Destiny is on the way to San Diego from Tijuana - rumor has it she has a case of some duty free Patron under one of the seats…
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I hope she had time to catch the donkey show.
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Somehow I knew I’d read that comment. 
Crazy that this is the way I relax on my days off… 
On the move again…this time a short hop out of Grand Canyon (KGCN) down to Tucson, AZ (KTUS). Love the detailed Grand Canyon scenery…it is very, very well done (freeware!)…
Throwing a salute to some compadres also in the freight hauling biz…
Interesting moment here…I actually took off on runway 3 (which is not legal for noise abatement), but Air Hauler does have some quirky problems - one of which is that sometimes it thinks you are at another airfield or heliport if you happen to be very close to one. This can happen at places like Los Angeles, but it also happened here at Grand Canyon because of the tour helicopter location, which is separate from GCN. So as I rotated for takeoff off runway 3, Air Hauler sent me a message that I was at the wrong airport.
Grrr…so my solution was to go out, teardrop around, come back and land on runway 21…as I was rolling out, the message that I was at the wrong field went away, and I did a touch and go and rocketed off runway 21… 
A true cargo pilot move…
Getting on with it. Planned a low level sprint down to Tucson at FL180…although my touch and go had me wondering if I’d have enough fuel…
Estimating 3,700 lbs. remaining at Tucson…
Passing over Prescott, AZ…arrow indicates the apartment that I spent many a night “hydrating”…yeah…
Gorgeous scenery throughout Arizona…might be the Verde River off my left…
Passing over Phoenix…
A nice feature of the MD88 is the green descent predictor line (it probably has a technical name)…our G1000’s have it as well. Thumb the VSI over and match the green line to your crossing restriction if you just want to WAG it and not program the VNAV…
Some cool terrain southwest of Phoenix…
So the ILS into Tucson is no joke. 6,000’ crossing restriction is to be respected due to a toothy ridge just south of the ILS 11L approach corridor…
Swinging the wheels…the Rotate MD88 has an awesome sound-set. With the wheels and flaps out the whole house shakes…and I don’t even have a @jross or @Troll shaker stuff…
On the ILS…just flipping off the autothrottle and autopilot…
Smooth landing - right on. Didn’t notice that CRJ700 behind me on the ILS…fortunate that we didn’t run into each other…I need to make a better effort at checking for traffic!
On the ramp…I realized to my embarrassment that I ran the APU on the whole trip! 
Fuel worked out pretty good. 3,000 lbs. might not be good IFR reserves…but good enough for this flight…
Can’t tell ya’ how much I love this airplane. Very satisfying to fly…
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On the move this morning with my coffee and spinach and feta omelette. I’ve become very impressed with Global Traffic now with the addition of GA traffic. It really livens up the airports and airspace and forces you to keep your head on a swivel. I might like to try to mix in an ATC add-on next to see if I can really get the whole flow of a flight going.
Tucson has one of those weird taxiway layouts where the runway actually turns into a taxiway…which requires some care and attention…
A bit lighter going out of Tucson…with only around 20 tons of cargo in the holds…
Only went up to FL210 on the short hop up to Albuquerque…
Mmm…have I mentioned how much I love this cockpit?
As a test run…I loaded the RNAV Y RWY3 with COMRO as the feeder. I wanted to see how the MD88 managed an FMC directed descent. This was my first time trying this in the Rotate MD88. It loaded the altitude and speed constraints…which I felt were definitely a bit too fast for my comfort level.
Sure enough, at the TOD (Top of Descent) the VNAV started to track and the autothrottle did a fair job of slowing to the speed constraints…
It was doing well on the altitudes, but I’ll need to check to see if I can manually edit the speeds in the FMC because it really was way, way too fast in the final segments. I think there is an FMS override on the panel that also gives manual autothrottle control (if that makes any sense) back to the pilot…
As it was I had to use spoilers to get slowed up…
The last final approach bit happened fast and furious as I fought a war with slowing and configuring…the result was a firm landing with damage (of course). Taxiing in at ABQ…
The ShortFinal KABQ scenery is superb…I’ve had it for a few years…extremely detailed and lots of details…
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Ooph…that RNAV arrival unstabilized approach wasn’t worth it…!
I went with the insurance option which only cost $13K to repair, but it does put me at risk of higher premiums or outright cancellation apparently. I wonder what the threshold for that is…
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Dark contrails?
I don’t think those are really contrails so much as vapor trails off the lifting surfaces (overdone…sort of like the Viggen in DCS). And yes, they are too dark. 
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Using On Air I have been quietly getting on with it and finding myself in the lovely town of Poitier in France I grabbed a job to transport a bundle of magazines to Palma Majorca in the Mediterranean.
