Archive > EuroHarmony Main Forum

Leg #56 SAWH - YSRN

<< < (12/12)

EHM-2097 Andrei:
This is the last leg on the American continent, and you may want to finish in style. Personally I used the ATR72 on this one but if you prefer something really big, note that the destination airport is OK so limitations are due to the runway length at the departure airport.

Climb to 12500ft and follow the nearby fjord to the south, close to its eastern shore. Before the fjord bends to the southwest, a large lake appears to the southeast. fly to the southeastern shore of this lake, and note it is linked by a narrow channel to the next lake further south.

Again, fly to the southeastern tip of this second lake. The Strait of Magellan appears ahead, and soon the airport of Carlos Ibanez del Campo International (SCCI) appears too on the shore. The town (of Punta Arenas) is further south, fly over it and beyond along the strait's northwestern shore.

Tle large Dawson Island appears in the middle of the strait. Fly over this island, aiming for its southeastern tip. From this point, maintain this southeastern course and cross the channel to the mainland, and then further on across a mountain range. The highest peak of the range is Mount Darwin, and should be clearly visible on your left as you continue southeast.

South of the mountains, a new fjord appears, which is west to east oriented. Follow this fjord east and descend to 4500ft, as the destination is close now. The airport is located on the northern shore of this fjord, and you may prefer a visual straight-in approach or to enter the left downwind leg for the reciprocal runway to take advantage of the ILS.

And that's about the Americas in this tour!

EHM-2097 Andrei:
Unfortunately I did not find any way to fly this leg in VFR (and fortunately I did not even try to).

There is a kind of a challenge though. The distance is long enough to make this leg available to the classes 6-7 of the EHM fleet. However, before fueling up your B747, take a look at the destination runway: kind of short, no navaids (except for a NDB), and not even PAPI lights for guidance. It is possible of course, and many did it already, but I preferred to add a touch of originality here (too).

The A318 Elite, entered in service at EHM in 2008, is the smallest aircraft having a "published" range above this leg distance. After a few tests, I concluded that it is usable for this leg but subject to some particular conditions.

First, I did not use any "fancy route planning", just the plain straight line between departure and destination airports. Well, "straight line" is a way of speaking, so expect to see a perfect circle segment displayed on the FS map. At long range altitude (FL370) the flight should take 11-12 hours.

Then, this is a trip to "travel light". No passengers, no flight attendants (to attend whom?) and no extra cargo and luggage. I could not give up the galleys, though, for realism sake: On such a long and boring flight, if I was a pilot, I suppose I would spend some time eating...

Weather surprises are not quite welcome on this flight either. I think a merely 10kts headwind would make the difference between ending the flight with a landing or a ditch. Of course you may try the opposite and setting up some tailwind, but I doubt this is the correct spirit here.

Eventually, as the approach at destination is forcefully visual, one must ensure to get there by daylight. The leg duration and polar vicinity make it for a difficult planning here. I got it not very well myself, as I arrived one hour too early (than I previously planned) so I barely had enough light to see the trees near the runway.

And this is all about planning, but there is one more thing to remember for the departure. Make sure you get a good (that is fuel effective) climb profile, because wasting fuel during this flight is the worst thing to do.

Once at cruise level, there is not much advice to use, possibly except this one: if you plan to take a nap during this long flight, set your alarm clock and set it wisely. If the aircraft reaches destination it will just orbit above the airport but in this case it will not take long before it falls out of the sky of fuel starvation.

Close to destination, care must be taken to follow a smooth descent profile, and, especially, avoid flying tenths of miles at very low altitude before the finals. This would induce a frightening fuel flow when compared to what is left in the tanks. Start descending at 80-90nm from destination, with engines idle or close to it.

One difficulty is to locate the runway in time for proper alignment. Here are some hints:


[*]From the cruise track, a turn to the left is necessary to get room for a finals turn to the right. Note that the final part of the flight follows a long bay with the destination near its western tip. Make sure you fly over the mainland south of this bay (though possibly close to it) and this will ensure the necessary space for a decent finals leg.

[*]The airport itself is not visible from far away, but as you get close to the bay western end an isolated hill appears in the area where the airport should be. The airport is JUST east of it, so prepare to fly a little right of this hill.[/list]
After completing your landing, note that the airport facilities (as of the default FS scenery) include - and are limited to - one parking position, hopefully you did the flight without wingmen.

Welcome to Australia (or Tasmania, to be more precise)!

EHM-2097 Andrei:
I am hereby hijacking my own thread (I think this is allowed ;D ) to announce the news of my completion of the EHM world tour.

I am sorry for not being able to record and document all the WT legs (as I did for its first third). It was just too much work to do, roughly 3 times as much as actually flying the tour.

However, I DID fly the tour in the 100% VFR style as explained in the beginning of this thread. So... its doable.

A few memories from this spectacular adventure...

Most difficult navigation part: Sahara. I had to rely on ded reckoning only, and once had to do several loops in the destination airport area until I was able to spot it.

Most beautiful region: I just cannot choose one, there are sooo many breathtaking landscapes to visit! And things went only better at half tour when I switched to FSX.

Hardest "psychological moment": Port Said. After several legs that brought me closer and closer to Europe and the EHM hubs, turning back south to overfly all Africa was... well, hard.

Hardest landings:
- CYVM because I insisted in putting down a jet there, in a very short daylight season. And I crashed once.
- SCOH, probably a FS9 terrain error, where I only could land the C172. Barely.  And after one intense training session
- VQPR as long as I tried to land the ATR after following the valley line, and this resulted in very steep finals. Went around 3 times after attempting the landing in both directions.

Good luck to all currently doing or starting this tour (and congrats to those having already completed it)!

Andrei

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page