Blade Edge

Computer software | Video production | My life in general

Blade Edge main header

Flight Log – KWRI to KFMH

September 26th, 2010 · Gaming

 

I decided to go for it and plot a flight up to Massachusetts in the MV-22, there’s a Coast Guard base up there on the Cape that I could justify a military flight to. While it’s listed on the sectional as Cape Cod Coast Guard Air Station (KFMH), it actually services Otis Air National Guard base, so in the simulator it’s called Otis ANG. I plotted a simple VOR to VOR route that took me out along Long Island before turning northeast to vector in to KFMH. Studying the weather along the route I decided that a 15,000 foot cruise altitude would be best.

As I pre-flighted and set my Nav radios, I contacted McGuire Departure to get clearance through to Otis. They cleared me to 13,000 feet along runway heading. I then tuned to Ground for my taxi instructions and held short of Runway 6. Tower cleared me for take off and I was on my way. When I switched to external spot view to take a picture I realized I had forgotten to raise my landing gear. You can tell how good I am at using a simple thing like a “checklist”. Okay, guilty as charged. Then, as I passed through 10,000 feet, I noticed my airspeed indicator read 0, which meant ice had gotten into my pitot tube – so I turned the heater on and that fixed it. Switch the carb heat on too for good measure. Enroute over Sandy Hook, NJ I started flying straight into some clouds so I radioed NY Approach for permission to take it up to 17,000. They told me to go to 15,000, expecting 17,000 (which meant that my request would eventually be fully approved). So I skimmed the clouds for a bit before climbing all the way up to 17,000 – which put me right below a layer of Cirrus, but in clear air. At one point I let my attention drift and climbed to 18,000, but corrected back to 17,000 before ATC took note of it. The MV-22 cruises very nice, I didn’t feel any need to use the autopilot after getting it trimmed out. The winds were gusty, which made for constant course corrections, but I don’t mind being hands on so much. ATC vectored me a few times but for the most part left me alone to my own navigation. Passing over the end of Long Island they dropped me down to 5,000 feet and informed me to expect a Runway 5 visual approach. Three vectors later and I was lined up with the runway 5 miles out at 2,100 feet, which put me into a pretty steep glide slope. I aimed short of the threshold (trees made me lengthen the approach a little) and started tilting up the rotors at around 500 feet, which ballooned me up to 700 but I was ready for it and reduced throttle to keep me in a descent after the initial “bounce”. Final approach brought me almost halfway down the runway but I managed to set her down intact – although I may have loosened a few bolts in the process!

I have two new complaints about the MV-22 after this flight. First, the radio tuning sucks. I can select the radio stack on the MFD but my normal selector buttons on the joystick don’t highlight any of the frequencies for me to change. Having to use the mouse, the +/- hotspots are stacked vertically, not horizontally. So to change a frequency I have to have the mouse cursor slightly higher or lower than the number to do so. Problem is the COM 1/2 and NAV 1/2 frequencies are stacked so close it feels like a pixel between them. So it’s very difficult to decrease the frequency without instead increasing the frequency below it. Even worse when you’re maneuvering and the relative head motion effect moves the panel under your cursor. So basically if you’re at 110.15 and have to go to 114.05, the easiest way is just to advance .15 up through .95 and around again to .05 instead of just down a few short changes.

Secondly, it appears you can’t modify the payload of the aircraft. No options show up in the menu and the payload field of the loadout screen only shows 0lbs.

As neat as the MV-22 is, it’s really no fun unless you can put its VSTOL capabilities to good use. It’s more unfortunate that it’s not truly VTOL capable like a helicopter. The real thing is, so that’s another thing wrong with this aircraft. We’ll see if I like it any better after a flight back to McGuire.

Once I taxied and parked at Otis, I hopped into a USCG Agusta helicopter to cruise around the shore of Cape Cod Bay for a while until dusk fully set in and close out VFR operations. As with my prior flight in the Agusta, the horrible resolution of the main flight display makes it annoying to fly since you can barely read the altimeter and airspeed, and your heading is only displayed on the lower flight screen’s ADF dial. That’s hard to read too, and you need to be looking down to see it. Otherwise still a sweet ride – put her right down on the threshold of the runway returning to Otis light as a feather – so responsive for such a large helicopter.

So I also forgot to save my flight after switching off all the Agusta systems. It’s a new habit I have to get into that I should have gotten into from the beginning – saving my flight at the end so I can quickly restart from my last position. I also need to get better at using checklists – it’s just hard when the checklist for your aircraft is more like notes than items to follow, another small failing of the MV-22 product.

→ No CommentsTags:········

Flight Log – Military Maneuvers 2

September 24th, 2010 · Gaming

 

It was back in the cockpit of military aircraft today, starting with the AgustaWestland AW101 chopper and then moving back to the MV-22 Osprey. Weather at McGuire AFB (KWRI) wasn’t the best, extremely low ceiling prevented VFR conditions from being in effect, so ATC denied my request to take off without an IFR plan filed. Well, it’s another of those times to exercise my simulator abilities and simply ignore ATC so I can get some practice in.

