NZWF-NZDN VRF Flight at minimums in DC3

[nalbers]

I was feeling adventurous last night, so I decided to try out the FS9 default DC3 in a VFR dawn flight from Wanaka to Dunedin.
My plan was to follow the Clutha river downstream to the coast, then follow the coast up to Dunedin. To make things interesting, I chose real world weather and a dawn start...

The weather: Rain and broken clouds at 4000 ft, wind 061 at 12. In the simulator this translated to a layer of ground mist clouds hanging under the tops at Wanaka. My guess is that any sensible pilot would either have gone back to bed, or submitted an IFR flight plan. I however am not sensible...

The plane: The FS9 default DC3. On loading, I had a few problems getting it set up for takeoff, for some reason the trim was acting funny, and it was steering itself off the runway. After a little searching I found out that the plane was loading with the autopilot switched on. Oops!

Takeoff: Lock the tailwheel, set the trim, full throttle and off she goes! Still having trouble keeping her straight on the runway, perhaps I should invest in some rudder pedals some time when I have a little spare cash? (Like that's ever going to happen...) Still, I get the plane safely off the ground before I run off the side of the runway. Gear up, and lets get a little ground clearance. Uh oh, that cloud base is getting close quickly...

Rock and roll: Damn this is fun! I'm a few hundred feet off the deck, and just under the cloud base. I've turned over the Hawea flats and am following the Clutha down to lake Dunstan. I'm watching my altitude while dodging a few loose clouds hanging in the valley. The wind is gusty and the plane is being thrown around quite a bit. Ah hang on, Cromwell coming up, better hang a left into the gorge before I run into a hill!

White knuckle time! I can see it's getting lighter, but the clouds are getting thicker! I'm just past Alexandria, and right in between the hills above the river. In places I cannot avoid running through the odd cloud, and if I descend too low I'm in mist, and way too close to the ground. Suddenly I find myself in thick mist, and I've lost visual contact with the river bed. I'm turning left, and taking a guess I climb hard to avoid running into a hill. Breaking through the clouds I'm relieved to see the river again, off to my left. Time to pause and hit instant replay!

Looking back at the last 3 minutes of flight I see that in that final climb I missed the top of the hill with only meters to spare! Ouch! This is WHY we don't fly VFR in these sorts of conditions! Although reading about the history of the DC3 this sort of low level flying to avoid cloud was something that happened fairly often during it's military transport days.

Approach and landing: Since the weather is getting worse, I decide to switch to instruments for the last part of the flight. I look up the NDB's for a landing at Dunedin in a northerly direction, and dial in the ADF's. Climbing to 2000 ft I set course for the approach NDB. I can only just see the ground through the haze. When I pass over the first NDB at the start of the approach I turn towards the airport NDB and start looking for the runway lights... Where are they? I'm slowing down and lowering flaps and gear when I finally see the VASI lights through the murk. I'm pretty much right on the glideslope, thank god, but lining the plane up is proving difficult, it looks like there's a bit of a crosswind. The plane is jinking left and right almost all the way down to touchdown. Aah! finally I do something right! I flare the plane right over the numbers, and it settles down without a bump for a nice landing on the main gear. Now all it has to do is stop... Brakes, Brakes, why aren't I slowing down? Hang on, I have the throttle closed, but the motor is making too many revs... Hit F1, and finally the plane comes to a complete stop, in the grass next to the runway. Next time I'm going to practice how to steer this beast on the ground!

Summary: That was fun! Flying under these conditions gives me a new appreciation for the souls who had to do this sort of flying under possibly even worse conditions, and who didn't have a lot in the way of modern navigation equipment. Can anyone recommend a good freeware of payware DC3 addon?

Thanks: To GodZone scenery for the Wanaka airport scenery. Red Baron for the NZ 20 meter mesh and topo addon.

[Chairman]

FS9 ? The MAAM DC3 is pretty much the definitive one I think. More variants than you can count, even without repaints ...

http://www.maam.org/flightsim/PACKAGES/R4D.htm

Cheers
Gary

[nalbers]

QUOTE (Chairman @ Feb 20 2009, 11:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FS9 ? The MAAM DC3 is pretty much the definitive one I think. More variants than you can count, even without repaints ...

http://www.maam.org/flightsim/PACKAGES/R4D.htm

Cheers
Gary

Thanks for the tip! I just looked at the site, looks very nice indeed! Now to find the cash for it, and a yoke, rudder pedals, ...

[Alfashark]

I'll second the MAAM DC3! Very nice model with a mountain of repaints available
I've used it to fly all of the Hump routes - over the Himalayas from India into China, as well as North Atlantic runs from Goose Bay in Canada to the UK via Bluie West One.

