Back into the Virtual Cockpit

Back into Flight Simulation

It has been a very long time since I have done a proper flight with my FSX. In great part because keeping up with software development skills takes up most of my time, then personal stuff (family). And then also a bit over a year ago my Saitek Throttle Quadrant became unstable.

The Saitek Throttle Quadrant

The relevant part for the purpose of this post are the three levers or axis because they are the ones that are most likely to become the culprit of any problem.

My TQ is configured so that the leftmost two levers are configured as Engine Throttle (#1 and #2) with their inner detents configured as Propeller Decrease Quickly respectively and Engine Throttle Decrease Quickly. So if I fly a single propeller plane I can use the detent on the 1st lever. If on the other hand I fly a multiengine aircraft  such as a turboprop or a jet, then it is likely that during landing I would do some sort of reverse thrust (if supported) so when both go through the detents both the Propeller and Engine decrease quickly actions are triggered thus accomplishing the desired result regardless of whethre I fly single prop or multiengine jet.

The problem with it is that over time dust tends to get in through into the TQ and even worse, the constant friction caused in the potentiometers where the levers are connected to translate movement into an analog signal that can be digitized, will cause microdust to build up inside the potentiometers.
 The microdust will create electrical paths and as a result you will notice that even when you leave the levers alone, in the SIM you will notice they bounce up and down by themselves! That is a nightmare because your engine power will fluctuate as well.

So, I dove in and cleaned them. They are now as good as new and I wanted to test them in a proper flight.

The Flight

 I took my Carenado Piper Seneca II with Lord of Wings livery for a ride out of Marcos A. Gelabert airport (MPMG) in Albrook, Panama city, Panama. I was all setup on the runway, applied full power and off I went! well, so I thought!

Holding position before entring MPMG rwy36

After passing 3/4 of the runway I had enough manifold pressure, enough RPM on both engines and enough airspeed for take off but pulling on my yoke caused just a minor lift but not enough to get airborne. I aborted take off and repositioned the a/c at the other end where I ended up after the abort.

I performed the same maneuver but unfortunately yet again take off was not possible when normally it would do so in a much shorter distance! But I wanted to fly so I slewed into the air at 1,500 feet and somehow airborne there was no problem controlling the plane.

Flying around Taboga Island VOR

Then I flew to Taboga Island because I had setup NAV1 with TBG VOR prior to departure. That was nice, a photoscenery I was developing and then someone on FSDeveloper.com stole it and published it as his own, not very ethical!

Since I had also to reinstall my OS and FSX many months ago, my whole setup was unconfigured. Imagine that just a couple of days ago I managed to get some spare time to setup all the Panama scenery I had developed over the years!

 simulation.

My Carenado Piper Seneca II | Lord of Wings livery

I must say despite the problems taking off it has been of much pleasure to get back into flight simulation.

I took the opportunity of this test flight to fly around the city and test the throttle quadrant now that I had fixed the axis bounce problems.

Before that it was just terrible, both engine throttles would bounce up and down and would not go their full range. The third lever I used for flaps and it would just activate and deactivate by itself. Luckily during this test flight I could attest that the bounce issue was now totally gone, I did a good job at that but it took me hours to complete.

From Taboga VOR to MPPA

It was enough flying around Taboga Island. I wanted to see if the aircraft could develop enough power for take off.

I headed off to the Panama Pacífico (MPPA, formerly Howard MPHO) for a touch and go. On the photo on the right you can see a bit of Taboga and at the distance in the background MPPA.

During approach engine throttles behaved really well and so did the flaps. The landing was soft and uneventful, I did not do a full stop and just bothered for mid-speed and then take off. At least from that mid-speed the aircraft managed to develop enough power to take off from MPPA.

After take off I did a sharp tight right turn over the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal as if heading towards TBG VOR again but then another sharp left turn for a perfect landing at my departure airport Marcos A. Gelabert (MPMG).

Again at MPMG I did another touch and go. From there I headed to Taboga again playing with the aircraft and configuring my NAV radio for an ILS approach to Tocumen International (MPTO). I wanted to do an ILS but this time I tried another feature, the FSX Glideslope (Flight Path) option. It basically shows you a series of rectangles down the glide slop and you swoop your aircraft through them right until the runway threshold. Sorry, no photo...

