GREENBRIER VIRTUAL AVIATION

A routine return

2012-02-13T13:16:00.001-05:00

After dropping my guys and their part off in Knoxville it was time to head back to Hot Springs with the Baron. I added a bit of fuel, had a snack and headed back to the plane.

Climbing out of KDKX around 4:45pm. The flight should take about an hour and a half, so it should be almost dark when I arrived.

Naturally the wind is favoring runway 25, so I'll be flying past the airport over there and turn back in to land.

Gear's down and I'm lining up for that green light way off in the distance.

Moments from touchdown. I taxied in and wrapped up a long but successful day in the Baron. Bunny will be pleased I'll bet.

Back by Rail

2012-02-13T12:18:00.010-05:00

Finally found the Cessna 337 in a hangar with the cowling off the front engine. I saw a mechanic working over at a bench on the other side of the hangar and asked him what was wrong with the 337. He turned around and said " It's broke! " No kidding was my thoughts. Found out that the #1 cylinder was bad and it will be a few days before the acft. will be back in service....... Called the boss back in Townsville and asked him how I will get back. He said you could take the train or thumb a ride. Very funny was my reply. I looked up the flight schedules and found out that most of the airlines have limited schedules out of Rockhampton, so I decided to take the train.

I decided to take the "Tilt Train" and it was scheduled to leave at 18:30 that evening...... Jezzzz, the above picture is me running to board and as you can see by the clock that I almost missed it.

As you can see the seats are very comfortable and they even have TV screens above. These trains are similar to being on an commercial airliner, they even have "Train attendants" You get the same kind of service. Even the meals are the same :)

Here we are on our way picking up speed once we left Rockhampton. These trains will cruise at 160km/hr (100mph). The ride is very smooth and quiet as the tracks are well maintained.

One thing about taking a train is that you can see some beautiful scenery. The reason they call them "Tilt Trains" is because they actually "Tilt" while going around the sharper bends. The reason being that either the outer track is raised, just like a curve on a highway. They trains are electric from Brisbane to Rockhampton and Diesel from Rockhampton to Cairns.

The above pics I took of the Computer panel and the Control panel. I hope you enjoyed the train ride......

SOMETIMES YA JUST GOTTA BE A TOURIST

2012-02-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

You might remember (or not) that I had flown two technicians from Greenbrier Electronics up to Niagara Falls NY to install a new (and extremely expensive) HPLC, a piece of quality control lab test equipment. We had landed in a driving snow storm in mid-Feburary. My story continues...

One of the great things about flight simming is that we can tweak things when we want. Some call it stretching the truth. I call it--it's my dang flight simulator. lol

Leaving Buffalo Airfield 9G0, a small paved strip just outside of Buffalo NY on a crisp fall day.

Enjoying some of the scenery around Buffalo courtesy of Aerosoft's U.S. Cities X.

An old man's mental wanderings: In 1985 I was involved in a long term transportation project for the chemical company for which I worked. The project involved (in part) accompanying tank trucks of an extremely hazardous liquid chemical as an "on the spot" hazardous spill response team. We used to drive past this stadium (you sports fans know the name of this one, I don't) almost daily on the New York State Thruway shown below. What made it interesting is that the Buffalo Bills used this field as their summer/fall practice field, maybe their actual game site for all I know. We had a large selection of short wave radios mounted in our vehicles and one of them was always tuned to the same frequency the coaches used for communication while practice sessions were being held.

Enough digression, thank you for your patience.

Ahh yes, the reason for this flight. Enjoy the Falls.

Nearing the end of my flight and approaching Lockport (it lies right on the old Erie Canal) NY and my landing at 0G0, Buffalo Suburban Airport. Tomorrow back to reality--so to speak.

NOTAM: As mentioned above, I was using Aerosoft's U.S. Cities X as my scenic add-on for this flight and I have to confess to being less than whelmed with the water effects at Niagara Falls. Even with the slider for water effects all the way right as desired by the boffins at Aerosoft, the only visible water effect was the actual falls themselves. I had hoped that the rapids approaching the falls, the mist, and the foaming, frothing water below the falls would have been in motion too. Alas, it was not to be.

