Aviator90 Episode 38

Chris: [0:31] Welcome to another episode of Aviator 90 from Angle of
Attack. Today, we are doing our eighth cross-country flight. And we
are going to make a bit of a departure from what we usually do in
that we are going to be flying in a different region then the
Pacific Northwest.
[0:49] So today we are going to be flying in what is called Tongass
Fjords. It’s in Alaska and it’s done by Bill Womack who actually
produced the Starks Twin-Oaks scenery which we have flown in
before, which is in Pacific Northwest.

[1:04] So today we are going to be flying from Papa-Alpha-Whiskey-
Golf to an airport with an identifier of Two-Zulu-One.

[1:13] This should be a pretty simple flight. We are going to be in
the Aerosoft Beaver and we are going to be flying direct. So that
should work pretty well. And let’s jump right in and get right to
it.

[1:26] So here we are on the ramp and, as usual, we just go to the
switches panel and we begin to set up the aircraft.

[1:34] So we will head there now and let’s put the magnetos to
both, the battery and alternator on. All switches are off except
the beacon and nav light we want to turn on. Fuel is onto the
correct tank. Check our power here, mixture all the way forward.
Crack the throttle a bit. And then we can start the aircraft. Pull
the wobble pump here to get some fuel to the engine, and pull the
start. And there we go, we got a start. Nothing to it, same as
usual.

[2:19] And then we are going to… I’m going to bring it up to
1,000 RPM and let it stabilize for a minute or so. So now we
actually need to turn on the radios. So let’s flip those on. I can
pull my mixture back just a little bit.

[2:45] Usually, even at sea level the mixture doesn’t need to be
full rich. So I’m going to pull back the power as well, just bring
that to idle. And then we will setup the GPS. Let’s do a direct to
waypoint, let’s go to Two-Zulu… Actually you go back for Zulu so
Zulu-One. And there it is, Entrance Island. That’s where we are
headed. And I’ll hit enter twice. And that will activate it. And
you can see it there on the map. Pretty simple flight. Just like
most of the stuff we’ve done.

[3:24] And now we can tune in the weather and listen to that.

Weather: [3:27] Bravo Alpha Whiskey Golf’s automated weather observation.
Zero-One-Three-Four-Zulu. Wind, Calm. Visibility, Greater than two-
zero miles. Sky conditions, ceiling, 3,500 broken. Temperature
eight Celsius. Dew point seven Celsius. Altimeter Two-Niner-Seven-
Four.

Chris: [3:51] All right, so we have got no winds. I’m just going to press
“B” for the altimeter because it doesn’t seem like the number are
turning when I set it there. And then I’m going to tune to the
traffic for wrangler here. And that pretty much does it for the
start up. So let’s check that frequency one more time. We’ve got it
all set.
[4:25] And I’m going to put in my take off flaps and do my flight
control check. Always important, rudder pedals as well. All right.
We’ll push up the power a little bit, get this thing rolling. We’ll
taxi out here, make it nice and simple. And since this is going to
be a short taxi, I’m not going to let anyone know. This runway, we
actually have to do a back taxi. But we aren’t going to taxi the
full length, we don’t need the full length.

[5:40] All right, so we’re going to pull onto the runway. And as
you heard, I said that we’re going to back taxi on this runway.
That means that, we are intending to take off two-eight which will
actually be behind us, but we are taxiing back on that runway so we
can get more runway length.

[6:02] Often that is the case in places where it doesn’t have a
taxiway, where you actually have to go on the runway in order to
gain some ground and get to the threshold. There are even some
international airports where this happens, so it’s not exactly
something you just see in a real rural area like Alaska.

[6:25] So let’s bring us around here. Slow down, we’re not going to
use the full length. You’ve seen this Beaver. You’ve seen how
powerful it is before, so we’re not going to worry about the full
length. Then we will try to line up on center line here. We’ll turn
around, keep coming around. All right, so easy does it. We’ll just
get in our position here, push up the throttle, and here we go.
Push the yolk forward. There we go, now we can lift off. Easy
enough.

[7:01] We are just going to point downhill and just not even really
worry about getting a climb out of the aircraft today. We’re going
to stay pretty much low and slow this whole flight depending on
what the terrain does. But for now, let’s just go up to 1,500 feet.
That should be good enough for what we’re doing. So we’ll climb
straight ahead. During that process I also cleaned up the flaps,
meaning I brought up the flaps as the air speed increased and
everything, and that makes it easy, easy.