Heading to the gate at MPTO. Approach chart shown.

I made a perfect ILS landing at MPTO runway 03R (INAT 110.70 on NAV 1, course 029 degrees).

While at it I also tried my two-monitor setup with an old  monitor. This time only showing my navigation charts on the smaller monitor. It worked well, better than my previous setup that was glitchy on multi-monitor.

There were several AI aircraft on the gates, a couple of Global Airlines Boeings and an McDonnel Douglass. During the test flight I saw two Boeings some 6nm to my right, heading and leaving MPTO while I circled around Taboga VOR.

Unfortunately once I was at the gate a baggage car crashed into my nice Piper Seneca II because the driver was very distracted chatting through WhatsApp on his smartphone. 

Single Engine

Still troubled by the engine power I decided to try a single engine that did not require much runway for take off. I loaded my Cessna 172 for take off from Rambala Aeronaval base in Bocas del Toro. I must say it did take off. But then I noticed that while my throttle levers where running smoothly, my FSX configuration had gotten all screwed up. Even though my throttle levers moved from 0 to 100% the percentage given in FSX was between 29% to 71% so it was not properly going to idle and it was not giving full power either!

In this new flight I setup my radio stack and the GPS on the secondary monitor just to see how FSX performed. It appears my motherboard videocard performs better with FSX using two monitors than when I had my old nVidia  GTX video card.

Go Flight! 

I also spent a bit of time doing a Boeing 737 approach somewhere in Eastern Europe. I have not flown those bigger aircraft on FSX for a long time so I am much out of practice and not to mention the stock Boeing is really lame, you cannot even operate the Speed Brake rotary button using the virtual cockpit! you have to switch to 2D cockpit in order to do it.

But I used this B737 test flight just to test my Go Flight MCP Pro with the latest driver and yes, it still works after all these years! I use this Boeing MCP (Autopilot) to operate the autopilots of all the aircraft I have in my hangar. It is not like the one in their virtual cockpit but accomplishes most of the basic functions.

The Veredict

The serviced Saitek Throttle Quadrant is performing well, even the calibration utility shows it is responding to all buttons and full range on all three levers, therefore the electrical contact cleaning was successful.

However, my FSX configuration appears to be all screwed up. I acknowledge I did not have time for a proper FSX backup because my Windows 7 got totally screwed up when I tried to upgrade to Windows 10 a few years ago, I had to reinstall Windows 7 and all my software from scratch and my FSX configuration suffered greatly.

Basically I am now reconfiguring sensitivity and dead zone values on the axis used for control surfaces. I am beginning to doubt that FSX properly saves those setups well.

But enough for now. I enjoyed 0.80 hours of Visual Flight on two highly enjoyable aircrafts: The Piper Seneca II from Carenado and the default Cessna 172.

Piper Malibu delivery tour: Leg #1 KVRB - MYGF

I love aviation and even though I am not a pilot I like to practice navigation and for that reason I have been acquiring some nice IFR rated aircraft for my Flight Simulator X. Last December (2013) I bought the Carenado Piper Malibu Jetprop (PA-46T). As a flight simulation enthusiast I am nowadays “grounded” with home airport Marcos A. Gelabert (MPMG) and thought it would be nice to replicate a real life aircraft delivery.

So in this installment we will do the the very first leg of a delivery tour for our brand new Piper Malibu Jetprop in Lord of Wings livery. We will take it from the Piper factory at Vero Beach Municipal Airport down to Panama city, Panama in only God knows how many legs. The purpose is to have fun as well, visit new airports, practice lots of IFR and get to know the aircraft.

Briefing & Planning

I like to do my flight planning so I used Plan-G to plan my flight. Loaded with the PA-46T aircraft profile.

We will fly from Vero Beach municipal airport (ICAO: KVRB) to Freeport, Bahamas. Our cruise altitude will be 9,000 feet (IFR, east bound). For Vero Beach I only found the Aerodrome chart, no departure charts. For Freeport I got Instrument Approach charts.

