GAAR 2011 PIREP - Leg 6

[allardjd 1,853]

GAAR 2011

LEG 6 – Alpha (YAPH) to Winton (YWTN)

Sorry guys – no actual flight photos of leg 6, for several reasons. I used the default FS9 DC-3 and the default FS9 scenery, so there’s nothing much there to see. Added to that, the WX was ugly, with constant rain over the entire route, including at both airports. The ceilings were low and I didn’t break out until about the time of turning final at Winton.

The flight was almost anti-climactic with most of the time, effort, stress and drama being in the pre-flight preps and planning.

PANEL

The first issue was instruments. As you all know, we decided on the DC-3. Being one who studiously avoids tail-draggers, I had no add-on models available and went with the FS9 default version. Its panel is, to be kind, a bit “vintage”. That didn’t seem to be the way to navigate in an event where precision flying is called for. A pop-up panel with some add-on embellishments for the old Dizzie was needed and I’m sure Donald Douglas will forgive me for what I did to her - eventually. I’ve posted an image of the pop-up elsewhere at MH, but here it is again, with a flaps indicator added since that last shot. The flap indicator in the default 3D panel requires some contortions to see, even with the TrackIR, so placing one on the pop-up was worth doing.

I routinely make custom pop-ups for the AC I fly anyway, for a number of reasons. In this case it just seemed the prudent thing to do.

GAAR TEST LEG

Having upgraded the panel, I flew the “test leg” somewhat late – in fact, after the team time had already been submitted using an average of the test times of others. I honestly hadn’t looked at that until after I did mine and was gratified to see that my own test time was only a few seconds off the submitted value. Mine was 21.48 minutes vs. a 21.53 time that Dai had turned in to the GAAR authorities previously – not a bad match; only a 0.2% error.

LOCATING WAYPOINT 1

The navigational details for Leg 6 specified…

“Navigate to Waypoint 1 – intersection of the 015 deg OB bearing from BAR NDB (bearing to, 195 deg) and the 053 deg OB radial from LRE VOR.”

That’s only a single waypoint but an odd way to derive one with simultaneous bearings off a VOR (not so bad) and an NDB (odd). It wouldn’t be too difficult if the track lay directly along one of those vectors where you’re tracking one until intercepting the other, but this wasn’t like that. Flying directly to that intersection of imaginary lines along a third imaginary line using standard panel instruments would be a bit difficult, so I elected to determine the actual coordinates of that point in space beforehand. Firing up my old, beloved FS Navigator, I was able to work that out quickly and added it as an ad hoc waypoint.

As you can see, it’s a bit off the direct path between the two airports, producing a slightly dog-legged track.

THE 12 NM PATTERN

There is some really odd verbiage in the GAAR instructions with respect to traffic patterns at the airports. They say…

"The individual Target Time includes a component based on a 12 nm circuit comprising a downwind, crosswind and final approach segments.”

…and in another place, worded slightly differently…

“…the Circuit component, which is based on a combined Downwind, Base and Final Leg of approximately 12 nm.”

Obviously it would be necessary to understand that and fly it in accordance with their instructions in order to give me the best chance of meeting their Target Time.

I loaded their flight and WX files and took a peek at the weather I would experience as part of my pre-flight plotting and planning. Their winds favored runway 14 at Winton and the instructions specified a left pattern. All that translated to a near-side approach with a left downwind course of 322 degrees.

It occurred to me that where I initiated the downwind leg was pretty much irrelevant as long as downwind, base and final totaled 12 NM. I elected to begin the base directly abeam the SE end of runway 14/32 and proceed from there, for purposes of computational simplicity. With that as a pseudo-IAF it all fell together pretty easily.

As best as I could work it out, it looked like this.

I know, I know, a bit crazy, but I’m an engineer and detest ambiguity. I wanted to know precisely what I should try to do before attempting it. It’s a character flaw.

THE FLIGHT

An inhumanly early 0500 departure time is specified, but it’s already daylight in Oz, here at Alpha. There’s not much to see at Alpha in FS and not much at Winton either, with even less between. The weather is pretty crummy, but the winds are moderate and favor runway 18, which is the departure runway specified in the instructions for the leg. It’s raining steadily and the ceilings are moderately low. Visibility below the ceiling is OK, probably about five miles. Up in the clag it will be considerably less.

I start the stopwatch on my pop-up panel a few seconds after pushing the throttles forward, no mean feat while dancing on the pedals to keep the beast straight – good job that I put it on the pop-up, which remains stationary even when using the TrackIR. I have the GAAR timer in the pop-up too, but wanted a manual one for backup – belt and suspenders (or braces, as I believe you say there).

Once the airspeed builds enough for the rudder to bite and for the elevator to have sufficient authority to raise the tail-wheel, it’s a piece of cake. The remainder of the take off and climb are pretty uneventful. I suck up the gear quickly and get on the autopilot in Heading Mode as soon as practical. Following the Australian rules, I depart straight out, climbing to 1500 feet above the terrain before beginning my turn. A climbing right turn to 330 degrees will intercept the 310 degree course line between Alpha and my solitary waypoint, which lies about 75 miles up the road.

At 2500 feet MSL I crank the heading knob over to 330 and the old bird leans into that first turn about the time we enter the cloud bases. By the time the nose comes around to where I might get a glimpse of the runway I’ve just left, there’s nothing to see in that direction but gray skies and rain. We’ve had our last clear look at the ground until on final at Winton, an hour and a half from now.

