MacRobertson Air Race (2019)

[jenrick]

Take off: 0314 local
Touchdown: 0735
Distance: ~ 631 NM (planned ~495 NM)
Average Speed: 145 knots

Total Flight Time: 26:31
Total Distance: ~5086 NM
Average speed: 192 knots

There were two waypoints on this trip. Two. So where did it all go wrong?

This was to be a radio navigation leg primarily, the Monomail is really the only bird I have in my hangar for this class that has an ADF. It had done just fine over Europe I thought time to fire it up. A night time takeoff was no problem, we’re going on instruments anyway, so the heck with visual nav.

Easy visual check point passing, Jinnah Intl as we head out of Karachi.

Somewhere over India, please note the word “somewhere.”

At this juncture I had set out at 75 magnetic, which should have led me straight to the NBD at Chore. From there just continue on 75, we’ll leave NBD range have about 30-40 mins with nothing, and then pickup the NBD at Jaipur. Easy as cake right?

I would refer you to the actual route flown map. You will note that right about the time I drop out of NDB range from Chore it all goes pear shaped. Following the directional indicator rather than the compass was mistake one. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the compass card and didn’t realize I was slowing drifting off as the gyro drifted. Once I realized I was WAY off I also realized that there was no way to update the gyro, sadly this plane will be moving back to fun flying versus anything serious like air racing.

Now this might have been workable, if not for the other mistake. Mistake number 2? This plane didn’t have a compass!!! So we know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that’s about all I had to work with in terms of a heading.

Once I realized things had gone way South, pun intended, it was dead reckoning, frantic NBD searching, and some lucky guessing I was able to get a rough idea where the heck I was thanks to the mountains SW of Jaipur. From there some more guessing got me close enough to pick up the NBD.

Picking up the NBD in Jaipur. A massive feeling of relief.

Airport in sight.

I may mess with editing the panel to add in a nice big compass (probably steal it from the DH Comet), and swap out the DI for something that can be updated.

As one should always have a backup plane or three, I had enough gas to simply head away from the sun, and once I hit the coast go North till I got back to Karachi. Not the greatest plan, but a plan nonetheless!

I’m not sure what I’m going to take for the next hop to Allahabad, but I’ll guarantee it has a working compass!

[Fridge]

Leg 11: OISS to OPKC via SR, BND, Pit stop at OIKB, ISR, TU, OR and KA

Aircraft: Carenado Beachcraft Bonanza F33A w/ SimCoders Reality Expansion Pack;
Addon: FSFlyingSchool 2019 for X-Plane 11
Addon: ActiveSkyXP;

Date: 21 April 2019/22 April 2019
Weather: Historical 21 April 2019 @ 20:00 UTC (23:30 local)
Takeoff: ~ 20:05

	Leg	Total
Planned Distance	866 nm	4044 nm
NDB Beacons Tuned	6	45
Weather ‘Situations’	0	6
Duration	05 H 40 M	23 H 40 M

Location: Star Gate Road, PIA Township, Karachi, Karāchi District, Sindh, 74200, Pakistan

Part 1: Shiraz to Bandar Abbas

Part 2: Bandar Abbas to Karachi

Briefing Notes:

Well the weather is not looking great. I may have bottled myself into the mountains. Weather for the 21st was not great and, late at might as I gaze at the reports for the daylight hours on the 22, I am seeing the same pattern.

Thing is, though, is that if I leave tonight, I can catch a break in the weather, and with a little navigation, I can get past it before it becomes dangerous in the mountains.

So, lets do that.

If I head due east out of out of OISS until I lose the SR beacon, I ‘should’ be over Bakhtegan Lake (LOS in the above weather map). From there I can turn bearing 129° (likely 126° given the winds) where I can climb to FL120 to for 30 minutes, to avoid hypoxia and the mountains that could get up to FL100 (given error in my altimeter settings and such), back down to FL100 straight to the BND NDB at Bandar Abbas and then on to my destination.

Other Media and Notes:

Why did they put me so close to that light post?

Luckily, once the walk-around is complete, I can push her back to a better engine-start position.

Some hard work and grunting and I am ready. Bye-bye annoying post

Only the moon and us on this flight, babe

And an awesome look back at the airport and city behind it.

