[1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2!

Planning a flight, looking for others to come along?
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

[1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2!

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

RESCHEDULED FOR: MON DECEMBER 12th 1915PST

Pilots,

For those not familiar, a few years ago, a mistype on skyvector.com, on the part of KS, occurred and resulted in pretty much the greatest(And possibly largest) group flight that some of us had ever conducted online. It may very well have been one of, if not the largest, group GA flight of its kind, ever carried out on any online network. Some of those present that day are here, but even more aren't.

The flight was a lot of fun to carry out, and to the best of my recollection, resulted in at least some group splitting. The original routing was from Forks(S18) to Decatur Shores(WN07) via a number of geographic features. In the process we overflew a house of a former controller, now in another world. There was a bunch of traffic, weather, scenery and an open segment over water, to worry about. A few issues occurred upon sequencing and landing in some cases(In a minute why and why this flight!), with some people going around numerous times. Even more were caused as a result of the differences between the simulators, and aircraft and scenery used. By the end however, everyone had had plenty of fun. A number of us even stayed behind the 'closing time' and did some pattern work at Center Island Airport.

The flight, looked something like this: Image

There are some screenshots out there, but as they are in the private albums and on the forums which I no longer frequent, I'll leave it up to others if they want to look for them.

In this flight, although the routing will not be replicated, the end-goal will. A different routing was chosen for its own obstacles(A borderline pun), and to allow for more time at the destination - You're gonna need it, trust me :)

With that said, onto the goods.

THE DETAILS

Aircraft performance
Any plane, with a landing speed of around 80KIAS and more.

Due to the nature of the flights, and the destination specifically, I know it might be a bit tempting to fly something insanely large or fast, so please refrain from doing this.

Flight Rules
VFR

Arrival and Departure Points
1S2(Darlington Municipal Airport) to WN07(Decatur Shores Airport).
At the end, closed traffic at either 78WA(Center Island Airport) or WA18(Decatur[Jones] Airport).

ETE and Altitudes
Estimating and expecting around 30mins.
As dictated by terrain and weather. No more than 5000ft is expected.

Prerequisites
Basic flying and navigation skills; Non-100% dependability on the GPS; Previous short field experience; Those running X-Plane, who may not have the scenery tiles installed, are reminded to check this before the flight.

The Plan
1. Load up and connect on the ramp at 1S2, ready for 'roll call' by 1930P, sharp! Ensure that you have at least some basic scenery, beyond the generic single taxiway layout, as mentioned above(I have provided a very basic one, with a sufficient number of 'random' ramp starting positions here).

2. Unless splitting up is required, the lead aircraft will be N810PE.

3. After departing Darrington Airport, we follow the valley towards Mears Field.

4. After overflying Mears Field, continue following the valley in order to overfly the(private) Israel's Farm airport.

5. Continue westbound to overfly the town of Sedro-Woolley.

6. Continue overhead the town of Burlington and overhead Skagit Regional Airport.

7. Follow the railroad tracks past the(private) Beckers airport.

8. Continue via the two small lakes and a peak to the shoreline.

9. Overfly the two small islands and remember to remain at least 2000ft above them, as they are national wildlife sanctuaries.

10. Continue onward to Decatur Shores and land on runway 15.

The overall routing will look something like this.

Critical Notes
1. Ensure that you give way to coordination, over chatter, on frequency. For the most part the former will likely turn out to be the main topic anyhow.

2. 123.45 will be the primary air-to-air frequency, in order to allow for easy coordination on this first flight. Should the attendance numbers be sufficient so that splitting up is required, additional frequencies can be picked as needed. Utilize the actual published CTAF frequencies, for any departure or arrival at an airport. Also note that there is a published CTAF of 128.25 in the viscinity of San Juan Islands - The lead aircraft will designate if and when to switch.

3. Refueling and break stops are not expected, as the flight is relatively short and even shorter compared to the original.

4. This flight occurs OUTSIDE of the PilotEdge coverage area. While these are generally discouraged, I've talked it over with KS and due to the nature of the flight, he's happy with this exception.

Feel free to invite others along!

Any questions or concerns over the timing, can be posted here.

-Alex

EDIT: After some thinking about the whole point of all of this, I changed the speed requirement :)
Last edited by Alex Stjepanovic on Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Steven Winslow
Posts: 459
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Location: KBZN - Bozeman, MT
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Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 5, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2

Post by Steven Winslow »

Count me in! I'll try to work up some scenery for the listed airports.

I assume all times listed are PST, right?
Steven Winslow
CEO/Owner - Air Northwest Virtual Airlines • http://www.airnorthwest.org
People should get what they want when they want it once in a while. Keeps them optimisitic.
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 5, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

Steven Winslow wrote:Count me in! I'll try to work up some scenery for the listed airports.

I assume all times listed are PST, right?
Affirm, all Pacific(PST).
Brian Ratledge
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:50 am

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 5, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2

Post by Brian Ratledge »

Does not look good for me. I just loaded up everything for a flight on PE and found out my yoke is hosed.
Brian Ratledge
Pilot Client Support Team
brian (at) pilotedge (dot) net
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 5, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

Brian Ratledge wrote:Does not look good for me. I just loaded up everything for a flight on PE and found out my yoke is hosed.
Darn it Fred :(

I don't know what the turnout is gonna be like - If it isn't good, we may reschedule anyhow, as otherwise this flight just wouldn't be fun. We'll see.
Jeff N
Posts: 304
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:17 pm
Location: Foothill Ranch, CA / KSNA

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 5, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores 2

Post by Jeff N »

I'm definitely in.
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

Rescheduled due to a low turnout.
MXMiles
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:38 pm
Location: Athens, GA

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores

Post by MXMiles »

Can't make any promises but I do plan to attend if my schedule works out.
Steven Winslow
Posts: 459
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:51 pm
Location: KBZN - Bozeman, MT
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Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores

Post by Steven Winslow »

I'm planning on being there....again! Jeff N and I flew the route anyway and it's a short, sweet and scenic flight.
Steven Winslow
CEO/Owner - Air Northwest Virtual Airlines • http://www.airnorthwest.org
People should get what they want when they want it once in a while. Keeps them optimisitic.
Jeff N
Posts: 304
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:17 pm
Location: Foothill Ranch, CA / KSNA

Re: [1915P, Mon Dec 12, 2011]: Death dives - Decatur Shores

Post by Jeff N »

Yeah, fun little route. Need to get the scenery files sorted out though, Steven was "parked" about 20' off the ground at Decatur from my perspective :P

Image
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