Congratulations to Denali for getting…uh…officially named Denali…!
BeachAV8R
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Added a nice little Cessna 185 to my Alaska hangar this morning…
Nice little plane for $15.95 from X-Hangar. The VC isn’t the hottest…but the 3D model and flying characteristics are very nice. Look for it soon on a glacier or gravel bar near you!
BeachAV8R
Haven’t had a chance to fly much the past few days - having to work a bit. But I did get a chance to play a round this evening at the new Yukon Gold Golf Club this evening. I played against the course designer (and EPOCH COO) “ghost” ball (we shall hook up and play online at some point!) and hung with him until the miserable 17th hole (where fortunes are won and lost…)
For those with The Golf Club (quite a fun game!) you can search for Yukon Gold to play the course…
BeachAV8R
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So this evening we had a fantastic little EPOCH get together. The boys (-bc- and Rhino) were brave enough (cough - dumb) to let me ferry us all over to the Yukon Gold Course about ten minutes east of Beaver Creek. It was my inaugural flight in my new X-Hangar Cessna 185 - and she flies like a dream! Thanks to the belly pod we were able to fit all our clubs and a cooler full of…uh…sports drinks for the trip around the dog track. My electrolyte levels always require careful…uh…monitoring and topping off…so yeah, the sports drinks are essential to a round of golf…
Taking off out of -bc-'s Phase IV masterpiece…late afternoon so we’ll have to hurry to get in a full 18…
Having two other pilots onboard is always a bit like a Benny Hill episode. “Hey you forgot to raise the flaps!” “Uh…do you always lean it like that?” “You know…it’s much quieter at 2200 rpm ya’ know…” I just turned off my noise attenuating headset and nodded every few minutes and that seemed to work out well…
The scenery in the local area is just as beautiful as always…I didn’t tell the boys I snuck a fishing pole in my bag in case we came across a creek or two on the golf course…never waste an opportunity to combine outdoor activities! (The Remington Marine Magnum in my bag should be entertaining on the driving range too…PULL!)
Soon enough the resort comes into view…-bc- casually asks if I think I brought enough golf balls. He’s obviously seen my ghost game…
We do a quick low pass over the course and set up for a downwind to the runway there at the resort. I’m sure we’ll get some calls about the noise since I flew a right downwind instead of a left downwind…oops!
Soon we are bounce, bouncing down the runway toward the transient parking area…
Whew…we landed at the right place!
Short ten minute flight…
Hooray…the crew car is still at the airport…!
And off onto the course we go (Rhino used my hovercraft…)
A fun round was had by all - with Rhino coming in and whooping us all with a nice 7 under par! -bc- joined us on the Teamspeak, but didn’t show up in the game (I think the wind up in Canada was blowing his bits and bytes out of the satellite signal me thinks…!) It was as if we were all playing together though and it was a blast…
Alas - I had a few too many “electrolytes” while I was playing and one of the other guys had to fly us home…but I think they are all checked out in the 185F (besides…I won’t tell my insurance company)…
For those with The Golf Club on Steam you can search for the Yukon Gold Course and give the course that -bc- designed a whirl…it is great fun!
BeachAV8R
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Priceless Beach! What a sense of humour 
Great game and excellent company. Rhino did some kind of Lord of the Rings majik out there to come up with his score, and yours was a really decent showing, considering the monstrous winds in the northwest Yukon. I just have to sort out my conection to the live game and next time by golly, braced with single-malted ‘electrolytes’ myself, we shall see about trimming up my abysmal score of +9.
Cheers. A fun read all the way 
bc
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No magic. Just a pet gopher
Good round gents.
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Welcome to the Mudspike zoo @EPOCH_bc and @Rhinosaurus - looking forward to another round real soon!
So over the weekend I had the opportunity to hop online with some other EPOCH pilots and fly a fun little “Night Flyers” trip where everyone gets together on TeamSpeak and flies to the same place. The weekend flight was a fun and scenic flight from 5NK (Naknek) to Homer with a couple stops between. Since I’m not floatplane “rated”, I took the opportunity to fly the mission as my checkout with some great tips and guidance by -bc-.