I pre-flighted the Agusta and ran through the start-up checklist – which turned out to be pretty bogus. It had me ending by turning off the master ignition and APC, which effectively shut down the helicopter. Uhm? What? So I ran the shut-down checklist and then the start-up again, ignoring the last few steps telling me to turn off systems I actually needed to operate the aircraft. Dunno what that’s all about. I started at a parking space because the new airport scenery I installed didn’t move the helipad start location – so I would load inside a building and obviously crash instantly. Good one – I’ll fix that. Anyways it gave me an excuse to taxi to a better location for takeoff, which is cool since this helicopter has wheels – so give the throttle a little juice, tip the stick forward and… we’re rolling! After lifting off and flying around a bit, I came back for a landing on the tarmac, then took off and landed once more – the second time I was only a few hundred feet above the ground before I remembered to lower my gear! The Agusta handles fabulously and performs very similar to the Jet Ranger but definitely feels heavier, since it is. Also, it really whips up some serious ground effect when you reach the last few dozen feet, which makes actually setting it down more of a challenge since you tend to float a lot. Finally, I have a big beef with the instrument panel – the main MFD that shows your airspeed and altitude is barely readable. And I mean barely. I actually can’t read the exact speed without zooming way in, and generally just look at where the needle is and estimate. Same with altitude, though the analogue altitude gauge is just to the right of the panel and more readable.

Satisfied with the Agusta, I hopped back into the MV-22 Osprey for another attempt at landing in one piece. I took off and flew a wide pattern, taking time to joyride amongst the clouds for a bit where the weather was much improved. On approach I transitioned to vertical blades and lowered her towards the runway but ended up coming in way, way too fast and “crashing” – once again the sim didn’t register a crash but I ended up losing both my engines. My second attempt was finally successful, although I almost overshot the runway trying to get her on the ground. I’m still not entirely sure how to perform approaches in this craft, since when you begin to transition the blades to vertical, going from 0 to 25° tilt (the first setting) can bob you up several hundred feet. I suppose you should descend as if to land short of the runway, and then pick the blades up a notch just before touching down. That should bring you back up to about 500 feet and coasting forwards at around 80 knots. From there you further transition to vertical blades as you lower the craft back down. The part that I need more practice on is feathering the throttle properly to lower you down at a reasonable speed – it feels more sensitive than a helicopter even when you approach the last few dozen feet and have to make very minute throttle changes to maintain a slow descent without starting to climb out again.

But hey, first landing in the MV-22! Next time out I’ll be practicing exclusively in this craft to get the landings right. Then maybe I’ll hop to another military base somewhere…

→ No CommentsTags:·······

Flight Log – Military Maneuvers

September 23rd, 2010 · Gaming

 

It was always my plan, once I reached McGuire AFB (KWRI), to hop into the cockpit of the F/A-18 for a joyride, however the other weekend PC Aviator had a 24-hour sale that dropped the price of one of their store items way down – it was the Virtavia MV-22 Osprey, the military version of the Bell tilt rotor aircraft.

But first I still wanted to take out the F/A-18. I had to do a bit of reconfiguring on my joystick/throttle to enable controls for things like landing gear, elevator trim, flaps and speed brakes, but after that I was all set to go. I took a few minutes to peer closely around the cockpit and figure out as much of it as I could – I’m sill used to gauges, which aren’t a prominent feature of a digital cockpit like this. The MFDs (Multi-Function Displays) were the real gauges, allowing you to flip between views that showed you various aircraft status screens and navigational views. But you can’t rely on screens, so there are also analogue versions of all the vital stuff. With everything located (that I needed) I took off and headed out over the ocean to play around without having to worry about pesky residents complaining about the noise of my afterburner. I pulled a couple of G’s and almost blacked out a few times, and climbed all the way up to 40,000 feet. Barrel rolls were obviously performed multiple times. My love for the afterburner however cut things rather short, since that thing gulps fuel. I had no idea how to navigate with the craft, so I dead-reckoned my way back to the area of McGuire and had the tower guide me in. On approach, not knowing the necessary landing speed or anything, I went full flaps and throttle way back, but when I touched down  – I must have been on only one rear wheel or something because I practically flipped over. Or at least I would have if FSX modeled damage. As it was my right wing just buried itself in the ground and the sim registered a crash.

Second flight was in the V-22 Osprey. Very cool plane. I actually lowered the blades to full forward while on the ground, not realizing that you can’t do that cause they’re so big they cut into the ground. It’s surprisingly responsive on the throttle too – I pushed forward to taxi and ended up at 20 knots before I realized what was happening. You can’t actually fly this craft like a helicopter when the blades are raised full up, the airplane is capable of VSTOL, or Very Short Take Offs and Landings. The smaller civilian version can probably do VTOL (Vertical Take Offs and Landings), but not this baby. You only need about 100′ of runway though. Once airborne, the transition to full-forward flight is done slowly to let you build up speed – the manual says you want 100 knots before lowering the blades all the way horizontal. I flew something similar to a traffic pattern (first flight, gimme a break) and came back around to land. I treated the descent like a normal approach, but as I got closer I went to tilt the blades up a notch to begin transition to a slow hover. Woah!! Bringing up the blades just one notch dropped me from like 120 knots to 80 knots in about 6 seconds. I can wait to do this much closer to the runway than I thought. I gradually brought the blades vertical and used the throttle to lower myself down (you go about 30 knots with the blades full up). I ended up coming down way too fast – I thought for sure another crash was imminent. Instead when I touched down I just heard this huge SCCCRRRAAAAPPPPEEEEEE and kinda spun sideways a bit.

