Aussie Group Flights Team: Golden Oldie - NAV Exercise: Gladstone to Sunshine Coast

[CinnamonInk8010]

Welcome to another NAV VFR event, where we fly from Gladstone down to Sunshine Coast airport. In this event we will use the actual VFR maps that pilots use to navigate along the route.

Feel like a challenge? Hop in your C152 with no autopilot and let’s see if we can navigate our way to each of the points along the route by maintaining the heading, timing our leg and checking visual references to determine our location.

Details to follow. Hope you can join us.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS INFORMATION IS FOR FLIGHT SIMULATION USE ONLY.

Regards, Paul

[Ryanportugal700]

nice. waiting for more info

[CinnamonInk8010]

ATTENTION Aussie Flight Group Participants …

Group Flight: 2023-10-08T19:00:00Z

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

Route: YGLA(Gladstone) - YIVG(Iveragh) - YAWT(Agnes Walter) - QZBKR(Baffle Creek) - YBUD(Bundaburg) - YPAC(Pacific Haven) - YHBA(Hervey Bay) - YURR(Orchid Beach) - YRBB(Rainbow Beach) - YNSH(Noosa) - YBSU(Sunshine Coast).

What to look out for on the Charts.

Note the indication for Roads, Rivers, Railways, High Tension Power Lines, Airports and built up population areas.

Note: When determining your position on the chart, don’t rely on one point of reference to suggest your position. Where possible pick up to three visual references, if available, to determine your position.

Charts will be available in the Discord Channel for the event.

Altitude: The route can be flown up to 3,500’ to be clear of terrain.

Airport details:

Gladstone(YGLA)
Elev: 59’
RW 10/28 Asphalt

Agnes Water(YAWT)
Elev: 12’
RW 14/32 Grass

Bundaberg(YBUD)
Elev: 107’
RW 14/32 Bituminous
RW 07/25 Grass

Pacific Haven(YPAC)
Elev: 30’
RW 02/20 Asphalt

Hervey Bay(YHBA)
Elev: 60’
RW 11/29 Bituminous

Orchid Beach(YURR)
Elev: 52’
RW 12/30 Grass

Rainbow Beach(YRBB)
Elev: 49’
RW 15/33 Asphalt

Noosa(YNSH)
Elev: 3’
RW 11/29 Grass

Sunshine Coast(YBSU)
Elev: 15’
RW 13/31

Suggest an aircraft like the C152 with no autopilot or GPS equipment. Also, the C152 performance will support the times below.

Take off from YGLA(Gladstone)
Track 132 deg to Iveragh(YIVG) 15nm 9mins
Track 097 deg to Agnes Water(YAWT) 29nm 17.25mins
Touch and Go at Agnes Water(YAWT)
Track 156 deg to Baffle Creek(OZBKR) 19.2nm 11.5mins
Track 131 deg to Bundaburg(YBUD) 30nm 18mins
Full Stop Landing at Bundaburg(YBUD)
Take off from Bundaburg(YBUD)
Track 138 deg to Pacific Haven(YPAC) 23nm 13.75mins
Track 094 deg to Hervey Bay(YHBA) 18.9nm 11.25mins
Touch and Go at Hervey Bay(YHBA)
Track 037 deg to Orchid Beach(YURR) 32nm 19.25mins
Touch and Go at Orchid Beach(YURR)
Track 183 deg to Rainbow Beach(YRBB) 55nm 33mins
Track 169 deg to Noosa(YNSH) 34nm 20.25mins
Track 161 deg to Sunshine Coast(YBSU) 10.8nm 6.5mins
Full Stop Landing at Sunshine Coast(YBSU)

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 South East Asia.

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

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

Turning off Crash/Damage:

Select Options/Assistance
Expand Failure & Damage
Disable Crash Damage
Disable Aircraft Stress Damage
Disable Engine Stress Damage
Accept the changes

Voice Room: My personal Discord server is used for voice comms. If you haven’t already joined my server, click on the below link to request access.

Link to join the Voice Room: Aussie Group Flights Team - On-line Flying

Note: this link is only valid for 7 days from posting.

Weather/Time: We will set the time to 8am. This will allow us to fly in daylight and choose CLEAR Weather, so can enjoy the scenery, if the REAL weather is poor:

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 Clear Weather and move the time slide bar to show 8:00am. 
Click Close and Fly from the World Map view.

We can start departing from 20:00z. 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.

