prefer to have their company pilot take the helo back given my cough exciting glacier landing, so I’m thumbing a ride south with one of the locals who has a nice little PA-18 Super Cub (by STMA). We will be flying down into some of uX-Pa’s (EPOCH) custom scenery (HERE!) but our guide sort of wants to keep the location secret to add some mystery to the area…
Heading south out of Talkeetna…
Always nice to just fly low, slow, and VFR…
When our landing area comes into view…I think…“no way!”…
We overfly, judge the wind direction…and make a couple low passes to get the picture…
Then, we slow to minimum controllable airspeed, and drop it down over the barriers, full aft elevator (should have raised the flaps too!) and heavy on the brakes…
What a beautiful little island - I should probably do my floatplane checkout here!
And here is a short video of the landing (you don’t wanna see the outtake reel - it was ugly!)…
BeachAV8R
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Hi BeachAV8R, has the Supercub got the new GNS430 now or did you add that yourself?
Love your site btw!
Cheers,
C-Man
@Condorman - The Super Cub has the GNS430. It is mounted on the bottom of the panel, and can also be popped up… It is a nice addition…
Glad you like the site!
BeachAV8R
@miRage Yeah - you’d be surprised at some of the early engineering decisions that aircraft manufacturers made. Our Citation(s) have an inverter/ignition setup that is a recipe for failure. The ignition switches are located right below the inverter switches, feel the same, and look the same… Many a pilot has reached over to flip the ignitions off either after takeoff or landing and killed the inverters (which just happen to control the autopilot, all the 26v AC instruments, attitude indicator…etc…) Always a second or two of…WTF (particularly when going into IMC). You quickly learn to be patient with moving switches, verify them, and move them one at a time (always).
BeachAV8R
Yesterday we had a special mission come up for EPOCH - Alaska Air. The owners of EPOCH are expanding the EPOCH pilot “home base” (Beaver Creek - CYXQ) in phases with Phase IV construction underway:
The pilots of EPOCH have been asked to ferry in building supplies that have been shipped in to the point of entry in Anchorage. Tons of material now need to be airlifted in to Beaver Creek. In order to haul a good bit of supplies, I’m going to use one of the DC-3s based at Beaver Creek to shuttle some supplies from Merrill Field (PAMR) back to Beaver Creek. With some IFR conditions enroute, I file and fly the airways over toward Anchorage…
I load up my empty DC-3, and head out from the beautiful Phase III custom build of CYXQ into the murk…
I’m flying the gorgeous X-Aviation DC-3 (Leading Edge Simulations) that I recently picked up during a half-off sale. It is a fantastic aircraft with beautiful 3D modeling, sounds, and functionality. I don’t think anyone has made an EPOCH livery for it yet, so I choose the unique Airborne Imaging livery by Leen de Jager…
This is my first time in the LES DC-3, so it is taking me some time to get familiar with it. As I climb out of Beaver Creek and get situated on the airway, I guess I leave the power too high and I get a rather foreboding message. I quickly reduce my manifold pressure (it was in the orange I guess).
The LES DC-3 panel is really nice…weathered instruments and great gauge lighting…
As we head up the airway the weather is pretty clear with just some broken layers of clouds to our south…
The rudimentary autopilot in the DC-3 is a nice feature…it allows you to pretty much fly hands off with small adjustments needed every few minutes to stay on course…
Heading across the first range of mountains between Northway VOR and Gulkana VOR on Victor 456…we are flying at 12,000’ just above the MEA for the route…
Approaching the Matanuska River valley I have no idea things are about to get exciting…but the clue is in this screen…
With the plane on autopilot, I get up to make a sandwich in my “home galley” and when I return to my virtual cockpit…I’m shocked to see the airplane is in a gradual descent. With the engines off! Holy crap…what happened? I pull up the local area map and spy an airfield and point my nose toward it and hope I have enough altitude to glide to it…
I start looking around the cockpit trying to figure out what went wrong. Did my engines get induction icing? Did I have them leaned out too much? Was I running a bad manifold pressure / RPM setting? Why did they quit? Being new to the DC-3, I’m stumped as my altimeter continues to unwind. I try the starter and the engine just spins, but doesn’t catch… Then, I spot it…! The main fuel tanks are empty…I need to swtich to the AUX tanks!! As soon as I move the lever the windmilling props sputter back to life…
So there ya’ have it…this is why pilots get an aircraft specific checkout (usually). You’ll also notice that in the entirety of this flight I forgot to do something else that is important - have you spotted it yet? With my altitude down to near 5,000’ from the glide, I elect to just continue VFR down the valley toward Anchorage since the weather is holding up…
The scenery, as always, is just jaw dropping. X-Plane has some of the best haze, clouds, and weather modeling in any sim…very atmospheric, and always changing!