Setup FSX for real time weather with 15 minute updates which turned out to be just rainy. We will do VOR to VOR navigation including an intersection. The route declared in the IVAO flight plan is:

v3 WUBUR v3 SMUGS v3 MORGA v3 PBI br54v MRLIN br64v MUNRO

Loaded 137 gallons of fuel and we expect to use 27 gals. Payload is 360 pounds. Our trip will be 144 nautical miles with ETE 01:12. Alterante airports MYAT and MYGM.

Departure

At the ramp (#8) inspecting Aerodrome chart

Our brand new Malibu is at Parking #8, will taxi via taxiway A to the holding point of Runway 04. The METAR at Vero Beach (KVRB) is:

KVRB 091753Z 06008KT 10SM TS SCT035 BKN045 BKN065 29/24 A3007

So basically winds 060 degrees at 8 knots so we get runway 04. Scattered clouds but good visibility. Set the altimeter, flaps 10 degrees. On our Garmin GNS530 we set our NAV1 (VRB 117.30 – Vero Beach) On the Garmin 500 Primary Flight Display I set the heading but to 198 more or less pointing to WUBUR intersection, our first waypoint, the Course Indicator to track VRB R-164 outbound, Altitude to our initial climb of 5,000 feet. On the Garmin GNS430 we set NAV2 to Palm Beach (PBI 115.7), Flight Director on, connection to IVAO but unfortunately no ATC coverage on the network.

Vero Beach Municipal Airport (KVRB)

An uneventful take off with slight rain, turned left on initial climb to 5,000 feet with Vero Beach municipal airport on our left. Getting the hang on the Carenado PA46T which may be wild at takeoff/climb if you give it too much power.

We will be heading to WUBUR intersection which is our first waypoint in the flight plan and initiates our navigation along the V3 airway outbound from VRB to PBI via SMUGS and MORGA intersections straight ahead with the coast of Florida on our left.

Once I was more or less at WUBUR I engaged the Autopilot to hold climb from our initial 5,000 to our cruise altitude of 9,000 feet so we are climbing with Fort Pierce on our left.

Fort Pierce airport on our left

While I do other preparations for the flight I also set the AVSS to hold the course tracking VRB-PBI along V3.

If you want to do real navigation with the Carenado Malibu you have to be a bit ingenious as the virtual cockpit is not very readable, so I docked the PFD and the GNS530 on a 2nd monitor but soon you find out that while you can operate the buttons on the docked panel, operating the rotating knob to adjust HDG/ALT/CRS will result in nothing being updated. I think this is a serious bug in the Carenado Malibu but experience has shown that while they release planes often, they seldom iron out most of the bugs reported by users in the "Unofficial" Carenado forum. There is no "Official" Carenado forum which is very strange way of supporting customers.

Enroute

West Palm Beach behind us, over the sea

Okay we are now cruising at 9,000 feet, I don’t want to fly too low over water as I can’t swim. After passing West Palm Beach VOR (PBI) we turned left outbound R-125 on airway BR54V towards MRLIN intersection.

The navigational challenge for this flight is this intersection. For that we have changed our navigational setup with PBI set on NAV2 (GNS430) with OBS 125 and our destination Freeport VOR/DME  (ZFP 113.2 – Freeport) on NAV1 (GNS530) with OBS 090 (radial 090 inbound ZFP). So, we should be at MRLIN when the CDI aligns on the PFD (NAV1) as well on the VOR2 (NAV2) which is kind of hidden behind the virtual joke. Kind of a Carenado nuisance but doable. MRLIN is 20nm outbound PBI and 57.3nm from ZFP.

MRLIN intersection

The picture on the right shows when we are a couple of nautical miles near MRLIN, as you can see I had to move the yoke out of the way (for that I had to put the AVSS on either heading hold or course hold). The VOR2 shows we are nearly aligned (nearing intersection), the indicator on the PFD unfortunately was set to GPS (magenta) instead of VOR, and therefore it is not showing the alignment I wanted to show at the time I took the screenshot.

