Jump to content

[unofficial] New Zealand Air Rally 2016


Recommended Posts

After picking up the SoulMadeSim DHC-2 Beaver on the Daily Deal yesterday (http://store.x-plane.org/DHC-2-Beaver_p_395.html) I thought I might use that to complete the New Zealand Air Rally 2016 by Bluegrass Airlines. Unlike the GAAR 2016 I'm going to do this one "in theme" (which I'm sure @Andrew Godden will appreciate, assuming he was the flight coordinator).

 

My quick flight this morning taught me that I have a LOT to learn about these older systems, which is GREAT because that's what I'm using these rally's for! :P 

 

Another thing that I found out was that the Beaver does NOT like to resume a flight from a replay as I did a quick flight this morning whilst the girls were out and then decided to pick it up just now and ended up with an immediate engine fire when I turned off the replay :huh: So looks like I'm going to have to fly these legs uninterrupted. Good thing they're only short legs!

 

NZAR 2016

Leg One

 

Auckland International NZAA to New Plymouth NZNP 142 NM

This first leg sees us departing Auckland International on a 051 track for 11Nm to the Whitford NDB, turning to 187 for 21Nm over the Waiuku NDB and then 177 for 108Nm straight across the water to New Plymouth.

 

leg-01-map-L.png

 

For this first leg, I just wanted to get up into the air and get my hands dirty. This is a LONG rally so there's plenty of time to do Cold and Dark starts with the Beaver as I get more familiar with her.

 

Oh, one thing to be wary of with the Beaver is that it has it's own control panel for "Airplane Docking" which gives you some better control for manoeuvring the float plane version after landing. And it stays on between flights... Which really explained why, when sitting on runway 05R almost full throttle, I wasn't going anywhere. Took that setting off and damn near crashed the plane! :( So, yea, make sure you turn that off. :whis:

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_7-L.png

[image inserted after reflying the leg again :D ]

Since I'm going to have to fly this section again, I'll take a snap from the runway or takeoff.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_4-L.png

Perhaps I can enter this in our May photo comp? 187 heading to Waiuku NDB

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_5-L.png

Once again I've used Ortho4XP before hand to get some nice photo scenery. Below me is Motutieke Island south of WI NDB.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_6-L.png

Pretty happy with default X-Plane sky in this shot.

 

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_8-L.png

Port Waikato near the top of the river mouth there.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_10-L.png

We're now on our final 176 track to New Plymoth and some 108Nm over ocean. Still close enough to the coast though.

 

Not long after this is where I saved the flight as a replay, assuming that I could resume my flight due to interuption, which I had done in the LET L-410 for my MEBAR fligths. Then when I had some time this afternoon I loaded the replay, fast forward to the final point, made sure that the fuel selector was on the centre tank (already drained the rear tank), pressed go and had immediate engine failure. :stars:

Oh well, hopefully tonight or tomorrow night I can attempt this again.

Edited by OzWookiee
Add Airport shot
Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice shots :thum: and good luck with the re-flight.:)

 

I always liked flying the Beaver, default and then later Aerosoft's version, it's a great STOL aircraft and is just plain fun to fly. I would love to see a high quality version made with all the bells and whistles in the future.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

@brett Not quite the Beaver, but Aerosoft Heaven is working on an  Otter right now.

 

Checking if this link works...found the announcement on their Facebook page. Not sure it will have "All" the bells and whistles, but they have been putting out some great looking aircraft recently.

 

 

Edited by Captain Coffee
Link to post
Share on other sites
8 hours ago, brett said:

Nice shots :thum: and good luck with the re-flight.:)

 

I always liked flying the Beaver, default and then later Aerosoft's version, it's a great STOL aircraft and is just plain fun to fly. I would love to see a high quality version made with all the bells and whistles in the future.

Well.... Come over to X-Plane and you can! And its on special at the moment :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ha...I swore I had seen an announcement for a New Beaver coming out, I have several of the FS Dev's "Liked" on FB and forgot which announced it...so I searched the MilViz, JF, and then AH actual websites and only found the Otter on AH.

Regardless...great news for Both planes! MilViz and AH both make terrific stuff. MilViz is one of my personal Fav Dev's and I'll have to pony up for their Beaver now I guess.

Budget review time.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, as an FSXer I would probably go with P3Dv4 as my next upgrade, I have heard good things about X-Plane but not enough to change over.(no offense intended) I have a lot of money in addons for FSX and to go over to a new sim platform wouldn't make sense in my case but thanks for the offer BeeJay. :)

 

I have heard mixed reviews on the MilViz version and I have to figure out why that is, I do have a few of their products which I am very happy with so they do get points for that. My Aerosoft model is quickly ageing in light of what is out there today so will continue to look at these new releases of the Beaver before making a decision. There was also some noise about Aerosoft updating their Beaver as they did to their twotter, not sure where they are with that though. Think I am at that point right now where I have so much stuff I am slower to make a decision on new purchases. (read as getting pickier):D 

 

I have come to the conclusion that my A2A's Accu-simmed aircraft have spoiled me and I end up flying them the most. Can't help but enjoy their full featured planes that react to my inputs the way a sim aircraft should, one good thing is that other developers are starting to sit up and take notice and put more features into their planes.:cool:

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Captain Coffee said:

Ha...I swore I had seen an announcement for a New Beaver coming out, I have several of the FS Dev's "Liked" on FB and forgot which announced it...so I searched the MilViz, JF, and then AH actual websites and only found the Otter on AH.