At signal loss of the SR NDB, I turn to my plotted course and climb to FL120. Everything is looking and there is no weather to speak of en-route. I am using the ‘weather tables’ at the bottom of my briefing notes to guesstimate the course correction I need to hit the target NDB.

I also notice that my Oil Pressure has dropped down to just above the red line.

Given that I have had a few flights where I burned through most of my oil, I elect to land at OIKB in order to refuel and check the oil levels and make sure everything is ok. I don’t want to get stuck with a bad engine over night territory with no real instruments to guide me anywhere quickly.

I pull up to some stationary SAR helos and everything looks good.

Now I will admit that I originally intended this plan to only stretch to OPOR (an airport at the OR NDB) but with the refuel at OIKB, I had the legs for an option to push on to a more scenic airport! I will take a look later in the flight and maybe add in the extra distance if everything is going well.

Being night, there is not a lot to look at. I find the instruments panel lights and set them to moody.

As I pass the TU NDB en-route to OR, the sun starts to come up. Everything is going well, so I add in the stretch goal.

There is OPOR in the distance. It will be my fall back point once I am over the water. Well, for a little while as I really do not want to find out how this F33A glides

Looking great. Nighttime screenshots do not look as great after the fact but there is a nice layer of atmosphere here

Slight mistake at this point. Due to a brain wiring feature, I read the KA NDB as 224 when it should be 244. Here I am wondering why I am not in range when I think I should be…

And here I am with the correction entered … and feeling safer

Great scenery here as well!

The challenge here is sorting the 3 airports from each other but it is not too hard, I am looking for the complicated one

No landing shots because I couldn’t video capture at the time. But after a relatively uneventful landing and a long taxi, I make it to the general aviation parking spots.

The oil level is looking pretty good. It was much better at OIKB.

[Fridge]

@jenrick

Mistake number 2? This plane didn’t have a compass!!!

I am going to be taking this same course tomorrow (depending on weather). Good to see some of the challenges before I get there

Nice write up!

[ffly]

@Sine_Nomine oh no, no apologies please. I didn’t feel offended by any means. If I sounded being sarcastic, my bad I knew I “walked away” because of luck. Had done cross wind only once before this. There’s so much to learn, and I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge! I learned the 60:1 rule from you Please don’t save your words

[Porko]

Beach, thank you for the welcome. Cheers.

[jenrick]

One more leg before bed.

Take off: 0948 local
Touchdown: 1124
Distance: ~ 390 NM (planned ~330 NM)
Average Speed: 244 knots

Total Flight Time: 28:07
Total Distance: ~5476 NM
Average speed: 195 knots

The plan for this final leg of stage 2 was a straight shot in something with a compass. Hold 103, put the throttle down, and look for the Ganges if worse came to worse.

Well this doesn’t look promising. It was pretty low flying for the a bit with the clouds sitting right around 1000’ AGL.

Here we see FSX deciding India should look like western Europe. I didn’t have time to generate additional ortho scenery, which actually made this much more of a pain since urban areas don’t stand out that much. Right on target with Gwalior.

We see the Yamuna River coming up on the left, we can follow this right into Allahabad.

Runway in sight!

And stage 2 done.

So after my SNAFU with radio navigation, getting into a plane and just staring at the compass until I saw my landmark was kind of reassuring. At least I knew where the heck I was headed, if not where I was lol. I downloaded the auxiliary tank as I knew I had plenty of gas, and left the throttle and RPM’s way up near the redline to make up some time. This sucker moves!

About 400 nm to the coast, and then off to Singapore.

[NEVO]

Went to Aleppo airport, checked the weather and OK. Checked the weather telegram from Bagdad and OK. Checked the map and it was pure IFR - I Follow River. So off I went !

Only surprise was empty ( default ) airport of Bagdad

[Porko]

G’day all, Porco here,

well we are on the border of .‘The Gulf’ and ‘The Gulf of Oman’, at a little Military airport called JASK (OIZJ) actually didn’t realise how huge the hills /mountains were in this part of the country, will have to try a bit of ridge soaring out of Bushehr (OIBQ) when I get a chance as those ridges run for miles and miles.

Cheers for tonight Porko.

