Microsoft Flight Sim 2020/2024

[danielprates]

5 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

Río Paraná

 

Which gives its name to the State (or "province") of Paraná, my neck of the woods. Actually I live in Curitiba, the state Capital, to the east. You may find it interesting that Pierre Clostermanm was born here - his father was a diplomat working here.

[Bremspropeller]

26 minutes ago, danielprates said:

You may find it interesting that Pierre Clostermanm was born here - his father was a diplomat working here.

 

And this guy, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Albrecht-Lemke

 

 

Curitiba sounds like a nice place to visit. Brasil in general seems to be a great place for flying.

[Tektolnes]

Putting the round the world tour on hold to spend time learning and wandering about in the DC-6. Flying a cargo run from Guwahati in the northeastern Indian state of Assam into the infamous Paro airport in Bhutan. Doing everything without the AFE as more fun that way. Starting off from Guwahati International - bit cloudy so we'll see what it's like once we get to Paro as can only come in on visual approach.

 

 

Climb out initially to 12,000 and then up to 16,000 as we get nearer the mountains where I finally get a chance to use the high blower mode. Nothing blows up so will call that a win.

 

 

Getting the near the approach to Paro I think that's Mount Everest in the distance but not sure with all the cloud around.

 

After doing a snaking descent approach through the mountains from 16,000 down to about 9,000 over 14nm Paro runway finally comes into view. Now just have to get over that ridge and line it up quickly to touch down. Cargo then unloaded in front of the King and Queen mural.

 

 

[danielprates]

23 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

And this guy, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Albrecht-Lemke

 

 

Curitiba sounds like a nice place to visit. Brasil in general seems to be a great place for flying.

 

Oh my God we have a Knight's Cross recipient? That's news to me!

 

If you fly over our Intl Airport of Curitiba, do tell me if the virtual version is  foggy during the early hours of the morning as in RL. If it is, many kudos to Microsoft; the airport is famous for having delayed flights in the morning because of almost daily fog. It is a characteristic of that neighborhood, it is said that in the 40s, when it was built, the location was intentionally chosen  since it was once a military airport and the costumery fog was a bonus to defense. Over the decades a large civilian airport grew there and, well, today that characteristic is not so sexy anymore. Major airlines that operate there have the habit of ending their day of operations there and stay overnight so that the airplanes (mostly 737s and Airbuses) start the next round there in the early morning. 

 

And of course if you do visit here in corpore, do PM me and I'll buy you some pints!

Edited June 23, 2021 by danielprates

[DD_Arthur]

Really enjoying the DC6 and it’s gyropilot.

Flew from Exeter to Oslo this evening whilst doing some marking. Very relaxing ?.

 

The tricky part is approach to landing. This seems to become critical around fifteen to twenty miles out from touch down.

 

It takes around ten miles to slow from two hundred knots to one thirty in a very gentle decent at around 2100 rpm.

I can then drop some flap and drag it in.

 

Also, gotta love any plane with a reverse gear ?

[Hoots]

6 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Really enjoying the DC6 and it’s gyropilot.

Flew from Exeter to Oslo this evening whilst doing some marking. Very relaxing ?.

 

 

Well done Arthur's class, you all got 10/10...

[Retnek]

7 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Really enjoying the DC6 and it’s gyropilot.

...

It takes around ten miles to slow from two hundred knots to one thirty in a very gentle decent at around 2100 rpm.

I'm in heaven with that plane - it's pure joy to fly this heavy. Needs time and space for manoeuvring, oh yes. I enjoy the additional time for thorough flight-planning and to study the enormous level of detail they put into the model. Just try the fuses ... simply great! If you want to fly it yourself - go for it. If you're into navigation, order the crew to care for the basics. No need for GPS? One klick and it's out of the way.
Looking at the bulk of systems and level of detail this DC-6 works (nearly) perfectly right out of the box - unheard-of! I'm very conservative with flight-sim add-ons in the 50-€-range. This is so very well done: NO regrets, not a moment!

[ZachariasX]

14 hours ago, danielprates said:

If you fly over our Intl Airport of Curitiba, to tell me if the virtual version is  foggy during the early hours of the morning as in RL.

Yesterday evening, it had a very low cloud ceiling, but indeed of the foggy sort.