Flight Plan Tools

2012-02-12T22:04:00.003-05:00

I have attempted to put a set of videos to explain some of the tools I use to plan a flight. It's suppose to be a 3 part series, starting with these four sets of videos. There are four videos about 5 minutes each. This was an attempt to explain as best and as quick as possible what I do in planning a schedule flight. In speaking fast, I might have made a few mistakes, but you will get the gist of what I was trying to explain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gSJZTXzNn8&list=PLCD8AC06F75CF1565&feature=view_all

2nd Leg of Routine Flight

2012-02-12T19:23:00.000-05:00

We've got the part loaded and I taxi out to KPAH's runway 22 and we take off, again IFR, this time for Knoxville, TN

Climbing out at 500fpm for 7000'. I noted that a few of you are not familiar with Radar Contact, so I thought this flight I'd tell you a bit about it.

I'm doing this because I forgot one thing about it during this flight. Before you fly you can set RC up so that it will automatically pause your flight so many miles from you destination. You decide how many based on your altitude etc. In this case I had it set to 80 miles. After reaching 7000' I set it so my "RC copilot" would handle the radios and fly the plane. I went off and did other things. Later when I returned my flight was paused 80 miles out. I saved it and finished the flight later. What I had forgotten was you have to save while the plane is flying...not in pause. It has to be that way to save a .rcd file which has all of the info RC needs to continue when you bring the flight back up.

I mistakenly saved it in pause and had to finish this flight VFR with regular FSX ATC, but the weather at Knoxville was okay to do that so no big deal. As you can see it was a tad hazy, but I had my charts and had no trouble.

Here I'm on final for KDKX, Knoxville's Downtown Island airport. You can just barely see the downtown buildings in the haze.

Beneath our plane was suburban countryside. We landed and I delivered my passengers.

Pilots Needed

2012-02-12T12:59:00.010-05:00

Woke up early this morning and had my usual, peanut butter on toast, yogurt and a cup of java. Then off to the office. When I arrived, two pilots were sitting at the bosses desk not looking very happy and took a seat next to them. I was told to ferry them to Rockhampton airport this morning using the Piper Cheyenne and pick up the Cessna 337 and bring it back. Rockhampton needed a couple of pilots to fly the Cheyenne for them due to the increase in their busines as they only used Cessna 208's. I went out to do the preflight while they gathered up their gear. Soon we were off to Rockhampton airport.

We flew VFR and low so we could see the scenery. It was a beautiful morning for this as the morning sun reflected of the water. The only problem here is that we were using more gas than the boss would have liked.

Letting down as we approached Rockhampton.

Lining up for the approach and trying to slow this beast down.

Looks like a nice airport with a control tower.

I had to ask ground where "Air Capricorn" was located because we could not see it as we taxi. He gave us instructions to it and when we arrived, the two pilots remarked " That's it, the little shack with the trailer in front!" I just had to jokingly say something here "Ya guys and that is your hotel where you will be staying" They didn't think that was funny at all. Actually the trailer is for the ground crew, who by the way, makes a mean cup of coffee......Found out later that it is a very busy airport with 750K passengers a year and is the gateway to central Australia. It is capable of handling wide body aircraft for Qantas and Tiger Airways.

After having my coffee and donut (Had more that one, they were good) and small talk with the ground crew, I went off in search of the Cessna 337.

GVA flight to KSDF with 3 scouts to the Louisville Syracuse Game

2012-02-12T12:28:00.008-05:00

I loaded about 220 lbs. of fuel for the 260nm trip. Taking off from Lewisburg, first stop is Raleigh to pick up 3 scouts that have been in town to talk with Jon Wall, the outstanding high school point guard.

I expect to hear lots of inside information on the flight to Louisville. With the March Madness tournament only a few weeks away this Big East game between Syracuse and Louisville will be a good one.

The first thing after I land in Raleigh will be to wipe that bug splat off my windscreen. What’s a bug doing flying around in 32 degree weather? I can see the guys outside the gate; this will be a quick down and up.

About 25 miles out of Raleigh we overfly Logon County 6L4. That looks like one tough approach; I’ll have to come back here when I have more time.

It’s about 200 miles from Raleigh to Louisville. Here we are overflying LEX Lexington; with 50 miles to go it’s time to get up and down with Lex Approach. They give us 35R with an IAF at brbon intersection, I looked at my chart and that is about 17 miles out with no procedural turn, straight in over flat terrain.