[Fridge]

I have another day left in my extended Easter vacation so I am going to go grab some coffee and get another long leg in before I take a break

[Fridge]

Made it to Allahabad. Had a really difficult time getting a location there to update the map. My cell phone signal must not be compatible with the local systems…

[NEVO]

Back to some reports.

From LGAV Athens to OSAP Aleppo ( fuel stop at LTFG Alanya / Gazipasa )

Distance : 670 NM
Total : 2340 NM

Time : 03:20
Total : 14:30

I briefly checked weather telegrams and there was nothing significant along my planed route so I didnt hesitate with take off

Was hopping the islands. Weather was good at this point so I was enjoining it.

@Sine_Nomine

At this point, I got the idea to up the challenge a bit more… I decided to stay in the cockpit view, from here on.

Surly form inside the cockpit as we all doing it so

My original planed fuel stop was LGKJ Kastelorizo but had enough fuel so pressed East

On this route I decided to try to fly high to see if the fuel consumption will be better. This decision will almost bite me later.
From this height Kastelorizo airport was not visible at all

Topped up my fuel at Alanya and in good mood buzzed Austin Mayer’s yacht

No signs of stress as I enjoyed the view of Cyprus in the distance. Cloud covers pushing into my view didnt bother me

At this point over solid overcast but I was still OK - ’ Is it bird ? is it plane ? ’

Some miles later I started to be worried. Didnt see any hole in the overcast in a while. Was not sure if still over water or already over Syrian / Turkish coast.
Did the decision - dive through the overcast to check. This turned out as lucky decision even it cost me almost a virtual life.

As I descended I hit some turbulence. My VSI went from diving to climbing and back few times. Once I was out of it I realized that there are two layers of overcast below me - thats why no hole as it is realy unlikely to find two holes in two layers right above each other.
Decided to descent further. Again turbulence and I desperately tried to stay with the plane with the limited IMC equipment.
Lucky enough I caught glimpse of a terrain to my right and sharply banked the plane. Then it went through my head - if I loose sight of the terrain in this attitude I am certainly dead

The hole was big enough and I descended through it to realize that I am, again luckily, right over the coast. Fixed my self and squeezed my luck even more. Under the overcast pushed to the North East.
Instead I got squeezed between low clouds and quite high rugged terrain and had to turn back to where I came from. On occasions I hit few low clouds loosing contact with ground entirely. My adrenaline was high as the terrain, my confidence low as the clouds

Back at the coast I had two options - land right there or push again. Quickly did read the map and found some suitable terrain to the North. Luck is still with me, isnt it?

Back to where she belongs - low and fast - buzzing LTDA Hatay

Letting my luck to rest for a while now - Aleppo

Here you can see how lucky I was that I started the descend right over the coast without knowing it. Few miles later and I will descend right into the ridge.
Not using clocks as a navigation instrument this was one lucky trip

[NEVO]

Next one was from Aleppo to Bagdad. Weather was great and I followed the rivers. Uneventful for a change.

Distance : 400 NM
Total : 2740 NM

Time : 02:00
Total : 16:30

Bagdad was disapointing

[NEVO]

Weather is getting better further South East. I reached Bushire.

From ORBI Bagdad to OIBB Bushire. Again most of this route was river following. Just the last part over water was fun - I forgot to download the next part of world terrain

Distance : 450 NM
Total : 3190 NM

Time : 02:10
Total : 18:40

After I got informed about problems ahead I checked some backup airports. Buzzing ORMM Basrah

Peaceful waters of the gulf

Navigation was not a problem

Some left crosswind spiced up the landing

Again that weird bird Seems like someone from that ’ Experimental class ’

Downloading…

[PaulRix]

A very quick leg from Baghdad, Iraq (ORBI) to Ahwaz, Iran (OIAW).

Prior to this flight I updated Ultra Weather XP to the recently released v2.5 and tweaked the paint job on ‘Uiver’.

The planned route using visual reference points and dead reckoning involved hopping from one large lake to the next:

Tucking up the gear after takeoff from Baghdad International (ORBI)

Climbing out towards Baghdad, we settle on a 100° Magnetic Heading…

I was planning to fly the route at 9000ft, but that wasn’t going to work if I was going to be using visual references, so I ended up dropping down to 7000 ft, which put me back under the layer.