 

 

Looked kinda special, but ok for takeoff. BTW, it is an IFR only airport (in MSFS), hence they denied me take off clearance. But who cares.

 

 

Strange twilight to depart in.

 

 

I had to climb up to 10'000 ft. to get clear of that.

 

 

Took me to Buenos Aires.

 

The DC-6 takes a lot of room. I still use my "10 miles rule" for getting things in order while clicking all the other things. For each 3000 ft AGL 10 miles distance, 10 miles before descent decrease throttle to approach setting. I'm still bad at getting best settings in time.

[Bremspropeller]

8 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

It takes around ten miles to slow from two hundred knots to one thirty in a very gentle decent at around 2100 rpm.

I can then drop some flap and drag it in.

 

If you go up thee notches (DC-9), you'll make 300KIAS to "configured" within 10DME. Not sure if @busdriver ever had the chance to do this thanks to the 10000ft speed-restriction (and wasn't BRAVO slowed to 200KIAS, too?), but it seems like the Aussies at TAA and ANSETT only had two airspeeds back in the day: Clacker and Vapp.

 

I hear the F28 could do 330 to 10 DME...

 

Those were definately more exciting times before FOQA and the 1000ft stable-gate...

[Gambit21]

On 6/20/2021 at 8:44 PM, DD_Arthur said:

 

?

 

Despite the very enticing things I’ve seen in this thread, I still had no intention of messing with MSFS at all.

Too busy with DCS, and DCS offers all I need.

 

With this one video you may have just ruined that plan. That was about the best thing I’ve seen. 

 

My supernaturally slow internet connection will likely still keep me from MSFS for now...I hope. This is hard to resist.

[DD_Arthur]

8 hours ago, Hoots said:

 

Well done Arthur's class, you all got 10/10...

 

These days, for eight year olds it's mostly smileys on worksheets followed by data entry on a laptop....sigh.

 

1 hour ago, Gambit21 said:

My supernaturally slow internet connection will likely still keep me from MSFS for now...I hope. This is hard to resist.

 

Caution; The initial download is huge and a healthy internet connection is vital to generate the magic.

[Gambit21]

19 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

These days, for eight year olds it's mostly smileys on worksheets followed by data entry on a laptop....sigh.

 

 

Caution; The initial download is huge and a healthy internet connection is vital to generate the magic.

 

That leaves me out - probably for the best.

[Trooper117]

1 hour ago, Gambit21 said:

Too busy with DCS, and DCS offers all I need.

 

I'm putting  much more time into it... it looks great, and just as important to me, it sounds great. All the WWII aircraft actually sound like WWII birds!

Getting into jets as well, never thought I would  

[Gambit21]

The only thing more magical would be a Grumman Goose flying boat, along with great water/landing physics.

 

If that happened I’d let it download for a month (and it probably would)

3 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

 

I'm putting  much more time into it... it looks great, and just as important to me, it sounds great. All the WWII aircraft actually sound like WWII birds!

Getting into jets as well, never thought I would  

 

I never thought I’d bother with jets again either (since Flanker/Falcon 4.0) but I’m having a blast. Plus a mission editor that isn’t fighting back every second - I’m hooked.

[Retnek]

35 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

The only thing more magical would be a Grumman Goose flying boat, along with great water/landing physics.

Maybe worth a look, no money, just time:

https://www.msfsaddon.com/2020/12/msfs2020-grumman-goose-g21a-redux-ii.html

[Gambit21]

17 minutes ago, Retnek said:

Maybe worth a look, no money, just time:

https://www.msfsaddon.com/2020/12/msfs2020-grumman-goose-g21a-redux-ii.html

 

Ack! Please tell me the cockpit is ugly or not up to that DC6 standard or at least that the water physics are unsatisfying.

[Retnek]

29 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

 

Ack! Please tell me the cockpit is ugly or not up to that DC6 standard or at least that the water physics are unsatisfying.

Sorry, no experience. Stumbled over her a while ago - you just triggered my resubmission-tray

[Gambit21]

5 minutes ago, Retnek said:

Sorry, no experience. Stumbled over her a while ago - you just triggered my resubmission-tray

 

Well if it’s all that it should/could be...then I can’t avoid it forever.

 

That said DCS Med map, plus clouds, plus the Viper...

I can hold off for a while.

[ZachariasX]

45 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

I can hold off for a while.

