Challenge accepted!
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That makes sense - thank you for explaining.
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What @smokinhole saidâŠ! 
Put it this way. The missed approach point (MAP) is 1.3 miles beyond YK at 3,754â AGL. Normally at 1.3 miles youâd be around 400â to 500â on the normal 3 degree landing path. That is why there is no straight in landing minimums published because you canât possibly get low enough far enough out to make a normal landing. Even at the CG NDB you are at 8,000â (6,374â AGL) where you should be about 2,700â AGL. The terrain just doesnât allow for it. So you go downâŠhope to see the runway/airport and carefully circle to land⊠(actually I see the MAP is actually .5nm west of the airportâŠso some of those WAG numbers are actually a little worse than what I calculated) And note the circling diagram that pretty much shows you have to circle west of the fieldâŠthe least worst placeâŠhahaâŠ
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Hey @Bearhedge. It made sense but I didnât take a close enough look. This is a circling approach. So yes you are fully expected to circle from 5900 (EDIT: make that 5380. I really need to pay attention before pecking away on the keyboard.) and land either direction. Donât think of this as an instrument approach in the classic sense. It is an instrument descent into visual conditions where you can safely enter a visual pattern.
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Oooh. A challenge!
Been wanting to try one of those, just havenât found an approach yet (where Iâve flown).
I flew the approach with the ceiling down to 5800â. There are a couple of problems with PROVING it properly: 1) The DC-3 doesnât replay correctly. The airplane does fine but the flight instruments are stuck at 6000â and 120 knots. 2) I recorded the whole thing in OBS but donât really know how to transfer that file to my Mac for editing. So, take my word for it. I flew it well. I remembered to âdouble the correctionâ and drag the tail and all that fun stuff I used to teach 30+ years ago. If you want proof you will have to drive up to seven-one-nine Hartwell Street in Teaneck and Iâll show you the video. We can down a few tumblers of 1792 while we watch. The approach is actually a very instructive one for NDB approaches. I guess thatâs why @BeachAV8R picked it. The separate DME for the missed approach is something I have never seen before and honestly didnât know existed. The VSKYLABS DC-3 has an RMI with 2 needles. I kept the âfatâ focused on âCGâ and the skinny on YK but selected at VOR so it wouldnât confuse me on the 1st half of the approach. I came in from the west at 10,000 and made a full procedure turn with a 1 minute outbound leg. The only part that had me sweating was the FAF inbound leg. I forgot to unload some weight from the previous flight so I was close to 3000 pounds under max. With gear down and 1 notch of flaps, it took 31" just to maintain 5900â and 120 knots. Nothing out there helps rebuild a proper instrument scan like a non-precision approach. So even though I cannot share my proud moment of doing it passably, it was a great exercise for me. Especially as I will be going back into the sim next week and havenât flown since late-March.
This is the downwind leg to RWY 15 after coming in and breaking out from the opposite direction.
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Another MAD trip as I slowly make my way back from Quatam. This one was from KSHN (Sanderson, Field) to 6S9 (Stehekin State). I studied neither the route nor the weather. All I knew was that the trip was short at 116nm and rich, paying MAD $76000. I was overloaded by 1000lbs in order to have plenty of gas. I like plenty of gas. I climbed through the clouds hoping for 9500â but was too heavy to get there and settled on 8700. I really thought I was over the plateau and began a gentle descent 35nm out. Imagine my surprise when I broke out to some of the scariest most most beautiful rocks I have seen in X-Plane.
If you havenât seen this part of Washington in ortho it really is worth the trip. The mineral content (I guess) gives the granite intensely saturated coloring. It looks more like a scene from Avatar than anything terrestrial. But in the moment I wasnât appreciating the beauty. I was thinking more along the lines of, âHoly Merde Smokinâ you really screwed the pooch on this one!â It was one of those sim moments that so closely aligned with my real-life flying nightmares that a big chill went up my spine and was hard to shake. 6S9 is boxed in a fairly tight canyon with a river running through the middle.
I had to fly a bowtie descent over the field to stay safely off the walls. The strip seemed shorter than 2600â and I let myself get slow and dropped it in with the yoke in my gut. âRather Positiveâ was the grade, âItâll buff outâ was an unneeded bit of snark to further heighten the shame. Fortunately, cash heals all wounds.
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Man, seems like AH2 flights are a lot more generous with the cashâŠ
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That seems very true⊠Then again we donât have to go through some sort of reputation grind in FSE, which I see everybody complaining about!
The amounts are higher, but I think the costs are higher too.
Plus cygon is flying a dc3. Iâm making max 10K in revenue in a 172. Less landing fees, fuel, etcâŠ
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I am usually doing 1k in Bell206 
Next stop is good example 0.8k but the place sounds very interesting Grand Coulee Dam. And it is in the general direction of KEAT however 55NM NE 
Did I mention already that I really like this Global Forests addon, it makes the scenery much more lively with the good placement and diverse variety of trees
Visitors!