There was no mistaking the first lakes on our route… so far, so good.

Over our final waypoint.

A short time later, Ahwaz comes in to sight, right on the nose!

Throttles eased back, props forward, down we go!

After the completely unpopulated scenery for Baghdad International, I was surprised to see buildings and parked aircraft at the much smaller Ahwaz airport. I’m not sure that you would normally see a pair of Airbus 380’s on the ramp there, but they do look impressive!

I parked next to a hangar, adjacent to the British Airways behemoth. The other A380 is in Lufthansa colours.

The route flown:

[wheelsup_cavu]

Twist and turns in the river remind me of the Seine river near Rouen and Paris.

Wheels

[Fridge]

Leg 12: OPKC to VEAB via KF, DS, LU, KO, KJ and AP NBDs

Aircraft: Carenado Beachcraft Bonanza F33A w/ SimCoders Reality Expansion Pack;
Addon: FSFlyingSchool 2019 for X-Plane 11
Addon: ActiveSky XP;
Addon: UltraWeather XP;

Date: 23 April 2018
Weather: Historical 23 April 2018 @ 04:00 UTC (09:00 local)
Takeoff: ~ 09:27

	Leg	Total
Planned Distance	813 nm	4857 nm
NDB Beacons Tuned	6	51
Weather ‘Situations’	0	6
Duration	05 H 40 M	29 H 20 M

Location: Prayagraj, Prayāgrāj, Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh, 211001, India

Briefing Notes:

Weather is looking to not be an issue - today India looks like it wants to have good weather across the stretch of the flight plan which should see us depart Karachi after 9am local time and arrive in Allahabad some … 5 hours and 40 minutes later. Wow!

Here is a picture of a cat; co-pilot 1 of 2 (that’s her new designation ).

Other Media and Notes:

So I realize that I am starting to succumb to my usual pattern of overdoing something. It’s not a competitive thing, because then I would be using other aircraft, but it is a thing where I rush to stay safely in the middle and end up racing against myself - I do this all the time biking, kayaking, hiking, driving, whatever. Never seem to slow down and smell the roses or the 100 Octane Fuel as the case may be.

So. This will be the last long jump for a while, if I can help it. Unfortunately that means a lot more posts! Onward!

Karachi has a nice atmospheric airport … and I think that X-Plane/Ultimate Weather XP heard me and upped it’s game.

Here I am making the mistake of heading for the wrong runway. Yeah you want the other end of the airport, Fridge.

The Carenado Beechcraft Bonanza F33A is a nice module. I would have liked a manual of some sort but I have likely been ruined by the detailed manuals that the third party DCS developers are putting out.

Up and away!

The scenery is pretty generic, but having never flown over Pakistan or India (or within a few thousand kilometers) I can’t be certain. This here is Haleji Lake and it looks pretty human made - but it also looks like this in real life.

Google Maps: link.

This is a theme in this area - human made reservoirs to contain or direct water for consumption. Over here in America we tend to take this for granted but, and I will avoid the climate change sermon, we are going to have to adapt as well.

Shortly after Haleji Lake is Keenjhar Lake …

… which is interesting because of the canal system that robs/controls the Indus River right next to it. Interesting (Google Maps: link).

Off to the right is Rann of Kutch Lake, a salt marsh on the border of Pakastan and India which I am happy to see X-Plane accurately reflect.

Navigation is going well. NBDs showing up pretty well on course as long as I make some allowance for the winds at FL100. The next shot shows Udaipur with VAUD and the LU NDB just beyond. I am finding the SkyVector VFR maps … difficult to match land features to but this location is not hard to spot.

I keep tabs on the rivers and lakes that cross my path and try to keep on course as best I can in those spots between the NBD signals. I end up switching to the PlanGv3 view (and shrink it down to obscure the details that it might show with regard to my position along my plotted course) as if givens a much better representation of the land that I am flying over. The OpenTopo maps are likely a source for the X-Plane scenery. It is much easier to look at a lake and go “That’s it” as opposed to “That’s it?”. Its a subtle change.

Interesting human habitat. This is Kota and at the end of that large railway feature…

… is the Kota Super Thermal Power Station (Coal).

