So I am loving the Kodiak bush flights in PNG. I've dowloaded all the airstrips I can find on .to. 

I take off from the departure heading for scenic journey and then to the destination airport.

Since many of these air strips are tiny little mountain cutouts, I use OBS to land on them.

My landing procedure is as follows: 

Getting near the landing strip.

Set the OBS magenta line to the runway heading.

I may need to do a flyover first to see the landing strip and ideal approach through a valley as PNG is mountainous.

I make sure to intercept the magenta OBS line at a nice angle but make sure Im about 10 miles or more away if needed using the HDG Bug.

I make sure I am at 2000 ft AGL of the airstrip when on the magenta line at 6-7 miles out from the airstrip and reduce speed to 85 IAS then do full flaps or 2 levels of flaps.

Then set ALT Bug to 0 and descend using AP at 500-600 ft/min.

Landings have been a smooth as butter.

Would this fly in the real world? It just seems to easy and fun

How would others do it different ? and would a real world instructor want me to do it differently.

Thanks.

 

Edited February 2, 20224 yr by MSFLYER5856

Personally I would never use AP for these type of fields. Using the OBS is a good idea. 

A lot of these Mountain strips and others, I have flown into quite a few in the White Mountains of NH even. You have to do a turning approach.

The most important thing is to have a missed approach well planned ahead of times. Sometimes a gust of wind is all it takes to mess an approach up, and a quick decision to a planned route to safety is important if you want to live.

A stabilized approach with the touchdown point at a constant reference through windshield is what makes a short field landing possible.

Yes at least one low pass to check field and get visual reference nailed down and a plan for aborted landing and climb out to safety.

Be very aware of wind direction and any turbulence caused by tall trees etc.

To me this is a hand fly only situation.

But then I am an old pilot not a "child of the magenta line".

36 minutes ago, MSFLYER5856 said:

So I am loving the Kodiak bush flights in PNG. I've dowloaded all the airstrips I can find on .to. 

I take off from the departure heading for scenic journey and then to the destination airport.

Since many of these air strips are tiny little mountain cutouts, I use OBS to land on them.

My landing procedure is as follows: 

Getting near the landing strip.

Set the OBS magenta line to the runway heading.

I may need to do a flyover first to see the landing strip and ideal approach through a valley as PNG is mountainous.

I make sure to intercept the magenta OBS line at a nice angle but make sure Im about 10 miles or more away if needed using the HDG Bug.

I make sure I am at 2000 ft AGL of the airstrip when on the magenta line at 6-7 miles out from the airstrip and reduce speed to 85 IAS then do full flaps or 2 levels of flaps.

Then set ALT Bug to 0 and descend using AP at 500-600 ft/min.

Landings have been a smooth as butter.

Would this fly in the real world? It just seems to easy and fun

How would others do it different ? and would a real world instructor want me to do it differently.

Thanks.

 

You may want to look here to get an idea

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/10_afh_ch9.pdf

there are a few real pilots doing bushflying in kodiaks, very informative.

missionary bush pilot, and there is another one.

on youtube

Edited February 2, 20224 yr by wim123

1 hour ago, 177B said:

A stabilized approach with the touchdown point at a constant reference through windshield is what makes a short field landing possible.

 

I need a tutorial on this. Thanks for the great reply.

Nothing really wrong with what you are doing so long as you are having fun.

Strictly speaking for little aeroplanes flying VFR, you'd fly a (typically left hand turns) circuit to land, starting maybe 1,000 feet AGL, then gradually descending down to various heights as you progress around the circuit, getting the thing configured for the landing as you do so, announcing that you were doing this if at an uncontrolled airfield (i.e. one with no manned control tower) over the radio frequency for that field. So that means saying stuff like 'Cessna XYZ is two miles west of X Airport, joining the pattern for runway 27' 'Cessna XYZ is on the downwind for runway 27', 'Cessna XYZ is on the crosswind for runway 27' and so on, then announce when you are clear of the runway after having landed and taxied off the runway, but on a sim it doesn't really matter of course. The reason it's done like that is because if everybody does that then there will be no confusion and everybody who is intending to land there who is monitoring that frequency knows what everybody else is doing, so there'll be no risk of any collisions.

