Santa's Airport

Three nights in a row is really pushing it, but I bribed one of the older kids to watch the younger kids so here I am. Interestingly, I was doing some research on Post Mills airport, where I've been flying and found this link: http://www.flypmsc.org/Airport.htm The photo at the top of the page is of some Aeronca's like the one I'm flying.

Anyway, I decided to leave and head south to Massachusetts. The Champ only flies about 75 miles per hour, so I couldn't go far but I felt like I could make it across the border. Also, the Champ has no navigation equipment (or radios, or anything really). So I set the weather to nice and planned to follow the highway and river I'd seen yesterday, which turned out to be I-91 and the Connecticut River, which is the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. I also decided to try some low flying to try to get some pictures of those cars on the highway:

You still can't really see them, although I'm down to maybe 250 feet at this point. Still safely above the trees, although it sure didn't feel very safe. I've uploaded the full sized image, so maybe you can click on it and zoom it in where you can see the cars. I'll have to try a highway overflight somewhere with no trees next time so I can get lower.

Anyway, further south I flew past Mt. Ascutney, Vermont. It's interesting because it's just this one peak, not part of a range or anything. The base is at about 550 feet above sea level, but the peak is at almost 3000 feet. Most of my flight was in the 1500-2000 feet range, so I flew low over the eastern slope of the mountain.

Further south I slowly went, noticing that some of those cars on the highway were actually passing me! I was looking for a point where the river and highway would diverge, as that would indicate I was getting close to my destination. But much to my surprise, the Connecticut River in FSX just stops:

I circled around to make sure it was not an illusion, but there it is - end of the river. I was about an hour into the flight, running out of time, and freaked out by this development so when I noticed a little grass airport nearby, I decided to go ahead and land.

I did an OK job, although the Champ just doesn't seem to want to lose altitude. That's a good thing, I guess, but for this landing it meant that I floated over half the runway before finally getting some tires on the ground and then rolled off the end a bit before I got the plane stopped.

The airport turned out to be "Santa's Airport", still in Vermont. It's a private airport, and you're supposed to get prior permission to land there, but I guess that doesn't matter in a simulator.

Flight of the Champ

Two days in a row I found time to fly! Today being 10% off Tuesday at PC Aviator, and there being an interesting plane in the 50% off weekly sale special, I dropped a cool $6 and change on an Aeronca Champ:

The Champ is a small two-seater like the Cub I flew yesterday with similar (slow) performance, but easy to fly and as I've learned, with better visibility. I went back to the same airport as yesterday, Post Mills in Vermont, but with the Champ instead of the Cub.

Like the Cub, the Champ is much simpler to fly than the Skylane or other planes I've used. Very few controls, almost like flying pre-WWII. The cockpit on this version, made by CR1 Software, is very detailed, right down to the plywood floorboard!

Taking off was a snap compared to yesterday. I don't know if the Champ is just more stable, has less torque, or if I was just prepared for it this time, but I was able to climb straight out without the hard bank to the left I experienced with the Cub.

I explored further today than yesterday, crossing a little ridge and checking out another lake, a river, and a highway. You can't see it in this image, or in the out-the-window shot I also took, but there are cars moving on the highway below as a result of my higher detail settings now that I have a better computer.

After a few minutes, I turned back to the original lake and the airfield. I made my first approach attempt, but like yesterday I think I started too high and with too steep a descent. When I tried to slow it down towards the end, I just floated over half the runway before realizing I no longer had room to land. I radioed in an abort, went back to full throttle, and climbed back above the trees and hills to circle around for another try.

This time I started lower and slower with a shallower approach and got my speed down to about 40 mph on idle throttle at the runway threshold. Landing was very nice with no bounce at all and I even got the main gear down before the tail wheel (from a post flight replay review):

I'm starting to get the feel back and I'm happy with this purchase. Hard to beat a new plane for $6-7 and this one comes in several varieties, including a float plane and one on skis for landing in the snow!

Starting Over

Found a little more time to fly. During one of the PC Aviator weekly sales, I picked up Mega Scenery X - Southern California, which comes on 4 DVD's. I installed that and tried it out. This is me over Whittier, where I lived from about 1979 to 1984:

The main thing demonstrated by this flight, was that I really need to get back to basics. I managed to take off from one airport, fly over Whittier, and land at another airport, and even remembered how to use the radio, but otherwise I did not do so well.

A while back I purchased a book called Flight Simulator X for Real World Pilots. The book is designed for real pilots looking to use FSX for extra training, or Sim Pilots like myself who just want a more real-world experience in their simulations. I dug that book back out, downloaded the missions and such that go with it and started on the first one, a short flight in a Piper Cub at Post Mills Airport in Vermont. Here I am in the cub before takeoff:

I started up and taxied to the proper takeoff position at the other end of the runway (not easy to do in a trail dragger where your view out the front is just sky).

I then throttled up and after a few seconds, pushed forward on the yoke to lift the tail (nearly nosing down into the ground in the process), but then I was airborne and banking hard to the left for some reason. I have the realism set back to where it was before, but I should probably go back to easy mode for a while. The torque of the engine and other factors cause the plane to turn left unless you counter that with control inputs, and I'm pretty rusty at that.

Anyway, I got things under control without hitting the mountains and started a more leisurely spin around Lake Fairlee to my left.

The Cub is a simpler plane than my Skylane; basic controls, no flaps, and much slower. For this flight I kept it trimmed at about 60 knots, which is about stall speed on the Cessna.

After getting my bearings, I continued to turn back towards the field to land.

It's a grass runway, so not so easy to tell where the actual runway is compared to the grass on either side, but I figured it out, powered down and descended nicely although ended up a bit high at the threshold. I flared out but touched down a little rough and bounced back in the air. Not being used to a tail dragger on landing also had an effect.

You can't tell from a still image, but I've actually touched down here and bounced back into the air. I'll have to work on that.

Once down for good though I was able to slow down, stop, and kill the engine - successful flight and landing! I'm going to try this flight a couple more times, tour around the area some more and get used to how the Cub handles before I go to the next training mission.