PIREP Leg 5 Gibraltar International(LXGB) to Sale(GMME)

[brett 2,316]

Oh oh, not a good way to start my first time flying in the Around the World Challenge. The short version goes like this, bar, drunk, girl, fight, jail cell, big fine, freedom at last, two days later. A quick shower, change of clothes and I was on my way to the airport. It was great to see that my C172 was still here and looked to be in good shape, plus it was a beautiful morning. 

 

My destination is Sale (GMME). According to Micke and reading from his leg 5 flight description, Sale Airport serves as airport for Rabat, a city that became the capital of Morocco after France established a protectorate over Morocco in 1912. 

 

 

Downside is I don't see Rosario anywhere, not that I thought he would be standing around after being so late. I checked the bar/restaurant and the FBO office, the guy said he thought he saw him a couple of days ago but that's all he knew. Not much help there, calls and text's went unanswered. Might as well prep the aircraft and see what shakes down. Hmm, looks like the baton and a note on my aircraft seat, I see Roz and Gennaro wanted to get back to Barcelona. Hope he's not too angry with me. 

 

 

Well, the note has a nice tone to it which is a good sign. He's a good egg in my book.

 

I had already completed all my flight planning, a VFR sightseeing tour of the northern part of Morocco and I studied the map while I was, umm, detained. This leg of the ATWC is a short one, only 143.7nm as the crow flies and 152.4 according to my flight plan. My plan is that I will hit some visual waypoints, a VOR and an NDB. A straight shot was not possible due to the many restricted areas in the northern part of Morocco. One of the reasons why I did not follow the west coast. I am sure Jessica will be fine with me taking a little extra time to check out a few points of interest along the way, shouldn't be more than an added half an hour to the trip. I hope she is staying in Rabat as I hear the town of Sale does not have a great reputation. 

 

Here is my NAV log and flight plan. 

 

 

 

Before my walk-around I noticed that my fuel gauge showed way to low. I had left it with 50% fuel in both tanks before my, umm, getting sidetracked, I will check the dipstick, maybe the gauge is wrong. I also noticed that my GPS is not working. I'll have it checked at Sale if fussing around with it myself doesn't help, I don't really need it for this trip anyway. Hope I can get it working or it will cost me a pretty penny or should I say pretty Diram. 

 

 

Looks like someone made off with most of my fuel, can't trust anyone anymore.

 

 

No time to complain about it now, really need to get going. I purchased some more fuel, probably my own, added a bit of oil and completed my checks. Set all my Comm and Nav frequencies so I wouldn't have to fuss about while flying, set the heading bug for the first leg, everything is looking good. I will only have to change the heading on the VOR once for landing the ILS and the bug for each leg.  

 

Gibraltar ground gave me taxi clearance to runway 27 using taxiways B and B1. Only a short taxi and I was ready for takeoff clearance. 

 

 

Cleared for takeoff by the tower right away. The airport looks like a ghost town, weird. Before takeoff checklist, lights,check, gauges, check, runway heading, check, check, check and I am off. This aircraft loves to ascend off the runway, didn't really need flaps with such a long strip in front of me but always feel safer using a notch.

 

Airborne and I feel better already, problems behind me, flaps to '0' and the rock gives a nice backdrop to the beginning of my journey.

 

 

I turn to the south with Spain and the Straight of Gibraltar at my 2 o'clock. 

 

 

 

I take a last look at the famous landmark and get a good view of Bayside Marina, Rosia Bay, Little Bay and at the south end of the peninsula, Europia Point. I leave a lot of good memories and a few bad.

 

 

 

Crossing the Alboran Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea, on a heading of 190deg, I can see from left to right, the town and Port(Puerto) of Ceuta, the town of Benzu is next where it is devoid of trees and just above my compass, my first waypoint. I am headed for Belyounech, the small piece of land jutting out at the foothills of the tallest mountain you can see, called Jebel Musa. Musa means mountain in these parts.  

 

I see that the local time has dropped back by an hour on my clock.

 

 

Reaching my waypoint with Jebal Musa on my right I take a closer look at Puerto Ceuta and wonder how it would look from outside my aircraft. I wanted to take a closer look with a flyover but this is one of the large restricted areas I needed to skirt. My next heading is 171deg from WP1 and I am handed over to Toutouan approach.

