PNG Western Highlands
For Saturday, May 29, 2021

NOTAM. This flight is designed for MFS: it employs airstrips that are in MFS but are not in FSX-P3D. We have for a year created Saturday flights that are suitable for both MFS and FSX-P3D. But our current group of pilots are all in MFS now. And it has been quite a while since our FSX-P3D-only colleagues have participated. If you are a FSX-P3D pilot and want to fly with the group, please let us know and we'll immediately go back to a hybrid FSX-P3D-MFS design even if that limits what we can do. Good friends are far more important than any other considerations.

This is the second of two planned excursions in Papua New Guinea. Here we fly in the Western Highlands area to visit a number of traditional Enga villages as well as the huge Porgera gold mine and the traditional commercial center Mt Hagen. As with the first, this plan is informed by the terrific videos posted by Kodiak pilot Ryan Farran on his YouTube channel Missionary Bush Pilot.



Starting in the morning to avoid winds, we leave from swampy Mariama [AYRJ] which lies in the hot humid Sepik River lowlands. There is not much space here, but it might be fun to see the (geographically inappropriate) elephants at the eastern end of the runway. Then we enter the Bismarck Range and begin our visit to Enga Province and the Enga people who continue to live a traditional lifestyle. We visit three village airstrips: Malamunda [AYPR], Yifki [YIFKI] and Wanikipa [AYWP]. Each of these takes a little care in executing a safe arrival and departure.



Then, after climbing a bit into the higher country, we see the immense Porgera gold mine and stop at its Kairik Airstrip [AYPE]. This uphill runway, now paved, serves as the mine's primary link to the outside world. With 2,500 employees and 500 contractors, Porgera is one of the world's top ten producing gold mines. It has been criticized for its environmental record and its rough handling of local (sometimes armed) rebellious actions. Just now, in 2021, the mine has been transferred to a more equal joint partnership between Barrick Gold and the Papua New Guinea government.

We return to our villages by climbing over mountains to circle to land at Maramuni [AYRM] which is perched on a high ridge surrounded by terrain.  Then a descent through the valleys to the subtle turn into much lower Yambaitok [AYYZ]. And then back up to the large village and rural health center at Kompiam [AYAQ] with its tricky approach from the east.

Next we fly to Sembai [AYSJ] which is located in a valley that asks for a delicate approach. Here the revived airstrip makes possible the recently developed coffee farming industry that has made a great difference in the lives of the local population. Finally, we fly to the Central Highlands' fairly busy commercial airport at Mount Hagen [AYMH].

As before, several of these airports will require some thought to execute a safe landing. Many of the grass strips are built on an ascending grade or within a narrow valley that offers only one useful approach-and-landing direction. The airfields with their preferred runways are as follows:

Airstrips and Preferred Arrival Runway
Mariama [AYRJ] Rwy 12
Malamunda [AYPR] Rwy 08
Yifki [YIFKI] Rwy 11
Wanikipa [AYWP Rwy 18
Porgera Karik [AYPE] Rwy 23
Maramuni [AYRM] Rwy 22
Yambaitok [AYYZ] Rwy 21
Kompiam [AYAQ] Rwy 23
Simbai [AYSJ] Rwy 26 (08 possible if necessary)
Mt Hagen [AYMH] Rwys 12/30, 08/26

Documentation
The flightplan and a Pilots Guide can be found here.

Again, you might want to look at Ryan's Kodiak flight into Malamunda from Wewak: Landing a Kodiak Airplane on a Slippery Mountain Runway. This video is informative about the particular landing that we shall visit. It is also informative about the general process of flying Bush missions in PNG. (If you look at the video, you will not be the first. You will follow the lead of two million others.) The Pilots Guide suggests other videos that may be of interest.

Aircraft
This is meant to give us an experience of flying local transport flights in Papua New Guinea. The best current MFS aircraft is the Cessna 208B Caravan. For our bush operations, I strongly recommend the Cessna 208B Improvement Mod by several contributors. The 2102.3 version is available at Flightsim.to and on github. [This bush-modification is almost "required" to handle the mission.] I'll fly the C208B in the livery of Susi Air.

Although different in character, some pilots may prefer a dedicated STOL aircraft such as the (fictional) Zlin-based Grravel. As ever, fly what you like.

Additional Scenery

MFS Scenery
Mariama, Malamunda, Yifki, Wanikipa, Yambaitok, Kompiam and Mount Hagen are recommended. Mariama, Yifki, Wanikipa, and Yambaitok are required because they are not in the default scenery data base. (You might take advantage of Stu's last week offer of a one-stop download here.)