As a preparation for the next phase of flight I have also tuned the ADF to the Freeport NDB (ZFP 209.00 KHz). NAV1 is as mentioned, set for the Freeport VOR/DME as active frequency (for tracking MRLIN as well) and on NAV1 standby I have already put the Freeport Localizer (IZFP 109.70).

12nm arc to intercept ILS at Freeport

Past MRLIN intersection we turn left heading 087 degrees for a 40nm leg to MUNRO intersection on the BR64V airway. Planning to pass MUNRO at 5,000 feet.

At MUNRO continued R-090 inbound Freeport. 12nm from Freeport we turned right for the 12nm arc towards HOLIR interception where we should be at 2,000 feet as we intercept the Freeport ILS to runway 06.

That got a bit tricky because I did not go through the VRB VOR/DME on departure so the GPS kind of skipped it and lost tracking. I tried to change the active leg on the GPS with no success. I don’t know if that is a Carenado bug or what.

Approach & Arrival

ILS 06 Interception analysis

As we finish our 12nm DME arc we find ourselves at the 064 radial of the ILS 06 at Freeport, Grand Bahamas (MYGF).

Please do remember, the charts I got as well as the descriptions are for simulation purposes only and therefore not current!.

I could not find any decent scenery for FSX for Freeport. This was my 2nd time on this “virtual” airport. My first time was years ago with a virtual flight from Miami (KMIA) with thunderstorm and doing my first flight simulation video.

Landing was kind of okay but not perfect. I used REX Latitude to grade the flight but forgot to add the correct aircraft profile so even though my landing speed was right on the spot, it said it was too slow.

Approached at a descent rate of –504 feet/minute and landed at –165 feet/minute at 85 knots.
Used up 26 gallons of fuel as expected and completed the flight on time as well, great!


The next leg (#2) of the delivery tour will be from Freeport to Nassau, just slightly shorter hopefully with more challenging weather. Leg #3 will take us to Cuba.

You can find the video of this first leg on You Tube. Make sure to share it or like it :-)

Panama Air Rally leg #4: Albrook to Pedasí

It is time for another exciting VFR trip with IFR practice in the virtual airspace of the Republic of Panama! As usual we will be using the Microsoft Flight Simulator X. This article describes the 4th leg of the Panama Air Rally of the Virtual Pilots Association.

Flight Brief

Our flight will be a total of 116nm departing from Marcos A. Gelabert (MPMG/PAC) in Albrook, Panama city, Panama to the old Pedasí airport (MP00 in FSX) in Los Santos, Panama. We will cruise at 6,500 feet. We loaded 60 gallons of fuel but expect to spend 18 gallons.

We will be using our trusted Piper Seneca II (Carenado) with custom livery. Here in this photo we the airport terminal and the Panama Ports’s cranes in the background.

Departure
Now we are at the holding point of runway 18 at MPMG and awaiting permission to enter the runway. We are setup for departure with VOR 1 tuned to the Taboga VOR/DME (TBG 110.00), the ADF to the Taboga NDB (311.00), OBS 1 to 183 and the heading bug to 235 the course of the next leg. Here with the Panamanian flag waving proudly at the top of Ancon Hill with Albrook Mall in the background. Albrook airport and Panama city scenery courtesy of Victor Brumley.

We are airborne, winds 330 degrees 09 knots. As we climb keeping runway heading we see the Panama Canal Administration building on our left at the base of Ancon Hill.

We continue climbing past the hill on our right next to Panama Ports. Flaps up, Cowl flaps open.

OK, we have cleared the hills and we turn left R-183 inbound Taboga (TBG). Still enjoying the scenery of the beautiful but chaotic city with the Bridge of the Americans and the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal in the background.

We continue climbing and we should soon be crossing the Taboga VOR (11nm) atop the island of the same name.

En Route
We have crossed Taboga VOR/DME (did you see the instrument?) and we turned right tracking Taboga outbound R-235. This leg will be 15.1nm to the DAMAX intersection.

In the meantime here in the vicinity of Taboga we can see the Howard airport (MPHO) nowadays renamed Panama Pacífico (MPPA). We still keep the ADF and VOR 1 on TBG VOR/DME.