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Well, I thought I might take my first attempt at describing an adventure. I finally got Pilot2ATC all setup so decided to finally get a good flight in with it doing an Air Hauler 2 run in XP-11. I find myself enjoying Pilot2ATC so much that I may even end up giving Vatsim or PilotEdge a go as I get more practice on the mic in.
The flight at hand was a short jaunt from KMMV (McMinnville Municipal Airport, OR) up to KAWO (Arlington, WA) with a load of Tea delivered by yours truly, Praqzis Logistics. Youâd think theyâd have plenty of tea or could import it from closer to Seattle, but I suppose they wanted Tea sent from Wine Country in the Willamette Valley that bad. Whoâd have thought?
The weather certainly wasnât on my side. But as this isnât real life, I thought Iâd give it a go in real-world weather anyways. Thunderstorms, rain, and all. It was one of those days that there was no way Iâd fly in real life, especially in an airborne inflatable raft like a Skyhawk (if I were a real life pilot that is, which Iâm sadly not). But how bad could it be, right? I have insurance and itâs not like Iâll be dying in real life :P.
Take off out of McMinnville wasnât too bad. Clouds were still at a ceiling of 8000ft or so.
It was short-lived though as the weather rolled in quite quickly. Not even 10nm out of KMMV and already I could hear the Hans Zimmer soundtrack firing up in the background. Bad times are cominâ, methinks.
Then, straight out of a Stephen King novel, the Fog started rolling in. I started to find myself ascending into the soup. Hopefully there wouldnât be any bodysnatchers waiting there for me.
And then before I knew it, it felt like I was starting to find myself transitioning into an episode of The Deadliest Catch. Was I delivering the finest tea from wine country, or was I getting ready to crab fish in the Bering Sea? Itâs certainly not the most fun place to find yourself surrounded by a thin layer of tin foil.
Luckily, the storm broke around Tacoma and I was greeted with a great flyover of the Tacoma Dome. Because, you know, itâs in Tacoma and⊠well⊠itâs a Dome. How creative! It kinda looks like a hub cap from the sky to be honest. So I shall now call it the Tacoma Hubcap.
By the time I went flying past Seattle at the incredibly furious pace of a maxed out Ford Pinto, the weather had cleared and it was smooth sailing up into Arlington. I could now unleash all 160 horspers of the Lycoming four cylinder at my disposal. Eat your freakinâ heart out Toyota Camry. Whoâs the jelly one now?
So the good thing was that the finest of teas from the wine country of the Willamette Valley managed to arrive safely in Arlington, WA. But there was nobody to greet me like the hero I was 
. Didnât they know what kind of weather I braved to deliver these finest of goods to them? Not one clap, not one cheer, no âhazard payâ, and not even a single âthank you.â Pâshaw! Color me not surprised. :P. I would say ânever againâ, but Iâm guessing that this isnât the last time Praqzis Logistics will be delivering goods into KAWO.
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Very nice! I need to mess with my settings a bit. I had to drop the textures a notch because the DA62 I picked up was KILLING my fps (like⊠8fps) at max textures with 1080. I may need to go one notch lower⊠the eclipse was better today, but as soon as clouds pop in, oof. I should be good with one notch lower. So depressing having to lower settings
And my tax return wasnât enough to justify upgrading the computer. My wifeâs on the other hand⊠hmmmâŠ
Found a nice little route from KGCN to L41. Made about 15k on a 100nm round trip, and the views over the Grand Canyon were pretty exceptional. Forgot to take pics, but highly recommend trying it. Our Quest Kodiak is parked at KGCN so if anyone wants to try it!
LOLâŠIâd always take your word for it dude.
Sorry about the late reply. Out of town for a few days with no cell or internet service (in the Linville Gorge if your familiar with that areaâŠso awesomeâŠ)âŠ
I almost guarantee you that most newly minted IFR pilots these days would probably have never heard âdrag the tailâ. Although, I guess they still have to teach it because you do have some initial approach fixes that use an NDB. Iâll bet youâd get blank looks most of the time thoughâŠ
YeahâŠdual RMI is definitely better than one or two fixed card ADF receivers. The RMI and HSI were instruments that, once I graduated to planes that had them, made things seem so much easier.
Great to hear. YeahâŠI enjoy those as well. Iâm back in the sim out at DFW in July. Fun times.
HahaâŠthatâs awesome. I remember going into some airfields at night (Charleston, WV) before I ever got to see them in the daylight and when I did I was like âohâŠwowâŠOKâŠâ 
Iâve run into terrain before in VR at night when Iâve failed an engine trying to do a tough SID or something and each time those landing lights showing the impact coming gives me the heebejeebeesâŠ
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