Andras Meridian VA flightlogs

[Tobus[NL] 28]

Hi All,

 

4 Flyers of Andras Meridan VA, or AMA for short, are contending.

All 4 of us are flying the A2A Piper Comanche 240 in our air taxi livery, spiced up with some MEBAR2018 nose art.

Below we will file our flightlogs should we wish to (well, at least I will), but we have also agreed to do this only after the due date of each flight so not to give spoilers on the navigational part.

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Tobus[NL]

[needles 1,013]

Nice livery Toby, you won't lose each other with that colour livery. Enjoy this years MEBAR.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

16 minutes ago, needles said:

Nice livery Toby, you won't lose each other with that colour livery. Enjoy this years MEBAR.

Thanks Needles. Courtesy of our COO and house painter Thorsten, who did a very nice job on our air taxi livery and our MEBAR nose arts.

[Thorsten42 3]

Hi fellow Mebar pilots,

 

to make the list complete we present our Mebar2018 fleet. Thanks to the Mebar team for setting up this event.

 

Cheers

Thorsten

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Thorsten42

[NobbyNoMates 21]

Great Aircraft. ( I have it myself )

Very impressive liveries!

Love them all. 

 

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Terrific looking fleet. Are you folks going to attempt any multiplayer MEBAR legs and fly those together?

[needles 1,013]

Great set of textures.

[mutley 4,498]

That is the best fleet we have ever had for the MEBAR, thanks!

[serolrom 5]

Now that's a fleet!

So much taste.

[Thorsten42 3]

Many thx guys... what to say... we love mebar, flying, bunnies...

 

Cheers

Thorsten

[Tobus[NL] 28]

4 hours ago, Captain Coffee said:

Terrific looking fleet. Are you folks going to attempt any multiplayer MEBAR legs and fly those together?

we already did: flight #1 with 3 flyers, flight #2 with 2. So yes, trying, although longer flights and individual real life stuff may clash a bit ;-)

[Tim_A 997]

Love the liveries & nose art 

[cporses 50]

love the nose art.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

Flight #1
25th march
Flyers Toby, Gernot and Dirk

 

 

In our AMA air taxi liveries, although Dirk's was the only one on which the nose art was complete at that time.

Normal VFR pattern, climb 3000, GRM intercept, running OB radial 174

Error in planning, 31.9nm instead of 39.1nm. Lucky to fly online so corrected to roughly the correct wpt1. Both seem to be rivers though crossing the radial.

 

 

 

 

Turn to 275 to get to wpt2, tuning in Notodden NDB and setting SKI VOR with OBS 337. 
After passing the large body of water climb to 4000 as the terrain started to slowly rise.
Now just follow the NDB at 275 and wait until the needle swings over the middle on the OBS.
Wpt should be the town of Notodden, just north of lake xxx.

Over notodden steer 315 to wpt3, tune KLD VOR and set OBS to 140. Climb 5000.

 

 

 

 

Wpt3 seems to be town of Bjorkaug. After passing turn around the mountain next to the town deep in the valley turn to wpt4.

 

 

 

 

Wpt4 should be the town of Seljord, off lake yyy. Although that does not show so i guess scenery files are off the deep end here. Will check for later flights. Terrain rising again but holding my lvl of 5000ft. 

 

 

 

To ENSN, tuning SKI VOR again and taking a direct heading towards it, course 120.
10nm out descend to 2200, then for traffic pattern at 5nm to 1400.

 

 

Perfect landing, time 81.35

Dirk landed ahead of me and Gernot a little later, but has to fly again as he forgot to set his timer.

 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Tobus[NL]

[Dirk Nijdam 6]

It is fun flying together and see how little different our flight plans are.

I am Having great fun flying this MEBAR.

Take a look at some pictures I made this 1th flight.

Edited March 31, 2018 by Dirk Nijdam

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks for sharing, it does look like you guys are having a great time!

[Gernot Zoeller 2]

6 hours ago, mutley said:

Thanks for sharing, it does look like you guys are having a great time!

 

You bet, that's what flightsimming is all about. At least at Andras Meridian Airlines.

 

Thanks for organizing this event and inviting us to participate.

I had lots of fun inspite of the ugly weather up there in Norway.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

 

Flight #2
26th march
With Dirk

 

Planned the route again with plan-g, getting ever more proficient with it. Never knew I could track a radial from a station with that :-D.

And now my mount is also showing it's nose art.

