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…
Wanting to add an almost impossible flight in the “unhinged virtual flights” section of my web site, I tried a flight with the Blue Angels C-130 Hercules (Captain Sim) where the aircraft gradually lost all of its engines.
I am aware that the Blue Angels mechanics are real professionals, so I assumed that the engine failures were caused by an unknown reason.
The take-off was made without problem from the Canadian High River (CEN4) airport. This free airport was designed by Vlad Maly and is available through ORBX. The aircraft leaves the 4150 feet runway heading to the Coeur d’Alène airport (KCOE) in United States.
Eventually, the first engine stops. This does not cause a problem. The propeller is feathered and the gradual climbing continues.
The second engine stops. The pilot must forget the initial destination. Bonners Ferry (65S) becomes the alternate airport since the 4000×75 feet runway is good enough for the C-130.
The third engines gives way. A slow descent starts. Bonners Ferry is not very far. The airport is at an altitude of 2337 ft asl.
The aircraft is volontarily flown at a higher altitude than what would normally be requested for a normal approach, just in case the fourth engine stops. When three engines stop after the same refueling, the pilot has the right to think that what feeds the fourth engine can also cause problems.
The highest mountains are now behind the aircraft.
The Bonners Ferry (65S) runway is in sight.
The fourth engine stops. The flaps will not be functional for the landing.
From now on, the pilot should save the virtual flight a few times since it is possible that several trials will be necessary to glide sucessfully to the airport. This is the fun of virtual flight.
The C-130 Hercules has become a big glider. When the speed is maintained, the aircraft loses more 1000 feet per minute. It is easier to feel the aircraft’s inertia.
The wheels will be brought out only when necessary since the gear adds a lot of drag.
From the position indicated in the picture below, it is impossible to arrive to the airport in a straight line: the aircraft will glide over the airport. In the picture, the aircraft seems to be on a good path for landing, but it is an illusion caused by the wide-angle format chosen for the screen capture.
The aircraft is definitely too high. It is impossible to use the flaps to increase the rate of descent.
One must choose between 1) sideslips 2) a 360 degree turn to lose altitude or 3) multiple steep turns perpendicular to the runway to increase to distance to the airport.
What would you choose?
There is no universal method. The 360 degree turn is riskier but can prove efficient. An Airbus A330-200 flown by Quebecer Robert Piché that had lost all of its engines landed successfully in the Açores in 2001 after attempting a last minute 360 degree turn to lose altitude. But here, I did not believe there was enough altitude to safely complete the turn and reach the runway.
A few steep turns were made to extend to ride to the airport. Why steep turns? In order to avoid getting closer to the airport before an acceptable altitude was reached. This method helped keep an eye on the runway at all times to verify if the slope to the airport was still acceptable.
I tried the three methods, always starting from the same saved flight (photo 10). After several sideslips, the aircraft was always approaching the airport too quickly. There was not enough time to lose altitude. The final speed always happened to be too high to stop a C-130 without flaps or thrust reversers.
The 360 degree turn, be it right or left, with different angles and a reasonable speed, always incurred a loss of altitude that brought the aircraft 200 to 300 feet short of the threshold.
Finally, after a few steep turns, the aircraft was positioned on final with the appropriate speed and altitude.
A few last seconds adjustments, to reposition the aircraft in the center of the runway.
At 140 kts, but without any reverse thrust, the whole runway should be necessary to stop the aircraft.
The landing was smooth and the aircraft stopped short of the threshold.
For an unknown reason, the anemometer was still indicating a 10 kts airspeed, even when the aircraft had stopped.
Try such a flight in the virtual mode. The worst that can happen is that you have fun!
An interesting challenge for flight simulation enthousiasts consists in searching and intercepting virtual aircrafts that are flying randomly: those without any known flight plans.
The degree of difficulty varies accordingly with the intercepted aircraft and the interceptor.
The screen capture below shows a relatively simple interception since it is not too difficult for the AV-8B Harrier to modify its speed according to the high cruising speed of a Beechcraft B350.
In order to increase the difficulty, the flight simmer could attempt the interception in flight of a relatively slow aircraft with a military jet.
A challenging virtual flight can be executed by using a CF-18 and adapting its speed and altitude to that of the intercepted aircraft while flying in formation for one minute. In order to succeed, it will be necessary to set the CF-18 in a slow flight configuration with the wheels out.
This type of interception is sometimes done in real life when an aircraft accidentally (or not) enters a restricted zone. A military jet must then take-off, reach the unknown target, get very close and make the appropriate signals ordering it to follow him to the closest military base.
Once in flight, do not forget to take a screen capture! Good luck and have a good flight!
(Precedent story: the flight from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to Edmonton)
In order to accumulate flying hours, I needed to become a flight instructor. The course was undertaken and my license obtained, after successful written and flying exams. Already having logged enough flying hours as pilot in command, I was able to receive a Class 3 license immediately. Technically, this meant that I did not have to receive permission from a chief instructor before I authorized a student to fly alone for the first time.
In order to study certain maneuvers with the greatest possible accuracy that I would have to teach, I sometimes practiced unusual flying exercises. This meant I needed to check the behavior of the aircraft if a student mishandled the controls before I could correct him. With enough altitude, you could afford a fair amount of improvisation.
So I decided, during one of these specific exercises, to simulate a student who had inverted the maneuvers required to stall an aircraft and bring it to a spin. The plane turned completely upside down and I heard noises indicating that the stress on the structure was possibly important. Needless to say, I decided to abandon some experiments, realizing that it was quite possible that certain leased aircraft had previously been engaged in similar exercises. We all want to end a flight with our aircraft intact…
At the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu flying club, we were now eleven certified instructors. However, the number of new students was stagnating in the economic uncertainty of the late 70s to early 80s. A global recession was raging and unemployment soaring. Some airlines went bankrupt, others were freezing the hiring of new pilots. Eleven instructors in the same flying club was a lot for so few customers. The pay was meager.
Among the students I trained during the period when I was a flight instructor, the first to successfully fly solo was an Egyptian. He arrived in Quebec with a group of a dozen compatriots. Their ambition was to receive all of their training in Quebec and return to Egypt as pilots for the national carrier EgyptAir.
My student had talent and learned quickly. But there was a student in the group that many instructors tried to train without success. Each of us thought that our own method might not have been appropriate so we encouraged him to try flying with other instructors. But it became clear that aviation would never be the field of activity in which he could progress and make a career. No instructor ever agreed to let him fly solo, and this, even after the student had spent months trying to understand the basics of flying: when came the time to execute the learned concepts, even after multiple demonstrations, he could not do it. He was simply not a safe pilot. I guess he changed his plan after the St-Jean experience.