Official 2019 Mudspike Christmas Flight - AAR thread

Aginor · December 7, 2019, 5:52pm

Leg three is in the books for me, USDD (Salakhard) to UOHH (Khatanga).

This time starting early.

Thanks a lot!

On my way. I didn’t fly with real weather this time, because I wanted to see the ground. That was depressing about my last few legs.

Nice lakes and rivers up here.

There’s… a carrier down there? Uhhm… Ok…

Another one bites the dust. Man that AI sucks.

Descending. These planes are really aerodynamic (who would have thought?!). I have to get used to using spoilers. Very easy to overspeed, even during a not very steep descent with engines in idle.

Ok, the airport is… somewhere over there next to the big river (The name Khatanga means “large water” in the local Evenki language btw. It fits.)

Some traffic ahead and the ATC completely loses it, sends me on an annoying detour.

What the!?! Where did that guy come from?

For some reason the ATC commands us to fly formation, half a mile abreast…

…aaand I get vectored away again…

I ran out of patience with the AI and deactivated all AI planes. That finally got me on final.

A bit high. again.

A pretty uneven runway.

Reversers engaged!

And that’s it for today. Two hours of flight and one hour of dealing with the abysmal ATC. Probably going to fly without AI traffic next time. Also helps with frame rate.
At least my plane looks (and flies) great.

PaulRix · December 8, 2019, 2:10am

Back from a week of school and it is time to press on. As I mentioned last week, I don’t think I can dedicate the time to get to Adak Island before the deadline if I continue in the Chipmunk, and so it is time to try something faster…

Just like a Chipmunk… on steroids. The FlyingIron P47 (picked up in the recent sale)… The nose art screamed Christmas Trek to me, so please say hi to “Dollie Mae”.

She’s a handful while taxiing unlike the docile Chippy.

Climbing away from Juneau, turning out to depart downwind… I probably should think about closing that canopy as it is only going to get colder .

Popping out above the cloud layer… X-Enviro is doing a pretty nice job at this angle.

Some cloud img the valleys as we head North West.

Approaching Mt St Elias…

This late mark P47 looks very different from the early models…

Starting the descent into Anchorage.

Low over the city of Anchorage…

The canopy iced up a bit during the descent…

Base turn…

Touchdown… A 747 freighter taxiing in after landing shortly before I did.

I zig-zagged to the FBO… did I mention that this airplane is a handful on the ground.

Parked up and shut down…

Bonus shot…

wheelsup_cavu · December 8, 2019, 2:51am

cool screenshots.

Summary

It is actually Dottie Mae.
hqdefault

It is based at Chino airport now.

Wheels

PaulRix · December 8, 2019, 3:38am

LOL, I guess I should learn to read!

Bearhedge · December 8, 2019, 5:09am

Nice screenshots - the cockpit glass icing is a cool detail!

Freak · December 8, 2019, 3:15pm

Leg 11 PABN Devils Mountain Lodge - PAGK Gulkana Airport
Dec 8th, 2019
Previous report | Next report

After a few days of watching Dall Sheep skulls and mountains, I wanted to get on with the trek. As there were only jobs for flights east into Canada, I decided to make a short hop over the mountains, into Gulkana Airport.

Looking back at the valley

This may seem steep, but after turning around and taking a run-up, I managed to crest the pass at ~8,000 feet.

For the longest part of the flight, I would be staring at the 16,000 feet high peak of Mount Sanford in the distance.

I had to fly around a little cloud upon arrival the sixth highest mountain in the United States, but then I could land on its side, at ~11,500 feet.

Beyond the mountain, the weather seemed worse than I had expected based on the METAR.
Now in real life, I would divert to the more northerly CZ0 field.

But here I pressed on.

And the weather got increasingly worse. I flew over the airport in thick overcast at 4,000 feet, not daring to descend. Then when I was a few miles out, having finally chosen a divert airport, the skies suddenly cleared.

I swear I didn’t do this. I had X-Plane set to real-world weather the whole time.

After landing, I taxied through the snow to the parking area, to show those tiny wheeled tricycle Cessna’s how a real Bush pilot operates, and then this happened when I tried to park…

Next report

Hangar200 · December 8, 2019, 4:33pm

…you got to wonder, how many guys busted the gunsight by using it as a handhold before they started labeling it that way…yeah…OK, maybe you don’t have to woads…but I do because I’ve got nothing better…so …

wheelsup_cavu · December 8, 2019, 5:04pm

Was trying to think when and why you would use it as a hand hold and imo the most likely time would be when you were entering and exiting the cockpit. Where it is located I can’t see any other time when that would be a large issue.