If you bought them now, after that while the downloads would be complete and you could play. As opposed to starting the download that takes a while after waiting a while. That would be like two whiles then. Just sayin.

[Gambit21]

5 minutes ago, ZachariasX said:

If you bought them now, after that while the downloads would be complete and you could play. As opposed to starting the download that takes a while after waiting a while. That would be like two whiles then. Just sayin.

 

lol - you are quite correct.

However long downloads cause some annoyance with the spousal unit (small bandwidth, she can’t do her stuff) and it already happens often enough with DCS. The last update/Cyprus etc took almost 48 hours. Meanwhile Kev is all “update posted...(20 min later), look at Cyprus!”

[danielprates]

I just read the DC6 product page and it says this:

 

  No corner of the globe is out of reach and you can choose to have your DC-6 flight deck equipped with GPS capability (or not!) to suite your flying tastes.

 

Did I understand correctly? You can choose between "old style but with modern radios and GPS" and "just old?" I like flying with nothing bur those old navigation systems. The A2A constellation would allow you that.

Edited June 23, 2021 by danielprates

[unlikely_spider]

15 minutes ago, danielprates said:

I just read the DC6 product page and it says this:

 

  No corner of the globe is out of reach and you can choose to have your DC-6 flight deck equipped with GPS capability (or not!) to suite your flying tastes.

 

Did I understand correctly? You can choose between "old style but with modern radios and GPS" and "just old?" I like flying with nothing bur those old navigation systems. The A2A constellation would allow you that.

I don't have the DC-6 but some reviews and videos I've seen definitely have only CDIs and ADFs in the cockpit and no GPS. Watch the official startup videos on YouTube posted by the developer.

[Gambit21]

Still thinking about Arthur's video hours later....the music...just works.

Dammit.

[DD_Arthur]

36 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

Still thinking about Arthur's video hours later....the music...just works.

Dammit.

 

The music comes courtesy of a CD I’ve got of a live performance from a season he did at the Sands hotel, Vegas in 1966 with Count Bassey.

 

The quality of the recording, the quality of the band and the quality of Frank’s voice at fifty one years old are simply outstanding.

 

The aircraft and the music; yeah, it’s that era. ?

 

[ZachariasX]

4 hours ago, danielprates said:

Did I understand correctly? You can choose between "old style but with modern radios and GPS" and "just old?" I like flying with nothing bur those old navigation systems. The A2A constellation would allow you that.

Yes, you can choose if you want the Garmin 430 in your radio stack or not. The original 50‘s stack is still in the aircraft, but it is non-functional (as it was in the real DC-6 from which they modelled the plane) and a more current radio stack like you find in the Cessna is added, the one with the amber digits. You couldn‘t really tune in to much with the old, original radio. You can fly „the old way“. I prefer that as well.

[danielprates]

8 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

Yes, you can choose if you want the Garmin 430 in your radio stack or not. The original 50‘s stack is still in the aircraft, but it is non-functional (as it was in the real DC-6 from which they modelled the plane) and a more current radio stack like you find in the Cessna is added, the one with the amber digits. You couldn‘t really tune in to much with the old, original radio. You can fly „the old way“. I prefer that as well.

 

Oh allright this is what I wanted to know. Thanks!

[Lusekofte]

I am not picky, I gonna buy it and pretend it is a C 47 and drop paratroopers over France

[AndyJWest]

My world trip continues. I'm currently whizzing NE along the north coast of the Gulf of St Laurence, heading for Charlottetown (CCH4), on what will be my final leg before the crossing to  Narsarsuaq, Greenland. I've got a healthy 20 kt tailwind, and from the look of it on Windy.com, the weather may be good to continue to Greenland today. I'll double-check later, but conditions look just about ideal - tailwind, not too cold, and most important,  Narsarsuaq should be cloud-free by the time I get there. Not the best place to try to land at in low visibility, and nowhere to divert to.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by AndyJWest

[ZachariasX]

Another start for a world tour. Haven't figured out where to go exactly, but general direction is as far north as possible and then down to South America.

 

First leg, from Bern-Belp (LSMB) to Hammerfest (ENHF).

 

This is the one where I lost my flaps and bent my aircraft while driving backwards and hitting the parking brake.

