Panama Air Rally 2013: Colon to Rio Hato

Today we will do the 9th leg of the Virtual Pilot Association’s Panama Air Rally 2013 leg #10.
Our flight plan has as departure airport the city of Colón and as arrival the Rio Hato airport. Upon departure we will do a 7nm DME arc procedure during climb prior to heading to the coast. The plan was filed as YFR, that is starting IFR at Colón with a cruise altitude of 4,000 feet (westward) and then at DAMAX we change to VFR rules at 2,500 feet. I will be using FSX as usual and remember, whatever is described here is not meant for real life navigation!

The Aircraft
As I have done in most of this tour, I will be “flying” the very nice Piper Seneca II (PA34-200T). It is an excellent product by Carenado I will review on this blog later on.
We will be cruising at about 120 knots at 4,000 feet with this beautiful twin propeller aircraft. The flight plan estimates a fuel usage of about 12 gallons but I will load it with 50 gallons.
Yet again this flight has been tailored to practice some IFR procedures, while the a/c has a Garmin GPS I will be “flying” it by instruments.

Departure – Colon airport
We will depart from the Enrique Jimenez airport (ICAO: MPEJ) in the city of Colón, province of Colón - Panama Vibes in Panama. The scenery is an alpha version of Lord of Wings Flight Simulation’s MPEJ crudely based on the original airport. In real life it is being fully renovated with a new terminal building and runway suitable for a 767 aircraft.


After going through all the Piper Seneca pre-take off checklists we taxied to runway 36 with lateral winds. Take off took place at around 12:24 local time (UTC-5).

From the picture on the left you can see the Seneca II climbing while beginning to intercept France Field (FNC 109.00 MHz) outbound R-126 for 7 nm. After take off checklist was completed and began adjusting the aircraft for cruise, this required tuning the mixture and setting the propeller RPM according to the checklist.

NAV1 tuned to FNC active and TBG (110.00 MHz) standby, NAV2 with TBG active. The heading bug was set to runway heading (360 degrees) and OBS1 to 126 degrees so that we could easily start intercepting R-126.

Cruise

The screenshot on the right shows the aircraft as I was doing the 7 nm DME arc around the FNC VOR/DME. The arc started at outbound R-126 and ended at R-191. For this I monitored the DME to maintain the 7 nm as much as my dexterities allowed and periodically adjusted the OBS1 at intervals of 10 degrees starting at 126 in order to do the DME arc. At the end of the arc we would be again above the Gatun lake.


Now as we completed the DME arc at 12:50 we have our instruments set to start heading out on FNC R-191 towards MULPO intersection. MULPO is 15.7 nm outbound FNC.

Have got to love this Piper Seneca for IFR, it’s just a pity the large engine cowls obstruct much of the side views.
Reached MULPO at 12:56 local time. In this leg I set OBS2 to Taboga R-259 since I had tuned TBG VOR/DME on NAV2.

Well our next leg on the same course is NEMER intersection 27nm outbound FNC R-191 but it is also intersected by TBG T-259. That means that when I saw the CDI of VOR2 aligning, I was reaching NEMER. I should have been some 32nm from Taboga but I was slightly off course to the west.


Skies are clear and there is no turbulence, what a beautiful day though for simulation purposes a bit of thunderstorms would have been nice. Now we are heading 153 without any VOR to help us to/from. The only help here is that I had the ADF tuned to TBG (311.00 KHz).

Well actually we were now heading towards DAMAX intersection above the Chame gulf near Punta Chame. In preparation for the turn I set OBS1 to 236 degrees as NAV1 was already with TBG active.

And the moment came, at 13:14 reached DAMAX intersection which is 15 nm outbound TBG, it marks the beginning of Victor airway V19 (FSX). At this point I turned right heading 236 (already in OBS1) and descended to 2,500 feet because my flight plan was filed as switching to VFR at this waypoint. [Editor's Note] It is actually recommended (see comments) to climb to at least 4,500 feet due to the proximity of two high hills/mountains. FSX default mesh is very poor at depicting Panama's elevation profile and even though I use an improved mesh (freeware), it seems to lack some. The actual leg from DAMAX flies above Chame Hill which Google Earth reports with around 1,600 feet.

A few miles past DAMAX we overflew the Chame airport, this time with an update from Lord of Wings Flight Simulation as well.
Chame airport is located in the province of Panama - Panama Vibes, the 2nd province we overfly in this flight. The stock airport in FSX is very disappointing, this update makes it a bit more like the real thing but not quite because the Panamanian police does not allow to take pictures of the airport buildings even though the law says that such prohibitions should not take place unless there is a law that says that, but well, that is Panama.


After DAMAX we continue tracking TBG outbound R-237 towards UKATI intersection, again we reach UKATI by tracking the TBG radial and monitoring the DME.
Also remember, UKATI intersection is just off the side of the Rio Hato airport, our destination.

Approach

All right then! the weather is good and visibility is excellent. There are no navigation aids at Rio Hato (MPRH) in the province of Cocle - Panama Vibes, Panama. We overflew the airport in a crosswind leg and the screenshot shows the Piper on the downwind leg with the Rio Hato airport. Yet again a better rendition in Panama Lite X based on the airport’s glory times by Lord of Wings Flight Simulation. Here you can also appreciate the rocky island just off Rio Hato which serves as a good reference point for our visual approach.

