Most Difficult

[Charl]

Looking at Dax bringing the Herkey Bird up to speed, I've made up my mind to buy the version with air to air refueling built in.
Why?
Well, it's the single hardest thing you can do in any aircraft, and when you do get it right, you feel obliged to take a screenshot:



This was actually over NZ (and so qualifies for discussion here, barely ) but a strange mix of Anglo-American flying for sure.

Wonder what's the toughest in civilian flying?

[creator2003]

i watched a video on bush flying in the usa i suppose all those hairy landing strips in the mountains would be class as pretty hard /do helicopters count i think they are the hardest to get right so any landing in a helo would be classed where refueling would be
mike
edit plus ive seen one refueling at low alt online somewhere (helo)

[Ian Warren]

whos VC 10 model is that ?

[Charl]

Long time ago on another FS installation - I think it was by Abacus.
It had a really neat trick: there was an AI version that extended its hose + drogue above 16,000 ft.
Many happy hours spent trying to insert probe into drogue!
Um, sounds like this conversation needs censoring

[ardypilot]

I reckon landing on a glacier must be pretty tricky, although slipperly ice is not modeled in fs2004 (is it?)

As for the air-to-air refueling, does it actually work? Does your fuel amount register as 100% after you have been connected for a while? How do you know what heading/altitude/speed to be flying at to make a succesful connection to the tanker?

Another thing that might prove hard to master would be flying in formation, and performing areobatics in fast jets...

[Charl]

although slipperly ice is not modeled in fs2004 (is it?)

Oh yes! One of my favourite party tricks is to park a skid-equipped helo on a 10 degree snowy slope at the top of say Fox Glacier and ski it all the way down the mountain.
We had a competition at one time to see max speed achieved. 100kts is pretty hairy on ski's Try it...Yee-Haw!

I understand the CapSim C130 does refuel correctly.
Tankers vector you onto a track and talk you into position so that's not the problem.
The last 5 meters is what defeats even hardened flyer vets.

[Ian Warren]

Charl , Have that VC10 , Abucus/Additive , If ya running low anywere give us a call , the tanker is on QRA

[creator2003]

this is that refuel helo pic i seen far looks hard to me

[Charl]

Holy ... Mackerel.
Beautiful picture.
How dangerous is that?
Well, at least this dangerous:

[Ian Warren]

I would love to hear the Cockpit Voice Recording during and after that hairy little ride!

[ardypilot]

Oh yes! One of my favourite party tricks is to park a skid-equipped helo on a 10 degree snowy slope at the top of say Fox Glacier and ski it all the way down the mountain.
We had a competition at one time to see max speed achieved. 100kts is pretty hairy on ski's Try it...Yee-Haw!

I can't fly choppers too well, and I only have one plane with skis, the FS Nordic Maule, which won't fly in a straight line for me, so I took my Carenado C206 with floats up to the top of Fox Glacier for some fun:


Unfortunately, with crash detection turned on, the mesh does not agree with floats, so I turned crash detection off and put the wheels down instead. It was great fun drifting down the slopes, and getting air of the drops- lots of air. So much so, that I was able to glide with no engine running all the way to the Tasman Sea and land!

I managed to get up to 110 knots before I lost control:


Twas a lot of fun, and after I got my engine running, I popped around the corner to Franz Josef and repeated

[Cbris]

There's some beautiful pictures here! Although... a VC10 fueling a US plane that is possibly more recent than the last VC10?

I just love that "Herc and Chopper" shot! Excellent! Wow even...

Anyone tried refueling a Herc from a Valiant? I was in a Herc on a real world flight once, and we needed a refuel to get to where we wanted to go. The tanker was a Valiant (or maybe a Victor?) and couldn't fly slow enough straight and level for the Herky bird to keep up. The Tanker had to fly a shallow dive with all spoilers out (plus anything else to increase drag ) and the Herk had to literally "dive bomb" the basket to get a drink. Lots of shaking and vibrating! Got some cockpit shots in an attic somewhere.

Start height was around 25000 and we unhooked well below 10000 somewhere over the Atlantic.

[ardypilot]

What where you doing crossing the atlantic in a Herc Cbris? Are you in the airforce?

[Codge]

I've been having fun taking off on runway 11 at Milford Sound and flying to either Manapouri or Te Anau and keeping the altitude as low as possible. 4700ft so far but it's early days as their are many possible routes.
It is some of the best scenery in FS, I have the RBE 20m&topo but may still be fun with the freeware RBE 75m mesh.
I've flown around the area for real in a cessna 185 taildragger but it's done at mostly 8000ft. The scenery is so realistic I can honestly say the sim is better. (No CAA rules or saftey,if you crash so what!)
The default Mooney or the freeware P38 by David Copley are good and fast. I will start timing myself.
Winding your way through some tight terrain is a good sim workout and it only takes about 10mins or less.
Something different from the straight line GPS flights anyway,and even better if you have the 'G' forces enabled in the realism setting.
If anyone tries it can you post your time,alt,aircraft,and airfield,and if you used G enabled and real weather. The weather gets down pretty low and makes it even more interesting.
Trust me this is more challenging than it sounds(Especially with weather)