Soon we are over the custom EPOCH Merrill Field (PAMR) setting up for the landing…
Being new to the DC-3, I don’t have a particular technique, and just sort of fly it by feel. I could probably fly slower…but it works out…
The fuel planning seemed pretty good given that I like to carry a bit of reserve in case weather closes in (a frequent Alaska event)…
After a night of R&R in Anchorage, I grab my load of just over 5,000 lbs. of construction material and six passengers and head out for the return flight to Beaver Creek…
It is a blue-bird day so I elect to proceed direct over the Chugach Range in VFR conditions…
The views of the mountains and the glaciers spilling down the valleys are impressive…
I WAG the power setting and lean the engines by feel…
The scale of Alaska territory is truly incredible…
We wing our way east…skimming over the mountains on a beautiful VFR day…taking care to leave enough altitude so that we can climb over peaks or fly between them…
A look at the Tazlina Glacier (I think it was…)
Ah…did you spot my mistake on the earlier screens? I thought I had closed the cowl flaps using the levers labeled “C” in the cockpit (I still don’t know what they do) - but in fact the cowl flaps are controlled with two knobs on the far right side of the cockpit…
Soon the high mountains of the Wrangell - St. Elias National Park come into view through the haze… Serious mountains…
As we continue eastbound, the weather gradually starts to shift to scattered, then broken layers. I eye the fuel gauge and since I’m over pretty rugged terrain with minimal clearance, I elect to switch to my AUX tanks a bit early to ensure I don’t kill any engines. Movement/placement of the fuel selector switch for each engine isn’t all that intuitive until you figure out which end of the red knob indicates which tank. In the DC-3 apparently you burn the main tanks off first before switching to the AUX tanks…
As the weather continues to worsen, I take the opportunity to descend though some gaps to ensure I can stay VFR as the high terrain drops into the lower altitude around Beaver Creek…
The ADF needle swings and indicates the course to Beaver Creek…
Soon some landmarks come into view west of the airfield and the warm glow of the green and white rotating beacon welcomes me back…
With the weather definitely taking a turn, I’m happy to be over the mountains and line up for landing…
Touchdown - building supplies and passengers delivered… Round trip flying time around 4.5 hours or so…
A look at the x-IvAp map shows another EPOCH pilot (Marv) heading in with supplies in his DC-4… Hopefully the weather holds up for him!
Here is a video Marv posted showing the deteriorating conditions upon his arrival…nice job!
Looking forward to seeing Phase IV (with my house and hangar on it!)… Another fun EPOCH flight with a bunch of great participants…
BeachAV8R
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That DC-3 is a beautiful plane! It on top of my list of planes to by for x plane.
Great write up.
Well, supplies and workers are pouring into Beaver Creek as the buildup to the construction on Phase IV continues. I’ve had the pleasure of being in the air at various points on the route with other EPOCH members as the airlift continues. Given the amount of material we have to move, I thought it might be a good idea to enlist the load hauling capability of one of EPOCH’s larger aircraft - the Dash 8-100 (by Riviere). Unfortunately, one of our EPOCH Dash 8s was in the paint shop, so we had to wet lease a Canadian North Dash-8 (livery by blackcat) to operate during the interim…
We take enough fuel to get to Merrill Field (PAMR) and head out into a broken layer for the route…
We initially climb north-northwest bound staying on the Victor Airway until we deem the conditions good enough to ask for direct intermediate fixes such as Gulkana VOR…
We fly at FL200 to meet the minimum sector altitude on the route and the scenery is spectacular…
The old Dash 8-100 by Riviere is an older model (ver. 8) that has been brought along to be workable in XP10. A 2D panel and 3D panel are included, and while they might look a bit dated by today’s standards, they are really no less fun to fly. In fact, it is a lot of fun to fly because all the stuff on the panel is so easy to work compared to some of the more techie stuff like manipulators and other advanced features…
The weather holds up nicely enroute - given spectacular views. As we work our way toward the Anchorage area a slight haze settles in, but visibility remains near unlimited…
After crossing the mountains, we dump the nose (love flying without passengers!) and the Dash-8 really shows how she can drop like a rock after pushing the props forward, power to idle, and spoilers out…
Turning final at Merrill Field…
The 4,000’ runway 25 is plenty of pavement for the Dash…
We are super light since we are empty and only hold minimal fuel…coming to a full stop with only moderate braking and reverse just 2000’ down the runway…
I hop out to arrange to pick up the EPOCH Dash-8 and turn in our borrowed one…
And there she is…oh wow! What a beautiful, brand new paint scheme (by Dirob)…
I load up with about as much freight as I can carry - 11,800 lbs. and put on enough fuel to get us over the hump(s) to Beaver Creek. This time, the acceleration and takeoff run are more sluggish with all the cargo…
The weather continues to be atypically beautiful enroute…