I had forgotten to lower my landing gear.

Of course, in my defense I’m not used to having retractable landing gear, and I did remember to lower them in the F/A-18. But still. *Facepalm* The sim didn’t really register it as a crash per se, but my engines completely died 😛

I think I’ll save the F/A-18, while fun, for a time when I have an aircraft carrier close by to travel to. In the meantime next flight I’m going to get used to the MV-22 some more as well as take out the AgustaWestland AW101 chopper.

→ No CommentsTags:·······

Flight Log – Bumpy Ride

September 21st, 2010 · Gaming

 

Man, Igor may have missed us, but you could feel his wrath in the air today that’s for sure! Never had to deal with so much damn turbulence while flying – it got to the point of being just plain annoying, especially in the helicopter which is already difficult enough to manage. But I rode it all out and got where I wanted to go today.

I picked up some awesome HD textures for the default Bell 206B from the OZx community and they are pretty great. I mean if the shot I featured above doesn’t convince you, then check out a before and after comparison of the virtual cockpit textures. Plus, I found my favorite black/yellow/white paint scheme in HD to boot. Additionally, I also  installed FS Water Configurator and the HD wave textures from Striking Software to beef up the water even further. I also downloaded a new traffic database for Ultimate Traffic 2 to increase the amount of general aviation traffic.

I decided to humor ATC for my departure and arrival while flying the 206B, so I contacted Long Island (KISP) Ground and requested a runway taxi, the proceeded to fly along the taxiways assigned to me while trying to stay less than 100 feet off the ground. I only got yelled at by ATC twice for taking off without clearance, but besides staying below 100 feet I also had trouble making the chopper go where I wanted it. It always seemed to want to slide off to the side instead of just fly straight forwards. But I made it to the runway, contacted the tower and got my clearance okay, so it worked at least. Arriving at Morristown (KMMU) I made to land at Runway 5 and just as I was turning base this Piper Cub comes whizzing past me! Good lord that’s the second close encounter in two days, and this one was like 150 feet off my bow! Apparently the cub was taking off from the runway I was landing on – good job ATC! After landing on the runway, it took me long enough to hover taxi off that ATC instructed me to go around to clear the runway for incoming traffic – luckily I touched down on the taxiway just as they told me this and instructed me to contact Ground instead, so I did and got my taxi to parking instructions.

Departing from KMMU in the Cessna, I flew via the Robbinsville VOR down south to McGuire AFB (KWRI), dealing with more turbulence almost the whole way – there were periods of calm here and there, but then I would start bouncing about again and sometimes a gust of wind would push me a good 5 degrees off course for a second. McGuire directed me to enter the pattern left downwind for Runway 6, although the real-life airport diagram shows that runway is still under construction – whatever, it’ll be finished someday so why not today?? I then taxied around looking for parking and finally just parked at the fuel pump. I’ll have to see if I can dig up some scenery for this place because the default scenery is extremely lacking.

So now I’m at a military airport hmmm?? That leaves me with some interesting options…

→ No CommentsTags:··········

Flight Log – Long Island Loop

September 19th, 2010 · Gaming

Wow, awesome flight today! It happened in two parts. First part was lifting off from KMMU to fly into the city. I got lost leaving the airport and couldn’t find Route 10 to take me to Route 280 (Heli chart for reference) so I had to turn around, go back to the airport and upon flying over re-oriented myself properly. After that the flight into the city went without a problem. I hit the Hudson and turned upriver to touch down on the pad at KJRA with no problems on the first approach. Pleased, I lifted off and headed back downriver to The Lady and flew past Governer’s Island to land at KJRB. Once again I smoothly decelerated and although I hit a hover early, I kept her straight and nudged her in for a landing on the pad. Next was to continue up the East River and land at 6N5, using the proper approach of coming in over the water. Well, I almost ended up in the drink but I managed to increase the throttle enough to keep me dry, then slowly crept in for a landing – this time with my entire tail boom over the tarmac! Still, I put her down hard on the skids because I felt I was drifting into the terminal again. Finally from 6N5 I flew a new route, which was Throgs to Republic – leading me to Republic Airport (KFRG) where I touched down on the tarmac since it had no helipad (but does service helicopters in real life).