We are cleared to land, just a few planes in line waiting to take off. I guess most people are staying in town for the big game tomorrow, I know I’ll be there.

CHECK THIS PAGE

2012-02-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

Johnny Rosario GVA012 has put a couple of interesting links up on the Comments Page. I find the wx site to be almost indispensable. Check them out now.

FUELPLAN²

2012-02-12T09:22:00.005-05:00

By the way, don't know if some of you take a look at the comments and discussion section, but last week I posted this link http://fuel.aerotexas.com/ which allows you to put your departure, arrival airports, your equipment, and calculates your load sheet for you. It has the J41 listed, and it provided the correct fuel required to minimize the error we all make of flying with a full tank which is not realistic in the real world. Below you can see the sheet it printed out for me for my latest flight from Lewisburg to Washington DC. As you can clearly see, I based my diversion decision on having to plan correctly and adding the recommended fuel load. Hopefully you can find the link useful for your next flight.

Training with full crew and passengers

2012-02-11T19:09:00.018-05:00

Now that the J41 has passed FAA inspection and certification, I was told that I can return to WV to finish my last week of training.

To my surprise a few modification has been upgraded, to include additional paint work, and a replacement of the cockpit instrument panel. Never the less, I think she will represent GVA where ever she goes.

I'm flying with Captain John Cordova, who came with me from Seattle to spend a week in WV, helping me complete my training. We are flying some passengers and cargo from Greenbrier to Washington DC.

We flew autopilot most of the way following a plan loaded into the FMS. Flight level was 15,000 feet, total of 180 nm. We had a slight delay entering DC airspace, and were diverted due to military activity in the area, but eventually we were given the okay for landing on RWY 01 at KDCA.

We arrived at the gate, unloaded the passengers and baggage, and headed into the debrief room to go over my performance today. Over all, I say it was a successful flight, but still have a few things to iron out before I'm totally comfortable to take on passengers on my own without the instructor.

Routine Flight

2012-02-11T17:55:00.002-05:00

Two men from a local company near Hot Springs, VA are flying to Paducah, KY to pick up a part, and then we'll head to Oak Ridge, TN (actually Knoxville's the closest airport) where I'll leave them to install it.

We are out of KHSP just after 9am in the Baron. I'll be climbing to 8000' and because of weather ahead we're IFR.

The clouds appear on schedule and we bounce along through them and cross a time zone along the way. This is a longer flight than we like to take in the Baron, but it was what we had available and the guys are happy to be on there way.

We're down under the clouds for our approach into Paducah. I'll be flying the ILS for runway 4.

Almost down. We arrived, taxied in to the FBO where a van was waiting with the small but apparently vital part.

NOTAM: This was just an average flight, but I was pleased because I was using Radar Contact again after abandoning it a few months back. I was having trouble using it in my computer, but since have learned what really uses my resources, namely AI aircraft & extreme clouds and rain/snow. The clouds didn't bother us in this plane, and I had the AI from Ultimate Traffic off, so RC worked very well. I'll be trying it with other aircraft now. Despite having to relearn RC, JD told me I did a perfect job on this flight...whewww!

We're going Off Island, back to Lewisburg

2012-02-11T11:18:00.009-05:00

We were all ready to go, baggage loaded and I am up with the tower. Boston Center has cleared us VFR west departure. We brought along some donuts and 2 thermoses with coffee so I planned a pit stop about 1.5 hours out.

The return trip will be down the north shore of the sound. It will give us an easy leg into Caldwell, our pit stop. Here we are flying over Stonington CT.

Boston Center has handed us off to New York approach. Ahead of the plane is Bridgeport; this field was really busy years ago with the Sikorski factory on the field. We just received clearance thru the New York airspace direct Caldwell.

KCDW Caldwell in Essex County is a nice field with about 200 aircraft, mostly single engine. This is where John F Kennedy Jr. had his Piper Saratoga. All the approaches are GPS, flat and unobstructed. I had just enough fuel with a little reserve so we’ll refuel during our stop. Fueled up and I am ready to go but where are my passengers? "C’mon people, we still have 350 miles to go."

An hour and a half flying south after our stop at Caldwell we are passing over KDMW Carroll County Regional. Everybody is looking forward to getting back to Lewisburg, I won’t tell them we still have about 200 miles to go.