I very much love my Shade Tree Micro Aviation (STMA) A-1A Husky… Here I’m sitting at Naknek (custom scenery by yarbdr: HERE!)…
After chatting a bit and settling on the details of the flight, we all self announce on the CTAF and head out enroute…
First checkpoint is over King Salmon (PAKN)…
I had set my Alaska time to way earlier than the other guys…so my screens are a good bit brighter. They were racing against darkness to get to Homer…
Approaching Kulik Lake…the airfield and seaplane base are near the landbridge…
My first water landing in the Husky goes well. There is a bunch of wind blowing out of the north, but very little turbulence…
All of us head toward the shoreline and drop our passengers and/or cargo…
Back in the aircraft I fire up and taxi out to the south side of the lake for the takeoff run…
After takeoff we had across the higher mountains toward Kamishak Bay and the active volcanic island of Augustine Island…SkyMaxx finally kicks in and I get the high overcast layer and probably 12 or 14 miles of vis…
Approaching Augustine Island I do an orbit while I wait for the others to do their landing in the small bay on the southwest corner of the island…the flat light makes judging height above the water tough…
After a brief stop…there is plenty of sea room to make the takeoff with back taxiing…
Soon we are approaching Homer and the Beluga Lake seaplane base…
I make left traffic to land toward the southwest…
And there you have it…! I’m floatplane qualified now!
Total trip length was a couple of hours…lots of fun chatting with -bc-, Rhino, and gofigure… A very enjoyable way to spend the evening…!
Check out EPOCH Alaska Air if you ever want to get into some casual and fun virtual flying in a bush-like environment…!
BeachAV8R
I’ve arranged to ferry a buddie’s Turbine Beaver down to Chiliwack - it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement because I have some business to take care of down there… I think I can make the trip in two legs - first leg will down to STRE (Shade Tree Lodge) since I’m flying a Shade Tree creation I thought that would be an appropriate fuel stop.
Might try to fly it tonight…depending on how much circus is in the circus around here… 
BeachAV8R
So today we’ll fly the first portion of our Shade Tree DHC-2 Turbo Beaver ferry flight. I have some business down in Chiliwack and a friend needs some servicing done down there - so it’s a win/win. The first leg will be 412 nm down to STRE - Shade Tree Lodge…
Parked in front of my house at Beaver Creek - CYXQ…
Our flight plan takes us down some airways…planned for 11,000’…
I take a look early in the day…but didn’t have time to start the flight…plus the weather was a bit gooey anyway…
Later the skies clear out and I’m ready to head out…
See you later Beaver Creek…!
Thankfully - the Beaver has a decent autopilot…
A high overcast covers the first third of the route as we head south toward Kluane Lake…
I don’t know what you think…but I think I’m a pretty ruggedly handsome guy…(shouldn’t I have a flannel shirt on though?)
The turbine Beaver purrs southeastbound…
Until it doesn’t…turns out you have to transfer fuel from the front and aft tanks to the main tanks to keep the engine running. A few minutes of panic and I get it sorted…
Soon the clouds begin to change to more puffy low cumulus…
Passing over some rugged terrain along the St. Elias Range…
Weather continues to morph…
Some barges pushing stuff around in Tom’s Inside Passage scenery…
Then…the unexpected. I had planned for five hours of fuel…but apparently the slider in the X-Plane menu doesn’t really mean much and you should use the aircraft flight manual… The red light gets my attention, I check…and my gauges are bouncing near empty. A quick divert toward Hoonah saves the day…
A nice little airport to pick up a splash of gas…
On departure we pass by some cruise ships plying the Inside Passage…
My track from the fuel low level light to landing to departure…
Back on course…
Just a bit over fifteen minutes left and we’ll be there!
Beautiful scenery…
I actually accidentally take a tougher route through the mountains rather than around toward the easier entry to the airport from the bay… The Shade Tree Lodge butts up against the beautiful Baird Glacier…
On the downwind within the confines of the arm…should have come up from the water for a proper landing approach…
Safely at Shade Tree Lodge to pick up some gas for the second leg to Chiliwack. I’m not sure if I’m heading back out or spending the night…
Total route time was a bit over 3+25 - took off at 1655 - landed in Shade Tree at 2052 with some additional time for the unplanned stop…
BeachAV8R
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@SiThSpAwN and I will heat up a beer for you - that’s my backyard!
@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… 
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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.
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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
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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
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Hey, that’s a photo I took:
Compare and contrast my profile pic! Spooky!
CSI: Vancouver. The excellent red arrow shows the same hill…
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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
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