That’s why we need Alaska in a WU a.s.a.p.
Karl
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Well I landed ok but… I had some serious issues, 1st the weather was terrible, does Alaska ever get good weather?
I had to clear to the weather in the end, The plane would not lock to the ILS, I had it in approach, VLOC on the gps it would not pick up the ILS, the Bendix had had me at 8NM out but it wouldnt pick it up, I dont know if it is me or the sim, I never have these issues in X-Plane I am not comparing sims, I am just saying I dont get these issues, Im starting to get fed up of the terror of weather, If I cant see the runway from 10NM out I dont trust the sim will work correctly.
Did you download the update today?
Karl
Yes, and I have noticed that the wheel chocks do not disappear and it might just be me, but I feel like its kind of of worse?
Are you still flying on that long haul?
I’m getting my landings under control a bit now. On the last one I pulled the power back too much too early… it’s that darn Airbus messing with my brain… there’s no recovering from that one. Bouncing over the runway after I slammed into it. But we made it!
In this last landing I also finally realized Jim doesn’t touch the flaps anymore after setting them to 20. So it was my first one where the plane was properly configured. Which also explains why my previous landings all came in like a rocket.
Maybe you’re right and we should all hate Jim…
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I was in the same area as you, I did PAJN - PACD yesterday and I’m now in a 12hr flight to Japan from Cold Bay. Same livery of course.
The weather in Alaska was… bad… very bad.
So far the ILS has worked always for me in the DC6 but I don’t use the GPS so I’m not sure if I can be of help. I think that if you tune the ILS freq and put the Gyropilot in Approach mode it should work, that’s what I do without using the GPS and never had an issue.
What I have noticed is that there was no DME signal from some ILSs in Alaska, I got correct lateral and vertical guidance but the DME was marking 0.0.
And this is not a plane designed to go-around.
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Yes 6 hours of flight I just switched from the alt tanks to main leaving about 300lbs in each of the alt tanks as a last-resource reserve. Considering I switched tanks at the 6hr mark and the plane is lighter as fuel is consumed I believe I might reach Japan after all.
I did exactly what you did a couple of times, cut the power too early on approach and hit the runway hard. This plane needs to be landed in a very particular way, just fly lower and slower until you touch the runway…
I’m thinking how I will feel in the A320 after all this DC6 flights…
Many thanks, I will try your suggestions. I am still not confident enough yet to navigate without the GPS.
What do you do when you really cant see the runway, and like in Alaska there is no real Alt?
That’s a good question to ask. Maybe Randazzo can comment back with his DC-3 experience.
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I have no experience in Alaska but I know in Greenland with a similar weather if things are “white” they just return to the base airport. Air Greenland has the highest go-around rate in the world.
It is assumed that if conditions in the base airport are not “acceptable” then you just don’t takeoff, not because you can’t actually takeoff but because you may not be able to return if needed. So you only take off if you can land back.
Having plenty of fuel is paramount, I think the DC6 actually flies a tad better if not too light and also you have enough to return or to fly around until conditions improve.
A typical bad day in Greenland goes like this: take off, flight to destination, cancel approach if no visibility, fly a hold, try again, another hold, another try and repeat until your fuel is on the limit to return. Then if you had no luck you return to base and land safely there.
I think -conjecture- in Alaska Anchorage is always your salvation, even if weather is bad you have the ILS and the controllers can help with a surveillance approach if needed.
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Yes that would be a great question for someone with experience!
The DC3 I think is different I think it is more versatile in terms of landing “anywhere” there are many DC3s operating in Colombia, and they have their share of failures but pilots just find some clear area and land there. I don’t think you can do that in a DC6…
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See in X-Plane I would just capture the ILS and fly it down, now I am not saying you cant do this in MSFS or it does not work, because it was working for me, but for some reason I dont know, the DC6 is just hating the ILS. Maybe it was the airport ILS, maybe the PMS-550 Add-on or its just me… But it is annoying.
Many thanks for your help and insight, its truly helpful.
I am doing another shorter flight, to test things
I am going to try to capture the ILS at EGMD and see how that goes. I will get there LOL
As someone who has had a lot of opportunity to be on flights around Alaska, I can say that the state is very much a VFR flight state. While there are a lot of well developed runways and there are some that have ILS guidance, it is usually best to check the weather. Fortunately, there is also a lot of tools to help out. I typically like to look at the FAA Weather Cam website prior to making a plan as that can at least give me an idea of what I’m getting into.