Normal pattern, climbing then over the field to intercept SKI VOR, running radial 296 and setting radio to DME to follow on 58.3nm. Soon terrain started rising but remaining at 4000ft. At 38nm out of SKI, I didnt feel safe anymore and climbed to 5000ft.

 

 

 

 

With the timer at around 28min I turned towards 165, wpt2, tuning SKI VOR and NTD NDB and tuning their needles to intersect at 270 and 054 respectively. Although set up in GPS now and mostly hand flying the magenta line or nav radial, it’s still good to see if no mistakes were made. Passed the water just south of ENRY to turn to 262, wpt3, at 40min on timer.

 

 

 

 

 

Halfway to wpt3 climb to 6000 due to ever rising terrain. After only a short stint turn to 222 for wpt4.

 

 

On course I set ap to HD and tuned my radios to ZOL VOR , OBS to 113 and NDB to LST. At this altitude and the world between the clouds below white as snow, VFR is out the window, so reverting to IFR navigation on my planned GPS courses and checking that with the VOR and NDB settings from the briefing. Dirk, flying on a higher cruise setting of 22” 22 with me on a more economical 20” 20, passed me 5nm before wpt4.

 

With the needle on OBS 113 passing the middle I turned towards wpt5, heading 355. Still I have empty riverbeds where Plan-G let’s me expect water. Bummer, but glad I didn’t decide to go full VFR like last year’s MEBAR, where the waypoints were more in the range of mountaintops and river crossings.

Tuning the STD VOR and putting in heading 140 on the OBS. Now going towards our destination, with a little sidestep. With both tanks at ¾ the engine is happily purring away. This A2A Comanche is one of my all time favorite sim aircraft, such a fine beast to fly.

 

With a patch of clear I could see I was a bit off on my plot so turned towards the end of the Fjord that was my calculated wpt5. After that and letting the needle pass the middel, I put the OBS on the TO course of 320 and followed the VOR to our final destination.

 

 

 

 

44nm out of ENSO I descended a little, from 6000 back to 5000, to get more view on the ground. I also move a little to the left to fly above water and not get in the way of the big pointy rocks below. 14nm Out started descent to 1000 for approach. A quick reload of scenery as my ageing rig has trouble keeping up with all this graphical A2A and Orbx violence. Dirk, some 3 minutes ahead of me, reported to do a flaps up landing as his left flap would not extend.  Gotta love A2A, that’ll teach you to do proper walk around and start up procedures… Nice landing after normal right hand pattern to rwy 15 and a time of 102.51.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Tobus[NL]

[Dirk Nijdam 6]

Like Toby sed, You gotta love A2A aircraft. If you don,t handle her well they will let you down

When extending the flaps 1 position the right wing did go up forcing me to make a left turn.

So had to make a flaps up landing but made it just in time to make it to a full stop.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

Flight #3
30 march
Flying alone

 

Easy startup in light rain, take off from 15 and a right turn out of traffic, intercept STD VOR and follow 063 outbound while climbing to 7000ft.
Just short of wpt1 terrain came up so climbed on to 8000ft. With my no water in scenery problems seemingly resolved I turn towards wpt2 at the end of a fjord and over the town of Tyssedal.

 

 

To wpt2 a long leg over white country between the clouds below me. I’m probably way too fast at this altitude and the wind on my tail, but the next legs will probably correct that as they are into the wind. Oh well, I’m in this for the navigational challenge, not persé on the speed score. Wpt2 is a hill south of a fjord and the town of Rodberg. Not that I could see though, because again no water where I’d expect it. Dammit. So turning on navigated waypoint in GPS and turning towards wpt3.

 

Wpt3 is Hamar airfield, but since there’s also a NDB there, I just tuned that and rode the bearing in. On reaching Hamar field visible but again large body of water missing. Getting frustrated… timer now on 75min.

 

 

Turning sharply to the left for wpt4, heading 256 for an intercept on VOR and NDB beacons again. I feel stuff from the 2017 is missing, like heading xxx for yy miles, or T&G’s on other fields. Oh well… Still having fun. I like this flightlevel of 8000, just above the fluffy stuff, and the Comanche is just purrrrrrrrrrrfectly purring away. Timer at 103, passing wpt 4 on the river bank.

 

 

 

Turning slightly to 263 for wpt5, slightly shorter legs now on the last part of this trip.
Tuned FLS VOR to catch the 080 OB on the OBS, about 50nm of here. Also the VNG NDB beacon for triangulation. Although basically following my GPS on this flight, I still like to see the numbers line up as expected on the old school navigational equipment. The wpt is the town of Tveid at the end of a fjord, which luckily now holds water for me.