Wheels

schurem · December 8, 2019, 5:09pm

Or when trying to look at what’s behind you. You’d grab something in order to help twist around. The MiG-3 has a very handy bar in the cockpit for that.

jenrick · December 8, 2019, 5:38pm

It’s really very handily placed to help you get in and out of the cockpit. The few warbirds I’ve been lucky to sit in, I’ve had to make a conscious effort to not do that. A small grab bar right in front of it would have done wonders I imagine.

Hangar200 · December 9, 2019, 4:07pm

In the SH-3 Seaking, on the left (copilot) seat there is a lever on the left side of the seat to move the seat forward/backward. It happens to be right next to the lever to jettison the left side cockpit window.

In 19883 I was on my 3/c Midshipman training program and got to fly in an SH-3 out of NAS JAX. There were about 5 of us in the helo and we each rotated through the copilot’s seat for about 10 minutes of stick time. We had been warned by the USMC Gunnery Sargent in charge that a previous week a hapless Midn had somehow jettisoned the window and that we should not repeat the episode. (USMC Gunnery Sargents are really good at emphasizing points like that)

So I have my stick time (in fact the only stick time I’ve had in a real aircraft - it was awesome) and the pilot say’s it’s time to let the next guy have his turn. I reach down on my left side, grab an handle and then freeze…I look at what I’m grabbing…yep, its the window jettison handle …I quickly find the seat handle and move it back and carefully get out of the seat…whew, that was close…

Victork2 · December 10, 2019, 8:47am

Random question Will. But did they give you “full” control of the SH-3 I’ve never been on an actual helicopter lesson before despite being a ppl pilot on aeroplanes

I’m curious as to what they let you actually do? When I take people up and give them control of the plane I hardly ever let them touch the pedals because of secondary effects of controls and lack of understanding.

Did you just grab the stick and play around or actually properly fly the beast.

Sea kings rock. Awesome birds

Hangar200 · December 10, 2019, 3:38pm

First just the cyclic-a couple of easy turns. Then the pilot explained the collective. I did another turn and as I saw the VSI start to drop, pulled a bit of collective to maintain altitude before the pilot told me to. “…OK you got it. Good!”

At that point he explained the pedals and we did another turn or two. I learned “Step on the ball.”

Then he told me “Look out the window!” I thought we were about to hit something. He laughed and said, “Half the fun of flying is looking out the window.”

When not flying I assitting right across from the big-open-side door. It was awesome.

Victork2 · December 10, 2019, 3:59pm

That is seriously cool stuff. Thanks for explaining it. I’m extremely jealous mate.

I have spoken to some heli instructors over the years and I get the impression the collective make them very nervous!! Cool stuff thanks

Hangar200 · December 10, 2019, 5:00pm

We were in level flight, not too fast, not to slow and probably 2000 ft MSL over water, so I think plenty of room for “error”

Actually the collective was easy. It was the cyclic that took me a moment to get the hang of. He told me to move the stick “a little to the right. At the time I was used to driving my Dad’s 1964 Ford Galaxy 500 which had power steering with a lot of “play” in the wheel…and the SH-3 was even bigger than that Ford so I moved the stick what I thought was “a little bit” …about 4 to 5 inches… that Helo banked hard! The pilot got it and said something like, “Whoa. That was a lot. A little bit is a lot less than that.”

I tried it again and was fine.

PaulRix · December 11, 2019, 4:20am

Anchorage to Dutch Harbor/Unalaska…

Pretty uneventful leg, except for the landing .

Departing PANC…

Another hazy X-Enviro day.

But the clouds really look good (most of the time)…

Landed at Dutch Harbor after a couple of attempts. I can neither confirm or deny that the aircraft might have strayed onto the grass at the side of the runway and ground looped… pretty ugly, but evidently I didn’t damage anything except my ego… Here we are after getting a tow back to the ramp…

wheelsup_cavu · December 11, 2019, 5:59am

Lovely bird, both IRL and virtually.

Wheels

komemiute · December 11, 2019, 6:32am

What a magnificent plane…

PaulRix · December 11, 2019, 11:08pm

After my somewhat interesting landing at Unalaska, I decided to take something a little more docile for the next leg.

This is the X-Hangar DHC-4 Caribou…

X-Hangar aircraft fall into what I call the “Cheap and Cheerful” category. This is not Airfoil Labs or Just Flight territory but it has believable flight characteristics, and if you don’t start counting rivets on the 3D model, it actually looks quite nice IMHO.

The cockpit is 3D although fairly rudimentary.

And so, leaving the P47 in the Hangar, we head out on the next leg to Adak Island, about 400nm farther along the Aleutian Island chain.

I am soon above the cloud layer, and it is clear above…

The summit of Mount Makushin sticking up through the cloud layer. According to Wikipedia, this is Alaska’s most active volcano, it’s last eruption being in 1995.

Volcanoes are a dime a dozen in this part of the world… here we are looking back at the massive culdera of Mt Okmok found on the North East lobe of Umnak Island. The Culdera is about 6nm across.