 

   

 

Looking ahead I can see the beautiful northeastern coastline of Morocco. The first large towns down the coast are Fnideq, Restinga and M'diq. On the other side of that piece of land that juts out is Cabo Negro and the town of Matil back along the coast behind it. Dead ahead over my airspeed indicator and that small hill is my objective, the town of Tetouan and the TTN VOR. On my right is an un-named mountain ridge I decided to follow it, leaving my planed course. 

 

Edited: Sorry folks, left out this image. Might clear things up now according to paragraph above.

 

 

 

I then circled back around toward that small hill called Foret and then back south to get back on my flight path making a lazy 'S'.

 

 

Back on track and finish with sightseeing down the coast, I see Saniat R'mel airport (GMTN) in Tetouan. The TTN VOR is on the west side of it. My heading bug is already set to follow the 205* outbound course from it so I just need to follow the needle. 

 

 

Time to climb to 6500' to clear the mountains just west of the airport and a few ranges beyond. Here I am grabbing the signal and climbing into a pesky cloud front. I am also handed off to Casablanca Center after reaching the first ridge.

 

  

I need to follow this track for 18 minutes. Threading around the dense intermittent clouds was a common occurrence along this leg. I allowed for this while watching the clock and landscape for my next waypoint. Problems arise when even allowing for the extra time, I did not see what, according to the map, should have been a large river basin and a lake called Oued Loukous. Oued is a word that has a couple of meanings but is basically a stream that flows through a channel or a valley, gully, or streambed that remains dry except during the rainy season, from what I have been told.

 

Where was I, oh yea, I can't seem to find what I am looking for due to maybe drought or a weather/land phenomenon called FTXGlobal. Luckly, I do spot my waypoint, a hill that has a concave area to its north side. There is a small stream running along side, I guess this isn't the rainy season. The hill is off my right wing and I circle around to take my next bearing of 228deg off it's highest point.

 

 

 

The reason for this last waypoint and why I couldn't fly straight from the TTN VOR is because I needed to skirt another restricted area called Kenitra. During my next 35 minute leg I enjoy the sights of farmland and low rolling hills.  

 

 

 

This spectacular sightseeing excursion ended suddenly when a haze started to set in. I stayed low and concentrated more on my instruments and terrain.

 

 

I could feel the wind picking up and tried to adjust my track. I was happy to see the town of what I hoped was Center-Ville. Made a tiny adjustment and continued on.

 

 

 I was also able to stay on course further on by keeping between a highway and river. The Rabat NDB also chimed in my ear, after a ways and I again hit a relaxed state even though the haze got heavier. Instruments are a pilots best friend. 

 

 

I contacted Sale approach about 27nm out and was given a straight in on runway 22. I was surprised and happy at the same time knowing that the airport was not IFR only and there was no need to divert. I flew a bit north of the NDB toward the town of Kenitra so I could make a slower turn once I picked up the localizer at Sale.

 

There's the town, the signal should come alive soon.

 

 

Locked on and straightening out but staying below the glide slope for a better view of the terrain.

 

 

No visual on the airport yet.

 

 

There it is, I can safely drop down as I am a bit higher than I should be. Wind has picked up and I will be landing with a crosswind of varying wind speeds.

 

 

A harrowing landing way to far from the centerline. Hope no one was watching.

 

 

After a ridiculous taxiway instruction from ground control, the sight of an active airport restored my faith that the zombie apocalypse had not arrived considering the lack of traffic at Gibraltar.

 

 

It was a quite an adventure for me on this flight and I was thrilled to find my parking spot with no complications.

 

  

Now I will await Jessica's appearance so I can turn over the baton. Perfect time for a late breakfast and a cuppa joe. I will try and contact her and see if I have time to take in a tour of the cities. 

 

Just want her to know it's ok if she's late, I would deserve it at this point.  Probably see you when the sun goes down.

 

Hope you enjoyed Leg 5 of the Mutley's Hanger ATWC, see you on the next one, if they let me.

 

[stu7708 244]

Another PIREP from a first timer that looks like one from a seasoned veteran...

 

Good job Brett I hope you're now well and truly bitten by the ATWC Bug  

 

A beautiful little plane, and great looking scenery to go along with it... Although I must admin I thought it would be more desert and less green stuff in this part of the world...  