 

Weather looks good today. Let's go north. Takeoff was smooth and uneventfull. That's the easy part once one learns to be nice to the engines. I took about 15% excess fuel. Weather was mostly good and the gyro autopilot is reliable enough to fly through an extended lunchbreak. At some point, I remembered that I should have drained the auxillary tanks first, but better late than never. I even managed to set the four engines on the two fuelled auxillary tanks without too much of a fuel starvation. Weirdly enough, I drained one AUX tank much faster than the other and then having all four engines draw from one auxillary tank took some clicking. But it is actually very straight forward and logical. You can make up the lever configuration for that once you understood what they actually do.

 

 

Over central Sweden. The weather over Norway looks less inviting. Cruising at 19'000 ft.

 

 

Descending to 12'000 ft. There are huge tables about best speeds, altitudes, for given weight. It's all a bit overwhelming. I opt for direct approach, 3'000 ft. altitude for each 10 nm distance. That is as complicated as I can handle it atm.

 

 

I just plan to intercept the approach to Hammerfest from 50 nm out, at 12'000 ft, and then once I closed to 40 nm, start the descent, hopefully on the glidepath, but I don't receive anything atm. I take the beacon BNA to set me out 60 nm and there it would intercept the approach and I would turn shortly before reaching 60 nm on course 220°.

 

 

This is where things are getting odd. I cannot receive any beacon from Hammerfest. Bloody ridge! No idea how close I am and I use the stopwatch on my wrist to do some dead reckoning. I should start my descent after 10 nm in direction Hammerfest. Four minutes or so should bring me in 10 nm. I am getting a little fast and I am wary of just throttling back. I admit I have blown some engines with these DC-6'es so far. I got to be careful with those throttles. Flaps it is. Uuhmm... Nothing happens. I mean, I pull that lever, it moves, but no speed loss. I check outside view (how conventient!) and the bastards don't move!! I jammed them by setting them at excessive speed! B*gger!! I throttle back almost all the way and deploy the wheels. At least they work flawless. So, a no flaps landing it is.

 

 

As I drop out of the clouds, I can see the airport. At least that. I am way to high and way too fast. Given I have no flaps to set I don't mind the speed, but now I drop steeply to get me back on the 3° glidepath. I hope for a lot of headwinds but I have no hand free asking ATIS.

 

 

But I get it there. I am sweating. Polar region or not. I set her down at almost a 110 and I hit the brakes. This runway is SHORT! Alas, the brakes make a sound but do not much else. I immediately hit prop reverse and open up full power.

 

 

Man, that did the trick! From 100 to 0 in about a quarter of the runway length! What wasn't firmly buckled up in the cabin must have been flying forward. I throttle back immediately after the aircraft came to a halt, but it settled driving slighty backwards. Not fast at all, especially compared to that ghost train screaming down the runway. Arrived safely, at last.

 

I need a break. I hit the parking brake to move the stick aside and get ready to taxi to the gates.

 

BAM!

 

The poor aircraft tilted back and struck the tail hard enough for the screen to go black on me. I must say, this DC-6 sits very, very balanced on its main wheels. Oh well. Now I gotta find someone who can bend that tail back down to make the whole thing straight again. In the meantime, I figure out where to fly next. But I keep in mind that I better have ample fuel reserves.

[AndyJWest]

There's clearly a lot to learn with the DC-6. The not-braking-while-taxiing-backwards thing is a much more universal lesson though. Not that I've learned it, since I've done the same thing at least once in more or less every trike-gear aircraft which will reverse I've flown. Another reason why taildraggers are inherently superior. ?

 

I managed to get to Narsarsuaq yesterday, and to Keflavik today, though both legs were rather frustrating, due to MSFS live weather playing up.

 

The Canada-Greenland leg was going well enough to start with, then the OAT started acting weird. It went from 8 degrees C (at 5000 ft) to 3 then back up to 13 within a few minutes. Rather worrying in an aircraft with no anti-ice, when there's low cloud about. By the time I was 130 nm from Narsarsuaq, there was solid cloud forming ahead, and it clearly wasn't safe to fly over it with the air temperature fluctuating erratically. I pressed on at 1000 ft, barely able to see the water below. Which wasn't good, as coming into Narsarsuaq at low level entails weaving in through a fjord.