Now we are approaching DAMAX intersection which should be near the base -but over water- of that tip of land called Punta Chame. At that tip there used to be a short dirt landing strip which is closed nowadays.

We passed DAMAX at 6,500 feet and went over the Chame mountain and here we see the Chame airstrip (MP24) below the starboard engine. Here a somewhat enhanced version based on real life from the Panama Lite X preview.

On this leg we keep cruising outbound TBG R-237 for 25.7nm towards UKATI intersection.

At this point we are right at UKATI intersection with the Rio Hato airport (MPRH) in sight. Here showing the Panama Lite X version of the airport.

This airport has always had the Panamerican highway cutting it in half (no tunnel!). Nowadays it is being totally renovated with a tunnel, new runway and a passenger terminal to become the newest international airport in Panama. Past UKATI we turn left heading 218 for 29.7nm. Time to tune the Chitre NDB (CHE 440.00) on the ADF.  To help us finding the CHE NDB on the Chitre airfield (MPCE) we tune VOR 2 to the Santiago VOR DME (STG 114.50) and OBS 2 to R-104, the CDI should also center above Chitre if we use TBG R-229.

This is perhaps the longest leg of the trip, we are now flying above the Gulf of Parita with the town of Pocrí and Aguadulce on the far right.

Since we departed late in the afternoon we can observe that the sun is beginning to hide on the horizon. This trip should take us between 50 –60 minutes, enough to arrive with daylight.

Okay we went straight to the CHE NDB  and saw both CDI needles center as we approached Chitre airport shown on this picture at 5 o’clock.

Here we are depicting Panama Lite X’s version of Chitre airfield which updates the default FSX airport to current day state.

We passed Chitre at 3,500 feet and turned left heading 137 degrees (use the heading bug) with CHE NDB directly behind us.

This is actually the longest and final leg of the trip with 34.4nm. We should pass several major rivers. Here one of them with the Guararé airfield in sight (Panama Lite X version). In older Microsoft simulators it was MPNU but in FSX it has a different code. This Panama Lite X version updates the Guararé airfield complete with terminal building and surrounding areas.

Further along this last leg we see the mouth of Mensabe river with the La Candelaria dirt airstrip following it prior to the mouth of the Pocri river. All VFR reference points added by Panama Lite X.

La Candelaria airstrip is not found in the default simulator. About a year ago the airstrip was closed but as it goes with airfields in Panama, it may be opened (and closed) as time passes.

Arrival
After we passed Mensabe river, La Candelaria and Pocri river we find ourselves in the vicinity of Pedasi, but first we have to also pass the mouth of the Purio river.

We continue descending, here with the old Pedasi runway in sight at 1,200 feet. Again, this is Panama Lite X depiction of the Pedasi airport. A new airfield with a longer airstrip has been built 1.8nm south west of the old airport because the land had been bought by a foreign real estate developer and because winds were a bit too strong in the area.

Finally we arrived safely to Pedasí (MP00) just before the sun went over the horizon as there are no airport lights.

We used 13 gallons of fuel against the expected 18 gallons with a cruise fuel flow of 6.9 gal/hr. Our Carenado Piper Seneca II proved again to be a wonderful aircraft for practicing IFR navigation. I suppose you have noticed how I hinted the settings of the navigation instruments for a reason but in any case it is left for the reader to grab an interactive chart and verify the information.

Last, remember that this is NOT for real life navigation. I hope you enjoyed our long trip over the Panamanian skies. If you are interested in Panamanian virtual aviation or being up to date in the happenings of the virtual skies of Panama (flight simulation) visit our Facebook group “Aviacion Virtual en Panama” were you can find freeware scenery and references to payware scenery, anything related exclusively to our virtual skies. May the ILS be with you!.

Panama Rally 2013–Punta Cocos to Albrook

This is the 4th leg of the Panama Virtual Air Rally 2013 I created for Virtual Pilots Association.

We would depart from Punta Cocos, Isla del Rey, Pearls Archipel in Panama (MP0H or MP26) to Marcos A. Gelabert in Panama city (MPMG).

