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akriesman

My Avsim Conference Report (pics!)

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I had the great pleasure and privlege of meeting Rich and many other simmers at this year's conference in Tahoe. The whole experience was much more emotional than I expected, especially when Tom presented Rich with this award. I'm really glad I was there to witness it and I'm sure I'll rememeber it for the rest of my life. Inspirational is the best word I can think of to describe it. Rich, you are truly a class-act guy and I feel very lucky to have worked with you and met you in person. See you at the next conference!http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/wild/conf/rich-award.jpgRich's talk was great. I hope Rich can share his presentation with everyone because he presented a very interesting perspective.http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/wild/conf/rich-talk.jpgHere's a cool picture from the presentation of the TRI team standing in front of a real Bell 407 that landed in their parking lot.http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/wild/conf/tri-gang.jpgAnd here's the 'original' Stearman from Fly2!http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/wild/conf/stearman.jpgHere's the setup for the challenge flight. The scenario was a 737 trying to land at South Lake Tahoe over the mountains with an engine out!http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/wild/conf/challenge.jpgTo wrap up the weekend, I had my own challenge just getting home! I flew myself up on Saturday in N446SP, a Cessna 172SP. These were the conditions this morning when it was time for me to leave:Wind from 150 degrees at 16 gusting to 24Density altitude 8,200 feetMild to moderate turbulence reported (PIREPs)If you have flown out of this airport for real or in a sim, you know that the airport is surrounded on the East, West, and South by mountains (one of the things that made the Avsim 737 challenge so hard). Normally, pilots like to depart to the North because the terrain slopes down toward the lake, a very desireable thing since the high density altitude makes climb performance anemic. Unfortunately for me, this gusty wind was out of the South ( and a 30-degree crosswind to boot). I had the choice of taking off into the wind and doing a 180 to clear the mountains, or taking off to the North with a tailwind. The tailwind might not have been so bad, since the runway is long (8,544 feet), except for the gusts. The idea of having a gust come up behind me and stealing my airspeed while close to the ground did not appeal to me. I ended up taking off into the wind and doing a shallow left turn back to the North. On takeoff, a gust lifted me off the runway and I was airborne. As soon as I put the plane into a 10-degree bank, my climb performance dropped down to about 200-300 feet per minute. Looking down at the ground under my left wing, it looked like I wasn't climbing at all and the trees looked mighty close. I tried to bank as little as possible while still turning at a fast enough rate to clear the mountains to the East. It didn't help that during all of this the gusts were bouncing me all over the place. I was glad that I was alone and didn't have full tanks, so my weight was down. I sure was relieved when I leveled out on a northerly heading towards the lake! It was still pretty bumpy, so I climbed to 12,500 before finding smooth air and turning West towards home. The weekend was fun, emotional, inspirational, and scary all at the same time! Thanks to Tom and the Avsim gang for putting on a great event.Todd

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Todd,Thanks for the great pics and for sharing your experience! I would love to have been there, but it wasn't to be.


Randall Rocke

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Great Pics and Story, Todd. I was hoping right up til Fri morning that I could make it but the non-rev gods were working against me so maybe next year.Sounds like an interesting departure. Hope you weren't to close to the Ski Lift towers at Heavenly. :-0 Looked like a good time was had by all. Did you take on the Avsim challenge?RegardsPaul:-cool


Paul Gollnick

Manager Customer/Technical Support

Precision Manuals Development Group

www.precisionmanuals.com

PMDG_NGX_Dev_Team.jpg

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Guest ben_

ToddYour report and great TRI-centric real (Rich and planes :-) ) pictures are much appreciated. ThanksBen

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Guest BMarcoux

Very Interesting GOFLIGHT Setup there. Is this something new were looking at??

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Thanks Todd,Great report. Looks like you all had a great time. Well done.Regards,Joe


CryptoSonar on Twitch & YouTube. 

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Guest Bjorn

Thanks Todd !I really wish I could have been there too.....Best regards Bj

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Guest

Specially the second and third at bottom (second appears as tinted P8) but the another is brand new

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Guest andrewluck

Certainly is. That unit near the bottom of the rack is an autopilot controller. Didn't get a release date for this rack setup though. Anyone?Andrew Luck18 miles SW EGSH

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Geeezzz.. I really do need to go on a diet. Thanks Todd for the post and the great story. Did you get the autographed image to the right guy? :-lol

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Guest

I wish I could have participated in the challenge, but the qualifiers were held on Saturday morning while I was held up in San Jose waiting for the overcast to clear. Ironically, I ended up flying all the way to Tahoe under the hood (instrument practice), including the LDA-DME-1 approach into KTVL because there was an instructor at my club who needed a ride to Tahoe. If I had only known that he was there waiting, I could have left earlier! The challenge did look fun though. Our own Michael J. was the #1 qualifier and almost won the whole thing.Todd

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Guest

Once I got straightened out over the lake, I was able to maintain 500 fpm, although the VSI was jumping all over the place with the turbulence. It was probably a good 15 minutes before I felt safe enough to turn West!

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Guest

Maybe I should have cropped the picture more :-lolThe autographed image was delivered, he was surprised! Thanks again for a great event, Tom!Todd

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Awesome pics Todd. Thanks for sharing.Glad you made it back OK. It's nice to know that I can always hit the computer's reset button, when I am having trouble gaining altitude out of Tahoe :-lolAllen

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