 

 

 

Wpt 6 seems to be a general point between some mountains. On the way passing a large bridge in a fjord, wonderfully shown now. Reached it with timer on 131.

 

 

Now to wpt7 and the final parts of our journey. I calculated this point to be at the end of fjord, just east of the town of Matre. A short stint of 21nm before heading into our destination of Bringeland.

 

 

 

Timer 150, we are now heading 010 to Bringeland. Having tuned to the local NDB should be easy enough to navigate to, but the double ILS and NDB on the map tell me the landing can be challenging there. When over the big fjord going there starting my descent for a bit.
On the other side the moutains were scratching the clouds, but all in all I got a decent view of ENBL and decided on a normal lefthand VFR pattern and landing on rwy07. With a nice touchdown on a heavy crosswind, the timer stopped at 164.49. Welcome to Bringeland, time for lunch!

Edited April 3, 2018 by Tobus[NL]

[needles 1,013]

Excellent work chaps. Your a/c and screenshots look great, thanks for sharing.

[wain 879]

nice work, great shots and some nice artwork too....

[brett 2,315]

Great PIREP's so far, have enjoyed reading them.

[Tobus[NL] 28]

On 4-4-2018 at 19:26, brett said:

Great PIREP's so far, have enjoyed reading them.

Thanks! #4 incoming ;-)

[Tobus[NL] 28]

Flight #4
April 1st
Flying alone

 

A quick look at the weather settings and I knew: this was going to be an IMC flight, definately no VFR stuff. So after starting the engine and letting her warm I decided to go full GPS on this, letting the AP do it’s thing with me checking the old school radio’s just for reference and fun. After the warm up I taxied to the runway and did the engine checks. With the engine working better with carb heat on I knew I’d be in for a weathery ride: one I tend to stay away from in real life flying.

 

 

After a normal take off from rwy25 a left hand pattern, then out, on course and climb to 7000. With the Comanche’s climbing power at 85kt indicated, I was at the 7000 initial in no time and settled in on a nice eco cruise of 20-20. After 14 minutes on the timer I sensed 7000ft wasn’t going to cut it, so I popped up the nose and went back to climb settings, settling in at 9000ft. Wpt1 should be a point within lakes, but with all the clouds and white mountainous terrain below me I couldn’t make it out.

 

 

 

 

On to wpt2 then, calculated as a NS stretch of water in a canyon with a small town in it. Staying at 9000ft and keeping me out of the fluffy stuff, some of which might contain granite cores. A short time later I got to wpt2, showing indeed what I expected. Nice.

 

 

 

Wpt3, calculated as a joining of rivers east of a mountain. Slight course relay to 355 degrees.
Only a short hop of 13nm before a long one of 72nm. No joining of rivers could be seen through the clouds, so on we go.

 

 

 

Wpt4 should be south of a Fjord and west of ENSU airfield. With 72nm to go, I set the heater a little higher since the cabin got a little chilly. Nothing much than clouds over white landscapes. You’d expect springtime to have arrived here and setting in a thaw?
With the fjord at wpt4 too covered in clouds to see, the GPS tells me ENSU is indeed on my right beneath the cloud. With 70 on the timer I’m turning towards wpt5.

 

 

 

Wpt5 should be NW of a long shaped lake, though I doubt I’ll be able to see it through the clouds. I feel happier hand flying VFR, in general. Passed the clouded in point at 82 on the timer.

 

Now on to our destination of ENFA. Situated on the south of what seems to be a large flat island and the ground obscured by clouds, I decide to descend when reaching the big island in front of it. For reference purposes I tune my NAV radios to TRM and KVB, setting OBS to 100 IB and 217 IB respectively. The crossing of those radials should mark the airfield.

 

 

Upon passing the island before ENFA started descent. With the ceiling at 1700 but visibility a mere 3SM I do not envision much hinder on a visual landing, but still I’m wary as I don’t know the specific surroundings. And sure enough, no worries. Could make at the runway at 1000ft, made a normal VFR pattern: enter on middle of the runway, turn perpendicular, do downwind checks, turn base with landing point 45deg behind, turn final, textbook landing.
Timer at 100.92. Welcome to soggy Flatval!
 

 

With more flights alone than flown together like we had planned, we AMA flyers are talking about doing an unofficial and online flight #6 some time soon.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Tobus[NL]