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Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:05 pm
by N723GW
wondering what anyones hardest or most challenging flight plan has been, landing to take off, i know sxm can be a challenge to take off with a heavy on, but any suggestions? screen shots would be great too! getting my cpu i dont know about in 2 days for christmas, and cant wait to put fs9 on it!!!

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:13 pm
by tsunami_KNUW
I do know of an airport out in the Olympic wilderness in Washington State. It's called SFS Airpark (80WA). It's default fictional airport and is almost completely surround by a very steep cliff. It may take quite a lot of practice to make it out (or land in) but it can be done! Good luck  ;)

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 9:21 pm
by beaky
Try the default Spirit of St. Louis,with a full fuel load, from any airport. It's very squirrelly...constant rudder work is needed, plus there's no forward visibility at all (the periscope doesn't help much). Then again, the Wright Flyer is even harder, as it wasn't made to climb much or even turn much.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 12:36 am
by beefhole
I did a 737 flight down to key west from philly and then out of key west to atlanta.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 8:35 am
by Nexus
Beefhole, I took off from Key West (KEYW) with a 737-700 with no problems, flaps 15, un-derated and bleeds off ;D
Granted I was not heavy, and I'm not sure I'd comply with the FAR part 25, when it comes to obstacle clearence ::)...but what to do when the runway lenght is the limiting factor, which is not common in the 737. Usually it's the climb weight limit, but then you often have a long nice runway to make up for it :(

I was lucky it wasn't hotter outside, I flew in ISA conditions btw

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:00 am
by krylite
I tried flying to and landing at my local airport in central CA in real night time and updated weather. It's always foggy here in the morning hours. visibility was 1/4 mile and totally overcast. My airport's approach chart only allowed 1 mile vis at 680ft. MAP height for a VOR only approach. I tried to do it because I was tired of using ILS DME-arc the other side of the runway.(extra 10-15 minutes to land)

I could not find the runway! even after 3 more missed approaches and turnarounds. (finally I cheated and upped the vis to 1 mi to see it, was still hard) Overall I was impressed FS2004 simulated bad visibility and fog so well to enforce appropriate use of an approach chart.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 12:59 pm
by CAFedm
Dunno what the scenery is like for FS9, but running FS2K2 this is what the approach and landing look like at Z21Q.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:01 pm
by Plurb
went down to check it out. In FS9 it's called MM01. Looks pretty much the same. Got the 580 down and stopped in about 1/2 the runway. Pretty cool.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 9:13 am
by Bell206freak
I currently have done a few long hauls, but these two both are challenging in their own rights.

One of my flight plans included a flight from KSHN Sanderson Field (Shelton, Washington) to S07 Bend Municipal, Bend Oregon using a waypoint touch-and-go at Cedars North (W58 ) in Battle Ground, WA. Before arriving in Bend, I deviated from the flight plan slightly to take in some Mt. St. Helens' steam blasts and then proceeded to W58 - and then just prior to arrival in Bend, I took in the sights of the Three Sisters volcanic chain and Mt. Bachelor. My flight plan also included a return flight to Shelton Sanderson Field.

After arriving in Bend, I refueled and then proceeded on the one-and-a-half hour flight back. Total time aloft was just short of four hours - all in gusty conditions and in inclement weather (all updated).

The challenging part is that I was flying the Bell JetRanger, which I wasn't use to flying in high winds, low visibility and driving rain, lol.

Another longhaul was a departure from Zwainz Farms (WA08) in Reardan, WA (a small strip in Eastern Washington), and a scheuled arrival in Shelton Sanderson in 1 hour and 58 minutes. There was no direct flight plan, and I decided to do some extended hover practice over the Grand Coulee Dam and over Mt. Rainier's Willis Wall on the north side. That ate some fuel (and extended my stay in the air) and by the time I crossed the Mason County line nearly 24 miles from Shelton, I was literally on a hope and a prayer that I'd make it to Sanderson in time. I think I had five seconds of flight left by the time I landed and shut down the helicopter. LOL.

Those are my two most challenging flights I've ever done.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:26 am
by Ivan
Dushanbe - Khorog VFR through the river valley

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:47 pm
by BFMF
I once flew a B-17 from the AFB in San Francisco to Pearl Harbour. The flight lasted almost 14 hours, and the only navigation equipment i used was a compass and my ADF reciever. I never once used a gps, the coordinates display, or the built-in map.

By the time I landed in Pearl Harbour, I probably had less then 20 minutes of fuel left

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:08 pm
by Woodlouse2002
All of you get out the Vickers Vimey, take off from New York and fly to Ireland using only your compass. If you don't consider that hard then you've all spent far too long on the sim.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:40 pm
by TacitBlue
I tryed the Vimmy once, that is probably the #1 crappiest aircraft in the FS world.

The hardest flight I can think of was when I started the wright flyer at about 5000 ft. about 5 miles from an airport (dont remember wich one), and tried to land there. If I hadnt ran out of gas, I would have made it.

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 8:25 am
by Bell206freak
I tryed the Vimmy once, that is probably the #1 crappiest aircraft in the FS world.

The hardest flight I can think of was when I started the wright flyer at about 5000 ft. about 5 miles from an airport (dont remember wich one), and tried to land there. If I hadnt ran out of gas, I would have made it.


I can't even get the Wright Flyer to attain 500 feet. LOL

Once I tried selecting the Wright Flyer about one mile north of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge with my destination being a southward flight to an approach from the south to land at Tacoma Narrows Airport. This required me to turn 180* just south of Fox Island to line up with the airport runway. I never even made it to the runway!

Re: Hardest Flights

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:13 am
by beaky

I can't even get the Wright Flyer to attain 500 feet. LOL

Once I tried selecting the Wright Flyer about one mile north of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge with my destination being a southward flight to an approach from the south to land at Tacoma Narrows Airport. This required me to turn 180* just south of Fox Island to line up with the airport runway. I never even made it to the runway!


Yup, the Wright Flyer is tough. The first one wasn't really made to turn or climb much. I was at Airventure '03 and tried the full-scale Wright Flyer mockup sim... it's even trickier to fly when you're lying on your belly, with no throttle, using your hips (!) to bank... I'm proud to say I stayed up for almost two minutes before a building got in my way...