Our virtual flight departed at 18:15 local time (UTC-5) from the southermost tip of El Rey island in my new Carenado Piper Seneca II (PA34-200).

After departure we turned left parallel to the runway climbing to 4,500 feet. Here we would be intercept TBG inbound R-314 to BOMAK intersection, then along UV20 to TBG (110.00). For this I had tuned the Taboga VOR on NAV1, the Taboga NDB on the ADF and set the OBS1 to our radial (314).

Typical of the tropics and due to the late hour of departure (which was my arrival time from the previous leg from Jaque to Punta Cocos). The flight was peaceful without turbulence, at 4,500 ft. a lot of cloud coverage was encountered but visibility was still pretty good.

Though the flight was filed VFR I flew it by instrument as I like to practice that. I kept the CDI centered on the inbound radial. Some miles out of TBG I started descent to 2,500 feet. Just prior to flying over Taboga we turned right heading 005 and continued descending toward the runway, it was already dark but the airport has lights and the runway was in sight. The illuminated Bridge of the Americas was on our left (Victor Brumley’s Panama city 3D scenery). Watch out for the hills flanking the final approach.

Landing was perfect and soft along the centerline at –233 feet per minute, after which taxied to the terminal for a total of 36 minutes of flight. I must say I am pretty much enjoying flying the Carenado Piper Seneca II.

Night Flight: Chame to Panama city

Today I performed two flights on the Cessna 172 in the livery of MAG Flight Training. This 2nd flight was an IFR practice under night conditions.

My flight plan is shown on the left map. The departure airport was Chame airfield in the town of Chame, province of Panama. Departure time was 18:38 (UTC-5) with just enough light to see the runway. Our runway is at 141 ft of altitude but there are a few mountains in the vicinity.

From Chame I would fly heading 028 degrees towards DABEL intersection (direct) climbing to 3,500 feet. There are some mountains in the area of Lidice near DABEL so we have to make sure to have reached cruise altitude. Do note however, this is flight simulation so the terrain mesh may not be accurate!.

In the darkness I climbed to cruise altitude with the lights of the towns and the Panamerican highway below. Prior to departure I had set the Heading bug to my initial course 028 after performing a turn because I took off from Chame runway 18. Our first leg to DABEL would be around 11 nm.

I had also tuned the NAV1 and NAV2 radios to the Taboga VOR and COM1 to Panama Approach. The OBS1 I set to R-083 in preparation to that turn and OBS2 to 007 degrees. Having flown a straight line heading 028 I would have reached the DABEL intersection when the DME showed 15nm west of Taboga and also because my CDI on VOR1 would indicate I was about to intercept the TBG R-083. At that point I turned right and went straight to Taboga VOR heading into the sea and total darkness. Our next queue would be the VOR1 To/From indicator as well as the DME as this leg would be 15nm.

A few nautical miles from Taboga I initiated a descent o 2,500 feet always keeping an eye on the artificial horizon as to not to disorient myself. Obviously looking outside as well .

Just before reaching Taboga I turned left to fly the Taboga outbound radial 007 towards Marcos A. Gelabert. The initial approach fix being about 5nm from the airport This picture here shows the little dot of the airport approach lights and on our left the Bridge of the Americas. Well, not much can be seen, it was dark.

On our approach further descent was required in order to safely arrive to the airport. The Panama Pacifico (Howard airport) was on the left but on this snapshot you could see the Bridge of The Americas as our virtual Cessna made the approach in between Ancon Hill on the right an the other hill on the left.

In this final approach I maintained about 70 knots approach speed with flaps. Landing was done softly on Marcos A. Gelabert runway 36 with scenery from Victor Brumley who has done an excellent job (work in progress). Then I taxied to the ramp and ended the flight.

This small picture shows the flight analysis done by FSX, the blue line in the middle represents the Taboga (TBG) VOR. It was fun though not much scenery could be appreciated, nothing like practicing some IFR skills even though I am not a (real life) pilot . As always fly safe in the virtual skies and above all do not use this information for real flight planning!.