Currently this airport is also undergoing a complete renovation. It will finally have a passenger terminal building, a runway as long as the original for international flights and the Panamerican Highway will go underneath in a tunnel rather than crossing the runway right through its midpoint. It is not known (everything is secret in Panama) whether there will be navigation aids added to this airport.
After the downwind leg I set the heading bug to 90 degrees for the base leg and turned in that direction keeping an eye on the altitude and the visual references. The approach checklist was completed and as I turned into the final leg the aircraft was in landing configuration.

The virtual aircraft was landed safely on Rio Hato’s runway 36 and proceeded to the apron and then close the flight plan. This was flown online on the IVAO network but unfortunately (and almost as usual) there was no live virtual ATC coverage anywhere in this airspace. I guess next time I will just use the FSX crippled ATC.
After the a/c was on blocks the shutdown checklist was completed, the Carenado checklists have a few omissions. The a/c was again in its cold & dark configuration ready for the next flight. We used up 11 gallons of fuel against the estimated 12 gallons.

You can also watch the video of the approach to Rio Hato (base leg onwards) on You Tube.

If you are a flight simulation enthusiast using FS9, FSX, Flight Gear or X-Plane and you like to “fly” in Panamanian virtual airspace, we invite you to join our (closed) group on Facebook called “Aviacion Virtual en Panama”. But do remember that conversations are on topic only! Add-on scenery (in progress) by Lord of Wings Flight Simulation’s Panama Lite X.

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!.

Rio Hato circuit on BAe J41

A bit over a week ago I gave myself a birthday present, a shining and professional simulation from PMDG, namely the BAe Jetstream 4100 (J41) turboprop. There have been excellent reviews on this a/c and I decided to buy it and it was a good buy.

To fly this thing you have to at least read the Pilot Introduction booklet and the Pilot Tutorial or you will end up with engine fires or catastrophic engine failure. I have only browsed the Aircraft Operation Manual (500+ pages!).

So, having done some reading I decided to familiarize myself with it to see if I have understood the concepts, you can't fly this bird like you would a default (or freeware) FSX aircraft. Because I am still a "student" and was short of time I took the controls of the bird with engines running (not a cold start).

You can say I was the First Officer (FO) Pilot Flying being instructed by the Captain. My plan is to do a full range flight (Bahía Solano, Colombia to Tocumen, Panama) once I feel comfortable with it and ready to do my first "line flight".

Prior to this I had developed an add-on scenery for Rio Hato airport (MPRH) for FSX. Our J41 was parked on the only medium ramp on this airfield near the main hangar on the apron. My virtual captain had given me control after ready for taxi.

Flight Brief

We will depart from Rio Hato (MPRH)'s medium ramp and taxi to runway 34. We will pay close attention to the lessons learned about ground and air handling. In particular the proper use of the condition lever and thrust lever according to the phase of flight. We would monitor the EGT, Torque and RPM on the Engine Instrumentation Panel, we do not want to burn the engines.

After takeoff we will simply do a full circuit around the airfield with the last part over the sea prior to landing on runway 34. The weather was clear with perfect visibility.

The circuit

We will take off and climb runway heading to a height of 4000'. Then we will do a 1+ minute crosswind leg at around 190 knots keeping the condition lever in the flight setting.

Then we will turn left on our downwind leg heading out to sea (I can't swim!). On our way we will have both the airfield and Decameron resort on our left. We will continue some 8nm into the sea, around the same place where the victor airway to MPCE (Chitré) passes. Keep an eye on the speed, we don't want to be too fast because this bird has some quirks.

Finally turned left again after some 2 minutes after passing the coastline and started our base leg (see picture) having descended to around 3500'. Our airport is just left of the green forest seen right atop the cabin on this screenshot. In our virtual cockpit we monitor the EHSI to keep our heading. We will also reduce speed to around 160 knots. Use the panning button on the virtual cockpit to also look out the window, we want to keep an eye on the small island (Farallon island). Don't go past that island, we must have it around 1nm on our right during the final approach.

Then our final turn into the final approach leg continuing our descent profile, our throttles where down and the condition lever full forward (we need 100% on descent). Make sure to start your turn on time to be properly aligned with runway 34. When crossing the coastline you will see the buildings of the Decameron resort (and some beach huts) on your left and the (abandoned) house of former dicator Manuel Noriega on your right. Keep an eye on the runway, there is a small radio beacon on your right (real life obstacle).

The landing was nearly perfect with a flare at the end. I think I was a little fast (138 knots). You can see on the screenshot the control tower, the main hangar we we started and a white van ready to take us to the resort after sweating it. Unfortunately I did not land on the spot I wanted, as a result even with reverse thrust I did not manage to stop the a/c before reaching the end of the active runway. This means we overrun the Panamerican highway!

Well, this airfield is a curiousity, it is a larger runway split in two by the Panamerican Highway! so we did not hit any car (luckily) and we could use the rest of the former runway (nowadays closed) to come to a full stop, we didn't need much of it. After that I put the condition lever to its TAXI position, throttles to idle and turned right into the taxiway. Then again right onto Bravo taxiway crossing the highway and past several hangars on our left. At the end we turned right again near the radio beacon and passed behind the head of runway 34 to head to the ramp where I started originally and shut down the engines. Pfew! I was scared of having engine fires or melting down the engine but I guess it did good to monitor the engine parameters and use the levers properly. The virtual captain however, was not too happy about overruning the highway :O.

I still have a lot of reading to be done, having already color coded the Pilot Tutorial with indications of where to find the various instruments. Lately I am having a lot of joy flying small aircraft (virtually) and turboprops. I also have my Wilco Publishing/Feel There Legacy to be mastered.