EQDC3: Leg 3 part 2

[beaky]

On I go into the night again... the moon is quite lovely on the waves as it follows me amongst the scattered clouds. BTW, this is a sample of
"FS2004 Night Time Fixes", by Carmine D'Amore... found it at AvSim. May be too dark for some tastes, but I think it's very realistic.




Eventually an island slides into view. Hmmm.... other than Howland and Baker, I shouldn't be seeing any islands on my course at this point. I check the chart, and see that it's most likely one of the small islands near Banuba, aka Ocean Island. That means I'm south of my course, so I veer right . Must've drifted quite a bit... I was pretty well on-course near Tabi, so the wind must've shifted. The good news: if I'm right about my position, I'm still ahead of schedule, and I'm more than halfway from Tabi to my destination, the very small island of Nauru.





About an hour later, Nav 1 starts beeping the morse ID for Nauru's VOR. I am now bearing NE from the station; I've over-compensated for my error near the last island. There's no tower at the field, so i try to raise my ground crew on the radio. They should be there by now, but there's no answer. Must still be too far out...but this time I've got a beam to follow, thank heavens.





Finally Nauru comes into view, and a familiar voice rings in my headphones. "Got your lights in sight, Boss- you're early! Can you see the airport?"
Indeed I can, and it looks good. But there are dark clouds scudding low over the island; as I descend, I lose track of the field. Suddenly I'm over the field, but too high. wow, this island is really small. I turn around to descend below the clouds, so I can see better as I approach. "You're going the wrong way, Boss," someone says.
"I know, I know; I'll be right back".






I overfly the field again, this time trying a midfield break to a close base for the runway.But I cut it too close, and have to fly the pattern again. Finally I'm slowed up and looking good on downwind...






My landing is a bit long again, and EQDC3 is still pretty fat with fuel, so the plane uses most of the long runway to stop. I actually feel pretty fresh; it's only been 16 hours. Much better than my estimated time...







Submitted for your amusement: my track near Banabu, and my ghastly approach to Nauru.


Next: Nauru to Ternate, and the 'Ghost Island'!!

[glennlcasey]

hahaha very nice it keeps getting better and better, still feel like something dramatic is going to happen, you can feel it.

i think my approaches look like that all the time, never got used to the angles in flight sim always used to judging them from a proper cockpit window

[cspyro21]

Nice, i can +1 to glenno, it seems as if you will be flying along and then BOOM!! An engine has failed!!  
This series keeps on getting better and better Rotty, keep it up!!  ;)

[lemoncat]

echo's the last two posts r.d great series look forward to more of the same

[beaky]

Nice, i can +1 to glenno, it seems as if you will be flying along and then BOOM!! An engine has failed!!  
This series keeps on getting better and better Rotty, keep it up!!  ;)

I haven't used the "Failures" option on any flight, let alone this one... maybe later, when i'm over land.
But I can still run out of fuel...

[beaky]

hahaha very nice it keeps getting better and better, still feel like something dramatic is going to happen, you can feel it.

i think my approaches look like that all the time, never got used to the angles in flight sim always used to judging them from a proper cockpit window

Yeah, it's hard to look around. Even a real DC3 would have better vis. And that island is small, it was dark, etc. My recurring problem with this bird is that I'm getting to close, too high. Stopping that will help...

[Marlin]

Your approach kills me. That is great cause it looks like mine when I'm using only VFR and not cheating/ looking at the GPS. But the good news is that I'm getting better.

As far as the night time fix goes, does it make the city lights stand out more? How about the moon lighting, when either it is and isn't there?

Thanks for the tour Rott