Touring Handcrafted Airports - Standard Edition

I must first confess I have been flying where I ought not and when I ought not. Today I made the trek to Lukla in the Bonanza. Right plane, wrong day. In my defense, I was not alone.

On the way back to Khatmandu it started to clear up but not enough. I did some cloud dodging.

I was so happy to leave Khatmandu for Paro (VQPR) only to find that that was just as treacherous an approach as Lukla in zero visibility. I made it down just short of the runway.

After some harrowing flights in Nepal I was so glad to leave the bad weather behind.

On my way to Sydney, Australia (YSSY) . Via VVTS, WAAA, YBAS. So I likely won’t make it to Sydney until Friday.

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Nice trip, don’t you have to go to work or something :wink: just kidding.
Which gps tracking tool are you using?
And how do I take screenshots?

Thanks :slight_smile:

There is always work in the cockpit…
Not sure what you mean by GPS tracking tool, but I use the FMC and the VFR map provided in MSFS. No external tools right now, except for NaviGraph for charts.

I use the Xbox App for screenshots. It overlays nicely and is quick. I have an XBox like controller that handles that.

Thanks for the answer. I meant the flight tracking software which is connected to the Sim.

Ah. I use OnAir Company for my flights. Gives me a destination and reason to fly when I am not doing a WT. Its a virtual charter company MMO.

Forgot to post these yesterday. Taken on my way to VVTS. Beautiful evening approach.

Today I made it to Indonesia (WAAA) after an unscheduled stop in Brunei (WBSB). No screenshots, for some reason my USB is acting up and I had to disconnect my XBox controller. I also was testing out my Saitek switch panel and multi panel for the first time hoping the patch would let them work.

Still not there. I gotta test it out some more.

I made it to Australia (YBAS) last night. It was my first full night flight. Pictures are too dark to post. But starlit sky was pristine.

Worked out some kinks in my rig, so it should be smoother sailing, or rather flying, going forward.

Had an uneventful flight from Alice Springs (YBAS) to Sydney (YSSY). The scenery is more varied down under than I expected.

Sydney (YSSY) is a massive airport. I didn’t know where to start with taking shots of it. I liked the touch of the cars on the roof parking lots.

Next stop was New Zealand (NZQN).

Leaving Sydney (YSSY).

If was zero visiblity below for most of the cruise and descent until I got close to the New Zealand coastline. Finally something to look at.

The airport was not spectacular, but I know why this one was chosen to be handcrafted. The approach is fabulous coming through the mountains. Don’t have many pictures of the full approach because I had to aviate, navigate, communicate then picture take. :grin:

Today I hope to make it back to Australia (YBSG) via Brisbane (YBBN). Here are the pics from NZQN-YBBN.

Leaving Queenstown was cloudy, not what you want to see when the first part of the departure is a visual 360 degree turn.

Nothing but clouds between New Zealand and Australia.

Finally some land shows itself as I make it to the Australian coastline.

The weather still looks a bit icky though. At least that is what the radar says.

Final rwy 19L at YBBN.

Notice the outlines at the gates. I heard some invisible laser zapped the planes into nothing right on the spot.

Made it to Northern Australia.

Leaving Brisbane (YBBN).

Observing the crew as they go along the coast.

Drone wing man on final approach.

Yes. You have observed correctly. I landed in Weipa City (YBWP) instead of Scherger (YBSG).
I found out YBSG did not have in IAP and YBWP did have fuel after all. So I opted for the more controlled approach.

Leaving Weipa City (YBWP). Things look pretty good.

Getting to Mozes Kilangin (WAYY) not so pretty.

Why is it every time it’s time to take the G6 out for a spin the weather doesn’t cooperate?

On my way to WX53 Bugalaga field.

I left WAYY hoping that maybe the weather would get better at Bugalaga.

But after circling Bugala twice it was clear there was no way to make a safe landing.

I headed back to WAYY and chose the ILS approach. The weather had deteriorated.

Guess I will have to hang around here until the weather clears up.

It’s a non starter getting to Bugalaga (WX53) today.

I checked the forecast for next week too and it doesn’t look good. The time difference is the issue for me. Mid-day their time the weather seems to clear up a bit, but then that is midnight my time. I gotta do some planning to see if I can hit that sweet spot window to get in and out of there during my day time.

I made an attempt hoping the weather may have cleared up. The ceiling went up to about 6000ft at WAYY so I decided to give it go. I was happy when I came through the clouds close to Bugalaga (WX53), but helas right over the valley where the field is at (over the right wing) was still completely obscured.

So I had to head back to WAYY. It looks a bit worst than it looked but not good enough for a successful landing at Bugalaga.

Joy of joys!! The weather cleared up and I was able to make a meaningful landing attempt into Bugalaga (WX53).

What a harrowing approach. It took me awhile to get her down.

But I finally did get 'er down. I couldn’t make it up the hill though. I cut power to soon.


I made it out safely from Bugalaga back to WAYY. Now I am off to Guam (PGUM) in the CJ4.

Getting into Guam (PGUM) was cloudy.

It was a quick turn around. Fuel up, enter the new FP and off to the next handcrafted airport Tokyo International (RJTT)

Well, brace yourself for this report. Lots of pics.

First off the clouds are so fluffy. If only I could get out there and lay on them.

I was trying to beat the sunset at the same time I wanted to linger and catch the views it offers.

The radar said it was not pretty but the the views were spectacular on the approach.

After that it got interesting. No one told me there is an off ramp on 34L. What!!?? Would not have expected that at any airport, much less a handcrafted one!

After that shocker I proceeded to my parking spot. Only to find that cars fly in Japan. Now that was a pretty well kept secret.

After shutting down, I decided to tour the airport as I normally do at the handcrafted ones. Really impressive…

Until I found the tunnel where the cars go under…CORRECTION…go over the taxiway! That is how cars fly in Japan they use tunnel ramps.

While I was touring another brave soul decided to land at 34R. What a surprise he had when he learned there are off ramps there too.

All and all it is a nice airport, but some of the blunders here are a bit unforgivable for a handcrafted airport. This was the most egregious one yet. Glad I didn’t shell out more for Deluxe or Premium Deluxe.

My next handcrafted airport destination is back on the North American continent, Nanwalek(KEB). It will also require that I rent out another Bonanza G36 to make it there. Looking forward to this one.

Do you have a job?