After that I had to shut down and go run open workout at the gym. When I got home again I was back in the sim at KFRG. Refueled and ready to go, I decided to fly out to the tip of Long Island. Studying the heli chart for Long Island I saw my only option was to fly along the shoreline, no doubt to reduce noise over the residential areas which make up the majority of the island. So I took routes Republic and Meadowbrook to South Shore and plodded along the coast at around 110 knots cruise, low at 1500 feet since I planned to make landings at two airports along the way. The first was Brookhaven (KHWV), and although the airport in FSX didn’t have a helipad (I’ll have to fix that) the satellite ground textures did! So I put her down on the pad, or where one was supposed to be. From there it was back to South Shore and my next stop, which was Gabreski (KFOK) not too far away. Again, no helipads in the sim so I set her down on the tarmac and hover taxied to a parking spot. A hover taxi is moving around the airport just a few feet above the ground. Managed it pretty good. I climbed out of KFOK to 2500 feet since I didn’t plan to set down again, but as I flew I continued to study the heli chart and noticed that one of the many heliports listed wasn’t marked Pvt (Private). This was pretty much the only one so I decided to check it out since it was right along the shore. Turns out Southampton (87N) isn’t in the sim but as with KHWV, I could see the pad in the ground textures so I set her down there. Then it was back to 2500 feet, around the tip of Long Island just as the sun was hitting the horizon, and back along Route North Shore. A few minutes into my return leg a plane flew no less than 500 feet under me – very close in aviation terms. So I tuned into NY Approach for flight following so they could notify me whenever traffic got close. I continued on without mishap until I spotted my landmark to turn over land and make for Long Island Mac Arthur (KISP). So used to not finding a helipad, I almost missed the one KISP had! But I approached slow and almost, almost descended straight onto the pad without having to futz around in a hover to orient myself over it properly. But I did have to do that – bright side is when my skids finally kissed the Earth I was dead center of the pad oriented along the H. Win!

A couple of technical notes about this flight.

First, long flights in a helicopter are tough without an autopilot. I mentioned previously how much attention you need to give the controls since there is no trim to hold it level, and I mean it. You can look away for a second and find yourself 200 feet higher or lower than you were previously. While I can keep my hand off the throttle, my right hand has to remain on the stick at all times, constantly adjusting pressure to keep the helicopter level. Really the single most important gauge on your control panel is the Vertical Speed Indicator, as it will tell you if you are flying level or not. You can’t use your Artificial Horizon, as the helicopter’s pitch adjustments are too minute to be able to tell by looking at it whether you’re in level flight. The VSI needle goes up, a touch more pressure on the stick. The VSI needs sags down, ease up slightly on the stick. It’s a constant adjustment.

Second, turning still needs work. I can keep the turn coordinated by “stepping on the ball” properly using the rudder pedals and the turn coordinator, but it’s interesting how the helicopter wants to climb so much when you bank into a turn. So I need to get better at anticipating this increase in vertical speed and dip the nose further as I roll into a turn. And it’s not even that easy, because at some point in the turn I will start to lose altitude, so I need to pitch forward into the turn, but then start to level back out before the VSI needle begins to drop. Still, the entire flight I was able to stay +/- 200 feet of my target altitude like 98% of the time.

Speaking of the turn slip indicator, I noticed for the first time how even in level flight with no bank you need to step on the right rudder pedal and hold it ever so slightly to counter the torque of the main rotor – and the slip indicator tells you this. Centering up the ball really makes the chopper fly straight. Luckily my rudder pedals stick very well and so I don’t have to maintain constant pressure on them once I get them into position – I just have to exert pressure to move them. As you can imagine, when I vary the throttle, the slip indicator is affected as well since the amount of torque from the main rotor changes. I’m learning to better anticipate this.

Finally, my throttle and pitch control are insanely better, which is the main reason I was able to make every single landing today on the first approach. Yes, when I got down to within 50 feet of the ground I usually futzed around in a hover for a good minute or so before finally setting her down, but I was able to keep the chopper slow and in control so even if I came down short of the pad I was able to increase throttle just enough to maintain altitude and work the pitch to nudge me over the pad before setting down, and in most cases setting down without bouncing back up or bumping or sliding along the ground on my skids. I can also transition to and from a hover much smoothly and better control how fast I want to move pver the ground.

Things’ll get more interesting next time. I’m going to mix it up a lot…

→ No CommentsTags:·············

Flight Log – Crashing Around Manhattan

September 16th, 2010 · Gaming

Today was Jet Ranger vs. Manhattan, and the final score ended up being 8-2, meaning 8 landings and 2 crashes. Let’s go to the play-by-play.

The trip began at Morristown Municipal (KMMU) and I flew into the city along Routes 10 and 280 – you can reference the NYC Heli chart here. My first stop was Downtown Manhattan Heliport (KJRB). My approach to the pad was slow and tedious – it literally took me 3-4 minutes to get the helicopter over the pier and down safely. I landed back on my skids and slammed down forwards, but made it without damaging the craft. I missed the pad, but didn’t end up in the water at least. Satisfied with the landing, I took a couple of deep breaths and took off again to head up the East River towards the next heliport. 1-0

My second destination was East 34th St (6N5) – the only heliport I had not yet landed at. After finding it, I was a bit taken aback by the difficult approach. You have to come in over the water across the river, and then you have only about 50 feet or so of landing area before you run into the terminal and the elevated highway right behind it. And that’s what I did on my first attempt – I was close to setting down by my nose dropped and I ran straight in – BOOM! So I restarted from KJRB and flew back uptown, this time I made my approach along the highway so I had a lot more room in front of me, although not side-to-side. But I’m better at not drifting sideways than I am at not drifting forwards. Doing it this way, I managed to set her down, although not before almost landing on the highway first. 2-1

