Well, that is it! The first glider just arrived at the Fane Parish airport in Papua New Guinea…
Before it is officially offered as a tourist attraction for the region, some attempts at taking-off and landing must be done. The first trial attracts a few people!
The descent along the twelve degree sloped runway is a bit rough for the glider’s low wings, as there are some bushes that will have to be trimmed!
The weather is nice and very warm. The only potential problem is the mountain ahead.
Finally, the pilot cuts the link. He is free to go!
The glider flies silently over the lush area of Papua New Guinea.
Using the rising warm air currents, the glider gains altitude.
Why not a pass over Fane?
Here is another isolated village alongside a mountain.
A last steep turn in order to realign for the approach at Fane Parish.
The airbrakes are out and the speed reasonable. The sloped runway is just ahead, on top of the mountain to the right.
Keeping just enough altitude on the approach to be safe.
Now that the landing is a sure thing, it is time to use the airbrakes again to slow down as much as possible.
Keeping in mind that this mountain airfield as a good slope, it is better to have a bit of extra speed. Nobody likes to stall a few feet over a runway!
What an experience it was! But I’ll need some help to pull the glider up the slope!
The virtual flight was great, the view was worth every penny, and I think that this could become a new touristic attraction for the region and the more wealthy visitors…
Proceeding step by step, Donald Trump is setting the table for a political system transition in the United States.
As he often impulsively says what he really thinks ( his numerous tweets are proof ), his recent visit to China convinced him that it is possible to change the american political system.
He said that it would not be a bad idea to think of a way that would allow more than two successive political terms, something that is actually forbidden by the Constitution of the United States. In order to do that, he proceeds in a similar pattern as Mussolini did and changes the American system step by step.
Not only does he attack the institutions representing the legal system, like the FBI, but he also attacks the media that do not think like he does. We could eventually see the creation of a Trump owned media that would become the official communication channel of the President.
Trump creates fictive foes by selecting several countries whose citizens are denied an entry in United States. All statistics show that crimes and attacks are in the vast majority committed by people that are already American citizens.
Donald Trump wants to become, for his supporters, the only object of their confidence and trust. He wants to be seen as the only shield that can protect them from the imaginary foes that have been created. He invents the idea of a wall that would supposedly be paid by Mexico, a ridiculous proposition that shoud have made everyone laugh from the very beginning but which nonetheless convinced the American voters. That says it all!
The vast majority of his supporters do not have the interest, or the ability, to analyze his empty rethoric and lies, his transformation of reality. Ignorance is what creates the fear of others. He counts on the cowardice of several elected Republicans who stopped asking questions about the actions of the President in order to concentrate only on a necessary reelection.
Those who consider Donald Trump lightly risk a lot. How many had even realized that, in order to prepare his political campaign, Cambridge Analytica was already at work?
There is no aircraft in the sky around the Port Moresby Jacksons (AYPY) virtual airport today. No aircraft in the sky but one, a medevac flight.
The winds blow from 240 degree at 50G60 kts and the runways are oriented 14/32. It is way above the maximum crosswind authorized for any aircraft.
But the Shrike Commander’s crew cannot wait until the wind calms down. They must land in the next few minutes in order to save a patient’s life.
As there is no traffic around, the captain has told ATC he intends to do a safe, efficient but non-standard approach.
Arriving straight across the runways, facing the wind, the crew intends to land the aircraft a few feet short of a hangar. The captain requests that someone opens the hangar doors right away. The captain will terminate the approach in the hangar, protected from the wind.
It is safer to arrive facing the wind and immediately enter the hangar, straight ahead. No taxiing with a 60 knots crosswind.
Useless to say, ATC has already refused the request. But the pilot is the only one who decides of the best landing surface, for the safety of the passengers and himself. He proceeds with the approach after having clearly indicated which path will be followed.
The main problem for the approach is the low level mechanical turbulence caused by the gusty 60 kts winds.
If ATC wants to file a complaint, now is a good time to take a picture of the aircraft and its registration to support the case.
The actual ground speed of the airplane is around 20 kts.
The steady high wind speed is actually safer for the crew than if the winds were 240 at 35G60.
Still a bit above the runway and with a 10-20 knots ground speed. The airspeed indicator shows the strength of the wind itself plus the ground speed.
Floating like a hot air balloon or almost!
As the aircraft touches the ground, it stops almost immediately. It is necessary to apply power to reach the hangar, as you can see with the white trail on the ground behind the aircraft.
In real life, the touch-down would have had to be as soon as the asphalt start since the presence of the hangar lowers the wind speed a bit.
A few seconds after the touch-down, the aircraft is in the hangar, protected from the wind, and both doctor and patient can quickly head out to the hospital.
Once in the hangar, the winds were adjusted to zero, which is kind of logical, unless the opposite wall is missing!
It was now time to brace for another storm, which was the inquiry that would possibly follow the landing!
(P.S.: Tim Harris and Ken Hall were the creators of this virtual Port Moresby Jacksons international airport) and it is sold by ORBX. The aircraft is sold by Carenado).
Good news for flight simulation enthousiasts! Those who had stopped looking for a virtual MD-11 will have an opportunity to fly this legendary aircraft.
TheRotate company, which makes virtual aircrafts for the X-Plane flight simulation platform, has decided to make a virtual MD-11. It is quite a challenge but the progress is steady.
A few years ago, another company, PMDG, created a virtual MD-11 but decided to drop the product and let down the customers who had bought their excellent aircraft. They stopped providing updates and eventually erased the MD-11 from their list of products.
Since then, many flight simmers have been wondering if they could one day learn to fly the MD-11. Numerous crashes of MD-11s have happened in real life since its creation by Mc Donnell Douglas. They were mostly due to pilots unable to master the aircraft, except in the case of Swissair 111.
The Rotate’s staff have recently published a new photo (see above) on their WEB page to show that the virtual aircraft is slowly taking shape. The graphic quality is really superb.
In an interview given to PC Pilot in the March/April edition, Rotate said that they want to achieve a high level of simulation with the MD-11, but that they still have a long way to go. They stated that the MD-11 is much bigger and much more complex than the MD-80 (that they are already offering) and that they want the MD-11 to reflect those characteristics.
Those who fly using FSX will now be able to add X-Plane as another flight simulator to their computer and thus use the MD-11 when it will be ready (probably around the end of 2019).
The beauty with X-plane is that the 64 bits platform uses all six cores of the new CPUs on the market. The FPS (frame per second) number is thus very high, which will allow users of the MD-11 to fly around huge virtual airports when the weather is complex without having to compromise.
Another positive aspect is that ORBX ( https://orbxdirect.com/ ) now offers products for X-Plane, which will greatly increase the choice of quality virtual sceneries.