a noobs VFR learning progress...

[Brett_Henderson]

[quote]Taking up an unfamiliar plane and just trying it out, maybe making charts, comparing it to what you already know - it's what I thought. Hard graft...

[krigl]

Cheers Brett!

Just posting an update on This Noob's progress.

Over the last week I've been working on several things which are new for me...

1. Trying to see if I can feel the difference between different aircraft. When you just start up on the runway and fly about a bit, taking screenshots, one small plane feels much like another. It's always brought a smile to my face when I see a C182RG described as a high performance aircraft, but there must be a reason for it so I set up a 'hillclimb' test. I flew the RG in the Himalayas, taking off from Lamidada at around 4100ft (I think) and flying with 3 people and enough fuel for there, back and 45 mins roughly north to Lukla at 9100ft. If you take the straight route then it involves climbing over and clearing a ridge at cca 7000ft about halfway to Lukla.
I first wanted sensibly to avoid too much risk, so I circled over Lamidada to 7000 then headed north, just using a terrain map for guidance. No problem at all, though almost kissed the rock wall at the end of the runway on landing.

[Brett_Henderson]

"High performance" is just a term to seperate trainers from touring planes. In the U.S.

[krigl]

Thanks Brett! You're a mine of info! I wouldn't mind trying the turbo trick on my 182 but I'm not sure I'd know what things to rename in the .cfg.

Airspeeds and altitudes... trimming is my other massive weakness, I try to trim to take pressure off the stick, but always end up with my nose going up down like a pigeon that's into heavy metal, or slip into an uncontrolled climb.  ;D

Well, I don't expect I'll ever get really skilled or accurate at this... I just want to get as close as I personally can to realism, and most importantly enjoy it, so it's practice practice practice.

Loving the C150 right now, so easy to land - and so slow! Last night I was reallly tired and kept nodding off while on final. When I opened my eyes I found myself still going where I wanted (wind was at runway heading), just a little bit lower. Fell asleep 3x and still managed a great centreline landing.

[Brett_Henderson]

If that C182RG is payware.. I'm not sure how duplicating it will work.

If it's not payware.. just zip up the whole folder and email it to me (or use www.yousendit.com

[Anxyous]

Don't think it's the RG, but I do have the default FS9 182 in my FSX directory, if you're interested?

[krigl]

Thanks guys! I'm doing a lot of flying in FS9 right now, and I'm using the Carenado 182 RG, not the default. However, if you (Brett) have an FS9 default C182 which you've already turbo-normalised, it'd be cool if you passed me a copy... probably via you-send-it as I'm not sure about my email's ability to accept more than around 1 meg.  :)

Last night I nailed flying by eye in crosswinds, landings too, in the 150. Never really tried it seriously before, but managed to hold reasonably straight lines in a 20 KN crosswind all around the pattern by sighting on outside visual references, and then did some nice, stable, slooow crabbed landings.

Tonight I'm off for a short, pure VFR fly-by-eye cross country in FS9 VOZ in the 150.  :) Hope there are checklists for that baby, must look in the file for it. Then at the weekend a longer crosscountry and after I plan to familiarise myself and do a similar tour (but in the Czech Republic) with a real VFR-only plane, the Avia BH-5, which I saw flying just last week.  :)

http://www.historicflight.cz/virtual/bh5/?lng=en

Cheers

Krigl

[Brett_Henderson]

I don't have FS9 installed... but here's the engine paragraph from the C172.. it's similar to the C182..

Just change the red lines to those numbers. That will give you a quick and dirty turbo-normalization.

Make a backup of the aircraft.cfg file FIRST.. just in case..


[piston_engine]
power_scalar = 1.0

[flaminghotsauce]

krigl, that is one dandy aircraft you linked to. Thanks. I'm enjoying reading your escapades, too. Please keep the updates coming.

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Just a few quick comments regarding your original questions about density altitude and flying over mountains...

As Brett said, density altitude calculations are very important for takeoff and landing performance, but if you plan to cross a mountain range, it is equally (if not more) important to have proper DA information for your climb to altitude.