Aussie Group Flights Team – Focus on QLD – Whitsunday Islands Hop

CinnamonInk8010 · September 19, 2020, 8:50am

This scenic adventure sees us taking off from Mackay (YBMK) off the coast of Queensland and overflying a number of islands, some with airports such as Linderman Island (YLIN) and Hamilton Island (YBHM), then flying back to the mainland at Shute Harbour (YSHR) and Hideaway Bay (YHAB) before landing at Bowen (YBWN).

Details to follow. All welcome, hope you can join us.

Regards, Paul

CinnamonInk8010 · September 19, 2020, 11:43am

ATTENTION Aussie Flight Group Participants …

Group Flight: 2020-09-25T10:00:00Z

PLEASE DO NOT SPAWN ON THE RUNWAY. ENSURE YOU SELECT THE STARTING POSITION ON THE RAMP.

Route: YBMK (Mackay) – YKSI (Keswick Island) – YBPI (Brampton Island) – GOI (Goldsmith Island) – YLIN (Lindeman Island) – YBHM (Hamilton Island) – YSHR (Shute Harbour) – YHAB (Hideaway Bay) – YBWN (Bowen).

Charts will be provided to assist locating VFR waypoints and recognising surrounding features.

Take off from Mackay
Track 032 deg to Keswick Island (20nm)
Touch and Go at Keswick Island
Track 300 deg to Brampton Island (11nm)
Track 309 deg to Goldsmith Island (10nm)
Track 327 deg to Lindeman Island (15nm)
Touch and Go at Lindeman Island
Track 311 deg to Hamilton Island (8nm)
Full Stop landing at Hamilton Island
Take off from Hamilton Island
Track 285 deg to Shute Harbour (12nm)
Touch and Go at Shute Harbour
Track 292 deg to Hideaway Bay (20nm)
Track 283 deg to Bowan (14nm)
Full Stop landing at Bowan

Altitude: The route can be flown at 2,500’ but you can vary the altitude to suite the terrain.

Airport details:

Mackay (YBMK)
Elev: 19’
RW 14/32

Hamilton Island (YBHM)
Elev: 15’
RW 14/32

Shute Harbour (YSHR)
Elev: 40’
RW 14/32

Bowan (YBWN)
Elev: 26’
RW 04/22
RW 12/30

Aircraft: Select any GA aircraft for the event.
IMPORTANT: In the interest of keeping it REAL, please refrain from selecting inappropriate aircraft, like airliners. This only detracts from the immersion of the flight.

Seeing Aircraft Correctly: You need to do two things to ensure you can see the other pilots in the event and see them in the aircraft they selected.

Select the same server: To do this, proceed as follows:

From the Welcome Screen, click on your Username (top right)
From the list of servers, under Servers, select WEST USA

Turn off Generic Planes: To do this, proceed as follows:

From the Welcome Screen, click on OPTIONS
Click on GENERAL
With GRAPHICS selected, scroll down to the last option and set USE GENERIC PLANE MODELS to OFF

Voice Room: Discord for Official MSFS Community: Event #1 or Event #2 are the voice rooms available to us. I need to see which is available on the day and reserve it. I will be in the room and get it authorised for our use. Just look for my Userid: VHFIB to determine which room to enter.

Note: if you are new to the Discord Server for MS FS, you will need to “react” to get access to the voice rooms.

To “react”, once in the Discord for Official MS FS, click on the Important - Info option and at the very bottom, click on the button (last item at the bottom of the screen) to react and provide access. Note: clicking on the button accepts the conditions etc., which you can read via the available links.

Weather/Time: We will set the time 12hrs prior, i.e., 8am. This will allow us to fly in daylight and choose Live Weather, so you get the current weather:

From the World Map view, click on Flight Conditions (upper right of screen)
Click on All Players, Live Traffic, Custom
Under Weather and Time, select Live Weather and move the time slide bar to show 8:00am or say 7:45am if you arrive at 7:45pm (12hrs prior to current time).
Click Close and Fly from the World Map view.

We can start departing from 8pm. There will be no need for official radio calls. Lets just have some fun taking in the scenery and the social aspects of the event.

Multiplayer Map: Currently, the VFR map won’t show Live players, so if you get lost, it’s difficult to find where the other flyers are. The free multiplayer map, will show the other players (that are using the map) and allow you to see their heading, speed, altitude and callsign. But it will only show those using the map. The below map tool is excellent but only as good as the volume of people using it.

Not mandatory but if you would like to use this map, see the below for details:

Link to moving map: https://events.flighttracker.tech/ 12 13 23 17 22

Once viewing the map, click on Join to download the client that connects MSFS for tracking your flights. Note the .NET Core Windows Runtime requirement that needs installing also.

Let me know if there’s anything else that I’ve missed that you need to know.

Regards, Paul

CinnamonInk8010 · September 19, 2020, 11:49am

Flightplan file to support the event …
YBMKYBWM.PLN (4.0 KB)

CinnamonInk8010 · September 19, 2020, 10:47pm

ATTENTION - Please read:

I’m pleased to see the events attracting so many participants of all ages. It is great to also see the younger pilots joining in and having some fun.

It needs to be said though, that we all need to be mindful of keeping to spirit of the event and not “skylarking” to the point where others are affected detrimentally. If this continues, we may loose some pilots that previously enjoyed this type of event.

For those that want to go crazy in the sky, I’m sure there are other events that provide more latitude.

Again, thanks for your support of the events. As long as you guys want this type of event, I’m happy to organize it.

All the best, Paul