Jump to content

A beautiful morning trip from Tahiti to the Cook Islands


Recommended Posts

So today I decided to take a nice leisurely flight from Tahiti over to the Cook Islands.

 

Weather today was beautiful with little clouds, however over at Rarotonga Intl it was raining on and off. Generally though it seemed like a lovely day for flying.

 

Having packed the bags, we boarded on the excellent Pilatus PC12, with the morning mist and low clouds we prepared for takeoff.

 

rtdTOSp.jpg

 

 

We followed the VAIT3E SID, out of Faaa International Airport from Tahiti:

 

4S3pqtU.jpg

 

The cloud coverage appeared to be increasing as we flew on, and turbulence became a bit of an issue. Generally however we stayed above the clouds.

 

ZoOmYZo.jpg

 

 

My favourite screenshot, cruising at 28,000 ft.

 

pRVaBYc.jpg

 

 

It was a quiet flight, but the view from the back nearing the Top of Descent was still pretty good:

 

65YNzRy.jpg

 

 

Dropping down to 24,000 ft to try and reduce some headwinds, we encountered some more turbulence, but this time with some rain. We were getting close to the Cook Is., made evident by the increasing bit of rain we were encountering. Here's an action shot, trying to keep her steady from the Copilot's seat:

 

T3VlyB2.jpg

 

 

As we descended, the cloud coverage definitely got pretty thick, and I was a bit worried about sticking the landing. 

 

yA5t7cA.jpg

 

 

As we near our turn to final, the weather's definitely turned for the worse. It didn't help that a) my GPS starting to screw up after I tried to load the STAR and b) flying blind in clouds trying to figure out the ILS frequency to input manually. However the Cook Is is off in the distance, and I think I'm just about far enough out to start a normal descent from 3,000 ft.

 

TLYYW3o.jpg

 

 

Coming onto Finals, following the ILS, I take a few breaths as the wind buffets the turboprop:

 

FNOzYvC.jpg

 

 

At last, we should be steady enough for a hand flown landing:

 

KwqWeNU.jpg

 

 

Or so I thought. This probably won't end well.

 

m7uv4zW.png

 

 

 

 

 

Success!

 

eWLfpeV.jpg

 

 

The PC12 is down in one piece, despite a bounce and landing off centreline. I think I'm going to need a holiday from all that flying. Time to grab the bags and head out!

 

UgEIsjU.jpg

 

 

The end!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The flight is about 3.5 hours long, at roughly 240 KTAS. I think it was a touch over 600 nm so if you're in a jet you'll do it much quicker.

 

I'm very happy with the SweetFX settings at dawn and dusk, it was one of the original reasons I wanted to get SweetFX working was that the sky just didn't feel right at dusk/dawn because I prefer a generally brighter scene and I feel with SweetFX it feels more the sky is actually a source of light. With Rob's HDR tweaks the daytime lighting is better than what it is by default in my opinion and daytime actually feels bright. This is a screenshot I posted up on the ReShade post, which shows off dusk lighting.

 

Z7dg53D.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...