Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:06 pmI 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.
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.