[7:43] And then, you’ve done it before. Just follow the direct GPS
line. You can tell this is one of my favorite types of navigation.
I just don’t see a huge point in having a complicated flight plan.
So, I enjoy just, you know, given the direct GPS, being good at
that.

[8:21] So, we will continue to climb straight ahead and remember,
I’ve already done it, but remember to set your engine power so you
are not doing undue damage to the engine. That should help out
quite a bit.

[8:43] So as you can see, you’re just following that straight line,
like I said before, we’ve got about 30 minutes left. It’s a good
little haul here. Alaska’s a little different in that a hop from
one airport to the next is a long ways, whereas here in the lower
48, the main contiguous United States, airports are very close
together, usually. One hop to the other is 15 to 20 minutes,
generally.

[9:22] It’s a different area, we just enjoy the scenery. We just
hop right along here. We are at about 160 knots. I’m already at the
level of 1,500 feet. We’ll just enjoy the beauty that is Alaska
here. I love flying in this area. I think it’s very challenging. If
you’re into seaplanes and even glacier landings and things like
that, this is the perfect area. It just has everything, all year
round.

[10:12] We’ll get up there next to the island and then I will begin
to fast forward so we don’t have to go through the entire flight
here at normal speed. And obviously, I do, I like flying at normal
speed, unless I’m trying to get to a position where I need to film
something. In which case, I’ll go faster.

[10:40] For the most part, when I’m actually doing a flight like
this, I like to go normal speed because obviously, that’s
realistic. Let’s tune in the common traffic advisory. We’ll click
here, just keep that on and kind of monitor it.

[10:57] This area is so wide open, I’m just going to scan for
aircraft rather than make a radio call right now. Especially since
we’re about to start fast forwarding here.

[11:10] While I am fast forwarding, you can watch what happens. It
looks like there’s some low clouds ahead and we may need to do some
cloud avoidance. That is not an actual term, I just made it up.

[11:24] But, based on VFR rules, we’re not allowed to penetrate
clouds. Do your best to go around them, up and through them, and
whatever you need to do and get to your destination.

[11:39] Your magenta line on the GPS isn’t going anywhere so,
that’ll help you out. We will just see you guys as we’re getting
closer to the airport. I’ll see you guys in a few minutes. Have
fun, this is just one of those enjoyable flights. So just have fun,
enjoy the scenery, enjoy the aircraft.

[12:03] Get curious about what’s inside, also. If you guys have a
question about a dial or an instrument you’ve seen within the
aircraft that I haven’t talked about, go ahead and mention that in
the comments and I will discuss it more if I know about it.

[12:19] Most of it I will know about, but some I may not because
I’ve never flown this particular aircraft in real life, although
I’d love to. Anyway, just watch out for that stuff, and I will talk
to you guys in a few minutes. So literally, throttle on until then.

[long pause, plane flying]

[12:36] All right guys, I’m back. I hope you enjoyed the scenery.
Quite cool there. I took a couple detours just to go over and see
some of the scenery. Very cool area, and great job to Bill Womack
for the scenery. I love it. It’s very Pacific Northwest-esque. So,
if you like Pacific Northwest, you’d love this scenery as well.
Gives a lot of diversity for your flying area.

[16:22] So, the airport is right on the other side of this ridge.
We’re actually going to land at a little camp there rather than the
actual airport, although it is close. Because the actual airport is
sea base I believe. Actually, once we get over this hill I’m going
to pull the throttle and we’re really going to dive down, and that
will get us down so we can land. And then this time we will make
sure we actually complete the landing rather than last episode when
I balled it up on the end runway. Lesson learned.

[17:04] So I’m going to turn on carb-heat two because it’s kind of
cold outside and I want to make sure the engine doesn’t seize up,
or the carburetor that is, cuts off our fuel. Turn that on and turn
the landing light on as well, and actually the strobe lights. I
forgot about those, not that anyone can see during the day anyway,
but…

[17:23] So I think the airport is off to the right. Well not even
really an airport, but the camp is off to the right on the that
island there. So it looks like we’re about right on the GPS here.
But again, we’re not landing at the sea base, we are landing at
this little camp on this side. I think it’s to our right in that
clearing. It looks right. We’ll wrap around the other side there
and make sure this is it. All the while I’ll scan the area a little
bit and make sure I’m not confused like I was last time. Don’t want
that to happen again.