For best results with these sceneries, you want the latest version of the following standard libraries.
Dave's Crooked Library, Dave's 3d Animals, Dave's 3d People, Dave's Seaplane base object library, Mikea.at Asset Pack, JHScenery Master Library and SDR Scenery Pack v1.1

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 8:00 am local for May 29, 2021.
Because we are visiting a number of small one-way mountain strips, we shall need reasonably clear weather with no more than modest winds. We prefer real weather. However, the PNG weather can be unpredictable: as a backup we can use either Few Clouds or High Level Clouds.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, May 29, 2021. 1800 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Cross-Platform Multiplayer: JoinFS. Latest version is here. (FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D and MSFS2020)
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: North America East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

 

 

The C208 was just updated as part of this week's SU4... does anyone know if the C208 mods are still useful / required?

SU4:

• Fine tuned fuel consumption per the POH at IDLE, 12000ft cruise and 18000ft cruise on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Fixed ITT, Throttle to Torque Ratio, and Garmin color bands for ITT and TRQ on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Pass on stability and inertia on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Fine tuned Fuel Flow per altitude and ajusted sea level max torque on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Turbine Torque fine tuned per POH on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Control surfaces & handling improvements on the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX
• Prop lever of the Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX can now be set in feathering range

Edited May 26, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

Bert,

The default Sim-Update-4 C208B Caravan seems much better than the original release version. A couple of hours' test in our PNG mountains gives encouragement. The behavior of the torque/ITT seems more like a turbine. (I hear that this is correct. I don't really know this.) The flight model seems fine: it does slow down in descents and on finals, it handles well at low and medium speeds, it climbs better, and its cruise speed seems about right. So kudos for Asobo.

Now about flying out of bush strips in the PNG highlands. The new default C208B has only barely enough power to get out of these strips. After starting at the rear of the strip and standing on the brakes until full power is spooled up, you can slowly accelerate to hit about 68-70kts by the end of the runway. This will let you edge into the air just before crashing into the trees. And this is for an empty aircraft. There is no margin of safety at all.

In addition, the climb power, while perhaps correct, presents a challenge for our mountain flights. That said, the slightly sluggish normal climb is not dangerous and would be plenty feasible for our PNG operations. The reverse thrust is fine and surely useful, but it is marginal for our shortest strips. And the turning radius remains pretty large: we need a better (and more realistic) ability to turn the aircraft when on these narrow strips.

For the moment, we might stick with the existing "C208 mod" as a "bush mod" or a "Kodiak mod". That is, we use the existing "C208 mod" with the new SU4 default model, simply by putting the "C208 mod" in the Community folder as we have in the past. The combination allows our pilots to fly "by the numbers" used by Kodiak pilot Ryan Farran in his Missionary Bush Pilot videos. And importantly, it provides our pilots a small margin of safety that will help us complete our missions without drama.

It would be great to hear about your tests. Your results may be very different.

Mike, I need all the help I can get.. both take-off and landing!

😀

Will join for the first hour... Champions League final kicks off at 1900UTC.

I cant get the starting location to work. I have the scenery installed but that airport doesn't show in flight sim. The file also uses a different airport code AYRM but inside that file is the correct AYRJ. LNM sees it okay. Any ideas?

 

Hi folks,

Wont be doing tonight unfortunately, but the main thing is i wont be doing Wednesdays for the foreseeable future, probably not until late autumn. Obviously that means i wont be here for the flight next Wednesday that i'm supposed to be providing for you fine fellows 🙂   

Apologies for the late notice.  I can always still provide that trip if you have nothing else lined up for Wednesday, but obviously i'd prefer to save it for a Saturday when i can fly it with you.  

 

 

Josh,

Quick question. Do the other "additional" addon sceneries work? That is, the other addon sceneries that are "additional" to the set of default airports. In our PNG set, that would include Yifki [YIFKI], Wanikipa [AYWP] and Yambaitok [AYYZ]. If these work ok (you can call them up in the World Map dropdown menu and start there), then the problem is limited to Mariama [AYRJ].

If it is only Mariama, you might just start at Inaru [AYIR] and meet everyone at the first stop Malamunda [AYPR].

If you are missing the other "additional" addon sceneries, then we have a bigger problem. You can see my similar travails as related at AVSIM forums here. Or, more quickly, the possible fix (regenerating a new content.xml) as described here. To be sure, I don't really know what generated the problem or why the fix worked.

Mike

I believe I have it fixed now. The file for that airport in the mater download of stu's is out of date and needs updating. I put in the new file and now it appears in the map. I am able to load into that airport now. I haven't ck the rest yet.  Josh

 

Note the file has the wrong description in its title which is a typo and says AYRM just ignore it.

Edited May 29, 20215 yr by FreeBird(Josh)

Good to hear that you have it sorted, Josh. (Also an implicit reminder for all of us to be sure that we have the latest version of the scenery.) 👍

Mike,

What a flight! How about that freeware scenery, eh? Mt. Hagen is payware grade.

Thanks for all your work putting this together!

For sure.. great flight. A very nice trip Mike.