Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

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Talan2000
Posts: 207
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:59 pm
Location: McKinney, Texas, USA, Earth

Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by Talan2000 »

Pilots,

Ok. This was a pretty uneventful flight back out of the grand canyon in search of London Bridge. I do love the FIX names on the VOR DME A into KHII.

Lessons Learned:

Gremlins: The most noteworthy thing for me on this particular flight was the re-emergence of Gremlins. Last flight a gremlin gave me a dual engine failure (possible fire?) enroute. This time a Gremlin wreaked havoc with my autopilot. I watched in amazement as the Flight Director started pointing in all sorts of weird directions and as the AP started turning to give me 90 degree intercepts on radials I was a few degrees off (after having gone to heading mode to try to calm Otto down). I have no idea what the heck is going on with this Carenado C90B, but I am considering hiring William Shatner to sit in the cabin and giving him a .38 to pick off the Gremlin when he sees him on the wing. (Ok that's an ancient Twilight Zone reference for you uninitiated).
Otto Insanity
Otto Insanity
OTTO Insanity.JPG (100.87 KiB) Viewed 9779 times
Who can see where Otto goes crazy? I swear I was on NAV right on the radial...

Approach: Picked the VOR-DME A into KHII for the challenge of it - since I would have to circle the field to land AND lose altitude in a hold. ATC tried to give me a GPS approach into 32 but I insisted on the "old fashioned VOR DME A please". Only wrinkle in the approach, straining to see the darn field and ZOOOMING the view over the dash, I let myself descend about 200 feet below altitude coming into to FAF LONDON..Part of the issue is that the terrain on the plate didn't seem to perfectly match the visuals I was getting - namely - there was a pretty big hill I had to fly over (yellow) that doesn't register on the topo of the plate - and I thought "that must be" what turned out to be the hills to the SOUTH of the field...a bit disorienting. Trust your instruments (dme) though I think this is a sim failure as zooming your view while handflying (don't trust Otto remember) is harder than the real thing. Circled uneventfully other than a probably too tight base but I don't like straying far with mountains anywhere nearby...

Faux Paus: I was so eager to see if I could see the Gremlin captured on tape that I rushed to watch my replay...you know where this is going...back at Peach Springs...watching the autopilot go insanse (seeing a momentary AP Fail indicator (was that because I deselected AP or because it failed? Hard to say on replay) when I heard ATC Talking...OH crap! I forgot to log out. And this little embarassment is why my PE track has a mysterious zoom from KHII back to PGS...Oh the shame. Indelibly marked...sorry ATC for ghosting you.

If anyone has had any similar weirdness with their Carenado King Air autopilot I'd love to hear it... I recently added Xcamera and Smartcopilot plugins. Maybe they are conflicting with SASL? Maybe this is the twin of my random Toe Brake hardware gremlin...
Todd
N3298S
Attachments
KHII VOR A.JPG
KHII VOR A.JPG (94.94 KiB) Viewed 9779 times
flyingdrill
Posts: 271
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:15 am

Re: Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by flyingdrill »

I haven't done this leg yet. I'm having to wait till I have the time to do the leg to KGCN, and I just haven't had that free time in the last couple of days.

However, I find the slightest nudge of a button on my joystick (and it's the "trim down" usually) immediately disconnects the autopilot. I only have to inadvertently brush over it with a thumb, or sometimes a trailing cable from my headset does it..... Things can get hairy, but they really shouldn't. In the RW, disconnecting the AP in the cruise (in my experience) is benign.
Talan2000
Posts: 207
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:59 pm
Location: McKinney, Texas, USA, Earth

Re: Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by Talan2000 »

FlyingDrill,
It's a haul. There are one or two longer ones ahead though but don't let that deter you. :)

AP disconnect in the KingAir is a definite audible cacophony - no missing it. And yep trim kicks it off every time, just as you described. My issue was I had AP ON but aberrant behavior - as yet to be resolved or repeated...

T
flyingdrill
Posts: 271
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:15 am

Re: Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by flyingdrill »

Straightforward flight today. Nice weather, so just did it VFR with flight following. It's a very interesting area, as I was initially cruising at 10,500', later down to 8,500' and then one has to lose a lot of altitude fairly quickly at the end of the flight. Managing these descents in the RW is tricky, as you have to be so careful to avoid shock cooling the engine...........
zerofay32
Posts: 131
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:34 am
Location: Grove City, Ohio

Re: Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by zerofay32 »

Flew this leg on the 13th and just now getting around to post about it. I did this leg VFR. Was planning on getting flight following but decided not to. I listened to Center the whole way and is sounded busy in the LA Basin, and I was all by myself in the middle of no ware. Uneventful flight, except after landing and taxi, I accidentally hit the key combo to reset the scenario. Warped me all the way back to Grand Canyon, lol.
Andrew Fay
PilotEdge V-3; CAT-11; I-11; Skyhigh 10
Commercial Pilot/Instrument ASEL/AMEL- KOSU / Commercial sUAS
stevekirks
Posts: 589
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 6:00 pm
Location: KSGF
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Re: Alphabet Challenge Leg 7 KGCN - KHII

Post by stevekirks »

PARKS2 PGS V208 EED

Filed IFR and 10,000 and flew this without incident. Got pretty close and due to controller workload on the coast, I cancelled IFR and headed in on my own. I've been looking at good weather in the sim lately, making these flight delightfully boring. :)
Steve Kirks (sKirks on Twitch)
KSGF--I-10 rated
Student Pilot
I invented the Alphabet Challenge, what's your excuse?
Alphabet Challenge
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