A lot of the F15 3rd-party liveries show incompatible status, so I’m testing them out. Hope the creators get on the ball and update their status.
Ryukyu Retto flight, Yonaguni to Naha
6 Likes
Been practicing my Spitfire skills over Elmira NY I definitely need to work on my landings and Any time I’m in a historical aircraft I keep using Elmira NY because it has a really good small aviation museum I’d recommend checking out and the scenery around there is spectacular
2 Likes
did a super early morning Melbourne - Brisbane since we are having such wild weather, followed by Gibraltar to Le Palma in the Canary Islands. Was curious to see any volcanic activity and the island was indeed shrouded in a column of dark ‘cloud’, some lightning, nothing on WX radar. Low visibility landing, so came in a bit low, but a smooth touchdown!
Surprised to see a host of new tweaks in the FBW, including a Alternate Dest. and additional nav tools. I also note VNAV is coming soon!
Wow… for the first time these lights look as blinding as they should be. They had that xenon harsh flicker too! nice.
anti Gremlin device
NOTAM - VOLCANIC ERUPTION REPORTED IN VOLCANO LA PALMA (2834N 01749W)
VOLCANIC ASHCLOUD OBSERVED AT 1500 WI COORD
on final at 1500ft… yup, there it is (or a cloud anyway). The ‘cloud’ also appeared to have a column centered over the volcano. cool! - yes that would be below minimums without having sighted the rwy yet.
6 Likes
Made leg 9 of my global tour project from Juliaca, Peru (SPJL) on the west end of Lake Titicaca down to Santiago, Chile (SCEL) in the TBM 930. I’ve been working on maximizing fuel economy with the aircraft loaded with four people and cargo. The 1200 mile flight at FL031 stretched it out in good shape with about an hour to spare including an ATC requested missed approach.
Nice to have clear skies for a good look at the 12,500ft/3,800m-altitude lake while climbing out.
Further south in Bolivia led to a flyover of the Uyuni Salt Flat and surrounding volcanic field.
From there, it was on to Calama Chile and then down off the Andes to the Pacific coast. Along the way I practiced using the nearest airport function to identify emergency landing sites and seeing if I could spot them visually from 31,000 ft. Aeropuerto La Floriday/FLC south of Rio Elqui in La Serena here.
Finally, on approach to Santiago on ILS Y Runway 17L via Andes 9 PUMAR arrival. I’ve only done one other large metro airport approach (PHX) and really interesting to continuously step down through an 85+ mile straight arrival & approach over the mountaintops that dare you to cheat your minimums.
Runway in sight and working through approach checklist with SCEL reporting winds 209° at 30kts. That should be fun. Seems so peaceful with 5kts just 3000 ft AGL. Time for a quick FLT save just in case the sim crashes to desktop like it’s been doing lately at the end of long flights.
But wait, what’s this banana suddenly appearing in motion on the threshhold taxiway. Hoping they hold. They do. Good. But seconds later “Damer 607, go around” pipes in.
Not sure if they think she’s going to roll through, or giving them priority, or maybe it’s just an unfortunate glitch, but seems like a good opportunity to practice a go around at a busy airport. After starting climb out and switching to Santiago Center frequency, the controller appears to be having a very very bad day and assigns me several repeat and odds & ends altitudes in nonstop succession. Luckly manage to slip a reply in between a couple of his calls and settle him down to altitudes that start to make sense.
Make it to the requested and expected 6500 ft and make my way back to PUMAR transition for another try. Felt like good practice returning to a waypoint and re-activating an approach leg in the flight manager.
Nobody waiting for me at the threshold this time, and let the GS take me to 200 ft before switching to manual for a crabby landing and reasonably successful yaw to runway heading on touchdown after a 4hr 50 minute flight. Found the ground crew, and no CTD!
9 Likes
Ever visit the temple at Ichinomiya? I tried to fly to it. Plugged in the coordinates, but couldn’t locate, it’s too congested now.
1 Like
I continued westward, from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur
It was still dark in Jakarta, no rain, lightning high in the clouds
The early morning approach to Kuala Lumpur was very pretty
Another flight without issues, it seems to work better in this part of the world.
8 Likes
The scenery does not show Gifu Castle even. I did not look for Ichinomiya. I do see the occasional temple or shrine in the gen scenery, but that’s it.
My second attempt at a flight from Bar Harbor, ME (KBHB) to Burlington, VT (KBTV) after the first resulted not in a CTD, but in a complete freeze of the sim. This one, happily, went incident free. Shot the ILS to runway 33 at KBTV, after a 40 minute flight, flying at FL310. Everything basically worked perfectly on this flight, and our on-going 50 state tour continues! Vermont is #22. Pennsylvania next! YT link to the approach/landing:
2 Likes
Second flight of the day. After landing at Burlington, VT (KBTV) and a nice lunch, we headed off for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (KAVP) as part of our on-going 50 state tour. Windy on final, but diminished once we dipped below the ridgelines. Shot the ILS approach to runway 22 for an uneventful landing. Lost Azure voices mid-flight, but oddly they returned on final. Go figure. West Virginia next! Welcome to Pennsylvania! YT link to approach and landing:
3 Likes
I flew from San Francisco to Salt Lake City in the A320neo. Left live weather on, but as I crossed over the Sierra Nevada’s, ATC told me that I was not at the right altitude and didn’t provide an updated altimeter reading, nor did ATC tell me how far off I was from my assigned altitude. So I turned off live weather and continued the flight. I picked the QWENN5 34R arrival to set up the ILS approach for 34R, but when ATC told me to descend to 11,000 and prepare for the ILS approach, I noticed that the whole plan was a big mess as I started to turn south and head back along the flight path. I switched off the autopilot and flew it in manually. Not sure what caused the flight plan to turn into a hot mess, but I guess I managed okay since I landed without incident. Live weather perplexes me. I’m not sure if there is a way to get live altimeter readings since I am on the Xbox. Any suggestions?
1 Like
If you are cruising at airliner altitudes, you should have your barometer set to standard pressure (STD on the airliners). You won’t
get altimeter messages because everyone uses STD at high altitude.
2 Likes
So, if I understand correctly, I’ve reached airliner altitude and should switch to standard on the altimeter? Is that altitude stated as a flight level?
In the United States the transition altitude to standard is FL180, but elsewhere in the world it’s oftentimes much lower. Just depends where you’re flying.
Yes, I just read that while doing a bit of research. I will remember it next time and continue trying live weather now that I know what to do. I think this was covered in the Jetliner tutorial, but I probably forgot that part.
1 Like
In the Fly By Wire A320NX, the flight display will be blinking at you if you cross the transition altitude and forget to set STD pressure. Not sure how common that is with other planes in the sim.
I’ve got the A320neo on the Xbox, so I don’t think we get those kinds of bells and whistles.
I also looked for Gifu Castle. Took off from Gifu airbase. Flew up and down the Nagara in the evening, didn’t see any Cormorant fishing. Do they still do that?
1 Like
Have seen these floating cones at EGLL too. 