The modest cruise height of 4,500 means that I’m already settled down in cruise before turning to intercept the course line to the waypoint. I’m straight and level, carrying about 31” of manifold pressure at 2100 RPM, cowl flaps closed, indicating the required 140 KIAS and leaned to about 325 pph per side – just rich of peak on the EGTs. I reflect for a moment that I’m happy to not be paying for the gas. All the needles are in the green and the P&Ws seem happy as the ButtKicker slowly shakes the screws out of my seat.

I intercept the outbound course line and make the gentle left turn to 310 degrees. Following the track with some help from FSN, it appears that I have about 12 knots of wind, almost directly behind. I’m in the goo, with nothing to be seen ahead but dirty gray and pelting rain. Looking out the side window I see only infrequent glimpses of the featureless Microsoft/Queensland ground and an occasional small watercourse meandering about the desolation. Not a roo in sight.

The waypoint turn came and went without incident.

There is an NDB on the field at Winton and I had almost no crosswind component, so finding it couldn’t have been easier. I had the ADF tuned early with the audio on, waiting for it to come up. I didn’t even notice the needle swing before hearing the Morse at a surprising distance of nearly 70 NM. At 30 miles the SALS gauge announced Winton ahead too, providing another source of situational awareness to use in the pattern. The SALS gauge will register any airport within 30 NM of the track and none appeared for the entire flight except Alpha and Winton – no wonder they call it the outback.

APPROACH AND LANDING

Motoring on toward Winton at a modest 4,500 feet MSL in the driving rain I watched the distance come down as I neared the ToD, only about eight miles out from the airport. Carb heat on, cowl flaps half, mixture rich, prop levers forward, power right back, we quickly slipped down to 3,000 – 2,200 – 1,800 in stages, negotiating the entry turn of my carefully constructed pattern as I went and trying with little success to maintain 140 knots as long as possible.

At mid-downwind I let her slow down and dropped the legs out into the breeze. The first notch of flaps came a few seconds later, just before rolling into the base turn. I aimed for a pattern speed of 110 knots and I’m sure I must have passed through it several times without a pause as I set up the landing configuration. So much for precision flying. By the time I rolled onto the final approach course with a little help from SALS to judge the turn, I had three-quarters flaps out, all I’d need and maybe a little more.

I dropped out of the clouds, not abruptly, but with that gradual improvement in visibility from awful to merely poor. I could see the runway at about four miles and little else. It’s not that the visibility was all that bad at that point – there was just nothing else there to see. I realized once again how accustomed I’ve become to VASI lights – none here. SALS showed me a glide slope to follow as I added a large handful of power to overcome the drag of those big aluminum barn doors I had prematurely hung out in the wind and rain. Cowl flaps full open now, to keep the engines cool with a low airspeed and carrying all that power.

The rest of the trip down the glide slope was pretty normal, the Pratts howling to overcome the drag of the flaps. The wind was only 6 knots and about 20 degrees across, so even for the tail-wheel challenged, the touchdown and rollout wasn’t so bad – all of it on the pavement, if not exactly straddling the centerline of the 98 foot wide runway at Winton. I even remembered to stop the stopwatch, noting a time of 1:30:53. The big old bird rolled to a stately stop at mid-runway without hard braking, coming to rest by dumb luck almost exactly opposite the turnoff to the postage stamp sized ramp. Runway length was certainly no issue, even with only about a 5 knot headwind component.

Mission accomplished. I’m anxious to see the grading of my time on the GAAR site – that should be up tomorrow and hopefully will not be one of life’s humbling experiences.

John

EDIT:

I'd be remiss to not acknowledge the assistance of my Aussie friend VH-Mal, who I know from here at MH, but also as an AirHauler tester. You may not know that Mal is a former Australian Air Traffic Controller and knows whereof he speaks in that realm. He worked for a time at Longreach (site of that VOR that provides one of the fixes for my waypoint in this flight) and said that Winton was in their airspace.

He provided me with his advice on the 12 NM circuit issue as well as pdf copies of four real-world Australian charts of Winton and its published approaches. Those were of some considerable help in deciding how to handle that pattern.

In addition to the ATC help, he included this tidbit in one of his e-mails to me...

"You may be interested to know that Winton is famous for several historical events, one of them being that it was the place where “Waltzing Matilda” was written."

I'll bet you didn't know that.

JDA

[Tim_A 995]

Actually John, you've just given me an idea for a couple of features to add to Plan-G:

* derived intersections (make these kinds of waypoints easier)

and

* standard circuits (generate and add to fp)

[allardjd 1,853]

Cool! Where were you when I needed you?

John

[hurricanemk1c 195]

An informative leg John - thanks!

[ddavid 149]

Great editorial, John - who needs screen shots anyway?!?

I apologise for getting your time wrong - don't know what happened there, but I'll email the correct time in to GAAR.

Cheers - Dai.

[mutley 4,487]

Sorry John, I forgot to comment, probably because I was wowed by your PIREP.

A very interesting and factual post which I enjoyed reading, thanks for taking part.

Joe

[allardjd 1,853]

The score for that flight is up - 96.35. I'd hoped for better, but I guess it's not too bad.

John

[Tim_A 995]

It was the strong tailwind on the first sector. I could see from the intermediate time that I needed to throttle back a bit on the second sector, but even so, I was a minute fast. I thought about extending my downwind, but I'm notoriously bad at judging that kind of thing against the clock when wind is taken into account -- based on experience I'd have ended up adding 4 or 5 minutes, so I took the 1 minute hit. I was actually a bit surprised it scored so high.

Actually, I've noticed that my times are consistently on the fast side - I thing it's because the TwinPin climbs like a rocket and descends like a rock... (extending those flaps is just like being hit in the face with a cricket bat! Several times in practice I literally just fell out of the sky!)