Just noticed this. Cheers!
TJCP Benjamin Rivera Noriega Airport on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico. The lesser known challenge approach in the Caribbean - Runway 13 requires you to squeeze between two hillocks and then make a hard turn to runway heading, with rolling terrain underneath.
I just welcomed another new addition to my fleet, Alouette from Taog’s Hangar, and it is wonderful! Very agreeable characteristics. Superbly modeled. Exploring scenery around Spain and Portugal, think I found my new headquarters.
Meanwhile in Papua New Guinea, Wilga parks in the executive parking area of AYTI after a few hops in the area, and greeting a virtual goat.
Happy virtual aviating!
KXLL Allentown Muni to Merrill Creek Reservoir Boat Ramp
After the towered KABE ATC cleared me (and forced me) to a VFR takeoff with an 11kt crosswind while reserving the straight-into-the-wind runway for IFR traffic, I went looking for a nearby uncontrolled airport, and settled on KXLL Allentown Muni. (After KABE gave me taxi clearance, there was no “cancel taxi” or any other option available until I actually took off on the cleared rwy.)
I wanted to take “my ICON A5” to a quiet reservoir for a little peace and quiet:
The plan rounds the turns short of the waypoints, and I try to fly the visuals more than the GPS. The A5 livery I chose made that a bit challenging with no compass to even know what direction I was flying. I squared the turns to put eyes on Quackerstown KUKT and Hoge Farms 56PA, then followed the river north toward my destination Merrill Creek Reservoir.
My flight instructor used to chastise me to look out the window for traffic, and this flight held a surprise when I scanned my left window - There was WingBoss7 in black ICON A5 perfectly matching my speed, altitude and direction. We exchanged wing wags and I returned my focus on setting up for my upcoming water landing.
There is a “v-cut” pass in the hill at the south end of the reservoir that allowed me a straight in, low and slow approach for my landing which went by-the-book (ICON A5 training videos on YouTube…).
After landing, I had a secret that surely gave WingBoss7 a mystery “Where is he going?”, but first I had to figure out why the water rudder has limited ability to turn the plane. If there is any wind, the tiny water rudder can only turn the plane about 30 degrees off the wind heading. By juicing the throttle I was able to turn east to where I needed to go.
WingBoss7 finally landed or slewed to be following me to my destination - a boat ramp in the northeast cove of the reservoir.
From a prior bad beaching, I had learned the secret to getting out of the water is to put the gear down just before reaching the ramp. I managed to park on dry land and shut her down to enjoy the peaceful chirping of birds and lapping water.
#HoneyBadgerSlyr may have been flying along with me in a C172 as I think I saw his gamertag very early in my flight all the way to my final screen capture parked at the reservoir.
I use the OpenXR Toolkit by @mbucchia. You can set up any button to take a screenshot and also you can choose the left the right or both eyes.
Challenge accepted
Let’s do this straight in, St Barts style. The first one felt rather hard landing, but on the second go I managed to do it quite acceptably:
I did two tries using the Cirrus Vision Jet too, but those were rather hard too. I think I could do it if I could do some more tries, but sadly I got to go to work now…
Awesome write up. Nice to join you on the tail end of your flight. I got so excited when I saw the wing waggle wave. I figured I would take off and land a couple times while you were taxing around on the lake. Icon is a fun bird. Hope to meet you in the skies again!
Cheers!
Thanks!! I’m going to set that up!
Today’s flight:
Carthage, Tunis (DTTA) to Salzburg, Austria (LOWS)
Followed the RNAV route (in a non RNAV capable aircraft)
Tasmania: Taking off from Cambridge Aerodrome (YCBG)
passing Hobart International (YMHB) only half a mile away
initially heading East:
Then following the coast heading North and crossing to Schouten Island:
Continuing North
overflying Friendly Beaches Airport (YFRI)
Again following the coast further North
landing at St. Helens (YSTH), a nice new DLC by Ken Hall/Orbx
Flight from Seville into Gibraltar in the Black Square Bonanza G36. Captured the more interesting part of the journey, orbiting the Rock to come in on runway 27.
Heading south still. Stop at Juneau Intl PAJN. A beautiful flight in and spectacular arrival scene with an interesting approach to runway 26, which was a downwind landing, but I went with it rather than argue with the lady - more so as there was no option to argue with the lady. But I’m glad I did as finals through that narrow pass was fun. Recommended area for a look around, if you haven’t already.
idk if this counts but I met a Cargojet 767 pilot at my school today for Career day!