At a controlled field you call the tower's approach frequency, identify yourself and announce your position and intention to land, they'd then give you your instructions for joining the pattern to land, but again, if you don't want to do that on your sim then that's up to you. You don't need to obsess over using the absolutely correct ATC lingo either (especially in MSFS where there's a menu with things for you to 'say', as long as your intentions and information are clear when you say stuff, that's good enough. Basically the format is: say who you are speaking to, say who you are, where you are and say what you want to do, so you might call the tower and say: 'Tower, Cessna 123 is two miles west of you at 4,000, to land.'

If however, you just want to go straight in without flying a circuit, here's what you do to line up:

I agree that this sort of approach would usually be handflown, just because it often will require small corrections (weaving around hills etc) that are easier to just handfly than to babysit the autopilot through. There's usually a point in a flight where the workload to use automation becomes higher than just turning it off and doing the driving yourself... that's a good time to turn it off ;).

But for learning, getting the sight picture established (which is very challenging for these strips as the approaches often lack normal visual references when the strip is perched on the side of the mountain), automation is fine if it helps. 

Along those lines, I'll offer you an additional "cheat" that is typically not available to these strips in real life, but I guarantee the real-life guys would use if it were: we in the sim have all these strips coded as actual airports in our G1000, which means we can draw a visual approach to them... which means we get a psuedo localizer and glideslope to follow. Great for reference, and you could even couple the AP to it if you wanted to.

In reality from the videos I've seen, most of these strips are just saved waypoints in the G1000, not actual coded airports. This means setting the OBS is the best reference you can give yourself.  But try activating a visual approach to one in the sim, just for fun to see what the G1000 can do.  It's pretty slick.  😉

4 hours ago, Chock said:

Nothing really wrong with what you are doing so long as you are having fun.

Strictly speaking for little aeroplanes flying VFR, you'd fly a (typically left hand turns) circuit to land, starting maybe 1,000 feet AGL, then gradually descending down to various heights as you progress around the circuit, getting the thing configured for the landing as you do so, announcing that you were doing this if at an uncontrolled airfield (i.e. one with no manned control tower) over the radio frequency for that field. So that means saying stuff like 'Cessna XYZ is two miles west of X Airport, joining the pattern for runway 27' 'Cessna XYZ is on the downwind for runway 27', 'Cessna XYZ is on the crosswind for runway 27' and so on, then announce when you are clear of the runway after having landed and taxied off the runway, but on a sim it doesn't really matter of course. The reason it's done like that is because if everybody does that then there will be no confusion and everybody who is intending to land there who is monitoring that frequency knows what everybody else is doing, so there'll be no risk of any collisions.

At a controlled field you call the tower's approach frequency, identify yourself and announce your position and intention to land, they'd then give you your instructions for joining the pattern to land, but again, if you don't want to do that on your sim then that's up to you. You don't need to obsess over using the absolutely correct ATC lingo either (especially in MSFS where there's a menu with things for you to 'say', as long as your intentions and information are clear when you say stuff, that's good enough. Basically the format is: say who you are speaking to, say who you are, where you are and say what you want to do, so you might call the tower and say: 'Tower, Cessna 123 is two miles west of you at 4,000, to land.'

If however, you just want to go straight in without flying a circuit, here's what you do to line up:

OK Thanks. So at the point of the 2 line intersections you want to be around 553 to 738 ft. 

Edited February 2, 20224 yr by MSFLYER5856

MSFLYER:

If we are taking about instrument approaches it's completely different beast! For basic visual approaches, in case you want to adhere to real life techniques, there is absolutely no reason to guess or experiment. There are a lot of publications that can guide you in the right direction. 