Lewisburg, " wake up everybody; trays in their up right positions, seat belts on, we’ll be down in a few minutes. That was a really nice 3 days “on island”."

AS REAL AS IT GETS

2012-02-11T11:10:00.000-05:00

Greenbrier Electronics (the real world name has been changed in the recent past) manufactures, among other electronic test equipment, a piece of laboratory equipment called a HPLC--a high pressure liquid chromatograph. In case you are not familiar with HPLC's (I thought everybody had one at home), it is a piece of test equipment used in quality control laboratories to analyze whatever chemical product a manufacturing company may make. A HPLC is used whenever a product sample cannot be tested by normal lab methods--which usually involve heat and would destroy the test sample and/or give a false result. A basic HPLC costs in the range of a high end basic piston twin aircraft, think something like a Beech Baron..new...with the luxury interior...and IFR panel.

So much for school today.

I picked up a charter for two technicians from Greenbrier Electronics, along with a new HPLC (they're disappointingly small and plain looking) for an new installation at a chemical plant near Niagara Falls. Enjoy the ride--as much as possible.

Climbing out of Lewisburg in the early morning into clear and calm skies.

I just can't pass up a good con-trail shot. I've got my commercial airline sliders set pretty far up (way too far actually) and got this great shot. I'm cruising at FL190 here. What was so cool about this shot, to me at least, is that the morning sun was reflecting off the AI traffic up there and I could see the airliners glinting and sparkling in the sun.

So much for the fun and scenic part of our flight. About 50 miles out of Niagara Falls IAG. The forecast for IAG is wind 040 16 gusting 24 ceiling 700 ft agl visibility one mile in moderate snow. In other words, just barely above minimums.

On short final here with a nice displaced approach thrown in just for fun. Although they don't really do anything, I've got every de-icer on and working overtime.

On taxi in to the general aviation terminal. You can see how short the visibility is. I was hoping for a scenic approach over the Falls but that sure didn't work out.

Ahh, here we are. I'll unload my greatly relieved passengers, their delicate and sensitive piece of equipment (Dear Lord, please don't let us drop it) and then I'm going to head for Balough's in the Falls (the place for Buffalo wings and a beef on weck sandwich).

Portsmouth back to the Vineyard Night Flight

2012-02-10T21:25:00.007-05:00

We had a really nice time visiting with Suzy. We let it get a little late so we’ll be going back in the dark. We filed direct to the Vineyard with Boston Center; they told us we could go over or around, we chose the coastal route so they vectored us out to the east.

Leaving Pease we asked for 4500 feet, Boston Center vectored us out off the coast and we settled in for the hour ride to the Vineyard.

It was really dark with no moon; we passed over Gloucester, another great seaport and than over Mass Bay. You can just make out some lights from Boston.

As we crossed over Falmouth we talked with the tower at the Vineyard. They close down at 2200 hours so we are glad to be within radio range. They were still using Runway 6 even though the NW wind had died out. I asked the Admiral to pull out the approach to 6, I know it’s a long approach over the ocean and I wanted to get the numbers on my kneeboard.

Coming in on 6 we cross over the beach and than Tisbury Great Pond, if this was summer it would still be full of boats. Up ahead we can see cars on the Edgartown Pike which marks the threshold of the runway. We’ll be down in a few minutes and we’ll wait until morning to prep the plane for the trip back to the Greenbrier.

Marthaa's Vineyard to Pease in Portsmouth

2012-02-10T12:07:00.010-05:00

We have the day off, our GVA party wants to stay another day to see a few more houses. We called our Suzy at U of New Hampshire and she said she had the afternoon free. Great, meet us in Portsmouth at the River House for a bowl of seafood chowder, it’s supposed to be the best in New England. We don’t want to climb over the Boston 8000 so we will go around. It’s a short trip, just a little over an hour.

We takeoff from Runway 24 and at 900 feet we turn east. That is Nantucket, further out to sea in front of the plane.

As we circle back to pick up our course we pass back over Martha’s Vineyard.

Providence is a really big city and the capital of Rhode Island. This flight will be in Boston Center controlled airspace so we filed IFR with the intention of cancelling as soon as we reach 4500 feet.

