Left Key Largo for an early morning flight down the keys. Before this flight I experimented a bit with the airplane settings. I knew you could adjust cargo load, even the weight of the passengers in each seat, fuel level, etc., but had never played with it. Turns out my Skylane was configured for the pilot (heavier than me at 218 lbs.) an equally heavy front seat passenger (shown in external views) and two slightly lighter passengers in the back (our wives I guess, who are not shown in any view of the plane). I cleared all of that out and just put myself in and my correct weight.
Turns out I should have thought that through a bit more. It made the plane 185 lbs. heavier on one side than on the other which made it keep turning to the left. What a pain! I was zig-zagging all over the place as soon as I got off the ground. I managed to hold it steady enough as I climbed to altitude passing over Key Largo proper:
The airport is on north Key Largo. In this image I'm at about the middle of the island. The road on the bottom left is the one coming in from the mainland. Turn left at the "T" and you'll go to North Key Largo and the airport. Turn right and you'll go to South Key Largo which is where my wife and I spent our first honeymoon (scuba diving). Keep going and you'll eventually get to my destination of Key West.After getting to altitude I started checking the cockpit to see if there was any rudder or aileron trim controls. The old Skyhawk just had elevator trim for adjusting pitch, but nothing to adjust roll or yaw. The Skylane however did have a rudder trim wheel, so after fiddling with that a while I got the left turning problem mostly under control. I never could get it just right though because I was adjusting it by clicking and dragging the mouse. There are keyboard commands to make fine-tune adjustments, but they involve the numeric keypad, and since I'm using a laptop, I don't have the right keys for it. At some point I'm going to have to remap those keys.
Anyway, as I got west of Key Largo I noticed this odd donut shaped island so I took a picture hoping to find out more about it later. It's called Shell Key and can be found in Google Earth at 24 55'23.97"N 80 39'56.67"W.
As I climbed back out I took a look at the Overseas Highway and noticed that the bridges from island to island are rendered in 3D, although not with much detail. Continuing west, almost to Key West, I spotted Key West Naval Air Station. That's restricted airspace, so I stayed well north of it. Pretty neat though. It has three runways and looks like a big asterisk.
Somewhere around there I contacted the tower at Key West International and got clearance to land. I had to fly around the north end of the island, circle back heading east and descend for the landing. The approach pattern took me over a couple of large cruise ships docket at the west end of the island:
Here's the tower view as I continued my descent. The cruise ships look a lot bigger from this angle. That little smudge in the sky is me:
With the plane still not balanced or trimmed out just right and the cross wind apparently picking up, this was a very tricky landing. I had to keep adjusting my course and aiming north of the airport to stay on track. I also had problems controlling the descent rate and airspeed. I never set off the stall alarm, but I got pretty close to my stall speed a couple of times and had to pitch the nose down and add power to get back in the safe zone.
That little red and white toy plane to the left is me. Actually, the white plane is not THAT much bigger, it's just that the camera view is from his right side, so I'm a ways off in the background.
Anyway, as I got west of Key Largo I noticed this odd donut shaped island so I took a picture hoping to find out more about it later. It's called Shell Key and can be found in Google Earth at 24 55'23.97"N 80 39'56.67"W. About halfway down the keys I descended and did a touch-and-go landing at Marathon airport (Google Earth 24 43'34.71"N 81 3'2.41"W). I still didn't have the rudder trim just right plus there was a cross wind so landing was difficult, but I did it. At the very end I got pushed to the edge of the runway and had to get all wheels back on concrete before throttling back up to take off. Had plenty of runway though, so not a problem.
As I climbed back out I took a look at the Overseas Highway and noticed that the bridges from island to island are rendered in 3D, although not with much detail. Continuing west, almost to Key West, I spotted Key West Naval Air Station. That's restricted airspace, so I stayed well north of it. Pretty neat though. It has three runways and looks like a big asterisk.
Somewhere around there I contacted the tower at Key West International and got clearance to land. I had to fly around the north end of the island, circle back heading east and descend for the landing. The approach pattern took me over a couple of large cruise ships docket at the west end of the island:
Here's the tower view as I continued my descent. The cruise ships look a lot bigger from this angle. That little smudge in the sky is me: 
With the plane still not balanced or trimmed out just right and the cross wind apparently picking up, this was a very tricky landing. I had to keep adjusting my course and aiming north of the airport to stay on track. I also had problems controlling the descent rate and airspeed. I never set off the stall alarm, but I got pretty close to my stall speed a couple of times and had to pitch the nose down and add power to get back in the safe zone. Speaking of cross wind landings, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfB4xyM7tMw&feature=related and check out a truly amazing cross-wind landing (attempt) by a large passenger jet. My (virtual) hats off to that guy.
Anyway, I did make it down OK and even hit the middle of the runway, slowed down and taxied off and over to the parking area where I shut the engine down next to a larger twin-engine passenger plane, not sure of the type:
That little red and white toy plane to the left is me. Actually, the white plane is not THAT much bigger, it's just that the camera view is from his right side, so I'm a ways off in the background.
This was a nice flight. Took about an hour to complete, which is about all the flying time I can muster, especially on a week night.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do some more sight-seeing from this airport or just head out soon, probably the former. I'll probably fly west to the Dry Tortugas and back at the very least (although I can't land there in this plane as it lacks floats and there's not enough land there for a real airport).
Having to figure out passenger and cargo weights or lack thereof! Shades of CAR WARS!
ReplyDeleteAre there any game consequences of flying into restricted airspace? I assume jets don't scramble to intercept you.
Are there Wet Tortugas?
No consequences, in fact, I could land there and no one would care, but I'm trying to fly by the rules for added realism.
ReplyDeleteNo Wet Tortugas that I know of, but the dry ones are surrounded by water. I'm assuming there's no fresh water source and that's the reason they are referred to as "dry".
Maybe the people of the Dry Tortugas are known for their acerbic wit.
ReplyDeleteI've done a little research in preparation for my flight over there. The "Dry" part of the name is in fact because there's no fresh water. The "Tortugas" part is for the sea turtles that are abundant in the area. I guess Tortuga is Spanish for Turtle.
ReplyDeleteJust don't say tortuga to a replicant.
ReplyDelete