Google Maps: link

So those rail lines feed that beast generates 1241 MW of electrical power which can provide power to just a fraction over 9 million people in the area (source)

Here are the double reservoir lakes provided by the Rajghat Dam (right/south) and the Matatila Dam (left/north) on the Betwa River. The Rajghat Dam (2006) provides irrigation to the area in addition to al 45 MW power station (serving roughly 328,000 people (same source as above)). The Matatila Dam is older (1958) and is intended, I think, to just store water.

Google Maps: link

Just after this I am about half way through my fuel (according to the gauges). Oil pressure is steady.

This is interesting. Just past the KJ NBA (and the VAKJ/Khajuraho Airport is the Panna National Park.

This park is notable for two features … two features that mean I do not want to have to ditch there if my engine fails. The first is the Panna …

… Tiger Reserve. That’s off in front of my right wing if i am reading the land features correctly. Google Maps: link

The second is Bear Valley Camp, which is a little farther along where the river starts to turn north … right under the tip of the PlanV3 window there.

Google Maps: link

I am not even gonna ask. I am just going to keep to the left of the river if I have to put the Bonanza down under duress. And of course, as I come up on Chitrakoot, about half way between the KJ and AP NDBs, there is a new airport cut into the edges of this rugged terrain.

X-plane does not have it in the database, which is wise because it looks like a place created by lions to lure unsuspecting aviators to their demise!

Google Map: link

Look at that! You can not tell me that is not a prime example of terrain-to-be-run-down-by-a-lion! You open the door, check the tires, pull out the ‘Do Not Remove Before Flight’ ribbons and … Bam! Lions!

My recommendation … don’t add this airport to the X-Plane 11 database. Just don’t.

And, luckily, its not there … or at least I couldn’t find it in those X-Plane terrain tiles that are trying so hard to be wrong

Anyway, enough with my fear of large carnivores! A short time later I am descending (under power, not duress) toward VEAB. Winds are behaving and the airfield looks clear of obstructions (except for the lights that cross at the runway intersection

I do the post flight walk around, secure the aircraft and check the oil.

Looking good for a 820 nm flight! I have a fuel to spare which makes me wonder either about the burn rate being potentially incorrect or the fuel capacity being too high. Oh well, that’s for the developers to worry about!

[Fridge]

@Sine_Nomine

Tipped uncontrollably onto the wingtip and cartwheeled

Looks like you are dancing on that wingtip! You are waaay better at this than I am! My crosswind takeoffs are worse in … less temperamental modules

[NEVO]

@Sine_Nomine

@NEVO ditching the Dewotine?

@Sine_Nomine

It is murderous, this model. I highly recommend it!

You are not totally wrong
In the light of your reports I was already considering ’ ditching ’ the Dewotine in favor of the free RedBull P38 from MilViz.

But… FSX… or P3D… but it is only available for V3.
And I am afraid of all the hassle with controls setup and whatnot… so staying with XP for now

[PaulRix]

Ahvaz to Jask…

A very straightforward trip, mostly along the coast of Iran…

The visibility was pretty crumby at Jask, but we got down in one piece.

[PaulRix]

After a short overnight at Jask, and a splash of fuel, I pressed on to Karachi, Pakistan. The visibility was still not great at Jask.

Climbing away from Jask

Not much to see down below, so I pressed on, heading East, hoping that conditions would improve.

Despite the lack of ground features, sunrise was worth seeing. Right in my eyes though!

Soon, the visibility started to improve.

I had no luck picking up an NDB, but that is a pretty distinctive geographical feature over to my right. Sure enough, I have no difficulty matching it up on the map. That puts us about half way between Chah-Bahar and Jwani, a little North of track.

I made a slight course correction and then left my PC for what I thought was going to be just a few minutes, but ended up being much longer than planned. When I returned, I fully expected to have crashed, or at best, be comlpetely lost and have to find my position somehow. I shouldn’t have worried though, because I was just North of Karachi, with the airport in sight. Pure dumb luck, but then, as ‘Lefty’ Gomez once said, “I’d rather be lucky than good”…

I think that Global and King Air are following me. Didn’t I park next to them earlier on this trip?

The route flown: