Official 10th Annual Mudspike Christmas Flight 2024 - Discussion and AAR Thread

damson · October 3, 2024, 6:08pm

Always wanted to take part but never did for some reason. This time I’m in.

I divided my route into 9 legs and will fly them with real world time and weather in MSFS2020.
Here’s my route
EPPI → EPDA → ESMA → ESSP → ESSK → ESSN → ESUA → ESNQ → ENGF → ENSB

I noticed few guys flying from Central Europe took their path through the Norway fjords, so I opted for some flatter Sweden lakelands.

Leg 1 EPPI → EPDA (Piła, Poland - Darłowo, Poland):

For the first leg I’m taking the Robin. It’s not equppied with any fancy nav equipment, only NAV radio (no DME), but it should be enough - I’ll be flying directly to DAR VOR near my destination. The weather is a mixed bag - there are some bigger patches of clouds with base @2000ft with possible precipitation.

I’m starting cold and dark in a hangar. This airport is nowadays used only by general aviation, in the past it was used by military - Su-22 Fitters were stationed here.

Setting up COM and NAV (114.20 DAR VOR)

Exiting the hangar, nice weather here

This is curious, to taxi to the runway you actually need to cross the road that is actively used by car traffic - it’s like this in real life ( https://youtu.be/CTPIkb80zuI?si=XIYpRFBuLddCgtrq ).

Entering the active runway.

And off we go!

Heading north, we have some heavy weather ahead. I will drop down below the cloud base to keep out of the clouds.

After clearing the weather we’re overflying Borne Sulinowo - where after WW2 the Soviet military established one of the biggest military camps of the Northern Group of Forces. The town was excluded from Polish jurisdiction and erased from all maps, even though officially part of the People’s Republic of Poland. In official documents of the surrounding communes, the area of Borne Sulinowo and the surrounding 180 km² were called forest areas and remained a secret for almost 50 years.

Looks like another weather front

Not far now - we can see the Baltic Sea in the distance.

Eventhough the airstrip is small, it’s tower controlled as this is a military airbase mainly used by helicopters. Requesting landing.

Passing a wind turbine farm, the lcoation is good as it’s pretty windy with constant airflow from the sea.

Runway in sight

On finals, the wind is pretty strong as can be seen by the waves

Just before touchdown, I noticed a warning light lit up, but don’t understand french…

Safely back and vacated the active while the firetruck started making donuts on the runway, WTF?

After taking some lunch, I swapped the Robin for a Baron for a flight to Emmaboda (ESMA), though I will cover this leg in another post.

Deacon211 · October 3, 2024, 9:00pm

Wow! Great bunch of reports.

Torc · October 4, 2024, 6:57am

OK, so I’ve been away from this for a while because of a minor technical issue with my VR headset …

(The headset attaches where the holes in the plastic frame are at the left of the picture).

Fortunately, with some STLs people have shared online and a cheap replacement Vive headstrap, we’re back in business!!

The plan was originally to fly from Bintulu to Butterworth in Malaysia with a detour through Singapore, but the plan was again cut short due to time (IRL time today – I had to go pick the kids up from school ), so I ended up stopping in Kuala Lumpur (WMKK).

Starting up at Bintulu.

Departing Borneo – the clouds are going to be a feature of the flight today!

Since we’re flying a long overwater leg I’ve elected to island hop over the Indonesian Riau Islands. Our first landfall is over the city of Ranai.

Raden Sadjad Airport on the right, and the remarkable Natuna Grand Mosque complex to the left. Designed by Ir. Both Sudago (the title “Ir.” meaning Insinyur, or Engineer in Indonesian) and completed in 2007 it is a magnificent structure and I’ve added it to my travel bucket list, should I be able to make it out that way in the future!

Further to the west over the Riau Archipelago, starting to see some tall clouds building over the islands … the Real Weather in MSFS is really interesting!

Navigating with the Collins Pro Line 21 is easy once you program the FMS – you even get a calculated Top of Descent and VNAV pathing in the autopilot!

Descending under a solid overcast near Bandar Penawar

Spotted Changi Airport through the clouds …

The whole point of the detour through Singapore was to see Marina Bay, where the Formula One race was held a week and a bit ago … but the weather wasn’t playing!

Spotted the Singapore Flyer ferris wheel (ahead of the right wingtip), which means the Flower Dome is just underneath the aeroplane…

Let’s get out of this weather!

Back in sunny Malaysia, overflying the city of Muar which is the royal city of the Sultanate of Johor. Although Malaysia is a federated constitutional monarchy, I understand that the states of Malaysia are still constitutionally headed by a Sultan – a hereditary title. Still, the Sultans form a Conference of Rulers to elect the federal monarch (“Yang di-Pertuan Agong”), who is the head of state of Malaysia. An interestingly different way to do it, at least to a person who comes from a place where our head-of-state is chosen by our head-of-government, assuming the head-of-state of another country (!!) agrees…

Almost time to pick up the kids, so a call to KL international gets us cleared to join left downwind for runway 14L.

On descent … well above VMO but it’s not too bumpy here and I’m pressed for time!

On final for 14L - another tree lined airport, but a nice long runway!

Parked up with the big boys.

Only 750nm today … I’ll need to get a move on now after losing all that time to the broken headset! (Edit: I’ve updated the table with the correct distances for the legs flown in XMS, where I think I had SkyVector set for statute miles instead of nautical miles!)

damson · October 4, 2024, 7:58am

EPPI → EPDA → ESMA → ESSP → ESSK → ESSN → ESUA → ESNQ → ENGF → ENSB

Leg 2 - Darłowo, Poland → Emmaboda, Sweden

As noted previously, I switched the Robin for the Baron for several reasons:

We will be crossing Baltic Sea and 2 engines are better than one.
Baron has improved IFR capability with its G1000 suite, Robin didn’t even had DME
It’s getting dark

So, first orded of business is to get this thing off the ground from this really short runway.

While sitting on the brakes I applied full power, felt almost like on tension before a cat shot

Easy

After take off I turn north while passing Darłówko.

A coast aquapark with desalinated seawater is available there, the only one in Poland.

After some time during my ascent I noticed ice build up on the winshield. I quickly engaged anti-ice equipment to get rid of it ASAP.

Anti-ice was working until I broke the cloud layer.

Since there were no ground features to admire on this flight I focused on the atmospherics.

At 17000ft I levelled out and admired some more views outside.

Moments just before the sun went down.

Finally we can see land!

Passing Karlskrona to my right - host to Sweden’s largest naval base and the headquarters of the Swedish Coast Guard. In 1998 the naval base along with some parts of the city was declared the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The weather cleared nicely after passing the coast - I could admire the clear starry sky.

Passed Ronneby I’m heading north to my final destination. At this point I realized something - the runway at Emmaboda is paved but it might not have runway lighting (didn’t checked that). So my plan is to confirm that first, if there is no lighting I will try to land if ambient lighting permits (I also should have no problem locating the runway with synthetic view of the G1000) and if all fails I’m diverting back to Ronneby.

Runway located…

… but I’m not comfortable landing in those conditions, diverting.

Contacting Ronneby tower for clearence.

It even has ILS, dialing that in.

Turning to finals.

On gldieslope.

Safely on the ground.

They even have a marshaller here to help with the parking.

Another leg complete, maybe not as planned but at least we made it in one piece.

NEVO · October 4, 2024, 8:17am

noice! welcome on board

Deacon211 · October 4, 2024, 9:43am

Nice! I’ll see you at the bar!

Is that an add on Kingair? The avionics look less…default.

Torc · October 4, 2024, 9:48am

I’m buying

It’s the default King Air, but with Husk’s PL 21 mod.

Harry_Bumcrack · October 4, 2024, 9:52am

That is a stunning sequence of screenshots.

damson · October 4, 2024, 11:52am

Thanks! Today I had some time to do the 3rd leg.

EPPI → EPDA → ESDF → ESSP → ESSK → ESSN → ESUA → ESNQ → ENGF → ENSB

Leg 3: Ronneby, Sweden - Norrkoping, Sweden

I swapped the Baron for a Diamond DV20. It has GNS430 but I will mostly use its NAV radio (still no DME though, as in Robin).

The plan is to head north to the Hultsfred-Vimmerby Airport and then directly to VASSEN (VSN) VOR. From there we will head directly to our final destinatio on 39° outbound radial.

I’ve picked some eye-poking livery I never seen before.

In this clear weather I will be seen for miles in those colors

After startup I set up my NAV to VSN VOR.

After getting taxi clearence I hold short of the active (hold short line is a bit far from the runway interestingly on this airport). The wind is blowing along the centerline so the take off should be a breeze (no pun intended).

Since the runway is so long I opted for no flaps take off.

I switched the CDI to VLOC, so the HSI will display NAV info instead of data from GPS track.

On route - it’s mainly flat with forests and lakes.

Passing Emmaboda airport I was trying to get into yesterday evening (no runway lights!).

On the left Kosta AB.

I’ve noticed some label on the left wing, after closer inspection I think Asobo is having fun with this sim (or is this actual real-life livery?)

With still not raching half point of my flight I noticed that I already burnt 1/2 of my initial fuel load (50% of the tank), so I started contemplating on making unscheduled visit to the Hultsfred-Vimmerby Airport for a quick refuel.

Having bad experience with the default fuel estimation in MSFS2020 (with the arc shown on the planning map), I opted for a refuel. I already had to make dead-stick landing once in another Diamond

Approaching Hultsfred.