Regardless...great news for Both planes! MilViz and AH both make terrific stuff. MilViz is one of my personal Fav Dev's and I'll have to pony up for their Beaver now I guess.

Budget review time.

 

 

Hold fire with the Milviz Beaver for a while Coff, there are loads of problems with it mostly xml gauge related and the MVAM program. There should be a major update in the coming week but they may hold off until P3Dv4 compatibility is included too.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Now that I've finished the GAAR in a C-17 we're back to flying the lovely DHC-2 Beaver again. I certainly learned a lot from the GAAR and hopefully you can see that in this post.

 

NZAR 2016

Leg Two

 

New Plymouth NZNP to Karamea 164 NM

After reflying the first leg after a disasterous engine fire, I first checked the winds for today's flight and since they're 015 for 5Kn we'll depart using runway 05 and then turning left onto our heading of 195  across open water towards the South Isle, passing near to our alternate Takaka NZTK, over the hills to descend into Karamea NZKM.

leg-02-map-L.png

 

Looking at some of the weather requirements for each leg it looked like they were "real world" weather for that time. So, rather than having to set each leg up, I did a bit of research and found a couple of sites that allow you to retrieve historic weather readings (I prefer the one from Iowa State University) and then output them in METAR format. I was then able to modify that data into the ".rwx" file format required by X-Plane. So now, all of my NZAR flights will use the "real weather" for the date/times recorded for each leg.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_17-L.png

Unlike last time, I did a complete "Cold & Dark" start and waited the appropriate time for the Oil Temp to rise.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_18-L.png

Aaaand... Rotate.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_19-L.png

Hmm some Autogen is enjoying a light VORDME.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_20-L.png

Starting our turn onto our 195 heading.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_2-L.png

A familiar site for those reading my other thread :)

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_4-L.png

After almost 30mins at sea, the South Island starts to appear.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_7-L.png

Certainly does look like Maui's Hook.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_9-L.png

For me, the effort I'm going to making these Ortho and Mesh tiles is WELL worth it when you see stuff like this.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_15-L.png

Karamea off to port on the downwind to runway 01.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_13-L.png

Bit of a wobbly touch down.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_12-L.png

But here we are, all shut down and ready to hit the town! Or maybe just get a nitecap and off to bed.

 

 

 

Edited by OzWookiee
Finalise
Link to post
Share on other sites

nice one Beejay, great shots there, I have that one, had a complete engine failure the other week landed in a field though, nice sounds with it I could just sit there listening to it ticking over.....

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, wain said:

nice one Beejay, great shots there, I have that one, had a complete engine failure the other week landed in a field though, nice sounds with it I could just sit there listening to it ticking over.....

Ditto, have been doing full Cold & Dark starts andsitting there witht eh engine at 1300RPM waiting for the oil temps to rise :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

So once again I had to pause, save and then reload the replay to continue the flight due to family only to find that my engine was once again on fire. Not really wanting to refly the leg again, I called up the instructor station, changed plane, changed back to my plane and the fire was gone. And no it was not due to improper engine management thank you, I kept all my temps in the green and am getting quite good at my engine management but it seems like an issue with the coding of the engine and what not that it can't handle the quick changes when you go from the terminal to several Nms away. So, something to be wary of.

The other issue I'm having with her (not the only one too as 15nmArc on YouTube as well) when pressing "b" to release the brakes it does not fully release the brakes and will send you in a spin. ONLY use the in cockpit handbrake lever if you're using this bird in XP11.

 

NZAR 2016

Leg Three

 

Karamea NZKM to Hokitika 102 NM

leg-03-map-L.png

Heading further down the western side of South Island we head out on Rwy 19 and then track 218 degrees to Westport and then round the peninsula and down to Hokitika for a total of 102Nm. Hokitika is the launching point for many glacier tourists to South Island, usually coming over Arthur's Pass from Christchurch. Unfortunately when we did our South Island tour the pass was closed due to weather so we went up to the Hot Springs instead :)

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_1-L.png

What a beautiful morning for a flight. I'm also using a new Lua script Lua Environment Booster XP11 1.1.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_3-L.png

Full Cold & Dark start completed (including 10min oil temp warm up) and we've taxied out onto the runway ready to head off into that glorious sunrise.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_5-L.png

Up to 1500' this morning and heading on 218 for Westport.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_8-L.png

In comes some morning cloud, which is being beautifully light by the coming sun.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_11-L.png

Just gorgeous.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_12-L.png

No time to stop for a coffee captain.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_14-L.png

Certainly an improvement over default :)

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_15-L.png

I found myself (this trip) spellbound by the changing colours in the clouds.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_17-L.png

So, pretty.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_20-L.png

Almost there.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_22-L.png

Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of my approach, but the Southern Alps are looking splendid in the background here.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_23-L.png

One thing that was interesting with Hokitika though is the end of the runway...