Typically we consciously start practice approach to landing after getting basic stick and rudder skills. Which means student can perform basic climb, descend,  turns and able to retain positive control of aircraft in all  aircraft configuration slow or fast.

The best way to practice approach landing is  standard traffic pattern which is typically around 1000ft AGL  (to allows to glide back the field in case of  emergency). We teach student how to establish "picture view" (line of horizon relative to cowling), able to aim (point nose at certain point ) and maintain desired airspeed, angle descent, and descent rate. 

While performing close traffic (traffic pattern) we teach student automatically to precede any aerodynamic effects from mechanization such as flaps/ gear. For example in 172 we say "flaps down nose down" and expect student parry sudden pitching moment  cause by flaps deployment and etc.

We start approach to landing from abeam the numbers (passing runway approach  in opposite direction while on downwind)  That is where we drop first notch to flaps (10/15 degrees) and start descent (from 1000 AGL)  Consequently, we drop another 20 degrees flaps dropped on base leg, and eventually full flaps on final leg.

At final approach leg we teach to establish speed Vs01.3 maintain constant angle/rate of descent and aim at particular point (numbers, threshold  and etc). Touch down will occur typically  100-200 feet  of aiming point. Then there are crosswind drift correction, gusts, turbulence, downdrafts and etc that come into equation.

 

I personally don't rely no magenta lines, autopilot, OBS, or or drop full flaps 8 miles out. In fact, I punish my students from dropping full flaps prematurely while  dragging aircraft on the long shallow straight in. I know that bigger airplane simply don't have choice if the want to slow down. For smaller GA eraly deployment of full flaps is aerodynamic  deficiency unless  it's short final or position from which runway can be "made" (meaning can glide and land without engine).

Magenta line is great way to know were airport is, but it also great way to CFIT especially at night or limited visibility (even in VFR). Unfortunately magenta line don't know obstacles and simply cut right thought them. 

 

 

As someone that almost exclusively flies in the bush, honestly I've never flown a remote short field approach on AP... it just... doesn't make sense to my mind, minor corrections, winds, mountain turbulance, power changes, updrafts, down drafts... its a hands on controls feet on pedals deal, Sure I'll use the ol magenta line to help find some airports where its an actual AIRPORT, but mostly its maps, I'd think honestly its taking more work to fly the autopilot down than it is by hand, plus it cuts out any recce runs to check out the approach, plot abort paths, decision points, and I'm pretty sure in most of these spots 10 miles out is out of the valley and two over...

Flying that way honestly feels more airlinery, and in many cases, just can't cope with the weather, air behavior and realities of stol flying.

 

Some landings from Ryan in the Kodiak:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

Map of the ten Missionary Aviation Fellowship airports in PNG. The Missionary Bush Pilot flies for MAF.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1QOVqIBafsTgKrEFIjgPwHGHWXSs&ll=-4.195859798122266%2C144.64311000546874&z=6

 

Runway length:

AYGA GORKA 5438' asphalt

AYMD MADANG 5174' asphalt

AYWK WEWAK 5234' asphalt

AYKW KAWITO 3538' dirt

AYTE TELEFOMIN 9398' concrete

AYKI KIUNGA 4171' hard surface

AYTB TABUBIL 4232' soft surface

AYTA TARI 5197' hard surface

AYPY PORT MORSEBY 9082' hard  surface

AYMH MOUNT HAGEN 7185' asphalt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by Fielder

34 minutes ago, Fielder said:

AYPY PORT MORSEBY 9082' asphalt

MORESBY

https://skyvector.com/airport/AYPY/Port-Moresby-Airport

24 minutes ago, turbomax said:

MORESBY

https://skyvector.com/airport/AYPY/Port-Moresby-Airport

Thanks, I corrected it. A large airport is seldom asphalt, don't know what I was thinking...

2 hours ago, Fielder said:

Thanks, I corrected it.

AYPY PORT MORSEBY 9082' hard

??