Third heliport was the Pan Am Heliport atop the MetLife building. It’s no longer operational after the accident in 1977, if this has happen now a days, people could have got help with injury lawyers from the The Law Office of Julie R. Glade, RN that are experts at this. I had some serious issues with this approach, even though I did it before in the Robinson. Unlike the Robinson, the Jet Ranger’s response to throttle input is a bit sluggish, no doubt because it’s heavier and the jet turbines need to spool up to the increased settings. Also, transitioning to a hover requires increased throttle or you start to drop like a rock. Also, I dunno if it was updrafts from the building or me working the rudder pedals too hard, but something spun me around almost 180 degrees in a heartbeat and I barely recovered before crashing into the side of the building. Unfortunately my first attempt ended in failure as I lowered the chopper down too fast and hit the top of the building at like 20mph. Restarting from KJRB, I flew back uptown again for a second approach. It was still hairy, but I managed to control the throttle better to at least land safely on the rooftop, barely missing some huge AC units. 3-2

The final stop of the day was the West 30th St heliport (KJRA), which was another one I was familiar with. I guess my experience was already starting to pay off because I made that approach almost right on the money. I hit the hover a bit short of the pier, but managed to stay in a stable hover and inch forward before smoothly setting her down. I sat back and was like “wow”, before deciding to take another loop around the city to see if this just wasn’t freak chance. 4-2

So it was back to KJRB, and it only took me one approach and about 2 minutes to set her down right on the pad, if not center. The actual landing was a bit rough, but my aim was better at least. Then it was off to 6N5 – this time I tried the more difficult approach again and nailed it – although I left a good portion of my tail boom sticking out over the East River! Departing 6N5 for Pan Am, I climbed up to 1,000 feet and then slowly approached the MetLife building. I managed to get her into a hover with a slow approach and once again set her down on the pad. I left Pan Am over Central Park then banked west to travel down the Hudson to KJRA. To mix things up, I aimed for the barge instead of the pier and managed to hit one of the circles designating a landing zone. 8-2

Satisfied with my conquering of all 4 NYC heliports, I took off down the Hudson for the trip back home, which was done via Route Newark and Route 24. I found the airport no problem and set her down on the tarmac in the area I had taken off.

A couple other things I got better at this flight were maintaining altitude while cruising and transitioning smoothly from a take off hover to forward flight. In the latter case I was ending up speeding along at like 90mph only a few hundred feet off the ground. By the time I was on my second loop around Manhattan, I was taking off and slowly increasing my speed or even holding it around 40-50mph.

Still, if you flew with me in a helicopter right now you’d probably get sick 😛 Both from the flying and wondering if you’ll make it back down to the ground okay 😛 But I’m getting better!

→ 1 CommentTags:·········

Flight Log – KBLM to KMMU

September 15th, 2010 · Gaming

Such beautiful weather this evening, couldn’t resist seeing the sun setting from the air. I also wanted to take the Jet Ranger into Manhattan tomorrow, so I had to get back to an airport that gave me access to helicopter services. I originally planned to head back to Teterboro (KTEB) but I realized that another airport in the area, Morristown Municipal (KMMU) also offered heli services. I also wanted to get in some more traffic pattern practice so I plotted my route to KMMU along two small airstrips – Old Bridge (3N6) and Central Jersey Regional (47N).

I know I said I was going to buy a new plane – and I did do a lot of looking around the market. I researched the Cessna 182 a bit more and realized it was more of a step back than a step forward in terms of aircraft capabilities. I would really like a plane that challenges me in new ways. I almost bought the Beech Bonanza instead, but then I caught sight of the V-tail version in the “coming soon” section of Carenado’s site. Given that it was next in line to be released (at least, that’s how it appeared since all entries below it were released in chronological order leading up to those images) I decided to hold off and wait – hopefully it’s an HD version of the craft as well.

So it was back in the good ol’ trusty Cessna 172S for this flight – no complaints. No troubles running through preflight and departing from KBLM straight out from Runway 32. From there I intercepted Route 18 and followed it to the north until I spotted the beacon for Old Bridge, then set myself up to enter upwind at a 45° angle and fly the left pattern down to Runway 06. I ended up turning short on final and below the glide path, but overall a decent pattern. I landed and came to a full stop, taxiing off the runway since Old Bridge does not allow touch and gos. Whether they allow transient craft to just land, taxi around and take off again I dunno, but I didn’t do a touch and go. So there.