See if you can grab a copy of Fate Is The Hunter by Ernest K Gann, plenty of hair raising DC3/C47 memories in there...

[nalbers]

Well that's two glowing recommendations for the MAAM DC3. <sigh> Looks like i'll have to stop eating again...

Tonight I was fooling around with World of AI and the iFly 747. I have a feeling it has some overly conservative calculations in it's FMC... I'm sure that even with a full load of passengers and sufficient fuel to go from Schiphol (.nl) to Singapore (i'm planning on continuing on to NZAA after a refueling stop) it should be able to reach more that FL290 initially. Setting the AI % to 100 over europe is fun though, the TCAS is certainly getting a workout!

Earlier today I was looking at the changes made by installing some NZ AI packages, it's nice to see the airports properly populated with planes. Other than the obvious, does anyone have any recomendations for which WOAI packages would enhance the NZ flying experience? I've disabled default FS9 traffic, I loathe the fake airlines they supply...

[ardypilot]

Haha, very interesting read Niels!

I've been a longtime fan of the default DC3, one of my favorite real word and sim aircraft, although I also don't have the $$$ to purchase the MAAM model

QUOTE

The weather: Rain and broken clouds at 4000 ft, wind 061 at 12. In the simulator this translated to a layer of ground mist clouds hanging under the tops at Wanaka. My guess is that any sensible pilot would either have gone back to bed[/quote]
And yes, definitly. VFR requires 1000 foot clearance below clouds when flying above 3000 ft AMSL / 1000ft AGL - whatever is closer - in control areas, or if under 3000, visual sight of the surface... sorry to keep whipping out all these facts (not trying to be a party pooper, as breaking the rules is what FS is all about, and i'm a longtime offender ), but things like this are all I have on my mind at the moment. Got a PPL Law test coming up in a few weeks time, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! I dont want to sound like a 'know-it-all'

Last edited by ardypilot on Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Chairman]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Feb 21 2009, 01:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And yes, definitly. VFR requires 1000 foot clearance below clouds when flying above 3000 ft AMSL / 1000ft AGL - whatever is closer - in control areas, ... or if under 3000, visual sight of the surface... sorry to keep whipping out all these facts ...

No need to apologise Trolly, it's good practise for you, and anyway this is Microsoft Flight Sim. As for breaking rules, if we want to fly VFR and we need 1000 clearance then we'll just redefine "1000 feet" so that what we have falls within the new definition. No rule breaking necessary

Gary

[pois0n]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Feb 21 2009, 01:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And yes, definitly. VFR requires 1000 foot clearance below clouds when flying above 3000 ft AMSL / 1000ft AGL - whatever is closer - in control areas, or if under 3000, visual sight of the surface... sorry to keep whipping out all these facts (not trying to be a party pooper, as breaking the rules is what FS is all about, and i'm a longtime offender ), but things like this are all I have on my mind at the moment. Got a PPL Law test coming up in a few weeks time, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! I dont want to sound like a 'know-it-all'

As much as you think you wont, I can guarantee at some point in your CPL cross country phase you'll bend some of these rules

[nalbers]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Feb 21 2009, 01:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Haha, very interesting read Niels!

I've been a longtime fan of the default DC3, one of my favorite real word and sim aircraft, although I also don't have the $$$ to purchase the MAAM model


And yes, definitly. VFR requires 1000 foot clearance below clouds when flying above 3000 ft AMSL / 1000ft AGL - whatever is closer - in control areas, or if under 3000, visual sight of the surface... sorry to keep whipping out all these facts (not trying to be a party pooper, as breaking the rules is what FS is all about, and i'm a longtime offender ), but things like this are all I have on my mind at the moment. Got a PPL Law test coming up in a few weeks time, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! I dont want to sound like a 'know-it-all'

Oh that's quite all right! I'm just kicking myself that I was so busy flying the plane that I didn't think to take screenshots. The combination of scenery and weather was very nice. And IRL i'd never be allowed behind the controls of a DC3 anyway, so I'll just imagine that I was a complete nutjob flying under wartime conditions on a mission that could not be scrubbed due to weather... And you can just imagine the tall story that would be told for years afterwards, if the pilot survived... Ah there I was in my C47 heading over the hump...

[ardypilot]

QUOTE (pois0n @ Feb 22 2009, 02:33 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As much as you think you wont, I can guarantee at some point in your CPL cross country phase you'll bend some of these rules

Yeah I can image... having to constantly check for the highest point AMSL in each of the individual sectors of the VNC map, plus monitoring all your instruments, checking and monitoring weather in front/behind you, and specific radio frequencies whilst looking out for other traffic enroute sounds like a multitasking overload!