Cali Valley Fields: Airhauler TandG Challenge.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I hit another "Surface Damage" airfield by random in Airhauler today in my pretty little C152, bunged it up by 50% damage despite a Greaser onto a grasser...ahem, a grass field.

There is a thread on the JF AH2 Early Access to report these "hurtful" ICAO's airfield designations...so...

 

So, using Little Nav Map I set up a Slightly meandering route throughout the Southern Central California Valley to ID any other "surprises" in my home range. I started a new Airhauler company because I expect to bang the shit out of some poor aircraft along the way, might as use a throw away plane in a toss-able company...well...a Nice Throwaway plane, a Mooney Ovation as it will make short work of all the short legs, and blaze through the long ones as well.

I scrolled around the LNMap and 'appended' every small field I could find listed. I may have missed a few, and I of course ignored any Larger "Municiple" type airfield, unless it was directly along the route, in which case, why not as it is just one more landing fee after all? I might have missed one or two...not certain I tagged them all, but If I see anything along the route not on my flight plan, i'll Append it manualy  

 

Viola...96 Touch and goes to go! (Update: Found a bunch more ...make that 130 Touch and Goes, still ignoring large fields). 

 

Challenge Accepted!

 

Update:

I knocked out 20 of them so far...man...this is going to take a while, and it's a bit nerve wracking spotting these dirt and grass things camouflaged amidst the farm fields...fun fun.

 

For example:

 

and:

 

So far, 0 damage out of 20.

Edited December 23, 2017 by Captain Coffee

[brett 2,315]

Nice approach shots.  Probably going to be a fun trip although the flight plan has that look of an Etch-a-Sketch after being thrown in the back of a pickup truck. 

 

I agree some of those small strips can be hard to find, I have flown in circles above where I think there and never saw them so just had to guess and hope it was the right place. Maybe that's what they look like in the RW but you would think the owners would mark them somehow. Flags, barrels, tires marks, something. 

 

I'm still using PlanG as the LNM looks too busy for my tastes but I have heard others saying it's great. What does it have that PlanG doesn't? 

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I have never used Plan G, so have no idea of the differences...would love someone to chime in with pros and cons of both as well.

 

What I like about LNM is it's graphic ease of spotting fields...click anyone and get full info about it on a side pane, procedures, radios, ils, field general info...scroll into a field and all the parking spots are shown and labeled, and they match so far the positions in Airhauler so no more guessing where my plane is going to start when I pop into the sim.

Creating a route is simple: rt clik a parking spot at a field and designate it as your start position, rt clik your destination field and set it as destination. From there adding waypoints is as simple as clicking on the nav line and then dragging it to a new field or random spot...it auto adds in the correct sequence...which made setting up my Etch-a-scetch route very very easy...even after finding 30+ more fields along the way later on.

Once the route waypoints are roughly set I can see if any altitude obstructions are in my way, and it will suggest the safe cruise height for each leg, as well as overall safe height for the entire route. For my new C152II this is a godsend as I have a pretty hard limit of 8,500 feet max that I can coax that birdy too without it's nose pointing absurdly high...this feature allowed me to set 30 waypoints along the highway between Reno and my Vaccaville base and showed that I could crest the highest "low point" at Donner pass with enough room to spare...barely...but I got through :).

 

Evidence:

 

 

 

 

The flight plans all save automatically to my FSX routes location, and it auto generates a sensible name for them. (VFR-KRNO-KVBC.pln for example)...and all the waypoints load up in FSX without a hitch...even my 130 legger here.

 

It's making my Airhauler start up procedures much simpler...now during the create flight portion all I do is verify that I have the correct GMT time set and I am at the correct park spot per LNM, then I ignore all the rest of the Airhauler settings and start the sim/flight, after loading my LNM flight plan once I am in the VC there is no further "Sim Loading" other than the flight plan as I am already in the correct spot on the terrain.

 

Oh, and update, knocked out a futher 25 fields last night before bed, switched to the C152 as I got tired of pulling the gear up for short little legs, and some of these fields are a bit short and rough for it.

Edited December 23, 2017 by Captain Coffee

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Busy busy day of flying...currently at 28CA after leg 66 of now 140+ legs...yes, I found more fields to visit.

 

My little bruised (after a couple hard landings in the foothills) C152 is the Bell of the Ball at this all Cubby field.

 

"Bruised?" you say, "Show me where the naughty ground touched you" you say?

I'll show you were the ground touched me...right there in the foothills at Manzanita, 6CL4, the toughest spot so far to approach and land, surrounded by low hills that made go arounds as challenging as the landing:

It took three attempts to make a smooth landing here, I was determined to do so after a Very Hard landing on the first attempt that knocked down 38% of my aircraft "condition".

 

I have not yet found a "Surface Damage" type of "Airhauler bugged" field yet...so far so good. I've ID'd no bogeys, still, I'm pretty pleased with this venture so far, if you like shooting approaches to tiny fields, this is the kind of route for you. Plus after 50+ landings and over 22 hours in this little C152, I can say that I have it pretty well dialed in, and I have definitely gotten my 8 dollars worth out of it.  

 

Cheers,

Coff

 

P.S...in case anyone was dreading this...I am NOT planning to post 166 approach screenshots here.  

Edited December 24, 2017 by Captain Coffee

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I hit one of the Bugged/Terrain unrecognized fields that I was talking about at 87CA:

Ouch! 62% damage!