So I departed along the same runway I came in on after taxiing back down its length. Next stop was Central Jersey Regional, which I found by flying north out of Old Bridge to the Raritan River and then followed it until I spotted the beacon for 47N. Then, as I was setting up to enter the pattern, I lost sight of the airport and thought it was a beacon way off to my rear port side – so I banked to the runway downwind heading of 25 and found myself lined up with 47N! Turns out I had seen the beacon for Princetown (39N) – I knew it was too far away yet after losing sight of 47N that was all I had seen. So I quick banked back to the right for the crosswing leg to Runway 07 and flew a pretty perfect left pattern – downwind and then base and then final, without having to make a big sweeping turn from downwind to final to line up with the runway and skip base. 47N did allow touch and gos so I set her down and pushed the throttle back open to take her out again.

As soon as I was climbing back out I tuned to Morristown ATIS to get the latest weather info and then Morristown Tower to request landing clearance. They directed me to enter downwind for Runway 23. I climbed to 2,000 feet to make sure I got a good view of the area because I had no visible landmarks to follow to the airport besides a heading once I left 47N. KMMU is a bigger airport than the single strips I was using for pattern practice though, so I spotted it with no problem and descended to enter the pattern. Everything was going fine until I made another visual error – mistaking the threshold of Runway31 as Runway 23, due to the skewed perspective of being up in the air and the way the night lighting plays tricks on your eyes. So I turned towards it for final but realized my error and S-curved back into the proper pattern. I then turned base and then final on the proper runway. As with 47N, I kept my approach high  to avoid any unseen obstacles in the darkness. Still, I managed to bring her down steep enough to still hit the touchdown marks and not break my undercarriage.

Taxiing to the ramp was a bit of an issue though – I had some custom scenery installed for the airport and for some reason all the taxi signs were gone! I had the airport diagram open so I knew the taxi path I needed to take, but with no signs pointing out where the paths intersected it was very hard to see in the dark. Yes there was lighting but unless you’re traveling on that taxiway you can’t tell what lights belong to what. I’ll need to fix that, but in the meantime I made it to my parking area, found a tie down spot and shut down.

Tomorrow (or sometime later this week) I’ll be taking the Jet Ranger into NYC.

→ No CommentsTags:········

Flight Log – Fixed Wing and Rotor Wing

September 14th, 2010 · Gaming

So today I decided not to wait for good weather to fly and just go out in whatever conditions presented. Turned out that things were a bit crummy around where I was flying, but not horribly so. I began at Martha’s Vinyard (KMVY), where I last flew this past weekend. Such a beautiful place – will definitely be back someday. I always meant for KMVY to be a stop-over in the flight to Boston, so I decided to continue on to Logan International (KBOS). Ultimately, I wanted to fly a Jet Ranger around the city. Upon researching though, I found here are no helicopter operations out of KBOS, so I then hunted down a regional airport in the area and found Norwood Memorial (KOWD), which is about 13nm south west of Boston.

I filed an IFR flight plan with Providence Departure so I wouldn’t have to worry about conditions when I got there. Departure instructed me to climb out at runway heading and make for 4,000 feet. According to the weather report I was reading from the airport weather station, that would put me right in the clouds. Sweet! I’ve always been under the puffy whiteness, and now I get to go through it. Getting clearance from Vinyard tower, I took off on Runway 24 and Departure guided me out then handed me over to Providence Approach, which then handed me to Cape Approach which then handed me to Boston Approach. Along the way I was up and through the clouds, relying more on instruments than I have so far, but I never neglected my instrument study while flying VFR all this time so I had no troubles staying on course. Descending through the clouds to approach Norwood the ride got bumpy, and I came out under the clouds to rainy overcast, but things managed to clear up several miles later when I hit the airport and I was able to make a visual approach to Runway 10.

I immediately hopped into the Bell Jet Ranger after I had parked and secured the Cessna, marveling at the wonderful view I had from the cockpit. Seriously, the floor viewports made a huge difference even when taking off. After flying the nimble Robinson around, the heavier Jet Ranger felt relatively slow, but it was still a very responsive craft. I could twitch the joystick and see it lean or dip. Also, it required more of a hand on the stick to maintain forward flight. With the Robinson I could tilt it over to start moving forward, and then centering the stick it would stay like that – with the Jet Ranger though centering the stick immediately causes the nose to come back up – and even over if you’re not careful. Everything else about flying the Jet Ranger was the same as the Robinson though, so it didn’t take me long to get into stable flight maintaining an altitude.

Looking at the Boston Heli Chart, I decided to loop around Boston using Route Quarry (QUARE) and then returning along Route Fenway (FENWA). Traveling up Quarry was no trouble at all, as Interstate 93 was a prominent road feature on the ground. Approaching the city I buzzed downtown and then turned west to look for Fenway, which was a rail road line heading south. I found what I thought was the railroad and banked over hard left to follow… and didn’t realize something very important – I can’t fly this craft exactly like a Robinson. The key difference between the two is that the Robinson’s engine is located low and to the rear of the craft, whereas the Jet Ranger has a huge turbine engine high up amidship. The top-heavyness means if you bank too far you can flip the chopper easily. And that’s what I did – right into the Charles River.