 

Thanks for reading guys. We're of to the ski capital Queenstown via Milford Sound for the next leg which should be quite the adventure.

Edited by OzWookiee
Link to post
Share on other sites
8 hours ago, rosariomanzo said:

Really enjoying these images.


 

Grazie Rosario!

 

I'm really enjoying flying this Rally and making these shots. Though I've spent a RIDICULOUS amount of time with Ortho4XP and getting get DEM files, it is starting to pay off. Mind you I spent two hours yesterday trying to sort out missing library dependencies for some NZ airports, so that's not much fun. :(

Link to post
Share on other sites

Stop start, with a long break in between whilst fixing scenery issues O.o  "Solved" the engine fire issue when loading a replay to continue a flight by watching the manifold temps and clicking halfway through the replay line (which usually sends it into the redline) then a few more click up to the end of the replay. Double check all the instruments, fuel selectors and magnetos and we're ready to start flying!

 

NZAR 2016

Leg Four

 

Hoatika NZHK to Queenstown NZQN

leg-04-map-L.png

This will probably be the trickiest leg of the rally since we'll have to crest the peaks of the Southern Alps as we come to the end of Milford Sound and climb to ~6500'. Then we need to navigate through the valleys to the northern part of Lake Wakatipu near Pig Island with the Queenstown airport in Frankton waiting at the end. Very scenic but once I was in the Alps and Valley's it was quite hard to take happy snaps :)

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_24-L.png

A nice sleep in sees us departing at 11:30 from Hokatika on a beautiful spring day.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_29-L.png

Really interesting to see a few of these really wide flat valleys that must be the result from ancient glaciers.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_38-L.png

Another glacier valley (think it's close to Fox Glacier). Looks like there might be some geo issue there with what looks like Orthanc rising in the Alps on the right there.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_44-L.png

Alps are drawing closer as we near the mouth of Milford Sound.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_46-L.png

As I said in my preamble, once I entered the Sound and further on in the valley's it was hard to take snaps as I had my hands full. But here we are, in Southland with Lake McKeller ahead.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_47-L.png

A quick right turn and I though I saw a group of travellers running along the ridge line, 3 men and maybe 4 children? Who would bring kids up into this area?

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_52-L.png

Here we are now at Lake Wakatipu with Glenorchy away off to our left and Pigeon Island and Pig island ahead of me.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_49-L.png

Absolutely this this area.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_50-L.png

Waterfalls are a treat.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_53-L.png

But all good things come to an end.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_51-L.png

But there's PLENTY to see and do here in Queenstown so I'll enjoy a couple of days taking in the sites.

 

Next leg is an early morning flight @ 0630 down to Te Anui NZMO for some breakfast then on to Invercargill NZNV in the late afternoon.

 

 

Edited by OzWookiee
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

After my last take off and landing I was a little concerned so I had to get the mechanic out to fix a brake issue. Unfortunately he couldn't fix the breaks and well.. you'll see.

 

NZAR 2016

Leg Five

 

Queenstown NZQN to Invercargil NZNV

leg-05-map-L.png

A nice early morning start @ 0630 in Queenstown would have us in Te Anui around 0700 ready for breakfast and a boat tour before heading down to Invercargil at 1600.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_2-L.png

Walking out to the plane in the early dark. Mist rising off the lake and the twinkling of the street lights.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_4-L.png

Engine temps are in the green, it's time to taxi down to 23.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_5-L.png

Had a heck of a time taxiing all that way, but we're up in the blue now.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_8-L.png

Not bad for free ;)

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_9-L.png

Through this valley then a hop over the top and down to Te Anui.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_13-L.png

Incredible views. Inside and out!

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_15-L.png

Out into the plains with Te Anui out of to my right.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_17-L.png

All sorts of sights to see in New Zealand that's for sure.

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_18-L.png

Coming in nice and easy. This will be my BEST landing yet!

 

SMS_Beaver_Regular_20-L.png

... THEY TOLD ME THEY FIXED IT!!

 

Seems that my DHC-2 Beaver has picked up a slight flutter and is for the most part uncontrollable on the ground which is in stark contrast to how beautifully she flies. Thankfully they had a mechanic and workshop on site. So whilst I go off in search of breakfast and a boat tour they'll fix my birdie. Seems like an awful lot of float planes around...

 

SMS_Beaver_Amphib_1-L.png

So the mechanic traded my under gear for a pair of floats. Seems popular with the Twin Otter crowd.

 

SMS_Beaver_Amphib_2-L.png

Well off we go, should be just in time to get some "fush n chups" on the beach.

 

This post is already quite long so I'll skip most of the photos for this flight.

 

 

SMS_Beaver_Amphib_8-L.png

Since I have these floats I may as well try a water touch down...

 

SMS_Beaver_Amphib_9-L.png

...and there we go, beautifully lined up for a splash down!

 

Now that we've reached the southern most city of the South Island, we'll head back up north to Wanaka

Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...