Allowing us to proceed RNAV direct…
I run into another EPOCH pilot going the opposite direction (Rhino) - he’s in a C-90 making his own cargo run and we chat on the x-IvAp plug-in window for a good bit comparing notes on weather…
The Wrangell - St. Elias National Park area always seems to be the boundary between different weather systems…and indeed it does cloud up the further east we push over the big mountains (up to 16,390’!)…
Soon the picket line of power lines emerges ahead - a sure sign I’m approach Beaver Creek. I thumb the autopilot down at about 2000’ per minute as we parallel what I like to think of as Beaver Creek’s “Thud Ridge” that sort of points right toward the airport…
Dirtied up and turning final for runway 32…
Over the years the management has made awesome upgrades and improvements to Beaver Creek - including paving the gravel runway…
Spoilers, a bit of reverse, and barely a tap on the brakes brings us to a stop…
I drop my load and spend the night in Beaver Creek (I pitched a tent on the lot I’m having a house built on!). The next morning I go out to the plane to do a morning run over to Merrill to pick up more supplies, but the weather is in the dumps. A morning fog blankets the area. It’s not very high, but visibility is being reported as RVR 1300. After consulting with the COO (-bc-) on the IFR departure rules, he makes my choice easy when he says I should just kick back and enjoy another root beer! Right on!
As forecast, once the temperature started to rise a bit the fog burned off and an hour later the skies are starting to clear enough for a departure. I burned a bit of fuel waiting with the APU running…but we still have plenty to make the hop to Merrill…
Soon we are winging our way back northwest bound and eventually as I climb through the teens we break out on top…
Back past the sentinels guarding the direct route to Merrill…Mount Wrangell, Sanford, and Blackburn…
Conditions vary throughout the flight with occasional high broken layers but good visibility overall. A light chop buffets the plane…but there are no passengers to fret over…
Sincere apologies for all the pictures…it’s just so darn beautiful up here!
We clear the last mountains that defend the eastern approach to Anchorage, the Chugach Range, and drop down into Merrill…
A kiss of the pavement and a not missed observation that though the AWOS reported winds calm, that windsock is showing a tiny tailwind…
We don’t dally on the ramp. When weather is good in Alaska - there is no time like the present! We load up the freight, plug in a bit of fuel - and off we go once again…
Conditions remain variable, but good…
Dirob’s EPOCH paint scheme really shows of Riviere’s model…
Once all this building is done, I’m excited to get down there into some of those glacier strips that dot our route…
The weather is holding up at Beaver Creek and we enter the left base to 32 once again…
Another 10,500 lbs. of cargo delivered…
I’m rewarded with a sign the COO made for me that will likely be mounted on a board in front of my fly-in lot…how cool!
The flying has been beautiful, and the camaraderie shared between EPOCH pilots is refreshing. I’m really enjoying this stuff… I just have to hope they don’t want me to actually run a saw or a nailgun in the construction of my house - the doors will never shut and all the boards will creak!
BeachAV8R
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Mighty nice screenies you take, BeachAV8R. It is a pleasure having you fly with us, and being as I’m in charge of the construction up here in Beaver Creek, I insisted in a couple of custom goodies for your lot, not the least of which is a walkway to your own small helipad 
With hundreds working up there now, it looks for sure like a completion on Monday and you can move in later that evening. A complimentary case of root beer and a jug of JetJerry’s Jungle Juice (actually de-icing fluid made by bminton at Beaver Creek but used for other purposes by some of our off-duty pilots 
) will be sitting on your door step. Might want to take an R&R on Tuesday!
Cheers,
Joel
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Thanks for the kind words and the warm welcome Joel…! If it isn’t obvious to everyone, I’m really enjoying the flying up there in Alaska!
Today is the last day of the Phase IV Construction Contract, and the EPOCH pilots appear to be doing a fantastic job moving supplies and personnel to the site. Though we’ve made a significant dent in the contract (it sure looks like we are going to do better than break even!) I made a few phone calls and this is what I came up…
A very short video:
So I had a friend of a friend that works in the Reserve out of Elmendorf AFB. I made a couple calls and asked if they had any spare lift capacity available. While the USAF was all tasked out - my buddy told me the RCAF was doing some training workups with them and that he’d ask around. Well - good news! The RCAF agreed to let our supplies ride along on one of their training sorties! All we had to do was truck it over to Elmendorf and we’d be set. In a few hours we had 120,000 lbs. +/- loaded in the cargo hold of a RCAF C-17…
In short order we were airborne. The training sortie was going to replicate a low level ingress and airdrop in a simulated combat area. Thus…low altitude, high speed, and terrain masking were the order of the day. Break out the puke bags!
