Mountain flying: Tbilisi to Mestia

[HaraldG 559]

Hi,

 

some pictures from a Mountain tour in the Caucasus: From Tbilisi to Mestia, the "capital" of Svanetia.

 

Our plane - I have to admit that this livery has certainly never been seen at Tbilisi (her former home airport was Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatskiy):

 

 

Nice weather - this is important as a Mestia approach needs good weather and visibility conditions

 

 

The Caucasus main range with Mt. Kazbek (in Georgian: Mkinvartsveri)

 

 

Heading towards Mestia - far in the background there's Mt. Elbrus

 

 

A sharp turn into the Inguri valley. The remarkable mountain behind is Mt. Ushba

 

Final approach - can you recognize the airport or do you see only mountains?

 

 

 

Landed!

 

The Terminal

 

Another interesting visitor

 

 

Through the fence.

 

Work in progress...

 

Have fun!

 

Regards,

Harald

[Pugilist2 878]

Excellent shots Harald!  For a minute, I thought it was DCS World.

[WingZ 547]

 

 

Just not the Tupolev, but something similar

Turbolet? Ermmm....

Love seeing all these exotic names and places I've never heard of!

And you were right, Harald: those SBAI Mi8 turn up everywhere!

[HLJames 2,568]

Love the custom airports with  traffic....location looks very interesting!

 

HLJAMES

[edetroit 933]

Very entertaining flight as usual Harald!  :Applause:

 

Lurve your AI at Tbilisi. :wub:

 

Had to google Mestia airport. What an interesting modern looking terminal!

 

How out of date is Google maps!? .... I had to go to Bing maps.

 

Perfect AI at Mestia and great choice of steed.

[bernd1151 5,836]

Great set of screenies, Harald. I have flown in the Let 410 many times in Asia

[HaraldG 559]

Many thanks Pugilist2, WingZ, HLJames, Ed and Bernd!

 

 

 

For a minute, I thought it was DCS World.

I had to g***** first what DCS World is. Never heard of it. A Caucasus-war simulator? Will have to ge deeper into this. Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to look at the results of the Russian occupation myself, so I see this "game" with mixed feeling.

However, if you are interested this is really funny:

 

 

 

those SBAI Mi8 turn up everywhere!

 

Yes, the are almost a "running gag" if I have no better idea for AI traffic. A Mi-8 always will fill the gap.

 

 

 

location looks very interesting!

 

It is indeed, unfortunately I always got there by car and not by plane. The flight from Tbilisi is said to be just stunning.

 

 

 

Perfect AI at Mestia and great choice of steed.

 

A GAF Mi-8 did indeed wait for its next flight when I visited the location. Regarding the Let L-410 - perfect plane, not that high end simulation but perfect for this flight. Unfortunately, I found no repaint that fits the location, as it seems that some aviation company uses that type for flights to UGMS, indeed.

By the way, Google maps must have satellite/air photos from before 2012 at least.

 

 

I have flown in the Let 410 many times in Asia

 

Bernd, I'm just jealous. The 90ies and 2000s in Russia and Central Asia must have been El Dorado for people who were interested in those former Aeroflot planes in their old/new liveries...

 

By the way, today's weather in Mestia:

 

Hopefully I will not have to wait until summer, the Svanetian Winter is hard and long.

 

If somebody now has got desire to try that flight: Don't forget a good topographical map of this mountainuous area, as the approach is visual only:

[Ce_Zeta 13]

Fantastic shots Harald!!

[HaraldG 559]

Thanks Ce_Zeta! Glad that you liked them.

[sascha 314]

Harald, which detail.bmp do you use?

[HaraldG 559]

Sascha, I think it's #3 from your August update.

[sascha 314]

Thanks Harald!

[Joseph29 225]

What LET 410 model is this? I have tried 35702-L-410-UVP-E.zip, pwdt_l410uvp.zip,  and 35698-L-410-UVP.zip on avsim.su. All three crashed my sim when I trired to select the plane from the aircraft menu.

[HaraldG 559]

 

 

All three crashed my sim when I trired to select the plane from the aircraft menu.

 

Joseph,
probably you have a version with the Russian panel, that crashed my sim as well. Try the following:
Open the panel.cfg in the panel folder;
look for the line
"gauge01=xss!process, 0,0,1,1,Aircraft\CVA_L410_UVPE\xss\xss.cfg"
or similar and deactivate it by writing "//" as first signs of this line.

Does it work now?

I did so and can't see any problems since then. It seems that the gauge searches for some config file and lets the sim crash because it doesn't find that file or can't write it. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the gauge is (was) for.

Insofar I wonder that you also had this problem with "pwdt_l410uvp.zip", as this plane has another panel version imho.