After filing the flight plan and loading 80% fuel and the magazines I took off and am currently FL3.5 @275 TAS
I am loving the fact I have some sense of accomplishment after the flight and seeing an increase in the bank balance
And its pretty
Nav Log
Me and my girl, ooops I mean co-pilot
A close shave with I presume a MP plane crossed at my height very close I think it was an A320
Looks like we will have clearer weather after I clear the mountains
Definately clearing
And just a hint of land ahead, starting my descent
My destination airport from the On Air GUI
Cantacting ATC
This island is popular with tourists and you can see why
Short finals
And down,
nice flight and rewarding in cash and XP
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Nice hop from Tucson, Arizona on up to Grand Junction, Colorado - mostly I’m running commodities along interesting routes (to me) in order to build some cash for the next plane to be built at the MAX Factory.
Climbing out of Tucson…
Picking up the Jet Airway…
Terrain turns from desert to more alpine the further north you get…
Although the further west in Colorado you get, the more desert-like it gets…
I wanted to see how the FMC managed the DME ARC to the ILS in Grand Junction…it depicts and flies it just fine…although I don’t use the FMC managed speeds since I feel they are too high…
Established on final…
Oh…a bit of a standoff on the taxi in however…(really nice to see the GA traffic in World Traffic)…
Mudspike Air Cargo is plugging right along. Destiny is out wandering the east coast looking for parts for her own plane…
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Quick hop…190nm from Grand Junction, Colorado over to Salt Lake City. Grand Junction didn’t have much in the way of commodities, so I only loaded ~ 21,500 lbs. of goods for delivery to SLC…
Pushing back at Grand Junction…
Fairly light weight…so climbing out nicely out of Grand Junction…
Plugged in the LEEHY RNAV arrival to Salt Lake that transitions into the ILS 34R without interruption…
I’ve flown this arrival in real life…felt like I was just barely skimming the mountains…lovely when covered in snow…
Now in the flat valley south of Salt Lake…getting dirty for the landing…
Into SLC and finding a stand to unload at…
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Destiny’s CASA 212 is in the factory being built…!
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That is one fast production line. 27 hours from build start to build finish is smokin!
Wheels
Well, the parts are collected as major assemblies from around the country…so all we have to do at the MAX Plant is bind them together with FlexSeal Tape…
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So after a combined effort of running around the country, we finally managed to find all of the parts to build Destiny’s upgrade aircraft - the CASA 212. This aircraft should nearly double her freight hauling capability. Destiny is limited by experience levels, which means she has to climb through the ratings to keep increasing MTOW aircraft limits. Since it was a new plane, I went ahead and did the type rating checkride too…
Fresh out of the MAX Factory…she’s not much to look at, but will serve Destiny well on her routes…
The CASA 212 “Aviocar” by afnavarro is a freeware aircraft…with no 3D cockpit…so it is pretty bare bones - only a 2D cockpit (remember those??)…
She handles nicely…very, very stable and easy to fly. After five minutes of airwork it was time to head back to the airport…
I feel bad for the guy with the red truck. He has been working on that thing for about a year now!
That brings my “type” ratings up to nine aircraft now…
Now it is Destiny’s turn…
MAC is looking good right now with $8.2M in the bank and manageable overhead. I’ll be on a commodity schedule for a bit while Destiny plies the cargo routes to build more experience. We have already started assembling parts for our next MAX Factory build…!
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Out of Salt Lake City up to Billings, Montana with a commodity load…about an hour flight or so up there…
Picking up the departure out of SLC to an altitude where we can turn on our flightplanned course…
On the way to the RNAV arrival into Billings…which leads into the ILS 10R…
Looks like a Tour de France climb…!
Getting ready to make the big left turn to intercept the LOC…leveling at 6K where we will start to get slowed down…
On with a “smooth” landing rating (I’m starting to get the feel for it!). 60,000 lbs. or so of poultry delivered (got BBQ sauce?)…
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Headed from Billings, Montana to Chicago Midway…ugh…not a leg I really wanted to fly. Billings was a bad stop…limited commodities, and the prices within 1000 miles for outbound commodities are horrible (and limited quantities). After searching the map far and wide, I finally managed to put together a load of around 40,000 lbs. that would make me a little money…but all the way to Midway. Yuck.
Then there is the problem of getting OUT of Midway (short runways) with an MD-80…
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On the wings of M.A.D. again
This is definitely helicopters (only) friendly strip
Looking for my destination strip
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Dropped into Midway last week…definitely Southwest Airlines stomping grounds. Short runway…so care had to be taken…
Departing this morning. With the short runway I elected to use Flaps 15 and reduced my cargo by 25,000 lbs…giving up some profit, but trying to find a WAGd weight that would allow for a safe departure from runway 22L. You can tell we are in some of the busiest airspace in the country…
Midway departures were using 22L and arrivals were using 31C, so I had to keep my eye out on the final approach to the crossing runway and pick a gap to depart through…
The weight and flap combo worked out…
This was a low altitude sprint up to Milwaukee (KMKE)…crossing over Chicago O’Hare…
On final into KMKE…
Things are still looking good for MAC - owning the airplanes is a big cost savings. Will be returning to the Pacific Northwest after we build a couple more planes.
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