Real World Coast to Coast now available

[Keith Smith]

Thanks for the feedback and congrats on the instrument check ride.

The actual descent gradient is not that steep. 1500fpm sounds like a lot until you realize that the plane was doing ~220kts in the descent if memory serves. From a descent gradient standpoint, that's about the same as doing a 750fpm descent in a 110kt 172, and nobody bats an eye about doing that. This is also why commercial jets drop at 3000fpm from cruise and you don't hear screams of terror from inside. The deck angle and descent gradient are pretty shallow.

Synthetic Vision on ForeFlight definitely helped me with the arrival there and I was happy with how it went. Once I cleared the obstacle, I came down like an absolute brick, but at no time did it feel uncomfortable or out of control. Notice the control inputs are smooth and calculated. I know what altitude I'm shooting for, and I'm acutely aware of bank angles, pitch angles and the rate at which I'm gaining or losing speed in the descent. If I can stay higher for longer and then safely ditch the altitude at the end, I'll take that any day of the week for night flights.

If I compared the risk of the Grand Canyon crossing at dusk vs the profile I flew into HND, I'd say the former had some risk associated with it, the latter barely moved the needle, at least for me. Bear in mind, I'm extremely comfortable with that airplane and am absolutely used to seeing the VSI pegged in either direction

[Talan2000]

Excellent point about the ground speed being 220kts on approach, that does tend to decrease 1500 fpm slope quite a bit.

I re-watched approach segment of the video, and I'm sure you had better flight visibility than the camera picked up, because it was pitch black for us.

I'd have been pretty nervous crossing that ridge (we'd call that a mountain for sure here in flatland Texas), charted at 5092ft at 500-600 AGL at 220kts . But,as they say, " no guts, no air medals " and you clearly know your plane's capabilities.

Looking forward to a nice relaxing final leg!

T

[stevekirks]

I wish there was some magic money in my flight account for this--the adventure aspect is gripping--but I can't afford the $199 right now. It's definitely worth it, but I'm a sim pilot saving for lessons, so right now it's out of the question. Will someone please tell me what caused the flat tire and did they fix it on the taxiway or flatbed the Lancair?

Steve

[Tol3458]

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yes, that first flight was a tough start. The raw flight footage was actually 3hrs 20mins of flight time while the video time is just a shade over 2 hours. If you were tired watching the edited run, you can only imagine what the actual flight was like. The first few edits of that flight were considerably longer (2hrs 50mins and 2hrs 30mins if memory serves) but they were still just too long for all but the most hardcore/diligent viewers, so we made the call to cut it down even further. There's nothing of consequence that was taken out on that first flight, afaik, just more of the same drudgery in the weather. Boy, did it ever feel good to see the ground around KRDU, you probably heard it in my voice.

And then, when the comm issue was finally resolved, I wish I could've gotten a do-over on the whole flight Thankfully, the flights got easier after that.....until some tough decision making regarding the HND arrival (not sure if you're up to that yet).

Thanks for the feedback, enjoy the rest of the trip!

Between the radio troubles, the turbulence and having to hand fly the entire flight I wonder how much you thought about pulling the rip cord and diverting to a nearby field, and how much the pressure of finishing the "video show" may have played into your decision making. That is, under similar circumstances you might have gone to Plan B instead.

Given the amount of hard IFR flying you do, it might be a worthwhile investment to install an autopilot of even basic capability to ease the workload.

Great show!

[Keith Smith]

Steve, I'm sorry that you missed the sale. I will be in touch to see what we can do.

The video cam arrangement made the comms worse but being so low in the weather was not helping. If the cams weren't on, I still would've continued.

The plane has an autopilot, I use it for 20 secs on a later leg while plugging in the stratus charging cable behind me.

[Keith Smith]

Steve, the flat tire was repaired on the taxiway. I had a spare tube and tire with me.

[Mark Hargrove]

I've finished watching the whole series now and enjoyed it immensely.

Now how about the return flight? And did you ever get any video of the 777 simulator you talked about?

-M.

[Keith Smith]

We have the footage of the return flight, we're contemplating the next steps. The production cost of editing the footage is non-trivial, I'm working with pilotworkshops to determine what we want to do. There are some other sim-related products we'd like to bang out which may be a higher priority for a little while. I suspect we'll return to it later this year. I would absolutely love to the get the return trip released as a product, there are some unbelievable visuals and some very interesting situations.

I have a little bit of the 777 footage, it didn't turn out very well in such low lighting conditions. It was an incredible sim, though. Flight Deck Solutions makes some killer stuff.

[c09RKC]

I find this series amazing. I don't normally post reviews but I simply must for C2C. This is my review for those on the fence:

Buy it.

Now.

Tkx!!
Doug

[N5344K]

I just finished watching the Taos-Henderson flight. Keith, I truly hope we are in the same city sometime so I can buy you a beer. This stuff is amazingly informative, and often hilarious at the same time. The post-production editorial comments at the bottom of the videos always crack me up.

My best takeaway so far- flying cross track error to stay on course. I'm definitely going to give that a try with the 650 in my RW airplane.

Cheers,