Turning on Points of Interest

Select Options/Assistance
Expand POI
Set Landmark Markers to ON
Set City Markers to ON
Set Airport Markers to ON
Accept the changes

Turning on Name Tags (This will assist you in following the group if you get disoriented):

Select Options/GeneralTraffic
Set Show Traffic Nameplates to On
Accept the settings

Still confused, check out the multiplayer video tutorial from SimHangar Flight Simulation: MSFS | MULTIPLAYER | How To Guide | Everything You Need To Know | Fly in events coming soon. - YouTube

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

Regards, Paul

[CinnamonInk8010]

Use CLEAR OFF checks …

A common check throughout the flight that pilots use are the CLEAR OFF checks.

C ompass/Heading
L ogs updated
E ngine instruments, Oil temps and pressure
A ltitude
R adios

O rientation (do you know where you are? can you confirm your position using multiple references?
F uel and tank selection
F orced landing locations

These are typically done after TOC, every 10 minutes, at waypoints and at TOD.

In the Sim, you can press the D key to realign the Direction Indicator to the Magnetic Compass.

[CinnamonInk8010]

NOTE: EXAMPLE ONLY …

Below is a sample of the Flight Card information for Flight Plan and Fuel. There is also a Weight and Balance sheet based on the typical empty weight of a C152 and how we are loading it.

I just want to give you time to absorb the detail so it isn’t too confusing at the event.

Plan

The first column shows the waypoints as shown on the VFR Maps.
LSALT: This is the Lowest Safe Altitude. Which involves reviewing 10nm either side of Track and noting the highest elevations. Then finally adding 1,000’.

ALT: The planned cruising altitude based on observing the ODD +500’ for travelling East and EVEN+500’ for travelling West.

TAS: This is the True Airspeed for the C152

TRK: This is the direct track to the next waypoint.

WIND: This is the reported wind for the area of the waypoint, reported in Direction and Speed.

HDG: This is the adjusted heading to track, based on the reported winds. THIS IS THE HEADING YOU FOLLOW FOR THE EVENT.

GS: This is the calculated Ground Speed, based on the reported winds.

DIST: This is the distance to the next waypoint.

ETI: This is the time to the next waypoint, based on the calculated ground speed. THIS IS WHAT YOU USE TO TIME WITH THE STOP WATCH.

EET: This is the elapsed time during the route to each of the waypoint.

ETA: This is the Estimated Time based on when we planned to take off.

FR: This is the remaining fuel based on a starting amount of 90 ltrs (see the fuel sheet for details of usage along the route).

90: This is the fuel figure at the start of our flight - 90 lts. The amount of fuel at our landing airport is also listed for reference.

REV: This allows us to enter revised fuel figures along the route.

ATA: This is the Actual Time you record when reaching the waypoint. Example if we took off at 0900z and it took you 19 minutes to get to the first waypoint, you would enter 0919.

These are the only fields that are important for the event.

I will issue the Flight Card, with all this information once I get up to date weather just prior to the event.

[CinnamonInk8010]

Weight and Balance information (assuming certain loadings).

Please ensure you select the Asobo C152 and load the plane as per the below picture:

[CinnamonInk8010]

We are navigating with Dead Reckoning, so you will need a stopwatch to time your legs. If you don’t have one handy, MSFS provides one for you.

From the floating menu, select the NavLog option.

This provides a handy stopwatch for timing your legs.

[CinnamonInk8010]

IMPORTANT: Prior to the flight, I will provide a sheet with the navigation information on it based on the weather available. I will provide it roughly one hour before the flight, so it reflects the most accurate weather.

Refer to the explanation of the sheet (above). It will only work if:

You use the C152
You load the aircraft as directed both PAX, Cargo and Fuel
You use real world weather

IMPORTANT: To access the Nav Charts, you need to connect to the Discord Server and access the charts via the Golden Oldie event Channel.

Again, the Discord Server link is: Aussie Group Flights Team - On-line Flying

Look forward to joining you for the flight.

[CinnamonInk8010]

For those that don’t want to use Navigation by Dead Reckoning, the following flight plans have been provided …

Little NavMap: VFR Gladstone (YGLA) to Sunshine Coast Airport (YBSU).lnmpln (3.0 KB)

MSFS: VFR Gladstone (YGLA) to Sunshine Coast Airport (YBSU).pln (4.0 KB)

[CinnamonInk8010]

Event reminder … You will be able to pick up your weather via the Discord Channel.