Contadora Island to Albrook (Marcos Gelabert)

I have done this flight every now and then except this time I made a short video (about 4:30 minutes) that I hope to improve upon next time.

It is available in You Tube with some captions. I hope you like it. The Contadora Island is some alpha quality experiment I haven't had time to finish. Then it shows some of my unfinished scenery experiments of Taboga & Taboguilla island and the entrance of the Panama Canal.

Twin Otter adventures: Panama city to Puerto Obaldía

Has been nearly two months since my last flight with Flight Simulator X so this is my first flight of the year 2012. Naturally and being it an online flight on IVAO, it is flown at 1x rate, why cheat?
Our Aircraft
Our destination is a remote location on the San Blas reserve on the Republic of Panama and it is the short and narrow landing strip of Puerto Obaldía. We will be using the Aerosoft Twin Otter (ICAO: DHC6-300) because we need a plane with STOL capabilities. Also because the Twin Otter is a regular visitor of this location and region. We will be using the beautiful Air Panama livery found on the internet.
On this particular aircraft I have logged officially more than 25 hours of online flight plus many more of offline (test) flights.
Log Book
This flight will be recorded in our master logbook at Virtual Pilots Association as well as on Aero Virtual Panama. We will be flying a commercial schedule flown by Air Panama as flight number PST423.
Flight Plan
On the left there you can appreciate the eastern part of the Republic of Panama. We will be departing Marcos A. Gelabert (ICAO: MPMG) airport in Panama city (Albrook) at 08:30.
Our route will be TUM v16 ISUMA. Up to ISUMA we will flight at 8,000 feet under IFR rules covered by Panama TMA. At ISUMA we will descend to 3,500 feet and change to VFR. Therefore the flight plan is filed as YFR. According to the virtual dispatcher we should be flying around an hour and spend about 60 gallons of fuel.
Our destination is the small airfield of Puerto Obaldía (ICAO: MPOA) in the idyllic region of the San Blas archipelago, an indigenous semi-autonomous area with lots of small and challenging airfields (all but one missing in FSX). Puerto Obaldía is just a few miles from the border with Colombia. Many adventurous travellers cross from there to Colombia and back by boat.
Departure
Unfortunately no live ATC coverage on the IVAO network at the time of the flight. No problem, there is usually an a**hole that doesn’t know much about Panamanian airports controlling in the area.
At 8:10 we begin going through the checklists while boarding is taking place. Our first leg is MPMG to Tocumen, therefore I tune the TUM (ICAO: TUM 117.10) VOR/DME on NAV1 for navigation, and set it as well in NAV2 because our a/c uses that for the DME. The course indicator is set to 66 degrees, our heading to TUM. We also tune the La Palma VOR (ICAO: PML 113.10) on the Standby frequency of both NAV1 and NAV2.
As a helper (you never know when you need it) I have also set the Taboga NDB (ICAO: TBG 311.00) on the ADF at least for the first half of our trip. The METAR said winds were low but variable and we were assigned runway 36. Closed the doors, final checklists done, pushback and taxied to the runway. After being cleared for take-off (sadly no traffic in IVAO) I did the initial climb and turned right to intercept R-096 inbound TUM overflying the beautiful city of Panama, hereby a bit better depicted than the default FSX (my own improvements)
Not surprisingly after a little while we found ourselves arriving to Tocumen. By now I have activated the autopilot to maintain our cruise altitude.
The TUM VOR/DME is used for most SID/STARs of Tocumen International airport. We have to fly with care here because it is a busy airport. I suppose in real life we may have been routed some other way.
Cruise
We passed TUM and there were some clouds at our altitude but we could see the ground. The snapshot on the left shows my kneeboard containing the flight plan and my NAV1/2 radios together with the GPS. In particular I was paying close attention to the waypoints in the GPS and the DME, the TUM-ISUMA leg is 96nm R-096 outbound TUM. That’s why it is on active for both NAV1 (navigation) and NAV2 (DME). The TBG NDB should be pointing nearly backwards.
We are on the clouds as you can see on this snapshot. However on the left there were some ominous black cloud blanket on the sea. On this long leg we should be passing the Pacora and Bayano river mouths on the Pacific coast. You cannot miss the large Bayano lake which is man-made either, if on course we should be bordering the south eastern shores of the lake.