[18:04] But this area in Alaska is even more difficult because a
lot of the airports, quote unquote airports, are barely marked and
you’re lucky if you get a wind sock. Usually if a pilot has landed
there they call it an airport, and they call it good, and you got
to put down on that bed of rocks. I don’t know, it’s a different
type of flying, it’s a different area. The people in Alaska just
depend on aviation to thrive, so it’s very essential.

[18:41] So we’re going to wrap around the backside of this island
here. I’ve already pulled out the power, I’ve gotten pretty slow.
Put in some, I don’t have to drop flaps yet, but I’ll be doing that
here in a second. All right, just right down in there and we’re
probably going too fast. But, I’ll see if I can get slowed up here.
Yeah, it looks like there’s a nice little road, a nice little
landing strip right there. So we’ll just wrap around here.

[19:16] That one wasn’t going to happen, but we did spot the
airport. We can come around to the backside. We can get this taken
care of. I’m going to setup almost like it’s a traffic pattern
again. See if we can’t get this done. But we’re not going to force
it either. We’re going to make sure that we do it safely and get on
down.

[short pause]

[19:48] Nice and slow, nice and slow.

[20:18] Kind of a boring area, I guess. I don’t know. It’s just…
I don’t know, I guess I’m just focusing. It’s not necessarily
boring, but it’s just kind of a different way to land here. No real
runway, no real way to set up, which is just like last episode, so
I definitely don’t want to repeat that mistake, even though it was
a learning lesson for all of us.

[21:00] I’d rather complete this particular landing, just bring it
on around here. Let’s see, we’re almost there; try to bring it on
down here. I don’t think we’re going to make it. It’s going to be a
rerun of last time, but there’s the road we want, so let’s do a go-
around.

[21:24] Let’s get out of here and we’re going to do full power,
pull up a couple notches of flaps, and then we’ll wrap around on
the backside again here, and we will make the third time a charm
and get her done. Pretty simple.

[21:52] So this is a really cool area. There’s lots of places to
fly here just like this, lots of places you can put down. You can
put down on a glacier. You can dig up a float plane and fly to one
of the many lakes nestled back here within the mountains. A very,
very cool area-very different from even the Pacific Northwest. It’s
a bit more rustic, I would call it. So give it a shot, and just
enjoy it. You can probably wear out the Pacific Northwest, too,
although I’m not sure if you really could.

[22:28] There is a ton of area to fly there, but this just adds
something different to the mix, something else you can try, and I
really like the Alaska area. I was actually born here in Anchorage.
So I guess that would give me a bias for the area. Wouldn’t it?

[22:50] OK. So let’s come around here. I’ve already got full flaps.
I want to get very stable on this approach. I’m going to do my base
leg further out, and really get slow on that air speed and just,
just get nice and stabilized here as we come down. So, let’s start
to focus. Not that we weren’t but let’s see.

[23:17] So there’s the road. That’s where we’re going. Nice and
slow. Nice and stable. Lots of rudder work. Manage the power, which
is right. Just right. Drop it off. Yeah, there we go. All right.
We’re down, and that is busy flying, my friends. Nothing fancy
about it and nothing pretty about it but you get her done. So,
let’s see. We’re bouncing around here. Probably the flight
simulator’s fault, I’m not on a pogo stick or anything.

[23:52] So let’s, let me power up here and I’ll just pull up on
this hill a little bit. Then we’ll perform our shut down procedure
as we usually do. All right. Cool, cool. Pretty area we’ve got
here. All right, so let’s go to the panel. Turn off our lights,
radios, battery and alternator. I will, let’s see, pull the
mixture, and then I will turn off the magnetos.

[24:36] That wasn’t exactly in the right order. The good thing was
that I turned off the radios before the battery alternator so it
got that done there. And that’s all good, that’s a successful
flight. Another one under the belt.

[24:50] I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It was, again just
simple and fun and I will see you next time. Until then, throttle
on.

Transcription by CastingWords