 

And once FTX Global Vector for Africa comes out I'm sure that missing lake will be there too, had a similar problem in one of my legs last time round, where a large chunk of the Caspian Sea was missing when compared to the maps.....

[UKJim 502]

Great story mate - looked like an interesting flight with plenty to contend with - change of weather and lots of restricted air space

 

The 172 is my favourite GA plane - you have to treat her right else she will bite you in the behind - I like that about it

 

Good work mate

[rosariomanzo 545]

Nice Job Brett.
I see you have found my message and baton on the right seat.
Fortunately, two nice guys have been so kind to open the plane's doors for me, even if I found strange that they brought with them two empty cans of fuel. Maybe, they were doing some maintenance?

 

Excellent flight, aircraft choice and very enjoyable commentary.

[allardjd 1,853]

Man, you newbies to ATWC are really starting out strong. Great job, Brett. Loved it.

John

[jaydor 345]

So you was a guest of The Royal Gibraltar Police?  You were lucky it was not the Spanish Civil Guard or we would not have seen you for weeks.

 

Anyway a cracking flight and story.  But stay sober for Jessica as the Moroccan jails are the last place she want's to look for you.. 

[brett 2,316]

Thanks for the kinds words guys.

 

I thought there were to many trees too but doing a search "aerial images of morocco' I was surprised at how green some areas looked. Still looking forward to openLC and Vectors for a much needed improvement.

 

I really do like this version of the C172. In defense of my landing, I used two addon scenery's, one for Gibraltar which gave me no problems but the one for Morocco/Sale airport was a fps killer right before landing. I usually get between 25 and 35(locked at 40fps) give or take in most places, with a decrease in heavy areas. Even then it runs at 12-20. Right after I took the 'see the runway' image, my fps dropped to 5-15. Right before threshold  I was getting a steady 5. This made for a troubled lading as we all know. When I turned off the second taxi exit, I think it was "A", I was down to the lowest I have ever seen, 0.3-3. Once I reached the other side of the airport with all the other AI aircraft to park, I was back up to 20-25. Go figure, I have now removed the scenery. 

 

Hope you had a great time in Barcelona Roz, sorry for being late. I have since been reimbursed by the airport for the theft.

 

I actually did enjoy going through my flight for the PIREP and breaking it down to images and story. I am so used to flying and moving on to the next one that it brought some context to the flight. The added plus is the camaraderie of flying legs with other members toward a common goal.

[DaveLeafNiles 0]

Really enjoyed the report, story and the screenshots!

Kind regards,

Dave

[mutley 4,498]

Wow, we're not worthy Brett! 

 

What a fantastic PIREP and as the "old hands' say you are posting like a veteran of the challenge.

 

By the way, the police were going to keep you in for a few more days but after a little monetary compensation from the committee they let you go early!     

 

Cheers,

Joe

[rob16584 42]

Excellent stuff Brett

[brett 2,316]

By the way, the police were going to keep you in for a few more days but after a little monetary compensation from the committee they let you go early!     

 

Cheers,

Joe

 

Well, thank the Good Lord for the committee, there was a *biggin bruiser called Tank that was giving me the evil eye.

 

I am know following Jame's advice and sticking to non-alcoholic beverages while in Morocco.

 

BTW: I did leave out an image and have since edited it in. It is after the outside shot of the port at Ceuta. The paragraph above it might now make more sense, sorry for the inconvenience.

 

*edited after looking at the Brit slang dictionary.

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Great shots and story Brett!

[ddavid 149]

Only one word - Awesome! I'm sure you've done this before, Brett - Thanks for making the flight so interesting.

Cheers - Dai.

[brett 2,316]

Thanks guys.

[Kasper 14]

Great story and screenies. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Andrew Godden 945]

Brett,

 

I'm a bit slow as I have been "off the boil", but "better late than never" as the say.

 

Great story and screenshots for a so called first timer.  As the others have said, it looks like you have done this before. 

 

Cheers

Andrew

[brett 2,316]

Thanks guys, still learning but thanks for the nice reception to the ATWC.  Being around the best in the flight sim community at this storyboard stuff, a little bit was bound to rub off.

 

I know you have been busy flying, Sharon told me when I asked her to fly with me, she said she couldn't make it because she was busy flying with you.