I restarted the flight back at Norwood and this time completed the loop as I originally planned, following the railroad tracks after passing Fenway Park to get back to the airport. Landing, I put her down on the first try. Seriously, I love the floor windows soooo much. I hopped right back into the Cessna and after checking conditions along the route home decided to stay VFR, although I plotted my course VOR to VOR so I would be navigating by instruments. As I was completing my pre flight and setting all my radios, I heard an engine noise. Since my engine was still off I figured a plane was taxiing by. Turning to look, I see a Piper Cub come trundling past… right into the tail of my plane. *sigh* So I had to reset and tune my radios all over again, then when I moved to taxi out I realized I had forgotten to ask for clearance from Ground. So I stopped, radioed Ground to get taxi clearance, but when I started up again I crashed into another plane that the AI traffic had injected into my vacant parking spot! ARRRGH!!

I finally made it in the air on the third try, although I set the sim to Slew mode while I prepped so that any aircraft passing by me would also pass through me and thus leave me in peace. To mix things up a bit I decided to climb to 10,000 feet to be above the clouds again. It took about an hour for me to reach 10,000 feet, mainly because I had to zig and zag a bit to avoid the clouds and climb through the clear patches. I finally leveled off at 10,000 feet (brrrrr it was like 27 degrees Fahrenheit up there!!) and realized I was at full throttle going about 80 knots. WTF? Then I realized I needed to alter the pitch of my propeller blades to bite more air because it was thinner up here. So I reached for the prop pitch control and… wait… where is it?

I didn’t have one 🙁

So, with a fixed propeller it was pretty useless cruising at an altitude that kept me at 80 knots, so I descended down, going all the way to 2,500 to stay under some scattered clouds at 3,000 feet. There I was able to cruise around 115 knots. Much better! Besides getting knocked around a bit by some pretty hefty wind gusts along the way from Massachusetts to New Jersey, the trip was largely uneventful, although it was good practice for my radio navigation skills, which I hadn’t used in a while. The weather stayed great all the way into KBLM, where I landed on Runway 32 and taxied to the ramp to shut down for the day.

I must say flying the Cessna 172 has been fun, but I’m ready for something new. Not too new or too fast, I still like poking along slow so I can have extra time to do things – until I get used to procedures a lot more I will continue to fly things that don’t go very fast. So to upgrade I’m sticking with the Cessna but going with a newer model – a C182 Skylane II RG. Unless something better comes along between now and tomorrow.

→ No CommentsTags:···········

Flight Log – KTEB to KMVY

September 12th, 2010 · Gaming

Today I took my longest flight yet – almost three hours in the air. I wanted to go to Martha’s Vinyard (KMVY) because it is a destination I’ve flown to many times before in past iterations of Flight Simulator, but I didn’t want to take just a simple direct flight there. I have VFR scenery now that extends up into Massachusetts and Rhode Island so I figured I’d check out as much of it as I could. I also hadn’t been all the way out along Long Island. So I decided to fly along LI, head north to RI then northeast to the tip of Cape Cod, and then follow that back down south then southwest to Martha’s Vinyard.

So next came the course plotting, of course using SkyVector – that site is so full of awesome and win. My first step was to figure out how I was going to get around NYC airspace without having to bother anyone for transit clearance. Thankfully, the Class B floor northeast of Teterboro was 1500 feet, so skirting the airspace was a simple matter of staying below 1500. After that it was simply a matter of tracing out a route I wanted and making sure there were no serious obstructions in the way (not just buildings and towers but restricted airspace) and then taking note of any further airspace I would be transiting – mainly Class C and D. I then used SkyVectors route plotter to draw the route and see how long it would be to make sure I had the range – no problem at 273nm when the range of the Cessna 172S is rated up around 700nm (there’s more to that, but I’ll talk about it later). Even better than the range, the route lines told me the heading I needed to travel on. Awesome!

So I climbed into my Cessna at KTEB and ran through pre-flight. I wanted to depart before dawn but the sky was already starting to light up by the time I contacted KTEB ground and requested taxi clearance, just beating out a Beechcraft. I pulled up to Runway 6 first and after holding short contacted KTEB tower and got my clearance to depart VFR to the north. No problems climbing out and leveling off at 1000 feet to stay well below the 1500 foot floor of La Guardia’s Class B airspace – which actually drops to 1300 feet when you hit the Hudson River! Being so low, and not too familiar with the area from above (not helping that it was still rather dark out) I fumbled around a bit before being sure I was actually where I wanted to be.

Once I made it over Long Island, KLGA’s floor rose to 3000 feet, so I climbed as well, not just to get a better view but to leapfrog over the 2600 foot Class D ceiling that surrounded Republic (KFRG). After passing over KFRG’s airspace I cut the throttle and dropped to 1000 feet  to scoot under Long Island Mac Arthur’s (KISP) 1500 foot Class C airspace floor. If you really want to know why I went through all this trouble to avoid minor air spaces well – it made things more interesting okay?? Anyways, I ended up having to contact KISP for Class C clearance anyhow because I wanted to buzz the condo complex where some friends of mine lived and it was within the airspace of KISP that extended down to the floor. I had no problem getting clearance from KISP ATC of course, so I circled the condos and then headed out, informing KISP that I was clear of their airspace.