 

I pressed on through the murk, since I'd got no real option, and fortunately before long it began to clear. Narsarsuaq seemed to be covered in snow and ice, despite an OAT of 10 degrees. MSFS is weird sometimes.

 

Looking at the weather via Meteoblue and Windy.com, it looked as if an early start today was my best chance if I wanted to get to Keflavik in the next few days. Narsarsuaq should have been free of low cloud, and a hefty tailwind in reasonable temperatures should have taken me safely to Keflavik. Unfortunately though, it didn't work out like that. For a start, Narsarsuaq was fog-bound. I somehow convinced myself I'd be able to see my way out, hoping that the weather would start doing what it was supposed to.

 

Up to a point, the weather did improve. At least, visibility improved enough that I could see my way out south down the fjords. The only snag was that the temperature dropped to -3 degrees C. Definitely not good, with all this moisture about. Convincing myself this was a temporary glitch, I carried on, watching anxiously for ice, and thinking about which rocky lump I'd prefer to crash into if the engine quit.

 

Out into open water, I could turn east. The cloud was clearing, but the temperature was stuck at -3 degrees C at 1500 ft, and there was no sign of the anticipated tailwind. If it stayed like this, and I didn't run into low cloud, I would make it to Keflavik ok, but should I risk it? The 'live' weather was clearly not working properly. Maybe it was the Narsarsuaq map mod I'd had to use (the airport isn't in stock MSFS), but whatever was responsible, I couldn't trust it. Which meant that waiting for better weather might not help. I decided to carry on anyway. Off I went out, out into the North Atlantic, peering anxiously ahead in case low cloud was forming. It didn't. I was well over half way to Keflavik before anything significant happened at all. At that point, MSFS finally decided that I'd been flying at -3 degrees with no wind for too long, and started to liven things up. Too cold? Soon fix that - temperature goes up 10 degrees. And then the tailwind starts to kick in. Now, neither was a problem for me, though a sudden lurch in barometric pressure which lost me about 600 ft before I'd disconnected the AP and reset the altimeter gave me a bit of a wake-up call. As did the steadily increasing tailwind (up to 30 kt or so) suddenly stopping and then starting again a minute or so later. I'd already lost one virtual XCub due to that particular glitch, so I hastily disabled structural damage before it happened again.

 

Despite the issues, I made it to Iceland, and a rather hairy landing with the wind suddenly stopping 15 nm out, only to start again (at 30 kt) as I was almost at the airport. At least the wind was straight down the runway.

 

Weather and MSFS weather bugs permitting, I should be back at Fairoaks within a week, to finish my round-the-world tour. If I do another one, I'll take something with anti-icing, and maybe a bit more range and ceiling. A DC-3 would be nice...

 

 

[ZachariasX]

Wow, Andy, that is a very, very manly route with the XCub! Greenland still gives me the creeps. And you there without anti-icing. Next time in the Blériot, right?

 

1 hour ago, AndyJWest said:

Another reason why taildraggers are inherently superior.

Isn't a tricycle aircraft a taildragger when going backwards? Besides tail draggers tilt like that as well:

 

 

I do see your point though.

 

Myself, while sitting at SOT Bar & Burger (I was told it saved lives of people that were sent there) and taking pride in the fact all my P&W engines are still perfectly fine (all other things not so), I found out that Anchorage is just about 3000 nm away from Hammerfest:

 

 

What an elegant way to skip bloody Mordor! I wonder how the compass is gonna behave, how they made that in MSFS. I suppose the gyro will keep me on course, but not sure what the rest will do. On the modern instrumentation, you can switch the compass from MAG to TRUE, else you'll have a screen full of errors. But in the DC-6? I will find that out 1000 miles away from anyone over ice and ocean. But I guess that is what adentures are about.

 

[ZachariasX]

ASOBO just announced they will add the Ju-52 with the next update in August. It seems to be modelled after D-AQUI, with the P&W engines. At least a Ju-52... The right plane for the DACH region indeed.

Edited June 26, 2021 by ZachariasX

[AndyJWest]

I've not tried a north-polar route, though I did a flight in Antarctica when MSFS first came out, and the Garmin synthetic vision was doing some very odd things, possibly because the south magnetic pole was way off to the north somewhere. Probably best to have a backup navigation option. Fortunately, at this time of year, the sun will always be available to at least give you a rough bearing. Unless my maths is way off, it should be 15 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian for every hour after noon, Zulu time. Not exactly GPS, without a sextant, but probably good enough to at least hit Alaska and maybe find some sort of beacon. 