Overflying the runway to locate fuel box and determine wind strenght and direction (airport is uncontrolled and I’m not familiar with it).

Fuel box located

Since the wind is relatively calm, I’m doing 180°…

… to land and directly taxi to the apron with fuel.

I’m filling up to 50%, should be enough with extra reserve if weather breaks and we have to look for another spot to land.

After take off I head directly to VSN VOR

On my way further north the weather seems to be worsening…

… but when I rached the VOR it already cleard out. So I set 39° course outbound on HSI and proceeded on the last straight of my today’s journey.

With airport roughly in sight at 10nm I requested for landing.

Got cleared for visual at runway 27. Entered pattern at left downwind as instructed.

Entered ILS frequency into the NAV radio (109.50) but it wasn’t necessary with this great weather we had today.

Great view of the city of Norrköping at the far side of the airport.

Short final.

Passing some big boys on the way to GA parking area.

And another leg complete!

chipwich · October 4, 2024, 8:43pm

After a number of false starts, not the least of which I’m blaming on hurricane Helene, I finally got MUDSPIKE Christmas 2024 under way. Of the hurricane, I opted out of leaving last week when SkyVector popped up a warning that read something like, “WARNING, your airspeed is less than the winds aloft forecast, resulting in a negative ground speed.”

If you told me 18 months ago that I would be researching and considering putting an ultralight in our garage, I would have thought that you were playing with a deck that was short a few cards. But that was before a local 14 year old girl flew one 1000 miles from Charleston, SC to Oshkosh, WI last year for the annual EAA show, which surprised everyone except her and her CFI father. Then she followed that up by flying to Sun n Fun and repeating the Oshkosh trip this year.

Her aircraft of choice was a part 103 legal, Aerolite 103 ultralight. To commemorate Alina’s first flight to Oshkosh, I decided to leave from the same private strip in the same aircraft for the first leg of our journey.

Since flight planning predicted a ground speed a little over 45 kts, I decided to keep the first couple of legs short. A limitation of Part 103 is a max fuel capacity of 5 US gallons. With a published endurance of 1.5 - 2 hrs, we are obviously not talking a lot of range here. It’s all about getting those knees in the breeze. The Nemith Aerolite has a very optimistic fuel capacity of 13+ gallons. This must be with an unseen auxiliary tank, because even the manufacturer offers a non Part 103 version of the aircraft, it’s fuel tank is limited to a whopping 7 US gallons. In the spirit of this flight, I’d launch with 5.

Checking more specs on the real aircraft manufacturer’s web site shows the cruise speed to be 63 mph. However, Vne is 70 mph. This got me wondering if this is a structural limitation or a legal one. Not a lot of leeway for the novice aviator me thinks.

The weather looked promising this morning, so I decided to depart for Norway. Not a lot of flight planning this time around. I’ll pick destinations one or two legs in advance and bring my debit card and passport.

Off we go a few minutes before sunrise. Don’t forget the trusty headlamp

For a while I head SE towards the Isle of Palms and the Atlantic, then turned NE to more or less follow the Intracoastal Waterway. That’s the straight waterway off my left wing. The next island to the south is the Sullivan’s Island, where the opening salvos of the Civil War were fired. For those of you familiar with Charleston, the long causeway behind me is the Isle of Palms Connector.

Sunrise is a couple of minutes away.

If you are skeptical that Asabo/Microsoft made the sky too red, here is a photo that my mom took at sunset from her creek house at high tide a few days ago. We’ll be passing over this spot on the next leg.

Here we go lads. Why we fly…

I tinkered with the round GPS whatchamacallit gauge for bit, but decided that I probably need to RTFM. Edit: There is no manual

I took a short detour over McClellanville in search of my favorite seafood restaurant. But I quickly realized that the terrain wasn’t detailed enough and returned to course.

Approaching our destination of Georgetown, the Intracoastal veered away from our desired route for a short while. It was a lot prettier over the marshes and Lowcountry forests. But that fuel tank was not getting any fuller, so I aimed us toward the airport and we cut the corner to RWY 05.

We’d be happy with the proverbial Moon Pie and RC Cola, but there wasn’t much to see in the virtual version of Georgetown. We took solace in the fact that one leg was down and our journey had begun.

damson · October 4, 2024, 10:32pm

Very nice, I flew that ultra light in X-Plane 11 few years ago - it was a lot of fun. Regarding reddish sky, I’ve seen more red with my own eyes during early/late summer dawn/dusk with certain cloud setup in real life as well.

Torc · October 4, 2024, 11:08pm

The sunrise is almost dead on, in my experience too. Cameras don’t do red perfectly, due to how the sensor works, and to my eye Asobo have done a great job with the atmospherics!

Harry_Bumcrack · October 5, 2024, 5:20am

Awesome way to kick off the journey.