I had one more hop to get over the 2600 foot ceiling of Gabreski (KFOK) Class D, then kept her at around 2500 feet the rest of the way out to the tip of Long Island, where I had to drop down to 2000 feet to stay below some clouds that had moved in. I considered climbing above them but they weren’t scattered enough for me to slip through and I was really more interested in seeing the ground anyways.

The rest of the trip out over Rhode Island and Cape Cod was largely uneventful. Got buffeted around a bit by winds as I transitioned from land to water, there were some areas where it was choppy for a few minutes, but that was about it. I was able to recognize all the points at which I would turn to the next leg of my trip, pointing down the heading indicated by SkyVector, and it worked perfectly. Several times en route I would tune into ATIS for airports as I passed by just to get a weather update. Over Cape Cod a low cloud layer snuck up on me and I literally had to cut throttle and dive to 1500 feet from 2000 to make sure I stayed out of the clouds.

I contacted KMVY tower at 11nm out after listening to the latest ATIS and they instructed me to enter the pattern downwind, so I dropped to pattern altitude (1000 feet) and lined up  parallel to the runway for the downwind leg. Although I turned base at the proper time (45 degrees off the end of the runway and as I got landing clearance from ATC) I was too close laterally, so that when I rolled out onto base I was already abeam the runway. D’oh! Out of practice already. So I S-curved it into final and crabbed slightly into a light cross breeze to set her down nice and gently slightly off the center line. After clearing the runway and stopping past the hold short, I contacted ground and they directed me to my parking.

Now, the fuel issue I mentioned earlier. I said the range of my craft was around 700nm – yet I landed at KMVY with half a tank of gas left after traveling a little over 1/4 of that distance. Two main reasons for this: I did a lot of climbing to hop over air spaces and I didn’t fly at 12,000 feet. The Cessna tops out at around 13,000 feet, so 12,000 feet is its usual cruise altitude. Up there, the air is thinner and thus offers less resistance, which means less fuel burned. If I want to go farther, I have to go higher. Now, I did not calculate the fuel burn or anything – I just saw that the distance I was traveling was less than half the maximum range of the craft, so I guessed (and felt sure about it) I would make it no problems. Obviously this isn’t a good practice but I really didn’t think of how far I would be flying on this trip before I plotted it, so I didn’t have time to sit down and figure out how to properly calculate fuel burn and thus trip range (I wanted that damn sunrise!). That will be my next ground school assignment.

So! Here I am at Martha’s Vinyard. I think I might fly up to Boston next…

→ No CommentsTags:······

Flight Log – Midnight Manhattan Shenanigans

September 11th, 2010 · Gaming

I decided to take one more flight around Manhattan (for now) – the only problem was that my plans to do so during sunset were ruined when I got called in to coach at the gym, and by the time I was able to fly it was just past midnight. Obviously there are sound abatement rules in effect past a certain hour for aircraft flying over the city. But you know what? I exercised my virtual power and canceled them for tonight. Tough shit, virtual residents of Manhattan.

I logged on to VATSIM, hoping again that La Guardia tower would become active at some point in the night, but despite the weekend things were pretty dead in NYC airspace. Still, to practice I set up all my comms and did my best to type out my location on the appropriate frequency whenever I was over a well-known landmark. Did a much better job of it this time – to bad no one was really around to notice.

Basically I flew from KJRA on West 30th St north to Central Park along then doubled back south to Midtown and beyond to Ground Zero – given that it is Sep 11th today, I figured I should pay my respects. After swooping past Ground Zero I headed north over the East River until I came abreast of Midtown, where I crossed over and searched out a rooftop helipad I had noticed earlier. It took me 3 go-arounds, 2 near crashes and much stress but I managed to set the helicopter down on the edge of the pad – and not the edge of the building.

After the rooftop landing I flew north along the Hudson to cross over at the George Washington Bridge and head east to KTEB… except I never spotted the GWB. I was passing over the mouth of the Harlem River before I realized how far north I had gone. WTF? I turned around and headed south and spotted Route 80 leading to the GWB… but no GWB. I thought maybe the bridge was just not lit so I looked closer and it was simply gone. Quick!! Somebody call Carmen Sandiego!

After getting my bearings back I headed west to land at KTEB, all the while tuning to the proper comm frequencies and broadcasting my location and intent. Again, just good practice. Though my approach to the airport was better, I still managed to enter into a hover about 75 yards short of the pad. What I like to do to land is descend like a plane until I’m over the helipad at a hover at about 50 feet, then descend vertically. Generally how copters approach and land in real life. The problem is this helicopter has no floor windows, so even when I’m close to the ground, it’s hard to tell exactly how close – and no I do not trust my altimeter for this. After three go arounds I finally gave up and just let her settle down on the apron wherever the hell she wanted.

I think this is my last flight in the Robinson R22. Nice small spry little craft but not being able to see down while landing just sucks. Next helicopter trip I’m going to hop into the Bell 206 Jet Ranger. Dunno when that’ll be since I plan to hop back into a fixed wing craft for some more cross-country VFR next. Where to where I haven’t decided yet, or when. Could be tomorrow, could be next week!

But it’ll probably be tomorrow.

→ No CommentsTags:······