[LukeFF]

2 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

ASOBO just announced they will add the Ju-52 with the next update in August. It seems to be modelled after D-AQUI, with the P&W engines. At least a Ju-52... The right plane for the DACH region indeed.

 

That is good news, indeed. ?

[Monostripezebra]

I gotta say.. the caudron is actually feeling pretty nice.. especially with full tanks.

 

 

[Blooddawn1942]

This one goes to all the cracks out there. I was wondering, if there's an option to save another point of view aka pilots head position in VR just like it's possible in IL-2 and DCS. Some of the planes have kind of a unlucky default one just like in the Stearman where it is way to deep and aft.

[ZachariasX]

Now this is it, my polar experience in the DC-6.

 

This is the one where I lost two engines over the north pole by doing the wrong thing in fuel management and where I only by the grace of good weather didn't end my flight in the slopes of Mt. McKinley.

 

First of all, my chioce to make Hammerfest a stop on my route is a great illustration how (not so) deeply thought through the entire affair was from my side. The runway felt a little snug when I landed, but I didn't have any flaps. Runways tend to seem smaln then. However, taxiing up to the start at about 100'000 lbs take off weight (full tanks, a lot of spare parts, no passengers; they all just lined the runway waving at me), this runway seems even shorter. Opening the manaual shows me that I actually need TWICE the runway than what Hammerfest gives me!

 

 

Uhhmm... What can you do? Full power. Doolittle had a shorter runway than stated in the PN as well.

 

 

I'm not even up to 40 knots here... Man, that thing gets off slow at that weight. And I am almost there!

 

 

Going over the cliff at about 80 knots did the trick. The cliff gave me 80 meters, about 50 of them I really needed.

 

 

Speeding up and getting ready for the climb. I think 22k ft. altitude would do it for my trip. better have some reserve.

 

 

Ice alert. But the elaborate anti ice system works well and the crate is tawed quickly.

 

 

As I pass through the clouds at about 20k ft., the sun will help me navigate. I turn on the Sperry autopilot and let the gyro do its job. I use the localizer from Hammerfest to set me on my course that results in something like 335° magnetic. Now, it would be just straight ahead to Anchorage. In principle.

 

 

As I reach Svalbard, I get an impression of my course accuracy. A bit off to the right. Svalbard is surprisingly large of an island. Nice to see it with all the ice around it.

 

 

I must say, MSFS is in full climate change mode. No ice at all up north past Svalbard. None. Just open sea. The compass remains reliable, deviation is not that pronounced yet. But the sun, always up there, is a good reference. Andy was quiet right. The weather is good enough to descend to 20k ft.

 

 

Another two hours farther north I start to regret my decision to go down to 20k. Not only the sun becomes obscured, my course is getting weird as well. I am on gyro pilot, but the sun is moving awfully fast now.

 

 

As those clouds are gone, I suddenly have the sun at my 9 o'clock, while the Sperry is following 335° that obviously is magnetic course as well. I make it bank right two ticks to slowly move the sun back where I want it.

 

As things seem under control, I play with the fuel management to drain the last drops from the AUX tanks. They emptied unevenly. For some reason, I touched the No.1 magneto switch and let the engine run only on one magneto. It got some 3 inches less power and more importantly made fuel consumption uneven. Having all four engines draw from No.1 AUX tank made engines 1 and 2 starve for fuel and they quit. Just the right moment to grab the manual for "how to restart the engines in flight". Auto-feather did its job immediately, so I have to disengage that and use the starter again. After trying a couple of times and getting uncomfortably slow, they start up again. No time looking for the PN. It's so easy being very dumb when trying to be very smart.

 

 

As the sun moves and your dash sees no more direct sunlight.

 

 

Bank right again, until you have the sun shire on your dash again. It should only move some 15° per hour. But without course correction, it is a matter of minutes to have the light move away. I keep on trusting the sun and set my course according to that. I care about compass heading again once I am over Alaska.

 

*** At this moment, I had to interrupt my flight and restart from a position where I slewed my aircraft to after a reference with LittleNavMap.***

 

Once restarted, I set the time such that the sun is "back where i left it".