Harry_Bumcrack · October 5, 2024, 5:25am

Part 9 - I haven’t got choc-ices!

Next up. A leisurely (and I mean that) 1000 NM to visit an abandoned submarine base?

The yellow dot on the map

Leisurely because, I’m taking the slow boat to China Russia:

This will be a challenge. As far as I can tell, this version of the venerable HU-16 does not have any modern NavAids… well, nothing that will give me a magenta line to follow anyway.

But hey, Russia is a big country, kinda hard to miss

And without any further adieu. We are away.

For an aircraft that is at MTOW (including 9,000 lbs of fuel), it is surprisingly not sluggish.

My first waypoint - The VOR at Nakashibetsu (RJCN)

Sayonara Japan. I will be back for real one day.

2nd waypoint - Iturup (PTE)

Skyvector and LittleNavMap aren’t showing any more beacons between here and Mother Russia, but…

I love geography, there is a convenient chain of islands and a coastline I can follow that guides me to almost exactly where I want to go… Nice, I can VFR it from here.

Time to veer away from the coast, But I have a compass bearing and a fairly obvious inlet to aim for, and there it is.

Here we are at Bechevinka aka Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky-54.

It really does have that abandoned Soviet ghost town look about it… As in ‘nyet, there is no city here’.

Besides I didn’t want to get too close. You never know with places like this…

Radiation?

Mutants?

Zombies?

Irradiated Mutant Zombies?

So here are some real photos.

I’m probably not supposed to be here without a ‘tourist’ visa?

Meh! If the goons show up and call me on it, I’ll just say I’m lost (no modern NavAids remember). With this Coastguard livery, I’m sure they will believe me

Postscript:

Apart from the range of the Albatross and because I wanted to fly it at least once this year; I had to take this into Russia for much the same reason I ‘had to’ fly a Vulcan into China last year:

WKznJcJJ5grc

That’s just for you Eric… the posting of a gratuitous .gif, not the waving of private parts thing

Deacon211 · October 5, 2024, 9:07am

What a great way to start! Amazing report!

HavlokUK · October 5, 2024, 1:30pm

Is that the Albatross or the Mallard? I always had a soft spot for the Mallard - the epitome of ‘go anywhere low and slow.’

Harry_Bumcrack · October 5, 2024, 7:35pm

In keeping with the theme of ‘No choc-ices’ title for the post and the .gif at the end - It is the Albatross

damson · October 6, 2024, 8:59am

EPPI → EPDA → ESDF → ESSP → ESSK → ESSN → ESUA → ESNQ → ENGF → ENSB

Leg 4: Norrkoping, Sweden - Gavle, Sweden

I will make a small detour for some sightseeing over Stockholm - I’ve planed this route that will take us to TROSA VOR, over the city to ARLANDA VOR and finally to our destination.

For this flight I wanted to go old-school without any fancy GPS gear on board, but I couldn’t find any aircraft from the stock ones that had 2 NAV radios with analog DME (or am I blind?), so I opted for a classic - good old Cessna 152 which has 2 NAVs but doesn’t sport DMS, though with eye-poking livery as my signature trait.

With a flight plan ready I climb to this magnificent plane with clear skies for miles. Should be a pleasent flight.

While waiting for the engine to heat up, I enter the VOR frequencies to NAV radios.Right after take off I will track 235° radial at NAV1.

We’ve got clearence to take off from runway 27, so right after takeoff we will be looping back over Norrköping. Looking over the shoulder after take off - love the back visibility in the Cessna 152.

Leaving the city behind and heading north-east.

Passing Nyköping on the right with Stockholm Skavsta Airport on the left.

The city has some interesting snake-like pattern of its apartment buildings.

Approaching Vagnhärad where the TRS VOR station is located.

Overflying the VOR when crossing 10° inbound on NAV2, this is our cue to make a turn to 10° towards Arlanda VOR.

I notice curious repeating pattern of buildings in Vagnhärad while making the turn.

Approaching Södertälje - entering photogrammetry territory

From here I will be turning east to make a detour over Stockholm.

Series of shots taken over Stockholm.

Stockholm Globe Arena

Bromma Airport

Wide angled view of the city looking west.

You can see Tallink Silja Line (cruise ship port) at the bottom here.

I have to admit, MSFS2020 can look life-like at times, can’t wait to see what MSFS2024 brings.

Heading back on track to Arlanda. We also got some cumulus clouds above but we should be fine.

Some more beauty shots.

Arlanda ahead.

While I make my final turn to 327° i put into NAV1 frequency for BOR VOR with roughly 80° radial tuned in so by triangulation we will know we are in a place where we should see our final destination.

While passing Upssala I noticed it’s not present in MSFS2020, it has been replaced with those generic textures that are used in case the aerial photo was obscured with clouds etc.