 

But wait...am I 100% centered?

external view says not ...quite...one wheel on center, maybe I'll try again to be certain.

 

OUCH! Yep...certain, and on Center, and another 65% damage to my air frame.

 

In insurance terms...Totaled:

 

87CA goes on the list of Naughty Airfields.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I finished the route today/this Xmas evening.

 

I think it was rather productive. 

 

Below is every small airport along the route area that showed "Ok, Smooth, Greaser" with out a "Surface Type" notification, but which showed a Forest, Urban, or Grass (Bumpy) Surface type after closing the flights and reviewing all my landings in my Airhauler personal flight log.

 

"Forest"
CA13
44CL
6CL4
87CA
90CA
C14
40CL
CA71
6CL9
08CL
5CL3
6CL4
3CA5
CA13
O10
CA64

"Urban"
13CL
12CA
8CL2
26CA
5CA8
CA19
CN44
66CL
7CA6
6CA7
28CA
48CN
11CA
9CL5
CA69
10CL
55CL
97CA
9CA0

"Grass (Bumpy)"

34CN
CA03
15CL
9CL1
35CL
CA32
7CL0
8CL9
49CL
77CA
0CL0
CL24
42CN

"Unknown"
89CA
77CL

 

All of the above reported to Slopey on the EA board for removal/exclusion from Surface damage effects.

 

Now...the north Valley...only about 60 or so fields up that way. And I have two new Xmas sale planes to take them on:

 

A2A has a 25% off sale, so I picked up their C182 Accusim Skylane:

 

 

plus MilViz has a 30% off sale so I got the Otter one I was hoping for this season, their DHC-3 Otter.

 

 

(although I suspect I'll get quickly tired of repairing both and revert to the C152 for this particular Land/Bash Test Project.)

 

All my Christmas presents are in the above 4 shots, Alabeo M20 Ovation, Carenado C152II, plus the two new ones.

 

Merry Christmas all.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Captain Coffee

[wain 879]

seems like a right challenge you have set yourself there Matt, I see you have added some nice craft to your hangar, currently looking at Otters as my Aerosoft is quite old, not sure if Milviz or JF is any better though......

 

LNM- I am using this also, currently use the moving map on my small 7 inch screen whilst flying, even shows Ai traffic, one thing though is I can't seem to get the map to go big whilst planning, any suggestions?

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

8 hours ago, wain said:

seems like a right challenge you have set yourself there Matt, I see you have added some nice craft to your hangar, currently looking at Otters as my Aerosoft is quite old, not sure if Milviz or JF is any better though......

 

LNM- I am using this also, currently use the moving map on my small 7 inch screen whilst flying, even shows Ai traffic, one thing though is I can't seem to get the map to go big whilst planning, any suggestions?

 

 

...I went with the MilViz Otter because

A. I am a bit tired now of (JF's very good contractor for many of their addons) Aeroplane Heaven's interiors which look wonderful but have many many dummy or redundant misnamed switches...some models have up to 4 versions of "Panel Light" switches scattered about on random panels for example. Not bashing their wonderful products, I just felt that buying their Otter would be a similar experience to flying their C46 ...and was looking for a change of pace visually. I noticed from screen shots that the JF Otter was "very clean" looking as well and the MilViz textures looked more "used"...sold.

 

B. I am a huge Milviz helicopter fan (Milviz/Nemeth Ch47 and MilViz CH54 are my #1 and #2 favs) and support them whenever something in their range falls into my Use-range, and occasionally I go outside my preferred aircraft range during their sales (F100, and T38 for example are in my hangar but rarely used). I hope to keep nudging them to create the Fairey Rotodyne... that Retro Hybrid of a STOL plane and Helicopter, and I mention it every chance I get on their Facebook page when they make a post where I can slip it in...I have made myself their official Rotodyne suggesting Troll on FB. I think they would be the best dev to make that addon, and someone should...In my trollish opinion.

Without doing a full review, the Milviz Otter seems to have an authentic startup procedure that I have manged to start, but am still not sure why (still haven't read the manual...f me I am just that way...a character flaw or something). I haven't found any Dummy movable switches but there are a couple "Inop" switches/rotary things here and there...but all systems seem modeled, and it has actual Light dimmers for night flying not just Panel/Overheads on/off. The MilViz manager for it supports lots of addon GPS units like Mindstar, Fligtht1, RXP, or MilViz stock 530/430 unit...which works just fine. It flys as I expected an Otter to...like a fat slow rugged helium filled thing that slows to an impossible near stall speed and lands on a nickel, and rumbles and clanks while doing it...oh, and it really clanks if you push the MP to far forward,...nice, I will try to blow up the motor soon and see if that ominous sound has teeth, or strips gear teeth perhaps?.

BTW, no pressure, but the MilViz sale ends Midnight EST Boxing day, Dec 26th...ie...tonight.

 

I found that by accident how to enlarge the LNM main map...double click it's top window frame and it pops out. From there you can drag the corners and resize it. I max it out on the other monitor while planning...freaking nice. To think I have been using the in FSX nav planner for 4 years.

/bonks self on head

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by Captain Coffee

[wain 879]

thanks Matt great help, just missed the sale............

 

sorry Aerosoft is Twotter so it's a different thing all together..........

 

have to keep me eye on milviz one......