Worcester, pronounced Wuss-star is a suburb of Boston. This is a very busy area and the home of the famous Jesuit College of the Holy Cross. We’re going to go east of west as we turn towards Manchester so we’ll put on another 1000 feet.

Looking out my window I can see Manchester airport below. They sure had plenty of politicians in and ou of here last month. Boston Center has cleared us through Manchester class C air space at 5500 feet so it’s time to set up for our descent into Pease Field at Portsmouth. The Admiral runs our check list and calls the tower, we’re cleared to land. The wind has come around to the NW so they are using 34, an 11,000 foot runway. We really like Portsmouth; it’s an authentic whaling town on the border with Maine and just a short distance from UNH.

KPSM Pease is a small regional airport with lots of small commuter jets in and out. Coming in over the harbor to runway 34 is a really nice low approach, only 1700 feet as you cross the harbor. Looking down there are lots of familiar places to see up and down the waterfront. We’ll park the plane and get a cab to downtown; it will be good to see Suzy again.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD FLIGHT

2012-02-09T12:33:00.011-05:00

Flying for GVA today, we were asked if we would take a couple to Martha’s Vineyard. They want to look at real estate on the island. Great, we love that place and we would be more than happy to make the trip. From Lewisburg it’s about 500 miles, 4 hours.

We fly North west of EMI Westminster VOR and PTW Pottstown VOR to keep us out of the Washington and Philadelphia airspace. Here we are passing over Teterboro TEB at 8500 feet, the airspace goes up to 7000 feet. LGA LaGuardia is just ahead of the plane. We watched flights landing on their Rwy 13 visual coming up the Hudson before making the turn.

Just to the South of the plane we pass FRG Republic, it’s a busy field in Farmingdale and close to Kennedy so you have to be your game landing there.

A little further out the island we pass ISP Islip which is Class C airspace, a good alternate to both JFK and LGA because it’s out of the New York airspace but still close to town.

Further East we pass over FOK Gabreski, HTO East Hampton and than about 30 miles out the sound we cross BID Block Island, a favorite haunt of sailors. Don’t ask about Block Island week, enough is to say you should do at least one. From Block we’ll turn a little North and pick up the coast line of Rhode Island. We get up with Boston Approach and they tell us the Vineyard is clear and using runway 24.

The approach to 24 takes us past Falmouth, Barnstable and than the turn at Hyannis. The tower clears us to fly straight in; it’s a light traffic day in February.

We turn over peake intersection and head for choppy. We are lined up with a strong breeze from the East. We are going to be a little crabby on this one.

I have to confess, this picture is from the archives, a little old but the default FSX view doesn’t look like the Vineyard and the Vineyard deserves reality. Soon we’re down and our party is off to see their agent. We’re off for some good fish chowder; we’ll make the return flight tomorrow.

A Tex Message

2012-02-09T10:29:00.001-05:00

Collin's latest e-mail brings up to date with his adventure with Tex Butterfield:
Tex and crew, minus the gentleman we picked up in Hungary, arrived back at the plane and we taxied out to EDDC's runway 4.

We bid farewell to Dresden and are now heading for Amsterdam to meet a plane which will take my passengers back to the US....I'm told. I'm climbing for FL200.

Tex comes up and sits in the right seat. He thanks me for the flight and my discretion. I can tell I'll never have any idea what we were up to.

Sunset is not far away as we descend for EHAM, Schiphol, the large international airport serving the Dutch Capitol.

On final to a well lit runway, we landed and taxied in to the GA area. A rather large Gulfstream with US markings was waiting for my passengers. Tex's last words to me were, "Tell the gang at GVA I'll have some business for them when I get back."
So there chaps, he's all yours. I'm flying back to London. Well, Biggin Hill, close enough. I feel like I've had a bit part in a James Bond movie.

THE HUNDRED DOLLAR HAMBURGER IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL

2012-02-08T08:06:00.000-05:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with flight simming but I found it amusing nonetheless. Bear with me.

Joyce and I had gone for a day ride yesterday. We do this every once in a while when the old bike riding urge hits especially hard. I'm not making this up in the least. I have (very minimally) rounded off the dollar figures.