 

 

The moon is coming up. Some 200 nm to Alaska. I was actually quiet well on course.

 

 

Finally I pick up the beacon of Deadhorse, Alaska. I am getting really low on fuel and for some time even consider using that airport als alternate. then again, I made it to Teheran over that hump with 5% fuel in the Cessna. I ended up at a different airport, but still in Teheran. Cloud layer rises as well and makes me climb to 24k ft. I am losing a lot of speed in these coulds and fuel level is getting even more critical, to the point where even a generous guess will make me arrive as a glider. I am draining every AUX tank to almost zero.

 

 

Weather is getting really weird. Still up at 24k ft. Cloud ceiling rises way above me but there appears another one below me while I can make out the ground. The large river on the left must be Yukon river and the smaller to the right Tanana river. I can tune in to the beacon of Ralph M. Calhoun Memorial Airport (PATA), it is just next to where Tanana river flows into the Yukon. This also puts me now in a position where I have to think about initiating my descent. Again using the 10 mile rule (3k ft. per 10 miles distance plus 10 nm distance to decelerate for a direct approach on Anchorage from the north. I still recieve no beacon whatsoever and I cannot tune in on the radio.

 

 

Weather is getting funny again, but then as it clears up, I have that in front om me. My flight path leads me right into that thing. I veer to starboard a bit to pass in between.

 

 

No wonder I cannot receive anything from Anchorage. I happen to be on the backside of Mount McKinley (left) and and Mout Foraker (ahead). Denali Wilderness sends its regards. I seem to keep up my habit of having the highest peak of a mountain range in my way when taking an arbitary path to cross it. Same as on the way to Teheran. If it had been cloudy, I would have ran directly into Mount McKinley.

 

All of that moderated my enthusiasm for maintaining a descent and once I feel comfortably away from high mountains, I am already within 20 miles of Anchorage, then almost out of fuel! No way doing an approach as envisioned by the manual. Either I go in like a Stuka or I will go in as a glider.

 

 

The Stuka it is. Mixture rich, prop high rpm, throttles all the way back, into a steep turn to bleed of the speed. Once slow, flaps 50 and keep it in the spiral at 110 kt and just let it drop. I am 7 miles from the airport, right in the ILS corridor. I just have to drop to 4000 ft. and arrive there at a heading of 150° magnetic and I should be all set. Luckily enough, I am dropping out of the clouds before I have to align myself on the approach. PMDG most obviously didn't implement spark fouling yet. I wouldn't expect a real DC-6 power up again after such a descent.

 

 

I timed my turns remarkably well and I end up almost perfectly when leaving the turn. Now powering up to 100 BHP and flaps 20... and it does the approach almost by itself.

 

 

Just before passing the runway threshold, I throttle back and let her sit. That thing lands by herself if you have her nicely in trim.

 

 

I taxi to the gate. That was an interesting flight. Without GPS, you are constantly busy. Fuel management also contributes to that.

 

 

Speaking of... That is maybe fuel for one go-around. A tight one.

 

Note to self: 3000 nm is really stretching it and can be reached if everything works well, all settings always perfect. I would say 2300 nm is more realistic if you want to arrive when taking her up at 100k lbs and in any weather. For the next stop... I might choose San Diego. Gives me a bit more reserve.

 

 

One can se ethat I had to fight with the heading near the north pole. Then the zig-zag is where I had to terminate and reload the flight. It is very imperfect not being able to save a flight before leaving (like in FSX or P3D). Just starting with a custom departure point at a silly and fixed altitude, then having to slew back in place.. that leaves some work for ASOBO.

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by ZachariasX

[CUJO_1970]

Gonna keep it simple for now. Just another little hop over the Gulf.

 

 

Brems will recognize the location, KCDC:

 

 

Let's see, if I keep land off the port wing and water off the starboard I'll be heading somewhat south. Alternatively I could look at the compass thingy:

 

 

And we're there:

 

 

 

 

[Ribbon]

Wow patch 5 bringing 60% fps increase, and that is called nice engine optimization!

VR will be a real treat in Msfs2020

[Hoots]

1 hour ago, =VARP=Ribbon said:

Wow patch 5 bringing 60% fps increase, and that is called nice engine optimization!

VR will be a real treat in Msfs2020

Nice!