Once I get a bit more proficient with the DC-6, I’m thinking of trying to plan out the Alaskan Milk Run from Seattle to Anchorage. Would also be interesting to fly PAFA (Fairbanks) to PAKP (Anaktuvuk Pass).
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Many thanks, this looks like a good resource.
I don’t think that ATC knows what kind of aircraft one is using. In addition, the service ceiling is dependent on several things. How would ATC know the service ceiling?
The cruising altitude in the flight plan establishes the maximum altitude for ATC instructions. Use a cruising altitude of 38,000 ft and ATC will tell the DC-6 to climb to 38,000 ft. Conversely using 8,000 ft as the cruising altitude in the flight plan sets 8,000 ft as the maximum altitude for ATC instructions even if the aircraft can fly higher. BTW, ATC uses any SID or STAR waypoint altitude restrictions put into a flight plan. But if these aren’t in the flight plan ATC probably will give random climb and descend instructions.
Of course they know. It’s all in the cfg files. Then again… it’s still the Asobo ATC… so maybe they don’t know and they’re just gorging on pizza the whole day in that control tower.
12000 was in the flight plan as cruising altitude. That’s the whole complaint: ATC does not stick to what you told them you want.
The certified ceiling is in the config files. In this case 25000. I didn’t test it but I assume after reaching the 20000, they would have sent me to 25000.
DC-6 Aircraft.cfg:
ui_certified_ceiling=25000
They know… they just don’t care.
I understand your frustration for sure, but let me shed some light if I have this right.
The field you mention (ui_certified_ceiling=25000) merely displays 25000 in the A/C description in the FS menu (hence the ui field nomenclature).
Meanwhile, the ATC will stick to your chosen flight plan cruise altitude, BUT it will ask you to climb higher if the arrival route has an altitude constraint higher than that level (which most do since the arrival routes are geared for turbojet mainly - you can read the STAR info to see this on each STAR chart). I ran into this trying to use STARs on GA A/C (no bueno).
For the DC-6, you can either a) ignore the instruction from ATC to climb until you hit a lower constraint; b) make sure the flight plan altitude profile shows your top level at your desired cruise BEFORE flying; or c) don’t use STARs when flying the DC-6.
At least from my experience…
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Well, who’s to say what variables Asobo uses in determining what’s flying out there? This was just one I could find quickly. And they better have some way, cause it might be, well, let’s say ‘important’, if they want ATC in future to behave less like the sack of beans they act now. I have no way of yelling back at them that ‘no my DC-6 cannot go to 39000 feet’. So they should know.
But you do raise an interesting point about the star. I didn’t realize that. Thanks. I will keep that in mind and see if I can just end the flight plan close by and only later on program the approach (I’m mainly using the GPS). See if that helps and if they let me cruise in peace at my chosen altitude 
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After 13hrs and 50 minutes of flight we landed in Hachijojima (RJTH). Route was PACD-RJTH without GPS, mostly via dead-reckoning and some helpful VORs in Japan.
The AFE was never used and that kept me well entertained
Speed was slow, simbrief estimated 12hrs 45minutes, maybe because of wind, maybe because of how I flew it.
I had 1500lbs of fuel left when I landed. So fuel consumption was also way above what Simbrief estimated. Again this might have been because of how I flew it. Anyway what I got was more than enough for a go-around in case it was needed so not really a fuel emergency.
As fuel was quite critical it was entertaining to go from mains to alt after takeoff, then to mains again, then to alts to burn what was left and finally to mains. I followed the POH and not the videos for fuel-tank management, just switch the receiving tank pump to low, shift, and turn off the pump. Worked perfectly.
Eeach engine is slightly different so I also had to do some fuel balancing using the crossfeeds. Using crossfeeds is quite easy, for example if I have more fuel on tanks 3 & 4 than 1 & 2 I just shift both crossfeeds to the “All” position, and shut down tanks 1 & 2. Once fuel is balanced tanks 1&2 can be opened again and the crossfeed returned to the default tank-to-engine position.
Most of the flight was uneventful, a Vatsim supervisor chimed in at some point to check if there was a human behind that DC6 that was flying for 12 hours. No one wants a derelict DC6 flying towards Tokio, big nono.
Then I got a storm near my destination, coming from Alaska I didn’t care.
But the main point is if I could do it then anyone can, the DC6 can fly 14 hours!
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