Lunch including tip $32.00 (we eat a lot, deal with it)
Gasoline refill after the drive $48.00
Bottled water and snacks $10.00 (see comment above)
Car wash (salty roads) $10.00
Total $100.00 and no, I did not make this up or even realize it until we were home

More from the Eastern Block

2012-02-07T13:45:00.001-05:00

I e-mailed Collin that Bunny was our GVA dispatcher and yes she had sent me off on a few "adventurous flights" with Tex. I explained that Tex does fly for GVA but also for some other alphabet organization(s), ie: the US Government, and he'll never say exactly who.
I received another e-mail from Collin this morning:
Less than an hour after we landed in Debrecen it had begun to snow and your fellow Tex and his "associates" returned in a mini van of questionable heritage. Not sure where they got it, but they drove it right out on the tarmac at a high rate of speed, slid to a stop and then piled out with another fellow who looked confused and bewildered. They all climbed on the plane and Tex said, "Start her up and lets go."
I did just that.

I got my IFR plan confirmed to Dresden, Germany as Tex instructed while we taxied out to the runway. As I pushed the throttles forward I swear I saw some guys swarming over the van over next to the hanger. Tex suggested I was just seeing things. We took off.

Climbing for FL200, Tex returned to the cabin with the others and pulled the curtain. I kept my headphones on and flew the plane.

Just over two hours later we're coming down approaching the eastern German city of Dresden. This is another place I've never had a charter to before.

We landed and taxied in to the GA area and parked. Tex and the entire crew climbed out into a waiting black Suburban. He said they would return soon and gave me our next destination so I could get my flight plan done. I also re-fueled the Cheyenne and tried to figure out what we had just done.

Trip to Longreach, AU

2012-02-06T19:47:00.013-05:00

Dave, the owner of the outfit that I'm flying for in Australia asked me if I wanted to take a trip to Longreach. He had to deliver some papers to city hall. Without hesitation I said yes. So the next day we set off for Longreach and to my astonishment he said "Get in the left seat, you're going to be the driver". As I was going through the checklist, I noticed he was watching me out of the corner of his eye. I cranked up the Seneca and we were on our way.

Climbing out over the Townsville airport, VFR on a 201 heading.

Not much to see once you leave the coast. In fact there are only about 21+ million people in Australia and the land size is about 27% smaller than the US.

Approach to landing on RWY22.

After a 1hr. 55 min. flight we arrived at Longreach. Notice the old Qantas hangar and a DC3.

After I shut down and took in the view, I was amazed at what I saw. Dave filled me in and told me that 747-200 was the last one they flew and the 707 was the first 707 they flew. Pretty cool to see that.
Dave told me to go over and look at the Qantas museum while he went on his business. So I walked over and entered the hangar. Some old codger was there and asked me if I wanted a tour of the place, Duuuh! I found out that Qantas was the worlds second oldest airline (began in the early 1920's) and began operations from this custom built hangar, now part of Australia's National Estate. The acft. that you see is a replica de Havilland DH50. Yup! that's me carrying the flight bag and the old codger in front.

This was the control center for Qantas.

Seattle to the Super Bowl, Now the ride Home

2012-02-06T15:48:00.009-05:00

All the Big Boys have left the gates and I am still waiting for my guys to come staggering back from celebrating the Giants win. I flew this party all the way from Seattle to the Super Bowl and now I’m waiting to take them back to DC, Dulles.

We had filed IFR Direct KIAD with Indianapolis Center, It expired 3 times before I could load my party, and I mean Party with a capital P. They sure were a happy bunch. We climbed out and turned East.

Ten minutes out I went in the back and turned the lights out and the party was out too.

Potamac Approach gave us the Shnon Two RNav arrival to Dulles; it starts at Morgantown VOR FL90 “track to mikej stepping down at crossings to 4000 expect vectors maintain 4000 until established on the localizer”. That is the Potomac River under the plane.

Five miles in on the localizer, we just passed waxin fof , we are 4.5 miles out, down to 2900 feet.

Now we are over the Charity Crossing shopping center in Chantilly VA and on the beam for runway 1 Right. I did see a plane ahead landing runway 1 Left, I think they aren’t using 1 Center because I don’t see any lights.

I turned the lights on bright in the back and the seat belt sign too, there were lots of groans and moans. It’s just a minute to touch down and than try to find these folks a ride home.