Descent
When around 86nm outbound TUM I placed the heading bug at 135 degrees. I also switched frequencies on NAV1 so that PML was active. According to my planning, ISUMA is at the intersection of TUM R-096 and PML R-039. PML has no DME (sad) so I was hoping that by putting the NAV1 OBS to R-039 I could see the CDI closing in as we neared ISUMA. I did not see that happening, don’t know if it is a bug in the Aerosoft Twin Otter or what. Anyway, there is the small peninsula of Mulatupu, there should be a small island there wit small airstrip (not in FSX). Anyway, this is our visual reference. Having passed the mountains (will have to update that on FSX) I initiated descent to 3500 feet, switched to VFR according to flight plan and turned heading 135.
My flight on Aero Virtual Panama is monitored by an ACARS device so on their page you can see the Live ACARS moving map. There you can appreciate that on heading 135 we should be flying with the coast of San Blas on our right, lots of small beautiful islands in real life, as many as there are days in a year!
On this ISUMA-MPOA leg we could have switched the ADF to the Tupile (ICAO: TPL) NDB. Just prior to arriving to ISUMA Tupile should be on our right but on this final leg along the coast it should be right behind us.
Approach
If the La Palma VOR also had a DME it could have been more helpful. In my virtual flight map, our destination (Puerto Obaldia) should be at the intersection of TUM R-104 (DME 124nm) and PML R-073 (DME 46nm). Unfortunately the Panamanian aeronautical authority hasn’t invested in a DME for La Palma. Anyway, around here things are flown VFR (bush whacking). Along the coast we should see the Puerto Escoses peninsula growing towards us and shortly after the Punta Carreto pointing towards the sea. Many years ago a Twin Otter from AeroPerlas vanished prior to reporting at Punta Carreto. It crashed on the mountains…
It was very hazy even at low altitudes, that complicated with the fact that I had not tuned TPL, PML and TUM were out of range I lost my way for a while (shame on me) and you definitely don’t want to end up in Colombia without permission!. Anyway, finally I had runway in sight. I armed the auto feather. I had a weight of 9,900 pounds so according to the reference card on the virtual kneeboard I should setup for V_ref of 72 knots., set flaps once I had reduced speed I configured flaps accordingly.
Arrival
The Puerto Obaldia (ICAO: MPOA) airfield is a hard surface (unlike some in the area) but it is relatively short. Here you only see STOL aicrafts such as Twin Otters, Britten Normal Islanders and the usual Cessnas. This airfield is not part of the standard FSX but was developed by Lord of Wings Flight Simulation. It is very close to the real one as far as I know and like all the others in the area, a challenge to land. Not having flown for several months I had lost my touch, I was pretty comfortable with the Twin Otter (not to mention I lost the touch on jets too). Sadly I had to declare a missed approach twice but I nailed it on the 3^rd. The virtual passengers were getting a bit scared, many wanted to see their beloved ones and some were eager to try to catch a boat to Colombia.
So there we were, with a proper landing configuration I landed the Twin Otter on MPOA’s runway 17, the speed was low already but because the runway is short I applied reverse thrust anyway.
Taxied to the apron and left the right engine running as usual, getting ready for the return trip. I should have used 60 lbs. of fuel, loaded 140 lbs. but unfortunately used up more than expected due to the turn around. Now I barely have enough to return, that will be the next challenge . For now the passengers offload and pass to the green house crowded by immigration and border police.
In summary, departure was on time and in spite of the two missed approaches arrival was also timely. Fuel usage was a bit excessive , suffered a mild disorientation (even on the simulator you have to keep your skills!) and landed at a rate of –632 feet/minute, definitely not my best landing rate on the Twin Otter, my best so far was –36 feet/minute at Playon Chico, another short runway in San Blas (also developed by Lord of Wings Flight Simulation).
Hopefully this year I get to fly a bit more than last year, I have been busy with several development projects and business ideas so that has priority. Have fun and fly safe!