After climbing to a few hundred feet, we engage the autothrottles to hold our Vmo of 350 knots. Now all we have to do is handfly the aircraft for the next hour and a half and not run into anything and the autopilot will take care of manipulating the engines to maintain that speed…
Making the turn up Turnagain Arm toward Whittier (PAWR)…
Skimming across Prince William Sound…
Soon we are turning up Valdez Arm toward Port Valdez…filling the valley with zipper like drone of our engines…
A very hard, sharp left turn gets us headed toward Thompson Pass before we break off to head over the Tasnuna River…
At the intersection with the Copper River we take another hard left and head north toward Chitina where we bear off to the east along the Chitina River valley…
The walls close in tighter and we gently roll wing up to wing down following the contours of the river…
The twists and turns get nauseating approaching Jakes Bar before the river braids out into a wider flow…
Careful visual navigation is on order as you can get lured off route into the wrong canyon or glacier…we want to pass this exit to the Barnard Glacier and continue to the next fork to the left which is the Chitina Glacier…
Ahead looms the massive and foreboding Mt. Lucania soaring above seventeen thousand feet…
We aim directly at the headwall for Mount Steele. The RCAF have clearly (clearly!) practiced this move before as they hug the glacier and the autothrottles maintain 350 knots. At the last second, they ease back on the stick and we climb impossibly toward the top of the ridgeline. The engines automatically go to full power to attempt to hold speed but we still bleed off energy. We have plenty so spare though as we crest the divide, roll sharply, and drop into the east side of the ridge, zooming down into Steele Glacier as our speed recovers…exhilarating ride!
At the termination of the Steele Glacier we take a hard left to join the Donjek River and we proceed north toward the valley that heads to Beaver Creek…
Fuel levels look great…this thing can go a long, long way…!
We continue northwest, keeping Koidern Mountain, Sanpete Hill, and Elkland Mountain on our right. As we round Elkland Mountain we get our first glimpse of the antenna farm that welcomes us to the Beaver Creek area…
It’s time to prepare for the air-drop! We dial the autothrottles back to 200 knots, deploy FLAPS/SLATS 1 and let our speed bleed off while maintaining altitude. The lights flicker on in the cargo bay and the ramp door starts to move toward the airdrop position as the loadmasters prepare for the release…
Turning right at the antenna farm, we make for the landmark water tower in the middle of the Beaver Creek compound. The plan is to pass just to the north of the water tower and lay our string of supplies across the construction zone and gravel runway on the east side of the airfield…
In a short minute, we are flashing over the drop area…wait…wait…now!!
Pallets roll down the ramp and out the back of the plane as parachutes deploy to slow their descent…
The “stick” of pallets runs the whole length of the gravel runway and a few clumps land just beyond on the airport boundary…
60 tons delivered!
At the end of the run, the C-17 goes max throttle and banks away…
With the air drop completed - it’s time for me to get out of this bird! The Canadians are taking their bird all the way back to Trenton, Ontaria (refueling on the way). They come back around and deploy the para-drop doors so I can make my exit…
The pilot lines up carefully, at a higher altitude for the jump…
The green light blinks on - GOOO!!
The planned drop zone is the EPOCH logo on the main ramp…
We drift a little bit on the wind and end up landing on the west edge of the ramp…not perfect…but not bad either!
What a cool (and tension filled!) flight…! Thanks to the COO of EPOCH (-bc-) for approving the supplemental lift - it saves a bit of root beer money for the compound and also provided a valuable training opportunity for the RCAF in case they need to deploy to Detroit someday…
Flight route…all hand flown, low altitude…
I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome of Phase IV construction!
BeachAV8R
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You get all the fun assignments, Beach! Hopefully your toothbrush and deodorant were in one of toast pallets.
Yousers! A C-17!
Geez, I could fit my Noorduyn Norseman inside one of those engines.
Nice work sir. That pretty well ensures that the Airpark upgrades will be completed, along with the great new addition to the Resort (which is a secret salute to the Mudspike ‘concept’ as I see it).
With you and two other pilots moving in after this Phase is complete, that will bring the total to 23 plus 1 visitor on the tent lot who has been there so long he’s almost a squatter 
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Wait, so the C-17 can do a cargo drop in X Plane? Or was that some post editing magic???
Awesome stuff!
Also I have a great deal on some big blue trucks for you!
Video of me seeing my new house at Beaver Creek for the first time…
BeachAV8R