Last night I buried a multi-million dollar jet in the grass by the runway of Milford Sound, a place that said jet should NEVER have been flying in the first place. And yet the whole experience was just too much fun not to give it a try. So then I started wondering what else my fellow simmers have done in the past (hopefully in the simulator, but I'm not choosy about hearing about real-life experiences either). So here's the challenge:
Tell us about the stupidest/silliest/strangest/most interesting flight you've made while simming!
To kick things off:
Last night I decided to fly an F/A-18 Hornet (in a NZ livery) from Wanaka to Milford Sound, by way of the Matukituki valley/west coast in real-world weather. This was pretty silly because:
1) I was pretty short of enough runway to get the plane airborne.
2) The cloud base was scattered, but very low to the valley floor.
3) The runway at Milford is:
a) too short to actually land the plane
b) way too close to steep cliffs at either end to do anything like a properly stabilised approach
4) I usually need about 3 go-arounds in this plane to get the approach right anyway.
The end result:
1) The flight up and down the valleys of the main divide was AWESOME. Bush flying is lots of fun. Bush flying at over 200 knots at < 400 foot AGL is more fun than kittens.
2) Yay! I actually managed not to get lost, even though I was flying from the memory of past holidays and topographical maps of the area.
3) Clouds: White and fluffy on the outside, a real pain when flying VFR surrounded by high, steep, mountains. Just say no!
3) Damn. Actually managed to get into a halfway decent approach attitude and speed, but misjudged the descent angle at the last second and ploughed the ground just short of the runway. Only then did I decide to do some research, and discovered that I didn't have a hope of landing successfully anyway: the runway is 500 feet shorter than the minimum safe landing distance for the plane when unloaded. I still had a fair bit of fuel left... Isn't going to stop me from trying.
Question:
Does anyone know if you can add arrestor cables to a land based runway? That would make the landing go from impossible to moderately simple... Even if it is cheating
Best part is you just switch it on where ever and it works, so great for moving carriers!