Made it as far as Albuquerque tonight. What a setting for an airport! I really enjoyed the approach.
Tomorrow, Page Municipal, then the Grand Canyon!
My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
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Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
I arrived at Grand Canyon National a few minutes ago! I took 52 flights, totaling 7,374.6 nautical miles, earning about $53,000 over 15 real-life days of flying. I had no GPS, and I almost never used X-Plane's moving map, so navigation was all ded reckoning, VORs and (in Europe and the frozen north) NDBs. My Carenado Archer has no autopilot, but I did break down and use X-Plane's AP hotkeys for longer flights. When using the autopilot, I used 4x and even 6x time compression if I was at high altitude. "High" meaning over 10,000 feet for an Archer.
Scariest flight: getting lost off the east coast of Greenland. I flew much further south much quicker than I realized. My indicated airspeed was, of course, significantly lower than my ground speed, especially as I was flying at 12,000 feet or so. But I forgot this, and I got lost. I had only ded reckoning and the coastline to go on, and I got distracted and lost sight of the coastline. Gulp.
Longest flight: Greenland to Canada.
Prettiest flight: the very last flight, from Page Municipal to Grand Canyon National.
Most lucrative flight: from Hornafjordur, Iceland to Keflavik, Iceland. This job paid the magnificent sum of $2,586.60.
Laggiest flight: Landing at Heathrow. Honorable mention: landing at Newark.
Starting tomorrow, I'll start flying some FSE missions on PE in the Grand Canyon area. (First I need to find some airport scenery for KGCN; my runway has so many trees on it I couldn't see it from 300 feet up.) I'll be looking for a small FBO to link to the existing PE FBOs, too.
Thanks for reading along with this little travelogue. I may still update my little Archer's adventures here. And some day I'll be making the trip from Oz to ZLA with my Bonanza, but not for a while -- I need a break!
Oh, and here's a look at my flight path (courtesy of skyvector).
Scariest flight: getting lost off the east coast of Greenland. I flew much further south much quicker than I realized. My indicated airspeed was, of course, significantly lower than my ground speed, especially as I was flying at 12,000 feet or so. But I forgot this, and I got lost. I had only ded reckoning and the coastline to go on, and I got distracted and lost sight of the coastline. Gulp.
Longest flight: Greenland to Canada.
Prettiest flight: the very last flight, from Page Municipal to Grand Canyon National.
Most lucrative flight: from Hornafjordur, Iceland to Keflavik, Iceland. This job paid the magnificent sum of $2,586.60.
Laggiest flight: Landing at Heathrow. Honorable mention: landing at Newark.
Starting tomorrow, I'll start flying some FSE missions on PE in the Grand Canyon area. (First I need to find some airport scenery for KGCN; my runway has so many trees on it I couldn't see it from 300 feet up.) I'll be looking for a small FBO to link to the existing PE FBOs, too.
Thanks for reading along with this little travelogue. I may still update my little Archer's adventures here. And some day I'll be making the trip from Oz to ZLA with my Bonanza, but not for a while -- I need a break!
Oh, and here's a look at my flight path (courtesy of skyvector).
Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
Thanks, Kerbo!
Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
That's awesome. Grats!
I bought a Grumman Turbo Goose in South Africa that I brought back to Oregon early last year. I'm thinking for my next aircraft I'll intentionally buy it from somewhere exotic just so I can do that again.
I bought a Grumman Turbo Goose in South Africa that I brought back to Oregon early last year. I'm thinking for my next aircraft I'll intentionally buy it from somewhere exotic just so I can do that again.
Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
Thanks, Bidimus! I know, it was really fun! Quite a feeling of satisfaction to make such a long trip with such a small plane. As I mentioned, my Bonanza will make the trip from Australia one of these days, but not for a while. That'll seem like a breeze compared to the Archer -- the Bonanza is faster, it has better avionics, and it attracts groupies wherever it goes.
Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
Lol nice. Ya my Goose is a turbo prop which definitely helped but it was still exhausting at only 180 knots. The closer I got the more hours I put in daily. By the time I finally got to my hanger I took a couple weeks off from FSE. lol
That first flight afterwards once you're home is the best feeling though.
That first flight afterwards once you're home is the best feeling though.
Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
You got that right! I just finished my first PE/FSE flight -- first time I've done a FSE flight on the PilotEdge network. It was from Grand Canyon National to Grand Canyon West.Bidimus wrote:That first flight afterwards once you're home is the best feeling though.
There was a bit more excitement than I expected! I hand-flew the whole way, using dead reckoning and the KGCN VOR until it poofed. Some clouds socked me about 10 miles out (thanks to the NOAA weather plugin), and I had to descend quickly to escape. I got to the West Rim but then had trouble finding the airfield. When I finally did locate it, it was swarmed by military jets (drones) taking off in groups of three. Scared the dickens out of me. But I landed safely and banked $2400 from three nervous-looking Grand Canyon tourists.
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Re: My new Archer in Portugal. How to get it home?
The military drones are arriving at Grand Canyon West, not taking off